Play to Find Out, S1E5: The Big Jorune Talkback
Added 2025-04-25 10:44:07 +0000 UTCMasters of the moons! I'm really pretty stunned at how well this episode turned out 😅. Please enjoy this secret second finale of season 1 o
Masters of the moons! I'm really pretty stunned at how well this episode turned out 😅. Please enjoy this secret second finale of season 1 of Play to Find Out, in which Rob, Emily and I chat about the game design of Skyrealms of Jorune.
As anyone who's been listening will know, we mostly sat down to play Skyrealms of Jorune as a joke but came away a little bit awe-struck. In this episode we try and make sense of it all: The nausea-inducing rules, the gorgeous campaign frame, the weirdly horny animals, the menstrual magic, the post-apocalyptic fantasy, and of course, the unexpected fate of Rob's big-hearted player character Kenth Argelios.
Listeners, thank you so much for coming on this journey while we find our feet with this new show. Series 2 of Play to Find Out where we play an entirely new cursed TTRPG from history will debut in... maybe six weeks? We'll see.
If you'd like to chat about this series, I should mention #ptfo-chat channel in the Quinns Quest Discord has been such a source of joy (and memes) for the whole cast in the last few weeks. If you're so inclined, definitely go join in the discussion!
And as always, if you're not sure how to get access to your personal Quinns Quest Patreon podcast RSS feed, instructions are here. Please don't share it outside of the Patreon. Please share the public feed among your friends though! Here are links for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music and Castbox.
-- Quinns (and Rob! and Emily!)
Comments
As a beginner all games are as bonkers as Skyrealms of Jorune. Bard?? I have no clue. Not in any helpful playable sense. It makes more sense to me that I would have particular knowledge in climbing rocks rather than trees than music I would play affecting another players abilities…
Aoife
2026-01-03 12:58:00 +0000 UTC48:28 Reminds me of the Imperial infantryman's uplifting primer from Only War TTRPG. That one had 48 pages of in in-universe regulations, issued equipment, guidelines, and like 8? pages of "Common Prayers." And all of that looked like a Cold War military manual.
Names
2025-12-22 17:24:13 +0000 UTCListening to these guys play Jorune is how I felt playing one shots of Rune Quest
Benjamin Powell
2025-09-24 21:02:00 +0000 UTCI have just become a Patron on the back of your Impossible Landscapes review and this Skyream playthrough, I have loved the world of Jorune for a long time, but never played in it. This show was a real joy. Thank you. I hope to see Dark Conspiracy on one of your Play to find out podcasts.😉
Simon
2025-06-14 17:04:43 +0000 UTCI’m just playing 5e, but running for a group of 4, 3 of whom have NEVER played a TTRPG, and one person is a Tabaxi, who said she’s on a rumspringa style journey, but didn’t really have a direction. I yoinked the idea of becoming a dren and pitched to her that maybe she needs to collect signatures and stories to go back to the elders to see if she’s worthy of being claimed by the clan. I love that part!
Patrick Kroyak
2025-06-07 01:10:52 +0000 UTCWow, thanks so much Chips! Appreciate you a lot 💖
Quinns Quest
2025-06-02 18:39:19 +0000 UTCI finally listened to the whole thing in one go 15 days ago. It was a total blast, from the weirdness of Jorune to the production quality. I cannot overstate how much I'm impressed. Quinn, your GMing felt effortless, which only shows how much you actually put in, the chemistry between the three of you is great, Rob and Emily are a great balance of characters (Emily genuinely enjoying the adventure is such a delight to listen to) and the sounds, music and general flow of the podcast is a treat to the ears. I was shocked to hear how much a single episode costs, although that's probably because I've got no idea of the scale of that kind of things. I really feel like I don't deserve that much quality considering what i'm contributing, a feeling that was exacerbated as i watched your review of Delta Green and Impossible landscapes. Season 1 was very high quality content, but Season 2 is already blowing it out of the water. I'm taking the Sinister benefactor route, and I couldn't get happier about it!
Chips
2025-06-02 17:41:07 +0000 UTCabsoLUTEly i just desperately want a new edition with more modern sensibilities
Strawberry
2025-05-29 23:35:10 +0000 UTCWait a second... NO WAY does 20 and 0 mean 30! The only reason (in my headcanon that is) that the 10 on a D10 is written as zero, is so that we can treat it *literally* when rolling percentiles.
Daniel
2025-05-24 17:47:40 +0000 UTCAll three of you were so entertaining. I loved the two Tauthers and the world so much. The worldbuilding really does deserve a more reasonable system!
Charles
2025-05-16 19:55:51 +0000 UTCYea this was impeccable Quinns! When can we expect to get this series on cassettes? I’d buy the hell out of it instantly.
Eli Snuggs
2025-05-15 14:18:06 +0000 UTCMakes me want to streamline the system and then run this. I have always loved the weird or non-traditional fantasy worlds.
Nick Hurzeler
2025-05-15 05:15:36 +0000 UTCAm i cooked if i really really really want to run Skyrealms now?
Keith Sinclair
2025-05-12 16:31:39 +0000 UTCDisempowerment is not the same as being unable to interact. You can give your players interesting decisions without giving them the feeling that any of their choices are likely to lead to success.
OgreBogre
2025-05-11 14:55:24 +0000 UTCSo... original edition RIFTS campaign when?
Thomas Cunningham
2025-05-09 23:04:36 +0000 UTCI did a Google search out of curiosity and discovered that someone did a homebrew conversion of Jorune into Savage Worlds. 😎👍
Thomas Cunningham
2025-05-09 19:27:39 +0000 UTCThis is my favourite actual-play podcast ever. I love the unearthing, exploring, and documentation of play of obscure, baroque-rules 80s TTRPGs. I also love the accompanying, dulcet sound design. Looking forward to the next season!
Benjamin Marra
2025-05-07 23:53:34 +0000 UTCAfter a week of thinking, I finally realized what it was in the back of my mind that Skyrealms of Jorune so vividly reminded me of: the scifi-fantasy roguelike videogame Caves of Qud, which only released a few months ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if Qud was directly inspired by Jorune- it’s world is alien and expansive, its systems are both highly immersive and obtuse, and its inhabitants have their own unique, alien cultures that you immerse yourselves into in the coolest ways (the world’s currency is the water you carry around for survival, and you can increase your affinity with characters and factions through a ritual where you and another take a sup of water from each other’s waterskins). The world’s also brutal as hell, which makes it all the more engaging. Needless to say, listening to you all play and discuss Jorune was a wonderful experience that reminded me of a game I love. I’m keeping my eyes open for any sort of revival for the Skyrealms of Jorune IP.
Kip Degeorges
2025-05-07 22:30:46 +0000 UTCQuinns, this series is honestly my favorite "actual play". The small number of players means I don't have to keep a bunch of people I don't know and their characters all in my head. The editing is fantastic with the sounds and music. Truly love this series so far and hope you all can continue
Paden Bedlion
2025-05-05 13:27:58 +0000 UTCI was born the same year as D&D. I was partially raised by my aunt, who worked (and later owned) a hobby store in Anchorage, Alaska. It was literally my favorite place in the whole world when I was young. The feeling of picking up one of these low budget game books was like picking up a well of ideas and complex thoughts. Now, much older, I get a similar kick browsing DriveThruRPG and have been hoarding PDFs of games I have no intention of ever playing, but I'm still fascinated by the art form. Skyrealms of Jorune probably never entered my view as a youth, but it brings back those exact memories of looking at a game intended to be a simulation engine and thinking it was magic, as though it could literally simulate an entire different reality. As was said in the podcast, we don't do simulationism much anymore, no one has the patience for it. But it is such a specific kind of nerdy escapism that allows people who think too much about too many things to feel like someone shares that feeling and turned it into art.
BirdInTheBrain
2025-05-05 06:12:20 +0000 UTCThis was amazing :3 Jorun felt like such a odd narrative brain child. It gave me the vibe that "it should have been a novel". Fascinating stuff. Ive never been too much a fun of setting heavy trpgs before. But this really sold me on "ttrpg as world narrative". The whole concept hella confuses me. Which may be the most Jorun thing in the end :D
Kristof
2025-05-04 20:33:04 +0000 UTCLet's not be unnecessarily mean to the Quinns. It is in a Quinns' nature to want to explain things.
James O'Dwyer
2025-05-02 08:59:41 +0000 UTCI just want to say I really appreciate the editing of this Actual Play. I normally find them hard to listen to, but needed something to listen to rather than watch this week and had no issue with completely binging all five episodes. I also really like this final behind the curtain, how the sky-sausage is made episode, and I'm excited for the next games.
John Tudball
2025-05-01 19:43:29 +0000 UTCHonestly, I think my gaming group might get tired of me evangelizing QQ, hearing that message at the end really makes me feel for this project in a way i haven't felt about any other live play, Patreon, or Kickstarter. I really want this to succeed for you guys!
Christopher Chapman
2025-05-01 11:04:03 +0000 UTCRoll on Toon. My memories of playing it as a kid are a fever dream of weird cartoon violence.
Ads
2025-04-30 07:13:58 +0000 UTCI fell in love with the Jorune setting a few years ago but resolved that I’d never see the actual game played. This series brought me so much joy
Ryan
2025-04-30 05:50:45 +0000 UTCThis makes me so happy--loved hearing your reflections on playing this. I never played Jorune, but I picked it up several times in various game stores in the 90s, looked at it, and went "what the hell is this?" It was both fascinating and intimidating--the "Fantastic Planet" of RPGs. I was always curious about it though.
Nicholas Bielik
2025-04-29 22:53:48 +0000 UTCOur collective trip to Jorune filled me with such powerful "I Can Fix Him" energy. If these guys had made a game of their beloved world in a different era of game design, this could have been something amazing.
Josh Rodell
2025-04-27 22:45:12 +0000 UTCI will only say that this was amazing -- truly hilarious and moving and the the essence of what makes table top so great. This was the best part of my week upon release.
leopoldgloom
2025-04-27 22:07:52 +0000 UTCIt's an interesting conversation. As someone who runs ttrpg games, pretty much all of them, with the mindset that I'll change what I want as I run and take what I want into other games. This is a fun look into a *setting* more than a rule set for me. If I wanted to play this world with the social dynamics, goals, wild setting I would just get the book for that lore and information and then run it with something simpler. A Mothership hack probably, like the Nausicaa inspired Cloud Empress.
Argonautica
2025-04-27 20:45:55 +0000 UTCI adored this series. I went in expecting to be amazed (and terrified) by old fucked up systems and mechanics, but I came away with a real deep appreciation for Skyrealms of Jorune and all the cool ideas it had. Hell, I could listen to an entire other podcast *series* that's just you all talking about and discussing this games design, world, and TTRPG culture. At the end of this episode I wanted more and it felt like everyone on the cast had more to say too lol. Absolutely stellar work!
BakaTyler
2025-04-27 19:47:10 +0000 UTCThis series reminds me of something Brian Eno once said. "Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided."
AuraTheDoof
2025-04-26 18:42:22 +0000 UTCJust to Thriddle-splain for a moment, Ramian are not native tongue Jorune either. The Shantha (the eyeless dying individual on the cover) are natives, and Humans have kind of come to a peaceful status with them. The Ramian remain a threat to EVERYONE. This presence of multiple alien races on the planet on top of all the Iscin-uplifted earth animal races really makes the politics complicated.
Brian Rogers
2025-04-26 12:01:25 +0000 UTCProps to Rob’s comment about typos & apostrophes! There’s a quest I can get behind!
Kevin
2025-04-26 11:34:50 +0000 UTCGenuinely such a fantastic and important series that I really hope continues. I am obsessed with reading TTRPGS especially ones I feel have been missed to time. I remembr the first time reading HARN and thinking that it is a game that modern players would pleasurably drown in if it werent for it being deathly out of print and obscure. I am very very excited to see whats next!
Daniel Atkinson
2025-04-26 05:36:49 +0000 UTCSo, this is kind of cool: https://archive.org/details/SkyrealmsofJoruneArchive
Eric McConaghy
2025-04-26 02:12:02 +0000 UTCCongrats again to all of you!! This was such a fantastic first series of this pod. Quinns you did a great job at bringing the world of Jorune to life! And I’m so excited to hopefully see Rob and Emily again they were such good Actual Play players!
David Mason
2025-04-25 20:14:07 +0000 UTCIm glad you are doing this port mortem session about the games, it really creates a complete picture. Listening to it, I realized that I am super interested in sessions 0 for these old RPGs. For example, the character creation in this system seems super complex, during which many obscure systems and rules have to show themselves (like how to use a shield, how to use spells, how to run, gun, run AND gun, etc.). I fully expect that you will come up with a cool and creative way to avoid Captain Exposition or amnesiac characters in the next old RPG, but prehaps setting a standard of sessions 0 could be beneficial for everyone (puts less pressure on you, makes the start more enjoyable for everyone and creates more content (not that the last one matters)). Thank you for this blast in the past, I cant wait for more!
Martin Brandejs
2025-04-25 16:41:09 +0000 UTCQuinns mentions "stars and wishes" really offhandedly in this and I had never heard that term, so I looked it up. Highly recommend everyone else do the same!
Zhed
2025-04-25 14:56:35 +0000 UTCI have been listening to these episodes each a couple of times, firstly for entertainment purposes, then with a critical mind on the way you teach players and run the session... I've gotta say, you are rather good at this.
Adam Nicholson
2025-04-25 13:32:19 +0000 UTCI'm really excited to see the live show, play to find out is great!
Thomas Bethell
2025-04-25 12:33:52 +0000 UTCYay! So happy to hear your thoughts on this game!
ElTacoSpiderrr
2025-04-25 10:57:46 +0000 UTC(I should make it clear, I'm not normally an actual play fan and had not intended to listen to this series but Patreon's app autoplayed it once and I am hooked! Everything about it is great! Great job, Quinns! Keep up the great work!)
Backpack Boom Bap (Tom)
2025-04-25 10:47:03 +0000 UTCWas really looking forward to this one! Thanks a lot for keeping up this pace of content. It's really impressive and highly appreciated! ❤️
Daz
2025-04-25 10:46:03 +0000 UTCYes!!!
Backpack Boom Bap (Tom)
2025-04-25 10:45:00 +0000 UTC
