Wanting the Best

This transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors in names, terminology, or attribution.

[clink] [clink] Pickaxe. Coming to Apple TV+ on August 9th. You're the Marine? Yeah, you're the ex-con. Yeah, I did time, but you don't gotta cast aspersions at me. From the director of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity comes a new film. It's your first job? I know what I'm doing. I'm a little late for a crit change. Starring Matt Damon. Everybody in New England is after us. And Casey Affleck. Go, go, go, go, go! What are you doing? Taking notes. Taking notes on a criminal conspiracy. The Instigators, rated R. Streaming August 9th on Apple TV+. This summer, during the biggest sporting event of the year, Peacock turns to two broadcasting legends for the Olympics coverage you can't find anywhere else.

Um, I think they mean us. Oh, s***. Um... [clears throat] With an incredible duo sure to take home the comedy gold. Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. New episodes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Only on Peacock. Howdy folks, welcome to Arc for episode 7 of the DNR Podcast. We're about to kick things off with group Firebrand. Now how is Gwen going to react after the last session and the tragedy that kind of befell the group? Well, we're about to find out. But first, we need to hear from our sponsors and listen to a couple of messages from them.

We'll be right back. Please don't go anywhere. [gulps] Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason. I'm the Dungeon Master. Going around the table starting with Zach. What's up? My name is Zach and I play Pax and Morn on group Firebrand. And Robert. Hey, I'm Robert Weaselhahn. I play Giollo Fane, the elf warlock. And Kelsey. Hey, I'm Kelsey and I play Calypso Lovelace. And Jamie. Hi there, I'm Jamie and I play Bo, the tiefling paladin. And last but not least, Bree. Hi, my name is Brianna Marie and I play Gwen, the half tiefling, half halfling.

Who knows? It's a mystery. What am I? What is my purpose? Uh, dessert butter. Oh my god. So, okay. Let's jump back into things because we sort of left things on a bit of a precarious note. And what I'd like to do is we've established that you are very much alive, Gwen is very much alive, if somewhat altered. Now, I would imagine that there's a bit of a... Kind of a hand-holding, consoling type of thing. Like, it's like, okay, you're okay. Everything's fine. And a bit of catch-up. Like, it's like, okay, here's what happened with the bandits. Everyone's fine. Uh, you know, how much do you remember?

All that good stuff. And I'd like to pick things up just a bit after that. Like, maybe an hour or so later. So, this is middle of the night. Um, you've probably been escorted from this... Well, you can't go home crazy because he did what he said on the tin. So, he's not crazy. But you're going to be escorted from this Archmage's house. Um, so he can start writing a paper all about how great he is. Academics, am I right, guys? I mean, that's a big, big... He's got to write a study now. He's got to tell everybody. Like, it's like, oh man, I'm going to get published so hard.

So, you were given a bit of a packet. Like, not an instruction manual, but it's like, hey, here's a list of side effects. Um, these are, um... So, you're a heart robot. Yeah, so he's going to hand you this and it's like, pour over it whenever you get a chance type of thing. But, uh, for now, get out. Has the team stayed together throughout this? Or did anyone go home for the night? Did anyone have second thoughts about this entire thing? How is everyone feeling? I mean... Personally? Sorry. No, go ahead. I was just going to say, personally, I think, uh, maybe the sisters would want some time to their family.

Um, you know, what they went through was pretty serious and, you know, personal and traumatic. So, maybe they want some time alone. Paxton is probably, well, it's the middle of the night. I was going to say he's going to go to work or something, but... It depends on what they want to do. If they want some time alone, they'll have it. I mean, yeah, I guess, um, if we were calling it not quits for the night and going to meet up tomorrow to talk about, like, next step for Firebrand, then I would anticipate Bo and Gwen going home together. And Bo would probably be pretty affectionate towards Gwen on the way home, like hugging and, like, squeezing arm over the shoulder.

Yes. Um, piggyback ride, more than likely. Nothing too strenuous, no. No piggyback rides. But you have to carry me home. I got stabbed today. But you need to heal. I don't want to walk home. Wow. But I got stabbed. You got a carrying me. You stabbed you, though. Like, that was, like... That's not important right now. I got stabbed. Like, yes, Elle's toe is broken. Elle broke Elle's toe. Like, I'm gonna take care of her, but it's like, okay, no piggyback rides. Let's, you know. Yeah, um, Gwen's not super stoked if anyone wants her opinion. Like, she's not... Yeah, how is Gwen, like, dealing with everything?

Well, I mean, she didn't, like, see anything. Like, there was no light at the end of the tunnel or anything like that. So, it almost doesn't feel real. Like, everyone's like, "You died." And it's like, "No, I didn't." Like, there's some form of denial there. But, like, mostly it's like, does she feel different? Like, is her body weird? Or, like, can she... Like, I think the area where the stabbing happened is probably different. So, let's describe. Let's describe all these differences, because I am getting dozens and dozens of questions from listeners. And rightfully so.

That's fair. I want to clear up two things really quickly, because we talked about this in the pregame. Back in the day of the show, we would just throw mechanics at the wall and kind of see what stuck. This is a slightly more revised version of that. But, yeah, this is very much not a completely finished class, and we're testing it out on the show to see what works. So, if we get to a point where we see that something doesn't work, we're gonna switch it up and change it. But, here's the lowdown. So, this was essentially animated living metal. It's basically a symbiote.

It has bonded with Gwen on every level. Physically, emotionally, mentally. It is... It cannot live without you. So, it is a vested interest in keeping Gwen alive. That being said, it will try to defend you if it deems you're under attack or under threat or something like that. It kind of has a mind of its own. And as you grow more attuned with it, as the days and weeks go on, you're going to kind of come to grips with that. It's like a partnership. It's like a three-legged race. You guys will eventually just be in lockstep with each other, and you'll be able to do some really cool stuff.

It does come with some advantages. It comes with some drawbacks. Like, oh, because this is essentially living metal on your skin, you have a resistance to fire. Just naturally. You do have a vulnerability to lightning, though. That'll mess you right up. But, yeah, there's a bunch of stuff that's going to pop up as we play. But, Gwen is still Gwen. Doesn't feel differently, like, mentally. But you will, your skin is still your skin, but you'll see this kind of creeping red metallic kind of, not a burbling, but like a shimmer every once in a while. You'll see that.

It's kind of creeping up and down your skin. You'll be able to control that a little more later, though. Did you say it was sentient? Oh, yeah, that was my question. So mentally, I'm the same. So this consciousness life form, I don't hear it in my head or anything. Like, I don't feel a second presence within me or anything like that. No, no, no, no, it's not like haunted. It's like a parasite almost. A nice parasite. Yeah, think of it more like a pilot fish, something like that. Like, okay. Any Spider-Man movie where Spider-Man is kind of figuring out his power set, right?

And he's like, "Go web!" That kind of thing. Like, he's trying to figure out how to make it go. That's basically the phase you're in right now. It's like, yeah, you got cool powers, but like, I'm still trying to figure out how to stick to things when I want and how to not stick to things when I don't want. That type of thing. Gotcha. Okay. Um, so yeah, I think that more than anything, Gwen's probably just tired. Everything kind of, like, is weird. But, um, yeah, I think her and Gwen would just take a quiet walk home at night in Brightport, which is always a good idea for two women.

Walking around in a city at night is usually the best option. Cool thing is, you are the cops! I'm sure we command a lot of respect after what happened today. With the reputation we're giving, oh boy. Yeah, we'll address that. So you're not respected by the cops and you're certainly not respected by criminals yet. Watch him have some awful nickname for you, like Pinkie Pin Cushion or something. Oh my gosh, yeah. Okay, but yes. That's so good. Can I say alliteration? Like, oh man. Brings her race into it, which is something that we like to do. Any good insults gotta bring your race into it.

Oh my god. Okay, so how about everyone else? Because it feels like we're all kind of going home for the evening. It's very much like, I need to sleep on this. I guess I'll see you at work tomorrow? Give me some time. Just give me some time. See you in the morning. I need to go to church. Well, you say that. Paxton is actually going to church. He's going straight to the temple. Think about what he did for the day. Not good marks. Oh, self judging. Oh, is it real? Like, I could have done better? He's the type of guy that he basically stacks up what he did for the day every day.

At the end of the day, he just lists up what did I do? Was it productive enough? No. Sad. Sad sleep. Getting a very critical Yelp review every day. That's the kind of thing my therapist always needs to do. We need to get Paxton a therapist. I feel like if the only two people left are Giolo and Calypso there for a moment, there's just this quiet, awkward moment. Giolo looks over at Calypso and is like, "So, you got any good reassessing life decisions kind of songs?" Awkward smile at you. They just look at Giolo and take a second to process what he just said.

I may be able to whip something up, but it's a bit late. I think I'm still probably in shock from all of that. So, rain check? Okay. Okay. Yeah, no improv. More with no improv post life and death situations. At least for the moment. That was a lot. Okay. Well, it's late as it is, but I probably couldn't sleep if I wanted to, so I guess I'm just gonna go. He just kind of stretches and is like, "Do what I do off the clock." He's like, "Oh, I was walking toward the nearest bar." Uh huh. Okay. Yeah, and Calypso watches off his mind and is like, "Wait, is he taking me off the clock, like off the police job, which he does his other job, or is he just going drinking?" What off the clock are we talking about?

And they just kind of shake their head and turn to go back home. Yeah, they're gonna go pass out. Yeah, G.O.L.O. does not remedy that confusion. Yeah, no, that's not expected. So, okay. Let's talk about G.O.L.O. for a second. So, I think we've got a pretty good bead on everybody in terms of personality. So, this is one of the questions that a lot of listeners are going to have, and honestly, us. Why? Why is a guy like G.O.L.O. in law enforcement, of all things? Well, what might happen, what might occur to demystify that for the listeners? So, as you take your leave, you're gonna get ready and hit the bars or, you know, just kind of...

Are you a social drinker, by the way? Or you feel like a... G.O.L.O. kind of does whatever he thinks might draw a new interesting person in, right? He goes and he... I mean, he also has sex for money, but sometimes, if he's just looking for interesting companionship for the night, he kind of just tries to find someone who looks like they stand out at the bar and then become what they would be interested in, right? He tries to be kind of malleable. He tries to become your dream, you know, become your interest. Like in a con man way or in a fetishizing sort of way?

Why not both? Yes. I don't think... The answer to that is I don't think he even fully knows, right? Like he's been doing it as part of the job so long that it's kind of a reflex that he doesn't overthink why he's doing it in the first place. So what is the closest drinking establishment that he would go to if he doesn't feel tired? Well, we can't have you showing up to a dwarf bar. They would not take kindly to Giollo, but you'd know that by now. Oh, okay. Yeah. If I know, I'd stay away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'd know. I just imagine. I just imagine he's like, "Co-worker almost died today.

Feeling loose, baby. Let's go." There's also like a take his mind off it element. Like, like maybe I'll go and do the thing that I'm accustomed to, to like shake off the doldrums. And I look, man, we all we all have our ways of unwinding. It almost was morning, but now you're unwinding. So before you get really comfortable, like I would say, as you are walking, okay, let's get you to a bar. I would say, Jesus. Okay. Someone like you would probably be either a rusty nipple guy or a sleazy Pete's guy. Well, don't don't. Oh, your options. Don't sell it too hard.

Well, okay. The rusty nipple is let's call it a working man's brothel. It's a fine establishment. It's it's a fixer upper. It is. It is a place to get drunk and laid. Nothing more, nothing less. Sleazy Pete's, despite the name, is actually a bit classier. They have escorts. So if you were if Giolo feels pretty good about himself, that would be a place to either ply his trade or show up and just share war stories. That type of thing. It's a little gauche to try to sell yourself at someone else's brothel. I mean, it's like I feel like it's like being a hairdresser.

As long as you pay a percentage, you're fine renting the space. I give a referral. I give a referral fee and it's a very respectable freelancer. I wasn't sure how that worked. I thought it was showing up and being like or it's it's it's a small community. You got to you know, you got to treat you don't want to burn too many bridges. There's a kickback. There's territories. It's very complicated. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So so you see, I feel like I'd be I'd go more to sleazy Pete's. I feel like I'm not in the zone for like I don't I want something interesting to happen.

I don't want something dangerous, interesting to happen. Mm hmm. That's OK. Good. So let's go to sleazy Pete's. Let's go. Yeah. OK, so. It's a nice place. They offer massages. They there's a guy named Big Richard who will. He will work every muscle in your body until you are limp as a noodle. I'm sure he has. He has. So if you were to show up in this place and you, you know, Jolo takes a seat, Jill is immediately going to feel a presence. Just just. A familiar presence. Absolutely familiar, like kind of a it's like, oh, damn it. OK. And there's going to be a literal being on his shoulder.

She, oh, we really need to talk about today. Yeah, we should. Like, you know, where were you to do something like super useful when those thugs were causing a great deal of trouble? You know, I just did you like do you do like a useful thing or do you just kind of whisper at me once in a while? I help those who help themselves. And if memory serves, you win in guns a blazin' a bit. I believe we can work on your tact. I tried to use the wonderful new magical abilities. All right. I did the thing. I even I added my own layer to it where I pull the hat down and I do a little mysterious stranger thing.

It didn't take. And then a shot three times. And those didn't take either. And then I was like, God, luck. Can I get like a ricochet here or something? And that didn't happen. And then the little fireball, she almost bled out. And that was a bad day. This this is the worst. Any big change of life is going to come with a series of hurdles, Jolo. Now, let's give you a compliment sandwich. I believe in giving constructive criticism. I'm proud of you for taking the initiative and joining this new team. However, I do believe that maybe communicating to these thugs that you are to be respected, your law enforcement, and they should surrender.

Before engaging in any physical conflict. However, you did show a great deal of concern for your new friend and your partner. And I was very proud of you for that as well. Yeah. Well, all four of them seem all right, I guess. I don't know. Maybe I'll feel more like going back in the morning. Is there any like nobody will have been doing this for a while? You haven't been like too judgy about the off the clock stuff. I get my get my own me time right with this gig. Well, I do see the things that you get up to and I do you like do you like him? Like is a strong term.

Could you grow to like him? I, I think you're doing enough growing for the both of us. However, these these these this is baby steps. Sometimes you have been involved in this sort of livelihood for quite some time. So let's focus on your career and maybe then we can expand to your nightlife. Fortuity, I just want you to think about it because like God of luck, right? They call it getting lucky for a reason. Okay, it's I'm right on the same page. All right. It's actually luck if you're paying for it. It's much more of a transaction. Semantics, semantics. You've had a hard day, so I won't talk your ear off too much, but I'll check in at some point tomorrow to see how you're doing.

All right. Yeah, okay, whatever. All right. We'll keep it on for now. We'll keep going. Keep on keeping on. Try not to beat yourself up too much, but you should beat yourself up a little bit. Well, I mean, if I'm not up for it, Big Richard's here anyway. And he's just gonna just pop out of existence again. Still not used to that. Question, could anyone else see the familiar thing or was Jolo just like talking to himself? So, okay, I have been going back to bring our quantum leap talk back around. I don't know if this is his like like his traveler that goes along with him and only he gets it.

So here's what we're gonna do. I want you to roll a flat D20, Rob. Okay. Yeah. One through ten. Only only Jolo can see this. This this being this is this fortuity is the name I fortuity. Yes. So 11 through 20. This is a physical being that anyone can see. Who would die clicks when I pick it up to that was expected. All right. Here we go. Oh, this is a physical being that people could see, which is probably why, like he's laying low. It's like, look, well, now we don't have to have the whole cliched like, no, I'm not crazy. You know, like right. Storyline like I'm kind of glad we get to skip that.

Yeah. So that means we can talk to it at maybe some point. Right. Oh, yeah. You know, if the fortuit, it's fortuity is here and not here. And, you know, it varies. We're still like we're still working out the relationship. You sure you'll get the chance. Don't worry, Zach. It's fine. I want to try one of those compliment sandwiches. I love the I love his patience. That's what I love about this. It's like, OK, you're it's a work in progress. We're going to do it to get like a kind of a motivational speaker. So many questions about how that whole system works. I picture like a big brother thing.

For two, the short straw job. Seems like. Let me ask a question. Let's cut back to the sisters here. Let's cut back to Bo and Gwen. Are you going home or are you crashing somewhere for the night? I would I would think that Bo would say that they would go they would go home. That Gwen needs her rest and walking back, Bo is probably even going to. Ask Gwen. So what are you planning on telling mom? Gwen's going to like. Bristle a little bit at that. And then just shake her head. Nothing, obviously. What do you mean nothing? There was literally an entire bar full of people who saw you.

She's going to find out eventually. You might as well be the one to tell her. She might not find out. First of all, mom doesn't talk to a lot of criminals. And second of all, no. I don't want to. She needs to know. Look, if you tell mom, she's just going to flip out and try to get you to quit. So you can't do that. I think you know me better enough than to than to think I would quit just because mom wants me to. And Bo is going to sort of like. She's had her arm sort of around Gwen while they're walking down the pathways. And it's going to sort of like give her a little squeeze on the shoulder.

Is it like a threatening squeeze or like a playful squeeze? You're hurting me. No, like a playful squeeze. OK. While you guys are having this chat, by the way, I need to paint a picture for the background. So you are leaving the lower quarter of the city, which honestly is most of the city. It's called the lower quarter. This is not divided. It's a good two thirds. It's a good, yeah. The quarter or most of. And slowly but surely, as you guys are talking this out, the buildings are going to get nicer and nicer spaced out. There's actual property instead of just everything being on top of itself.

And you guys are heading into a district called the gray quarter, which is very upper middle class. Like the this is people like they have successful businesses and savings and they're not quite nobility or, you know, you know, have multimillion gold empires or something, but they're they still hold sway. This is these are these are people who who vote and let you know they vote. They have better business meeting type things. It's like, well, I'll I'll get the community together. You know, that type of thing. Sorry. Is this where most of the temples are this quarter?

Yep. Yeah, this is where Pax News. Yeah. So but it's it's very different. Like there's the business section of it. And then there's like clergy members and church, like nicer churches, where as downtown, you'll get a lot of churches that are dedicated to multiple gods. It's kind of like, you know, it's a one stop shop there. But there's like little altars and stuff like that. Not necessarily priests or anything that are dedicated to those faiths in in the great quarter and the upper crust. That's like you'll have individual temples and stuff like it's it's a lot nicer, to be honest.

And eventually you are going to get to a shop. Now, you guys didn't give it a name, so I'm going to give it a name. The proper perennial. I like it. We decided you should name it because Gwen and Beau didn't name it. Their parents did. That's fair. So it is named. And this is some. Oh, this is an herbalist shop and they quite a successful one. A pretty large one. This would be like the Walgreens of your area. Like this is it's nice. Like it's it's it's, you know, be well. So next door to this establishment is quite a nice little townhouse type of thing. It's two stories.

It's it's got a little yard. It's it's it's really quite nice. And that is the building you are heading to. All the lights are off when you get there. Are you just walking in or you sneaking in? I think it's only polite and also Gwen would like to sneak in. Yeah, I don't know what Beau's planning. Oh, yeah. No, Beau would try to be quiet, too. You live in this home, right? You're not just visiting. Mm hmm. OK. Give me a stealth check, please. Both of you. Hey, mom worked hard. You don't want to wake up for no reason. I understand. She worked hard for the money. I just you take one step, you activated.

Come on. Like point out, it's still a nine. Dang it. Sorry. OK, you gave yourself this advantage. I don't know. I think has no it's you wear bulky armor. That's why I once thought, is there like just like sitting in the doorway? She turns around in a chair stroking a cat. No, no, no. When they want to first day at work. Hey, Bri, stop rolling crit ones with this character. We get one. That's not happening anymore. You are going to walk in and knock over a bucket the second you open this door like clang, clang, and then it rolls across the kitchen floor. And a lantern light is going to you're going to hear a match and then you're going to like who's there?

Bo's going to go, shh, Gwen, be quiet. Wow. Fucking bitch. Gwen-y? Is that our auntie or that that's that's your mom? Oh, it's going to be. I like it. Yeah, Mom, it's it's us. It's me and Bo. You just got in from work. And then she's going to like gesture, like zip it to Bo. No, Bo is going to look at Gwen and sort of do the like the motion of like, you need to say something to Mom. Does not mean you're going to say something. And then it's just going to say, sorry, Mom, go back to bed. Get ready, because this is just going to be annoying. Your mom is a lot. We we did some we I guess you said your mama annoying.

She is going to creep bleary eyed into into the into the kitchen area here. She was very much asleep. And she's going to set this this this lantern here on on the table and and walk up to you. You're just getting in this hour of the night. Is this going to be all the time with this new job? They still have like blood on them. It's a good question. I don't like for the record. And if so, you're going to have to wear a shitload of black for what happened to you. OK, you know what? I want to scale of one to 10. I need each of you to roll a d10 to see how bloody you would be.

I need you to roll with advantage. I roll with advantage because of the black. Sweet. No, that is not why you roll with advantage. Because it's your blood. All right. It's the higher number is worse because of the giant hole in your stomach. I rolled with advantage, but it didn't do it. So I'll roll again. OK, so I'm soaked with blood like my hair is red. Yeah. Oh, man, this is going great. So I love this. This is fantastic for me. So she's going to hurt her eyes are like slowly adjusting. And at first she's kind of annoyed that you're coming in this late and annoyed at your job.

Oh, my God. What? What happened to you? Are you all right? And she's going to rush over and you know. She's probably going to like shift back and like, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. This isn't my blood. What? No, we we we stopped some criminals. Mom, you would have been you would have been so proud. We we we went into a criminal ring and we we stopped them. That stutters really selling it. You know what comes next? Can I get a deception check, please? She's really good at lying to her mom. All right. Here we go. You're really good at that. Not very good at lying to her mom.

You know what? Unless she's going to literally kill you, this is where to get all the low rolls. Right. Honestly, at least not life or death. So that's a four. I was just making eyes at Gwen like. I OK, in the scene in my head, I see Bo gently edging away from exactly. Yes, like it's like she's on skates like slowly. Don't you lie to me, young lady. There's a hole right there. I can see what you would take all this off right now. Take off these blood so close. And what she OK, she's going to start talking and then not stop talking. And I'll give you a brief preview of what she said.

I knew this was going to happen. I told you not to get into such a violent profession. But no, you knew what's best. I don't know what I'm talking about. I just lived in the city for 40 years. I don't know anything. Take off that coat right now. And so on and so on. Gwen will listen because she doesn't have any other options anymore. And so she'll take off the little over jackets like the way she's dressed, because we got our uniforms, but they were made for like us. It's like she has a lot of like baggy clothes like leathers and such. So she'll take off all the over stuff.

And underneath, she's just wearing like a purple tunic type deal. And there is a big hole in it and it's not purple anymore based on my rolls, which is unfortunate because I really liked this shirt. That's the worst thing that's happened today. So you're taking off the leather vest and stuff? Yeah. Wasn't very helpful. Do you remember when I said that this living metal would it's going to take a bit of time to get used to you? And it may see someone stripping off your armor as a time to defend you. Oh, don't kill my mom. I need you to roll a flat d20. And the higher the number is, the greater the chances are.

OK, come on, low roll. Four. OK, four. OK, so OK, so she's going to take this off and she's looking for fresh blood because this looks kind of dry and stuff. So she's so much blood. Gwen, you just and up your arm. Your skin's going to have that that shimmer, almost like the like the just like kind of like a. And she's going to drop your your vest and kind of like stumble back. What was that? What what's wrong with your skin? Gwen's going to cringe because she really, really didn't want this to happen. She's going to kind of glare over it, Bo, like it's Bo's fault that this is going on, like Bo, because Bo wanted to tell their mom this is happening.

It has nothing to do with knocking over the bucket and being coated in blood. So at this point, OK, anyone who has siblings. Oh, hell yeah. Do it. Do it. Do it. The big brother or big sister initiative takes over eventually. Now, this very much depends on age. The younger you are, the faster this happens. The older you get, there's a leeway time where the younger sibling who fucked up gets grilled. But eventually the gaze always turns. You should have stopped them. And that's what's going to happen now. She is very much going to look at Bo. And I think probably at the worst timing, because Bo, when Gwen looks over at her like that, is going to sort of like shrug, like, what do you want me to do?

And then is going to see her mother look over at her and is going to sort of like put their arms down. And it was an accident. One of you better start explaining some things to me very quickly or we will stay up all night and I will get the information that I want. Her accent gets thicker, the more outraged she is. I love her. She's got a lot of finger wagging too. Yes. Can I ask a question about the other parent? Our father? Yes. Is he more less? Oh, yeah. He's okay. So there's very rarely two parents who can be this much. One has to be the calming influence and one gets to be this.

So, yeah. So, you know, there's usually an evening out in the end. So Gwen's like covering her stomach, because that's where I assume that's where like the most of the shimmering is happening too so you could probably see it through the hole. And she's gonna be like, is dad awake? This is going to rile her further. Don't you drag your poor tired father into this so that he can shield you. I'm not being some brute. I'm concerned for my children. You stumble in in the middle of the night, covered in blood. And I'm supposed to just shrug it off, I suppose. This was your first day on the job.

It's only gonna get worse. You know what, you know what, and she's gonna start. She's going to make a big dramatic showing of going over to get a jacket. I have a good, I'm going to go speak to that, that mayor of yours. This is why I didn't vote for him. This is why, and he's got she is going to get ready and go chew out. I feel like Bo would have to step in here. Mom, Mom, Mom. It's too, it's too late. We're gonna, we're gonna regroup in the morning and talk about a plan and, and really we just need to train more. I mean, this was just an accident. No, no, no, no, no, what's to talk about?

What, what, what are you going to wait for something like what if she had died? What, what if your sister had died? What would you do then? Bo? Straight faced. There's a look and then just like, stone face. Yeah, what if? Bo is going to look over at Gwen, and then look back at her mother. And then look back over at Gwen. She did die, Mom. Bo! But she's fine, she's fine. The city, look, she's fine. The city brought her back. New and improved, see? And Bo's gonna walk over and sort of lift Gwen's arm to show that little shiny belly spot. I like to imagine that you lifted her like clean up onto her like tippy toes, and her shirt just felt like moved up as her arms did.

Paxton will be over in the morning to collect resignation papers. I think this is it. I'm 22 years old, I can make my own choices. Technically, yes. Legally, yes, you can. So, by now, I'm going to use a modern term. Your mom's a bit of a Karen. Get out! Could you explain her hair situation, now you say that? Well, it's the middle of the night, don't hold it against her right now. Judge it in the morning. Judge it after she's put herself together. You're right, Mom. No one should be judged by the middle of the night hair. At the risk of offending some of our listenership, please understand.

This is a fictional character. It's only a show. You should really just relax. She's going to sit for the second time, your skin do that thing and there's a long pause. Now, when you say, "She did die, Mom," there's going to be this blank stare like, "What are you talking about? She's right there." And then the skin thing is going to happen again and you're like, "The city brought her back." Oh, no. You're going to see a long pause and then white hot fury. You let them pump chemicals, unnatural chemicals, into your sister. Was this even tested? Do you even know what they do?

Did you read the warning labels? Were there even pamphlets, Bo? Guys, I think Jason's too good at this. Camera's on. Makes it so much harder. Oh, my God. Oh, Mom. Camera's on forever, by the way. This is fantastic. I like this. I actually do. I do not want to meet our aunt, Jamie. She just stomps out of another room. Okay. Gwen's going to pull away from Bo. I don't know how long you had her to hang in there. And just be like, "Mom, it's fine. It's seriously fine. Look." And then she's going to lift her shirt up herself to a modest degree and poke the area. She's not doing the child showing off their underpants to everyone in the room.

You're 22. I would hope not. I'm outside of class too before trying this. If you did, then she has every right to be the way she is with you. But yeah, she's going to lift up her shirt and poke the scar area. It doesn't even hurt. I'm fine. And she's going to clench her fists and be like, "I kind of did it to me anyway. There was a lot of blood and I may have slipped. And it's no one's fault and it's going to be fine. So can we please just go to bed?" Two things. Give me another flat D20 roll, please. Did I want low? Because I got a one and I'm really fucking sick of this. [laughter] I'm changing the color of my dice.

This is not that cool. That's what it is. It's got to be. It's got to be. So, okay. You're going to explain. I did this to me and everything. And when you make a fist, your forearm is going to change shape and a blade is going to come out, Altier style. Oh my God. And she's going to stumble backward. And I need to roll a flat D20 now. I don't think that's the way mama made you. Okay, okay. It was higher than it was lower. It's a 13. So, okay. Lower would have been, "You're a monster." Higher is... I love you. [laughter] I'm pretty sure. She is going to take a good three or four steps back.

Now she's at the entranceway of the kitchen. And if you let go of your fist, that blade is just going to disappear. Like, the way it looks was your skin became steel, basically. Like, it was seamless. T-1000 style. Despite everything that's happening around her, Gwen thinks that's fucking sweet. [laughter] She lights up and she like holds up her hand like, "Awesome!" But she doesn't say anything. She's still in trouble. What's the name of... this is so bad. I had it in my notes and now I can't find it. What's the name of the god of justice? The one that I worship again?

Alverin. Alverin. Thank you. [laughter] God gets no respect. She's imprisoned in a swamp for years. I'm sorry! There's so many names. There's a lot of proper nouns. It's okay. You know, there is a book you could read. That's okay. Bo is just going to yell out, "Holy Alverin!" [laughter] She's... okay, she's gonna get that really dramatic mom thing of like her hands are shaking. "My god, Gwen, I can't... I just... I can't deal with this. I can't. I can't. I need... Just... go to your rooms. Just go to your rooms. I need... I need to think. I just..." And she's gonna continue talking as she shuffles up the stairs.

"I need to just... I can't with this anymore!" Like, just, it fades generally into the distance. Nightmare. Did you see my arm? That was cool. What the fuck was that? Three weeks later. Oh, wow! Okay. Wow! Yup. So... We don't get to see this interaction between the mama and the mayor. We don't get to see a fan get murdered. Even where it had a really shitty day the next morning. There's so much paperwork. So much paperwork. It's just a woman screaming in the corner as he tries to pull it out. [Laughter] So, okay. There's a few things. Um... It is now the 27th of Ringway.

Which means you are... you're pretty firmly into winter now. It is cold. You have had three solid weeks on the job. And I'm gonna have you guys roll for a few things. Um... Bree, I think you've rolled enough. Um, you're fine. You're good. Put the dice down. You can only hurt yourself by trying. Like, literally. I'll actually step away from the computer so that my luck doesn't rub off on anybody. Holy fucking shit. [Laughter] So, you had a very rough first day. And Stephen would have pulled you into his office, um, bright and early the next day. And explained a few things.

He... He would feel very guilty. And he's obviously really gung-ho about getting the city cleaned up. He needs to prove to voters that he can deliver on what he promised. But at the same time, he put too much on you too soon. And... Yeah, it really was all his fault. Some of it was his fault. It's good of him to take responsibility for that. I feel like maybe a little more training then. Okay, go out! Have fun! Like, who might have been called for? I think... So, okay. I think he just... Maybe it's because he was in law enforcement for so long. I genuinely think...

This was just... It wasn't even supposed to be a shakedown. It's like you guys show up, flash a badge, and say, "Hey, you got permits for this?" That's what he thought. He didn't tell us anything! I know! And that's why he's like, "Okay, I should have been... We can both work on this, guys." So... I'm gonna mark this down as a solid room for improvement. [Laughter] Okay, that was orientation. All I'm saying is, Paxton would have argued his case that he tried to say he was authorities and was immediately attacked. He did. That was after you guys threw a few spells and stuff.

Yeah, well, Gioa threw the spells and then Paxton was on the receiving list. Did we throw a spell first? I can't remember. Yeah, that was the opening sub. That's not what my report says. Well, because first, it's almost friendly. I'm not corrupt. I'm sorry. First he tried to use a mind-bending spell, but when that didn't work, he kinda went to Plan B real fast. Everyone started stabbing each other. It's like, "Okay, folks! Nothing to say here!" [Laughter] It's like being in the middle of a fistfight, then you have a badge. "Police!" [Laughter] "Oh, we're well past that!" [Laughter] So...

There would be a bit of trade. There would be a bit of... It's like, "Okay, we're going back to basics. We're going to do a few things." Because what it did show was that you guys have gumption, if nothing else. You got moxie. Which one of those is the thing they put in Gwyn to make her... [Laughter] Go get her attitude. Did they put the gumption or the moxie into her? Little little spunk, just in case. I don't want to be filled with spunk, thank you very much. [Laughter] Oh no. There's nothing magic about that, really. She's not into it. Okay, so... Guys, this is a PG show.

Is it? No. So... You guys have been... We kinda put the limiters on. We're doing baby steps. So you guys are doing some real helping cats out of trees, getting to know the community, that type of thing. Crosswalk duty. Yeah, it's like, "Okay, we're gonna crank this up after a while." First, you need to get to know the neighborhood. You need to get to know it from a law enforcement perspective. Also, all the guards in town now know who you are. Yeah, that's a good thing. What has your reputation been since our first incident? Well, that's what we're going to find out, Jane.

Oh, people know. Oh, people do. We must be infamous. On a scale of that, everyone roll. So, here's what we're gonna do. First, we're gonna tackle that rumor. Because... [Sigh] Gunner Turlington. Gunner Turlington was the name of that bandit leader that you let live. And Gunner has been talking all kinds of shit. I thought he felt bad! He said he felt bad. He does feel bad, but then he saw you were alive, so fuck you. So anybody who will listen, he's like, "Let me tell you about these guys." Like, "Fuckin' law." You're supposed to be the new hotness. The mayor vouched for you now publicly.

There was an assembly. He gave a speech. And he's like... You are the untouchables, basically. So, Gunner, now having had a run-in with you, is in every CD bar, every back alleyway, talkin' shit. So, let's start with that. Rob, give me a flat D10. On a scale of 1 to 10, how far has this rumor spread? How much of this has taken root? Okay, let's find out. I'm gonna confess something real quick. When you said three weeks had passed, I started looking for training montage songs. [Laughter] So, I'm sorry. Okay. This is... Alright. I'm gonna throw the die. Hey! Alright!

Okay! That's fantastic! So, this, outside of Gunner and his crew, no one believes it. 'Cause Gunner's reputation is worse than yours. That being said... He runs his mouth. That being said, he's the type of dude who would watch a boxing match on TV that's like, "I could take that bum!" And you're like, "Sure. Okay. Yeah." That guy who punches things eight hours a day for a living. That's the guy. So, that being said, you might want to nip that in the bud at some point. Just because, you know... Now, let's see what the community thinks of this. Zach, if I can get a flat D10, please.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, what do people think of this new initiative, this firebrand, coming on the scene? It has to be great. 'Cause Paxson is such a community guy. Look at that! I told you! Oh hell yeah! Oh my god! He's in the streets every day saying, "Hey, we're gonna clean this community up." He has this long list of laws he once established. He's hitting the streets. They love us. Those are high expectations, though. I don't know about that one. I can't see how this could go bad at all. Oh god. Let's see what law enforcement, uh, town guards...

Let's see what they think of you guys coming in. Do they look at it like, "Oh, these guys are here to help, and maybe they can go to places we can." Or, who the fuck do these guys think they are to show up day one and just get, like, special treatment from the mayor? Kelsey! I can't blame them for that. I know it's, like, real square, but... Scale of one to ten. It's decent. Okay, it's a five. Five. So it's so-so, right? That feels fair. Yeah. So there are some of them who have probably given you a pretty frosty reception. Like, you're like, "Oh, hi!" And they just, like, pfft, like that type of thing.

And there are some, maybe, like, older guard who have been around for a long time, and it's like, "You know what? You kids got moxie. You got gumption." "And I really hope you're the ones to do it." That type of thing. Get at least one who's like, "Eh, we all stab ourselves in the first week." Yeah, it's just, that's why we work with rubber knives on day one. That's, you know... It's like, "Do I get my gun yet?" "No, you get a whistle." Alright, here's the thing. Between a one and a ten, and Gwenvieve is very sick of these jokes, between a eleven and a twenty, she's playing along.

She thinks it's funny too. Here we go. Alright, she's sick of these jokes. Yeah. I feel like, okay, I think any listener who has listened to the show for a while knows that Elle has a reputation for being made of paper mache. Like, she is... She broke her top. She is... I lovingly said to her last night that she is put together with all the care of a kindergarten art project. [laughter] I love her. But she just breaks stuff all the time. So, we have made every joke in the house that you can make. Yeah, I tried to help earlier today and Jason had already told it before I got there.

I rattled those off real quick. So, she's very good-natured about it. But, much like Gwen, I imagine after three solid weeks of... [laughter] I imagine your patience runs a little thin. Yes. Okay. Good to know. There's two more things we gotta roll for, which means all of you get to contribute. You're fine. We're gonna save Bree for last. Jamie. Hey, Gabe. The Houses of Brightport. Mm-hmm. Now, the Houses of Brightport have had quite a lot of control in the city for nearly a century now. Now, the mayor is proposing some pretty radical changes and he's trying to limit the amount of power they have.

The position of mayor has been largely ceremonial for a long time and he wants to change that because he feels that this trickle-down economics thing doesn't work. What do the Houses think of that? On a scale of one to ten, please. What do they think of that? They don't like it. They don't like that. No, they don't. Okay, that's good to know. That's good to know. I mean, that makes sense. I can't really see a reason why they would like, you know? Yeah, Cephia would be the only one on board, really. And here's the thing. No, she wouldn't. Because what she's been trying to do is reform, you know, criminals and give them a second to- If she has less power to do something like that, then she sees it as, "Oh, you're just clipping my wings here.

I can't do what, you know, there's a lot." Here's the last thing. The city of Brightport almost seven months ago went through a really tough time. There was a very large figurehead of organized crime in the city, in the Black Hand, and she was murdered in the streets of Brightport. Now, obviously that left a power vacuum. Now, when there's a power vacuum like that, obviously at the end of the day, someone's going to be left standing tall. They probably- like if Al Capone is arrested or dies, you're not going to have another Al Capone, but after everyone's done fighting and killing each other, someone's in charge.

Now, what I want to know is how organized right now, how organized is the underworld of Brightport? Brie, I need you to roll a flat d10. The higher the number, the more organized and threatening they would be to a small organization like you. So I would like to roll a low number. Yes. This is built for you. Well, when I rolled to see how much blood was on me, I got a 10. That's fair. Were you going to say something? So say if she hits a 10 on this roll for Mack's organization, would that mean there could be another Black Hand already in power? Not a Black Hand.

Someone that takes on the mantle? Well, they're going to be crime families. They're going to be someone who's not necessarily as organized, but if these crime families work together to get rid of an element like you guys, because if you don't have to follow the same checks and balances and if you can't be bribed, well, that's a problem. They don't know that yet. They don't know yet. That's true. You may be approached. So give me a flat d10. A six. That's not a 10. That's the best we can put from me. The only good rolls I've gotten are for my stats. And I mean, I guess it's better than nothing.

I need one more thing from somebody who wants to roll one more die. Zach? I'll do it. Can you give me a d6, please? d6. Oh, wow. OK. I don't think we're going to know what that one is quite yet. Not yet. OK, but thank you. Don't worry. It's one one. It's one thug that approaches us. It's one. There's one. There's one crime, one unit of crime in the city right now. It's some. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to pick things up on the morning of the 27th. And this is going to start like a lot of your days have started. You're basically walking a beat. You're.

You aren't tasked with working the docks yet. That's a really rough spot. However, you are working the market district right now, and that that's usually a lot of petty theft, pickpocketing, stealing fruit, that kind of thing. So you're, you know, at this point when they see the uniform, they know who you are. And at the very least, the very, very low, like like kids who steal, they know what you look like. So they're going to take off. You know what I mean? Like that. You scare kids at least. And they said, don't project onto us. That's really good. Well, kids who are going to do stuff, kids who are going to get into shenanigans, not shenanigans, shenanigans, shenanigans.

Tom Follery, some would say. Even Tom Follery, oh my goodness. So you're saying we've been demoted to Shenanigan Patrol. Shenanigan Patrol. I'm saying that. OK, during the day, that's a lot of what you get, right? Night shift is different in Brightport, but you're going to see that you have enough of a reputation now where that has plummeted. That type of chicanery, if you will. I'm just going to use more and more old timey terms to describe this little rascals-esque version of police work. I hear we're breaking up a hootenanny tonight. It's going to be Bafo, kid.

So. You have garnered a reputation in the city. People are taking notice. They may not be totally scared or whatever, but like they're they're definitely they're like, OK, here they come. Let's let's let's talk about this later. That type of thing. Someone is going to approach you. And they're being very they're being very like they're not making a lot of eye contact. They're kind of coming to you, hat in hand, kind of ringing it in their hands. Are you guys if you're the the new you're the new guards, right? You're the firebrand people. What does this person look like?

He is a human with really kind of scraggly hair. He's a little gaunt, very, very thin. And he looks like he does a lot of manual labor. If you were to take a look at his hands, like he's very calloused. He's got very worn boots. He does not look very high in the hog. That's the case. Then Paxson will release just to step up and say we are group firebrand. What seems to be the trouble, friend? Can we maybe talk about this in private? Maybe step away from all these people, please? Absolutely. Right this way. Just leaving some random place away. I'll roll an insight check.

Yes, please. You guys just could you come into this dark alley for a moment? Absolutely. Could you come into crime alley and we can talk about this? 21. This guy, he seems worried. He seems very nervous. And he it very much seems like he is worried about what other people are going to think of him, maybe. So if you do follow him into this alley, he's going to he's he's going to look around. OK, I I've tried telling the guards about this, but they don't they don't seem to care. My brother has a real bad reputation in the city, and I think he's in some real trouble.

And I can't I don't I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Who is your brother? His name is Kyle, but no one calls him Kyle. They call him Scooter. And what kind of trouble? He has a drug problem, ma'am, like a like a like a bad one. And we've tried we tried to get him clean. We tried taking him to we tried taking him to the clerics three or four times. And it just doesn't take. And I think I think he stole from some really nasty people. And I think I think they got him and they took him away because I can't find him. It's been three days. Gwen's going to look up at Beau and like a moment is going to pass between the two of them.

And then she's going to lower her eyes. Do you know who took him? She's been a lot softer spoken since the stabenin. The stabenin. I like that. Got to get that confidence back. You got to get that moxie. I. There's a guy I don't I don't know if you know about him, but his name is Archibald. He he's constantly selling drugs down by the docks. And he's just it's just in the bars. But my brother owed him a lot, I think. And he wouldn't talk about it anymore. Is there a chance I might know this this man being welcome? You know what? Give me wisdom. Check, everybody.

This would be like a streetwise thing. Did everyone see that I almost got a 15 before I got a five? Did anyone see that? Did you see it? Kind of almost happened for me. The random seed for you has just really brutalized. Yeah, no, it's not fair. I'm not a fan. Wow, everybody. No, I'm going to the highest rolls in 11. So there's a bunch of people who sell drugs in Brightport. So basically, here's the thing. You know how tough a customer you're dealing with based on the drugs they're selling. I was more that was that. So the more expensive the drug, the more you're going to say you're going to know how badass someone is by how stupid their name is.

If someone can take them seriously. Archibald's not a cool name. This guy's still scared. So like if he can say Archibald but be frightened. This guy has some sway. Yeah. You know what kinds of drugs he was taking or any any other details? He's got a real bad Oranash habit, ma'am. He's he's constantly out of it. He sleeps for days at a time. He doesn't even show up to work anymore. And he's always got money. It didn't make any sense. And then one day he just goes missing. So I know it's not good. I just if he's still alive. I need I need somebody's help. How long ago?

When did you last see him? I saw him on the 24th last three days. Or I meant where did you last see him? Well, you know that dwarf bar by the docks? Probably. It's it's got a pretty bad reputation as as a really rowdy place. Okay. Well, there's an old abandoned house next to that. He was hanging outside of that for a while. And have you talked to anyone else? Any of his former co-workers or has anyone else seen him? Or knows where he might be? Well, ma'am, they're not such big fans of him right now. I think he's stolen from any every one of his friends and eventually they cut him off.

He just he's just going through a really rough time right now. I'm sure if we get him back, then he'll this time it'll take and we can we can get him clean. Sounds like your brother just needs someone to guide them on the right path. Or an ash is a very serious drug and can lead to lifelong damages to your body, your health and everything. The faster we can help him, get him back on the right track, the better you all feel. I promise I bought a comic book from a drugstore one time and it was super mad and he was saying all of those exact facts. This is dare like, yes.

Like, do you remember the do you remember the Michael Jordan McDonald's commercial? Stop it like that. It's like, it just needs to be like, let's do like, like, just kind of like, does like it deliberately does not make a face. And then as he keeps going on the field, it's kind of like, what? I think like, Pax is standing in the middle. Paxson is standing in the middle of all of us. And slowly all the like, as he's like, uh huh. It's like, what city have you seen for the last three weeks? So the funny thing is Paxson's word on the street is his weakness for a sentient mentality.

He's very sappy. So it's a story like this. He really wants to reunite this family and put it back on the right track. He sees potential because this man right here cares enough. And that's enough. Is this the one Paxson? Is this a good deed going to put us on the map? Well, I think every deed is the one. Every single deed. If I can't do it, who else can? Okay, but is this is this the good deed that's going to make us like popular and respected? You know, I'm not I'm sure they're all important, like in the right cosmic karmic kind of sense. But I see what you mean.

I think so. I think this could really I think a story like this, helping this man out could really set a good example for the city, because there are a lot of people that have a story just like him with a lot of hopelessness. And we could really be the people that are there to help them out. I think that's important. That's very well put, Paxson. We can definitely look into it at least. No promises were. But we will do our best to try and see what we can find is. Bless you all so much. I look I've I've heard people talk about you and I just I knew I knew you would help me out.

Thank you so much. I have errands to run today and I'll be in a few different spots. But if you just if you just ask for me, I'm I'm I'm sure you could track me down. No problem. Could you give us some information like where he where he was living the last you knew and where he used to work and and any details you have could end up being important. Well, he rented a room down at the nipple for a while, but then he he ended up causing some damage there and they kicked him out. And then he was he was sleeping on one of the ships at the docks and then they found him and then they kicked him out.

So that abandoned building next to that that that dwarf bar like that's that's that's I think that's where he was maybe that's where he was maybe sleeping, man. Like, I don't I don't I don't want to talk ill about my brother. It's just he's got some issues and I he may not want to be helped is the thing, but he needs to be. You need to talk to him. Just just reason with him. I'm sure you can. And we can't make any promises about what we may or may not be able to do, but we'll try to at least find him. We'll do our best. What was his name? His name is Kyle.

He goes by Scooter. He was he was really big into street names. He he he made sure to give everybody in the family a street name. And he the way. OK, the way he says that, it's very like, oh, I need to know what to say. Boy, and who was he keeping in touch with anyone else in your family aside from you? My parents cut him off a while ago, so I don't think he's talked to them in months. The only reason I still got to talk to him is because we worked together when we were loading some ships. And then I got this delivery job and I didn't need to work there anymore.

So I just kind of lost touch. He burned all the bridges down there. So he just I think he just lost everything. I see. I see. And and just real quick, what's your street name? I swear it's important for the investigation. What's your street name? What did he call you? Thank you, Jello. My name's Herb. I'm sure if you just ask for for Herb. Right. But he might be he might be talking about you by your street name, you know, down there. So if we need to be like, hey, you know. Herb, except cooler sent us. So what's what's your street name? Lil' Wiener. I'm sorry, could you repeat that?

I didn't hear that. The street name he gave me was Lil' Wiener. Is he your older brother? Yes. Is that supposed to mean something? No, no, it doesn't mean anything. It's just a name. He just gave me a name. It wasn't based on anything. It was just understood. Is he covering his crotch with his hat? But that's the first time he got a little defensive. He's like, no, no. What do you mean? Like that's the first time he's raised his voice. Look, if there's anything I've learned, it's more about confidence than your body anyway. All right. I'm dumb, tall as hell. Look at me.

I get it. I get by. OK, I should be going. I got these packages to deliver and I they're. Adequate size packages. I got to go. I got to go. I'm sorry. I'm going to go. We'll be in touch and any updates and anything that we find and if you find out anything more, be sure to let us or someone else know. And thank you for real. Thank you. I owe you. You guys so much. Thank you. And he's going to get ready and take his leave. Go get his adequately sized packages. All right. Well, that's. We should probably go and at least. Let the dear old mayor know where we're going to be.

Then we got to get to work, because if whatever he's taking makes him that bad at coming up with street names, he's in real trouble. You don't want to tango with scooter. Guys, I think that's a pretty good time for us to stop for the evening. Oh, good. We're not fighting tonight. Thank fucking God. Because these are. Dude, what? Whatever. What? Whatever you like doing. Undo it for the next session. It's in a tent. I've been trying. It's happening. When there's a different program. The fuck is this? Is it like Pokemon go? Do you have to do a little circle before you throw it?

Get a curve on it. You need to reset your cookies. Yeah. Clear your cash or something. Just I don't know. Well, you don't have to do anything tonight. Everything's fine. I'm ready to play for three more hours. That was fun. I know. I just thought we just got started. I want to keep it. It took us a while to get rolling. But we're playing again really soon. So. Mm hmm. That was I think that was way better than the first session. I'm going to go. But here's the thing, though. The first session wasn't even that bad. We just had a snafu. No, it was not bad at all. Yeah. But like as snafus go, that's a big.

But I mean, this time we actually got to get to know your characters a bit more. And there's recorded in one city, which is nice. Yeah. I miss like just walking around the city and meeting NPCs and getting to like get. I miss that. So I just carried about the little things, man. Little things. I have a question. Is Jola's penis tall? Because you said you're tall. Like, like Jolo is like kind of freakishly large. So maybe he doesn't, you know, like just large. You just got a lanky member. Yeah, I guess. So, like, I think everyone in our party is like super tall.

And then there's Gwen. I don't remember how tall Calypso is, but like, there was a height requirement to be in the fire brand. That's and you just got like, like, like they they would be normally all like the shorter end of a group. But like, since Gwen is here, it's like you're here to adjust the average. It's true. On average, we are a regular sized person. Do you know that like Justice League intro? We want you type of poster that's going to be up around the city. Those silhouettes are going to be all kinds of all because in the middle is either going to dip down or like Gwen goes on the end.

I imagined it was going to be like singular people and it's like Gwen's just like her horns. It's like a monster saying. We'll be right back after these words from our sponsors. Please don't go anywhere. This week for the Patreon sneak peek, we're going to be listening to 10 minutes of our latest team meeting. It's the third one that we had. We recorded it back in October. We are eventually going to be creating our own RPG system when we can fully staff it and give it the time and attention that it really needs. Obviously, this is going to take a lot of work and time and playtesting, but we wanted to record all of these ideas and let you guys hear them and just kind of let you pick our brains over it.

And we want to hear what you have to say. So sit back, relax, enjoy this little sneak peek. If you want to hear the whole thing, it's about an hour and a half long. You can go over to our Patreon at patreon.com/dandr. And that is the way you can support the show. You can also get access to our Discord server with hundreds of people on it. And you can listen to full sessions, behind the scenes stuff for every episode and a bunch more. Thank you all very much. And we hope you enjoy this sneak peek. Howdy, Patreon folks. This is our third team meeting. That we had back in October.

Now, you may have already heard that we are back burning this TTRBG project for now. And that doesn't mean that we're tossing out these ideas. It just means that we don't have the staff or the budget or the time right now to focus on this, a new book and the show. Obviously, the show is our first priority and we want to make sure that that is spick and span top to bottom as good as it can be. Then we'll reach out. So with that being said, all of these ideas are still ideas on the table. And in the future, we'll be moving forward with some of them. We really hope you guys enjoy this and let us know what you think at danddrpodcast@gmail.com.

That's danddrpodcast@gmail.com. Or you could talk about it on our Discord where there's a dedicated channel for all this stuff. Thanks, everyone. We hope you enjoy. Boom, I am recording. OK. I missed all that gold. All that comedy gold. I'm sure there'll be more. It's fine. So let's see. Book team meeting October 21st, 2020. Again, thank you guys for making time. Wednesdays are difficult for everybody, I know. But like, I don't know when else we do. So there's a couple of things I want to hit on a list to kind of get us on track for a couple of things. And then I'd like to discuss some stuff that was in the pile.

We're obviously not going to get to everything on the pile. And one of the reasons is because there's just so much and some of the stuff is going to become obsolete as we go and all that. But we'll talk about as much of it as we can. Otherwise, it'll be like a GMT where we try to tackle all the emails and we'll just be here till midnight. And I don't think anybody wants that. Speaking of getting on track, let's talk about that first. The nature of this group, it's going to be hard to do that because we have what? 12, 14, 15 people, something like that.

And all of them are going to make different meetings. And all of us are going to have different ideas at different times and all of us are going to weigh in on different things. So there's a few things that I think we can do to kind of hone in on stuff. One, try to make the meetings if you can, obviously. I know we're all going to do that. If you can't make the meeting, try to watch it at some point after so you know what was talked about and we kind of know where we stand on certain things. Because obviously if you weigh in on like, okay, we talk about race or we talk about hit points or whatever we talk about.

And you didn't see the meeting, you didn't know you're going to talk about stuff that was either already talked about or, you know, you might get an idea from what someone said at some point. It's just easier. Two, I want to try to avoid something. I know we've all played tons of role-playing games. Between Rob and Xavier and Kelsey and Ryan, there's probably 50 different RPGs on the table right now. What I want to do is try to get us to some kind of consensus about our base. Let's think of this like juggling. We start with three balls and then we gradually bring in stuff.

Not, oh, I played Cypher or Numenera or something like that. And hi, hi. It's a baby. We can't hear you, Rob. No. Sorry, I had myself muted. Hi baby. Now they can hear you. Say hi. We can see it too, it's fine. And goodbye. Okay, you can take that. Okay, I'll mute you. Go back to... Okay, that's fine. So, we're all going to get this thing where we go, oh, I like this thing from Numenera or, you know, Five Rings or Cypher. I've seen Cypher a lot. Try to boil it down into what you liked about that thing. How that can be incorporated. Obviously, we just can't rip off Cypher.

We can't rip off, you know. I want to try to start thinking about how that would fit into our thing, not how we can do that thing. So, if it's a character building thing you like, why do you like that? What feeling do you walk away from with that? That you're like, oh man, I want to try to incorporate that feeling into this. So, we can start kind of like tossing another ball into the juggling thing. So, eventually we got 16, 17 balls in the air and it's not just, what if we scrapped everything and flipped coins? Or what if clouds were made of hot dogs?

Let's try to focus on... I'm... yeah. But, like, between the board games and RPGs and stuff we've played, it's going to be difficult to suss out everything, right? And without each of us dropping everything and reading a brand new book or a brand new system or, you know... Like, Bree just bought five rings and there's already some stuff with that where it's like, oh, I wish they didn't do this. Like, I wish they didn't have a special dice system. And we'll talk more about that in a minute, like what dice we want to use and all that. But there's inherent problems with that.

You get to stand out and you get to do something different and when you see those dice you go, "That's five rings!" or "That's vampire!" or whatever it is. But you also have to buy special dice. If you don't have those dice, you can't play the game. Yeah, that's why I think there are a lot of systems that use just 2d6 because most people have that. Yeah, exactly. Everyone has d6s. Most RPG players have "the set", you know. Yeah, but even if you just have a board game, you probably have some. Right! You can go buy yachts or whatever and you have d6s. So for the pile, before we jump into specific things, when you put something in the pile, let's try to think of it as, why do you like this thing?

And what could we do to maybe incorporate that in so that when we bring up stuff, it's like, oh, Nick brought up this thing or Xavier brought up a thing. They like the way this works for combat because. How can we incorporate that into this system and make it our own? Yeah. Because I don't think we need to reinvent the wheel for every single thing. I don't want to remake D&D, obviously, but I also don't want to remake Cypher or any other. You know, I don't want to do Shadowrun. I don't want to... God, I don't want to do Shadowrun. Yeah, no, I don't think anyone wants to see that.

What if we had 80d6? How do you see the character sheets for that system? It's really cool, but I don't have a degree. Yeah, me too. What we're trying to avoid. Right. And I want everyone's ideas to be heard, but we need to kind of filter them in a way that we can all do them so that we, you know. So does that make sense? It doesn't come off like I'm shutting anybody down. I don't want that, obviously. So let's talk about some pile stuff. Let's talk. Let's start filtering because last time we had a meeting, we had a really big discussion about species. I keep saying race because it's embedded in my brain and I got to get it out.

Species. And I think on the server, if you didn't see it, I think we kind of have a basis for what basic stats are going to look like and how we're going to treat species where you don't get bonuses or negatives just for being an orc or a tiefling or whatever. Because people are watching this, I think we might want to go into like, we did talk about that. Well, oh, you're waving to the people. I'm waving to the people. I thought you were trying to tell me I was muted. I'll raise my hand in Skype if I want to do that. That's fair. You know what? But yeah, we did have a very long behind the scenes conversation regarding species, just so that like the people at home know that that's something that was talked about because they can't see that.

Dude, I am dreading the day that that recording goes up because if we had a lot to say, everyone's going to have a lot to say. I am loving the thing because I am listening to the fly on the wall thing so far just because it is just you and Pri and I just think it's neat to see how we came to this decision. Yes, like, like you have like the intro saying it's like yeah like this is from July this was months ago right past that and the people on the discord are like talking and getting their stuff, which is great because a lot of them are good and even have like gotten like thoughts going and stuff but it just is kind of like, oh, and it's one of the reasons I wanted to do it that way so that, like, no one thinks that we're.

It's a weird thing it's like it's it's like solicitation where like someone think we ripped them off because we have like 15 people working on this and it started months ago and by the time we post that it'll be like a month or two, so they'll they'll get it, and I have a ton of opinions. And I think we all walked away from that last meeting going, okay, well that's not going to work. We need to come up with something that, you know, I want this. Obviously I think we all want this to feel fresh and new, but still, theory, that's the one question we got to filter does this work for what we do on the show doesn't have to be a one to one, but does it feel like something we would do.

So, I'm going to bring up a few pile things and feel free to chime in, raise your hand on Skype, if you want. Well actually I have a. So two general things before we get into specific pile things, if you don't mind. Sure. Um, one. Is there a way for us to distill the pile into something. That's kind of what I'm trying to do. Okay, so, because what I was thinking is like even if it's something that we just have whatever's Google's version of Excel is or something and we can add a category for is it a dice mechanic, is it a character creation is it something there.

And then that gives us a way to quickly filter something and then if we've addressed it we can either color code it or just say you know talked about something else. I like that idea, a lot. I can work on it when I'm so the pilot make that that okay. I can make like a drop down menu type thing. Your shoes, I was going to do the whole Trello thing. And then there were 7000 ideas and all of them are multiple paragraphs, I think, is not good for Trello just because of how many ideas there are but I think that's something that if we distill into Excel. We have basically three columns or four who said it, what was said, what category.

Everyone we hope you enjoyed today's episode. It looks like Firebrand is going to settle down and try to make a difference. I'm not sure how they're going to go about doing that after the last time they got into combat. Maybe we'll take a more tactful approach in the future. That being said, who's going to stand in their way, what's going to happen. We'll have to wait till next time to get an answer for that but until then, you can check us out, obviously at patreon.com/dandr and support the show. You can also find us on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, all that good stuff.

We really want to thank you for listening to us and supporting and just sharing the show with your friends. Thank you so much and we'll see you next week with a brand new episode. Until then, take care of yourselves and good luck with your games. games.