Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2022-12-14

Bearsnake reveals two versions of planned Chimera Cub plushies. (December 2022)

This week, Elf, Dotta and Bearsnake were joined by Jitcy as representatives of Magic Machine on Wizard Wednesday. We started with some Q&A.

Community Q&A and Assorted Updates

• Are more mount-sized animals possible? Elf was open to it. Dotta said that the existing familiars and Beasts are differently sized, and mountable-sized versions of those creatures + new ones would be cool. But no additional character tokens will be released anytime soon.
• Will MM take a break for the holidays? They might take Christmas and New Year’s, but that’s pretty much it.

• 

  Jitcy performs a scientific investigation into the kobold's official coloring. (December 2022)

  What are the team’s biggest lessons learned in 2022? Dotta: Definitely learned how to read the market better. Elf: I regret letting CheddaaBob into the Cult because it resulted in cucumdogs. Bearsnake: I support you Cheddaa! Dotta: Also, I learned how to treat people more fairly, and around being a “Cult leader”. Acting in a way that is helpful, moderating when I should but also letting people have their space. Sharing information, and effective communication within & outside the MM team. In that area, Bearsnake actually revealed the Chimera plushie with only a few seconds advance notice to the rest of the team, as an example.
• Bearsnake: I want to get better at focusing on things at the right time. We want to provide value to the Cult and the people that believe in us. We are already working all the time, but maybe just continuing to improve the way we work. Elf: We will put out an infographic at the end of the year with all that we accomplished. We may include lessons learned as well.
• What parties are planned for next year? Elf: Nothing planned at the moment. Dotta: We probably won’t do a huge party like this year. Bearsnake: NFT LA and NYC moved up their dates to March & April, which doesn’t give us a lot of time, but LA has a venue called the Magic Castle, which could be a possibility for a meetup. And I would like to make it in the West Coast, since this year was the East Coast.
• What color are kobolds? Elf: We aren’t gonna get into it again. But Jitcy, what color are kobolds? Jitcy: I answered on Twitter that it was a combination of green and yellow.

• 

  The Magic Machine founding trio are featured guests on Rug Radio (December 14, 2022). Bearsnake gets top billing.

  Why no elven traits in the collection? Elf: When I was coming up with the ideas in the collection, I felt elves were overplayed in the fantasy genre. But there IS an elven cloak trait, so that implies that there ARE elves in the Runiverse. I won’t say much more for now.
• Comic book update: Issue #1 (the second comic book; first was Issue #0) is officially finished. Reilly Brown, the illustrator, has signed up for 9 more issues, and is already working on the next one. Bearsnake is extremely close to a publishing deal for Issues #1+.
• Where is the best place to learn more about FRWC? (from a newcomer) Elf: The website is a good resource, our Twitter timeline, asking questions in the Discord. The website is being upgraded so that it’s easier to use. Wizzypedia also has a lot of lore on the Runiverse.

Magic Machine Visits Rug Radio

The MM team next discussed their experience earlier today on Rug Radio with Farokh. They were impressed by how frequently Farokh puts out shows, and some of his production, in terms of theme songs and a soundboard.

Services like PartyDAO allows the wider public to share ownership and management of high-value digital assets.

Elf: During Farokh’s show, I touched on the idea that intellectual property (IP) is an asset that has limitless value. And I’d like to expand on that concept here. Many assets have material and tangible use, and a value that is fairly well defined. IP doesn’t have obvious and direct utility, but it’s potentially the most valuable asset on earth, that is hard to valuate. For example, Dracula comes from the vampire archetype, and it’s limitless what you can do with that. So many forms of media and merchandise are built on top of the Dracula concept. And even if the culture moves past Dracula, derivatives (eg. other forms and types of vampires) can extend its lifespan. IP represents ideas that are connected to the soul, and this can outperform any other asset on the planet. Forgotten Runes builds on soul-bound archetypes. The lore for your characters has existed since the beginning of time, & you are bringing it out into visibility.

Another concept swimming in my head is that what makes assets valuable is scarcity. With material assets, scarcity has a big role in the valuation. But with immaterial assets like IP, the more there is of it, the more valuable it is. Ideas that permeate the collective consciousness, gain ever more power. Under this theory, creating even more characters that people can own could work out, given an ever-expanding audience a chance to own a part of it.

Dotta: This plays into the concepts of memes. Now that we have social media, those who control the memes, control the will of the people This is one reason we hired TheOneWhoRings, because we recognize the importance of memes for Forgotten Runes.

Bearsnake: Getting people opportunities to join the Forgotten Runes ecosystem is important. There are definitely tokenomics considerations, but the scenario might change once the video game and TV show are out, where you might have an “apprentice tier.” This tier would allow a large amount of creators to work their way up to owning a Wizard. And we'll have other ways for fans to get involved as well.

The Battle for Goblintown Twitter account was active in promoting the game prior to launch, using many of the tactics popular among the NFT degen crowd. (December 2022)

Dotta: Niski and Magus Wazir tried out prtyDAO for a bit. It is a single-purpose multisig that allows you to share NFTs with your friends. You have shared governance control over an NFT, so that you can collectively do things like write in the Book of Lore. The UI is very user-friendly and easy to use. And I think this could be a future use-case for crypto and NFTs, where shared ownership of tokens is common-place.

Directted (Bridge) chimed in here and mentioned that the conversion of holder lore to monetizable IP is a big open question of the project. Centralized IP created by MM has legal precedence for monetization, but the community-sourced lore is a new Web3 concept.

Dotta: During the Spaces this morning, we went over the “ABCs” of Forgotten Runes. People are continuously surprised with everything we have going on. I guess we have to continue speaking on these Spaces and getting people to be aware.

Bearsnake: I’ll keep looking for opportunities for us to talk to the wider NFT community, and doing plenty of publicity in front of our releases. In Miami, I saw great response from the movers and shakers of the industry whenever I announced myself as a member of the Forgotten Runes team. We are adapting and preparing for the next phase of this space’s growth.

Dotta: Responding to Bridge’s comment, the idea is that you create the Lore for the pure joy and art of it. And IP is trying to monetize something that you’ve created. Binary Star is our internal project whose mission is “turn your Lore into IP”. Binary Star has taken a back seat to The Battle for Goblin Town at the moment, we still have that in our portfolio of upcoming projects.

Goblins Together Strong: Forgotten Runes Collabs with Goblintown

Elf: Speaking of The Battle for Goblintown, we had come up with this concept early this year. When Goblintown.wtf came out, we were initially worried that people would think we copied them. But we have been talking with their team, they are really cool, and I’m delighted in the way this cross-pollination and collaboration has played out with them.

Dotta: The idea of “Goblintown” existed even before our game idea. We just didn’t want them to feel like we were intruding in their space. But they turned out to be good people, and they weren’t upset at all.

Elf: Goblintown has done a great job at building a distinct culture (which was reflected in their Miami party), we do too, and so our partnership has a lot of potential.

Bearsnake: I’m loving the responses, energy, and engagement with The Battle for Goblintown Twitter account. Great job Jitcy and LachnessMonsta on that. And we have a lot more planned in that area before we launch that game in January.

Lore Drop: Purple Hat Wizards

Microwave Impaler of Machines with its newly forged weapon.

Elf: I love this archetype the most, even if I don’t identify with them personally. They are very talented with magic, especially magic of the cosmos. Their heads aren’t attached to reality. Their magic is very ingrained, meaning that they didn’t necessarily train or learn it - they were born with it. A lot of times, they don’t know how to control their powers perfectly. Might be the most overpowered Wizards.

The Psychic Leap is a hotspot for Purple Hat wizards, although they have their pavilion on an island in the Western seas. Their magic often controls them, because they have completely given themselves over to it, in contrast to the White and Blue hats. Purples often let pure chaos wash over them and consume them. Often considered to be clumsy and silly, with flashy spells. Their homes are often messy, their handwriting terrible. You never know if they are extremely powerful, or have just lost their minds. You might see them on street corners, raving about something incomprehensible.

Examples: Good ones include Merlin (as depicted in the Sword in the Stone Disney film). But this can take a dark turn - a dark version is Darth Vader. Also Akira from the anime/manga.

This completes all the deep-dives on the Color Hat wizards. Elf hinted that he might cover the Hue Hats next week.

Cult Content Shout-outs

• We start with a fast-forwarded TV show trailer by Magus Wazir (uploaded in Discord).
• Acideater released pixel art of a pirate ship.
• People are starting to receive their Treasure Trove boxes IRL. These were assembled and coordinated by MeepleDad.
• i4nzits made a beautiful 3D model of Ozzz painting.
• Samikitty made a kobold mug (and hewed to the official MM stance on Kobold coloring).
• qeshmar used a golden nugget to forge a golden weapon for his golden robot (Microwave Impaler of Machines (12438)).
• Belial Attacker of Wizards commissioned a bloody piece from Daniela Illustra.
• Cosmic Birds made a fire meme about Tony Montana shouting, “Say hello to my little bread friend!”
• Elf commissioned femiki to create an illustration for his Wizard.
• Emma came up to talk about enigmashut.com - a place to collect all of her Wizard's artwork and lore.
• Colormaster tweeted a teaser, “We have something cool coming next week.”
• Dr. Solo Poplovski came up and mentioned that in the Treasure Trove boxes, there is a missing card with a QR code to spellrunes.com, which has the rules to the Spell Runes game. It will be mailed to box purchasers, but you can look at the website for rules until then.
• Jitcy mentioned that Wizard and Warrior holders can claim a free Beacon asset.
• Tabitha of the Marsh translated Issue #0 of the comic book to German. If anyone wants it, DM Tabitha or a member of Magic Machine to get a digital copy of it.