0:04

From the trap-laden jungles of

0:06

Cannibal Cone to the haunting

0:08

and dangerous home of the

0:10

Lorelai's Mermaid Lagoon, five daring

0:12

Heroes of the Realm recount

0:15

tales of high adventure, would

0:18

you please welcome the

0:20

Lords of the Dungeon!

0:39

Hey now and well met

0:41

weary travelers and welcome to

0:43

the Dungeon! This is Jaime,

0:45

Jessica here. It's Jess. This

0:47

is Bender. And this is Aaron.

0:49

Well I gotta tell you Cabalists, I

0:52

for the past two weeks have

0:54

been buzzing in my seat since

0:57

this group got back together and

0:59

started talking about role-playing games again.

1:02

For those of you out there who don't

1:04

know, this group took

1:06

an extended break from role-playing

1:08

together for quite a while now. It

1:11

was the beginning of December. We

1:14

finished up Jess's Dragon Lance campaign and

1:16

we chose to halt the game group

1:18

for a while because we really needed

1:21

a break. We needed to kind of

1:23

just stop, step back, take stock of

1:25

everything, figure out how we can come

1:27

back with a

1:31

recharged enthusiasm for gaming. And

1:33

I gotta tell you that's exactly

1:36

what happened. We decided to take

1:38

our own podcasters advice and

1:40

open up the lines of communication with

1:42

each other to talk about what we

1:44

want out of the game, what we

1:46

have fun with, what we don't like,

1:48

you know, and so that we can

1:50

maximize the fun for everybody. And

1:53

that's exactly what we did. It was

1:55

so amazing and I couldn't be more excited

1:57

about getting back to gaming with this group.

2:00

Yeah, same here man. I'm really excited for

2:02

next Sunday We're gonna get together and over

2:04

some character stuff for our first game that

2:07

we're gonna be back to play in Yeah,

2:09

and I'm like dying. I wish it

2:11

was this Sunday. Like I have to wait a whole other

2:13

week There's nothing like having

2:15

a bit of a break That

2:17

what is it absence makes your heart grow

2:19

fonder? I do think that sometimes

2:22

gaming groups do need a bit of

2:24

a reset a little free

2:26

like you know a chance like, you

2:28

know step away for a little bit

2:30

do a breather and then come back

2:32

and Really like get

2:34

together and talk about what type of games

2:37

are we interested in? What

2:39

do we want to do around our table

2:41

this year? And then I think that's a

2:43

really great way of getting excited again the

2:45

conversation we had on discord was really constructive

2:47

We kind of like reexamined what went right

2:49

in our last couple games and what went

2:52

wrong We were going over kind of like

2:54

the tone and the mood of you know

2:56

previous campaigns and trying to set up expectations

2:58

for our next game. Yeah pretty

3:01

informative Mike our Our

3:04

dear friend Mike DeRose Wave

3:06

the white flag as far as fantasy

3:08

goes. Yeah, no moss no moss por

3:10

favor Yeah, Mike is not a huge

3:12

fan of medieval fantasy, which is very

3:15

difficult for role-playing group Not to play medieval

3:17

fantasy, so we're gonna figure that out and

3:19

we're gonna respect that So we're gonna move

3:21

into call of Cthulhu. Yeah, which we had

3:23

a lot of fun in previously. It's the

3:26

1930s their

3:28

prohibition Somewhere

3:30

in Massachusetts the CAS and the yad

3:32

that kind of thing Yeah,

3:35

we talked a lot about just all the different

3:37

games that we want to play the games we

3:39

don't want to play and Essentially

3:42

the call of Cthulhu game right now is sort of

3:44

like a I'm almost Considering like a

3:46

stopgap in a sense because I'm kind of sort

3:48

of ready to run that game I can

3:51

just finish off the adventures that I've been writing

3:53

and Run those things so

3:55

and we're already sort of in the mindset because

3:57

we played that one recently and why? The

4:00

rest of the group we decide exactly what

4:02

we want to play I think the front-runner right

4:05

now a shadow run because we have a little

4:07

light shadow We haven't played I played

4:09

shadow in years I don't know the last time I played

4:11

shadow run and Hearing bender and

4:13

just talk constantly about how much they love

4:15

shadow run They know everything in and out

4:17

from the rule of the lore and everything

4:20

It would be so amazing to play in a shadow

4:22

run game with you guys So I'm hoping I'm crossing

4:25

my fingers that that one's the one that sort of

4:27

comes after the call of Cthulhu games As

4:29

long as the Cthulhu game comes first because I do

4:31

I did appreciate the break I felt the same way

4:33

it was kind of like I think it might have

4:35

went out a little too long But it's like I'm

4:37

refreshed ready to get back to it We took the

4:39

break right when we were gonna start playing Cthulhu and

4:41

I was really excited for that game I really had

4:44

a lot of fun. It's one of my favorite games.

4:46

We played for a while So I'm

4:48

really excited to be starting at but hell yeah

4:50

as so far as shadow run goes I'm

4:52

dying to like make a character for that too. Oh, I'm

4:55

so excited You guys have no

4:57

idea how like when you're really

4:59

passionate about something, you know It's

5:02

not it's not everyone's, you know cookie

5:04

not everyone like the flavor and But

5:07

when you get the opportunity to share something

5:10

you really love and really enjoy with your

5:12

friends They're willing to give it a chance.

5:14

It is Like

5:17

I don't know. I'm just super excited

5:19

I I know Bender and I you

5:21

know, just want to make sure it

5:23

is a good experience for you guys Not

5:26

that there's any pressure that you have to love it

5:28

because that's I think one of the things that we

5:30

all talked about for This year is

5:32

trying out more games Maybe doing some

5:34

more one shots to try

5:36

different systems out to like see what things

5:39

you know might be like to see what

5:41

we might be interested in like superhero

5:44

game or more science

5:46

fiction games or science

5:48

fantasy games And so

5:50

that's why I think we we started with

5:52

shadow run Because at least

5:54

two of us are really into the

5:57

rules. So there's not as much heavy

5:59

lifting in terms of someone having to

6:01

understand a new set of rules to DM. So,

6:04

Bender's gonna take a hit, you know, is

6:06

gonna be our, what are they called, Game

6:09

Masters? I can't either, Game Master. Mike,

6:12

you know, there's gonna be a lot of fantasy

6:14

in Shadow and there's no denying it. There's elves and

6:16

dwarves and orcs and dragons, but there's also like a

6:18

very high tech setting where it's like, you know, you're

6:20

hacking the internet. It's like futuristic

6:23

planes and orbital travel and

6:25

stuff like that. Hopefully

6:27

we'll be able to hit him with enough sci-fi

6:30

that he'll kind of be blinded to

6:33

what other nonsense is going on. Jesse,

6:35

you hit something there that I think

6:37

is very important. You're very

6:39

excited to share this love you have

6:42

of Shadowrun with us. And to

6:44

be honest, that's kind of why I brought

6:47

it up that day. Because I thought that

6:49

right now, what this group needs is some

6:51

enthusiasm. And when I was thinking about the

6:54

games that this group would be enthusiastic about,

6:56

I know that you and Bender both love

6:58

Shadowrun. I know Jesko loves Shadowrun. And I

7:00

have played Shadowrun and I love Cyberpunk. So

7:03

this, I mean, I like it already. So

7:05

I'm already in, I just don't know a

7:07

lot about it. So I was like,

7:09

man, this might be like a really great way to sort

7:12

of pull everybody together in something that we

7:14

mutually love. Now Mike's a different story

7:16

because Mike just started playing with

7:18

us last year. He doesn't know

7:20

much about role-playing. He doesn't know a lot

7:22

of these worlds and stuff. So he's just

7:25

along for the ride, so to speak. So

7:27

I think that that's really what our group

7:29

needs is that injection of enthusiasm to really

7:31

like come back, like full force back into

7:34

gaming. And we took the break because at

7:37

the beginning of December of this last year,

7:39

we were starting to wear out a

7:41

little bit, I think. It

7:45

wasn't seeming to work out like it always

7:47

has in the past and we thought we

7:49

need to just stop. We need to step

7:51

back. We need to take stock of everything.

7:53

We need to take a break, relax, recharge

7:55

our batteries and come back when we were

7:57

ready. And As a matter of fact, I

7:59

thought it was gonna be longer than it

8:01

was. like I was sick and I may

8:03

be like summertime will get back together. Maybe

8:05

we'll do like some one shots here and

8:07

there you know on the side just for

8:09

fun Man I just couldn't do it anymore.

8:11

I finally like was busting I had to

8:13

like say guys can we get back together

8:15

finally please of I could handle it anymore.

8:17

When you told us on the one episode

8:19

that you were ever learning more about the

8:21

Holocaust, the loop rules set and you are

8:23

already writing multiple things I remember damning you

8:25

afterward like to we have a conversation process

8:27

that if I can recycle, kill each other.

8:32

So we do have to go over are

8:34

called It'll characters their little too powerful. We

8:37

decided from the last time we were playing

8:39

that we have to like lower some of

8:41

their status more reasonable numbers so that some

8:43

of the roles will ah, have a chance

8:46

to fail. Yeah, yeah yeah. I looked into

8:48

the rulebook under the sections for skills and

8:50

if you have a ninety percent skill and

8:52

anything it means you are world renowned and

8:55

like of a person who knows them earth

8:57

about that thing in the world Alec none

8:59

of us should be. That's the first. Happened

9:03

was so he became a little

9:05

too specialized. There and. We

9:08

didn't We didn't understand the

9:10

way M D and Progression

9:12

is in in pulp the

9:15

Sulu color fasulo. Types of I

9:17

know we're paying. Playing with the pulp rules. Any

9:19

skill. That. You use

9:21

it and like pillow check

9:23

mark next to it and an

9:26

asteroid the adventure over you

9:28

have an opportunity to i think

9:30

it's role some days and

9:32

if. You roll now. You're are

9:35

lower than what you already have. You

9:37

can increase your skill in in those

9:39

particular skills but isn't based on the

9:41

skills that you leverage and a few.

9:43

I think it's if you have a

9:46

successful role in the skills that a

9:48

leper. it's me and so is more

9:50

hopeful when you're first starting out to

9:52

be a little bit more diverse and

9:54

not quite so high that maybe you

9:57

have a couple hi ones. But Lake.

10:00

Many of us had nine is already

10:02

or eighty Five's answer and thing, so

10:04

I think that that was one of

10:06

the biggest challenges that we are highly

10:08

specialized have very specific nice areas here,

10:11

but it wasn't helping us have a

10:13

well balanced game. and then we couldn't

10:15

fail in. There was no complications happening

10:17

as a result of it though. it

10:19

was as one of a story. My.

10:22

Eyes with the seventy five was in almost

10:24

every done for was a certain. Amount

10:27

of how do you like automatics to

10:30

the automatic sakara than anyway so little

10:32

hints as death by guard. So yeah.

10:35

I. Try to spread arbor was still like

10:37

I did hit our time the sock on

10:39

a were all of our the rifle it

10:41

was this great your Rambo Dodd rebels as

10:43

we miss out on some of the fear

10:46

meters long the always it will stuff like

10:48

that or a demon like rust my god

10:50

I am I had to hear was also

10:52

like pretty high the maybe like a seventy

10:54

two. And. I liked allege at him

10:57

but up with you like ran away like

10:59

a knows. It's own way. Some of

11:01

the fear. Although he wrote

11:03

high too busy push their down the

11:05

steps can assess assess assess the through

11:07

Jeff out of a blast the just

11:10

through a door. Lists

11:12

I I had a very high a

11:14

call it still. But. That didn't

11:17

save me from. Know things. Let me

11:19

tell you with a matter of fact

11:21

in pulled the Philo, the more intelligent

11:23

you are the worse you have it

11:25

because the Sandy rules base work off

11:28

of your intelligence. And as a matter

11:30

of fact when you take fear checks,

11:32

sanity checks and the games are scared

11:34

of things, if you're a higher intelligence,

11:37

you actually get bit worse for you

11:39

because you understand the gravity of the

11:41

situation like you comprehend the horror of

11:43

the situation. If you're a dumb guy

11:46

and you failure tells and fro. You're

11:48

like, well, that's happened and

11:50

you know. my

11:53

character might go insane is awesome

11:56

example that vaccines like i didn't

11:58

see some notes here about for

12:00

our character creation day. She

12:03

is definitely psychic. If you play

12:05

the dummy you will probably last longer in the

12:07

game. Let's put it that way. That's another

12:09

thing we're doing I think a little bit differently with this

12:12

game too is we're gonna talk about like

12:14

what is the secret society we have

12:16

and you know are there gonna be

12:18

other like characters out there so if

12:20

one of our characters does go

12:22

insane or does die there's another

12:25

character that we can bring in on the

12:27

wings or if we're like hey I'm tired

12:29

of playing this type of character I

12:31

want to play this character. I think

12:33

we're doing some fluid and flexibility with

12:35

our Call of Cthulhu game so it

12:37

should be a lot of fun. I

12:39

can't wait. I love solving mysteries. I

12:41

love specifically solving you know the horror

12:43

type thriller mysteries and

12:45

Jamie you are the best at

12:48

delivering those type of plot lines. It's one of my

12:50

favorite stories to write and I will tell you this

12:53

one of the things that my goals

12:56

for this tiny campaign, calling it a

12:58

campaign because it's like a series of

13:00

adventures, is to make them as

13:03

diverse as possible so you're

13:05

not just going into another haunted house it's

13:07

gonna be like something completely different every time

13:09

so to be I have three specific adventures

13:12

that I'd like to run they don't all

13:14

have to go but three specific adventures I'd

13:16

like to run and all three of them

13:18

are wildly different genres

13:20

and I'm really excited about it.

13:22

Awesome. Oh yeah man can't wait.

13:24

Well that's what we've been up to we're gonna

13:26

get together this weekend do character creation and do

13:29

talk about the game a little bit

13:31

and gear up for our new Call

13:33

of Cthulhu campaign then we're gonna decide

13:35

what our next game after that's gonna

13:38

be probably Shatterrun. We're getting back into

13:40

it and the enthusiasm is high in

13:42

2024. Speaking

13:46

of character creation we're getting together

13:48

this weekend to make characters our

13:50

listener topic for today is all about the

13:52

characters we've made in the past. Thought we'd

13:55

do something a little more whimsical something a

13:57

little more fun to talk about. So Bez

13:59

Ass I love

14:01

getting inspiration from my favorite podcasts

14:03

and I always hear stories about

14:06

favorite adventures and campaigns But I

14:08

rarely hear about favorite characters Can

14:11

you all describe some of your favorite

14:13

characters you've played and what made them

14:15

your favorite? Love the show. Thanks AC

14:18

I know that you got some favorite characters

14:20

in the deep well of your characters of

14:22

the past What is it? What

14:24

do you got? Do you got a good character that you love as

14:27

a matter of fact? I do and This

14:30

character is gonna come up later in the show for

14:32

a different reason as a matter of fact It's

14:35

my dwarf character from one of

14:37

our D&D Kim hands I don't

14:39

even remember the setting that well,

14:41

but I remember I had this

14:45

whole backstory on

14:47

him being a blacksmith and creating

14:50

the best Was

14:52

it axes I think I was working on

14:54

a set of axes or a sort of set of swords Like

14:56

yeah, we're gonna have an axis that was like

14:59

your goal is to forge these act it was gonna I

15:01

was gonna be like this awesome dual wielding dwarf and I

15:08

think I had the most

15:10

fun with that character simply because he was a dwarf and

15:12

I really leaned into the the character Kind

15:16

of belligerent like Scottish

15:18

characters Yeah Yeah,

15:21

yeah Yeah, that's

15:23

more fantasy you were a dwarf and you seem like you had

15:25

a blast with that character, too Yeah, yeah, I do I do enjoy

15:27

that doing that accent and that that character

15:30

idea What

15:33

would you say? So what would you say was specifically

15:35

the reason that you love that character? Was it like

15:37

the personality or was it the goals of the character

15:39

the background of the character? So

15:42

it was the personality and I tell you why

15:44

I have always Like

15:47

my entire life I've always played

15:49

a wizard In

15:51

some way shape or form every video games

15:53

role-playing games Whatever we

15:55

do. I love with I

16:01

want to be the smart guy in the group and

16:04

I never have that much fun with it Because

16:07

I can't play a smart

16:09

character So it's

16:11

always frustrating We can't play

16:13

a smart character. You play a smart character.

16:15

You're just hard on yourself about how

16:18

no no We talk

16:20

about that. Yeah, we we have before on

16:22

the show like sometimes It's

16:24

hard to come across like you're a genius because you

16:27

don't know what's going on in the DM said that's

16:29

true exactly But

16:31

when I play like my belligerent dwarf

16:33

character, I have a blast playing that

16:35

because there is no Mental

16:39

hang-ups there. It's just me

16:41

being overbearing and

16:43

loud and Getting

16:46

drunk all the time. That's easy He

16:52

like opens the core of Aaron and shows it to us

16:54

kind of Yeah, I so

16:56

when I when I play games I

16:58

always want to play the wizard but

17:01

I have the most fun Playing

17:03

the you know down-to-earth Belligerent

17:07

dwarf who just gets things done.

17:09

I completely understand that because

17:11

it's like a it's a difference

17:14

It's not you because you're not

17:16

a belligerent drunken guy. You're very

17:18

polite drunken guy Scotches

17:26

you got there Aaron if you don't Know

17:29

it's there But

17:34

no playing something that's completely different than

17:37

what you're used to and what you're

17:39

comfortable with Sometimes just is freeing and

17:41

it's exciting to play something brand new

17:43

and weird and different than you've never played before

17:45

and you can get Into that more than you

17:47

can get into sort of the your comfort zone

17:49

in a sense. Mm-hmm What about you Jess you

17:51

had a character that you that you love? Yeah

17:55

I I have a character that I absolutely

17:57

love I wait. I I don't even know

18:00

If you guys will meet her because I would love for

18:02

you guys to meet her in the shadow run game But

18:04

I think I'm gonna have to create a new character for

18:06

our shadow ring game, but um, I love

18:08

my character Yeah, maybe maybe she'll

18:11

be an MTC I thought for

18:13

a second there Jess was starting to get some schizophrenia because

18:15

she was like I don't know if you're

18:17

ever gonna get to meet her like I

18:23

love my character dusk dusk

18:26

is a Mage she is

18:28

an elven mage and She

18:31

I just I love her.

18:33

I am I feel so

18:35

badass with her She

18:38

can really tear stuff up

18:40

with her magic. She

18:42

has She can

18:44

you know, I was on affinity to

18:46

the spirits or or elementals or whatever

18:49

we call them And it is just I

18:51

just love that character and I have loved

18:53

the campaign that we were in it and

18:56

the reason why I love the character beyond the

18:58

fact that she's badass is because She

19:01

is a natural sleuth. So anytime

19:04

You know We have like what's the plot and

19:06

trying to figure it out that of course is

19:09

scratching just as it's that she loves to solve

19:11

The mystery so I try to incorporate that in every character

19:13

I have because that makes Jess happy But

19:15

but I think is really cool about

19:17

her is that she is not perfect,

19:19

right? She's flawed She's not trying

19:22

to be perfect. She has her own

19:24

fears and her own demons she

19:26

has her own trauma and it's

19:29

cool to play a character like

19:31

that because You

19:33

you don't have to have it all together

19:35

you don't have to always show up and

19:37

be a hundred percent and the

19:40

group that we're with Everyone

19:42

has their own little idiosyncrasies and their flaws

19:44

and it's really cool to be in a

19:46

group like that because then there's not so

19:48

much pressure And so

19:51

I really love that character She

19:53

it also helps. She's kind of the leader

19:55

of the group. So but

19:58

she's an imperfect leader of the group So

20:01

it's almost like I'm

20:03

wrangling cats, but yet

20:05

the cats love me, right? And

20:08

so it's a really fun dynamic

20:10

to play with the group that we have. The

20:13

one that I'm about ready to play, which

20:16

is, I don't know if any of you

20:18

guys have seen Netflix's Delicious in the Dungeon.

20:21

It is an animated series about

20:23

a group of adventurers that go into

20:26

a dungeon and they're very poor, so

20:28

they have to learn to basically cook

20:30

the monsters and eat the monsters in

20:32

the dungeon. This has inspired

20:34

me to create a cook, a chef. She

20:37

is a bard and she

20:40

creates her culinary cuisines. She's

20:42

a glamour bard, but she is going to be a

20:45

chef. And I cannot wait to play this

20:47

character. I think it is going to be

20:49

a hoot. I'm

20:51

really excited about that character too. I

20:54

haven't played her yet, but all the background stuff

20:56

that I've done has just made

20:59

me fall in love with that character and

21:01

really look forward to playing that character. So

21:03

those are the two right now that I

21:05

love the most. Well, I'm really excited about

21:07

that character just that last we talked about,

21:09

because one of the things that I found

21:11

that make some of the most memorable characters

21:13

are the ones that have, weirdly enough, idiosyncrasies

21:15

that are just these little strange things

21:17

about them that inform their role playing

21:19

at all times. Like a cook, when

21:21

you're like the cook, even if it

21:23

was like playing a Deadlands campaign and

21:26

you're like on a wagon train and

21:28

you got the cook, then you're playing

21:30

the cook for the wagon train. Your

21:34

whole character is based around getting the

21:36

food and making sure everybody's fed. But

21:38

then you shoot pistols at zombies too,

21:40

right? Those

21:42

things can really inform a character to make

21:44

them really exciting and very memorable. And I

21:46

want you to keep that character in mind and

21:48

talk about them during the discussion topic that we

21:50

got coming up. I will. Bender,

21:54

what about you? You got a memorable character? I

21:56

know you got a billion of them. I love

21:58

character creation. My one friend the other day... was

22:00

talking about he's like I spent like 40

22:02

hours making this character I was like that's

22:04

fantastic I really respect that damn for other

22:06

people's like that's excessive I'm like it's nothing

22:09

I love character creation my

22:12

favorite is from the same character campaign did just

22:14

was talking about where dusk is from characters

22:16

name is shovel head his real love

22:18

Travis Travis Knox he's from Decatur

22:22

Georgia outside of Atlanta he tried

22:24

to get onto the Atlanta Falcons

22:26

he was a defensive end but

22:29

you know he had a drug problem stuff like that he fell

22:31

out he joined a gang

22:33

the cutters which is like a

22:35

nationwide gang and he got very

22:37

good in that until one day

22:39

he was murdered down in Mexico

22:42

with his love no no that's that's later

22:44

this was the first time he was murdered

22:46

they built

22:50

him they built him back date like the seven

22:52

million dollar man he had a mass

22:54

enough money and he had enough cyberdoc

22:56

friends that they put his

22:58

ass back together and to

23:01

repay his gang he started shadow

23:03

running for big money so Travis

23:05

not he had a girlfriend named

23:07

razor girl Rhonda and she

23:10

took a hit on on him this

23:12

one organization called the humanist poly club

23:15

they're these terrible human supremacists and shovel

23:17

had killed a bunch of them

23:19

when he was in jail so there was like a forty

23:21

five thousand dollar bounty on him that his

23:23

girlfriend took she pulled out a Mac

23:26

10 out of a bag and freaking

23:28

open fire on him the his

23:30

chaturanga didn't find him two weeks later I

23:32

know it was horrible we were looking for

23:35

him everywhere my favorite

23:37

character now people in the sewer

23:41

that he lived in dragged him to the local

23:43

hospital and he had a dock wagging thing which

23:45

is like a medical insurance so they were obligated

23:47

to fix them back to life and

23:50

then he was in a coma there was

23:52

an AI that went in

23:54

because he was in

23:56

a coma so Bob went into his brain and jump-started

23:58

it like a motorcycle Shovelhead

24:01

like an engine from a Harley, a

24:03

Shovelhead engine. I love this character. The

24:05

other thing is I was playing on

24:07

hard mode. None of my friends Shadowrun

24:09

with me. Jess would send her elementals,

24:11

our rigger would send his drone, our

24:13

hacker would be in the Matrix. Shovelhead

24:15

would be there in the Shadowrun alone

24:17

with his meat on the table. And

24:20

I always felt like I was running around for my life

24:22

and my friends were just not even there. They

24:25

were really Shadowrun-y. I should get double

24:27

the money that you guys are making.

24:29

Dude, my angry dwarf is weak sauce

24:31

compared to this. That's ridiculous. I

24:34

love it man. He has cyber arms. Both his

24:36

arms are hacked off and they've been like replaced

24:38

by these big mechanical cyber arms. He drives around

24:40

on a badass souped up Harley bike. We forgave

24:42

Ray as a girl Rhonda. The team was going

24:44

to kill her but I was like, no, I

24:47

love her. Let her go. I understand why she

24:49

did it. We actually didn't

24:51

turn her and we found out who

24:53

it was but we wanted Shovelhead to

24:55

make that decision instead of us. That

24:57

was the other thing. Our Shadowrun team,

25:00

unlike most Shadowrun teams, became a family.

25:02

We created our own base. We made

25:04

our own organizations. Of course, that put

25:06

a hit out on us. We wound

25:08

up having a rival Shadowrun organization going

25:10

against us. We

25:13

played for a good year and a

25:16

half and these stories cultivated over a

25:18

year and a half. These

25:21

people got tight. I can't even

25:23

begin to tell you. I've never

25:25

played characters and been in a

25:27

campaign party where I have had

25:29

such a deep connection with other

25:31

party members as my character and

25:33

such a deep connection to my

25:35

character than our Shadowrun group. I

25:38

don't know if we can ever recreate it. I

25:40

don't know if it was a special moment in

25:42

time because it was around the pandemic timeframe but

25:45

it's very good memories. Very

25:47

fun characters. Well, Bender,

25:49

you currently are carrying the

25:52

first place for the award for Best Character. Jessica,

25:54

come on. I don't know. I got a phone.

25:56

If I knew that, I don't know when it

25:58

was. earlier.

26:00

My favorite character is from our Sword

26:02

Coast Adventures campaign which is Aurelian

26:10

the Elf. I never played an elf back

26:12

in the day because you couldn't bring them

26:14

back to life if they died so I

26:16

just never played else. So

26:18

it was a cool experience on that part but

26:20

what really made it special for me was all

26:23

of our characters were

26:25

adopted by the same family. So in

26:27

my character was an elf so I've been

26:29

around for a long time so everybody in

26:31

the party like him there were there like

26:34

kids so my character like saw them grew

26:36

up like grow up like he did things

26:38

with them as kids I took him tampons

26:40

and taught him like survivals. He became like

26:42

a big brother like kind of a protector.

26:44

You were like an older brother that never

26:46

got older. I

26:49

kept growing my character was one day much taller

26:51

than his elf because he's still like a teenager.

26:54

He's not full grown himself. I

26:56

think my elf was like 20 years older than

26:58

the elf years. I

27:00

can't remember exactly how old my character was but

27:02

yeah it was cool. I kind of remember that

27:04

like as I was playing like he kind of

27:06

like wanted to watch out for you guys and

27:09

he was kind of hard on like

27:11

Jess in particular sometimes. Well

27:14

no no he was like he was like

27:16

he kind of was like tough love kind

27:18

of thing I think. He was like worried

27:20

that your character wanted to be like him.

27:23

I did. My character really looked

27:25

up to him. It was like

27:27

gonna get you like killed maybe so like there

27:29

was there was just like a lot of like

27:32

a lot of like emotions and like feelings of

27:34

that character and also we'll probably end up talking about

27:36

this later. I had a lot of stuff going on with him like

27:38

my character hated the sheriff like I was

27:41

smoozing up the Lord like having lunch and

27:43

shooting bow and arrow in his backyard like

27:45

working on a plan to become the sheriff.

27:48

I was in charge of a peace treaty

27:50

with that local elves like I was killing

27:52

pirates. I had all these plans that

27:54

I would have did if we would have kept playing.

27:56

And he was like badass too. He had these boots

27:58

that made him like super super He had this sonic

28:01

dog. Yeah, it's like sonic the hedgehog with

28:03

an oath bow. He would wreck people Wreck

28:06

it was amazing Wizard

28:09

came to get like to kill him. He's like, oh you

28:11

want to come and get he's like I'm gonna come and

28:13

get you and the Wizards like I gotta get out of

28:15

here He cast spectral seed and he's like I'm gonna leave

28:18

and just cuz like I'm gonna outrun your horse Come

28:25

back like the terminator man a relative like

28:27

don't make him mad kill him Don't

28:30

don't make him mad. Yeah, we were in the middle

28:32

of a party When that

28:34

wizard showed up, he was like my arch

28:36

nemesis He killed my village my my family

28:38

like he's been hunting my character for years

28:40

because I had just like Call

28:43

cap. Yep Yes,

28:45

call cap. Yeah And

28:47

my character is like I had in addition

28:50

to the oath bow I had the quiver

28:52

of a Laura or something like

28:54

that It's a magic quiver. You can actually

28:56

put your weapon inside of it, too And Jamie

28:58

is like Jessica you see the wizard on the

29:00

balcony. I like look up in the middle of

29:02

the party I immediately draw my boat and fire almost

29:04

like one shot the guy And

29:06

then like he runs my character is like

29:09

freakin Legolas like running up the banister and

29:11

shit like jumping around again He

29:13

jumped off the roof. I jumped off the roof

29:15

like and then the horse thing happened This is

29:17

like yeah, it was just a lot of memories

29:21

And I can I can almost remember no,

29:23

I'm not almost I definitely remember those scenes

29:25

like I saw a movie Yeah,

29:27

like I remember it like I could picture

29:29

it like we felt like mortals and he was

29:31

like sort of like a superhero My

29:36

Like him, but I wasn't as good as him.

29:38

I remember we're approaching this

29:40

haunted house and My character

29:42

is like I'm gonna sneak up with a

29:44

Relyan only I was failing all of my

29:46

checks making all this noise falling down Like

29:50

you know through I don't

29:52

know like rotten wood and you're like cracking it

29:54

and falling through You

29:57

could just see a Relyan just like pitching

29:59

the of his nose like no no

30:01

why why he's like she's gonna dollar what

30:03

is she what I can't I shouldn't let

30:05

her do this she's gonna take her anywhere

30:07

it was awesome this

30:13

it was great I don't know if I could

30:15

ever recapture that kind of magic the character but

30:17

he was definitely special you will that's the thing

30:19

you never know when it's gonna happen one character

30:21

feels mundane and then all of a sudden out

30:23

of nowhere there's lightning in a bottle it's gonna

30:25

happen again what about what about

30:27

you Jamie well you know I have

30:29

a lot of characters that I really liked

30:31

over the years but one particular character that

30:33

is my favorite he was sort of a

30:35

resurrection of an old character that I had

30:38

played years and years and years ago Steven

30:40

Aaron and I used to play West End

30:42

Star Wars when we were younger and I

30:44

made a character in that god I

30:46

love that game that was based my

30:48

vision of him was he looked like

30:50

Rutger Hauer and I loved that character

30:53

but when Bender ran his Star Wars

30:55

campaign for us I sort of wanted

30:57

to go back and sort of make

30:59

another version of that character so again

31:01

he looked like Rutger Hauer in my

31:03

head and the reason that I love this character

31:05

he was the captain of the ship he

31:07

owned the freighter that we all as a

31:09

group were crewmen of and

31:12

he was a loner his backstory was

31:14

that he was a police officer on

31:16

person and a whole bunch of shit

31:19

went down he became a drunk he

31:21

became a drug addict he he

31:24

got a divorce from his wife he has a

31:26

daughter who who doesn't really like

31:28

him and this has sort of

31:31

informed his life after that and then after

31:33

that he obviously lost his job as a

31:35

police officer in Corso and he became

31:37

a ranger at that point well this and

31:39

that happened and he became very indebted to

31:42

a hut just like everybody else the sort

31:44

of the glue that kept our group are

31:46

the players together in that game was that

31:48

we were all indebted to the same hut

31:50

and this hut was forcing us to work

31:52

together and my character was a loner he

31:54

didn't want to work with anybody he refused

31:56

to work with other people but now he's

31:58

forced to work with other people And

32:01

so I owned the ship everybody was

32:03

on my ship and I was irritated

32:05

by this and everybody meaning Jess and

32:07

Aaron and Jessica And

32:10

benders character you played a character in that

32:13

one. Yeah grandfather. Yeah, I got six foot

32:15

tall lizard I'm exactly and So the

32:17

reason that that I love this character so much

32:19

was because I started off wanting to be this

32:21

guy who did not want to Interact with anybody

32:23

else but throughout the life of that game He

32:26

grew to love the the other people

32:28

on his crew and become like Jess

32:30

you talked about a family He

32:32

grew to wanting these people to be

32:34

around and as a matter of fact when that

32:37

game ended It couldn't have ended

32:39

more perfectly because we were now no longer

32:41

in debt to this hut We were kind

32:43

of done and I was like, let's go.

32:45

Let's do the next thing, right? I

32:48

now sort of my character sort of the resolution

32:50

to that character was now I want you guys

32:52

to stay and we all should be A team

32:54

and let's go find something new to do, you

32:56

know, and that's where it went off into the

32:59

sunset, you know Yeah, an alien girlfriend who was

33:01

a huge disappointment a devaroni and by the name

33:03

of Jen teal She was like

33:05

od'd on death sticks. You see her life

33:07

kind of help save her life So it's obviously

33:09

got this redeeming moment. Yeah at the end She

33:11

was gonna like be left behind with the hut

33:14

and Jamie's like yo, let me get Jen teal

33:16

and the huts like taker Yeah, so you like

33:19

remember those details. I don't remember what I had for

33:21

lunch I remember

33:23

because I think Bix on to Ron was

33:25

a great character. Yes an amazing character He

33:27

had like I remember that because he was

33:29

saying he didn't like to be the leader

33:31

But he'd have to go to these really

33:33

messed up lieutenants meetings and all

33:35

the other aliens that are working for the huts

33:37

are like Insane you take like sanity damage being

33:39

in the room with some of these freaks Some

33:42

of them were like half cybernetic some of

33:44

them were like week way death cultists There was

33:46

a man being tortured downstairs. You could see

33:48

him through the floor You

33:50

know, they'd be like you're like, this is my life now

33:52

like yes, like he's like we got to get out of

33:54

here We

33:57

can't stay here I'm forced to be in this situation I

33:59

absolutely do not want to be in, but

34:01

I'm now doing this because I feel responsible

34:04

for the rest of the team, right?

34:06

So I had to go do these things.

34:09

And just to point out, I loved all

34:11

the characters of that game and the plot

34:13

was great, but it did

34:15

create one of my favorite NPCs of all

34:17

time and that was Terry the Ugnaught. Terry

34:20

the Ugnaught! Terry

34:22

the Ugnaught, he was just a mechanic and he was

34:24

a bit surly and like if we needed a mechanic

34:26

we're like, Terry get on the ship! And he'd grab

34:28

his wrench and get on and I just, something about

34:30

Terry and when I think back to Terry. Somebody

34:32

gave you a gift, it was like a very

34:34

like I was an expensive like blaster rifle and

34:36

you're like, because you didn't like the guys you

34:39

didn't want to receive the gifts, you gave it

34:41

to Terry. And then later on Terry used that

34:43

assault rifle. He was like, dun dun dun dun

34:45

dun dun! Oh

34:47

man. So yeah, so that character was mostly

34:50

because I have never, very

34:53

very rarely do I have a character

34:55

that actually sees his arc happen. Normally

34:57

it's like I'm a guy who wants to be a

34:59

fighter and I fight stuff. I want

35:02

to be a wizard and I want to

35:04

throw fireballs. This guy, I had a plan

35:06

in mind. Like I want this guy to

35:08

be this and change over time and I

35:10

didn't even have to try, it just happened.

35:12

Because the story was perfect and the character

35:14

just fit into it just right. The NPCs

35:17

motivated me and the other PCs motivated me

35:19

too. So it just, it was

35:21

a perfect storm of everything

35:23

came together to make the perfect character. Bix

35:25

Andaron was my favorite of all time. Awesome.

35:28

I missed that campaign. That was a

35:30

fun campaign. Killed so many stormtroopers. All

35:36

right, Biz, well I hope that answers your question.

35:38

That is five of our favorite characters we've

35:40

ever played before. What do you

35:42

say, gang? Let's take a quick break

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37:17

Cabalas, well it's time for our

37:20

main discussion topic, and we want

37:22

to talk about character idiosyncrasies and

37:24

how they might enhance your role-playing

37:26

games, but they might also

37:28

get in the way of everybody else's fun.

37:31

We love to make characters that

37:33

have all kinds of interesting quirks

37:35

and personality traits, backgrounds, relationships, all

37:37

this different stuff. These

37:40

idiosyncrasies are great. They

37:42

really enhance the gameplay. They make you feel

37:45

good about your character. You can get into

37:47

the mind of that character. A lot of

37:49

times these little quirks play into the mechanisms

37:51

of the game. You have special abilities that

37:53

are very quirky and weird and different. Very

37:56

different than every other player's. And they help you

37:58

say in combat or in... social

38:00

situations. But sometimes those idiosyncrasies start

38:02

to become burdensome, not only for

38:04

the other players, because you're taking

38:07

up all the time at the

38:09

table, but the GM

38:11

has particular games they're trying

38:13

to run, and these idiosyncrasies,

38:16

these strange quirks, these relationships

38:18

might start impeding upon the

38:20

game that is being told. And at that

38:23

point, it's not fun for the GM, it's

38:25

not fun for the other players, and it's

38:27

also not fun for that particular player because

38:29

the GM and the other players are pushing

38:31

back on him. Now Bender brought

38:33

this conversation up, and he wanted to have

38:35

this discussion, and he has a particular situation

38:38

that came up that fit this topic very,

38:40

very well. So Bender, why don't you tell

38:42

us all about this guy and what his

38:44

issues are. One of my close

38:46

friends, Alan, said to me the other

38:48

day that he was not really enjoying

38:50

his new D&D campaign. They had all

38:52

created characters, and it started off well

38:54

enough, but during the course of the

38:57

campaign, he started becoming annoyed at a

38:59

fellow player who was

39:01

playing a cavalier. And basically, that player

39:03

wanted to bring his warhorse everywhere. Like

39:05

they're going down into a dungeon, you

39:07

know, and he's like, well, I'm going

39:09

to figure out a winch in a

39:11

pulley system, and I'll lower my horse

39:14

down there, you know, and bring it

39:16

down into the dungeon with us. And like

39:18

every step along the way, this guy would,

39:20

you know, ask, you know, well,

39:23

what about me? What about me and my horse?

39:25

You know, and if you know about like Lord

39:27

of the Rings and like how adventures work, you're

39:29

not always going to be on horseback. Right. But

39:31

yeah, a poor bill had to be sent home

39:34

right when they got to Amoria. But

39:36

here's the thing, if you read the cavalier

39:38

stats, it's 100% reliance

39:40

upon being mounted in

39:43

mounted combat. And you would assume somewhere along the

39:45

lines, you're going to get something better than a

39:48

horse, maybe a Pegasus or something like that, a

39:50

Griffin, let's say that's the fate of the high

39:52

level cavalier. So if you're always like, it

39:54

got me to thinking like how I would

39:56

try to resolve this as a DM if

39:59

this situation was happening. I love

40:01

Cavaliers. Cavaliers are fantastic. I cavalry

40:03

itself in the history of mounted combat tonight

40:06

is something I've always been fascinated with. It's

40:08

all around the world. There's a different examples

40:10

of this. So it's awesome. It's such a

40:12

cool topic. And if you spent your life

40:14

as a cavalry man, I can understand that

40:16

if you got down on foot, you're not

40:18

using your life's trading. You know what I

40:21

mean? You're supposed to be up there kicking

40:23

butt on your horse. But how realistic is

40:25

that? Like how and what's the responsibility of

40:27

the DM himself? Like am I expected? Is

40:29

this now that you're playing a Cavalier, the

40:31

entire campaign takes place on a battlefield, right?

40:34

Where you get to ride, ride around gloriously and use

40:36

your stuff because I want you to be happy. I

40:38

want you to be the best Cavalier you could be

40:41

in my game, of course. But like what about the

40:43

other players who are like, well, we want to go

40:45

down and search in this mine or we want to

40:47

go on this boat. I

40:49

sympathize with them too. But here's my

40:51

first initial thought about the

40:54

whole thing. Obviously, everybody who just listened

40:56

to that story, your initial notion is

40:59

that guy shouldn't have made a character that's going

41:01

to be a problem. I think that's what most

41:03

people would initially say. He made a Cavalier in

41:05

a party where that's not going to be a

41:07

viable option for the rest of the group to

41:09

be dealing with. And even let's take

41:11

the example of you go down in the mines,

41:13

but GM will can't always have to build that

41:15

story so that the character can pop back out

41:17

at the beginning so he can get his horse

41:19

again. Because what if the mine comes out on

41:21

the other side of the mountain, but you still

41:23

have to go on to the volcano that's a

41:26

hundred miles that way. Are we going to go

41:28

back to get the horse and then take him

41:31

over the mountain or are you just going to

41:33

lose the horse? And at that point... As

41:35

GM, me and Alan talked about it, I would give

41:37

the player a spectral steed item. Yeah, that would be...

41:39

I would solve it just like that. Like you can

41:41

have your horse whenever it fits. Not

41:43

all mine shafts are tall enough for a dude

41:46

on horseback to be riding through them. There could

41:48

be situations where you will not have your horse,

41:50

but every time you're in a situation where you

41:52

could bang spectral steed, that solved the

41:54

problem right there. It does solve the problem.

41:56

Who the rest of the group think about that though? Like

41:59

a second level. It's not like a really high level

42:01

item. Yeah true, but I don't know just it

42:03

feels a little hand wavy to me I get

42:05

what you're doing like you're trying to compromise, but

42:07

I would do it as a reward It would

42:09

be like a cool reward in the story. He'd

42:11

have to mess around with the horse for a

42:13

little while of course Yeah, I

42:16

thought you were just like bam you have

42:18

this now. That's right Under

42:20

so I got annoying and then bam here's

42:22

your So

42:24

it doesn't kill the flow of the campaign. I don't

42:26

know I know what AC saying there though It feels

42:29

a little like contrived. You're like,

42:31

okay. This is a problem. We're gonna come up

42:33

with a really simple and Convenient

42:35

solution to make that happen right

42:38

and okay, so that will solve the issue But

42:40

I can see that there would be players that

42:42

be like I feel as a little bullshitty Different

42:46

then if you're playing an archer and you

42:49

get an ospo or how's that any different

42:51

than if you are Playing

42:53

the two-handed great axe person and

42:55

you finally find a great two-handed

42:57

axe if your

42:59

shtick is I am on

43:02

a horse and having a Spectral steed

43:04

is gonna be the one that helps

43:06

you be effective with that then it's

43:08

it's the same type of thing You're

43:10

gonna be looking for that type of

43:12

thing as your character Just like a

43:14

two-handed axe wielding person is gonna look

43:16

for two-handed axe actually here's the difference

43:19

Jess if the player himself Said

43:22

I would like to go find a wizard to make

43:24

me an item that gave me a spectral steed So

43:26

that I can take it into a dungeon that

43:29

would be no problem whatsoever, right? I see that

43:31

wouldn't be anything weird But if the DM because

43:33

that becomes part of your story But then but

43:35

if you opened a chest in a dungeon and

43:37

one popped out that would feel weird and convenient

43:40

at that point It would kind of break the

43:42

immersion of the game in a sense. Mm-hmm. Yeah

43:45

I Don't think you're expected to have

43:47

certain items like as you level up like I'm

43:49

a tenth little fighter But I haven't found my

43:52

magic sword yet, you know too bad for me.

43:54

I'm sort of useless I can't hit anything that

43:56

needs a magic sword to be hit because my

43:58

DM didn't think that felt natural that I

44:00

should receive a magic weapon. You know what

44:02

I mean? You're gonna have certain things. A

44:04

bard's gonna find a magic violin or whatever.

44:07

A thief is gonna find the gloves that let

44:10

you sneak pick locks. Everyone's

44:12

gonna get magic items that are cool for

44:14

them. Otherwise, you're like, wait, great, another necromancer

44:16

item. Do we have any necromancers in the

44:18

party? No. How unfortunate for

44:20

us that our DNA comes. I do feel like that's

44:22

a whole different topic though, and that's the

44:24

whole idea of how you bring out

44:27

magic items in a way that makes sense and

44:29

isn't cheesy. Like that could be our own topic,

44:31

right? But yeah. But I do still think

44:33

going back to the beginning that this character,

44:35

this person wanted to create a character, it

44:37

would make sense if all the other players

44:39

played something that made sense with a cavalier.

44:41

You know, if you wanted to play a

44:43

party of knights, and maybe one of them

44:45

was a wizard going with the knights or

44:47

something like that. If we played the knights

44:49

of the round table with a wizard hanging

44:51

out with you, that'd be rad. And then

44:53

you'd all have this common problem of, what

44:55

do we do with our horses when we

44:57

get to the situations where we have to

44:59

deal with that, right? I think that

45:01

would be rad. But if you got a thief

45:03

and a wizard, you know, and then a knight

45:06

sitting there whose most important thing is

45:08

his horse and his sword and his

45:10

armor, any situation where those things don't

45:12

fit in, it becomes intrusive upon everybody

45:14

else's enjoyment at that point. It

45:17

also makes you like a one-stick pony

45:19

type thing, you know? You mean a

45:21

one-trick pony? One-trick, okay, yeah. One-stick pony

45:23

works too. Well, thick-trick, you know.

45:25

Just point and be brave. One-stick

45:27

donkey. You made a loose...

45:31

You were talking before about like two-handed axe

45:33

guy. Like, that's my character. I'm this big,

45:36

strong guy with a two-handed axe. I feel

45:38

like as a DM, I'm obligated to run

45:40

monsters that that guy can fight. If I

45:42

run a dragon against two-handed axe guy and

45:44

the dragon's flying around and it never comes

45:46

down within two-handed axe guy's range, as

45:49

that player, I'm like, whoa, that fight really

45:51

sucked. I just got cooked. I couldn't do

45:53

anything about it. I'm like, bro, get a

45:55

bow. He's like, no, I'm two-handed axe guy.

45:57

You know what I mean? Like, just my...

46:00

thing, my character doesn't have a bow, he doesn't have

46:02

axes to throw or anything like that. It's

46:04

Dex's garbage, right? I get what you're

46:07

saying. I

46:09

see both sides to this. And

46:12

personally, I'm trying to figure out exactly

46:14

what the difference is because basically what

46:16

you're talking about is a character with

46:18

an inconvenient capability. A

46:20

capability that does not fit with

46:23

the rest of the party or

46:25

rarely fits with the situation. I

46:28

would say it's like a rigid character. That

46:31

is like I am really useful

46:34

in this particular set of circumstances.

46:36

I'm a specialist. And

46:38

as a specialist, if you take me out

46:41

of my specialty, where's my usefulness? You're

46:44

a cavalier in the spell jammer. You're like, wait

46:46

a second, what am I doing on this boat?

46:48

That's a great point. And A.C.,

46:50

can I bring this up to your point? Let's

46:53

go back to your favorite character you

46:55

ever made. That was your dwarf that

46:57

was working on his two-handed axes. I'm

46:59

very surprised that you said that that

47:01

was your favorite character because I also

47:03

recall you being very frustrated with that

47:05

character because you were a blacksmith who

47:08

was adventuring. You can't fudge. I

47:10

was a blacksmith with no forge. And

47:16

spoiler alert, that's what we were going to talk

47:18

about later. But the reason it was my favorite

47:20

character was because it was so easy to play.

47:23

And I had such a blast playing it.

47:26

But the trope that I came up for,

47:29

the background that I came up for, didn't fit.

47:32

And it ruined it for me. But we'll talk about

47:34

that later. But here's

47:37

the other thing that I'm thinking is,

47:39

okay, so you've got some

47:41

big barbarian with a two-handed axe. And

47:44

he's completely useless in a

47:46

ranged fight. The idea of

47:49

creating a winch system to

47:51

lower a horse down into

47:53

a cavern, to me, is

47:55

just absurd. Like, that completely

47:58

ruined it. breaks

48:00

the immersion like for me. Yeah, how strong

48:02

are you first of all? Because a horse

48:04

is heavy. Exactly. Are

48:08

we all putting our backs into this? Is it

48:10

just you doing it? Or is the party helping?

48:12

You need a block and tackle system with like

48:14

50 blocks and 50 tackles to do this. And

48:18

a cooperative horse. The horse is like, wait,

48:20

wait, wait, no, no. Right?

48:24

Well, see, Aaron, this is sort of like what I was getting

48:26

at. And you tried to dodge

48:29

the question. But with your guy who is a

48:31

blacksmith, this

48:34

is no joke. I don't think it was you,

48:36

AC. But somebody in my history wanted to make

48:38

a forge and put it on a wagon and

48:40

take it with us so that they could work

48:42

on their swords. I think it might have been

48:44

you, AC, when we were kids. When

48:48

we were really young, you were like, I put this

48:50

big an anvil back there, and I have all my

48:52

tools back there, and we just let it happen. And

48:55

this is sort of the same concept as

48:57

creating the winch to bring the horse down.

49:00

You created this character that was not

49:02

conducive for the adventures that

49:04

the GM has put forth in front of you.

49:06

And so you're just going to wedge it in

49:08

as best as you can by building a forge

49:11

on the back of a wagon and having it

49:13

go with us wherever we go. Some

49:15

of this could be solved, too, by

49:18

just being upfront with the game master. If

49:20

I wanted to play a Cavalier or something

49:22

like that, I'd probably be like, hey, this

49:24

is my idea. What

49:26

do you think? If it's 100% reliant

49:29

on being a horse, which I think is dumb,

49:32

you should have some cool stuff to do when you're not mounted, too.

49:35

That's a whole different story. Anything they do, they get

49:37

weapon prof and stuff like that, but all their stuff

49:39

is staying on their horse

49:41

and doing damage from their horse. If

49:44

the guy I'm going to talk about at first, maybe the

49:46

DM would have been more prepared, or maybe

49:48

it just would have been smoother. But trying to get

49:51

your horse to run to the dungeon would probably kill

49:53

it for me. Can you

49:55

hold the lantern in front of it so it can even see

49:57

in the dungeon? There's like a

49:59

million problems. don't bring horses into dungeons.

50:02

Maybe you have to cut a dark

50:04

vision item. Yeah, I get the horse like

50:06

a dark vision item. Dark vision

50:08

goggles. But that I think is

50:11

also potentially a challenge or a... That

50:15

is something I think a DM can nip in the bud

50:17

very easily. What has to happen

50:20

though is a DM has to be true

50:23

to the campaign and true

50:25

to the style, like the theme and the

50:27

format and the style of the campaign and

50:29

less about let me just try to please

50:31

people. Because if you

50:33

know the cavalier and that's going to take

50:36

some research on your end to understand the

50:38

cavalier, what all of it goes with and

50:40

everything and what the player is looking to

50:42

do. If that doesn't fit your

50:44

campaign because your campaign with everyone else is

50:47

going to be a multi-purpose thing, then that

50:49

has to be a conversation. Yeah. And

50:51

say, look, if you want to play a cavalier, you're probably going to use

50:53

this 25% of the time. Is

50:56

that going to be good? Do you want to multi-class?

50:58

Do you want to think about something else? Because

51:02

our campaign is going to

51:04

be taking a lot of different...going

51:06

in a lot of different places. It

51:08

is not going to be

51:10

open fields combat or conducive

51:12

to horse riding combat, except

51:15

maybe 25% of the time. And if you're

51:17

okay with that, then that's fine. But

51:19

I can't guarantee that your horse is...you're readily going to

51:21

have a horse available to you at any given time.

51:24

And you need to be okay with that or you

51:26

need to pick a different character. And

51:28

you just have to have that as an upfront conversation. Jamie likes

51:30

to run these plot lines where we have

51:32

to have dinner with somebody and be like

51:34

really awkward. The horse is like... That's

51:37

right. When

51:40

you go to any dinner in any of my games, you're going

51:42

to need that horse and that armor and that sword because someone's

51:44

going to try to kill you by the end. The

51:47

guys help on this horse eating, like the servants are

51:49

bringing plates up to him. He knew

51:51

that the horse would be talking if there was

51:53

a speak with animals. Can you imagine the

51:56

conversation? It would need to be Mr. Ed's

51:58

voice. He would say... Oats

52:02

I'm not going on that winch No

52:04

but seriously though, Jess, I think that your

52:06

take on this is absolutely right This

52:08

has to be nipped in the bud at the beginning

52:10

of the game, right? Here's

52:13

an example I'm going to throw out

52:15

another example that's actually very timely Bender,

52:17

in our Kolekathulu campaign, you

52:19

made a character that was like a pilot

52:22

He was very good at flying airplanes,

52:24

he could fix airplanes I

52:27

don't know how many times I'm going to have an airplane in any of

52:29

my games I'm going to try to throw some in here and there But

52:32

how often am I going to be able to put an airplane in? The

52:34

thing is, you have to

52:37

be okay with that And kind of be cool

52:39

with the fact that I'm not going to use

52:41

my piloting still that terribly often I

52:43

just got the idea because when I was looking through

52:45

the book I was talking about one of the ideas

52:47

was like a pilot And I was like that for

52:50

whatever reason struck me as like So

52:52

I started learning about the history of flight And

52:54

the balloon corpse over there in the UK It's

52:57

fascinating stuff I

52:59

really got into the history of it If my

53:01

character never does that in the game, it's okay

53:04

That's how he makes his money He's

53:06

not wealthy, but he's got a little bit of money

53:08

because he's a commercial pilot That's

53:11

why his storyline came about He was flying

53:13

over Malta And a gremlin started taking apart

53:15

his plane while there were passengers on board

53:18

And the passengers fended it off He had

53:20

a flare gun, he shot at it And

53:22

the gremlin eventually left the plane alone But

53:24

that was his first contact with the supernatural

53:27

He'll be our driver too He's

53:30

really in the cars and engines

53:32

specifically I imagine he's going

53:34

to be more worldly I think

53:37

that now that you say that And I'm glad that I

53:39

brought that Call of Cthulhu thing up Because while you were

53:41

talking about it, it made me think This is

53:43

also a problem with the game system

53:45

in general Because that cavalier could be

53:47

the exact same thing that you just

53:49

described He's a character who's

53:51

built around being a knight And taking

53:53

care of his horse and taking care of his armor and

53:55

his sword and all this stuff And whatever, you know, he's

53:58

a knight Chivalry All

54:00

the stuff that's the character not the

54:02

fact that he needs to have a

54:04

horse underneath them to attack Well, you

54:06

know dragons and dragons makes abilities that

54:08

require weird things that are counterintuitive to

54:10

a fun game You know a fun

54:13

like story that you're trying to tell

54:15

right call of Cthulhu It doesn't matter

54:17

if you fly the plane or not

54:19

you have knowledge of all

54:21

the different stuff That's going to affect the

54:23

game in a positive way from a roleplay

54:25

standpoint Not from a now I

54:27

get to roll the dice and see if I flew the

54:29

plane straight I just I imagine it's part

54:31

of his worldliness. There was like these yeah

54:34

Contests that they would do for parachuting and stuff like

54:36

that. I imagine he was fascinated

54:39

by all that There was like, you know when

54:41

flight came through in the early 1900s. It's just

54:43

like a very fascinating time period Yeah, I was

54:45

drawn. I was drawn to it. That's why I

54:47

wound up with the pilot I kind of knew

54:50

maybe one of our adventures we'd be flying somewhere to start

54:52

it out with us landing in an airport Whoo Yeah,

55:01

my one character back in the day had an

55:03

airplane and all all I ever did was like

55:05

we have to go here Okay, I'll fly That's

55:10

because you just watched the Expendables and you wanted to

55:12

have that plane from the movie Example

55:17

of this that doesn't have to do

55:19

with you know Mechanisms of the game

55:22

that has to do with gameplay Something

55:25

that we've always we've talked about many times in the

55:27

past is that Tony when Tony T was playing in

55:29

our games back in The day he made

55:31

a character who was a knife salesman

55:34

He would make knives and he would sell

55:36

them that was sort of like a character

55:38

quirk He had now this is

55:41

in theory kind of a cool little thing He

55:43

had like a long coat and he would open

55:45

up his coat and he'd have all these daggers

55:47

and he would try to sell them To people

55:49

the problem was that anytime we went into a

55:51

town or a bar We would

55:53

have 20 minutes of Tony trying to sell a knife

55:55

to somebody We

55:58

watch it to a werewolf bar Once and like

56:00

he and I walked up to this table. He opens

56:03

up his trench coat. He's like you guys want to

56:05

buy some effin knives As

56:09

soon as you probably not by just remember

56:11

that stop laughing man, Tony's special I miss

56:14

that guy. Oh, yeah No, that's that's great.

56:16

I just I don't think I would buy

56:18

from a strange man Reputable

56:23

institution, sir To be

56:25

like that funny type of character that you know walks

56:27

up to you on the street And he pulls his

56:29

sleeve up and he's got all those watches. He's like you

56:31

want to buy watch Yeah, he was being that kind of character.

56:34

He was a macavian. He was being a weirdo Like

56:36

he was just being a strange guy, you know, and I

56:38

thought that was kind of fun But he

56:41

started to get frustrated because the rest of

56:43

us kept telling him to stop doing it

56:45

because it was taking up game day time

56:49

I'm trying to take into consideration with my

56:51

new character. That's gonna be the chef

56:54

Because I I wanted to have

56:56

add flavor to the game, but I don't

56:58

want it to be the main course But

57:03

the way I plan on doing that is or

57:06

the things I'm thinking about having is If

57:10

we're resting if there's ever gonna be

57:12

an opportunity where we're making camp somewhere

57:15

My character is gonna be the one that's probably gonna

57:17

be cooking but she's gonna like I

57:19

don't care if it's rationed she's gonna present it

57:21

like it's a like it's a Five-course

57:24

meal like even if it's like little crackers

57:26

with a little piece of cheese on top

57:28

and she gets a little pieces like You

57:30

know a flower petals here and she you

57:33

know stuff like that's the stuff that I've

57:35

been thinking of like How can I add

57:37

little elements of flavor that if for whatever

57:40

reason it can't be done and like and I

57:42

thought to myself Okay. Well, what if the

57:44

players don't like it? What if it doesn't

57:46

taste good? How would she respond? How would

57:48

she act like? Yeah, I I thought about

57:50

she's gonna have a pet goat and And

57:54

hurt she's gonna have a chicken and a pet goat

57:56

the chicken is gonna be very nice The pet ghost

57:58

is not gonna be nice And whenever someone doesn't

58:01

like the food, she's gonna look to the goat,

58:03

have the goat taste it, he's gonna say it's

58:05

bad! And then he's going to... Oh

58:07

my god. She's gonna be like, your

58:09

wife's a horrible one, and she's just gonna throw

58:11

it off and then, you know, I'll have to

58:13

do better next time. Whatever character you talked about

58:15

before, this is the character that's the best character

58:17

you've ever played. This one, right here. It's

58:20

all because it's delicious in the dungeon. I

58:23

mean, really, that's my muse. No, but I think

58:26

that, I think there's something about this, Jess, that's

58:28

awesome. Because, okay, let's

58:30

compare Tony selling knives to

58:32

Jess making food. You're finding

58:34

a place to wedge it

58:36

into the campaign, to the session,

58:38

that it isn't intrusive into the rest of

58:40

the game, but you're also involving

58:43

the other players because you're cooking for them. And

58:45

I'm sure you'll be rolling the dice to see

58:48

if this, you did a good job and you had

58:50

the right herbs and you had the right whatever. So

58:52

if I get magic abilities, so I can add magical

58:54

effects to it, so it's kind of fun. So if

58:56

the food is crappy, that'll be a fun little roleplay

58:59

experience for everybody. Somebody will throw it out in the

59:01

woods and then your goat will probably run over and

59:03

butt him and it'll be kind of a fun little

59:05

situation. And then it might attract a

59:07

monster that attacks us later on. Who knows?

59:10

So it's like sort of a group activity, not,

59:12

I'm gonna go over here and open up my coat and say,

59:14

you want to buy knives? And everybody

59:16

has to wait for him to have that conversation. Don't

59:20

we all have that one, French? Come on. Exactly.

59:23

And I also know that I need

59:25

to make sure that I am reading

59:27

the table, so to speak. If

59:29

there's a lot of serious stuff going on, it may

59:31

not be appropriate for a silly, fun

59:33

little encounter with food. Or it might

59:36

be not doing it every single

59:38

time. Because that's another thing is

59:40

I think all of us want

59:42

to shine at different points. All

59:45

of us want to have those

59:47

moments in the spotlight and feel

59:49

good about our characters. Sometimes a

59:51

character with strong idiosyncrasies can become

59:53

the one that shines too bright

59:55

too often and doesn't allow other

59:58

people to shine. And so

1:00:00

that's another thing that I want to be

1:00:02

cognizant of is that I want to make

1:00:04

sure that I'm not, quote unquote, hogging the

1:00:06

spotlight or taking too much time. It's fun

1:00:08

if it's a five little minute moment,

1:00:11

and then if the other PCs want

1:00:13

to make it longer, they can. But

1:00:16

it's another thing that if every time you

1:00:18

go into town, it's 20 minutes, and the

1:00:20

expectation is it's going to be every time

1:00:22

you go into town, you could always run

1:00:24

that thing offline like, Oh, I'm just going

1:00:26

to go sell knives. Okay, roll dice. Okay,

1:00:28

here's the money that you make. That's

1:00:30

a totally different thing than I want to role

1:00:32

play every time I go into a tavern to

1:00:35

sell knives. You know, like Tony, come over

1:00:37

later. I'll let you sell knives to NPCs.

1:00:39

This is the game right now. Okay.

1:00:42

I'm pretty sure we were trying to intimidate

1:00:44

that people at that table too. That's absolutely

1:00:47

right. But Jess, I think

1:00:49

that you've once again, you've

1:00:51

brought the discussion to a really

1:00:53

intelligent end, like a really smart

1:00:55

end. The idea is here that these

1:00:57

idiosyncrasies, these little quirks, these personality traits,

1:01:00

all this stuff, stuff you write

1:01:02

into the background, all of this stuff

1:01:04

gives your character so much flavor and could

1:01:06

be a lot of fun to role play with. But you

1:01:08

also have to pay attention to the fact that there are

1:01:10

other people around the table and there is

1:01:12

a GM trying to tell a story. And

1:01:14

going back to the very beginning with Bender's character

1:01:17

with the Cavalier, that Cavalier probably just

1:01:19

needs to give and take a little bit and

1:01:21

have to roll with the punches that sometimes you're

1:01:23

just not going to have your horse and you're

1:01:26

not going to be as powerful as you were

1:01:28

if you're charging across a battlefield towards the orcs.

1:01:31

So I think again, it's about the communication.

1:01:33

It's about the camaraderie of the group and

1:01:35

you just can't be selfish at the table. Exactly.

1:01:41

All right,

1:01:44

Cabal, well, thank you so much for joining us

1:01:47

here on episode 72 of Lords of

1:01:49

the Dungeon. Please, everybody, do us a

1:01:51

giant favor, head over to Facebook and

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1:01:56

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amazing community on

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Discord. Join thesecretcabol.com/Discord.

1:02:07

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1:02:09

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1:02:11

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1:02:43

gang, come on back next week

1:02:46

because we've got another absolutely fantastic

1:02:48

Wild Crazy and Banana's episode of

1:02:51

the Secret Cabal gaming podcast. Good

1:02:53

night everybody. Good night everyone. Good

1:02:55

night. Good night folks. Good

1:02:58

night everybody. And

1:03:00

that wraps up another episode of the

1:03:03

Secret Cabal Presents. Live on the TV.

1:03:07

On the live Twitter page,

1:03:09

you can find us on

1:03:11

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1:03:13

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1:03:16

And remember our motto, Strive

1:03:18

a Glustard Company, be lazy,

1:03:20

cowardly, and new.