Episode 53

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Published on:

11th Sep 2023

Lonely TTRPG EP 53 - Hit The Road Jack by Kyle Tam

You can find Hit The Road Jack at https://urania-games.itch.io/hit-the-road-jack?ac=pEV55vHqdvG

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Transcript
SteelStash:

Greetings, weary wanderer, and welcome back to another

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episode of Lonely TTRPG, the solo actual play and review podcast.

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This week, we are playing Hit the Road, Jack, by Kyle Tam.

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You fucked up something big, and now the big house, the law man, the

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devil, and all his little hellions are chasing your sorry ass down.

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There's a country's worth of highway from one end to the other that

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you're gonna have to cover, and maybe that much won't be enough to

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run from the weight of your sins.

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But, you're slippery as an eel, tough as nails, and so long as you've

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got leather and chrome between your legs and fuel in the tank, ain't

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no way they're ever gonna catch ya.

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At least, that's what you like to believe.

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Don't think about the stretches of highway bleeding in, the cracked black

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and white and yellow searing in your eyes.

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Don't think about the little needle dipping lower, the tread of rubber

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tires wearing away to nothing, the fear and exhaustion lying behind your eyes

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after the searing adrenaline bleeds its way out of your systems.

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All you got to do is outrun whatever's behind you for long enough.

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Time to hit the road, Jack, and get going.

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So, Hit the Road, Jack is a, is a chase game of adrenaline and creeping terror.

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There are two main characters in this.

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We have Jack being nimble, the sinner, the runner, the one who is being hunted.

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And what is Prey without a Hunter?

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And that is Jack B.

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Quick, the law man.

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So, the way this is gonna work is this is a card prompt game, alright, where you're

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going to use a tarot deck and draw cards.

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Now, it is important that you use a physical deck and it is

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important that you mix the cards up well, do a good wash on them.

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Only because the reversed image is also going to matter.

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So, just because you draw the sun doesn't mean that things are all hunky dory, okay?

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If you draw it reverse, bad things could happen.

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Now, if you don't have a tarot deck or you don't have access to

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a physical tarot deck, well, then you just roll a 44 sided dice.

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Or some way to represent 41 through 44.

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You can write out numbers on tokens, whatever you, whatever you

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wanna do, whatever you gotta do.

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But...

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You need 1 through 44, and that can also represent the drawing of the tarot cards.

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Alright, you're also gonna need a chase sheet.

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It's just something to record where everybody is.

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Because some of the prompts will tell you to move forward, some of the

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prompts will tell you to stay still.

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And, of course, you'll need some way to record your journey.

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Now, once you have all of this...

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Then you need to decide how long you want to play.

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This has three lengths in mind.

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Short, which is six rounds.

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Medium, which is ten rounds.

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And long, which is fourteen rounds.

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Of course, this is a game for one to two players.

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So, if you're doing two players...

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Each player will respond to half of the prompts that are listed.

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So if you do a short game, then each player will answer three prompts.

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But we are playing solo, and when playing solo, you're gonna pick one of the

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jacks you're gonna be on this road trip.

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You're going to shuffle your deck or prepare your number

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generator and draw your first card.

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That's going to give you the prompt that you're going to

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respond to, noting down the answer.

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And then you're going to be asked to either move yourself or the

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other jack ahead on the chase sheet.

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Play is going to continue until you either get to the final round or

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You come into a surprise ending.

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Now play can end in a couple of ways.

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One, you draw your final prompt, at which point determine whether Nimble managed

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to escape or whether Quick caught him.

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You could also draw the Death Upright card and choose to die at that

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point, or you can give yourself up.

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If you draw the hangman upright card, so there are a couple of different ways

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to get surprise endings that aren't necessarily Running out of prompts.

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It's entirely possible.

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You could take off draw death upright and go out in a flaming crash Right up front,

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but that's about it on the rules.

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This is a relatively rules lite game.

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The rest of this book is Descriptions of what happens when you draw a certain card.

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So instead we're gonna go ahead and jump on into gameplay Now,

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I will be playing the law.

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Jack be quick, as I try to catch that no good rascal, Jack be nimble.

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Now, as you're supposed to remove cards if I do get the same number

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on multiple occasions, I will just re roll, but I will be using a...

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I will be using Roll20's roll device, because for those of you who don't know,

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you can roll custom dice sides on Roll20.

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You're not limited to the standard...

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So you can roll d3s, d7s, or in this case, a d44.

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And for my first roll, I got

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34.

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You think you're so fucking clever, don't you, Jack?

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Because you knew what would happen.

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You knew that one day you'd end up here.

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Maybe it wasn't today?

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Maybe tomorrow or in a week or a month or a year But you figured you would end

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up here and you brought some tools of the trade along So tell me what's in

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the pack Because plans never go quite as they should and tools have a nasty

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habit of failing when they need to most

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So for this first prompt, what's in the pack?

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so this prompt is written more from the perspective nimble something

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happened, but we're gonna say

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We're going to say that Quick knew that he was starting at a disadvantage.

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I know that rascal son of a bitch He's he's got the lead on me and I can't

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be making I can't be making stops.

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I gotta push I gotta push hard.

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So I think what's in my pack is

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a Fuel can and we're gonna have some extra hose hooked up so that

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I can do the incredibly risky maneuver of Adding fuel as we go.

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That way I don't have to stop quite as often.

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I don't have to make some early stops in order to refuel this hog.

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And also, safety note, please do not do this in real life, but because

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of this I do get to move up one.

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So we have nimble.

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At 3, I am currently at 2, right hot on his heels.

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And let's see what we get for our second prompt.

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And we got 21.

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The Wheel of Fortune Upright.

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You know how they tell you in the movies that when you're dying, you can see your

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whole life flashing in front of your eyes?

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I can tell you, Jack.

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It don't work like that.

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You're not getting a director's cut with every last ugly moment.

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It's not a highlight reel, either, where you get the most important bits.

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Nah, it's only the one thing.

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The biggest and most important moment.

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The one that changed absolutely everything.

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So, as you hear that screeching rubber, talk to me.

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What's that moment?

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And, for me, for me, I think that this moment's gonna be what really set it off.

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What really made me want to get nimble.

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Where he had just robbed someplace and my partner and I, we were going after him and

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nimble in a bit of a in a bit of a

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mood, tossing loose gravel down as he was passing a curve and my

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partner's wheels hit it and the bike slid out from under him.

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Now, that kind of wreck is nasty at any speed, but you know, when you

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leave half of yourself on the pavement.

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It's really hard to recover from that.

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And that's when I swore I was going to get nimble.

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And

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of course this recollection

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pulls me into my thoughts and slows my pace down before I can, before I can come

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to and realize where I'm at and what we're doing and that gives nimble a little bit

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of an edge nimble pulls ahead to four.

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All right.

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Round three, 33.

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The tower upright.

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Alright, so we're going to re roll this one because the tower

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should have been removed from play.

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If I had an actual deck.

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So round 3 we got 11.

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The Hierophant Upright.

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And what a waste of your talents that was.

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That soul sucking drudgery that threatened to eat you alive.

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That was so mind numbingly better than even being along this middle

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of nowhere road seems like a fucking dream in comparison.

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Can you recall it, Jack?

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Can you recall the nothingness that ever progressed, tick tock,

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tick tock of the clock hands that pushed you towards the road?

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The pain, the agony, the building horror of existence.

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Never again, never in a million years, better to die here than to

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live long enough to be sucked back in.

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Well, it's hard.

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It's hard to think of why I got into this game in the first place.

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You know, I...

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I knew the stories.

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I heard what people said, ACAB, this ACAB that, and

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you know, look at my life.

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Now, I can't say I disagree with them.

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I know I started wanting to do good, but

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you know, sometimes, sometimes things just get away from you.

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And

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this empty road, this empty desert road that we seem to be running on.

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Well, that's all that's left.

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That and a fake sense of power and authority.

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But, Nimble and I both know that's bullshit.

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At the end of the day, all you got is the routine.

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And with that, Nimble is going to pull ahead to 5, while

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Quick is stuck down at 2.

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Alright, round 4, let's see what we got.

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Roll the nine It's gonna be the Emperor Upright

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everybody's got some wants or want some and Lucky for you that you managed to

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snag one or two maybe a few The point is that loathsome little shit you are

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Jack there are people higher up on the food chain that actually want you to

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make it through this one and In one piece, the shark to your remora, allowing

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you to tag along for the ride, willing to forgive your little indiscretions,

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so long as you're still usable.

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So, whose feet are you groveling at, Jack?

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We all know that Nimble, he ain't no kingpin, he ain't

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no, he's just some petty punk.

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But, here we are chasing after him.

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Maybe, just maybe he's running back to that,

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that boss or that would be boss.

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Who knows,

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all I know is some boys from the Snakebite Gang showed up and caused a

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little ruckus, managed to slow me down, put me off the scent for a little bit.

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And with that, Nimble stays ahead, but Quick falls back one.

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Round 5.

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Got another 9, so re rolling.

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41.

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Ha ha The Judgment Upright You can feel it beating in your

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chest, going ten miles a minute

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That thuddin as it's trying to break out of your chest But what kind

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of rhythm is it trying to beat?

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What is it trying to say?

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Is it pleading for your innocence?

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Telling you that it's all some big mistake?

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That it's light as a feather, ready to usher you to the afterlife?

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Or is it telling you the truth?

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You're a deep sinner, Jack.

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Deep as any of us can be.

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Whatever the weight being carried, it needs to be thrown aside.

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Least it serve as an anchor.

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Let the emotions and pain go.

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Feel how much faster you go.

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And with that, Jack being nimble, gets to move ahead another space.

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We are at round 6, the final round.

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And we now need a miracle to catch Jack.

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To catch nimble.

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And with a 15, I don't think we're gonna get it.

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Pushing the horsepower on that engine to its absolute limits, making this ride

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of yours prove to you what it's worth.

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Jack be nimble.

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Moves ahead.

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And with that, my trail has gone cold.

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Ain't nothing I can do now.

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Except fall back and wait.

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Wait for my next chance.

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And that is Hit the Road.

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So, I like this.

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This is a good game.

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Very interesting game.

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I do like the chase concept.

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I think it would definitely be stronger with two people.

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I do really enjoy the mechanic of if you drew a reversed card,

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it helped out the other side.

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Like it was very easy to help out sides because if it was

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upright, it helped out nimble.

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If it was reversed, it helped out quick.

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Now with that, I think I would have liked to have seen Thank

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Some better variation because

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if you're doing a wash, you're going to kind of get

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whatever cards get spun around.

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If you intentionally go through and make sure all your cards are facing upright

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and then count out 11 cards and flip them upside down, that's about the only,

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that's about the only way to do that.

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Like even with rolling, even with rolling, we kept getting, we kept

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getting uprights, which I got it.

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It's rolling.

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It's, it's the way it works.

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Thanks.

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You know, there's no guarantee that anything is ever going to go both ways.

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This run just felt very heavily favored for Nimble.

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So,

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I almost wish that, I almost wish that there was some way to

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more readily balance that out.

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You know, six rounds six rounds quick only got one, one benefit.

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So...

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You know, that might be a little disappointing, a little

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frustrating in group play.

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You know, and then like for duet play, for if you're playing with another person,

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it's also, you know, what if, what if you do just keep drawing for one person?

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Like you're asking, you're asking personal questions and some of these prompts.

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So, you know, it's, it's weird that.

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It's weird that Quick had to narrate so much about What was going on with Jack

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like again because all the upright cards are Written for Jack Nimble and all the

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reverse cards are in for Jack Quick.

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So Even though you could respond as your like as your character Like

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everything else on that card all the flavor on that card is written for

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And that's what, that's what makes it a little bit tough, but like, really,

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that's my, that's my biggest complaint.

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You know, just some way to some way to more easily balance this,

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especially if you don't have, if you don't have a physical tarot deck,

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But yeah, no, this is this was definitely a good game.

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It definitely goes by really quick.

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When you're playing solo, if you're playing a short

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game, it goes by super fast.

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And, you get a fun little, you get a fun little Mad Max story out of this.

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A little Mad Max, a little Fury Road.

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You know, gone in 60 seconds.

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There, there are plenty of, there are plenty of good chase

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stories that you can do with this.

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And I do, I do like the chase mechanic.

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So make sure you go check this out.

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If you're interested, you can find it on,

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you can find it at urania-games.itch.io/hit-the-road-jack.

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And, of course, the link will be in the description if

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you want to go check it out.

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It's currently on...

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Currently being listed for 6.

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66.

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So, go check it out, and if you do, make sure you tell them that

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SteelStash sent ya, and if you do get it, also rate the game.

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Please rate games, please rate shows.

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If you like it, and it's being made by one person, please rate it,

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because ratings are all that we have.

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It's our only joy, it's our only way of visibility, and you telling

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us that you like it, is really the only positive reinforcement we get.

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But, that has been Hit The Road Jack, I have been SteelStash,

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and remember, I mustache y'all.

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To stay awesome.

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About the Podcast

Lonely TTRPG
A Solo Play Podcast
Lonely TTRPG is a show where I play and review solo TTRPGs.

Every other week, we play another solo TTRPG from across the indie community.

So join us as we roll, draw, and journal our way through some fantastic games.

About your host

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John Stum

Black Dragon Dungeon Company is a TTRPG podcast. We do weekly actual play podcasts and bi-weekly discussion podcasts where we talk about certain things about the TTRPG world.

You can reach us at blackdragondungeoncompany@gmail.com or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bddc_pod