How did the players reckon with the gala? Who were our new favorite NPCs? And why would Eric threaten our sweet rabbit friend?! All that and more on the Afterparty!
Yom Kippur!
- Listen to Spirits episodes with Rena Rossner (folk tales, Jewish magic, women being heroes) and Veronica Schanoes (Jewish fairy tales).
- Learn more about the High Holidays in this article for beginners and Alma’s Guide to the High Holidays.
- Read Eric on antisemitism in D&D.
- Buy and play Doikyat: A Jewish TTRPG Anthology.
Sponsors
- BetterHelp, a secure online therapy service. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/jointheparty
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Find Us Online
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Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Milo Lane), Co-Producer, Editor, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Aggie O’Hare), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Co-Host (Val Vesuvio), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is a collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast, powered by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. That means a group of friends create a story together, chapter by chapter, that takes us beyond the tabletop to parts unknown. In the first campaign, we explored fantasy adventure, intrigue, magic, and drama. In the newest story, we tackle science, superpowers, a better future, and the responsibility to help others.
Every month, we sit down for the Afterparty, where we break down our game and answer your questions about how to play D&D and other roleplaying games at home. We also have segments at the beginning of each campaign to teach people how to play the game themselves. It’s a party, and you’re invited! Find out more at jointhepartypod.com.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to the Afterparty, where [sighs] I'm so glad to be out of our fancy dress. I'm so glad to be in our casual clothes, here in the Afterparty. Brandon, Julia—how did you enjoy our jaunt into this completely eventless, just really placid, forgettable, kind of Gala?
Brandon: I'm still wearing a tie.
Julia: Why?
Brandon: I don't know. I thought we were dressing up for this. [laughs]
Eric: I was told we were going to talk about the new pumpkin offerings from Dunkin Donuts. So, I feel like I've—this is like an intervention. I feel like you're all looking at me and waiting for me to address something.
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: Well, I’ll say, the new Apple Macchiato at Starbucks? Surprisingly good. I'm not a big pumpkin fan. I like the Apple Macchiato.
Brandon: Did you get the hot or the iced?
Julia: I got the hot, accidentally. I ordered the iced, and they gave me a hot. So, I went home and I just poured it over ice—
[Everyone laughs]
Julia: —and just leaved it there for a little bit. It was very good.
Brandon: Maybe that's the secret!
Julia: It might be the secret. That's a true food hack. That might be the secret hack for the secret menu.
Eric: I love that you said “I got both.” I was—[laughing] I got both the hot and the iced—
Amanda: [Laughs] I’m like, wow, Julia. That’s a power move.
Brandon: My sister literally did do that—she went to go try it, and she just got both [laughs] —
Eric: Oh, that’s smart—
Julia: Listen, if you can down that much coffee, power to you.
Eric: From the Dunkin Donuts side, I will say that the Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew was actually quite good. Don't get any sugar in it, because the—
Julia: [Overlapping] The cream itself—
Eric: [Overlapping] —the foam.
Julia: [Overlapping]—is too sweet already!
Eric: Exactly. The foam on top—you're like drinking in the foam, and then eventually, it will just come down on it. So, like, 70% of the drinking experience was very good. But, then there was a middle 30% where you're just drinking Dunkin Donuts cold brew, with no—no milk, no cream, no sugar, and you're like, Uh, oh. Uh, oh.
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: You gotta do the swirl, Eric. I know the aesthetic is to let it slowly drip down, you gotta do the swirl.
Eric: Julia, you know I'm an Instagram babe.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Why would you think I would do that?
Julia: Well, you take the photo, and then you swirl.
Eric: Oh, like, I'm living my life authentically, Julia? So…
Amanda: Fair enough. And, you know what? You really got to keep it Boston sometimes.
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: And, that requires drinking black coffee with nothing in it.
Eric: [Laughing] Drinking black Dunkin. 100%. Yeah.
Julia: That’s what we call it Jake in my household.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: I thought that Jake was when you walk into a new building and you're like, Oh, really well made.
[Amanda laughs]
Julia: Well, no, The Jake is when we go to the Starbucks that's on the way to the beach, and Jake looks around. He's like, “I don’t know how this passed inspection.”
[Everyone laughs]
Julia: Which is a thing that has happened…
Amanda: [Laughing] Incredible.
Eric: Hey, can we keep talking about this and not you guys yelling at me for touching January?
[Amanda laughs]
Julia: Yes.
Eric: That was the joke, I was trying to—
Brandon: Well, I—I want to give everyone the advice, that you should buy a 24 pack of pumpkin beer in the last weeks of August—
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: —for $12 [laughs].
Eric: Yes.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Shout out fucking—my—one of my favorite beers is coming back, Freaktober from Coney Island. Brandon, it is Cafe Grumpy coffee beans, plus pumpkin.
Brandon: Mhm. Mhm.
Amanda: It’s so good.
Eric: It is so good. One of my favorite beers. So—it's pumpkin season, baby. You know, I'm a fall guy. My fucking power is coming back. And, I'm just like, I'm out here vibing on it. Oh—this was a bunch of years ago, but I went, for Halloween, as the King of Fall.
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: That’s incredible.
Amanda: I didn’t know that.
Julia: I love that for you.
Brandon: [Laughing] Were you just a bag of leaves?
Eric: Well—well, do you remember that Onion article, that was like “Local man really stoked for fall coming back”?
Julia: [Laughs] Yes.
Eric: Yeah, it was—one of their—one of their most popular articles, is—I don't think I got the exact wording right. But, it was something like that. And then, I added on top of it. I am the King of Fall. I'm going to wear a crown. So, what I did was, I wore my flannel outfit that I usually do, my black and—everyone is looking up this article. I'm watching the three of them, while I'm talking, looking up this article. I'm wearing my flannel, my jeans, and my boots. And, then I put on a crown. And, Hetty and I—my best friend Hetty—we took a gold LeMay cape that we bought on Amazon, and then we hot glued a bunch of fake leaves to it. So, that's how I was the King of Fall. Now, you're asking me, is that IP? And, I'd say, no, I just went as the King of Fall [laughs].
Julia: So, the full title of the Onion article is—
Eric: Julia, you could pretend at least that you weren't just looking it up and not listening to me talk about my costume—
Julia: Oh no. I listened to your fantastic outfit choices. But, also—
Eric: Yeah, can y’all say “Ooo” and “Ahh” at least, before you read out this article.
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: It was fantastic.
Eric: Thank you.
Julia: A true champion of the—
Eric: Incredible.
Julia: The full article title is, “Mr. Autumn man, walking down the street with a cup of coffee, wearing a sweater over plaid collared shirt.”
Eric: And that was me.
Brandon: That's very good.
Amanda: That's delightful.
Julia: That’s from 2012.
Brandon: Eric—
Amanda: Should we—
Brandon: Ooo. Ahh.
Julia: Ahh.
Brandon: Ooo! That was for you.
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: We can make a little soundboard of listening noises.
Eric: Ooo, I was—I did—I was paying attention to you! I was listening to you talk! Ooo! Ahh!
Amanda: Should be now talking about the mortal peril of all people we love in Laketown City?
Eric: No, let's just talk about Fall. I don't want to talk— [laughs]
Brandon: Let's! Talk! About! It! Eric's! On! Trial!
Amanda: That's quite true. Brandon and Julia, what are his crimes? What did you love and hate about this gala?
Julia: Well, we know his main crime. The chief crime. The number one crime.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: You threatened our sweet, baby rabbit boy.
Brandon: Correct.
Julia: How dare you, sir?
Eric: I did it. I'll do it again! [laughs]
Julia: Uck, how could you? No remorse…
Eric: I would love to talk about how you saw the gala. Because, I'm like, I have all these notes here. And, I'll talk about them. And, everyone asked the questions. Because, I feel like the idea of the gala was like, Amanda was like, “What if we had a gala?” And then—and then all the players like, “Yes, let's have a gala!” I feel like I made it, and then you interacted with it, and then some shade happened. So, I'd love to know from your all perspective, how you felt about that? And, like, what are things that you were surprised by? And, then I can come in and tell you how it came together. But, I would love to know, like, from your perspective, what happened?
Julia: So, it's really interesting for me re-listening to these episodes, because I remember going into the gala with a game plan. And, it was, Val is going to be on the bottom floor the whole time—
Eric: Right.
Julia: —watching out to make sure nothing goes bad with Dez, and the containment tubes, and the spray gun and stuff like that. And then, almost immediately, that went to shit.
[Everyone laughs]
Julia: And, I blame rolling so well on—what was it, perception or investigation or whatever, and spotting the Somalia? Because, then that took me off the first floor and I feel like that's when—just, Val was everywhere, all of a sudden I was like, “What is happening—?” Even—even I was like what is hap—what?
[Amanda laughs]
Julia: No, go back to the bottom floor. They just wouldn't.
Eric: Hey, here's a fun thing. Sometimes give punchy people other shit to do, so they can't punch—
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: That’s some DM shit for you right there.
Amanda: God dammit,
Julia: I rolled more perception and investigation checks that I think Val ever has in any setting—I think the entire campaign, Val has rolled less perception checks and investigation checks than this past two episodes.
Brandon: Eric, I'm looking at the D&D rulebook, and it says, “Don't do that”? It says give your punchy people, punch?
[Eric laughs]
Julia: Let me punch!
Eric: You—you punch as well but, you know, sometimes the shit catches your eye. I'll go off of—yeah, what is—what did everyone else thing?
Brandon: I have two main thoughts. One, I need to know where and how you practice that voice of the rich clone boy.
[Eric laughs]
Brandon: You're kind of like a fucking Richie Rich impressionist. And then, two, I just want—I think I speak for the entire audience when I say, why do you hate Milo's love life?
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I want to say I was 100% taken aback that you were flirting with Wendy that was—
Brandon: What, after you rejected me from January, after you rejected me from Dr. Morrow— [laughs]
Julia: The Knight of Mirrors…
Brandon: The Knight of Mirrors!
Eric: Yeah, the Knight of Mi— [laughs] the real OTP is Milo/Knight of Mirrors [laughs]. I think Dr. Morrow thinks—Dr. Morrow thinks you're great. Dr. Morrow has also hooked up with your dad—
Julia: So, it's a little weird.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: The relationship’s a little—a little weird.
Eric: Yeah, I was 100% of rise that you flirted with Wendy, cuz Wendy to me. This is all for you, all you Super Smash Bros heads out there, you know, when Kirby sucks out Mr. Game and Watch and then Kirby looks like a totally different sort of art style, where it's just, like, totally matte black, no lines, and then just white holes for eyes? That's what I was imagining Wendy as. And, I'm like, this is just some person who's here and is very overwhelmed by the situation. And, then immediately, famous superhero walks up to her and is like, Hey, you want a heist? And she's like, are you actually secretly a bad guy??
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Like, I intentionally made, like, the—when I, you know, when you're writing NPCs, you just write down—I, for what I do, I write down a few qualities about them. And, I'm like, “Oh, nervous—like, nervous is what I'm gonna go for with Wendy, so you caught me—Eric and Wendy—off guard by talking to them about this. And then, it just so happens that you're listening to dice tell a story. And, the story is, the shadow magic from Kilonova sets off the shadow magic from Wendy, and then we have a problem.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Which, that was very funny.
Julia: You did describe her as being in a Sarah Jessica Parker Sex in the City outfit, though, so I don't blame Milo.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Bottom half—it was bottom half fashion tutu.
Julia: It was very good. That's a great outfit.
Brandon: Look, Milo likes fives, you know.
Eric: [Laughs] Someone—yeah, someone fucking cross stitch that, put it on a pillow, please.
Brandon: This is—this is truly the one downside of the podcasting, is you can't see my wink and nudge when I say “heist”.
[Everyone laughs]
Julia: You can describe your wink and nudge for the podcast.
Brandon: [Laughs] I don't think so, Julia
Julia: Oh no. Okay.
Eric: I wrote a charisma in her head, and she's like, “What are you doing? Do you actually want a heist? I don't, I don't know.”
Amanda: Highly relatable. I, for one, I was very surprised and delighted by the number of new people that we met. I figured this would be an opportunity for, you know, a lot of people from around Laketown City, that we've interacted with, to come to the fore. But, having new folks there was very exciting, and I think sort of high stakes in deciding, like, are you friend? Are you foe? Do you think I'm your friend? Do you think I'm your foe? And, you know, obviously having a science gala, especially—for the record, guys, I was against the trash being there, and lo, I was right—
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: So, that was highly, highly nerve racking [laughs]
Julia: I don't know that the trash—so far, in the episodes that we've—we've put out, I don't think the trash was really the problem. It was more the people coming and getting them.
Brandon: It was more, the trash. You know what I mean?
Julia: That's true. Yeah, the bad guys, human trash.
Amanda: That is definitely true. I guess, I—yeah, we haven't really answered this question in the show yet. But, the fact that Muncher was coming toward it definitely made me think that there was some kind of like, you know, this was obviously a sitting duck kind of target for a super villain—
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: —and I feel like the items may have made it worse. But that's—your right, like, that's not a definitive fact in the show or in the plot yet, so…
Brandon: But, then I wouldn't have been able to do my good rain thing. That's the smartest thing I've done.
Amanda: Create and then destroy water—it was pretty outstanding. Not gonna lie. And I got to stretch!
Eric: That's true. Finally, Multitool gets to stretch, not just down plumbing pipes.
Amanda: Yeah!
Eric: But, in fact, in general, Multitool gets to stretch.
Amanda: But, speaking of all those NPCs, Eric, can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration for them? And, I—I love how specific your outfit descriptions are, I just incredibly enjoyed them and I would love to know where you get your outfits from.
Eric: Yeah—
Julia: I need to know everything about my good girl Lou, and also room.
Eric: Absolutely. I—I'll talk about expose and all that. I'll start with fashion. Sometimes you just Google—you just Google cool shit.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Honestly, shout out to Variety, shout out to The Hollywood Reporter, at all those places that call all of those good outfits together, so I was able to, like, pick them apart. I kind of just googled—I think it was, like, “2021 Grammys,” or “2021 Oscars,” and just saw what people were watching. I panned all over the fashions to try to find interesting ones, because they're also inspirations that I didn't put specifically—I also really like watching award shows. So, there were some people that I knew specifically—like, Carey Mulligan's giant ass dress, I knew was something that I wanted to put in this gala, specifically. So, I just—I kind of noticed a lot of that. And, I'm like, some of those things were put in the back of my head. I also said—it's something that I did for Aunt Min, if you look up the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it has like a Fashion—
Amanda: Institute, yeah.
Eric: Oh, the Fashion Institute in the Met has a database. So, I looked up just some stuff specifically for that, like, that's why I got Aunt Min’s giant pashmina, was from the Met’s big database there. Honestly, I'm not very good at describing fashions. I think that's the problem, is that I don't know how to just, like, come up with shirts. I don't know if you can tell, I also don't know how to describe pants very well. So, I always just do, like, shirt, hair, shoes? [Laughing] I’m always like, they're wearing jeans. I don't know. So, I very much like having a visual reference for me to pull from, but you should totally do that and then send it—well, I know it's a little different because the podcast, but like, in your home game, to send people the photo you're talking about.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Definitely helpful. Yeah, who do we want to talk—who do we want to talk about?
Julia: Lou! I wanna hear about Lou!
Brandon: I want to talk Carey Mulligan!
Amanda: Lou and room!
Eric: Yeah, I also made up Carey Mulligan for the podcast. It’s my own IP.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Yeah, let's talk about Lou and Room that was inspired by Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which is one of the most interesting things to come out of comics in the last few years. It's also kind of like a kids book? Which I thought was really interesting. It's geared towards younger readers. And, that was just, like, a really interesting thing—like, there's the—the archetype of small person/large battering ram, and I wanted to put that into our show. And, I thought that the most interesting way to get in there was through that. I wanted to have a mushroom man. I thought a mushroom man made the most sense. I thought of that. I'm like, that's—that—of course. Like, there needs to be a mushroom that gets so irradiated, it becomes real. And, I wanted to put that in and having the smartest person in Laketown City be a 15-year-old was just very fun for me. And, listen, I love a—I love a chunky boy who goes and eats all the crew today. He has my entire heart.
Julia: He's a good lad.
Amanda: Well, speaking of, here's a good question from Juice CBOS on Instagram: How basically you plan the gala sequence? Like, it's so intricate. How did you know and keep track of who would attend, where they would be, that kind of stuff? And then, they add, Do you think playing the time loop helps you in comprehending some of these really big structures with lots of moving parts?
Eric: Yeah, it was very similar to the time loop. I like doing this more than setting up fights, honestly, because I like having a lot of different people and a lot of different places. And, if you interact with them or you roll high enough on perceptions or whatever, then I get to trigger that accordingly. So, I would much rather have been, like, I want to go to Level Four, than, like, trying to remember everyone's legendary actions, while—and all that stuff. So, I—it's very fun for me, just to do that. A lot of this stuff was built off of the things that happened in previous episodes. For example, putting Dez in the actual gala was something that you all talked about, ended up being important, the interactions that all of you had in different places trigger different things. For example, let's talk about the roof. The—obviously, the entire time you all yelled at me, and you said—obviously, someone's gonna go through that fucking skylight.
[Amanda laughs]
Eric: Like, that's definitely gonna happen, but like, how? Why? Who? Was always something that was going to happen. And, I was waiting I—
Brandon: That was kind of on Multitool, because…it fun. [laughs]
Eric: Exactly, there is a there is 100% an opportunity for someone to fall through the skylight, because something that I put in there was that Painkiller Larson and Big Jeff—this is how they got in there, they were jumping from roof to roof, and then barreled in there at the right time when they were triggered too. So, Tuff Stuff was up there after Multitool, like, peer pressured her into just staying up there, and made her feel real bad about herself. Necessary, but definitely happened. So, she was up there. And, like, in my head, Wyvern was also looking around being like—Wyvern was doing, like, the anime boy intro thing, where it's like, “Oh, I'm running late! I need to get there!” And then, he flew there while holding, like, a cup of coffee in his hand, and like, while tightening his tie. And, he saw that that was happening. And, that's why the two of them fell in through the roof with Painkiller Larson—who was more prepared, because this was an organized heist attempt. So, that's, like, one particular thing, I’m like, that might have been different. And, there was also an opportunity for you all to go through the roof if one of you went on the roof.
Julia: Make sense.
Eric: So, that's how they—that's the kind of stuff, that’s how that works together is like, I'm waiting for a trigger. And then, it will get triggered because I say so or will get triggered because you say so. Everything around there is like, you set up “yes and”, or “no if” situations.
Brandon: So, what you're saying is, by me rolling low, I'm saving everyone's ass [laughs] by not getting attacked?
Eric: N-no?
[Everyone laughs]
Julia: But, I also think this is another great example of you planning moving parts that happen, even if we're not there to trigger them, Eric, which I know is, like, a big thing for the whole campaign as a whole, but also happens in the more minutia, like, events of the night kind of thing. And, I really appreciate that as your DM-ing ability.
Eric: Thank you. I appreciate that. I guess I want you all to feel like the choices you make matter, both in a positive and in a negative way. And, you might not see them, but I want you to know that everything you do 100% matters. And, I need to—even if I'm tweaking a knob to the left or to the right, that is 100% a choice. For example, let's—let's talk about this: Kilonova’s Nat 1 holding to Cosmos, right? Then, that directly has ramifications. Brandon continues to roll low, doesn't see other things, causes trouble in a different way, which then triggers the triplets as it's happening. And then, we have Mack and Maxie and Mason—see, I wrote it down and I remember the names—
Amanda: Aye!
Eric: —and now all of them are running around, and that become Vulcani’s problem in a different way. And, we then learn something new about Wendy—I don't remember if I said this later, but we figured this out through play. Because Brandon rolled on his wild magic table, that became things that Wendy can't control her powers. That was something we figured out—a character beat we figured out through play. And, I thought it was interesting that shadow triggered shadow, because Brandon, you rolled on Pass Without Trace, which is canonically shadow—shadow-y based, right? So, that all had ramifications everywhere. And, I thought it was fun. That's why I do see both D&D and this podcast as episodic. Like, I need to know what happens in the previous episode to figure out what happens in the current episode.
Brandon: Was her not having control of her powers—that was like a direct result of the table? That wasn't something you had already put down on her NBC chart, is what you're saying?
Eric: No, I knew that she was nervous. And, I knew that she was new, but I didn't know, necessarily, if she lost control of them in dark corners. Julia, we talked about this right after, that was in—that was My Hero Academia inspired.
Julia: Mhm. But, that also has, like, ramifications for the campaign in general. Because, now we have people who have superpowers who might not be able to control them, and there's no, like, process in which someone can teach them how to use their powers. And I've been thinking about that, like, since that kind of character reveal has happened. I'm like, oh no, we're gonna have to have like an Academy X, Xavier School—
[Amanda laughs]
Julia: —for gifted people to teach people how to use their powers at some point.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I would love a future jump where we’re all just Professor from now on.
Eric: But, hey, that might be a time—we could just do that as a one shot. We'll slide that in—we’ll have a canonical one shot where you're all older and you're all teachers. Or maybe I'm your—you guys are young students, and I'm the T—I'm you! That can be fun.
Brandon: [Gasps]
Eric: You wanna become NPCs? Then I get to be Milo? that'd be fun.
Amanda: Oh no, too dangerous, too dangerous. Pull back, pull back. [Laughs]
Eric: [Laughs] But yeah 100%. That's like a big theme of the entire campaign, is, like, people not getting the skills from the pre—earlier generation because they're not able to help you.
Amanda: Eric, here two questions that come with a compliment, so fucking deal, okay?
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: This is—this is from Bray: How do you consistently come up with such good shenaniganry? Do you have a big old document somewhere, or are all the little twists and turns mostly improv, or mix of the two? And then, Maya similarly says, Did you always plan are to tie in smaller parts to the main plots? Or, are you just an improv genius? I was so impressed with how the villains from the encounters came back in major ways. Did you always plan that? Or, did you see an opportunity to bring them back at the gala and ran with it?
Eric: There are some who can say—I’ll say Yael’s question first, there are some who can say in this, that there is a reason why these villains are coming back. I think this is also a fun thing—why I like the entanglement so much is that something that, just because they're in the entanglements, doesn't mean they're in cannon. So I get to pull them in, and now Painkiller Larson is one of our favorite villains who keeps showing up his original—remember his original thing on the encounters table was running an MLM? [Laughs]
Amanda: Yeah.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: So, he’s just a guy in a stagecoach—
Amanda: Yeah!
Eric: —and, Aggie defeated him—
Amanda: Yeah!
Eric: —using ah… what was it? Like a parking permit?
Amanda: Yep.
Eric: Yeah [laughs]. And, now he's like—and now he has, like, a cool gun. And he—with a rattlesnake attached, and he's—he's wilding out.
Julia: Eric, I don't mean to correct you—Painkiller Larson is not our favorite villain. Big Jeff.
[Everyone laughs]
Brandon: Thank you. Literally, going to say the exact same thing, Julia.
Amanda: You can't have one without the other. You know?
Eric: That's true. They're—they truly are a pair. We love a big animal lad—
Amanda: We do.
Julia: We do.
Amanda: That’s true.
Eric: So, I will say, that is something intentional. I do bring back villains and tie—try to tie everything together, because it's a city and everything is pretty small. In terms of Bray’s question, how do I come up with good shenaniganry, I want—I want to entertain you all, both the audience and the players, mostly the players. I hope—I'm sorry that it hurts your heart. But, I just want you guys to have fun, and I want to surprise you. You know? It's performing, and I want my audience, whether it's the audience themselves or my players, to laugh and gasp. I think that's what it comes down to. I'm glad you're having a good time. I don't know how to say—I don't know how to say—I'm great [laughs]—I—I don’t know how to say that—
Brandon: I do. You're great! Got ‘em!
Eric: Yeah, tell me—[pauses] Fucking Brandon, you fucking roasting me? Thank you.
Amanda: Yael also ask something that I would love to know, is there anything that characters could have done in setting the site up or putting things together that would have prevented a heist? Is there a parallel universe where we all just had a nice party and had fun?
Eric: Let me flip that on the players. Now that you've seen what happened, would you like to—was there something you wish you had done? And, maybe I can illustrate, maybe, how there might have changed some things? Like, let's do— let's do a Marvel presents, what if—
Amanda: What if—
Eric: —this—
Brandon: Milo was a zombie!
Eric: Yeah. If Milo was British!
[Everyone laughs]
Julia: I wish I had stayed on the bottom floor, because I wish I had been more active in the fight—
Eric: Yes.
Julia: —and what ended up being Threadbare trying into pull people into the portals—I guess? The holes, as you called them in the episode—
Eric: Yep.
Julia: So, I think that might have shortened the process if I was there to physically hold those perhaps?
Eric: For sure.
Julia: I also kind of regret not, like, keeping a closer eye on Aunt Min, because it seems like she was one of the first people taken. And, I'm curious about that.
Eric: For sure. Yeah, you would have done the stuff that Kilonova ended up doing. That would have been a different interaction going round two with Muncher, who’s someone who you already knew. I will say—yeah, let me just tell you, because I realized it didn't do a good job—yeah, the yarn guy’s name is Threadbare. That's not a spoiler, I promise, but if you want to know, people were calling him Mr. Yarn or The Yarn Guy. His name is Threadbare. You can—that's an exclusive for you—those of you listening to the Afterparty.
Julia: Yeah, when you drop to that kind of finale end scene, and we listened to it for the first time, I think I yelled at you on Slack, being like, Threadbare is such a good name, Eric!
[Everyone laughs]
Amanda: How dare you?
Eric: Yeah [laughs], I realized I didn't say it in the episode, I only said it in that. So, that's who we're talking about, Threadbare is the guy.
Amanda: For me, the location was a huge variable. And, I feel like if we had been able to use the museum or maybe a location we've been at before, then potentially we could have done a better job at defending it. I also just now kind of ran through my head like, oh, why didn't we think about asking for any sort of, like, anti-magic or, like, protective tech. But then, that also would have, you know, theoretically prevented us from using our powers to get back at it. So, you know, ultimately it doesn't seem like we could have prevented the heist or the encounter altogether. But, that was kind of where my brain went originally.
Julia: It's also—it was very clearly more organized than I think we suspected at the front—
Amanda: Totally.
Julia: —of the heist. And, I think that made it more difficult, because we didn't know what was coming and how organized these villains would be. It'd be one thing if it was just Painkiller Larson and Big Jeff—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: —but, the fact that they were all working together.
Brandon: Yeah, I think if we had been, like, suspicious of this gala, which I don't know why our characters would have been, then like, we could have done more, like, intense background checks on the guest list and checked everyone out and did the equivalent of a power metal detector as people entered or something. But—
[Amanda laughs]
Brandon: —I don't know why we would have done that, so.
Julia: But, as Amanda likes to always put out, no one suspects the workers in a place like this, so we probably wouldn't have double checked Threadbare, he still would have gotten in.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I hear that social engineering is the best form of the line—
Julia: That’s the line, I couldn't remember—
Amanda: It is. It is.
[Eric laughs]
Brandon: Is Threadbare also a tiny bear made of yarn?
Julia: Ooh! Who can say?
Eric: …Brandon. Hey, man. Hey, can—hey, Brandon. Can you can I talk to you?
Brandon: Yeah, okay.
Eric: Yeah, come over here—
Brandon: Can tell you—can I pitch you this? It cute?
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: It real cute?
Eric: Interesting.
Amanda: I think that's the ship name between Threadbare and Big Jeff—
Eric: And Big Jeff— [laughs]
Amanda: Thread-B-E-A-R.
Eric: Oh, yeah. No. That's very funny. No, but, sorry Brandon. He's not a—he's not a big bear
Brandon: Well, I know—I know he isn't. But, is there also a superhero or villain or—or superhero sidekick named Threadbare Two?
Eric: Hmm…
Brandon: And it’s a tiny little bear?
Eric: [Laughs] Like, Rat Catcher Two?
Julia: I think if he had gotten splashed by the waters of time, that's what would have happened to him.
Brandon: Oh, yeah, that's good.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: In the animal version of Laketown City—
[Amanda laughs]
Eric: —of Join the Party, there is 100%, in an animal universe.
Brandon: Ope! There's another one shot!
Eric: There it is. It’s the animal one. I want to talk to Julia about something specific here. Let's talk about—let's talk about the triplets, let’s talk about the Multitude Triplets.
Julia: Uhuh.
Eric: How do you feel about those charisma checks? Because, I wanted to be very clear, that this was not Enchantment. This was someone making you do something. And like, I didn't want you to be forced to do it. But, I thought it would be interesting that like, you have a citizen in front of you, bothering you, and like, are you going to help them or not? And, it was like, you could have. You ended up doing that. But, you could have ignored them and saw what happened there. And, it was very important for me to keep all the names straight. But, I wanted to know how you felt about that. And then, eventually, one of them trying to chloroform you.
Julia: So, I think the way that I justified failing those charisma rolls in my head is one, this person is extremely persuasive.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: And two, Val was on the lookout for trouble anyway.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: If someone is missing from the party, and there might be something nefarious going on, I think Val would have investigated because that makes sense. If something is, like, gone astray, Val wants to figure out what it is and potentially stop it before it's a problem.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: So, I didn't feel like I was like compelled to do the things that Mason was asking me to do. When it started getting weird and, someone tried to chloroform me and then told me to go to sleep—
[Everyone laughs]
Julia: —that’s when Val was like, actually, fuck this.
Amanda: And, it didn't strike me as unreasonable or suspicious either. I was like, I mean, okay, obviously, we'd rather have Val, you know, available for fighting. But, this makes complete sense that they would go, you know, investigate a citizen in need.
Julia: Right. And, we were kind of all clumped together at that point. I think you two were in the side dealing with the mushroom problem. And, I think I was on the first—no, I had just gotten off the fifth floor—
Eric: Yep.
Julia: —to see if Emily Slaughter was around, because I want to blame her for the Sommelier being there.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Either way, I didn't want to like, come join you guys again, because there was five floors where trouble could be happening. So, kind of spreading out made sense.
Amanda: Totally.
Julia: And, this was also a way that I could investigate several floors quickly, to see if there was a problem.
Eric: For sure. Cool. The only thing that, like, gives me a little bit of solace on that—because it's just like, D&D is not well structured for NPCs making rolls on players. It's only the other way around.
Julia: Mhm.
Eric: So—but I'm like, well, this person is going to use their action to try to persuade Vulcani, and I'm like, Julia, please, would you—would you honor this, if this was happening in play? But, it is very difficult. I feel like it's like, the DM is telling you, you have to do that. But, that's not the case. So, that's why we rolled the competition—it's always a competition.
Julia: Right, And, if they had asked me to do something entirely unreasonable, something that wasn't helping me find my missing sibling, then I probably wouldn't have honored it—
Eric: Sure.
Julia: —because it was—if it was like, hey, come to the roof and then jump off. I wouldn't have done that. Obviously, you know.
Eric: Well, Julia, I roll the 25. So, you have to jump off the fucking rough—
Julia: No—
[Amanda laughs]
Julia: Just, like, the guy tried to chloroform me, it doesn't matter how high you roll! I'm not convinced that, oh, this will be good for me.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: [Mimicking chloroforming Julia] Shh, shh, go to sleep—
Amanda: Speaking of almost flying, is Wendy's name a reference to Peter Pan? We played this game about a month ago. I just realized this yesterday.
[Julia laughs]
Eric: Yes, yes, it is.
Brandon: Yeah, I think you said it during—maybe it wasn't on mic, but you said it at some point. And, I was like, what???
Eric: I did, I did. I said it right before the episode after this. I'm like, hey, just so you guys know. This is a Peter Pan reference.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: And, I think Brandon, also in that voice, said,
Brandon and Eric: [Simultaneously] What???
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: And Ben Hoover on Insta would like to know a little bit more about our dragon intern. So, for anyone who did not listen to Fantasy Party, tell us a little bit about Wyvern.
Eric: Yeah, Wyvern has a cool teen. He just graduated from the Magnet. And, he—he's just out here trying to do this. His only powers are the Dragon Ways—which is very funny. I find superheroes whose powers are only flight very funny—
[Amanda laughs]
Eric: —but you can't do anything else other than fly, which you need, like, super strength and flight, which is why I love him so much. In terms of like, race and class and stuff. Here's the fun thing about NPCs: you don't need to assign them a race and class!
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: They can just be numbers, they can just be stats, so I didn't actually base them off of anything. He's kind of just like, a charismatic dude who can fly, like kinda like, if you were to take an Aarakocra from the Monster Manual and go from there. That's kind of—remember, you don't have to assign classes and races to NPCs that you have.
Brandon: You could just—you could just tell people you base them off me. It's fine.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Yeah, charismatic, little—little teen, little teen with wings. That's Brandon.
Julia: Listen, I still remember in that live show—and, I know the live show is not canon—pretty sure he breathes fire at one point, he rolled a Nat 20—
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: —and breathed fire. So—
Brandon: Maybe he just had the burps after a Red Bull.
Eric: I had to roll—I was not originally going to give him fire powers. And, I think I rolled Nat 20. And, he surprised himself—
Julia: Yes.
Eric: —and breathed—and breathed fire [laughs]. So, in my head, he didn't have those powers, but you only summon them after encouraging him to work. So, maybe he can, over time, but at—[laughs] in the party, he did not have fire powers.
Julia: Okay [laughs]. I really just loved that moment that’s like, “You fundamentally misunderstand my power! Or maybe I do!”
[Everyone laughs]
Amanda: That’s very good. I do have a suspicion that we have a class or subclass that the hive is based off of.
Eric: Yes, the hive is actually based off of a cleric build—
Julia: Hm!
Amanda: Oo!
Julia: Wouldn’t have guessed that.
Eric: Yeah, I really like clerics. I think clerics are really interesting, for those of you looking at magic users. I know that there's a religious connotation to it, but you can change that and do whatever you want. But like, the fact that they can do melee damage and do magic, I think is really powerful. So, I made them like a like a life cleric or a light cleric—I don't remember which I was—I was using that class to NPC thing that I use all the time. But, I’m like, yeah, he has Bee powers, which is why he healed Wyvern by building a little high for him for as a—his arm is in the like—in a hive sling.
Julia: That's so cool. Very cool.
Eric: So, I just—I wanted to throw a healer in there, and I wanted to use bees to do it.
Brandon: And you said you weren't aware—
Amanda: Bees!
Brandon: —of the Marvel guy Swarm, right?
Eric: Is that a thing? Does he do that?
Brandon: He's a swarm of bees, and his name is Swarm.
Eric: Oh, he's actually a swarm of bees, though.
Eric: He’s actually a swarm, yeah.
Julia: Oh yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, a human shape—
Julia: Forgot about this guy.
Eric: Yeah. No, I did not know about him. I—that would have been, like, maybe Swarm, even though I was doing, like, a swarm keeper Ranger. You are bees. There's a character on Friends of the Table right now who has like deep aviary powers who is made out of bees in the set—that same way, but I wanted to have someone who could control bees.
Amanda: But, Hive’s a guy.
Eric: Hive’s a guy. Hive is the dude who loves bees. Like, there's a lot of, like—because I live with Amanda—there's a lot of urban apiarist content comes through our household, and—
Amanda: Oh yeah.
Eric: —that was the thing that I was thinking the most of, like, he lives somewhere in Laketown City and has a bunch of bees on his roof, like a bunch of hives on his roof, and then he uses—that's like his hive.
Brandon: Bees!
Amanda: Bees!
Eric: Yeah, also, saying “bees” is so much fun.
Amanda: Well, I'm going to go back into the kitchen and get us a refill on our chips and dips and guac and all that, but really, I'm going to refresh my Instagram feed up all the urban apiarists I follow—
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I thought you were gonna say I'm gonna actually, I'm gonna go get some bees [laughs].
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: I mean, in our fantasy of the house, where we're having this Afterparty, I do already have bees, but they're sleeping.
Brandon: Aww!
Julia: Sleepy bees!
Amanda: Yeah, sleepy bees.
Eric: Don’t wake up the bees!
Amanda: I won’t. I'll be right back.
Eric: Okay.
[Transition music]
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda. I spent the last several mornings taste testing pumpkin pastries from different coffee shops near me, both local ones and the national chains. And, there is something about leaning into the maybe corny aspects of seasonality of like the exciting stuff that's coming from the new seasons, whether that is smells or tastes or different things that you might wear or different routines that you might have or switching from your iced coffee to-go cup to your hot coffee to-go cup that just really give the year shape and meaning, and I love them. Welcome to the middle. [Gasps] I forgot about that sweater!
Thank you to all of our patrons, and all of you who joined us recently! Sovereign, Rosie, Charlie, Ric, and Aidan. Your support, along with our other incredible patrons, is what makes the show possible, and we could not do it without you. If you want to support Join the Party, get access to all kinds of excellent bonus content, and join the best place on the internet—that's our patron only Discord—you can do it at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. And, we may or may not have some new stuff brewing for our patrons. So, you should get on that Patreon train now, so you can get it as soon as it drops! If it were happening. Theoretically. You know. Totally—it's possible and not at all likely. We've been working very hard on new project. Anyways. Yes. Check out the other shows, also, that are part of the Multitude Collective! I think that you would like Next Stop. This is an audio sitcom written by Eric Silver, directed and edited by Brandon, executive produced by me, and casted and assistant directed by Julia. It is all about the turbulent time of your mid to late 20s, when everyone's changing around you and you worried that you might not catch up. Across its 10 episode first season, Next Stop follows three roommates trials through work, relationships, friendships and more. We watch them grow together as a unit no matter what life throws at them—kind of like a d&d party. And for those of us who grew up watching classic sitcoms, there's nothing more comforting in times of stress and upheaval, but Next Stop is solidly 21st century, that gives audiences something to laugh at, without punching down. Best of all, season one is complete, and you can marathon it in its entirety! Just search for “Next Stop” in your podcast app, or go to nextstopshow.com.
We’re sponsored this week by Inked Gaming. Inked is a company built by gamers for gamers, and has been at the top of their game in supplying their customers with world-class products since they first launched back in 2011—that’s 10 years! Happy birthday, Inked Gaming! From playmats to dice bags, and sleeves to dice themselves, they are your one-stop-shop for quality gaming gear. And since all of us are individuals, and you may not want stuff that’s like the other gamer, they make stuff that makes it easy to customize the way you play—all easily, affordably, and ethically. Because, all artists and creators featured on Inked Gaming receive a commission from products sold with their work—which I can tell you, is not the standard everywhere, it’s rad. And, as part of their sponsorship of this episode, Team Inked has given us a special 10% OFF discount that we’re passing along to you! Just head over to their site at inkedgaming.com/jointheparty, pick out some items and when you’re ready to checkout, use the code: JOINTHEPARTY to receive 10% OFF your order. That’s inkedgaming.com/jointheparty, and use the code “JOINTHEPARTY” to receive 10% off your order.
We are also sponsored by Quip, and I am always here for technology to simplify my life. A couple years ago, I got a, like, battery powered continuous spray bottle, so I can hold down the switch and spray all my plants in a few seconds. It is so much more satisfying and efficient than a regular spray bottle. I know it sounds so minor, but every time I've used it in front of another plant aficionado, they're like, Oh my god! Where'd you get that? It makes a big difference. And that kind of technological simplification is what quip has done for toothbrushes. This is the deal: they have a sensitive sonic vibrations, giving you an effective clean that is also gentle, useful—because my dentist told me that I was brushing too hard, and I was like What do you mean, I'm an overachiever? Yes, it was true. They also have a built in two minute timer, and it pulses every 30 seconds reminding you when to switch sides and clean your whole mouth evenly. Because up to 90% of us don't brush for a full two minutes or don't clean evenly. I just really want to make sure I get to the back of those molars, you know? So, I think I might over focus on those. It happens. And, they’re multi use travel cover works both as a stand, mounts to mirrors, and the slides over the bristles to pack and protect your equip on the go. So helpful to declutter your sink or cabinet and makes traveling with an electric brush much easier. There are no wires or a clunky charger and it runs three months on a single charge. So start getting rewards for brushing your teeth today. Go to getquip.com/jointheparty right now, to save $10 on a quip Smart Electric Toothbrush. That’s $10 off a Smart Electric Toothbrush, at getquip.com/jointheparty. That’s G-E-T-Q-U-I-P dot com, slash JOINTHEPARTY. Quip is the good habits company.
And finally, this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. If there something preventing you from achieving your goals, or interfering with your happiness—like, maybe one of your co-workers spends a lot of time talking to characters that he’s invented for your midroll ads, and then is asking people about their phones and stuff—that could be tough to deal with. And, you want to talk to somebody impartial about the stressors of, you know, dealing with creative people in your workplace. BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone, and live chat sessions with your therapist. You’ll get timely and thoughtful responses—plus you can schedule weekly video or phone sessions, so you won’t ever have to sit in an uncomfortable waiting room—with very, very old issues of The New Yorker— ever again. It’s more affordable than traditional offline counseling and financial aid is available.
Visit betterhelp.com/jointheparty that’s better-h-e-l-p and join the over 2 million people who have taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional. Once more, this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp, and Join the Party listeners get 10% off their first month, at betterhelp.com/jointheparty. B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P dot com slash JOINTHEPARTY. And now, back to the Afterparty!
[Transition music]
Amanda: Okay, don't worry. They're sleeping soundly, guys. I did not wake the bees.
Julia: Okay, good.
Brandon: Amanda, I got a cup of bees! What do I do next?
Julia: Drink it!
Amanda: I’ll put it outside!
[Eric laughs]
Eric: Let’s interrogate this further. Brandon. Where did you get a cup of bees?
Brandon: Eric, I don't know!!!
Julia: You just scooped it from the hive. Whoop!
Amanda: Put it outside to hangout!
Brandon: Okay, they're outside. It's all good, now.
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: Oh, phew. Phew.
Eric: Brandon, will you sound design Of you putting the bees outside?
Julia: No, cuz I would have to do it.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Julia, can you sound design, now he's going from inside to outside? [laughs]
Julia: No…
Eric: Just put a low buzz like to the left for the—
Amanda: Oh no, this is going to be a hazard for anyone who's driving right now.
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: Let's get into some more game and character questions. So, Blue Moss on Twitter says, we made jokes about Val having a side kick this episode. But, I'm curious: if each of your characters had the chance to take on a sidekick, who would they be? I mean, mostly in terms of superhero identity. But, if you have like actual NPCs you could ask, that also works.
Brandon: Threadbear, the tiny bear. Made of yarn.
Amanda: [Laughs] That’d be so adorable.
Julia: Explain how they would work with your aesthetic?
Brandon: Um, I mean, do sidekicks need to? Like, does Robin match with Batman? I don’t think so…
Julia: I mean, he's an unpowered person who has tech and fights with martial arts.
Eric: And both of their names are small outdoor flying animals.
Brandon: Yeah, but like, Batman is like dark detective and Robin is like multicolored—
Julia: Sure, the early Robins were, but if you start thinking about like Nightwing—
Brandon: Sure.
Julia: —and like, Tim Drake’s Robin—
Brandon: Sure.
Julia: —and Damian Wayne.
Brandon: Yeah…
Julia: Not to, “Um, actually,” you, Brandon. But…
Brandon: So then, I think Threadbear would, like, disappear and reappear by like unspooling. You know?
Julia: That's cute.
Brandon: And like, the yarn going across the ground, or whatever.
Eric: That's terrifying. That—which fits your aesthetic.
Brandon: Mhm. Also, Milo’s a bear [laughs].
Eric: In this universe, Kilonova is also a bear.
[Eric and Brandon laugh]
Amanda: We haven't had an opportunity to do this in the game yet. But, I think Multitool would work really well with a sidekick who does really good, like, up close damage. And then, I could use my like slingshot or trampoline, you know, or—or extendo functions to like drop them in places or, you know, slingshot them places, or be a trampoline and like bounce them places. That'd be really fun.
Brandon: I love that.
Eric: That would be sick. Would it be a person? Would it be an animal?
Brandon: Cannon Ball! Their name is Cannon Ball!!!
Amanda: Hm…Their name’s Cannon Ball, and I think they are a raccoon.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Wow!
Amanda: Because, they can get roll round. Good in darkness. Bandit appearance.
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: And then, when they get all up there, the scratch and claw!
Brandon: They have thumbs!
Amanda: Don't want to face full of Raccoon, now, do ya?
Brandon: No.
Amanda: Yeah, that's quite true. Thumbs—I bet they'd have very high deck checks.
Eric: Hm…
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: My instinct is to go for like, an also a very strong person who can like throw me fastball special style, like Colossus and Wolverine in The X-Men. But, also the idea that just popped into my head was, Seafood Hero. And I was like, huh?
Amanda: [Laughs] Let’s go with that, Julia. Yeah!
Brandon: What—
Eric: Seafood Hero, feels like—
Brandon: —continue. No, no, Eric, hang on—
Eric: [Laughs] Sorry.
Brandon: Julia. What? [laughs]
Julia: So, I'm thinking of—we mentioned a lot of My Hero Academia in this episode—
Eric: I was just gonna say that, yeah.
Julia: —I was thinking of Son Eater, who gains the powers of any food that he eats. So, for example, if he eats—
Amanda: Oh, that’s very good.
Julia: —calamari or like, octopus, he gets tentacles.
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: Is he sticky? Is he always a little bit sticky?
Julia: Mhm. Always a little bit sticky.
Amanda: Wow.
Eric: The Seafood Hero, I was just gonna say, he's 100% My Hero Academia.
Julia: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Eric: It's—it’s like, a… like, King Crab! The Seafood Hero!
[Amanda laughs]
Eric: King Crab crushes you with his arms! But, don't get too close, or you’ll get that butter all Amanda: [Laughing] Yes.
Brandon: That was the name of my band in high school.
Julia: King Crab?
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Butter All Over?
Brandon: [Stage whispering] That’s actually true!
Julia: What? No…what??
Eric: Really?
Brandon: King Crabs, yeah.
Eric: Wow…
Julia: Brandon…
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: Brandon…
[Brandon laughs louder]
Eric: I can’t believe your real bad in high school was Butter All Over. That's wild.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I love how we slowly learn more and more about Brandon, where Brenda is like actually, ah, you said something true. It's like—
[Amanda laughs]
Eric: —you're like—you're walking around in a dark room, and you put your hand on something. That's what it feel—that's how I feel [laughs].
Brandon: And I like the fact that, because it's me, even if I say something is true, do you think—do you know it's real? Are you sure it's true?
Julia: You could be lying to all of us. Is your name really Brandon?
Brandon: Who can say!
Eric: I actually did take a look at Brandon's ID card, when we were working together and his real name is actually Brampton.
Julia: Ah, that makes sense. Explains it all.
Eric: The D was actually back—upside down. It was reversed, [laughing] It’s Brampton.
Julia: Amanda, save us! Save us from this!
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: Uh, I’m just enjoying myself. Well, let's just get deeper in our in our pop culture rabbit hole, then, Moss on Instagram asks what our characters opinions on the DC TV shows are, now that we're superheroes?
Eric: These are like the, used to be on the CW—
Amanda: Like, Arrow, Flash—The Flash?
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Like that? I know Julia and I really liked the Flash show.
Julia: The Flash show was very good. Val fucking loves the Harley Quinn animated series.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: That's not even a question. Val loves it so much. Val wants to date Poison Ivy from that show.
Eric: Sure.
Brandon: I bet Hitomi could dress up as Poison Ivy for Halloween.
Julia: Oh, bet. Yeah.
Eric: Oh my god. That's a fucking Halloween costume, is Hitomi and Val dressed up as Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.
Amanda: Oh, God…
Eric: And, like, if you know that Val is Vulcani, you're like, you are playing with fire. But, like, everyone else is like, Oh my god, cute costume!
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I was thinking about this question a lot, because it's like, you know how wild it is, when you watch Riverdale, and you're like, that's not what High School is like. Like, I can only imagine it's, like, 100 times more for superheroes—
Julia: Oh, I see. I misunderstood the point of the question. Agreed.
Eric: No, this is just how I was seeing—how I was seeing it, was like, this must be wild seeing, like, the CW/HBO Max version of your life—
Amanda: Yeah, right.
Eric: —being rendered like this, where it's like, all kisses and—and like lots of shadow—
Amanda: Milo’s like, “I’ve never once kissed!”
[Everyone laughs]
Brandon: Eric, I don't know what your high school was like, but mine was just all kisses and shadows [laughs].
[Amanda laughs]
Julia: Val’s just screaming at the Super Girl show, being like, “Everyone would know that's her!”
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Yeah, exactly! Yeah, yeah, yeah, But no, that's just how I interpreted, like, the incredible dramatizing of your—of your actual life.
Julia: No, I truly love that. That's great.
Brandon: Meanwhile, I think the reality is more like Doom Patrol, where everything is, there's only one competent superhero and everything else is a comedy of errors—
Amanda: [Laughs] Very true.
Eric: You're like, I wish Brendan Frasier was on my superhero team! That would be great!
Brandon: I do.
Amanda: I do. This comes from Michelle Spurgeon, Brandon, is part of the fun of just this whole thing setting yourself up for the pain via goofs, or do you forget how Eric can be?
Brandon: [Laughs] Well, as I am—famously, no, I have momento’s disease. So, I forget that Eric is—I forget how Eric can be every time.
[Everyone laughs]
Amanda: Eric, do you think about the little temptations for player Brandon in the game?
Eric: I don't have to give Brandon temptations, he’ll do something else. I'm more like, I want to feel like this is justified. I don't want to punish Brandon for doing wild shit. There's like a very fine line in all games. But, I think that—it's even harder in recorded game, because you don't want a chaotic player who's going to do something insane and throw everything off the rails. But, you do want original and strong choices. And, I think Brandon always make strong choices. And, I'm at the point where I can deal with this as a DM. Brandon—Brandon's been my player for a very long time. I think that—spoilers for campaign one—but I realized that there was a moment—Brandon, I don’t know if you remember—when, in bachelorette party, where the Tracy like wanted to fucking bail, because there was no reason for Tracy to be there at all. And, I think you—you were like, I want to see what happens. I want to see what you do with this. And, I was like, Okay, I can give you something. But, you always want to make sure your players have something they want, so you can dangle something in front of them to give them intention. But, like, allow Brandon make strong choices as much as he wants, it's—it's—unfortunately, it's the dice’s fault that he keeps rolling so low.
Brandon: That's true. Yeah, I think the—the bit in Bachelorette Party is a little bit more on the side of like, not fun, chaotic character, like cuz, I was still learning—
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: —how to play, really. But, I think—yeah, Eric and I—because we've both known each other and play D&D together for so long that, like, now we have this like, private, like, tet on tet, where we like—I push a little bit one way, see if you'll push it a little bit the other way. And, then if we could end up in the middle and somewhere interesting, or like a third place and somewhere interesting. And that's—that's great. That's what we want to do.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Like, there is definitely a fine line between, like, what Eric said, of like, I'm trying to make strong and original choices, always, because I want to both push where—what D&D is—like, I find it boring if I'm just, like, you know, I cast a spell that does damage! Like, that's—that's boring to me. So, like, I'm always trying to find that middle ground of—of what's interesting and possible within the rules, and also interesting and possible within Eric's world that's not going to break anything. And, also be fun for the listener. So, it's—it's a lot of trust in Eric [laughs].
Eric: Yes, that's the thing, is like, you got to be able to trust your—your DM, and I trust you that you're not gonna fuck me up, and like, we'll just see—we'll see what happens. Yeah, I also want to emphasize, it's the rolls also, if Brandon was rolling better, things would go differently. Remember, Brandon rolled a Nat 1, which is why he got disadvantage on perception checks. And then, the—the mechanic Brandon wanted exploded on him. And, that's why he got 30 damage from Wendy's shadow. So, it's just like, I don't want to adjudicate whether or not strong choices are good. I—the dice tell me whether or not, what happens next, so I don't want anyone to think that like I'm punishing Brandon, but, like, it's fun. It's fun. I think—I think it's hilarious.
Brandon: I hope no one thinks that. Like, I don't ever feel punished and definitely not. I might have said that on mic, because it's—because I was joking. But, no, I'm never punished—Eric’s never punished me for anything.
Eric: Just, like, in my DM heart, I'm like, I really hope Brandon doesn't think I'm punishing him.
Brandon: No. No, no, no.
Eric: But, it's like, but if he does something wild, like, it's gonna be a hard roll. Like, that's the—that is the thing. Here, this is a good example. How about throwing the—the treat at Megamuncher?
[Amanda laughs]
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Here's—this is always a thing a DM can do, you can say, this is wild. Roll on it. And, like a lot of—I got this from Dimension 20, Brennan Lee Mulligan says to Ally Beardsley, roll a Nat 20, see what if you roll a Nat 20, yes.
Julia: I just love that it's a fuck around and find out what happens.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, like, you don't want to do it—I—you never want to do it in a situation where if you roll below, like, a Nat 20, you get a lot of damage. It's always like, see— it's either, yes, or this does not happen. So, that's why I said—I'm like, hey, roll—I’m giving you a 15% chance that Megamuncher eats this, because you told me that you tricked me to say that Megamuncher loved eating concrete. And, I want to see—I want to see what happens next.
Brandon: I think it's also important, in that instance, something to point out that Eric does a lot is to reinforce to your player that like, hey, I love this idea. I'm on your side. This is super fun. It's still hard as fuck to actually do in reality [laughs].
Eric: Yeah. It should never be, like, wow, this is gonna fuck up my shit, or I have to do a lot of improv to fit this into the thing. It's just like, let's see what the dice says. Like, that's—it’s not my call. It is very important.
Amanda: That’s the beauty of the game!
Eric: Yeah. There's also just like a lot tied up—we just said a lot of things about like chaotic choices, and that the implication of magic users in Dungeons and Dragons, that magic users just cast spells, but those spells are—all spells are incredibly OP—
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: —and if only there was a place for us to talk about the crunchiness of Dungeons and Dragons more.
Amanda: Oh! That'd a really nice, like, for our existing patrons—because we love and support them and appreciate them so much, and, they keep the show going—if we were to just, I don’t know, come up with something, some extra content that they can really enjoy that—that delves into the crunchier side of TTRPG’s.
Brandon: We could call it… Granola Party!
Amanda: Ooo!
Eric: Nailed it [laughs]
Brandon: For the crunch!
Amanda: Okay! Okay! You know what guys? Don’t throw this one out?
[Everyone laughs]
Amanda: Let’s keep this one on the board!
Julia: Granola Party is gonna be our Patreon exclusive, where Amanda just, like, shares recipes now.
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: That's the next one shot I DM, and it is, once more, going to be all about Bigfoot.
Eric: I thought it was “Amanda straps a GoPro to herself and goes on a hike and just talks about how the hike is going—”
[Amanda laughs]
Eric: And, it's just like, three hours unedited—
Amanda: Look at that leaf! Look at that leaf! Damn, look at that leaf!
Eric: A lot of heavy breathing in between saying, “Oh look, there's a squirrel!”
[Everyone laughs]
Amanda: I’m glad my brand is strong enough that all three of you associate the word “granola” with me.
Eric: [Laughing] Just like, out of all of us? It's def—it’s 100%—
Amanda: This is true. Julia does a good trail snacks when mushroom hunting though.
Julia: I do. It's mostly almonds though. Just like packs of almonds, maybe some Craisins.
Brandon: And, mushroom hunting is what you call doing mushrooms [laughs].
Julia: Yeah, that's when I take some mushrooms and then I get really high and I go into the woods.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Hell yeah.
Brandon: Lots of really good snacks.
Amanda: I had a dream last night that I take care of a bunch of baby birds, and I had to like—
[Everyone laughs]
Amanda: —walk around my neighborhood finding suitable, like, seeds and nuts to give them, and I didn't give them the mix I had at home, because it had dried cranberries, I was worried about the sugar.
Julia: You could—you could just pick the little cranberries out—
Brandon: Y’all this episode’s wild—[laughs]
Amanda: I think I was worried about—about—
Julia: Residuals?
Amanda: Or like, being organic enough? I don't remember. Anyway, let's move on to clarification corner.
[Everyone laughs]
Amanda: Bernie MPI on Twitter says, Question, I have two. Did I miss it? Are there two kinds of one-up mushrooms, a one-up and a, like, negative one? Because, wouldn't that boost the power to the items if it Dez were to use a one-up mushroom on them?
Eric: I'm just gonna say this, and hopefully it's not spoiling. Let's go. One, when you eat a one-up mushroom, it improves your powers. That is something that we've—that we've established. Also, one-up mushrooms have bio-electric power within it, which can be used as a battery maybe for those of you who have bought the Hello, Laketown City, is something we've touched on a little there, with Jaw Justice, who is a bio engineer who powered her biomechanical jaws and—and punching helpers with the energy from a one-up mushroom. Also, it seems that the bear spray that Aggie has is also made up of one-up mushroom stuff that might be connected to some of the stuff that the youtubers had as well. Those—that's all purple, that is the color of this, and it seems like it's all put together, so—
Amanda: And, the color of your energy.
Eric: Well—[singing] purple is the color of your energy! So, these—all things are tied together, they're used for different things. One-up mushrooms have a lot of different uses. So, it's a little loose in that, but I think that there is a certain amount of scienceness that happens here, that you cannot be used for. Like, they—you process one-up mushrooms, then they become negative mushrooms.
Amanda: So, same—same mushroom but different applications, perhaps. Soup Dumpling would like to know, as a building professional, are their equal inaccessible access other than that shitty elevator? [Laughs] I think that's the historic elevator, and there was also a good elevator that perhaps, we did not know it was there/
Eric: Yeah, there—there are, accessible—I was very clear in my head there were other working elevators, that was just the elevator that had been there since the creation of the building. T
Julia: here's definitely, like, a freight elevator or something like that.
Amanda: As well, yeah.
Eric: For sure.
Brandon: There’s also a fun—because the building is square, there's a ramp that starts at the top and just goes all the way down, that you can go down, because it's fun [Laughs]
Eric: Oh, like the—like the Guggenheim!
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah!
Julia: I almost said, “the Guttenberg,” but I knew that was wrong.
[Amanda laughs]
Brandon: Oh no, is the Guggenheim the Gutenberg now!
Julia: Oh, no!
Amanda: Goddamn.
Eric: You all know that I worked at the Guggenheim—
Brandon: What?
Eric: —as part of an art installation?
Brandon: What?
Julia: What?
Eric: Yeah, there was a—it was, like, a living art installation, where you talk to people through different generations as you walked up the Guggenheim. And, I was—this was in college, and I did—like, I did it for fun. It was, I—so, I had, like, a Guggenheim ID for a little while. It was super fun.
Julia: That's cool.
Eric: It was—but no, Brandon. I love that. I also want to give 10 Dungeons and Dragons points to Brandon, who prompted me, asking me for more details about what Eight Square Plaza looked like. One of the things I'm working on, as a Dungeon Master, is describing things in better. Fashion, and people and places more. And, I appreciate being prompted to do that, because I was trying really hard to paint a picture with my words.
Brandon: Can I exchange my 10 points for an eraser?
Eric: No, you can only get a sticky hand.
Amanda: That’s swell.
Brandon: That's cool. That's good. I like sticky hands.
Amanda: Little bit of lint on it, though.
Eric: Yeah. It gets on sticky after, like, three uses, so be careful.
Brandon: [Laughs] Adding that to my items!
Eric: [Laughs] “Sticky hands—” It does 1d—1 damage.
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: To you, though. To the wielder.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah [laughs], cause it slings back and hits you in the face.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Onion_federal on Insta—great name—says, What software do you use to design your Insta posts? And, how did you get into it?
Everyone: Ahhh!
Amanda: You've activated Eric's trap card!
Brandon: We're gonna leave. Eric, you got it? [laughs]
Amanda: Yeah, all right. Cool. Thanks. See you later!
Eric: Hey, y'all fucking buy ads on our podcast, Canva, y'all. Canva is the best—
Amanda: I've been trying to get them to have ads on the podcast so listen, sponsored or not, we love Canva so much—
Eric: Tweet at Canva, and saying the Join the Party loves them.
Brandon: Yeah, please do. I saw an ad for Canva on Hulu while I was watching the other day, so—
Julia: Oh yeah! I saw one recently on television as well.
Brandon: Mhm. They’re doing it.
Amanda: But, yeah—Canva has a pro plan where you can save, like, your color schemes and use more assets, but the free one is also really good.
Julia: Mhm.
Amanda: And then, before we get into the end of the show, Christian the Just Okay on Insta said, I just wanted to say that Join the Paper inspired me to ask spicy questions at my executives’ Q&A—yeah!
Julia: Yeah!
Amanda: literally nothing makes me happier to hear than this.
Julia: Excellent.
Eric: Incredible.
Amanda: Incredible. A+.
Eric: Tell us the questions. [Laughs] Tell us the tight questions that you did.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: Um, Mr. CEO—what the fuck??
Eric: Hey, when you were giving yourself a massive bonus, why did you cut our hours?
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Before we go to spoily corner, I want to give a quick shout out to some content we've been doing on Multitude—on Spirits, specifically. I've talked about this on Twitter a little bit—Yom Kippur is coming up, Rosh Hashanah just went by for those who don't know the most important holidays in the Jewish calendar, like, the—it's the New Year, then Yom Kippur is where you repent and fast and all that stuff. GenCon, one of the largest nerd conventions in the entire world, if not the country, decided a while ago that they were going to keep their 2021 convention and it was going to run during Yom Kippur. And, on its face, one, that fucking sucks. But, the other things that happened, because that is two, Jews reach out to them and told them that that sucked. And, they were like, Oh, well, instead, we're going to do Yom Kippur services there. Would you like that? Is that good for you? And no, that's not good, because I'm fasting and why would I spend the most important—one of the most important holiday in my religious calendar at a convention with lots of other people, while I haven't eaten for 25 hours, and I—you're not allowed to like shower and wash yourself? So, no, I don't want to do that in front of other people. And then, three, when places ignore the voices of Jews, is it an opportunity for antisemites and Nazis and white supremacists to be like, Oh, they're good! I like them! And, to pile on. So, it's quite—it's a whole thing. So, some counterprogramming for those of you who are not going to GenCon, because they fucking suck, check out the episodes from Spirits with Rena Rossner on folktales, Jewish magic, and women being heroes, and Veronica Schanoes
and Jewish fairy tales. You guys, those were two particularly wonderful interviews, and I wanted to point some direction about like, hey, your fantasy, once again, does not need the Catholic Church in it. And, I've tried to find some writers that do that as well. And, for Rena Rosner and Veronica Shanes are two that are doing some really cool shit, then they want on Spirits and talked about it.
Brandon: That's awesome.
Amanda: Listen to the eps, by their books. They're really, really good.
Brandon: I also recently read a con—an article on The Conversation from an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder that was just, like, an explainer of the Jewish High Holidays, which, as someone who grew up in Texas and didn't know any of this stuff, it was a really great little primer on—on all of it. So, y'all should go look that up and educate and learn more about it.
Eric: Yeah, that sounds great. We'll put that in the episode description. Also, read my article from Alma that I wrote about—
Amanda: I was gonna say, Eric, have you written about Judaism and fantasy?
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Hey, weird that other websites other than Jewish websites don't want my pitches about the way that Judaism interacts with fantasy and role playing games, weird. But, I did write that one on Alma, so you should all check that.
Brandon: Yeah, definitely.
Amanda: Very cool. So, click down in the description, give yourself a little day of counterprogramming. And, right on.
Eric: Alright, let's go to spoil a corner.
Amanda: Have an easy fast, y’all!
Brandon: Alright, I'm hopping into it!
Julia: Woo!
Brandon: I'm here.
Amanda: Okay. Are we ready? Are we feeling it—feeling good?
Eric: I'm ready.
Amanda: All right. From a DC MacGyver on Twitter, I know you said Eight Square Plaza is named after the types of bricks used to construct, it but I can't help but think of it as 8 squared is 64. My mind jumps to computers—64 bit, Giga bear…any connection?
Julia: Who can say?
Amanda: Brandon is shaking—
Brandon: My mind is blown!
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: This is—for all of you—this is the Matrix trailer for me, like you fucking—
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: —[laughing] opened up my mind…
Amanda: Emma Moran on Insta, does Byron Xorn have power since everyone else who was targeted by the yarn does and also he named after Swedish painter Anders Zorn?
Eric: Oo, who can say—Byron Xorn is X-O-R-N, that is based off of an—of an NPC. Y'all, I do use NPC names, for those of you at the $10 Tier. I want you to know, I do not shout them out—
Amanda: Oh, that was a patron name?
Eric: That was a patron name—
Amanda: Oh, hell yeah!
Eric: Someone—someone had the word Xorn in their name, so I used that.
Julia: It's a cool name.
Eric: Just want you to know, I do use those names. I might not shout it out, but I definitely do.
Brandon: Yeah, definitely listen and find them. And, if it sounds anything remotely like your name, it's probably your name [laughs].
Amanda: Neela Python on Insta, Is yarn evil now? I have to know. [Laughs] Who can say?
Julia: Yes, all knitters are now evil. Sorry guys.
Amanda: The question, Surgeon Michelle Spurgeon, Was Emily and company kidnapped or were they conspirators? Michelle, I’d fucking like to know me. Okay?
Brandon: Me too.
Amanda: Okay? Joe Barton on Insta, What's up with Dez? He was seeming sketch. And, Cara Custodio, for how freaked out Dez was about the Time Loop, why was he so willing to mess with the one plus mushrooms?
Julia: Hm…
Amanda: Hm…
Brandon: Who can goddamn say?
Eric: I will say, just as a little—maybe, I can—I can say, Dez was freaked out by the time loop because his dad, who he has tough times with, and his maternal figure were messing around with time and it freaked him out. So, that's that. But, that doesn't have anything to do with the one-up mushrooms. Maybe.
Julia: His maternal figure being Dr. Morrow?
Amanda: Mhm.
Eric: Yes.
Julia: Cool
Amanda: Jaya, I'm slowly working my way through this week's ep and I have a very silly Milo flavored question—and, Jaya, I do see your pun there, so you're not off the hook. Brandon, you said that when Milo casts gaseous form, he turns into a cloud of interstellar dust, which I love, but I can't stop thinking about how space dust smells like beef. I can tell you why, but it's not relevant right now. Does this mean that every time Milo casts a spell, he smells vaguely like cooked cow meat, or is gashes form more of a visual effect.
Brandon: Thought space smelled like raspberries…hang on a second…
Julia: Maybe different parts of space smell like different things, have we considered that?
Amanda: I think that that the answer needs to be, who can say?
[Eric laughs]
Julia: No, I want to know for certain whether or not Milo smells like hamburgers or raspberries.
Brandon: [Laughs] Let's just say that maybe it's a hamburger with like a raspberry barbecue sauce on it.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: Still, wild thing the smell in a random, you know fight.
Amanda: Sidow TPD on Insta, is Dez gonna be able to strip powers away from stuff after its contraption blew up? Who can say?
Eric: Or people?
Amanda: Um… yikes. And, a lot of good ones from Moreen here to close this out. Is it safe to assume that everyone but January is accounted for? We were kind of vague on Hitomi and Teagan, we're not quite sure. Also, did a version of the battle exist where January was more involved or monitored and didn't disappear, would someone else have gone missing instead?
Eric: Hm…
Julia: Who can say?
Amanda: Who can say, Moreen?
Eric: Truly, who can say.
Amanda: Who can say? And then—oh, this one just came in hot from, ah, I’m seeing several dozen people. Eric, what the fuck?! January better be okay!
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: Better be okay!
Julia: Yeah, Eric.
Amanda: Better be okay!
Eric: Hmm, yum yum yum, yummy! Thank you.
Amanda: All right…
Eric: Oo, yummy!
Amanda: We're feeding the beast, guys. We got to get out of here.
Eric: Mm! Yummy! Thank you, Afterparty! I appreciate it!
Brandon: Do you want my cup of bees?
[Amanda sighs]
Eric: Mmm, bees! Thank you!
Julia: Jesus Christ…
Eric: Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz—mmm, bees! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz.
Amanda: Alright, everybody. We'll see you in just a week with the continuation of our next story episode.
Eric: Bye, guys!
Brandon: Bye, guys!
Julia: Later!
Amanda: May your roles turn ever upward.
[Outro theme music]
Eric: Mmm, yummy!
Amanda: Bees!