Learning manipulation on reality shows, getting stuck inside a mud puddle, and receiving wish advice from Adam Sandler. This is the Afterparty, where we sit down after every episode to break down our game and answer your questions about how to play at home.
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- music: brandongrugle.bandcamp.com
Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master: Eric Silver
- TR8c (Tracey): Brandon Grugle
- Inara Harthorn: Amanda McLoughlin
- Johnny B. Goodlight: Michael Fische
- Creative Contributors: Connor McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, Heddy Hunt
- Multitude: multitude.productions
Transcript
[theme music]
Amanda: Hey! Hi! Hello! And welcome to the After Party. I normally start by asking you guys how you feel after the session, but today I just want to take this opportunity to plug a very underloved show called ‘Unreal,’ which is a show on Lifetime- okay stick with me. A) It’s on Lifetime. Lifetime has like reinvented themselves as an original-content-producing, not just over-the-top movies, but they’re like producing really interesting shows, they’re almost all led by women now, like directors, writers, executives, the whole team. And they produced a show, which is a fictional show, scripted drama. In the universe of the show, they are producing a fictional ‘Bachelor’-esque dating show, and the characters that like make up the cast of the show ‘Unreal’ - there’s like two levels of show here - they’re producers for the ‘Bachelor’-ish program.
Michael: Mhm.
Amanda: So it’s all about the manipulation, and the casting, and the hijinks and the like interpersonal drama that happens on the set of a show like ‘The Bachelor.’
Michael: And the leading questions at the confession booths?
Amanda: Oh, yes. Yes.
Michael: [accusingly] Eric.
Amanda: Eric.
Amanda: So, anyway, I never watched dating shows before watching ‘Unreal’, but I do now, because I can just imagine, or I like to think about what kind of like frickin’ drama is happening behind the scenes, or producers are like trying to make their candidates fight other candidates, and ask them weird questions and provoke them and leave alcohol in the rooms of people who are vulner- and all kinds of crazy stuff. So I don’t know what’s happening here, but the idea of being a little bit peering behind the curtain is interesting to me.
Brandon: This episode is sponsored by ‘Unreal.’
[all laugh]
Amanda: Sponsored by Lifetime!
Brandon: I wish!
Eric: I think Lifetime might have something to say about that.
Amanda: [in exaggerated commercial voice] Live another lifetime in faaaaantasy!
[Brandon and Amanda laugh]
Amanda: Okay, I got two romantic interests! Oh my god! Agh!
[all laugh]
Brandon: Do you think Inara is actually- like does she actually want to win the game?
Amanda: I don’t know, I mean probably not because that would take her away from the party and freedom, you know, to do whatever she wanted-
Michael: And Captain Alex!
Amanda: And Captain Alex, right. Always just gonna hold the flame… a spat of water, as it were.
Brandon: Is that interesting to her, like the idea of winning the game and reigning over a land?
Amanda: I don’t know. I don't think she’s probably thought about it. A) she was drunk when we were introduced to Representative Brink [laughing] and B) You know I think it’s just more of the shock and awe, you know? But I am super curious to learn more about Autumn, I’m curious to learn more about Brinks, and especially the like vast array of like species and ages, you know, and people that are here. I just think it’s going to be really interesting what the competitions will be. I’m prepping for a fight, but maybe it’ll be games, maybe it’ll be, you know, dancing, like who knows?
Brandon: Oh my god. I hope it’s not dancing. [laughing]
Michael: I also hope it’s not dancing.
Amanda: Yeah, no me neither.
Eric: It could be dancing.
Michael: It’s now gonna be dancing.
[all talking at once]
Michael: It’s all gonna be dancing-
Brandon: Yeah because we-
Amanda: Dammit!
Eric: I love that you guys say things like this on tape, so I can go back to it.
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: So, Tracey, we learned something kind of interesting about your backstory, or we learned that we could learn something interesting. How do you feel about the way that your dramatic exit went down?
Brandon: So, as a player, like I love it, like obviously this was really smart. We had a - you guys probably didn’t get to hear it in the edit, but we had a little bit of a prolonged conversation. Fish and I had like- Fish was like really trying to hammer home like, “I’m trying to convince Tracey to stay in this game,” and like as a player I’m like yes, I want to stay in this game, like I’m not trying to go against the story here, but I don’t know if Tracey is bought and sold on this, and I don’t know if even Johnny can convince him on some random dating game.
Michael: Yeah, I mean at least for Johnny’s motivations, he doesn’t want to be here either, but he’s gonna roll with it and he’s gonna try to get his friend to roll with it, and if he cant, you know, he can’t. And apparently now he has clay in his ear?
[all laughing]
Michael: Mud in his ear?
Amanda: The earpiece?
Brandon: I mean, the one thing that Tracey odes not do well is roll with it. [laughing]
Michael: Yeah
Brandon: But I think it was actually a pretty brilliant move to - I don’t know if you had that planned in advance, Eric, but the move to have the producer entice me with something like this- pretty much the only thing I wouldn’t refuse.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Even like the idea of a warforged, another warforged in the area didn’t really convince Tracey all that much, mainly because I think he’s just a pile of mud with some sticks for bones, but I don’t know, we’ll see. It doesn’t even mean that what the producer knows is real, or is true. He could just be lying. I’m excited for it.
Eric: Yeah, there's always like the narrative of the person who doesn’t actually want to be there who then gets put there for some reason or another, and I’m excited to see what happens.
Michael: Yeah, I mean if he’s being basically forced into this- his little act of like, “This isn’t actually me,” is saying, “Beep boop.”
Brandon: Yeah the audience wants to see a robot, so he’s going to give them a robot.
Michael: To me it also actually begs the question is that what’s happening with P0R0? That they’re also beep-booping because they don’t want to be here either, but they’ve been promised a similar thing.
Brandon: It’s possible. It’s also possible they’re mud with sticks in it.
Michael: Or three- or three-
Eric: So everyone is mud?
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: I think so!
Eric: Every- you guys think that everyone is mud?
Michael: There is a- there is an assumption at this table…
[all laughing]
Michael: That most of what's happening isn’t real. I think the idea is that we all just like are like face-down in like a mud puddle as we were trying to get to Alonzo.
Amanda: Shared hallucination is where you’re going. I thought more like this whole house is a giant like pit of quicksand and it’s just sculpted from mud into what it actually appears to be.
Brandon: Yeah, I thought it was like a magic mud type of situation-
Amanda: Right
Brandon: -where these people have like power over mud and they’re just building and animating things out of mud and clay.
Amanda: Yeah, and instead of like a mud puddle appearing to portal you into somewhere else, I thought like- oh, well the floor illusion just stops for a second- it’s mud, you sink, and then it becomes the floor again.
Michael: For sure Johnny wants to figure out what’s going on with the boots.
Amanda: Yeah!
Michael: I think that is absolutely where the Representative is channeling her magic through.
Brandon: Now here’s the problem with Amanda and I’s fan theory…
[Amanda giggling]
Brandon: Is that there’s a hot tub. And they went in the hot tub and they did not melt into…
Amanda: Listen, mud… it can hold water. You can make a little clay cup. You can have a mud puddle, like a mud pothole with water in it, you know?
Brandon: Hmm…
Michael: I think hypothetically if we’re talking about Transmutation and what's actually being manipulated is Earth-
Amanda: Yeah.
Michael: All of these things could be found or be manipulated up to and including the window glass just like very fine, like small specs of glass all put together into that thick construct. I think this could all be inside of a snow globe, but instead of snow, it’s sand, or mud.
[Amanda laughing]
Michael: We’re all inside a mud globe of the Representative.
Amanda: Yup, this year’s hottest Christmas toy, the mud globe.
Brandon: [laughing] Remember when we fell in the mud puddle when we were chasing the Red Throat Gang-
Michael: Wooooooooow…
Brandon: -in the market? Do we think this has all just been a giant mud dream?
Michael: We all got a concussion, even those of us who didn’t actually fall in, which was everyone except for you, because you were the only one who fell in.
[Amanda laughing]
Brandon: So when I said we all fell in, I meant I fell in.
[all laughing]
Michael: But we all got concussed form it, collectively-
Amanda: Yes, yes.
Michael: And we’ve been imagining this in a coma.
Amanda: In our shared consciousness.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Oof, that would be a crowded consciousness, huh?
Eric: I will only come out and say that that theory is the one that’s incorrect.
[all laughing]
Michael: Aw, damn. I thought it was-
Eric: The shared concussion…
Michael: I think the only person we know to be truly, actually, fully real is the human known as Chad.
[all burst out laughing]
Michael: I’ve said it once, I’ve said it again, I will continue saying it. Chad’s my favorite. He is a hoo-man, he is real, everything about him is real, I can shake his hand-
Amanda: He’s so pure. I love him.
Michael: He is the best, like…
Brandon: And everyone knows you can’t change mud into ooze. It’s the only one-
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Michael: Like you just can’t do it.
Brandon: Yeah, it’s like legally not allowed.
Michael: Yep.
Amanda: It’s like sublimation, like to change the states of water.
Brandon: Exactly.
Amanda: Only, you just can’t just- ooze to mud doesn’t work.
Brandon: Yeah, it goes ice to water, ooze to steam. [laughing]
[Michael laughing]
Amanda: Yup. Yup.
Brandon: Uh-huh.
Michael: Chad to human. That’s the-
Amanda: Yeah, and-
Eric: Chad’s a human, guys. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Michael: That’s the-
Eric: Chad’s just here to find love.
Michael: Listen, the spinoff show is Chad trying to find his way out in the world.
Amanda: Chad in Paradise, yeah.
Michael: Chad in Paradise, nice, good. Good. Good. I feel bad that Crews, I think really wants to try, but he is just so bad at this.
Eric: Yeah, I got this from - what was this - Rachel Lindsay’s season of ‘The Bachelorette.’ This guy with “Whaboom”
[Amanda groans]
Eric: He just like kept trying to make “Whaboom” happen and like that’s his thing that he said. So I think people are trying to like be self-serving and go there to be famous and-
Amanda: Build their brand.
Eric: Yeah, get catchphrases. That’s where Crews came from.
Brandon: Hey, where’d you get the names? Are they from patrons?
Eric: They are from patrons! Crews is named after Chandra Crews, Mischa is Mischa Stanton, audio sorcerer. Alice Sunbeam actually comes from Alice, one of our patrons. Representative Brink comes from Sarah Brink.
Brandon: Brinksy! Do you think that’s her actual nickname?
Eric: Brinksy?
Amanda: If it’s not, it should be!
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: Autumn- Autumn also comes from Autumn Bluesky. There are probably other ones, and I’m trying to figure it out, but I am so all over the place. If you think it’s you, it’s probably you.
[all laughing]
Michael: Is it me? Is it all me?! Is it all meeeee?!
Brandon: This is where you get to pick your NPC.
Amanda: Tag yourself.
Brandon: Yeah, tag yourself.
Michael: Listen, guys, legally change your names to fit these NPCs and then you will have been picked.
Amanda: Someone deserves the name Kyle Vacation… and/or Kevin.
Brandon: Please name yourself Chad Hu-man.
Eric: Chad the hu-man.
[Amanda laughing]
Eric: These are like pretty much all the NPCs we’re going to get during this arc, but thank you for lending me your names, and now you are being rendered on a fake Bachelorette fantasy reality show.
Amanda: Also, if anyone wants to draw that hot tub scene, I mean I’m gonna retweet it.
Eric: Yeah. If anyone wants to draw what Kevin Vacation looks like falling into the pool, I would love that very, very much.
Michael: He’s an avariel, right?
Eric: Yeah, I don’t know if I have the manual that says that. There’s a very rare type of elf that has wings.
Michael: They were mostly killed by dragons.
Eric: Yes.
Michael: And those that are left are either peaceful or very warlike.
Amanda: Ooh!
Michael: And they are just elves with wings called avariel.
Eric: There you go!
Michael: There was a moment where I thought that it was just a dude wearing like fake wings.
[Amanda chuckling]
Eric: We got some questions from Twitter and from our Discord that we would love to answer for you right now.
Amanda: From Candice, what tattoos would your character get? Mine would definitely get a dagger on her forearm. Brandon, you have tattoos already.
Brandon: I am covered in quasi-tattoos. They’re carvings.
Amanda: Markings, yeah.
Brandon: But I think he’d probably just get like a cool little flower. [laughing] In the corner.
Amanda: Aww, adorable!
Brandon: He’d add to it.
Eric: I like that Inara got a dagger on her arm, which is like the equivalent of all the chefs get a knife on their arm.
Amanda: Oh, 100%, yeah.
[Eric laughing]
Amanda: I would. I would. How about Fish? How about you. How about Johnny?
Michael: I think Johnny actually has his entire body just like a very intricate tattoo of the Light and Dark balance and it’s the Light-
Amanda: A back piece?
Michael: And it’s like a back and body and all throughout but no one can see it because he has it completely covered so no one can tell.
Eric: You’re like just the coolest youth minister.
Michael: Yeah!
[Eric and Brandon laughing]
Amanda: When in his life did he do that?
[Eric and Brandon continue cracking up]
Amanda: Guys, I’m having a moment here! Come on!
Brandon: I just imagined you with your fucking ukulele like singing a song-
[all laughing]
Amanda: About Jesus!
Brandon: [singing] Goddddddd is greeaaaat! Don’t get tattoos unless people can’t see them! Because professionality’s importaaaaaant!
Michael: Well, no there’s magic in this world. They can be covered.
Amanda: I have a question also from Lucille. What’s up Lucille? What custom emojis would the characters add to the Discord? I mean the answer is bagels and Oatcake,= so I don’t know if there’s anything else necessary ever in the world.
Michael: I tried adding like a finger guns thing, but there’s nothing like very good that displays finger guns.
Amanda: Glitter! Like a glittery gif emoji.
Michael: Yeah.
Brandon: We don’t have a big axe do we? We should get a big axe.
Amanda: I don’t think so. There’s like a crossed swords one.
Brandon: Eh, it’s not quite the same. Ooh! A pocket watch!
Michael: Yeaaaaah!
Amanda: That’d be cool!
Brandon: Do we- wait, do we… we don’t have that.
Michael: No.
Amanda: Briefcase with a little tail coming out the end?
Brandon: [gasps] Yessss!
Amanda: That’d be cute.
Brandon: Chess- chess pieces would be good.
Eric: There’s literally an emoji of me in our Discord-
Amanda: There is. There is.
Eric: So I’m good. I’m set.
Amanda: We need a Stoneface emoji.
Eric: Well, I don’t even know what that looks like.
Amanda: Little gargoyle friend! Peekin’ on your messages!
Brandon: Yeah like the cartoon gargoyles- do you remember?
Eric: Brandon, I told you that’s what I based Stoneface on. [laughing] Yes! I do!
Brandon: Do you remember ‘Street Sharks’ though?
Eric: I do, unfortunately.
Brandon: Can we have a shark NPC at some point?
Eric: Sure.
Michael: Can we get ‘Biker Mice from Mars’?
Eric: I don’t know what that is.
Amanda: Can we get that shark fighting a Ninja Turtle?
Eric: Sure. I gotta work on a new campaign. [chuckling]
Amanda: Can you put the full cast of ‘The L Word’ into this campaign?
Eric: I al- I’m pretty close!
Amanda: [laughing] That’s true. That’s true. Question from Rudy via the Discord: If we the players could cast the Wish spell in real life one time, what would you use it for? Is that just like a wish? Like genie-style a wish?
Brandon: I think so, yeah, right?
Eric: It’s kinda monkey paw-esque, like very sort of literal, in that fantasy genie sort of way. You take everything you say very literally.
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: So I’m on the great D&D Beyond. “Wish is the mightiest spell a mortal creature can cast. By simply speaking aloud, you can alter the very foundations of reality in accord with your desires. The basic use of the spell is to duplicate any other spell of 8th level or lower” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, there’s a lot of rules for wishing, huh?
[Amanda laughing]
Brandon: I’m just gonna say that it’s wish. It’s a genie wish. Make a wish.
Amanda: I don’t know, my first thought was some kind of unending sack bag, but I don’t wanna-
Brandon: For your human’s- your human-
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: Amanda human?
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: That’s good. I like that.
Amanda: But I’m trying to- I also want like unlimited money. Like that would be nice.
Eric: But like that’s the thing, though is I think if you make it like magical but small then the monkey paw can’t get you back.
Amanda: Some kind of Bag of Holding would be nice, like either a bag that’s big enough to fit all my stuff or a bag that like provides what I need in that moment.
Eric: Ah, but then you’d have to be like, “I hope it holds all my stuff and I can carry it and it’s not gonna like hurt me.”
Amanda: Alright, well, seems like the first instinct was the right one. How about you guys?
Brandon: I wish I would never be tired. Like it’s not that I don’t want to sleep. I also want to be able to sleep, but if I had the inkling of like, “Man, I have this deadline,” or “Man I just wanna make- I just wanna stay up and like bake cookies,” I wanna be able to stay up and not have to sleep.
Amanda: Sleep optional.
Brandon: Yeah, so I get extra hours in the day if I want, so it’s not like a super-
Eric: Ah, but then it’s not that- you just don’t want to feel tired, though, but the effects of not sleeping still affect you then.
Brandon: Well, no. I don’t want that. That’d be bad.
Eric: See, I’m-
Amanda: Thanks, Eric!
Eric: I’m your monkey paw expert.
[Amanda chuckles]
Brandon: I don’t like Eric playing this game with us.
Eric: I’m dramatic irony man. Like I’m the audience that tells you, “Hey! Don’t go in there!” It’s like in a horror movie you wanna like keep people from doing the dumb stuff in a horror movie-
Amanda: Yeaaaaah.
Eric: Like I’m the audience.
Michael: I want all of my rolls to be 20.
Eric: Very good!
Brandon: That’s doable.
Michael: On d20s. On d20s.
Eric: Oh, but then-
Brandon: But then you lose all your dice!
Eric: Yeah, but then you can’t eat bread anymore!
[all laughing]
Michael: I mean, I don’t know how that’s ironic. I mean maybe I’ll lose some weight so that’ll be good.
Eric: [in deep voice] I’m carb-free and I only crit!
Brandon: Every time you roll a 20, you have to eat the dice. That’s the monkey paw.
Michael: [scoffs] Easy!
Amanda: Bring it!
Michael: Done!
Eric: All of your rolls become rolls.
[all burst out laughing]
Michael: Yum! Delicious!
Amanda: Little tiny cinnamon rolls!
Brandon: These are all great!
Amanda: These are all great! What if it were like-
Michael: Ooh, I prefer savory.
Amanda: Like- oh, I see.
Eric: I wish that I could teleport from one place to another, but I still have the ability to be driven through traditional means.
Amanda: That shouldn’t take away from it.
Eric: Well it’s like, you know, remember in ‘Click’ the amazing movie with Adam Sandler?
Amanda: Never seen it.
Michael: No.
Brandon: Yes! I do, I’ve seen it!
Eric: Yeah, it’s really sad. It’s super sad. Basically he has like a magical remote which he gets in a Bed Bath & Beyond because that’s where the Beyond is. Really good joke buried in-
Amanda: Is that where that joke came from?!
Eric: Yeah, the Beyond!
Brandon: That’s where the idea for the entire fucking movie came from! He was like, “What would the Beyond be in Bed Bath & Beyond?” and he’s like, “I don’t know, a time travel remote?” Boom, movie.
Michael: So was this supposed to be like a series of all the different items, like monkey paw items that you could get and then-
Eric: Yeah, there’s a bunch of stuff and then Christopher Walken plays like a guy who works at Bed Bath & Beyond who’s like the wizard.
Amanda: Oh my god.
Brandon: “Plays” is loose. He probably actually-
Eric: [imitating Christopher Walken] Hey! These coupons don’t expire!
Michael: That was by far the worst Christopher Walken ever.
[Amanda laughing]
Brandon: Was that Stoneface doing a Christopher Walken impression?
Eric: It was. It was. And you get like a remote where you can fast forward through like boring stuff. And so Adam Sandler would fast forward through his commute because like he didn’t want to like alter the actual thing that he was doing, but he wanted to just like speed it up.
Amanda: Sure.
Eric: But then like it’s like smart-learning, so it would then like auto fast forward, so then like he kept like losing big chunks of time because like he didn’t appreciate his family, so he would just like fast forward through like playing with his kids because it was boring-
Amanda: Oh no!
Eric: And then like he loses like five years. Anyway, so like I wouldn’t want to like fast forward through like road trips or like really meaningful- because I love road trips, and like travel with other people and you’re like doing stuff together. But I just- sometimes I just want to go from Queens home very quickly. [laughing]
Michael: Not gonna lie, Eric, when you were describing the movie, I blacked out because I was just so uninterested in the movie-
[all laughing]
Eric: You fast forwarded through!
Brandon: You fast forwarded, yeah!
Michael: I- I fast forwarded.
Amanda: His movie career is like movies that are covertly sad into movies that are overtly sad.
Eric: Yeah, seriously!
Brandon: Well this is- this is seriously what my theory is. He comes up with a joke for his stand-up specials and then is like, “Hmm, that might be a film!” And that’s all of his films!
Eric: They’re all super sad though. I mean like ‘Happy Gilmore’ is about like a guy who failed at being a hockey player and then like was able to pivot-
Brandon: Yeah! That’s the joke is he’s like, “What’s a failed hockey player? A golfer! Ha ha!” And that’s a movie!!
[Amanda laughing]
Eric: What if the little brother of the devil was a nutcase?! And that’s ‘Little Nicky.’
Brandon: Yeah!
Amanda: Yikes.
Eric: ‘Mr. Deeds’ is a remake though, right?
Michael: Yeah.
Amanda: Guys, we could be doing so much with our brains that isn’t remembering Adam Sandler movies.
Michael: I’m like upset that we’re talking about this.
Amanda: I know!
Michael: That’s why- [laughing]
Eric: ‘Mr. Deeds’ is a good movie, though.
Michael: Isn’t there one where he's like supposed to be Superman or something? Like plays a- it’s all an allegory of being like Superman but he fails?
Eric: Ah, ‘Spanglish.’
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: This is literally true. The only Adam Sandler movie that I know about is ‘50 First Dates.’
Eric: Also that movie’s super sad because Drew Barrymore had head trauma!!
Brandon: Yeah, no they’re all sad. That’s how he gets awards.
Michael: [muttering to self] Oh, god.
Eric: I don’t think Adam Sandler has ever gotten awards.
Michael: He’s gotten awards.
Brandon: He’s gotten lots of awards.
Eric: Like what?!
Brandon: Good acting awards. Good movie awards?
[everyone groaning and talking at once]
Amanda: Ahh!
Michael: Good acting awards?
Amanda: Good acting awards! My favorite one!
Michael: I love the red carpet event on that, it’s so good!
Amanda: The GAS.
Eric: I almost put in IMDb “good acting awards.”
[all laughing]
Brandon: I’m also confusing him slightly with- who’s the other jokester that turned sad?
Eric: The jokester? [laughing]
Michael: Kevin James? Nope that’s just everything he does-
Amanda: Will Ferrell.
Eric: His life is sad.
Michael: Yeah.
Eric: Alright, Adam Sandler got nominated for one Golden Globe. That’s it.
Brandon: Yeah, the good acting award. I was thinking of the other guy. Jim Carrey.
Michael: ‘Eternal Sunshine of the-
Brandon: Spotless Mind, yeah.
Eric: That movie’s great.
Amanda: Listen, buddy, I have a monopoly on adorable pop culture gaps so step off!
[Brandon laughing]
Brandon: Mine’s more of a memory thing, so…
Eric: Our last question is from Pat in our Discord. Welcome, Pat. Pat wrote this amazing song that hurt my heart about Greg and Alonzo. We’ll have it on the Twitter.
Brandon: It’s very good.
Eric: Go find it. Please. It hurts.
Amanda: Ugh, so good. And we’re on Archive of Our Own now, which means we are a real fandom, and that makes me so, so, so proud, so please sign up ArchiveOfOurOwn.org. That’s the only place you should be consuming your fanfics, and write us some little travels. We love it!
Eric: So this is from Pat. Were Representative Shields and Jamie initially gonna be nonbinary, agender, or something like that? Because I noticed that before we met them “personally”- with quotes - Eric consistently used they/them pronouns. I haven’t listened back to make sure, but I remember my excitement about it.
Yes! I really wanted to do that with those two. I made it really clear that Valentine was they/them. For Representative Shields I definitely wanted to be they/them, and for Jamie, when he-Jamie was just like a monster, I wanted to keep them they/them and then like when we realized he was somebody’s boyfriend, I firmly made them ‘he.’ Man, I really tried to do these things and Representative Shields was supposed to be nonbinary, and just like I lost it. It’s really hard keeping some of this stuff together in my head, but at the same time, I just need to do better. I want this, and I can bring it in with my characters, and like if I’m gonna make intentional choices, saying it out loud is like the entire point. So, the answer is yes and I need to do better. I don’t know. I just- ugh. It bothered me.
Michael: You are trying to keep track of like a thousand different things in your head, and that’s not to say that that’s not an important choice and that it doesn’t deserve to be there, but you know, the intention I think and the 90% of the time that you’re saying it the way that you intend, you know, it’s important. And I know that as players we do a good job of, you know, when we can and when we also realize it’s happening, we call you out on it, and you know, we do our best as well to refer to people as “they,” at least these characters, how they prefer to be gendered.
Amanda: Non-binary people can also use “he” and “they,” or “she” and “they,” or “ze” and “she,” and like I mean people can use the pronouns that they feel fit them the best, and that might be “he,” “she,” or “they.” So Representative Shields can still be non-binary, agender, gender fluid, however they identify and kind of either be fluid between pronouns or feel that multiple pronouns fit them. So, whatever you think your headcanon is, that is true for you, and that absolutely suits you.
I do also appreciate that we don’t assume the gender of characters that we meet before we meet them. So that’s I think a good practice to get into in your daily life. “They” is never gonna be wrong for a new person that you’re meeting, so it’s a good thing to assume. It’s also helpful if somebody is changing their pronouns or you’re not sure and want to learn what is correct, every time you write the character’s name to put the pronouns next to the character in parentheses. It can be a really helpful way to kind of train your brain to remember something and to learn a pathway that you know you want to learn but is new to you.
Eric: Yeah, that’s a good idea. I think that like with the kenku, they already like stand out so much in my mind that I’m like, “Oh. Kenku. They/Them.” We only had one, which was Valentine, so that was kind of easier, but we have so- we have multiple Representatives and it just kind of slipped my mind. Yeah I know it’s just like as the narrator, I feel a responsibility to do it, and it bothers me just as much. The fact that y’all notice is important, but if I don’t follow through then it’s like-
Amanda: We wanna actually walk the walk.
Eric: I’m glad that I tried- it’s like good job that you tried, but you gotta- this person is this person, so I just wanna like bring it all the way in, and I’m gonna try to be more cognizant of it in the future.
Amanda: Thank you for your question.
Eric: I think we’ve gotten a lot of really good criticism, especially TAZ listeners who have like bounced a lot of stuff off ‘The Adventure Zone’ and really thought smartly of it. Like I think about this stuff a lot, and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out and hit me up. I hear you and I’m really excited to explore a lot of this stuff that make our- that make this world. And how the Concentric States work together.
Amanda: Well, thank you again to all of you who submitted questions for this After Party- you can do so on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Tumblr. We’re @JoinThePartyPod in all the places. You can email us if you want hello@jointhepartypod.com questions either for this or for Master Dungeon Master on our episodes. You can join our Patreon! Keep the party going all the time by participating in our patron-only Discord, which is just like the purest, finest place on the internet. And until then, we will see you guys in two weeks with a new episode.
Brandon: Goodbye!
Eric: See ya later.
Michael: Undying Light be with you.