r/WorldsBeyondNumber

I swear I check the kickstarter at least three times a day to see how far it’s gone. I am truly just so excited for us the fans but also for the 4 amazingly talented people who started this podcast and are bringing so much joy to this world.

The kickstarter has also reached $1.7 million with 10 days to go. Just wow.

I've been really enjoying The Wizard, the Witch and the Wild One, and am wondering if anyone has played anything that scratches a similar itch!

This is less of a “somebody answer this for me” question and more of an invitation to think about the implications of what we’ve learned in the lore so far, especially for the science and history nerds in the chat!

In Z’s backstory this episode, Aabria confirms (around 53:10) that faster than light (FTL) travel existed - the Ivirex family helped build the infrastructure - but then that mode of travel was lost for 5000 years until it was restored a few years before before the main story begins.

Five THOUSAND years. It’s so hard for me to imagine a bunch of far flung human or human-derived civilizations maintaining ANY kind of coherency, consistency, or communication over that long a period. Yet in our “present day,” it seems like the various factions know eachother fairly well even though FTL travel via orm has only been established for like… a little over a decade maybe?

To put this in perspective, 5000 years ago from TODAY was roughly 3000 B.C. Stonehenge was being built. It was the beginning of the Bronze era. Humans had only just sort of figured out agriculture and started staying in more static locations to build civilizations. Early Egypt and the Maya were just getting going. Written language was barely invented yet. (*PLEASE correct me on any of this I got wrong bc it’s based on a quick Google search) We wouldn’t start using iron for another 2000 years or so. What we think of as Ancient Greece wouldn’t kick up until about 800BC. The Romans wouldn’t be around for another 700ish years.

Contrast that image to how our world looks today and I simply cannot imagine how any of the Five Families still exist. Even if we assume that humans are living longer in this world (say 150 years a lifetime), Zedovan Ivirex the first would have only just been born 5000 years ago.

I know the pace of change and evolution in human history isn’t consistent - big booms and lulls - but even so…how does this work?? I would love to hear theories about this from anyone who thinks about world building and science and culture. Thank you in advance!

For anyone who missed out on the reward tiers with bookplates signed by Brennan, Erika, Aabria, and Lou on the opening day - they just opened up 500 more slots at the dungeon master tier, and as a result some of the best friend tiers are opening up as well as people are upgrading their pledges.

Edit: spelling

Just finished the first 54 episodes on spotify and started listening to the "Fireside chat for chapter 4 and all of Book 1" on spotify. While listening, they keep mentioning epilogue episodes, and there are spoilers for events and characters that weren't in the episodes I just listened to. Where are these episodes? Spotify goes from episode 54, to the "Announcemen: The New World's Beyond", and then into the mentioned Fireside with the discussion of epilogues. I'm unsure where to find that information, any help pointing me to the right place would be appreciated!

Edit: Solved! I'm an idiot and the info I was looking for is at the end of episode 54 after the outro music

Is anyone else really disappointed by how expensive any print version of the Children’s Adventure graphic novel is? I want a physical copy of it so much because I love WBN and I love comics, but with shipping, the cheapest version is $60. I don’t have a job right now, so it’s definitely not feasible for me to pay for; but even if I did, $20 shipping—half the cost of the book itself!—is wild. I paid for a PDF version, but I’m a physical media girlie, and it just really bums me out that they’ve basically made it a luxury item at a time in history when a whole lot of people are financially screwed.

(Original post above)

I'm trying, I'm trying so hard to understand her, but I'm struggling to extend my empathy to her. I'm on episode 26, please no spoilers. She's a detestable villain, I was almost coming around to her in the citadel arc, but her complete inability to understand why Ame and Ursulan wouldn't trust The Citadel is infuriating. After the Cassov Collection, and Port Talon, and everything!

Why is she still so closed off to the idea that Witches and Spirits don't trust wizards after everything she has seen? UGHHHHHH! I can't get with it because I can't stand watching the other characters acting like there is any validity to what she feels. Ame being a doormat and legitimizing Suvi's anger as if Ame and Ursulan did ANYTHING WRONG! They were fleeing an objectively hostile entity encroaching with speed. For someone so smart it's UNBELIEVABLE that she would be so stupid about this situation, and even more unbelievable that Ame and Ursulan would still call her friend.

I DESPERATELY need someone to stand up to Suvi and just MATCH HER BITCH! I need Ame to say, "no Suvi, FUCK YOU ACTUALLY," because Suvi's complaints are so stupid, ignorant, self centered, and childish.

I need a come to Jesus moment or I can't keep going, I just can't

does someone out there have a list of all the “guest actors” that have played Eursulon? and what episodes they are on? i’m just curious if anyone has like a spreadsheet lol

This has likely have been discussed already, so forgive me if this observation is somewhat rudimentary.

It occurs to me that aside from the importance of keeping one’s word, Wren’s first rule (“any chore you agree to do be must done and done well”) may have been to avoid Suvi accidentally wronging a witch, even in a fairly trivial way. It seems the consequences of wronging a witch are only partially in the witch’s control.

Given the gravity of reasons for the other rules, which are only revealed much later, this seems sensible to me.

Am I trippin’?

Im on like my 8th relisten of WWW and I cant find where Suvie released the first 2 ink demons, thanks!

Edit: when suvie let them FREE, not when she let's them out for the first time

Greg Egan's Orphanogenesis is a short story (9000words ~40min read time) about a new AI coming online for the first time; figuring out their own memory and thoughts, and the boundaries between self and others.

Egan's writing is a bit dense at times, but it's worth it. There are some wonderful parallels to XL-ZL's origins.

I've been trying to figure out how to word this right, but with enough episodes out I think I can confidently pinpoint a few problems with the editing.

For one, they sometimes do this thing where they'll say what they do, then say "nevermind, strike that, I'm doing this instead". For example, in episode 2, from 9:10 to 10:59 Chee attempts to use an ability, rolls, gets a reminder of the status of their surroundings, asks a question about their surroundings, then Erika says "strike everything, instead..." I honestly don't see the reasoning for keeping the thing that Chee doesn't even do in the final edit. I could easily see the question about the surroundings being kept in, but otherwise that was nearly 2 whole minutes of stuff that did not matter. At least the roll could have been edited out. I've done actual play editing before, this stuff could have been edited around. Every time this happens it's just like "what was the point of leaving that in?"

In episode 5 from 14:22 to 15:11 XL-ZL decides to do an augury, and rolls for it. From 16:36 to 17:06 XL-ZL realizes an augury is unnecessary and decides to stop (Brennan is at least in character and provides semi-interesting dialogue tbf).From 18:33 to 19:07 XL-ZL disconnects from the augury. All of that adds up to another 2 minutes for something that has no bearing on the story and we did not really need to hear. I'd understand if that moment was a little hard to edit around in all fairness. But what especially strikes me as unusual is the super hype instrumental swelling that plays when XL-ZL is disconnecting from the augury. There was no reason to hype up that moment like that. There was nothing hype about it.

It feels like a lot of moments are given instrumentation too hype for what's actually happening. The timing also sometimes feels wrong, accompanying a moment that we cannot yet visualize; in the scene where XL-ZL disconnects for example, "XL-ZL you feel... (insert epic sci-fi woosh and 5 uninterrupted seconds of swelling instrumentation)" the epic sci-fi woosh has not been earned and we don't know what it's supposed to mean until the disconnect from the augury is then shortly explained. The timing is sometimes disconnected from the storytelling in a way that makes it seem like they want you to feel a certain way before you've even understood what is going on.

There are plenty of other moments that feel like total fluff that could be trimmed. The editing includes things that are inconsequential, making it hard to pay attention. The editing will hype up moments that don't need hype; it makes me distrust my own ears. It's the little things that make a difference. The editing is not bad by any measure, don't get me wrong, the editing is still great by actual play standards. I'm going to listen regardless, and maybe the new editor will improve over time, but I kind of just miss my beautiful wife named Taylor Moore.

I promise this isn't ragebait, but I really struggled with the first few episodes of Solari, in particular >!Erika's !<character's motivations and the pacing. I want to get on board, and I'm really happy to hear people seem to think ep 6 is where things start to pick up, but I don't want to sit through more slow hours. I would love a general "here's what you missed on Glee" leading up to ep 6 so I can get into it and get up to speed before the pause for Aabria's mat leave.

If you think this is annoying, I know it probably is SORRY