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1:01

are listening to the Glass Cannon

1:03

Network, the premier source for role-playing

1:06

game entertainment. Welcome

1:15

to Cannon Fodder, a

1:19

behind the scenes look at

1:22

the Glass Cannon Network. What

1:32

is going on everybody? Welcome

1:35

back to Cannon Fodder. It is Wednesday,

1:37

June 19th, 2024 and I'm your old

1:39

pal Joe O'Brien. When

1:42

are you laughing at? Did I get you, Troy? Did I

1:44

get you? When are you laughing at that I didn't have

1:46

Discord on? I can

1:48

see that you couldn't hear the music and

1:50

I was just like, oh man, he is

1:52

so going to be shocked. So

1:54

I did a little extra on the screaming today. I'm

1:57

texting Rob Kirkevich. people

2:00

are going to be at his tables for

2:02

the first ever GCN retreat for just

2:04

a couple days. Just a couple days.

2:07

Oh, so exciting. It is.

2:10

It's a big week. It's a show. Multi

2:12

show. We first ever glass cannon

2:14

network retreat week. It is. Yeah.

2:18

I mean, just just it's nerve

2:20

wracking, but also extremely, extremely

2:22

excited. I mean, I feel like we're

2:25

getting to go to a

2:27

game convention and actually play

2:29

games. Like, as opposed to just

2:31

do shows. And that is really

2:34

fun. Exciting

2:36

for me because it's it's been a really long time since we've

2:38

been able to do that. You know, yeah, I mean,

2:41

it's gonna be work. Sure. Probably

2:43

a lot of it. But like, I never want

2:45

the attendees to see the work. I want it

2:47

to feel like, you know, I've said this now

2:50

a couple times behind the scenes. Like everyone

2:52

that's coming, you know, me, you, Joe, skid,

2:54

Sydney, Kate, I don't even know if the

2:56

people listening if they're not coming to the

2:58

retreat know that like Jared Logan and Rob

3:00

Kirk, which are coming out like all these

3:03

people. I want you to think like you're

3:05

hosting a party at your house, but you

3:07

also get to enjoy the party because the

3:09

best hosts find a way to like not

3:11

just be constantly mixing drinks and like cooking on

3:13

the grill like you enjoy the party as well.

3:15

Otherwise, what's the point of having the party? Yeah,

3:18

but we never do that. And

3:20

that's all about prep. That is all about prep.

3:23

So is it fully prepared, Troy and ready

3:25

to go without a hitch? It's

3:27

a it's pretty good. It's pretty

3:29

good. Yeah, I feel I feel good.

3:32

I'm focusing on the excitement about what

3:34

we're about to do. It's

3:36

a little wild too, because we're flying into Denver day

3:39

of show, which we never do. We

3:41

always fly in the day before, but cock

3:43

a baby schemes continue

3:45

to abound here at the glass cannon network. We're

3:47

flying in day of going straight to the show.

3:49

We won't even be in town for 24 hours

3:51

flying out the next morning to Nashville early so

3:53

that we can get there to be a part

3:55

of this, you know, two and a half day

3:57

retreat. And yeah, I mean, I

3:59

feel. pretty good. Last night, as

4:02

I'm watching the Celtics win

4:04

the NBA championship during the

4:07

commercials, I'm reading the rules to the

4:09

board games that I'm running just to

4:11

have them in my head. Then I

4:13

go back, watch the Celtics dominate, back

4:15

to the rulebook. Dominate, rulebook, confetti, rulebook.

4:18

Yes, I'm excited, man. I think it's

4:20

going to go by really, really fast.

4:22

We have a special channel on our

4:25

subscription discord that is just for the members of

4:27

the retreat. I'm hearing them talk about,

4:29

oh, we're going to hit the pool. We're going to

4:31

go to the honky talks. I'm like, where

4:34

are you finding this time? I would love to do any

4:36

of those things. I don't see

4:38

it in the schedule because we're also doing a

4:40

show at Nashville. Yeah, exactly. But I mean, most

4:42

of these folks, they sign up

4:44

for a game. They're playing a game. You don't know what

4:46

they might be doing in that next slot. Maybe that's somewhere

4:49

they can take in a honky talk or something. We're just

4:51

the ones that are like game, game, game, game, game. But

4:54

that is, yes, it's going to be work, but it's also

4:56

just going to be so fun to just play. And

4:59

try some new stuff. I'm really

5:01

psyched about playing Betrayal at the

5:03

House on the Hill, which is

5:05

just a classic board game

5:07

that everybody knows. There it is. There she is. A

5:10

classic one. Everybody

5:12

knows that I have just never played. I've

5:16

only played once. I'm excited to try it out. I

5:18

was paid to do it, and I was on camera with Matthew Lewis.

5:20

It was a fun time. Oh, there you go. Did that ever air?

5:23

Yeah, it did air. It aired on

5:25

Halloween or the weeks leading

5:27

up to Halloween last year. We recorded it

5:29

at Gen Con, and it

5:31

was fun. I was like, man, this is a fun

5:33

game. I wish I could like just- Yeah, people freaking

5:36

rave about it. So like, I'm definitely excited to try

5:38

it out. Anyway, lots to

5:40

go into on that. So let's talk, we'll talk

5:42

a little bit about the shows, a little bit

5:44

about the retreat. We'll talk about GCP, episode 39.

5:50

A nice layout of We Are

5:52

Stupid from Professor Eric and of course, listener mail. We

5:54

got you. We got you. What

5:56

are you- What are you looking forward

5:58

to most about the trip? to Denver. I know it's

6:01

going to be a quick one, but we went there

6:03

last year and you came right back. You

6:05

seem to, you like these fans. You like these fans

6:07

out there. Yeah. I mean, it's

6:09

sold out really fast, so that's why I make

6:11

it a good place to return to. How dare

6:13

you. It's not like, I really want that Rocky

6:16

Mountain Air. No, it's sold out.

6:18

No, I- I want that Rocky

6:20

Mountain Air. I love Colorado. Yeah, it's freaking- Freakin'

6:22

love Colorado. I do. I guess in retrospect, I

6:24

was like, man, I wish we had an extra

6:26

day there because there are a couple things

6:28

that I like to see there, but

6:31

it's just not in the cards. So I don't

6:33

know. I land pretty early and our call time

6:35

to do like sound check is

6:37

like a few hours after I land. I'm leaving. I'm flying out at

6:39

8 a.m. I arrived like 10, 30 a.m. So I don't

6:43

mind if time for a little Rocky Mountain

6:45

IPA. Well, I thought you were going to

6:47

go on a hike. Quick hike. No.

6:53

No, I- I'm going to- yeah, we'll do

6:55

that show and then just fucking rock it.

6:57

I mean, I'm pretty excited about this weekend's

7:00

shows too because we are- where we're at

7:02

in Strangions, the St. Paul show

7:04

we just aired last week. Obviously we did Vancouver

7:06

the week before and Vancouver was fine. But like

7:08

St. Paul, I was rewatching some of it during

7:11

the premiere. We were out of control. The tour

7:13

is just- it's out of control. It's

7:16

so off the rails and crazy, but

7:19

you guys did a lot of exploration

7:21

and in this second floor of the,

7:24

of the Mysterium, you know, going down, it's

7:26

just a lot different already. In the first

7:28

floor, so many different ways you can go.

7:30

You were attacked by a Wraith coming through

7:32

the walls. You were attacked by these proto-Shugoths.

7:34

Then you set off two traps. Like, there's

7:36

a couple different things that can happen, but

7:38

it's all going to happen over the next

7:40

two shows. And that's what I'm excited about.

7:42

Yeah. Yeah. These are going to be big ones. I'm definitely

7:44

looking forward to it as well. Quick

7:46

check in on Gen Con before we move on.

7:49

The gauntlets. So these games

7:51

that we're playing in Nashville are

7:54

in a lot of ways play tests for the gauntlets

7:56

that are going to happen at Gen Con. We're, we're

7:58

trying to build this one out. 45

8:01

minutes to 60 minute experience that

8:03

is intense, really fun and

8:05

extremely difficult to win, but not a

8:07

guaranteed loss. Right? So we're

8:09

trying to hit this very specific target of what we want to

8:11

try to the kind of challenge we want to

8:13

put in front of the nation to

8:16

see if folks can find a way

8:18

to work together with these iconic characters

8:20

to overcome these, these tough scenarios. And

8:23

I'm looking forward to, to testing them

8:25

out at Nashville, but the real, you

8:28

know, the big show is Gen Con

8:31

and there's only a couple

8:33

games open, right? There's like

8:35

22 Gen 22 gauntlet tables at Gen Con only five still

8:38

have seats at them. Wow.

8:44

Jared Logan 11 30 on Thursday, Matthew at 12 45 Thursday,

8:46

Logan at three 30 and four 45

8:51

on Thursday. You know, this is happening during

8:53

getting the trunk live. So it's these are tough

8:55

cells. But that's sold out. You

8:57

can get a ticket to that. What are you doing? Get

8:59

over at Logan's table and that's it. All

9:01

the rest of them are sold out. And even on Friday's

9:04

Saturday, Sundays are sold out. I think

9:06

so. There was maybe there's one Friday

9:08

and now it's gone. But anyways, the

9:11

even at these tables, there's like only one or

9:14

two seats left. So we're, I think we've got

9:16

10 seats total left, which is just amazing. Especially

9:19

now that the cost of the booth just came

9:21

in and it came in a little over budget,

9:23

Joe. No shit. It always does.

9:26

It'll be nice to sell out these

9:28

remaining 10 and break even. But

9:31

you know, we are going to be running four

9:35

of these at the Nashville retreat. You

9:37

me, Skid and Jared and Matthew. We're

9:39

running two on Friday. We're each running

9:41

four. We're each running four. Two on

9:43

Friday, two on Saturday with second and

9:45

sixth level characters. And last week or

9:48

maybe it was a week before I

9:50

ran one of them. It was like

9:53

the first non-recorded show I think I've done

9:55

in seven or eight years. I

9:58

ran it for you and Jared. and

10:00

Skid and Matthew and our buddy

10:02

from Order of the Ember die. We

10:04

ran the first one and it

10:07

was a barn burner. It was like you

10:09

guys weren't going to win and then you

10:11

won at the last second. Couple

10:14

crits. Couple crits. Then we

10:16

ran the second one and it was kind of

10:18

lame. It wasn't

10:20

right. We went back to drawing board

10:23

and so I'm excited to rock these

10:25

out. Not excited to prep them all

10:27

for GenCon. Now

10:29

that I'm thinking about the amount of work that's already

10:32

gone into this. Yeah,

10:34

it's going to be a lot but this will,

10:36

I mean, a sample size of 20

10:38

games. We're going to learn a lot as we

10:41

debrief with each other about how it all went

10:43

down. I think that that is going to make

10:45

the GenCon picture come in a lot clearer and

10:47

it'll probably be a lot easier. All

10:50

right, great. Let's move on to Glass

10:52

kind of podcast campaign to episode 39.

10:55

News flash folks. Hubert's

10:58

fine. Okay, calm down.

11:02

He's fine. He's forever. He'll live forever.

11:04

That's son of a bitch. That

11:07

was spectacular. It

11:10

is. I'm trying to think back. My

11:13

mind is a little muddied right now. I got a lot going on, but I

11:15

can't think of a cooler,

11:17

better encounter set up than

11:20

that lately. It's just brilliant

11:23

design. It is it is a it

11:26

is a it's

11:28

instilling this intense fear of how easily

11:31

you could die. But all of that

11:33

is an illusion that death is an

11:35

illusion. It's a smoke and mirrors effect.

11:38

It's so much fun. I think the way that it

11:40

happened with Hubert is great. But

11:42

particularly you need the buildup of Hubert the

11:44

way that that built in order for that

11:46

to work out great. But you

11:49

know, the average game that's

11:51

designed to tap into a PC. Holy

11:54

shit. How amazing is that? It's just you're

11:56

thrown off the thing. And for a second,

11:58

your players must be having an absolute heart

12:00

attack and then you get

12:02

to see this complete not deus

12:05

ex machina like thing that

12:07

makes perfect rational sense you know

12:09

in this in this situation for

12:12

why you would not fall to your death I just thought

12:14

it was it was great design what were your thoughts the

12:16

first time you you read through it well

12:18

I mean I I never know what the

12:21

ending of the episodes are gonna be and until

12:23

like you know we're at least halfway through or

12:25

so and so when I saw it coming I

12:27

was like oh we got to start this combat

12:29

and I've got to just fling somebody and that'll

12:31

be the cliffy because I know they're not gonna

12:33

die but the players won't know that so

12:36

the fact that enough on you it was

12:38

just hilarious because it had so many other

12:40

layers yeah of instilling fear and then sadness

12:43

and elation because you hate him but

12:46

you know it was a really

12:49

cool combat because it's still pretty devastating right

12:51

you get slammed you lose ten hit points

12:54

and you're sick and one if that keeps happening

12:56

you guys don't have a lot of hit points

12:58

if it happens to you twice now you're down

13:00

ten hit points and you're sick and two so

13:02

not only are you like which is near it's

13:04

already near death right you've got to play defensively

13:06

and now you've got to use everything to heal

13:08

but you're also much less effective at hitting you

13:10

know you're sick and two you're gonna be minus

13:12

two to all your attacks it's gonna

13:14

it just gets progressively harder but beyond

13:16

Hubert nobody else took any damage I

13:18

don't think right maybe one other no

13:20

I don't think I succeeded on the

13:22

athletics buggles took a crit you

13:24

crit buggles which was a tough one from that

13:27

effect from the gravitational right and then you rolled

13:29

like a natural two or so you didn't want

13:31

to tell us what you rolled but you missed

13:34

against his athletics DC or whatever which

13:36

was so slow yeah yeah so like you

13:38

must have rolled a natural two so

13:41

yeah it was just I

13:44

don't know it didn't work out for a PC to get

13:46

flung off but I was really really happy

13:48

with the way that it worked out I thought that it

13:50

was really really awesome but yeah other than that the combat

13:52

was it went long but it

13:54

was pretty tight in terms of how the players

13:56

played it nobody took any big hits players

13:59

readied delayed all that we'll get

14:01

to that in for a second and we are

14:03

stupid but we get to

14:05

see Barnes lay out a nice crit you

14:07

know like you see he's been struggling to

14:09

get that that damage going but

14:12

yeah overall really fun and then that combat so

14:14

yeah go ahead I was gonna say I also

14:16

like there was a theater of the mind combat

14:18

you know when we first started the glass cannon

14:20

podcast you and I especially had a long discussion

14:22

about like do we use tactical maps or do

14:24

we go theater of the mind and we were

14:26

just like man theater of the mind is gonna

14:28

be so much better for a podcast but

14:31

we think we can make it work as

14:34

long as we're overly descriptive about what we're doing on

14:36

the map and we you know created an

14:38

empire out of that but that said I

14:41

do love bringing theater of the mind back

14:43

into it even in Pathfinder where tactical movement

14:45

pathfinder to e especially where tactical movement is

14:47

so important I like being able to dabble

14:50

in that from time to time because it

14:52

is I think it's a

14:54

better listen yeah I

14:56

agree I love I love theater of the

14:58

mind I do it a lot in in

15:01

Delta green you know I mean cuz it's

15:04

not based so I mean there are movement

15:06

rules in Delta green and there is initiative

15:08

and all that kind of stuff and we

15:10

have done it on maps but I do

15:12

enjoy the the theater of the mind stuff

15:14

every now and then just to because it

15:17

also forces people to be more descriptive a

15:19

lot of times people see a map and

15:21

they just get lazy with narrative description yeah

15:23

and move two spaces this way one space

15:25

this way and it just starts to lose

15:27

its narrative feeling feels more like a board

15:30

game so every once in a while injecting

15:32

that in is a nice and fun change but

15:34

anyway we defeat one of these creatures and then

15:37

the other one flies off and Zephyr

15:40

and Asta have a little moment I

15:42

think it's it's worth noting Zephyr and

15:44

Asta after a little blowout a little

15:46

blow up that had kind of been

15:48

building after the death of

15:51

lucky followed by the death of

15:53

Talitha it sort of builds into this tension

15:55

between the two of them and

15:57

they they kind of seem

16:00

to resolve resolve it was a

16:02

nice little nice little moment little role

16:04

play moment to have two characters solidify why their

16:06

allies why they're going to adventure together and now

16:08

maybe that bond is a little bit tighter which

16:11

to me always just leads to higher

16:13

stakes better story it's

16:16

always better to kind of have that moment

16:18

where you know why you're allying with these

16:20

people are adventuring with someone else yeah

16:24

it's just nice to have that role play too because like

16:28

giant slayer while it had plenty of great

16:30

role-playing moments never had any of that it's

16:32

just a bunch of dudes you know what

16:34

I mean like even with the female characters

16:36

it's not that their interaction was particularly feminine

16:39

but it was just they bring

16:41

so much such

16:43

a different fun energy to the show

16:45

that you know they

16:47

play things that we just don't think to play

16:51

yeah especially yeah especially cuz

16:53

like also in giant slayer

16:55

a very very long campaign yes we had

16:57

characters come and go but there

17:00

was also there were times when the

17:02

same four characters that were all dudes

17:04

played by dudes at least would be

17:07

together for like 80 episodes

17:09

you know what I mean and it would just

17:11

be like what else are we gonna talk about

17:14

around the campfire like yeah let's just move on

17:16

to the next encounter and that that

17:18

can lose its luster a little bit so it was

17:21

great to have that dynamic take

17:23

another developmental turn and and grow and

17:25

so that was that was really cool

17:28

and then of course riding up to

17:30

the final moment at the

17:34

whatever this is commune I don't

17:36

know it's kind of weird but

17:38

a whole bunch of elves watching

17:41

us approach is such a cool image and

17:43

very excited to see to see where that

17:46

goes next week but any parting thoughts on

17:48

this episode as a whole before we get into we

17:50

are stupid no no I'm excited to

17:52

get into this next part you're kind of stampeding

17:54

you know through the adventure at

17:57

this point I feel like it's

17:59

kind of picky up speed and you'd be

18:01

shocked at how far you are into this

18:03

book. Oh, really? Yeah.

18:06

Well, okay. I

18:09

mean, so here's the way I look at it, just

18:11

comparatively, right? So, Giant Slayer, I don't know off the top of my

18:14

head, but it's something like 32 or 31

18:16

episodes was the first book. Obviously,

18:19

we moved faster back then, but

18:23

they were only one-hour episodes. Yeah, and these

18:25

books are longer. The three bookers, I

18:27

think they add five or 10 pages, so they're a

18:29

little more juicy. Okay, great. So then

18:31

let's compare it to Blood of the Wild. Blood

18:33

of the Wild, which meanders wherever it

18:36

may please, was 52 episodes

18:38

for book one. So we're

18:41

coming up on 40 this

18:43

week, right? So it's right in

18:46

that range. It's between the two, and

18:48

I'm curious to see where we land

18:51

there. Yeah, I'm thinking, I'm like, man,

18:53

I guess that's probably, that might be

18:55

right, but I have no idea. There's a couple

18:58

of twists and turns coming up that

19:00

could take longer or shorter, but you

19:02

guys are playing a lot tighter

19:05

now. I think the scare of

19:07

the snail fight has tightened up

19:10

the tactics a little bit, and so

19:12

it's actually making the combats move

19:15

a little bit. So I don't know, it'd

19:17

be interesting, because when you level up, the difficulty is going to level up

19:19

as well. So it'll be interesting to

19:21

see how that either lengthens or shortens

19:24

episodes. Yes, but

19:27

I also would say a lot of

19:29

the dragginess that you could use that

19:31

term for the campaign earlier on, I

19:34

think has less to do with combat dragginess and

19:36

more to do with, just

19:39

like we said before, the frustrations with like, what the

19:41

hell are we doing? You know

19:43

what I mean? Whereas this, while we might not know

19:45

the overarching thing, it is very

19:47

clear the last several episodes. It's been

19:49

like, gotta get to that thing right

19:51

there, right now, and figure out if

19:53

there's a civilization here that can help

19:56

us get back, right? So like, it's

19:58

just, it's a very clear goal. and

20:00

it helps to kind of move things into a linear direction,

20:02

and that's going to help move things forward quickly. So, you

20:04

know, we'll see where it goes from here if it opens

20:06

up into a new sandbox, but

20:09

I think that's

20:11

another reason why things are moving a

20:13

little bit quicker at this point. Hey,

20:15

it's Hey, it's Kaylee Cuoco for Priceline.

20:18

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21:15

All right, let's look into, let's

21:18

do a little We Are Stupid. Thank

21:20

you to Professor. We are

21:24

stupid. Now

21:26

I could have misread some of this. Professor Eric

21:28

wrote quite a bit. It's actually not gonna make

21:30

it all on air today, but he did, I

21:34

don't think there's a lot of corrections here. It's more just

21:36

like kind of fleshing things out again. So

21:38

that's another good sign. Like it doesn't seem like we

21:40

screwed up too much. But one of the first things

21:42

he jumped into is the discussion of the stunned condition

21:45

that we had with the tear

21:47

down when it was stunned by

21:50

Kate's stunning feast, which

21:52

was really cool. And he

21:55

believed that after our back and

21:57

forth about it, that we got to the right

21:59

decision after. a bit of discussion. Stunned

22:02

is nasty, but it is, this is

22:04

him, quote, stun is nasty, but it

22:06

is not instant kill, fall out of

22:08

the sky, nasty. You can't

22:10

act until you pay off the stunned value,

22:13

which happens at the beginning of your turn.

22:15

So no reactions or free actions in the

22:17

interim, which is why I was saying it

22:19

can't fly. I was like making a show

22:21

of it, right? Like it can't fly. How

22:24

could it fly? And then you made the good

22:26

point, you know, that's like, well, look, I mean,

22:29

all of this is happening simultaneously in

22:31

an instant, right? So it's like,

22:33

yeah, that makes sense. It's not gonna, it can't just

22:35

stop and plummet to the ground in that same couple

22:38

seconds. A creature and

22:40

then this is back to Professor Eric, a

22:42

creature, a flying creature falls if it doesn't

22:44

spend an action on its turn to

22:47

fly. So like, in

22:49

between turns, when it's not acting, it doesn't

22:51

always fall, right? It's

22:54

frozen in time in those. So even though it

22:56

was stunned, it

22:58

caught it at a moment where it's frozen in time.

23:01

The Terre D'an spent an action flying

23:03

on its turn. So it's good until

23:05

the next turn, it will

23:07

lose one action having two left, one of

23:09

which must be used to fly and

23:12

swoop contains a fly action. Right. So

23:14

then he says stunned one, this is

23:16

a cool way to break it down

23:18

mathematically stunned one is the equivalent of

23:20

roughly two seconds of a freeze. And

23:23

for a flying creature with momentum, that's

23:25

probably not enough to plummet. The discord

23:27

had some house rule suggestions like having

23:29

a drop five or 10 feet per

23:31

stunned action, if that helps

23:34

you wrap your head around it narratively,

23:36

but it's extremely unlikely to make any

23:38

effective difference given common fly speeds and

23:40

low stun values. So I can see

23:42

why it's simpler to just use the official rules,

23:44

unless it's really causing narrative dissonance at a table.

23:46

So really well laid out, you could do that

23:49

house rule where you have a certain amount of

23:51

feet per action stunned. But ultimately, yes, if you

23:53

think about it that way, the

23:55

creature is losing two seconds. One

23:58

to anything that's flying could just go.

24:00

glide for two seconds, you know, pretty easily,

24:02

even if it was losing the glide of its

24:04

wings a little bit, two seconds, it could recover

24:06

from so quickly and be back flying. So that's

24:09

why I think the stun condition, that

24:11

first sentence is misleading, like it

24:13

should be rewritten. You can't

24:16

take any actions. That's really just flavor. You

24:18

know what I mean? Like it should say like you can't

24:20

take reactions, you can't grab a ledge, you can't D D

24:23

D. To say you can't take actions.

24:25

I think there's probably a lot of tables that take

24:27

that literally just as you did. When

24:29

that's really just meant to be a flavor

24:32

that you interpret. No, you're

24:34

reading it wrong in terms of what's actually

24:36

there. But I think you're right in what

24:38

you're saying. It should say, you can't take

24:40

actions, capital A, including reactions. That

24:42

is what it should say. Instead, it

24:44

says you can't act lowercase

24:47

a. And

24:49

so that that could be a catch off

24:51

for whatever for anything and create these debates.

24:53

Meanwhile, if you just said you can't act

24:55

capital A, you can't take actions capital A

24:57

and you can't use reactions, then

24:59

like you would know that anything

25:02

and you can't take free actions. Just say

25:04

that. And that should cover that. You've become

25:06

senseless. You can't act. You

25:08

lose it. You lose the thing in next

25:10

turn. Like who cares? I know what I'm

25:12

stunned means. I understand the Webster's dictionary definition

25:14

of stunned. What's the mechanical

25:16

thing? What's the direct mechanical effect? Yeah.

25:19

And you lose an action at the

25:21

end. Beginner or when you regain actions,

25:23

you lose an amount

25:25

of actions equal to your stunned value when

25:27

you regain them. So yeah, there you go.

25:30

All right. So and then let's see,

25:32

let's move along here. All right. So

25:34

let's talk

25:38

about Barnes is

25:40

ready to action. We discussed

25:42

this because he readied an action for when it flew

25:45

in for its two action swoop, remember? Yeah. And

25:48

then it attacked, but you were like,

25:50

well, wait a minute. The swoop is

25:52

two actions as one thing, one event,

25:54

swoop in and attack. Does his come

25:56

in between those, even though that's a

25:58

one to action thing? How

26:01

do we work that out? I said

26:03

it needs to interrupt the action because

26:05

it's usually when you ready something, the

26:07

readied event happens before the event that

26:09

triggered it, right? But

26:11

I also said it could disrupt the action. I can't

26:14

remember if I said this in the episode. I don't

26:16

think I did, but I was wrong. I don't think

26:18

I corrected myself. I was

26:20

wrong because I was conflating in my head,

26:22

and Professor Eric points this out, I was

26:24

conflating in my head a readied action versus

26:27

an attack of opportunity. An

26:29

attack of opportunity disrupts an action

26:31

on a crit. A readied action

26:34

does not disrupt the triggering

26:37

action even on a crit. So

26:39

those are two totally different things. And so that's an

26:41

interesting point to realize. And the reason I wonder if

26:44

I said it, and I don't think I did, is

26:46

because I know I've said this

26:49

before. So I'm not sure if

26:51

I made this mistake in Gatewalkers before or

26:53

in another game. But I once

26:55

before have definitely made this mistake where it was like,

26:58

I considered a readied action the same as an

27:00

attack of opportunity. They are two different things. So

27:02

that's an important distinction to make. I'm

27:06

curious if Professor Eric weighed in

27:08

on does that interrupt an

27:11

action that, you know,

27:13

it was a two action john

27:15

that included stride and the attack.

27:19

Like I had to stride first. Well, he said he said

27:21

it's careful. He said I want to be careful. He said

27:23

I want to be a little careful with the wording here.

27:26

The readied action triggers as soon

27:28

as its condition is met. So

27:31

it likely happens in the middle of the

27:33

triggering action, which is how we ruled. Right.

27:37

But it doesn't disrupt the action. If both

27:39

Barnes and the opponent have the same reach,

27:41

which I believe they do, then

27:43

yes, Barnes a strike would go

27:45

before the creature creatures strike. If

27:48

quote, interrupt is being used in the

27:50

temporal sense, then you're fine. And that's

27:52

how you ruled it. But

27:54

if you were thinking in the disrupt

27:56

slash cancel sense, then that's not correct.

27:58

Right. wouldn't capital

28:01

D disrupt the activity, unless

28:03

say a reactive strike that

28:05

does disrupt manipulate actions on

28:07

a crit. Of course,

28:09

if a readied action k o's a

28:11

creature, the rest of that creature's actions

28:13

and activities would be disrupted as a

28:15

result. Right. Yeah, that makes sense.

28:18

Yeah. All right. Makes sense. It's laid out

28:20

nicely. All right.

28:22

Let's so there's more here. And he goes really

28:24

in depth on the thaumaturge. And I honestly don't

28:26

understand it. So I want to talk to him

28:29

about it before we talk about it again on

28:31

air. This isn't something that mattered hugely in this

28:33

episode at all. So I want to talk to

28:35

him about it because man, there's some complicated stuff

28:38

with Matthew's character. I think he's getting something at

28:41

least one thing wrong. Okay,

28:43

well, here's one thing he is getting wrong that I am going to mention.

28:46

And then we'll move on to listener mail for

28:48

exploit vulnerability. There

28:51

are two branches to

28:53

that that work very differently. And

28:55

this is what he lays out. This is what I believe Matthew

28:57

got wrong in the episode. If

29:00

the creature has a weakness, your

29:03

strikes count as that weakness for

29:06

the purposes of the

29:08

encounter. And it applies to

29:10

all creatures of that type until

29:13

you exploit vulnerability.

29:15

Again, Matthew mentioned this on air. He's like, you

29:17

know what else is cool? I

29:19

could do this if another pterodont came two

29:22

hours from now. Like I could use this

29:24

without having to spend the action for exploit

29:26

weakness. The

29:29

problem here is the creature must

29:31

have a weakness. Because

29:35

the other option is the creature doesn't have

29:37

a weakness. If the creature

29:39

does not have a weakness, Matthew was

29:41

very excited about this. He said, you

29:43

create your own small custom weakness against

29:46

the creature. Now,

29:48

the distinction here is that

29:51

does work. But you

29:53

don't it

29:55

does not work against all creatures of

29:58

that type. Only against that. one.

30:01

So that's what I think Matthew got wrong is

30:03

he said, and if another another pterodon came, I

30:06

could just use it on that. But

30:08

the issue was they had no weakness. So

30:10

even though he was exploiting a weakness that

30:12

was just between him and that one creature,

30:15

he would have to use an action on

30:18

the next pterodon over to exploit weakness again

30:20

in order to get that that bonus. So

30:23

yeah, just something to keep in mind is

30:25

like the creature must have a creature type

30:27

weakness for you to be able to apply

30:29

it to other creature types. If you if

30:32

it doesn't, and you're using that special single

30:34

creature weakness, you have to reroll the exploit

30:36

vulnerability each time on a different

30:39

creature. It's called personal antithesis. That's

30:42

the name of that ability that allows you to get

30:44

bonus weak damage, which I think for him is three

30:46

points right now does an extra three points of damage.

30:49

He also and then Professor Eric clarified, remember, it

30:51

is a weakness, it is not bonus damage. So

30:53

it's not doubled on a crit, which I believe

30:55

we got right in the episode. So look at

30:58

this. Look at us. Yeah. So again,

31:00

I don't think there's any major corrections here that

31:02

thing with Matthew, I'm going to send this all

31:04

to him. But there's another thing that Professor Eric

31:07

goes into detail on on the diverse lore

31:10

feet that he took and how that interacts

31:12

with esoteric lore. So we're gonna work on

31:15

this off air because I still have some

31:17

more questions about that. I don't want to

31:19

speak to it until we're a little bit

31:21

more clarified. But cool. Yeah, that was it.

31:23

Thanks for laying it out. Professor E. Let's

31:25

move on to a little listener mail. Good

31:27

question today. Good question. You're interrupting. All

31:30

right, Derek from Austin,

31:45

thank you so much for writing in with a

31:47

with a great question. I was I was thinking

31:50

this exact question last week. And let's

31:52

lay it out here. I

31:56

am hopeful that for gate walkers,

31:58

Troy is using milestone level I

32:01

don't know what you're doing. I don't know if you've said what

32:03

you're doing. If you're just doing milestone, it seems like that's what

32:05

you're doing. But then

32:07

he says, but my question requires

32:09

a trip in the imagination copter.

32:11

Imagine you're using the regular XP

32:13

system. And your players bypass

32:15

an encounter like they did versus the

32:17

golems guarding the gondola. Do

32:19

you give your players full XP as

32:22

though they defeated the encounter? I

32:24

always supported the idea of full

32:26

XP, whether the encounter is overcome

32:28

with diplomacy, deception, combat or some

32:31

other method that I didn't predict.

32:33

I always worry that not giving

32:35

full XP leads to gamey XP

32:37

hunting, where the players just use

32:39

look for excuses to always have

32:41

combat curious on your thoughts, but

32:43

especially Troy's thoughts. I

32:50

guess my go to on that is

32:52

I do not award full

32:55

XP. I usually do partial.

32:58

My system is always changed over the

33:00

years. There's always been a combination of

33:04

adding up individual XP, dividing it

33:07

by the party members, and

33:09

then seeing how close it is to the

33:11

milestones. Giant Slayer because you had so many

33:14

different characters and they were coming in at

33:16

different times. And

33:19

then you I can't remember how I did how

33:21

I dealt with Alma, um, low. But like I

33:23

would have fucking spreadsheets of just adding up the

33:25

XP and, you know, I would have you level

33:28

up at different times, especially in Minderhalls Valley, like

33:30

the encounters were so all over the place, you

33:32

could stumble into encounters that you weren't really ready

33:34

for yet. And if you won

33:37

them, you get a lot more XP than you

33:39

would against just a couple of guys that you

33:41

were kind of meant to fight earlier. So

33:44

I really needed it then because the

33:47

milestones were very suggestion is like by the

33:49

time they reach the cathedral, they should be

33:51

this. I'm thinking myself like you could be

33:53

lined at the cathedral, you know, but also

33:55

a lot of the adventure paths are written

33:57

like if the heroes have not made it

33:59

to. fifth level yet throw in

34:01

some encounters and that's not what we do either

34:03

so I like to do

34:05

a combination of I like to really look at

34:07

like what what are the numbers say

34:09

how close is it to what the book suggests

34:12

and then like you know the

34:14

things that I change are not like let's

34:16

throw in some random encounters it's just kind

34:18

of takes into I like to take an

34:21

account roleplay for XP and certain other things

34:23

and if it's close enough I'll get you

34:25

there but also like how are we doing

34:27

in terms of the show like is this

34:29

a good moment to say you level up

34:31

is it not and that taking

34:33

that timing there are times like you guys I can tell

34:35

you this on all of the

34:37

shows that I've run you guys have been like

34:40

you've met both the milestone and

34:42

the XP thing but it wasn't a good

34:44

moment in the show to level you up so I've had to

34:46

wait and then there was one

34:48

live show where I just forgot and

34:53

then I had a better cliff eel and then

34:55

it wasn't like two more episodes you guys leveled

34:57

up you son of a bitch I'm all over

35:00

the place well that is very upsetting to hear

35:02

you forgot to level us up yeah

35:04

no I I so I mean I agree with you

35:09

Derek that's that's how I run my games I haven't run

35:11

Pathfinder in a long time but like I

35:14

want to run XP a

35:17

true XP system milestone

35:19

is great and it's easy

35:21

and easy is great easy

35:24

is fun I get that

35:26

I just something to me about

35:28

tracking XP and giving individual

35:30

characters XP has something I've always just

35:33

really really enjoyed I like characters leveling

35:35

up at different times I like them

35:37

feeling like they earned their level and

35:39

somebody else being jealous they need to

35:41

get their level I

35:43

love using experience as bottle caps

35:45

or as a reward for

35:47

something well done you always have to give them a

35:49

hero point you could always just say like you get

35:51

an extra 20 experience for coming up with this idea

35:54

I really enjoy that but that's a lot more work I

35:57

get it and so what I would say in this situation

35:59

is I would absolutely award

36:01

full XP for the encounter. I

36:03

award full XP for however you

36:05

overcome an encounter, even if it's

36:07

the easy way. And

36:11

then I don't reward any XP for encounters

36:13

that you did not know you missed, or

36:15

that you missed by being lucky or foolish,

36:17

or didn't realize it was an encounter. In

36:20

those cases, no, I'm not giving you XP for

36:23

stuff you missed so that you stay on the milestone.

36:25

If you go into a combat underleveled

36:27

because you did not explore

36:30

enough to encounter the other encounters,

36:33

that's part of it. You know what I mean? And so

36:35

now the difference is, yes, it's going to be harder, but also

36:37

you're going to get more XP for that. It's going to be like

36:39

an extreme level encounter. So yeah,

36:41

no, I appreciate it, Derek. I think it's

36:43

a good layout of why you don't want

36:45

people to think that they're rewarded

36:48

more for fighting than for not fighting. I

36:50

always love to see people come up with

36:52

clever ways to not fight, but because nine

36:54

times out of 10, you fight. You almost

36:56

always fight. So it's like any clever

36:58

way to get around it is fun and

37:00

cool. So yeah, I like

37:02

to reward players for that. But

37:04

yeah, that's it. That's going to do it for

37:06

us. Do it for the show

37:08

today. Thank you guys so much for hanging out. For the

37:11

FOD, we are... We

37:14

got a FOD next week, and then we're going to be off the week after

37:16

that. We're going to talk about that a little bit next week, but 4th of

37:18

July week, we're going to be off. And

37:21

so is the GCP. It's going to be off the 4th

37:23

of July week. I'm hoping everybody enjoys that holiday, but we'll

37:25

talk more about that next week. But

37:28

until then, enjoy episode 40. I

37:30

hope everybody has a fantastic time in Denver and in

37:32

Nashville. I can't wait to meet you. I can't wait

37:34

for the retreat. It's going to be amazing. And we'll

37:36

have a lot of debriefing to do next week on

37:38

the FOD. We'll see you then. Take it easy, everybody.

37:41

Bye. It's time to make

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