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Level Up Your Lairs
21 Plays7 days ago
Whether it’s a fortified castle, secret bat-cave, spaceship, or even a humble basement office, the right lair can give players a secure home, strategic advantages, and powerful story opportunities. We'll discuss how to introduce lairs meaningfully—through conquest, inheritance, or rewards—and explore the narrative and gameplay possibilities they open up. From maintenance headaches to hidden vulnerabilities, discover how lairs can enhance your game’s depth and provide unique challenges. Tune in for ideas on designing memorable player lairs that feel like home, enhance storytelling, and enrich your RPG adventures.
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Transcript
The Spaceship Purchase: A Questionable Decision?
00:00:04
Speaker
Well...
00:00:07
Speaker
You paid money for this, sir? On purpose? What? Come on, seriously, Zoya, what do you think?
00:00:16
Speaker
Honestly, sir, I think you got robbed. Robbed? What? What do you mean? It's a piece of Fayou. Fayou? Okay, she won't be winning any beauty contests anytime soon, but she is solid.
00:00:30
Speaker
ship like this will be with you till the day you die. Because it's a death trap. That's not... You are very much lacking in imagination. I imagine that's so, sir. Come on, you haven't even seen most of it. show you the rest.
00:00:44
Speaker
And try see past what she is and onto what she can be. What's that, sir? Freedom is what? I meant, what's that? Oh. Yeah, just step around that. I think something must have been living in here.
00:00:56
Speaker
To the...
00:01:07
Speaker
Tune up, your quest has now begun. Tune up, we'll show you how it's done. Tune up, tune up, tune up, tune up. All right, we are back.
Podcast Relaunch: New Schedule Announcement
00:01:15
Speaker
It's been a little bit of a hiatus here at the Tabletop Tune Up, but I'm your host, Ben Darm, here with my co-host, Mark Lehman.
00:01:23
Speaker
Hey, what's going on?
00:01:27
Speaker
we are back it's been a little bit of a hiatus here at the tabletop tuna but i'm your host ben dyrem here with my co-host mark lehman hey what's going on Before we get into today's topic, I wanted to just take a moment to acknowledge um we have put a little delay on this. We're changing our schedule up a little. And think going to be producing, what, Mark, every two weeks or so? Yeah, I think would like to switch to an every two-week format, you know, because we've got to pay bills and stuff.
00:01:53
Speaker
You know, other things are happening in life and we got to be smart. And um frankly, the other thing too is I would hate for us to be kind of, as we've said before, when you're a GM and you got to take breaks from time to time, you want to kind of find the rate at which you've got a lot of that good creative outflow ready to go. So we want to bring you the best stuff, have the most interesting discussions we can come up with.
00:02:12
Speaker
So Ben, what are we what are we doing today? are we talking about?
The Importance of Layers in Gaming
00:02:15
Speaker
Today is a really fun topic. We're going to talk about layers or bases or headquarters. That place the players hang their hats, the characters call home.
00:02:25
Speaker
That's what we're talking about today. ah Layers are so fun. like i just they For whatever reason, when I hear like we're going to have a secret layer in a game, I immediately get thrown back to my childhood.
00:02:37
Speaker
And like all the shows I liked and superhero stuff where they always had these cool, awesome layers. right, I'm gonna give you like a kind of a counterpoint. and I want you to make the case here, pitch it to me.
00:02:48
Speaker
Somebody might think, hey, having your players get stuck kind of in one place, that sounds boring. Isn't the kind of average player party gonna be kind of globetrotting and running around dimensions and doing all those things and leaving?
00:03:01
Speaker
What do you say to somebody like that who's maybe skeptical? I said, no, no, you're boring. You're dumb, dumb. No. um then Then you need to figure out what kind of layer you want for your game. If your players are globetrotting, I mean...
00:03:17
Speaker
Millennium Falcon's a lair, right? That's Han Solo's lair. Okay. He's globetrotting. so So part of what we want to do is we want to define this carefully a little bit.
00:03:27
Speaker
A lair can be lots of things. What is valuable about a lair? Is it lets, you know, your players do all kinds of things with their characters that... are hard to do maybe without a layer. and And maybe to your point, like you could do some of these things with vehicles, but let's think about some examples here. ah So for example, one thing that let's players do is they can own this piece of real estate and really kind of have a consistent home.
00:03:50
Speaker
They can have a territory. You and i when we were talking about this, we talked about how like Batman has his bat cave and that connects him to Gotham city in a certain way. And that's Batman's territory.
00:04:01
Speaker
And if you're going to have a Batman movie, you sure as heck better have the Batcave. It's almost like a side character. It's like Alfred. The other thing that's cool is that it gives characters something else to build. a lot of times players will be building their characters' capabilities up. They'll be getting better weapons or they'll be getting you know better skills or whatever it is they're getting.
00:04:23
Speaker
giving them one of these things, lair or a base or headquarters, whatever you want to call it it, gives them a way to build something else up to build. They've got some wonderful new bastion rules in the current 2024 edition of the rules.
00:04:35
Speaker
There's a point in the game too, where you want to you want players to be spending their resources, things that have been acquiring, you know, maybe Whether that be you know gold or you know coins or you know credits, whatever.
00:04:49
Speaker
You want a place for them to kind of like spend that stuff. And Athleya is a good place. Yeah. I mean, real estate's costly. Well, another thing too, which which we we could discuss is that layers are kind of a thing that you're doing as a group.
Team Building and Defense: Layers in Action
00:05:05
Speaker
Like it's not an individual thing. Everybody's chipping in on this. The layer should reflect the personality of your party, your group. So it's a fun activity for everybody to get involved in.
00:05:17
Speaker
So it kind of brings people together a little bit too. ah can. It's interesting. Absolutely. One thing that's kind of nice too is a lot of times players over the course of their adventuring, they're going acquire items. They're going take prisoners. They're going to do all kinds of stuff that is better served when they've got their own place that they can own their own four walls, their own defenses, their own alarms, their own phantom zone, whatever it might be.
00:05:43
Speaker
They've got that ability to superintend and manage that stuff on their own so that they can be more confident that things are going to go well for them. Of course, you as the GM know things will not go well for them, but it's nice to give them that illusion. Yeah.
00:05:56
Speaker
So ah basically the the idea is that these layers should augment those characters quite a bit. They should let them ah feel like they're growing.
00:06:06
Speaker
They're growing as a character. And I mean, in a more like capitalistic society, what's a way to show kind of growth is to acquire things.
00:06:17
Speaker
And that could be real estate. Yeah. Kind of sounds silly. It's very primitive, but I think it works on a very basic level. And I think that's why it's in so much pop, pop culture, like superheroes. They all have their layers, but like science fiction, every spaceship that flies around is, is like a, it's a mobile layer.
00:06:36
Speaker
Yeah. It tells you a lot about that that show. And you can even think of that as something that's also helping you as a GM launch stories, investigate character backgrounds.
00:06:47
Speaker
You know, we' were talking about Batman's Batcave. There's also like Superman's Fortress of Solitude, right? That's a good example of a lair. And he also like Ben, was like what does that tell you about Superman?
00:06:58
Speaker
like yeah it's Like he needs a place to kind of get away. Well, it also lets him what's interesting in those stories is that when Superman needs to get away, he goes to one of two places. He'll either go to the Fortress of Solitude if he kind of needs to connect to his Kryptonian side, or he goes back to the farm with Ma and Pa Kent if he needs to connect to his human side.
00:07:21
Speaker
And so those are both kind of interesting options for him. Yeah, and like in in Batman's has it' got a very different feel, like what his lair is all about. That's where he goes to run samples, you know, take a look at the evidence he's gathered, and look at his giant coin.
00:07:38
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you were talking about um augmenting capabilities before, right? This is something that a good lair will do, is it will give you ways to increase your skill with something, get some bonuses, you know, it gives you resources to basically help you do things that you couldn't do if you weren't in your lair.
00:07:54
Speaker
So Ben, like what what do you count as a lair? This is a good question. So we were talking about Superman a moment ago. Does Clark Kent's apartment count as a lair? And I would say no, it doesn't because- Probably not.
00:08:05
Speaker
Not really. I mean, it's disposable, right? If he had a different apartment, would it matter- no Yeah, there's nothing really uniquely specific about that apartment that would make it a quote layer, I would say. Yeah. When I think about then what it is that makes a layer, I think it's got to be something that connects you, something about the character background, character story. It's got be something that enhances one of those things.
00:08:29
Speaker
It's hard to define because it could also be some other things. You were talking a moment ago about vehicles like the Starship Enterprise or the Serenity or the Millennium Falcon. These are all good examples of of essentially mobile layers.
00:08:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like ah a Pirates game, the Pirate Ship would be a good example of lair. Yeah. yeah Well, and a different thing that's interesting, too, is sometimes it might not even be a specific place. I just got done rereading Tarzan, like the old Edgar Rice Burroughs. Okay.
00:08:56
Speaker
Tarzan of the Jungle. What's interesting there is like there's no real attention given to Tarzan's home territory. It's the jungle. Tarzan's home is the jungle. That's right. You it's interesting because you bring that up.
00:09:09
Speaker
Hell's Kitchen is, you know, for Daredevil, that's kind of like his lair in a sense. it's it's it's That's his place. Yeah, it's definitely his territory.
00:09:20
Speaker
I guess what I'm trying to get at here is when I think about – this I think there's ways in which a region could count as a lair or a domain can count as a lair. If it gives you the kind of resources and security that a lair would give you, um either because it's remote or because it's so dangerous that only this character like Tarzan could function in the jungle, you know,
00:09:41
Speaker
It's interesting food for thought.
Layers as Reflections of Character
00:09:43
Speaker
I was thinking about like some interesting kind of layers. I remember, i always think of like the X-Files Mulder's little, like, hear me out. Like he had that little basement at the FBI.
00:09:56
Speaker
I want to believe that's a layer. Kind of. It was, but it told you a lot about the character. Yeah. When you first meet him, he's in this basement and he's got this poster on the wall. This is like, I want to believe.
00:10:06
Speaker
And he's relegated to, The worst office you could imagine in the building. That's right. Like they wanted to disappear him into the basement. He's out as far away as they can legally put him without having him outside the building. But they had a lot of conversations and and stuff that happened in that that little room.
00:10:27
Speaker
So it felt like this was the place they kind of went back to, to discuss the evidence. Where he goes to think, <unk>s where his files are.
00:10:36
Speaker
his ex His X. His X files, you might say. files. But there anyway, so layers. Yeah, so I think what's interesting about that is that size doesn't necessarily matter.
00:10:47
Speaker
But you kind of made a nice point when we were talking about this earlier. You said, you know, what matters is what happens if this thing is stolen or destroyed. And there were a few times in the X-Files where Mulder's office got ransacked or files were taken out of it. You know, you really felt that loss.
00:11:03
Speaker
So a good layer is one where there's something really at stake for the characters in that. um And consequently, then for the players, that's something where they want to maintain and secure and and so forth.
00:11:18
Speaker
There's another kind of thing here that's interesting, too, is that I saw an interesting note. Matt Colville has a book, MCDM Productions. They have one called, I believe, Kingdoms and Followers.
00:11:30
Speaker
And there's a lot of interesting thinking in there. I'd recommend people read it. But one thing he says that I thought was interesting, he doesn't think people really kind of own ah a base until they've had to defend it. So when he has players and characters, you know, they get their, their lair set up.
Acquiring Layers: An Achievement
00:11:46
Speaker
He thinks they don't really kind of own They don't count as, as being kind of the masters of that place until somebody has come and attack them and they've fended off that attack. And I think it's an interesting. what What about if, if in the process of getting that layer, they attacked it or they earned it that way. I guess I could see that case as well.
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think the idea would be if you fight for it, it means you're not going to walk away from it. True. That's probably just an idea of a really a great layer in a game.
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah. The story would evolve in that kind of capacity to where, you know, if that layer was attacked, they would be up in arms. It would be a great rallying point for the game. So, you know, how would how would one get a layer in a game?
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, what's interesting is i don't think Olaire is something I want to give to first level players as soon as they've started. there Don't get me wrong, there's exceptions for everything and you could have certain kinds of cases.
00:12:42
Speaker
Like if you're playing a Star Trek game, You're going to start with a ship and it's going to be your lair. It doesn't have to be though. The ship you're going to end with. Right. It could be the one that gets you to the ship that you want to end up with. Like I, I'm sure Han Solo didn't start with, he didn't start with the millennium Falcon, right?
00:13:01
Speaker
No. Yeah. It's not according to solo movie. Yeah, which is great, by the way. It's underrated. Yeah. ah I would say this. It should be an achievement, to your point, right? Allaire should be a place that you've done some adventuring. even Even if it's not a big achievement, there should be a good story behind it.
00:13:19
Speaker
Yeah. Well, that kind of connects to what we saying earlier. If you remember our episode on items, items shouldn't be things that are just interchangeable collections of stats. They should be things that have a little bit of lore around them and and therefore they're a little bit stickier. People should get sentimentally attached. hundred percent, a hundred percent Ben.
00:13:38
Speaker
So your lair should be like that too. Your lair could be like, this was my father's ancestral castle, or um this was the, you know, to the Millennium Falcon, this was a ship I won in a gambling opportunity and then set a record with, you know? um So there could be all kinds of stuff, but yeah, that's the key idea, right? It it it could come in a lot of different ways, but but I would say generally speaking, don't give it out off the bat and don't give it out just sort willy nilly without attaching some good story to it.
00:14:06
Speaker
so So you got your layer. We're going to be using that layer, right? We're going to be using that layer to open up story opportunities and character growth opportunities as were you know as we now have this asset that is you know part of the story.
00:14:24
Speaker
So what are we goingnna be how are we going to be using this as a GM? Yeah. So I think there's some really interesting stuff
Enhancing Gameplay with Layers
00:14:31
Speaker
there. One is think about how player functional it is.
00:14:34
Speaker
We talked a moment ago about letting players have capabilities being augmented there. Maybe they can use it to make money. and You know, the Millennium Falcon is a cargo freighter. You can imagine characters having a, in a superhero game, let's say having a lab or in a fantasy game, maybe their castle is a, really has a surrounding village around it and it's an economic center.
00:14:54
Speaker
Well, also like at a big part of a lot of these games that we play is crafting. You know, yeah I ran ah a D&D game where we had a lot of crafters and i I needed to give them a place where they could, you know, build those items that would go down into legacy.
00:15:12
Speaker
Right. Smithies and arcane libraries and so forth. Exactly. Well, and then also... That's just what the players are doing with it. But you asked the question, what is the GM doing with it? And so, yeah you know, what's fun about this kind of stuff is these things always come with history.
00:15:28
Speaker
Who owned this thing before you did? Whether it's, again, a kind of a site or whether it's a vehicle or something else, um they want it back. but if What if you go and you're given this deed to the castle at such and such place and it's on the periphery of this, you know, the king's kingdom or whatever and you go out there and you find there's already somebody there who says it's theirs.
00:15:50
Speaker
what What do you do at that point are you going to fight for that or or what's going happen? Heck yeah, you are. That's right. No, yeah, you're right. There's all sorts lore and story involved with this.
00:16:02
Speaker
And that lore and story could be part of the overall campaign. It can really add richness to the you know the campaign storyline. Yeah. so one of the things I like, too, is even letting the lair be something where there's secrets to unlock.
00:16:15
Speaker
Like, what if there's a dungeon you can't get into a vault that you found when you got there? Or, you know, what if all of a sudden on this ship you found a secret information chip that you didn't know was there or you found other modifications that that maybe weren't obvious until you hit the hyperspace drive or something like that?
00:16:32
Speaker
Yeah, it could end up it could end up like Al Capone's vault, yeah brother for those are old enough to remember that news story. but um we're Oh no, do do tell about that one. That's actually kind of fun.
00:16:44
Speaker
They had back in the was the early Yeah, somewhere in the mid 80s, I think. It was Geraldo Rivera. Geraldo Rivera, that's right. He found one of the old Capone's vault, and they decided they're going to do a big special on it. yeah the whole like they were going to do They were going to block off a Friday night, 8 o'clock. They were going to crack open this thing, and it was all talking about what could be inside it And it was empty.
00:17:09
Speaker
It was empty. Prime time, they cracked this thing open, and there was nothing in there. The lights are are probing with their high-powered broadcast camera lights into this dark, empty space.
00:17:22
Speaker
He looked like a just a moron. He was so disappointed. There's a little part of me that fell felt bad for him, but at the same time, like... He was disappointed. Everybody who watched that show is disappointed.
00:17:35
Speaker
But don't let that happen to your your lair. yeah You're the GM. You can put stuff in there. Don't do that to your players. Yeah, don't
Challenges of Maintaining Layers
00:17:43
Speaker
do that to your players. Also with your lair comes like upkeep, upkeep, and, you know, there could be potential problems with the upkeep or what kind of like weaknesses your lair might have.
00:17:55
Speaker
These are all things you got to think about. Like these are, think of them as like characters in a sense. Yeah. They have strengths and weaknesses, right? Yeah. You know, what's interesting is when we talked before about a layer being something you can improve, implicitly that means that it's something that's not perfect now.
00:18:11
Speaker
And so here's some examples you can imagine, right? Of course, there's the famous sort of examples of like the Millennium Falcon pooping out of hyperspace, not being able to sort of make the jump. ah But like, so for example, in a fantasy setting, you can imagine a castle maybe that's got...
00:18:27
Speaker
a honeycomb network of caves and catacombs beneath it that make it a little bit more susceptible to attack or people sneaking in and out of the walls. Or it could just be confusing, like Castle Grayskull. Every time He-Man would run through it, he'd stop at a corridor and be like, which way am I going?
00:18:43
Speaker
he's he's So you've got to think about the strengths and weaknesses of this lair. And those are kind of fun things to play with when you utilize them in in certain ways. so Yeah, it opens up interesting story options, and certainly it gives the players something to address as they continue to develop that layer.
00:19:01
Speaker
OK, so we've got kind of a grab bag of other stuff here, though, kind of a list of things to consider when you're thinking about how layers are going to be are going to be used. So in Noah's special order,
00:19:13
Speaker
Maybe one thing to start with here would be think about how layers are going to function very differently in very kind of narrative or plot focused games versus very like sandbox exploratory games.
Narrative vs. Sandbox: Layers in Different Game Types
00:19:25
Speaker
And example would be, you know, when you and I played it a in a kind of a long running game, we got a layer, I think somewhere on fifth level. um sorry got a plot of land I think you got a plot of land to which to build a layer. And you guys started developing that.
00:19:42
Speaker
Right. um A lot of our adventures, though, took us away from that place and we kind of came back to it at points, but it was never kind of the place where we would go every day. So what's interesting there is that, you know, when you're thinking about a very narrative driven game, think about what role the lair is going to play, how often players are going to be there, um how much work you're going to give the players to do to to maintain or set up this lair.
00:20:05
Speaker
And then think about that as in contrast to like a sandbox game where the players really are free to stick around then they can stay there or they can go, they can improve it in whatever they want. they want to They can become benevolent local Lords or they could become Melissa.
00:20:21
Speaker
What would be the right word? Or they can, they can become benevolent local Lords or they can become malevolent local dictators. So that's a dead say that 10 times fast. I don't want to.
00:20:32
Speaker
Yeah. At any rate, the point is, in a sandbox game, it's gonna function very differently from a narrative game. So that's one thing to think about. Also like think about like, how is this serving my players? How is it serving my game?
00:20:47
Speaker
So, you know, think about that. Like I, I've, I mentioned to you, Ben, that like I had a game with a lot of crafters in it and ah need a layer that served the purpose of that crafting.
00:20:59
Speaker
um Obviously we were playing the game. We were on the road a lot. We didn't have a lot of time to craft. And that was a distraction for, for a lot of the game. So, We had this lair that like they would visit in their dreams, like in their dream state. Oh, that's interesting.
00:21:15
Speaker
Where they would craft, you know, at this lair while they're in their dream state. This was just, it seems kind of, it's a little hokey, but it was a way to kind of like allow them to craft.
00:21:26
Speaker
was going to that sounds like cheating. That's almost like severance. That's like, you know, I've got my my dream innie that's going to do work while I'm at asleep. But we just wanted that the players just wanted to craft, you know, they wanted the time to craft, but they also were like, I want to get on the road.
00:21:41
Speaker
How can I have my cake and eat it too? and Yeah. You're a very generous GM for letting them do both of those things. Yeah. So just think about the function of the lair. How does it enhance the story?
00:21:52
Speaker
you had You had had a great lair that was in one of the books, I believe, Troll Skull Manor. Yeah. So when you play the Waterdeep Dragon Heist module, one of the things you can do early in that game, this breaks that rule of of not giving people a layer too early. But this one, it's interesting because when you when you start the game, you essentially get a deed to this inn.
00:22:14
Speaker
And it's, it's kind of wrecked. Like you got to put a lot of money into it to get it fixed up. So it is, I, I cribbed that idea, by the way, i loved it. and i loved troll I loved the idea of troll school manner. I thought it was fantastic, but I introduced it with characters when they were on level five.
00:22:28
Speaker
They had earned a deed to this manner. And they had, at this point they had some money to kind of like decide what they wanted to do with it. And yeah, And, uh, it kind of, they enjoyed it. They enjoyed it a lot, but I, I think, um, it had a lot of personality to it.
00:22:45
Speaker
Do you feel like it getting it at level five at that point was felt different and sort of hit different than did when we got it early in the game and the published module? Yeah, I think it did hit differently. And I think it was more, i think they enjoyed it more because, you know, when you're at those early levels, every dollar you have, you're like, I need to upgrade my armor and you don't get a new weapon or yada, yada, yada.
00:23:08
Speaker
Um, They were kind of at the point where like, I've bought those things. Now I want to spend some money on something else. Yeah. And that felt like a good time to bring that in. Plus they were, they want to like explore and have this game around the city. So this was a kind of a way to kind of like explore that city and and and be a part of it.
00:23:29
Speaker
Well, to that earlier point about the, the bat gave, right. This did fix them in that city. gave them a place in that city and so forth. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Well, some other things to think about when you're thinking about layers.
00:23:40
Speaker
One thing to think about, um this is sort of connected to that point about where people are located, right, is how accessible is this during gameplay? One of the things you'll see, for example, in a superhero game, right, the Dr. Bad Guy who has the volcanic island base somewhere out in the South Pacific,
00:23:57
Speaker
Well, he better have some really amazing transportation if he's going to menace the city from time to time. You know, if he's ah hanging around the city or you know, he's have a hard time getting back there. So think about how the function of that layer is going to vary or needs to be different depending on how accessible it is to. Yeah.
00:24:18
Speaker
Think about that poor contractor, man.
00:24:21
Speaker
I got this gig. I got this gig. going to building this layer in a volcano. yeah We lost a few guys today. You had to reset the like the OSHA little sign, zero days since
Genre Impact on Layers
00:24:38
Speaker
accident. Folks, don't let those those things dissuade your dreams of awesome players. Yeah.
00:24:45
Speaker
so A couple other quick thoughts here, right? Number number one, um think about what the surrounding area is like. um Are you in a lair that is in open terrain and everybody knows where it is? Are you in a lair that is – example of that would be like the Hall of Justice. you know Think about the difference between that and let's say Punisher's Hideout or the Batcave.
00:25:04
Speaker
I was just thinking I'd go with the Legion of Doom. They're – Well, they're in the swamp that too. Did that rise out of a swamp? like Yeah. Yeah. Is this a secret base or is it a place where everybody kind of knows where it is? I mean, that that's going to very different impacts on the kind of influence you have.
00:25:20
Speaker
And then finally, think about the genre considerations. Think about how bases function differently in different genres. So in a sci-fi game, for example, when we talked about Firefly or or Star Wars or Star Trek, vehicle bases are probably pretty common.
00:25:34
Speaker
Here's a different example. In a post-apocalyptic game, right bases are... typically these scavenged things, these maybe they're caves or pre-cataclysm vaults or whatever it might be, right? But yeah they might be very impermanent. They might be very unreliable.
00:25:50
Speaker
Think about how you can use the genre to help you bring that base to life. Yeah, those bases should become a character unto themselves. did you Did you ever play the Mass Effect series, Ben?
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah, I played the first one. I sadly have not pursued the second third. so There's there's a a part in that those games, spoiler alert, you should played anyway, so I'm going to break break it. the ah the The ship gets gets like taken.
00:26:19
Speaker
oh no And there's a whole like part where you're trying to escape. And one one of the fun things about it is that you know, you kind of know the ship. So the character is kind of like using the little tunnels that the other people don't know to kind of escape out.
00:26:33
Speaker
It's a, it's a neat thing. And those are kind of things you can do with your lair. Keep in mind, it's the home field advantage folks. And um so when you have those, those things that happen to you, this is your home.
00:26:46
Speaker
You're going to fight for it. That's right. Ah! Ah! Ah!
The Essential Role of Snacks in Gaming
00:26:56
Speaker
All right, Mark, today's tune-up segment is a little different from some of our usual ones. i really like this one. Help us tune up our snacks. What are good snacks to bring into your game situation? How does food work at the table, Mark?
00:27:12
Speaker
It works. when I love snacks. yeah Who doesn't love snacks? I love snacks. no eyes No, snacks are great, but like there are definitely some snacks that you don't want at your table.
00:27:25
Speaker
They're messy. Yeah. ah Well, so here's the thing. As a GM, you're kind of the host. And so maybe snacks are something that you provide. However, that said, because you're GMing, there's also a tradition of players providing snacks because they're, you know, they're not doing the GMing. They're kind of contributing something.
00:27:43
Speaker
Of course, there's also a sort of little tradition within that tradition of using snacks to bribe the GM. As GMs, we are open to this kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah, there are definitely ah awards to be given for best snacks.
00:27:56
Speaker
That's right. let's talk about what makes Let's talk about what makes good snacks or bad snacks. Just off the top, Mark, what are some of your favorite snacks to have? Oh, man. I love Sour Patch Kids.
00:28:08
Speaker
I'm all down with that. You know, the classics, Doritos, all that kind of good stuff. But there's problems with Doritos, right? Yeah. Doritos give you that cheese dust.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Cheetos. God help you if you got Cheetos. It's the same thing but worse. Here's the hack for Cheetos, guys. Just get some chopsticks. yeah You got a bowl? You got chopsticks? Don't worry about it.
00:28:30
Speaker
We got you covered here. So the theme here, though, right? Messy snacks are bad. That's going to get all kinds of mess on your stuff. Relatively clean finger food. I tend to use a lot of like peanuts, M&Ms. Those kinds of things are are pretty good fodder at my table usually.
00:28:48
Speaker
One thing I'll say too is I don't tend to do big meals during a game. Like there's that kind of classic, oh, let's order pizza and play some RPGs and stuff. If you start your RPG before the pizza's arrived, I don't care what you're doing.
00:28:59
Speaker
As soon as that doorbell rings and the delivery shows up. That game is derailed. Everybody's doing something else. Yeah. No engagement. You could be at the middle of the combat where you're finally dealing with Dr. Bad Guy and it doesn't matter.
00:29:12
Speaker
Pizza's here. Yeah. you know a lot of this also, folks, is predicated on like, like what's the quality of your table? i Do you really want that stuff if you got ah really nice table?
00:29:26
Speaker
You got this expensive Wormwood, $4,000 awesome table. to protect I'll tell you what, that they're drinking out of sippy cups, man. That's right. Yeah.
00:29:40
Speaker
That's right. Yeah. When I was a kid, we were playing on like one of those fold up tables in a unfinished basement. yeah Bring it all down. You know, bring it all down. These these these days as somebody who's actually invested a little bit of money in a nice gaming table, I'm like, nope, it's finger food. It's easy stuff. It's, a you know, no drinks on the table.
00:29:59
Speaker
Also, folks, like I like to have the snacks to the side, on the table to the side. They can grab you know maybe a bowl, bring it over to the table and eat.
00:30:11
Speaker
But like I don't like the bags out in the middle of the table where you got your figurines, yeah you got your drinks. you know i don't like all that. like it's just It's a recipe for disaster.
00:30:23
Speaker
The sound of the bag crinkling drives me nuts. Yeah. I think this is going be the tune-up segment where we officially out ourselves as old. think we've done that before. but Is that it? I think this is what this is.
00:30:34
Speaker
Hey, I will say this, though. One of the cool opportunities, one of the great things that that some creative players will do is they'll bring themed food, you know, the thing. wonderful. cookies or or maybe different kinds of dishes that might be appropriate. Like if you're playing like a Lord of the Rings game and somebody brings their own home-cooked version of Lambus, that person gets immediate inspiration or bonuses.
00:30:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's awesome. But yeah, just be cognizant of the mess, ah like nachos and, you know. she all these oily cheesy stuff.
00:31:06
Speaker
Just make sure you got your napkins. Something else I'll say too, be cognizant of who all is available or ready to be able to do that. I had a friend, for example, who had a hard time with some of his money. And so he wasn't, this is in grad school. I feel called out.
00:31:20
Speaker
well What it was, we ordered pizza one night and he goes, well, I'm not going order pizza. But of course, when it got there he's looking at everybody with these big cheesy slices, he just broke down and we're like, that's fine. You can have it. But We shouldn't have put him in that position in the first place.
00:31:36
Speaker
know you Know your group. Also, there's people who have you know gluten restrictions or or something like that. be Be thoughtful. um But have snacks is as much of a part of the game as anything, right?
00:31:49
Speaker
like We want to have our snacks there. Just check with your host. How do you feel about people bringing vegetable trays? God, I love it, man. Really? oh yeah. The betrayal of the social compact, man. Yeah, the the carrot the carrots are noisy as hell.
00:32:03
Speaker
if i But you know what? It's the ranch. You just dip it. Wow. I'm a Minnesotan. we we like We could drink ranch out here.
00:32:16
Speaker
All right. Well, you guys, i think that is as much, probably more than we should say about snacks at the table. We hope you've got some good snacks lined up for your next game. We'll have another episode of Tabletop Tune-Up ready for you in a couple more weeks.
00:32:30
Speaker
Until then, keep those dice rolling.
00:32:35
Speaker
intellectual transparent
00:33:17
Speaker
Tune up, level up your fun Tune up, your quest has now begun Tune up, we'll show you how it's done Tune up, tune up, tune up, tune up
00:33:48
Speaker
Tune up, level up your fun Tune up, your fuss has now begun Tune up, we'll show you how it's done Tune up, tune up, tune up, tune up, tune up
00:34:26
Speaker
Come get your tune-up, it's time for your tune-up Your game needs a tune-up Tune-up, tune-up, tune-up, tune-up
00:35:11
Speaker
um