How are we enjoying getting our feet (or roots) wet in Verda Stello? How illegal really is piracy? And what’s your favorite flawed government or institution in fiction? All that and more on the Afterparty!
Dive into the Traditions mechanics, the countries of Verda Stello, the classes from Mage Hand Press, and other changes we’ve made for C3 HERE!
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Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Umbi), Co-Producer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Chamomile Cassis), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host (Troy Riptide), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: 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. Yarrr!
[Everyone Yarrs]
Amanda: A pirate's life for me!
Brandon: Weeee!
Amanda: Oh guys, we're all just a bunch of little guys out on the seas, being pirates sailing for amber. And what more could you want out of your fantasy role-playing game?
Brandon: Us or our characters, Amanda?
Julia: Both.
Amanda: Both.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: Brandon, you wouldn't steal a chest full of gold?
Brandon: I would. If I saw a chest full of gold.
Eric: So why would you steal a movie? Why would you download a movie?
Brandon: This is why they don't let me into that museum with the crown jewels of England or wherever the fuck they're called.
Amanda: The Tower of London.
Brandon: Yeah, that's—I'm banned from there because I do steal chests full of gold.
Amanda: It is right on a river, so kind of asking for it if you ask me.
Brandon: That's what I'm saying.
Eric: You can only blame the victim if it's the British Museum.
Julia: Yeah, that’s fair.
Amanda: That's how I live my life.
Julia: Well Brandon, in our pirate world building famously said, “I don't want to kidnap anyone”. I was like Brandon, we're pirates.
Brandon: I'll steal—I'll steal jewels, but not people's.
Julia: Okay, okay.
Brandon: I will steal Jules and jewels. Which is jewels and you, Julia.
Julia: Me, that's a me!
Eric: Sorry, I gave— I actually didn't put this in the world-building, but each one of your characters has a morality meter. And as you do worse and worse things, just you know just like Fable One and Fable Two, the hit Xbox games?
Julia: Yeah, I turn evil.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah. So there's—there's a morality meter and as you do worse and worse things. Everyone gives you high fives. I— everyone loves it when you steal.
Julia: Fun! Do I become an angel at the end though? Because I think that's one of the endings for Fable? I don't remember.
Eric: I just love the idea that Julia is like I'm doing this so I can get the good ending at the end of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
Julia: Correct. Correct.
Brandon: At some point during the game, Eric does force us to kill someone and then record what those consequences though as a human, so.
Eric: It's true. I physically make you press X. And then I tell you how fucked up it is that you did violence.
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Julia: I love morality in my video games.
Eric: Yeah. I will—this is directly inspired by The Last of Us.
Julia: Yes!
Eric: I didn't get to say that during my inspirations for Campaign Three, but it's inspired by that.
Julia: Famously.
Amanda: I did make an Elden Ring reference in a recent episode we recorded, that the audience will be hearing in a few weeks, so you know?
Eric: That's fine though!
Amanda: All good.
Eric: If I get the opportunity to continue to make Dark Souls-esque bosses, it is only to for my own gratification. It's fine. That sounds great.
Julia: I love that for you, bro.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Eric: And then it'd be the people I Drawfee will—we'll draw them and be like wow, Eric so good.
Brandon: Uh, that'd be so cool.
Julia: The dream!
Eric: The dream.
Amanda: Oooh. That really— okay tweet to Drawfee and tell them that we should do a collabo where they draw our greenfolk-sonas.
Julia: That'd be nice.
Eric: I mean that's not a bad idea.
Julia: It's good. Could be nice.
Eric: It's good.
Julia: It's good?
Eric: It's good. Call Amanda, call up Hank Green, call an emergency merch meeting. And— but it's really just us in a room together.
Amanda: And then I kick Hank Green out of the Zoom, leaving me and Julia Lepetit and say, Julia, let me help you. You're overwhelmed.
Eric: Can I say something? That we tried to make a fake business podcast for years to get Amanda to just meet these people. [laughs] It was gonna be like—I don't even remember what it was, because it wasn't like—I guess it had like Girl Boss trappings just to make it seem real?
Amanda: Yeah, more like you know, hey, so you didn't go to business school but ended up running a business on the internet. Let's—let's compare notes. Which I still think would be a good idea for a podcast.
Brandon: Yeah!
Julia: Yeah!
Amanda: But it was—originally Eric was like, how do you just like reach out to somebody and be like, hi, I think we should be friends. Answer: Interview them on a podcasts. That's— that's step one.
Eric: But here's the difference, and the difference between it'd be— this being a rom-com where everything breaks bad in the third act?
Brandon: I don't think Breaking Bad was a rom-com, Eric.
Julia: Jesus Christ!
Amanda: It is if you put a sepia filter and do a fan edit.
Eric: There are too many, I can't pick a joke. So, I’m just going to–
Amanda: Eric just short-circuited.
Julia: There should be more rom-coms about drug dealers, honestly.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. So the way that this won't play out like an episode of a sitcom though, is that you can be like, oh, yeah, the funding for the podcast just ran out. We're not doing it. It's like we never do anything with the audio. It's just an excuse for Amanda to reach out to people.
Julia: I would be so upset if that happened to me.
Amanda: Yeah, I know.
Eric: Right?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Pretty good.
Amanda: Pretty good.
Eric: We'll come up with fake art, it would be— it would be a whole thing. It'd be a whole grift.
Amanda: Speaking of fake ideas, guys what would our greenfolk-sonas be, if we were in the world of Verda Stello?
Julia: Oh boy... Oh no.
Brandon: Oh, that was a good transition.
Amanda: Thank you. I think I would be a succulent, the only kind of plant I can't grow. We're like a very plump like little guy with a few little like triangular leaves, you know what I mean? Like looks like you know the sweet little like nubbins.
Eric: Yes.
Amanda: And if I got too much sun, or not enough sun, or too much water or not enough water, or I just felt like it one day I would simply collapse, and that's me.
Julia: Mood.
Eric: Hey folks, if you want to play a disposable character, in the world of Verda Stello, just be a succulent.
Amanda: And I will be from Overstalk, where I am fully here to be a life of the mind. And if I ever had to leave my tower with my little sunroom terrarium, I would simply perish.
Eric: That's good. I like that. I think I would be just like a regular size maple tree. Like I don't think the trees, or the tree persuasion of the greenery and leafy greenfolk need to be like larger necessarily. So I just like being a regular-size guy, while also being a maple tree and having like cool—cool leaves that'll like change depending on the temperature. I think that would be fun. It's kind of like my hair. It's like my bo— like the trunk is my—is the majority of the body.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: But you know like the—the tree, the first tree boss in Kirby, Woody Woods.
Julia: Sure.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I like he—he's the face is on the trunk.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, I was like that. And like the—all the leaves will be my hair.
Amanda: Oh, and hands!
Brandon: Why do you hate Kirby?
Eric: Because he's a destroyer of worlds, and I don't like looking at the eldritch power of Kirby.
Julia: Brandon?
Brandon: Oh, man. I don't know, I think hmm, hmm? Broccoli?
Julia: Broccoli? Okay.
Eric: Broccoli is good.
Amanda: Broccoli is good!
Brandon: I was gonna say broccoli. I don't know. I—I feel like broccoli is right.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: I think like broccoli is funny because then you're gonna have a bunch of cousins that are all from that one plant, that all the broccolis are from?
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: It's like you have cauliflower is your cousin, like you have brussels sprouts as your cousins.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I think that’s really funny.
Amanda: The really—the really not so looking one that's like very tightly curled.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: You know?
Brandon: What does that one?
Eric: Yeah, it has the fractal on it.
Brandon: Oh! Oh, oh, oh.
Julia: Romanesco. Romanesco broccoli.
Amanda: There you go.
Eric: Yeah. Also, Brassica is a fucking great name.
Amanda: It is.
Julia: It is.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I do think that they use that as a vegetable in A Crown of Candy, but I think it's a good name.
Julia: It was the like, high priestess of the church.
Amanda: Julia, what about you?
Julia: I would be like a tiny little jumping spider. You know the ones—
Amanda: Yeaaah!
Eric: Yeaaah!
Julia: [makes exerting sounds] They move so fast. So that would be me.
Amanda: Julia, my—my grandma did get me a mini olive tree for Christmas that I do think is essentially you. So also consider.
Julia: I'm flattered. Thank you.
Amanda: You're welcome.
Eric: This was the olive tree that when Amanda's grandma came out with it, I explicitly said, no!
Amanda: It lives at the office. It's fine.
Julia: To be fair, when they released the first couple of Pokemon for Scarlet and Violet. And they released Smoliv, I was like, that's me. It's just—
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: —that's me.
Amanda: It really is.
Eric: Man, it's like—you can tell why those Pokemon came out. Like you know that the fucking translation team, the English translation team snapped when they were like, oh, I don't care what this Japanese word is. I'm gonna use some internet speak and make fucking Chonky, make Smoliv and Lechonk.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Like you knew what you were doing, and that's why that's what it was marketing. The marketing team worked overtime because Scarlet and Violet was broken.
Julia: Yup.
Eric: So, I see what they were doing. They worked really hard to give them those names.
Julia: Yes, they did.
Amanda: And you know who else worked really hard to give a bunch of names in this world, it's Eric!
Brandon: Eric!
Eric: Oh, it's me!
Julia: [sings] Eric Silver.
Amanda: We have so many great questions from the listeners, from the Join the Party people all about the world of Verda Stello. So let's start with this one from Marina, Sea Witch of Mayhem, “Eric, how did you go about the world-building? You mentioned wanting to move away from standard fantasy tropes. So did you just create this entire planet from scratch? Or was there any kind of base template you used?"
Eric: Oh, that's an interesting question. I think I'd gotten to a point where I felt empowered, strong enough, experienced enough to do a fantasy world. Before I was kind of like burnt out from it in Campaign One. It just-- everything felt really unwieldy. And I like having different distinct regions, which is why we have the city-states like they were in Campaign One. And then I'm like, you know, I love cities. I really, really do like cities and urban planning and all that stuff, and the growth of cities, especially over the 20th century into the 21st century. So that's why we ended up doing Laketown City. Being able to make a city from scratch was super, super fun. While still like you know doing the slipstream magic realism thing, which I love to do. Which is like change one thing, and then everything's different. And superheroes, especially wrestling with like, who has power in 20—late 2019, and 2020 was really important and I really like to do. And then like the Monster of the Week was fun. It was—that was like Julia said, hey, what if we did a summer camp and I said, [groans] it sounds good, I would like that. But yeah, no, I felt like I had enough experience to do it and like sitting in the milieu, like the things that I felt frustrated by that Wizards of the Coast was pushing in terms of like the fantasy genre, and also just like the unequivocal love I think of these like high fantasy campaigns settings in actual play podcasts that rose up. Whenever we needed to figure out what their second thing was going to be after ca— you know, like whether it was NADDPod or TAZ or Dimension 20 or whatever, or their second campaign of Critical Role. So it was like, I kind of want to move away from it and do a different genre, because like everyone was kind of just doing like, fairy tales or dark fantasy, you know what I mean? So but now, like, I felt empowered to come back and do something again. I will say, I want to give extra shout-outs to Andor, for making me feel like you can do stuff that's around a world without doing like, straight-up good and evil. Good prevails sort of stuff.
Brandon (as Andor): You're welcome, Eric. That was Andor.
Eric: George Lucas, what are you doing here?
Julia: That wasn't Diego Luna.
Eric: Yeah, I don't know. It just felt like I—you know, there's at least like a very Christianized telling of stories that are like fables, and like good prevails over evil in that, in that conclusion bears out in that way, which is something that I pushed on quite a lot. Like sitting in the gray area or that resolutions don't always end up with something good happening at the end, which is how, you know, I felt about Campaign Two the whole time, and also the ending of Campaign Two. But then I was ready to kind of put this in there and maybe tell a different type of story where like, you know, that's why Campaign Three is the way that it is, right? Is like we are in the wake of an ecological catastrophe. And everyone is using it for their own gain, whether as an individual, a state government, or a faction who wants something from being the people who save the Infinite Lake or and find the Salmon and get a wish. So I thought that was fun. And it was more like we're playing in the sandbox, telling the specific story instead of like, and again, not to hate on Star Wars so much, but it's like space monks with cool swords using the power of love come out on top, you know? Like, I'm just so much more interested in the rebellion and like the flaccid senate, more than like the actual good and evil sort of thing.
Brandon: I don't know how you can hate on Star Wars when you say that cool of a sentence out loud.
Julia: I don’t know, man.
Eric: I don't know. They're because—they're all and they're all like wearing robes. I don't know. I like being able to focus on the groups of people bumping into each other trying to get what they want, which is kind of what we're doing here.
Brandon: Yeah, totally.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. Something I appreciate too is that this is not the story of, you know, the waterfall drying up and people figuring it out. It's 50 years later, everyone's still living it. Like, you know, there's people, there are societies there's—there's folks, you know, doing what they have to do. And I think that is so fascinating. Which leads me to one of several great questions from the question surgeon, Michel Spurgeon, which is "how long after the water dried up, is this campaign starting?”
Eric: 50 years.
Brandon: 50 years.
Eric: 50 years, I say-- [laughs]. I get do a whole Avatar: The Last Airbender intro in all episodes now. And it was fun kind of writing that stuff out. But yes, it's 50 years. And that will be clear when we start the actual episodes next week.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Ben Hoove 34, I think picked up on that vibe Eric and said, “Can the salmon give wealth, fame, power, and everything else the world has to offer?”
Eric: Yeah, I love One Piece. You guys are just gonna have to deal with it.
Amanda: I made my Discord banner the One Piece flag waving in the wind.
Eric: Hell yeah dude.
Julia: Incredible.
Eric: Yeah. One Piece is really fun, because it's like, obviously, we're running with like anime protagonists whirl, who are like, incredibly powerful and interesting, and friendship and the relationships carry the day. But like, you know, there's so much other stuff happening around them in terms of like, the World Government, other pirates, more powerful established pirates, the pirates that came before like veteran and like legendary people who are now old. Like, there's a lot of stuff happening. And that's why I wanted to start 50 years later. It's like, there’s 50 years of pirate history, plus everything that happened before the Cascade dry up. And that's the kind of place where I want to live.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Julia: Makes sense.
Amanda: Here is a question from Catowl_dolls, which I hadn't thought about, but really love. “How legal is piracy in Verda Stello? Is it a-okay? Is it fine if you don't bother us? Or is everyone like those damn pirates? And how does this attitude differ between countries?”
Eric: Well, can we look at all of your morality scales, just really quickly, just--
Brandon: I know the spirit of the question, but it's just a funny for me to think about like, is piracy legal? Like that's the—that's just like, oxymoron.
Julia: Listen, privateering was just legal piracy sanctioned by the government during the pirate actual age, they're like—
Brandon: But they didn't call it pirates, Julia.
Julia: Yeah. But like they were pirates to the countries that they weren't serving. You know what I mean?
Eric: They flew the black flag, but underneath there was the colors of the country. You— we've all played Civilization IV, right?
Julia: Obviously.
Eric: Actually a very good question. I'm very interested in, actually Julia, privateers. And like people who do—get what literally what I just said about like who is going out there to pirate? I think that like we're kind of in the pirate zone. I think piracy is bad in the four countries of Verda Stello, but like, where can you be a pirate on a, like the great ringed world when there— like you go pirate on the sea. And it's kind of like there's this no man's land in the middle, where everyone's just kind of fucking figuring shit out. And I think it's interesting about like, who is pirating on behalf of who? Who is going out there, who's doing it for themselves or using—the individuals who are using the opportunities to like leave their life in the countries and go and be a pirate, truly being able to find adventure. I think that's very similar maybe to like, how many colonists sold the American West. How the American Military sold citizens on that, like, you get to go see the world. Go do some cool stuff, and leave your life at home and be a good person. And like whether or not that like is a tasty goal. But like, obviously, there's a lot that's like the machinations of power telling you to go, to follow your dreams. And I think that's similar, though, to maybe some stuff that's happening here. If people are doing it on behalf of the government. I mean, here's some—some great examples. How about the various houses of the Crags. Who are—are they doing it on behalf of the current Crag. So are we doing it on behalf of the current royal who's in power? Who wants to shore up like some sort of actual right to rule? By—by saving the world, by finding the Infinite Lake and getting the Salmon? Or are we doing it with a different house who wants to get justification to kill the current royal, instead of just doing it and then putting themselves in a precarious situation? Is this someone who has been training to become the Builder? And is using this as part of their resume before the next building games that are happening? To eventually become the God King of a Hothouse? Is this a zealous or radical offshoot of somewhere in Overstock, that feels a type of way about something, and then wants to go do something in the—in the pirate area, or maybe they don't even care about the Infinite Lake, they want to do other stuff. Instead, I think there's—and then of course, Open Fields has all their own fucking problems dealing with like the chur— dealing with the church and the religious institutions that are there, and the people who fight on their behalf. So like, there are plenty of institutional powers that want these things. In addition to like, the other factions that are around. I was very inspired by the way that Blades in the Dark plays. I know that we haven't played that here, but I think we've all read, and read the book or have it or have seen it. But like, a big thing about that game is that there are tons of factions within the city that you are like heisting from each other and stealing from each other. Whether they're like a criminal group, or like an institutional group, or a government group. And I think just like having all those folks bouncing around was really fun, and that's something we did in Campaign Two, but I definitely want to lean on that in Campaign 3 because it's like you got—they’re self-selecting of who is out on the Great Salt Sea
Julia: That makes sense.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: There’s a lot of options. Everyone is kind of motivated by various different things and I think that's something we get to explore in this campaign.
Eric: Yeah. It's interesting balancing like people just wanting to be a pirate on one hand and then going after something. Like combining the I guess modus operandi of both One Piece and Dragon Ball. Like I want to go be a pirate and be the best pirate of all time. Plus, once I assemble the Dragon Balls I get the Dragon comes down and gives me a wish. And then etcetera, etcetera. Plus, in putting it in, in this world.
Julia: Hell yeah, dawg.
Amanda: Brae, witching off the coast would like to know, “What made you decide Eric on having four major world powers and what to find those powers? Is there another version of Verda Stello that is more unified, or fractioned? In either case, do you have a lengthy history of the world and its events in your head (or notes) or are you flying by the seat of your p(l)ants" and then Brae put an L in there, so it might be plants or pants.
Eric: Oh, the seat of my plants?
Julia: Yeaaah.
Brandon: Where is the seat of your plants exactly, Eric?
Eric: That's a good point. I think it's the roots? I don't know. Is that what it is? I do wonder this a little bit. I think you all should all go to jointhepartypod.com/verda-stello. Verda-Stello, or check out the link in the episode description where I wrote out the Vexillology of the flags, the history of the flags for all the four countries.
Amanda: Yeah. Eric, was just like give me—give me like 30 minutes. I need to just like write something up for the flag doc and then comes back with like, intense world-building via the flag symbology, and all of us were like, oh, cool.
Eric: I came up with a fake Magna Carta, which was fun for a—
Julia: Natch, obviously.
Eric: For the Kingdom of the Crags, I thought that was fun. Let me post something here. What is everyone's favorite, like, institutional/government structure in worldbuilding? Here or in fantasy stories, or the worlds that have been built from the ground up. Because like, Brandon, I could talk to you for a very long time about how funny it is that there is a —there's an Intergalactic Senate, which is just kind of sitting around doing fucking nothing, while Emperor Palpatine is like dicking around. I find that deeply interesting for Star Wars. And then in the— in the Seventh Tower by Garth Nix.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I know, Amanda, you like that one. How like everything is based on your ability to do color magic, which is fucking awesome, and there's contests, I find that really funny. And also like The Hunger Games, I think is a really interesting government structure. I don't know if you all had examples of how—how that shit gets interesting.
Amanda: I am always really interested in commerce, surprising nobody. So any kind of like network of guilds, merchants, artisans, you know price setting, things like that, I am really fascinated by. And that's when I do enjoy, like, very hard fantasy with capital letters is like, how do you, you know earn membership to a guild, and you know, get allowed to practice? Or how does you know, how does commerce jump up in less regulated zones?
Brandon: I mean, it's surprising no one I also like Star Trek. Just like the Federation of Planets is like, both touched on interesting concepts, and also completely inept in the show and like, is causing problems for the people on the frontlines frequently. And just like the shifting alliances between series, changing all the time is very interesting. But you know, on paper is supposed to be like a functioning government that's like, got it all figured out, as opposed to Star Wars, where it's like, something that has it all figured out on paper, but it's not functioning in any—anyway.
Eric: Yeah. I also like Starfleet Command from Star Trek, because it's just like, an excuse for Captain Kirk to be like, you guys are nerds, and they're like, we know.
Brandon: Well, I don't remember exactly what happens in the original series. But in next gen, like, they're almost an antagonist. Because yeah, to that point, it's like—they're like a quasi-military organization. But there where— their military organization is like exploration and charter people on the front lines, like Picard, or like, hey, you guys are making bad decisions. And you are not here to like have informed ones, and you know, pushing back against that stuff. Calling Data not a person.
Amanda: And then do they say, oopsie!
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Data is a person, leave Data alone. For me, I—kind of similar to Amanda’s, but one of the home games I play is based off of Magic The Gathering. And one of the like, planes in Magic The Gathering that we spent a lot of time in is Ravnica, which is a guild system as well. Where basically like, each guild has a representative that is part of the guild pact. And then each guild is kind of like a different area of society. Like there's a like legit Senate. There's a group that is just like all about like human experimentation and like merging the like humanoid body with like plants and animals and stuff. And it's just like, it's really an interesting way to create a world where it's like, okay, well, if this is stuff you're interested in, you join this guild, and then lead to your life forever, you know what I mean? So I think that's a really interesting way of like, joining people who have specific interests, while also creating a government based around that. And I think that's kind of a neat way to do it. Not to—not to put any gas into Wizards of the Coast at all. But I do think that's an interesting world-building aspect.
Eric: I mean, just to build on that, and like if you guys want to go Privateer because there's a setting book for that, I guess, do that under your black flag, would you have a different color under it? I mean, Julia, a way more interesting version of that is in Owl House, right?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: How the ma— how you get like sorted into magical schools based on what it is. And then you can never do other magic ever, even if you have the ability to do other types of magic. Like I find that deeply interesting and how the school is like complicit in that sorting. And like, making people do one thing, and not doing all of it.
Julia: Right. And I mean, that's just a form of fascism in the content of Owl House itself, which is a whole other story. But yeah, like that is a really interesting aspect of being able to sit outside of, that is basically condemning yourself to being persecuted, which I also think is a really interesting way that they played with that.
Eric: For sure. So yeah, that's where I started. I thought about like, the different places, what are things that they valued, and then after that, immediately came up with some sort of government structure for it. I had seen some tweets going around, and I still don't really understand why—well, I guess I do, but I don't subscribe to it. Like why people are so fucking fascinated by kingdoms and empires. And I think it also has to do with like, you know, us believing for such a long time that the American President, is like a smart and good man, who knows what they're doing and runs things. I mean, even Obama was he was like, an awesome technocrat who was like benevolent, and like, kept all the drones away from— from us. That he was the only one who could run the drones program because he was able to have value in one way or another. And I think like having a big guy at the top or then like a cool lady at the top was always fun. But like, you know, it doesn't give us structure outside of it other than this, like very medieval understanding of what fantasy—of what fantasy is. So I tried to make sure that different people had values. I really wanted the Hothouse to be pragmatic and being about trying to be better. I liked the idea that the Crags wanted to put themselves in tough situations to get valuables. And then I liked the difference between the spiritualism and the hard religiosity, between Overstock and Open Fields. And then like how—like, what do you have too much dogma on one side and not enough dogma in other side and know what it is then. Being like, oh, yeah, well, if you're gonna have kings, this is—listen, I've been watching a lot of The Croon. So I like the turnover of houses and of Kings and Queens, and putting that into the Crags, and then trying to come up with some sort of government system that fit the other three, like the aldermen system in Overstock. The difference between the few and the many oligarchies, plus the religious aspect in Open Fields, and then just kind of the Hunger Games as games for the God, King, Pharaoh type figure in Hothouse.
Brandon: And it's really nice of you to base that off me, and my whole thing of being a God King, you know? I thought that was really nice homage.
Eric: Nothing was funnier than when we—when we picked characters, and I'm like, so what countries were you all interested in, and Brandon's like, I have a problem with authority, so I'm not doing Hothouse! And I'm only exaggerating 20%.
Amanda: I just think it's way more interesting to have a variety of sort of the ways people organize themselves according to their values. Because any—any fantasy world that takes place under you know, one ruler, or one system is going to, you know, leave stuff out. And I think this is really fascinating. And the “you meet in the tavern” of this campaign is you meet as pirates on the—on the great solid sea, right? And like, all of us for different reasons, find ourselves, you know, leaving behind the systems we were raised in, to you know, pursue some higher goal. And I think it's a really interesting cross-section of, you know, people who both have a rooting that is, you know, pun intended, that's different to each other. And for some reason, it doesn't fit them anymore. And I'm really excited to encounter new people, and greenfolk out on the Great Salt Sea, who are also there for their very own reasons. That to me was something I really appreciated about Campaign Two is kind of asking ourselves, like, who is left out of systems and like, you know, every breaking of a rule every, every crime, every use of power is motivated by some need, whether that need is legitimate or not. And so here, you know, everyone else who is pursuing the Salmon has some kind of interesting need, and we're gonna get to encounter that I expect over the course of the campaign.
Brandon: I'm just here to make lox at the end of the day, so—
Julia: It's fair.
Eric: What's the salmon?
Julia: We don't know.
Eric: Sorry. I think I'm looking at my notes and it’s pronounced Salmon, Salmon?
Amanda: @farlsthegm wants to know, “What if any, is Verda Stello is equivalent to devil fruits?” Can you tell us what the devil fruit is in One Piece?
Eric: It's a good point. A devil fruit is kind of the main motivator of the weirdness that happened in–
Brandon: I thought that was just a coconut. That's what you call the—
Eric: That's very funny.
Julia: That’s also–
Eric: No, that's the devil's fruit, Brandon. With an apostrophe.
Amanda: These are devil fruits.
Eric: So a devil fruit basically gives you magical powers. That's why Luffy, the main character, has very stretchy limbs. Because like you basically you eat a fruit, and you get magic powers. And it's kind of like what levels up you from just being like a pirate to being like an anime protagonist, or an anime antagonist for that matter. We don't have anything like that. I can't sh— I can't steal too much from One Piece. But what I do like about it, and the idea of the devil fruit is that pirates, by having a relatively low-tech setting, you can just throw some magical shit in there and it's fine. Like it stretches enough. It's like, alright, there's no battleships, there's no metal, there's no, like, we're gonna have like arcano engines or whatever, I'm sure. Or we'll have engines of some sort, but like, we're not gonna have GPS, we're not gonna have the internet. So that allows magic to flourish in a kind of like, fairy sort of way, right? Like fairies run around when you don't have metal on you at all times.
Amanda: Speaking of metal, Tattooed-N-Tall would like to know, “If plants are sentient, What are ships made out of?”
Julia: But not all plants are sentient. We've already established that. That's kind of the point of the existence of Open Fields, right?
Amanda: Yeah. So here's something else from Dr. Spurgeon. "Is there a deciding factor that grants sentience to a plant or insect?
Eric: Brandon and Julia, what was the God Walt Disney deciding when he created Pluto and then Goofy?
Julia: Sometimes the dog’s just a dog and not a person.
Eric: [laughs]
Julia: I don't know man. Right? Sometimes a dog’s just a dog, not a person.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Got a face. It's a person. No faces is for ships!
Brandon: They wrote that on Walt Disney's gravestone is, sometimes a dog is not a person.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, and then below that said, no Jews allowed.
Amanda: Aw.
Brandon: Yeah. Well, that's above it in big block letters.
Amanda: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: It’s neon, it's always on. Yeah, I mean, I just think it's a— it's just one of those, what is it like splitting evolution sort of things like, you know, that humans came out one way, and chimpanzees came out another way. So there are, there was probably a point at some point. I don't know. I mean, are we gonna go into whether or not there was like divine creation or evolution in Verda Stello? Like, I'm not sure, but like, there are the plant people. And then there are the plants themselves, and they interacted. I just liked the idea of having to like, look at that in the face. And nothing is funnier to me than like having a stat that's like, I don't get freaked out by looking at the occult.
Amanda: I know, that's my favorite part of the world-building.
Brandon: I think you also have to think about like, in Verda Stello, there is a difference between plants and plant people.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Like plants people are not just plants, they gain sentience, they're plant people, they're Green Folk.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: So like, there is a difference between those two things. But also, I was going to make a joke about us making bows out of chimps. So imagine I did that.
Amanda: Oh, no.
Eric: That’s pretty funny.
Amanda: Oh, no. Brandon, I'm gonna decline to imagine it, but thank you for giving me the option.
Julia: I hate it.
Eric: I think I did it in the other way around when I was coming up with Open Fields. I think I was like, I want something—I want there to be some sort of religiosity here and I was really trying not to put myself into like the Christian box, or more specifically, the Catholic Church box, that like every religious creation in fantasy worlds or in created worlds are either my experience with the Catholic Church was good, or my experience of the Catholic Church was bad. So I was trying to do something else. It's like, why would there be some sort of institution? It's because this one country is the one who has to look the unimaginable in the face and be okay with it. And I like the idea that like, farmers have to do then-- It's like a— it's a religion of farmers and I kind of—I just really liked that. I thought it was neat.
Julia: Hell yeah.
Amanda: Same. TJ asked, speaking of farming, “I'm thinking about this world, how do textiles work? Do spider people sell their silk for clothing? Or where do clothes come from?” I imagine a lot of like flaxen you know, like hemp and—and cotton and spinning of all kinds of plants from Open Fields.
Julia: Yeah. I—again, I think that there are probably plants that can be made into clothing, either from the plant giving up flowers, or the spiders weaving silk or what have you, and then again, there's non-sentient plants that we can use. It's fine.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Oh, I was gonna say petroleum products.
Amanda: Oh, no. Plastics only. Yeah, the waterfall turned off, and in the middle was a big offshore drilling platform. Oh, God.
Julia: Drill, baby, drill.
Eric: Yeah, there was a millionaire with an oil derrick at the top of the Cascade, it was fucking wild.
Amanda: BourbonWolf said, “Are there any kind of creatures that Green Folk keep as pets?”
Eric: Yeah. So we didn't get into this, but we did start establishing this as soon as we started playing. We're using Avatar: The Last Airbender rules with our animals, which is that animals exist, but you need to combine it with a plant. Like I don't know if you all remember like—
Brandon: Plantimals.
Eric: Plantimals. Yes. The platypus ducks, notoriously from Avatar The Last Airbender that everyone loves or Appa, the flying bison. You got to combine all this stuff together.
Brandon: When—what do you combine a flying bison with, flight?
Julia: Yeah!
Eric: Yeah!
Julia: It's a bison, it's got extra legs and it can fly. Don't question it, Brandon.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: That's one thing.
Amanda: Your—your—fantas– fantisifying.
Eric: It's like you give it a big tail and extra legs, and also it can fly.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. Badger moles. I use a better one. Badger moles are the—who teaches the earth bending people how to Earthbend, and they're a cross between a badger and a mole, and they're also giant. Yeah.
Julia: And they’re huge, yeah.
Eric: So we're using that as long as you combine a plant with an animal. It's fine. So there are animals.
Julia: Give us an example.
Eric: Oh, Julia, I don't know. Something like I guess like it's a dogwood, but it's a dog that has flowers on it.
Amanda: Cute!
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: And they bark.
Eric (as Dad): Yeah, very good, Brandon. Hey, Bra— hey, hey, kid. Here's a joken for your troubles.
Brandon (as Kid): Aye, thanks, dad. Dad, I guess?
Eric (as Scrooge): Hey, boy, what day is it?
Brandon (as a kid): It's goo— I'll go— I'll go buy your goose, sir. I think I'm mixing things up.
Eric: You—you—you. Brandon, you left three lines too late in the script.
Amanda: No, no, that was the Victorian grandfather of the newsie.
Eric: No, I was doing a Christmas Carol that Brandon skipped forward and did not say it was Christmas.
Brandon: [sings] This is my island in the sun, heatwave!
Amanda: Alright, we're gonna have a little meeting with Brandon about his references in the kitchen, where we–
Eric: Brandon, need some liquid.
Julia: What is happening?
Amanda: As I pop in there to refill our juice tray. Be right back.
[theme]
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda. I don't know if this is an experience that other tea drinkers have, but I often find myself just traveling throughout like to friends' houses and just the world. I'm packing for vacation right now. With just a little zip-lock baggie of tea bags, because I spend a lot of time with coffee drinkers and well I also love coffee. There is nothing especially in the wintertime like a rainy, dreary gray afternoon like it is right now than having a cup of my favorite tea. So welcome to the mid-roll. It's an Assam. Thank you and welcome to our newest patrons, I am so glad that you are as stoked about campaign three as we are. So welcome to Holly, Merrick, Liz, and Minnie, you are all so smart, and brave, and special, and pretty. And you have joined us at patreon.com/jointhepartypod, where everyone else can as well. And take advantage of our patron-only Discord, our bi-weekly video and audio podcast Party Planning and so much more. That's patreon.com/jointhepartypod. Did you know if you don't have enough weekly Join the Party in our life? And if the additional bi-weekly Party Planning you're like, oh, I watch it and then it's Friday and it's over with, and like what do I do? That we stream on Twitch and it's very good and fun, every single Thursday at 3 PM Eastern. The Join the Party crew is over on Twitch making side quests. That means characters, plots, items, settings, and more for you to use at home. We've been doing recently using Hero Forges 3d modeling tool to make some NPCs and animal friends in the sort of Campaign Three world. And Eric has said that at least one of the creatures we have made will find their way into the show. So if you want to join or watch our video replays, go to twitch.tv/jtpsidequests. That link is in the description as well. It is a big weekend Multitude people because Eric has a new show. Tell Me About It is a madcap game show about proving that the things you like are actually interesting. It's hosted by Adal Rifai from Hello from the Magic Tavern which you may have heard of here in the real play space. And Hey, Riddle Riddle one of our very favorite podcasts that Julia and Brandon and Eric and me all quote all the time. And Eric is his co-host, his audio Butler in fact. Because on the show, Adal plays an eccentric billionaire who has wrangled audio Butler Eric, to find different guests and to prove that the single most interesting and cool thing ever in the world, is anything but Adal's favorite the movie musical Grease. That means every episode, a guest comes on to share and defend their favorite thing through a series of absurd games and challenges. At the end, Adal decides, is it actually cooler or better than the movie musical Grease? It's a high bar people. The trailer is out now and the first two episodes drop in just a few days' time on February 23. New episodes after that are going to be every other Thursday. Eric and Brandon with sound design and editing. And many, many Multitude folks have put so much time and effort into this podcast. We've been working on it for over a year. And gosh, I'm just so excited for you to hear it. Tell Me About It is in your podcast app now. Link is in the description. And you know what, it's the most fun podcast run by a multibillionaire, that's for sure. We are sponsored today by Twenty Sided Store, who have expanded recently and opened up a whole new retail location at 280 Grand Street, just a block away from their original spot, which is now turning into an event space. And among many other things, they're hoping to host more live events like live podcasts in the future than they used to. Everything else is the same. There's no changes to their website or anything else. But they are so excited. They've been working so hard on this expansion. And I am so excited for you to see it in person, should you visit New York City or as always to check out their fabulous inventory of games, gaming accessories, dice notebooks, minis, or you know, just go in trying to window shop and then walk out with something fun. That's what I do all the time. So when you visit Twenty Sided Store, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, you can just mention Join the Party and get 20% off your order. Or you can use the code PIRATE for 20% off your order online at twenty, the word sided store.com That's Twenty, T W E N TYsided store.com. We are also sponsored by Cornbread Hemp, which is genuinely the thing responsible for me being a productive member of society who gets enough sleep because I use Cornbread Hemp, USDA-certified organic CBD oil to help me sleep through the night. Use to have a problem where I would wake up in the middle of the night to pee or just from like hearing a loud noise, or whatever and not be able to get back to sleep. And CBD is the only thing that I have found that helps me actually go back to sleep reliably. It was such a lifesaver, and I really love Cornbread Hemp. They are a CBD company based in Kentucky. They are vegan-friendly. By the way, almost all their products are vegan, including CBD oils and gummies, which is not generally through other places. They're a family-owned company. They're crowdfunded, everything is grown and made in Kentucky. One of the founders used to live like a few blocks away from the studio here in Greenpoint. They're— they're lovely people doing this well on their way to becoming a B Corp by the way, which requires an incredible amount of paperwork. And their products are really great. So if you've wondered about CBD, if you want to learn more about it, if you want to read any of the independent lab reports that they have published on their website, all about their products, you should. Go to cornbreadhemp.com and use code Join the Party for 25% off your order. That is cornbreadhemp.com and the code is Join the Party. Finally, the show is sponsored by BetterHelp. And I was saying just a few minutes ago that when I am feeling out of place and not on my best game, I feel like I'm not being my best self. I'm not living my best life. And I really rely on therapy to be able to check in with someone once a week who, you know, her only job is to help me make sure that I'm doing my best, and dealing with the stuff that feels overwhelming and feels bad in my life. Because when I take care of all of that, then I can show up best for others. And, you know, some days it's not my top priority to be nice to myself, but I can sort of jujitsu myself into doing things that I know are good for me. Because I say to myself, well this is how I really show up best for others. And you know, listen, I'm working on that thing too in therapy, but in the meantime, it's very helpful. And if you want to give therapy a try, BetterHelp is a convenient, flexible, and affordable entirely online way to do it. If you want to live a more empowered life, therapy can get you there. Visit betterhelp.com/jointheparty today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterHELP.com/jointheparty. And now back to the show.
[theme]
Eric: Brandon has four different Capri Suns that he's drinking at the same time. I think he's getting liquefied.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: I said hydrated. I meant hydrated, but I said liquefied.
Julia: Brandon is becoming liquefied. He's becoming liquid from the inside out, and we just all have to deal with it now.
Eric: Well, it's Capri Sun, and he's turning into like the Terminator 2 liquid. You know how that was part of the commercials?
Julia: I was just– Eric, same brain, same brain.
Eric: There it is.
Amanda: Alright, we have heard a lot about the world of Verda Stello and how it came to be. But we also of course met our crew in this pregame era. So players, a question from Dr. Spurgeon, “Will it be difficult for you to play a nonhuman character?” And just to peel back the veil, the waterfall a little bit. We played three episodes so far of Campaign Three. So we have a little bit of experience, but not a ton so far. We're still at the you know, at early stages of what it's like to play these characters in this world. Julia, Brandon, how has it gone so far to plan non-human character?
Julia: I mean, I think the Green Folk are people. And I think it's very easy to play a person, you know what I mean?
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: So I don't find that there is much of a difference, knowing that my character is a tea plant, a sentient tea plant, as opposed to, I don't know. Uh, an elf?
Brandon: I—yeah, the only difference is that I get overripe with time, but so—so do people, so.
Julia: Yeah!
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: You get smelly when you're bruised.
Brandon: That's true.
Amanda: It's so funny. Speaking of our ancient friend, Umbi. Mrmicah wants to know. “Brandon, since Umbi is so ancient, is he old enough to remember when the Cascade dried up? And has he been a pirate since the beginning of the tide?”
Brandon: Answer to the first question is, yes. I know—I think it's funnier— like, it's—it's a bit of a joke. But like, I don't think it really matters how exactly old Umbi is, but definitely old enough to have been a person before the Cascade dried up. And then the second question, I think we'll find out more honestly, like, um, you know, it's the beginning of the campaign. We're still figuring out the characters a little bit, like their—their personhood, their lived experiences, but I imagined no, not exactly. I don't know that like, like, do you—do you guys think in the 1700s, or whenever pirates were active? Like, do they call themselves pirates?
Julia: Yes!
Brandon: Like do they—what are their like? We are pirates, arrr!
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: They did?
Julia: Yeah, absolutely. Pirate culture, very strong.
Eric: I think it's a choice. It's like—it's like, oh, I want to go be on the life of the sea. Like you choose to be a sailor, you know, in a very Moby Dick sort of way.
Amanda: And—
Eric: That's your vocation now.
Amanda: And we said in the character creation episode that Umbi might have just like kind of made a bet, or gone to investigate something and look up and be like, oh, I've been on the seas for several months. So—
Brandon: Yeah. I did just crystallize, when Eric was talking about the world-building in the first half of this episode, it crystallized in my head what Umbi's motivation is, so thank you for that Eric.
Eric: Hell yeah.
Julia: Good job, my guy.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Eric: Yeah. Surf’s up my guy, 100%.
Brandon: But yeah, I think Umbi definitely like kind of just like floats around different spots to try to find capital T, Truths. So I think he would put probably call himself a sailor. And then, you know, when you become a sailor who like believes in the Robinhood ethos, you end up a pirate, you know?
Julia: That's fair.
Eric: Yeah. I mean, I think it's fine, you know, having Umbi's be more ambiguous. I mean, it's pretty like, even though Cammie was not explicit about it, like, we can guess maybe that Cammie had a problem and then had to leave. And then we know explicitly what happened to Troy. That Troy is doing some Crag shit.
Brandon: Crag.
Julia: Crag.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Going to Crags.
Eric: So I think that like, having Umbi like, I don't know, he's that old guy. I think that there's nothing wrong with that, while the other two are a little bit more like, not straightforward, but I guess like, quote-unquote, “normal, understandable.” Like a—
Brandon: Yeah, just more solid. Yeah.
Eric: No, not even like more solid, like, typical, commonplace.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: It's like, oh, yeah, well, there are people from Open Fields sometimes don't want to stay in Open Fields. And Cammie is a witch who has a—who has a blight like who got cursed, and then—and with Troy explicitly says all the time. Yeah, man. 100%, I wanted to leave and do some cool shit. So I think there's nothing wrong with that.
Brandon: I just want everyone to think about the reality in which we live, where if a person over the age of 70 just kind of shows up at a spot? You don't question why they're there. You just be like, hey, how you doing? You know?
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: This is a great segue into the second half of Mrmicah’s question, which is, “Eric, how many folks are left that still remember the Cascade? Is there any special reverence or distrust that the population might feel toward them? Thinking about how we think about World War 2 Vets?” That's for example, here in the US.
Brandon: Do people distrust World War 2 vets?
Julia: Yeah, that was my question.
Amanda: No, no. Reverence or distrust, like if you see somebody with like their World War 2 veteran cap, you're like, oh that man is old.
Julia: Thank you for your service.
Eric: Yeah. Interesting, really interesting. Yeah, I think this would be—we didn't really get to go into it. But like, you know, there's been a water crisis in Verda Stello for 50 years. And like, hey, what was it like before we had to worry about that, I think, deserves a certain amount of reverence, or at least like to be the one who has to carry the— carry the story forward. Or maybe it's closer to like, you know, how we get old people to come on to documentaries, to be first-person accounts. Like I don't know if it's necessarily reverence, but it's like, well, they were there so they can tell us what happened. Regardless of whether or not that stuff's true, or whatever. I also—sorry, I also did not want to speak on behalf of Julia and Amanda for their character's motivations. It has felt very clear to me from how you described them during character creation.
Julia: Yeah, that's fine. I'm also— I'm curious, Eric, do you think maybe there's a bit of resentment from the younger generation to the older generation, where it's like, oh, you guys had it so good, when there was water just falling from the sky? Must be nice.
Brandon: I got it. Okay, bloomer.
Eric: Wow!
Amanda: Wow. Brandon, here's a joken.
Brandon: Thanks.
Eric: Yeah, he gets two, he can get two goose for Christmas.
Brandon: Thanks. Thanks. I quit the podcast, I've peaked..
Julia: Okay. Fair enough.
Eric: It's—yeah, that's interesting. I think it might be more about like, resentment towards the people who were supposed to have found the Infinite Lake by now. And like how this has been given over to pirates. It's like, yeah, let's have our most rambunctious, and least responsible people go out there and do the dangerous thing and go do it. Because it's not only, and I think it's—I wanted to do this intentionally. It's not only find the Infinite Lake, in the Infinite Lake is a Salmon, who gives you the wish that you want the most in the world. And like, it's the combination of both like, what if you save the world? And also someone gave you infinite money? Right, like, what if there's a genie at the end? So I think that there's something selfish there. And maybe like, I don't know, maybe there are conspiracies in Overstalk about why the—if the Infinite Lake even exists. Or if the Salmon was extracted from the Infinite Lake, and they already got their wish. I think that there's quite a lot of stuff there about, like, maybe resentment that someone from like, the institutions hasn't fixed the world already.
Amanda: Totally.
Julia: Yeah, that makes sense.
Amanda: Here is a question from Catowl_dolls, “What were your second choices for countries of origin? And Eric, did you have any ideas for countries that didn't make the cut?”
Eric: I did not. I kind of just decided to do four, it was like a four thing. I wanted to have four countries, because and just to give you enough options for character creation. So I kind of just chose the four that I wanted. So no, there are no—there's no secret— secret countries.
Amanda: Players?
Julia: I'm just looking at the notes again. Because I think once Eric said Open Fields, and their whole thing, I was like—
Amanda: You were very decisive.
Julia: —oh yeah, that's it. That's it. That's where we're going.
Amanda: I was really drawn to Hothouse as well. I think Crags was always the most interesting to me, but I really liked the idea of the Builder, and like a civil service-like nation-state, essentially.
Julia: I think if I hadn't gone with Open Fields, I would have done “Unmoored” because that felt right for Cammie's whole thing.
Amanda: That's right.
Julia: But you know—
Amanda: Also so cool.
Julia: —Open Fields just worked out so well. I couldn't say no to it.
Brandon: Yeah, that was my option too was “Unmoored”. But I feel like that's giving into the Brandon impulses too much.
Amanda: Your character can't—your character, you know, motivation can be a little “Unmoored”. But I mean, the world also getting “Unmoored”, is a lot.
Brandon: Totally.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I am glad that someone did Overstock, it did give me the chance to do fuck with their flags the most. Because like some of the older Overstock flags just like were a little too gaudy. And were a little too like at use too many stars. And I finally got get really got into the bullshit, that is people, that is like the aldermans of Overstock and like how self-centered they are, and how, like representational they wanted stuff to be. So like, I'm glad that we kicked that around because I really wanted to understand where this—this particular country was coming from. Like imagine the entire country was like a Liberal Arts College in New Hampshire.
Amanda: Real designed by committee vibes, which I appreciate. And Claire_online, by the way, Eric, less of a— less of a question, more of a comment, “Please design a new US flag. I think it's time for a revamp.”
Brandon: The new Betsy Ross!
Julia: Eric Silver, the new Betsy Ross.
[laughs]
Eric: Listen, I mean, what do you think about the United States flag, it's fucking bananas.
Amanda: I know. During flag design, Eric turns to me and he goes, “Our flag has 50 stars on it.” I'm like, “It does, Honey!”
Julia: Sure it does! Sure does.
Eric: Imagine Betsy Ross was like, alright, folks, we have 13 colonies. Let's have a flag that demonstrates that we have 13. We're gonna put 13 stars on it in this circle. We're gonna put it in this little field. It’s like alright, Betsy, what are you gonna do with the rest? Well, we're gonna remind people that there were 13 of us, by having 13 stripes and like because you just said we have 13 stars. No, we gotta do it twice, people won’t know! What if we get more? Manifest destiny! It's just fucking wild. The whole flag is wild.
Brandon: That's 26. If you do the math cryptology based on the flag, you find the treasure on the back of the Declaration of Independence.
Amanda: Mm-hmm. Very much sound.
Julia: Okay, Brandon.
Eric: I have nothing to add, that's a 100% correct.
Brandon: Okay, Bloomer.
Eric: It explains the secret 13 states of the secret United States. Yeah.
Julia: Famously so.
Amanda: This may be a little bit who can say, but jlbar10 wants to know, what our characters' first impressions of each other work?” And there was also a great question about kind of the way we did in Campaign 1. Remember our little vignettes of our character introductions that we did, and dropped into the feed before Episode 1. @kellymdownes brought that up and said, “I feel like this campaign's world and characters could be really well suited to something similar." And their question was, “When you have a vivid and original world, how do you go about introducing new characters to give a snapshot of their backstory, which as with as much rich detail as the world you've created?” So do we want to say anything about how we're going to introduce these characters and what they think of each other?
Brandon: Well, I think it's important to note that we're kind of starting in media res in the story, and also 50 years after the Cascade is a little bit in media res for the world.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: But like, I think without spoiling, I don't think there's anything I can spoil but like, I think for Umbi, like he was just genuinely impressed with the— the two young ones, you know, prowess and skill, and generosity and welcoming to the old timer on board. So I think it's you know, good stuff.
Amanda: Yeah, there's not something we talked about either like you know, me, Julia, and Brandon didn't like all have a discussion about what our characters thought of each other, or how we got together, how we work together. It's something that we have discovered in play which I think is lovely. Like we—you know, we're opening yeah, in media res. Like we're already a crew, you heard in the base building episode. We— you know, have a base, a ship, we have routines. And I think it's— it's really cool to do that world-building by implication, and not to start with like 40 minutes of narration, but to sort of see and not be told what our dynamic is like.
Julia: Yeah, I agree. I was very pleasantly surprised and that's the only way I'm going to really describe it. Very pleasantly surprised by how quickly it felt that we linked into the team, you know what I mean?
Amanda: Yeah, Michelle Spurgeon also had a very kind thing to say about me saying, "That she's proud of me for my growth and creating Troy, and asked what gave me the confidence to step it up for Campaign 3" And the answer is just all the damn character creation we got to do.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And playing Dr. Bertha Bones and playing the One Shot Derby characters and, and hearing you know, everybody's positive reinforcement to making bolder choices. So thank you all for giving me that.
Julia: Good job. Good job!
Brandon: Woo! Good job.
Amanda: Katja also said, “If all my characters have red hair, will my new character have red petals, flowers, fur, etc.” I'm breaking the mold baby. Troy, Troy has yellow, neon yellow accents. And his clothing is you know, like brown and tan, and blue and black and pirate colors. So you know, trying something new.
Julia: Troy's red-headed in his heart.
Brandon: Maybe Troy has like some red pollen, like just kind of stuck to his--
Amanda: Yeah, maybe like Eric's beard. It looks kind of brown from afar, but reddish when you get it close.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: I’m into it.
Eric: This is not an opportunity for you all to get up close to my beard.
Amanda: Sure. That's my privilege.
Brandon: I live in your beard, Eric.
Eric: No. Is that what Seattle is?
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: Oh, no.
Eric: The Pacific Northwest of my beard.
Amanda: Alright, let's move into a couple questions about our base-building episode, which was so dang fun. And again, click that link in the description for the This is What My Camp is like, and the other short world-building games that Eric has put together, that you can put to use in your own games.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Amanda: Because they’re so much dang fun. So deepspace2121 wants to ask, “What is the crew status in the Big Top? Are they in charge? Or is there a different captain?”
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: Interesting. I was thinking that like you know, we're still kind of like a level one pirate crew. Again, this is for those of you that play Blades In The Dark. Like you're gonna have a base, but you can still be like pretty small time relatively. And I guess like I don't know also those of you who've played like, who've read or watched Ready Player One, you know in this kind of like fucked up meritocracy that exists, where all you need to do is win the thing at the end. Much like finding the easter eggs and the whole thing for whatever. I can't believe I just res— reference Ready Player One as a good thing. Sorry, I'm so sorry. But—but like you know, you can still be have low heat, I guess, as a crew, while still also existing as part of a thing. So like, not necessarily. I don't think there's a captain on the ship. I've always liked that, that none of you guys don't have a captain. But I wonder it's like, you know, various people live on the Big Top. And because it's like a good place to do, but you don't have enough to necessarily like own the island. I don't know maybe in like an Animal Crossing situation that like y'all are the main characters when other people live in the town. I don't know.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I have two things to say. One, we very clearly, if you listened, it's not called the Big Top, guys. It's called The Hold, we dismissed the Big Top.
Julia: Damn. Alright.
Brandon: Let's get your fucking words straight, y'all.
Eric: I thought it was because the three of you are fucking clowns. That's why it’s called that.
Brandon: You made that exact same joke.
Eric: I know, I'm gonna say it again.
Amanda: Consistency baby
Julia: Rule of three, Brandon.
Brandon: And then yeah, I don't know. We'll see what happens when we get there and play. But I always imagined it as like sort of like Tortuga in Disney where like, there's no— it's sort of like a free for all. There's no, no in charge.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: [sings] Just a mystical quest on the island of Tortuga. That's what Michael Bolto would say..
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: If he was a pirate. That's from the Lonely Island song where Micheal Bolton really likes the Pirates of the Caribbean.
Amanda: Alright, here's something important though. @farlsthegm says, “How active is the Home Base volcano? And would erupt traditional lava, hot honey, or something else?”
Brandon: I like hot honey.
Amanda: I like hot honey.
Eric: I thought it was so funny.
Julia: I think we explicitly said it was dormant. But I don't remember.
Brandon: We did, yeah. Well—
Amanda: If, Julia. What if?
Eric: What—what if I just keep rolling D100, and if I get—if I get 69, then it goes off.
Julia: Oh, I mean, I guess?
Eric: I guess that’s pretty cool. I guess we should do it.
Julia: Also, the idea of it being hot honey is very funny, because that just means like the island itself is made of crystallized honey.
Amanda: Yes, yes.
Brandon: I love that.
Amanda: Yeah. There was an ancient beehive in it, and then they were like meh, gonna go somewhere else.
Julia: I was gonna say, used to be the home of a bee god.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: We just came up with the creation myth baby.
Julia: There we go.
Amanda: Not bad.
Brandon: Giant bee gods.
Amanda: It’s not that bad.
Julia: I'm sure there's someone who lives at The Hold that truly believes that's the case.
Amanda: Oh yeah.
Brandon: Eric's wheels are spinning, Eric's like—
Eric: No, it's like no, no, no, fuck the Planter, the Planter is some propaganda. No, it's the bee God!
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: The bee God, made all Verda Stello.
Brandon: Well, you got the planter Eric, but who pollinated the plants, that the plants are planted the fucking bees, Eric! The bees!
Julia: Listen, there are plenty of religions and mythologies where you have a Creator God and then you still have a whole like child God Pantheon underneath. So it's totally fine. We can make it work.
Eric: Right. We have our—who is the Tom Bombadil of Verda Stello? It's the bee God!
Amanda: I love it. This is canon baby. Can't skip the After Parties ever. It’s canon here. J Factorial says, “The kelpie/kelpy discussion made me wonder what would happen if the campaign 3 party saw a horse. My guess is universal horror”
Julia: Who can say?
Amanda: Horse? Tale?
Eric: A straight horse, that'd be—that'd be a lot.
Amanda: Yeah, that'd be a lot. Alright, and let's now close with some questions about the podcast, about you know, little—little meta, a little behind the curtain here. Before we get into spoilers corner.
Brandon: A little behind the veil, the water veil thing.
Amanda: There you go.
Brandon: The Cascade.
Amanda: There you go. Part the Cascade like Moses, and show you our microphones.
Brandon: I don't think I've ever gotten somebody shake it—shaking heads from Julia than this episode.
Julia: I'm not sanctioning your buffoonery this episode, Brandon. Simply am not.
Amanda: So Glass Cat Owl says, “Seeing as Campaign 1 was the 'Party' campaign, Campaign 2 was 'Join', and the Camp Paign was the 'The', is there going to be a running arc or episode naming convention for campaign 3 ”
Brandon: I gave you a good idea, Erice. I don't know if you ran with it or not. But—
Eric: What was it again? Was it “pod”?
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. I don't know if I can backfill “pod” into it, like Party-- Join, Party and The are pretty good. But I don't know if I can put the word pod into every single thing. But I love a-- I love the structuring. And also, I'm shooting to have shorter arcs than we did before. So I think it'll be fun to have like a sort of structuring, and then you'll see more titles in like, Episode 1 2 3 instead of one through 10. I think so. We'll hopefully see more of that if I end up figuring something out.
Amanda: Right on.
Brandon: And if he doesn't, then it's just going to be named Episode 1, Episode 2.
Eric: Episode 1, Part 1. Episode 1, Part 2.
Amanda: Yeah. Deepspace2121 asked "Do podcasts exist in the world of Verda Stello and does the crew listen to Join the Party?
Brandon: They’re seed poding. They’re seed podcast? Seed podcast.
Amanda: They fall from trees, bonk you on the head and you go oh, gravity!
Brandon: And then you look at the seed and it says Joe Rogan written on it.
Julia: Oh, no. It doesn't—doesn't at all. I don't want to live in a world where Joe Rogan exists.
Brandon: Joe Rogan is like a rotten coconut. Y’know?
Eric: Yeah, that's true. And then people love to drink it and like hallucinate.
Julia: Same.
Eric: Yeah, I would not curse our world with podcasts.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Why would I do that?
Julia: Thank you.
Amanda: Brae asked, “You've talked in depth about how using D&D for this campaign was important to you, especially as something separate from what was at the coast is up to. But did you ever consider using a different system for Campaign Three?”
Eric: Good question. I think we were very excited to come back to Dungeons & Dragons. Again, we have been planning. You look this up recently. When do we do our first brainstorm about what we were going to do after Campaign 2?
Amanda: November 2021?
Eric: November 2021. Right. So we knew in November 2021 that we were going to do Monster of the Week, next, and then we're going to return to Dungeons & Dragons. So like, a lot of this stuff has been in the works, especially something that I noted in episode one. You know, we recorded that like months ago. Like, I knew about Linda Codega before they broke the news, I'm just saying. But like, you know, we made these choices before. I feel like now that D&D is like, unpopular because Wizard of the Coast fucking beefed it publicly, and obviously. Now everyone's like, oh, I guess we should learn Pathfinder. Oh, I guess we should play another game. Like we've been working on this for literally a year and a half, two years. So like, we made these decisions, or we're sticking to these decisions. Whatever Wizard of the Coast does, does not affect what we do. Because you know, we're playing a game, we're making this art and it doesn't matter what a—the publisher of the game says. So I just like want to make that clear about our choices. And like, you know, as the tabletop RPG space has matured, games are becoming more and more specific, which is great, because then you get to have a specific experience. But like those games only do that one thing like Blades in the Dark really only does heists. Monster of the Week does this type of thing that I talked about quite a lot during the campaign. After Parties are like monster that we create a Monster of the Week television show. We wanted to play something that was like that had combat, that was action-oriented, that was relatively flexible in terms of genre. And like, we also did not want to learn a new game system. We learned new game systems, many in a row, as you've heard from the campaign, going into the One Shot Derby, and then playing goat party again and the other stuff that we did. So we wanted to come back to D&D and working with Mage Hand Press to do it. It doesn't matter what the—these like big corporations do. It's like we made these decisions about what the art, and what the game, and what the fun would be. And I just think that's important. It's also like a real like, oh, I went to one high school and not the other high school with like Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, you know? As a guy, I grew up in a Pathfinder household. Yeah, we take our shoes off when we go in the door.
Julia: As you should.
Eric: Yeah. And I'm glad that a lot of people are exploring it. But you know, instead of trying to like learn a whole new system, to do something similar to what Dungeons & Dragons does. Even if it is based off of it and improved in some ways, that's just not what we wanted to do.Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I also just personally worry like, about the audience. Like, obviously, probably for the worse Dungeon & Dragons is the most popular game. But like people who aren't at all familiar with TTRPGs, and especially AP podcasts, like if they're going to get into a new one, they're going to get into a D&D game, because they've heard the name D&D, and they're interested in it. And, you know, Pathfinder, if we use Pathfinder, again, for better or worse, like it would just be another roadblock, barrier to entry for folks getting into this sort of like space of TTRPG stuff that we love sharing with people. So, you know, I'm not putting any qualifiers on that. I don't think that's a bad thing, good thing like you can decide that yourself. But I think it's a reality for us as a podcast and a business, you know?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah, it's the same reason why we're still on Patreon. You know where like, there are—there are lots of options. They're all imperfect. This is the one that best suits what we want to do. And saying to somebody you can support us on Patreon means something, and has a name recognition. And someone you know is able to join clearly having an account. Versus saying like, oh, we're in a super obscure thing that you probably don't know about. They don't even know that they want to learn it and a lot of the people I'm really proud about who comes Join the Party from the very beginning, the idea was like other D&D spaces may have made you feel unwelcome this one is for you. And we want to be people's entry point to the wide world of TTRPGs.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. There are Pathfinder games out there. Pathfinder shows out there, burnt cookbook party that has Jenna Stoeber on it, very good. Also really funny, they call themselves a D&D podcast explicitly on their art, they play Pathfinder.
Amanda: So basically you can't tell.
Eric: People make— they make choices about what—how they want to market themselves even when they play something. So I it's— it's funny. Yeah, it's a complicated thing. And it also hurts that like Wizard of Coast fucked it up so hard that they're fracturing the space. I mean, it's—it's true. And I also personally think that Dungeons & Dragons is the best game for actual play. I think that the way that that, that just the game flows, but unless you're doing something that's straight up has no game mechanics is pretty much long form improv. You're not going to find something that's crunchy that also can translate to this. Like I've listened to a lot of Friends at the Table and some of that stuff goes right over my head. I do not know how to play Lancer now, you know what I mean?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Like it's that's— It's tough. It's tough.
Amanda: Well guys, we have so much more to get into and explore in Campaign 3. Gosh, we are so excited to get started. So we have to close with spoilie the corner. Though, may I suggest are we going to call it like something a little more pirate themed, something a little more ship oriented? Maybe this is like the spoilery schooner? Is this the spoil the dinghy? Is this the—the spoilie life preserver! The spoilie cabin.
Eric: How about—how about walk— Spoil the Plank.
Amanda: It's good.
Eric: Does that matter?
Brandon: That's pretty good.
Amanda: Let's go with it.
Eric: The spoil—the spoils nest?
Brandon: The spoilie hold, the spoilie—
Amanda: It's good.
Julia: The crows spoils!
Brandon: The crows spoil?
Eric: The crow spoil!
Amanda: I like spoil the plank. Let's—let's roll with spoil the plank—
Julia: Alright.
Amanda: And we'll let—we'll let people tell us if there's something we're missing. Okay.
Eric: Yarrr! Spoil the plank.
Amanda: Alright. Luluisa said, “Will there be in-world jokes only like in Campaign 1, or pop culture jokes as well like in Campaign 2?”
Eric: First of all, fuck it bless you for listening to us right from the beginning of Campaign 1, when we said that to hold ourselves accountable in 2017.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Bless you that you listen to us, and that—that detail, you remember that.Incredible.
Amanda: Bless you.
Brandon: I mean, from my perspective as an editor like, unless the joke is very fucking good. Like they're gonna be in world.
Julia: Great. Love it.
Amanda: There's gonna—we're—we've really been pushing ourselves with our plant bug and produce puns. And I'm excited to do more of that.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I think it's definitely by doing pirate stuff. It's a little bit less of like that pop culture reference that I used— that we did in Campaign 1 where it's like, it's a fantasy Starbucks, you know what I mean?
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: And by doing pirate stuff is like, well, you know, pirate stuff is different than like, I want to have Air Jordans in my campaign, you know?
Amanda: Yeah. Deep Space said, “With all the talk of kidnapping and theft, is this the Join the Party villain era?”
Brandon: I mean, I think it's Julia's just like influence permeating this entire podcast.
Julia: Coool.
Brandon: Julia’s looking at me like she’s gonna kill me.
Julia: Sure, I'm the villain. It's fine. No worries. All good.
Eric: It's me, I'm the problem.
Julia: I think pirates have a morality scale that you know, is not black and white.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: And it is totally fine to do certain things. If it's in the name of certain things, you know?
Eric: Hey, Julia, can you just insert a supercut of Brandon's character is doing fucked up shit.
Julia: Oh, I shall. I absolutely will. I'm just saying—
Amanda: Is that easy enough for you to turn around in a couple days, yeah?
Julia: Here's the thing, legality is not morality. And that's going to be a key point for this campaign. I feel like.
Amanda: It's true.
Eric: Absolutely.
Brandon: You can't tell almost you're watching us via spy cam. But Julia's sweatshirt does say that. So.
Julia: Legality is not morality.
Amanda: That would be a good merch.
Eric: That would be really funny. It's like a-- and there's like a Salmon in the lake.
Amanda: Well, Eric, speaking of which, amnotagoldfish said, “Pronunciation suggestion on Salmon? Sal moon, and they live on the moon. Which makes me ask, does Verda Stello have a moon? Do they know what moons are?” Who can say?
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: I will say again, shout out to Star Wars for making me think of this. Verda Stello has very similar weather patterns and sun-galaxy shit as ours does because it's a— it's a planet-based thing. And I don't feel like overthinking that the Earth seems to have really worked that one out pretty good.
Julia: Sure. Sure. It makes sense.
Amanda: Maureen, Davy Jones’s stalker says, “Can we get a weekly wild wrestling facts from Julia? I'm not too far into the app yet but I'll be thinking about the upright bass-slinging identical twin-faking guy for a long time.”
Julia: Shout out to Elias.
Amanda: May I suggest a weekly wrestling fact on Join the Party side quests, it's twitch.tv/jtpsidequests.
Julia: There you go.
Brandon: You may suggest it and would recommend it.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Julia: Then I have to like think of facts. Oh, no.
Eric: Julia and you know, no facts regardless of how trivial they are.
Julia: Famously terrible effects.
Eric: If only there was like a quiz of some sort, that was about trivial facts specifically.
Julia: But that doesn't exist or so like I'm just—I'm fucked. So–
Eric: If only like some tavern or alcohol establishment or public–
Amanda: Like a cheap one, but on the—
Eric: What's another word for a public house?
Amanda: Outside of Long Island maybe. Alright, guys, two more spoiler questions, Paul says, “Is everything that the PCs encounter going to be food or bug based or just the green folk? for example, if they encounter Kraken? Is it a regular Kraken or like Kraken with a melon head and Vine tentacles?”
Julia: That!
Eric: That's tight.
Amanda: That. We'll see, Paul.
Eric: That's tight Paul. I'm gonna write that down, Paul.
Amanda: And finally from Marlbell, “How fucking stoked for this campaign are you, on a scale of a small collection of bryophytes aka moss to the world's largest living organism Pando, a colony of quaking aspen clones that occupies 108 acres, and it's estimated to weigh 6000 tons.”
Brandon: I didn't know it had a name. That's cool.
Amanda: That one.
Brandon: That one.
Amanda: That one, Marbell.
Brandon: Woo! Woo!
Amanda: Fuck yeah dude! Woo! Also, you guys haven't even heard the blank yet. So like, you don't even know what's coming.
Eric: That's true oh my God, the blank!
Amanda: You don't even know what's coming.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Sail!
Amanda: And if you're a patron, you will hear much, much more about the blank next Friday after Episode 1 comes out. You're not going to want to miss it.
Eric: Yes. Our Party Planning is going to be uh—
Julia: Off the hook.
Eric: Brandon and I talking. Yeah. Brandon and I are going to talk about the blank and also the other stuff around it. As we like, prepare the blank and the art, and stuff and what it was like. What it was like getting character art and all that stuff. It was fun.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: It's gonna be tight as hell. Thank you for your enthusiasm. Thank you for your fan art. Cammie winning the day. Two fan arts so far. TBD. But we—we love you. I love all of you. I love Verda Stello and I can't wait to pirate it up.
Brandon: This is Amanda's proposal to our audience. Please get married.
Amanda: I’m trying to think about flower wedding, okay. I'll be thinking about that as we go.
Eric: Webster’s dictionary defines a--
Julia: Oh, no.
Brandon: Bye, everyone!
Julia: Later.
Eric: Sail.
Amanda: May your roles trend ever upward.
Transcriptionist: KA
Editor: KM