Transcript
Speaker: Hello
Speaker: I'm Jeff. da
Speaker: everyone and welcome to eberrod renew podcast where we play tt rpgs i'm jeff And I'm Phillip. I'm Mia.
Speaker: And I'm Eric. And as you might be able to tell, because i am the one introducing the episode, this is it going to be an Eberron reviewed episode where we look back over, in this case, the last 10 episodes.
Speaker: And we are actually going to jump right into question. Well, we'll do a quick recap and then we're going we have a lot of questions to get to, which is extremely exciting. Thank you all so much for putting in the questions. We would much rather answer those than talk about what we just did.
Speaker: So we are. In Lamania, now, and as it stands, we got there by following ah job to YARP slash JARP, depending on how much we want to upset Eric at any given time.
Speaker: where So YARP. Right. This is Largo Jones. Where the... The proximity of La Mania, the influence of La Mania has, among other things, the first thing we see is cause the vegetation to grow large.
Speaker: um Which leads me to my first question. Who's your favorite giant vegetable influencer on Instagram? Because I've learned from my son, that's a very real thing. My son follows several giant pumpkin growers on Instagram.
Speaker: Your son is the best. He's pretty it's pretty great. he He's pretty great. And the pumpkins are pretty cool. um Which led him to finding out some old British guy named Gerald who's who calls himself Big Veg Gerald. And that's awesome.
Speaker: I have actually heard of Big Veg Gerald. I didn't know it was a genre of influencer. Yeah, it's like a whole type of guy. Feel free to tell us in the Discord who your favorite big vegetable people are. call about Again, i for those of you who don't know, my my wife, Madison, who you've heard of, the reason she's not here is he because we had a baby a couple years ago. my brain is fried.
Speaker: and it's it's And he's wonderful. Eric's met him and liked him. Yes. Wonderful child. But a consequence of that is that I don't know what I'm doing right now. so I'm going to do my best to walk us through this recap. And please stop me when I screw up.
Speaker: But essentially, we find out that there is a questionable magistrate and that immediately, at least for Philip and I. if He's not questionable. We can't question him. well He's trapped in his house. That's a great point. Valk found a book.
Speaker: We found a way to question. It's just slow and tiresome. And then I took the book. But ah any time anytime there's like, well, you know, we've we've got a a guy who runs this town who you can't meet with. That'd be the to well, obviously we're going to have to find this guy and fight him and destroy him or humiliate him.
Speaker: ah One day Eric's going to really throw us from a loop by putting us in a town that is competently run by a, what by like, by a government that has the interest of its citizens and and at heart.
Speaker: Yeah. Where would the adventure be, Philip? Sure. you all could just have a holiday. bad things could be happening to the town eric doesn't have to start with the government with the with the people who run the town i would argue that the oh i forgot it again the zombie town oh yeah very competently run and like we got along we we met that's true the head of town initially they were happy we were there there were no ruffles in that relationship it was great in fact came back to you later with a new problem That's right. And that town leader, whole different ball game. Not a person, as it turned out.
Speaker: oh Jim, what was his name? Jim Johnson, something i was like that. It wasn't Jim Jones, I know that. Also turned... Bad leader. do so Boy, this is taking a turn already. i Yeah.
Speaker: Anyway...
Speaker: But we we do find out that the it turns out the magistrate is no more responsible for what's going on than any of the townspeople. He is also under the influence of whatever is happening.
Speaker: We, the Wandsmiths, it turns out, are actually the issue as they have been traveling into the woods to, under the direction of of the magistrate, right?
Speaker: yeah Yeah. And they are causing the disturbances that are causing the Lamonian issues in the town.
Speaker: At some point, we find the death cult. Yeah, also there's a death cult. Also there's the the the the and extra planar forge run by, not Doric. i don't have my notes pulled up Yeah, you would think I would have my notes prepped when we go. yes Again, my notes are all from Kaz's point of view, so there are swabs of things that are not in them.
Speaker: um Because I'm trying to keep them. It is Doric. It is Doric, okay, great. Morin, I'm sorry, Morin owns the forge. Doric is his brother. Yeah.
Speaker: Brother was the vibe I was going with the whole time. Doric front of house. Warren's Forge, who... Yeah. Okay. We keep... and There's ah a druid named Vashen who has a thing for bugs.
Speaker: Giant bugs and a big frog. A battle toad. And all of these things culminate in Valk convincing us not to go into the woods. and then Before learning that we must go into the woods. right Eventually, finally, we end up in the woods, which shuns stuff shunts us directly into Lamania.
Speaker: We have male Devitalis along with us. Yes, and her dog, who is named... Varna. With three I's. Well, just two A's.
Speaker: and three eyes. I was focusing on the upsetting part. And that is a lot of stuff yeah that I glossed over because I can only remember keywords right now. You're good. That's good.
Speaker: In La Mania, we have met... Vrail, who has a vast mark of handling and a spirit wolf called Balinor. Yes. in Which we kind of just brushed over because there was too many other things going on. Yes. And eagle-eared listeners did pick up on that and mention it in our Discord. Yeah.
Speaker: Speaking of our discord, if you would like to ask us questions about the ARGs to get onto the reviewed episodes, you can do so in our discord, which you can find in the description of the episode in whatever podcast user you listen podcast client you're listening on right now.
Speaker: Um, it's a really fun community. It's just, it's very active. You know, we have. It's not just about the show. a lot of people talk about their home D&D games, the characters that they're building, board games, movies, books, food, and all sorts of other things. It's ah it's so it's a great little community.
Speaker: So we would love to see you there. Now, okay, so we're going to assume that everything I said about the Discord made it through, and we're just going start with questions. Our first question. My lights go out. Our first question comes from Flame on the Discord.
Speaker: And... And he wants to know, do you guys ever listen to the intro song before starting a session? I don't. Nope. no I didn't know there was an intro song.
Speaker: You got to try the podcast sometime, Mia. It's pretty good. I was told I didn't have to. It's true, you don't. I will i will admit to regularly when we are done with the session singing the Campaign 1 closeout theme song.
Speaker: Campaign 1 theme song it still firm firmly stuck in my head. du dilu to do delete do to to Well, we'll never use that one again because that's why half of Campaign One isn't on Spotify anymore because for some reason that song got flagged. So, yeah, if you try to listen to go back and listen to our old stuff, ah Spotify is not the place for Campaign One, just so everyone knows. So find somewhere else.
Speaker: Yeah, I had no idea. Although that, I mean, that's definitely a... Creative Commons song, right? you cop it's Or at least it's a Kevin MacLeod song for sure. Yeah. Yeah. i I did the dispute. I got denied. And that was the end of the path for me. So, well, there you go.
Speaker: he said If you can't trust Spotify to do the right thing, who can you trust, right? Speaking of Kevin MacLeod and theme songs, Darren asked, what artist does the intro song come from? Eric? I told i told folks before we hit record, i was so deep in the weeds trying to find a bluesy, gothic theme song. And it took me so long and I was so bound and determined to not use AI to generate anything because that's bad.
Speaker: And so as soon as I found something that was royalty free and in Creative Commons, I grabbed it and then proceeded to forget where I found it. So I do not know. And I'm very sorry.
Speaker: If any of you come across it, let us know. Yeah. we plum this All right, Steve asks, this is a complicated question that I'm not going to be able to put an answer to.
Speaker: At this point, it's pretty clear we're having a Sovereigns and Six, Dragonmark and Plane matchup situation. There are 13 Planes, 13 Dragonmarks, and 15 Sovereigns slash Dark Six members.
Speaker: Who do you think is getting left out? My vote would be the Shadow... And then he gives his is thoughts. um So who who of the Sovereign slash Dark Six are would are left out of this... like I'm not saying that we have to give credence to Steve's theory.
Speaker: The ramblings of a madman, if you ask me. I mean, ah the only one I feel confident about is the Traveler. Just because the Travelers are are missing item in most circumstances. i don't yet know.
Speaker: what the connection will be in terms of Dalcor and the Mark of Death. But I assume the Traveler is one of them. I don't know what the other one would be. Yeah, I i just simply don't know well enough. I agree with the thoughts on the Traveler.
Speaker: When I was flirting with the idea of playing a cleric, I learned a lot about the Traveler and I learned a lot about...
Speaker: Now I can't remember who else. It was one of the... doesn't matter. Anyway. The Sovereigns of the Darkstuffs. It was one of the Sovereigns, and I cannot remember the name, though. It was... I'll pull him up real quickly, and I'll be able to tell you.
Speaker: Oddly enough, i've almost have I have never played a character that focused any to any religious and activities, particularly on one of the Sovereigns. Aeris had a kind of a thing for the Traveler, but that was...
Speaker: kind of idle. the the non The non-pantheon religions in Eberron who always been more interesting to me. Oladra, because I was thinking of like a bardish cleric kind of thing. That's who it was.
Speaker: I just couldn't remember the name. If I were to guess, that one would stay in because it seems like it'd be fun for Eric to come up with a storyline around. so Isn't that the name we've seen associated with the lady in the Feywild that Kaz is associated with.
Speaker: i got that wrong. That was Boldray. Boldray. Okay. Not bad. Eric, would you like to abstain from answering this one? ah You know, I can give my thoughts. I think you're crazy.
Speaker: So there you go. And now I'll pass it over to Mia. Oh, we've gone through this before. I can't contribute to anything that would regarding theory or bullshit. I don't go here.
Speaker: I'm a personality hire. And you do it well. It's fantastic. Sure. Okay, Flame continues on with this. Assuming it's accurate, Eric, do you kind of have an overarching canon for all of the campaigns, or are they kind of separate cosmos? I mean, obviously, Bellashira, well, I guess we can't say for sure that he's going to show up in campaign three, but...
Speaker: I mean, like I, with the, with the multiverse hopping kind of thing that we flirted with in campaign two, obviously there is an overarching like multiversal canon that I have in my head.
Speaker: um and also to, to be clear, it is very much confined to like the Eberron renewed verse fans of the laughing tree family of podcasts. I don't take those into consideration for any of the, my hijinks. Yeah.
Speaker: Do you want me messing with your characters? Just kidding you, Harge. You see what I do? But they they all have slightly different cannons in terms of how different aspects of the world operate just because there are things that were true in campaign one that are not true in campaign three that in order to try and like circle those squares would break my head. So yeah, some of the stuff is just a little bit different, but they do connect. Okay.
Speaker: Steve asks, it's been a while since someone asked this. So now that we've been with our characters for this long, how do we feel about them? If you could rewind back to the start, are there things you would add or remove either narratively or mechanically?
Speaker: I'm happy to start. I still very much enjoy playing Kaz. I'm having a blast with Kaz. I think if I were to go back... I mean, mechanically, obviously, I mean, it's a new system that I was still learning. So there are little little things here and there. like But Eric has let me change things along the way as well. Like, he cha let me change one of my talents so I have that cleric spell now, which is great. But I think I would, if I had to do it again, I don't want to change the trajectory it's on. i think it would have been interesting for him to have put more of an emphasis on how do i get back in touch with people from my past? So maybe there would be somebody...
Speaker: Already. i don't want to change that now. You know, obviously there there are things that Eric and I have talked about that are going to get Kaz's earthbound past back into his life again. But I think maybe...
Speaker: chasing that up maybe even like in our prologues that we did maybe having something consequential there from his past his pre a pre-thelonus life but other than that i'm very i'm loving kaz i've i've been very lucky to have been really happy with all three of the characters that i've played on this before including thorin obviously characters that i played on this show so I probably should have regrets, but I'm not introspective enough for that. So i'm going to say yes.
Speaker: I'm still very pleased. i I wouldn't have anything to change. i think any of my issues is mechanics-based, and just one in particular.
Speaker: But that's a different conversation. i but I think a lot of what Valk is has... unironically and a little spooky fallen in place naturally without me even realizing it so there's a lot of um influences that like i'll decide something that is cool and then i'll be like oh that actually was already in place uh a long time ago so i very much enjoy the
Speaker: piecemealed character that they are. I'm trying to think of something, thing but again, the the the kind of the beauty of having a character that is but shattered in every way possible is that you have to just pick up the pieces and go with it. So.
Speaker: They're cool. I guess like Jeff, I would probably have had more opinions about my prologue scene if I'd known Nyx better at the start and and made it there. Like, I guess what I mean is I don't, I, Philip, have no idea how we get from the end of Nyx's prologue scene to Nyx works for the lighthouse. Like, I have no idea what the connection is or how that brought her to Javier's attention or or anything like that. So with more foreknowledge, I'd have probably worked with Eric on that design a little differently than I did just because I didn't quite know who Nyx was yet. Right.
Speaker: I'm not, I never feel like I'm playing the class well in this system so far. ah feel like I'm playing the demonologist as a very effective fighter. Right.
Speaker: And it's working. Nyx can really wreck places. Yeah, we appreciate her fighting abilities. Like, it's... I'm not unhappy with the results of Nyx in a fight, but I'm i not sure that I'm really playing the flavor of the class well, especially because where we are narrative layer at, and Nyx is very reluctant to summon things into existence.
Speaker: Yeah. which is not the first time that I've put my character in a narrative spot where they are reluctant to access the full range of powers. But also it's sometimes, it's very hard sometimes to give up the opportunity to hit something with a sword, which she does very, very well in exchange for pulling a demon into into the battle.
Speaker: So that's, yeah. So I guess I have some dissatisfactions with with how she's working mechanically, but that's not really like not a big thing for me, but yeah, the, the prologue is probably the biggest thing I would, I would try to work. I like, I like who Nix is. I'm interested as I understand a little bit more of why she is who she is.
Speaker: I'm interested in exploring a little more of, of backstory. I really enjoyed Eric introducing another reliquor tiefling way back very early that was a really interesting relationship to discover and i i think that would be fun to see more of so you know things like that i might have i might have fleshed some of that out but then i wouldn't have had this opportunity for eric to create a cool little npc that made me realize something about nix including the fact that apparently she fakes her accent um so
Speaker: Yeah, i'm I'm enjoying discovering the character as we go, as I did with Aeris. And so that's that's been fun. But it' some little mechanical things, yeah but are more fixed with the system than they are.
Speaker: Choices I made. i think now think a little bit more. I think I was way too excited to get into this. What's this crazy uncontrollable magic going to look like? When as interesting as that is, the time loss and the how is he going to fit back into society is a much more interesting story for a prologue.
Speaker: I would have had to be a little less like, oh what year is it? And a little more maybe been here for a minute, knew how long he'd been gone and dealing with that, possibly. I, I, one thing that I will, I will say, speaking to like some of Mia's stuff with the mechanics and also just broadly speaking, and this isn't to say like things happen, communication falls through.
Speaker: I had thought that we were going to have a lot more of like a partnership with Pelgrine press of utilizing this system specifically with their second edition launching. So when people were making their characters, I was much more married to only using first edition or first party content.
Speaker: And i wouldn't have been that way as evidenced by the fact that now people have dipped into third party content. So that is something that I would have changed. Also, Philip and I have talked extensively on another show about how we have both kind of fallen out of love with the 20 sided polyhedral in general. So I'm enjoying the variety of classes in this system and stuff like that. I think.
Speaker: all things being equal without like getting married to 13th age and and the possibility work with pell green press maybe would have picked a non-d20 system uh for this campaign but who's to say so yeah those are the only things at this point in the campaign looking at and that i would change but yeah What would you have done differently if you had known that the only moderately functional adult in the party would have to would have to go part-time ah it's partway through the campaign?
Speaker: You know? i mean, obviously, Jeff and Madison making the decision to have a child throws a wrench into my life more than anyone else. So, um yeah.
Speaker: But... So you're going heel turn on both podcasts. That's that's what you decided is just, yeah. I'm going to start making my villain era come to fruition. So buckle up, everyone.
Speaker: Madison had made it very clear to me, at least, that Jeff and Madison were going to have a child long before she got invited to be on this podcast. Or at least that the intention was there. Hey, just look at this way. Every heel turn that I've seen an internet content creator make has been very lucrative for them. So we're all about to make more money. You know,
Speaker: here yes Eric's entering his grifter era. All right, let's move on. Nathan asks, like no, Philip, both in and out of character. Why is Nick's a teetotaler? Okay, so out of character, i i said that with no anticipation of saying that.
Speaker: Like I i didn't. I didn't even remember which adventure it specifically came up in, but there was some point where Nyx was offered, where I just decided that Nyx was going to order water.
Speaker: And and it just it just stuck. in In character, as I thought, why why does that decision make sense? I think it's a couple of things.
Speaker: I think there is some I have decided that growing up in ReliCorps was like being at an extremely strict religious boarding school ah to at least some degree. And so I think there's a lot of old self-discipline habits that are hard to kick.
Speaker: But I think Nix has for a long time worried a lot about any loss of control. And so getting drunk is inevitably a loss of control.
Speaker: And so it is a sort of safety reaction for her to avoid things where she can.
Speaker: That will we lost control and then. in the up episode where where she does drink, it's self-medicating like it's numbing like something's gone very wrong for her and she needs to is all done, which is itself another argument for not drinking. But um but yeah, so that's that's kind of the the the the tension that I see in it now is that on the one hand, Nyx is very afraid of losing control. And on the other hand,
Speaker: When she does overdo it on her abilities, i mean going and getting drunk is a way of numbing the what what that does to her internally.
Speaker: so All right. Emily asks Philip, during the train fight, Nyx was forced to see the corpse of the person she cares for the most. You have it out if you don't want to share this yet, but who who does Nyx see?
Speaker: Yeah, I don't want to share this fully yet. Okay, so full disclosure, at the moment when Eric asked me that, I don't... I had to go back and try and find this in my notes.
Speaker: At the moment when Eric asked me that, I don't know that I really knew who it was. I reacted appropriately and and filed it a way to work out. it's I have landed on it has to do with...
Speaker: why Nyx ran away from Relicor. is that That is as far as I will say, because I don't know that it won't come up. It might never come up, and then you can ask me at the end of the campaign and I'll explore i'll say something more more full. But that's that's as far as I'll go so that it can still be a a story thing if it happened if we come back around to that. Okay.
Speaker: Question for all the players. Do you have any theories that you haven't shared yet because your character is unlikely to come up with them? I have some thoughts. I don't think Kaz would have the thought yet about where he fits into the path of the... so Like, what divine machinations led him here considering that Boldre is his main contact in Thelanus?
Speaker: But Kaz is so... tossed around by the sea right now and just kind of going where he ends up that don't think he's, he sat down and thought, thought about it as much as I have.
Speaker: Um, and he probably knows just slightly more than I do about these things, frankly. So, but I have, I have some thoughts about that. And then the stuff that everybody's put together, you know, based on questions we've had earlier and things, i mean, Eric has also made some things very explicit that I don't think Kaz has thought deeply enough about that. I obviously have because I've had more downtime than Kaz.
Speaker: So about the connection between bunkers and the sovereign and all of that sort of stuff. So most of mine, in terms of the big thing we've been learning about, most of mine have to do with trying to work out when those recordings are coming from ah in in the timeline of Eberron to the degree that the timeline in the um in the the world book is the one for this timeline.
Speaker: And I Nix would absolutely have no reason to have any kind of theory, any kind of theory about that. So that's that's really the main one. Most of most of what my theories, most of my theories earlier have either been confirmed or disproved by as we've learned more about the more from the recordings especially with with the most recent couple that have been much more informative and then I've got no useful theories but I've got some wild speculations about the relationship between this lighthouse and the one that what's his face came from in campaign 2 all I want to do is say Kaz now and it's not Kaz Kazian Cassian Cassian caian Cassian yeah yeah I
Speaker: The way I've kind of washed that away is... No, I don't think that... So... Let's see. Valk doesn't care enough about himself to include himself in that bigger picture.
Speaker: So he's not fully paying attention unless it's something directly relevant to what he is searching for. I think that showed the most whenever there was recording with the shard versus the um not furnace thing, the forge where the priority was more of the forge in that connection with him than whatever vague historical information is going on soon though.
Speaker: I do not All right. is For everyone, what was your first experience or oldest remembered experience with role-playing games? A friend of mine, let's see, I guess I would have been in middle school and a friend of mine at church a couple of times would would have me over at his house after church and he was playing the original Baldur's Gate.
Speaker: And i remember basically sitting on his couch, watching him play that. And so I think that's my oldest RPG memory. Yeah. Mine is a nicer little Republic. I rented that from blockbuster and that consumed my life for a good little chunk of time.
Speaker: And yeah, that was at least the first thing I can recall with a role-playing game. So yeah. Mine is the unfortunate younger cousin that we don't want hanging around us while we go do things that we're not supposed to.
Speaker: So I was literally just given a Game Boy with Pokemon and told to like sit there and then I looked up and everybody was gone. But I was like, it's it's fine. I have a Charmander named Baby. This is my life now, my lifelong commitment.
Speaker: Fun fact, I stayed up all night watching Eric play Knights of the Old Republic the night before finals of my freshman year. It's true. That was bad decision.
Speaker: that was a great decision. You graduated. I don't know. Probably an Assassin's Creed game. Maybe if GTA three counts, it was GTA three.
Speaker: If that is, i don't know if that's more just open world sandbox or an actual role-playing game, but I think probably I will ask though, just in case this was the intent, what was your first TT RPG experience? Because i will and until you guys started saying video games, that's what I had been thinking of as the answer for this.
Speaker: um And so i was mine was, i was going to say the Geek Pantheon podcast, but it was actually one night Eric came over and ran a group of our friends through the end of the world zombie apocalypse.
Speaker: We didn't get very far into it, but if if you're not familiar with that game, you play yourself, you have the things that are on you at the time, and the game starts in the situation that you're in at the time. So the game started...
Speaker: at my house with a handful of our friends are around a table. The kicker being also with my then five-year-old son asleep in the back of the house when the zombie apocalypse started, which made the game much different than I think it would have been otherwise. We were much more focused on safety than cavalier fighting zombies because a Ferris was there.
Speaker: so And also no one wanted to kill... The premise is the GM who's also at the house has to get infected first. So you kill him so he can run the game instead of playing himself. And no one wanted to kill Eric, but I bravely stepped up and took care of it. So with a with a broken broom handle. Yeah. Mine, I think I shared this with Philip. It was the same game, correct? Unless you played before of D&D 4th Edition with our mutual friend pestering us long enough to actually try out this TTRPG thing.
Speaker: And then we did. And we both played it like it was a role-playing game video game and were terrible players for our poor first-time GM. ah Yes. Yeah, I believe that is. um A friend of mine had a TTRPG and was showing it to me one time when I visited him. like After we had moved away, I i had managed to go over and visit him. But we didn't get around to playing. So i yeah, I think it's probably that first fourth edition game.
Speaker: I think... I don't know if you would count this. I wasn't technically playing. But I was with my brothers. They were playing.
Speaker: And then they would just like randomly ask me questions. And I would respond. And then I was just one of the NPCs. Awesome. so that' like That's amazing. I love it. I technically played, but I was not...
Speaker: At the table, again. i think that counts. Her sister. And the Game Boy. Like a pizza. and She's fine. so Was that first game, Philip, your first version of Drakir? Or was that at a later date?
Speaker: I think that was the first character named Drakir that I played, yes. I'm sorry. There have been other Drakirs aside from my Drakir. don't like this.
Speaker: So... I think this was in a conversation with now my wife and my girlfriend that like a a cheap way to create a fantasy name is to ah reverse your name.
Speaker: My first name doesn't work for that at all. i help but my But my middle name is Richard, which reverts, which reverses to Dracir.
Speaker: And so that as a just random fantasy name has flitted around in my head for a long time. And I believe my Dragonborn Paladin of the Raven Queen in Brad's game was my was the first Dracir.
Speaker: who The role-playing bit was he would have very elaborate thoughts about a situation. That was a different character. Oh, that was a different character? That I did to you. He had a character that would have very elaborate thoughts about situations, but Philip would end it with, but says nothing.
Speaker: So just yeah a gem a gym to role-play with. Yeah. yeah yeah Eric, would it actually be more true to say my first experience with TTRPGs was making fun of you leaving Sunday night football games to go play your weekly your monthly Pathfinder? To go to what you all thought was a Bible study because I said have to go Pathfinder? What we called Bible study because it was Sunday nights and it was called Pathfinder.
Speaker: So he used to regularly doing oh, scrimps at Bible study tonight. He's not going to come watch the game. That's pretty funny. Yeah. Nathan continues, what would a, and they lived happily ever after to the end of their days look like for your character?
Speaker: What he was already doing, but whole. Psychologically healthy at a museum. hi Man, I don't know what the answer to this is for Nyx because her life got derailed pretty early.
Speaker: I really don't know how to answer that. I certainly don't know how Nix would answer it. Yeah, I think I would disagree with how Kaz would answer it. Like, I, being who I am, some sort of reconciliation with family, like, going to his parents, that, Kaz cannot imagine that going well and being happily ever after. But I, like, you know, as a dad particularly, would be, like, doing that. I think Kaz might think it's following this trajectory that he has now, being a part of this and
Speaker: I think CAD is the most, of our group, and please forgive me if I'm wrong, is the most optimistic about the Lighthouse Society of like, we're doing a good thing and making a difference. And what we're doing here is important because we're protecting people from whatever, whatever. And that's part naivety of being young and part of having such a
Speaker: Being so scared of his extra planar experience because he doesn't have a memory of it, I think, together kind of does that. So I think his happily ever ever might be, oh, Lighthouse Consortium goes great, and I'm there forever.
Speaker: i I never move out of Athelfop the Matheter. I guess um thinking on it in in terms of what what I think... it I guess it would be, i think core is Nix's happily ever after. Like Nix doesn't want to be like live on a farm in peace or, or, you know, there's absolutely no one in her sphere that she wants to settle down with.
Speaker: But being a competent person who knows when violence actually is the answer and protects a group of people so they don't have to.
Speaker: Like basically what what core was to Whatever the town was, I never remember the name of the first dadgum town. Kernville. i know that i don't know that Core had an official job, but whatever Core's job was in Kernville, I think that's Nix's ideal job.
Speaker: um Because most of the time, it's not a zombie apocalypse. Most of the time, it's, oh, there's bandits on the road. I will go stand on the road and they will leave. And that 1.1% of the time it's a zombie apocalypse. It's like, can you imagine? Can you believe that happened?
Speaker: Yeah. Okay, Mia. Emily would like to know, does Valk harbor lingering resentment towards Nyx? Or if that's too strong a word, is Valk genuinely concerned about Nyx hurting someone again?
Speaker: Or was that all just a guilt trip so Nyx would stay quiet ah when you started lying to the party? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: I'm sorry, guys. I lied because I wasn't paying attention. and I just went with it. Yes. amazing i I'm paying attention. But for the first two, I think it there's, and I can't even say, like, I want to say it's a fundamental misunderstanding because I'm playing Valk.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: You're looking at what they said from a position of somebody who is near more. Valk said that, so there's no resentment, and Valk has already clarified that at least two times. Though naturally, i mean, if somebody stabs you and that person is beside you with a knife again, going to have some sort of hesitation.
Speaker: um that's That's just... biological um but Valk said that as more of a call out of concern that we are severely underprepared going into a space where we've already had records of some level of mind alteration and the person that protects us all the most just said she got three hours of sleep
Speaker: So that's not smart for the group. It's also not healthy. you know
Speaker: That's why Vox said that. It's not any sort of resentment. It's just a very backwards way of attempting to show some sort of concern or care and then making it worse and then just being quiet and so like along until it goes away again.
Speaker: That's where Nix and Valk are on the same page.
Speaker: Chris asks, if the characters could choose one cuisine to eat for the rest of their lives, what would it be? I've given so little thought. I'll go first because I've given so little thought to what Nix actually likes to eat. Nix orders the plainest thing on the menu everywhere we go.
Speaker: purely out of spite. No, I'm Philip. Philip's spite. activities sometimes it's Nick's like sometimes Eric brings over this person who is like bringing Chuck E. Cheese energy to my D&D Tavern and Nick's hates that guy. But but yeah, often it's often it's it's Philip. But but since it's cuisine and I can speak more broadly,
Speaker: ah Nix was young in Thrain. My understanding is Thrain does kind of like spicy peppers and things like that. And so ah depending on what variety of spicy pepper-based cuisine Eric prefers for his Thrain, I guess that's going to mean Nix is doing either something curry-based or something like Tex-Mex or Latin.
Speaker: um That would probably be Nix's go-to. Yeah. Philip hopes it's not curry-based because the texture of that really gets at me. but I think Kaz's would be kind of like your richer comfort foods, like you know pot roast, kind of stuff like that. like it's It's got that kind of comfort, heart healing.
Speaker: But he grew up with little bit of money before all of this, and so would be kind of the higher end of those sorts of things. Foie gras. Yeah, like I was going to say, he's having grouse and...
Speaker: you know Which is, I mean, not high end if you're a place where you can go out and hunt grouse, but if you're going to a restaurant, it's a little harder to come by. Things like that. There is a, there's actually, there's a.
Speaker: A Michelin star restaurant in London that I follow on all the social media is called Fallow. They do a really great educational as series in addition to just showing off the amazing food that they make. And pretty much everything they make, I'm like, that's the stuff. That's where I want to be. And Kaz and I have that in common. so It's not like a...
Speaker: known cuisine. It's a known cuisine. That's right. There are they are ah these blackberry dumplings. They're called walakshi. They're very yummy and they're sweet, but it's like ah it's like a fruit dumpling. um it Sounds great.
Speaker: That would probably just eat that. but Yeah, i want I would also like to try that. You can. Yeah, no, I just got to track it down or ask you where you... um yeah Okay, Nathan wants to know from Phillip and I, have any students or other teachers or administrators at your schools listened to the show?
Speaker: Do they know you play TTRBGs? And then I quibble with this last question. Do they know your niche celebrities? i mean, he said niche. It's a it's a very very small niche. A niche is not a large space. We appreciate the niche.
Speaker: We love the niche. We're thankful. We are guests of honor occasionally at a convention. That is true. No, my students don't know about it. I've had few students in the past put it together ah and like maybe try one episode and decide it wasn't for them.
Speaker: But no, I don't talk to my students about the podcast because i that's that's That's me time, that's Jeff time, not Mr. Forsey time. And I do not want to have to defend things I do on the podcast to my students during the day.
Speaker: a but I have told my colleagues about it. Some of them have tried it. although earlier this Earlier this year, well, this calendar year, last school year, I said something about the podcast. And one of my very close colleague friends who we worked together for like seven years, was like, you're on a podcast?
Speaker: like, yeah, man, have been the entire time we've known each other. So I rarely tell people about the podcast. My very supportive wife tells many more people about the fact that podcast.
Speaker: I don't, I've never told any of my current students. Some of my former students know, you don't know if any of them continue to listen or not, but have have tried some, I think.
Speaker: And then my, but as far as like, do they know I play TTRPGs? Yes. My school, most of my students do. The admin does. I teach, I teach today at a religious school. And so one year.
Speaker: While we were on a retreat with a student, our principal got an email from a parent who was concerned that some students had been playing D&D at the school and wanted to know the school's thoughts on that. And he looked up and turned to me, you play D&D, right? Like, yep. He's like, just got this email.
Speaker: I don't know anything about it. Is it evil? So i got to I got to talk about that. That was fun. So yes, people at my work are aware that I play. My students are aware that I play. Many of them play and we're able to figure it out quickly just by things that I say sometimes.
Speaker: But I don't tell the but the podcast. just Just some former students. he One of my coworkers is on the other podcast, so... As far as, I think they know that Philip is a niche celebrity just by the way he carries himself.
Speaker: so' celebrity yet i'm a least I'm a niche celebrity at work. I've been in several community theater productions in Shawnee, so. was going to say, you yeah, you you and Eric are niche celebrities in there. Yeah. yeah I'm the teacher with the swords.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah, I'm the one whose classroom always always smells, you know, because it's the food class. So, yeah, like, in fact, today we made food and everyone makes a point to walk by cooking days.
Speaker: Okay. Our last sample of questions come from Laura and they ask, bright souls day when the group said Valk could have a friendly face available whenever they wanted it.
Speaker: Valk said not exactly. What was the meaning of that? I assume we were making a joke about changeling abilities. I don't remember.
Speaker: I'm trying to. I assumed it was because Valk has some sort of fixed personas.
Speaker: Where is it I thought it was because Valk tries not to make any of their personas approachable. Was that about Changelings or was that about the people he knows?
Speaker: I recall the joke, and I'm fairly certain it was about changelings, is that someone, it was something putting on a friendly face, and the joke was about could literally put on a friendly face.
Speaker: But I don't remember the context of the rest of the conversation. That might have just been a a general aversion to having to change. Mostly because that's like,
Speaker: It's something I mentioned before. It's it's like ah almost a battling between that being your natural ability that you can do and that's something that you should embrace and that's something that I mean, that's just what you are, but also, like, the history behind it from at least the four pages of the wiki I read. it it would also tie into a lot of forced assimilation an erasure of changelings and having to appear as someone else in order either to make people feel comfortable or to literally, like,
Speaker: not be wiped out um so that might have been it at that time if i were to answer that now i think it's just Vauk's other appearances um are often influenced by the people that he knows, and there's maybe a handful of people who have been genuinely positive influences.
Speaker: on his life and in changing and trying to fulfill a role or whatever situation or whatever face that needs to be it might not always be ah person that he wants to associate with okay cool uh laura continues out of all the systems you've played for the podcast which one was the most fun and which one do you think is best for podcasting I think I had the most fun with Genesis, partly because I mean partly because i like very i designed a character that was going to be fun in Genesis. like Genesis is robust with its crafting abilities. It's like it's got all the little
Speaker: gadgetry and and gears that we're going to make playing in Artificer fun. So I think Genesis was was the most fun. don't know that it was the best one for podcasting.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree. I think I kind of have two different answers. The actual sitting down, rolling the dice, making decisions based on those roles, Genesis is the most fun to play.
Speaker: As far as my ability to play it though, It was 5e. i The character that I built was fun to play. I knew what I was doing a little bit more because there's a little more structure to it.
Speaker: um I enjoyed 5e. I honestly think the best system that lids itself really well to podcasting, and I will be clear, not the way I ran it,
Speaker: I think Kids on Bikes lends itself to podcasting very well. If you do it more the way that subsequent additions have had you play it, where you call out, where the the game master calls out the the role at the beginning, like, give me ah give me a Brains roll, gotta beat six. And then everyone knows what the stake is. I think that makes for a really fun, ah and it's still very open with what you can do, more like like Genesis is. So...
Speaker: I think that was overly well to podcasting and maybe we should try it someday. I don't know. I'm inclined to agree that Genesis was the most fun at the table to play. Um, and also it just made it it is equal parts more difficult and easier on a GM.
Speaker: because the players have so much ability to influence that there is very little utility in doing a lot of prep work for a session.
Speaker: There were just some times where i had enough of an outline to go, you know what? They're going to mess all this up anyway, so let's go. And that was a lot more forgiving in Genesis than I think 5e or 13th age allows for.
Speaker: In terms of best for podcasting, I think the best that you have to ask answer, what do you mean? If you want your podcast to be successful, fifth edition. I...
Speaker: I think the mechanics of Genesis were a bit of a barrier early on in campaign too, but I think the end result, I think how much fun we were all having with the system and the characters and just how zany Genesis as a system can be that we like bits developed outside of any of our influences, like the Ram constantly kicking the door in.
Speaker: of just being like, well, a couple of despair got rolled. And the only thing I have in my back pocket is the ram's going to kick the door in. um And so stuff like that, I think makes for a really fun podcast. So yeah.
Speaker: Mia, I don't know why you do this to me. I'm doing nothing wrong. Yeah, I agree with that. I think about Genesis as far as the unpredictability, making for quality entertainment to an observer.
Speaker: I think my kids on Bicing is more just about crunch. Like which one's the easiest to listen to is maybe something that's that that quick and simple. Okay, Laura asks, if Randy was in this campaign, what do you think his character would be like?
Speaker: some little psychopath i feel like he'd be small yeah i can tell you he would have been a rogue because he did start building a character for this campaign before he made the decision to uh to step away right well let's see he's been a halfling and he's been a goblin so it's not gonna be a gnome it's gonna be a kobold he'd have been kobold rogue that's bet that would have been fine so he could do a voice Yeah.
Speaker: Crazy voice, kobold rogue, some sort of absolutely insane story. Somehow lovable. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I don't know what, what plane he'd be tied to.
Speaker: Yeah. I don't think we made it that far. to His character. Cause he, he did a fire thing before, so he wouldn't do for any. Yeah. I dunno.
Speaker: yeah i Maybe Kithri? Chaos? like Okay, yeah yeah yeah. Whether he meant to or not, would be chaos. It would be fun. can say that much.
Speaker: Yeah. And Eric, here's a question I think for you from Laura. Do you think this campaign will be even longer than campaign two and each campaign will be longer than the last until eventually we have like 500 episode campaigns?
Speaker: Kill me. No, I don't think that will be the case. I don't know how long this campaign is going to run. It's certainly, i think from a content standpoint, it's got a lot of legs. It's just a question of how the campaign like paces itself and progresses.
Speaker: So it it could be as long as campaign two, it might be the length of campaign one. I don't think it'll be shorter. We're already nearing 100 episodes, and based on where we're out in the campaign, I can't see us wrapping it up in the next 40 episodes.
Speaker: So, yeah. But that's my take. All right. We could all get killed in Lamania. That's true. The campaign could just end in a CPK.
Speaker: We're not... Wait for a GM to just hit the reset button. yeah Whatever. I mean, we will never even come close to, like, Critical role in terms of runtime. So don't worry about don't don't anybody worry about that Our episodes are an hour and change at the longest so instead of four and a half hours and they have like what? 150 four-hour episodes for campaign one or something. It's insane Frankly bloated. um I'll say it too much Shrek It's too much Shrek
Speaker: And I enjoyed campaign one, but it was too much Shrek. And that's the last, what a wonderful note to end on. Critical role is too much Shrek. You heard it here first.
Speaker: I think we got the the the flagship of the next merch line. So there you go. All right. We will be back next week continuing our adventures in La Mania. Hope you enjoyed this one.
Speaker: My brain will come back eventually and we'll have more fun in Eberron. Until that time, if you would like to, like I mentioned earlier, the link for the discord is in the episode description on your podcast player. We would love to have you join us there as well as a link to the Patreon. If you would like to financially support what we do here, that would be wonderful.
Speaker: Follow that link. Take a look at what some of the perks are. Phillip, would you like to plug? Oh, yes. Also on YouTube and Spotify, you can find The Laughing Tree, where we have another podcast, actual play thing, which right now is the Queen's Blaze using Legend in the Mist, the thing that Eric and I have been enamored of recently.
Speaker: All right. Thank you so much for listening. We will catch you next week. Until then, I have been Jeff. I'm Mia. I'm Phillip. I'm Eric. And that is too much.
