Broke Wizards - Five Minutes, Not 5e Transcript

A thumbnail image for Broke Wizards from Sabrina Hawthorne.

Transcript

DANIEL COPPER: Welcome back to Five Minutes, Not 5e, my name is Daniel [Copper], otherwise known as The Copper Compendium, and I’ll be your host! Here, I chat with the designers of lesser-known tabletop role-playing games about games they created, drilling down into the core of what makes their game tick. I’m joined today by Sabrina Hawthorne! Would you like to introduce yourself, and the game we’ll be chatting about today?

SABRINA HAWTHORNE: Hello, and thanks for having me. I wear a lot of hats: I teach about analogue game design in the state where I live, and with- with local con[vention] talks and workshops at art spaces; I do community organising within the RPG [role-playing game] scene, running game nights at local game stores and, on a larger scale, as a founding member of Chimera Hearts, which is a volunteer network of which Daniel and I are both a part, which works to address various issues facing the industry as a whole. And, importantly for the audience, I write my own games. The game I submitted for discussion here is Broke Wizards, a game about working-class sorcerers. It’s a 22-page zine, including both covers, title pages, and the example misadventure at the very end.

DANIEL: What genre is the game, and what are some relevant cultural touchstones?

SABRINA: It’s an urban fantasy comedy game, inspired equally by other urban fantasy games like Mage: The Awakening, as well as by various pieces of “school for wizards” fiction, like The Name of the Wind. It also rather unintentionally ended up reflecting my experiences in Jewish communities, which means it’s a favourite at Shabbat dinners.

DANIEL: How many players is it for, and how long does it last?

SABRINA: Broke Wizards requires two or more players – one to be the game master, describing scenarios, calling for rolls and acting as “The Magic”, everyone else to be individual wizards. The game works best with shorter sessions of no more than two hours, and is a great time for oneshots and for small-to-medium campaigns, probably no more than five sessions.

DANIEL: What do you need to play, and how quickly can you learn?

SABRINA: To play Broke Wizards, all you need is a copy of the zine, writing supplies like pencil and paper, and a handful of ten-sided dice. Teaching the mechanics has never taken me more than 15 minutes, and I find that even players who might not get the idea right away find themselves naturally engaging with the game’s systems once the ball gets rolling.

DANIEL: What might a typical session involve?

SABRINA: Players take the role of working-class wizards who need to resort to dungeon-diving and treasure hunting to pay tuition at their magical school. They must also contend with the force of magic itself: without access to high-quality spell components, broke wizards must instead use ordinary household items as magical foci and their real-life argumentative skills to convince The Magic that their spell should work.

The typical Broke Wizards misadventure is usually a funny and magical twist on some relatable, or in some cases stereotypical, college or other young adult experience. The game’s sample misadventure, for example, features a mysterious series of caverns whose entrance is located in the break room of a convenience store. Other games I’ve been a part of have featured cursed stick-and-poke tattoos, a kobold-run black market for low-quality marijuana and a grad student who might have been a vampire.

DANIEL: How have you made it accessible to beginners, and people with specific needs?

SABRINA: Aside from the photographs at the head of each section, the zine is otherwise completely plaintext and a digital purchase of the game comes with a PDF for digital reading and one arranged so that players can print a physical copy at their local library. The core mechanic, of arguing with magic when a character attempts to cast, was designed specifically to reward behaviours that naturally emerge at most RPG tables. Additionally, there is a sample misadventure at the end of the zine and each section of the rules includes relevant lists for both the players and the game master to pull from. For example, when determining what kinds of junk a broke wizard might have in their pockets, the section on character creation includes a list of 20 example items, like an empty wallet, a library card or the butt of a cigarette.

DANIEL: Thanks, Sabrina, for chatting with me about Broke Wizards! I hope this interview helped those of you listening get to grips with the game’s themings and play, and I look forward to hearing from those of you who check the game out.

Where can people find you and your games, Sabrina?

SABRINA: If you want to check out my games, you can find them at sabrinahawthorne.itch.io, although I’m currently working on building my own professional website to host my storefront, in light of recent censorship efforts which have been affecting artists across the world. If you want updates on that process, or to read my thoughts and insights about game design, you can follow me on Tumblr at tumblr.com/sabrinahawthorne.

DANIEL: You can find those links, as well as links to the transcript of this entry and links to the game, in the video description [below, here]. If you want to find games with similar themes or gameplay to this one, there will also be links to relevant playlists.

And that rounds out this entry of Five Minutes, Not 5e! If you want to hear me chat further with Sabrina about Broke Wizards, check out the Beyond Five Minutes episode where we’ll delve into arguments as mechanics, evocative items and more. Until then, thanks for listening, until next time!

[End of transcript.]

Links

The Game and its Designer

Get the game (digital copy): https://sabrinahawthorne.itch.io/broke-wizards

Check out Sabrina's games on itch.io: https://sabrinahawthorne.itch.io/

Follow Sabrina on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/sabrinahawthorne

Relevant (YouTube) Links

Broke Wizards - Beyond Five Minutes: https://youtu.be/AWtfY-mRkuQ

Broke Wizards - Beyond Five Minutes Transcript: https://thecoppercompendium.co.uk/broke-wizards-beyond-five-minutes-transcript

Fantasy: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsLJ-CI8A8CB5da-uZlVR0f30SLGm7OIB

Single session: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsLJ-CI8A8CCvMCwKjot2cwDzU1vDw35U