Does Orello know what’s coming to him by playing both sides? Who claimed Dr. Radish Radish first as a character for Model Our Nations? And what did we learn about the PCs from them thinking about themselves before becoming a pirate? All that and more on this Afterparty!
Sponsors
- Volante Design, makers of some of the most badass clothing there is. Get 10% off your order with code jointheparty at https://volantedesign.us
- Shaker & Spoon, where you can $20 off your first box at shakerandspoon.com/jointheparty
Find Us Online
- website: https://jointhepartypod.com
- patreon: https://patreon.com/jointhepartypod
- instagram: https://instagram.com/jointhepartypod
- twitter: https://twitter.com/jointhepartypod
- tumblr: https://jointhepartypod.tumblr.com
- facebook: https://facebook.com/jointhepartypod
- merch & music: http://jointhepartypod.com/merch
Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Umbi), Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Chamomile Cassis), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host (Troy Riptide), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Theme Song: Lyrics by Eric Silver, music by Brandon Grugle. Vocals by Brandon Grugle, Lauren Shippen, Julia Schifini, Roux Bedrosian, Eric Silver, Tyler Silver, and Amanda McLoughlin. Available for purchase here.
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: https://multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators who make each other laugh each week. We welcome everyone to the table, from longtime players to folks who’ve never touched a roleplaying game before. Hop into our current campaign, a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, or marathon our completed stories with the Camp-Paign, a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to the Afterparty, where we've got the past, we've got the present in a different setting. We've got a Skill Tree out of place. Folks, welcome to an unusually good Afterparty.
Julia: Woo.
Brandon: Well done. I feel like I just, like, watched the fucking pro tennis player win the Wimbledon.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Thank you, Brandon. I've done several 100 of these. Now, I should hope that I'm okay.
Julia: It— no, it was good. Off the cuff, off the dome. Great.
Eric: I need to see you do more moderating panels of high drama guests. I think that's really where this has led you. Like, I need you to hold a bunch of tech entrepreneurs to task.
Amanda: Thank you.
Eric: By pointing out that they're not answering the question that was posed.
Julia: I think Amanda should be the next Andy Cohen, and that's my hot take.
Eric: That's pretty good.
Amanda: Julia, I think it's time for six gay men to make room for queer women, and I— I think it's— I think it would just be the right thing to do for him to hand over all of these moderations and Afterparties to me.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Makes sense. Checks out.
Brandon: I don't know what Andy Cohen does, but I agree.
Eric: "Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to Real Housewives of New York. I'm Amanda."
Amanda: And let's start with you, Laura from below deck. Do you take your job seriously or are you here for television? Because I— I have lots of questions.
Julia: The answer is always they're here for television, let's be honest.
Amanda: That's fair. That's fair.
Eric: Amanda needs to ask if they're here for the right reasons. It's really important that she asks each of them—
Amanda: Thank you.
Eric: —individually.
Julia: Oh, Amanda, if you were the, like, afterparty host for The Bachelor franchise, that would make me so happy.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Jesse Palmer, get out of the way. Amanda McLaughlin, bisexual woman, needs to talk to all of these bachelor or bachelorette, because that's what—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: I will just say on the other end of the spectrum, not that I really believe in, like, high culture and low culture, but I do keep my calendar free for Davos every year. So if they ever need someone to just get flown right in, someone who speaks a language of financial crimes/innovation, and who will give a little wink and a nod to the audience, I'm around. But folks, let's dwell down, let's drill down on what it is that we're here to talk about. And it's, of course— first up, the Skill Tree Five: A Skill Tree Away from Home. I want to start with— Eric, how did you think about giving us a Skill Tree when we were not back at the hold? And did it feel like a tension at all or a thing needed to solve without kind of resetting our journey back to home base?
Eric: Yeah. All three of these episodes felt like I was figuring out what we were supposed to do next. I feel like we're— I don't know what the numbers are going to bear out here, but emotionally, it felt like this was like two-thirds, three-quarters of the way through this campaign. Again, don't hold me to those numbers, but that's how it feels in my vibes. So I'm like we— there's some stuff that needs to be resolved here to figure out what happens next, especially because I wanted Lustrious to do the JRPG pointing you in different directions for where— what path you're going to take next. But I'm like, okay, I'm not going to send them back to the hold, that doesn't make any sense narratively. So it's like use of extra stuff if you want to bring someone with you, but other than that, it's like— it is what it is. Because I feel like you could still, you know, improve the ship if you wanted to, even if you couldn't go monster wrangling.
Julia: Right.
Eric: So— so that's how I felt about the Skill Tree, and then the other episodes kind of flowed from there. It's like, I really want to do the Diamond Knot, I've been kicking this around for all this year, I think. It's probably an Afterparty where I said it somewhere. We can look in the transcripts and see where I suggested it at some point in one of the other Afterparties.
Brandon: Definitely did, yeah.
Eric: And then, of course, Legend of the Past. I'm like, "Alright, we've done two of these, let's do one more.|
Amanda: We have so much to talk about, and so many really, really good plot questions coming from these episodes that, I think, on another podcast and under, not the best DM in podcasting, would have felt like a diversion, instead, this was like precious world-building. But first in the Skill Tree, we still had a lot happened. We found the key that still hurts, we bought it from Orello. And Brandon, I do just want to go ahead and acknowledge, and hold space for the fact that for the fifth time you were prevented from spending all of our Amber on dig and roll.
Julia: I have a follow-up question in regards to that, which is if we had used to dig and roll, would you have used the same table as the one for the hold, or did you come up with a new table for things that could have been found in the dissolving belt?
Brandon: Eric, before you answer Julia, I do just need to have a little quick— a little moment of silence for my ambitions just put—
Amanda: Hmm.
Julia: Here lies Brandon's ambition.
Eric: He never gets to do anything ever.
Brandon: It's really youngest sibling energy.
Amanda: But we never go to Friendly's? Yeah.
Eric: What do you mean? We went to Friendly's last weekend. What do you mean?
Amanda: But now— well, I want it right now.
Eric: You got two Fribbles, you got one for now and later.
Amanda: But no, Brandon, one day, I— I vow, I vow— I, Troy, vow to my subcaptain Umbi that we will one day steal enough Amber from dead bodies that we can fill out the entire dig and roll table.
Brandon: This is unrelated, but I am editing the next episode and you made me think of it because you—the subcaptain thing you just said. There's a part in the next episode where I was editing where I—someone was talking— me— probably me, and I didn't hear you in the moment.
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Brandon: And I agreed with you. And then in the edit, I realized that you called yourself Captain Troy and I was like, "Fuck!"
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda: Haunting you and post, that's the Amanda McLoughlin promise.
Julia: Just remember, captain is French for best friend.
Amanda: It is. Alright, Eric, so how would it have worked if we wanted to spend that extra Amber to import one of our choices to us?
Eric: Yeah, I mean, I felt it was more of the thought that like if you want a Gloria show up or you wanted someone else from the hold to show up, that would've worked over there. If you have done dig and roll, I think I would have figured it out. I don't know. I don't know how it would've shaken out.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: We didn't do it, so who can say? I think I would have made sure you could have gotten something. Maybe you would have been a little bit different, I don't know. It's one of those things where it's like I'll figure— a lot of figuring stuff out on the fly there.
Brandon: Maybe it would have been like a underwater shipwreck that we, you know, dug and swam, and rolled into. I don't know. Who can say?
Eric: And maybe Umbi would have, like, fell into the water and then, like, slowly dissolved over time. It would have been great.
Julia: Huh.
Amanda: Sure.
Eric: Who knows?
Amanda: Maybe he would have gotten pickled and live forever. Have we considered that?
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Amanda. Amanda.
Eric: No, I didn't consider that.
Julia: Have we considered pickling Umbi?
Brandon: Amanda.
Amanda: Have we considered a 10% saline solution pickle?
Brandon: Where all food and vegetable— this would work.
Amanda: Right?
Eric: Elon Musk, have you considered a pickling solution?
Amanda: Peter Thiel, stop injecting the blood of young men into your own blood and instead, try vinegar. Just try it and get back to me.
Julia: Is there a branch of necromancy in Verda Stello that are just picklers?
Eric: Oh, I'm sure. Yeah.
Amanda: Ooh. I bet there is.
Brandon: And they are also pickles. Yeah.
Julia: Hmm. Yeah.
Amanda: Incredible.
Julia: You are what you—
Brandon: Pickle.
Julia: —pickle.
Eric: I'm a little mad I didn't make the zombies pickles now, but— you know?
Amanda: It would have been a little on the nose, a little on the nose.
Julia: No, in my mind, zombies as like rotting, mulching things that makes sense.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: Vampires are pickled.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: Ooh.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: For sure. For sure. Displacing their—their blood, yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: We also had a lot of tender moments with Lustrious Recompense in this episode. I felt so badly for him the way the episode opened. I was like, "Oh, no." In my feelings about the most fabulous, incredible NPC we've ever had. Players, I had to field interact with Lustrious in the set.
Julia: Orello's right there, Amanda. Why would you say that?
Amanda: Nick put them together, make them kiss.
Julia: That's what we're trying to do.
Amanda: That's what I was trying to do.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: We're on opposite sides of the bell curve of strange NPCs.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: My reaction is yeah.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda: Checks out for him.
Brandon: Lustrious is an odd fellow that I enjoy interacting with. I do not want to spend any more time than I have to with Lustrious, though.
Amanda: Yeah,
Eric: Fair.
Amanda: Troy was very serious about inviting him onto the crew, and you guys shut that shit down real quick.
Julia: Yes. Yes, we did. Yes, we did.
Amanda: I have a question from Shelby here. Actually, Eric, so you mentioned the kind of mechanic you need for the Skill Tree of kind of, like, resolving our business and then going to the checkpoint or the menu point of Lustrious to move to our next challenge. And so Shelby said, "Referring to Lustrious' quest options. Since the campaign is taking place in a JRPG setting, are the choices going to follow those rules, i.e. the choices will exist in this exact form like no time has passed after the team does their Kid Cervantes quest?
Eric: No. It was more like that thing when you get to the end of a video game, and it's like, "Hey, the saving point— the final saving point of this open world game is here. After that, things will change, so you better figure all your stuff out before you do this. But I did want it to be up to all of you— what you wanted to do next. Like, obviously, Kid Cervantes was pretty tempting and that's what he ended up doing. But, you know, there was plenty of other stuff to do, or pursue if you wanted to do something off the wall, something I didn't even think of. So it was more like that. I think it's really funny and interesting now that, like, so many games are like more open world, or at least have the option of you, like, 100 percenting it or going back and digging into worlds that you've already been to. And I think that I wanted to give you the same sort of latitude to take care of everything you wanted to. Here— because it was a Skill Tree episode, and a Skill Tree—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —episode feels like pause.
Amanda: A little out of time like—
Eric: Yeah. So I was more leaning into that. But I appreciate that people know my references and are— and are talking to me about it. That's fine by me.
Brandon: So what I'm hearing is that, players— Eric, don't listen to this. Players, if we screw up and make a mistake or all— you know, have a TKO and just all die, we can just go back to the safe point, and we can restart at that point and then go forward. And Julia's—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: No, this is not a Soulslike, we can't do that.
Brandon: No?
Julia: We can't do that.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: Brandon, you can't save scum your way through this Dungeons and Dragons campaign, I'm sorry.
Brandon: But, Eric, have we tried?
Eric: But have I asked—
Amanda: Have we considered?
Eric: Have I— send Eric $5 on Venmo and see what happens.
Amanda: I mean, Orello has certainly screwed us over before, but good God, am I glad we decided to take that deal and go ahead and actually, buy the trunk. Was anyone here expecting a whole-ass key to be in there?
Julia: Absolutely not.
Brandon: I— yeah, I don't know— I can't remember what I was trying to think. Like, obviously, it was something important.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I doubt it was the key but, like, I don't know. I wasn't surprised at that point that there was something like, you know, major in that thing, just by the way that Orello was acting. Yeah, but—
Amanda: I was shocked. I thought it would be like plans, blueprints, a— a clue, a map, correspondence between people that matter. Maybe more of those spores, which could have been a fun weapon to have against Radbert, that motherfucker. But instead, we have the key that still hurts. Honestly, I was hoping we get a chance to go back to that Venus Flytrap cave—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —ourselves, so you know, I was—I was like 5% bummed, but 95% elated that we're up to two keys.
Julia: Yeah, it was wild to me that he just, like, found it on the beach. I was—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: —like what? How? Where'd that come from?
Brandon: I don't know why you want to go back to the— the cave that eat you, Amanda, but sure.
Amanda: It was so fun.
Julia: Yeah, it was fun.
Eric: The place where Amanda almost died—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: The most Amanda's character has almost died. Even compared to Campaign Two, Amanda almost died the most at the Venus Flytrap cave.
Amanda: It was so much fun.
Eric: Here's a question, how do you tell people— as someone who's not trustworthy? How do you tell people that the government is watching you? How do you do that? I'm not sure if there's a way to do it other than saying, "It's happening, they're watching me. Please help me." And then see what happens. I guess that's the only thing you can do.
Julia: Yeah, and then you seem like a conspiracy theorist.
Eric: Yeah, exactly. There's no way to— there's no good way to say, "I know for a fact the government's watching."
Brandon: Maybe you should re-examine your life choices, Orello.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I know. See, I've ruined Brandon to so much that there's absolutely no way Brandon would ever take any present from NPC, because he thinks it will blow up in his face like a pen. Or like a ca—
Julia: Fair.
Eric: Or like a— like a chip— like a chip can that's filled with snakes. Brandon has been playing with me for too long.
Amanda: Orello did literally sell a weapon to our deepest enemy that came very close to killing Umbi, so—
Brandon: Yeah. And you did— I mean, like this wasn't a gift, but you know, you did kill Cammie's best friend with a regular-ass trap— ball trap.
Julia: Yep. It did happen.
Amanda: That happened. That happened.
Brandon: Anything could happen these days, Eric.
Eric: The dice did that. Smelly Haze stepped on a low roll and then fell down the stairs, I don't know what to tell you.
Amanda: You know, we— we really— we— we think a lot about the destruction of the— the stadium, but we don't think enough about Smelly Haze full-time.
Julia: Yeah. Apparently, war criminals, Smelly Haze, but we'll get to that.
Amanda: We will, we will.
Brandon: Smelly Haze is in my thoughts every time I— I start a new session, Amanda.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Fair.
Eric: Same. I want to say same. And I finally got a chance to— to give that out. But no, I mean, like the thing I was trying to get across during this campaign was like Orello— and— and this happens a lot. Orello has no allegiance to anyone. Orello sells to the highest bidder and is a fun, goofy person, but, like— and that's how— that's how he functions, right? Like, he can't— he's a— he's a merchant. He can't favor one person or another, or he wants everyone to think that they're favored, right? So it's like he is friendly with you, but is that going to stymie his other relationships with other people? No, he's gonna be— he's gonna sell stuff to you, and he's gonna sell stuff to the Diamond Knot at the same time. So the fact that you guys bought the key from him was like, "Oh, I had to sell this. I can't give it to you, but if you give it— if you sell it to me before I'm supposed to drop it off with the Diamond Knot, what am I supposed to do?" Who knows? Who can say?
Julia: Orello name-dropping the Better Business Bureau was the funniest part about that conversation.
Amanda: I thought having an insurance agent in this campaign was the— was the funniest and most mundane capitalistic reference, but no. Eric, I thought Lustrious is a really, like, beautiful and personable way to kind of drive home the point, and under capitalism, there are no true kind of like, you know, neutral power relationships and— and choice, so well done there.
Eric: Yeah, I mean, it's— I'm always trying to do this a little bit more nuanced. You know, capitalism has been used as the big bad in Dungeons and Dragons games since Brennan Lee Mulligan made it hot shit. And like, you know, you've seen people do it well, you've seen people do it poorly. You've seen people do it pretty mid and just do it because it's the enemy du jour of our current landscape at the moment. So it's like— you know, it's— this is a fantasy story, so everything is a little bit metaphor. But it's more about like pow— it's— it's that mixed with power, can people do things if— if they don't participate? I think the whole thing about Lustrious is that he thought he opted out of the whole rat race, because— and now, that's why he's doing this meeting in the first place. So he's like— he's asking people who are actually doing this shit in the first place these really poignant questions, and who— he's just this guy who's just— I— he did his time, and now he's out. Like, what is someone like Lustrious' role in making the world better? Does he have a role? Can he contribute in any sort of way? He certainly thinks he does. But I don't know. It's— I think it's a little bit more complicated, but I think it's always interesting when someone random, like someone you don't expect, ask central characters personal questions, which is— there's a real tie between that and Legends of the Past II.
Amanda: Absolutely. Now, we have so many excellent questions about Modeling our Nations and the Diamond Knot, so let's get into it, and then we'll get back to things with Legends of the Past at the end of this Afterparty. So Eric, take us through, how did this generate from my perspective? You said, "Hon, I'm going on a walk." And then an hour later, gave me a call and said, "I wrote an RPG." What happened here? What happened here? And when can people buy it Eric? That's what everyone's asking.
Eric: I am working on it. The— it is all written. We— it's going to be formatted and laid out, so sooner rather than later. You can buy it, we're going to clip this. It's going to be great. I— I want folks to be able to pick it up because they think it's a really good game, and I'm going to put it on, you know, the Join the Party merch store. And hopefully push it out to Itch and all the other places where people can buy stuff. I've been kicking this idea around in my head for a while. You know, there are so many scenes where this kind of stuff pops up, I think, where like, outside of the protagonists, the government goes and has a meeting somewhere. There's— there's one particular episode of One Piece that I'm thinking about, where the World Government meets up, and then the— the greatest swordsman of all time just shows up there and, like, kind of crashes the party, which I really like. But I've been told that in other animes, this happens. This is also relevant to, you know, the stuff that happened in the first Black Panther movie. Like, when Black Panther is, like, talking to the leaders of all the different tribes. It's all— and then, of course, then they wrestle on the— on the waterfall, I just thought was tight as hell. So there's a lot of different times this happening. Also, I am a Model UN kid. I love Model UN. I loved Model UN. The thing that you might not know about Model UN is that you can sign up for different like— it's not just like everyone talks generally, and everyone has every single country. You can sign up for very specific panels. And one time, I signed up for a panel where it was the Cold War, and it was the Soviet Union versus the United States, and I was on the Soviet Union side, and it was so specific and cool. I think I— I commissioned propaganda comic to— to go out at some point.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Eric: It's just like— it— it's so much fun, and it really ties hand in hand with the collaborative world-building of, like, either making a world from scratch or inserting this into your campaign to flesh something out. It just kind of was swirling around in my head, and then I just kind of put it together as like, "Oh, they should have moves, Power by the Apocalypse style moves. Let's make it winnable. Let's put some points on the board," which is something I thought would be motivating to kind of make this stand alone. And I went for a walk and I wrote it all— I sat down on a bench in McCarren Park and kind of wrote it all down, and then— then there it was. I mean, it's been gestating in my head, I feel, like for a while, so—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: —I'm very excited that— that it's going to be coming out and that we were able to run it in a— nearly a finished form on the show.
Brandon: Is— for— for young, poor, little Southerners like me, can you— we— we definitely have like model government things, but I imagine Model UN might be something kind of specific. What do you do when you sit down at a Model UN?
Eric: Brandon, whatever you— you didn't have the same experience I did in high school. It's like you draw the Mason- Dixon Line between the two of us. You're like— you're like, "Boathouses, that's for JFK and Yankees. I don't know what you're talking about."
Amanda: I mean, they are.
Brandon: Yeah. Tell me I'm wrong, Eric.
Eric: I know, but I thought Model UN was a— was a— was a national thing. I thought it was definitely in Texas.
Brandon: We have, like, debate club and— may— maybe it's just my school that didn't have it, I don't know. But—
Julia: I think that's probably the case, Brandon.
Eric: It's an extension of— I think in certain places have debates— speech and debate. We didn't do like the rea— you know, I've seen documentaries of, like, the big speech and debate tournaments that people go to, so we— we did this instead. They still had like meetups, though. Like, you— you went and you prepared to do, like, an action. It's almost like you guys talked about like, "Oh, you needed all this stuff about international intere— geo— geopolitics, I think, and social— social politics, all in kind of interacted and you were like, "You know, the history teacher was our advisor." So we were talking about this and we— we mocked some stuff. And then you go to this convention, I remember I went to BosMUN, which was Boston Model UN. And that's where I did the— the Soviet Union one. And then the you did—
Amanda: I was like, "What country is that?"
Eric: And then that's when we— you spend like a few months preparing for the thing you're going to do at the convention.
Amanda: So Brandon, you embody a country, which leads to very entertaining things. Like my friend is saying, "I'm Antigua." And then you— you represent your country in a debate that Eric— like Eric said, you planned for, arguing for like a policy change as if you're in the United Nations, but you're a bunch of 16-year-olds.
Julia: Right.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Got it, got it, got it.
Eric: And you got to kind of like learn how to tie a tie and stuff.
Julia: It's very important to tie tying.
Eric: It is. That's why I know how to tie a tie. It's because I had to tie like 10 in a row for various— I mean, various times by myself at BosMUN.
Amanda: Incredible. I— I love BosMUN, fictional country in the Middle East, where spice comes from in Dune.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Brandon, Julia, how was playing, preparing for— let's say, first, how was the idea of Modeling our Nations? How'd you feel about doing this episode?
Julia: I always feel like I'm really bad at debate and stuff like that, so I was trying so hard to really embody my character and sound as confident as possible in making my arguments. And I think, like, part of that came across in— in the final episode that came out. But I was also like, I could tell when I was wavering, and not like speaking the way that I wanted to get my point across. So I was particularly self-conscious about this episode.
Amanda: I think you did a really good job, and your character's perspective was so clear to me.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Yeah. Politely, you're wrong.
Julia: Oh, okay.
Brandon: No, you always come across as— as so confident, and I think your points are always well— well-spoken and understood, so props to you for overcoming that— that subconsciousness that you feel.
Julia: I think I was just like— I was playing a character that I was like, "This person would talk in full sentences and have completely fully formed ideas, and trying to get that to come across in a improvised setting was difficult for me.
Brandon: Yeah, I— for sure, but I think you— I think you've achieved it personally, but—
Julia: Thank you.
Amanda: How'd you feel, Brandon?
Brandon: Yeah. I— I had a fucking blast. First of all, I love the game. I think it's so fun. I especially like the sort of one-pagers where you get to sort of play in the creative shared mindspace as opposed to, like, the one-pagers where you like, roll a dice and do an action based on the dice, like it's more on rails kind of thing. So I love playing those that Eric makes it like that. And yeah, I— I mean, obviously, I had a blast playing Dr. Radish Radish, and I got to be even more chaotic than I normally am. I think I also would have had fun playing someone, you know, non-chaotic, right? Like someone— like Mufasa that Julia was playing. I don't know.
Julia: Don't call him Mufasa.
Brandon: I don't know his name. What's his name?
Julia: Constructor Emirate Heron.
Amanda: Brandon, let's— let's get a little deeper into this. Moss wants to know, "At what point did you know you were going to be playing Dr. Radish Radish?"
Brandon: I think pretty much immediately. So Eric put out a little message in Slack that was like, "Here's some characters— possibilities of characters—"
Julia: Suggested characters, yeah.
Brandon: "Suggested characters." And one of them was Dr. Radish Radish.
Eric: Three out of four of those characters were already on the document that Audrey showed up with. So I kind of had an idea of who was the Diamond Knot representatives, so— and like, you know, their— their space in the government. And then I ended up switching mine. Originally, I was thinking that, like, the Lord Commander who had trained Troy in the first Legend of the Past was going to be that representative, just to bring him back, but he's more fun as an NPC than actually playing him, so that's why I ended up playing Dez instead. Kind of like a Sir Davos sort of type, just a guy in over his head.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Everyone likes him and that's— that's why he gets posts like this. The three of you were like, Oh, yes, I want to play these. These are— these are some cool fucking guys."
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: 100%. FullAmber Gundam wants to know, "Did you discuss various directions for the factions ahead of time? Or did Julia just pull Hot House setting up to betray/take over the other factions out of thin air?" That was a motherfucking reveal. And Brandon and I were both like, "Goddammit." You knew, Brandon, I didn't suspect, but we didn't plan at all, apart from just deciding which of us would be which character from which nation.
Julia: I— I did ask Eric a couple of questions about Hot House because it's one of the ones that we have explored the least. So I wanted to think about what the motivations behind those were and I needed like a couple of information things that weren't revealed in the canon yet. So one of those things that Eric revealed to me that I ended up revealing in canon in this episode was the fact that Archie is traveling with the key with the gaze, for example.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yes. Shelby wanted to know if that was shared with you, Julia, or if you kind of intuited it?"
Julia: No. Eric specifically shared that with me, because I— I wanted to specify something particularly, and then I was like, "Okay." And then we also talked about, like, what the country goal was.
Amanda: Hmm.
Julia: And I really think that it was kind of like, "Okay, this is what I want them to do, but I don't think I really like revealed, revealed it like in terms of like, how insidious the actual plan was.
Eric: Yeah. I mean, that's what I— I wanted to put in the game, like the whole thing— because, again, imagine you're playing this without any of the countries set, right? You're— you're like, "Okay, here's the world. It's a steampunk world, and everyone is a fox. Like, let's go—let's go over there, right?" You need to say the qualities that your country cares about in order— because it belies the move you might have or the goal you're trying to pursue, if someone intuit says. Now, you might be a little bit off and then you end up going all in on trying to stonewall someone. But again, like— like what Brandon did, but then can— or like what Dr. Radish Radish did, but Dr. Radish Radish was too busy being Dr. Radish Radish, pursuing his own goal for— to convince anyone else to go along with that kind of stuff, which is why I— I really, really liked how it all shook out. It's like I knew what you were talking about. It's almost like— it's real foreshadowing of how someone might play this game.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I just want to point out, I want— I just want to say, I want to say, I come off— I come into these games where they're like, "Brandon, why are you being so, you know, hard on Julia? Why— why are you being so suspicious? Why are you trying to push Julia over the edge?"
Eric: Why— why can't we go to Friendly's?
Brandon: I'm fucking sly like a fox, motherfuckers.
Julia: No, you just need the— I have the shortest fuse and you could make me kill you in the game.
Brandon: No. I knew exactly what you're gonna do, Julia, cause you are a sneaky, little sneak.
Julia: Hmm, famously.
Amanda: Yeah, I— Brandon, I completely believe you. I— I saw it in your eyes in the recording as Julia was—was gearing up to make this reveal, and I was like, "Damn. It"— I was playing checkers, I thought Julia was playing checkers, I know Brandon was playing checkers, and yet Brandon identified Julia was playing chess. There was a really interesting tension in this episode for me as a player and— and I'm going to segue into it by way of a question from Ginger, who wanted to know, "What was it like having to ally yourself with Lucky Edie? It was so funny listening to the Diamond Knot episode after having mainly disdain for her the entire campaign, and I was wondering what it was like." I also want to know too, from my fellow players, how— I don't know, because like our competitiveness, and what we want for our— for our PCs was kind of at odds here. At the end of the episode, I think I said like, "Well, I'm sorry, I— I, like, won in this thing that is going to be bad for the pirates. So how— how did you approach that? Did you have in your minds at all that sort of succeeding as a Diamond Knot may in fact make life harder for our PCs in the main plot?
Julia: I actually really liked how Ginger posed this question because in my mind, the members of the Diamond Knot are not like buddies with Edie. I think they also have disdain for Edie, who is a turncoat pirate that is working for them. Like, Edie is not like high status, I don't think, within the Diamond Knot or anything. She's just kind of part of their plan to take over."
Brandon: I was gonna say that same thing with Orello, actually. Yeah, it's kind of very, like, classic narrative to— for that person, that role of that character to be like, "Oh, yeah, please help me out by buying this thing, so I have an opportunity to— or I have an excuse when my— the real bad guy comes." And then they end up being killed or put in jail anyway, you know?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: So we'll see with that. I agree with you, Julia, I think both Edie and Orello are like in for a rude awakening when they realize that they're just being used by the Diamond Knot.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, the— I mean, it's— it's like the thing in a spy movie, right? Is like once you acknowledge you are a double agent, even if you are pushed into it, you're— you're very good at it, no one on either side will trust you ever again, because—
Brandon: Right.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —even though I told you to be a double agent, people in the Diamond Knot— like, yeah, she's just an— an agent working for them, she's the best I have, it sucks. But I think it— it was hard as my character as Dez trying to do what King Hyperion wanted, which is like, "Let's make sure Troy doesn't get sniped and killed," is ultimately what he wanted. So I was— you know, you try to win in your own way, and what's more important to you as a character, being a good diplomat, doing what your government— the head of your government wants, you coming out looking alright, and I think that's how it all shook out in your various goals and stuff. Like, I was trying really hard to be everyone's friend and get those points, so that I could win in that way.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And like what does winning mean? I— you know, because like the point system is supposed to reflect effectiveness at this meeting—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —what— and whatever that means.
Brandon: I agree. I was going into this trying to play a lot of sides, where like, one, I think the game was fun because, yeah, Eric, to your point, you—you have goals that you gave us within the game itself, so that adds a third dimension to it. I will say that I was trying to do things that weren't gonna fuck over our PCs in the future, and would actually make it harder for the Diamond Knot.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: I gave no thought to that at all. I— I wanted to— to win and be my character. And maybe that was only you know, one-dimensional, but I— I wanted to do what he wanted to do.
Julia: Yeah. Mine was— definitely, I was like, "What would this government actually want?" And I— I just was looking at the conversation that Eric and I had, and I think I specifically said, "Hot House wants the opposite of right to repair” when I was planning it out.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah. I love that.
Eric: Hot House is Apple right now, folks.
Amanda: Yeah, 100%.
Eric: Hot House is gonna put out the thinnest, the thinnest telescopes.
Amanda: And Eric, all new cords, all new cords every time.
Eric: All new cords. New cords, new plugs, new cords.
Julia: If Apple had a one of those like business towns like the old oil barons, and stuff like that—
Amanda: Oh, they're trying, yeah.
Julia: —it would be Hothouse, you know?
Amanda: A 100%.
Brandon: That's so funny.
Eric: Is that— is that San Bernardino? I think that already exists.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: The funny thing about this game, which I really liked about it and I think it was why I felt ambiguous about fighting against me and letting Hot House do what they wanted. There was a lot of stuff that I don't know if it's even gonna affect the pirates. Like—
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: —this— this whole thing with Hot House having Apple stores throughout the— throughout Verda Stello—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —now. Like, who cares? I don't think it's gonna come up in the campaign. It sure is bad for everyone else though.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Which was wild. And I thought it was also— that was so much fun when we were the— when we all spoke at the same time as the—
Amanda: Council of Open Fields, right?
Eric: Yeah, that was so fun.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So it's like embodying—
Julia: That was cute.
Eric: —all those things where just— it was— it was just really, really neat.
Julia: I love to the robot effects that Brandon put on the current builder as well. That was very fun.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: That was Eric Silver-esque.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: You love to hear it.
Eric: Well, then, he should— it's like what if— what if the Pope was also Robocop?
Julia: What if—
Brandon: Hey, Eric, what if the Pope was also Robocop?
Amanda: He's got a pope mobile.
Julia: Pretty cool.
Eric: Is that what the two popes is about? The one that Anthony Hopkins is in?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: The— the hot pope is about, that HBO show with Jude Law?
Amanda: Yep.
Eric: It's also about the hot— yeah. The young Pope, yeah.
Amanda: Yep.
Eric: Jude Law is the Robocop.
Brandon: No, I think it's the hot pope.
Julia: It's definitely the hot pope.
Amanda: It didn't even— it didn't even occur to me that wasn't the title, I was like, "Yeah, it's called hot pop."
Julia: Hot pope, hot pope.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Speaking of— of hotties, Ginger wants to know, "Is Troy just a legendary hottie himbo that people frequently hear of? Would any of the members of the Diamond Knot be temporarily stunned at seeing them in all their glory? They said it with seriousness, I guess, but is Troy a legitimate threat to them? Are we all only safe because Troy doesn't want to use his powers, whatever they might be, for evil?" My take on this was just the Crags representative was, you know, carrying out Hyperion's wishes. Like you're saying, Eric, that Hyperion just wants his brother like home safe but also contained, and not potentially like embarrassing the Breakstones or the Crags out on the open seas. Not that Troy is like some, you know, loose cannon that could, like, cause huge damage.
Julia: Yeah. I— I just pulled up the transcript because I wanted to read what Eric and I said after that, where like— you were like, "Does he have reflective or deflective armor? Like, what's going on?" And Eric said, "No, Prince Troyvides is quite attractive. It's well known. Well, internationally known." And then I said, "They say he's a real hot himbo."
Eric: I mean, this is a thing that comes up a lot. I know in United States politics this comes up a lot, in British politics, especially with the royal family and everything, but like, you know, cousins and siblings of royals, and presidents, and senators and stuff are always doing weird stuff. And everyone's extra fascinated with them because they're related to— to folks. I mean, weren't we all obsessed with Pippa Middleton there for a while, remember?
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: We sure were.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: So it's kind of like that. I mean, the fact that Troy is a PC, certainly contributes to all of this and Troy being—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —a hottie has been a thing over the whole campaign. But I think the— the only reason we're talking about Troy in the first place at the Diamond Knot, it's because, you know, Hyperion cares and has to— has to figure it out. And everyone's like, "Oh, yes, your weird brother who's a pirate now, we all know. We all got to doss— we all have dossiers on him, of course. "
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Couple more questions here on the Diamond Knot before we go ahead and refill that crudite. Lucy the Scoot wants to know, "Will we ever get to see that epic duel between Dr. Radish Radish and Archie?"
Julia: It's up to Eric, I think.
Eric: Never. It's hilarious. Dr. Radish Radish died.
Julia: Off screen no less.
Brandon: Here's the thing about that duel, it's like obviously, Dr. Radish Radish wanted to die, so—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Obviously.
Brandon: It's sort of like very big spoilers for Star Wars Rebels, but that scene where Maul and Obi Wan fight where it's like— there's like one-hit KO kind of situation. You know, the— it wouldn't be fun to see. It's like two seconds then Radish Radish dies.
Amanda: It will be sad.
Eric: What's really funny about this— and obviously, Brandon the character is doing this, but like the whole point of that wind condition of hagiography is that someone is so rambunctious as a person, is that somehow through cosmic features in the way that people bump into each other, then we remember them so much better than they actually were as a person. So it's like Dr. Radish Radish has wound himself up as being a legend, even though Archimedes just, like, struck him down super easy. It's like, you know, when you— before Hamilton, I think whatever you heard about Hamilton and Aaron Burrs duel, you're like, "What are you talking about? What do you mean? What do you mean it's—"
Julia: What do you mean the vice-president killed a guy?
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: What are you talking about? So— and it was— so it's like Brandon winning— the wind condition was more like trying to pull the character in an interesting direction, and then now Dr. Radish Radish is— as Radish Radish himself, maybe it flashed across his head, saying, "Oh, I should die in an epic way, because I'm an epic dude." But even, you know—
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Respect.
Eric: It's— it's the way that tabletop RPGs, like combined narrative gameplay and intention in various proportions for that cake you're—you're baking.
Brandon: Well, I have two quick things I need to reveal one that Eric doesn't know.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: Ooh.
Brandon: And one that Eric does know.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: The first thing that Eric doesn't realize is that I had the same move— I had chosen the same move that you had, Eric, which was the nickname one. And you spoke first, you just happened to speak first in the meeting here, and I immediately realized that you chose the nickname move and I was like, "Shit. Let me quickly just grab another move." So the entire reason that Dr. Radish Radish died was because I had to grab another move really quickly to make sure it was still fun.
Eric: Oh, you changed your personal goal at the last second?
Brandon: Yeah, 'cause I wanted—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: That's funny.
Amanda: Damn.
Brandon: —I wanted— I wanted that to be different. Yeah.
Eric: That's very funny.
Brandon: And then two, I tied myself into Diamond Knots at the very end of this episode—
Eric: There you go.
Brandon: —to make sure—
Amanda: Nice.
Brandon: Thank you. To make sure that Dr. Radish Radish died for my personal goal to achieve that, but also didn't— I didn't want to ruin the canon of the story. So what— we ended up cutting at the end, but what we did—
Julia: We did cut that.
Brandon: —originally was I made a convoluted plot to make sure that— that that version of Dr. Radish died, but there's still a Doctor Radish Radish later in the game. And then Eric was like— at the end, he was like, "He could just die, it's fine."
Julia: It's fine. We could just kill him.
Amanda: It's fully okay.
Eric: It was some real comics nonsense.
Julia: Yeah. Brandon was like, "He starts a school and then whoever is in charge of the school is the Doctor Radish Radish." And I'm like—
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: —"What's happening? What are you talking about?"
Eric: I think it's funnier that he died. I mean, Dr. Radish Radish has always just been like a guy— you're allowed to kill someone off if we just met them in the same episode, you know what I mean?
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: It's like I didn't— we're not losing— it's not like you killed someone who I was controlling as an NPC for 10 episodes.
Brandon: Right.
Eric: Like, it's fine. He still gets to live on in these— in these pamphlets that he's been writing.
Amanda: Eric, I think it's really important that we all take away from this episode that if you post enough you can never die.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: That's what someone as prolific as Dr. Radish Radish has to teach us.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Fair. Yeah.
Brandon: Shout out Thomas Paine.
Julia: I— I also— like I want to say, like, it is a little sad to be that we'll never get to reveal that Umbi was in fact Dr. Radish Radish this whole time. I'm a little sad about it.
Amanda: Well, Julia, someone could have taken up his mantle and continued publishing under his name after his death like Dear Abby.
Julia: Umbi could have been Dr. Radish Radish's ghost writer this whole time. We don't know.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Maybe he died, Julia, but maybe he was pickled, and so he didn't die.
Julia: Oh, he's a vampire now. Right, right.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: He lives on. Speaking of pickles, I'm gonna add some to our crudite plate right here. Everyone cool with fried cornichons? We like this? You guys like this?
Eric: Yes, please.
Julia: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah.
Amanda: Tight. Alright, I'll be right back.
[theme]
Amanda: Hello, everybody, it's Amanda, and welcome to the midroll, where we would like to welcome first and foremost our newest patrons. There's only Soup Maddie White, who is an annual patron, thank you so much, Maddie, and Harley. We are only able to make the show because of your support on Patreon. There is ads, there's merch, there's live shows, we do all those things for a little bit of money and/or a lot of fun. But the backbone of our show, the backbone of our business is your support on Patreon. You, who believe in us enough to say we want you to put an incredible amount of time get into the show and make it fun, and hey, we love doing it. So if you want to join, if you have at least five bucks a month to spend on Join the Party, or if you are like, "Hey, I just have 40 bucks I wasn't planning on, 50 bucks, I wasn't planning on having, let me buy myself a year of Join the Party Patreon support. " You will not only get the patron only Discord, you'll not only get additional biweekly podcast episodes in Party Planning, you also get access to the hundreds, yes, I mean it, hundreds of bonus posts we have made for previous campaigns, all two and a half of our previous campaigns, it's amazing. All of that is at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. This week at Multitude, I have been enjoying the hell out of Exolore. Dr. Moiya McTier's world building show. This is where she goes through worlds that have already been built, interviews professional world builders, and builds brand-new worlds of her own with a panel of expert guests. She's closing in on a 100 episodes, and each of those episodes explores a minimum of one fantasy world. If you listen to the show, if you run your own campaigns, if you like sci-fi, if you like fantasy, if you like anime, you are going to be obsessed with Exolore, and Dr. McTier, if you're not already. So go ahead and look up Exolore in your podcast app or go to exolorepod.com. We are sponsored this week by Volante Design. If you are looking to upgrade your outerwear, if you're looking to invest in, like, one incredible belt or pair of pants, or bag that every time you wear it you're going to be like, "Holy shit, I feel unstoppable." Volante Design is the place, my friends. They have both officially licensed apparel from series like Assassin's Creed, Devil May Cry, and Star Trek and tons of original collections that are like cyberpunk-y or modern ninja-y, or just all kinds of incredible stuff. Seriously, scroll their Instagram, scroll their website, it is going to make you drool. It's so good. I've actually seen a few Volante Design pieces that I recognize in person at cons and at, like, game stores and stuff, a place you'd expect people to wear like a vaguely Star Trek inspired coat. And every time I am like, "Ooh, stunning. Who is that? Oh. Oh, it's Volante Design." So they were kind enough to make a 10% discount code. They don't often do discount codes, folks, this really is just for us and just for Join the Party. So if you want to go to volantedesign.us and use the code Join the Party, you will get 10% off your entire order for a, like, sustainably made small business like Volante Design, that's a big deal, and we are super appreciative that they're extending that to our audience. So go to volantedesign.us, and use code Join the Party for 10% off your order. And finally, we are sponsored by Shaker & Spoon. A subscription cocktail service that helps you learn how to make handcrafted cocktails right at home. Now, I have a problem, which is that I have made enough Shaker & Spoon boxes and learn techniques, like egg white frothing, and fat washing of glasses, and grading of real spices, and like combining syrups and stuff, that when I go to a place that has a super uninspired cocktail for, like, $25, I'm like, "Eh, could have gotten half a Shaker & Spoon box and made six cocktails for this cost." Seriously, it's— it's— it's kind of a problem because I love upping my home mixology game with Shaker & Spoon, I love giving it to friends, I love bringing it on road trips or as a houseguest, and saying like, "Hey, do you have a bottle of tequila? Do you have a bottle of whiskey?" We have everything we need here to make three different kinds of custom craft cocktails and 4 drinks of each, so that's 12 drinks with one Shaker & Spoon box and one bottle of spirits. So check them out, they are wonderful. They'd make a great gift. They make a great gift for yourself. You can get subscription boxes. You can get one-off boxes. You can shop their collection of barware. I got my sister a bunch of beautiful copper barware when she moved away from home for the first time, and it has stood the test of time. They are great folks, a local small business here in Brooklyn, and they have a code to get you $20 off your first box, off less than that crappy cocktail I had yesterday. Guys, there was like more simple syrup than tequila in this Margarita, what are we doing? Anyway, go to shakerandspoon.com/jointheparty and you will get $20 off your first box of Shaker & Spoon. shakerandspoon.com/jointheparty. Now, back to the Afterparty.
[theme]
Amanda: Alrighty, folks, I am back. Here is a hot fresh batch of fried cornichon. Oh, so good.
Julia: Oh.
Brandon: Oops, I ate them all.
Eric: No, I wanted them.
Julia: Oh, Brandon.
Amanda: Oops.
Julia: I want some.
Brandon: Oops. Oops.
Eric: Before we move on to the next section, would you guys all play Model— I'm still figuring out what the title of the game is. I think it's just going to be Model Our Nations. If you—would you like to all play Model Our Nations and maybe buy it if it was released as a PDF and stuff?
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I would. Yes, please.
Eric: Ama—
Amanda: Yes, please.
Eric: Oh, thank you. Thank you, my wife. Appreciate it.
Amanda: You're welcome. Alright, let's talk about Legends of the Past II. I love that we get to— not that we get to separate, because I— I feel a little lonesome waiting. But I do love that I get to hear Join the Party as if for the first time. I'm listening to the episode draft. So Julia, Brandon, what were your impressions of hearing one another segments?
Julia: Um, I— I'll be honest, really love Troy's section. It was very cute. It was very sweet.
Amanda: Oh, thanks.
Julia: And I just love the idea of like— I also thought, like, halfway through Troy session when they were like, "Oh, don't— don't leave." I'm like, "Are they going to try to kill Troy? Are they going to try to assassinate Troy in the shop?" And it was just like, "No, I want to do business with some royalty. That's fine." But I— I really liked Troy's like, "What if we made a potion that was like a brotherhood potion?" I was like, "That's so Troy coded." I can't even, I can't even.
Brandon: Well, I'm curious to hear— because my whole thought was like, I want to get into Eric's brain, so I'm curious to hear and excited to hear what Eric is thinking from the NPC side of things.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, sure.
Julia: Waddup, Eric? Tell us your thought process.
Eric: Yeah. I mean, like I said before, I thought that Lustrious asking you all what you would do with your wish, was kind of interesting. It's a good jumping off point to make you all reflective, because we don't— I'd really try to carve out some reflective times for each of your PCs, something we've been doing all the way back from Campaign One. And I think the Legend of the Past episodes have been a good way to kind of reflect growth of characters over time, especially— well, for you, you three to think about your PCs, and also playing earlier versions of your PCs before any of the stuff has happened to them. So this was really interesting. I wanted all the NPCs you had conversations with to ask you a probing question about yourself that you had to reflect on. And, you know, some of them were friendly, some of them were not so friendly, and some of them you had a really— and for Troy's sake, you had a weird power imbalance. So I wanted to see how you would— I really wanted to see how you would deal with that.
Amanda: Yeah, Eric, that didn't resonate for me at all, as somebody who is kind of nominally the employer of their— their spouse and friends.
Eric: True. But no, I wanted to give each of you a weird situation. I think that Umbi has been on, like, the most strange and winding journey, so it's almost like Umbi's the weird one walking into this bar with a regular person. And it's like, who do you call when something weird goes on? Well, it's probably the government representative who dropped out and was disaffected, and now goes around like a Witcher. We've talked about that a little bit from, you know, in the Open Fields. I think— and I— I like the idea that you were— Umbi was doing that because weird stuff I'm sure happens in Overstalk all the time. But there isn't sort of this like hedge knights, Witcher vibe thing going on, so Umbi—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —has to go and do that himself. And then you're like, "Let's go talk to this bartender who's like, "Oh, there's Umbi, taking care of the— the plague of dancing that's happening outside."
Julia: The dancing plague.
Brandon: I was so like— there was like a standoff— an improv standoff moment, where I— you were like— where I was trying to, like, figure out where you wanted to— where you were— where you were going.
Eric: Sure.
Brandon: And then also— yes. And then also, like— 'cause I walked into the bar, and you were like, "Yeah, shit's going down outside." And I was like, "Yeah."
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I know, I was trying to get you—
Brandon: And I know exactly what you mean.
Eric: I was trying to tell you what it was, and you were just like, "Absolutely, give me a drink." I was like try— I was trying to give you the exposition in a casual way, but I took— it took a few back and forths of the— of the dialogue tree to get there.
Brandon: Because I— at one point, I was like, "Yeah, today's a special day. You tell me what that is, Eric."
Eric: What's the special day? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Does our new shorthand of yes, banana mean that there's some kind of equivalent to, like, dropping a banana peel for others, or slipping on the banana peel? Is that— it's just like— just like a known and accepted side effect of having a yes, banana player.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. I— I didn't want to— the whole thing with that was that I didn't want to drop too much exposition on you super-fast, Brandon. I felt like—
Brandon: Yeah. No, I know. I know, I know.
Eric: I didn't want to like control— because, like, I didn't want to, like, super control the situation. You know, it's like I had to build the exposition in reverse, as opposed to Troy and Cammie's situation.
Brandon: Right.
Eric: But I just thought it was— because it almost didn't matter what was happening. It was more like the situation was Umbi is this— Umbi is Batmanning around, and it could be anything's happening outside. Like, it doesn't ma—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I know the answer, because it would be rude for me not to know the answer. But it was like— it didn't— it almost didn't matter what was happening. I'm more just wanted to show that Umbi comes and investigates weird stuff, like you— like Hellboy.
Brandon: Right. Instead of a sellsword, is he a buy-bomb?
Eric: Su— yeah. Yeah, dude.
Julia: Sure.
Eric: Hell yeah.
Amanda: It's pretty good.
Brandon: Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.
Eric: And then with Cammie's, I actually— I had to flip this at the— the last second. I was wondering if Cammie— and I— I should have thought of this, but I was like, "Oh, yeah, Cammie probably, like, studied with Baba Rutabaga for a little while and just hung out there. And, like, had to do, like, stupid witch stuff." But then you were— and then Julia was like, "No." And I'm like, "Okay." So—
Julia: I'm sorry I no-ed you right at the top. I wasn't sure if that was what you were going for or not.
Eric: I mean, it all worked out. I think that you having to do, you know, apprentice stuff fir— first Smelly Haze can't work—and it worked anyway.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I think this worked in both ways. I mean, Smelly Haze and Baba Rutabaga are similar, that, like, people have really negative connotations of them, regardless of what they're actually doing. So it's like—
Julia: Right.
Eric: —did Smelly Hayes do all that stuff? Doesn't really matter. Lots of people think so.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: Was how— was how I— how I felt about that, and that's why you needed to like— "I don't have the information, but you're a weirdo, and I'm not letting you into this fort. I'm just not."
Julia: Yeah. I really liked the character of Marley. I hope that we see them again, assuming that they're still alive in this very dangerous world that we live in. But I really thought that they were kind of cool.
Brandon: Did you, Eric— did I influence— did I worry your brain?
Eric: Oh, a 100%, yeah. I did it intentionally because I wanted to do in one— and we ended up recording in the— in— one after another in the sequence, so I'm like, "It'd be funny if I was doing that reference."
Amanda: Julia, Shelby wanted to know, "Is Marley the violent bundle actually in a vase? Does this function like an iron lungs situation, like being in a pot would mean?"
Julia: I don't know, Eric. What do you think?
Eric: I like that, because, you know, I've already talked about how Audrey is very an— is a very interesting person for being in a pot. So it's— it could be— it could be equivalent. We've talked about bundles of stuff before, I think, in the last Legend of the Past. The— the shopkeeper that Umbi talked to on his like pilgrimage to the Senate was also a bundle of something.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: And I just think it's fu— I just kind of like doing the different types of characters, instead of, "This humanoid is also a vegetable."
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah, I like it.
Amanda: Pretty good stuff.
Eric: Marley, what did you—Cammie, what did you think about—well, I guess I want to— I want to ask all of you about, how you felt about the NPCs, who you were introduced to? So, like, what— Brandon, how did you feel about the barley bartender? And— and Julia, how did you feel about the whole vibe coming off of Marley the violet sellsword?
Brandon: I mean, I think the bartender was cool. I liked him. I think listening back, like, they were much less of an antagonist for lack of a better word than the other two folks were.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: So yeah, that's friends.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah. Marley, like, in the moment, I think Cammie was like very confused by who Marley was as a person. And by the end of it— especially with the reveal was like, "I'm also 15." I was like, "That's really sweet." And like in another universe, maybe like Cammie would have gone off with Marley or something like that. Like, especially relistening to it to do the transcript, I was like, "I could have seen like a budding romance here or something like that—
Eric: Sure.
Julia: —like in— in another lifetime, but because Cammie, I guess, did not realize how bloodthirsty Smelly Haze was, I think that it just didn't go the way that it could have.
Eric: Yeah. And then— oh, my God. And then Troy talking to the— the potion seller with all— with all their kids was still so much fu— so funny.
Amanda: Oh, my God, terrible— terrible guilt. Troy for the first time is like, "Is it bad that I have and others have not?" Like it— it really— he— he really like, "Whoa. People live very differently."
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Did— did he feel that? Because I feel like in the moment, he was sort of like— I guess my question when I was listening was like, has Troy always been the sort of— just give shit away, like overpay for everything, tip generously, or was that like the moment when he realized that he should be doing that?
Amanda: So I got a couple questions along this line, too. Ginger was asking like, "Can Troy really just be a guard? Like, isn't he—is he doing PR? Is he doing something more for the Breakstones? And Mage was like, you know, "What was Troy's role before the coup? Like, did he really just get into the guards after the coup, or was he a plant? Maybe he can't really like"— no pun intended, that's what Mage said. "Like, I don't think he could necessarily pull off being a plant, like maybe he was." And so I think my— my view on the matter is I think Troy truly was like, you know— because he's not too old, either. He's, you know, 19-ish. And so I think he, you know, lived his life before the coup that put the Breakstones in power, not doing very much, except for, you know, schooling, and training, and you know, knowing that he was the one that was going to be a guard, allowed to just like do physical, you know, training and kind of, like, be with his bruvs. And then upon the coup being successful, old guards slaughtered, new guards put in, and Troy is like, you know, Roman Roy going through the training program at Waystar Royco—
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: —to, like, work his way up and say he went to basic training, and like see the guards to ultimately be like the head of the kings guard. And so, yeah, my— my view is like this is probably one of the first times that he has interacted with citizens and/or subjects as a part of the ruling family, because I imagine this is like one of his first kind of, you know, weekend, off time jaunts down to the village.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: I really wanted to insert that scene in almost every single, like, fantasy story with a royal, where they go down to the village and have an interaction.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Like, it was kind of funny doing it in, like, Episode 40 something, instead of it'd be Episode 1—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —right? You see that in Game of Thrones. They emulated that on Dimension 20, and I kind of wanted to do it in reverse. I kind of knew you were going to overpay, that is like such the thing— you know the— the term noblesse oblige? Where it's like—
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: —this is the idea that people in high society, whether in fantasy times or now have a responsibility to do benevolent stuff, like overpay for things.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: So it's like Troy— Troy was definitely going to do that. I knew you were going to do that, and I had written down this potion seller is self-conscious, does not want charity.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And I think the fact that you had to push, you had to, like, push the issue, and that their kids were jumping around and everything, it turned into like more of an awkward situation, which I knew was— which I— is exactly what I wanted to happen. So it was like Troy recognizing, if just being a bruv, walking around the town is— is enough of a life, which I guess is kind of what I see.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: Because, like, Troy has the shortest amount of time between these episodes and what happens in the current campaign, so I kind of wanted to make that one a little bit more explicit.
Amanda: Totally yeah. In my mind, this is like 6, 12 months before he goes to become a pirate.
Eric: Oh, a 100%, a 100%.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Maybe even before like the previo— maybe even before the previous one.
Amanda: I think it was.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: I think it was.
Eric: Yeah. For all three of yours, I wanted you guys to be in opposition to a character who is both similar but very different to you. Someone who— who—
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: —you can get along with but has a very different life experience. I mean, obviously, it is very obvious for Troy. you're talking to a— a regular person while you're royal and— but you're living in the same world. For Cammie— yeah, Marley and Cammie are both being 15 and feeling like they have to do something, but in very different situations for that. And yeah, I mean, bo— for Umbi and— and the bartender, so you're both on the same side, but the bartender is rooted in place at the bar. And Umbi is going along doing this thing, even though he looks like a weirdo. I— which was the whole— so it's like this person who— with a very different life experience is asking a probing question of you, and do you even know why you do the things that you do? Probably not. I think for all three of you, even— I know that is like— Cammie's 15, Troy is a himbo, and Umbi is figuring it out. None of you know the answer. So I wanted— that's why I wanted—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —to ask you—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —the question before what's happening in this campaign, before we really start to hit the— really climbed to the climax of— of what's happening here.
Amanda: Absitively. And Eric, that's a great segue into a question from Mage. "It really feels like you're setting things up to kick off the end game of the campaign. Maybe not in this arc, but relatively soon unless there's another plot twist. How much fun are you having giggling or cackling behind the scenes?"
Eric: I mean, you'll see with the next few episodes, yeah? You'll see. You'll see. But it was nice. This feels like a little step-off. I— I wanted to like— especially after the tour, I wanted to almost— I— I don't want to call it treading water because that's not fair to the good work that we've done, but it's almost like I didn't want to move forward. I wanted to explore the space we were currently in and flesh things out.
Amanda: 100%. Alright, folks, how do we feel about a handful of great gaming character questions before we spoil that plank?
Julia: Let's do it.
Brandon: Let's do it.
Eric: Yar.
Amanda: "Michelle Spurgeon, the question surgeon would like to know, "Of all the characters in Verda Stello, who would you like to see more of?"
Julia: Oh, that's such a tough question. There are so many good characters.
Brandon: I would like to see more of Kristen's little character—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: —the jumping spider.
Eric: Oh.
Brandon: What was their name?
Julia: Lucas.
Eric: Lucas.
Brandon: Lucas.
Eric: What a sweetie.
Amanda: I want to see more of Tessie the Storm. Just that little pop through the portal during the fight was not enough.
Julia: I'm a big fan of Archie, so I want to see more Archimedes.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I want to see the whole crew— from that one shot, I want to see more of that insurance— the insurance company from that— the Blue Lotus. Just everything, I wanted to live in that one shot so much— so much more.
Amanda: I mean, listen, I think it may come up.
Eric: Salix, for sure, I want to see more of and—
Julia: Well, he's dead now, so—
Eric: Yeah, you're right. He's dead, and he'll never come back. And I mean, I— I spent so long incubating Audrey, I— so much growing that sprout that I want to see what happens next with— with her.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Hmm. Hmm. Took like 45 episodes for that sprout to emerge and you're gonna nurse it all the way to full growth.
Julia: And then we immediately destroyed it.
Amanda: Mage Silverleaf asks, "Julia, when did Nonny go from primarily taking the form of a gingko crab to primarily seaweed octopus? And was there anything in between?"
Julia: Okay, yes. I saw this question so I prepared an answer for it because I got really excited.
Amanda: Let's do it.
Julia: As we established in the first Legends of the Past, Nonny was originally a dandelion bumblebee that manifested when Cammie went through her trauma. I think in between—
Brandon: Woo!
Julia: I think in between the dandelion bumblebee and the gingko crab, so I'm like— I kind of break them down by, like, parts of Cammie's life. So like origin was the dandelion bumblebee, and then at the tavern, I think it was still like kinda small, kind of, like, fragile, so it was a Dahlia spider.
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: And then joining Smelly Haze's crew adapted to a smelly form of the gingko crab. After leaving Smelly Haze's crew, I think, and just kind of like traveling like not yet at the hold, a pineapple toad.
Eric: Oh, my god.
Brandon: I like a pineapple toad.
Julia: Like very round, like spiny toad, but also pineapple.
Eric: So fat.
Amanda: My— this whole time, Julia, I've been like, "Damn, I never heard of these species." And then I realized it's in the— the Verda Stello Venn diagram.
Julia: Yes, of course, of course. And then finally once Cammie settled at the hold, seaweed octopus.
Brandon: Love it.
Eric: Real.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Love it.
Eric: I love you— wha— that's such a witch's familiar, is for you to have a fat toad hanging out with you.
Julia: Yeah. Very classic.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It's awesome.
Amanda: A 100%. Moss wants to know, "Who is currently trying to stage a coup to remove Hyperion and the Breakstones from power? Is Eric rolling or something to decide how long he remains the ruler?
Julia: Yeah, it's like Umbi, where you have to D 100 to see if you guys were asleep or not.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. That's tough.
Eric: That's a good— that's a good question. I'm sure it's happening a lot. I— my idea is that the Breakstones have so many siblings, which everyone does, but the Breakstone sure have a lot of them. So— oh, sorry, the NPC I want to hear more about is Troy's little sister who's bloodthirsty. I want to hear more about her.
Julia: Yeah. Isn't she like a— she's a plant inside of the resistance movement, right?
Eric: Oh, yeah, that was so funny. I love that. I feel like there's so many Breakstone children that you'd have to kill a lot of them to make it all happen, like really Red Wedding it up. But—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So— and not— and I think that in the time after the coup, the most recent coup, it takes some time, so we'll see.
Amanda: We'll see, we'll see. Moss also very importantly wants to know, "What is each character's favorite Pokemon? And then say something nice about yourself." Julia, you're first.
Julia: About— about myself or about Cammie? Because if it’s Cammie--
Amanda: About you.
Julia: Oh. I think Cammie's favorite Pokemon— is it too much of a cop out to do the, like, ghost teacup?
Eric: No, it's just on brand.
Amanda: Sinistea? No.
Eric: It's just on brand.
Amanda: No.
Julia: Yeah. Okay. So it's that one and— or it's a Joltik, I think it's between those two. I could really see Cammie, like, fucking around with the Joltik.
Eric: With a little electric—
Amanda: Joltik is basically Lucas. Yeah.
Eric: It's a little electric spider, I love that.
Julia: So cute.
Amanda: Love him.
Julia: And then something nice about myself, I just had therapy, so I can do this. I was a brave girl and I went out like— and was very social for four straight days, so—
Amanda: Nice. Good job.
Brandon: That's impressive.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Eric, your turn, NPC of your choice.
Eric: Oh, I didn't even think of that.
Amanda: How about Audrey? What's Audrey's vibe? Can— what can I discern about Audrey as an enemy from her favorite Pokemon?
Eric: Oh. I mean, Audrey is a ghost type trainer, right?
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Definitely.
Eric: Like all the ghosts are— are weird. I think having a Trevenant makes a lot of sense, ghost— ghost plant, for sure.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: I feel like she'd think of Froslass is dope.
Eric: Yeah, of course.
Julia: Ooh, yeah.
Eric: I mean, the ghosts are all just like cool Yokai weirdos, so obviously—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —Audrey is a— is a ghost type trainer, yeah.
Amanda: Say something nice about yourself.
Eric: I did a really good job of trimming my beard lately, so I'm feeling really good about that.
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: Nice.
Amanda: Nice. Brandon.
Brandon: I'm having a hard time picking a Pokemon. I feel like—
Julia: For the Umbis?
Amanda: Brandon, may I suggest?
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Victreebel, Umbi-shaped and stinky.
Brandon: I was thinking like something grass poison like that.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah. My— my first thought— one of my first thoughts was Victreebel, so I'll pick Victreebel.
Julia: I could also picture Chatot, because that's the like parrot Pokemon and it reminds me of Bartlett.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: That's a good one. Or Squawkabilly, the one with the weird pomp— pompadour.
Julia: Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.
Eric: There's also Toucannon that has a nose that's a cannon and a bird.
Julia: Squawkabilly.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Man, I didn't know any of these guys.
Eric: The old— they're older dudes, yeah.
Brandon: I like Squawkannon-- Or Toucannon. That's—
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Toucannon is— it is classy. I feel like that's very Umbi coded.
Eric: It's like Toucan Sam but nose is gun.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Yeah. Very important.
Brandon: And then pass.
Amanda: No.
Julia: No.
Amanda: Say something nice about yourself.
Brandon: I don't know, man.
Amanda: Brandon, you just built so many guitars.
Brandon: I was gonna say I did a good job with this guy, behind me, this guitar here.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Britain builds guitars guys. He, like, buys all the separate parts and builds them, or like takes the old janky one and makes it beautiful. It's like such an impressive skill.
Brandon: Yeah, I don't—I don't carve the wood. I'm not that good of woodworking yet, but beyond that—
Amanda: Listen, give the man a workshop, he'll get there.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And I think Troy's favorite Pokemon, he saw a Butterfree one time and said, "Cousin." And then stops thinking. So I think that's the— that's the move.
Julia: No notes, no notes.
Amanda: And you know what, guys?
Julia: That's Troy Riptide.
Amanda: I think I'd be really good at Andy Cohen's job. I'm— I'm just gonna go ahead and say that. I— I think that will be great.
Julia: Girl, I agree.
Brandon: I agree.
Amanda: And our final question today comes in from Ayoungpilgrim, "Did you plan on the campaigns and characters of Join the Party being so wholesome, or are you all just wholesome? I feel like players always want to dive into the outrageous, and I don't know if you guys suppress murder hobo inclinations, or if you're genuinely sweet. Also love the Diamond Knot."
Eric: There's— man, I could talk about this for such a long time, because I think you're identifying something that's like a big happening in Dungeons and Dragons and tabletop RPGs blowing up so much over the last 6, 7, 8 years, especially as it's related to content creation, not only just actual plays, but like D&D memes and how the memes and the TikToks of it reinforced, like, the worst interactions between DMs and players. It's all— it's like you can imagine on the content that someone's making, it's like there's a scale from wholesome to— to unhinged—
Amanda: Destructive.
Eric: —and chaotic.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And, like, that you're feeding the beast in the various ways that you do. But I think that there's— there's something about, like, content creation and improv, like the improv people who are a part of actual play are on the chaotic side, whether because they're farming content or like that is the— UCB has branded it on you, so you have to do that.
Amanda: Well, they're also all so good at, like, taking whatever is lobbed at them and, like, volleying it back, right? Like us, civilians, like, don't have that. I would—I would freak out. I'd melt down.
Eric: But I— I think that there's something else that I think is less prominent, but has been around in actual play, and what I get inspired by and I learned this from friends at the table. It's like from people who aren't necessarily actors, there are a lot of people who come in and know story, and talk about story, and make things in the way that they want to make it because they want to see— the game reveals storytelling to you. And I think that might be more wholesome from the way that, like, you're allowed to cultivate emotional situations that aren't just, like, straight up crying or yelling, developing relationships and complex relationships and friendships in this way, and like moments for introspection and quiet, because you're not busy trying to get to the dick joke as fast as possible.
Amanda: Eric, Christianthejustok points out, you did say jack off a lot of times, in the— in the most previous episodes.
Eric: I must— yeah, I must have. Sorry, oops. I don't remember what I say or when I do it. So yeah, I— I— I think that's always been our strength, and when we started the show so long ago, is like it wa— that was just what we wanted to do, and now I think it's almost codified itself into a type of genre, sort of thing. So I'm glad you identified it. I think that you're— this is like the beginning of some really interesting capital C, Criticism of the actual play in Thunder Dragon/ tabletop RPG space, the digital space, which I think is— is very interesting. And stuff I think about all the time.
Amanda: Yeah. I also felt really tenderly toward the worlds and our characters, we put a ton of effort into it. I— you know, when— when Eric introduces an NPC, like maybe he just thought of it, but I don't want to, you know, slash and burn them right away. And Brandon, Julia, and me like I— I feel like our— all of our— we— we take it so seriously the sort of like the— the mission of the story, people being invested in our characters, and the journeys that we take and kind of like noping out of something or, you know, casting it aside while I totally get it, that that can be done if that's what the whole party is there for, and that can be a ton of fun. That just feels like not my vibe. I want to, like, immerse ourselves in this world for a year, year and a half, and then, you know, like, cast it off gently.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. I mean, we've also had like, what, got 7, 5, 6 years something like that, 5, 6 years of—
Amanda: 7, buddy, 7.
Brandon: 7? Jesus Christ. Of telling each other what kind of game we want to play. So we've refined—
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: —how we like to be at the table with each other, whether or not that's like each— in the person's individual— personal 100% selfish preference, I don't know. But we've come to, like, a great place where we all like to sit down and play at the same table, you know?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. And I welcome you into that, because I think that you also feel ownership over the world as well because of the shared world building we do.
Brandon: H mm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Which is the whole thing that we're doing, so—
Amanda: Totally.
Eric: —it's like we're— we're engendering this wholesomeness that you're— that you're seeing, for sure.
Amanda: I don't know, Julia. Does— does spending like much of your professional life in a world as chaotic as the world outside sound fun?
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda: I like this one.
Julia: Uh-hmm. I like this one, too.
Amanda: Alright, folks. Finally, let's spoil the plank with a great question from Shelby, "Did Archie keynap the key? Let's— let's not stop on how good the phrase keynap is. "For a gaze, or did it go willingly? Are they buddies now?"
Julia: I think they're buddies. Also, I do want to give a quick shout out to Eric creating the idea of bulbnapping instead of kidnapping in our world.
Brandon: Yeah, that was great. Yeah.
Julia: And that was fantastic.
Amanda: Very good.
Eric: Thanks. I thought it was a funny thing to say.
Brandon: I'm gonna— I'm— as a player without knowing the answer, I am guessing that they went willingly, but if— it's definitely a who can say. We don't know yet.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. I'm not sure. All I do know is that we play the next couple episodes and y'all don't even know what's about to hit, so stay tuned, keep those questions rolling in, and thank you for your support as always. Alright. Say goodbye, players.
Brandon: Goodbye, players.
Julia: Goodbye, players.
Eric: Goodbye, players.
Amanda: May your rolls turn ever upward.
[theme]
Julia: I don't why I did a weird dance when we were like, "Ah, yes, cornichon."
Amanda: We're no longer on camera, so you can be pissy—
Julia: I know.
Amanda: —however you like.
Julia: I know.
Brandon: That's the cornichon dance.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Okay. Ready to keep going?
Eric: You can pickle—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —if you want to, you can leave your dills behind.