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Hello, players who take flirting at the table a little too seriously.
And DMs who make every single NPC the most conventionally attractive person you've ever met.
Welcome back to Table Talk. I'm Maddie.
And I'm Robert.
Happy Valentine's Day, or at least it's Valentine's Day while we're recording this for another 15 minutes
before it's midnight and it is officially the 15th. But we wanted to do an episode kind of inline.
Yeah, kind of sorta. So we were trying to figure out how to top Roll for Romance, which just isn't going to happen.
In fact, one of our most popular episodes and the only episode of ours that was not like one of the first five
we put out to be in the top five.
Yeah, it's kind of crazy. So we kind of covered a lot of like different ways you can be intimate with people at the table
we'll talk more about it in our episode that we've been putting off for literally over 20 episodes.
But in this one, we're going to kind of go through a little quiz that I found online.
I was looking for ways to give my players like a feedback session kind of deal or like a give me feedback
because some of them I have to come at with a pitchfork and other people are like way too happy to write an essay.
Like there's no real in between.
So I was looking for ways to like send them something like a Google Forms that they could fill out.
Which is like a general standard of like, what did you like about last session?
What did you not like? What do you want for your character? Just things like that because it's easier for people to like type that out
and to think about their answer than to like answer.
Right after the session. Hey, what did you like? What did you like?
Well, especially considering one of the players I got from my text last time we were talking about who was going to DM one of our one shots coming up.
And what did he say? I think it was something about how he would prefer that I do it because I'm more intimidating.
So if that tells you anything about why it might be difficult for my players to come to me, that might be it.
But we're going to walk through this quiz mostly kind of together.
I'm going to basically ask these questions.
Getting interviewed.
Yeah, getting interviewed.
To Madison and then kind of the subtext of that we'll be talking about specifically the relationships that like our players have at the table.
So it's kind of a little bit of everything. It's also just something fun to do.
So this can be found on the internet.
If you look up DND campaign refresher D and signed D it's not like in it is by justice Raymond Armin.
I hope I pronounced that right.
It's literally the first thing that pops up when you look DND campaign refresher at this guy.
Basically made a whole post about how to do the whole damn thing.
And it's kind of crazy.
We can also link it in the description of this.
If you want to click the link, it'll say like link or some shit.
I don't know what it's going to say yet, but we'll link it.
So we'll go ahead and hop into it.
On a scale of one to five, please rate your level of enjoyment for the following pillars of DND.
So there's combat, exploration and social interaction.
Okay. Just because of speaking out loud, I'm going to put social stuff first.
Yep.
I'm just going to kind of rank them.
Then it was exploration and what else?
Exploration and combat.
Mine probably be social interactions.
Ooh, toss up between combat and exploration.
I really love exploring the world.
I do.
However, I also like combat.
Believe it or not, I know that's a controversial take for people who have met me and played with me.
I'd probably put them about the same for me.
So what? Combat three, exploration four, social interaction five?
I would put combat and exploration as a four.
Interesting.
Okay.
All right. Scale of one to five, please rate your level of enjoyment for the following common elements of a DND session.
Jesus Christ, we're just going to go through one at a time.
Travel, one through five.
Like a two or three.
Okay. Why two or three?
It's easier to talk about the lower answers than it is the higher ones.
Specifically with the campaign that we are coming off the tail, like the one that we played previously,
which we talked about a little bit before, was very travel focused.
I played a character who could basically create...
Whole sub theme of the fucking campaign was travel, man.
Yeah.
I could basically...
We were never in a place for very long because my character had the power with not even using a spell slot.
Like this was just an innate thing that she could do.
We listened to her previous episodes.
World Turbans in.
Shout out Table Talk.
First season.
She could just create doors to anywhere in the multiverse.
And we used that a lot.
And so for that reason, I'm like a little burnt out on travel.
You're enough.
I think exploring...
I think more of my interest comes with the exploring.
I'm not someone who wants to like...
You're going along the roads and you're camping.
Yeah.
Like you're in a caravan and you get ambushed by a group of cobalts.
Like yeah, that shit's not always fun.
That's not for me.
I think that's more useful for starting groups that are really into the traditional high fantasy stuff.
And like they just want to experience like vanilla D&D, fifth edition.
You're in...
Sorry, you're in like Sword Coasts, Bayroom.
Just traveling along a caravan.
And ambush, random traveler.
Magical item, you know?
Like it's just a fun way to introduce random plot devices.
And there are ways I think that you can use travel as a cool plot device.
And then there are ways where it's just like, okay, we're just...
We're camping.
We're camping again.
This is a four...
We're camping again.
This is a five day journey.
Making perception checks every day.
Oh, we're on a boat this time.
Yeah.
Puzzles.
Oh, okay.
We don't have a ton of puzzles at our table because we tried and it...
Not a very puzzle oriented group.
I'm just...
You saying that phrase and me thinking and physically seeing our players at the table in my head was a very funny image.
Yeah, not a very puzzle oriented group.
No, I like puzzles.
I do.
I struggle with them sometimes like every D&E player does.
I enjoy puzzles.
I am gonna put puzzles a little bit lower on this just because of the group that we play in.
Two to three.
Yeah, I would say a three.
Three?
Yeah, I think the one thing that I struggle with the most with the puzzles from the DM side of things is just making them meaningful beyond just like a roadblock or like a fun little element to like breaking into a thing.
Like, I don't know, it gets to a point where depending on how good your group is at communicating and working through puzzles, how adept they are at the whole escape room bullshit, sometimes it's just like an obstacle for them.
Like there's nothing to it.
It's just, okay, we gotta get through this door, but first we gotta turn the key this way and then we have to pull the lever this direction, but not before we plug this thing in here.
Like it just, it becomes like a very inorganic thing to just barrel through.
So I think they're right and wrong ways to do it.
Just a quick shout out.
This is, I've seen people on like TikTok and stuff who have gone to, have gotten their D&D table together and gone to escape rooms and done escape rooms and character.
Fucking flop dog.
Oh my God.
I, we would die.
We would make it, our group would not make it out of an escape room.
I think I would have to be the DM again.
Like I think I would have to come in and like point people in directions.
That's the issue.
This is why we as like a group of in real life friends cannot do escape rooms is because too many of us are going to play DM.
And we wouldn't let each other do things.
Outside of the table, a lot of people are very independent people.
So sometimes at the table, it's difficult to like get others to listen to other people.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Cause they all want to go their own direction.
Yeah, but I think that that'd be a really fun thing to do.
Dialogue.
It's top five, five, five as high as it can go.
We don't have to go into that one.
Villainous monologues, which we haven't gotten a lot of, maybe two or three.
We've gotten like one, like half villainous monologue that I can think of.
We had a full one with Keeley.
Yeah, that's what I was talking about.
He's the closest we ever got to villainous monologues.
Bits and pieces of him.
Yeah, I'm literally bits and pieces of him.
Yeah, never in one place at one time.
I think that villainous monologues are funny.
Yeah, especially in like a superhero setting.
This is something I was talking with Madison about when we were going over the, the quiz when we were having dinner.
And it's basically the like villainous monologues to me as a DM there.
Because I'm, I'm so anal at times about playing my villains like they're intelligent people or beings, because they're not always people.
The villainous monologue thing just doesn't always appeal to me like the, oh, I'm so much better than you and you've fallen right into my trap.
Oh, you keep fucking with me.
But like, what is that really going to look like the talking down and the putting down and the, then there's the spin on it, which is like, oh, no, like I'm going to offer things to you and I'm going to be your friend.
There's just only so many different ways you can take it.
Yeah.
And none of them are all that interesting to me.
Like I'm very much in actions over dialogue kind of person.
Just because of my actions and consequences mentality when it comes to running a world or a campaign, but I don't know.
The idea of just like spilling to like a group of five people, it just isn't that interesting to me.
I think it's very dependent on the setting.
Like I think if you're doing like Curse of Strahd, yeah, I think that you need to have some villainous monologues in there.
Like, like that makes sense.
If I ever wanted to do a villainous monologue, it would 100% have to be prewritten and then I would just have to interrupt it with something stupid in the middle.
Cause like I just, I don't think I could get through it all the way.
Because for like camp purposes, I would put those at like a three.
And I just, I'm not a camp guy. I can't, it camp hurts my fucking soul.
I love camp.
Camp is like cringe in a way and because it is that I can't, I can't do it.
I'm wearing highlighter colored sneakers.
I'm fully aware. You don't have to remind me.
Humor.
Humor is everything. Humor at five.
Yeah.
I love humor. I think that if you're playing D&D in a completely serious vacuum, you need to get a grip.
Yeah. No, 100% which the next one on the list is seriousness.
That being said, I would put that at A4.
Seriousness for four?
Mm-hmm.
Number five.
I think that, and this is kind of like a note just in general.
I think that some of the best comedy in the world comes from being able to live in, oh God, I can't say that.
That sounds so actory of me.
Being able to live in your circumstances, which is basically me saying a lot of the comedy in your game is going to come from you living in this world and being dead ass.
If you are playing a bard named fucking Dorito Chip McLovin and you're like having a really serious moment. Thank you.
Dorito Chip McLovin.
And you're like having this moment. It doesn't matter that your name is Dorito Chip McLovin.
That is objectively hilarious.
Yeah, that's the funny part about it.
It's either it's just a serious moment or moments that are so serious that they then turn around and become funny.
It's like, no, actually fucking Bobcat McGuire just killed my family.
Yeah.
Yes, his name is Bobcat McGuire. We're moving right past that.
Fucking hilarious.
Yeah, there's definitely like a good balance to strike.
I've tried to lean more into the more lighthearted humor side on this campaign because I felt like it was a little bit too serious in the last one, at least in the first half of it.
Yeah, I mean, there's only so far that like a dark and everything sucks kind of world will get you with like just positive experiences at the table.
I think like truly a lot of what keeps like the group morale going, not just as PCs, but as actual players at the table is being able to laugh at the things that are happening and not to just be serious the whole time and constantly having to strategize and being planning mode and holy shit, I could die at any moment.
Like that's fun sometimes, but like after a certain point, like giving your players that release is going to feel just as good as like putting them on the edge of their seat because oh, this desk savings are was going to determine.
It also makes the higher tie in the lower slow.
Yeah, if you have some variety.
And it's like if you've only ever experienced like solid negative emotion in a campaign, then you have no idea what the other side looks like.
Yeah.
So there's just so many different ranges of emotion that you miss when you don't include kind of both sides of the coin.
Music.
I'm making a five.
Yeah.
I have personally five like I can't do any of my my sessions without music.
Sometimes I just I'll go from like the setting music specifically the last campaign we would get like an hour and a half deep into a combat encounter with a fucking D&D fifth edition fantasy playlist and I was just like cool guys.
I'm switching to regular music.
It's I cannot fucking do this.
There was a time I remember this vividly and it was you were describing how we're like walking into the end blah blah blah and you went to switch over to like another like D&D song and you like clicked the wrong thing and it was whatever the fucking song that goes like swallow a lie.
Yeah, that's what it is.
Yeah, I'm a Jason Drillow.
And one of those moments at the table where it's like cool.
We're like so serious.
We're getting the world described to us and we're like, is that song playing?
Is that Jason Drillow?
And the idea like it was just a barred.
What's the medieval?
What's the fantasy version of Jason Drillow?
I don't fucking know.
Class is he he's definitely a bard like a like a solid bard.
Okay.
I don't know.
He can be like a Fabian Seacaster type.
No, no, with like all the dancing and twirling and like the Seacats.
I did.
Huh?
He was in cats.
No, I didn't watch fucking cats.
Who do you think I am?
Fair enough.
He scared me in that.
I have something more serious note about music.
Don't get caught up on this.
Just me kind of the DM's feeling.
Don't get caught up on finding like the perfect setting music.
I mean, I scroll through Instagram or Tik Tok or Facebook, like on any given day.
And because I'm a DM and I like DM related things, it's just like app after app after
app after app about like the perfect music mixer.
And for 299, you get access to 300 songs and a digital mixer and fuck that man.
Like find a playlist on Spotify or YouTube music or Apple music, whatever the fuck you
use and just click on it and then fuck around with it.
And if you don't like it, go to another one.
That being said, if you are going to use one of those apps, there is one I like because
I've played around with it personally.
I'm not saying you have to use it.
Okay.
I'm not saying you have to.
I think the pocket bar is a really cool app.
I've messed around with it a handful of times.
It's pretty cool.
I just, for somebody that likes more modern music, even serious, like fantasy settings,
it doesn't work for me.
Yeah.
If you like fantasy and it's all like royalty free and you get to like mix and you cannot
sound effects, it's really, really cool.
You should just download it and check it out for shits and giggles.
Next one is props and deliverables.
Five.
I will never get those at this table and I know that, but God, I love that.
I don't have the time or the energy or the want to make physical props.
I'm a perfectionist at heart and that's the reason why all of my work stays behind the
screen because I can hide the things that don't appear perfect even if they come off
really well during the session and props and deliverables are just one of those things
where I don't have like the remaining creative energy or drive to make physical things.
I'd love to.
Yeah.
I'd rather pay somebody to do it.
Pay me.
I'd rather pay somebody else to do it.
I've made so many props and so many like physical things for our table and I've not been asked
for anything of them.
Talk specifically about how you feel props and deliverables add to a campaign in particular
or how a session.
Because it's one thing to just say, I like to have a physical object in my hand versus
like why you prefer to have a physical object in your hand.
I think it's something that it on multiple different levels.
I think it makes things feel more real sometimes for you to see the object that you've been
talking about in front of you or even if it's not an object you're talking about, it's
something that you're just handed.
It's just it's one of those things where it's like a lot of D&D feels like a puzzle game
sometimes.
And I feel like that's one of those aspects that makes it feel like a puzzle game.
Yeah.
And it's really cool that way.
And I think it's also a thing of like it's more engaging for the players sometimes is
because you get to pass around and hold this physical object and it brings you to like
together in a way.
And then there's another note of it, which I think is also like it kind of to me at
least it gets me in character and it makes like role play easier.
I made I've made like several things for people at our table and for our table in general
just on my own.
And one of them was like friendship bracelets.
I made friendship bracelets for everyone in the party.
That would be like something that my character in the game made for everyone and gave to
everyone.
And like being able to have these bracelets that I have that say my like character's best
friend's name and my character's favorite superhero on it is like one of those things
where it's like, yeah, I know I'm playing a game, but I can look down and be like, this
is who I am right now.
This is the world I'm in.
Yep.
I just, I think they're really, I think they're really neat.
Yeah.
They do a lot to ground.
There's some settings that lend themselves more to physical props than others.
Like I can tell you Cyberpunk setting like 2099, 2077 that does not lend itself at all
to physical props because sky is the absolute limit.
I mean, you're basically like, cool, I have to make a prop of a piece of technology that
doesn't physically fucking exist.
I think like the-
Like I can make a shitty amulet from fifth edition.
Like I can do, I can, cool.
A staff.
You can go to Hobby Lobby and get that.
I got a stick right outside.
Yeah.
You know, like, but then it's like, cool.
Here's this incredibly like advanced piece of technology that you've been using as like
an arcane focus or like as a power thing or whatever the fuck.
And it's like, okay, I can't, I don't, the materials for this don't exist in real life.
Yeah.
I think the only way that I could see that really working is if like you like digitally
design something and then sent it out to players, but like once again-
3D printing I guess could be a way to do it.
Yeah, but you don't have that budget.
If you have access to one.
Yeah, if I was like, cool, we pay somebody.
Okay.
On to the next one.
I enjoy the following styles of adventure.
Check all the to apply.
Yeah, that's my, that's my.
I'm just gonna shock on this one.
Okay, this is gonna make me in trouble.
Dungeon Crawl.
I'm not a big dungeon crawler.
Okay.
High fantasy.
Hmm.
See, here's the thing.
With the right circumstance.
Yeah, I'm high fantasy with an asterisk being a femme person and a neurodivergent person.
High fantasy is not always the most welcoming just in the nature of the way the world is
written.
I like high fantasy with a twist.
Fair enough.
Heist.
I think I would love to do a heist.
Well, I think you guys will be coming up on something very similar to that soon.
If God forbid we ever get past this fucking session.
Horror.
I, for someone who, I love lighthearted stuff.
I'm so excited to do anything.
I love horror as well.
I am waiting to do this last of us one shot.
I'm hoping sooner rather than later.
God, I can't fucking wait, man.
Intrigue.
I think that kind of goes, or no, I guess it doesn't.
I, it's a little different.
I see when I read intrigue, I'm thinking more like, like political, kind of detective-y.
Like it's a little bit of both where it's like it's very, you know, and see the issue
is that mystery and investigation is also a category on here.
There's a little bit of overlap.
There's a little bit overlap.
Because to me, I'd put intrigue and mystery kind of in the same one.
Because when I think intrigue, I'm thinking like film noir, detective's, PIs, which I
would love to play.
I think that'd be super fun.
I'm sure we'll do it eventually, man.
Yeah.
So I like intrigue, for sure.
I'll fuck with that.
Low magic.
Oh.
Um.
Low magic is so unspecific.
And that's kind of what sucks about like the title is being like a style of adventure.
Because low magic is almost impossible to escape from in fifth edition.
Like, so in the system that we're playing in, Galician of the previous episode, it's
all about powers.
There's not a whole lot of magic.
I would consider this world a low magic world.
Just because we don't have a lot of characters that use it, and that was just a decision
that the players made.
And it's kind of one of those things where like, because we have such a low magic focused
player group, I don't focus on magic nearly as much as I do like animal powered stuff.
And everything's like that, even though nobody in our campaign.
None of our players are animal powered.
But like, even then, the powers that you use are still technically a form of magic.
Like if you just based off of like fifth edition rule book and spells, that's exactly what
that is.
It's just reskinned.
I don't think low magic exists in the way people like to think it does.
Like to me, low magic is last of us.
Or um.
I was supposed to say, low magic to me is like just people with hands.
People with hands.
Um.
Yeah.
You know, or it's all Marshall or like I don't.
It's not my favorite.
I like a little bit more like fantasy.
If you're going to flavor it in a cool way, sure.
Sci-Fi is a cool way to do low magic.
But once again, that goes into like, like, but a lot of that mechanically comes out to
be magic.
I think low magic is just a reskinning.
Yeah.
99% of the time.
I agree.
Mystery and investigation.
We already talked about that.
Urban.
Top.
Yeah.
I love playing in urban settings.
Yeah.
I prefer it a lot more than fantasy.
Um, planar.
I don't really know how to interpret that.
I'm assuming it's just.
Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking.
It's just a weird way to phrase it.
Um, I, uh, I wouldn't rank it as high as some of the others, but I think it would still
be fun.
I just think that there's an opportunity for it to become a little bit monotonous and
a little bit like jargon heavy and jargon.
I agree.
Um, I enjoy the following styles of play.
Comedic.
A five.
100%.
Greedy realism.
Hmm.
Three.
Okay.
I think it can be fun, but not for long form.
Not for long form.
Um, I think like, Greedy realism would be for myself personally, I think that that would
be more suited to like a one shot as opposed to like a long form cat campaign.
Mm-hmm.
I agree.
Um, hack and slash.
Once again, that's one where I think is fun.
I use combat for this game.
No, well, I would love to play that as a one shot.
I think that'd be fun.
And I think in one shots, I am more like hack and slash style of like, yeah, I'll fucking
hit first, but for long form, that's not really my play style.
Right.
No, that's totally fair.
Um, heavy social interaction.
We already know what that is.
Resource management.
I, the lowest.
Yeah.
We haven't, I haven't done anything for them resource management wise.
I think it is an incredibly not boring.
I don't want to say boring because I've seen people in actual plays where it's kind of
like a fun, like base building thing.
I think is where resource management comes in.
Well, um, I mean, fantasy, high junior year is doing that really cool right now with
the character.
Um, Adaine plays a wizard, um, or Adaine is a wizard.
Uh, and he's a wizard.
She's talking about in her classes, her sh, one of her like basically her textbooks for
class are 10 barrels of diamonds and she's like, cool, I'm a teenager.
Yeah.
It's not physically fucking possible.
Um, I, what, what, how the fuck do I get diamonds?
Oh, cool.
I've got to get a job.
I'm working for three copper pieces.
Three copper pieces an hour.
Yeah.
I think resource management can be used when you're trying to scale the tasks that your
players have to, um, tackle and accomplish compared to like what the world around them
is like.
Yeah.
Like in that, in that example, I think that fits it perfectly.
Like if I say, cool, you all need to go and purchase a caravan to move through this land
like undetected or without hostility.
And it's like, cool, we'll go shack up with a caravan.
That'll be easy.
Nah, that's like 200 gold.
Yeah.
Cause it's like that's food, that's time, that's company, that's protection.
Like I think resource management is a really fun way to sort of ground players in the world
to exist.
If that's the kind of thing that you like to do.
We took in our previous campaign, the opposite approach, um, which was we basically became
Bezos rich.
Um, so quack, like so quack.
So quass.
It was supposed to be fast and quick.
So quick that we destroyed the economy and like, I mean like destroyed the economy.
They introduced so much fucking money, man.
We were like, we need to go like in a ship and we need to go somewhere.
Uh, and we were like, does like a hundred like, or like, what?
Like how high do we have to go?
We were like, is like a hundred platinum cool?
And they were like, yeah, platinum is more.
Yeah.
I don't think most of these people haven't seen a platinum piece.
For those listening, I'm pretty sure a hundred platinum is 10 gold or one platinum is 10
gold pieces, which is nuts.
By the way, when you do scaling all the way down to fucking copper pieces.
Um, yeah, I think it also works to do the opposite.
When you throw in resources and abundance and just be like, cool, like this doesn't,
you can't do anything with this.
Um, because there are some players that are like, I'm going to make money and then buy
things with it.
And then there are other players are like, I don't give a shit.
Yeah, I don't give a shit.
I'm going to just fucking persuasion my way through everything.
I mean, I'm playing a character that she does have to give a shit.
Part of her thing is she is a broke.
Yeah.
Like, she doesn't have like the money for all the fancy tech and then the fancy suit
materials.
She's working with superheroes who are in like, uh, threaded Kevlar and, uh, nanotech
and like armor and she's in a denim jacket because denim jacket seems to stop.
And she has these slow things that are hidden.
That is a form of resource management.
I think that is a very real way of going, Hey, this is a world that we're playing in.
You need to make money.
You need to have some form of income because like there are materials and weapons and new
technology that you're going to buy that tends to lend itself more to modern settings than
anything.
But anyways, I digress.
My preferred narrative style is linear.
I want someone to tell me which way to go and give me a limited number of choices.
Malleable.
I know what to do, but I want to do it my own way.
Open.
I want the freedom to go wherever I want and bounce between the side quests without feeling
pressured.
Oh, I think I kind of bounced depending on the day.
Truly.
Yeah.
Um, I think I would fall more moderate than anything else.
I love sandbox world.
I love being able to like explore, but I also love because I'm playing with a group of people
to be able to be like, cool, we all have something that we're working towards.
Yeah.
And cool.
You can give me a task.
Great.
Give me a task.
I'm going to do it however the fuck I want.
Hi.
From the DM's perspective, I bounce between all three of these.
It just depends on the session and how much I need to get done and what those things are.
Like if it's cool, we're very clearly going into a combat encounter.
We've done all the setup for it.
No, you cannot go do a side quest because that's going to fuck up everything.
I'm going to throw in some narrative barriers to be like, you're going to lose the person
you're chasing or they might, I don't know, fucking turn around on you and ambush you.
Like you just don't know where they're going to come from.
But like if it needs to be linear, I will give you two choices and you're going to pick
ARB.
There is no CDEF.
You're not throwing this off.
It's very funny.
I will smite you.
I will take away your belongings.
It's very funny because you could see the shift like with Robert at the table sometimes
when a character is trying to do something and he goes, okay, cool, we're putting the
little bumper cars up on the side of the bowling alley.
Sometimes I have to go from DM to person and be like, hey, player, look me in my eyes
and ask me that question again and you tell me if you think you should do that in this
moment.
Yeah.
Like sometimes you just got to become a real person instead of a DM and just back up and
be like, hey, no.
Just be like, hey man, the fuck is up?
What are you doing?
And then malleable I think is where I like to be open.
The issue with open is that if you have any kind of a fucking like objective or campaign
idea or an ending or plot hooks, goodbye.
See you later.
Never going to touch them.
They're going to end up in another fucking country or a different planet or a different
realm doing some bullshit.
You never wanted them to do in the first place.
So I think open is really fun to start a campaign and to do a little bit of middle
campaigning.
But I think like the intermediate places where you like have to get them to go, malleable
and linear is the only really two options to do it.
I like the idea of like, they think they can do anything, but they really can't.
It's very much like in the Hunger Games when you put the tributes in the arena and it's
like, oh, it's so big and endless.
And then they die to the wall.
And then you go to the wall and you're like, get the fuck back in.
That's what it's like to with Robert sometimes is that exactly right there.
As you going, Taze, Taze, Taze.
I use consequences as my bumper cars.
I go, cool.
If you make that incredibly stupid decision in this moment, there will be severe consequences.
And some people have learned more than others.
Other people are still learning a little bit.
Sometimes you got the consequence.
Don't matter.
And you just got to tell them, no.
Side quests are distracting, enjoyable, alluring or tempting.
I think they're like, I don't know which this would fall under.
I think they're intriguing.
We don't do a lot of them because we haven't had the fucking option to be honest.
I love side quests.
I think side quests ground people in a world.
I'm not the traditional side quest DM where they don't fucking matter and I'm just putting
bounties up on a bounty board and you're going to get tingled here.
That's what I'm saying is all of our side quests have been in a roundabout way somehow,
in some way connected to the bigger story.
And I love that.
I love the things that feel so good.
I think that's so much better than, yeah, because it's very similar to any of our listeners
that haven't seen, not fantasy high, Jesus Christ, Unsleeping City.
I think if I had to give a textbook example of a campaign of an actual play I've watched
slash listened to that does side quests in a really unique way like that where everything
is a little story focused, it would be that.
I think every single side quest for every single character had something to do with
the main quest even if they didn't know it.
And that's 100% my preferred way to do it.
Yeah, I don't really feel any particular way about those like distracting, enjoyable,
luring, tempting.
I mean, I think it just kind of is what it is.
When it comes to character driven quests for other players, characters, and their back
stories, I am happy to participate whether or not it relates to my character, will happily
participate so long as my character gets their own arc at some point, will begrudgingly participate
or would rather not have individual character quests.
I think the last one is an interesting option.
Yeah, I would put myself at the top, the top option.
Happy to participate whether it relates to my character or not.
And I say normally I would pick the second, but I think that this particular character
that I've been playing in our current campaign has helped me kind of re-shift and realign
that because for the bulk of the beginning of our campaign, I was taking a backseat in
terms of a lot of people's arcs, development, just the shit they were doing.
And I thought that that would be something that I would be a little bit more like, hmm,
I'm not super-filled, but I enjoyed seeing other people and seeing the people that I
love to play with and the people that are my friends succeed and happy.
Do I think everyone at the table should get a character arc if you're going to do that
for some people?
Yes.
Yeah, 100%.
But I'm just, I think that you've got to support your fellow players and I think it's a really
fun thing and if you let yourself just be fucking happy to be there, it makes a world
of a difference.
And I do my best to make sure that everybody's individual character, quest or character arc
directly impacts at least one to two.
Especially everybody in the party, minimum, I'm like one to two, just either pieces of
information that are gathered are pertinent to somebody else or a character that's been
introduced is going to be used for another character.
And I try not to make them like impossible to see because it is throwing in like the
smaller fish hooks that other players are going to pick up while singular player is
getting their quest.
It's sometimes just enough to like, wait in the wings, this is very clearly for you,
this is something you can interact with later.
It gives them something to look forward to.
And I try to make it so that every player quest has some, I don't know, some interaction
with another or will kick off another one.
Also you'll find is a DM if you're doing it for the first time, second, third, fourth
doesn't matter that like player arcs and player character arcs happen in different links,
at different speeds, at different times.
Like someone like nightlight, it has a significantly like slower and longer arc.
Like I think by the end of her character arcs, she will be at a much farther place but at
a significantly bigger jump.
There's not as many small stops along the way.
Whereas somebody like the Shadow who has a lot of things to work on in the immediate
is going to hit a lot of those big story bumps very quickly because that's the nature of
his character.
It's like old man who's an established hero who is going through a lot of things and is
like trying to be a better person meets good people.
That's going to happen immediately versus nightlight who's trying to learn how to be
a hero from four people she just met who are at all very differing levels.
That's going to take you significantly longer to hit those bumps and those arcs because
it literally requires you to watch the other people at the table.
I think that's a really good way to describe it because I think that that's also something
where like sitting back and watching your fellow players is kind of knowing that like
people go at different speeds.
Sometimes you're going to see three characters hit their massive story beats in the same
session.
Then other times no one is going to hit a big story beat for three sessions and then
like that's just it's going to vary.
The lines are all differing lengths different dropping points.
So I think just trying to stick with it and being as supportive as you can is an easy
way to get at least a quicker story point for me.
If you're at least engaging with the hook that I've given somebody else that very clearly
doesn't pertain to you or doesn't have to pertain to you that's going to make it so
much easier for me as a DM to then give you your next hook.
If you're not participating in this person's arc whatsoever I have no way to interact with
you like from a story point perspective.
But if you are at least there in the room you're talking to people you're supporting
you're doing whatever your presence alone in that arc is going to give me significantly
more opportunities to then yank you into your own.
You're also going to miss those things if you don't engage with other people.
100%
You're going to miss those hooks that are in there for you.
And as somebody that prides themselves on putting in a lot of different hooks and twists
you need to participate in every story point because I promise there's always going to
be something for every character.
I have watched a player at our table legitimately pick up a document that had a piece of information
on it that my character had been searching for in real life.
Me as Maddie had been looking for this fucking piece of paper for two real years.
And I watched him in the game and I've been playing with this same person for those two
years.
I watched him in the game as his character pick it up go huh that's weird and throw it
away.
Yeah there are times to meta game there are times not to meta game that might have been
a time to be like hey man can you just and that's a point where I try to go I try to
save it and go give me an inside check to see how important this piece of paper is.
You did.
And if you roll low you roll low it's your decision you know what I'm saying if it's
that important I'm not going to let you fucking throw it in the garbage can but you know
I don't let people make the wrong decisions.
That was a situation where you explained what the plot hook was and he went okay.
That's cool I guess.
I just don't care.
Yeah.
Which don't be that guy.
Okay.
Um I think yeah because we haven't talked a lot about romance at this point being a Valentine's
kind of Valentine's Day special I think talking about quests and it's just I mean the whole
everything you mentioned at this point romance is such a difficult thing for me at least
to actively think about on top of all of these other elements like if you notice one of the
one of the elements common elements that was on that list not a single thing on there had
anything to do with romance.
Yeah.
Like not a one out of the common elements of a D&D session travel puzzles dialogue
villainous monologues humor seriousness music props and deliver or deliverables villainous
monologues is on the list which I didn't even think was going to be on there.
Yeah.
The romance is like intimate relationships are on there.
For a loop.
And I think that very much a test to what the scene in the hobby is like and that a
lot of people are afraid to take that that turn or afraid to interact in that way one
because it's incredibly awkward especially the first couple of times you do it.
You are actively most likely having to flirt with a real human being that you know in real
life that you will see outside of this session in front of a table or a room or a fucking
Zoom session in front of four to five other real life human beings that are going to watch
you fucking flop like a fish on the table.
Trying desperately to come up with something like smart to say.
Listen we could use examples from our real life table because I'm telling you it was
I won't go in like too much like detail.
Yeah.
I want to shame anybody.
No.
Learning experience.
I'm not going there.
I'm going a different direction.
I promise.
The next example table is most of us who live in a house together including Roberts fiance
and my friend and it's also all men with the exception of L and desperately then two of
our other friends that come to the house both men and if you can't tell already I'm kind
of an odd one out at the table.
Yeah.
Romance is not something we ever really touch.
We kind of talked about this in the role for romance episode of like that's a weird
line for us as a table to cross.
It was just not super comfortable with it.
Yeah.
With this particular group and I completely understand why.
However Robert and I have talked outside of the table and we wanted to introduce romantic
interests and there was one that two characters are a damn character.
I just knocked the fuck out of the mic.
Shatter the mic.
Jesus.
We had talked about this my character and one of these NPCs having some type of romantic
relationship and it was the first time that this has been like truly broached at the table
in a way that wasn't like a throwaway joke of like a sleazy character being like hey
do you want to sleep with me or something like that.
And I mean that's still kind of what it was because he was a little bit asshole character
and like it like a sleazeball but he wasn't like that's besides point the way this table
reacted to.
Oh God viscerally.
Their first like true encounter to like regular non like sleazebag jack sparrow style romance
was just visceral man.
It was like booze.
I mean this isn't exactly what happened but the vibe in the room was like booze were throwing
tomatoes throwing cans.
It was.
We're rioting.
The looks on these people's faces and like don't get me wrong.
It was odd for sure because it was like our first time exploring that at the table but
it wasn't even anything extreme and you would think with the look of the people at the rest
of the players faces you would think that this character jury had asked my character
to just straight up like have sass him right now.
He was like give me head in the security room.
That's not what happened.
No that was a thing that is around the back of her chair didn't touch her physically
around the back of her chair and so it went oh brother like seriously.
He didn't even touch her man.
It was the most like surface level like shitty flirting.
It was like yeah you make me want to be like a better person like it was like cringy.
This is what it's supposed to be.
Yeah.
Like he's a fucking he's like a frack guy.
He's a frack guy that's hit 24 25 and it's just like he's he's confident in a really
shitty way.
Yeah and it was not anything that was crazy but the way that people at the table reacted.
You I felt slut shamed.
There were several times in real life felt slut shamed and I didn't even do anything.
There were several times where I had to ask people to like calm down and to stop making
so many remarks because it just got difficult to role play it when I had people throwing
fucking verbal tomatoes at my face being like whoa.
The look.
Yes yes fuck this guy.
Haven't been introduced to him like you just don't like but like I don't even know how
to call it but it was it was crazy.
Romance is difficult.
It's something we've attempted to introduce or I've attempted to introduce in the last
handful of sessions because I'm starting to get more comfortable with my role playing
and I think it's fun.
I think it adds a whole extra element to the game.
It makes intimate relationships more intimate.
It makes stakes more interesting.
There's just so many different things you can do with it and it doesn't have to be
like you as a DM do not have to crawl across the table hop in guys lap and be like hey
let's have sex right here right now in this really steamy cabin.
You don't have to do that.
Yeah and just be like in the bar in the cute bar that you've been eyeing the whole night
winks at you and then like goes away like that's allowed.
Cool.
You can talk to her tomorrow now or you can follow her and be like hey what's up like
yeah I'm not gonna fucking like I'm not gonna read 50 shades gray to you at the table for
a romance encounter.
That's not what I'm doing.
Yeah it's it's it does not have to be like if that's the vibe at your table I'm not
shaming you.
It's fine totally fine.
So crazy but like the idea that you can't like just flirt with someone and and there's
also ways of like if that's a weird boundary for you to cross I think there's also ways
to be around it.
Something that like as I was like trying to get used to this because like as an actor
I'm like I with the energy in this room right now for the other players at the table I cannot
I cannot role play right now because I'm afraid of what's going to happen.
I'm afraid they're going to jump across the table and be like you harlot like it was
it was it was some pretty intense energy it was an intense energy it was just a very
peaceful response to romance being introduced in like a true like a tried and true way with
a character that they weren't all fans of his people and it just you know what I am
it was a little musical boy.
It was which is funny because then the next session we had a girl fell on top of a girl
of a guy and one of the players responses was Rizza up.
I Rizza I would love to talk about the fucking patriarchy and like I know like a big crazy
it was nutty by the way by the way the hero the hero that nightlight was in a slightly
romantic situation with is a hero.
Yeah he's a hero most of them and know him as a hero actually you the person that fell
on top of our other character is a fucking villain down to one of his close friends twice
in front of him.
And they were like yeah get a man.
And they were like hell yeah Rizza up say something and he was just like uh uh uh thanks.
Jerry asks nightlight if she wants to work a private case together and then everyone
is like or it was it's such an interesting.
I disagree that it was directed at you as a person.
Yeah I think it was at the table.
I think it was very much directed at Jerry as a character.
For some of it yes but it also felt like a lot and this is also me kind of being on
my feminist soapbox of like I think that there's also a dynamic of me being the only girl and
the youngest person at the table.
Definitely part of it.
That in a lot of the session before that which we've talked about is very traumatic and there
was a lot of death and a lot of stakes and I think several players came out of that being
like I have to protect her in the proper timeline.
I'm a literal fucking quote from somebody was I feel like I have to protect her in this
moment I'm going to follow her.
Yeah we didn't even talk about that uh my girl went to go out on what was basically
a booty call.
Bozo.
She got a U-up text at night and she was like yeah 30 year old man was like I'm gonna
chaperone.
And I said you don't have to do that man and he was like nah I'm going to.
So this entire encounter by the way uh there's a 30 year old man about like 40 feet away
from her at all times just watching.
Um yeah it was bad.
It was it was no.
Anyways.
No going back to what I meant to say something earlier.
Say it quick.
Um this is related.
Questions about combat say it quick.
I know um talking about uh like trying to approach romantic relationships at the table
and like flirting at the table when you're not comfortable with it you can also describe
what your character is doing without you actually doing it.
I do that shit all the time.
Which is what I did a lot of that session just because of the energy at the table was
a little weird.
I cop out of those more awkward interactions.
Yeah and I was like.
You see her do this.
You see her say that.
First of all I was like A I need to ease these people into it um and B it was.
Which is why I'm trying to introduce it to other people.
Yeah.
Cause it's like cool now you can't be mad and awkward because it's also happening to
you and you and you and you.
If you don't want to if you feel uncomfortable saying like a basically a pickup line to one
of your friends which is a completely normal thing to be uncomfortable with.
Yes that they all do in real life by the way to each other at the table unprompted.
They're grabbing each other's asses at the table.
It's.
Oh don't out them like that.
I'll out them.
Some of them have girlfriends Jesus.
They know.
Keep it together ma'am.
But being able to be like cool um like I like she blushes and laughs and like talks
her like hair behind her ear or something like that.
Not a single word was edited.
Not a single thing.
You don't even have to say word.
It's also a thing of like when you're talking about like.
That's it.
Flirting at the table and stuff a lot of that situation in like in real life is physical
not in the way of like you're touching somebody else but it's like your body language and
it's the way you say things and sometimes those things can get lost at the table where
I realized very quickly I was like cool all of the flirting she's doing is like nagging
and it's just coming across is like really aggressive.
It fully was.
It was like shutting him down and I'm like no no no she's not trying to it's just me
as Maddie can't do that at the table because like it's not translating well so being able
to be like okay cool how do I get across the intention of this thing.
Because I'm not playing a high charismatic character and I think it's different if you
are playing high charisma but like being able to describe a little bit of like oh she blushes
and says this or like because I had to catch myself several times to be like no that wasn't
like I'm like this is me letting you know that my bad flirting she's not like she doesn't
actually think that nagging it's it was bad that was it was rough it did not translate
at all but it works very well for the character.
Yeah.
Okay going back to the questionnaire how would you rate the difficulty of combat in our game
games.
Trivial crank it up a notch pretty easy just write pretty hard or brutal please dial it
back.
Probably somewhere between no I'm confident in saying pretty hard I don't think it needs
to be dialed back too much.
Wow so somewhere between pretty hard and brutal.
No.
Wow.
No I would say just write in pretty hard.
Okay I'll take that.
It's like pretty hard going for though.
Most of the time however there's some times where I'm like you gotta take it fucking easy
I would there are some encounters that you're not designed to win.
I would I was down three times in the last combat encounter twice if you had gone down
three times you would have died.
No.
Just twice because I'll well I went down to four one time and I considered that a down
okay well it's not a down well it's just saving throw.
Yeah pretty hard and brutal.
I aim for pretty hard brutal I think again I think these are all scales there are some
combat encounters that I designed to be trivial there are some that I designed to be just
right there are some that I designed to be brutal or pretty hard.
Most of the time I'm aiming for pretty hard because I like my combat to be as challenging
as the role play is.
I'm just I'm a difficulty person I like to see players and player characters grow through
adversity I think that's just how it happens.
And I think making your combat as difficult as you make your role play which I give them
a lot I mean 100%.
I am intimidating often times the DM that's what I go for.
I make the role playing very not difficult to interact with but there are a lot of roles
there's a lot of high stakes there's a lot of watching what you say and paying attention
to the people that are in the room.
I don't know I just there's some challenge to the game that I particularly enjoy a lot
and with combat I like to set it at a level most of the time unless it's combat that is
serving a different purpose so that they can grow through it like I would say that this
last one was pretty hard.
More for the NPCs less for the player characters themselves.
NPCs got fucked immediately.
NPCs got absolutely drunk.
But through the more difficult combat I think that there are more opportunities for the
team to come together as a team.
Like I think the pretty easy stuff is like we're having fun we're like we're beating
up goons but the pretty hard stuff is like holy shit like we barely walked out of that
but like also you did that really cool thing and then I did that cool thing and then we
did the cool things together like the pretty hard in solving the like the the puzzle that
is combat to me is incredibly satisfying to watch as a DM just to like watch how players
navigate that such as that's where I like my skill.
Yeah I think it's good I'm legit in real life worried about the NPCs after this fight because
it was.
Yeah it was bad.
One of the NPCs is a character that my friend my character is like trying to be friends
with so hard they already get along they've got like a nice natural chemistry they get
each other.
And like yeah they'll be best buds she invites him to this little like patrol thing they
end up getting jumped and this man gets fucked and I'm like real life worried.
He didn't get fucked that bad he did really well on the role that he took which was defense
he wasn't very aggressive because the two people he was with were fully aggressive.
Yeah that whole fight but he took several hard hits he never went down so I wouldn't
worry about it too too much but yeah a lot of our NPCs got fucked like in every way like
all of them all of them almost went down three of them did go down two of them three of them
went down first round it was one of them went down on the surprise round another one went
down on think two rounds after that and then the other two got very close.
But anyways how would you rate the frequency of combat in our games to few light just right
heavy too many.
I would say it's pretty even but sometimes because combat takes so long it feels a lot
more.
Like we're doing it more because if we're spinning to get like I thought we're both
of the same opinion with like the one on one off kind of situation.
I try to aim for two on one off usually because I know that my combat encounters are going
to go longer I fully believe in combat with a purpose I don't think frivolous bullshit
is fun for fucking anybody I mean I've had requests to do goon fights and then I make
the goon fights hard because it's like okay you want numbers I'll give you numbers we'll
do numbers we can play the numbers game and do a three and a half hour combat you do numbers
and then you also put a crack in the fight so fuck you I'm listen I stand by big guy
at the end of the room with a bunch of small guys in between that is my favorite fucking
format it is so fun I have somebody I can actually play and take actions with while you
all get to just beat the shit out of this this is gonna bite me in the ass.
No running around.
I'm fully aware.
I'm fully aware this is gonna bite me in the ass.
I love that that's your thing because I know exactly what you expect in most combat encounters
where I've see little guys I'm like cool big one in the back of the room.
Hey this shit sucks do you have something you want to send in to make it better?
Criticisms, topics you'd like to see discussed or an advertisement you'd like to run maybe
you even want to sponsor an episode.
If so shoot us a message at mc460 at evansville.edu or dms on instagram at crescent magazine
or we'll never get better like these fucking guys.
Immediately.
There's a little bit of a projectability there.
Yeah well I know when to save your spell slots.
Well I make my my combat's difficult enough that I think having a formula for you all to
follow to an extent is only fair.
I try to stick to that big guy and then little guys in the room or big guy in the room somewhere.
I don't know if everybody strategizes like that.
They don't.
At our table though.
They do not.
I think I'm really I might be one of the few people to put up with that.
I try to stick to it mostly because I like having at least one thing that I can play around
with in combat so that I get my fun but anyways frequency.
It's yeah I mean.
I think it leans heavy sometimes because of how long our combat encounters are.
I agree.
So I try to aim for two role playing focused sessions and then one because I think that's
more equal for us in terms of just feel because combat can sometimes turn into a bit of a
slugfest and it's just like action hit next action hit next action.
There's always that lull where it's like God it's still fucking okay fine.
And that's a ball.
Yeah and I try to I try to make combat encounters interesting by either introducing new new
characters to watch into into to sort of have fun with.
I fudge some of my roles to make things more dramatic because it brings people back in
like holy fuck our main player just got shot in the chest.
We got to do something we can just like sit here and watch him fucking 1v7 everybody
at the you know like I try to switch things up a little bit but yeah I don't know it's
a mix it's a struggle sometimes please.
Oh this is interesting.
Okay please rate your level of agreement with the following statements relating to combat
in our games.
There is it's basically strongly disagree disagree undecided agree strongly agree so
on so forth so just kind of picks one let's go.
We have too few combat encounters.
Strongly disagree.
Wow.
We have enough.
No you think we have too many.
We have too many combat encounters.
See this is where we figure out where you lie.
I don't think we do.
So are you undecided on this one or are you agree disagree there's no neutral.
I'm trying to think we have too many agree or disagree disagree with we have too many
but like a stronger disagree on the issue.
Okay I see I think we're in a good spot but sometimes combat to me can feel long because
I'm not.
I know all my combat abilities and their rules.
Okay fuck you.
So I'm gonna lie and say agree bullshit disagree because it's every every fight every fight
there's a point about halfway through where I go oh wait fuck and realize I've done this
or I should have done that or I could have added that that's just that we talked about
this in the last episode five fifth edition or several episodes are so much to learn
in fifth edition and I take pride in being at least by my players I've been called a
pretty good DM and specifically for the edition I take pride in that because there's a lot
to fucking know but like also zero shade of people that just cannot crack it because
it takes a lot of time things considered I think I know it very well I think I just
have ADHD and I think you've gotten better reading what they do and remembering what
they do because I kind of like skim things.
So we're okay well we'll say somewhere between agree and disagree yeah the pacing of combat
is no I agree that I know my rules disagree fuck you the pacing of combat is too slow
uh... it fluctuates sometimes it's like cool I didn't have two seconds to like fucking
get my bearings and now it's my turn and then there's also times where I'm like I swear
to God it has been this mother fuckers turn for twenty god damn minutes and if he doesn't
make a choice I'm gonna reach across the table in real life and hit him you're going to enter
real initiative right now I think that's good though that's the energy that I aim for because
it means that you're in fact you've achieved it for sure that's that that's what you know
you're invested when you're waiting for your turn actively plotting your actions it is
one of my favorite things to watch players talk to each other between turns and go okay
so I'm gonna do this what do you think I'm gonna do this what do you think okay I'm
gonna do that that shit it's so fucking fun to watch like to have you all act as a little
team or to be like listen I'm waiting for my turn I've had this action plan for thirty
minutes see my thing with that and then the enemy fails works out and then the enemy
passes to save it's not even that it's always someone in our fucking party that does this
is not at the person who did it last session I need to clarify that this is pent up I don't
even remember who it was oh wait no never mind yeah I do yeah this is not at that
person this is pent up body actually every I feel like every time I like I've because
a lot of my like things that I build my characters for are things that I've take like around to
set up in the second I go in to do the fucking second round somebody doesn't bullshit this
is where talking as a team comes into play it is both a real life our table issue as
it is a in character in game issue that will hopefully be resolved in the next two to three
sessions anyways the next one combat often moves too fast for me to decide what I want
to do disagree cool that's a lie and I think it's somewhere in between I think it just
depends I have a heart attack I wish there was more variety in the monsters we fight
disagree I don't really care what we fight no that's valid I try to make every goon
unique you know yeah it's also like I'm hitting them mm-hmm like I'm not just not really like
a hundred percent of your alley so it's difficult for me to I like narrative combat I like fighting
specific people I like people that and I I talked about this in the answer to the I I'm
not big on goon fights I don't give a fuck what critters were fighting I don't know man
all we're all like is a table pretty up in arms about having a goon fight because you
are tired of like having to pay yeah creatures y'all were like okay enough of the big one
it's large creature can we just get a couple of goons we wanted to feel successful you
successfully won that fucking combat encounter you had it was like a whole like fucking boss
fight you had like a phase one and phase two and you killed every goon yeah it's just not
that fucking fun like respectfully I agree it for me at least for me for me I like I wish I had
more opportunities to use my abilities I'm not like a critter hitter it's not my thing critter
hitter I don't know if that's a term I wish I had more opportunities to use my abilities
strongly agree yeah I know these are coming I'm not gonna bore everyone on the podcast with
this but these are it I've had several conversations with Robert in real life about like sometimes
I build my characters in certain ways but me as a player has to take a role where I don't get to
do the things that I want to do because someone at the table has to fill this role she very much
is like a like a floater kind of like a fellow because she's one of the more I would say like
adept players at the table she understands combat is bunches she doesn't love it just love I didn't
say like love I think you are also much more willing to fill the role that needs to be filled
as compared to other people I think part of that is just you're very flexible and in who your
character can be and you still role play them regardless of whatever thing they take but I
agree I it's difficult for me to give everybody an opportunity to use their abilities just because
I mean there's so many things to focus on and again everybody is still kind of in there like
I'm the main character phase yeah so some people are getting butted out more than others which
is why next session fingers crossed we're gonna have a team strategy meeting or like a team debrief
meeting because please work as a unit I feel like a lot of the time I just end up well here we go I
feel my abilities are being cancelled out or subverted strongly agree okay playing fucking
support and like don't get me wrong she's great at support but also like I can do almost like I did I
did 63 you can fill any role you need to fill truly yeah okay who in your opinion has been the best
villain or enemy so far what did you like the ones where I wrote essays you like and or hate about
them so there's a character who if you haven't listened to our podcast before highly recommended
we talked about these characters there was keloy yeah I talk a lot of slimy bastard yeah it's that
energy and like I'm just like my mother fucker glossing over what I like wanted to say when I
was originally filling this out and then I was like Robert it's cool I wrote like 750 words for
each question right and he was like absolutely the fuck not well absolutely if it's gonna take you
24 hours to finish the question it wasn't I was trucking through them but what's one thing that
you liked about killer I am I have a quick loss make it quick quick loss more questions I know I
promise it's a quick loss quick loss character himself was very fun but there were like specific
aspects of them that I found compelling as a player and this is kind of a bit more universal for
like talking about a podcast instead of just our individual things this was a character who was not
he was a villain who was not hands first and I think that that was one of the most compelling
things about him is he was a villain who would sit down with the party and buy them drinks and
talk to them and ask them questions and be like hey well instead of us you know doing the whole
thing where we like chase each other down and I kill you because that's what's gonna happen you
can just go ahead and give me the thing that I'm looking for and I will pay you so much money I
will pay you actually more than money I will give you your own universe literally I will give you
your own universe your perfect world if you just if you just turn the other way and let me kill
this goddamn little elf bitch that has been a thorn in my side yeah pretty fucking much like it
was one of the things I really loved about this character is we got to know him as a villain we
spent more time with him outside of combat than in combat and I don't think that's always
traditional for a villain or a baby prodigal most of your experience with her in combat our
current like bbg to us is when we've only only interact with in combat to interject one thing
that I really appreciate about what I've managed to achieve is a dm is that there are many bbg's
and that that is visible like you all are fully aware as players the prodigal is like not the
whole no the whole thing like she's not even close to the bbg of the campaign no but she is a
significant current problem but she is the biggest possible problem that you all as a team can
tackle because it's like how to and this is a whole tangent before we talk about some some more
the answer but like creating villains that aren't just fucking impossible obstacles that your players
can't navigate until they hit a certain level or get a certain magical item or become powerful
enough like to talk about keloy specifically being 100% honest there was never going to be a time
where they as a team were ready to fight him at full power yeah like that just was not going to
happen he went through a full combat with them before they got to the final combat with him and
it was difficult like they almost lost several several several times and and then there are
villains where it's like you are thinking reasonably see yourself as a team being able to buy a
product being able to prodigal one day we could jump her ass if we can we are kind of already
like starting to go in that direction with our current session right like it's not you all decided
to take this turn where it's cool we're tired of her coming to us we're gonna go to her because
of the nature of the character she was prepared she always is but like there's still like a sort of a
level of unexpectedness to that and being able to have like tiered villains where it's not just one
villain the whole fucking time yeah like he was a slow burn keloy wasn't mentioned in the first
half of the campaign and that was one of the things that I really liked about it is was the
mystery aspect it was the first like half of this campaign was us trying to figure out who the
fuck what is he first of all who is he what is his fucking problem with me actually get off my
dick like why are you obsessed with me right and like trying to figure out okay who this person is
and what their deal is and what I thought was so compelling about keloy is that we got to find out
who he was and what his fucking problem was outside of combat instead of in it and we also had
a lot of problems yeah we also got to find out some of that from him as opposed to like oh we heard
about it from another NBC or we read about it in a book or all of this that's because no I'm
kidnapped right now and we're fully just and I'm just having a casual car we're sitting across
from each other at a table I want her to leave there was nothing casual about the conversation
no it was it was constantly fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you that was
another note I had on here in particular this I literally wrote they were great foils because
of multiple reasons both one of them being they're both shitty and petty people who take
cheap shots and would do it again yeah I think that was by that that was one of the more interesting
aspects of his character was another thing that there was really compelling I would make the
argument that there was not a single person in the first campaign that was objectively a good
person no like I think rag bad and and I would I will disagree about him let me specify with why
I say rag bad rag bad was like an elf ranger who listened to previous episode podcast world
serpent's end his background was very good natured he was like good neutral and that like his
primary role was to essentially a hunt food for a village that took him in when he was like a
younger elf they got sort of cut off from his his like tribe okay but because of the fact that
he grew up alone and mostly in the woods he was very like anti-social and really only cared about
like a handful of things when being his village to being being good at hunting and in three
getting away from people so there wasn't any goodness to be expressed there because he was
stuck in a room full of people he didn't fucking like yeah you could say fucking Killian was to
an extent like I think there was some good nature in there but again only towards nature itself
yeah he was fully willing to commit crimes and kill people if it meant helping his friends and
then also helping nature like he didn't really give a fuck he let several corpses get raised like
like a lot of them yeah there was there wasn't really a hard line for him but I think what is
so interesting about keloid was it was like keloid not trying to take down like a group of
paladins clerics and fighters it was keloid trying to take down this shifty ass scumming group of
people that will do any and everything to get away from him or to pull one over on him consequences
be damned yeah and it was that was so world's gonna fall cool fuck you you're not getting what you
want and one of the big things I'm already a sucker for any like villains that you the with
a personal connection to like and this was a character who I was not technically related to
but like in a way very involved in not a familiar relation yeah it's too complicated to explain
like right off the cuff listen to the but having that personal connection was great and then also
looking at it and being like there's several parallels there of like my character was compared
to this character to the fucking villain yeah multiple times not only by the party members
upon like first meeting them was like are y'all like either like a thing or related or like there
has to be some connection between you two because y'all are like two peas in a fucking pod and like
she was he was referred to as her friend by party members for like a while and then also having
NPCs in the world be like oh yeah y'all are like but like you work together and it's like no like
don't not a co-worker don't associate me I actively make attempts on his life you like every day
it's not a joke um and then also like having that and then like all of these different other foils
of like personality foils and then that like that cheap shotness and being able to be like it's that
level of pettiness of like this was also a bad guy like this was a very powerful character and I
stabbed him more times than I can count and it was like a thing of like it's also it makes very
terrifying villain to be able to have like your players fucking throw hands and like knives and
shit upon seeing this person and then just not even having them react yeah in any way and then the
one time that he did react he fucking like nuked her yeah and like it was one of those moments of
like it's also a fun thing as a villain to be like yeah I'm that fucking powerful that you like
stabbing me like really you're gonna do this we can't just talk why can't we just talk and it's like
it was 100% that fucking sound I'm the devil from the bible yeah it was just I don't give a shit
about your monologues I don't care what plans you have the magical items are cute or whatever but
like respectfully yeah I am older than all of your lifetimes can bind I will outlive your
grandchildren's grandchildren I don't know why we're having this conversation right now respectfully
step on the pedestal so we can start this it was it was also so fun playing with a petty villain
of like two you just put the two pettiest motherfuckers in a room and it was truly a lot of like
fuck you it was the cheapest shots that you can imagine you like you fucking horn I'm like and
bitch yeah try it again okay like it was just next very fun thank you next uh who is or was your
favorite NPC and why okay uh probably not a surprise right current one is jury um I've talked about
this I think that he's just one of the most fleshed out characters that I've like come across
in like any d&d media honestly that's not a player character he feels more fleshed out than
several player characters I'm not saying at our table um it's valid though yeah there's more
personality to him in backstory and like moral and intuition and in all those those fun things
that come with the character than most and it's all so there and there was a you can just tell
even from the way that he and this is me also kind of like I guess hyping you up as a dm hell yeah
um and like are a kind of player almost um you could tell you can tell this characters or this
NPCs inner life so clearly through like non like through interactions that aren't even there you
can tell by the way that he interacts with each person in the party that there's an inner life
going on because he has such a different relationship with each of these people like for example um he
has a like the rival re-estrangement with shadow and then he also has his personal fucking beef
with volt now and then is still like in the hero person cock blocker bro in front of grown ass cock
blocker was crazy move out of my fucking house um and then the general like hero persona that he's
putting on and causing chip and one of the moments that I like wrote down as an example that highlighted
this the best is there's a moment where another NPC um named morphe is telling the party um about
how he and nightlight met and is like oh it's like a goofy story she was trying to buy a gun and then
I like helped her because she started like fighting the people who were trying to buy she was trying
to buy a gun from and like blah blah blah it was a cute little bit and then the character jury
interrupts him in the middle of this and is like okay cool that was fun um and like normally you
would think it would be like kind of difficult to interrupt yourself because you're having two
separate conversations but you could immediately read okay cool I know exactly why this character
is interrupting this character is uh a little bit jealous and also upset that he's not the spotlight
of attention right now and also he came here with homegirl and you're talking about him
are you talking about her and you're talking about how like y'all mad that's cute fuck you um and
just being able to tell like that in her life from an interaction that could and should have been
pretty difficult to pull off as a DM just in terms of like interrupting yourself yeah that was hard
doing um but it came across like really really clearly and then another one in the same way and
this is going into character relationships and I think this is very character relationship driven
I think the characters that I'm drawn to in terms of like NPCs and villains the most
are ones that have a personal and like a a deeper connection and like very complicated or like deeper
relationship with my particular player I just think that's like by nature um it in the same way
that Magnolia and like I don't think I would like have liked Keyloy as a villain so much
if I was not playing Magnolia I don't think that I would like jury as much if I was not playing
nightlight yeah because once again I think there's a lot of opportunities just with the way that these
characters are are written and the way that like I that nightlight is and the thing that has been
established with jury is like they're very different characters they're like very I cannot
describe to you how different they are very different people um literally two opposite ends of the
spectrum she's a huge like hero fan she wants to be here she's up and coming she's broke um she's
super optimistic and believes that there's good in everyone to a fault which is another thing
that I'll talk about in a minute and then jury just what's quick rundown jury is he's like jury is
like a fresh out of like a couple years out of college um like 23 24 blonde hair blue eyes no
facial hair um like a solid black and gold suit with like a little bit of his chest exposed he's
uh always at the center of attention he has a lot of money to throw behind like his campaigns and
in being like a spotlight a hero's hero but also doesn't really have any super powerful unique
abilities to boast of his own so a lot of the his um a lot of what makes jury jury is his personality
both in public and in private like he has a very loud presence whether it is any comic book on
social media or behind closed doors um he is very loud he's very arrogant he's very boisterous he's
very confident he's trained a lot harder than a lot of other heroes have because he has to make up
so much of his lack of natural ability and just fucking raw strength and just like tactical
knowledge and he's very much one of those things where like you meet him you think he's an absolute
douchebag but then you get into combat and you're like thank fucking god juries here yeah because
he's like holy shit it's over he's like literally was hidden in the clouds got an entire round of
surprise because of how well hidden he was came down and fucking accidentally killed someone or
like accidentally down someone you could tell like this was robert be like that was not fuck i didn't
mean to do that supposed to happen um like he's a wildly he's a wildly frustratingly capable character
and because he is that capable that's where like the shitty personality comes in yeah he's a hero
because it's fun to be a hero not because he enjoys being a great person but because it's just fucking
fun and it it creates such a fun dynamic for these two particular like characters i think because a
there's just with the idea of like okay this person is kind of a douchebag like there's no
getting around that they're involved in something shady um but this is also another like night
light as a character who believes there's good and everyone to a fault why would she not yeah
like why not him yeah no she believes that 100 to her core and so that creates a lot of fun dynamics
of okay this is a character who's definitely going to make shitty decisions i'm so confident in saying
that yeah like i think that's fair to say um see i think one of the things that i did right with him
in the beginning was having him be like his introduction was really shitty he was basically
he was a little buzzed um he was actively drinking beer on a rooftop next to uh what a how is it like
21 22 yeah 21 he's like 24 25 he's been a hero she star struck like holy shit it's jury he's
standing on the rooftop next to me asking me if i want to be a partner yeah that's you got any leads
like let's go be heroes because i i totally know what i'm doing yeah and then it's like cool i'm
now tack like jerry's now tagging along to this like spur of the moment fucking whiteboarded red
line everywhere like absolutely it's piercing board yeah 100 just put together theory on
where this character that's gone missing is and now he's like basically hijacked the mission but
nightlight is all too happy to have him there because it's like cool they're working together
yeah um but then instead of being a shitty person and flying away from this combat counter
when he got flustered because he did very early in he intimidated because someone said his government
name out loud uh or at least his government last name um instead of running away he immediately
goes fucking fists and is like cool fighting our way out of this like um and then saved saved a
kid like the child in the combat encounter was like the main source of um like want to keep safe
like everyone very quickly rallied as a a group of unknown party members because there was like a
good thing to be done and jury was the one that did that like jury immediately went to the kid
once he was aware that the kid was in the building grabbed the kid flew out yeah um and then helped
kind of support in different ways through like hit and run tactics but like i think that was one
of the better decisions i made uh for him as an npc was to show that like yes he's got a really
shitty personality but he is still a hero and he's not going to back down from being one either
yeah almost to like a really stubborn um like extent like the the links that he will go to be a hero
not just like being seen as one but just actively being one to himself are probably farther than
most people would go yeah uh which is what makes him more of a unique npc and like unique person
to interact with i think it also makes for like this weird because uh he quickly got a little
bit exhausted with uh nightlight towards the end of like interacting with her after he was like okay
cool she's not gonna fuck off and like do drugs and party with me so yeah why the fuck are we here
and then he ended and he comes around and he was like okay here let me give you some advice
and then was in like the most recent session reached out to her and like i mean yeah it was also for
ulterior motives yeah 100 but that was still like the first superhero in this world who is like viewed
her as a hero and like reached like reached out and like actually was like no i mean like yeah i'm
trying to sleep with you but also there is a real case that like yeah we could be working on and you
know something about it clearly and i can help yeah i can be present yeah so i need to be really
it's very much that like daisy has or nightlight has such like i can fix him energy um and he is a
thing he is a person to be fixed homeboy is a fixer upper oh yeah 100 that's for sure and i think
it's also a fun thing of like not knowing what is going to come next because these characters are so
different and it could go so many ways um i think it's something and like i'm not even talking in
like a romantic sense or anything but like literally i don't ever know what the next interaction with
these two characters is going to look like in a positive way of like i think there's just so many
routes that it could take because they feel like two very very fleshed out people um yeah like they're
very much real people i think jury is probably the one i've reached a point in this particular
campaign where um all of my npcs feel like very distinct personalities that i just so happened
to put the face on like kind of in that in that more actory realm like sometimes it feels like
method acting with the characters because it goes beyond just you get in there it goes beyond just
remembering the personalities and like the the plot hooks of characters like it is fully trying to
embody those people when i'm talking is them otherwise i'm just it's going to come off
awkward it's going to flop i think that's something you do very well because a lot of the times and
one of the things i respect about you as a dm but also can like find frustrating as a player
is when you are when you are an npc i will say this my man acts like he's in there it is ridiculous
to avoid where sometimes i'm like robert this is not feasible for our table because he'll be like
cool this is what the npcs goal is and i am not going to stop until they get that goal i've been
in a common encounter with another people don't stop man who tries to kidnap me in the middle of a
fight and i'm like what is your game plan here so fucking fun that was crazy shut up in the middle
of an end all be all combat encounter they're like okay loose alliance we can't kill this thing and he
was like i kill that i fuck off i hate this bitch i hate this bitch way more than i hate you guys
and then mid-combat encounter is like actually old person it's just fully like actually we're
gonna take a very different route now i'm going to kidnap someone and i was like at the moment
i was like these have a very distinct goal and in mind when i try to play them because that's
what helps me get in their their state of mind and i think it's really cool but also as a player
i'm sitting there going what the fuck is your game plan here right now if you kidnap me in the
middle of this fight there's a dragon we have to kill the dragon if you don't drag and don't mean
shit to me fuck tell it eats me like another example of that was with fucking jury in the last
or not the last session the one before that when this certain character we talked about like middle
school chaperone is this fucking grown as me and is following my character as she's going to meet up
with this hot hero guy who is like hey you want to work on a case together fuck yeah i do um she's
in like she's excited for this and he's like cool leave yeah chaperone i'm gonna need you to dip
like you want you weren't invited for this multiple times and then is like cool no i'm not i'm gonna
say oh yeah yeah yeah we'll meet you there we'll meet you there i'm going to not give you the address
and i'm going to fucking super speed flyway and literally was doing like legitimately as if robert
was like a player character trying to get volt to fucking leave a hundred percent like a pc i was
like how do i what do i fucking do a gun yeah well he decides hey i'm gonna follow them and
basically to to stay with them i'm not going to lose them i refuse to do that eyes on he follows
jury flies faster than he can than he can basically watch uh he gets a really high investigation
check manages to track down where jury lives which is basically like the top of a pen house
apartment and then proceeds to basically wait outside yeah like just waits outside and then
eventually teleports in the house and jury go jury walks out and goes hey didn't i tell you to
fuck off and he was like yeah but i don't really care and then jury goes yeah i think i have to
stick to remember telling you don't step on my fucking property yeah or it's going to become
like a physical altercation where you get arrested like that is that i'm not this isn't i'm going to
throw you out on your ass this is i'm going to throw you out on your ass then i'm going to charge
you with trespassing and i'm going to lock you up in jail yeah it was one of those moments where i'm
like is there about to be like like it looked like they were going to be real hands thrown so i didn't
know if the npc was going to be the one that's going first that was the level of like so then the
character doesn't back down and he's like i don't really care about you so you know what jury does
jury goes you know what that's fine we'll see how much you care about the next thing i do goes to
his gun safe pulls out a gun and then walks into the basically the family room and points out and
goes cool this is the game you want to play i can throw hands i have super speed we'll make this
real easy you get shot you go down like the rest of them it was i really get out of my house it was
a lot and it was at that point that it clicked with the character oh i don't want it to get this
serious and then he left which is a very mature decision which was crazy that it took that long
but like that that for me was a very defining moment for jury's personality because it's like
yeah i want to do everything like to the best of my own ability but also i'm not above taking the
easy way out of the situation especially if this is like a quick and immediate goal that i gotta get
done yeah i'd love to do it the hero way i don't have time for a grown-ass man in pajamas standing
in my family room leave gun yeah it was and it's one of the things i like really respect about the
NPCs that you do is they feel so like fully formed out and that's also because i i think that one of
the ways that we play is we don't have a lot of like random NPCs it is a lot of like most of the
people that we meet we're gonna meet or talk to them gonna continue to meet or continue to talk to
and it's really cool to see how fleshed out these people are okay uh she's crazy like a 25 minute
answer but thank you no i really appreciate it uh name something you'd like to see more of in our
dnd sessions going forward um i like it i love playing with all of the NPCs but i think that's
also just because of like the way that they're written um is really fun so i always love those
interactions um i also have been really enjoying like i seeing the party interact with each other
and also with some of these NPCs which is like finally starting to pick up almost fucking six
months into the campaign yeah um but i think like and it's starting to happen now of like
characters asking about other characters like i was asked for the first time ever at this goddamn table
um for this particular campaign by the way no ever oh for what i'm about to say yikes um
from another player at the table being like hey so what's your deal crazy that it's the amount of
the lack of information of personal information that is traded between players at this table
it's baffling and what's the most baffling to me is it wasn't like a big plot hook that
that caused this to happen no the reason they asked is because she showed up with a man she
showed up with jury and then they were like cool who do you hang out with hold me aside and like
what's up man yeah what are we doing what are we doing what are we bringing random random people
here why are they here yeah and it's like oh now we have questions yeah now we have questions
it's yeah i've never truly i've never seen a group of players get so far as a party and then not be
able to answer simple questions like why are you a party yeah that was a question that like that is
the extent that like lack of information being traded will go at this table there was a moment where
going back to jury jury asked my character was like why do you hang out with these people
and me as a player i went well fucking fumbled 100 i have no idea i actually don't know
yeah i mean i know logically it's because we all are sitting at this table but like
there was not really an in-character reason um at all yeah other than just like this is a group
of people i found myself being shacked up with by the essentially association with a crime like
yeah it was like i didn't really have a choice we gotta be together because we gotta be together
yeah i mean the law i guess the eyes of the law until we resolve our our largest problem which
is harboring a fugitive yeah i also think uh i love dialogue and combat we finally started
having dialogue and combat yeah moments where you're like jury came through the communicators
and people started using them finally um but of even being like cool you watch your teammate do
something sick as shit over there there was a moment where two of our characters did like a
little combo move and another character you want to see the name of the no i'm good i'm so okay
not saying that you want to say it i'll spell the second word so there's an ability in the book and we
skip this actually any jne ga bolt it's like mega but with an n that's the name does it it's
shorthand for negative bolt because it is basically a shit ton of necrotic damage
a couple of our heroes come up with a combo move because they reached a certain basically a
a certain level of familiarity with each other that i want to incentivize continuing to build
those relationships because it was like frankenstein and frankenstein's monster finally figured out how
to make things work and so of course uh they were trying to figure out what to name their super
move which is basically one of them sticks out like a little conduit on the outside of their body
our electrics superhero or lightning superhero charges it and then our our robot body can choose
what to do with that energy so they decided to call it mega then the name of the of the power
which is mega with an n bolt so mega mega volt but with an n and um if you can piece together
what that sounds like when you say the second word really quick that's why they chose it
actually that's why one person i you need to practice i'm getting there i'm getting there
the one of one of the one of our players is white in this equation and the other player is black
it was our black player that decided it would be really funny to try and get the white player to
slip up at the table and call it that and to this day our white player has not said the name of the
super move once anyway cool yeah we are getting canceled our players my kid canceled we're fine
what was what's something that you would like to see less in our city we gotta go we gotta go we
don't have time we gotta go never mind i guess i won't give my really cool example oh my god what
what is your really cool example there was a moment where this is not fast okay cause i turned to my
character and was like oh my god did you see that they've got a fucking rail gun now or basically
like things like that of like reacting to what other people are doing i think it's really really
cool and i would love to do that more fantastic name something you'd like to see less in our dnd
sessions i can't give an answer that's nice for the podcast name i cannot name the podcast
come on i think i would like to see people listen more okay um i think i think that became very
apparent to the table after our flashpoint episode mm-hmm yep i would really like to be taken
to see i would like players at our table and characters at our table to take me a little
bit more seriously right um as like to to clarify to clarify because it sounds immediate shitty but
i think context is needed for that one in particular i don't mind the answer i think being real in
that sense is really important because her character is the young the second second youngest in the
group and because the crazy part and because she's been down in a few combat encounters and she's
very like new to the game and is like ah ah ah what do i do what do i do oh shit things are happening
our our heroes that have a little bit more experience there are two of them specifically
have very much taken on this role of like coddling and chaperoning and not really mentoring but being
like oh pretty baby that's so cute of you to think that you can do things we're gonna just keep you
safe from the outside world and i think that's less of the the players themselves in much more
of the players getting really into what they think their characters would feel which is basically
this sense of responsibility um and i i like that we've had a very real emotion in the campaign i
don't necessarily like how it's made you feel as a player um but i think it is something interesting
to explore because the whole reason why i wanted to do this campaign or one of the reasons was to
explore a very complicated dynamic between heroes in a group um because it is not it is not easy to
put a group together when you have five different reputations to take to take in mind when you
have five different secret identities when you have five backgrounds five groups of family members
and loved ones that you care about five different sets of powers that's fucking hard yeah and it is
not as simple as getting in a spaceship and then getting blasted with radiation and coming back
being able to turn your fucking fingers into silly string that's not how it happens um real people
are real people and there's a hundred percent always going to be a risk when you have a older
experienced adventurer or a hero and a younger inexperienced hero or adventurer um where one
where the older person's basically gonna be like cool i'm either gonna do it for you i'm gonna tell
you how to do it and then do it myself or i'm gonna make sure that you don't die yeah and it can get
very coddling very quick and i think it's a very real thing to try and deal with as characters but
it is frustrating as a player to deal with because it's like come on when are you gonna give it up
when are we gonna get out of this headspace because it was also like i think there was also an idea
of like my character has gone down multiple times she has i would also like to say my girl has gotten
back up every fucking time she's an incredibly resilient hero it's one of the things that she
does best as being a support and being resilient and getting up and having a backup plan like she's
an incredibly intelligent strategist because she spends her free time reading comic books
like learning and studying the examples of what this kind of shit looks like i mean it's obviously
different like i can't watch all fucking a bajillion seasons of Grey's Anatomy and then
perform open heart surgery but she can but if somebody who can literally manifest the powers
and abilities of the people that she reads about it can definitely get a lot closer to that
yeah so there has to come a point is is characters and is players to give up on this particular
character feature or point where it's like okay she can hold her own she can do her own thing she
is not a character or a hero to be coddled she has somebody that just needs to learn and to study
and to grow but like in their own way without just being like padded on the head and pushed into the
corner oh pretty baby we'll take care of you because it's it stunts growth in real life and in
any games like it's just there's no there's no two ways around it so i'm 100% agree um i think
there is a level of metagaming that happens to the table that is weird because people are very
quick to go damn i don't like that npc you haven't met them but then also be like damn i'm gonna take
care of that character you along with everybody else this table have watched this character
player pc whatever the fuck all the above get through every single combat encounter in survive
not only that but take down one of the most strongest marshal characters take down several
people like it i mean it incredibly proficient hero and that's what's so exciting about members
that's what's so exciting about nightlight is that she has so much potential to be an incredibly
powerful hero she's just stuck in a group of people that very much see it one way and no other way
yeah you know and i think that's one of the things that makes jury kind of fun is like he doesn't
really give a shit yeah i don't really care what level you are i think you're attractive
you're competent as a person there's something to happen here yeah that's what we're going with
i think a good flip of this was uh literally talking about i was when i invited this character to a
basically our like a little ambush we were doing and i like mentioned the fact i was like well i'm
playing bait so like if you want to come for that reason he was like oh yeah sure and so like made
like a joke several times of being like very big about like no she's and she's not gonna get hurt
the whole time okay guys you got that you took notes cool good and like being like very big about
that but like that read very differently as opposed to like being um he also ditched her the second he
got to combat like yeah like i didn't expect i very quickly became about taking out as many bad
guys as humanly possible i would give her this she believes that she believes he's a great person
but like also it was the same in the first combat encounter it was as soon as like fists start flying
my man is gone yep she was not expecting what he does best like he was not a support character
he watched her get fucking domed yeah like but that still felt different of like making a big
thing of like no you're not going to be hurt blah blah blah because it was like a bit it was like
it was very much like i'm gonna i'm gonna show about here and be like i'm not gonna let her get hurt
that was like that was a different type of character choice and yeah i'm sure that if he's like able
to like soup it and be like i'm your hero he's gonna but like for a different reason it's not
because he doesn't think she's capable it's because he's trying to sleep with her which is different
um we've kind of already done this so i'm not going to have you answer but it's name one memorable
favorite or otherwise epic moment from our sessions i think we've talked about several so many of those
in this episode alone um okay last section what is one in pc relationship your character wants to
explore i'm gonna say somebody other than jury um parker uh i'm i'm very very excited about parker
um it is a character that was made by one of my yeah made by one of my very good friends this
original character um back from when if you listened to the last episode when i talked about new
metro um this was a character that was made for new metro uh from a very good friend of mine
and we like i talked to him and was like i like like he's like a little cameo in the campaign
and then he's like spiraled into a full character now um but the concept for him is basically like
this is nightlights all turry goes daisy and daisy's best friend like and i mean like more
than best friend like attached to the hip like it's a their relationship is like from anyone of
everyone's like love is it friendship are they siblings are they fucking yeah and everyone at
the table is still like also like when she interacted with jury people were like damn parker lost and
i was like what do you think parker lost that fight so quick um and it's like that's not it he's
still fighting yes but no it's like listen i'm not like parker's a fucking superhero parker doesn't
have fucking free pr and putting people in comic books like now i'm getting coffee with him later
calm down um but his shtick is basically he does not ethically agree with the concept of superheroes
and that creates like a big hero using powers to basically like put themselves above the law like
the very like harvey dent and dark knight returns that kind of deal when his best friend or who he
doesn't know is a superhero and once more than anything else currently right now her biggest
goal even above becoming a big hero is like getting his approval and getting him to be like yeah no i
like her she's cool she actually changed my mind about heroes without being like i'm a fucking superhero
please please please just like hear me out and being like the sake of our relationship please
and it's like a it's gonna i have a like i expected to be a big problem and i'm open to that being a
big problem and it's kind of fucked up to say that i'm very excited to like see yeah it's deal
happens there but like i think it's a very compelling thing and several of my favorite
interactions i've had with him but then when she's gone to hang out with him and they've talked about
the ethics of heroine and he's like actually no this thing that just happened that you thought was
good it's actually really shitty for the community and then for her to be like holy fuck okay time
to replant time to refocus time to rethink yeah how am i gonna fix this as a superhero okay i can i can
fix this i can fix this and like trying to balance the like personal life and like on top of that and
i think there's also just a lot to their relationship and it's very complicated and there's a lot of
feelings there that maybe like need to be explored in the dressed in a way um yeah laid to rest because
it's something it's very confusing because i didn't realize that my character felt so strongly about
his until uh we had our like fucked up one shot and i was like crying while talking to this character
and i was like oh my god is she in love with him like single i love you exchange and then no other
words yeah it was it was and people were upset at that interaction for sure yeah it was so short but
i mean nothing else that really could happen in the moment i think to talk a little bit about parker
sort of it's weird to say that like i've made him my own thing because i want to respect like the
original creator and the original source to it but like also parker is a character that i very
quickly resonated with uh if you haven't listened to any of the episodes of the podcast or don't
have a better idea for who i am as a person i'm very pessimistic by nature i'm very skeptical
of people doing good for altruistic reasons like there are several lines of of philosophy that that
argue that you cannot truly be altruistic which the the shorthand for that is basically you can't
do anything good for any reason outside of yourself like at the end of the day you're at least doing
it because it feels good to be good in that in and of itself as a selfish reason like it's it
gets really bogged down very quickly some people have arguments against it so fun living with him
i'm not an active proponent of that i think the answer lies somewhere in the middle i'm not a
philosopher i just studied it a little bit but anyways parker is a character that i very quickly
put myself in the shoes of and went okay he's probably like a little college educated enough
to know at least a little bit about the topics that he's talking about because like very similar
to myself i want to be educated about the shit that i talk about otherwise i found i sound fucking
stupid um and looking at um looking at sort of superheroes in relationship to the world that
they live in in sapphire city and sort of the the greater like earth or terrors it's called in the
source book is very similar to like how i would look at corporations donating or you know fucking
taylor swift planting trees somewhere in regards to everything else that they do right like it's
that's so great that i don't know x company i'm not going to name anything because you know sponsorships
x company just donated two billion dollars tree plant trees they're also like the number one
exporter of cardboard in the world yeah so like that doesn't fucking matter um and parker has a very
similar stance on superheroes which is that's cool and all that they like help people but then
what happens when one of them like fucks up or doesn't save that person or they get a blanket
check or a blanket statement or a card to basically do whatever the fuck they want i think it's also
like an argument that people make a lot of time and i still think there's a lot of credit to this
argument of like cool batman is in a costume and he's beating up poor people and uh people
like who's regulating superheroes it's the whole like a venture civil war it's that thing and it's
also like okay cool your superheroes what are you doing to help the city and help the infrastructure
what are you doing like the power begets power thing too right like there's a lot of really
cool arguments and comics and different like superhero media where the argument is made by a
character or by a group of people which is that essentially if superheroes didn't exist neither
with super villains yeah like there is a a certain challenge that is issued like a gong that is wrong
a bell that is struck when a powerful person comes in and says i'm going to be here and protect
these people and do these things and it's an open invitation for people to step to that yeah i mean
it's the same thing with like people challenging i mean the law and real life some people steal and
break the law because it's a fucking like it's a boundary that they can push right like if you
don't leak like if you don't make breaking and entering to someone's home illegal it's not a
crime and then people are still gonna do it don't get me wrong but people are gonna do it a whole
lot less in that way because they don't have like there's no barrier for them to cross and parker
has a very similar view on heroes which is that you all by your very nature are inciting more people
that are as powerful as you or potentially more powerful powerful as you to then do the opposite
yeah like it is infinitely worse for a superpowered um a deviation having person to commit a crime
than it is for a regular person to commit a crime i love using creation having person you got
politically correct in a world that you made up a deviant a deviant sorry like a deviant
committing a crime versus a non-deviant committing a crime is very different right because like a
deviant committing a crime could be cornered by the police and then blow up the corner store
yeah it's whereas a guy with a gun and a ski mask yeah that sucks you can shoot him he'll go down
but at least it's a guy with a fucking ski mask and a gun he's not going to blow up the corner
store but because you decided to go up and put fucking spandex on that guy now has to escalate
to that level or he's not getting out of this yeah if i don't blow up the building you don't
have somebody to save while i run the fuck away like it's just it's that whole thing and that's
just a very quickly fell into a very easy sort of state of mind with parker where it's this
constant like yes they do good but like no it's it's not healthy for the environment yeah
blah blah whatever um kind of already know that's going to the next one okay this is just
interesting way to end this fucking quiz uh magical items on this whole list about
what's something you want your character to do this campaign uh goals for them exploring their
backstory i think we have a pretty good idea of all that the last question on here is dnd campaigns
often have magical items please rate the following magical item traits on a scale of one to five in
terms of importance to help choose or create magic items for your character okay um okay
so the options are i do not want this not important not important indifferent i do not
want this is so fucking funny absolutely necessary magic getting an item and you go i do not want
this yeah uh a higher primary ability score so a magical item that increases one of your primary
ability scores intelligence wisdom strength um dexterity indifferent indifferent okay like a
higher secondary ability score you see this is like a skill like a saving throw like um
like a like a tech check stuff like that also indifferent okay actually no i would switch that
i would say not important for the secondary score and i would rather have uh indifferent being the
primary yeah okay higher ac harder to hit current with my current character in general agree agree yeah
i have an ac of 12 yeah it's kind of crazy uh a higher chance to hit so like an an increased
number for whenever someone does a damage roll yeah or an example sorry listen i've beefed
my i think you're doing fine i think i'm you know that's not really not cool uh more damage
yeah i think you're fine no i'm a damaged girl i you're fine i'm currently i do not i
answer is i do not want this it doesn't matter what she says the answer is i do not want this
i'm a damaged dealing girly ability to cast a spell you also already do this i do that
more than anyone else resistance to a damage type uh i still think that i should get resistance
to radiant damage because i fucking glow yeah whatever homeboy has uh necrotic damage boosts
if shadow if shadow gets boosts light doesn't get boosts light doesn't get boosts um an ability
i can use as a bonus action uh kind of fun sure but i think i can do everything that i do is a
bonus action already okay i will say indifferent uh an ability i can use as in a reaction sure i
think you already have those two i do you can't tell this character does a little bit of everything
i built her so well she can also throw hands she does a d10 uh in melee comp like with with hands
uh she's crazy something with a lot of flavor uh yeah absolutely necessary give me absolute necessity
that's all i give a shit about a few options i can choose from by expending the items charges
okay that seems more in line with like my general style most of the magical items that i've had in
the past have been very like and here's a list of rules that's very long and the shit that it does
is wildly complicated and complex but correct that's just i'm a mechanics guy i get bogged down
in that said i'm like you can do this incredibly broken thing if you meet the specific circumstance
yeah i then what that leads to is then people going fully out of their way in combat encounters
and in regular encounters trying to be able to use that magical item yeah because people just
can't help it i just kept trying to help it i was rolling two dice for every wild magic
search so enhance you a genie lamp you're gonna rub this shit out of it like it doesn't fucking
matter uh and that is it the last section is final thoughts so um yep that was our dnd campaign
refresher by guys name i said in the beginning uh we'll link it in the description i think and we
also talked a bit about character relationships yeah like it's habit um in the spirit of valentine's
day valentine's day i think that um this is something that i would recommend highly for
new dms less so experience slash those that are in the middle of a campaign um it is in the middle
of fucking extensive i mean you went through the questions with us uh there are so many things to
ask a lot of those are open-ended i think it really i'm hoping depending on how in depth the feedback
i get from people is which i have a strong feeling i'm gonna have some that is three words
and i'm gonna have some that are five paragraphs me right we have two different ends so part of it
too is encouraging your players if you give this to them even fill it out as yourself as a dm like
be thorough not five paragraphs thorough i don't need that i don't have time for that uh but like a
paragraph three or four sentences just being honest and truthful i think is is really important um
and to tie it back to character relationships in particular the more that i as a dm in the sort
of the npcs in the world understand about you as a character the easier it is for me to craft
relationships that feel right or feel fun or that give you the same enjoyment that kelo did for
magnolia or that jerry does for nightlight um i'm really trying to introduce characters like that
for everybody it's easier to do with madison's characters mostly because she's very um clear
um clear on her personality like in the same way that you went it's sort of at length about how
clear jury is as a character i think all of your characters are very like very much that way and so
it's easier for me to give you what i do for a living oil or an alternative or somebody that
clicks very well but if i don't know anything about your character or your preference as a person
i can't give you that customized experience um everybody in this campaign as of now with the
exception of one person really has at least one person that they like to go to or that we establish
that they go to and they talk to outside of work um and i haven't had a lot of time to deal with any
of them parker included but they were all created at least in some way to be either a reflection
of the character themselves what i knew about them a foil some kind of like a grounding base for them
to go back to like a lot of for a lot of them it's best friends for sebastian it's a best friend who
is very much not a hero he's on the opposite of the spectrum he is a hundred percent not like a
villain villain he is like a leader of a gang he's like a villain in the way where it's like cool
nobody else is taking care of my community this shit sucks uh i'm gonna do it myself but do it on
speed but do it on speed and with guns because i'm not getting punked out in these streets um
that's sepastian's best friend who's an upcoming hero best friends with a gang leader uh and then
there is um i have to say one of my favorite quotes from a previous session was uh one of the characters
going in late sebastian going in length to his father the superhero about how good gangs are yeah
don't hurt the gang's dad and he goes they're gangs sebastian
they're gangs which is just like i i don't know what he thought was gonna come out of that but
yeah no it was great though it was i mean i think that was a really great character point is like a
naive 18 year old boy being like no like don't hurt my friends like they're good people and it's
like cool i'm the numbers i'm like the second like top rated the second top rated hero in the
entire city i don't like i can't just go cool my son likes you and you sell drugs and also shoot
at people uh you get a free pass yeah especially when like that particular heroes like reputation
is being very uh very like sort of difficult and aggressive and abrasive and very boisterous and loud
and kind of not cruel but very much cruel on enemies um there's not a fucking shot in the dark
doesn't matter who it's coming from that anybody is going to be able to persuade him to like give a
gang a free pass it's not gonna happen but that's just another it's a wonderful moment in role playing
where i think dakota as a you've already said his name so yeah that's fine dakota is a person
and sebastian as a character both wholeheartedly in that moment wanted to stick their necks out for
reiki regardless of consequence knowing who they were talking to and still did it anyways
um just to get like that slap back in the face to be like no i don't care if you're my son which
he's a shitty person uh he's not a great father they don't live with him for a reason that's cool
that they saved you in all i'm glad that you're still breathing in front of me but they're gangs
and i'm a hero like there's a very clear relationship to set here also don't call me dad in front of
my hero buddies because that shit's just lame um is it fucking fun stuff at the table man let's
again talking about strong clear personalities very clear and very good for oil for sebastian of
like this yeah inferno is very much uh i didn't even think about it that way really i mean that's
the one i read that sebastian has a lot of npcs in particular that he has a lot of very strong
bonds with between his aunt and his uh his sister and his father sort of being like at the at the
top of that like a foil list um and i never designed inferno to be a foil for sebastian's
character but i mean that's just kind of what naturally i luck out sometimes with the way
that i portray my characters and that they i try to mold them around the person that i'm
interacting with and then that kind of naturally falls into place the way it should and coming
up with inferno and in particular just it felt right to be a dick it felt right to be
if you have you notice that's such a lot of it different in such a different way though because
jury is a dick in that he's loud and he's annoying to be around and he's very leadership focused and
he's cocky and he's arrogant but he's still funny to an extent yeah and he's always joking and he's
always trying to make fun of things inferno is a dick in the way that it's like i don't care what
relationship you hold with me in my life family or not you do not get a free pass yeah i don't
care if you're my wife i don't care if you're my son my daughter my grandchild my mom my dad my
brother it doesn't matter business business business business i'm a hero to be a hero at the end of
the day i don't give a shit who you are you crossed that line you've crossed he's very batman in the
sense that like there's a very very black and white line there and sort of that dickish behavior just
comes from a very annoying moral code to constantly have to navigate with him because it's like i don't
even know if i want to call him because if i call him yeah what happens to my friends if he finds
out who they are and then what happens to these other people if he gets involved because it's
like i'm friends with gang members and i'm also friends of vigilantes and they're one in criminals
like it's just but who the fuck else am i gonna talk to like i gotta save my family interesting
things and something that i think that you do well is i think that when you create characters
i don't think you make them with the intention of them being foils i think it just happened i don't
think you made keeloy to be a foil of magnolia uh... like in the slightest i think that was something
that like was cool these are two just big dicks in the locker room uh...
one is significantly larger than the other yeah i was talking about personality i'm not even talking
about power level yeah i recognize that's valid she's not a god i think he had a smaller personality
than magnolia did at times just because he didn't yeah need a large one yeah he had like
thousands of them yeah he could do whatever he wanted i don't need to i don't even be the loudest
person in the room i have more gold than all of you i have access to things you don't have access to
i can't be killed by any of you fuckers well that's how she thought of herself
like exactly it was a very similar mentality mentality of like they have those very similar
energy and then i also think that like there's two other characters in our party that i think are
it going to unintentionally become foils of each other in a way
um... which is shadow and nightlight hundred percent huh shadow and night well yeah that i
wasn't even thinking about those two but yeah i mean that's kind of implied what the fuck is she
thinking about i was saying that there's a really interesting relationship between chip and volt
oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah no one hundred percent i think that that's like fully there which i mean
also yeah if you have a shadow based character and a light based character that's and then you
have frankenstein and frankenstein's monster yeah also frankenstein works for the fbi
and the monster is on the most wanted list actually number one
yeah it's like i crazy fucking circumstances man yeah now it's just i love the walking into and then
trying to give myself a little bit of credit coming up with those those character relationships
npc things it's fun makes the game more lived and breathed then i can give you all a more like
emotionally grounded experience yeah it's fun but uh fantasy in particular i think the reason why i
struggle with it so much is so much of it seems inconsequential yeah it's like we've seen it all
we've done it all there's only so many ways you can kill a dragon and so many ways like you can do
this crazy absurd shit at the ninth level and all so i'm just not compelled to that world because i
think you can do more fun shit when and like also like um i my rule i think i said was like cool if
the world doesn't have indoor plumbing i'm probably not gonna fuck with it uh and i mean i still kind
of stand by that like i would infinitely rather play in like a steampunk universe than a fantasy
universe they have plumbing i mean it's just like the vibes man like it's like civilization things
can feel a little bit more modern a lot of fantasy stuff it doesn't feel like you're allowed to say
the word fuck which is like weird you know what i mean yeah it's like this is stuffy we gotta say
like oh yee ass language oh yee motherfucking bitch ass still said it i know still said it i should i'm
like fully a theaters dude i couldn't pull out yee motherfucking bitch ass just add the word yee to
it sir this is a tavern thou are i was about to say something i'm not saying something i really can't
say on the podcast um thou are to harlot that's not what i was gonna say um i'm not gonna say what
i was gonna say okay thank you all for tuning into another episode of day will talk uh valentine's
day special npc relationships and this fantastic quiz yeah see you next i thought you were gonna
add next thursday