Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
C2 Ep.11 Eberron Reviewed 2
301 Plays4 years ago
The week the full crew sits down to discuss Thinking Inside the Box and The Least Dangerous Game episodes. We also dive deep into some listener questions that you won’t want to miss!
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Darrin Katzska, Irene Viorritto, Ryan Royce, Darrell DeLaney, Jessica Smith, Charles Compton, Richard Cree, Nastasia Raulerson, The Kamm Family, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Andy Dossett, Rebekah Miller, deviouspoptart, Eðvarð Arnór Sigurðsson, Michael Clark, Eric Witman, and Dustin Troupe.
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Sponsors
00:00:00
Speaker
The following episode is brought to you by Darryl Delaney, Ryan Royce, Darren Katska, Jessica Smith, Irene Villarito, Laura Pickron, Eric Whitman, Deavius Poptart, Elizabeth Clark, Andy Dossett, Natasha Rallerson, Richard Cree, The Cam Family, Charles Compton, Edvard Tharnoff, Dustin Troop, Rebecca Miller, Michael Clark, and David Scrams, along with all of our generous patrons.
00:00:35
Speaker
D20 radio, your game is roll.
Meet the Hosts of Eberron Renewed
00:01:15
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Eberron Renewed, the only podcast about Dungeons and Dragons. I'm Jeff. I'm Phillip. I'm Trevor. I'm Randy.
00:01:28
Speaker
And I'm Eric. Don't look for others. There aren't any. Today is the end of an arc, or we are celebrating the end of an arc with another Eberron reviewed.
Celebration and Listener Q&A
00:01:39
Speaker
And in, well, it has been a rare occurrence, but may not be going forward. The entire cast is here for it to answer your questions.
Story Arc Overview
00:01:47
Speaker
So really quickly to recap what happened in the arc, and we'll get into greater detail as the questions go by, we are summoned to
00:01:55
Speaker
meet a new character by the name of Haldan. Did Haldan have a last name or was Haldan his last name? Haldan was the only name you were given.
00:02:05
Speaker
Um, I don't know if someone can be incredibly indifferent, but that's what he has a package we need to deliver. He tells us not to look inside, which immediately means Iris has to know what's in there. And we start off we get in our sky coach, we start to go down to where we need to take it and we are
00:02:27
Speaker
set upon by a woman who claims to be a part of the Charon police or Eberonian police force. The King Citadel. King Citadel, realish police force, federal police, as it were. Yes.
00:02:43
Speaker
We're not sure if we believe her, but she's not around long enough for it to really matter. Hold on. Okay. Hold on. Some of us are certain we don't believe her. Some of us are incredibly indifferent. So, see, I saw that as Ferris really did believe her and just wanted her to prove it to get it over with for everybody else, but maybe I read it wrong. I mean, not good with people. Ferris wanted proof. Yes, very much. So,
00:03:09
Speaker
But she hops off shortly after that to kill a guy. And then we try to continue. Turns out that when you're an accessory to murder, the rest of the police want to talk to or the real police want to talk to you. There's a chase through the towers. We managed to lose them, deliver the box.
00:03:50
Speaker
And we'll also, of course, talk about the downtime episode
00:03:52
Speaker
everything
Character Relationships and Development
00:03:53
Speaker
later. When we get to questions, we'll go into detail about it because it was it was fun and dumb and fun. I'm loving the downtown episode. But why don't you two chat for just a minute about Eris and Olive and how they know each other and what we learned in that quote. Olive is Eris's teacher, essentially, is the person who's been giving Eris under the table major lessons. Yeah.
00:03:54
Speaker
is fine.
00:04:21
Speaker
And I guess to get into the mechanics a little bit, Olive is is the representation of Eris's obligation that we roll on like in. And so, yeah, it's not even really a spoiler because you all at the end of the last arc heard that we rolled on Phillips obligation, so that would play a role. So I certainly wanted to get that character introduced prior to her just showing up because the game mechanics mandated it. So
00:04:50
Speaker
But yeah, all of I think it's too strong of a word to say has taken Eris under her wing, but has has definitely taken a strong interest in Eris and shows a desire to cultivate this.
00:05:06
Speaker
this interest and ambition within Eris to learn more, the hunger for knowledge as it were. Yeah. And then we also introduced a couple of other characters, Norsen Millhatch and Harbin Millhatch, his son. Such good names. And we got to meet, we got to see a little bit more of Harbin in this particular scene, just awkwardly talking to Eris for a long duration of time.
00:05:35
Speaker
which I think we played off well, you know, just that awkward small talk you make when it's just like, OK, so I guess we're standing near each other for the next five minutes. Yeah, but just just to put it out there, my synopsis was incredibly glib. And I do know that we're trying something new where we try to answer. We talk more about the episode and the answers to the questions that are just patting ourselves on the backs about clever things we came up with.
00:06:01
Speaker
As much as I enjoyed doing that, I understand that it might have been insufferable to some people, although we got no complaints because by and large our fans are great. The third episode of the arc begins with Milo's cold open. Why don't we have Randy? We've pre-recorded this since Randy's not with us for the main thing, but we did a quick little thing tonight early so that Randy can talk about his cold open with Eric for just a... Take it away.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah. So I don't know what you want to say about it, Randy. But for me, when I was plotting this out and thinking about what's a good starting point to allow the audience to start getting the opportunity to see behind the curtain when it comes to Milo, I definitely wanted it to be
00:06:39
Speaker
Something involving the incident, I guess, like in playing into what you've described very much as kind of Milo's paranoia when it comes to the belief that somebody is responsible for everything. Yeah, he's.
00:06:57
Speaker
It's just it was such an odd thing and just so bizarre in his mind that he just feels that somebody set that fire. It just seemed to spread really quickly. It didn't seem like smell of smoke would wake him. I mean, I like something that would wake you up. It was just so quick that he's under the impression that somebody has done this on purpose.
00:07:23
Speaker
to either kill him or his wife or both, but he's lost his wife. So I don't know if it's part of that anguish that he wants somebody to blame. So he has this paranoia about, I don't know if it's paranoia, but he has this deep desire to find out if somebody said it and if so who. So if somebody maybe looks at him kind of
00:07:52
Speaker
differently than he feels they should, he might start wondering, you know, does this guy know something? And that was kind of, you know, when I was listening to it, one of my questions, one of my thoughts was, and this can be a wait and just like any other review, the answer can be wait and see. How willing is Milo
00:08:13
Speaker
to let that desire derail a job. And I know, I'm sure it depends on the severity of the job or the importance of the job or any of that stuff, but like, do you see us? I think that it could become an issue. I like it. I think, you know, if if it happens in a certain way, I don't know, Eric, I'm assuming that if it's if you roll Milo, that could be when it comes into play on the obligation.
Behind the Scenes and Technical Insights
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's not necessarily the only time it needs to come into play, but certainly that would be like it becomes a big problem. But what I think was nice about this short intro that we did together was kind of showing it can be in the most mundane of situations of Milo just walking around town when somebody catches his eye and is like, oh, well, what's what's going on here? I need to follow this person to figure out what they're up to.
00:09:14
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Curious. Like, why did he look at me? And and it was just Milo's perception. I mean, who knows if that guy was really, you know, kind of giving him the evil eye or not in Milo's head. Yeah. That guy looked at me wrong. Yeah, sure. And I think that's going to be. No, I'm not going to say it out loud because that that puts too much of what I think on Randy's character. That is not OK.
00:09:43
Speaker
No, that's cool. Oh, hey, since we got you here, Randy, I did mention in the Discord that I needed to ask you about it first, but everybody's making jokes about Dex's hair. I said I want to make it canon with Randy's permission that Booyah helped Dex get those braids in order. Oh, yeah, no question. Well, there you go, folks. It is fully officially canon spoken on the podcast. Go back, Eric, about 20 seconds and say you got to skip ahead 30 seconds if you've just started carrying one.
00:10:15
Speaker
That's funny. I do have a question, Randy, since we've got you here. I do have a question about your heroic ability, but I don't want to cut off if you guys have more to say about the scene. Do you have any more to say, Randy? No, I don't think so. I think that kind of covers it. Milo's a little paranoid about the fire and curious to see if somebody did it and who it was.
00:10:39
Speaker
Okay, so my thing about your heroic ability, because you've used it twice now, you know, two arcs, two uses, perfect. Actually, I take that back. You may have used it twice, one of the witches and the third arc. But the point is, the first time that you used it, I had no idea what was going on. So what does the heroic ability grant you? Eric, obviously you can jump in with that as well. And what is the extent of it, not like the
00:11:06
Speaker
evolution of it as you get more powerful and it gets more powerful. Like what? Right. It's, it's called all the facts. And he just, Milo has a knack for knowing vital information when it is needed. And it, uh,
00:11:29
Speaker
You know, he might pick on something, a clue that maybe we haven't found so far, or I might recall something or, you know, and it's kinda, I guess up to, is it totally up to you, Eric? What I discover, or could I just say, Hey, this Milo knows this and this is what Milo knows.
00:11:54
Speaker
That's exactly where I was gonna ask was, is this purely GM discretion? Or can Randy almost use it as a story point at some point?
00:12:04
Speaker
I think within reason, it can be used to introduce concrete knowledge into the situation. I wouldn't have a problem with that, obviously, if it's like, oh, I'm just now realizing that this person that wants to kill us is actually a friend and does not want to harm me. What's that? What's that? Oh, he keeps a key under the mat. Yeah.
00:12:27
Speaker
but absolutely to be used as kind of a juiced up story point in situations where, yeah, like I don't have a good concrete example in this moment just off the top of my head, but yes, Randy does have the discretion to dictate that information with my blessing, I guess, like I reserve the right to go
00:12:53
Speaker
No, but here's a here's a here's a version of that that might work. Sure. So standard standard GM stuff. Yeah. So throw it at my wall and we shall see what it takes. And it has to obviously it has to relate to the situation. Yes. Yeah, it's highly situational. Germaine. And what's going on. And if and I'm sure you have caught on
Character Dynamics and Growth
00:13:18
Speaker
that.
00:13:19
Speaker
The way I'm using it is basically via the voice in my head is how Milo is, is getting that info. And that's so good. Yeah. I'm so happy that I said, I'm so happy that I made a character who's big and strong and the heroic ability is just smash more. Cause I don't have to come up with a cool reason for it to work. Like you didn't get the voices in your head, which is so smart.
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah. And kind of like I think Eric mentioned when I was talking to him that kind of liked that it's one sided. Like you don't hear what the voice is saying. You just hear Milo's reaction to the voice. And it could even be Milo's interpretation of what he was told. I'm sure there are plenty of times where the voice you're hearing is your wife.
00:14:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's, it's Kylie. And I think initially, I think at this point in time that he's decided that it's really her. I think, you know, at first probably going through that. Am I going crazy? You know, am I losing my head here? What's going on? And I think now he's to the point where he's accepted it. And, you know, it's Kylie.
00:14:37
Speaker
Right. Yeah. And I like the idea that it is that because I'm sure there were times in her life where she'd be like, hey, next time you see Snorfblat, tell them blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you gave it the Milo spin because that's what everybody does. So so even outside of the heroic ability at some point, maybe Kylie's words mean something, but they don't mean quite as much from Milo when he synthesizes it for his group. Right. And you know, Milo did not used to be this smart.
00:15:07
Speaker
Sure. You know, right. She was intelligent. She was the smart one in the, in our little two person family, you know, Milo did not have that type of intelligence, you know, and, and since we're kind of talking about some of that.
00:15:23
Speaker
I think at least for Milo's viewpoint of Hobb is Hobb needed to protect Milo because Milo is just a common halfling running around trying to collect money for the clan. He had to have Hobb there.
00:15:41
Speaker
for protection. And even still, even though Milo now has the magic, he still needs Hobb. He's used to having Hobb go with him when necessary. And that's why I think he's so in tune with trying to pay that back by putting barrier on Hobb, you know, give Hobb some protection. You know, Hobb's been protecting Milo for who knows how long it's time to, you know, pay it forward, so to say.
00:16:11
Speaker
And it has really borne out that way. We're nearly done here. Randy, I want to give you a chance for some vinyl, anything you want to say about the arc, the inside the box arc. But it really has played out well. And part of it's just me and Trevor playing on what we play each other best as, which is antagonizing, even though we're very good friends. We really are. I'm saying that because he's not here.
00:16:38
Speaker
But that Eris and Milo both recognized that they needed Hobb at one point and are going to be there when Hobb needs them. And Rainard doesn't have that. Rainard's never needed Hobb. Early C's never thought he needed Hobb. And so that's why they have that contentious relationship. And we're going to do more, Randy. You and I are going to build Milo and Hobb's relationship because it's lagging behind
00:16:59
Speaker
both the Milo Reynard and the Aerith hob. So we're going to. I'm committing to be a better friend. You heard it here, folks. I think there's there's plenty of time for us to do that for sure. Eric told me we were only going to do this campaign for four months. Yeah, we're we're nearing the end. So it's almost over. OK, never mind. Better hurry it up then, I guess.
00:17:22
Speaker
Eric said what he wanted was for us to finally really dial in on what our characters are. He's going to kill us all. And next thing we know we're going to be back in some grandiose. Yes. Save the world.
00:17:33
Speaker
Save the cheerleader stuff. OK, this is all we have Randy for. I promise if any of you guys had questions for Randy and the rest of the review, we will make sure they get answered one way or another. If Randy has to call you personally on your home phone, he's willing to do it, but he will publicize the number. Yes.
00:17:55
Speaker
You know, take it for what it's worth. All right, Randy, thank you for joining us. There's anything else you want to say about the inside the box arc before I just I think I'm just generally speaking, I'm I'm becoming, I think, more comfortable with Genesis. And I think I'm really starting to enjoy it more than I thought I would initially. Well, thank goodness, because I don't want you to leave. I would I would have stuck it out.
00:18:26
Speaker
But yeah, I enjoy it. And I like the thinking inside the box. That was a good arc. And and I like, you know, I like what we've been doing thus far, just all around. I definitely enjoyed Ray Nard's dilemma. Yeah. That was a lot of fun. That was fun. And we'll be in fact. Pretty good segue.
00:18:55
Speaker
because we will have a little bit more talk about the rest of episode three, and then we will be moving into Raynard's game right after this word from Casper Mattresses. And then let's talk, before we get into the questions, let's talk downtime episode. This one focused on Raynard. It did. It did. Yeah, and we had a game to play.
00:19:23
Speaker
The game semantics runner was. Was. Hob didn't like it. It was. It was great. Yeah, so basically, there's a fun little game where people try and frame other people, and it was pretty high stakes this time. So we had to return an item that was stolen a. A cockatrice.
00:19:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. OK. It was a statue of a cockatrice. And for for my knife, Raynard's knife. Well, a duplicate of your knife. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. A duplicate. The old Indian Jones was true.
00:20:12
Speaker
Um, yeah. And, and that went swimmingly and there were no mistakes made and everything was fine. Well, what I was going to say was this was the first big noticeable, um, use of a story point as a plot device instead of just a roll buff. I think it had been, I had jokingly mentioned it, I think even in the last downtime episode, but it wasn't legit. Whereas this time.
00:20:36
Speaker
I think it was cut out. Eric did remind us, hey, you can use story points and then Phillip or Phillip. Trevor. Yeah, I know. I just don't like to say it. Well, no, no. The order of operations was I gave you the suggestion. Then you said, OK, Eric, cut here and Trevor make the suggestion. So it sounds like we know what we're doing.
00:20:58
Speaker
Yeah, Eric, can you cut that? You just did also? Maybe. Leave it. They already know I'm dumb. I'm concerned about Philip and Randy. They have reputations to protect. And Trevor's new one for me. But to say, hey, we know where to go because we know that
00:21:21
Speaker
Salarian has a balcony and it was as simple as that and then bribing a sky coach to get up there. I think the downtime episodes are more. We get a lot more insight into how the group actually operates with each other in the downtime episodes than we have in the main episodes, because it's.
00:21:44
Speaker
do the job, fight the bad guy if we have to. Of course, everything will flesh out in both sets. But I love these downtime episodes because we really see like, all right, now we're four, five dinguses on a balcony. We have to figure this out now. Well, I thought it was interesting that Eris and Hob were not really interested at all in going.
Relationships and Character Consistency
00:22:12
Speaker
And Milo was kind of like, that's my buddy, I'm going. And just how that all played out, I thought was really good. I will. In Hobbs defense, when Raynard says we have a game to play, he was like, no. But when Raynard says, oh, but if I if I lose, I'll die. It wasn't enthusiastic, but he wasn't going to not go with that. Well, at some point, we're going to have to establish why Hobb doesn't like
00:22:42
Speaker
Raynard more than just the fact that Jeff and Trevor love to give each other crap, their language for their friendship. Well, I think for the downtime episodes that one of the things that makes them at least a lot of fun to run and I hope play in is when designing them, I ask myself, what's the one thing like hob in a boxing match, Raynard having to undo this frame job and
00:23:10
Speaker
Because it's just the one thing but we have an hour to fill of airtime it
00:23:17
Speaker
I don't get stressed out when you all spend 15 minutes talking to Sigil and Vigo at the Warforged protests thing going on because I don't, I'm not worried about time. Like I know we just have the one thing we have to do. And so it's less, I feel less inclined to push you all along for the sake of time, which is nice. Or 20 minutes trying to open a door. Yes, or 20 minutes trying to open a door.
00:23:46
Speaker
Doors, man. And Jeff, you bringing up exploring the relationship between Hobb and Raynard. I think my intention down the road is to start doubling up on some of the cold opens, like having you and Trevor, Philip and Randy, to start fleshing out those other relationships more in a little bit of a controlled environment.
00:24:12
Speaker
Yeah, you want to make sure there's adults present for the first one. That's me, me and Randy. The safe parameter being Eric's here to go, guys, seriously. OK, and I mean, I don't want to tell you guys you can't say anything you want about the arc before we get into the questions. I will say that
00:24:39
Speaker
Just from because I know we don't have a question directly about this. I I was a little bit I don't want to say disappointed because I'm never disappointed in what you all do, but I knew that hob being the one with the box. Like like when I was planning out the box stuff, for some reason in my head, I had this vision of Raynard with it and it start muffling and he like cracks the lid open and sees what's in it and slams it shut and then just kind of
00:25:05
Speaker
Has to not freak out for the rest of the trip. But Hob is such a ride or die for the clan, like do what needs to be done. That's great. Like you played the character wonderfully. It just had the least amount of opportunity for shenanigans, which is good from a job standpoint. But I was looking forward to the shenanigans. So well, and I'm kind of waiting for.
00:25:32
Speaker
the worm to turn to get off of that mindset. There's no reason for him not to be all about the job yet. And if it happens, it happens if it doesn't, it doesn't, but I just don't want people to think I'm going to be this boring guy who's like, no, the boss said we don't do it so we can't do it.
00:25:46
Speaker
No, and I agree. I just think it's too too early. I think you're doing a good job. Like we need to build to that. It can't be session to like all of a sudden we've heard how like how firm hob is in this belief and now all of a sudden it's gone. Like I like the way you're playing it. So. But that's the. Milo's kind of all about the job, like all about the business.
00:26:14
Speaker
And I did note that at the end when Eris and Hobb started talking about like, what if it's a person? What if it's like, what are the parameters in which we are going to attack these people? And Milo was still very much like, no, like the this is the job. Right. So I am picking up on those those little comments you all are making, and I really like it. Yeah, I kind of think that maybe Milo has been working for the Klan longer.
00:26:41
Speaker
You know, his father maybe worked for the Klan when he first owned the bar. And so I kind of had the feeling that, you know, Milo's the oldest one. So. Well, and something is something I definitely want to explore a bit more in the future is what the Klan did for Hob or not Hob Milo after the fire, because I feel like that would play a big role into Milo's loyalty to them if the Klan really.
00:27:07
Speaker
at least appeared to take care of Milo in that situation. I imagine that would build a lot of goodwill from Milo towards the clan in that regard. Yeah, I can see that. I do have a question I just thought of. Eric, did you realize going into that one point in the episode that you said, don't look in the box. You can't know what's in the box. You negotiate the price.
00:27:30
Speaker
Did you know that you had said that? So we'd be like, um, but we can if we don't, we need a ballpark. We need something. It was a situation where as soon as the words came out of my mouth, I realized, oh, that's really dumb. Like we need to come up with a way to where they'll know at least a range with which to negotiate. Um, so, so yeah, it was one of the things where, um,
00:27:53
Speaker
You know, you just don't put the pieces together in your head when you're thinking that that scene through and it's like, oh, so he's going to have them negotiate the price. And then in a separate thought, you're like, and he'll give him the box, but they can't look at the box and you never make the connection of like, wait, these two things don't fit. I mean, in fairness, I think us looking and I think us knowing what was in the box wouldn't have helped with that because that's why would we why would we know the market value of a reanimated head? That's a very good point.
00:28:20
Speaker
To be honest, was the thought, oh, that was a mistake? Or was the thought, oh, they're gonna rip me up for that one? Because when I make a mistake, my thought is rarely, oh, I made a mistake. It's, well, what are they gonna say? They're gonna make, how is Eric gonna make fun of me today? Yeah, I mean, no, absolutely. When I have a slip up and make a boo-boo while recording this show, I take solace in the fact that I can cut it out to where other people can't hear it. But I absolutely know that I'm gonna have to cut out a few minutes of you all ribbing me for the mistake, so.
00:28:50
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and I did want to ask real quick, Trevor, how did you feel having the spotlight kind of very much thrown on Raynard for the the downtime episode? I. Well, you had mentioned it in our group chat and I didn't realize it was going to happen that day. So I was like, yeah, that's cool. I'm ready. And then I was like, oh, today, here we go. But.
00:29:20
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's just it I just went with it and tried to do my best and make a lot of quick character choices that I maybe hadn't thought about before. But. Well, they were mostly OK if that makes sense. Thank you. Pretty true to who I was trying to create as a character.
00:29:50
Speaker
I mean, I I enjoyed Raynard throughout that whole downtime, especially the the way he spoke about this imminent danger. And then I think one of my favorite moments to like see how it progresses is the moment where you realized who Salarian was and how dire the situation was and not taking the time to like explain, but rather just like we have to go now, please. Thank you. And just take off. So.
00:30:20
Speaker
I was trying to create the idea of like. In Raynard's mind, Raynard is the most important thing. Yeah, so. No one else needs to really know what's going on. You're just helping Raynard. Gotcha. That makes sense. That's how it felt. Well, and and it's something that I I espouse a lot when Philip and I talk about such things on like the knowledge checker in these reviews where
00:30:49
Speaker
Like I appreciate the fact that thus far all of you have done a really good job at playing to your character's flaws. Like the fact that Reynard perceives himself as the most important person in the world. And like obviously it'll be cool to see how that progresses over time in the story because obviously we don't want
00:31:06
Speaker
the party to stay with this dynamic. We obviously want it to shift a bit, but I like how you all are playing into those things. So anyway, sorry, Jeff. I think I cut you off. No, no, no problem. I did want to say we had another skill challenge in the middle of this arc and
00:31:26
Speaker
Not planned. Not planned. Had to make that one up on the fly. They're a good time though. I think as soon as we get a skill challenge that's not a boat race, or how fast we make this boat go, I'll have more to contribute. But I think skill challenges are a good time.
00:31:44
Speaker
especially this one that we didn't win well enough to not trash our Sky Coach. Yeah. Well, you all didn't win it, actually. You failed the skill challenge because you ended up in Dragon Eyes. That's right. Yeah, you were headed to the cogs, but didn't make it. Oh, you know, I did. I may have gone through this too fast.
00:32:04
Speaker
The meat chance bull crap was like trying to recapture the lightning of the wine cellar, but dumb. Not on purpose. That was never on purpose. And
Character Progress and Storytelling Choices
00:32:15
Speaker
the difference was that this one's built into Eberron lore. Like I did not make any of that up. There's a changeling or a doppelganger name chance that runs a casino name chance. Wow. Interesting. Yeah. And
00:32:30
Speaker
But yeah, I enjoyed the skill challenges. They're a lot of fun. They just don't. I know we tried at least one in campaign one, and they just don't hit the same in D&D as they do. Yeah. Because
00:32:45
Speaker
in D&D you just you succeed you do it or you don't and you rack up a success or a failure and in Genesis you do it or you don't but then also the threatened advantage come into play that can really inform the next person's choice or yeah or a triumph allows you to whatever the parachute uh the drag chute on the back of the boat and things like that so
00:33:08
Speaker
I look forward to getting to do more of those and having to really flex the creativity. I do really enjoy when Milo and Raynard are together and they're truest selves with each other. Always very fun. Yes. So the questions this time are going to actually be in kind of grouped by asker, not necessarily in the chronological order that we
00:33:33
Speaker
sometimes do. So we're going to start with Irene and this also touches on a question that Kurt asked. What is Eris's nickname for Hobb and what's the stories behind it? She says her ears aren't great and she couldn't pick it up. And I'll admit I didn't pick it up until it was explicitly said out loud to me. I was going to say I think she's not alone. I know a number of people who caught that Eris was calling him something other than Hobb
00:33:57
Speaker
We're having a hard time picking up that it was what it was. Eris has been calling hub Chib. Chib originates in the excellent trilogy of books by Don Basingthwaite called The Legacy of Dakan, which are set in Eberron and deal heavily with the politics of Dargun, which is the goblinoid nation where Eris spent a lot of her life.
00:34:25
Speaker
Um, Chib is a multi-use word. Eric is laughing. Why is Eric laughing? Because, because of the literal translation, it makes me laugh. Yeah. Well, it means shadows. You're off the show. That's a specifically, uh, uh, under common word. Um, no, uh, uh, Chib has a number of connotations. The literal translation of it is tall person.
00:34:54
Speaker
And it is the colloquial term that little goblins use for any humanoid taller than them. But it also has the connotation of big man or boss. And so Eris uses it for Hob for pretty much all of those reasons. I think Eris absolutely perceives Hob as the only authority figure on our crew
00:35:24
Speaker
I suppose we actually do have a boss who has shown up once. And of course, Eris takes orders from him. But as far as the crew that actually goes out and does stuff, I think Hob is the only one that
00:35:40
Speaker
can tell Eris what to do with a reasonable expectation that she will absolutely do it. I do think we established I think it was asked in the first episode that Kath does have like field operations authority and if things really go pear shaped she can make calls but she is certainly not the boss of anybody.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah, I think basically what it was was if Kath says do it, we all know to do it, but she doesn't abuse that even slightly. Like she doesn't tell us what to do unless she has to. I think it's kind of the way that. Yeah. Yeah. So I have wanted to include.
00:36:21
Speaker
little bits of goblin in Eris's language to reflect her background, but have been trying to do it. We had a long conversation with this in our group chat. I've been trying to do it without it being irritating, because there's a lot of goblin phrases from Don Bastianthwaite's book and now a whole lot more of them in the Exploring Eberron book that has been recently released and don't want to
00:36:49
Speaker
And I guess we talked about this on the Patreon stream too. Don't want to go off in a long stream of things that is gibberish too. I think everyone, maybe we have a fan who has the goblin glossary memorized, but it seems unlikely. I apologize, I can't remember who it was in the Discord that called it out as from that author's work. Yeah. So somebody at least knew that much.
00:37:16
Speaker
Yeah. So using little nicknames like that and a couple of phrases, she has cursed in goblin a couple of times.
00:37:26
Speaker
But, and then any other longer phrases that she uses, she translates into English. Grab the sword by the blade was one of them, right? Yeah, holding the sword by the blade is a goblin phrase from the same author, which you can read in Goblin in Exploring Eberron, but
00:37:47
Speaker
I would just have to explain it after I said it. I actually looked after you told me that she had a nickname for him. I looked at the languages that Hob knows, which I won't say right now because they're a piece of his backstory that we haven't gotten to yet.
00:38:07
Speaker
They don't have glossaries, so he's probably just going to stick with Aeris. That's totally fine. Irene also asks for all of us, how are all of you feeling about your characters at this point? Do you feel like you're settling in? Do you have any buyer's remorse in how you created them? I'll go ahead and jump into that one because I was thinking about this the other day.
00:38:30
Speaker
Dex is nothing like me. Not even remotely. I am nothing like Dex. I don't have the bravado or the hubris or the hair. But
00:38:41
Speaker
Hob is a lot more like me. He he will talk crap to his friends, but he is, you know, he tries to be loyal and do what's asked of him. And and I'm I'm a lot shorter and not strong. But at least obviously I am not those things to the nth degree like Hob is. I've definitely I've definitely let a friend down and done a bad job. And you don't have a five in brawn, though. Say what? You don't have a five in brawn, though.
00:39:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think actually, you know what, a better way to say it is Hobb is the brand of loyalty and steadfastness that I wish I was. I don't want to be like Dex. So I've had more. I've actually had a good time playing Hobb at this beginning point. Way more fun. Whereas with Dex, it was way more trying to establish a character and figure out who he was.
00:39:31
Speaker
I would say, to a certain degree, the opposite is true. For me, Eris is a whole lot less like me than Beric in personality, which I have found very fun. I have also really enjoyed playing a character who cannot possibly be the leader of this group unless we're all going to die.
00:39:53
Speaker
Um, uh, and I, I found that, I found that a lot of fun. I'm very happy to have landed on an accent at last. Also, we, we are all very happy. Yeah. Um, but no, I have no buyers more, so I'm enjoying Harris a lot. And I'm liking Milo quite a bit. I really enjoy what I've come up with for that little guy.
00:40:22
Speaker
And just see how he gets to grow and come out a little more as we continue on. I definitely liked the voice that he hears in his head every now and then. Yeah, that's fun.
00:40:36
Speaker
Um, and I'm enjoying Reynard. I, I, I hope we're not very much alike. Other than maybe just like my sense of being pretty laid back. Um, but I mean, he's a lot like characters I played in shows. So I think that's kind of.
00:41:01
Speaker
kind of maybe where subconsciously some of it came from, but yeah, I'm definitely hoping there's a good art of growth for Raynard and he kind of matures over the span of this campaign. Yeah. You know, actually, I will say one little bit, I don't want to call it buyer's remorse, but one thing that I do regret a bit is with both of these characters, the rate that I've played,
00:41:29
Speaker
the race I chose to make them, when I did decks, with the exception of the Warforged, Changeling might be like the Eberron race. And I did nothing with it as far as like research or looking into the lore, trying to find, I did that cursory bit at the beginning to find out about Sarlona and the quarry and that stuff. Whereas now with these new books that have come out, and I don't know if it was a bias of just like, I don't want,
00:41:57
Speaker
I don't want to read anything in an old source book past just this bit of it, because there was already conflicting stuff that we weren't going to use in old source books about Changeling. Well, now I've got this character and I really want to try to get some Eberron stuff in there. And it turns out Goliaths are at best an afterthought in Eberron. They, they canonically exist. Keith Baker has said, you can sprinkle them in the mountains. You can do this. They, they are there, but there's like nothing like that.
00:42:23
Speaker
Like that PDF search resulted in a zero. So that is, I don't regret choosing the Goliath. I just wish that there was something I could go with. Okay, next up we'll jump to Laura. Laura asks,
00:42:41
Speaker
If Haldan didn't want the box open so badly, why didn't he at least lock it? Seems suspiciously dangerous after all. Imagine a big Goliath tripping and just spilling that bad, okay, first off, how dare you? Tripping and spilling that bad boy everywhere. Mahap, he wanted it open. I, who, don't make me say these things. Maybe he wanted it open, huh? I smell sabotage.
00:43:05
Speaker
Um, it's it's very much similar to John C. Riley's character in games of New York when he hangs his pocket watch on the lamppost in the middle of the five points and knows that nobody is going to mess with it. Like Haldan Haldan presumes to have enough authority and power and backing behind him that he can hand a group of strangers a box and say, don't open this.
00:43:31
Speaker
and know with reasonable certainty that if the people open it, it's going to end very poorly for them. But it's tough to convey that with somebody I wanted Haldan to also be very chill about it and kind of laid back and not not press the issue. So I tried to
00:43:55
Speaker
I was hoping that not locking the box would convey that sense of power that he has that he hands you a box that can be opened and says, don't open it. That means something. So that was Milo. Milo definitely thought it meant something. So yeah.
00:44:12
Speaker
heiress thought it meant, I'm going to open that box. And I thought of it. No, you're not. Laura also asks, Trevor, does Trevor have to fight his inner tinsel? And I went compiling the questions. I included that one because I thought it might be interesting because obviously Trevor played tinsel on the geek pantheon one shot that we did like four years ago.
00:44:38
Speaker
And but I thought it might be fun for everybody to kind of talk about you all coming off of playing other characters for a really long duration of time. Do any of you make a conscious choice to like do something intentionally different from the way Dex would have done it or Booyah or tinsel? Or does that really not even factor into your role playing?
00:44:58
Speaker
And if we kind of touched on it earlier, but if you haven't listened to the the little five, six episode thing we did, maybe even less on the geek pantheon feed, Trevor played a psychopath. He was a little chaotic.
00:45:14
Speaker
We don't wanna spoil anything for anybody, but if you haven't listened to it, it's just- The most quotable one shot there's ever gonna be in existence. And we were all going big because we knew it was just a one shot. And Trevor out.
00:45:31
Speaker
Big duh, everybody. I had never played Dungeons and Dragons before, so I was like, this is how it's done, right? You're just insane. No, but I actually had a conversation with maybe everyone, but definitely Eric, about how
00:45:47
Speaker
I didn't want to be just as ridiculous as tinsel was this time around. I still wanted to play to my strengths and be funny and witty and sarcastic and and things like that. But the the choices I'm making are. More thought out than just being chaotic, so yeah, I'm trying to be a more responsible teammate.
00:46:21
Speaker
I mean, I made a whole lot of conscious choices when I decided who Eris was that make it pretty impossible for her to do things that Beric would do. Yeah. For one thing, she speaks goblin right off the gate. Yeah. So I guess in that sense, yes, but having established Eris and
00:46:48
Speaker
Even if it took me a long time to find her voice, I kind of figured out what was going on in her head pretty early. That has not been hard while playing, but only because I really set her up that it was just it was just not possible that she would make the same choices as Beric in almost any situation. Well, as far as Milo.
00:47:11
Speaker
He's, I mean, I don't even think about Booyah when I'm playing Milo at all. I mean, I think they're just so dissimilar other than they're both small, but it's just totally different. Yeah. The only thing that I've ever really crept in as a consideration is just the fact that
00:47:35
Speaker
Dex and Hob both make the jokes that Jeff wants to make. They both have, like they both have my sense of humor. And I, I'm not saying that my, I've got a zany sense of humor that's a distinct brand, but I think sometimes like, if I think of a joke I wanna say, and it's not an immediate in the spur of the moment thing, it's like when he gets done, I'm gonna throw this out there. I will kind of try to reward it a little bit from, cause Dex was unfiltered. It was just, this is how Jeff talks.
00:48:03
Speaker
So I'm trying to make it a little more, a little less homespun. Maybe it would be a good way to put it because, uh, but other than that, no, they're completely different
Speculations and Gameplay Mechanics
00:48:14
Speaker
people. And I'm not concerned once I locked in the voice, uh, and wasn't afraid I was going to slip back into the Southern. It was, it was, it was, it was over at that point. Yeah.
00:48:26
Speaker
All right. Moving on. Kevin has. Oh, no, I apologize. I had to do a joke. Eric, not this. Eric asks the other the other. That's his name in the discord. Eric asks, did the players have any guesses as to what was in the box that we didn't hear on the episodes and were any of them correct?
00:48:45
Speaker
I didn't. Anything that I thought might be in there, Hob, I said that's what Hob was thinking. I didn't want to hazard a guess because I knew I would have no real idea. Yeah, that was Milo also. I didn't have any idea, so I did not even try. I don't even remember thinking like as we were talking, if I had an idea, I don't even know that me being Trevor thought, I wonder what's in that box?
00:49:14
Speaker
Well, I wondered what was in it, but I didn't make any guesses. I was imagining that it was somebody's hand. Like it was like a hand and a wrist. The picture in my head was like a hand and forearm that were, I was picturing for like getting into somewhere that required a hand print scanner or something like that.
00:49:38
Speaker
So I guess I was right in that it was a body part. But again, I had no basis for that. It was just the description of the box immediately made me think, oh, okay, it's kind of oblong. Somebody's forearm and hand are in that box. But once Eric specifically called out that it didn't sound like someone was clawing at the box.
00:49:58
Speaker
I mean, oh, well, I'm wrong. Somebody, I'm trying to find it. I think it was Kurt. I think Kurt. I think it was Kurt, too. They thought it was a Carnathy head. A reanimated Carnathy head. So like all that they were wrong about is it was a, it was a inter and or intra and not inter country.
00:50:20
Speaker
Mm hmm. Just pre pre last where you would have been right. But yeah. Mm hmm. And then Eric's second question is, did Raynard and Milo work on their bluffing skills during their downtime because Yeesh. What were we trying to bluff? I don't remember. Unfortunately, you're getting Trevor's bluffing skills. So.
00:50:48
Speaker
Yeah, no, they may not get any better. The roles will. The roles might get better. The role plays might not.
00:50:57
Speaker
That was like in the in the Star Wars one shot that we did where Eric, you know, did his thing to do his motivating speech and he ended it with, come on, please, come on, please. Which turn are you a good runner? Yeah. Well, and I love the the idea because, yeah, deception is one of Raynard's
00:51:19
Speaker
career skills. And so it's super economical for Raynard to continue to invest in that skill. And I love the idea of Trevor's blundering being inexplicably efficient when attempting to talk their way out of situations like that. That's great. It's like the negotiation for drunken master.
00:51:40
Speaker
yeah like this person is so out of sorts and blundering there's no way they could be lying right now like so all i know is i didn't hear anything explicitly incorrect so i guess yeah um what about you randy do you do you see yourself progressing milo in the bluff ability or are you
00:52:02
Speaker
I I don't know. I don't really see Milo as that as that way. I don't see him as being very deceptive or trying to bluff his way out of things. OK, OK.
00:52:19
Speaker
The next question is from Kevin. And Kevin says, my only question is trivial, to which I would say, Kevin, it's about a D&D podcast. Welcome to the show, man. The whole show is trivial and we do appreciate you listening. And actually, I like this question. Yeah, I'm excited to answer this one, honestly. Yeah, I thought this was a good one. Now that we've all hyped it up, let's hear it.
00:52:44
Speaker
Kevin, you're wrong. It's great. He says, Eric, why would the party not be allowed to attack as part of the chase skill challenge? I get it not being a combat encounter, but shooting a chasing vehicle to slower disable it or those aboard fits the narrative. If that's the route they wanted to go, in my opinion. King killing guards or King Shield would probably result in more trouble down the road, though, is that all from him. That wasn't my editorialism.
00:53:11
Speaker
So Eric, why would the party not be allowed to attack as part of a skill? So so this is kind of a fundamental realigning of the way we think about how skills work, including magic skills.
00:53:27
Speaker
in in D&D or in Genesis from D&D because like for example Milo being an arcane user has the attack spell at his disposal but exactly what you're saying Kevin the intent when
00:53:43
Speaker
trying to cast a spell at the car is not to do damage. You're trying to slow it down or impede its ability to maneuver. And those are different spells. That would be curse or something along those lines, which is totally acceptable and fine. I just like the attack spell. I I don't want the party concerned with attempting to do damage. So if
00:54:06
Speaker
If, for example, Jeff as hob, let's say the sky coach is catching up to to you all and Jeff says as hob, I want to make an athletics check to try and well, basically.
00:54:20
Speaker
What Jeff says is I want to try and jump on their ship and like toss one of them out. That wouldn't be like a brawl skill because you're not punching them. You're jumping from one ship to the other using your physical might to throw them out and then presumably trying to get back. So that would be a very difficult athletics check to to accomplish all of that quickly. So you can do things in an offensive manner, but it's not you're not attacking them because nobody has
00:54:48
Speaker
the Sky Coach doesn't have hit points or wounds. You did let us take a guy out of the out of the chase when that's when the canvas came down. And so, I mean, I know that doesn't necessarily affect the chase unless we've been like, oh, it's definitely the driver with a triumph or something. But it certainly would have affected if they caught us the combat that might ensue from that. So you did let us do something
00:55:15
Speaker
Yeah, so, and once again, it just, we had kind of a discussion like this in the Discord of once everybody gets more comfortable in skill challenges and things like that and using the environment to your advantage and using story points to inject things into the environment and like things that are reasonable, like Philip made the suggestion about the tarp being there, like didn't have to flip a story point, it was just a reasonable suggestion of a thing that would be there.
00:55:42
Speaker
And that's just kind of a blanket thing for any encounter. Doing things to offensively hinder another party in a skill challenge and attacking them are two different things. So so that's kind of my mindset on it when I say you can't use the attack spell or make a brawl check or a ranged combat check against them. If Eris wants to use her
00:56:07
Speaker
weapon to try and hinder the vehicle, then maybe we have curious what skill would that be if not ranged? I would I would probably make it just to keep the the consistency of the skill challenge, probably be a really difficult mechanic check because you're looking and trying to figure out where you need to shoot to hinder the vehicle.
00:56:29
Speaker
And I would throw like an upgrade or a couple of setback on there because you're shooting from a moving vehicle trying to disable this. But that that would be my mentality in in. I mean, you're never do this, but what would you do if I said I want to shoot the driver between the eyes? Well, now that we've seen what Skycoaches look like, you can't see the driver and he can't see. So, you know, he's got you there, Philip. You saw one.
00:56:55
Speaker
I mean, I feel I can pull up a lot of art to contradict you. So, you know. But yeah, and that's just that's my own own personal thing is. You didn't answer my question.
00:57:11
Speaker
I would like we've established no no attacking people in skill challenge because because then it becomes a combat. Like if if it's I want to shoot in between the eyes, it's OK. OK, let's roll initiative because the nature of this encounter has fundamentally changed to something that is combative rather than you all trying to get away. And that being the primary focus, if that makes sense. Yeah.
00:57:34
Speaker
Um, so, and especially when, you know, several of our heroic abilities are designed to like, if we had been able to do combat stuff in that chase, and there was a reasonable chance that hob could have gotten on the boat, he could have ended it with unleash. And that's, I get why that that's a bridge too far for sure. Now firing at somebody, I know.
00:57:56
Speaker
Well, it's just like because Philip gave me the incredulity triple threat there. I don't see how that's a bridge too far at all. If we decided our solution to this is let's kill those cops.
00:58:09
Speaker
Okay, I see why it's a bridge too far if the GM wants to have a distinction between a skill challenge and a combat. Is that working for you? It's just like at the end of this arc with the negotiation scene. If you all, when you saw the head, made a decision and said, I want to shoot that person, we have now moved out of a social encounter into a combat encounter. And so everything has fundamentally changed.
00:58:35
Speaker
So in the confines of a skill just like in a combat encounter in a skill challenge, you can't attack somebody. Once you do, you switch the nature of the encounter that you're in. Sure. So I mean, I guess that's the point. We could. There wasn't plot or stopping us from doing it, which I think is where the question was kind of leaning.
00:58:52
Speaker
Yeah, you could. It's just the fail state then changes as opposed to you all failing a check, crashing the Skycoach on a platformer and having to run away. Your fail state becomes the Skycoach is shot out of the sky and you begin plummeting. Right. So so yeah. So it may be an easier solution to try and kill them, but certainly the risks escalate for you all as well. So sure.
00:59:16
Speaker
Okay. Kevin's next question is I am curious what everyone's heroic abilities are. We know Jeff has unleash Philip has signature weapon. Randy has all the facts, which he actually talked about earlier in this episode. Um, but I'm curious about Trevor and the others, for instance, sigil, sauna, Cath, that they have heroic abilities. So Trevor, tell us about your heroic ability that you chose. Oh God. I forgot what it's called. Paragon. Paragon. Yeah.
00:59:46
Speaker
Prairie dog. Prairie dog. Aragon. It is about a dragon. No. So I chose the heroic ability Paragon, which has to do with I mean, do I want to give too much away? I mean, the mechanics of it like we used it already. We say you think you used it.
01:00:11
Speaker
During fight night. I was thinking of my obligation, sorry. Okay, no, yeah. Sorry. No, Paragon is where you get to remove one purple dye of your choice after rolling for a charm. Yeah. So if you want to now say that like you said it, then I can cut around. Okay. Sorry, I didn't mean for it to be patronizing.
01:00:41
Speaker
I think it's clear to the listeners that I forget things and don't know what I'm doing, Eric, so it is okay. Why haven't I been using that to be charming? I keep forgetting I have that. You have. You used it. I used it one time. I could have used it more than that. Literally twice. You could have used it up to three. Yeah, well, three times that we know. Twice. Yeah, fair enough. There's an arc in the can. Everybody already knows that.
01:01:12
Speaker
Okay, so I chose the, oh God, Herocability, what is it called? Yes, Herocability. Oh my gosh. Eric, if you cut a word of this, I'll arrive to your house tomorrow after I listen to see if you did. And I'll hang out for a while, because I miss you. How's that sound? Yeah. Safely outside.
01:01:35
Speaker
So I chose the heroic ability paragon, which takes away a purple setback dice to my, no, that's what you said. Just a purple die, not a setback die, setback dies are black. You can take a difficulty die away after you roll. Well, I chose the heroic ability paragon, which means I can remove a purple die,
01:02:04
Speaker
on a charm check, or when using my charm, right? Yeah, specifically after you roll, but yeah. So you get to look and see. Well, take a mask, didn't they call him? You should have just explained it, Eric, because... You know, ultimately it's on me. I did throw it just forever. This all has to stay in now, doesn't it?
01:02:35
Speaker
Hey, the people asked for what goes on the cutting room floor. Now you know it's this absolute trash. Yep. And me literally screaming into the microphone for a second just for the waveform. To continue on to Kevin's question. Sigils heroic ability is is a custom one and it it's
01:02:54
Speaker
It's been alluded to a couple of times in the show mechanically, it's never shown up, but it's it's that they have the capacity somehow to manipulate things that require a dragon mark. So it's not something that's in realms of Terranoth, but we've alluded to a story in the distant past when they were on a lightning rail, I think, and Sigil was able to take control of it.
01:03:17
Speaker
for an Earthsled, one of the two. Something like that. But something that was designed to where the pilot has to have a dragon mark and Sigil was able to use it to great physical, a great physical toll on them. So that's kind of what I'm thinking of as their heroic ability. Kath and Sana do, but my intention with these NPCs is only to whip those things out if
01:03:46
Speaker
Absolutely necessary. So I have I haven't like fully started out cats on an individual from a like mechanics like building a character standpoint, but I have like a reference card with all of the PCs, strength, flaw, ideal fear, all that stuff is a reference for me. And I also have those three stuff also written down like they have fully realized kind of
01:04:12
Speaker
uh once and needs and and stuff like that so hopefully we'll get a chance to have that stuff come out uh over time but yeah okay uh and there were oh and uh with the exception of making a custom one for sigil there there weren't any changes made to them from realms of terranath to make them fit better for eberron except for like the flavor of
01:04:35
Speaker
uh, Eris's weapon. Um, I think even mechanically, the weapon is still
Cultural Influences on Characters
01:04:39
Speaker
just straight out of runs. I think the nice thing with those is that none of them are lore specific to the Terranoth world. They're all, they're all very open. Um, and I think would work in just about any setting. Yeah.
01:04:54
Speaker
Okay, Kurt asks, how long with Philip, how long was Eris in, Randy, can you take this one? Philip, how long was Eris in Dargoon slash Western Sire before her escape? And how much of the Dargoonish culture did she absorb? Clearly some words.
01:05:11
Speaker
Yeah, she speaks goblin. Actually, my initial attempt before we started recording, I practiced this a long time, was to try and come up with what I thought an accent for the goblin language would sound like and try and give her an inflection of that.
01:05:35
Speaker
to indicate the influence of it, but it just sounded horrible. I couldn't get anything that was listenable that anyone was going to want to listen to or that I could do consistently. So I gave up on that because I'm not a trained voice actor.
01:05:50
Speaker
the how long question I think has been alluded to enough times that I don't feel like it's giving anything away. She was in Dargoon, well, southern Khair, as she probably still thinks about it. Maybe I don't know, I haven't really thought about what her views on Khair are now, but she was in Dargoon once it became Dargoon for about
01:06:19
Speaker
10 years? No. I guess about nine years. She was in Dargoon. She has, I have spent a lot of time thinking about, because I want to handle it in a nuanced and mature way, her views on goblins and goblinoids.
01:06:49
Speaker
and their culture. Two things that are very easy to call out that haven't come up in the show but are little things. She has a couple of dishes because luckily there are
01:07:04
Speaker
Goblinoid dishes referenced in Don Basingthwaite's book and in Exploring Eberron. There's a couple of dishes that she really likes that are from Dargun, and the music that she listens to on the earbuds that she's created is mostly Dargul. It is, yes, it is metal. I have specifically an actual band in my head
01:07:29
Speaker
that is what Eris listens to on her earbuds. I hope that at some point, either in an actual episode, I mean, I'm sure at some point in an actual episode, I hope at some point we'll get to explore Eris' awkward and complicated relationship to
01:07:49
Speaker
the numerous Darguuls around her in Sharn. But yeah, she has a taste for some Dargul foods and likes Dargul music. More than that, I'd rather wait until it comes up in the actual narrative. But yes, there are definitely quite a lot of ways in which Dargun has left its mark on her thinking as well as, of course, on her speech.
01:08:18
Speaker
Awesome. Danny asks, she made me think of something which I think was the point of this one. While I am thinking of Eberron reduced or the downtime episodes, does the Boromar clan ever have team building days or employee appreciation picnics? Or is that type of event more for the family? And our team is just the help who get appreciated enough by wages and inclusion. And I did not, this is the first time I've read this question.
01:08:45
Speaker
Are the downtime episodes Eric putting the four of us through team building exercises guys? I've done been found out darn.
01:09:02
Speaker
I mean, no, the Boromar clan do not have team building exercises. They're the mob. So no. And you all like. Yeah. And you all I mean, if we're using modern pay structures, you all aren't even like waged or salary like you're 100 percent commission based. It's like the jobs you do for the clan, you get a cut. Yeah, we are 1099 workers for sure. Yeah.
01:09:28
Speaker
I do I just all of a sudden the idea of the Boromar's deciding we needed a team building exercise and they send some Eric Flay some guy from Boromar HR that we just clown on for an hour sounds like the most fun Hobb would ever have like this is the one guy that Hobbs a lot of our Toby um
01:09:49
Speaker
Okay. Comes to read through the binder. She also asks, not sure if this is a Genesis question or just general low fantasy. As the years roll by, are we going to see this team grow ridiculously gloriously powerful? Or will it be a more subtle thing as they add ranks of increased competence or better connections, resources, maybe internal promotion?
Game Mechanics and Balance
01:10:10
Speaker
So yeah, that's that's the good thing about Genesis is or the reason why a campaign like this can function in Genesis as opposed to D&D is because you all will get a whole heck of a lot better at what you do.
01:10:26
Speaker
But you'll never become gods. Like and and you'll you'll never hit a point where I mean, because the system is based off of the Star Wars role playing game, the best way I can use the Star Wars references. Sorry, Jeff. But like the system was built to where stormtroopers are always deadly. Like like you come, you come across a group of armed soldiers
01:10:53
Speaker
It doesn't matter if it's session one or session 100. You all are in danger. And so like your your wound threshold barely goes up. Like it's not like when you gain X amount of XP, you gain more wounds. Jeff Jeff took the only talent that gets you more wounds toughened and it gets you to. Well, it's it gets you to per rank, but I have low.
01:11:15
Speaker
you know, if I've had to take it two more times, that's 40 XP. Yeah, just to take two more wounds and the point there's a point where it's not worth it. So that was that was kind of the intention behind making the system switch for this particular campaign was because it would it would afford us the ability to do a very street level campaign. So don't don't don't hold your breath for Milo to be able to start time traveling and stuff.
01:11:45
Speaker
Only through Zora. Okay. Wondering, Eric, as Game Master, will you have a more stay at hand in this campaign when it comes to making it rain cool and magical items on the crew? Yes. Next question. Yeah. Well, I mean, once again, like the power level of even items isn't
01:12:11
Speaker
absurd, like the most absurd thing you can do for a person is allow them to have an extra green dye. And we already have that with the augment ability and Eris's glove that she made herself.
01:12:24
Speaker
That's about as OP as you can get with items in Genesis. So yeah, I mean, that's fine. Yeah, we could narrate the most wondrous, mystical, magical, flaming, raging, poisoning sword of doom that we wanted to.
01:12:41
Speaker
But it's still beholden to the same die as Hobb's fists. Yeah, I mean, now, now that's not to say there aren't cool magical items that do cool things when you attack with them or whatever. Sure, but certainly nothing compared to
01:12:58
Speaker
even the items of Josh Arat that Draconos, Beric and Dex got in session three. One. A session one, episode three. Yeah. So so yeah. And even even so, even if we were still playing in D&D, I would have a much more stringent hand at doling out magic items compared to what I was. So. But don't worry, Eris won't.
01:13:27
Speaker
And then last question actually got snuck in while we were recording. Richard asks, I just finished the reduce. What kind of mud and stone is Hob made of? I will hang up and listen for the answer. Hob is not a golem. He is not a man of mud. He has never met Rabbi Lev Belazil, I think. Anyway, the Rabbi of Prague doesn't know him. Although there are golems in
01:13:53
Speaker
in D&D. Are there in Eberron? I assume there certainly would be. Yeah. Yeah. Hobbs just probably even in Charon doing like menial tasks. Sure. Yeah. A Gollum would make a great forklift.
01:14:06
Speaker
Yeah, sure. Trevor just doesn't know what things are yet. I have a tangential question. You have described Hob a number of times. In a lot of Goliath art, Goliath do have kind of bony nodules on their body that do kind of give them a stony appearance. Does Hob have that or is Hob's
01:14:33
Speaker
Honestly, Hobb doesn't have that because I hadn't noticed that representation in art, so that's just not in my head. If anybody else wants to see Hobb that way, go for it. The one thing that Hobb has that might be...
01:14:53
Speaker
I don't know how to say it because Gollum doesn't really have a standard form. Right. He's he's got the pretty standard broad, flat, tall forehead and is also bald. So his head looks disproportionately bolder like, even though it's not bigger than like just really big for his body. It's just it's kind of that's kind of the look there.
01:15:15
Speaker
heavy features. I think I showed you the Hero Forge mock-up that I did. Deep set brow. I don't know if this has been telegraphed. Part of the reason I was disappointed that the Goliath don't have much of a backstory to ever on is because after I started doing this, I was like, you know, I really should do something hearkening to a Native American experience, historical Native American experience with a character on this show.
01:15:44
Speaker
And so I gave Hob high cheekbones and he's more of a brown, he's a browner shade of gray, some things like that. And since we do kind of get to do whatever we want with a Goliath in it, Ron, I may do some flavor there. Yeah. Cool. So he does have exaggerated features in the sense of a deep brow, broad, flat forehead, high cheekbones. Well, I don't think that's much of a stretch. I think in most settings, Goliaths are more
01:16:11
Speaker
have a more tribal structure, like there's really not. Yeah. The last empire is not really a thing. The tribal structure is what made me choose it in the first place. But then when you went in and saw there's no, there's not a lot of stuff about, well, I mean, for instance, displacement. Yeah. For example, which you would think with the nomadic people as a world gets more quote, unquote civilized, that would be a thing for them. So I think it's fair to put that in there.
01:16:37
Speaker
Oh, I think so. Well, and in Corvair, there's, you know, empire after empire sweeps over Corvair. So you, I think that's, yeah, that's something you can totally do. And this being our Eberron with, you know, within Eric's parameters, you get to, you get to make it up. I'm going to do what I want with the Glides. And you can tell Keith, I said that. We will next Friday. That's why I brought it up.
01:17:02
Speaker
Um, so you could come on and ask him, tell me what the Goliath, what's up with no Goliath Keith? What I have learned is that my lack of knowledge of things tends to be seen as disrespect for them. And I would not want him to think that because I, because I covered up with making jokes. Um,
01:17:24
Speaker
But no, actually, that is our last question. We'll do the goodbyes and the socials and all of that stuff. But since we just brought it up, Eric or Phillip, would you guys like to explain the exciting thing that is about to happen? I believe maybe it has been a Patreon or Discord exclusive, a Patreon exclusive news.
Upcoming Content and Community Engagement
01:17:42
Speaker
Yeah, so Philip and I for our patrons did a it seems disingenuous called a deep dive because it was only two hours, but we we did a review of the Exploring Eberron book, but it felt it felt longer.
01:18:00
Speaker
But both of us, we liked it. Yes. But both of us in order to do it relatively soon after the release of the book had to speed read probably the most significant chapter of the book, chapter five on the planes of existence and
01:18:19
Speaker
The response to that was good enough and I reached out to. The man, the myth, the hat himself, Keith Baker, who created Eberron and basically told him like, hey, he's been on the knowledge check before, for those of you that are have been listeners of the show for a while.
01:18:36
Speaker
Asked him if he wanted to return to specifically talk about chapter five planes of existence since Philip and I weren't able to do that that chapter justice in our, our review, and Keith was
01:18:51
Speaker
gracious and kind enough to without hesitation say absolutely, let me look at my schedule. So yeah, next Friday we will be sitting down with Keith Baker to talk about the planes of Eberron.
01:19:07
Speaker
No will not be live streamed it will just be on the regular release schedule of the knowledge check. And I, we might open up questions to our q amp a tier patrons, because I'm like a third.
01:19:24
Speaker
or a fourth of the way through chapter five, and I already have about 30 minutes worth of questions for him. So we might curate the questions that we take from the listeners this time around. But yeah, we're excited. I assume Philip's excited as well. So yeah.
01:19:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that is that's super exciting. I mean, OK, that is it for the questions. We will be back next week with episode one of a new arc. It's a fun one. Yes, this is a good one. I mean, not just because there is this obligation was triggered and that made it that did make it fun for me. But yeah, yeah, I guess I obviously I'm going to say they're all fun, especially right up now when we're anyway. Yeah, I think they're all fun. I think they're all fun, Jeff.
01:20:16
Speaker
Well, I think most of them are fun, but there are some parts where I space out. This episode comes out tomorrow and I still need to edit it. OK, yes. And we said some dumb stuff. So anyway, please check us out. The Discord once again is open to everybody. Is there like a pinned link on the Facebook page, Eric, or how what's the easiest way for them to get to our Discord if they want to join?
01:20:36
Speaker
There is a pinned link on the homepage, thegeekpantheon.com. There it is. Go to thegeekpantheon.com and that's where you can find that. We're on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at thegeekpantheon. We have really enjoyed opening up the Discord to everybody. We've gotten so many new people in there with different opinions and thoughts and some real Eberron heads who have
01:20:58
Speaker
a lot of really fun discussion that I get lost in. So thank you so much. You guys up there? One thing that is shifting a little bit is if you want kind of a one-stop location for all of the tangential content that I make for the show, and I'm going to start linking the articles that Philip's doing for the website there as well,
01:21:17
Speaker
Um, even if you're not, uh, a Patreon member, uh, the feed on our Patreon page is going to become kind of the, the funnel for, uh, most of our content. So like any YouTube videos that we do, um, in the last knowledge check, I referenced doing a writeup for combining the worlds of Theros and Eberron, that writeup is there. Uh, so, uh, yeah, patreon.com slash the geek pantheon is going to kind of become a funnel where, uh,
01:21:44
Speaker
even if you don't wanna join one of the tiers over there, it's still a good place to keep an eye out for new content from us, so. Yeah, it's an easy repository for people, no matter what tier they're at, to get everything that's available to them. And I will say, you'll see shadowed out posts that say, like, pay $1 a month to read this one. That's their business model, not ours. We're not trying to shame you into doing it. It's just an easy way to put them all in one place.
01:22:08
Speaker
Um, having said that again, thank you so much for joining us this week. And every week we are constantly amazed, uh, and humbled by that. You guys will keep coming back. We really do. If anyone listens, anyone listens. And having said that I am Jeff. I'm Phillip. I'm Trevor. I'm Randy.
01:22:27
Speaker
I'm Eric. Have a great day or night, you know, depending when you listen. That's not it anymore.