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Hello players who got into D&D from Stranger Things and found out there's a better system than 5e to run your Stranger Things world in.
DMs who refuse to watch Stranger Things or plan a system adjacent to Stranger Things because fuck that show, it did nothing for us.
You can't, I, okay, welcome to Table Talk, I'm Maddie.
I'm Robert.
You can't keep...
I just did.
So what are we talking about today, Madison?
We're talking about Kids on Bikes.
Kids on Bikes.
And we're starting with a very controversial opinion.
So Kids on Bikes is, it's not D&D. I know we have D&D in our name, but we kind of hope to cover all things like TTRPG on this podcast.
And this is kind of our first real branch out other than Capes and Crooks.
Yep.
Into another system and this is entirely different than 5e.
So Kids on Bikes is a system that's a lot more like rules light and it's a lot more focused on like, like collaboration and world building than 5e is.
It's produced or made or whatever the fuck, what's the word for like a company that like I...
Like published by?
Yeah, like that.
Uh huh.
I'm fully thinking in like, it's been a long theater day for me.
I was about to say like a produced by and that's not...
Anyway, it's Hunter's Entertainment. Hunter's Entertainment.
And I really enjoy all the stuff that they've put out.
They also have two kind of like spin offs or like modules or like I don't really know how you would describe it.
I, spin offs is the best word I think, but they also have two others.
So, well, I'm getting so far ahead of myself.
What's Kids on Bikes, Maddie?
Kids on Bikes is a rules light tabletop game that focuses on collaborative world building where you play oftentimes as someone in a small town.
So like from the book, in Kids on Bikes, you'll take on the roles of everyday people grappling with strange, terrifying and exceptionally powerful forces that they cannot defeat, control or even fully understand.
And the only way to face them is to work together, use your strengths and know when you have to run just as fast as you can.
So the kind of like concept and idea of Kids on Bikes upon first glance is this very like Stranger Things-esque, like very Goonies-esque.
It's like small town, 80s, or like basically just pre-sale phone era idea.
And it uses a completely different system than 5e.
There are not so many rules to bug you down with, which is why I kind of gravitate towards this, because this is an episode where I'm kind of taking the realm.
And Robert's usual position of GM or DM, because this is my territory.
And this is the one that I've actually run a one shot in and attempted to run a campaign in that flopped horribly.
You'll get there.
Yes. So the two others, so there's Kids on Bikes that may have Kids on Brooms, which is kind of like a, I don't want to say, a famous magical wizarding school that you can go to that doesn't have transphobia.
It's wizard school.
It's wizard school. It's very fun. I really enjoy that. They've got like a bunch of fun stats and like different mechanics there.
And then they also have teens in space, which is space. It's space.
Space.
There is a ship. You get like ship logs. It's very fun. It's very cute.
Yeah.
But I'm trying to think. So the biggest differences, which you'll see is we're kind of going through the book between 5e and Kids on Bikes.
And what I think Kids on Bikes is better is I think it's a lot more collaborative.
A lot of the times the players are making just as many decisions as the GM or the storyteller or because I think it bounces between those two terms in this book in particular.
And the idea that players are going to be involved in the world building and like pre world like lore and creation process as the GM is and get to help kind of influence and shape that.
And I think that's really cool. I also think because you're not, you don't have things like skill checks.
It lends itself to a lot more like creativity and it's a lot more narrative driven in that there's no combat system in this.
Like no, I mean no traditional combat system in this. Like you're not using weapons and like fighting with weapons.
Which I mean, I guess you fucking could. But like that's and it will make sense as I explain it.
But as someone from the player side who has now played both a one shot of Kids on Bikes and 5e, what do you think are like the biggest differences that jump out to you as someone who's played them?
I think anybody that has DM'd for Fifth Edition can hop into Kids on Bikes with their hands tied behind their back and their eyes closed.
Which I've mentioned that in a few previous episodes.
Kids on Bikes and Kids on Brooms, Kids on Anything really, it doesn't matter what object you put them on.
That system is basically just like a user friendly Fifth Edition.
Like it's Dungeons and Dragons adjacent enough that you can still do the role playing and the character creation and the world building and the exploring without actually having to do like a lot of the really hard, difficult to learn mechanics and action economy that comes with traditional Dungeons and Dragons.
Instead of having an AC and hit points and hit dice and damage dice and proficiency bonuses and advantage and disadvantage and all that fun shit that you get with traditional Fifth Edition combat that is replaced with basically you roll with contested rolls.
You're just rolling stats against each other.
So for those that are more familiar with Fifth Edition than Kids on Bikes, every single combat encounter is basically just like a contested roll. So like a grapple checker, which is strength on strength, right?
Different things like that. So every single thing is just you're rolling against somebody else's stat.
I don't know. It's interesting to look at both systems having played in them both. It definitely gives you a lot more room to focus on the character creation aspect and like the personality side of things because there is simply less to do mechanically.
You can still get magical items and all that fun shit, but like there's not nearly as big of a focus on like becoming an adventurer. It's more just like trying to survive the day to day life and whatever setting you've been dropped into.
The one thing that I'm not a huge fan of and this is just me as a person less so as a player DM. I don't like kids and kids on brooms, bikes or any other object is in the title. It's geared around children.
There are adults, I will say there are adults and teenagers.
There are, but they're all still the more like kiddie-y systems, which I don't have a problem with. It's just not my preferred system.
I would also preface this is a game or it is rated for ages eight and up so you can play this with literal children.
Like the beginning of the handbook is how to role play a session and like how to make decisions and how to like talk in the world, which is fine.
I think that some people need that.
I don't think anybody that we have ever played with or that I have ever played with would have benefited from reading that.
I'm being wholly honest grown as adults who have been playing, which is why I don't think I enjoyed as much as I enjoy fifth edition.
I like having more maneuverability within the system. I like being able to do more intricate things.
I don't know. I like having 27 different fucking stats and ability scores and secondary scores just because to me that opens up the world a lot more if you understand the system.
I think the one thing that kids on bikes does is it removes the mechanics from having to understand the world.
So whereas fifth editions world is understood through the mechanics of the world or through the mechanics of the character with investigation and insight and perception and nature.
Like every aspect of a fifth edition world is curated and sort of made for a stat that is on a sheet.
Whereas kids on bikes, it's much more like inward focused.
There's a much bigger emphasis on building a character unless on building somebody who's going to interact with the world.
It's fun. I don't have to worry about a whole lot in kids on bikes as opposed to fifth edition.
I'm sure some people have run kids on bikes and brooms systems and games and campaigns a lot more serious than others.
But generally speaking, the system is pretty safe.
So if you're somebody that doesn't like to have to constantly worry about like fucking up and losing weapons or arms or like mistakes, this is a system for you.
So I think it's a way to pull something from the back to show as an example and I have hole punched the entire all of the like modules that I printed for this wrong.
But one of the things that I was going to say talking about that flexibility is what I really like about kids on bikes is it feels like it's a much more relaxed world in general.
But I think that you can also make it as high stakes as you want to, which I think is very, very interesting as a concept.
And it's also something where like you can build and add rules into this so much easier to me than 5E because 5E you have to jump through like a lot of hoops and it sometimes feels like legal jargon to do something or to like add a homebrew rule in here.
And in the back of the I'm using the kids on bikes deluxe edition source book, whatever you want to call it.
And it has she bought I did buy I don't buy a lot of source books.
I did buy this one.
It has 22 different settings that they put in the back and they're like modules are basically they give you a setting and they give you a list of possible plot hooks possible.
I'm these are so out of order.
It's not even funny and I have no idea how they're working but I will like it has a list of like adjustments to rules for each of these modules and think that you can you should take away from the main system if you're going to play in the setting or things you can add.
So this one is called dads on mowers and there's something called dad nap, which is a full rule that they've added into this game and mechanics to go with it.
And when I ran my kids on bikes one shot, I also added things and I added magical items that were not like they're originally.
It was just something that I decided to kind of make up because it was a pricey Jackson one shot and I like the idea of being able to give everybody something equivalent of like an abet's hat or riptide or something of the sort.
But so I think with all of that said, I think the best way to just kind of explain the differences otherwise is just to dive into the book.
So starting at the very beginning it talks about world building and this is one of the things I love about it again is it gives you so many guides for how if you as the GM want to create the world yourself.
That's great.
That's amazing.
But also if you are a little intimidated by that, or if you just want to work with your players in general.
It gives you a lot of guidelines, which is something that 5e doesn't really give you when it comes to like building your own stuff.
They're just kind of like here's ours.
That's all you get.
Yeah.
This is like it is it is very intuitive for you to be able to create your own world.
So in the like literal first thing is a collaborative creation.
If you choose to build the world collaboratively first like it talks about you need to decide on the tone you need to decide on your like boundary settings.
Like if you are playing in a 1957 or do you want to deal with the racism of a 1957 or do you want this to be a game where you're like having some fun escapism time and you don't want to be bogged down with that.
But like it'll give you a list of questions of like our town is famous for this our team our town is infamous for this our school sports team is called so it gives you like prompts and questions for you to like kind of consider and it does that a lot, which I'll get into later with the character creation process because I love what they give you for character creation.
But it also talks about it's something that you can have in one sitting and you can do this whole game in one sitting or you can stretch across multiple sessions.
One of the things I love that they've added is assuming that time has elapsed in the world of the game.
It encourages players to all say one thing that has changed about the world and the like the setting and the town that they're in.
So one of the examples is it gives is like there's like the old sawmill has been struggling and it finally closed between the session and last.
And I think that that's just really interesting and kind of a way to like keep the world alive.
Which I think is just kind of a fun and funky thing.
And then getting into I'm trying not to get too into character stats and like character creation because we're going to build a character a little bit later.
Talk about what the stats are though.
Yeah, I feel like I still have to.
The stats stats of the system before we get super into like what the specifics are. So as opposed to having like a strength and then three different things under strength or intelligence and then having all of your like substats right.
So like wisdom right you have animal handling nature and a whole bunch of other shit in there right.
I think you also have medicine checks and dexterity you have a couple of different things like every core stat has its own list of skills.
Instead of having all of those base stats and then having 20 different individual skills and then modifiers and then modifiers and proficiencies.
You basically just have your core stats and that is all you will ever have.
I think that's so fucking neat as a concept.
So the way that they do it.
So you get your six stats brains brawn fight flight charm and grit brains is kind of exactly what it sounds like.
It's how book smart specifically your character is this will explain how they understand problems how they're doing in school if they're like if you give them a math problem how fast are they going to fucking solve it.
Right.
And then you have brawn.
It's brute strength.
How much can your character lifts can they climb the rope in gym class super fast.
Can they punch a wall or punch a hole in the wall if they're a teenage boy and they're really angry.
Fight is going to be how good of a combat your character is.
It basically it's like are they straight to me.
Fight is more of like scrap as opposed to just like physical like I'm losing my words.
It's been it's been such a long day.
It's been a day.
It's been a crazy long day.
Then flight is going to be how fast your character is.
And it says in the book and as well as how skilled they are at evading their problems both literally and figuratively which is just a fun fun thing to read.
High flat is going to be fast tough to trap physically and verbally.
It doesn't really say this in here but flight to me is also like someone who's like very witty and very like sharp with their tongue as well as like being very like quick on their feet.
Just kind of speedy and like sharp sharp in flight just kind of go together in my mind and there's no real reason for that.
That's just the way my brain works.
Then you have charm which is how socially adept a character is how good they are at reading people's emotions how good they are at diffusing situations how good are they at being able to say the right thing at the right time or being able to stop someone from saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
And then grit is how hard it is to break a character emotionally or physically.
That's just a crazy introduction.
The closest thing you have to that in 5e is going to be Constitution but I wouldn't describe Constitution as a mix of Constitution.
Yeah but it's going to be like how are they going to be able to keep a level head in like a crazy or panicked situation.
In a dimension 21 system that they ran they did kids on brooms.
There was a character that ate an owl pellet like the thing that owls barf up.
That's disgusting.
That you like dissect and science class.
He ate one and they were like cool I guess that's a grit check just to see if you can stomach.
Grit check is crazy.
Owl vomit.
So I mean I guess that that's also grit in a way.
And then we'll get into like how the dice work with that like further into character creation.
But skipping past all the character.
TLDR every stats going to have its own dice.
I don't want you to spoil it.
I guess it's not spoiling.
TLDR every stats going to have its own dice.
Okay playing the game.
So there's two different types of stat checks that you can make in this game and that's snap decisions and planned actions.
The way it describes it in here are planned actions are stat checks when you have time to think about the best course of action and perhaps even get to work with your friends.
There's also another thing you can use adversity tokens on a planned action which I guess I can talk about now.
So adversity token one of the things I really really love about this game is that it encourages failure which is a really like crazy sentence.
But in this game anytime you fail a stat check it doesn't matter if you fail it by one or if you fail it by like 10.
You're going to get something called an adversity token which we used Magic Gathering counters when we played just because it was what we had at the house.
A previous time that I played this I used little like counting frogs because my mother's a teacher and I stole them from her classroom.
I also use counting like dice.
So they're dice that go up like numerically from one to 20 instead of all the numbers being different.
So every time that you fail a role you get an adversity token and then you are able to use those adversity tokens to kind of like buy and like boost your score.
So if you like roll if the DC is like five and you roll a three and you have six adversity tokens you can use two of those adversity tokens and get yourself up to a five.
Which I think is really really cool and I think it adds for more like narrative fun because you get to kind of like have a little bit more of a say in what you succeed and what you fail at.
I guess not what you fail at but what you succeed at which I think is really interesting.
You can also use those adversity tokens to help your friends and you can give them to your friends.
The only caveat being you have to describe how you are helping your friend when you are like giving them that which I think is another really fun and collaborative giving somebody advantage and fifth edition.
Oftentimes I will ask so what exactly is it are you doing like what are you doing to give this person advantage.
Like if you're just like oh I give the help action.
Okay cool you're in the other room my guy.
Okay.
What are you doing.
Sure.
As opposed to being like patting somebody in the back and being like you got this man you can do it.
I mean that's kind of a stupid way to encourage someone but like you get the gist.
So play and actions are things you get to think about you can use adversity tokens on them.
On the flip side of that are snap decisions which are choices that have to be made quickly and under bad conditions.
They're a little bit more chaotic a little bit more unpredictable.
So I'm just asking you that's a snap decision.
You're going to run maybe you decide to like take a sharp left or if you decide to like pull a gun on someone that's kind of a snap decision as opposed to planned action which is like cool my friends and I are making the active choice to do something.
And then your GM will let you know whether a decision is going to be a planned action or a snap decision and oftentimes you're going to say what you want to do and they're going to be like cool.
I'm going to say that's a snap decision because that's a lot.
And so I already kind of talked about failing a role and like what that does.
Another really cool thing that this game does are exploding roles which are basically I guess since rubber already spoiled it each of your.
Dice is going to be assigned a different dice.
So for the role for the stat that you are best at that's going to be your d20 you're going to be like anyone who meets you is going to know automatically that you are going to excel at that scale.
They're going to be like yeah that fucking guy can do the thing that he does.
He can do that thing very well versus the d4 which is like cool.
Everyone knows that you're shit at this.
By the way you're standing.
Yeah just your energy is fucking foul.
There's no way.
Interesting.
My d10 has disappeared.
I've had it.
Never mind.
Hell yeah.
So with you having a range of options from a d20 to a d4 giving DCs is kind of difficult and there's a wonderful chart in here and I'm not going to like bore you with the chart.
But it kind of explains how DCs work and like how you should kind of gauge them.
But it is extremely possible for you to have a d4 and make a d8 or not make a d8 make a dc8 check because your dice can do a funky thing called explode which means basically there are no criticals in this game.
If you roll the highest number on the dice it explodes and it means that you get to roll it again and then add that number together.
The highest roll I think I've seen in this game was on Mentopolis on dimension 20 and it was like a 56 or something.
And it was someone who crits twice on a d20 and it was fucking insane.
It was truly an insane moment.
But it's very fun narratively because often times when you explode it's going to be like a push past what your normal limits are because you're exceeding what your typical abilities are.
So if you're someone with a d4 in charm and you are somehow able to fucking like charm the mayor into handing you the keys to his office.
That's going to be narratively be something that's outside of your like kind of like range of skills that you possess.
So it's going to be something that's going to get a little bit more attention and going to be like cool you like something unlocks within you.
And I'm a big fan of like moments in games where you just have such an insanely high role on something that you like have a mechanical shift within you where it's like cool.
I'm never going to ask you to make this check again.
I guess you just fucking have that.
There's nothing that I can do about it.
You're just good at it.
And then getting into combat encounters.
Pause two seconds.
Something we didn't mention on planned actions.
You can take half of your dice.
Oh yeah.
That's a whole thing.
So on planned actions one of the biggest differences between planned and stabbed is that planned you can take half of whatever dice you have as your as your answer to a role.
So if Madison says OK Robert give me a DC I don't know 15 string check or what is it.
It's not straight 15.
You can say 15.
Well it gave me a fucking second.
You can add diversity tokens to it that's where to get it so I could say half the 20 take a 10 and then use diversity tokens to get myself up there or if it's below a 20 or if it's 10 or below and it is my highest stat I can say take half and I can just take it in same thing with a six
and 12 and eight.
I can any of those stats I can on a planned action say I take half on a snap decision you cannot take half you have to roll.
There are some fun features and character traits that you can get depending on what module you're playing in where that changes a little bit but generally speaking that's one of the biggest differences between the two is that you can take advantage of what you're naturally good at instead of having to roll for it every single time.
Yeah.
Which I think makes more mechanic sense than in 5E personally because if it's something like cool.
You gotta have the ability to have a natural one.
I get that I do but I have to have the ability.
I think that sometimes I think that in the same way that the GM can overrule and actually know I want you to roll for this.
Like I think that if someone has a fucking like plus 15 to something in 5E.
And it's a natural one.
I mean okay if they're rolling for it and they get a natural one that's fine but like I think that in some situations if it's like an inconsequential thing that you should be able to be like can I just take half.
Nah it takes out the luck of the like the whole system and that's one of the biggest things in my opinion that separates fifth edition from a lot of other systems is that regardless of how good you get.
Metagaming and like men maxing which is what a lot of people do.
The dice can still fuck you but in this game you are a little bit more safe from your roles.
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So with combat encounters the way they kind of describe it in here of like it depends it's going to be contested roles for sure and then it's also going to depend on who attacks first and who attacks second and blah blah blah.
And who's defending and who's not and blah blah blah blah blah.
And once again this book has a bunch of wonderful charts that I'm not really going to go through just because that's a lot of like bogging you down with it.
But it will explain everything in greater depth than I'm going to on this podcast.
But you can basically use any of your checks to get in or out of a combat encounter.
It talks about if you're like standing firm and trying to take a hit that's going to be a brawn check.
If you're trying to attack first and hope for and like just hope to land a hit first that's going to be like a fight check.
If you're trying to talk the attacker out of it before like people start fighting each other.
I mean it's going to be a difficult charm check but it's going to be a charm check.
You can try and intimidate the attacker and that's going to be like a really high grit check or you can just try to fucking run flight check or you can stand your ground and try and dodge the punches which could be a flight check as well.
So there's a lot of different ways that you can also argue and I think that that's really beneficial because it also keeps certain characters from being completely useless in combat in a game that isn't as combat driven
because you can argue that your own strengths in your own fighting style is what's going to be able to set you apart.
If you built a character, I'm going to use the ones from our one shot for example, you were playing a child of Nike who was very fast on his feet.
I literally won a foot race.
So when you were fighting things I was having you roll more of a flight check because it was very much a like a quick dodgy like a little I don't know what the word I'm looking for.
Yeah like a speedy like Debbie kind of fighting as opposed to someone who slicing slicing word for it more cutting less like hacking and slashing as opposed to like say a child of Aries character who probably would have been a little bit more brawn and a little bit more like heavy swinging.
So I think that that's also a really fun way to like kind of approach combat.
And then it also talks about the they've got a wonderful chart in here talking about the narrative results as a result of the roles and this is another thing that I really love about kids on bikes is that it will also turn narrative control be based on the outcome of the roles over to the players.
So if the so there's the defender and then the attacker when you are like fighting basically if the defender's role is greater or equal to the attackers role than the defender gets to narrate the outcome.
So this is going to be a situation where it's like cool if you just fucking blow the other person who's doing the contested role out of the water and oftentimes it's going to be an NPC.
You blew me out of the water.
You beat me by quite a bit.
You tell me what happens as opposed to me telling you what happens and that's something that kind of works generally for a lot of the stuff in here but especially combat.
And I think that's really interesting and it's very similar to the like so how do you want to do this kind of thing but I think it's very similar to like killing somebody in a encounter in fifth edition or getting a natural 20 or.
Kind of ending something by getting a really high role very similar in that sense.
Yeah.
But I just think it's a little bit of a more fun way to like control or like agency agent player agency is the word that I'm looking for.
Andison is very big on player agency.
Yes I am.
Why she's such a fan of the system.
Yes I am.
Other people can't really fuck you out of your own actions and decisions.
I've never played in this system.
Have more control.
Yeah I am a control freak.
Definitely a control issue.
Definitely the part of the problem.
Sure that's why I don't DM in 5E.
This I can deal with.
So much fun.
It's maybe for you I think I would have a panic attack.
No there's so much to keep track of at one time and that's part of the fun for me is trying to manage it all at the same time.
I think my little brain would just.
And combust for sure.
I'm not trying to belittle myself in regards to.
I think you could like defend.
I think you could get there 100% I think some people are just more geared towards a more forgiving system where there is a much more.
Larger emphasis placed on the role playing aspect of the tabletop RPG right of the tabletop role playing game.
As opposed to the tabletop aspect of it which is seen traditionally more as the mechanics and the turn based stuff and.
Combat and abilities and armor and that shit all day long.
Combat and all that fun stuff and I'd like to think I've gotten better at the whole flavor thing as time has gone.
I didn't start super strong but I've gotten pretty good at both.
I definitely started pretty strong with mechanics just because I've played a ridiculous amount of video games that translates incredibly easy.
Once you learn enough video games inside and out you can essentially just copy and paste from your brain on what you want something to look like or do or feel.
But the flavor aspect of it isn't always so easy.
I think while I'm not the biggest fan of kids on bikes compared to fifth edition if I were telling a first time DM which one to start with.
I would suggest getting on bikes at least once because it's good practice for having to be grounded in the world as opposed to having to be grounded in both the world and.
Hundred rules four to five to six to seven players seven to eight stats and all of their skills and abilities and spells and so on and so forth.
One of the other things that I want to highlight really quick about the combat thing is the amount of difference in the roles makes a huge difference.
So when you're failing by something and you fail by like I'm going to I'm I lied I'm going to read a little bit from the chart.
If ten or higher when you succeed on something this is a big deal.
The character succeeds smoothly and easily versus five to nine which is like that's impressive one to four is like you succeeded but it's not that impressive.
Zero is like you barely succeeded like just hit the mark.
Like down failing by one to four is like you fail but it's not the worst five to nine is like it's bad but it's not a disaster.
And then 10 to 15.
This is a profound failure and then 15 or lower it is a staggering and catastrophic failure and there will be immediate and long term consequences for this failure.
Which is a lot of time you're not going to have DCs that are going to be as high as they are on five.
Just because of the nature of the like until like the end of your one shot of your campaign.
Yeah.
When your your players have more sort of modifiers and bonuses they've collected throughout the campaign because they're still existing kids on bikes kids on brooms.
They're just not as abundant and readily available and necessary for gameplay.
Yeah.
And so taking that kind of like same idea and moving that to combat.
I'm just going to go with the most extreme example if the attackers role is greater by ten or more the attacker has full control over the narrative.
They explain what the defender does in response to the attack and how ineffective this response is and that is just incredibly cold to me and like a cool way of like I'm going to tell you what happens and I'm going to tell you how you try to respond.
Yeah.
How it didn't fucking work.
Fuck you.
Like that's it's brutal and like it's written like effect the defender is dead or quite nearly dead the bullet hits them between the eyes and nothing can save them.
Crazy.
Next.
I also talked about here about like physical damage and how you're going to deal with that as well as injuries and death.
But I'm just going to kind of gloss over that at the moment.
There's also like a whole system for spending money in here.
But once again that's something I'm just going to gloss over.
There are there is something in here called powered characters.
Now when I started playing this I did not play with or like learning about the system.
I did not learn with powered characters but powered characters are basically so this is a world where like superpowers don't exist or like magic or like blah blah blah all the things that are going to be there.
Blah blah blah all the things that like you're not carrying a great sword.
You're not a sorcerer.
You're not a wizard with a book in casting spells.
So if you want to add that element of like magic in front of this world which a you can absolutely do that for sure.
There's kids on Brooms has great systems for how magic works in this universe or in a universe you want to do and I also think this is a system that you can kind of reskin and reshape and redo to fit your specific wants and needs.
But they do have something called powered characters which are a character with powers in some way that is controlled not by one person but by the entire party.
So it's kind of like everyone shares this character and there's a chart for like how the powers work and like it's very to me of like using stranger things as an example just because that's an easy touchstone is like 11 is the one person in the group with like fucky powers.
The powered character as opposed to everybody else that are just kids that happen to play Dungeons and Dragons and have a loose understanding of what's happening.
I mean that is truly the best example because you're looking at like season 111 which is literally the only season of stranger things that I've seen.
I haven't seen a single season.
She doesn't talk a lot.
She doesn't like do much unprompted and that's why she reads very much is like a similar to like a powered character in this which your powered characters do not have to be like that.
You can take the many direction that you want.
It's something that like everyone in the group is going to decide and as well as the personality and stuff so they are going to still be a character with personality.
You're not going to just have like a fucking potted plant that can also cast fireball.
That's not an option.
It is if you wanted to be though.
I mean I guess but why would you.
Why wouldn't you.
Because people are people.
Yeah.
What about it.
I mean literally like giving them is simple things like do they have a sweet tooth.
Do foods that are high and higher and help them.
I'm not letting that happen.
Why not.
Not at my table.
It's a lot of fun though because I like people.
You can still have people and then have that person have a plant with fireball.
No.
Why not.
Because too many things for you to juggle man.
Yeah.
So disappointing.
You should be.
You don't have any of other magical items though in the Percy Jackson one shot that we're doing.
So I don't think that's an accurate statement.
Well I'm not giving the power.
You're the one gaslighting yourself.
I'm not gaslighting myself.
If you want a magical item that is a plant that can cast fireball that's one thing but
I'm not letting you have a person that is not a person and is instead of.
I think that works.
No that's an item not a person.
You can make it a person though.
You can give it a personality.
Be creative Madison.
I said.
Give it a personality.
The whole thing I said was they have personality.
You can give it a personality.
You don't have to worry about it being human focused.
Okay you tell me what why is every episode lately been you picking a fight with me like
half way through.
Not picking a fight.
You just use a lot of absolutes cans and can nots and I disagree.
I am a woman of extremes.
You know this.
You're going to ride the middleman.
There's a gray and it's a very fun place to be.
Not for me.
I am one extreme or the other.
Disgusting.
Anyway if anyone else wanted to be a potted plant with fireball I might consider it.
Funnest fuck.
Not for you.
Not for me.
There's always consequences for the powers when powers can use.
Next check in caves and crooks.
Don't do that to me.
Sorry.
This is bullying.
Well so was telling me I can't be a potted plant with fireball.
I don't know what to tell you.
Oh my God.
God not.
I thought it was supposed to be more open.
It is open.
But not for stupid shit.
Being who and what she wants.
Now I'm being told that I can't be who or what I want to be.
If I come to you and I say hey.
Crazy.
Make a.
Of course they can't be fucking with me now.
And I come to you and I say okay.
Build me a character and you hand me back a piece of paper and it's just a drawing of
a fucking fern plant.
Yep.
Did you do the assignment?
I think if I put enough work into the background of the fern plant 100%.
But you didn't say that.
You said is this a sentient plant can this plant talk?
I feel like that can be assumed.
I think that can be assumed.
I'm not going to hand you a picture of just a plant and then like the fucking little Mario
ones that spit fireballs and be like hey look this is what I want to do.
All I was saying was that if you have a powered character in your group give them some personality
as opposed to just having them be like fucking silent.
A magical item.
Like nothing.
Opposed to having them just be a magical item.
I mean at that point yeah they are a magical item.
I'm just saying if you're going to make them a person give them personality.
Yeah I think you can also give personality to a plant.
I'm moving on to the next section of the book.
It's okay to admit that you've lost that one.
I did not lose this one.
I'm so correct.
You're not and that's okay.
I'm so correct.
You're not.
It's stupid.
It's okay.
It's okay to be wrong.
Information for the GM starts on page 47.
She doesn't take it wrong very well.
I'm not going to go pinned because last time it went bad.
Yeah it almost hit me in the eyeball.
You were fine.
Anyway so yeah you take turns as players kind of controlling the powered character and
you can also make decisions for them as a group and as a party.
Thank you.
It also talks a lot in this book about signing boundaries and being just kind of generally
respectful with your stuff which I personally really love.
Respect.
That's something that you always need to kind of go over into a system which we've talked
about before in certain episodes.
But kind of skipping past that.
It also is a nice little section on information for the GMs in terms of like how to craft
a story and like things for you to kind of keep in mind like notable organizations in
your town.
Notable landmarks.
Well-billed.
Strengths and tropes which I'll get into tropes in a little bit.
And then like relationship questions for the characters.
I really like the rumors about the town.
I don't remember where in the source book it says but I remember reading through it
at some point and it was basically you have you as the GM ask all of your players to give
you two rumors that they have heard about the town.
It doesn't matter if they're true or not.
You kind of get to decide if they're true or not but they give you those and that also
kind of helps shape the world.
So as you're sitting around the table you're like I heard that Mrs. O'Leary actually has
three dead bodies in her basement.
That's the rumor I heard.
And then someone else is like cool I heard that if you hit the vending machine on number
three four times it gives you four quarters.
So they can kind of vary.
Crazy.
And what you want it'll start with narrative control.
Like in kind of controlling those stat checks and stuff.
Once again I'm very new to the GMing side of things and I still feel like a GM very much
like a player.
So I'm not the most experienced here.
Just because like I'm still very new to this.
So this is this is me learning alongside all of you.
Well I'm something new every day.
It also encourages you to change the rules.
It like says if you look at the modules that we've included we're 100 percent OK with people
changing the rules of our game.
Please change our rules like dissect and take things apart and reshape them and glue them
together in a fucking hodgepodge collage and make the game what you want it to be which
I think is just a really nice sentiment because sometimes 5e does not always feel that way
which like it definitely is.
I think the biggest difference is that because there are more things to consider and more
mechanics to change and rules in fifth edition it just becomes significantly harder to create
your own version of it.
Yeah.
It takes a lot more work like the world building is dead typically has to be a lot more extensive
and you have to spend a lot more time fleshing that out.
Same thing with any new mechanics that you would like to introduce because a lot of the
mechanics are very tried and true and they're very complicated and complex in one mechanic
operates directly with another one which operates with another one which operates with another
one changing one aspect of fifth edition can very quickly become overwhelming.
And so it takes a lot of experience I think both as a player and as a DM to know how to
like effectively navigate that system without ending up with like an unplayable or an overly
complicated kind of deal but like I think in terms of kids on bikes it's really as simple
as like okay I want to rename this stat and that's like a holy new mechanic and you can
kind of do that in fifth edition but because there are so many things tied to so many other
things okay if I rename constitution to something fucking random what does that mean for the
three actually what does that mean for the zero fucking skills that are underneath constitution.
Yeah.
If I rename charisma to something entirely different what does that do to the three skills
that are under charisma.
There's just a lot more to consider when changing a fifth edition rule or mechanic.
I think it's just is encouraged to do so I think it's just a lot more intimidating and
not quite as feasible for people that don't have a lot of time to spend on it.
Yeah.
I would generally agree.
Whereas kids on bikes is like cool I want to change the name of the town I want to make
the people this and I want to do that with whatever and it's like okay cool.
Yeah go for it.
Everything is still the same nothing has changed nothing has to be affected.
Before we get into the character creation process I wanted to pick one of the little
module settings in the back of this and we're going to build a character in that world.
So I printed off a couple of them and I printed them very wrong so I'm so sorry.
I can tell you them and I can tell you the page numbers they're on.
So the first one that I kind of printed off and I guess it's literally the first one in
the book is called dads on mowers.
It takes place in suburbotopia USA.
And I can read you the little setting information.
I love the way that they do.
Here's a question.
Are you going to read the setting information for all of the little modules you printed
off.
Yeah I only printed off like three.
All right.
And then you get to pick.
Go for it.
Is that okay.
Yeah it's fine it's fine it's fine you know it's time management time management.
I'm a fast reader.
It's not always I don't want to say your skill people with ADHD skills time management is
usually not a high up on the list.
No I agree.
This was when we started this podcast we were like yeah thirty four or five minute episodes.
Yeah yeah.
We've not had a single episode.
No I didn't.
In that time frame.
Yeah we're almost always over an hour now.
Yeah.
Anyways what's.
Anyway.
Welcome to Mary Grove Lane.
It's a beautiful little cul-de-sac in suburbotopia a town nestled somewhere in the United States
in the early 2000s.
Get comfortable in your new five bedroom three bathroom three bedroom three bedroom house
because every one of the ten houses in this idealic community is a five bedroom three
bathroom house with a swimming pool backyard and garage you'll always be busy with some
home improvement projects.
Looking for a night on the town your best buds could paint the town red figuratively
at Mary Hardware the local hardware store or knack back some Bruce keys at Goodmans
or say hi to the mayor of coffee cat and grab a Frappuccino.
Bruce is crazy.
Every weekday the residents follow a strict schedule of waking up getting the kids ready
for school carpooling working and finally coming home to loving families with dinner
and a quick drink before bedtime.
But now it's the weekend and now that and now that's when things get really wild barbecue
karaoke at Goodmans the new home renovation project you have all the freedom to do whatever
is socially acceptable in this little bubble of a town especially yelling at kids to get
off your lawn.
You would love doing that.
Please.
Yes please.
Oh my God.
The only weird thing about the town is 150 Mary Grove the house at the end of the cul-de-sac
the residents have only seen an 11 year old kid go in and out of that house weird as it
is the kid never bothered anyone so no one really cares.
Another thing that I really love the include with these modules are setting touchstones
which are just kind of like the vibe and like the setting of the world which I think
is really cool so the ones that gives for this one are the dream daddy video game the
good place TV series Herb Furman the person no exit the play which is fucking wild to
list as a touchstone for anything the Sims the video game and Westworld the film it also
will give you for the modules for the GM's here alternate town creation questions it
will also give you content warnings for all of the information that they have because
they also give you a list which don't read don't read these it'll give you possible points
of interest to establish in the town a list of NPCs that you can use adventure hooks possible
threats possible powered characters possible monsters and then adjustments to the rules
so you'll use a dad character sheet which is available on the website and then it'll
give you like possible strengths which are new ones that aren't included in the book
one of them is room room you know everything about fixing vehicles you get a plus two
to brains when working on a vehicle like very dad based things there's one called puns one
called beard one called dad abs fun flaws that you can add it talks about you don't
have adversity tokens in this you get friendship tokens disgusting and then there's a feature
called more than a bromance I get a kick a kid token a what kick a kid token no why not
because I'm not encouraging why not want to kick this is again a flaw in your whole ultimate
freedom character for creation bullshit and then I'm like hey can I do this one thing
and you go no none my world I want you to know that thing you're asking to do is kick
a child correct it's make believe Madison why does it matter because I don't agree with
the ethics of kicking children no I think if you were a weirdo scenario you would kick
a child I mean if a child's attacking me I have been in that scenario actually I have
worked with children for a very long time I've been in that situation so I have worked
with kids when he times I've kicked many kids I'm not a major I've kicked in trips several
kids I'll admit it you admit it proudly though yeah because what the what the fuck man like
have you listened anybody that's been any amount of time around it's a quick tangent
anyone that's been any amount of time around any kid under the age of like 15 knows that
there's absolutely zero things going on behind those eyes and that in and of itself is infuriating
this is a crazy hot take to have a hot take I don't like kids I know I despise them I
know children are just not not it I know that you think that they know so little they understand
so little I love kids that's that makes a lot of sense fuck you anyway what does that
mean what's next fuck you there's more the bromance which is a is a fun little thing
in here dad nap and we've got each other I can read more into those if you want or I
can gloss over them because we went on a kid kicking tangent here I'm not getting cake
kicking tokens I'm not I'm not choosing the module I really like this one yeah I don't
get to kick heads I will let you kick one child that's okay what's the next one I really
want to do that one I think it sounds really fun what's in it what is with his ultimate
player and character freedom shit here and then like yeah but not really but I will see
this is where Madison's control issues really become highlighted because she gives you the
illusion of freedom and then fucking takes it away okay first of all absolutely nabs it
it's fake false hope bitch you said that I could pick whatever one you didn't care and
then I said I'm gonna give you a choice on the podcast now I have a choice I don't give
a shit either way now I have a choice now I have a choice suddenly I give a shit because
suddenly suddenly you're not you're not sticking true to what you said if I let you play I'm
just gonna read the fucking next one okay I'll let you play a grumpy dad if you choose
the next one snow days at Chanky cheese oh my god Chanky cheese is Christ I'm gonna spell
Chanky cheese for the listeners CHA in KY C H E E Z that's disgusting takes place in
snowsville New York what the fuck skipping over content warnings many in northern New
York say that there are just two seasons there winter in July nestled on the shore of the
St. Lawrence River is the aptly named town of snowville from late spring until early
fall the community is fully geared toward tending the fields and harvesting hay the
rest of the year it's a snowbound wasteland on occasion the snow will shut down travel
for weeks at a time and even when things are running smoothly the drifts can get waist
deep wanting to give people another reason to visit four years wanting to give people
another reason to visit four years ago locals constructed the Chanky cheese fun time in
pourium is an arcade and pizzeria for two years Chanky cheese is fucking disgusting
oh my god people from far and wide floored in as flooded in as often as they could as
Chanky's helped the economy boom after only two seasons Chanky's didn't open up again
when the snow cleared the owner who spent her winters in Florida never came back and
never heard and was never heard from again some nights people swear that can hear sounds
coming from inside the abandoned building now there isn't much to do in town sledding
sure winter hikes sure but the snowdrifts can be dangerous every year at least one person
steps into a drift that formed over a gully in the earth and nearly freezes to death these
victims report seeing strange creatures crawling over them pulling the heat from their bodies
but that has to be the hypothermia right fuck setting touchstones include the film Fargo
the video game series five nights at Freddy's I guess movie now and the novel the shining
that's why I love the name Chanky cheese and that's truly the reason I picked it the only
thing I could think about was fucking five nights at Freddy's yeah it's it's five nights
at Freddy's I think I gotta go that one well we still have some more to read okay I'm just
I can guarantee you that I'm going with that one I might have a say in this decision because
I don't like that really sucks dog I thought this was very player oriented gotta work with
me a little bit I don't understand what this is all about hey Robert you gotta fucking
work with me I'm just holding you to your word it's all I'm doing just admit that you
don't state your word and we can play whatever system you want oh my god next one pointing
pleasantly point pleasant New Jersey author's note though point pleasant is a real location
I've taken some liberties with what's there signed Doug Doug point pleasant conservators
a setting for a light hearted adventures during the summertime or more serious existential
adventures during the offseason right on the right on the Jersey Shore a convenient train
right away from New York City is point pleasant a vacation hotspot for both city dwellers
in inland New Jersey it's even the occasional Pennsylvania even though they usually go to
Long Beach Island during the summer point pleasant is nearly constantly thrumming and
the Ferris wheel is always turning even at night it offers both the beach which is the
main attraction and the bay which is where the more rebellious kids hang out but after
Labor Day the office is in the hands and the population drops to less than 30% the families
who work in the tourism industry the other nine months are slow sure the town needs to
keep going there's a small elementary school or the combined middle and high school or
there's the grocery store in the library but that's not enough work for the folks in town
during the offseason for the kids who live there there isn't much to do either younger
kids will often invent crazy stories about what they've seen in the ocean and what lives
in the less developed parts of the island or why the bay sometimes seems to be whispering
teenagers will usually split their time between figuring out where to go once they graduate
high school and sneaking into houses to cause trouble setting touchstones for this include
creatures creature from the black lagoon the film gravity falls the TV series and ex files
the TV series I fuck with all of those films and TV shows a lot which is why I chose this
one also I thought it was gonna be about mothman because point pleasant
be about mothman maybe I'll make it maybe I'll just decide that it's West Virginia instead
it's why I was born I didn't know that yeah never been there while that incorrect I've
driven through there I've seen the military base that I was born on I have not like visited
the state so this is fun little fact about me I was born there on a marine base Jesus
one of the adjustments to the rules is I'm just like flipping through holding your breath
ooh that's exciting there's also a whole like table about holding your breath forced to
hold breath is also an option that's also a rule addition called ski ball oh hell yeah
ski ball which are two crazy things see this one I also kind of pulled just because of
my personal interest in the culture surrounding it which is called minor threat it takes place
in Washington DC this is also just really really cool in the way that they've like
approached it I don't know if it's something that I would feel super comfortable running
just because I don't feel like I have enough experience at the moment but it's so super
cool and I wanted to highlight it anyway so for setting information it starts with a quote
the music is a conversation speaking to the values of the community entrepreneurship fellowship
giving every single person a voice whether that's through a shout out or through the
call and responses or through a dance move or through showing what kind of fashion you're
wearing from Charles Stevens and junior there aren't many things for a kid to do in the
district in the late 80s and early 90s if you're out on the street you're hassled by cops
if you're at home you're hassled by your parents if you want to head to a store it's buy something
or get out with the omnipresent camera and want to be cop breathing down your neck for
fear that they might justify their salary for fear you might you may justify their salary
by grabbing a candy bar no one has any money and even not even most grown ups but it seems
like flashier cars are being driven through your neighborhoods at increasing speeds your
school is built like a prison and police walk the halls every month cops stand in front of
your class to tell you that drug dealers will try to make you smoke pot and that crack is
whack and just say no but you've never been offered anything especially not for free everyone
says your neighborhood is full of crack babies but you've never seen one anywhere you go
outside your neighborhood you're watched like a criminal you have no power and nothing you
can do is ever acceptable or accepted but there's at least music and the Atlantic club
is the place that you can find it most it's the only club open to all ages and as early
as 9 30 p.m. so even the most conservative parents can let their kid go for half hour
or so somehow they manage to get bands from all around the world and there are always
the unique sounds of bands brewing in the district people come from everywhere to hear
it but some folks keep trying to silence it setting touchdowns include the musician Chuck
Brown go-go the music subgenre hardcore the music subgenre straight edge the subculture
and Mr. T the actor one of the other things I really loved about this is it does have
a whole chart here as well for some other things about I know I just grabbed up there's
the thing I'm looking for sorry printed on the wrong thing but it gives you like some
really fun questions and everything but the thing that really really hooked me on this
more than anything else other than a lot of the stuffing music focused was that it has
the boot lace code in here for the punk subculture and it talks about while funk fans where they're
velvet and the punks where they're torn shirts everyone where everyone wears boots Tim's
or Doc Martins and it talks about the color of your laces white laces are for supremacist
Nazis and being like hey don't fuck with these but it's also way for you to be able to identify
characters in this world and you can kind of like look to that but it talks about white
laces red laces yellow laces purple laces and black laces if anyone is curious I typically
do yellow laces whenever I like have a pair of boots that have laced up to boost code
this guy's code what do you mean discussing that's anti racism yeah I don't know yellow
laces are just it's a choice I'm not shitting on the code or like the purpose behind that
just yellow laces I don't know something about it makes me want to find it fair enough look
good for you but that wasn't really one that I think I'll be able to run but I think it's
just super cool like one of the possible threats is the dare task force laces and red laces
which are basically skinheads and Nazis it's just really really sick and as someone who
like has has is involved in alternative subculture not as much as I am not as much now as I used
to be it's just something that hits kind of close to home for me thoughts I'm I'm still
kind of stuck on the FNAF one I know that's your least favorite one I'm still gonna I
have no idea how I would run that my biggest issue is I have no idea how to run that because
I like I don't know a lot about that world and like it gives you a lot of like points
of interest and stuff this is one that I just kind of pulled because I wanted to say there
were chunky cheese on chunky cheese so valid I guess I can try an alternative if you don't
want to do that one I'm cool doing the Mount Pleasant one I can rock with that one more
I refuse to do dads on mowers I think that one sounds so cute yeah I know not my thing
though okay I forgot you hate happiness I do I do kind of your stick thanks all right
so now that we've got our world I'm fiddling with loose papers because I fucked up printing
where the fuck there we go so now we get into making a character and I guess it doesn't
really matter what type of character you make because now we know that it's not gonna be
world that's like super specific to how your character is built so I'm gonna flip over
character creation so the first thing that you're going to do which we did not do in
the Percy Jackson one shot because I decided to be complicated about it is you're going
to choose a trope this game does not have things like classes races background it has
tropes which are exactly what they sound like they are character tropes so you're gonna
choose one of those and they're going to basically give you your staff breakdown and then you're
gonna be able to make selections like your age your strengths flaws your name and then
you're gonna kind of be able to like flesh out your character from there so it's a very
streamlined process you are also able to make completely custom characters where you get
to choose like what their stat array is but I think that the the trope option is very very
fun and then strengths and flaws also have a like physical component in the game where
a lot of the times if you're like if you have a fear or I guess fear more than like strengths
and flaws it's something that will like affect the way that you play if you are like in face
with that fear which I think is really neat and it also has a fun little thing in here
so strengths are in this are very similar to like features in 5e I guess would be the best
comparison which is like you get some type of physical or mechanical something bonus
in some way and it also kind of like rounds out your character a little bit more fully
so flip to the back of my little book and so we can look through and I can read some
of the tropes off to you you as the listener not just Robert because he has his own that
he's also following along with I also did these wrong heck yeah gosh darn it yeah dog
well first you're going to decide how old you are are you going to be a child are you
going to be a teen are you going to be an adult I'm thinking teen sounds fun teen alright
I have these fucked up I'm very wrong okay here's some there we go so
first one that I popped up because I printed these very wrong is laid back slacker it's
kind of exactly what it sounds like likely flaws it'll give you a list so it could be
like absent minded blunt clumsy cowardly disloyal disobedient flippant ignorant irrational reckless
secretive possible strengths can include cool under pressure easygoing treasure hunter
unassuming wealthy only I mean I guess wealthy could fit with the like laid black laid back
slacker trope then you also have loner weirdo these are very much like exactly what they
sound like yeah that's gonna loner weirdo to me read like oh my gosh what's their face
from breakfast club yeah I don't know what it is but yeah who would be laid back slacker
the weird example from media a laid back slacker from media no first summer is a very similar
like various people there we go another trope in here is overprotective parent but that's
for an adult we're not playing an adult so we're gonna skip that bully hell yeah it's
a bully my personal favorite conspiracy theorist is why I won't play that's super okay get fucked
can't do it a little bit get fucked I won't do it sorry and then for each of these by
the way it gives you your stat array so for the bully can you guess what the highest stat
is what your d20 goes in me fight correct let's see if you can guess the whole array
lowest one brains no what slowest one flight no the charm yes wow okay so we have a d4
and charm you have a d20 in fight mm-hmm I feel like our d12's got to be in brawn correct
okay so our d10s and grit then nope what so it's in flight yes what the fuck that's stupid
they don't know how to make stat blocks whatever okay I'm kidding you guys did great I just
disagree you just agree with everything just disagree with that I did flight should not
be higher than grit like that's you want to play a bully we could switch that around I
won't play a bully you'll enjoy that too much funny sidekick that's another one of the tropes
give me an example of funny sidekick in a campaign where it's just me yeah that I've
kind of sex I have no idea how we're gonna do this we're gonna manage I mean eventually
we'll play it for now it's just building a character yeah scout an example of a funny
sidekick Jesus Christ Jake from adventure time there we go then you also have scout
as an option like a boy scout or a girl scout or something like collecting salamanders and
toads in the room yeah all of these guys this is a cricket all of these also have questions
so like for funny sidekick what do you do that always lightens your friends mood when
does being in the sidekick role frustrate you so on so forth that's another adult one
is stoic professional here's another teen one which is want to be questions being what
would it mean to be one of the popular kids and what would you sacrifice to be one of
the cool kids imagine playing one of being that I think that would be a very fun trope
to play I think it could be for sure another one is plastic beauty for teen which is how
does it feel to have others think that you're beautiful but terrible so mean and what would
you sacrifice to remain beautiful okay which is nutty the popular kid one of the questions
is how do you treat the unpopular kids heavy and then this is another adult one which is
a reclusive eccentric all right I think that's all of them all right all right friends of
these wrong yeah unless they're like hidden somewhere else oh I found another one that
I missed oh boy okay so this is when I go to the PDF that I pulled up online and I double
check to make sure that we're not missing anything read the two I found read whatever the fuck
you want to read dog it's your source book in front of you I'm just making sure that
like really math is missing any nerd yeah you're a nerd question to is how does your
social isolation manifest itself that's so fun isn't it another one is brutish jock what
satisfies you get from being good at sports very overlapping a little bit with I think
a jock is a little bit different than like a bully I think a jock is a combination between
bullying popular kid I yeah I think that there's enough distinction between those two that
you can switch it up because I can see like a punk bully for sure agree to disagree I think
a jock is just they picked popular kid and then they were like give them a sport I mean
the way that they're describing it in here is like what satisfaction do you get from
being good at sports what does your involvement with sports keep you from doing that you wish
that you could do I think it's a little less like brutish in terms of like physically and
like I mean yes physically imposing but I think it's a little bit more of like meathead
as opposed to like fair enough anything else so are there any that are jumping out to you
um I'm gonna scroll down to them in the PDK what pages it tell you it is I've got some
that says one of them says 68 one of them says 66 so in the 60s yeah cool in the 60s
it is there we go found tropes this is like crazy how about impressive I'll give you that
it's impressive okay brilliant mathlete brutish jock bully conspiracy theorist funny
sad I found one more they bet on a provider loner weirdo overprotective parent blaster
that's sad reclusive eccentric scouts do it professional want to be young provider okay
young providers crazy yeah that's interesting for sure okay who I have no idea what person
I'm playing for this if I'm being totally honest that's okay that's why we pick a trope
and then you build it around it one thing that's also one of the things that helps kind
of streamline the like personality part of the character creation process because it
gives you a trope to pull from nine ten you can kind of like flash that on you can also
look at other characters for examples of this trope there are eleven options I'm rolling
a twelve I'm going with that one alrighty that was such a fucked up role how did it
bounce out of the box of dice off of the dice trade never made it in and then onto my anyways
back to a great schedule programming we're in a so on the list from the first to the
letter first the okay so one two three four five six seven plastic beauty great and fucking
tastic I'm nowhere on this bit to write that so I'm just gonna put it in the box under
notes I'll build a character as well just for shits and giggles I'm gonna do a conspiracy
theorist of course so do you want to explain your stat breakdown sure I have a d20 and
charm I have a 12 in flight a 10 in fight an eight and brawn six or sorry an eight and
brawn a six and brawn and a four in grits alright and then I have a d20 and brains a
d12 in fight a d10 in flight a d8 in grit a d6 in charm and a d4 in brawn hell yeah
my brawns not too much harder than yours what's your 20 and brains what's your your d20s and
charm yeah yeah have fun getting played fucking loser what does it mean what does it mean
possible strengths cool under pressure and so these strengths we haven't talked a whole
lot about little strengths there so this there are little sections on here for those that
can't see it there are two sections four sections technically but there are two possible strengths
and likely flaws so every character comes with their own strengths and flaws it's kind
of like features but then there are also fucked up ones that you give yourself for funsies
yeah like gross there's no mechanical thing it just you have some type of gross bodily
trick that you can do remember how many of each it's two strengths and one flaw right
yes I feel like that's true that's what I did for you all okay I've deemed so it gives
me a list of the strengths that make more sense for plastic beauty so for me it's cool
under pressure intuitive lucky prepared skill that wealthy most of those are going to be
pretty obvious in terms of what they provide you with like skill that you pick a skill
you're skilled at it wealthy strengths and two flaws you got money prepared you're like
prepared for things it probably gives you like a bonus to prepared roles in that fun
business and it likely falls our flaws the list is significantly longer boastful conceded
demanding flippant and considerate petty picky prime or prim sorry rude self-centered
vain vindictive brutal yeah it looks like most of these have more flaws than strengths
which I think is such an interesting choice just because there's mechanical things that
go with strengths as opposed to sure sure flaws which is more of a flavor thing yeah
yeah yeah yeah okay I have age inside my age I'll roll a D 10 and a percentile and see
what that gives me will do the same I suppose right now I guess I'll just roll D 10 I don't
know I don't need to do the percentile this is my second number I'm 16 baby cool let me
roll your 10 I'm not gonna be 10 your 10 if you are 16 I'm not 10 16 god damn it cool
wow I didn't want to be hanging out with a 10 year old didn't want to be 10 fuck off
then we'll be 10 do we want to do strengths net did you pick your strength no I was just
reading off the options that it gives me so I think what page your strengths on 59 okay
I'm gonna go to 59 that way we don't have to keep bouncing back and forth between same
uh... from my list of possible strengths I've got heroic intuitive prepared skilled treasure
hunter and unassuming flipping over here I'm gonna kind of look at those
um... cool under pressure is definitely not one of them uh... heroic you don't need the
jams permission to spend adversity tokens to ignore fear that sounds like it would be
very fitting uh... intuitive you can spend an adversity token to ask the gym about your
surroundings and in pc or the like and they must answer honestly uh... prepared you can
spend two adversity tokens to just happen to have one commonplace item on you which is
really fun um... the skilled at is just you kind of choose uh... one of the stats that
you're like good at and basically anything that is a nine or a less involving the skill
unless the dm says is uh... you you pass hell yeah I'm taking lucky and cool under pressure
and then if you do have to roll for you get a plus three to whatever you do
uh... for me dog
sure and lucky yeah
and then you get to spend two adversity tokens to not be seen reason
colon pressure you can spend adversity token to take half of your dies value instead of
rolling on a snap decision
fuck you
uh... and
uh... lucky which gives me a gives me the ability to spend two adversity tokens to
re-roll a stat check
i'm gonna do heroic and then uh... just for the vibes
i feel like i'm going to go something off the list which is an option that you can
do and do rebellious because i like the idea of a conspiracy theorist that's like no
fuck you to every adult
uh... and just doesn't trust them in that way
missing
uh...
and then for flaws i'm probably gonna go with uh... paranoid
and
superstitious
unlike really trying to think about this person
i love that you got this trope
uh...
you know what
i think i'm gonna take a cool under pressure and do you prepared instead
thinking about because a lot of like plastic beauty stuff is like a little
you have hairspray on them lipstick they have a comb they have whatever the
the
select the idea of the character like having some random fucking item on the
person i think that's very fitting
uh... to me makes more sense where it's like quite a lighter because i'm
smoking later and you know i definitely have hairspray i can make a flame
for right now right
and lucky cuz you know pretty people have privilege
yeah and second bullshit
yeah
well time
yeah
two flaws
uh... i picked mine i went with paranoid and superstitious
almost be run the list
absent mind of blood both for clumsy seated carol e deceitful demanding
disloyal disobedient dogmatic nvm is flipping gloomy greedy hot tempered
ignorant
and consider it insecure rational it's half the list neurotypical neurotic
jesus christ not neurotypical obnoxious paranoid patronizing perverse
disgusting petty
picky prejudice to prem reckless resentful
restless
rude secretive self-centered self-pitying
slovenly
yeah
superstitious vain in vindictive
good fucking i mean vain is the obvious one right like an old vane or conceited
divane
divane uh... and then
the second floor jesus and consider it would be a fun one
uh... carol e deceitful demanding disloyal disobedient dogmatic nvm is
flipping oh petty is an option
take a petty then
vane and petty getting me
it's you perfect combination
uh... you have a pen thrown at you today
i can tell it a lot harder than you can
this is physical you can live out our real life roles in this paper right now
that we don't have to do that okay
uh... so the other thing that i wanted to run over on this real quick uh... just
because i think it's a really cool thing that you can do in this
are the quick start questions that they offer
and this will be the last portion of our uh... kind of character creation
process
uh... where we call it a day
uh... in the shortest version of the setup uh... players answer one question
about their character clockwise from the table of all of all of all
they basically include these really fun lists of questions in here uh... that
you can kind of like roll on
and it'll be relationship questions uh... for characters you know in characters
you don't know
or for characters you don't know and then characters you have a negative
relationship with and then characters you have a positive relationship with
uh... yeah
which i think is really fun so we can use these two characters as an example
uh... list of fears on here somewhere
uh... no i don't think so i'll i forgot about fears that's something that you
kind of like come up with on the character sheets just for reference it
goes name age fear motivation flaws description and then it has your
uh...
your strengths on there that you basically just check next to the box
there's a little spot you to write uh... how many were seats okay you have to
the right of that is stats uh... and then on the bottom is a little section for
notes so just going in order you would have done fear motivation first but it's
easier to do strength and flaws because they're like easier to find
i think that it's also easy to find a fear motivation after you already have
your strengths and flaws
we were listening we're gonna control of this document and see if we can find a
motivation
i don't think
nah
give me the motivation
now i'd just like a section for you know i'm saying yeah
well i can go ahead and bullshit some
fears
think about scares you
uh... okay
says okay so the mechanical application for this fear will be addressed in
planned actions and snap decisions on page twenty nine so it what it's getting
out there is that your fears if you want to use the mechanically
it's kind of like this uh... time or an instance where your
gm can give you like a very clearly higher dc for something or put you at a
disadvantage if we're talking in terms of fifth edition even though it doesn't
exist in the system
so like if your character is
one of their fears is spiders and they have to interact with a giant spider in
a cave chances are your dc is going to be a lot higher than it is for the person
that is not afraid of spiders also if you're facing your fear it is always
going to be a snap decision you are not able to take planned actions
hey yeah
uh... yep this is pretty much it so it's just kind of giving
in my opinion fear in terms of what's what goes on this list fears to give your
uh... your gm a plot point and a plot hook at some point
i'm thinking very like a deeper from gravity falls because i kind of took the
gravity falls thing and ran with it
uh... so fear being monsters in the supernatural which is i think something
that they are i put wet hair
what air select water in general
i'm not i think like is that a valid here i hate showering swimming exact i'm not
going in that fucking that dinkas cave you getting me
it's been like two hours this is the one with the other i know that's perfect
is this the one with the holding your breath feature
yes disgusting
all that's so fun that's gonna be so fun
uh... and then motivation is kind of similar so uh...
it's again more of a like guiding characteristic thing than anything
yeah
before even doing motivation because i think that that's also something that
comes with like
the world
uh...
because why would this person be
snooping into
yep
there's also an option on here when going through the character creation
uh... it which is called backpacks so
you basically go through and put together a list of things that you would
have in your backpack
so like the benefit of having a trade uh...
called prepared is that you can turn your adversity tokens into random fucking
objects that you can just manifest in your backpack like a lighter
or a small piece of rope
so pencil if it's not on the list that you give your gm at the start of the
game
you can say all will actually yeah well actually
i have the tokens spend their for i have the item
uh...
so do we want to go ahead and do relationship questions
uh... let's let's do motivations right i just want to finish i want to finish
what's on here a quick for you the rest of it so uh... reading description in
the little book
so motivation right something that strongly motivates you might not be the
might not be the thing that drives all of your decisions but it's certainly
drive most of them and especially the big ones
uh... it could be a specific motivation find my son no matter what it cost me
and press tom so they will go out with me could be more general like look cool
or learn
uh... or it has something to do with concealing information don't let the
other people know that i have my business is failing
uh... don't let my children know that i killed their father she says for a
system that really touts itself as being kid friendly jesus christ are the
samples insane
no it's kid friendly in the way of like you
it's the energy of like when you and your friends are like playing a kids game
you get way too fucking into it and get really really aggressive really fast
yes so there are three different suggestions so it says for children
typically motivated by the curiosity for teens are often motivated by social
factors like fitting in finding maintaining romantic relationships and
adults are more like holding on to something protecting something business
family
and then all of them says all age groups can be motivated by something or
somebody they've lost
dramas the unifying
is your character motivated by
proof of the critter
fucking god i knew it i knew it i knew it evidence proof of course it is
god damn it
proving bigfoot's real like okay
listen let me live out my ghost on a dream i want to be like a ghost hunter
show badly
i don't fucking know what this person's motivation is
i'm being wholly honest i was a yeah cuz we don't know what the adventures yet
yeah
i mean i guess looking cool is an easy one like impressing people like are they
like a influence
yeah i guess i like for the content
uh... kinda
kinda almost come in the same looking cool
okay i'm taking risk your options if it means i look cool
fair enough
hell yeah
all right
taking that higher dc you know what if i pull that shit off
is going to look double shit yes it is
stunts and tricks and shit
get a d twenty out
well first before we do this to our characters know each other do they have
a positive relations if they do know each other to the positive relationship
or a
negative relationship
and then we are gonna roll on that chart
uh... up to you
you wanna
you wanna sign that also to d twenty and
let it do that or do you have a strong opinion either way
uh... you can roll a d four and we just a
assign one to each of the options and then ignore one
we could also just say hi or low for the d twenty
but there's three options don't know each other
okay i see i see
army are picking number to ignore
uh... four
okay so what we just going in order than one two three
yet one positive to negative three don't know
okay
we got to fucking great what was it positive negative don't know each other
it was a two so it's negative
uh... lovely uh...
i'm we can never have characters that go along i love character creation i love
putting together a party i have never once sat down but together a party or a
group of players that automatically got along with each other can we do positive
do positive we're doing positive for the best to make that
fucked the dice we can make that decision so uh... you can roll a d twenty
and then i'll ask you the question
yet three
uh...
was the question dot what great kindness to this character do for you that they
don't remember how you did we could re-roll now fucks sake uh...
uh...
this is this is gonna is the sound terrible but i like the idea that the
character like
and my character did something really embarrassing or felt very uncool in a
particular moment in just like the level of nerdy nest that was exuding from the
other character
was just so extreme that all of the attention was subtracted and that felt
like it like it's like is that positive is that positive is positive though
because it's like oh my god my hair looks terrible and everyone's gonna turn
the corner and see it and then nerdy kid holds up a salamander and all the other
kids run
and it's like you don't know that you did an act of kindness for me but you just
say my ass in front of half the okay okay that's fair i'm saying yeah
these are really fun questions you wanna roll another
yeah one other
when i
eleven
eleven uh...
what lengths would you go to in order to defend this character
uh...
interesting i picked vain and petty
disloyal was not was not one of the ones i picked uh...
just because i think those characters are fucking boring but yeah um...
ho
what links with my character to protect the other one
i wanna say
pretty far
uh... i don't know
i wanna play beyond just like the plastic beauty that's an asshole in like
that it like i don't know is cool with being a mean person it's more of like
happenstance this is the way i enjoy getting my attention
and to the extent where it's like i don't necessarily understand that i'm
putting down other people but like i'm getting the attention so who fucking
cares but also i'm not gonna like let you die
you know like i'm not a bad person i just like a maybe a little into my hair
yeah
i just maybe like the way that i look
yeah this is the priority for me but like i'm not gonna fuck you intentionally
so i would say somewhere in the middle like i'm not doing my life in the land
but i'm also not just gonna walk away if you need help
these are so fast
four
four um...
what trade about this character that they despise do you genuinely appreciate
that's a really fun question
um...
that they despise that we genuinely appreciate
i don't know enough about the character i'll say i think that's part of it is at
least in this
portion of the process right and it's kind of helping the other forming each
other
right yeah that makes sense um...
uh...
that i appreciate
it's interesting that i appreciate
i can take a break and answer a question
in the meantime
i think going in in lines of
looking pretty
i imagine that there's like uh... and on
like uh... it it a undeniable urge and like
uh... overwhelming need to be very meticulous in like collecting all of
the evidence in getting all the material and making sure that like all of the
reports are perfect
and just resonating on that level with like this person's yeah static it's
like no i get that i know that you hate it but like
i appreciate that because it takes me hours to do the shit that i do to
myself yeah
like it takes you hours to put things together but like you know
yeah it's not the same but basically is a character who's like i know that i've
got to spend the time like compiling the evidence in ship and i don't really
want to do that i just kind of want to get out there and do things but i know
i have to like keep my
books in order and i hate that and for this character like almost enjoying the
process
yeah so you know i appreciate i think it's fun but i mean you know teach the
room you want to roll a d twenty for me yeah
ten
ten um...
what is this character sacrificing to protect you
probably a little bit of status
yeah
uh... i think that was my first thought to like immediately of like anyone who's
in this position and like i've been we've immediately established this is not a
cool person
uh...
traits are
traits are paranoid and superstitious yeah like uh... very like
cool under pressure kind of person seems like someone who is really cool so
just like even be like
ladies and man you're already sticking your neck out for me by like talking to
me at lunch so like
that's a lot
already
and like reputation being put on the line
rolling in
sure
to you
uh... what do you admire about this character that would
but you would never tell them
uh...
i think
i like to i in
this character is coming up very like socially awkward to me or not even
socially awkward but just like acts like they're better than the thinking about
or dealing with like social ramifications and repercussions of
like
i don't care about being popular it's like no you don't care about being popular
because you fucking suck
uh... it's not going well that was me in high school like i don't care about
being popular it was like girl that was never an option for you
yeah you don't care about it was never like yours your sphere of things you
could care about exactly but i think being able to admire
that someone is able to like
put so much care and attention and like
it's not it's not it's beyond the shallow stuff it's
like okay this person actually does listen to people and like does like
yeah they know like all of the popular kids birthdays but it's like beyond just
being able to be like yeah they're my friends because they're popular it's
like you actually do care
and like you actually put a lot more effort into things than uh... people
realize because you're
probably trying to give off this like very like
i'm just put together like this and it's like well i know you spent two hours on
your hair this morning because
you're it is gelled to high health there's no way that that's not natural and
then being able to like appreciate
but also like
i'm never gonna fucking tell them that
next question
that was thrown so aggressively sixteen
uh... sixteen what would losing this character mean to you
do they get so serious so quick
heaviest
fuck
uh... which you appreciate about the you wouldn't tell them
how to feel if they fucking died in front of you
how'd your character react if they saw another child die
yeah
i think it would mean a lot i think this is someone who doesn't have a ton of
friends and so being able to like have a cool friend
right let alone
a friend and then being someone who like
i think they're also gonna take a lot of responsibility in like i mean if we're
looking at the tropes conspiracy theorist and uh... plastic beauty
i'm gonna go out on a limb and say one of them is getting the other into trouble
and it's not plastic beauty who's like hey we should go check out the fucking
abandoned warehouse
and so plastic beauty having to like bail the person out every time
yeah so i know officer i just i thought it'd be really cool to take instagram
pictures here and i didn't see the sign on the front door
while girly is in the corner with a tinfoil hat on it's just like fully going
crazy
uh... so i think also like blaming themselves for if that character like
didn't like lose a loss in some way
is it walking out doesn't work out of the situation
uh... and even like it in a social setting of like i fucked up to a point
where this
character is no longer my friend
seventeen seventeen uh... move on
when did you first realize you love this character platonically or romantically
we think that's a there are romantic interest here
uh...
a jacket conspiracy theorist or i know that's not a job of plastic beauty
are you like a song what is your vibe man
we was my vibe
i'm trying to figure out so social media is a part of it
to an extent
i think it's uh...
uh...
i had a very specific vibe in high school and i never took it to this level
which is kind of what i'm trying to to think that he really had no idea about
the things you said about
was is i didn't school
i truly like there was a time in high school where like i could have been very
similar to this but i chose not to just because my priorities were very different
but uh...
taking some of the more negative sides of that
to the extreme or at least pushing them a little bit higher i think
so my aesthetic in high school was uh... greaser like to the point
to the extent that i was in the my high school yearbook as a lookalike with
somebody who looked like a greaser
uh... that's what i was known for i was cast in uh... grease
the musical
in our high school only because i had the hair
uh... and i played the lead only because i had the hair
i was told i couldn't really sing that well but he would fix that
so
that tells you the extent that i like cared about my parents like it was dark
jeans white t-shirt leather jacket in the summer
the darkest shoes i could get saddle specific walk with boots
uh... in like the most pristine slicked back gel hair i'm coming at every thirty
seconds
the photo of your your product with me to school
fucking funny
uh... so i think it's very much this like cooler than everybody else like
walks into the room of sunglasses on teachers like hey take those off and it's
like only if i have to
sitting in the back the class putting feet up on like the table but then also
still like socializing and gossiping with everybody like that was cool wasn't
it
that was so cool
but i just did there
like still checking in to like that extra boosts
a hundred percent
like walking and super cool and then be like okay but wasn't like what did you
guys think
yeah how do i hear like when i walk in
did i do good
yeah i do good it's kind of like that
i think that would be a very fun relationship like that i did i like
you look so fucking cool man
you look so good
this is deep level of insecurity where it's like i'm talking to the nerd in the
back the class and being like hey
level with me here somebody that doesn't give a shit
was that cool
it's like you know so fucking sick man
like i don't even give a fuck about that shit that was so fucking cool
so that's the five
um... i think this is a joint question
a joint question and it was is
do you like this person like romantically it was when did you first
realize you love this character that's not a layer romantically
we've established friends at school
we have a status that's just a big jump in any capacity my thought is that maybe
there's always been a thought
on both of their ends but nothing has ever been pushed to any like real
acknowledgement can a similar to like the parker and daisy thing but not that
level of like closeness in terms of like maybe there was it like a time or
like hands brush and it was like in this moment you could
but you're on such different ends of the ladder like we're in two different
worlds not even gonna think about it that same way like it
characters in high school of like if you if you're in high school a lot of the
time there's always like a weird like passing thought
or like somewhere it's like when you have another single friend your age
and there's someone of the gender that you're attracted to
and then it's just like
if i like sat down and thought about it or like put any effort into this
it could definitely happen but
i've got to go to class right now and that's awkward and i have to talk to
people until i feel and
and that's also just such a fun thing to play as like so that's kind of my
thought yeah
i agree with that
i think that's fun
it's also a little awkward dynamic i think it's also very funny to be like
having someone who's like so into their appearance and so into like
social status and be like
me no i cannot fucking do that their glasses are
like it's like inch thick wow she like
doesn't look terrible to what the fuck am i saying yeah it's like i i i have
curated
my my fucking like a platform so literally i like
the fucking contacts of my phone and i cannot throw it away on this
like and then also on the flip side of that of being like wow maybe he's not
what the fuck are you he spends two hours getting ready in the morning
you don't have that kind of time you don't have time to wait you've got
monsters to catch like he's not going out in the woods at 2am to look for big
foot tracks she's gonna worry about getting her shoes dirty
yeah and just the like the the divide of like
i'll deal with that later is that deal with that later energy which is always
so fun with like teenage characters what's next
um i that's that's all of the questions unless you want to do
uh a negative question um let's do one negative question answer it jointly and
then i think maybe just hammering out really quickly a brief character
description and a name and calling it there all right sounds good to me
eight eight um what role did this character play in the worst
day of your life now fuck me that's a fun question easy for your character
god damn it um if we're answering it jointly that's it's interesting and
if both characters are answering that question that means it's also kind of
like uh enemies to friends situation at some point
i would imagine it started with like the same day is both the worst day for
each other and then like beyond that is when the
conversation happens where it's like hey i don't talk to you and i'll plan on
talking to you but like i apologize yeah because that was like it was a lot for me
it was for you it was bad for both of us we could just acknowledge that like my
whole reputation just got flushed yeah it wasn't intentional yeah i oh my god
what do we think happened i feel like it's something ridiculous
it has to be something ridiculous i'm trying to decide if it's like in a
social setting or not because i also think like the idea of like
conspiracy theorists is doing something to like gather evidence in some way
and they're just about to get it and then they like
fucking bump into each other or some shit and then you go in the water because
it talks about like there's a boardwalk or something
yeah um she's like on the edge of getting the fucking like this right this
one picture and then she fucking bumps into you and then you hit the water hit
the water so worst day for you you bumped into this fucking nerd
and now your hair is wet and i'm like i had the best of your career and then this
god damn barbie doll is walking down the fucking street
um i take a selfie on the way through doing a little vlog and then just like
whoops where it's like this is this is shit for both of us
yeah this is this is deeply bad for valid in the situation valid and it also
ties in both of their fears this does
and using evidence and getting wet
you can't say that
yeah that is what it is all right uh what is your character's name
um fuck oh god that's always the hardest part isn't it
uh she's got tpt baby
going on um i feel like at this one i've got to keep
another flower name because that's kind of my go-to
i mean i could not jesus no it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay i've
asked her asked her that makes that makes so much sense
uh it's a perennial flower i'm going with tony
tony checks right it's tony tony checks this is in new jersey so you get to
do your jersey accent oh jesus christ anyways tony checks
astor is a really fun name yeah astor and tony
it says is it like astor is such a nasally fucking name
astor and tony what does tony look like
um i mean i pretty much fucking described it greaser yeah more or less
uh astor will have a pixie cut like really short
uh darker brown hair um thick glasses uh i'm feeling like
very like plaid overalls yep um is this modern day are you putting this in
modern day or are you throwing it back a little bit what do we want to do i mean
this is all about collaborative world building um i think like an 80s vibe
could be kind of neat 80s vibe just because that fits
like the the whole tony thing a little bit more and i think
liking i think those two opposite ends of like the stereotypes existed very much
at the same time which is like the nerd with the scrunchie and the glasses and
the like the fucking bite vocals and then the pretty boy and then the pretty
boy with like the leather jacket and the white t-shirt and the jeans the important
question is that this is like 80s 90s uh is he one of the guys that wears the
fucking crop tops like the men's crop tops oh for sure very important question
for sure okay for sure depends on like the day and what the
outing is but like for sure okay i those just as a trend need to come back
for men because they're i don't mean that in like a
like i'm an into it way i think they're very fun and i think i think you mean
it a little bit as an into it way no i think you would enjoy looking i mean i'm
not gonna not look exactly exactly okay
gracer all i got right from the description the description
gracer all right well i think i'm just mostly excited about such
things being gravity falls because i know that you're a man and i'm a massive
gravity falls man yeah um and i don't even really get to play
her because i'm gonna yeah but i mean i'll figure out how that works
yeah i say i think that's an experience that you'll you'll come to enjoy more
than you think you will even though i was d i still dm the majority of the
one shots um specifically the the ones that we did with
eba and sparrow i still got to fully play and enjoy eba as a character
yeah like you still get to use them mechanically in the story
the only thing that takes a little bit of the fun out of it is like you
kind of have to play against yourself yeah so like you know what
roles you're going to be giving yourself as x character and you also know what's
around the corner as x character but you kind of have to like
play the character a little stupid in terms of like yeah i don't actually like
you can't met a game yeah met a game then it's just gonna be this is gonna be bad
i think one of the fun things about this is because it's so collaborative i
think it's also something that might lend itself more to having
our this which the way that we play on the podcast when it's the two of us is
very unorthodox and uncommon it is just uh it's the two of us so
yep um just two of us for the time being at least
great song um but with it being collaborative i think it's also
something that'll be fun to like toss back and forth between um and i think
you'll find it easier to try and do that kind of a setting with this system
yeah you'll have significantly less to juggle
yeah less stat blocks all that fun stuff you'll just have like a list of
of dice hell yeah so well uh that was our kids on our all about bikes uh is
probably what i'm gonna call it um all about bikes we will go ahead i'll
link copies of the character sheets that we've made um in the description of this
video or on our patreon which should hopefully be up and running by the time
this episode comes out fingers crossed fingers crossed
if i've got time in between rehearsals because i'm currently in a show right
now um currently in a show right now waiting for lefty waiting for lefty i
played doc benjamin um exciting stuff very very excited
i was in rehearsals for several hours today um and we'll be for the foreseeable
future see you next thursday bye