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Episode 690 - Security Blanket with Teeth f/ Tom Fowler
1.2k Plays3 months ago
The artist behind Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games and our old pal Tom Fowler returns to the show this week to talk about the healing power of D&D, separating life and commerce, the best little freaks to draw, and much more!
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Transcript
Introduction & Boredom Discussion
00:00:00
Speaker
Clitus, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today? He's got one Rocket Ajax. To bring back his body.
00:00:20
Speaker
Terminator X-s!
Podcast Welcome & New Segment Idea
00:00:24
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to War Rocket Ajax. This is the Internet's Most Explosive Comic Book and Pop Culture Podcast, and we are your hosts. My name is Chris Simms. With me, as always, is Matt Wilson. Matt, last week, I introduced the idea of ah sort of giving ah you a prompt, like ah maybe like a little question we could both answer like a little bit to start the show rather than asking how you were. So, but let me know if this one's too dark. The funniest place I've ever imagined myself dying is the Benihana at the Mall of America. Matt?
00:01:08
Speaker
ah ah ah Let's see, the funniest place that I have ever imagined myself dying. Well, okay, I had a dream when I was a child. where I woke up one morning and there were these um evil slot machines in my parents basement that had like little monsters in them and they killed my brother and then they killed me. That's a pretty wild dream.
00:01:39
Speaker
I was not a very funny place to die. My parents basement, um, but i being surrounded by slot machines, I guess is what was the funny part of that. Did you have to like get all monsters in a row for the monsters to happen? I don't remember. I was like six or seven years old and I remember getting out what a slot machine was when you were, I i watched a lot of old TV. um That's yeah. And I watched a lot of, and I watched a lot of game shows, uh, as a kid. But I remember getting up after having that dream and going to the kitchen and drinking some kind of drink. It was definitely not coffee. It was something out of a Superman mug because I had a Superman mug, like Christopher Reeve Superman mug, and trying to explain to my mother the dream I just had. And doing a very bad job of it, I'm sure.
00:02:33
Speaker
Well, Matt, it's interesting that you bring up games of chance for monsters. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Because we have a show in which those are two very fitting topics.
Guest Introduction: Tom Fowler & RPGs
00:02:43
Speaker
That's right. Our guest this week on the show is Tom Fowler, a longtime friend of the show, who has not been on in a little while. But last time Tom was on, he was talking about a Dungeons and Dragons related project. And his new project is also Such a thing it is a book called game masters the comic book history of role-playing games Written by Fred van Linty art by Tom ah We will be talking to him about that book and role-playing games in general and his experience with them and how they kind of like Helped him be better
00:03:30
Speaker
like feel better as ah as a person day to day. ah So you should stick around and listen to that interview because it's a good one.
Patreon Talk & Show Funding
00:03:40
Speaker
But Chris, before we get to that interview with Tom, we do have some business to take care of our first order of business being our newest supporters over on Patreon. That's right, Matt. These are all the people who went down to Nice DeGimmick Street. Yes. And of course, you know what's there.
00:03:59
Speaker
i I said that the t-shirt printer, was it 688 or 689? six eight 689 was like something very
00:04:13
Speaker
boring. It was it it was a t-shirt store that gave money to charity when I was trying to get people to give money to us. That's right. That's right. Which really sold me out on that one, Matt. People can give money to charity and us. It's not one or the other. ah What is it, $6.90, Chris? at Nicie Gimmick Street is, of course, the Batcave. Oh, it's the Batcave. It's that little ah roadblock that folds down and the cave is there that you could that you go into to go to the Batcave. Right. it's It's that very well a-hidden Batcave that just has like a road closed sign in front of it. Yeah. From Batcave 66. And of course, listen, obviously,
00:05:03
Speaker
Everyone who goes down to gimmick street, they all obey the traffic laws. Of course not like Minneapolis, Minnesota. Wow. Calling him out. Home of America's worst drivers. Wow. Wow. Got him. You got him. Got him. That is someone coming from South Carolina. I have explained it this way, Matt. In South Carolina, you are not really taught the rules. Boy, do I know it every time I see somebody not knowing the rules I'd look at their license plate that says South Carolina on it Yeah, so that's a specific kind of bad. Yeah, North Carolina. It's that they don't care about the rules Like like they're aware of them, but it's not really their whole thing. That's a Durham issue The Asheville issue the triangle the asheville issue is everybody is either
00:06:00
Speaker
way too much in a hurry or lost because they're a tourist? Minneapolis, Minnesota is that they know the rules and seem bound and determined to break as many of them as a as they can. I have seen someone make ah a right turn from the oncoming lane. Wow. like Like go into the upcoming lane, make a right turn, stop in a crosswalk, get out of their car and have it just like a conversation. Get back in their car, make an illegal U-turn and then make a left on red.
00:06:40
Speaker
Impressive. Impressive. It is impressive. And you know what that person didn't do? Most importantly, that person definitely didn't go to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax where they can kick in as little as a dollar a month to help us keep doing the show and help me now more than ever pay those gimmicks they do keep sending in the mail called bills. That's right. Here are our newest Patreon supporters, Chris. Christopher, that's your name, Wellborn. That's my name. Thank you, Christopher. So it's your name, Wellborn.
00:07:18
Speaker
ah Your name and what you are. ah Matt, you matt i am from I was born in Southwest Ohio. You know that that is not true. And Jamie McCone. Thank you, Jamie. If you'd like to be like Christopher and Jamie, and help us out here on the show. You can go down to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax, as Chris said, and kick in as little as $1 per month to make sure that we do this show every week, that we do a movie fighters and snack situation, that we do comics, catch up that we do every story ever specials monthly. All of those shows are made possible by your support on patreon. And as a patron, you get every single one of those shows totally ad free in an ad free feed on patreon. That is just for you.
00:08:08
Speaker
At other levels, higher levels of the Patreon, beyond the simple $1 level, you can get a bonus content also in that Patreon feed, which includes ah stuff I cut out of the show, outtakes that I will take out of the show ah for time and put on the Patreon. ah that is exclusive to the Patreon. ah It includes stuff we record especially for the Patreon. ah We do that every once in a while. ah There's also writing that Chris and I have done that is exclusive to the Patreon that you can't get anywhere else. And most recently, Chris has created a spreadsheet of every Survivor's Light game he's ever played.
00:08:50
Speaker
called spreadsheet survivors ah that is it just for Patreon supporters um and is very interesting and is constantly being updated. So I wouldn't say constantly, but definitely will be updated regularly and soon. Okay. Regularly updated. Frequently. ah So that sounds like some good
AEW Excitement & Comedy Recommendations
00:09:15
Speaker
stuff, right? You can also get line stepping privileges for our segments, which currently include Thursday Night Raw and Every Story Ever. ah You can get ah physical rewards. The t-shirts are being printed now and are on the way ah within the next several days, ah which means that I will be shipping them out ah to people at the t-shirt level sometime in August. So they're coming. I promise they are coming.
00:09:47
Speaker
buddy, it would be great if everybody got to that t-shirt level. Oh boy, boy, that would be nice. Wouldn't that be nice? But if you're unable to help us out monetarily, which we understand completely, you can help us out in other ways. You can leave us a five star review on the podcasting app that you use, whatever that may be, or you can just spread the word about the show. Give us some good word of mouth. Let your friends know there's podcasts that you like and that they should listen to it. And maybe they should back our Patreon as well. That would be, That would be great. With that, Chris, it's time for some checks and recs. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:10:28
Speaker
Chris, what would you like to check in with this week? Matt, who do you think you're fucking with? Uh, boy. Uh, I, uh, the, uh, the fucking balls. Uh-huh. Slim 45 white on white. That's Rick Ross. ah
00:10:50
Speaker
And every day I'm hustling. ah As listeners of last week's show will know, I have circumstances ah that involve me not having a job next week, right ah which is very exciting ah to me. just So exciting. So one of the things that I've been doing, in addition to sort of putting out feelers for any work, ah is I have been ah trying to get in touch with maybe some new sponsors for the show. And ah I've been reaching out to ah companies that actually make things that I like ah of of various kinds, like places I've bought stuff from before, places that I know are
00:11:41
Speaker
but that I would be genuinely happy to talk about. A lot of a lot of things that you have heard ah Rex about here on the show. I've been really hitting the old grindstone on that. and oh and And I appreciate it. You got very aggressive with me about something that will also benefit me.
00:12:04
Speaker
I got i aggressive with you in the setup to the bit. There's not like a behind the scenes thing where I'm like, Matt, you're going to read this ad. You're going to do it right or it's back in the box.
00:12:20
Speaker
Yes, I know. It was part of the bit. I understand. Yeah. Rick Ross, hustling. Rick Ross, hustling. So if you happen to ah work for a company or if you have any kind of project product or project that you would like to talk about, ah you don't have to be a large corporate entity to sponsor the show. That's true. we for For a while we had what we were calling fan sponsorships and that is still out there. ah I've actually offered fan sponsorships to Patreon backers in the past.
00:12:58
Speaker
And I think we've had a couple, but not in a long time, but the door is still open to what we refer to as fan sponsorships. Like if you have a project or something that ah you would like to promote and also drop us a little bit of one-time cash ah for for something like that, we are happy to do that. um So ah get in touch if if that is something you are looking to do. Yeah. And of course, if you're like advertisements, fuck that. ah You can always get after the episodes of the show on Patreon. So one way or another, I'm getting that money. That's right. That's right. That's my, that's my, uh, that's my new character. Um, uh, 80s pro wrestler who has lost. Dirty dog has lost his job.
00:13:48
Speaker
Dirty dog has bills to pay. Dirty dog is my 80s NWA sona. as ah you may recall. ah Matt, what have you been up to this week? Well, Chris, this is more about something that will happen instead of something that has happened this Wednesday. Matt! day Matt! Yes? Are these things that may happen or things that will happen?
00:14:13
Speaker
ah To my knowledge, there are things that will happen, um although I guess there's always a chance that circumstances could prevent them from happening. but Circumstances change, Matt. They do. That's what I've learned. ah This Wednesday, I will be attending All Elite Wrestling Dinamite at the Bon Secours Center in Greenville, South Carolina. Talk about the Bon Secours Wellness Arena. That's the one. I've been there with you to see wrestling. Yes, we went there to see a raw years ago. Yeah. Well, dynamite is going to be there this Wednesday. And in anticipation of that day, I ah rearranged my work schedule to work on a Sunday. ah And so I could have that Wednesday off to go to Greenville and eat bagels like I always do in Greenville. And the place is good. That bagel place is good.
00:15:14
Speaker
Buddy, that bagel place is good. But I'll be hanging out there for the day and then going to see Dynamite. And I am i am currently quite pleased with the state of AEW ah right now. And I will be happy to see one of these shows ah feeding into All In, where we have four ongoing TV women's feuds at the same time, which I don't think has been a thing in AEW ever before this. Which is heartening. yeah The women's division is the best it it has ever been. I am quite invested in ah Timeless Tony Storm. There's Timeless Tony Storm and Mariah May. Maybe the best storyline they got right now.
00:16:11
Speaker
There's ah ah Mercedes Monet and Britt Baker, also. Also gonna be an all-in match. There's the Chris Statlander Willow Nightingale feud, which I believe i'm goingnna there's gonna be a Statlander Willow match at the dynamite I'm going to, which is cool. I love both of them, but i yeah and until Chris Statlander is once again billed as being from the Andromeda Galaxy. Then ah my my loyalties lie with Willow Nightingale. Well, she's ah Chris is the heel now anyway. Every night is Saturday night now. That's pretty good. That is pretty good. And then there's the the Thunder Rosa, Deanna Parrazzo feud going as well. Yeah.
00:17:04
Speaker
um So I think the women's division is the strongest it has been in um the history of AEW. Blood and Guts was fun as well. i I'm looking forward to going to that show. So I'm sure next week on the show, you will hear ah my dynamite report. ah So stay tuned for that. Time for some recommendations, Chris. What do you have to recommend? Matt, you know. that long-form improvisational comedy is something I am generally suspicious of. I mean, I do it so yeah great, but yeah. But we've had this conversation before. ah Like, everything that we love and do, when it's good, it's great. When it's bad, it's the worst thing that has ever happened. Very true. Yes, very true.
00:18:02
Speaker
and And to that end, you also know that I do tend to enjoy most ah when long form improvisational comedy is performed by a husband and wife duo that I already like. but Yes, that that I'm sure that helps immensely. Yes, which is why I am going to recommend a ah very fun 45-minute comedy special that you can watch right now on Dropout dot.tv, ah the Dropout streaming service, ah with Brennan Lee Mulligan and ah Izzy Roland, ah that is called Bigger, because that's the only note they'll never get, which is a great title. And honestly, not to knock the rest of the show, might be the best joke in the whole thing.
00:18:53
Speaker
Sure. it It is a good joke. It's a great joke. Yeah, it's ah very, very fun. Again, that that is a married couple that I already like. I have talked before about being a fan of Dimension 20 and World's Beyond beyond Number. ah Izzy is always a delight whenever she shows up on ah anything, any of the dropout shows. all Just a ah real wildcard in a lot of ways. Very, very fun. I think you in particular would enjoy ah watching it, Matt, ah for obvious reasons. Yeah, i you know I've seen some stuff with Brennan Lee Mulligan and and Izzy, and I enjoy them. I think they're both very funny. I do i get a weird vibe from them like almost being too similar to myself and Marlene.
00:19:50
Speaker
a married couple that does improv together. We'll be performing at the Asheville Improv Festival in October. Stay tuned. ah But yeah, i i I will watch it. I'm sure I will watch it at some point. yeah Very, very fun. Brittany Mulligan is someone that I am such a huge fan of and I also kind of am very vaguely acquainted with. Uh, from, uh, his, his comic stuff. Uh, and like being a supporter of a strong female protagonist, the book that, uh, he did with, uh, Molly Knox Astrotag.
00:20:31
Speaker
And I actually have ah like a signed copy ah in my office of that, and I ah DMed ah him on Twitter just to tell him that I was really enjoying Dimension 20. And that is like the most interaction I can have with him because I've become such a fan bit like that like any it if if it goes wrong on me in any way, well, like what do I do for 20 hours of the day now?
00:21:05
Speaker
ah But this one is another another really, really fun one. oh So yeah, give it a give it a watch. Matt, what would you like to recommend? i would like to write It's funny that you you recommended something from Dropout because I've officially become Dropout curious.
00:21:25
Speaker
Now, Chris, one of the big differences between you and me is is ah you will just dive in. a lot of times. i'm excitinging i wish ah You're a diver. and i wish Sometimes I wish I could do that, but I have to dip my toe in for a while. I have to i have to to to check it out first and see what's what's out there. so I have been going onto the Dropout YouTube channel and watching a lot of stuff there to to kind of get a sense of it. because cause Dimension 20 is the main thing I knew from Dropout.
00:21:58
Speaker
For better or worse, I just can't. I can't watch long gaming sessions as videos. I'll play them. It's very hard for me to participate or to just watch them as a spectator. I can listen to it as a podcast sometimes, but for whatever reason, sitting in front of a screen and watching it for two hours at a time, i just that's that's where I have to draw my line on that. But I really do enjoy some of the other dropout shows. I've watched a couple episodes of of Smarty Pants. That's very fun. Smarty Pants is very good, yeah. Yeah. I really like Game Changer a lot. Game Changer is kind of the perfect Matt Wilson show. It's very up my alley, yeah. ah Because it's like if you don't know Game Changer, it's ah it's a game show where the game changes every episode.
00:22:53
Speaker
Uh, I also, and they don't know what the players who are all improvisers don't know what the game is going to be. Right. Uh, I also like make some noise. It's, it's basically just an improv show. Um, but the one that I've been watching a lot, because there's a lot more of it on YouTube than anything else is a show that by its name, you might expect to hate and I expected it to hate, but it's actually very fun. It's called, um, actually. Um, actually is very fun. Yeah. It's a show hosted by Mike trap, who was the college humor dropout head writer for awhile. I think it's the host has changed now to, yeah it is now, uh, if you know what, yeah, who was like one of the star players of the, of the show before. And now he's the host. Um, but the premise of, um, actually.
00:23:48
Speaker
And again, there are many, many episodes of it on YouTube for free, um, on the, um, actually YouTube channel. Um, the premise of the show is Mike trap, the host three improvisers or nerds of some stripe, uh, will be the contestants and Mike trap will read a statement where one detail is wrong and it is up to the contestants to identify the thing in the statement that is wrong. And they always have to proceed it with um, actually like Jeopardy style of everything, you know, and on Jeopardy, everything has to be a question on this show. Everything has to start with them actually. And they also have little mini games within the game that they call shiny questions where they'll have the contestants like
00:24:42
Speaker
identify the titles of books that they've removed the title from or they'll show them like a bunch of items from a particular franchise and they have to identify the one that's not supposed to be there or there's there's other examples oh there's one that's where they have to spell stuff from like fantasy and science fiction stuff that's really hard to spell i've never seen anybody get one of those right uh But it it's a fun show. The people on it are very funny and entertaining. ah And it's a great thing to just have on in the background while I'm working because it's very easy to just listen to and not have to watch all the time. So if you were looking for a thing to just kind of like have on in the background while you do other stuff,
00:25:38
Speaker
Um, actually there's, there's a ton of it on YouTube and you you don't have to subscribe to drop out to watch a lot of it. But once I exhaust all of that, I'm going to subscribe to drop out and watch all the stuff that's there too. Six bucks a month, Matt. Yeah. I, I, i' I'm reaching the point where I'm just going to do it, but, uh, uh, really fun stuff on there. And, uh, the current season of them actually, in addition to ah the host changing, um the fact checker is now Brian David Gilbert. And he's a character on the show instead of just like being off screen. Right. Yeah, yeah. I've seen a little bit of that. But ah yeah, I would I would like to watch that when when I can. Hey, dropout, not a sponsor, but could be not a sponsor, but really could be Sam Reich. Let's hear from you. Come on, Sam.
00:26:33
Speaker
with that chris money With that, Chris, those are our checks and recs. ah It's time to talk about some comics. What do you say? Let's do it. Chris, there is no textures choice winner this week. We did not text about comics, but you read two and I read one. So we're going to talk about the ones we read.
Comic Reviews: Batman & NYX
00:26:55
Speaker
um And we'll start with one of the ones you read, which is Batman the Dark Age number four. ah Yeah, this comic rules.
00:27:05
Speaker
and I know we've said that before. I believe we said that about number one and number two, but right ah this this comic that is about Batman in the 70s by ah Mark Russell and ah Michael and Laura Allred um just continues to be fantastic. oh We're getting into some Robin stuff in this one, some Cowlman stuff. I think it was the last issue where we got ah some Justice League stuff of oh Batman going to this Justice League meeting and Greenlanding starts talking about ah universes ah being destroyed. Because you know, Pariah's also in this. So I think we know where the book's gonna end. but like And Batman's just like,
00:28:01
Speaker
Uh, no, I don't care about any of this. I am trying to fight crime in one city. Uh, very fun. Uh, just a, it's a super good, super enjoyable, honestly, like one of my favorite alternate universe takes on Batman in like a hot minute. I'm, I'm looking through it now and there's, there's a Mad Hatter in here who could not be more 1970s. Oh yeah, there's there's ah Matt Hatter. Kind of the big thing that we get in this issue is the Joker ah who,
00:28:39
Speaker
instead of becoming a criminal, goes to therapy with Dr. Chase Meridian. Will he become a criminal later? Entirely possible. yeah ah But for now, he's just a ah very depressing stand-up comedian.
00:28:58
Speaker
ah It is a very good comic that continues to be Highly enjoyable, but you probably knew that just from me telling you the names of the creators So some real Ajax face the next book The one that I read that I want to talk about is NYX number one ah Yes, I read another From the ashes a new beginning X-Men book This one is by Jackson Lansing and Colin Kelly with art by Francesco Mortarino and I'll say this I like this more than I liked the Adjective list x-men book we talked about a couple weeks ago. I Still don't love it though
00:29:56
Speaker
There's a lot of fun stuff going on in here. This is basically the Kamala Khan book in the new X-Men line. ah She's getting used to being a member of the X-Men now. she's She's telling the one Stepford Cuckoo that she goes to college with, ah which one is it that she meets. ah I'll have to look and see which which one it is. but um
00:30:25
Speaker
Like, that she's a big fan. Like, that's how she identifies she identifies which Stepford Cuckoo. It's Sophie. She identifies which Stepford Cuckoo she has met, like, immediately. um Like, there's interesting stuff about her being in college. um The enemies are the bad guys. Also, Laura Wolverine ah shows up in this issue, ah which, is cool. Like it's a cool kind of moment between Kamala and and Wolverine. ah but and And the enemies, the bad guys, are an interesting group of ah people with mind powers, telepathic or telekinetic powers. But like the Adjective with X-Men book,
00:31:22
Speaker
this like new beginning is still entirely struck, stuck in Krakoa. One of the characters who was identified as being someone else later has now changed their name to the Krakoan. The college class that Kamala goes into is all about like Krakoan history, like what the effect of Krakoa existing had on mutant kind. ah Prodigy is teaching that class. There's a showdown in a nightclub over like mutant terrorists and groups who you know think of mutants as terrorists now that all the Krakoa stuff has happened. And i look, I and understand that there needs to be a transition away from Krakoa to the new status quo.
00:32:20
Speaker
But in the two issues of this new X-Men stuff that I've read,
00:32:27
Speaker
it feels like they shouldn't have, it feels like they shouldn't have ended Krakoa because there's still so much to mind from it. And this doesn't feel like a clean break. It's like we said about the X-Men issue. It does not feel like a clean break. I liked this issue more because I like Kamala Khan. I like, the way she's presented and and and kind of her status quo as it is now. But boy, it's it's you're still in a quick clean break from Crickella. I'll say that. One last book we're going to talk about, Chris, is Zatanna bringing down the house. Number two. Yeah, this is a book that I slept on. I think both of us missed it when it first came out. I actually read the first two this week.
00:33:18
Speaker
um It's by Mirko Tamaki and ah drawn by Ajax favorite, Javier Rodriguez. Oh, okay. ah So it is beautiful, honestly has some of ah some of his best work, which is I think saying something, we are both huge, huge fans of ah his work going back 10, 15 years. Quite a while. This is a story Black Label is really interesting to me because Black Label is kind of like what Vertigo was at the start, where it's just like other takes on DC characters. Yeah, Vertigo hit kind of went back and forth between being that at different points in time. Like, certainly right at the beginning, that's what Vertigo was. And then there was a time in like,
00:34:15
Speaker
the mid-2000s where they were doing some of that stuff too. like I remember the the creeper book that they had. That was also drawn by Javier Rodriguez? I think that was Cliff Chang. but Cliff Chang cliffhanng drew that one. Similar style, yeah. yeah one of those really good artists that ah draws in that really clean, ah beautiful style of art. ah But yeah, this is a Zatanna book where Zatanna doesn't do magic. um Because when she was a kid, she accidentally did some magic and it went very bad on her. So she just does like stage magic. She does tricks and illusions, she says.
00:35:01
Speaker
ah But now there is a bunch of magical stuff coming after her, including a new version of the Phantom Stranger, who's just called The Stranger in this. It's really, really fun. The mystery stuff is really engaging. The magical stuff is really fun and weird. ah The twists and turns are highly enjoyable and it's ah just a great little oversized Zatanna story. Margot Tamaki is someone that I also liked a lot, ah though I
00:35:42
Speaker
I haven't read as um much of her stuff as I want to, ah but this is a like that was one of the reasons I really wanted to jump on this and was very rewarded by these first two issues. So if you also managed to miss them, ah then by all means jump on ah to Zatanna, bring down the house, and read some good comics. Yeah. i go back and forth on on black label books. There are some that are very good and some that are that I wish didn't exist. But this one being written by Mark Tamaki and having Javier Rodriguez art is enough to sell me on it. so So I'll go back and catch up on that book for sure. Matt, like me, wishes that they had really committed to showing Batman naked.
00:36:36
Speaker
Yeah. If you're going to show dong, show dong. If you're going to do it, do it. Yeah. Yeah. Don't put it in shadow like a coward. Don't be a coward about it.
00:36:49
Speaker
All right, Chris, those are our comics reviews, which means it's time for us to talk to long time for another show. Tom Fowler. What do you say? Let's do it.
Tom Fowler on Creative Play & Mental Health
00:37:27
Speaker
Joining us for the program this week, we are very excited to welcome back a a friend of the show, a friend of ours, ah someone that we haven't talked to in a while, but that I'm always delighted to hear from. Tom Fowler is here to talk about the book that he is kick-starting, Game Masters, the comic book history of role-playing games. Tom, welcome back to the show. How have you been, man? I've been great. How are you guys? Oh, you know,
00:37:58
Speaker
yeah gi by yeah
00:38:02
Speaker
well We're all doing that. that's yeah that's that's That's the way life works these days. is you understand no one Today was fine. ah We'll see what tomorrow brings, but right now, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling pretty good. the ah The amount of time that I spend on role-playing game stuff, ah like stuff for my D and&D campaign, has increased so much as I, for some reason, increasingly feel the need to to have a world in which I control something. Well, yeah, no, absolutely. i like i If you will permit me to get a little bit deep here for a second,
00:38:44
Speaker
Just because it's front of mind because I've been doing a lot of of interviews and things like that. So I've been thinking about this a lot like back when I I think ah I think possibly the last time I was on was when I was promoting the D and&D and D book. ah which I had credited at the time ah as as, you know, pulling me out of of the depths of a depression. But what I've i've kind of been thinking about quite a lot with with the book now and talking about it is this idea that, um you know, i was I was in this horrible place and my wife suggested, why don't you leave? Why don't you go away from me and play D and&D with our friends? You've been talking about doing it forever. Why don't you just go and
00:39:29
Speaker
do that and not be here. And so I did that and you know but the i've i've I've told the story a thousand times. you know i i started The reason I was depressed was because I had started to hate the draw. And in that time of playing, I was noticing that I was just doodling in the margins and the margins started to jump. onto the main page and I started bringing up old sketchbooks. And what it really taught me was to kind of carve out time for myself to draw for myself the way I did when I was a child. um To make myself feel happy, to make myself feel safe, you know. But also, you know, the the game itself was doing that as well. Like the this idea of, um you know, this kind of safe communal
00:40:18
Speaker
uh creative play when your parent all in ability like teachers are constantly telling you about the importance of creative play in the development of of you know childhood um well in childhood development right and i don't think that goes away like this is what i'm coming to learn i i genuinely think that we're, we we eat more and more as things get more and more stressful. Um, having that kind of an outlet for creative play as an adult is incredibly important. And, you know, I found it not just in D and&D, but I found it in, in, like I said, carving out time to draw for myself, which is arguably play, you know, but the idea of like getting together with other people and know mashing works into pink mist.
00:41:12
Speaker
on graph paper that that's also like, can be incredibly important. And you know, whether it's that or whether you've got a fantasy football league or whatever, this this whole notion of gathering with other people and doing something creative and fun and safe, I think is incredibly important in your mental well being. I don't know if that makes sense. but No, it it absolutely does. I've talked about this a little bit on the show before, but I for For people like us who have made our creativity, our livelihood as well, ah that I have made the joke of like, hey, make your hobby your job and you will never know a moment's peace. Yeah, no, I've literally like I literally always say it's like, yeah, if you do if, you if you do the thing you love for or whatever the dead old adage is, it's like do the thing you love and you'll never
00:42:09
Speaker
work a day in your life, well do the thing you love and you'll never know a moment of work life separation for the rest of your days, you know? yes do Do the thing you love and you will no longer have anything that's not working. Yeah, exactly. I know for me, that one of the things that I ah really value about my ah a D and&D game that I run is that it's a huge amount of work But it is the only thing that I write that is not commercial and it is for an audience of four people. Yeah. And that makes it such an escape where I do get to do this thing that I love and I do get to do all the stuff that I love. You know, the writing, the character work, the dialogue, the
00:42:59
Speaker
You know the making up ah Magic items and McGuffins, you know all the stuff that I love to do in script choreographing fight scenes all the stuff that I love to do in my writing but It doesn't have the pressure of having to be the thing that I That is also paying my mortgage. Yeah, exactly um I mean at the time back with the D and&D and D it was the the idea was you know, when when when all of the the art that you're making is is to service your mortgage. It ceases to be the thing that brought you
00:43:39
Speaker
Peace and becomes the thing. It's like a security blanket growing like an extra row of teeth, you know, it's It's a great way to put it. Yeah, it's it it wasn't great, you know um and and in you know, I haven't unfortunately I haven't been able to to find a game again in a while, but this whole idea of ah You know playing through just taking the time and you know when I'm doing like family things or or you know sit in front of the TV with with my wife or whatever. I've got now my my my iPad with me and I'll just doodle away on on stuff. and The point of it is isn't to have like a fun, awesome drawing to show everybody online um because only a few of those I'll post because I dig them. The point is just to draw. you know and and Whether I show them to anybody or not, it's not
00:44:35
Speaker
you know That's up to me. That's ultimately a choice that I can make. But the the the the kind of rush of creation and that the the feeling of of of of making a thing that, at least in that moment, meaningful to me, in as much as you know whether it's something big or little or or whatever. That's the important feeling. like that's That's the piece. That's where you start to you know build those endorphins that you've back up that you've yeah or the serotonin or the dopamine or whatever the hell it is that you have strip mined in your professional creative life. um
00:45:18
Speaker
up to that point. Like there are these horrible stories that are like articles that I've read about like people who have like very stressful but very creative lives that have gotten to a point where they can't create They can't, that like the glance, or whatever it is in their brain that makes doine dopamine can't do it anymore. And so they've got nothing. And and it's it's a long road to kind of build that capacity to even just to produce ah those those feelings of satisfaction or or or creative joy or whatever. it's It's a long road back to be able to have that again, you know?
00:45:59
Speaker
Um, and it's terrifying, you know, and I think any, like when, when the big article came out a couple of years ago, I remember a lot of us were passing it around going like, uh, I think, I think we're in danger. What are you, what are you doing on the side? You walking the dog? What are you doing? You know, um, just to, to figure out like how to have a lift. Yeah. Uh, you gotta to have, you gotta have something and i like on the subject of like, of creative play i I jokingly refer to it as playing my pretend game with my adult friends yeah but I do feel like that's that is a thing that i I think people who don't get into stuff like role-playing games or or do you know any of the assorted you know LARP or or
00:46:50
Speaker
theater, even like you kind of stop pretending with your friends. And I gotta say, pretending with your friends is pretty fun. Yeah. But the thing is like, even if that thing, like it doesn't necessarily need, I mean, it doesn't necessarily need to be a group activity. You know what I mean? But because For me nowadays, it it it for the most part, it is. But it's just got to be that thing that you do that you know makes you feel safe. You just have to carve out that time for it. But often, that thing takes the form of of some kind of creative outlet. you know But again, like even if it's not like if you're not if if you're not
00:47:29
Speaker
you know, playing D and&D or or mothership or whatever the hell, like even if you've got like a fantasy football league, or even if you're into like following stats and baseball or or you know, that kind of stuff, that still kind of scratches that itch, you know, like it's still a creative outlet, even if it doesn't, for a lot of people, ah necessarily feel that way. But it it is a, you know, you're you're thinking about things, you're, you're, you're ah interpreting things, and at least with fantasy football, you're you're actually still doing that like community aspect of it. you know like Whatever form it takes, i just I just think it's important these days, especially these days. um Yeah.
00:48:16
Speaker
ah is What's your ideal gaming experience? I had a basically like a 20-year gap, 25-year gap in my gaming life. So I stopped playing when I was like 13 and then start up again until I was in my late 30s. And where I you know started back up again was actually pretty ideal um from the stat ah from the standpoint of just what I needed at the time.
00:48:52
Speaker
Also, you know, I tend to play, I don't make a secret of this, I play a lot of like agents of chaos, let's say. I play a lot of really dumb characters. The last one that I got to play for any length of time was a character named Skirlok Gnolms, world's greatest meat detective, who is, I just like the idea of playing a gnoll. with an outrageous, let's call it European accent, who was really good at you know finding meat. Do you want to explain what that species is? Yeah, so they're they're hy up people yeah they're hyena people.
00:49:36
Speaker
Um, and I loved, I loved the look of them. I love the fact that they're just absolutely terrifying in every way. And I love the idea of giving this guy like a, uh, deer stalker cap, which was actually two deer heads, uh, sewn together, kind of back to front, uh, and having him be just very genial with, with the people that he's terrifying. the The idea being that like everybody around him is immediately on edge and it was just a, ah the idea to have fun with ah what is gnolish culture and but is what are his ah um starting points so a when in any interaction with people. And they tend to be um you know they tend to be pretty horrific. um But on top of that, he is somewhat racist in that he doesn't think anyone who's not a knoll is a person.
00:50:34
Speaker
Uh, and therefore is meat, which makes him an excellent detective. But yeah, like the idea was, you know, with this, with this group that I was playing with for, for a long, long time, I got to be, there were a lot of people in that group had been playing D and D their entire lives. They knew the but the book backwards and forwards. They knew every little piece of whatever. And there was a lot of that kind of strategic table talk. And I got to a point with it where I was like, I'm, I have an internal five minute clock. Uh, if we're not done discussing every little permutation of what, what strategy we have, I'm going to, I'm just going to kick in the door and whatever flies out at us, flies out at us. Um, and I think a lot of us have that, uh, that optimization brain. Yeah.
00:51:27
Speaker
Do you really need to put aside First thought best thought the ship is crashing. What do you do? Yeah, but but the thing is like you need you need all of that at the table Do you mean you need the people who take it too seriously? You need the people who don't take it nearly seriously enough like you need you need you need both of both of those aspects have like a fun lively and game. And I think I just found I found equilibrium in this group, like really, really, really quickly. um And it's really cool to see that my son, who has been, he plays D and&D every Sunday and has done since he was nine with the same group. He's, he's turning 17 next week. He's, and now he's in another D and&D group ah through the summer with one of his other friends.
00:52:21
Speaker
Where he plays basically Boris Johnson in a jar. He's like ah a brain in a jar in a mech suit And they're all they're all space really this all D and&D too and they're all space pirates And he's got like a different jar for different missions He just is arrogant arrogant bastard and rich guy that ah thinks he's smart because he's rich. um But the amount of like when I pick him up from these games and um you know what he tells me and what they've all done and and and just the creativity there is I love it. And again, they're they're all they're all these kinds of kids that like um
00:53:03
Speaker
It's like, you know, you get, you get the Lego set, you build the Lego set, then you take it apart and you build something new. Like that's what they're doing. And that's how they express themselves with these games. And I love it. I love, I love hearing about it. Um, but I mean, the other, the other side of that is I've been playing D and D with him since he was four, uh, whether that's on, you know, uh, kids menus at restaurants or, um, later on when he wants something a bit more. a bit bigger, I actually wrote an entire adventure for him and his friend to do. and We got through about half of it. and If I ever find the time it and and have it in me to to write a like a ah middle grade novel, that's the book I'm going to write. you know
00:53:52
Speaker
um so it's it's it's It's been fun kind of playing with him and like ah watching him kind of grow creatively and um And now you know passing that along, that that ethos of like being able to do all of these different hit all these different notes in a game with other people. you know I just want to say, um Boris Johnson in a mech suit is one of the most terrifying thoughts that's ever been put in Tom. In with that is is ah Boris Johnson's innate inability to actually do anything. like He's a complete incompetent nitwit.
00:54:29
Speaker
um So it goes along with it. That's true. That's true. um Tom, let's talk about the book a little bit because we talked a lot about like the separation of life and art, life and commerce. And so, you know, the book is is ah combining this thing you love and and this thing you use to to relax and creatively play and and you know making it a professional work. um How did you kind of keep that separation while while you were working on the book? By taking about seven years to produce it. question Probably the first thing. What wound up happening was ah years ago Fred called me up.
00:55:22
Speaker
and said, hey, I just signed on with a publisher and they want me to do some history of sports books. And I was like, uh-huh. And he was like, how would you like to do the history of basketball? And I said, there's nothing I would hate more than to do the history of basketball. I am an indoor kid. I am six foot five. There's nothing that infuriates me more than people assuming I know anything about basketball. And he went through a couple of other sports and I was like, like you're really barking up the wrong tree here. It was like, well, so what well would you like to do? And I said, I don't know, D&D. And he, it felt like, like two weeks, but I'm sure it was, I'm sure it was like eight months or something, but he had a, he, he then produced, um, like the first three chapters and I was like, Oh God, I guess I'm doing this. Uh, and, uh,
00:56:15
Speaker
Yeah, we've been rolling. We've been rolling along since then. And it's just, it's been a job that I've kind of, um, hacked away. I don't want to say hacked. I've chipped away at, um, over, over that time between jobs or when I've had, you know, a moment to myself to do one thing or the other. And it's, it's, it's, it's bizarre too, because like in that, in the period of time since I've started, on the book to to now I've gone from being entirely traditional as an artist, like everything is you know paper and pencils from beginning to end with a little bit of computer in the in the middle to to fidget with things in in in Photoshop and and make blue lines, and then off it goes to paper and ink again, to now literally everything I do
00:57:08
Speaker
is digital up to the inks. So i you know yeah I don't know. I haven't really i haven't wanted to kind of go back and look through the whole thing. Say like, oh, this was this was the because I did the chapters out of order. So I don't know if it can necessarily be seen like this is when Tom was totally traditional. This is when Tom was working on his iPad. you know kind of thing. But it's it's like that's how long we've been at it. like I've completely changed my ah my the way you know the the mechanics of how I make comics ah and and ah my my attitude toward them. um So it's been it's been weird. um But yeah it ah it i think yeah, in answer to your question,
00:58:02
Speaker
um it's ah yeah It's taken seven years. That's how I've managed to do it. ah in In terms of the chapters, I'm very curious as to how it's broken down. Like I assume it's broken down chronologically. And I feel like a lot of people listening to this know the kind of basics of war games to role-playing games to satanic panic to the the lost years to yeah or actual play podcasts coming ah around and giving it. a read we're We're not so much covering the ladder, but the, um, or at least the actual play podcasts and things like that. But that may pop up in the cause Fred still has not written the last like two or three pages.
00:58:50
Speaker
just because he wants it to be as current as possible ah when we ah yeah when it finally sees print, but everything else is pretty much done. um but yeah The first chapter is you know from the very beginnings of um ah tabletop games or war
Role-Playing Book Overview & Evolution
00:59:09
Speaker
games. So things like, you know, Roman dice games to chat rang to chess um to the rice fault games, which are the pressure war games. And then ah in ah next chapter, we're dealing with the the adaptation process from those old
00:59:32
Speaker
uh, rice vault games to things like tactics and Gettysburg, um, which was the first kind of game where, uh, despite it being kind of icky, it's the first what if game, you know, cause you could, you could actually have an outcome where the South could win, which fucking sucks, but it's there, you know, like it's it's the first time anybody kind of said, Oh, wait a minute. You mean there isn't like a preordained, you know, whatever. So from that blows out, you you know, blow out to other games like diplomacy and and whatever. And and that ah that blows out to games like Bronstein. And then in the next chapters is how ah Bronstein kind of came, you know, how how Dave Arneson
01:00:23
Speaker
and and Gary Gygax start coming together to start to produce ah D and&D and then in the next chapters there's like other people who are coming along and you know good decisions and bad decisions and then satan we have we do have a satanic panic chapter I'm trying to think and then you know because the the way the the industry like I worked in the industry for like a decade and it was um while TSR was kind of struggling a little bit and during the ascendancy of of Wizards of the Coast, but it was also like ah another kind of boom time.
01:01:01
Speaker
um in in the late 90s and 2000s. We're jumping into the Whists of the Coast years and and how capitalism is not a huge fan of World Bank games. um and so yeah so it's it's it's it's very well ordered I'm not doing a great job of it because I'm not Fred. but um is there It is very well ordered. There there are there are kind of points of demarcation between each chapter um to get us to the next kind of, okay, now this is another facet that we'll explore that was you know big at this time. And they're you know we'll go back and forth as and as needed during the book. But it is yeah, it's it's very well it's very well broken down into into chapters, and there'll be eight chapters in total. This is a very like Chris Farley show.
01:01:59
Speaker
good But Tom, you know that i am I am a fan of your work. i have I have your art hanging on the wall of my office. per Oh, that's right. Is it the Destro or the Etrigan? It's the Etrigan. Okay, cool. One of my favorite pieces of art I've ever gotten. I'm so happy because I was really At the time I was like, I don't know. I think you like this name. if No, Tom, it's it's when I would show people that sketchbook. That is the one that like everyone would stop at.
01:02:35
Speaker
And like there's good stuff in that sketchbook. Like there's, you know, I got i got Chris Somney in there doing Mr. Miracle. I got, I think I got Ming to do Dark Side Ming Doyle, which that one rules, but like everyone stops at this beautiful full color painted, uh, Etrigan the demon. Now, to be fair, that's possibly just also because of the weight of the paint on the page. It's a very heavy piece. There's much on there. No, it's beautiful. It's legitimately one of my so favorite pieces of art I've ever gotten. Thank you very much. ah So I am very curious to know, just from looking at the at the cover that you sent, this feels like something that you had fun drawing. And I'm wondering if there is a a favorite thing you had to draw.
01:03:25
Speaker
a There are, but I'm kind, you know what, I'm, I'm feeling very stupid cause I'm kind of blanking right now. I very much enjoyed, uh, a lot. Oh, you know what? The first, um, the first that we w in the, in, in, in the book, we've, we've depicted the very first ever game of D and D, uh, which was played, um, in Lake Geneva. ah around Gary Gygax's dinner table with, arand ah I keep wanting to call him Arne Anderson, with Dave Arneson.
01:04:04
Speaker
shout out to all the wrestling fans out there. yeah ru dave harness The perfect podcast to confuse Dave Arneson and Arne Anderson is this one. The problem is my shorthand in like because I do when I do layouts and stuff I do a lot of like there are lots of notes in the margins and stuff my shorthand for Dave Arneson is Arne.
01:04:26
Speaker
so It's either going to be Arne Anderson, Dave Arneson, or Arne, as mentioned, in Archer ah from behind the old uh, seed mill, uh, corn mill. Um, anyway, uh, the, uh, uh, uh, uh, so yeah. So that very first game where, uh, uh, Arne basically Arne, uh, where Dave, uh, uh, just had a binder, uh, in front of him as a DM screen and just rolled a, you know, rolled a die behind it. Um, he had nothing else. He was just like,
01:05:01
Speaker
by the seat of his pants kind of thing. But there is a depiction that will of ah that will be part of the campaign and everything. um of I got to do this this page. that's um all of All of what's going on in that game is taking place in this massive word balloon. um So it's action of all the people as their characters fighting a troll on a bridge. and um And ah underneath are the the the people playing, but they're in kind of reverse silhouettes. So they're just like white silhouettes against a black background. um And it's one of my favorite drawings that I've done in a while. um So there's lots of fun little bits in there like that. I mean, there's ah there's a page where we briefly touch on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, which was the last game that I was
01:06:01
Speaker
deeply into when I was, you know, before I start i stopped playing. Um, and so a bunch of the little, you know, uh, animal mercenaries that are on that page are actually characters that I built specifically one of them, uh, who was my mercenary Badger guy. Cause I've been a Badger guy for a long time. Um, and, uh, uh, so there's just a little bits, you know, it, Sometimes it's just a, sometimes it's just a panel. Like I got to do a panel. It's like a kid reenacting the, um, uh, the clap, clattoo verada nikto bit from, uh, army of army of the dead. Um, you know, they're little, little, little panels will like pop up here and there that, that are just like fun little bits that you get to kind of bring in and ah beyond that sometimes it's just something as,
01:06:56
Speaker
ah kind of inside baseball as ah like i'm I'm really happy with the way I told this page kind of thing you know like I had this information to tell and I ah organize it in this way and look how nicely it smoothly ah it moves along you know there's also a depiction of a ah of a DM screen ah in the book, which appears ah in the book is two page spread, which is all of the original inspirations um for D and&D. So all of your, you know, your Peter Cushing's is send your, your um Lords of the Rings and your Dr. Stranges and your
01:07:50
Speaker
and your Elrics and stuff like that. So in Conan. And so just getting to draw all of that stuff all in one huge jumble. And the actual original that I did um is for it is an actual three page spread um the size, you know, full size huge. And you're only getting about two thirds of it on that two page spread. because all the other stuff was kind of erroneous and on the outside. um And I'm hoping that um the idea is to ah um release that big three page spread ah as a huge like artist edition style print.
01:08:40
Speaker
uh, which will be like 18 by 33, but also to release it as a fully functional, um, uh, DM screen. Oh, nice. Yeah. That'll have like plastic sleeves on the inside. So you can put your own like printout PDFs of whatever rules for whatever games. Um, So yeah. Uh, and that was, that was almost from the beginning. It almost derailed the whole thing because doing that three page spread took forever. But I was, I, I had, uh, I, I had a very ADD moment when i I was doing it. It's like, no, no, I'm obsessed with getting this done right now. So I'm going to do this. So. Well, I cannot wait to see that. And, uh, I imagine our listeners cannot wait as well.
01:09:32
Speaker
And speaking of them, it's time for us to let them ask a few questions.
Audience Engagement & Support for Tom Fowler
01:09:37
Speaker
Matt, if the people want to get in on the conversations that we have with folks like Tom Fowler here on the show, how exactly can they go about that? Well, Chris, there are two places they can go. They can either go to Blue Sky and follow us there at warrock at ajax dot.bsky.social and wait until the time for us to ask questions on Thursday night at 9 30 p.m. Eastern time. or you can join our Discord. You have to be invited to be a member of our Discord, but if you ask us nicely for an invitation, we will provide you one and you can go to the listener questions channel there to ask a question for our guests, just like these questions for Tom Fowler.
01:10:18
Speaker
Tom, our first question comes from our Discord and is from Kitty Hawk, who wants to know, you've talked a little bit about your D and&D characters that you typically play, but Kitty wants to know what is your go-to RPG character class? Barbarian all the way. If I if i feel like irritating people, I'll go bard. Okay. I did play a character for a very short period of time called Cricklewood. which is the next stop along ah whichever line from Paddington. ah But he was a bugbear bard ah who played a ah an iron battle lute strung with the guts of the fallen. ah But I insisted on singing every time we had
01:11:08
Speaker
He had finished a battle and people were not cool with that and it was awesome. But yeah, just about everyone I've played ah mother has has has been a barbarian. I think the very my very first character who was a Yeti um ah was a warlord and that was fine, but then I discovered that I was supposed to like take
01:11:36
Speaker
and and i like nah and No, I don't know. I don't, I don't like that. Um, and I looked at it. I still can't figure out magic, like how to use magic and stuff like that. Like my son has explained it to me a million times. that I still can't do it. Um, so the best, and there's something really, i all my entire life of, of, you know, even when I was a kid and like going through rule books for D and D and stuff, i owe I always found the title Fighter to be like really day class. say like I just hated it. i It sounded so stupid. So once I was able to actually start playing like more um but you know thugs thugs with with more syllables in their names, ah you know but it's barbarian all the way. Because you don't have to pay attention. You can just like run in and hit things. um And it's great.
01:12:33
Speaker
ah Joe Jett from our Discord wants you to tell ah the best Nat 1 slash crit fail story that you can remember. I don't know that I have a lot of, I mean, usually when I have like critical fail stories, they're all I just, you know, I just missed. And I hit myself with my own club or whatever the hell. They're not super interesting. um But the One of the big, and I suppose it's a crit fail for the the other side of the fight, but um one of my characters in his earliest form when we were play testing fifth edition, um I had a character, I played him forever, um called Neckbeard Darkwinkle, ah who was a barbarian dwarf. At the time though, he was he was a fighter. We had this whole thing where we,
01:13:32
Speaker
uh, fought, uh, we had to go down to the bottom of the cliff and there was beach down there. There was lake and oh my God, a dragon came out of the lake and everybody runs and I'm like, nah, fuck this. I'm going to fight this guy, uh, which is the dumbest thing in the world. Um, but what was happening was we had the forethought to, we had like rope, a rope around us, uh, for the descent. And, uh, I still had it on me. And so I kept rolling twenties and hitting this dragon and actually doing damage. And he kept completely failing. Like the DM was like fucking hell. Like he just kept, he kept failing at everything, but he killed me like four times. Like he was rolling like threes and fours and ones and whatever, but he kept like completely screwing up, but he was still hitting me for like 40 points of damage or wherever the hell.
01:14:25
Speaker
Um, and so basically I would hit him and I hit him real good. And then he'd miss me a couple of times, but then he hit me once and I'd be dead, flat out dead, like two points away from being just dead forever kind of thing. Um, and then the group was already on the cliff top or were we're already on the cliff and they pull me out of his range at which point somebody would heal me from a distance where I'd run a, I'd roll the, I'd roll the, you know, pop back up again, die. Um, and and we just do it again and he'd kill me again and I'd get hauled back up the hill. It just kept going on like that. um and it was It was a very exciting night for that you know for for nerds like us at the very least.
01:15:11
Speaker
um and i very wed We'd also in the same uh in the same night i think earlier in the night we committed genocide on on lizard people and that we were all like uh about and uh i actually uh drew a picture the next week because we were or a couple weeks later because we were um We were rerolling characters because the actual 5th edition had come out by that point and ah I just wanted to keep playing neckbeard, but I changed him um and he became the much more kind of barbaric
01:15:53
Speaker
a naked guy with antlers that that everyone knows and loves. um But at the time, I i drew for for D and&D and&D, I drew a picture of him and the the quote was something like, maybe it was the genocide, maybe it was a fight with the dragon, but Nick Beard knew he'd never be the same. and i just I had him break have like ah a total break with reality and just become a different person as a of it.
01:16:21
Speaker
This is from our pal Ben, Franz Ferdinand II on Blue Sky. ah Ben wants to know, who are the best little freaks to draw in fantasy, and who are the best little freaks to draw in sci-fi? Oh, well, in sci-fi, it's any little freak. it's it's I mean, i do ah I do a thing often online. I post them on Blue Sky all the time. um of affable aliens doing their jobs, which is often just like a group of very friendly aliens who work on a cargo ship, either going to or coming from their coffee break. um Those are the best little guys to draw in in science fiction that and like cute robots, I suppose, but in, ah in, the in fantasy,
01:17:08
Speaker
I don't know, any any little weird goblin with like big teeth and eyes and claws. like I love ah love a little weird birdy goblin. um they're just they're they're they're just They're just fun because you can make them do anything. Life is cheap in the goblin world.
01:17:33
Speaker
ah Tom, do you do a lot of DMing or do you mostly play as a player? ah Almost exclusively I play as a player. I just don't have the time to DM. I like i did i used to DM for my kid all the time and i did put i was we were on vacation so I was actually able to put the time in and and and write a whole write a whole campaign that we got about halfway through. um and that was That was great, but I can't imagine i can't imagine doing it now. It might be fun. but at Think back to those times when you used to run games for this question from Alex, who wants to know, what's your favorite adventure to run for a one-shot? Without giving it away because I i may go back to it. ah The one that I created was basically a shipwreck.
01:18:24
Speaker
Um, where they, they had to build every, it had ah had an actual end to it. Uh, but it was a shipwreck where they had to, um, build their way back up again. Like it was a lot of kind of, here's the thing, you're not going to be able to fight it. So you need to figure out how to, how to, how to achieve your goals, uh, and not get killed rather than. I'm just jumping in and beat the hell out of something, which you could still do as well, but you you haven't got anything right now. yeah I think those tend to be kind of fun and i was I was seeing a lot of it was just me. I think my son and his friend were well when I took him through that one. I wanted to see what they would, you know, without pushing them. i wanted I wanted to kind of see where they were at and what they would be willing to bring to the table and and
01:19:21
Speaker
ah you know And it was a lot of, um you know you're you're you're on shipwreck, you've got to get to one from you know from point A to point B and ah there's an island in between and there's stuff and you can build stuff. And you can you know I wanted to try to create a situation where they could be creative to to to meet whatever goals they were gonna get to. But i you know it was all, I had a because I was, you know, DMing for 12 year olds, there were certainly there were there were very wide margins for error, kind of like, so I could get get them back on track. But that was yeah, I think anything where you can, um if you have a plan to get in and out anything that you can um give them to
01:20:13
Speaker
ah figure, you know, figure things out and be creative on their own. And and actually, you know what, I say I've never DM'd, but, um, I have GM'd honey heist about half a dozen times. Uh, I always forget about that honey heist. This is a little like one page game, uh, where you, you roll to find out what kind of bear you are and what kind of hat you wear. And then you roll and you roll what kind of what job you have of of like six ah Different jobs, you know, you know heist like are you the driver are you the are you the face man? Are you the you know, whatever? um and then it's You're you're basically you're a bear who's a criminal
01:21:01
Speaker
and um you have to ah you know anytime you fail at one or the either being a bear or being a criminal you go you move toward the other and you can't like in your score and you can't go all the way to one or the other or else you know if you go all the way to criminal you flick everybody over and you leave and go all the way to bear you kill everyone but you're still a bear right um so that to to get yourself back if you're if you're going to criminal you have to drink some honey and then you get back to being a bear a little bit more. But if you if you get to bear then you have to improv a scene where it's part of the planning that you did the night before about what whatever it is you just screwed up um was part of the plan.
01:21:54
Speaker
like that's part of That's all part of the twist. um and i fucking I loved that game. Actually, I designed a scorecard. i'll put it up on I'll put it up tomorrow on Blue Sky, if I remember, so that people could play it easily. It's a free game. It's one page. It's great. but i think the other In answer to the actual question, I think the other the other side of that is maybe yeah a heist. like just ah you know If you can create the parameters of like um you're here, the thing you want is there, there's bip, bip, bip, bip, that you've got to get through, go. It's probably a great one shot, you know, in any game system. Well, Tom, ah we could talk about role-playing games.
01:22:42
Speaker
for a lot longer, but we are out of time. So before- Four bears. Four bears, that's right. All of those topics are deep minds that we can dip into. So you'll just have to come back and talk more about these things. um But before we let you go, ah please tell our listeners where they can find you, how they can support ah Game Masters, ah and and where you they can find you if you wish to be found online. Yeah, for for Game Masters itself, ah right now we're getting people, we we haven't the the campaign hasn't started yet, it is gonna start very, very soon. We are being told by ah Clover and our PR people um that they want as many people on the waiting list as possible, um or like just to sign in at the at the Kickstarter page so you know when it goes to to get moving.
01:23:35
Speaker
And they were nice enough to sit set me up with a ah link that I could actually read on podcasts. So it's bit.ly slash game masters pod. um But to find me, we're on any of the social media where I will be screaming about this as soon as we actually go live with it. um I am Tom Fowler on blue sky. I am Tom Fowler art. on ah ah ah Instagram, I am Tom Fowler again on on on Kara, just Tom Fowler, it's not Tom Fowler again. I am no longer really on Twitter, but you can find me occasionally there at Tom Fowler bug. um But I'm, you know, nine times out of 10, you can just Google Tom Fowler. I'm the one that did not play bass for Frank Zappa.
01:24:28
Speaker
Tom, it is always a joy to have you on the show and to talk to you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much.
01:24:37
Speaker
Thanks once again to Tom Fowler for joining us. Definitely check out that Kickstarter campaign. I really want that GM screen with Tom's art on it. That sounds absolutely phenomenal. Yeah, that sounds like an important and good thing to exist and to have. For me. in particular for you in particular but for other people too for everybody Matt I know you don't think I deserve nice things the level of attack that is coming at me in this episode unbelievable a lot it's a lot I'm sorry ah yes thanks to Tom ah it's always great to have him on and hopefully we'll get to talk to him again real soon but
01:25:27
Speaker
This is the end of the episode. ah We will be back next week with another episode. I think it might be time to get raw. I think it might be. I think it might be time to get raw next week. If you would like to send us a raw moment for Thursday Night Raw or let us know you want to sponsor the show or drop us a listener question or get us in touch with us about whatever you want to get in touch with us about, You can email us at our email address, which is warrocketpodcast.gmail dot.com. We are on blue sky at warrocketajax.bsky.social. We are on tumblr at warrocketpodcast dot.tumblr dot.com.
01:26:12
Speaker
and Our Discord is by invitation only, but if you ask us for an invitation in any of those places I just mentioned, or go to our Patreon and message us there, ah we will send you an invitation to the Discord and you can join that lively community of War Rocket Ajax fans talking about all kinds of different things. There are so many active channels over there on the Discord. Even I can't keep up with them all, but but you could. ah So you should. Our website is warrocketajax.com and has every episode of the show we've ever done. warrocketwiki dot.com is the fan run place to get information, all the information you could ever want or need about this show, War Rocket Ajax. So go there and look at what's there.
01:27:06
Speaker
Read up on the show, contribute if you want to, ah because you can do that as well. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to MattDWilson.net to find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias. You can find all of those things there. Chris, where can people find you? Everybody can find me by going to THE-ISB dot.com. That is my website. It has links to where you can find me online and will be updated soon.
01:27:37
Speaker
Do you know it? Guaranteed. You know it, baby.
01:27:42
Speaker
ah That does it, Matt. We're going to be back next week with another great show. It's going to be a fun time. We hope you're there to join us. We hope we're here to join you. I'm sure we will be. And we hope for the future. We sure hope for the future. That cannot be denied. So until then, do not forget Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime. Cops aren't your friends. But we love you. We love you.