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Hello players who exclusively have tragic backstories.

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And DMs who would literally kiss a player if it meant for some good roleplay.

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Welcome back to Table Talk.

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I'm Maddie Conway.

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And I'm Robert Lopez.

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What are we talking about today?

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So this is part, I think, three, right, of character creation.

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This one's going to focus on the not so important backgrounds.

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There are originally 13 in the player's handbook.

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But there are, if you just go to any wiki dot, you'll realize that there are close to 30 or 40 of them now.

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But in my opinion, and I think Madison shares the same opinion, backgrounds in 5e are pretty pointless.

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There are more for flavors.

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So the secondary theme of this episode is more how to create a cool character, what flavor means for a character, that kind of a thing.

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There's also something else that you can choose.

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There's a section for bonds, flaws, quirks.

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I don't really feel like talking about those.

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It's basically just for people that don't know how to create a unique character.

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Which, not to shit on people playing it the first time, I definitely did it the first time I did it too.

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I would suggest looking at those.

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I don't think you should actually write them down.

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And you'll find all of those when you choose your backgrounds.

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And if that's something, if you're getting new into playing a character and putting on roleplaying for the first time, basically,

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then I think that that can be something that's helpful for you to have touchstones and things to look back to.

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But if you're someone who kind of has a little bit of experience there, then I personally skip over them every time.

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I think that they can be interesting and they can spark imagination, but I don't think they have to be your Bible.

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That's primarily what they're there for, is just to guide you on creating a character backstory.

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So really quick, the 13 that originally exist in the 5e handbook include Acolyte, Charlotten, Criminal, Entertainer, Folk Hero, Guild, Artisan, Noble, Hermit, Outlander, Sage, Sailor, Soldier, and Urchin.

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We're only going to talk about four of those today, being Acolyte, Charlotten, Criminal, and Entertainer, which are, in my opinion, some of the most common ones to pick.

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Who the fuck is going to pick an Urchin?

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But that's besides the point. Listen, if Urchin's your thing, that's fine, I'm not shitting on it.

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If you want to be an Urchin, be an Urchin.

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It's just not for me.

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So top of the list is Acolyte. So they are typically picked for your warlocks, for your paladins, for your clerics.

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Their whole background is basically kind of religion, so they can do different ceremonies for their deities and then get things in response.

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Sometimes a big, common thing DMs will do is like a side quest for somebody who is an Acolyte will be to perform a certain religious ceremony or search out a temple or pay tribute or shit like that.

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The ceremony, so there is something kind of cool to the Acolyte background.

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Your ceremonies actually give benefits depending on which one you pick.

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So actually a really cool use of this happened in the final fight of the campaign idea where somebody was a fucking Acolyte and had no idea.

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And then decided to marry a bunch of people in the party.

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And when you marry somebody, you're married to people for 24 hours after that, they get advantage on a bunch of shit and pluses.

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So in that way...

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But then when they're close to each other.

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Yeah, when they're within a certain amount of feet of each other, which is wild.

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So yeah, there are eight different ceremony types, wedding coming of age, funeral feast day.

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Settle a theological dispute, settle a local dispute, bestowing a blessing on someone or something in esoteric mystic slash ghostic.

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Right, so every one of the ceremonies is going to give you access to a different benefit for usually around 24 hours.

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Yeah, they can really only be done once.

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Yeah, generally they can only be done once.

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So that's kind of the other thing that limits them.

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But I mean, if your character is religious, it's cool.

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It gives you like a guiding direction, it gives you access to a little extra mechanic that I actually got to see played out, which was wild.

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Oh, it came in handy a lot.

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It did, actually. It worked surprisingly well.

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That's also where you're going to get some skill proficiencies and equipment.

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So for an acolyte, your starting equipment is going to be a holy symbol, a prayer book, some incense, vestments, common clothes and 15 gold.

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You're going to get proficiency into languages of your choice and skill proficiencies and insight and religion, which are really the best part of...

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Like that's the benefit in the way that I choose backgrounds is I just look at the skill proficiencies.

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They give you equipment, some more flavor stuff.

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And then they'll also give you a feature called Shelter of the Faithful, which all of their shelter...

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All of the features are basically different ways that you can get lodging.

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Yeah.

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And they're all kind of the same, which is basically like you're a priest, so you'll be able to like stay at a temple or like so on and so forth.

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You can always find shelter at like a temple or a place of holy significance.

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Yeah.

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And criminals the same thing, it's like you can always find shelter or access to a criminal underground, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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Yeah.

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Falk Hero. You're a Falk Hero. Any citizen will take you into their house as long as it doesn't endanger them.

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Like a lot of them just have that little flavor thing where it's like the people that match up with your background also will help you occasionally.

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Yeah, which is toss up whether that's actually going to be a thing in your campaign or not, because that's all up to like the world that you're existing in.

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Up next is charlatan, which are kind of like, they're not like full scam artists. They're kind of scam artists.

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I want to read this opening thing.

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Charlatans are con artists, scammers and thieves.

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They're a knack for stretching the truth can get them into and out of trouble as often as not Madison says. They're not really scam artists.

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Okay, well I'm reading the one from the player's handbook and it doesn't say the word con artist anywhere.

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You've always had a way with people, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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Yeah, you're an MLM.

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A little. It's an MLM.

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100%.

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Does your character sell pepperware or Lula Rowe?

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But the skill proficiencies there are going to be deception and sleight of hand. You'll get proficiencies in the tool kits for disguise kits, forgery kits.

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You're going to get like fancy clothes, disguise kits.

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You're going to get like, what's your favorite scheme and it gives you kind of ideas.

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Fun background for that too is like somebody that you ripped off forever ago notices you in a town or some bullshit like that.

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Yeah.

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And then if you scroll down, like whenever you're looking at those, that's where you'll find the ideals, bonds and flaws, which you can choose from once again.

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So are the backgrounds what give you access to those things?

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Yeah.

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Okay, see, that's something I haven't had to do backgrounds, ideals and flaws for a while.

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So your ideals, backgrounds and flaws are tied to whatever background you pick. They're usually related to it.

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So like I've done, I remember Folk Hero more than I remember the other ones just because it's a pretty common pick.

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So like an ideal for Folk Hero is like you like saving people because it's like it feels good.

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Yeah.

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Another one is like you, you like the spotlight because I don't know it brings you gold and money and fame.

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Flaw might be that like you'll never leave a person behind because you're a Folk Hero.

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Like that's what a lot of your ideals, bonds and flaws are. There's just too many of them to go through considering how many backgrounds there are.

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So yeah, there's long and some subclass lists.

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Yeah.

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It's a bit exhausting.

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Next up is criminal.

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It's exactly what it sounds like.

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They like crimes.

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Their feature gives them access to a network of other criminals that they can then call on to do things.

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But then like that also kind of works both ways.

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So a fun way that it can be DMed is like you can call on them, but they can also call on you or like you had somebody bail you out of prison one time and now you owe them a favor.

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That's kind of fun.

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They're also, I think they have, yeah, so they can have something called you got to help me.

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So lying low, hiding out from authorities, pulling off a tricky job, fencing an item, doing some honest work for a while.

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So they have, again, same kind of set of skill proficiencies that are going to be a little different.

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Their stuff is going to revolve around more sleight of hand and stealth checks.

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Their equipment is going to be, you haven't pulled up.

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What is their equipment list?

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Their equipment is a crowbar, a set of common clothes, including a hood and a pouch containing 15 gold pieces, tool proficiencies in one type of gaming set and thieves tools, and skill proficiencies in deception and self.

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I've yet to see a gaming set used.

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Yeah, same.

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Yeah, gaming sets are kind of pointless.

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So if you're stressing out about like which gaming set to pick, you're like, oh, do I get a gaming set or do I get a loot?

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Like pick the fucking instrument.

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You're never going to roll dice with somebody.

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You'll use a loot.

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Yeah, eventually, even if that's not up your alley, if you just want to like distract somebody, enroll a crazy performance check as a barbarian.

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Always comes in handy.

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And then last is entertainers.

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They are exactly what they sound like.

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They are entertainers.

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It's got a little thing where like it gives you like an option and it's like choose your entertainer routine and it's got some fun options.

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Like one of them is like fire eater, which I thought was pretty fun.

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Yeah, maybe like a tumbler.

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The feature for that is kind of like by popular demand, which is like as long as you're performing, you can stay anywhere, but that's going to give you proficiencies and acrobatics and performance tool proficiencies and disguise kit and one type of musical instrument.

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And for your equipment, it'll give you a musical instrument, the favor of an admirer, a costume and a pouch containing 15 gold pieces.

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This is the one I almost always choose for all my characters just because I like the bonuses to acrobatics and performance.

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And knowing how to play an instrument is always in handy, even if you're not playing a bard.

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If you're playing a bard, why are you not picking entertainer as you're like, I mean, that's automatically going to give you some stuff.

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Seems kind of straightforward.

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But yeah, those are the four that we wanted to talk about because those are the four that we've played or we have interest in.

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There are another nine of them.

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There's a magic book done.

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Yeah, and then that's just in the official player's handbook.

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Again, if you just look up D&D 5e backgrounds and click the wiki.link at the top of the search results, you're going to walk into like 50 of them.

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There's so many of them.

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So that's the other reason why I'm kind of like backgrounds, like they're there.

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There's so many to choose from and it gets kind of exhausting.

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And this is what we'll start talking about next, right?

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When you're creating your character, I think your background can give you a good idea of what direction maybe you want their profession to be or a part of their backstory.

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Like a friend that double crossed them or a family member they don't like anymore or a scheme they used to pull.

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But like, even when you start going down the rabbit hole of ideals, bonds and flaws, it's not going to give you a full character.

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It's only going to give you a direction for the character.

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And sometimes it kind of hurts to have them on the paper because when you're trying to figure out a role play them, you're like constantly checking the paper and being like, well, am I adhering to being like a good person for the sake of being good?

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Am I remembering that there's this person I double crossed? How am I going to work that in?

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Am I also keeping in mind that my flaw is that I can't help but steal things off of shelves?

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And it can be fun, but I think what's a lot more fun is taking those things as suggestions and then turning them into your own unique character aspects that are more than just like, you like to pick shit up because you're a thief.

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Yeah, and I think there's also a thing to be said of like not letting your character live.

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Don't get me wrong, backstory and like the flavor of your character is extremely important.

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Especially in the beginning of a campaign because you don't know who you are. You don't know like where you fit into this world.

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But there's also a thing of not letting your backstory be the only thing that rules your character.

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There was a, I don't know where it was. I saw in it like it was on TikTok at some point and I cannot remember for the life of me where it was from or who said it.

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But basically saying that the campaign that your character is in or the quest or the adventure that they are on should be the climax of your character's life.

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Like that should be the most important part of your life. You don't want to have in your backstory that like you killed a dragon when you were like six years old.

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Yeah, because why are you a level three character then if you've killed a dragon?

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Yeah, that makes sense.

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So also keep in mind the level that you're playing at. If you're playing as a level one character, just keep that in mind when you're playing your backstory.

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I refuse to start any anybody idea for at level one. I think level one is exhausting.

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I mean some people start at like kind of do like a level zero or a level one thing and it's like really, really deep in the background.

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But I mean, I don't know, it's not that fun to be experienced to be a level one character and get hit by one thing and die and to have ability scores that aren't going to let you roll anything above like a 12.

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And I mean, I guess if you're level one, you don't really need to, but it's just not that fun of an experience in my opinion.

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And the first couple of levels aren't that significant. And I think the reason that I like starting at three is that you hit your subclasses at three for most of the classes.

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So all the fun stuff that gives your character flavor text about the specific kind of character or hero they are, you don't hit until you're three anyways.

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But I mean, I guess it could be fun if like you're picking a paladin and you're doing a training arc and you hit level three and that's like the climactic moment for you and you have to choose your oath to pick.

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That could be fun. But if it's like you've been a paladin for a couple of years and you meet up with a couple of ragtag adventurers in a bar, mother fucker, you're not one, you're three.

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No. You're three. If you're one, you're getting crushed. Absolutely. You're getting stepped on by a goblin the second you head outside.

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It's also hard to create like a fully formed character that's like an adult and then also have them as level one. I've seen where like people have been before of like this was just like a, they were just like a merchant and they've decided to get into adventuring for the first time at like 36 years old.

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That's so funny. That is a narrative point where it would make sense for your care. Honestly, I still think then like level three, but like that would make sense for a lower level.

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But also if you're like starting out level one, there's a lot less things for you to manage. So I also understand like starting there, but I wouldn't spend a lot of time at lower levels.

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What I will say that backgrounds do help with sometimes though is that generally your, the concept of your character is going to come from a class.

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It rarely starts from anything outside of a class. Even if it's even if it's a concept before the first thing you're thinking of is, okay, what class with this character be in the rest kind of falls in place from there.

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I think what can be fun sometimes too is to try and like if you just, if you don't want to do a run of the miller, you want to mix it up and you still want to use backgrounds.

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See like how unique of a combination you can pick between your class and your background.

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So barbarians are often going to pick like folk hero or criminal, sometimes acolyte if they're more of like the holy route or noble if they're like a noble whatever the fuck or soldier.

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But like, I don't know, try and pick something different than that. If you're looking to spice it up, like what is a barbarian entertainer look like, right?

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Somebody that's going around from town to town, like flexing their muscles and doing like strongman competitions.

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And that can be a lot of fun too. Or even like a hermit, right? Like this, I mean that kind of gets into stereotype stuff where it's like a big strong guy in the cave that doesn't interrupt anybody.

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He's dead by himself and blah, blah, blah. His whole family died in the fire and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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Bullshit like that. But like, I don't know, sometimes they can be fun in that way to like mix them up and that gives you a better idea of what kind of character you want to take or what kind of direction you want to take the character in.

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I love mixing up those things. I think that I can automatically...

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I'm going to let you continue talking and I have to go let my fiancee and the student media be right back.

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Okay. I think that there's a lot of like really interesting things you can do and like flavors that you can create yourself by mixing and matching those things.

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Like what does a barbarian, Arakokra look like? And maybe they have the like the sage background or the sailor background.

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But at the same time, you also don't want to let your mechanics get completely like fucked or like set aside just for flavor, which is something that I've done before.

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I played a Wild Magic Sorcerer with a negative two to Arkana for a long time.

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And let me tell you, while that was a really fun concept of like a Sorcerer who has no idea how her magic works and no interest in learning how her magic works or how to use magic was a very fun concept.

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But in roleplay, it kind of kicked me in the ass because I was constantly being asked for Arkana checks and it was I could not really do much because I was taking a penalty to every role.

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But more than just backstories in the finding the flavor of your character is figuring out like who is your character? Where are they from?

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What led them to this point in their life? And there's a couple other mechanics that D&D has to kind of help your character out and just kind of things that like we think are like...

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Important building blocks that like should be one of those is alignment.

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So alignment you've probably seen like online anywhere, even if you have no idea or like any information about D&D, you probably seen some stuff about like chaotic good and chaotic neutral,

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which was a like kind of like chart or like system that was created by D&D to describe characters and their moral alignments.

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So you have kind of like if you were imagining it as a chart, you can imagine going across the top. There are three categories lawful, neutral and chaotic.

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Chaotic is like fully according to your impulse. It is what you individually want to do versus lawful, which is according to principle that is according to the laws that you follow,

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whether or not this is like good common law or like your family's law or like your evil cult leaders law, that can change.

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But it is according to a principle and a set of rules that has already been established versus chaotic, which is following your own set of rules that you've kind of created for yourself according to what you feel like is right or what you want to do.

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Neutral is that area in between. It's pretty much what it sounds like. It's like, okay, well, I can recognize that like maybe following the law and a principle 100% to the T might be, you know, a little bad,

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but also I can't just go around willy-nilly doing whatever I want to do.

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So if you imagine the second side of that chart is going to be good and evil and then neutral in the middle there. That's pretty much what it sounds like.

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This is where it gets like a little bit more subjective of like your character can think that they are good and still be an evil character because I mean an evil person doesn't always really know that they're evil.

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But that's it. If you're playing that character, you would still kind of put them in the evil category.

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And then neutral is going to be somewhere kind of in between that exactly what it sounds like.

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So these are all going to create a bunch of different combinations. There's a total of nine of them, I believe, which is going to be like if you're starting at like the upper left corner, you're going to start with lawful good.

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This is going to be someone truly like the best example of this is like Superman. This is someone who is like just true good to the core, follows the law, follows the rules, follows the principles of like what they think is right.

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This is someone who is not only like stopping the bad guys, but like saving kittens out of trees along the way and like they are they are basically just as good as you can get to the point where a lot of people sometimes think that it's a boring character to play because they are so good.

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I disagree with that personally. I think that lawful good lawful good can be a really, really fun character to play.

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It's also very fun to play when you're playing with a bunch of people who are not lawful good because it creates a really fun dynamic in the party.

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Then moving over one would be neutral good, which is someone who is also going to like go out of their way to help people because that's the good thing to do, but isn't maybe going to take those extra steps to do things like saving a kitten out of a tree.

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I think that a lot of like general characters can fall into the neutral good category. I'm trying to think of like any examples that are like popping into my head, but I can't think of any right now.

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So we'll come back to that. But neutral good is really solid. It's exactly what it sounds like. And then moving over is chaotic good, which is someone who's kind of going to try and save the day and stop the bad guy by any means, because that's what they like feel is right to them.

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That is what they think is good. This is going to be like when I think of like a good natured vigilance, like Spider-Man, I think would be chaotic good because, you know, like, and he's still technically breaking laws, but he's still doing the good thing at the end of the day.

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And it doesn't that would be like a revolutionary someone who's going against what the laws are because they think it's good, but that doesn't always mean that they have to be going against the laws.

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It is just what they think and what they believe is good and best and they want to do that goodness out of the kindness of their heart because they think it's good and they like to do good.

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Going to start way back over on kind of like the other or the next row down would be lawful neutral.

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Lawful neutral is pretty standard. They believe in justice. They believe in the law and they kind of like do what they're told. They follow the law. They follow like everything that they're supposed to be doing.

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They follow those principles, but they're also not like specifically one way or the other.

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Hello. Do you want to say hi, Elle?

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I have returned. My fiance is in the room with us now. She does not want to say hi. She's microphone shy.

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Okay. I'm talking about alignment charts.

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So sorry for leaving you all with her for that long.

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I know. I'm just talking about $120 goof I made.

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Anyway, not going to get into that because that shit sucks, but yeah, alignment charts. I love that shit. Morality is one of my favorite things to talk about period because I spent a lot of time taking philosophy classes.

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And it's so interesting to look at how people roll that in and then completely fucking ignore it.

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Oh yeah.

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Like people always see, I don't know what, how much have you talked about it already? I have such strong opinions on fucking alignment charts.

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Well, now I feel like we need to like scrap this bit and go from the beginning because I was like going through, I went through them like overall and then I also went through individually. So we've gotten all the way to lawful neutral.

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Okay. Yeah, neutral is not a fucking thing. Neutral does not exist. You're lying if you think neutral is a real thing.

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I think in the real world, neutral does not exist, but I think for the case of D&D.

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I think it's even, I think it's the same case in D&D though. I'm not going to present a single character with a choice or an option or a scenario where there is a neutral way out of it.

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I don't think it's that. I think it is more of like neutral on a combination of lawful and chaotic. I think that's what that means.

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You're true neutral. You're like something, but see, to that to me is just chaotic.

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No, I disagree because I think chaotic is, so chaotic is according to your principle, like your, not your principle, chaotic is your impulse and your feeling versus lawful, which is principle and code.

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I think that most human beings are going to kind of fall in that neutral category where they do agree and want to follow their impulse, but also recognize maybe like if I have the impulse, my ex just broke or somebody just broke up with me and I'm really, really pissed and I want to just go fucking burn their house down.

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Yeah, we know what that's like.

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Yeah. I've never burned anyone's house down.

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She got close.

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No, I haven't.

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Burned other objects.

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Well, once.

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But I think that a neutral character would recognize, okay, that's what I want to do, but I don't think that that's like that's against the law. I shouldn't do that.

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So instead I'm going to burn a sweatshirt.

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I think that that would be a neutral option because it's not going in one extreme or the other.

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Yeah, I still think I still think I don't think neutral is an again, I don't think neutral exists. I think it is a mix of chaotic and lawful and I think you find a happy medium, but I don't think that medium is neutral because like even your point being there like their chaotic impulse is to burn their

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house down, but their their lawful code is to say, well, that's against the law.

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So they find a medium that's still somewhere in between lawful and chaotic.

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That's not neutral.

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Neutral would would be deciding to do nothing and sit there like a vegetable.

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Okay, well, they're not as well.

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I've acknowledged that this is bad and I've acknowledged that I have a bad impulse.

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So I'm just going to sit here and do nothing.

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I think that they are using neutral in like a term of in between the two extremes for the for the purpose of creating a chart.

255
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No, I guess it's fair.

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I mean, if you're looking at it from a tarp perspective, then like just trying to put something on the chart neutral makes sense.

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I just don't believe that there is anything like the true neutral.

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I do not believe exists.

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I was going to true neutrals next and I was going to say true neutral can get fucked.

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True neutral is is so much because the way that people like to play true neutral is I'm going to do anything all of the time ever.

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And there's not going to be a rhyme or reason to it.

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I thought that was no, that's more chaotic.

263
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No, it's not because true neutral means that you have no feelings either way.

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You're not bound by code.

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You're not bound by impulse, which means you can do whatever you want.

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And your reason for it can just be I wanted to do it.

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When the law said that I shouldn't do it.

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See, there's no, but you see what I'm saying?

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There's no way to find a true neutral.

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I always thought true neutral is someone who was just kind of like true neutral.

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So not good, not evil, not lawful, not chaotic.

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I think that that is someone who's just kind of like, I mean, I don't fucking care.

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Like maybe you can pay me, maybe paying me will give me like one reason to go one way or another, but I don't have a vested interest in anything.

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And that's why I don't like true neutral.

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I think character motivation can start into neutral.

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I don't think it will ever end with true neutral because let's, okay, let's go that scenario.

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Let's say that I'm like, I'm a rich tavern guy and somebody like a group of bandits recently robbed my like food stores and they've stolen a whole bunch of shit.

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And I hire the local merc group who for all intents and purposes is true neutral.

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They, they operate on a system of if I give them money, they go and do the task.

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They don't care about the task itself.

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They're not interested in the morality of the task that just want the money.

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And they're also not operating on a lawful perspective because it's certainly the fuck is not.

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Right.

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Like being hired to go and kill somebody.

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Yeah.

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But then let's say that these bandits or these mercenaries then arrive to the band at home and find it's like a group of children and they're all under the age of like six.

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They're stealing food because they're starving.

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If they then make that decision to kill those children, like they were hired to do, you would consider them evil.

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And the idea that one of those mercenaries could then go, yeah, but I don't really care.

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I would just pay to do it and then shoot the kid in the face.

291
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Cool.

292
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You're a sociopath.

293
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Well, yeah.

294
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Right.

295
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But you're not like, no, but even then you would still label those actions as evil.

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So there's no way to hit a true neutral once you're faced with the actual decision.

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I would agree with that.

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But I, for the purposes of them making the chart, it exists.

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I know this is just a fun thing that I like to debate.

300
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I don't think there's anything as gray or black and white does not exist.

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It's all just a big fucking collage of gray.

302
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Yeah.

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And I think morality goes in the same way.

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Can you guys tell I like philosophy?

305
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Yeah.

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But yeah, the alignment chart helps.

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Sometimes it's, I think it helps a lot when you're looking at characters that are going

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to go through an arc.

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Like if you foresee your character playing like a lawful paladin and then turning into

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more like maybe an evil warlock by the end or more like an evil paladin or oath breaker,

311
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looking at the alignment chart might help to be like, I want him to start at lawful,

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like lawful, lawful good.

313
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And then maybe in somewhere closer to like chaotic evil.

314
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Sometimes it kind of, again, it's a more of a framing thing.

315
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I think it helps for you to figure out where your character is going to go.

316
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Yeah.

317
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But at the end of the day, people are a lot as this conversation proves, people are a

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lot more dynamic than a fucking alignment chart.

319
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Yeah.

320
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And hopefully if you're playing a character, they're going to be more dynamic than the

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chart.

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Yeah.

323
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But it's a good place and a good thing to kind of build off of when you're starting out.

324
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Yeah.

325
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It's a good jump.

326
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It's a good jump.

327
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Then up next is chaotic neutral, which is basically someone who follows their every

328
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impulse and doesn't really give a shit about the law.

329
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This is where everyone wants to be.

330
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This is where everyone imagines themselves.

331
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This is where most, I would say most adventuring parties at least starting out are.

332
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Yeah.

333
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Which can be fun.

334
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However, I think a bunch of chaotic neutral can just get a little like, okay.

335
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And I think my, maybe my, Jesus Christ, maybe my perspective on what true neutral is

336
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skewed.

337
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I feel like I've seen a lot of instances where somebody takes true neutral or chaotic neutral

338
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and this just does anything, whatever they want all the time for no reason because they

339
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felt like it, which I guess is fun to an extent.

340
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But then at the other end of that, when you're like multiple sessions deep, it gets kind

341
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of fucking boring.

342
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Yeah.

343
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Because it's like, okay.

344
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So you should-

345
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Like what drives you?

346
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You stabbed that guy because you liked the shirt he was wearing and you wanted the shirt

347
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more.

348
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You don't necessarily care that you're killing him, but you wanted the shirt and that was

349
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the easiest way to get it.

350
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Yeah.

351
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And I think that-

352
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What does that do for you as a character?

353
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I think that also starts pulling you into like good versus evil.

354
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Chaotic neutral would be like, man, I really, really want like, I'm trying to think of like

355
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a really mundane thing of like chaotic neutral is like you fucking love taking a shower with

356
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your socks on.

357
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I'm literally going to look up an example of what?

358
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Example of chaotic-

359
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I'll say Jack Sparrow comes up a lot when people are talking about a chaotic neutral

360
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character.

361
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Chaotic neutral.

362
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Where I think that that's something that-

363
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Okay.

364
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Okay.

365
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So for example, one chaotic neutral character might be a part of a tribe that considers

366
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itself independent and anarchist, whereas another may choose not to be as their lives

367
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may still be dependent on it.

368
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So it-

369
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Yeah, it's so interesting.

370
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That didn't help.

371
00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:13,840
Yeah, it didn't tell me anything.

372
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I think chaotic neutral is more of like something like following impulses that are not always

373
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like truly good or evil.

374
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Like if your impulse is to stab people, that's chaotic evil.

375
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That is like-

376
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Yeah.

377
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Yeah.

378
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:29,320
That is bad.

379
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But if your chaotic neutral is like, man, I'm just going to put on clown makeup and walk

380
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through town and tell everyone on my clown today, I mean, you're not doing anything necessarily

381
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good or evil there.

382
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:40,520
Right.

383
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:41,800
But why is that chaotic?

384
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Why isn't that just true neutral?

385
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:45,400
Because maybe clowns are illegal in this town.

386
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:47,280
Oh, I see, I see.

387
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,400
Right, right, right, right, right.

388
00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:50,400
Okay, okay.

389
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:52,520
I'm kind of hopping on board with the chaotic neutral thing.

390
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:53,520
Yeah.

391
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,520
See, I think neutral for me, kind of like what I was saying earlier, I think neutral is a

392
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wonderful jumping point.

393
00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:01,840
I think your character is always going to fall on either evil or good at some point in your

394
00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:04,560
campaign.

395
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:08,800
Because maintaining neutral in a world where you have to make difficult choices is nearly

396
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:09,800
impossible.

397
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:12,360
Yeah, unless your character just kills himself at every choice.

398
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:13,360
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

399
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:15,400
Which is a viable option in D&D.

400
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,680
Yeah, 100%.

401
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:21,240
Another description I've found is that the chaotic neutral character feels that there

402
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:24,400
is no plan at all for the universe, things just happen, they tend to believe in luck

403
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:26,200
and chance rather than fate or destiny.

404
00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:29,040
They don't care what happens to others, yet will not necessarily go out of their way to

405
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:30,040
harm them either.

406
00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:35,640
Yeah, I think that would be a pretty good way of thinking about it.

407
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:42,920
Yeah, so chaotic neutral is you're kind of like, laws are like, laws are suggestions,

408
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:48,280
but I'm also not out to hurt anybody or harm anybody, I'm just here living my life.

409
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:56,080
You're like a very low ball anarchist in the grand scheme of things.

410
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,760
Okay.

411
00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:01,640
Do you want to say that into the mic?

412
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:09,840
So my fiance just said it's like when somebody asks you what you're eating, but you lie for

413
00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:11,760
no reason.

414
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:15,560
Okay.

415
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:19,240
It's doing something without a true purpose.

416
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:22,560
Like when you go out to the bar and just lie to random men.

417
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:24,040
I think it's just a me thing.

418
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:27,720
I despise action without motivation or intention.

419
00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:31,520
It drives me insane.

420
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:37,480
It sends me up a fucking wall doing something for no reason is just, which is somebody with

421
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:38,720
ADHD that has impulse.

422
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:41,560
I can't explain why I do some of the things I do, but that's besides the point.

423
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:42,960
You know the one chip challenge?

424
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:43,960
Yeah.

425
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:46,560
Try to quarter of a quarter of it and thought I was going to fucking die.

426
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:47,560
Yeah.

427
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:49,880
And that was a full impulse because it was like a thing where he was like, I want to eat

428
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:51,880
this and we were like, Hey, don't do it.

429
00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:52,880
Maybe don't do it.

430
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:53,880
Don't do it.

431
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:54,880
Don't do it.

432
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:55,880
Don't do it.

433
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:56,880
Don't do it.

434
00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:57,880
Don't do it.

435
00:31:57,880 --> 00:31:58,880
But we're still finishing.

436
00:31:58,880 --> 00:31:59,880
Three more.

437
00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:00,880
Jesus Christ.

438
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:03,400
Somebody going to take a minute.

439
00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:04,400
Speed run it.

440
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:05,400
Lawful evil.

441
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:08,520
Someone who is evil and then follows like their own principle of evil.

442
00:32:08,520 --> 00:32:09,520
Like a code.

443
00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:10,520
Like an Eldritch Knight.

444
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:11,520
Yeah.

445
00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:14,600
Versus neutral evil, which is basically what they want.

446
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:15,600
Yeah.

447
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:18,920
Best example of lawful evil I can think of is like the crusade.

448
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:20,320
What the fuck?

449
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,520
Hear me out.

450
00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:25,400
It's an inherently evil thing to just go around and murder people because your king

451
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:29,520
or your pope said so, but you're still following a code.

452
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:33,920
The actual self is evil, but like you're following a code.

453
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:38,200
It's like the Sith sometimes in Star Wars, how some of them are like, there's a way

454
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:39,200
to do this.

455
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:42,000
I mean, you're like fucking Palpatine is just whatever the fuck is Star Wars.

456
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:45,680
I'm not even going to go down that route because Madison likes it, but there are some

457
00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:49,320
like Sith who are like, they're still in order to this shit and I'm going to follow it.

458
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:50,320
Am I evil?

459
00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:51,320
Yes.

460
00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:52,320
Is there a way to do it?

461
00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:53,320
Also, yes.

462
00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:54,320
Lawful evil.

463
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:55,320
Yeah.

464
00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:56,320
I was talking about it.

465
00:32:56,320 --> 00:33:00,440
I'm saying a character like Palpatine then is chaotic evil.

466
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:02,360
There's reason, but then also fuck you.

467
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:03,360
I'm a raisin.

468
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:04,360
Yeah.

469
00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:06,160
No, it's, it's, it fuck you.

470
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,240
I'm back from the dead and suddenly nothing matters.

471
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:10,240
Nothing fucking matters.

472
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:13,000
I have chaotic evil is, is Joker.

473
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:14,000
Yeah.

474
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,400
You're going out and stabbing people because killing people is funny.

475
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:17,400
Yeah.

476
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:19,200
It's you were following your own evil impulse.

477
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:21,680
You don't give a fuck about other people you're just doing whatever the fuck you feel

478
00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:22,680
like.

479
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:23,680
Bad creature.

480
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:24,680
Yeah.

481
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:25,680
You suck.

482
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:28,240
There's no rhyme or reason to why you suck, but you fucking suck.

483
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,120
A good way to characterize that in terms of creature types.

484
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:34,520
Demons aren't considered chaotic evil because they will cannibalize each other.

485
00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:35,680
They will murder each other.

486
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:39,280
If you let them loose in an area, they will attack anything that moves.

487
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:42,720
Devils on the other hand are intelligent and you can make deals with them and you can

488
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:45,920
be companions with them and they have a hierarchy.

489
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:47,000
They're evil as fuck.

490
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:48,480
They still want your soul.

491
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,840
However, comma, they're not going to hate you.

492
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:51,840
Yeah.

493
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:52,840
You know?

494
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:55,080
They're going to have a good difference in character and creature types.

495
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:56,080
There you go.

496
00:33:56,080 --> 00:34:01,360
And then it's also like sometimes they'll say like certain races or classes have a tendency

497
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:02,360
towards one of these things.

498
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:04,440
Like, paladins have a tendency to be good.

499
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:07,840
Elves have a tendency to like follow more chaotic and follow their own thing because

500
00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:09,600
they're like, I'm fucking wrong.

501
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:12,000
I'm better than you.

502
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:13,000
But yeah.

503
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,480
Some classes tend to lend themselves as well towards more.

504
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:19,880
That's not, they don't tell you that, but truly in my opinion, I think some of them lend

505
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:21,840
themselves more towards one than the other.

506
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:22,760
Yeah.

507
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:24,080
It's a lot more difficult to play like.

508
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:25,640
It's going to be hard to find a lawful bard.

509
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:27,640
Well, I wasn't even saying a lawful bard.

510
00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:31,440
A lawful good warlock in my mind is what are you doing?

511
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:32,440
No, that's true.

512
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:34,120
Who have you made a pact with?

513
00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:35,120
What are you from?

514
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:36,120
God, the Christian God.

515
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:37,120
Yes.

516
00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:38,680
You've made a pact with the Christian God.

517
00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:40,120
So aren't you just a cleric?

518
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,120
I mean, yeah.

519
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:43,120
Right?

520
00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:44,120
You see what I'm saying?

521
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:45,120
Like.

522
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:46,840
No, because being a warlock versus when you're making a deal with like a celestial being

523
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:48,360
is inherently selfish at that point.

524
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,560
See, then it would, to see in my mind, it's chaotic good because then it's like you're

525
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:53,880
smiting people because good.

526
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:54,880
Because God said so?

527
00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:55,880
Uh-huh.

528
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:56,880
100 percent.

529
00:34:56,880 --> 00:34:57,880
Because God told him to do it.

530
00:34:57,880 --> 00:34:58,880
You're not following a rhyme or reason.

531
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:00,480
It's just you're the righteous hand of Jesus.

532
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,680
You're out there smiting motherfuckers because it's the right thing to do.

533
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:05,080
Not because you should.

534
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:06,080
Yeah.

535
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:09,680
So that kind of goes into motivation because your alignment will also like help with your

536
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:14,280
motivation, which is why are you doing the things that you're doing?

537
00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:15,280
Yep.

538
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:18,520
Why do you want to kill the entire thing on here?

539
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:22,800
Why are you so willing to murder an entire village of homeless orcs for money?

540
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:24,300
Why are you?

541
00:35:24,300 --> 00:35:27,520
There are so many times in the first campaign I played where we were just looking for shit

542
00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:31,440
to do because we were kind of hitting some dead ends on story points and we were just

543
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:38,800
like, well, can we like roll the fine a group of bandits or like maybe a camp of orcs that

544
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:41,400
look particularly evil?

545
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,880
And then we just show up, kill all the orcs of the bandits, loot their shit and go on

546
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:45,880
about our day.

547
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:46,880
Yeah.

548
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:47,880
Why?

549
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:48,880
Why are you doing that?

550
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:53,960
Yeah, if you're a really lawful good paladin, there is no way that you're just so casual

551
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,480
and cool with rolling up on a group of bandits of which you've never met, talked to or know

552
00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:00,040
anything about and just kill them and take their stuff.

553
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:01,040
Yeah.

554
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:02,880
It's why are you doing the actions that you're doing?

555
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:06,480
Are you going out and murdering people because you have like a fucked up relationship with

556
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:07,480
like your dad?

557
00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:09,440
I mean, that's a little bit of a motivation.

558
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:10,640
It doesn't justify it.

559
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:13,560
And your motivation doesn't always have to justify your actions.

560
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:15,960
It just has to like...

561
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:20,440
And I think motivation is where people get caught up in the stereotypes most often and

562
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:26,920
it's always like the, well, I don't like goblins because goblins killed my whole family or

563
00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:31,480
I like to do things alone and I'm a ranger because I'm an outcast and I've never had

564
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:33,280
contact with people.

565
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:38,200
Like your motivation needs to be a little more creative than just I am the way I am

566
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:39,800
because something sad happened.

567
00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:40,800
Yeah.

568
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:43,080
Please, please, please, please, please move away from that.

569
00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:44,080
Please, please.

570
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:46,680
I have family and friends here in a second.

571
00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:50,880
But don't use dead family members or friends for a motivation unless it's really creative

572
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:51,880
and cool and thought out.

573
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:52,880
Yeah.

574
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:54,920
Because at that point you're just getting into like fridging territory, which I have

575
00:36:54,920 --> 00:37:02,600
very strong opinions about fridging if you don't know is basically a story of some kind

576
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:03,600
most of the time.

577
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:08,120
It's either going to be like, I always think of it with comic books or like movies, mostly

578
00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:11,440
comic books, but it's when they like, they kill the girlfriend or they kill the wife

579
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:12,680
or they kill the...

580
00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:13,680
It's the dead wife trope.

581
00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:18,360
It's the wife in the white like bed sheet that they always have clips of in the movies.

582
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:23,320
It is whatever like female fucking character is killed and it ends up furthering the male

583
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:25,240
protagonist's story.

584
00:37:25,240 --> 00:37:27,040
Don't fridge people for no fucking reason.

585
00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:31,360
Batman is the easiest example of this to like point to your character, like his whole character

586
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:36,400
motivation is he was just a fucking child who didn't like bats and then his mom and

587
00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:41,000
dad got shot in front of him and he realized that the city he was living in is basically

588
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:45,760
Albuquerque, New Mexico, where people are actively cooking meth and shooting motherfuckers

589
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:47,760
in the back alleys.

590
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:50,320
Hey, this shit sucks.

591
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:52,720
Do you have something you want to send in to make it better?

592
00:37:52,720 --> 00:37:56,560
Criticisms, topics you'd like to see discussed or an advertisement you'd like to run.

593
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:58,600
Maybe you even want to sponsor an episode.

594
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:08,000
If so, shoot us a message at mc460 at evansville.edu or DM us on Instagram at crescent magazine,

595
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:11,400
or we'll never get better like these fucking guys.

596
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:15,320
I only say that because one of our roommates, Dakota, is from Albuquerque and constantly

597
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:17,720
says that Albuquerque is the real world Gotham.

598
00:38:17,720 --> 00:38:21,520
He just like drops the like most insane, he's like, yeah, we've got the highest knife crime

599
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:23,920
like in the country and we're like murder rate anywhere.

600
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:24,920
What the fuck?

601
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:28,120
And he's like, yeah, we're 50th in education and we're like, are you from Gotham?

602
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:30,360
There's a reason why Breaking Bad was set there.

603
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:31,360
Yeah.

604
00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:32,360
Truly.

605
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:35,680
But like that's, that's a wonderful example of like a really dull character motivation

606
00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:38,040
and Batman for what it's worth is a cool character.

607
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:42,240
It's just a lot of stories have now followed that line of there needs to be some sort of

608
00:38:42,240 --> 00:38:44,840
tragedy to then spur on the character motivation.

609
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:48,720
Yeah, because it almost always motivation, especially in comics, is like always tied

610
00:38:48,720 --> 00:38:53,640
to family and friends and in D&D it's such a thing of like, family and friends motivate

611
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:54,640
us as people.

612
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:59,280
But like also sometimes you do things because your friends are alive and your family members

613
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:00,280
are alive.

614
00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:01,840
Motivations can be positive.

615
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:04,120
Ali Beards with character, fantasy high, great example.

616
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:06,480
They're shit people, but they're all alive.

617
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:07,480
Yeah.

618
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:09,440
And motivation can be positive.

619
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:12,280
Maybe you just really fucking love learning about new places.

620
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:16,320
And so you decided to join an adventuring party so you could travel to new places and

621
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:17,320
try new fucking things.

622
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:21,120
Your wizard that wants to catalog as many spells before they die and you have like a

623
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:25,440
nice little heartwarming farewell to your family before you set off on your adventure.

624
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:26,440
Yeah.

625
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:30,520
Like that is just as valid as a motivation as to a litch killed my entire family because

626
00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:36,520
guess what motherfucker, you cannot throw a goddamn rock in like the world of D&D without

627
00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:40,280
running into somebody whose backstory is my family was killed by so and such.

628
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:41,680
And that fucked me up.

629
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:43,680
And so now I'm an adventurer.

630
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:49,360
I think it's a lot more fun to try and find positive character motivations even for a

631
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:55,320
character that is made to be a more negative either in type or alignment.

632
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:58,440
Think of something happy or fucking normal, you know?

633
00:39:58,440 --> 00:39:59,440
Yeah.

634
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:00,640
Something tragedy related.

635
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:01,640
Yeah.

636
00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:05,440
I think also what's kind of fun too is making a character whose background is mostly neutral

637
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:09,320
and then letting the story or the beginning of the campaign shape your motivation.

638
00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:10,320
Yeah.

639
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:11,320
That's fun too.

640
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:12,800
That's putting a lot of faith in DM's hands.

641
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:14,600
So I mean to each their own.

642
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:17,240
But I mean if you talk to DM before and you're like, hey, I don't really know what I want

643
00:40:17,240 --> 00:40:18,240
to do with my story.

644
00:40:18,240 --> 00:40:22,000
I'd like to just kind of pick up as a person who has this a class and this ability and

645
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:23,520
whatever, whatever, and then go from there.

646
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:24,520
That works too.

647
00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:26,200
And motivation is also something that can change.

648
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:31,320
In our last campaign, we had a character whose original motivation was basically to set out

649
00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:37,040
and create his own farm and his own land and his own life.

650
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:42,880
And then ends up coming into a truly ridiculous, like Elon Musk amount of money.

651
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:44,000
Yeah, like lucrative business skills.

652
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:49,680
And very quickly, his motivation changed from basically wanting to create this place

653
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:50,680
of his own too.

654
00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:55,720
I now want to become the richest man in the multiverse and introduce capitalism to every

655
00:40:55,720 --> 00:40:57,760
single corner of the universe.

656
00:40:57,760 --> 00:40:59,480
Discover the benefits of coin.

657
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:00,480
And he did.

658
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:01,480
Yep, he sure did.

659
00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:04,520
He just fully introduced capitalism to like the world.

660
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:07,160
What an American thing to happen at a table.

661
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:10,000
He was playing a Southern character, so that makes it infinitely funnier.

662
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:15,160
Southern vampire who at no point in the campaign revealed that he was a vampire but was very

663
00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:17,320
obviously such since the beginning.

664
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:18,320
He was fucking inculcating.

665
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:21,840
He was also fucking hilarious to see him interact with anyone at the table.

666
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:23,520
Some of the funniest moments ever.

667
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:24,520
Anyways.

668
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:29,120
So we've already kind of talked about friends and family.

669
00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:33,000
Again the quote we have here, no they can't have all been killed in a fire started by

670
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:40,040
an evil wizard turned lich or goblin or fucking, I don't know, Cthulhu dragon, you know.

671
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:41,280
It's always fucking dragon.

672
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:46,840
Yeah, dragons are, I mean most of them are characterized as being evil.

673
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:49,720
Some of them are characterized as being more on the good.

674
00:41:49,720 --> 00:41:54,500
For reference, most dragons for those that don't know are sentient to a degree.

675
00:41:54,500 --> 00:41:59,360
The difference is their color, which this is kind of racist, their color determines

676
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:01,200
how evil they are.

677
00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:07,480
For reference, black dragons, evil, red dragons, evil, green dragons, evil, blue dragons,

678
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:09,720
usually good, or at least intelligent to an extent.

679
00:42:09,720 --> 00:42:12,880
White dragons, good, gold dragons, all shrewistic.

680
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:14,920
Well, eh, white dragons are hit or miss.

681
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:18,480
White dragons sometimes people play sadistic, but I've seen them playing on the more intelligent,

682
00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:19,480
good scheming things.

683
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:20,480
I don't like that.

684
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:26,920
I've seen white dragons played as like chaotic good, and gold dragons are usually lawful

685
00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:27,920
good.

686
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:32,160
So, it's kind of shit too in that way, like even D&D doesn't manage to escape from that,

687
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:33,800
like the isms, right?

688
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:37,760
They've given all of the darker colors more inherently negative traits, and they've given

689
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:40,560
all the lighter colors inherently positive traits.

690
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:43,840
But when you're playing in a setting where heaven and hell exist and one naturally lends

691
00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:47,640
itself to dark and the other one light, you kind of have to take what you get in a fantasy

692
00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:48,640
universe.

693
00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:49,640
Yeah.

694
00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:53,080
But anyways, family friends, Ken all have died.

695
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:55,720
We've already kind of talked about how to use them in motivations, I think too, having

696
00:42:55,720 --> 00:43:01,240
friends like in this particular campaign that we're in now, just about everybody has a friend,

697
00:43:01,240 --> 00:43:06,000
at least one that like either they met towards the start like a little before the campaign

698
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:09,160
started or that they've been friends with for a very long time.

699
00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:13,400
I have one who has like one best friend and then knows like a lot of co-workers because

700
00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:16,000
he works in like a corporate scenario.

701
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:19,160
So there's some like potential for me to role play some of those NPCs as well, like his

702
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:22,040
own little team.

703
00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:26,640
Try to avoid the like my only friends of the party thing because that's not always the

704
00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:29,120
most fun.

705
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:32,840
You know, like when you're sitting around shooting shit at a tavern and trying to like

706
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:36,480
recoup before you like storm the castle tomorrow.

707
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:39,640
Sometimes it's fun to talk about like in a last like, oh, we're about to die tomorrow.

708
00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:41,240
Let's share some like fun character things.

709
00:43:41,240 --> 00:43:44,720
It's cool to actually have a story to tell about a friend that you actually wrote into

710
00:43:44,720 --> 00:43:48,640
the backstory or about a family member that you actually wrote into the backstory.

711
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:52,440
And then I think about having those names on paper.

712
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:56,120
Like I highly encourage everybody to write down actual names of family members and friends

713
00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:59,360
is that you can call on them and then make up their backstory in a heartbeat, but you

714
00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:02,120
don't have to like free form the whole thing.

715
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:03,520
You can be like, my mom's a merchant.

716
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:06,360
My dad was a criminal and that's as much as you have written down about them.

717
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:08,360
Plus maybe some names.

718
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:12,120
But even that is more to go on than saying, oh, my whole family died in fire.

719
00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:14,040
And that's really all you need because that's also good.

720
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:18,400
If you are going the route of my whole family got in a fire, knowing details about them

721
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:22,000
is going to make that more impactful because it's like, yeah, my mom and dad, I can't tell

722
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,960
you any other information about them other than they gave birth to me.

723
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:31,400
I was two years old when they died and I was taken in by the lonely hunter in the woods.

724
00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:35,840
And now I'm a high health that likes to shoot things from afar and dress and leaves.

725
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:36,840
Yeah, it's okay.

726
00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:37,840
Cool, bro.

727
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:42,520
Also, be careful who you share that information with because sometimes you write a family that

728
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:47,640
your character has no connection to and you send a tiered DM and then that's the campaign.

729
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:48,640
That is the campaign.

730
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:54,160
Yeah, be careful how much backstory you give your DM because it's somebody that likes to

731
00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:57,400
take the backstory I'm handed and then rum with it full for them.

732
00:44:57,400 --> 00:45:00,800
Listen, the more information you give me, the more packed into the campaign it's going to

733
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:02,520
be whether you like it or not.

734
00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:03,520
Yeah.

735
00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:07,520
And then kind of like, I think that's hit all the points.

736
00:45:07,520 --> 00:45:08,520
Yeah.

737
00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:12,040
I mean, the next thing we have on the list is flaws, quirk, strengths and weaknesses.

738
00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:15,440
Like you, your PC should also have flaws and is not perfect.

739
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,080
We've kind of already talked about that, but not in too much detail.

740
00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:22,400
So your background is going to give you a list of things to choose.

741
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:26,800
However, comma, you can also think of flaws in your regular day to day life.

742
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:32,840
Like maybe you're always late to turning something in or maybe you like have a really hard time

743
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:37,320
with trusting people too soon or not trusting them soon enough.

744
00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:39,760
Maybe it's, I mean, who the fuck knows, right?

745
00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:41,560
Maybe you have like a level of anxiety.

746
00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:44,680
I was the character that I'm playing right now in like writing.

747
00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:46,120
The role played up me in the attack.

748
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:47,120
Yeah.

749
00:45:47,120 --> 00:45:50,720
It wasn't something that was like planned initially, but she was basically talking to

750
00:45:50,720 --> 00:45:55,080
the cops and realized like in that moment I was like, oh, she's fucking terrified.

751
00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:59,000
And that has now become a part of her character of like having this anxiety and everything.

752
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:02,600
If you want to look at like that kind of, and like bringing flaws into your game, the

753
00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:07,000
NSE high does a wonderful job of that with, um, adding in the first season.

754
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:09,480
How committed they get to their characters though.

755
00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:13,800
I mean, to preface, and we've already said this before, the people that you see on dimension

756
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:17,920
20, like the, the real plays and critical role, those are people that all have backgrounds

757
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:23,640
in either improv or acting in general, something somewhere, their careers are not just at the

758
00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:27,560
table, some more than others, but don't, don't also go and watch like the first season of

759
00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:31,240
fantasy high and think, wow, like I really have to commit to the character like that

760
00:46:31,240 --> 00:46:36,240
hard, you know, because it's difficult, especially your first time playing to somebody that you're

761
00:46:36,240 --> 00:46:37,240
not.

762
00:46:37,240 --> 00:46:42,040
I mean, I've played, I'm currently at like a table full of like actors and other performers

763
00:46:42,040 --> 00:46:45,680
and it's still very much an adjustment for people who are not used to playing in this

764
00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:47,360
space to like get into this space.

765
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:49,240
And it's a hard thing to jump into.

766
00:46:49,240 --> 00:46:50,240
It's weird.

767
00:46:50,240 --> 00:46:51,240
Yeah.

768
00:46:51,240 --> 00:46:52,240
It's all very different.

769
00:46:52,240 --> 00:46:53,240
It's just discombobulating and that's okay.

770
00:46:53,240 --> 00:46:58,160
So don't go into this expecting to just instantly be like the levels of an actual play that

771
00:46:58,160 --> 00:46:59,160
you're watching.

772
00:46:59,160 --> 00:47:04,640
But like to, to your point though, I think there are a lot of great moments on dimension

773
00:47:04,640 --> 00:47:10,200
20 where you get to see like a person or like the player make a decision that they very

774
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:14,160
clearly don't want to make or that is so true to their character that that's the only option

775
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:18,240
they want to, or it's like, I mean, you've done this at the table plenty of times.

776
00:47:18,240 --> 00:47:19,240
It's magnolia.

777
00:47:19,240 --> 00:47:23,200
You were like, I as a person would love to help this, to help these people.

778
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:26,120
But as the character, there's no reason for me to stick around.

779
00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:27,120
Yeah.

780
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:28,120
And so you leave.

781
00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:30,520
Um, and that it's fun.

782
00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:31,520
It's also difficult to do.

783
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:36,080
Like it's very hard to have that, that moment at the table being like, okay, my character

784
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:40,760
that I'm for all intents and purposes playing right now and have created and am embodying

785
00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:45,480
is about to make a choice that I as a person would never make ever in a thousand years.

786
00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:46,480
Yeah.

787
00:47:46,480 --> 00:47:50,200
Um, but that commitment then is what makes it so much more fun because it's, it's giving

788
00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:54,240
you a moment to step into like the shoes of somebody that's not exactly yourself.

789
00:47:54,240 --> 00:47:59,600
And most people in a first campaign will always end up playing a version of themselves.

790
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:02,680
I think most characters, even on your seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th campaign or a version

791
00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:05,440
of yourself, I, the way or so in your early ones.

792
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:09,720
Because what do you have to draw on the way I like to think about and looking at like

793
00:48:09,720 --> 00:48:14,720
my own experiences, I approach character creation and making characters at the table very similar

794
00:48:14,720 --> 00:48:19,120
as I do playing a character and acting and in acting a lot of the times, depending on

795
00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:20,760
what method you're using.

796
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:24,960
But most of the time you're going to be drawing on your own experiences and the way that you

797
00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:30,120
as an individual feel because every character you play, whether that be like on a fucking

798
00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:35,120
stage or at the table is going to be you playing a character.

799
00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:41,000
You are like, you are intrinsic intrinsically tied to this character in one way or another.

800
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:44,000
And a lot of the times you have to find where you connect to this character and where that

801
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:45,560
overlap is.

802
00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:51,240
I like to think that a lot of the characters that like I create, they are really rooted

803
00:48:51,240 --> 00:48:54,560
to like parts of my personality, but they are greatly exaggerated.

804
00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:56,200
Magnolia was my bitch.

805
00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:58,840
She was my every negative trait about myself.

806
00:48:58,840 --> 00:49:07,080
She was whenever I like my distrust of people, paranoia and rudeness and just like generally

807
00:49:07,080 --> 00:49:12,080
being a bitch versus the character I'm playing now is a very optimistic and very positive

808
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:13,080
person.

809
00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:17,040
And so I feel like I'm leaning into more of my like positive traits there.

810
00:49:17,040 --> 00:49:21,920
So it is okay to rely on that, but also like don't be afraid to stray from yourself.

811
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:22,920
Yeah.

812
00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:28,120
And I think a really easy way to try and get out of your own head and into creating a

813
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:33,200
different character is to don't be, we've talked about this in previous episodes, don't

814
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:38,600
be afraid to rip a template of another character from a book or a movie or an anime or a piece

815
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:41,520
of media that you really like and then make it your own.

816
00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:46,560
For this campaign that we're playing all about superheroes, almost all of the characters

817
00:49:46,560 --> 00:49:51,160
in terms of NPCs that I've made, I have either come from the source book that I bought or

818
00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:54,320
from this amazing book series.

819
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:56,040
It's on an app called Choice of Games.

820
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:58,000
They've been out for a really long time.

821
00:49:58,000 --> 00:50:01,800
It's basically like a D&D light or like a novel light where you like the old Goosebumps

822
00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:03,960
flip book, you make a decision, go to page 17.

823
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:04,960
Oh, I love those things.

824
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:08,200
It's the same thing, but it's a lot more in depth and the stories are a lot more engaging.

825
00:50:08,200 --> 00:50:12,760
And Little Did I Know is playing D&D line for so many years, but there's a-

826
00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:13,760
Like episode.

827
00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:14,760
Yeah, pretty much.

828
00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:19,720
Like there's series on there called Heroes Rise.

829
00:50:19,720 --> 00:50:24,440
And it's basically all about superheroes and you play like a very young hero who is like

830
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:30,360
the son or daughter, I guess, child, right, of two superpowered parents that die super

831
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:34,480
tragically or they get arrested super tragically after killing a villain and then you play

832
00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:39,720
like the rise, right, Heroes Rise, from your- essentially your origin all the way up to

833
00:50:39,720 --> 00:50:43,480
like becoming the number one hero in like the entire nation, right, the entire United

834
00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:44,600
States.

835
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:49,240
In almost every character, every NPC that I've ported has been a character directly from

836
00:50:49,240 --> 00:50:50,240
that book series.

837
00:50:50,240 --> 00:50:56,600
And I was talking to Madison about this the other day, in terms of DM playing an NPC,

838
00:50:56,600 --> 00:50:59,840
there's this one character in the book series called Jury, or that's their superhero name

839
00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:06,600
is The Jury, because their father is a judge turned mayor, so not super fucking unique,

840
00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:08,160
but whatever.

841
00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:10,440
And he's basically like a foil the whole time.

842
00:51:10,440 --> 00:51:16,560
He's just like, he's the son of the guy that ordered whoever the fuck to get killed and

843
00:51:16,560 --> 00:51:17,840
then sent your parents to prison.

844
00:51:17,840 --> 00:51:22,160
And he's like always one step ahead of you because he has daddy's money, but he doesn't

845
00:51:22,160 --> 00:51:23,160
have any real superpowers.

846
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:26,520
They're all like tech based and he's basically just like a fucking poser that's everywhere

847
00:51:26,520 --> 00:51:29,560
he shouldn't be because he has money and he's pretty.

848
00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:34,960
And I decided for whatever reason to roll Jury into basically session one, and he's

849
00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:39,160
slowly becoming one of my favorite characters, even though he is the most unlikable person

850
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:42,360
in the entire book series.

851
00:51:42,360 --> 00:51:47,800
And that's like a good idea or a good, I guess, kind of good example of a place to start.

852
00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:50,920
He's very different the way that I'm role playing him at the table than in he is in

853
00:51:50,920 --> 00:51:51,920
the book.

854
00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:55,200
Like he's coming around a lot quicker to like being not a terrible person.

855
00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:59,000
But that's because of his interactions with my PCs, with my with the playable characters

856
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:00,200
at the table.

857
00:52:00,200 --> 00:52:02,560
And I think the same thing goes the other way around as well.

858
00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:07,240
Like if you decide you want to play, I don't know, you want to be like a Goku character

859
00:52:07,240 --> 00:52:11,520
from a Dragon Ball Z, or you want to be like the main character in this fantasy book you're

860
00:52:11,520 --> 00:52:13,320
reading.

861
00:52:13,320 --> 00:52:17,320
It's not going to take you any time at all to find the class, the background, the spells,

862
00:52:17,320 --> 00:52:20,720
the equipment, the whatever to make that character.

863
00:52:20,720 --> 00:52:24,480
And if that's what you need to get a start to come up with a set of flaws and strengths,

864
00:52:24,480 --> 00:52:27,880
if you're like, hey, listen, I don't really want to play myself, but I don't know how

865
00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:29,480
to make a character that's not me.

866
00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:31,760
Let me pick this knight from this book series.

867
00:52:31,760 --> 00:52:34,960
It's like super flawed, but in this really cool way and has this really unique fighting

868
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:35,960
style.

869
00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:38,400
And then just role play that and it'll naturally become your own.

870
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:43,080
Yeah, it will always change from like anything that inspires it because you're going to be

871
00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:46,840
making choices that you don't have source material to kind of pull from and be like,

872
00:52:46,840 --> 00:52:48,920
oh, this is what this character would do.

873
00:52:48,920 --> 00:52:50,080
And it's going to become your own.

874
00:52:50,080 --> 00:52:54,080
And like, even if it's just a simple thing of like you retexture what they look like,

875
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:57,560
you don't even have to tell people that you're basically copying something from someone because

876
00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:02,440
your personality and everything that you create kind of on the piece of paper is going to

877
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:05,880
shape who you are, but it is also going to change, right?

878
00:53:05,880 --> 00:53:07,360
Everything down in pencil.

879
00:53:07,360 --> 00:53:09,960
To write, was that it?

880
00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:12,560
That was the end of my sentence.

881
00:53:12,560 --> 00:53:13,560
Oh, okay.

882
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:15,560
It sounded like you were still going somewhere with it.

883
00:53:15,560 --> 00:53:18,360
Um, yeah, I mean, truly just write it all down in pencil.

884
00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:19,640
It's all going to change.

885
00:53:19,640 --> 00:53:23,280
If you write your character notes in pen, you're a fucking freak.

886
00:53:23,280 --> 00:53:25,000
And I stand by that statement.

887
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:27,560
I just kind of meant like in general of like, right?

888
00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:28,960
No, no, this is a literal point.

889
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:33,120
I mean, if you write your character notes down in pen, you're a freak because you're

890
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:35,280
lying to yourself and everybody else.

891
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:39,640
If you think it's not going to change in two sessions, you're burning the planet, you're

892
00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:40,760
shredding trees.

893
00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:42,800
Am I calling Madison out in particular for this?

894
00:53:42,800 --> 00:53:43,800
Oh my God.

895
00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:44,800
Yes, I am.

896
00:53:44,800 --> 00:53:45,800
Um, do I care?

897
00:53:45,800 --> 00:53:48,360
No, because I'm going to defend myself right now.

898
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:53,080
The character sheets that we were using were ugly as fuck and they were very overwhelming

899
00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:54,080
to look at.

900
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:57,000
So I designed new ones and they came up in nine pages long.

901
00:53:57,000 --> 00:53:59,360
So I printed one for everyone in the group.

902
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:02,400
And I said, oh, I could just reprint them whenever it changes.

903
00:54:02,400 --> 00:54:03,760
Don't be afraid to get specific.

904
00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:05,320
In fact, get very specific.

905
00:54:05,320 --> 00:54:06,640
Yeah, I would love to.

906
00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:13,400
I hope you all listened to all of that and tried to pick apart both, um, both, both conversations.

907
00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:16,680
You just said those things just to keep me from speaking.

908
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:17,680
Yeah.

909
00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:18,680
Cool.

910
00:54:18,680 --> 00:54:19,680
100%.

911
00:54:19,680 --> 00:54:21,120
Um, non mechanical things, who are they?

912
00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:23,040
Let the mechanics influence your character.

913
00:54:23,040 --> 00:54:25,400
So yeah, it's, it's another thing.

914
00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:29,600
There's so many different systems and off branches of systems that you can be playing

915
00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:32,680
and when it comes to Dungeons and Dragons, the way that you think of it typically.

916
00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:34,800
We've talked about kids on bikes.

917
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:40,960
Um, in my opinion, kids on bikes lens, lens you to be a lot more, I don't want to say

918
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:47,680
specific, but also like your character doesn't have to be as malleable as it does in 5e because

919
00:54:47,680 --> 00:54:56,080
you're not constantly changing your equipment or your, um, your spells or your weapons or

920
00:54:56,080 --> 00:55:00,600
improving your traits to get proficiency bonuses in sleight of hand.

921
00:55:00,600 --> 00:55:02,920
You have a set of scores that you roll with.

922
00:55:02,920 --> 00:55:08,040
Um, and in that way, the character that you pick from the outset can be fairly static.

923
00:55:08,040 --> 00:55:09,040
Yeah.

924
00:55:09,040 --> 00:55:10,040
And doesn't have to be super changing.

925
00:55:10,040 --> 00:55:11,920
But you can also change too.

926
00:55:11,920 --> 00:55:12,920
Yeah.

927
00:55:12,920 --> 00:55:17,120
Like there's not really an expectation of change in development in kids on, kids on

928
00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:21,400
bikes, kids on brooms, whatever the fuck, uh, as there is in a system like 5e.

929
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:26,320
But um, even to that extent, there are so many different subsystems with N5e that have

930
00:55:26,320 --> 00:55:30,720
been homebrewed or created for different reasons, uh, that fit different settings.

931
00:55:30,720 --> 00:55:33,640
Let your character also fall into the system that you're playing into.

932
00:55:33,640 --> 00:55:39,520
Like for superheroes with mechanics where you're rolling to get your power slots back

933
00:55:39,520 --> 00:55:44,280
or where you have things called heroic moments at the table, maybe part of your character

934
00:55:44,280 --> 00:55:50,040
then is driven to get as many heroic moments as possible in the form of like, they're just

935
00:55:50,040 --> 00:55:52,520
a vein or maybe they just really like to be on the spotlight.

936
00:55:52,520 --> 00:55:53,520
Yeah.

937
00:55:53,520 --> 00:55:56,360
And that naturally lends themselves then to getting those heroic moments more often than

938
00:55:56,360 --> 00:55:57,840
someone else might.

939
00:55:57,840 --> 00:56:02,520
It's also a thing of like letting the, the game mechanics that you select for your character

940
00:56:02,520 --> 00:56:04,280
influence your character.

941
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:08,760
Like let some of your features that you have from your class like really, really kind of

942
00:56:08,760 --> 00:56:13,560
roll in if I'm for an example here, if you're playing a Tempest cleric and you're doing

943
00:56:13,560 --> 00:56:18,160
a fuck ton of stuff with lightning and storms and stuff like that, let that influence your

944
00:56:18,160 --> 00:56:19,280
character.

945
00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:22,920
Even if it's in like small cosmetic ways of like your character, maybe because they're

946
00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:28,480
always like around the storm, lets their emotions kind of like boil over and lash out in different

947
00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:33,280
ways be a lot like a storm or maybe they're static and their hair is always messy and

948
00:56:33,280 --> 00:56:36,280
frazzled because of all the static electricity running through them.

949
00:56:36,280 --> 00:56:37,280
Yeah.

950
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:40,200
And those things that you choose, seep into your character.

951
00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:43,280
It's going to make everything feel so much more cohesive as well.

952
00:56:43,280 --> 00:56:46,200
There are so many different ways to approach it when you're trying to come up with like

953
00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:47,720
a solid character background.

954
00:56:47,720 --> 00:56:51,720
There's starting from the mechanics and doing it that way and then there's starting from

955
00:56:51,720 --> 00:56:54,800
the character background and then molding the mechanics around that.

956
00:56:54,800 --> 00:56:56,920
Are you character concept first or are you?

957
00:56:56,920 --> 00:56:57,920
Yeah.

958
00:56:57,920 --> 00:56:58,920
Um.

959
00:56:58,920 --> 00:57:00,400
Which is a debate to have.

960
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:01,400
Yeah.

961
00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:02,400
And I don't know.

962
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:04,720
It's kind of, it's such an in between thing for me.

963
00:57:04,720 --> 00:57:07,760
I pick and choose so frequently.

964
00:57:07,760 --> 00:57:12,120
I think some characters when I'm helping other, because I've helped people make more characters

965
00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:17,160
than I've made them myself, I think it really just depends on the direction or how much

966
00:57:17,160 --> 00:57:19,720
background information that person is coming with.

967
00:57:19,720 --> 00:57:25,120
So like creating one of the characters most recently, he knew he wanted to play a specific

968
00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:26,120
role.

969
00:57:26,120 --> 00:57:28,600
So in the campaign they're called roles instead of classes.

970
00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:30,200
He wanted to play a specific role.

971
00:57:30,200 --> 00:57:35,640
He wanted a specific background and he kind of had an idea for flavor text.

972
00:57:35,640 --> 00:57:39,200
So from that we started plugging in the pieces then based on the mechanics.

973
00:57:39,200 --> 00:57:41,840
We said, okay, so mechanically this is the role you want to fill.

974
00:57:41,840 --> 00:57:43,640
These took some of the spells you're interested in.

975
00:57:43,640 --> 00:57:45,260
This is the background you want.

976
00:57:45,260 --> 00:57:49,520
How do we then start plugging in lower pieces, background pieces to then naturally make this

977
00:57:49,520 --> 00:57:50,920
character?

978
00:57:50,920 --> 00:57:56,920
But then there's also like another person who I worked with making their character.

979
00:57:56,920 --> 00:58:00,720
We had talked before I even had a chance like before I really got into the character book

980
00:58:00,720 --> 00:58:04,440
or sorry, I got into the source book because I had talked to him about joining before I

981
00:58:04,440 --> 00:58:06,680
even bought the material.

982
00:58:06,680 --> 00:58:12,120
So for him it was starting from a fully fleshed out character idea and then building the mechanics

983
00:58:12,120 --> 00:58:14,520
around the concept.

984
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:16,120
So truly I think it can go both ways.

985
00:58:16,120 --> 00:58:21,360
I think there's generally like a pretty happy medium to be found as well, letting both your

986
00:58:21,360 --> 00:58:25,400
features influence the choices you make as a character and the choices you make as a character

987
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:26,800
influence your features.

988
00:58:26,800 --> 00:58:27,800
Yeah.

989
00:58:27,800 --> 00:58:32,440
And then another kind of note that I have because character creation and flavor is my

990
00:58:32,440 --> 00:58:35,640
favorite thing, which is be specific.

991
00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:38,120
Get as specific as possible.

992
00:58:38,120 --> 00:58:43,120
I like to think about creating a character in a way of like if you describe to this person

993
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:47,280
to someone would they think that they're a real person or would they think that this

994
00:58:47,280 --> 00:58:48,680
is like a stock character?

995
00:58:48,680 --> 00:58:49,920
Yeah, I understand.

996
00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:53,720
So try to make them more than their stop lock and name.

997
00:58:53,720 --> 00:58:57,320
Yeah, instead of just being like, oh, well, they're a good person think about, oh, they're

998
00:58:57,320 --> 00:59:01,520
the kind of person that would stop and like if a little kid had like dropped their ice

999
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:05,040
cream cone that they would go out of their way and like buy them a new ice cream cone,

1000
00:59:05,040 --> 00:59:07,360
even if that ice cream shop was a cross town.

1001
00:59:07,360 --> 00:59:14,120
Or are they like the kind that like will kick kittens, you know, like, yeah, is it a convenience

1002
00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:17,400
over everything else kind of deal like there are ruthless businessman that doesn't really

1003
00:59:17,400 --> 00:59:21,400
care much about like creature life or, you know, mortal life.

1004
00:59:21,400 --> 00:59:23,640
And so it's not even, oh, they're just evil to be evil.

1005
00:59:23,640 --> 00:59:25,760
It's evil because their motivation is money.

1006
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:28,960
Like that's that's their assigned value for everything they see in the world.

1007
00:59:28,960 --> 00:59:30,720
So yeah, 100%.

1008
00:59:30,720 --> 00:59:35,680
I could not second that more get very specific, get as specific as you want within reason.

1009
00:59:35,680 --> 00:59:38,720
Talk to your DM depending on how specific you want to get.

1010
00:59:38,720 --> 00:59:43,280
But that's for more of like the grounding your your background somewhere within like physical

1011
00:59:43,280 --> 00:59:47,040
environment or history of the world, you know,

1012
00:59:47,040 --> 00:59:48,440
To help with that specificity.

1013
00:59:48,440 --> 00:59:51,520
These are questions that I ask myself personally.

1014
00:59:51,520 --> 00:59:54,880
Anytime I create a character, what are they scared of?

1015
00:59:54,880 --> 00:59:56,600
What is their greatest fear?

1016
00:59:56,600 --> 00:59:58,200
What's their favorite color?

1017
00:59:58,200 --> 01:00:00,440
What is their magic and or fighting style look like?

1018
01:00:00,440 --> 01:00:02,880
If it's like a physical magic, what color is it?

1019
01:00:02,880 --> 01:00:03,880
What does it smell like?

1020
01:00:03,880 --> 01:00:06,440
What does it feel like in their body when they cast it?

1021
01:00:06,440 --> 01:00:10,880
Does it feel like nothing or does it feel like they are like pushing every fuck like

1022
01:00:10,880 --> 01:00:14,640
like a intense workout and their body hurts?

1023
01:00:14,640 --> 01:00:18,440
Also with that, keep in mind too that when you're describing these things about your character,

1024
01:00:18,440 --> 01:00:21,640
it doesn't have to make sense.

1025
01:00:21,640 --> 01:00:22,640
How do I describe this?

1026
01:00:22,640 --> 01:00:25,360
It doesn't have to make sense in the context of the fantasy universe.

1027
01:00:25,360 --> 01:00:29,920
There are so many times where you as a player will talk to another player, not as your character,

1028
01:00:29,920 --> 01:00:34,440
but just ask them a mechanical question or you'll say, hey, like not as this, not as

1029
01:00:34,440 --> 01:00:37,880
the character, but like Maddie to Robert or like player to DM.

1030
01:00:37,880 --> 01:00:39,120
Can I do this thing?

1031
01:00:39,120 --> 01:00:41,840
When you're describing things like that, when you're describing what your fighting style

1032
01:00:41,840 --> 01:00:45,240
looks like or what your magic looks like, don't be afraid to use like a pop culture

1033
01:00:45,240 --> 01:00:47,240
reference or a media or a comic book.

1034
01:00:47,240 --> 01:00:48,240
No.

1035
01:00:48,240 --> 01:00:54,800
You're playing in fucking fantasy like castles, dwarves, elves, and you turn to your friends

1036
01:00:54,800 --> 01:00:58,640
in game and you go, so my magic kind of looks like that shit off of Naruto?

1037
01:00:58,640 --> 01:00:59,640
No.

1038
01:00:59,640 --> 01:01:00,640
That doesn't make any sense.

1039
01:01:00,640 --> 01:01:02,600
They're all going to look at you like you're stupid.

1040
01:01:02,600 --> 01:01:07,040
However, that's a really cool reference that you can then give your other players and your

1041
01:01:07,040 --> 01:01:09,640
DM on what it looks like when you're interacting.

1042
01:01:09,640 --> 01:01:13,000
Because it's all, there's no such thing as, I mean, if you want a really good example

1043
01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:16,560
of what like high tech D&D looks like, go play fucking Baldur's Gate.

1044
01:01:16,560 --> 01:01:20,080
If you're not playing Baldur's Gate, it's all imagination of the mind, even if you have

1045
01:01:20,080 --> 01:01:23,320
minis and a little moving background on a TV touchscreen.

1046
01:01:23,320 --> 01:01:26,160
It's all imagination of the mind, right?

1047
01:01:26,160 --> 01:01:28,920
So our theater of the mind, I guess the better way to phrase that.

1048
01:01:28,920 --> 01:01:33,320
The more examples you can give the players and the DM on what it looks like you're doing,

1049
01:01:33,320 --> 01:01:38,800
even if it doesn't make sense in that context, helps a lot and is so much more immersive.

1050
01:01:38,800 --> 01:01:41,880
And you don't have to, like from there on, every single combat encounter, you don't have

1051
01:01:41,880 --> 01:01:45,320
to be like, yeah, I flip over that guy like fucking John Wick.

1052
01:01:45,320 --> 01:01:49,440
You established four sessions ago, you look, play and act like John Wick, the character

1053
01:01:49,440 --> 01:01:51,280
from the popular movie series, cool.

1054
01:01:51,280 --> 01:01:53,680
We got that, that's what we're all picturing.

1055
01:01:53,680 --> 01:01:54,680
Now just role play.

1056
01:01:54,680 --> 01:01:57,880
I think it's also something that's impactful of like, if this is something that you think

1057
01:01:57,880 --> 01:02:02,360
is really cool or you're doing something that you like have never tried before or like

1058
01:02:02,360 --> 01:02:06,880
something like that, you can like take a break and describe, okay, so what is it, when I'm

1059
01:02:06,880 --> 01:02:11,520
casting this, so she's going to like run across the battlefield and she's going to duck under

1060
01:02:11,520 --> 01:02:15,200
this thing and slide across the ground and then she's going to plant her feet and she's

1061
01:02:15,200 --> 01:02:19,000
going to put her hands out in front of her and like her fingertips are like stretched

1062
01:02:19,000 --> 01:02:22,000
and you can see the tension and then this happens.

1063
01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:23,560
That's going to be so much more engaging.

1064
01:02:23,560 --> 01:02:24,560
Yeah.

1065
01:02:24,560 --> 01:02:27,760
You don't do that every turn that you're going to be at the table forever.

1066
01:02:27,760 --> 01:02:31,800
But like having those times to like pick and choose is super, super awesome.

1067
01:02:31,800 --> 01:02:36,200
That's where that's where like letting the dice, like the dice tell the story as much

1068
01:02:36,200 --> 01:02:40,480
as you do is 100% like the case, especially when you're looking at a 5e system or even

1069
01:02:40,480 --> 01:02:42,360
just kids on bike system.

1070
01:02:42,360 --> 01:02:47,920
Like the times to narrate or when you hit a natural one or when you pass a really, really

1071
01:02:47,920 --> 01:02:52,400
important role when you hit a natural 20, you don't need to narrate like you're in

1072
01:02:52,400 --> 01:02:53,400
a fucking.

1073
01:02:53,400 --> 01:02:55,840
Hitting the number four for the seventh time.

1074
01:02:55,840 --> 01:02:56,840
Yeah.

1075
01:02:56,840 --> 01:02:59,720
You don't have to narrate the full like sliding and vaulting and hitting and like the guttural

1076
01:02:59,720 --> 01:03:03,880
like sound of your knuckles cracking as you punch goon number six in the face.

1077
01:03:03,880 --> 01:03:06,400
You did it to five, four, three, two and one.

1078
01:03:06,400 --> 01:03:07,400
We know what it looks like.

1079
01:03:07,400 --> 01:03:08,400
We know what it looks like.

1080
01:03:08,400 --> 01:03:11,080
But you roll a natural 20 to fit like to finish off the big boss.

1081
01:03:11,080 --> 01:03:13,120
Like a DM will say, how do you want to do this?

1082
01:03:13,120 --> 01:03:14,120
How do you want to do this?

1083
01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:17,360
And that becomes like a very favorite, a very cool phrase or like a wanted phrase here

1084
01:03:17,360 --> 01:03:21,840
at the table or you roll a natural 20 on like solving this really impossible thing.

1085
01:03:21,840 --> 01:03:25,320
And it's like, well, I cannot give it to you.

1086
01:03:25,320 --> 01:03:28,640
And then you like, then the DM gets to do this really special narration for you.

1087
01:03:28,640 --> 01:03:30,200
But like, yeah, pick and choose your moments.

1088
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:32,200
But when you do pick a moment, go all out.

1089
01:03:32,200 --> 01:03:33,200
Yeah.

1090
01:03:33,200 --> 01:03:35,240
That's what makes a lot of those moments really cool at the table.

1091
01:03:35,240 --> 01:03:38,400
It's also helps when you're describing that in the beginning because it gives the DM and

1092
01:03:38,400 --> 01:03:41,280
the other players at the table an idea of who you are, what you look like, what you're

1093
01:03:41,280 --> 01:03:42,280
doing.

1094
01:03:42,280 --> 01:03:45,960
And even to that, something that's helped me, at least going into the next session,

1095
01:03:45,960 --> 01:03:51,200
is me and you talked not that long ago about some things that your character outside of

1096
01:03:51,200 --> 01:03:56,200
like this campaign, some things that set up who she is as a person or some like, like

1097
01:03:56,200 --> 01:04:02,080
core and critical moments or specific events or kinds of things that like really make her

1098
01:04:02,080 --> 01:04:03,080
her and your mind.

1099
01:04:03,080 --> 01:04:08,000
And like now going forward, I want to start to roll in more of those moments and roleplay

1100
01:04:08,000 --> 01:04:13,240
the environment around what the character most positively interacts with.

1101
01:04:13,240 --> 01:04:16,680
So also, like it goes both ways too, the more information you give me about the kinds of

1102
01:04:16,680 --> 01:04:22,040
things you want to see, about the kinds of information, about how the environment interacts

1103
01:04:22,040 --> 01:04:26,400
with you, about how goons interact with you when you hit a natural 20 or a natural one.

1104
01:04:26,400 --> 01:04:31,560
I'm not opposed to creating, I mean, it sounds kind of obvious, I'm not opposed to creating

1105
01:04:31,560 --> 01:04:33,120
a story around the players.

1106
01:04:33,120 --> 01:04:34,120
Right?

1107
01:04:34,120 --> 01:04:35,120
Like I'm not here.

1108
01:04:35,120 --> 01:04:39,320
I mean, to an extent, right, like I wouldn't agree to DM a campaign if I wasn't interested

1109
01:04:39,320 --> 01:04:44,080
in it to an extent, but I'm ultimately here to provide an experience for the players just

1110
01:04:44,080 --> 01:04:45,920
as much as I am myself.

1111
01:04:45,920 --> 01:04:51,000
And so if changing my wording on the way a combat encounter goes or the way a role fails

1112
01:04:51,000 --> 01:04:54,400
for a specific character is going to make that moment so much more fun for them as a

1113
01:04:54,400 --> 01:04:57,440
person or for a player or for the group, I'm going to do that.

1114
01:04:57,440 --> 01:04:59,160
Like 100%, I'm going to do that every time.

1115
01:04:59,160 --> 01:05:02,000
And it's also thing of like going back to that conversation we had the other day is

1116
01:05:02,000 --> 01:05:07,080
I was feeling kind of like unhappy with how I was playing my character or unhappy with

1117
01:05:07,080 --> 01:05:11,120
some parts of her that in the way that she was like presenting herself at the table and

1118
01:05:11,120 --> 01:05:12,400
what she was doing.

1119
01:05:12,400 --> 01:05:16,400
And I came to realize it was because I had this is a character I've had for a very, very

1120
01:05:16,400 --> 01:05:17,400
long time.

1121
01:05:17,400 --> 01:05:18,400
I made up her name.

1122
01:05:18,400 --> 01:05:21,160
This goes back to what we were saying about what's something like the negative side effects

1123
01:05:21,160 --> 01:05:25,240
of picking a template that you're near, dear and true to.

1124
01:05:25,240 --> 01:05:26,320
It can be really hard.

1125
01:05:26,320 --> 01:05:29,480
And that was something that I was dealing with because in my mind, she's this, she's

1126
01:05:29,480 --> 01:05:33,600
a full person, she's this full character that I know so much about, but I didn't share a

1127
01:05:33,600 --> 01:05:35,120
lot of that information.

1128
01:05:35,120 --> 01:05:40,640
And I was realizing that I wasn't like letting the DM know or letting anyone really other

1129
01:05:40,640 --> 01:05:41,720
than me know these things.

1130
01:05:41,720 --> 01:05:43,880
And I was like, well, why am I feeling so unfulfilled?

1131
01:05:43,880 --> 01:05:48,600
And it was because I never said anything and there was no way for anyone to know anything

1132
01:05:48,600 --> 01:05:53,760
about this character before I told them because we were talking about D&D is a very like it

1133
01:05:53,760 --> 01:05:57,680
is a show and tell it is not one of the things where you it's a like show, don't tell or

1134
01:05:57,680 --> 01:05:58,760
tell, don't show.

1135
01:05:58,760 --> 01:06:02,200
It is a like you have to put both into it.

1136
01:06:02,200 --> 01:06:07,880
Otherwise, like there's no people aren't mind readers, you know, there's no way to kind

1137
01:06:07,880 --> 01:06:10,760
of like figure that out those things on your own.

1138
01:06:10,760 --> 01:06:13,680
But like two other little questions or two other little questions that I've got on my

1139
01:06:13,680 --> 01:06:18,720
list are, I guess three, what is their morning and nighttime routine look like?

1140
01:06:18,720 --> 01:06:19,720
Do they have one?

1141
01:06:19,720 --> 01:06:20,720
Why do they have one?

1142
01:06:20,720 --> 01:06:21,720
Do they have one?

1143
01:06:21,720 --> 01:06:22,720
Do they not have one?

1144
01:06:22,720 --> 01:06:23,720
Do they sleep in?

1145
01:06:23,720 --> 01:06:24,720
Do they wake up early?

1146
01:06:24,720 --> 01:06:25,720
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

1147
01:06:25,720 --> 01:06:26,720
The fun thing you can do with that, like, cool.

1148
01:06:26,720 --> 01:06:28,000
They have a really strict routine.

1149
01:06:28,000 --> 01:06:30,720
Maybe that means that they had like military like parents or noble parents.

1150
01:06:30,720 --> 01:06:31,720
Yeah.

1151
01:06:31,720 --> 01:06:32,720
There you go.

1152
01:06:32,720 --> 01:06:34,800
Another background piece or like they had a jackass older brother that was like really

1153
01:06:34,800 --> 01:06:37,440
on time and punctual and now they have like this rival.

1154
01:06:37,440 --> 01:06:38,440
Cool.

1155
01:06:38,440 --> 01:06:39,440
There you go.

1156
01:06:39,440 --> 01:06:40,440
You got another background piece because you wake up early.

1157
01:06:40,440 --> 01:06:42,720
They snowball so quickly when you're like doing character creation.

1158
01:06:42,720 --> 01:06:43,960
That's amazing.

1159
01:06:43,960 --> 01:06:45,560
How much care do they put in their appearance?

1160
01:06:45,560 --> 01:06:46,560
Do they wear makeup?

1161
01:06:46,560 --> 01:06:47,680
Do they follow fashion trends?

1162
01:06:47,680 --> 01:06:49,520
Are they very anti-fashion trends?

1163
01:06:49,520 --> 01:06:54,000
Do they like roll out of bed and just put their hair up or for my hour?

1164
01:06:54,000 --> 01:06:58,160
For my guys that might not be skewed into that question where it's how much care do

1165
01:06:58,160 --> 01:07:00,360
they put into their appearance.

1166
01:07:00,360 --> 01:07:03,560
Something that I like to think about is what does their armor look like?

1167
01:07:03,560 --> 01:07:04,680
What is it inspired by?

1168
01:07:04,680 --> 01:07:08,920
Is there a piece of media or a book or a comic or an anime that you're like, holy shit, I

1169
01:07:08,920 --> 01:07:10,880
want it to look just like that?

1170
01:07:10,880 --> 01:07:11,880
Where do they get it from?

1171
01:07:11,880 --> 01:07:12,880
Who made it?

1172
01:07:12,880 --> 01:07:13,880
Is it made from the doors and the mountains?

1173
01:07:13,880 --> 01:07:14,880
What it made?

1174
01:07:14,880 --> 01:07:17,920
Was it made by this like really specific legendary Smith?

1175
01:07:17,920 --> 01:07:21,560
Like those are also things, if you're wanting to play a character that's not quite as focused

1176
01:07:21,560 --> 01:07:24,480
on appearance that you can still get into that way.

1177
01:07:24,480 --> 01:07:25,800
What do their regal robes look like?

1178
01:07:25,800 --> 01:07:27,480
What color purple are they?

1179
01:07:27,480 --> 01:07:28,480
What do they symbolize?

1180
01:07:28,480 --> 01:07:29,480
Is there a crest on it?

1181
01:07:29,480 --> 01:07:30,480
Is it family based?

1182
01:07:30,480 --> 01:07:31,480
Is it disgraced?

1183
01:07:31,480 --> 01:07:34,600
Another thing is like really like in things that sound silly, like what do they smell

1184
01:07:34,600 --> 01:07:35,600
like?

1185
01:07:35,600 --> 01:07:37,560
There was a moment where you were describing something and you said like you could smell

1186
01:07:37,560 --> 01:07:40,520
like cigarettes and like stale beer on a character.

1187
01:07:40,520 --> 01:07:43,560
That is so immersive for like players and character.

1188
01:07:43,560 --> 01:07:45,560
It is immersive for everyone of like it is your character.

1189
01:07:45,560 --> 01:07:47,560
It is one of the first times I really use smell too.

1190
01:07:47,560 --> 01:07:48,560
Yeah.

1191
01:07:48,560 --> 01:07:49,560
And it's super impactful.

1192
01:07:49,560 --> 01:07:52,960
When you cast your magic there's like a certain smell to it or maybe your character wears

1193
01:07:52,960 --> 01:07:54,320
a really strong perfume.

1194
01:07:54,320 --> 01:07:55,800
Yeah, really easy one for that.

1195
01:07:55,800 --> 01:07:56,800
Fire based powers.

1196
01:07:56,800 --> 01:08:00,440
Like are you, if you're a warlock and you're using a fire based power, is it related to

1197
01:08:00,440 --> 01:08:02,560
like a demonic or like a hell like deity?

1198
01:08:02,560 --> 01:08:03,560
Cool.

1199
01:08:03,560 --> 01:08:05,720
Like when you use your powers, smell of Remstone.

1200
01:08:05,720 --> 01:08:08,560
Same thing with, I don't know how you would do like the opposite being Angelic.

1201
01:08:08,560 --> 01:08:09,560
I don't know.

1202
01:08:09,560 --> 01:08:10,560
It smells like puppies and lavender.

1203
01:08:10,560 --> 01:08:12,560
Yeah, it smells like clean laundry and the sun.

1204
01:08:12,560 --> 01:08:14,840
Like clean laundry and like crisp autumn air.

1205
01:08:14,840 --> 01:08:18,520
Yeah, I think in that case you would lean into the more like natural clean smells.

1206
01:08:18,520 --> 01:08:23,200
I think talking about like the five senses at the table is one of the most like immersive

1207
01:08:23,200 --> 01:08:24,200
things.

1208
01:08:24,200 --> 01:08:25,200
I was going to say opposite.

1209
01:08:25,200 --> 01:08:26,200
Talking about the smell.

1210
01:08:26,200 --> 01:08:27,200
Sound too.

1211
01:08:27,200 --> 01:08:28,200
Sound.

1212
01:08:28,200 --> 01:08:29,200
How things feel.

1213
01:08:29,200 --> 01:08:32,760
Like if you are like talking about like oh and it feels like or like there's like hot

1214
01:08:32,760 --> 01:08:37,240
breath in your face as the monster is like right in front of you.

1215
01:08:37,240 --> 01:08:40,160
Like that type of stuff is really, really cool for everyone at the table.

1216
01:08:40,160 --> 01:08:44,520
And it makes your storytelling sound so much like more put together than it is.

1217
01:08:44,520 --> 01:08:45,520
Yeah, 100%.

1218
01:08:45,520 --> 01:08:52,040
I would definitely lean on any like DMs more on that than players when you're and this

1219
01:08:52,040 --> 01:08:54,960
kind of goes back to the world building episode.

1220
01:08:54,960 --> 01:08:58,640
Like the more the more of the five senses is like just staying on conversation.

1221
01:08:58,640 --> 01:09:02,400
The more of the five senses you can use the more immersed everyone's going to be.

1222
01:09:02,400 --> 01:09:08,040
And even as a DM it helps me to know what a character number one dresses like.

1223
01:09:08,040 --> 01:09:09,040
How do they carry themselves?

1224
01:09:09,040 --> 01:09:10,040
Do they have a limp?

1225
01:09:10,040 --> 01:09:11,040
Do they have broad shoulders?

1226
01:09:11,040 --> 01:09:12,920
Do they like command room when they stand in?

1227
01:09:12,920 --> 01:09:14,760
There was a character that I did in the first campaign.

1228
01:09:14,760 --> 01:09:17,720
She was like the queen of this whole like kingdom.

1229
01:09:17,720 --> 01:09:21,000
And it was like there was an immediate change of attitude that I tried to like convey to

1230
01:09:21,000 --> 01:09:22,000
everybody.

1231
01:09:22,000 --> 01:09:23,680
Once she walked in the room everybody stood up straighter.

1232
01:09:23,680 --> 01:09:24,680
Everyone's eyes were on her.

1233
01:09:24,680 --> 01:09:26,320
There was no talking back.

1234
01:09:26,320 --> 01:09:28,640
Like the tension is so thick you can cut a knife.

1235
01:09:28,640 --> 01:09:32,760
Like it sounds cheesy, it sounds corny, but like do it because it adds so much atmosphere.

1236
01:09:32,760 --> 01:09:36,800
And it gives you a better idea as a DM too moving forward what you want those spaces

1237
01:09:36,800 --> 01:09:40,040
to look like especially if they're a familiar location.

1238
01:09:40,040 --> 01:09:41,920
What is the bar that they always go to smell like?

1239
01:09:41,920 --> 01:09:42,920
What does it look like?

1240
01:09:42,920 --> 01:09:43,920
Is the wood rotted?

1241
01:09:43,920 --> 01:09:45,200
Is it new?

1242
01:09:45,200 --> 01:09:48,600
Does the bar keep like keep a rag on hand to make sure that any spell drains get kicked

1243
01:09:48,600 --> 01:09:53,960
at very like cleaned very quickly or is it like a UK bar where there's a layer of grime

1244
01:09:53,960 --> 01:09:56,440
and filth on every surface?

1245
01:09:56,440 --> 01:09:57,440
Everything is sticky.

1246
01:09:57,440 --> 01:10:01,080
Yeah, but like US too, but the UK was worse.

1247
01:10:01,080 --> 01:10:02,200
Oh yeah, that's visceral.

1248
01:10:02,200 --> 01:10:04,200
That's got to all that comes to mind.

1249
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:08,400
The more real world experiences that you can draw on to then give them in this fake, you

1250
01:10:08,400 --> 01:10:10,120
know, fake fantasy made up shit.

1251
01:10:10,120 --> 01:10:11,120
Yeah.

1252
01:10:11,120 --> 01:10:12,120
The better time they'll have.

1253
01:10:12,120 --> 01:10:14,600
Last one I've got written down, what do they like to do for fun?

1254
01:10:14,600 --> 01:10:15,600
Who are they outside of adventuring?

1255
01:10:15,600 --> 01:10:16,600
That's a big one.

1256
01:10:16,600 --> 01:10:20,400
I didn't start asking that question until recently.

1257
01:10:20,400 --> 01:10:21,400
What do they do for fun?

1258
01:10:21,400 --> 01:10:25,040
Like what are they into even if you're playing in a high fantasy setting is your character

1259
01:10:25,040 --> 01:10:28,920
like a character that even if you're playing a tabern, you know, if you're playing a character

1260
01:10:28,920 --> 01:10:32,240
that's just generally unhappy with life, let's say you've chosen to go down that route for

1261
01:10:32,240 --> 01:10:34,480
whatever reason, no shame in it.

1262
01:10:34,480 --> 01:10:35,480
Someone's got to do it.

1263
01:10:35,480 --> 01:10:36,480
We've all done it.

1264
01:10:36,480 --> 01:10:37,480
Yeah.

1265
01:10:37,480 --> 01:10:43,120
There is something to be said about like the worth in tragic characters, however, comma,

1266
01:10:43,120 --> 01:10:47,240
even people that are upset or that are chronically depressed have something that they will do

1267
01:10:47,240 --> 01:10:50,040
to buy the time or entertain themselves.

1268
01:10:50,040 --> 01:10:53,400
It doesn't have to be like, oh my God, I have this like super crazy fun hobby that I like

1269
01:10:53,400 --> 01:10:54,400
to do.

1270
01:10:54,400 --> 01:10:57,120
Also, I'm an incredibly depressed character that hates everything in everybody.

1271
01:10:57,120 --> 01:10:58,120
Yeah.

1272
01:10:58,120 --> 01:11:00,840
I could just be like, I like taking strolls in the forest because I like the way the fresh

1273
01:11:00,840 --> 01:11:05,440
air smells and it gets me away from like the flashbacks of the brimstone in my house

1274
01:11:05,440 --> 01:11:09,840
when it was lit on fire by whoever, whoever, like that is a simple enough hobby and something

1275
01:11:09,840 --> 01:11:13,080
to do for fun and leisure activity that it tells people loads about who you are as a

1276
01:11:13,080 --> 01:11:14,080
character.

1277
01:11:14,080 --> 01:11:15,080
Yes.

1278
01:11:15,080 --> 01:11:18,640
And it is not something that you have to think about what this says about you as a character,

1279
01:11:18,640 --> 01:11:21,120
let other people do that work for you.

1280
01:11:21,120 --> 01:11:25,840
But if you don't have anything to give other people, it's going to be so much harder for

1281
01:11:25,840 --> 01:11:28,520
you to create a character and create a personality based upon these traits.

1282
01:11:28,520 --> 01:11:32,120
And to find a role play and a voice and an idea and a mindset.

1283
01:11:32,120 --> 01:11:35,680
Which I'm sure in an episode we do about role play, we'll talk about voices and we'll

1284
01:11:35,680 --> 01:11:37,120
talk about like things like that.

1285
01:11:37,120 --> 01:11:41,000
And your other players at the table, I like what you said, your other players at the table

1286
01:11:41,000 --> 01:11:47,000
will inform you about what your character is like just as much as you will inform yourself.

1287
01:11:47,000 --> 01:11:53,120
Like there will very quickly be trends or jokes or something that keeps happening or

1288
01:11:53,120 --> 01:11:57,680
a role that a character always fails or is expected to fail and then suddenly that becomes

1289
01:11:57,680 --> 01:12:02,080
like a big moment at the table where everyone's like laughing or pointing or rooting or cheering

1290
01:12:02,080 --> 01:12:06,800
or like piling on dice because like man they fucked up every other role but they got it,

1291
01:12:06,800 --> 01:12:07,800
they got to make this one.

1292
01:12:07,800 --> 01:12:09,400
Like this is the one that counts for their characters.

1293
01:12:09,400 --> 01:12:12,080
So now they're getting like six different dice to add to that role.

1294
01:12:12,080 --> 01:12:13,080
Yeah.

1295
01:12:13,080 --> 01:12:15,240
And it's also a thing of like nicknames.

1296
01:12:15,240 --> 01:12:17,080
Like people at your table will give you nicknames.

1297
01:12:17,080 --> 01:12:21,640
My character was like a character who she introduced herself like full name to everyone

1298
01:12:21,640 --> 01:12:23,800
that she spoke to.

1299
01:12:23,800 --> 01:12:28,360
And it became a thing where, and granted it was, it has now become a stuck joke for another

1300
01:12:28,360 --> 01:12:32,040
reason because one of the people at our table doesn't enunciate.

1301
01:12:32,040 --> 01:12:34,640
He mumbles shout out to our mumbler.

1302
01:12:34,640 --> 01:12:38,520
He said fleshlight or it sounded like he said fleshlight instead of.

1303
01:12:38,520 --> 01:12:39,520
Flashlight.

1304
01:12:39,520 --> 01:12:42,200
Instead of flashlight, which also wasn't correct.

1305
01:12:42,200 --> 01:12:47,080
No the joke was supposed to be that like he got the name wrong but then it's spied and

1306
01:12:47,080 --> 01:12:51,080
even like a stupid joke like that has spiraled into no one.

1307
01:12:51,080 --> 01:12:52,080
Calls her by her right name.

1308
01:12:52,080 --> 01:12:53,800
No one calls her by her correct name.

1309
01:12:53,800 --> 01:12:58,440
I started it as a very small joke is like a douchebag character not caring to get someone's

1310
01:12:58,440 --> 01:13:02,520
name right and now it's fully snowballed into like a thing with her character is that nobody

1311
01:13:02,520 --> 01:13:03,680
gets it right.

1312
01:13:03,680 --> 01:13:04,680
Which is.

1313
01:13:04,680 --> 01:13:09,200
But then as a DM too though, I take that as like a really cool way that I could then

1314
01:13:09,200 --> 01:13:13,640
roll into her character or for her as a person like feeling like her character has made it

1315
01:13:13,640 --> 01:13:17,320
is the first time somebody knows who she is and gets the name right.

1316
01:13:17,320 --> 01:13:20,640
Or a fan like, I don't know maybe she's talking to somebody on the street after this really

1317
01:13:20,640 --> 01:13:25,640
big like Bank Heist went on and her and her adventuring group or her and her superhero

1318
01:13:25,640 --> 01:13:29,400
party say everybody and everyone else is getting autographs because they knew who they are and

1319
01:13:29,400 --> 01:13:32,760
like a couple of people come up to her and start making jokes about like flashlight or

1320
01:13:32,760 --> 01:13:35,440
flashlight or calling her everything else and there's like that one true fan the back

1321
01:13:35,440 --> 01:13:39,640
that holds up like this very shittily written comic but like that means the world because

1322
01:13:39,640 --> 01:13:42,760
it's like actually no the name is night light and she's really cool.

1323
01:13:42,760 --> 01:13:46,120
That's going to mean so much more now because everyone else decided to dick on her for having

1324
01:13:46,120 --> 01:13:49,280
a name that's like kind of rhyming with a lot of other things.

1325
01:13:49,280 --> 01:13:50,920
So also don't get upset.

1326
01:13:50,920 --> 01:13:52,560
I mean there are times to be upset.

1327
01:13:52,560 --> 01:13:57,200
I mean if y'all start calling me flashlight at the table I am actively going to be upset.

1328
01:13:57,200 --> 01:14:00,560
I'm not going to let that stick it was funny in the moment but like even those moments

1329
01:14:00,560 --> 01:14:05,720
where it's like okay like it's a thing but it's not my favorite thing.

1330
01:14:05,720 --> 01:14:08,600
If you have a DM that thinks about the things that people are saying at the table which

1331
01:14:08,600 --> 01:14:11,200
if they're not they're stupid.

1332
01:14:11,200 --> 01:14:14,560
They will be rolled into and it will be all the more fun for it.

1333
01:14:14,560 --> 01:14:15,560
Yes.

1334
01:14:15,560 --> 01:14:17,000
I think that's about all we have.

1335
01:14:17,000 --> 01:14:19,200
Yeah I'll say I think we're getting up there in time.

1336
01:14:19,200 --> 01:14:25,640
Yeah I think we're at about an hour and ten around there which is infinitely shorter than

1337
01:14:25,640 --> 01:14:29,480
the one coming out before this which is close to two hours.

1338
01:14:29,480 --> 01:14:33,320
So you all don't have nearly as much content to listen to on this one.

1339
01:14:33,320 --> 01:14:40,160
But now that we we now have a camera that we can use so I think for our next episode

1340
01:14:40,160 --> 01:14:43,360
sometime eventually in the future we'll see it just depends on how much practice we can

1341
01:14:43,360 --> 01:14:46,800
get in with this fucking thousand dollar camera.

1342
01:14:46,800 --> 01:14:50,480
We're gonna finally sit down and do the character sheets and that'll probably be about an hour

1343
01:14:50,480 --> 01:14:51,480
long episode.

1344
01:14:51,480 --> 01:14:56,600
I can't imagine we're gonna walk through every single thing in my new detail which we kind

1345
01:14:56,600 --> 01:14:59,240
of did but also didn't do on this probably do it even less.

1346
01:14:59,240 --> 01:15:04,240
We'll just walk you through what we've been talking to you about for the last three episodes.

1347
01:15:04,240 --> 01:15:06,240
Yeah that fun stuff.

1348
01:15:06,240 --> 01:15:09,840
But yeah that's kind of what you guys can probably expect for the next one unless for

1349
01:15:09,840 --> 01:15:13,120
some reason we can't get it up and running in which we'll just sidestep and go to another

1350
01:15:13,120 --> 01:15:15,680
topic and then get you the character sheets sometime.

1351
01:15:15,680 --> 01:15:18,120
That'll still be fun and we'll still see you next Thursday.

1352
01:15:18,120 --> 01:15:19,120
Uh huh.

1353
01:15:19,120 --> 01:15:20,120
Thanks for listening.

1354
01:15:20,120 --> 01:15:24,120
Thanks for tuning in to another ridiculously long episode.

1355
01:15:24,120 --> 01:15:45,960
Bye bye.