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“Kids on Bikes” One-Shot Prologue
283 Plays5 years ago
This week the gang sits down to play a one-shot run by Jeff! Come join us as we build the small town for our adventure, and introduce our characters.
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, Charles Compton, Richard Cree, Nastasia Raulerson, The Kamm Family, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Rebekah Miller, deviouspoptart, Eðvarð Arnór Sigurðsson, Michael Clark, and Dustin Troupe.
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Transcript
Introduction and Patron Acknowledgments
00:00:00
Speaker
The following episode is brought to you by the generous donations of Elizabeth Clark, Darryl Delaney, Ryan Royce, Darren Katska, Irene Villarito, Laura Pickron, Devious Poptart, Natasha Rallerson, Richard Cree, The Cam Family, Charles Compton, Dustin Troop, Rebecca Miller, Edvard Arnoff, Michael Clark, and David Scrams, along with all of our generous patrons.
00:00:33
Speaker
D20 radio, your game is roll.
Game Setup: An 80s Adventure
00:00:50
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Eberron Renewed feed for a non-Eberron renewed little one shot. I am your game master, Jeff. I'm Phillip. I'm Trevor. I'm Eric. And I'm Randy. We're all here. And today we are playing D&D. We are not playing an Eberron. We are playing in a land to be determined. The game Kids on Bikes. Kids on Bikes is directly inspired by
00:01:19
Speaker
the adventure movies of, particularly the 80s and 90s, now kind of resurgent with Stranger Things and I guess the IT reboot, things like that. But, you know what, we'll just get started and I'll say other things as we go.
Character Introductions
00:01:39
Speaker
Let's just begin with each of you telling us about your character. Let's keep it basic right now. Just give us the name, maybe some physical descriptions, some stuff that you think is really germane that might help us flesh out a setting.
00:01:53
Speaker
So let's begin with each of you introducing your character. Just give us name, maybe a physical description, and maybe if there's something that you really think is important about them that might help inform the world we build, time or setting, or make sure we've got a, I don't know, if one of you is like, a big thing about me is that I'm a lifeguard. Well, then we have to at least have a public pool, something like that, okay? Or it could be near a ocean if we wanted to. So let's begin. Whoever would like to go first, I'm not going to demand anything of anyone yet.
00:02:23
Speaker
So do you want us to go over like motivation flaws or just more high level? No, no, let's not let's not worry about that until we start dealing with building the relationships between them. So I'll go first. Great. My name is Duncan and I'm 15 years old. Dark hair, jean jacket with lots of band patches on it. Metallica, Megadeth, Judas Priest, that kind of stuff. Kind of pale skin, dark circles underneath his eyes.
00:02:53
Speaker
doesn't seem like the most welcoming aura around him when you see him around school and stuff like that. So, that's Duncan. Okay, let me ask this just real quick based on what you said. When you see Duncan, when an adult or another teenager sees Duncan, it sounds like if a kid sees him, I just think scary. Yeah. If an adult, do they see, do they think punk? Do they think burnout? They would probably assume burnout. Okay, cool. All right, and you're playing a teen. Do you have a...
00:03:24
Speaker
Like, 14 to 19, if you're 15. You said 15, I missed it, I'm sorry, okay, great. All right, who would like to go next? My character's name is Stephanie Stevenson. She's 16, she's a babysitter. And she is your typical popular girl in high school, cheerleader,
00:03:54
Speaker
You know. Blondes. OK, I'm trying to be vague, but not sure. No, totally. The movement of your shoulders just now was was absolutely a description. So if this was an actual AIDS movie, you would be warming my cold, dead heart and we would definitely end up together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:18
Speaker
My name is Alexander Ferris Dozier. My friends call me Alex. I'm 11. Um, Stephanie's my babysitter. She's really pretty. Um,
00:04:33
Speaker
And Ferris Alexander Ferris Dozier is he's a little small for his age, skinny kid. Um, he's 11 as blonde hair and green eyes. And he really used to love to go fishing with and hunting with his dad used.
00:04:53
Speaker
Randy, geez. What the damn hell? Why did you create a stand-in for the DM's son? You made a blonde green-eyed kid with the name Ferris. Middle name. Does Ferris have green on? Yes. I did not know. And then you're like, he used to go fishing with his dad, and I'm supposed to put these children in peril. His middle name's not Ferris. I'm calling it.
00:05:20
Speaker
What if I change his hair color and his eye color? Fine, something. I could get rid of Ferris. I thought it would be a nod to Ferris. I appreciate you honoring my son. That is wonderful. But if he's going to be in a lot of peril and he's 11. They're all going to be in peril. Okay. Absolutely. They're all going to be in peril. We're going to redo this, right? Isn't high school perilous enough?
00:05:45
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Better protect me. That's all I have. Can I see the tagline? Okay. I'm not going to make you do that. I'm not going to make you do that. His name is Alexander Franklin. Love it. Dozier. Love it. Dozier. And he has blue eyes. And our last brief character introduction from Philip. I'm playing Rick.
00:06:15
Speaker
Rick is 14. He is tall and quite lean. If we're, I don't know, at school or something, then he's probably wearing a jacket he bought at an army surplus store.
00:06:42
Speaker
with jeans and tennis shoes. He's got dark brown hair and gray eyes and carries a. A messenger bag that he thinks is awesome. Because it's not a backpack. OK. Yeah. And it's got our first messenger bag. It's got a bunch of books in it, but we'll get into that later, I guess.
00:07:08
Speaker
All right. Um, so we are going to build the setting, but before we do concrete stuff, I want to go through, I want you guys, I didn't ask you to do this in advance.
World Building and Town Rules
00:07:18
Speaker
So, you know, if we need to take a second, we can, I need some truths about the world. And I, by that, I don't mean our world we're playing in. I mean, I do, but not like our town. I mean, like, for instance, um, one thing that I think would be important is that
00:07:36
Speaker
There's not a lot of red tape in the world that we're playing in. So like if, let's say, you guys decide to dip out of school early for some reason, we're not hearing from parents or making a call to parents or a truancy officer or any of that stuff. If you need to go to the library, I'm not asking you for a library card, you know, things like that.
00:08:02
Speaker
You guys can do the things that you want to do nine times out of 10 when it comes to that sort of stuff. Where you want to go, what you want to see, things like that. And then the other one that I will say is that kids are not dumb and we will be playing these characters to the best of our abilities and intellects. I know I don't have to say that. To you guys, I want to elucidate it for the audience in case they're concerned about us just being like, oh yeah, but I'm a teenager so I think this. I'm so emotional. Yeah, exactly. That's not how we're rolling.
00:08:31
Speaker
Were you guys not like that as teenagers? Were you not like that as teenagers? Cause I'm pretty sure I said I'm so emotional at some point.
00:08:43
Speaker
You can do that. OK, and I do want to say I lifted both of those rules from other people who I've listened to play this game and I thought they were great. So I'm putting them in now outside of that. And this could be anything you guys want to say about this world, anything from some other silly ones I've heard our Carter got reelected to, you know, it's not weird if let's say one of you wanted to have a private conversation with an adult that wasn't in your family. No one's going to think untowardly of that if they see it from the outside.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah, those are the sorts of rules. Anything you want. It can be yeses or noes. Just let's throw some things out. If you've got some ideas. OK, the Carter got getting reelected thing has causes me to have to introduce some sort of counterfactual history element to this world that will probably have absolutely no import, but I'm just going to do it.
Exploring Pineville: Geography and Economy
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. If I'm not really sure what it would change, it's definitely going to have no impact. Lincoln wasn't shot. No. So what is it? OK. You know what? Let's just make this a slightly better world than ours. King was not assassinated. OK. OK. I will do some real research between this and our next session to make sure that I can thoughtfully and appropriately incorporate some things. But I I like that.
00:10:03
Speaker
Okay, sure. We never went to the moon. Whoa! I just popped into my head, I don't know. This is a question then.
00:10:15
Speaker
And again, let's not make it all revisionist history. But, uh, did we not make it to the moon? Has no one ever been to the moon? Did we lose the space race? No, I think that it's still a thing. Nobody's made it to the moon. There is still the ambition to get to the moon. Yes. Okay. Maybe there's still like a space race. You know what?
00:10:35
Speaker
I can work that in. Yeah. Regardless of the type of town that we build or type of city, the police force is notoriously understaffed. So if we're ever in peril, like calling the police is not a viable option to have help quickly arrive.
00:10:57
Speaker
OK, yeah, I think that's it. I mean, let's let's just go and do this. Then let's say that we are in the sort of town that just has like a sheriff and a deputy. Yeah, it's all town. And that's it. Yeah. OK, great. So maybe can't rely on public safety services. And that's for that. You know, we'll go and lump that in any fire department service. Yeah.
00:11:20
Speaker
Like, if there's a fire, we have to wait for the VFD from two towns over to make it here, kind of thing. Anything else? Can there be a carnival in town? Currently happening? Yeah. Okay, that's more concrete setting, but yes. Oh, okay. Of course. Like, you know those ones that are in the mall parking lot? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:11:44
Speaker
Like they've got a whole bunch of licenses and notices saying that everything's been checked, but has it? The one that at least every third town, somebody goes to the hospital. Yeah, but I guarantee you, I got a feeling old Alex Dozier's trying to get a couple of 20 bucks or so to walk home with some goldfish and plastic bags that the carnival's in town.
00:12:04
Speaker
OK, these are good. I think that's enough of that sort of stuff. If you come up with one while we're building, please feel free. But so I've got eight questions. I might add a couple more. And here's something we're going to work together. First one that has a good idea, shout it out and we'll flesh it out or we'll say, I don't know or slightly change it. But so the first off is our adventure takes place in. I want the name of the town. I want the state. Let's start there.
00:12:33
Speaker
These do not have to be real places and we can populate them and geographicalize them however we would like. Pineville, Michigan. So Jenkins, Wisconsin or just. I think I think I think I think I like OK, Pineville. That's the most that's the most like standard suburban town I've ever heard. Let's go with Wisconsin, though.
00:12:55
Speaker
Why? I don't know. Green Bay fan. Oh, that's a good reason. I like that. Oh, I do have something to add. There's no professional football league in this reality. Oh, yeah. Totally cool. So we can't have Alex spouting out Reggie White stats.
00:13:15
Speaker
Okay, so Pineville, Wisconsin, I will say this, since we are going up north, we are doing this in the summer then. I'm not going to be like... Thank you. Like, we're not gonna... You guys need to be able to get on your bikes and ride. We're not gonna put it in January, okay? Two-quote Freddie Mercury. So Pineville... We have to be together the whole time, guys.
00:13:35
Speaker
Pineville, Wisconsin, wonderful. Okay, let's build some geography of Pineville, Wisconsin. I'm going to ask, or I'm gonna ask that we are definitely, there's a wooded area, it could be just past town, but there are, we got woods. Lots of pines, in fact. Okay, maybe, maybe not.
00:13:55
Speaker
So, OK, there's fur. There's definitely still maybe there used to be. Yeah. You know, so we're going to call it. What do you think we built the villa out of? This is how it is for you. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Small river. So, OK, we got now does the river run through town or through the woods outside of town? Outskirts. Outskirts. It's a boundary. Yes. There's a town, a river and the woods. Yeah. Is it a river or is it like a creek?
00:14:24
Speaker
Small river. How substantial is it? Can we can we wait wide? I would imagine there are sections you could reasonably swim in, but nobody's getting swept down. And there's bridges. There are absolute. There's absolutely. Unless there's like heavy rain that season. There's absolutely at the very least a footbridge that is going to get you across it into the into the forest, into the woods, if if if need be. But it's more than a creek. OK. Yeah, creek.
00:14:51
Speaker
Wrong part of the country. We're in Wisconsin. There's no point at which you can't hop it, or which you can hop it. Okay. Oh, no. Maybe my accent needs to change. No. Given the small sample size I just received. Anything else geographically that's important? I'll say this. There's a quarry. There's always a quarry. I'm cis. There should be a quarry. I'm with Trevor.
00:15:21
Speaker
We're actually going to get there. Hang on. The size of the town population, I'm not really concerned about. We already decided it is a small small, but the goal of this is you guys can get from one end of town to the other on bicycles. Forty five minutes. Yeah. OK, that's the size we're talking about. And as far as layout, you know, there's a town square and it radiates out from there to work. Yeah. OK. OK, great.
00:16:02
Speaker
Okay, well here's why I said we'll get to it the industry our town is famous for now here's the thing I don't want to
00:16:12
Speaker
in the frozen lands of Wisconsin, it's not mining. Okay. True. And we can have a quarry or a something like that for some reason, but they just don't work together. All right. If you told me West Virginia, I'd be like, heck yeah, this place is lousy with a quarry. We're mostly, we're more quarry than state. It's lumber. There's a, there's a lumber yard. Okay. There's a lumber yard. Small dairy community. Even Wisconsin.
00:16:40
Speaker
I mean, I like lumber too. Lumberyard's great. OK, so the town is known for lumber. There's a question later that I'm going to ask now. Given that we've just said kind of like the industry we're known for is manufacturing or labor, essentially. Is our town thriving, declining, or are we stagnant? Stagnant.
00:17:05
Speaker
I would say I would go with stagnant and to add one more like geographical location. Mm hmm. I think it would be interesting if the town was founded on being like lousy with lumber.
Pineville's Mystical and Dark Secrets
00:17:18
Speaker
And so there is an old sawmill on this river that it's been abandoned, like, yeah, probably maybe out there when they're not supposed to like. Oh, Stephanie definitely does. She's there all the time.
00:17:35
Speaker
OK, OK. So we're stagnant, but are we stagnantly middle? We're not stagnant and destitute. No, we're like we're stagnant, but everybody's still working. Yeah. And everybody, you know, so we're there. New people aren't moving to the town for for work, but everybody that's here. Great. Yeah. OK, awesome.
00:17:57
Speaker
Now here's one I'd like, if you guys will allow me to do a suggestion. The question is our town is famous for, and I have a suggestion I'd like to make. We can have more than one thing if we need to, if one of you has a really good idea. But here's to start bringing in the spooky. I would like for our town to be famous for this. We have a small but steady trickle of tourism because our town is the
00:18:23
Speaker
only place
00:18:40
Speaker
lines of magical energy. I'm putting big air quotes in this. There's all sorts of stuff like there's like basically the lines that connect major monuments throughout history because people thought they built the monuments there because there was magical energy. So that's what a lay line is. And what this place where Pineville, Wisconsin is is a convergence of
00:19:01
Speaker
a dozen or a couple dozen ley lines. In the real world, there are there's a large contingent of crossing ley lines right where the Bermuda Triangle theoretically is. Things like that. Yes. Can there be a Viking rune stone?
00:19:16
Speaker
Oh, you like think so. Yeah. I think so. I think I think that's. Yeah, we found some Viking rune stones at some point. Somebody did. And a pyramid just like what, Trevor? I'm sorry. I want to make sure you drop it. I said a pyramid. They're not all gold. I love the totem. No, I just said something dumb. Please ignore me now. Um.
00:19:43
Speaker
It's in the middle of Wisconsin. Our next campaign is going to be 637 episodes. OK, so so it's a convergence of layouts. And the reason it's a small but steady like this is oh, we didn't say we kind of said before and we're talking this is late 80s is when we're setting this. This is pre-internet. There's no Atlas Obscura to tell somebody who might be driving on the highway X number of miles away. It's really worth turning off and checking out this magical town kind of thing.
00:20:10
Speaker
So is it tourism or is it just? We have people that come because of the Layla. It's true believers who are coming because the lines. I think I even want to add this bit of lore to our town among these true believers who, however, they communicate, whatever they read, things like that. We don't know what and we don't know when, but this is where. Something big will happen. That sound good. Yeah. We don't know what and we don't know when, but this is where you guys.
00:20:39
Speaker
So there would obviously be that one storefront that like, yes, fully, fully buys in. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Has them like the guide map to like walk around. Or at least the guy there's absolutely the curiosity. And could there could there be like somebody that lives in the forest and has a house or whatever and maybe acts like a guide?
Local Organizations and Rumors
00:21:04
Speaker
I don't know about lives in the forest. Or lives somewhere and is a guy. Maybe it's the same guy has somebody that he sends out. Or like a small church like group. That does what? That just celebrates these magical. No, I don't want it to be that. I don't want it. I don't want it. Or maybe they're totally against it. It doesn't have that much. So not cultish. No, it's not. No, it's not cultish at all. Okay. There's nothing. There's nothing like that. Really. This is just, it's almost just happenstance.
00:21:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's the town wasn't built because of the ley lines. The people don't know one has moved here because of that. It's just it's a neat thing. People who take, you know, go on ghost tours and things like that's the sort of thing they're interested in. So they come by. Yeah. Here's my question to you. If we're going to do that, the person that runs the curiosity shop, is it the true believer that founded it or his son that runs it because it makes some money?
00:21:51
Speaker
Hmm. We may we may never go there. I think it's more fun if it's the true. I like. Yeah, I think so, too. That's what I was hoping you would say. You would say. OK, so that's what our town is famous for. What is our town infamous for? And you can go spooky on this one, too. Hmm. Like infamous like.
00:22:18
Speaker
Really big time. My mind just goes to there was a serial killer like 20 years ago or something. OK, you want to go. That's recent 20. In the late 60s, that's fine. Has he ever been caught or she ever been caught? Yeah, where were they? There was a string there was there was OK, OK, let's. How about this? Yes, our town is infamous for this serial killer or the string of murders. Yeah. However.
00:22:48
Speaker
There's not a lot of reverberating effects of it, except for there are people that are down that remember it and it was bad. And that's why our town is infamous. I got a lot of news coverage, all this stuff. But I'd like to keep the mystery of it and maybe keep it. The impact of it no longer reverberates except for people who personally knew victims. Does that work? Yeah.
00:23:08
Speaker
I know the only reason I was looking up in the sky was I was trying to think of like maybe the last death occurred at the sawmill and that's why it's like completely shut down and barred off. But that might be too much. Can I name can I give the ridiculous newspaper headline name of the serial killer? I can't stop you.
Character Relationships and Backstories
00:23:25
Speaker
It's the Pineville Disfinistrator.
00:23:28
Speaker
He threw people out of windows? Yes. You learn something new every day. A string of accidents in Pineville. Okay, the Pineville... Defibrillator. That's not how he killed him. He just threw the corpses out the window.
00:23:49
Speaker
Somehow that's worse. We're all 10 minutes in and we're already dropping things like corpse. That's awesome. Okay, so that's it. I already asked about our town economically. Okay, a notable local organization and where we have five, we have a good enough side group that I think we can probably do two if we wanted to.
00:24:08
Speaker
Local, notable local organization is. Can we have like our equivalent of like the Elks and the Rotary Club and that sort of, what are they called? Well, the Shriners. I was thinking Masons. Yes. Okay. Here's the thing. We need to differentiate between those organizations, which one we want to mimic because the Masons are purposefully shrouded in secrecy.
00:24:32
Speaker
Yeah. The Elks are basically a social club. Yeah. The Shriners are a charitable organization. Which one of those three things do we have? So. Oh, wait, I see. And which of those types of things do we have or which of the Shriners are still are also connected to the masons? Like, I understand that before I get. Keep it to yourselves. I'm thinking masons.
00:24:55
Speaker
Well, I like the idea of it being like a local, like not the Mason's, like a localized version. Yeah, we're not calling it any of the words we've already said. We're going to name it in a minute. I mean, I'm fine with any of the ones that were thrown out there, but like Elks or Ruttery or.
00:25:16
Speaker
You know what? I think I like that. Let's go with the elks because that gives me room. There's a public facing and maybe there's something. OK, so one localization is an analog of the elks. What ought we to call them? The moose. Caribou Caribou.
00:25:36
Speaker
Are there eagles there? Eagle Lodge. This is this is wild. Eagle Lodge. Eagle Lodge is solid. I'm good with Eagle Lodge. Eagle Lodge. Way to go, Randy. I put a marker so we can. Yes, true that. Excise, excise that. OK, the Eagle Lodge. Now let's do another notable local organization. Let's try to keep it outside of that realm, since we've already done that.
00:26:00
Speaker
Would like a like a military base be something like a I don't think like a Fort Hood type. That's going to exponentially grow the size of our town. What about like a what about like a more youth facing organization like a Boy Scout or Boy Scouts or something like that or FFA is that or FFA? That would be good, too, since, you know, probably. OK, agriculture type. Or could there be like a junior? I don't mean this as a joke, but it's going to sound like it anyway, like a junior lumberjack.
00:26:31
Speaker
Oh, that would be cool. I'm game for any of that games. Yeah, like they teach them how to let's do this. Let's do this. This is this is a this is a very small town. Let's say that they have just essentially a youth after school program and it touches on
Game Mechanics: Kids on Bikes RPG
00:26:47
Speaker
a lot of things. They do lumberjack games. They definitely have an agricultural component here. So it's called the youth, the youth after school program.
00:26:55
Speaker
Youth League. Youth League. Cool. Youth League. Solid. I like don't Google that because I got a feeling something nefarious was once called the Youth League. But in our in our in our game, it is it is good. That's part of our world. Whatever sinister version of the youth league did not exist in this version of the world. It's not applied to us. Okay. The saplings. A notable local landmark. Let's say besides the sawmill, which is very good. Do we have any other notable local landmarks?
00:27:23
Speaker
the quarry. Like we don't have any mountains, maybe. Could there be like an old, like a historical site? Like, yeah, like a barrier, I don't know, a battlefield or something like that. Like just some kind of historical site from. Where was the French-Indian war? Wasn't that? No, we're too far. We're too far west for that. We're too far west for any of those things.
00:27:46
Speaker
Any actual thing that happened like that or I don't know, like an old pioneer house like it's like like the first first settlement in this area was near our town. Absolutely. How about the the the the the the cabin that was built from the first felled pines in Pineville still. Yeah. Love it. Oh, I like that. Felled by George W. Pine.
00:28:12
Speaker
That's it, they didn't name the town after the abundant pantry. It just happened to be... George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George,
00:28:41
Speaker
I, I, we can introduce it. I don't know that it's a landmark, but if you want to say there's like a, like one single general
The Adventure Begins: Mystical Event
00:28:47
Speaker
store, not general store, but like grocery store style thing, like an old IGA back then. Absolutely. I think we can introduce that, but let's think of another landmark. Oh, you said sawmill. Sawmill can be one. Absolutely.
00:29:04
Speaker
I like that. Okay. Um, our school's sports team is called, Oh God, it took us so long to come up with Eagle Lodge. The Pineville Loggers. Pineville Loggers. Loggers. That's what I meant. Yeah. Loggers. Okay. Loggers is fine.
00:29:23
Speaker
The Loggers. Okay. L-A-U-G-E-R-S. All right, that is the last of the questions. So the next thing, or the last thing, when we talk about this town, each one of you is going to give me a rumor that persists in this town. It could be a rumor of something actively happening. It could be a rumor, did you know back in 1865, da-da-da-da-da, whatever, okay?
00:29:53
Speaker
So one rumor about the town, if we need to take a second, we could take a second, we can cut some dead air out. About the rumor that the supposed serial killer is still around. People think he's still or she's still in town.
00:30:18
Speaker
OK, someone's going to need to help me with this, but there's got to be something with this. If you stand near the Viking rune stone. On such and such on the summer solstice. At midnight. This happens. It glows. That's pretty weak.
00:30:48
Speaker
Although that's exactly the level of strength that a rumor like this needs because it's the sort of thing that you could stare at it really hard and convince yourself that it's true.
00:30:58
Speaker
Let's do this. Let's do this. Instead of it being a this happens annually thing because that's easily debunked. Oh, that's true. That's what what historically happened that caused the wanting to memorialize it with a runestone in that moment in that place. How about that? Maybe some. Yeah. And you can go very plain like, you know, some Vikings had a settlement here once or it can be you can go supernatural or whatever you want to do. The.
00:31:28
Speaker
The little hill where the Runestone stands. Underneath it, there's a Viking King buried. Love it. Love it. And for anybody... That's all your character's going to talk about, isn't it?
00:31:41
Speaker
I actually am beginning to think that my character's dad might be the true believer. I don't hate it. Um, so, uh, yeah, I like that. And for anybody who's listening to this thing, like, why would there be Viking runestones all the way in Wisconsin? You guys look it up. He's in Oklahoma. There are famous runestones. It's why the Thor comic book reboot as guard was in the sky above Oklahoma. So they made it here. They can get anywhere.
00:32:07
Speaker
okay so there's two we got two more rumors that we need these are both fun I like these I'm still thinking I kind of have an idea but I'm still thinking the mayor and somebody are having an affair I want to have a rumor about the pine cabin I'm trying to think about the cabin yeah but the landmark
00:32:30
Speaker
Um, I'm eating my microphone. That's fine. I would ask that one of you have a modern one. The current. This is a this is I mean where you could say rumor or gossip. Yeah. Like the mayor having an affair. Like the mayor having an affair. You already made your rumor maybe. What if we never meet the mayor?
00:32:53
Speaker
Okay, how about this? The mayor has secret rendezvous at the Pine Cabin Landmark and that's all we know.
00:33:07
Speaker
to the
00:33:26
Speaker
the school principal, or the gym teacher, or somebody that we would have a reasonable reaction with. It's having an affair with staff. The school principal might be the mayor, but yes, we can make it the school principal. Let's do that. Yeah, I like that. What I'll say about this is if we make it the school principal, you've lost a potential ally, possibly, or it could be a nothing. You know what? It's the school principal. Screw it. I can make this work. It doesn't have to be a true
00:33:55
Speaker
or a battery is to go there. Yeah. Let's see. I feel like we should tie one of them to one of the organizations somehow. Yeah. It could be as simple as the Eagle Lodge is not what it seems. Yeah. But if you want to delve deeper, you can. But we can start there. I think just something maybe that's around the school as opposed to like something more sinister is like
00:34:20
Speaker
Once you get like deep enough into the youth league, they start to teach you some really like like maybe there's some crossover with like the true believer stuff in the town, but like, OK, the murmurings are that like once you get deep enough in the youth league, it gets real weird. OK, like Boy Scouts.
00:34:38
Speaker
Okay, how about this? How about the reason for that rumor, which may be true, but the reason it is is because the natural aging out of the Youth League, people stop going, but a certain kind of kid kind of stays in until they graduate out of it, but most people don't. Just like many other youth programs, as you get older. Hello everybody. I'm just putting it on, Youth League gets weird. Hey man.
00:35:08
Speaker
Okay, this is a world that we can have some fun in. Here is where we are going to start building character relationships. The way this is going to work is I'm going to ask each of you how your character feels about each other character, whether it is I have a positive relationship, a negative relationship, or I don't know them. Okay. Okay. Now,
00:35:36
Speaker
No, nevermind, I'm not gonna say it. So I have a positive relationship or a view of even, negative relationship or view of, and the other option is I don't know who they are, okay? So let's start with Stephanie. Do you have a positive or a negative relationship with young Alex? We're just saying positive or negative. We don't have to say anything else or? Yeah, then I ask you a question. You just say, is a positive or negative? Positive. Okay, you have a positive relationship with Alex. The question for you is,
00:36:04
Speaker
Why do you have a bond with this character that can never be broken? I think it comes from a standpoint of vanity. Like, she likes the compliments and the fact that he looks up to her and kind of idolizes her. So it's kind of like, I like to keep him around for my own self-improvement.
00:36:32
Speaker
I don't know about improvement, but yeah, for your own self. Okay. Esteem, self-esteem. That's the word you look for. Yeah, there we go. Okay, let's go the other way. Alex, is it a positive or a negative view of Stefan? It's positive. Okay.
00:36:44
Speaker
what's your first memory of this character the first time she came to babysit and she was so nice to alex and so from that point on and she would keep him occupied keep him entertained have things for him to do play games with him so any and can I just add that he has like a
00:37:04
Speaker
an innocent, naive, like a little schoolboy crush kind of thing. Nothing crazy. But, you know, he just he just looks up to her. Sure. Sure. Sure. It's one of the things anybody watching it would call it a crush because that's how we speak about boys and girls. But to Alex, personally, it could be anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it could change. Yeah. It's aromantic. Some days you remind you.
00:37:29
Speaker
Man, but I'll say that the Alex doesn't really he doesn't really know much about romance at all Sure. Um How long have you been given you are only 16? So how long have you been his babysitter? You guys can both talk about two years How long two years? Yeah, that's what I was kind of thinking in my head. I
00:37:51
Speaker
And then one more question for you, since you are 16 and you are someone with an after school job, do you have or have access to a vehicle and can you drive it? Yes. Which like is it dad's car, mom's car, or do you have your own vehicle? Oh, my own. You have your own car. OK, and you can drive. It's a wealthy family of the town. That is totally fine.
00:38:14
Speaker
OK, let's do. Duncan and Rick, Rick, do you have a positive or negative relationship with Duncan? Hmm. I have been thinking about what Duncan and Rick could possibly.
00:38:35
Speaker
where their VIN diagrams could overlap. And I've come up with something. So I'm going to say that he views Duncan in a positive way. I don't know that they're like pals, but he thinks well of him. Well, here's my thought about about this. If we're this small of a town and you guys are 14 and 15, you have absolutely been in classes together. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, most likely elementary school through elementary school, you're in the class. There's no way. OK, so you said positive. So Rick.
00:39:07
Speaker
What is the kind of who I like this? What is the kindest thing this character has ever done for you? Oh, that's so easy. That's perfect. Duncan. Gave Rick. A copy of Led Zeppelin three. Which is the place where the Venn diagram of their interests overlaps. OK, is Led Zeppelin. I like it. Zepp. David or or Linton? Probably.
00:39:34
Speaker
Probably he recorded. Yeah, he probably recorded a cassette of his of his album of his record and gave it to. Gave it to Rick and that opened up a whole.
00:39:45
Speaker
space of stuff about Vikings and Tolkien to the reference one day and Rick just like shot up. OK, so Philip continuing and you get to answer this and Eric gets to live with it. That's the way this character. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So without input from the other characters, kind of the the goal. Right.
00:40:09
Speaker
Did that manifest into a friendship at any point, even if it wasn't you guys were considerably younger? Was there a time where you guys were like buddies? And that doesn't even mean that it was a painful stopping of being friends. But maybe you just aren't anymore. But was there a what you would call a friendship? I think yes. OK. And does it persist but just lesser now? There's more of a. I think.
00:40:40
Speaker
I think they have. I mean, to the degree that it's possible in a town like this, I think they have developed separate circles at school. Sure. But they can still talk music. Great. OK. Vice versa. Do you have a Duncan? Do you have a negative or positive relationship with with Rick? And it can be the other thing.
00:41:12
Speaker
Just for the spice of life variety, I'm going to say a negative. OK, great. Thank you. So. How far will you go to avoid being alone with this character? Oh, by the way, all 20 of of these questions on all three lists are stellar. Avoid being alone with this character.
00:41:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just just because that's like.
00:41:53
Speaker
because there's only that one overlap in the Venn diagram. And I imagine that it's a very narrow like it's not just music in general, it's just the one band. And so it's just like Rick's just going to talk to me about Led Zeppelin three. So, yeah, I mean, Duncan, if it's school, if he sees Rick and notices that Rick
00:42:17
Speaker
Hasn't spotted him will absolutely like take the long way to his class just to avoid having that like Long prolonged level of contact. So it's it's annoying enough that you'll minorly inconvenience yourself, but you're not protesting if you were putting a group together or something Okay, like yeah, I Think that's perfect. I yes
00:42:39
Speaker
Okay, if I can, I would like to impose a negative relationship on both ends of... No, I've got a different subject for that. I would like to impose a negative relationship on both ends of the Stephanie Rick. If that's okay, if you have an idea and you really want it to be positive, absolutely tell me no, but... I was gonna be negative with one of them, it was just a matter of... I was assuming Stephanie would be entirely unaware of Rick's existence.
00:43:07
Speaker
but I don't think that's possible in this town. But that's fine. When you're pretty vain. The reason I'd like that is because it's just too tropey to have the pretty girl have a negative relationship with the metal head and the nerd. So I'm for something to be there with one of them and I'd rather it be between these two because I feel like that breaks the trope a little bit more.
00:43:33
Speaker
Because even a negative relationship doesn't mean I hate him because he's a nerd or I hate her because she's vapid. It could just be. I find Rick mildly annoying. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So if that's OK, I'd like to to impose a both ways negative. OK. I thought his name was Rich. So that's what you are. Oh, yeah.
00:43:59
Speaker
OK, so so Rick, your question for Stephanie is what part of this character's personality scares you? Oh, Rick is. Rick is afraid because. There was a time before they split off or everybody split off into their own little social spheres. That. She was nice to everyone, Rick included.
00:44:30
Speaker
And it's now been long enough that he's beginning to be afraid. It's not a phase. Like it. Right. And then your question. Pause real quick. Sorry. What can I call that? Duplexity? Would it be two phase or like.
00:44:52
Speaker
I mean, I don't necessarily mean it that way, although you could totally play it that way. I literally mean it as she I mean, she has matured into a different personality than she had when she was, you know, a kid and they were all pals and he's beginning to realize that it's not realize that it's not just she was going through this phase and it's all going to be fine at the end.
00:45:13
Speaker
Okay. Just as she grew up her either ego or snootiness or just awareness of financial disparity, something caused her to stop being good to everybody. Or that is at least how Rick perceives her, which may be entirely unfair, but that is at least how Rick perceives her. Okay. Your question, Stephanie, about Rick. What is the most dishonest thing you've seen this character do? Oh gosh.
00:45:42
Speaker
It is hard because you just have to make something up. Well, and you're like, I think what makes it difficult, like in my head, thinking about these questions is defining somebody else's character. Yeah. All of you, all of you are way too nice and don't want to step on somebody's preconceived notion where I would tear through everything you've got with a hatchet if you were asking me these questions. Like what's the most dishonest thing I've seen him do? I watched him lie to his grandmother about stealing her medicine and selling it to school children.
00:46:11
Speaker
That is the most extreme example. Boy, I don't want to play this game with you as a player. I would never go that hard. To you. Maybe to Eric. Absolutely. Definitely to Randy. All these things have a positive twist on them.
00:46:29
Speaker
But hey, if that's the thing is, if the most astonishing thing you've seen him do could have a positive twist, that could be a resolution later, so that's okay. I was gonna say the most positive thing I've seen him do is lie about doing other people's homework for them.
00:46:46
Speaker
So he's a saint. You know what I mean? Like he's kind of bullied into doing it. And it's like, you know, there's there have been times. Yeah. And I just watch him lie about it. And I'm like, oh, what a like spineless person. OK. So it's like, OK. OK, how about this? So whatever he has done is dishonest. It made me feel like he couldn't stand up for himself and couldn't be right. So the thing about it that you had a problem with wasn't necessarily that he was lying about something he had done. It was he was lying to protect his own antagonists.
00:47:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I like that. OK, and we got some more we still have to define just you to. Oh, you two. And yes, yes, yes. Randy to everybody, basically. It's not Stephanie.
00:47:29
Speaker
Okay, so let's do Stephanie to Duncan first. And I've already said at least one direction it's gonna be positive. The other direction, I don't care, but one direction. Who would like to have a positive feeling about the other one? I'll be the locked-in positive. Okay, great. Eric is definitely gonna have a positive relationship, or Duncan definitely has a positive relationship with Stephanie. And that's a 20, which doesn't mean anything. I was like, uh-oh.
00:47:53
Speaker
Although I do critically positive Duncan is what did this character give you item a specific item? What item did this character give you that you treasure? I have a thing but it also would involve Randy's character also is that Acceptable like in this their characters are pretty well tied together. So if that happens then that happens But it's a pretty
00:48:19
Speaker
I'm just going to roll with it. Do whatever. Do it. So there was a like maybe two years ago or the or last year when the carnival came through town, Stephanie and Alex went into a photo booth and took a bunch of silly pictures. And when they came home from it,
00:48:42
Speaker
Um, Stephanie gave the pictures to me and I treasure them because it's seeing my younger brother having a genuinely good time since dad left. Hang on, I got to. OK, all right. I defined it. I said dad left. That's fine. This world is that too big? Like, I mean, it's big, but it's not too big. OK, that's good. We now have.
00:49:11
Speaker
established relationships for all four characters, which is good. I mean, we don't you know what I mean? We still have to do positive negative for us. Right. There's a reason everybody's could end up in the same place. We still have to do positive negative for us. Hmm. Still to decide if I'm negative or positive. Yeah. Yeah. But the reason I cherish time for that, the reason I cherish it so much is because like. Stephanie's bringing. Joy to Alex. Hey, guess what? You have a last name now because Alex does. Oh, yeah.
00:49:45
Speaker
That is so close to Dunkin Donuts. And that is gonna come up.
00:49:51
Speaker
Okay here's my thing about why I'm confused about why I should pick positive or negative. I feel like overall it's a positive experience but I was gonna say like since it is such a small town they were probably like elementary school sweethearts like and then at some point he just kind of either dumped her or just lost interest and so maybe she just kind of views him negatively but not
00:50:16
Speaker
Well, that's the question. Yeah. How does she feel about him? Yeah, right now. Okay, she views him negatively. Great. That's it. Watch this question be like, what happened in your past? I'll just skip it. One. Read it, Eric. What thing that this character did in the past do you still resent them for? I mean, there it is. Do you want me to reroll? Yeah, no, I want to go with that. Let's be more specific. I'll be more specific about it.
00:50:43
Speaker
You can be more specific than we were friend, we were boyfriend girlfriend in elementary school and then he dumped me at some point and now I'm like, okay, cool. Let's do it. Yeah. Well, I mean, uh, so, well, it, uh, probably happens around the time that, uh, dad exited the picture. They're dead. You're dead. They're dead. Yeah. Um, and, uh,
00:51:12
Speaker
It seemed, I feel like this is real. How about this? Let's go with what you've already said as the answer and we can build it while we're playing. Is that okay? Yes. Okay. So the thing that he did that you still resent him for is the way he broke up with you when he broke up with you. Yeah. Awesome.
00:51:36
Speaker
Yeah, because I would rather see that unfold if it's going to come up at all. I'd rather come up between you two playing. Yeah. OK. So I'm going to impose another one because I want to ask a question from the list.
00:51:53
Speaker
You two, Alex and Rick, are gonna answer questions from the, I don't really know him, list. Okay? And then the last one we'll get is a little brother's feelings about Big Brother. Yes. So we may have seen each other, but we don't really know each other. Sure. You definitely know who each other are. Rick is disliked or unknown by the entire party.
00:52:20
Speaker
You know what it is? You know what it is? He knows who you are. You don't know who he is. OK, not not well enough to make a judgment. So you. So let's start with that one. So they don't know question for Rick to answer about. That kind of makes sense since I'm a little guy. Very small is. No, sorry, I can't do that one. It doesn't work. He's too young.
00:52:49
Speaker
Why don't you want to associate with this character? Rick. Well, probably got with an 11 year old, Rick. Brother's going to beat you up. It's my own fault for picking a game where Philip has to do character stuff real time. Yeah. For other people. Yeah.
00:53:13
Speaker
No, it's hard because the premise is I don't know him, but this sounds like I don't want to know him, which sounds like a negative relationship. Well, now you know who his older brother is. Yeah, but I like his older brother.
00:53:28
Speaker
Well, here's the thing, it is in the book that if you really would like to answer a different question, I can re-roll. If you want me to re-roll until we get one that has maybe a more positive connotation. The first one was, what sort of volunteer work do you know this person does? Right, which, no, no, that makes, yeah, of course that one. Living. But that would have been a chance for you to build something positive about him, so I can re-roll. I would appreciate that, because I don't know how to answer this question based on that. Not a problem.
00:54:00
Speaker
There's more bad ones, a good one. OK, I like this. Oh, boy. What charming habit is this character known for throughout the town? OK, Alex has the.
00:54:20
Speaker
Alex has the classic kids say the darndest things thing going on for him. He has no, he just, he is just incredibly sweetly honest. Okay. With other people. No Coos. Grandi, you made a look. Did I mess something up? No, no, you're good.
00:54:44
Speaker
I think we've all messed something up. I hate this. It's horrible. I like it. It's so fun to give Randy a character with little to no filter. Have the marker button ready. We need to do both ways of our relationship. Yes. That's the last thing we're going to do is the brothers. And I'm just going to go and assume positive.
00:55:09
Speaker
Well, here's what I'm thinking. Well, it's all right. I mean, I should have. I don't know who he is. I mean, it doesn't matter. You go ahead and start with that. OK, I'm going to start with assume positives because your most prized possession is. Yeah, I'm smiling or whatever. Yeah. OK. Why do you care about them more than they care about you? Oh, good one. That kind of fits. That's what I'm thinking.
00:55:43
Speaker
So um...
00:55:48
Speaker
Parents are divorced. Dad ran off with, I put in my notes, a girl that graduated from my high school two years ago. It was a recent life. Okay. So your family is still recovering from this. But he's not. Dad is like left town. And so mom has to work evenings. So and so I feel
00:56:13
Speaker
an obligation to Alex because Duncan blames himself for like he he hit his rebellious streak. He started mouthing off to dad. He started not listening to mom and then. And at a pretty young age, like he wasn't a teenager yet, but so he blames himself for the divorce. And so he feels this guilt and obligation to protect and help Alex because of their situation and their circumstances.
00:56:43
Speaker
And so I'm kind of curious that if you're around, why do I have the baby? Because I'm I'm not like.
00:56:55
Speaker
Oh, he's only 15. What if you have to go somewhere? Yeah. You had to get a part time job. Yeah. That makes sense. And I want to I want to end like the age of the girlfriend thing with our thing because I want the divorce to have happened around the same time as our split. So. So age of dad's new girlfriend is irrelevant, but he he split town with her. So, yeah. OK. What's your relationship like with your brother?
00:57:24
Speaker
It was extremely positive until dad left and he became overprotective constantly looking out for me that I felt smothered. So at this current part, it's negative. It's slightly negative. What secret are you keeping from them that you would be devastated if they found out? Holy cow, the dice are doing it today. What secret does this 11 year old have?
00:57:51
Speaker
that I'm keeping from my brother. What is it that I would be devastated? Goodness. That I
00:58:17
Speaker
It's, it's sounding like everybody thinks that Alex is like this really sweet kid and he typically is, but he loves Batman comics. So he pilfers them and he would be totally devastated if his brother found out that he was stealing Batman comics. Okay.
00:58:39
Speaker
Okay. So I want to explain when I got this book, I ordered the deluxe version because it came with some pre-made adventures in case we decided to go that route. But there's one in the back written by a guy named Steve Woodward. I want to give him some attribution for this because he has a rule edition that I'm going to give to Rick.
00:59:04
Speaker
And that is this. Rick, your grandfather is the true believer. The reason you're in this town is because he moved here however many years ago, maybe even before your dad was born, or mom, whomever the offspring of your... Anyway. He's the true believer in this lay line stuff. He knows all about it.
00:59:28
Speaker
When you were a little kid, he would take you out and show you where the convergence was and tell you stories about things that had happened there in the past and all these fantastical stories about other convergences in other parts of the world and what happened to those and, you know, we don't know what and we don't know when, but it's going to happen here. That's your granddad's phrase. Mm hmm. Because you spent so much time literally walking these lines,
00:59:57
Speaker
There's something a little special about you. And it's a thing called the Willys. You are inherently sensitive to supernatural powers.
01:00:10
Speaker
OK. It could be goosebumps in the presence of psychic energy. It could be the occasional nightmare. It could be if it's strong enough. You know, you I don't know. I don't want to. You're not going to pass out. I'm not one. I don't want to debilitate you that way. But like you start to feel ill if it's strong enough, something like that.
01:00:30
Speaker
The way it works, this is an extra strength that I'm giving you. It works a lot like the strength called intuitive that you can take a look at if you want to, but when you spend any adversity tokens and invoke that strength, I have to be incredibly specific with you about what's going on that's making you feel that way.
01:00:50
Speaker
And also, I will always make sure to mention when you're starting to feel the willies rile you up. OK? OK. All right. So that is an extra thing for you to know about your character, because I don't think it's a surprise to anybody. Hey, guys, the ley lines are real. I don't know. What? Don't let this blow your hair back. But the ley lines are real. Now, before we get into it, I am going to say just for the sake of making this easier listening,
01:01:19
Speaker
The way this system works is very simple. There are six stats. Each stat is assigned one of the six die in the polyhedral set. The thing you think you're best at, you give to your d20. The thing you want your character to be worst at, you give your d4 and split the rest out in between. For the listener, the six are grit, charm, brawn, brains, fight, and flight.
01:01:45
Speaker
But that doesn't necessarily mean that you're a 20 fight and a four flight or whatever. The other thing that'll come up as we go. That's exactly what I am. Is that what you are? The other thing that will come up occasionally is strengths. If you want to invoke one of your strengths and we can go through a reminder of what those mean, we need to. Okay, so here's how this starts. Let's just picture a little pre-title sequence.
01:02:11
Speaker
We are in some sort of drone shot over these woods, and these woods seem expansive. Okay? The sort of woods that are going to keep this town in logging money, though maybe not expanding it, they're gonna be okay for a long time. This town's gonna stay solvent for a long time. Big woods.
01:02:33
Speaker
as it comes down into the woods into a clearing and then the camera points back up so we know where we are and we see something you can see in Wisconsin sometimes it's rare and it's pretty pale but occasionally when the weather and the lighting is right in rural parts of Wisconsin you can actually see the aurora borealis not every year but occasionally
01:02:59
Speaker
But never this bright. And never right above the forest. These lights that we are seeing in this shot are wild. Greens, blues, reds. Not just the kind of swirling they are in the Aurora Borealis, but almost crackling, sparking. Something is happening here. Until all of a sudden, they converge to a small sphere and then it's gone.
01:03:30
Speaker
camera pans back and now there's a little crater there wasn't there before not big we're not talking deep and we're not talking wide something like a like when you see like a where a bear roosts for the rest for the night and then just a trail of broken branches and crushed grass going deeper into the woods and that's all we see we smash cut to a dark bedroom
01:03:55
Speaker
Looks like the kind of standard bedroom of a teenager, some posters on the wall, a desk to study at. And Rick, jolt, bolt upright in a cold sweat. Kids on bikes. That'll be the end of this first episode of our one shot. Oh, I hope it is okay.
01:04:21
Speaker
Real quick, please check out everything that we do. You can reach us on Facebook at The Geek Pantheon, Instagram and Twitter, which are both getting more active again, are both at The Geek Pantheon. Patreon forward slash The Geek Pantheon. If you would like to contribute to allow us to keep doing this, tier start as low as $1, that gets you on the Discord, come and be a part of it, it's a lot of fun.
01:04:47
Speaker
And I'm going to let you handle the promo of other episodes that you've been doing, you know, kind of who's do and who's up and stuff or other other probes. Yes, we are proudly part of the D20 radio podcasting network. If you head on over to D20 radio dot com, you'll find the best little gaming blog on the interwebs with new articles that go up daily.
01:05:07
Speaker
And if you head over to the podcast tab, you will find just all of our shows as well as all of the other awesome shows that are on the network, including the story told podcast, which is a really interesting podcast all about all things role playing games. And it's definitely worth your time giving them a listen. They mix actual play with discussions around role playing games and things like that.
01:05:34
Speaker
So if you're looking to widen your knowledge on the hobby in general, Jeff Lean, check out the story told. And that's all I got. Back to you, Jeff. Awesome. Yeah, thanks. All right. Well, hope you guys had a good time. We'll be back next week with the first playing installment of Kids on Bikes. Until then, thank you for listening. I'm Jeff. I'm Philip. I'm Trevor. I'm Eric. I'm Randy. I'm Jeff. You guys have a great night.
01:06:15
Speaker
My name is Jeff. I'm Philip. No, leave it in. We're not editing my show. All this trash. The people need to know how much hard work you do to edit out our garbage. No. Okay. Let's just start with I'm Jeff.