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supply. Yeah!

1:02

What is going on, niche? Welcome back

1:05

to the FOD. It

1:07

is Wednesday, May 1st, 2024, and I'm

1:09

your old pal, Joe O'Brien. And I'm

1:11

Troy, a gray hoodie in a black

1:13

hat in the valley. Oh,

1:16

gray hoodie in a black hat in the valley. It's my

1:18

costume in life. That is your

1:20

costume in life. I think I saw a comment

1:22

on our recent class count, an episode that was

1:24

like, Troy, not in a hoodie? What's happening? Oh,

1:27

it was last week's episode, I think. Yeah, last

1:29

week's episode, I think. I was

1:31

looking through those sweet, sweet YouTube

1:33

comments. We'll mention a

1:35

few of those on the FOD today. Man, do we have a fantastic

1:37

show. We got a lot of news

1:39

as we return from the road. The road. We've

1:43

got an exciting lineup of live content coming on

1:45

Twitch this week. And

1:49

of course, we'll talk all about Hubert Hedge

1:51

and episode 2032 of Campaign 2. A

1:56

little bit of We Are Stupid and then a Chunky Listener

1:59

now. So let's get started. into it first of

2:01

all what on earth is happening it's

2:03

may it's may

2:06

it's gonna be may

2:08

it's gonna be my yeah

2:10

dude it's may which

2:13

is like just get through fucking four

2:15

months of ball sweat and cider

2:18

donuts and getting ready to fire

2:20

up the Christmas dude

2:23

can't believe you're

2:25

thinking about Christmas right now that is so funny every

2:27

day that goes by I'm like how many days till

2:29

Christmas start celebrating but

2:32

yeah dude it's May and we just got

2:34

back from what felt like a three-month tour

2:36

it was so strange I had a fantastic

2:38

night the first night in Kansas City with

2:41

my family like I discussed on the show

2:43

that I was gonna see and

2:45

when I got back on Sunday I told my

2:47

wife I said I feel like I saw them

2:49

a month ago like it felt

2:52

and it wasn't cuz it drug it

2:54

wasn't cuz it was bad or boring

2:56

it was great but it just felt

2:58

like it was such a journey I

3:00

know hard to explain it was our

3:03

first five day of the year because

3:05

then we just did a softball in

3:07

Toronto in and out day before day

3:09

after this one it's kind of

3:11

our common tours like we fly in on a Wednesday

3:13

we fly out on a Sunday and it

3:15

at times felt like it was going by crazy fast

3:18

but then also when you look back like I went

3:20

to the Royals game that night when I was

3:22

flying home Sunday morning I was

3:24

like that Royals game felt like two years

3:26

ago like the

3:28

time between days seems long

3:30

the time seems fast but then I'm like

3:33

I come home I'm so road-weary I've got

3:35

a new thing like Monday after we come

3:37

back I do as little work as humanly

3:39

possible because I'm not I'm

3:41

not in it I'd like to write it you'll

3:43

do bad work yeah I did no creative stuff

3:46

no recordings if I have any recording scheduled from

3:48

now through the end of the year I'm moving

3:50

them off Mondays because I've yet you know

3:52

work on this on Tuesday now yesterday I

3:54

was just like I need to do the

3:57

most perfunctory bullshit that like my brain doesn't

3:59

require energy for it because it really, dude

4:01

it takes so much out of me. Like

4:05

we went to a bar on Sixth

4:07

Street after the Austin show and

4:10

we go upstairs to like

4:12

the lounge area and people are just handing

4:14

me Bud lights. And that's, it

4:16

takes all my energy to just grab the Bud

4:18

lights. People are talking and I don't know if

4:21

they're talking to me. Like I can't, all

4:23

day long I'm just thinking about the show, doing the show.

4:26

And then I like turn on for the show and I

4:28

turn off and I don't know how to be a human

4:30

being after that. Like I'm like, I

4:32

feel so bad. Do you remember the famous? Someone's talking to

4:34

me and I can't have a conversation.

4:37

Do you remember the, I consider it famous

4:40

in the waiting line scene from

4:43

Garden State. That's the name of the song in

4:45

the waiting line. But it's like that kind of

4:47

trippy song and he's at like that party. A

4:49

party, yeah. And he's just sitting there and everything's

4:51

happening around him but he is not, like that's

4:53

what I picture. And we were literally on a

4:55

couch in that bar and I was talking to

4:57

Sydney and Kate and we

4:59

were, we were in this zone, we were fired

5:02

up and we were honestly just talking about Pathfinder.

5:04

Like we were talking about mechanics, class builds, all

5:06

this stuff, how we're using our abilities, how they're synergizing.

5:08

And I would look over and you were just like

5:10

staring off into space and like, and there were like

5:13

eight or nine people hanging out and nobody was talking

5:15

to you and you weren't talking to anybody. You were

5:17

just in like shutdown mode. This happens

5:19

for the show too. Like we'll have friends that

5:21

come backstage or like your family and Philly will

5:23

come by and I just feel so bad because

5:25

I'm like, they're gonna

5:28

think I'm a real wiener because I

5:30

cannot have a conversation. I just can't

5:32

and I feel bad because people are always excited to

5:34

see me or whatever. And I'm just like,

5:36

hey, hey, and I'm on another fucking planet.

5:39

It's just, it's weird. But anyways,

5:41

I come back and like all I do, wanna do

5:43

is just see my kids and my wife and then

5:45

like I have to go back to work on Monday

5:47

and I'm like, I go back to that zone and

5:49

be like, well, I have a job, what am

5:51

I doing? Yeah, I got in Sunday

5:53

and I, my wife was like, I assume you want

5:56

a nap. And I was like, yeah, that'd be amazing.

5:58

He's like, you know, I slept for three. hours. And

6:01

so I got a nap in and

6:03

slept hard and two hours later I

6:05

got up, forced myself

6:07

up, forced myself into the shower,

6:10

came downstairs. An hour after that I was still

6:13

like so exhausted. I couldn't do anything. I was

6:15

just like, I'm sorry, I can't help around the

6:17

house. Like because I wanted to like

6:19

paint this thing and I was like, I'm not doing

6:21

it today. Like I just so

6:23

completely spent. But yeah, it was a

6:25

fantastic trip. Kansas City barbecue

6:27

lived up to the hype. I had

6:29

burnt ends. They were amazing. Austin

6:32

was crazy. I was telling people like I was

6:34

in Austin a long time ago. And

6:36

this time I was like, this is what is this?

6:38

New Orleans, Nashville? Like it was amazing. Mardi

6:40

Gras? And we found the best way to

6:42

enjoy it the way we like to enjoy

6:44

things. You know, we're not like on a

6:47

bachelor party. Like we found a

6:49

way to enjoy Austin and it was the first time

6:51

I ever enjoyed Austin. Now I can't wait to go

6:53

back. Yeah. Oh man. It was and the theater was

6:55

great too. One of the best theaters we've ever played.

6:57

It was beautiful. Dude, the shows were fucking electric. You

6:59

know, I don't want to just sit here and direct

7:02

each other off. We'll do that after

7:04

the show. But

7:06

the shows were just like,

7:09

we're, we're, they're on another level.

7:11

There's something crazy, there's some crazy

7:13

like cosmic shit going on that

7:15

is creating an arena

7:18

for us to perform like two totally

7:20

different shows. One role

7:23

play. And I mean, they were just,

7:25

they were wild. They were really fun.

7:28

Well, it's good to be back. Time to get back

7:30

to work and we'll, we'll, let's go through some news

7:32

here in terms of what's upcoming. Our live content on

7:34

Twitch is going to be a chock

7:37

full this week and it starts today,

7:39

May 1st, as you are listening

7:41

as if you're listening to this early in the

7:43

day, we're going to be live at two o'clock

7:45

Eastern today with a glass cannon labs.

7:48

We haven't had a labs since deadlands

7:50

and now we've got another labs coming

7:52

today, two o'clock Eastern. Going to be

7:55

playing horn world, Jared's going to be

7:57

running it and horn world

7:59

for those. that don't know is a

8:02

system agnostic fantasy setting. Although, there are

8:04

system elements to it if you choose

8:06

to take it. However, on this particular

8:08

run, my understanding is Jared's going to

8:10

be running it in Pathfinder 2e. So

8:12

he'll be playing the Pathfinder 2e system in

8:15

the Horn World setting. And this

8:17

is in conjunction with a Kickstarter

8:19

that is just about to wrap

8:21

up for a new Horn World

8:23

release. So check that out. See

8:25

if you're interested. Yeah. Yeah,

8:27

so that's 2 o'clock today. Who's playing in

8:29

that? Yeah, it's going to be Jared

8:31

running Skid, Mary Lou, Paula, and

8:38

Clint. That's right. Yeah. And Clint.

8:40

And it's funny, because when I asked Jared to do

8:42

it, he's like, you know you've been a GM too

8:44

long when you're asked to be a Hornmaster. Because

8:48

Horn's been around since, I think it

8:50

came out as if it was an

8:52

agnostic fantasy campaign role playing setting in

8:55

83. And

8:57

then it had evolutions. And now there's

8:59

this whole system. And even the

9:01

Columbia Games, the publisher was like, you don't have to

9:04

learn the system. Just play it using either Pathfinder or

9:06

5e. We just want people to

9:08

learn more about the world. And it has

9:10

a very like, oh, it's our feel to

9:12

the way the art looks and the maps

9:14

look. And yeah, so I mean, Jared's

9:16

like, he texted me. And he was like, I'm ready.

9:18

Give me a cast. I was like, all right, give

9:21

me a second. So he's

9:23

excited. And it's going to be live too. So you never know

9:25

what the hell is going to happen. Truly

9:27

live. So that's going to be really fun. So check

9:29

that out on Twitch. And then tonight,

9:32

so it's going to be a back to

9:34

back. I'm actually going to do a night

9:36

video game stream. Tonight,

9:39

May 1, 8 PM Eastern. Also

9:41

twitch.tv slash the glass cannon. Going

9:44

to be playing a game I've heard a lot about from

9:46

the nation, different VIP hangs. People have been, have you played

9:48

this? Have you played this? Have you played this? And I

9:50

feel like it's time because, and this is little side dish.

9:54

You teased it last week. But

9:56

in a week, we are

9:59

not wanting to. We are heading into

10:01

the recording of getting the trunk season

10:03

six So we are about to start

10:05

that recording and I'm going to start

10:07

playing Control in in order

10:09

to prepare for this, you know about

10:11

control try control I don't I was

10:13

just when you said we're recording this

10:16

week. I was like, oh, I

10:18

need to cancel that recording I've

10:21

got too many recordings Control

10:23

ultimate edition is now out and I've never played

10:26

control See if this sounds familiar Troy and this

10:28

is I do not know what I'm talking about

10:30

This is my vague understanding and I'm going in

10:32

blind But control is the

10:35

name it's called like the Department

10:37

of Control and it is a

10:39

government Organization whose sole

10:41

purpose is to defend humanity

10:44

from supernatural threats so

10:46

it is such great fodder for

10:48

so to speak for Prepping

10:50

for Delta green and getting into the Delta green

10:52

zone and into that world and it's supposed to

10:55

be a spectacular story It's what it won an

10:57

IGN game of the year award. It won a

10:59

whole game It came out in

11:01

2019, but the ultimate edition was just released

11:03

which has Some updates

11:05

and all of the DLC all packed into

11:07

it. So I've heard about this game

11:09

for years It's been on my wish list for a

11:11

long time. So I'm pulling the trigger and trying it

11:13

out tomorrow night So or I

11:15

mean tonight so check that out eight o'clock

11:18

Eastern time then tomorrow I was thinking

11:20

about tomorrow Thursday the second you Troy

11:22

are going to be streaming on Twitch

11:24

TV at 2 p.m. Eastern

11:26

you took a week off but now it's time

11:28

to get back home and football I've taken longer

11:30

than a week off because I haven't played in

11:33

Preparation for our trip and then we went away

11:35

and like so I don't know I want to

11:37

get like an hour in before but now the

11:39

problem is like I used to get a little

11:41

time like after the Kids go to bed. I'd

11:43

like squeezing 10 minutes here 15 minutes there But

11:45

now with the Bruins and Celtics and playoffs I

11:47

use that time to like just watch as much

11:49

of that as I can before my wife and

11:51

I sit down to watch TV So I'm never

11:53

gonna finish this game dude. I'm never going

11:55

to finish this game Can I ask a

11:57

spoilery question a very very light spoilery question?

11:59

Yeah Do you ever see Baldur's Gate

12:02

in Baldur's Gate 3? Do you ever go to

12:04

Baldur's Gate? I think I'm in

12:06

Baldur's Gate, but I'm not 100% sure. Basically,

12:09

there's these guys in the final act

12:11

here, they're guarding this section, and I've

12:13

got to go fight the final boss.

12:15

And they're like, oh, if you pass

12:17

that gate, you're going to

12:19

have to fight the final boss. And I think that's

12:21

Baldur's Gate. I don't fucking know. I really

12:23

don't know. I have to pay attention to

12:25

the story. So

12:28

it really does feel like a tabletop RPG.

12:31

Yeah, especially the way I play. Well,

12:35

just excited overall about that lineup

12:37

of live content. Labs today, 2

12:40

o'clock Eastern. I'm doing a prime time

12:42

stream, a premiere of Control, tonight

12:44

at 8 o'clock and then tomorrow, Troy, 2

12:46

o'clock. Now, this won't be live, but

12:49

of course, you've got Glass Cannon Thursday night

12:51

at 8 o'clock, YouTube premiere. But

12:53

then on Monday, don't forget, is the

12:56

YouTube premiere of the finale of the

12:58

Blade Runner series, the Blade Runner series,

13:00

which I heard before episode one launched,

13:02

that episode three was unbelievable. So

13:05

yeah, this is specifically

13:07

from Paula Deming during a Blood of the

13:10

Wild recording. She was like, that episode three

13:12

was an unbelievable session.

13:14

So I can't wait for you guys to

13:16

see it. That's Monday night

13:18

at 8 PM Eastern. So that

13:21

does it for the news. Unless you have anything to add,

13:23

Troy, I'm going to jump right into the Glass

13:25

Cannon podcast, episode What

13:28

do you think? I'd say just keep buying those tickets

13:30

to these shows that are coming up and stay tuned

13:32

for some Gen Con announcements because the Gen Con catalog

13:34

is going to be announced. Other stuff

13:36

that we're going to be doing besides the two shows,

13:38

one of which Helium shows already sold out. And we've

13:40

already sold, I think, more tickets to the Call of

13:42

Cthulhu live than we did last year, but we're going

13:45

to be doing a lot more stuff that you can

13:47

get tickets for that will be announced real soon. That's

13:49

awesome. Yeah. And

13:52

also, let me just take a second to look back

13:54

at the tour, not just the fun times we had

13:56

there, but a huge

13:58

thank you to everybody. that came out

14:00

and bought tickets to Kansas City and Austin because

14:02

Troy gave you a lot of shit in Kansas

14:04

City and that crowd was awesome. And

14:07

Austin, I mean, could not have felt

14:09

more packed. It was incredible and

14:11

Austin VIP was sold out and so

14:13

our meet and greet ahead of time

14:16

was just incredible. And I met the

14:18

nicest people and it was awesome to

14:20

see some familiar faces. I got

14:22

some great gifts over the – by the way, I got

14:24

one right here. Check this out. Look

14:27

at that. It's a nice gift. Somebody made me a coaster.

14:29

Oh, I got one of those too. Yeah. Mine's

14:32

for Troy. Yeah, I

14:34

bet it does. And I'm using it

14:36

for my fodder water. So there you go.

14:38

Thank you so much. So many new faces,

14:40

especially the VIP. People were loving the VIP

14:42

before the show which is nice. Yeah,

14:46

and I'm loving it too. Really inspiring

14:48

weekend. We get holed

14:50

up in our little home studio so much and

14:53

do this. It's good to get back out in front

14:55

of the fans. Not that

14:57

you need a reminder but it's always nice to get

14:59

that reminder of what a difference our

15:02

content makes in people's lives. Let's

15:04

talk about Glass Can of Podcasts, Campaign 2, Episode 32.

15:07

A largely role-playing episode.

15:11

Some of my least favorite episodes we have –

15:13

well, at the start is the

15:15

fallout from like a boss fight or

15:17

a chapter boss fight. I'm always like,

15:20

I don't know what to do next. I'm a little like up

15:22

in the air as a character. Somebody

15:25

else take the reins here and do something. But

15:27

I had a fantastic time despite Hubert

15:29

Hedge. What

15:36

is this? Why do you like that guy? Nonsense.

15:38

You mean one of the greatest NPCs to grace the

15:40

Glass Can of Network? I mean you're

15:43

just giving that title with no – there's

15:45

no proof. There's no evidence. There's no

15:47

history. There's nothing there. He was hitting

15:49

dingers right out the gate. It

15:52

wasn't me. I just let the

15:54

character take over. And what a fun

15:56

little guy. But man, you just

15:58

– you hate him. I hate him. I hate them

16:00

on a lot of levels. You guys always hate

16:02

these people. You hate Tumsie, you hate Hubert

16:05

Hedge, you hate anybody that's a little weird.

16:07

Nope, nope. Just Tumsie and Hubert Hedge. That's

16:09

it. Loved Razzmatess. Loved

16:11

Razzmatess. There's something... Did you

16:13

like Razzmatess? Ah, I loved Razzmatess. I

16:17

mean, maybe it was, you know, looking

16:20

back with, what do they say with

16:22

like, frosted glasses or something.

16:24

I don't know what the saying is, but

16:26

rose-colored lenses. But I definitely... Oh, okay.

16:29

Well, there's

16:32

a lot of levels on Hubert Hedge, okay? There's

16:36

the first level of mine, which is like,

16:38

don't try too hard. Don't try too

16:40

hard to make a really fun, ridiculous NPC. Just

16:43

play naturally, please. And then

16:46

there's another part of me that's like,

16:48

I don't like him because I don't

16:50

trust this character. I think

16:52

there's something very fishy going on

16:54

here. I think that he is incredibly suspicious.

16:59

And because... Now, there's the actual

17:02

in-story reasons, which is like... He's

17:06

a denizen of the first world. So immediately,

17:08

I don't trust them. Like, you can't. They

17:10

can be good, but like, you can never

17:12

really put your trust in a denizen of

17:14

the first world, in my opinion, for

17:18

various reasons. Now, there's

17:21

the other level, which is like

17:24

a meta level. Now this isn't fair to the narrative and

17:26

the character, and I'm not gonna bring Brother Amius into this

17:29

part of it, but you

17:31

don't like playing

17:33

NPCs. And

17:35

yet, you launch excitedly into bringing

17:37

this character in. Very

17:39

early on, it's evident that we

17:42

have no interest in this character because

17:44

he's unbearable. And so maybe

17:46

half jokingly, I think it was more

17:48

than half, we are like...

17:51

Or less than half, I should say. We are like, go on your

17:53

way. You're good to go. And

17:56

you refuse to leave and will only

17:58

stay and move forward. with the adventure

18:00

and it immediately puts up red flags for

18:03

me. I'm like he does not want to

18:05

roleplay this character. We do not

18:07

want him to come with us and yet he

18:09

is forcing himself to come along narratively admittedly like

18:11

oh I don't want to travel out there alone.

18:13

It's too dangerous out there. I need I need

18:16

to be with somebody whatever and I just feel

18:18

like he's trying to stay with us for nefarious

18:20

reasons. Your thoughts? Well

18:23

I can only say so much but

18:25

I think of something. McD and I

18:27

were having a conversation after

18:30

one of the shows because an

18:32

NPC appears in the Kansas City

18:36

and Austin shows. That is

18:38

me just bringing someone along

18:41

and it I

18:44

think it McD was like smart

18:47

move smart move bringing these

18:49

NPCs along because it like

18:51

allows me to be there to like

18:53

kind of be directly involved with

18:56

scenes if I feel like the scenes need to

18:58

be directed in a different way. When I don't

19:00

have an NPC present in the scene I can

19:03

only kind of interject as a narrator to

19:05

move pace along but when I have an

19:07

NPC in the story now I can inject

19:09

humor I can I can

19:11

ask questions and and I can also

19:13

like direct the story in certain ways

19:16

if you guys are meandering without putting

19:18

you on rails just kind of help

19:20

guide the story along but also guide

19:22

the the entertainment along whether it's a

19:24

funny NPC or not. So

19:27

yeah I read Hubert and I'm like

19:29

my initial reaction I was like really

19:32

don't fucking want to do this because I

19:34

I'm an overplanner but as I've leaned more

19:36

into being like oh what's it

19:38

what's this deal and just fucking making

19:40

shit up and then kind of seeing what makes you

19:42

guys laugh and just keep doing more of that yeah

19:45

I mean it's a blast.

19:47

See this is

19:49

again why I don't buy it and you know

19:51

who else doesn't buy it at Holly Weaver who

19:54

commented on YouTube on the video I have a

19:56

bad feeling about the hedgehog he has Benedict Arnold

19:58

written all over him. And I'm

20:00

with you, Holly. I agree with this.

20:02

And there's another reason because that reason

20:04

you just gave is another lie. You're

20:07

lying again right to my face because

20:09

you have what you need right now.

20:12

You have an artifact. You have the

20:14

ability to drive us exactly

20:16

where you want through the key. It

20:19

is an amazing tool that an

20:21

awesome item that comes to us in this episode

20:23

where we learn a little bit more about its

20:26

magical power. But then also it seems to have

20:28

this magnetic ability to be drawing

20:31

us to this place. And

20:33

I'm like, oh man, what a perfect tool for a

20:35

GM. You know what I mean? Just like get the

20:37

show on the road. Here's exactly where you have to

20:39

go. Getting away

20:41

from my conspiracy theories about Hubert Hedge

20:43

for a second. Let's talk about the

20:45

key, not only as a narrative

20:48

device and a tool for the GM to

20:50

use, but also is it

20:52

something that you... You

20:55

probably won't answer this, but is it something that you leaned

20:57

on a little bit more just to get it going? Because

21:00

I felt like we were in for

21:02

a little bit of sandboxy thin-lands sort

21:04

of situation. And then there was absolutely

21:07

none of it, which really surprised me.

21:09

Is that because you decided the story

21:11

needed to get moved along or because

21:13

there really is no exploration in thin-lands.

21:16

You just have to kind of get

21:18

out of there. They

21:20

leave it up to you. A lot of times

21:22

they'll be like, if they haven't reached a certain

21:24

experience point, feel free to throw in some encounters.

21:27

I think there might even

21:29

be some random

21:31

encounters and stuff in the back matter.

21:33

It's possible thin-lands encounters. But I tend

21:36

to eschew those unless I feel like

21:38

it needs it. I'm never worried about

21:40

the experience points. I'm more concerned

21:42

about the flow of the episodes. It's like we've

21:44

been role-playing for a while. We need combat. I'll

21:46

throw an encounter in there. We've

21:49

had a lot of fights in puzzle. I'll throw

21:51

a puzzle or something. But I feel like there's

21:53

enough content here that I don't really need to

21:55

add too much. A la the

21:57

Burellu fight in Giant. That

22:01

was just a back matter fight that I

22:03

just felt like the transition from one thing

22:05

to the other needed something. So

22:07

I added that. But maybe it's

22:09

just the writing styles have changed for

22:12

Paizo, but I haven't seen a lot of

22:15

gray area. Whereas

22:17

Strange Aeon's an older AP, I

22:20

was encountering it just last week

22:22

for the passage between Cassimere and

22:24

Kethier. It's very open-ended.

22:27

It says what it looks like. If

22:32

you find they need more XP to reach the next

22:34

level, feel free to throw some encounters in. But

22:37

I was like, let's just see what happens live. Because

22:39

I didn't know if you were going to take a boat

22:41

or teleport and you had another idea and all this other

22:43

shit happened. So I was like, let's just see what

22:45

happens. That

22:48

sort of mantra is I think

22:50

creating much more engaging content. It's like what I'm

22:53

trying to live by. It's like, let's just see

22:55

what happens. I do my work. I do my

22:57

prep. I read it. I study

22:59

it. I try to cross-reference everything with the

23:01

rules, look at how the remaster handles things, and

23:04

then let's just see what happens. I'm

23:07

just feeling a lot more relaxed. I

23:09

think it's yielding better overall results.

23:12

Yeah. I tend to agree with you, especially

23:15

with the live shows. Those felt really organic

23:17

and really fun. That

23:19

NPC felt very organic. That

23:21

was a player-driven NPC that

23:23

you reluctantly bring along. That's

23:26

why I'm a little bit more suspicious of the hedge master

23:29

because he's a little –

23:31

he's just too eager to join us and he

23:33

is a fey or whatever.

23:36

You know what I mean? Like a first world creature. You're

23:38

like, ugh, you guys are always little bastards. He's

23:40

a fun little guy, but that's good. That

23:43

means I'm doing my job. If you're on your toes and you don't

23:45

trust anything that's – Yeah. I

23:47

think what I'm concerned about is that like Brother Ramius is going to

23:50

like kind of trust them. I don't know.

23:52

I don't know. You know what I mean? They just like walk

23:54

right into it. Everything you wig at, you guys will never be

23:56

the same. That's true. That

23:58

is true. You even said it. the

24:04

Beast. Never

24:07

again. But then there's the added

24:09

layer that he's just profoundly annoying.

24:11

At Steven Barkis on YouTube says

24:13

Joe is allergic to ridiculousness. Lull.

24:16

Ridiculousness is fun to me. Yeah, I think there's

24:19

a lot of people out there that find this

24:21

to be fun. I think some people at our

24:23

table enjoy it. I

24:26

hate it. Yeah, I know. And

24:28

I don't know. It's funny because

24:30

I don't know. Because what happened

24:32

in Austin was hilarious.

24:34

But there was times when I was a

24:36

little like, all right, I kind of want

24:38

to like, I kind of want to

24:40

like play the game at some point. You know what

24:42

I mean? Like, I get more impatient than others about

24:44

the ridiculous side play. Dude, you hear me give

24:47

comments about like how I think certain things should

24:50

be. And like, you know that I hate it

24:52

too. I know. I know. I hate it. Probably

24:55

more than you. But

24:57

like when I'm faced with having to do

24:59

it, I'm just going to find something

25:01

to lean into and just try to make you guys

25:03

laugh with it. And if it gets ridiculous, it gets

25:05

ridiculous. But I always think like, I'm

25:07

allowed to. Yeah,

25:10

I've been on stage eating shit in

25:12

front of a crowd with jokes that

25:14

I wrote. I'm allowed to do that.

25:17

Like I do, I totally feel you

25:19

that sometimes I can we just get

25:21

back to fighting. Yeah,

25:23

yeah. There was a brief time where you

25:25

were training on Pathfinder mechanics and you were

25:27

playing some Pathfinder, you weren't running it to

25:29

eat. You weren't running it, you were playing

25:31

it and it was behind the scenes. And

25:33

I remember you we weren't doing it together,

25:35

you were doing it yourself. And I remember

25:37

you talking about like, the

25:39

thing that you were looking forward to

25:42

the most is doing absolutely no role

25:44

play and just moving from encounter to

25:46

encounter and working mechanics and just working

25:48

mechanics and fighting and not only fighting,

25:50

but like whether it's scouting, whether it's

25:52

exploration, whatever it is, it's

25:54

all there's dye always being rolled. And

25:57

it just cracked me up because that is not how we play

25:59

once we. We all get around to terrible, but anyway,

26:02

fun times, fun app, not

26:04

too much more to go into there. I will touch

26:06

on We Are Stupid for just a second, but overall,

26:09

excited at this cliffy,

26:12

which had us all abuzz after

26:14

the episode with theories and talking

26:16

about what's going on and where

26:18

we are. And just, we'll

26:21

see you next week. I mean, just so

26:24

much to be discovered, so I'm looking forward to next

26:26

week's spot as well. Let's

26:28

talk about We Are Stupid for 30 seconds.

26:32

First I want to say, Professor Eric

26:34

had only one note. The aid action

26:36

is now base DC15 in the remaster,

26:39

and you and I actually talked about that after

26:41

the episode. So that was before

26:43

Professor Eric sent it in. Obviously, any GM

26:45

can change the DC to anything at any

26:47

time they want, but the recommended base in

26:49

the remaster is now 15 instead of 20.

26:54

And Skid really likes that. I know if he

26:57

was running 2E, he said he

26:59

would appreciate it a lot more just because it facilitates

27:01

more interaction between the players and gets more

27:03

exciting help from one player to another, which

27:05

is always a good thing. And

27:08

I wanted to mention one that came in in

27:10

the comments, actually. This is from Missing Unknown. And

27:13

I think this might have been on a Cannon

27:15

Fodder comment, but Missing Unknown said, please correct me

27:17

if I'm wrong. Dimensional assault

27:19

allows you to teleport half your speed unless

27:22

Sydney has 50 feet of movement. You shouldn't

27:24

be able to teleport that far, even

27:26

with our K Cascades stance. I

27:28

did not go back and look at the maps or anything, but

27:30

that is the correct assessment

27:33

of dimensional assault. And I believe I

27:35

knew at the time, I suspected

27:37

at the time that she was going too far.

27:40

And I was just like, I'm gonna let it go. I

27:43

like I remember being like, this is the one I'm

27:45

gonna jump on right now. Because we're talking

27:47

about a difference of 10 feet of movement or something like that. I

27:49

was like, we'll

27:51

look into it after it. And I do believe you are correct. And thank

27:53

you for writing in. By all means, comment

27:55

with rule corrections if you catch them because even

27:58

Professor Eric is the first to admit that he

28:00

can't catch them all. Alright, let's

28:02

go into a little listener mail here, see what the

28:05

nation wants to chat about. It's

28:07

got some good stuff today. Thank

28:28

you, Nicholas. Always an interesting time

28:32

doing that drop over video because

28:35

when it's an audio podcast, you can

28:37

just sit there staring at the question

28:39

and preparing yourself. But then on

28:41

video, you're reminded someone's looking at you the entire

28:43

time the song is playing. Alright,

28:46

let's get to Jeremy

28:48

mail. Jeremy mail, I'm calling

28:50

it today because we've got two questions from the

28:52

nation and they're both from dudes

28:54

named Jeremy. Oh, I thought his

28:56

name was Jeremy mail. No, no. That's

28:59

crazy that he's writing into listener mail.

29:01

Listener mail, Jeremy mail. Parentheses,

29:04

mail. We've got two Jeremy's this

29:06

week. One who I pitched last week and

29:08

the other, I mentioned it last week and

29:10

the other we'll get to in a second.

29:12

So Jeremy from Chesapeake,

29:15

Virginia, I believe. No, no, that's the other

29:17

one. Yeah. Alright, I don't know

29:20

where this Jeremy's from. The first Jeremy says, this

29:26

is important to set up. Since

29:28

you all are the ones that got me into Pathfinder,

29:30

I look to you as experts and I'm hoping you

29:32

can help me. I'm a daunted but confused newbie who

29:34

only has the beginner box at this point. I

29:37

have a quick question regarding 2E and

29:40

then the remaster core rule

29:42

books, the difference between the two. I

29:44

appreciate the need to distance themselves

29:46

from D&D based verbiage, but in

29:48

my opinion, the end result is

29:50

often goofy and just less cool,

29:52

which maybe shouldn't matter, but it also kind of feels like

29:55

it does to me. I think that you would agree with

29:57

that to a certain extent. Jared

29:59

would as well. Because of this,

30:01

I'm honestly inclined towards just getting the original

30:03

2e core rulebook rather than the remastered book.

30:05

But then I think it might be foolish

30:08

to not go with what's new and updated.

30:10

I'm sure there are other balancing changes that

30:12

took place. My question is this.

30:15

Is it silly to go out of my way

30:17

to stick with the OG content at this point

30:19

with the revised books out there? Are

30:22

they ultimately compatible with one another? Slash, how

30:24

does that work? I'd

30:26

love to give Pathfinder Society a shot since I

30:28

don't have people to play with, so does it matter which

30:30

book I show up with? Sorry for

30:32

the long-winded question, but I would really appreciate your

30:34

insight. Jeremy,

30:36

thank you for writing in. I think that this

30:39

is a great question for somebody who's new to

30:41

Pathfinder. And it's a really – I think

30:43

this is a question that Paizo themselves have to deal with. As

30:46

new people come to the hobby and

30:48

they are confused by what they're looking

30:50

at, here's a core rulebook. Here's a

30:52

player core. Which one's

30:54

the core? What's the actual core supposed

30:56

to mean? The center, the one, the

30:58

base of all that all comes from.

31:01

Which one do you go with? Troy, what would you

31:03

advise in this situation for somebody who is not playing

31:06

on air and is just playing at home and hates

31:09

the reworded verbiage? Yeah,

31:12

man, this really bothers me and I

31:14

want to be kind in my response

31:17

because it's more – it

31:20

doesn't bother me – it bothers

31:22

me because of my obsessive compulsiveness. I

31:24

like things to be clean and neat

31:26

and dip and black and

31:29

white with gaming and then let the gray

31:31

be the gray. But like this is just –

31:33

it just seems very sloppy and it's no one's

31:36

fault per se. Well, that's not true. But

31:38

we're not here to blame. I

31:41

just feel like we're probably four

31:44

or five years from this being

31:46

completely clean. You know what

31:48

I mean? Like right now it's just this

31:50

limbo phase that is – everyone's just kind

31:52

of making up their own rules. That's

31:55

why it's tricky to say

31:58

like, well, here's how it's supposed to be. like

32:00

shocking graphs. You just go through our YouTube

32:02

comments or any of the comments on any

32:04

of our other forums and there are people

32:06

who just very strongly believe, well, you just

32:09

do this. You can just use both. People

32:11

will be like, actually no. There probably isn't

32:13

a really clear cut answer to these things

32:15

because everything is kind of left up to

32:17

the people that want to create their own

32:20

hybrid system. I just don't like it. To

32:23

go back to the original question, I would say just

32:25

start with the GM Core and just

32:27

use that and don't use anything else.

32:29

Just start with that and if it doesn't exist

32:31

within the GM or the Player Core, don't use

32:34

it. Then over the next couple of years, the

32:37

way Paisa puts out material, within a year, you're

32:39

going to have a ton more material to add

32:41

to. I would just start

32:44

there and don't look

32:46

back. If I was to do

32:48

another show, that's how I would do

32:50

it. I wouldn't say, oh, I'm going

32:53

to run Age of Ashes. I would

32:55

wait until a remaster AP came

32:57

out that spoke to me if we

33:00

weren't working on our own thing. Yeah.

33:03

I agree with you fully. I think

33:05

that I don't really need

33:07

to add too, too much on to it. Ultimately,

33:11

you are going to be

33:13

kind of planting your

33:16

flag in a place that is just

33:18

going to eventually be deserted. No one

33:20

is going to stay for the long

33:23

run in that way. The

33:25

verbiage, the wording of things, you

33:29

can always say whatever you want at your table.

33:31

I don't really care. It's not just that. That

33:33

is one very small

33:36

part of this. The Player Core

33:40

also represents, and the GM

33:42

Core in my opinion, a

33:44

massive published errata to the

33:46

Tui system after multiple years

33:48

of feedback. Spells have been

33:50

changed the way they work. I didn't

33:53

even know about this thing until we got

33:55

great comments on YouTube. It auto updated

33:57

in Demiplane and I just didn't put two and two together.

34:00

But there were changes to

34:02

how the Cleric class works in the

34:05

remaster that fundamentally buffed me in

34:07

a really cool way in terms

34:09

of healing. And I don't

34:11

need to get into the mechanics of it now,

34:13

but it's a great change and it's a minor

34:15

change, but it makes the builds so much more

34:17

fun to work with for Clerics. And

34:20

like that, for example, is

34:23

something that has nothing to do with verbiage

34:25

or copyright. That is all about balancing

34:28

the game and making it more fun for

34:30

the players. And so I think that you

34:32

should probably err on that side. Now

34:34

I would say all of that with

34:37

a little bit of hesitation. Your

34:39

last comment gives me no hesitation.

34:42

If you want to play Pathfinder Society, you

34:44

can't go with the old core rule books.

34:46

I mean, you can, but if you have

34:48

the choice and you're just starting, start with

34:50

the player core and the GM core. That's

34:52

the books that you should show up with

34:54

because that will be the base off which

34:56

everyone is trying to play. There

34:58

will be some hybrid items that

35:01

come into it because what I'm starting to

35:03

find is there are, I'll

35:05

give you an example without getting into

35:07

too much specifics, but there is a class,

35:11

like there's a deity, right?

35:13

And a focus spell that comes from a

35:15

deity, that focus spell is, it

35:17

has not been remastered. And the reason

35:19

it hasn't been remastered is because that

35:22

spell is from gods and magic,

35:24

like a two-way supplement that came

35:27

out that has not yet been

35:29

covered in the remaster. The remaster,

35:31

to my knowledge, is not necessarily

35:33

going to remaster every single supplemental

35:35

book. However, you know at

35:37

some point there's going to

35:39

be a new deity

35:42

book that comes out that dives

35:44

deeper into the deities, into the

35:46

subdomains, into the subdeities, and thus

35:48

into focus spells and all that

35:50

stuff, and they'll all be built

35:52

with the remaster rules. So

35:54

right now there are inevitably, and this

35:56

is what drives Troy nuts, there are

35:59

these lingering things out there that haven't

36:01

been remastered. We talked about how the

36:03

the changes that they made to spells

36:05

in the remaster affected the magus in

36:07

a negative way because the

36:09

magus has not been through the

36:11

remaster yet. You know, so like

36:13

that's gonna happen during this transitional

36:15

period, but I would say no

36:18

question that the older 2e core

36:20

rulebook is outdated at this

36:22

point, not only from a verbiage

36:25

standpoint, but much more importantly from

36:27

a mechanics standpoint. The rules that

36:29

you're reading in that book, we just said one today,

36:32

the base DC for aid, an action

36:34

that will happen nearly in every encounter

36:36

you play with a group, particularly in

36:38

Pathfinder Society, is different in the remaster

36:40

than it is in the core. So I'd say

36:43

go with player core and GM core and those

36:45

are the books you should bring to sessions. Yeah

36:47

and to say something positive, you know, there's something

36:49

nice about a fresh start at least and you

36:52

know there's a lot less material to consume so

36:54

you can start with that. You can read those

36:56

cover to cover and you know

36:58

you're ready to go or it's like if you

37:00

go back to a couple years ago when the core came out,

37:02

there's 50 other books. You don't have to read all of them

37:05

but you know if you're a nerds

37:07

or completionist, it's a lot easier to get caught

37:09

up now than it was if you're

37:11

starting now with all the back

37:14

stuff. You know what's interesting? Let

37:16

me throw a couple other things out there. One

37:18

is first of all this isn't a Pathfinder 2e

37:20

versus D&D conversation because the other thing is if

37:22

you just want to play 5e, just play 5e.

37:25

You know like I think that's part of the

37:27

issue is like if you want to play the

37:29

new D&D, play the new D&D because the

37:34

the Pathfinder 2e core, if that's what you're

37:36

looking for, if that's more important to you,

37:38

those old-school spells,

37:40

abilities, monsters that you have nostalgia

37:43

with, then just play Dungeons and

37:45

Dragons. That's totally fine. It

37:47

made me think of something though. I wonder if

37:50

somebody is just gonna go and do this. I

37:52

don't see why. I think that somebody will. Like

37:54

I think the fans will create

37:57

Pathfinder 2e remaster full

37:59

mechanics. with the names

38:01

of all the old stuff in it.

38:03

Like, they'll make their own, like, you

38:06

know, kind of hybrid system that

38:08

has the mechanical rules from the

38:10

remaster with all the old names.

38:13

Stoneskin and Magic Missile and... I'm never gonna not

38:15

call it Magic Missile, so like, that's kind of

38:17

what we're doing, but like, we're not in danger

38:19

of getting in trouble for that.

38:22

I mean, I guess, I mean, as we maybe say

38:25

that. I'm saying this to be like fan-made stuff on

38:27

red. Like I bet you you'll be able to find

38:29

this stuff at some point. But that's really what you

38:31

want to do is like maintain some of that nostalgia

38:33

while at the same time benefiting

38:36

from a really fun system that

38:38

is different from 5E than

38:40

like, I don't know, some fans might make it.

38:43

But I would say go with the remaster and go

38:45

with what's new, you know? I mean, you know what?

38:48

Sure, remember, we were in the

38:50

same exact position in that strange

38:52

transitional two-year period between 1E and

38:55

2E. And

38:57

it was like, do we keep

38:59

going with 1E or do we need to change

39:01

to what is more supported, even

39:03

though we had tons of unexplored

39:05

content in 1E? We had

39:07

classes we'd never played. We had hybrid classes

39:09

we'd never played on air. We had obviously

39:12

several adventure paths we wanted to get to

39:14

and never played. It was a

39:16

tough decision, but eventually what won out was go

39:18

with what's newest and most updated and most

39:21

supported by the company you're buying it from.

39:23

And that ended up being a good decision. Yeah,

39:26

I mean, I think it's pretty safe

39:28

to say that Legacy

39:30

of the Ancients will be the last 1E content

39:32

we ever put out. When

39:36

we came out, I was like, oh, I'm

39:38

sure I'll dabble in 1E. I'll never play

39:40

1E again. I'd be shocked. You

39:42

know, if I was going to teach my kids something right

39:44

now, I'd start with the player court. Totally.

39:48

All right, let's get one more in here. A quick one

39:50

from Jeremy in Chesapeake, Virginia.

39:52

What's up, Jeremy? The other Jeremy

39:54

from... Jeremy. ...the

39:56

last count has inspired me to try to be more creative and

39:58

take up writing. And so... I have

40:00

returned to college for a creative writing program.

40:03

Awesome. Good for you. I plan on writing

40:05

short stories or novels, but I'm also very

40:07

much interested in writing for TTRPGs. As you

40:09

seem to have many relationships throughout the community,

40:11

I was wondering if you have any recommendations

40:13

for gaining entry into that line of work.

40:16

It's a great question, and I

40:19

don't think you can find

40:21

a better place than Paizo

40:23

to try to get

40:25

in because they are,

40:28

from our understanding, because we've never

40:30

really tried to get into this,

40:32

but our understanding

40:35

is that Paizo is very

40:37

active about seeking out new

40:39

writers all the time and

40:42

new voices all the time.

40:44

They frequently have contests

40:46

and little one-shot type things,

40:49

and they enjoy

40:51

getting submissions for this kind of stuff. They'll

40:53

put out calls for it. I would double down

40:55

on Paizo. Seriously, I would go to the forums,

40:58

and I

41:00

would start in the Paizo forums, and I believe

41:03

that you'll find forums for this kind of stuff.

41:05

If you don't, then in general discussion, you can

41:07

ask about how to submit work. You can ask

41:09

about contests or

41:11

entries or anything like that

41:13

that they may do. I know

41:16

back in the day, at least, Paizo often

41:18

would find new writers, and then a writer

41:20

would get tasked to do one of the

41:22

entry level things. Remember, they were telling us

41:25

about this. One of the entry level things

41:27

is if they liked something that

41:29

you submitted, they would say, okay, give

41:31

us a monster, and you would

41:33

have to write a monster. You'd have to

41:36

create one, stat it out, write its background

41:38

or backstory or its natural habitat or how

41:40

it acts or whatever. If

41:42

they liked it and it worked, it would get

41:45

scheduled and put into the back matter of a

41:47

book. When you talk about a monster and encounter

41:49

that's in the back matter of Strange Aeon, so

41:51

the back matter of Giant Slayer, nine times out

41:53

of ten, that was not written by the person

41:55

that wrote the book. A lot

41:57

of times, those were written by freelancers that were

42:00

I wrote one of them. You wrote one of

42:02

them, yeah, exactly. And so that

42:04

is a way in. And then

42:06

if they really like what you did there, they can

42:08

say, all right, why don't you try writing a society

42:10

scenario? If you can show that you really know the

42:12

society world, you know that you're up on the plot

42:14

hooks and the world state and all that stuff, and

42:17

you want to write a spec script of like, you

42:19

know, potential thing like that, I

42:21

think that that would be the next phase. And then

42:23

you see people all the time that become developers there.

42:25

A lot of the ways that they get there is

42:28

by freelance writing

42:30

ahead of time. So I

42:33

know Paizo is one that puts out a

42:35

lot of content and also cares a lot

42:37

about the pre-written stuff. Other

42:39

systems don't care as much, I don't think, this

42:41

is my opinion, about publishing

42:43

pre-written adventures as much as Paizo. I

42:46

mean, the volume at which they put

42:48

out pre-written adventures is just

42:50

spectacular. And so that's a really good place

42:52

to start, I think. Also,

42:55

don't they have a thing, like I'm not

42:57

very well-versed on this, but don't they have

42:59

a thing where you can,

43:01

it's called like Paizo Unlimited or something

43:04

where you can like submit shit for

43:06

the community? Yeah. And like, I'm

43:08

sure they're discovering people out of there, but I don't, I'm...

43:11

Go poking around the community, honestly,

43:13

and Paizo forums are a great place

43:16

to start getting some information on how

43:18

to do this. My understanding of it,

43:20

the way that it works in general,

43:22

is like you would not be

43:24

sending a resume to, you know, like editors

43:27

at Paizo to consider you for a writer early

43:29

on, nor would you do that at Wizards, nor

43:31

would you do that at any of these gaming

43:34

companies, for the most part. For

43:36

the most part, you would need to be entering

43:38

contests, you would need to write fan stuff, you

43:42

would need to write an adventure for

43:44

the community, post it on Reddit, and be

43:46

like, hey, I've made this adventure if anyone

43:48

would like to play it. It's

43:50

a great way to start stretching your muscles because,

43:52

man, people on Reddit will give you straight

43:54

up honest comments about what they like and don't

43:56

like about your adventure. You could learn

43:58

a lot about, you know, how to write...

44:01

for that stuff there. So I think that

44:03

that's a really good place to start is

44:05

within the community. I found a Pathfinder infinite.

44:08

Look into Pathfinder infinite. It's a program that

44:10

allows you to create content, adventures, locations, monsters,

44:12

classes, archetypes, backgrounds based on Paizo's IP including

44:14

the Lost Home and Campaign setting and to

44:17

make some money while you're at it. Your

44:19

work might even be recognized by the community

44:21

and earn you an invitation for the Infinite

44:24

Masters Elite Creator program which without

44:26

even looking up I'm sure might be some sort

44:28

of track to getting in, you know, freelance gig.

44:30

Yeah. So start there and I know Chaosium has

44:33

something similar to this as well and the names

44:35

escaping me but yeah a

44:37

lot of opportunities but the best thing to do is just

44:39

start talking writing and writing and writing and writing and sharing

44:41

it with your friends and getting feedback. Yeah

44:43

and you have to just get involved in these

44:46

communities. They need to know who you are like

44:48

we always it's

44:50

a very common saying right that it's like it's it's

44:53

it's not what you know it's who you know right it's not what

44:55

you can do it's who you know like in

44:57

entertainment that's that's a big thing and I believe

44:59

in publishing it's the same way. You you have

45:01

to start building relationships in order to get gigs

45:04

and get the opportunity for gigs and the best

45:06

way to do that is be active in communities.

45:08

Be posting online, comment on other

45:11

people's work, you know, and generally

45:14

speaking over time you will you

45:17

will get those opportunities that you seek. So awesome.

45:20

Well that's gonna do it for today.

45:22

Thank you guys so much man always

45:24

always a pleasure to

45:26

hang out do a little fad chill with the

45:28

naysh and man Kansas

45:31

City and Austin were fun. They were

45:33

fun. Still kind of like shaking off

45:35

that hangover but excited to get back

45:37

into it. We got more live

45:40

streams this week, Gatewalkers this week, Blade Runner wraps

45:42

up next week and then before you know it

45:44

we'll be back with you guys. So until then

45:46

take it easy everybody have a fantastic week and

45:48

we'll see you next time. where

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