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The Afterschool Special | Season 1 Wrapup
13 Plays3 days ago
We all get together to talk about what it was like to record this first season, Paul answers some questions the players had, and we talk about some of our favorite moments.
We'll be taking a break for a few weeks and we'll be back with the next season shortly.
Starring:
- Tucker Dally Johnston as 'Alfie Towers'
- Ivana Mendez as 'Chad Brewers'
- Nate Valentine as 'Janet JC. Cromwell'
- Paul Emrich as 'Game Master'.
- Music provided by 'Rebel Kicks'.
Email us at BeatOurQuest@Gmail.com or find us on most social media @BeatOurQuest.
Join our Discord at: https://discord.gg/3GAJ8NPvvF
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Transcript
Introduction and Season Recap
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, this is Paul Emrich, producer, creator, and host of Beat Our Quest. This episode is sort of a end-of-season recap for the whole first season of Beat Our Quest using the Kids on Bike system. It will contain spoilers as we're discussing what the whole experience was like to put together a season.
00:00:17
Speaker
If you're looking for where to start, begin with episode one, a guide to high school from Ada Rushmore. Thanks for tuning in.
00:00:26
Speaker
Cool. So this is sort of our like after school special. Thank you all for tuning in. Do you guys all want to sign off? i don't even know. Or like sign on. I don't know. Tucker Dally Johnston as Alfie Towers.
00:00:40
Speaker
And then the rest. Ivana Maria Mendez-Pamon as Chad. he has a last name, but I don't. Nate Valentine as Janet Cromwell.
00:00:53
Speaker
So I just wanted to take some time to like talk about what a
Reflecting on Season Experience
00:00:56
Speaker
fun project this was. And I had some things I wanted to ask you guys as actors. And I know some of you guys had some questions. Hey, we did a season!
00:01:05
Speaker
Celebration! wo Way to go, everyone. that was we'd like We put our goal out there and we did it. So i'm very proud of everyone. This is this is an interesting experience. This is technically, I think, like the first full campaign event.
00:01:18
Speaker
I've finished with any of you where we like, it it's not we didn't really finish a campaign. that That's a poor way to describe it, but at least like ah a series of stories. it's an adhd millennials finish a project it should be celebrated and and for context i will say i've been playing dnd with paul for what 12 years 12 years the story yes we had like a two and a half year long campaign yeah no there were there were some stories that were uh self self-containing so the first thing i want to talk to you guys is what do you think about kids and bikes as a uh as a tabletop system That's a great question.
00:01:55
Speaker
I'll take a stab at it. i like it a lot. I think i enjoy that it leans into the roleplaying element as someone who is not I don't have a background in improv or role-playing i feel like it made it a little bit easier or you leaned into it and made it feel more natural um i do sort of miss getting cool magical spells and power-ups and abilities from 5e but it was fun and i like the setting a lot yeah i agree with that i think the setting allows for like just that
00:02:30
Speaker
child like childish wonder of like creativity and visiting tropes that are so known to most of the people who've gone through high school. and that's It's really fun to just be able to revisit that. i I see some limitations to it, but then there's also, just like Nate said, it highlights more of the improv play that I think D&D, it can be used in D&D, but Not always.
00:03:02
Speaker
Yeah, it strikes a ah pretty good balance. I think sometimes going into a fight is difficult to kind of figure out exactly what you can do, what you can't, and if anyone's gonna die.
Challenges with Tabletop Mechanics
00:03:18
Speaker
But it is It is a lot of fun, and we just sort of, every time we had to roll a dice, it was it was a quick, pretty quick thing, and you just blow through everything. So, like, we, our recordings aren't that much off from what the edit actually is in terms of length. That's true.
00:03:39
Speaker
Yeah, I basically just cut off like the little gaps of you guys like rolling the dice, but there's not a lot of like mental math. that You do miss the enthusiasm of like exploding. like there is kind of that like the Which is my favorite thing about a kids on bikes. is like If I ask you to hit a 6 and you have a d4, it's entirely attainable.
00:03:56
Speaker
And I also sometimes think that it's ah it's a problem, too, because in theory, like, if I'm asking Chad to, like, stop something and he's rolling a d20, like, it just, you shouldn't fail it.
00:04:08
Speaker
You know, there's like, there's there's still that sort of kind of problem that at least 5th edition alleviates with, like a stat bonus. Right. You know, you say shouldn't, and yet... which Which I do like is like the idea is if you do fail, what what insane thing happens that forces Chad to roll like fail this. And that is what like the game evokes that role playing mechanic.
00:04:30
Speaker
It just in general, I think, you know, D&D, I think is great because it is what it is. But I do think like from a from a podcast perspective, combat is so rough.
Combat Dynamics in Podcasts
00:04:41
Speaker
Like, I just think combat is, it's so visible and it's ah it's either really just not interesting because it's just dice rolling and comparing numbers and shouting things at one another. And you're missing some of that tactical aspect.
00:04:53
Speaker
So in the next campaign, it's not really combat. And when there is combat, it's not as important as like the the stress of it. So I think we'll we'll be seeing how that works out. I like a little mix of combat and creative problem solving, you know, just like a little little combo of both.
00:05:11
Speaker
but That's the sweet spot. Well, I love combat. Like, combat is the only time where I get to, like, fight against you guys. Otherwise, like, I'm kind of leading you guys by the nose. But combat in D&D is the only time where I get to do fun things.
00:05:25
Speaker
It's true. Like, there's a whole rulebook of monster powers, and the only time I get to use them is when fighting you guys.
Unexplored Story Points
00:05:31
Speaker
Now ducks reign. Of all the places we went to... Is there anywhere that you wish you could have gone back to or like a story park? Like, so we just like cruise through story beats. And that was kind of me like seeding things for like future storylines. Is there anything you're like, I wanted to know more about blank.
00:05:48
Speaker
I wanted to go back to the lab or to the landing site of the meteor and the alien of um of Jackie's dad. Figure out more about that. Yeah.
00:06:04
Speaker
Oh, shit. Who who killed justice? That's a great thing. And I'll just get this is the one thing I wanted you guys to get to is I had this thing where there were these robots essentially supplanting other people and taking their place in the town was like a big story point. So that's why when that second that episode where you come back and Justice shows up and he's like a weird, on a kind of like uncomfortable talk. And that's that that's because he's been replaced by these things, which is a in the WellView research lab. That was the other room you were going to be able to find. You were going to find all these like dummy robots. Whoa.
00:06:39
Speaker
And you were going to find the real justice. And so they, like, are stealing people and using them and using their radio waves to, like, pass it in so they can, you know. That's what that whole thing is about. So they're studying radio waves. And my favorite thing about this is they're called autonomous supplanting landers or ASLs, which I think is a very funny thing in the 90s sort of reference to, like, oh, what are they? Oh, they're ASLs. um So you decide their age, sex, and location. Right. Aw.
00:07:09
Speaker
And that was my favorite thing that you guys never got to that. I was just like, I was like, we're going to, but you guys, we kept like pushing the story forward so aggressively that we just never had a chance to like go back and look at places.
00:07:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That is so funny how just the matter of choosing the left door over the right door can change your game plan so much. I didn't expect Jackie to to twist that episode. Genuinely was not my plan. I thought for sure you would go to like the the robotics, the robotics room or anything like that. You pick the space place. I was like the only story point I have planned. And you brought Jackie there. is Like and on her yeah you want you could have gone to any of the other places.
00:07:50
Speaker
I was going to ask you, perhaps ah ties into this, Paul, what was your favorite or most memorable train wreck as it related to what you wanted us to do versus what we actually did? Oh, yeah. Love that question. Oh, the well the WellView Research Lab was like just a nightmare scenario of like everything doing. It was like thrown out like and they like truly one of my favorite episodes to like because you I don't know if it's obvious that I'm like winging it because I'm just introducing so many NPCs the whole way through that episode. There's like five of them. There's like the southern person who runs the place. And Nate, you have my favorite moment in the entire campaign is when you're like, dude. The fire deterrent thing goes off with your backpack and you just go, my backpack. And there's just like this like level of earnesty. The way you say it is so funny.
00:08:42
Speaker
um That's the episode with like the French guy Yeah, i was going to say, I do remember there being a lot. I think that was one of the episodes or the episode we were like, fuck, all these guys just have to have like west ah like the French accent. You're just like, I got to stop putting these accents on for all these different Dr. Plorb. So that was that was probably the episode...
00:09:04
Speaker
I honestly think you guys did like followed the the the house thing. I, by then I kind of learned, I was like, don't expect them to do anything. Oh, I mean, when you guys decided to throw your own party, oh yeah just straight up was not a thing I had prepared for that whole day either. I was like, well, surely you're going to go check out the alien girls party. That seems like you were like, we'll our own nineties. We'll throw our own competing rivaling party.
00:09:25
Speaker
Those are probably my favorite things, you guys. And like I've come to like having DM with you guys for a while now. I know like I can only prepare a reasonable amount. And if I prepare enough, you get like the haunted house with like secret plaques and like coded messages. But also, like when you guys make me wing it, we do get the the WellView Research Lab episode.
00:09:44
Speaker
so I have a question for Tucker. Oh, no. How close would you say that you and Alfie kind of are hidden Oh, man.
00:09:59
Speaker
expand that to, like, how much of your all of you are or your high school selves are in your character? oh sure.
Character Reflections and Inspirations
00:10:04
Speaker
um I would say that I was a super awkward high schooler. Yeah.
00:10:13
Speaker
and i was I was pretty into math and things until I discovered theater and found a friend group, but I was still very awkward. There were some popular kids within the theater group. They were also a part of speech and debate. Yeah, we were. The i mean speech and debate fucks.
00:10:32
Speaker
We were the jocks of the theater world, which is the embarrassing thing the world. Full of the theater world. ah But i I never went go Although i um might have gone a little emo.
00:10:48
Speaker
And I think my taste in and girls at that age was leaning towards goth and emo as well. I think Paramore fundamentally affected like all young men's brain chemistry in that age. How about you, Nate? How much of a Janet is new? you straight A...
00:11:04
Speaker
I would say very little. No, i'm the most type B person um in the planet. So I, you know, i kind of started, i can't remember exactly, you know, I try to, I have like an idea of a character when I start something like this and then it kind of, kind of, you know, finds its own voice a little bit, but I was mostly going for, and I probably said this explicitly to Paul when we were planning, a Hermione Granger type.
00:11:31
Speaker
which couldn't be more unlike me uh you know disorganized not an overachiever i mean i would say i'm not an idiot i'm pretty smart but like just totally i was probably much more like alfie than i was like janet in high school well a little goth adjacent uh much more into math and science and definitely not type a And not a woman, which was very interesting for me to roleplay a woman character. oh we'll We'll get to that. um yeah yeah I don't want to get ahead of you there, Paul. ah um For me, I i was Janet.
00:12:08
Speaker
Really? In school. Oh, yeah. Yes. Exactly. That. That character. that Yes. The secretary of the math club, um president of the Junior Honor Society, ah every club,
00:12:24
Speaker
It's funny that all people who got involved in the tabletop group game thing were math people, though. It's just like an obvious.
00:12:33
Speaker
What a coincidence. That is true. Yeah. But I also did English Forensics. Like, every as many clubs as I could do while also, like, dancing professionally in a dance company and doing this other after-school activity and this other after-school activity. Every single thing I could do at all times.
00:12:51
Speaker
I was busy. I would do homework at until 2 a.m. every day. Are you Kim Possible? Kind of. Kind of. Yeah, I think so. I think so. This explains a lot why I married her.
00:13:04
Speaker
Nice. Now we know a lot about Paul. Too much. I'm definitely kind of Ron Stoppable coded. No, but Chad is very different. I was pretty shy-ish. Shy-ish in school.
00:13:20
Speaker
Nothing like Chad. Chad's a dream. A dream, baby. but I have a question for Ivana. Uh-oh. You being, you know, such a a smart Janet-type person in general, what is it like to play just a dumb chaos machine?
00:13:39
Speaker
and it
00:13:42
Speaker
it's It's an intellectual challenge. ah No, it's just... going with so chad to me is a golden retriever and i at all times was asking myself what would a golden retriever do in this moment sometimes and it answers a lot of things that actually does clarify a lot it makes a lot of sense you view him through that lens I think it's like the first episode you had like Chad down perfectly where like Chad leaves and jumps and taps his fingers on the trim of the door as he leaves. And I was like, that is the most high school dude thing. I like you knew exactly who Chad was from that first episode. I don't know. i mean, okay, when I was in school, I would think, like, the jock guys are like, oh, they're so jocky because, like, that's the stereotypical tip stereotypical thing from, like, all the movies. Like, that they're going to be either rude or or or, like, mean bully type. And, yes, some of that is true, but I bet there's a bunch of jocks who are just...
00:14:44
Speaker
Really nice people who are really good at that sport. And so that's what I was trying to go for. Just like a nice person. Just a really, really dumb Travis Kelsey.
00:14:57
Speaker
Yeah. Exactly. it was It was very interesting to see Chad be so kind. like You really broke that as a trope of like the quarterback who's also well-adjusted. You know what I mean? like Dumb, but like very kind is a very interesting combination of things.
00:15:13
Speaker
ah so one of my I just want to give Nate a shout-out for this, because this is i was just one of my favorite locations who you came up with was Gamosaurus Rex. Yes. so Which was just like... evoked that Toys R Us energy really well. You know what I, just in the sentence that like, I could like, it was like a sense memory, like washed over me.
00:15:32
Speaker
I, was there any locations that we kind of came up with or even like a classroom that somebody made up and you like, it like evoked something for you. And you were like, I know this space having it just out of what it was like spoken of. Oh, when Nate said girly swirlies and we immediately, and the, I love that we kept going back there.
00:15:52
Speaker
Yeah, and there was like a whole sub subsection of characters from Girly's Furly, isn't it? Really built out over the... Alice and her daughter Alice. Yes! Alice! I bet if we, like, each were asked to draw and, like, pick a color palette for girly swirlies, we all would have, like, a very similar kind of, like, build. Like, I think it was, like, yeah.
00:16:17
Speaker
Pink
NPCs and Story Dynamics
00:16:18
Speaker
with sprinkles! Like that tile, you know what I mean? Like, yeah big ceramic ice cream, like, things. Yeah, so that was really great.
00:16:29
Speaker
Paul, what was your favorite NPC to play? that's a good one. Tucker's dad, Alfie's dad. Like so often I have to play like the fun, either like the fun quirky character or like an exposition driving character who has to like lay out points. And it's just sort of fun to like exist as this antagonistic kind of persona that my best thing is like it would I didn't even have to like get out a story beat because it wasn't decided to run into him. So it was just definitely like like I get to like establish this like yeah the status was really clear from the moment he like opened the door and I got to play in that kind of a world. Um, I thought that was, I think maybe my favorite one. I mean, like Alice is a fun character too, because it's this weird, like every time she showed up, I made more things. But as far as like a moment where I was like, Ooh, I get to inhabit this villain character. That isn't even just like the bad guy in this universe. He's just a fundamentally mean person.
00:17:23
Speaker
yeah that was it was a lot of fun to do just go from like this highball quirky comedy straight into just a like a succession type drama of a scene that one's brutal to listen to just Alfie just being having his soul crushed yeah he's so mean it's it was it was interesting i think it only speaks to how good Alfie is of a character how strong Alfie is of a character too that it can just like transfer from like comedic scenes to like these other like more dramatic points.
00:17:58
Speaker
I think because the character was so strong, was able to hold, carry both of those things. Yeah, you really fucked me with Jackie Swincz there. I yeah, that was really fun. I I knew I was going to do that heel turn at some point, and I kind of knew she was sort of my Rita Repulsa type.
00:18:17
Speaker
um But it was more fun to play into like the high school girl crush kind of thing. um The other thing. Oh, my God. This is such a specific reference. But the show like American Dragon Jake Long. Yes. Yes. The girl he has a crush on turns out to be like the daughter of the villain. And I like kind of just love that that high school angsty trope about like, oh, she tried to kill me last night and we have trigonometry
Future Campaign Plans
00:18:42
Speaker
together. Like, I just think that's so insane. And it's like in every one of those shows.
00:18:48
Speaker
And I so I just knew they wanted to do that in some kind of a way. I didn't realize until later that I kind of wanted her to still be sympathetic. Yeah. In some kind of a way, um which is still like, you know, if we come if we continue this campaign, which we'll talk about in a minute, I think there is something to be found there because it's very high school of like, well, they won't they like I like you all do nice things for you. And then i'm going to be shitty to you. And then I'm going to do like ask you out and then I'm going to date your best friend. So there is sort of that kind of energy, too.
00:19:15
Speaker
um One of the things I wanted to ask about, ah let's just get into that. So one of the things we definitely teased was this Power Rangers type energy of the campaign. And I had bought the Power Ranger book and, like, had started working through it. And I resisted because we were like, this is kids on bikes. And I think we've kind of talked about, like, we'll do different campaigns. And so if we were to continue this, I think we would do more of a Power Rangers thing where you would get to get the Power Ranger rulebook and we would, like...
00:19:42
Speaker
It has a whole new base of powers and characters, but we'd probably return to these characters again, if that makes sense. And we would probably lean more into that mechanics rather than the kids on bike story system.
00:19:53
Speaker
um ah i Because I still think there's some like world that I would love to play in. um And we could still have kids on bikes, the numbers in the pocket. But this thing has a lot more like options for combat.
00:20:06
Speaker
Like it has like more creative things you can do with like, oh, I specialize in technology so I can do cool things with like electronics. um Which gives i maybe gives some more like and it gives like a health bar.
00:20:19
Speaker
You know, something that's fundamentally, I think, Tucker, you nailed, which is like, it was really hard for me to come up with like stakes for you guys. um I'm in a lot of like kids on bikes groups and they always talk about like, yeah, it's really hard to like, you can't just kill them.
00:20:34
Speaker
You can't just like have them die. yeah So like, what what are the stakes? Like, what if they roll bad? What happens? um But what are your thoughts if we switch to a Power Rangers thing? If we brought these characters back or would you want to keep it in kids on bikes? Yeah.
00:20:48
Speaker
this is This is clearly not even the next campaign we're doing. We have another thing in the pipeline. Right. i don't I think as long as we still get to play these characters, I don't know if I exactly care what system we do because I just want to see them keep going.
00:21:08
Speaker
um if that's what you mean or do you mean switching out completely yeah you mean keeping yeah you would be it would be with the same story but we would just mechanically use another system rather than just kids on bikes so you would still play Chad Alfie and Janet if you wanted or if one of you guys wanted to transfer to another school and play another character you'd be totally make that an available passage but like it would let me play with like cool now I can have the well view research lab making monsters that you can hunt down and fight rather than like mysteries you solve okay Does that make sense? Just different types of puzzles, essentially, and a new rolling mechanic. okay
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah. i think I think if nothing else, that's going to give you more flexibility or freedom to put those three kids in different situations, which will inevitably be fun or interesting, right? Yeah.
00:21:58
Speaker
yeah I mean, I'm so attached to the world we made. I think it's so fun. And the whole the the whole idea of like the bleeping out IP is so funny to me. I think like the last episode where we're trying to come up with a word for Ouija and it's just Tucker bleeping Ouija. Can I say Ouija? And I just go, fuck. And that's the only thing that isn't bleeped out is really funny to me.
00:22:22
Speaker
So I don't ever want to retire this world so much as like, let's just try it in a new system. Yeah, totally. Okay. You know, you could still make out like Chad can just be really buff, but now he has like ranger powers that buff his athleticism, you know, rather than just rolling a D20.
00:22:37
Speaker
Um, cause I don't know. Cause yeah. Sorry. I'm going to pivot hard a little bit. We go to a food court that also has a video game
Influence of Real-Life Experiences
00:22:47
Speaker
store.
00:22:47
Speaker
What floor in the mall in your head is this food court slash store located? And are there other stores? Is it just a food court? What is the layout of this floor in your head that has the video game store and the food court?
00:23:08
Speaker
So I'm, I'm picturing my childhood mall, the the Cherry Creek mall in my head. And in the main floor, there was like a playground area that was a bunch of like,
00:23:19
Speaker
rubber breakfast foods and the food court was around there. my gosh. And I believe EB Games, which then became GameStop, was up on the second floor.
00:23:30
Speaker
Right? think it was on the first floor. Was it? It's so funny that we went to high school together and like you we're thinking of the exact same mall. Yeah. I, because had it had the Looney Tunes store was on the second floor next to the the movie theater.
00:23:44
Speaker
Okay, I remember that, yeah. I remember that. remember the movie theater definitely being on the second floor. This is this is where I envision it. I'm using my hands. and then that's yeah you do my child i think my childhood mall.
00:23:55
Speaker
okay And i also envisioned my childhood mall, which they're all on the first floor. And it was EB Games. First floor. A.K.A. Gamosaurus Rex. Gamosaurus Rex. yeah Awesome. Awesome.
00:24:08
Speaker
I just pictured a food court on a third floor, and just one of those stands just happened to be a ah like a video game store. And it's surrounded by food and tables. Yeah.
00:24:21
Speaker
that's just That's an insane layout. This is Chad's mom. this is what No, we went so quickly from being in the fight, in the store, the great thing like comes down, and then that's closed off, the murder happens, and then we're getting hot dogs. you know So it was like right there. But I envision the hot dog guy as like one of those like mall kiosks. Like he's just like a dude selling sunglasses and next to him is hot dogs. Like that's how I. But the tacos were also there.
00:24:56
Speaker
Did anyone say tacos? I think this is you just sitting this in your mind's eye. I think Chad just really wanted tacos. It's so funny. Okay.
00:25:09
Speaker
I have more. ah Tucker, is there a room in Alfie's house that you maybe be thought of, but never, it wasn't brought up because of circumstance?
00:25:20
Speaker
Oh, man. I had honestly never thought of Alfie's house. And I just said giant manor. And then immediately the the blue prince game came to mind and and we started doing that. Yeah.
00:25:38
Speaker
ah I think because as Alfie I wanted to spend as little time at home as possible, I never really wanted to flesh it out in my mind.
00:25:53
Speaker
You know, it's funny from a game design perspective. I had just spent so much time designing Jackie Swunch's house. For that whole episode to be Alfie's house was like me being like, oh, anything but the words we i have prepared for Jackie's. like when we started being like the conservatory and the butler's quarters, I was like, great. Just don't say garage. Just don't say kitchen. You know, don't say pigeon.
00:26:17
Speaker
It's so funny. ah You know another NPC? I don't know. This this is a weird episode. You know, ah Jessica Pigeons was probably one of the other weirder things that we just did in this show. So my wife was just, she's catching up and she was just listening to ah the episode where Jessica Pigeon shows up the other day. She's folding laundry, so she's kind of half paying attention.
00:26:39
Speaker
And all of a sudden she goes... Wait a minute. Why is she a bird person? Oh, right. Okay, is this pigeons? Is this Jessica pigeons? All right, now makes sense. Bird person. I get it.
00:26:51
Speaker
But it was she was so caught off guard for a second. it was It's the most insane thing we do in the entire show. Far and away. Just a totally unaddressed, unclarified nugget of absurdism. Not that it's a totally hardcore realism plot, obviously, but Just the idea you that she's a bird and no one ever makes any fuss about it is so funny.
00:27:14
Speaker
It kind of reminds me, God, this I don't know, saying now out loud kind of reminds me of, like, Rocco's modern life. Yeah. Just sort of like, there's people and there's a giant frog, dude. You know? It's not even that weird.
00:27:27
Speaker
ah Yeah, it's like she's the one Bojack Horseman character in the real world. Yeah.
00:27:37
Speaker
Okay, question for everyone except Paul. ah What is a stat that you decided to really invest on, and how do you think it relates to your character growth?
Character Development and Failures
00:27:49
Speaker
Oh, wow. I only got two levels up. I'm looking at my sheet right now. um This is a really good question, and I'll kind of wing it here. I'm not sure if this is exactly what I was thinking, but I brought my charm from a 12 to a d20, and I have a plus one next to it for some reason.
00:28:10
Speaker
Someone go back through the library and tell me why that's there. um But yeah, i could have been from the start. Anyways, I think I was trying to lean into the, like...
00:28:22
Speaker
brown nosing class, not I guess like teacher's pet of Janet and just being like every adult in my mind, in my perfect world, every adult in town would be like, there's Janet. She is so sweet and hardworking.
00:28:39
Speaker
And she did that favor for me that one time and she gets A's in all her classes and just basically like a, you know, like a great grubber energy. So I invested in the charm to try to make that role play realistic.
00:28:55
Speaker
I feel like that. Yeah. No Janet so well. Yeah, and then I invested in Brawn with my other one because I wanted her to be better at fighting because it was a D6 and we were supposed to be Power Rangers. Oh my gosh. Oh, I left my Brawn untouched at four.
00:29:12
Speaker
But I brought my Grit. Yeah, Grit was my 12. My brains was at 20, but we never really... He's smart in a really not smart way.
00:29:25
Speaker
I brought my Grit up because it seemed like everything that Alfie did was like but a weird Hulk rage. Um...
00:29:36
Speaker
wo Just being like a small little loser boy who would just ah get really angry at things and somehow win sometimes ah seemed like a lot of fun.
00:29:52
Speaker
To me, I'll... Oh. um Sorry, I don't have the sheet with me, but i I should go get it to get this to get this accurate. So, yeah. yeah Chat about some...
00:30:06
Speaker
um And that was actually like on the idea of leveling up. Like, I think that's something I really look forward to for the next thing is you guys basically get levels up every session, which is very fun because I think that like that energy of a slightly new toy kind of really keeps you coming back. And just like by the fifth, seventh, tenth time you're playing this character and be like, I just am not good at flight.
00:30:27
Speaker
There's just and there's nothing I can do. If that's what we're dealing with, I just is not going to happen. Yeah. there is I feel like that is something that I kind of like about this game, is that you, this game being Kids on Bikes, is that you are encouraged to fail more, and then and it it doesn't have the same stakes. I know that you were saying there's no stakes because you can't kill characters, or it's difficult to kill characters, but, you know, failing on a flight roll and getting caught
00:30:59
Speaker
It's just as fun as succeeding as opposed to sometimes the way I think I related with D&D, which is if you, you know, swing your sword and miss, like you just have to sit there until your next turn or, you know, things like that. Yeah, actually, I think there's there's more there's more consequences for the dice roll regardless, like versus in D&D is just like a numbers game.
00:31:19
Speaker
yeah And there is more fun, almost like like when you know when you roll a one and you fall to your whatever, that's the fun part of failing a skill check in D&D, but there's nothing really interesting about like failing an Arcana roll or like an Insight Yeah, there's a lot that's like you fail and just nothing happens. yeah
00:31:37
Speaker
Alright, I have it here. It's ah Fight went Went Up and Grit.
00:31:44
Speaker
So I think it's a very natural thing in a boy's life. and teenager for the fight to go up and want to fight for what they stand for seeing more inequalities in the world seeing guide them you see him getting shot and nothing happening about it and that's trauma i think it's heavy it's chad could have been radicalized further yes yeah exactly I actually had a notebook and I just took random notes of sessions. i just, i think I'm going to try to find random statements to see if we can remember what they are.
00:32:27
Speaker
Martha Alaska. Martha Alaska. Martha Alaska, episode five. That's, yeah. She was Miss Arkansas. There is a... my the idea of this ah um There's an improper coach, guy who I really respect, called JPC, whose school of naming is name location, location,
00:32:47
Speaker
So it'll be like Maria CVS or Martha Alaska or like Johnny Arizona. And he's like, the reason is like, it'll stick to you and it doesn't have enough burden to like, it's easy to remember versus like some of those weird names are like the last episode where you ran into like the, the techie guy and you were talking about him and none of us remembered his name. And I was like, Oh yeah, there's a consequence when you don't really remember the name of like Schmalky or whatever. Schmalky.
00:33:14
Speaker
Right. How many beeper babies do you remember? Oh, boy. I couldn't remember when we were in the middle of it. so you say Do I have to know their names or they're just what their shape was? No, just what shape.
00:33:32
Speaker
Iron Mite? Iron Mite? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. the whole deer of the Holy field, Holy grass, Holy holy grass, which is wait, really quickly. That's one of my first dumb nineties references is iron might is iron Mike named after Mike Tyson. And the deer, the Holy grass is Alexander Holy field.
00:33:51
Speaker
And the idea is that, they bit He bit his ear off. And that's why the beeper babies make bite people. buy people So there's like the beeper baby arc is a Beanie Baby reference, a reference to the Mike Tyson-Alexander Holyfield fight. Incredible. There's a lot of little dumb enough. I don't even think I gave you all of the names. There was Fiddlesticks. don't know. yep It was a violin. That's Fiddlesticks.
00:34:17
Speaker
burnt I don't know what burnt toast was. Comatose. Comatose. Yeah.
00:34:25
Speaker
i I know there's like seven. i only wrote down four. um And the only two that have not been mentioned are an ant and a raccoon. Oh, the ant was Iron Might.
00:34:41
Speaker
So never mind. Yep. Yeah. There's there's the Rasslin Raccoon, which is a muscular raccoon wearing a wrestling singlet. um And then there's there's Pete Moss, which is a guy wearing an office uniform made out of grass and dirt.
00:34:55
Speaker
And there's the Paramount, which is a piece of piece of gum wearing a beaker and
Narrative Developments and Challenges
00:35:00
Speaker
wearing glasses. so He's got a little beaker and he's wearing glasses. And he's the Paramount.
00:35:06
Speaker
and Those were very dumb. Some afternoon I sat down and of wrote a bunch of stupid wordplay monster jokes. Awesome. um yeah that was that was it That was a dumb afternoon. Anyone got any other little questions?
00:35:22
Speaker
My cluckies? My cluckies get your chicken frozen, boiled, or fried. mccluckies My cluckies is the best chicken I've ever tried. Yeah. I'm just reading. ask um The other thing I always wanted, I would hope to one day get back to if we ever did this campaign more was the Lisa Frank journal. Yeah.
00:35:42
Speaker
Which I had a whole huge, deeply complicated thing. And hopefully we'll get to that one day. But I also think there's something to be said about like all those 90 shows, like seeded story arcs constantly and then like just never revisit them. Mm hmm.
00:35:56
Speaker
That's true. I have two. These are like sort of adjacent to what we've already asked. So if we want to skip them, we can. But I wrote, what was the most challenging or out of your comfort zone scene or experience playing your characters or in Paul's case, DMing?
00:36:15
Speaker
I don't know if you work if you have any snippets that jump to mind. Yes, um it was actually the first question I was asked ah during the whole campaign, which was describe the pass or the special football move. Because I was ready. I had all my terms. I like studied, knew my vocab. And then all of a sudden he asked me that and I blanked.
00:36:42
Speaker
And I couldn't think of a single football term other than ball. and Gave us sub sub hub up. You know. Sub sub hub up.
00:36:55
Speaker
Magic was born out of that moment. I just panicked. That's really funny. I didn't realize that.
00:37:07
Speaker
um I think one of the most challenging for me was the phone call to the liquor store where I had to pretend to be my own father. Oh, yeah. I kept failing roles, but also just stacking, stack trying to stack confidence and and gravitas on top of Alfie is a difficult thing it's It's also like one of those weird things with role playing and tabletop games where you came up with these incredible like responses and I have to make you roll regardless and your role does not show the merit of your argument. You know what mean? Yeah. like And it's like, well, I can't because but I guess that's like the whole point of the the game. Like, it's not interesting if you could just ace it um with responses.
00:37:56
Speaker
Yeah, I kind of feel like that whole episode for me was really interesting because it was basically like me winging mechanically, like, how do we run a party? um It also might be the episode that we have like the most on the cutting room floor, like.
00:38:08
Speaker
We have a whole chunk of that party that we like did party scenes that just like got cut from the the recording because it was just like, there was so much of you guys setting up and we had to at least get to Trixie Steele coming to talk to you guys. I was like, hey, I have to have something happen. Otherwise, you go to school the next day and all your friends are dead. Like, I don't i don't i don't know what else to do.
00:38:31
Speaker
That was a good one. It's a good question. time Nate, would did you have a... Yeah, I don't know what a specific scene I'd have to think about. um i think probably interacting with Trixie Steele was, ah I think I found it challenging to find the line of like what was funny and what's not funny about girl-on-girl savagery. um And i think i think I think I eventually found it, but I feel like there's a couple times where she's like, she being Janet is out-of-character mean and
00:39:05
Speaker
And then it eventually became an endearing rivalry. But I think obviously the entire thing was a learning experience for me. um as Improving as a teenage girl.
00:39:18
Speaker
But yeah. oh Well, and then Paul had to do the same thing. i guess I guess I'm underselling that you had to improv as like 15 teenage girls. No, but like I had to do that. like But I think what you're talking about is very interesting because we're like, we're navigating like how mean can we be to one another without like crossing a line? Like especially for Janet, she's we've clearly established that Trixie has been mean to you for a long time prior to this, her introduction in the show. And it's tricky for you to do anything different. Like you throwing her pants out the car door seems mean, but like, it also seems in context, like she's probably done meaner things to Janet over the last seven, eight years. Yeah. Yeah.
00:40:00
Speaker
And so, but you also then have to toe the line because you didn't want to do anything that was so awful that it like makes Janet unforgivable. Exactly. Yeah. And then we're also even like walking the politically correct line of like, I don't want to say anything that I would not feel comfortable saying about anyone 2025. Yeah.
00:40:18
Speaker
Yes, that was definitely that was definitely part of it as well. Yeah, I get that. But I thought it was really interesting. I think it was very fun for me to have two people play outside of their gender. um As a DM who has to do that every now and then, ah it's kind of nice to see that burden on other people.
00:40:35
Speaker
And I think some of the some of my favorite moments were when Chad and Janet got to do, like me and Ivana were doing kind of like the inverse gender... jokes and it was like really funny for me and yeah those are definitely some of my highlights from the season as whole so yeah but if anyone can remember you have any crazy schemes or dice rolls that surprised you or the consequences either successfully or unsuccessfully
00:41:10
Speaker
hello I have one right out
Player Achievements and Story Impact
00:41:13
Speaker
the gate. Okay. Okay. So it's like episode three where you go to gym class. With Jackie Swanch and you do the three-legged race and you guys like have a crazy role and you're like you're on the football team because you do this in front of the coach of the football team. Not a story point I ever planned on happening.
00:41:32
Speaker
was not planning on you impressing it. That was going to be the the embarrass yourself in front of Jackie moment yeah that has never happened in the story fundamentally. Like as ah in the like coffee is a god in the archetype of like the rom-com. You never had the spilling coffee all over yourself while you and you meet her on the street moment. You meet her kind of in gym and then like crush it and then get recruited to the varsity football team.
00:41:59
Speaker
And it's it's like kind of what I love about the dice, right? like It's not how a story is written. like it just isn't You'll never find a ah movie where they do that. yeah That's mine, at least.
00:42:10
Speaker
i don't know if anyone else has one, but that fucked my plans for the day. And Alfie, completely no intention of you joining the football team. Oh, man. Well, I thought I was going to fail all of the challenges, but I i kind of scraped by, i think, got like one really good role and then ended up on the football team. And it was never really decided what position I played.
00:42:40
Speaker
Well, you do that. You do that. Yeah. You play a game and they put you in for the final game. And like in my ah mind's eye, it's very like tropey where it's like fourth corner. Like we're putting Alfie and the other guy got hurt. Like Alfie, he's never been like, and I don't know, like fill it in your brain yeah or whatever it is. ended up being like the wide receive
00:43:01
Speaker
I can't remember one specific, but I knew I was going to fail every brain's role. Like I just knew it. I had a four and it wasn't changing. And it was kind of fun to always try to justify why I was failing a brains roll constantly.
00:43:19
Speaker
but So that was different excuses or different distractions was always fun to create when just like, yep, I rolled the two, needed Yeah.
00:43:32
Speaker
and I have one more, um which was, what's everyone's favorite part about playing their character? i don't know if we already touched too close to that, but they're all a little samey.
00:43:44
Speaker
Yeah. All right, last question i have here, everyone. what is what was your favorite part of playing your character? And Paul, if you have a favorite NPC or a favorite part of being the the all of the NPCs.
00:44:00
Speaker
um i I got one. I kind of liked being Jackie Swunch. um It's one of the ones that's like very close to my actual speaking voice, so I didn't have to waste too much time like thinking about my accent or anything like that. It's just a little pitched up and softer.
00:44:14
Speaker
And um she's it's kind of nice to be vulnerable. in a way, like most of the time she is kind of just being, and then like when she's like cornered, she's being a catty mean girl, but not in the same way Trixie is. It's more just like, whatever's stupid. i don't care. kind of that like bully, not bully. I don't know. You, you know that the the, the high school girl trope she exists in like, and I think I like enjoyed living in it a little bit.
00:44:43
Speaker
Cool. I think Jackie and Alfie, I know we've, mentioned it a dozen times throughout the season but that was definitely my favorite part of the whole story was because it just it was it was funny it was legitimately endearing talking about how good ah kids on bikes is that like evoking that high school mentality like you could just you know you could kind not that i was ever in quite that exact relationship you can kind of feel that like that awkward hand hold the first crush kind of energy and then also had you know she had some teeth and
00:45:17
Speaker
some good jokes and Alfie was great. like You guys doing those scenes were so fun to watch. ah think I think my favorite part about playing Alfie this season was sort of the way that his arc worked.
00:45:39
Speaker
Because when I had kind of it came up with Alfie, was thinking... you know, sort of tag-along, of makes a bunch of mistakes and does, tries his best, but fails all the time.
00:45:56
Speaker
And it did not turn out that way. And he got semi-popular and he got good at a lot of things. um So it was fun to to change that while still being the awkward, mumbling guy.
00:46:20
Speaker
um Which is it is very similar. um Because when you brought up high school relationships, that's exactly what all of my high school relationships were were like. And even into college.
00:46:33
Speaker
i had a i I got a small little story. I had a crush on a a girl in college, and we were having like a study date, and I bought a ah so both lattes from the library do cafe, and the guy actually put like a heart on the, in the latte foam.
00:46:53
Speaker
I did not ask him to do that, but he did it. I was like, oh I'll carry this over and maybe she'll, and then she can see it. So I left the lid not fully on the thing and she grabbed it immediately and dumped a bunch of latte over herself.
00:47:07
Speaker
um And that was completely my fault. And ah now I'm married. Not to her. You it. You made it.
00:47:20
Speaker
Oh, my God. of That's so funny. That's awesome. That's awesome. I enjoyed playing Mad Libs with the stereotypical life of a boy.
00:47:33
Speaker
That's basically what I was doing. Just taking the most stereotypical tropes and then just filling in words as wrong. And that made Chad right.
00:47:44
Speaker
yeah True. were In the world of like Chad being dumb, one of my favorite things that would happen is when Chad had a like a brilliant idea, like the protein bar and being like, I'm protein. And like, like when Chad has those moments of like,
00:48:02
Speaker
you know, Eureka genius out of his own idiocy. I kind of really enjoyed those
Leadership and Motivation Dynamics
00:48:06
Speaker
moments. yeah Mine was probably ah favorite thing. I think kind of being able to play a sort of atypical leader, I would say at certain times Chad was in charge when there was like something big and scary. um And then other times it seemed like Janet would be in charge, but not because, you know, in like a D&D group, you're like the big strong warrior or whatever, just because she was often the only time you had a clue about what was going on. So kind of like dragging,
00:48:38
Speaker
the other two sort of by the ears, figuratively, sometimes literally, and being in charge in, ah yeah, a sort of not a traditional way. That was pretty interesting, I think.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah, you know you're totally right, especially as the type A person. Be like, guys, I know you're having fun being boys, but like we're here to solve this mystery. yeah The number of times like Tucker and Ivana would get distracted doing something. It's like, guys! It's in the first episode, right? when When we're standing there and Chad says, will you take a picture of me with the skeleton? It's like... Just so, yeah, like herding cats or something in ah in a really funny way where it's like there's so much larger, so many larger things going on and you're kind of playing like the straight man, but not fully a straight man.
00:49:27
Speaker
yeah Yeah, you walk the straight man, but still a teenager line very well. Like you never felt like you were playing outside of the honesty of a teenager. If that makes sense. Like, you never felt like you were, like, an adult in a teenager's body being like, team, we gotta do this thing. It was still like, guys, yeah we're gonna get a bad grade. Like, yeah we're gonna get in trouble with the teacher if we don't do this. was, like, always, like, the energy.
00:49:48
Speaker
Um... Alright, cool.
Season Wrap-Up and Future Hints
00:49:51
Speaker
Well, ah as a temporary sign-off for your characters, this was very fun, so thank you guys. Yeah, thanks, Paul. yeah Thank you! Thank you, listeners. Cool! For sure. Thank you all for listening to this. our We'll start Triangle Agency soon once we kind of woo figure out the basics. Look forward to that one. That'll be fun.