Eric creates an emotional mech suit drama by playing the one-person tabletop RPG Plot Armor by DungeonCommandr.
Housekeeping
- Join the Party is not over! We will be starting a new campaign after this one ends: another bonus one-shot in February, then new campaign episodes starting on March 3rd, 2020, featuring DM Eric and players Brandon, Amanda, and Julia Schifini. Read more about what we’re planning on our website: jointhepartypod.com/season2-announcement
- Our Patreon page and patron-only Discord will stay as active as ever, so join up now if you’d like to be the first to hear about updates on the new campaign. That’s at patreon.com/jointhepartypod
Multitude
- Grab your tickets now to see us live in Los Angeles on February 15 and Austin on February 27! Head to multitude.productions/live today.
- Get your Join the Party enamel pins, Eric’s Labor Party modules, and new merch for all Multitude podcasts at multitude.productions/merch! Our TeePublic (jointhepartypod.com/merch) will remain up through the end of January 2020.
Sponsors
- Hero Forge, where you can start designing your custom miniature today!
- HelloFresh, where you can get 10 free meals by going to HelloFresh.com/JOINTHEPARTY9 and using code JOINTHEPARTY10.
- Twenty Sided Store, the best indie game store in Brooklyn. Get 20% off your online or in-store order with code JOINTHEPARTY.
Find Us Online
- website: jointhepartypod.com
- patreon: patreon.com/jointhepartypod
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- tumblr: jointhepartypod.tumblr.com
- music: brandongrugle.bandcamp.com
Cast & Crew
- Player: Eric Silver
- Plot Armor creator: DungeonCommandr
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is a collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast. That means a group of friends create a story together, chapter by chapter, that everyone from seasoned players to true beginners can enjoy. Where else can you get adventure, intrigue, magic, drama, and lots of high fives all in one place? Right here.
After each episode we sit down for the Afterparty, where we break down our game and answer your questions about how to play Dungeons & Dragons and other roleplaying games at home. We also have the Punchbowl, an interview series with people pushing D&D forward creatively, communally and socially. It’s a party, and you’re invited! Find out more at jointhepartypod.com.
Transcript
Eric: Hey, hi, hello, Join The Party listeners. It’s me, Eric. And it’s just gonna be me. If that freaks you out, turn it off right now. I’ll give you a second to wait for it. Alright, well the rest of you who are staying... [laughs]
So we’re in the in-between-times between campaign one and campaign two. I can’t believe that the Concentric States arc is over and now we’re doing this other thing. I don’t think I’ve prepared creatively for anything else I’ve ever done in my life more than I have for this Join The Party thing. So I’m ready. I’m so excited to play. You’re gonna be- it’s gonna be great.
But, in the meantime, we did say we were gonna have some one-shots and I thought this would be a great time for me to go onto itch.io - for those of you who don’t know, it's like a tabletop and games compository - that's not a word, but you know what I’m talking about - where you can find indie games and just buy them and pick them up.
So I heard about this recommended on ‘Friends at the Table’ and this is from the Emotional Mecha Game Jam. So they do Game Jams where people just kind of make up games or - as quickly as possible - and this was for the Emotional Mecha one. Basically, the Emotional MechaJam people put together games that were about mechs and feelings, and this is one of the games that came out of it.
So me, by myself, am going to - I am going to play the game ‘Plot Armor’ by a game designer called DC. So I’m going to walk you through this and then we’re going to play the game, and then we’ll see what happens.
So you can also buy this. We’ll have the link in the episode description, and it’s seven dollars. Just pick this up. Games are worth your money. Independent game people are worth the money. I have never felt this more than speiding all the time and energy editing and formatting, and sourcing that we did for the Labor Party modules. I’m like - it’s not even that much! You can just buy - you’re giving me money for the things that came out of my brain? That sounds great! And I’m really excited to support a game designer like this, and we’re going to play ‘Plot Armor’ together.
So for those of you, I guess who have met me in person, I’m a big fan of, like, the anime-mecha genre. I think this comes from ‘Friends at the Table’. I like the idea that people go into mechs and it’s emotional, and it’s big robots fighting is wild. I’m not like an anime fan all that much, like I’ve watched some. I used to watch Toonami back in the day and I kind of housed all of ‘My Hero Academia’. So some of these tropes I don't know as well, but of course I play tons of games, and I watch tons of TV shows and I read all of this stuff, so I think this is a fun exercise for me to kind of stretch into it.
And I am kind of making a robot-mecha anime as we go along. The way that this game is paced is that you're a pilot who is looking back on his life as a pilot of a mech and you're writing journal entries about it. So all I really need is a journal, which I have my microphone right here and Brandon listening to me, so every so often my journal is going to slightly titter back at me if I make a joke, which is good or not. And then I need one d6, so I have my dice right here and you can hear that now. [rolls die]. Did you hear it? Did they hear it? Brandon says they heard it, which is pretty good. So I had everything that I need right here. So let’s get started.
Plot Armor is a single player RPG about perception, truth, and fate. Your character is the protagonist of a 32-episode mecha anime. I looked on the website and it said that the optimal game is 24 episodes, so I think I’m gonna do 24 episodes because I am worried about speaking all of this into existence. During these 32 episodes, or 24 episodes, your protagonist will slowly come to realize that reality is not what it seems. They have Plot Armor, which is the ability to survive any and all situations that they may face due to being the main character of the story. However, your protagonist will unknowingly die at the end of Episode 32, or 24 in my case.
So let’s talk about the setting. You can choose any setting for your 24 episodes, as long as they contain the following. 1) There is a mecha known as Armor, so the mechs are known as Armor. There will be mech fighting or conflict. There will be unimaginably difficult situations to escape or overcome without immense luck and/or impossible skill. And there will be a hot springs episode which is optional.
Brandon’s looking at me weird. A ‘hot springs’ episode is where everyone just kind of hangs out at a hot spring. It’s like in between the season you want just the people talking to each other, but they’re outside of the mech and people don’t fight. They just hang out literally at a hot springs. The mech- [laughs] Brandon just asked me if the mech was nude and… I would say no. No one is necessarily nude, I think. It’s also kind of funny, it is gendered in that way. It’s like the boys talk to each other and the girls talk to each other. Sometimes they talk to - but it’s fine. This is funny, Brandon doesn’t know anything about anime, so it’s funny.
Um, let’s see. Let’s talk about the setting. I was thinking that the setting… because it can be any sort of anime I want as long as it has those things, it uses mechs and they're called armor. I feel like, and this might be from watching ‘His Dark Materials’ with Amanda so much, but I like the idea that at some age, the people in the world get mechs- like it’s very much like a bar mitzvah. It’s a symbol that you’re an adult. And I think there must be some sort of compulsory draft or something. I know they still do a draft in Israel that as soon as you turn 18, you can do - have to do anything, but of course things in the draft you might not necessarily be fighting, you can do all this stuff.
So I think there might be something about there being a country that has a compulsory draft because - and when you are a teenager, you get a mech -it’s like the mech finds you, so I feel like… I wonder how they get- I wonder how they get the mechs. See this is the thing about me is that I get lost in - in plot. I get lost in plot so much. Maybe like when you’re 13, your birthday present is you go to the mech - like the mech department store. Maybe it’s like Robots-R-Us or, um… it must be like more - because I think in my head it’s very clinical. It’s like yes this is what happens. You know, when you first get to the point where your doctor starts asking you if you are having sex. And then like those [laughs] Brandon laughed because I said sex. Um, when you have different questions and you're responsible for your own body and stuff, so I feel like this is similar.
It must be like an institute. It’s like the Robotics Institute of this country. And they have a- like you spend five years getting used to your mech. And I think your mech is probably has some sort of like pleasing version, because it very much like in ‘His Dark Materials’, the animal or the daemon finds you and matches your personality.
So the mech has some sort of like randomly generated AI personality and also turns into some sort of animal or something that can fit - maybe probably fits in a backpack, and then of course when it activates, it’s a mech suit, and you can put it on and it is similar to the small version. Like that’s the name of your - that’s the name of your mech is a nickname or something related to the animal you have, so like if you have a dog and it had a spot on it, your mech - it’s like this is my mech Spot. And then even when you're in there that’s like your callsign because the person and the mech are the same.
So I think that’s interesting and then they are fighting, if it’s a compulsory draft, I think this is one of those - like ‘Ender's Game’ style, they're just like fighting aliens or like Halo, like when you can - for those of you who play video games, it’s like when you play Halo for the first time and you have to convince your parents because it’s M rated, and it’s like no we’re killing aliens it’s fine! Or like in ‘Enders Game; they were fighting some just like enemy out there and I think it has to be like that. I wonder if there’s - there’s another thing where you are just like - like the fighting of the aliens, has to do with this. Or similar - I guess similar to ‘Arrival’ how just like the aliens show up and you just, and they just need to deal with it and there's perpetual conflict which I think stokes a lot of this, whatever neo-country we’re living in. It can be like the neo-United States honestly like what if in 19- or like 2005, no probably earlier like in 1991, because that's when I was born, all of a sudden aliens just started coming down an there was a mech program and then all new children had to - it could be like in the DC area even - all children that turn thirteen now go to the Robotics Institute and get their mechs at thirteen and then you learn - you get used to them for five years then you go off and fight or do whatever you have to do in the army.
I also like that it’s thirteen, because this is something that I’m very fascinated with history, is that ages, or people, or like reasons are so arbitrary, so maybe like the director of the Robotics Institute or the Robotics Program is just Jewish, and they're like “Hey when should people start getting mechs?” and it’s like “Thirteen, that’s when the Bar Mitzvah is.” I just kind of like that a lot.
Let’s see - the protagonist. So I just did a lot of world-building, congratulations Eric. [laughs] Uh, I think there’s also something interesting about fighting an immobile thing, so maybe they come down like asteroids, like as an asteroid belt sort of thing. Like people are shooting asteroids at the United States and you’ve gotta like blow them up. That may be good. And then there are things inside of the asteroids which might develop over the season. I think that’s interesting. Um, so you’re - the mech is the 18-year-old children go up into space and fight with the mechs that they've come to love over five years.
Um, protagonist, so let’s go to the next part. What’s important about creating your protagonist is their mecha show archetype. The reluctant hero, an emotional genius, completely inexperienced but full of heart, the child prodigy, for honor and/or country, to end suffering, and a foolish perception of being a pilot. These archetypes are not binding as your character may hit more than one during play, but consider theme is an optional foundation for what to build off of as well as the potential moments in your character’s story. The one I’m really drawn to here is “Completely inexperienced, full of heart.” In my head, I like - and this is from ‘My Hero Academia’ - is that like the new normal is having superpowers in that anime, but in this one the new normal is getting the robot but its like there needs to be a heavy process about being chosen, but -
So maybe they go to the Robotics Institute - the robotics where the mech - the Armor Warehouse? Yeah, it’s like Men’s Wearhouse, Armor Warehouse, or the Armor Institute, maybe Armor is some sort of arcane initialism. And they go down there when they are thirteen and no mech suit chooses them. I think there’s some idea like this is your - like who is supposed to be a representative of you and there has to be - either is literally like the mech chooses you or there’s the metaphorical the mech chooses you, and it just doesn't happen. It’s like he goes back to his mom and his mom’s like “Oh what mech - what's in your bag” like the children all have backpacks, like that’s where you keep your mech, and of course he comes back and the backpack isn't full.
So maybe and it’s like he’s a - it has to be, it’s always a guy in these - in mech anime unfortunately so I think it has to be a dude here. And he’s just like, “Yeah I didn’t find one. It didn't choose me.” And they just didn't have a mech in there of our problems, because of course like they get bullied - like middle school and all that stuff for not having a mech. And maybe, I don't know, they like got beat up after school and - actually no maybe I should save this for the first episode. I’m gonna save this, I have some ideas. I’ll come back to this. So let’s start by playing a game. We’re gonna get started. So we’re gonna begin on Episode 1. I’m going to pick an arbitrary awesome-sounding star date to track time with. And title your episode as such. Their example is 12A-B011-XX, Where It All Began. Episode 1. Your first episode must include the following plot points: how you became a pilot, your expectations for the future, what greater conflict you're enlisting in facing, how you feel about said conflict, and your relationship with armor. Cool.
These character pieces help establish your past, your present, your future, and solidify your character archetype. If during the game you run out of motivations or ideas on how to continue, come back to these pieces for inspiration. Your character is chronicling each episode after it happened, so use the past tense. This is the case for every episode except for the final one. And then I’m gonna cover what happens … When I’m done with the first episode, I’m going to cover how we progressed through the game. So we’re gonna start with the episode - I had to grab a journal. I do think it’s important to have a journal on you because it’s nice writing down the episodes. Because you're going to see the d6 is how the episodes progress forward. I’m going to get to that more when I do it, but I think I am going to need to keep track of my anime a little bit. My 24- [laughs] my 24 season thing.
Um, let’s see… they just kind of use numbers, but I like the idea of this like - there’s like a BC, AD sort of thing. Again, just because Jesus like, “Let’s just start recording our stuff after Jesus was there! That’s fine. There was a time before, but then after that counting differently!” So I feel like it needs to be - if we’re going off of 1991, because 1991 is like the flash point, or it’s like the falling - like “After Falling Star” or something, so maybe it’s like - and like they just have totally - and it’s now - they don’t have months anymore, it’s just seasons.
Or there are only three seasons because like the asteroids are messing with it, so it’s like the season is just like - like there’s a monsoon season, there’s like dry, mon-[laughs] there’s, um… desert, no I think one is definitely monsoon, so one season is monsoon, the other one is just like twilight because maybe it's like - I mean everything that’s happening literally in Australia right now, how just like it’s colored because of dust in the air and smoke, so it might just be called, if you want to be romantic about it, twilight. And there needs to be like a dry season. I think just like it’s - [sighs] I like the idea that it’s romantic, though, so maybe it’s like Sun or Sol.
Yeah, the three seasons now are Monsoon, Twilight, and Sol, and it’s also “After Falling Sky,” so it’s AFS. I think the - let’s see if it’s ‘91, let’s make this like a neo, so it’s like 52. Okay. Alright, so the first episode is AFS52 Monsoon. So After the Falling Star year 52 in monsoon season, because like days don't matter anymore [laughs] we all lost our days after the stars fell. Oh shit! [laughs] I’m gonna write that down! That’s very good! Monsoon and the episode 1… I’m gonna call it “Episode 1: Last Picked.” alright, cool. So Episode 1 is called “Last Picked.” in AFS52, Monsoon. So all of these need to come from the past tense and should have all of these - should have all of these things. Let’s see… [pauses then chuckles to self] Oh my god. I’m trying to think of how, like, maybe everybody is self-serious but things are pretty goofy. I guess it’s not very goofy. I guess everyone can be very self-serious. So…
Eric [in game]: Everything changed after the star-
Eric: [laughing] I can’t say that. That’s how ‘Airbender’ starts. I was like… oh… what did I say. Oh-
Eric [in game]: The days stopped mattering after the stars fell. When the star’s falling, where do the stars go? They just can’t keep falling in the sky - that’s not how physics works. We all learned that in our -
Eric: I think also the school has changed , I think, so it’s like -
Eric [in game]: We all learned that in our combat physics course. Falling things need to go somewhere. The point is that we know where they go and we can catch them in our armor. Our armor is more than just what protects us, we protect it. It’s all in the same really - and when I found my armor… well when I found my armor, I knew I had to protect more than just me. I was protecting everyone.
Eric: [sighs] I need to come up with a - his name is like… I wonder if he’s also - you're named after the season you were born in, so if he’s like, this kid is now nineteen or eighteen, so he’s probably named in the Twilight time so maybe he was, uh… or in between, if you’re a cusp baby it’s about that so he’s… I think he’s just named Sunset Park. That’s a good name. Last name Park, first name Sunset.
Eric [in game]: My name is Sunset Park and I’m the greatest pilot that the Neo-American Armor Class ever had. And I have to tell you where it began, because I wasn't always like this. I didn't even have an armor to start with. It’s not even about me, it’s about the armor. The armor is what brought me to greatness. I can see why it was left out in the trash that day. Everyone knew who I was. I guess I was kind of a local celebrity. I was the kid when they turned thirteen, when they got bar mitzvahed in the eyes of the country…
Eric: [laughs] That’s also a pretty fucking good line, I’m gonna have to write that down.
Eric [in game]: When I was bar mitzvahed in the eyes of the country, I went down to the Institute like every kid did. We all went in groups. I was part of the- I was part of the Sol- the Sol group. I know I kind of got born in the liminal spaces between, but it’s not really up to me, it’s whatever the teacher says. All of us went up together and we were going to the Armor Institute to pick up our mechs.
Everyone knew that your armor said something about you. If you had a small armor that was fast and sleek, you’d probably be part of the Delivery Corps, running packages all over the country and people will salute you for your services, maybe give you a few dollars so you could pick up a cold drink at the end of the day. If you got - if you got a big mech, if you’ve got a big armor, one that towered over buildings, it could really mean anything. It could mean that you would be the first person in the - you would be fodder. You'd be shot at. Or maybe you'd just be suited for construction. That one was kind of just up for interpretation.
Depending on how many legs your armor had, you’d be lucky if you'd be able to find it later as it transformed into a bug that would pop into your - it would be transformed into a bug as it popped into your backpack. It wasn’t as much as the armor was when it was out. It was when it was in that meant just as much. Obviously it all fit in a backpack. Every single one fit in a backpack. But if you could find it and not break it, well that was a challenge for you as a thirteen-year-old.
But me, I never got an armor. Not in the way everybody else did. When I went to the Institute I waded and I waded through the boxes and I looked up high and I went up low. I even went to the fifth floor, which only kids that really don't know what they're doing need to be guided around by the technicians up there. I went everywhere.
I went back to my mom with my backpack in hand and she asked, “Well, you got- where’s the armor? Is it a bug? Is it a little butterfly?” and I said, “No. I didn't get one.” And I don't know if it’s true necessarily, but I felt like I heard everybody gasp. Maybe it was just me. Maybe it was just my mom. But it resonated over that room bounding off of all of the mechs in their small puppy-sized or cat-sized or bird-sized bodies.
So I was a kid without a mech. I was the kid without armor. And of course, that only allows you to get bullied more, right? I didn't even mean to make it a metaphor. I think it just is. They locked me in lockers because I had no way to get out of it. And I would bang and bang until the janitor, who still walked around with his calico armor licking between its- his - licking between his feet when he would finally let me out. I think by the twentieth time I would just kind of wait. I knew Mr. Roberts’ routines. And he would come around once he got his second Coke. But before the second Fanta. Never wanted to be there once he got his second Fanta.
In the future, I had always hoped I would be a great pilot, fighting the asteroids that would fall down upon the earth. Maybe I’d be the first one to figure out where they came from. Maybe I would be the first line of defense. I don't know. For now, I was just worried about getting to the end of the day. It was at the end of that that I finally kicked - I kicked my way out of the locker. Because I could figure it out on my own. My mom wasn’t going to be home for another few hours, so I didn't have a ride or anything, so I just walked home. It was six hour- it was six miles if I went a long way, but no one wanted to go the short way, so I went the long way.
Out by the trash that I walked by, I felt like someone was pulling at my jacket as I was walking by a mini-mall with a closed shoe shop- with a closed shoe store, and an old arcade and a very specialty grocery store that only sold turnip-based items. So amongst all the turnip soup and the turnip hot dogs in a pile, there - what seemed to be...well, most of the other armors they’re animals. It just is their - they move around that way. Whoever created the armor wanted them to move around. But this was just a ball. It was about the size of a soccer ball, but - and maybe some of the patterns, but instead of being black and white, it was just black. You had to look very, very closely to see if - to even see the pattern, a gyroscope of different - of different shapes that twisted and… that twisted if you looked at it too long. And I did and it made my head hurt.
But I turned around and no one was there before, and I turned around again when I felt the tap again. And then I saw this ball. I thought someone had just kicked their really dirty soccer ball from the street. And I picked it up, and for the first time, I felt like this was - you just know someone is a friend immediately as you touch them. As I - well you know, I’m not touching people immediately. That’s probably why I didn't have as many friends. But immediately it slid onto me.
The colors of armors usually change depending on what the color of your animal is - the spot is the dog, we call it Spot. The bovine mechs I guess would have names like Bessy or Daisy, but this was all black. I don't know if it thought it was a cat, or it thought it was a bat, or thought it was something else, but it was just a ball and it slid onto me immediately. I didn't even have to try. And I finally felt, Yes, I’m protected. This is the armor. I can do it. And I’m gonna be the greatest asteroid-destroying mech pilot of this side of the Mississipp!
So I loved my armor, and my armor loved me.
[transition noise]
Eric: Hello, it’s Eric in the midroll! This is not me during the game, but me outside of the game. And it’s happening in the future, which is different from the game because that’s an alternate universe, so it could be in the future anyway. The point is, I’m doing the midroll now. And I’m in the studio. I wanted to tell you about something we’re very excited about going down this year. We are revamping the Multicrew. Now for those of you who don't know, the Multicrew is Multitude’s special membership program. And if you didn't know about it before, it’s getting even better But for those of you who do know what it is, we want to bring more people into the fold. The promise of Multitude is that it’s an independent collection of people who are betting on themselves. And we want to keep making podcasts for you and this support helps us do that. So we have a new tier and it’s five dollars a month. You get our exclusive RSS feed with “Head, Heart, Gut,” the firefly debate show where there’s no right answer, just the best answer, which features all of our Multitude hosts. And our RSS feed has unreleased live audio. These are exclusive recordings you can’t get anywhere else. And there also might be some pilots and extras that we haven't been released yet that you might be pretty excited about. Now for ten dollars a month, you get that RSS feed, but you also get a special street team sticker pack, access to a private Multitude instagram controlled by all the hosts, adn an exclusive bi-weekly newsletter with photos from the studio, sneak peeks of upcoming content, and at least one dog photo guaranteed in every single issue. I swear my life on it. There are also higher tiers, but you can check all of that out on multicrew.club for more information and sign up today.
Speaking of new things, hello to our newest patrons, Laura, Christine, Mack, Brooke, Stephanie, Taylor, Stephen, Sean, Allie, Tyler, Lauren, Julie, Veronica, David, Sabrina, James Victoria, Paul, Rick, Katrin, Chasie, and Rhiannon! Get access to our Patron-only Discord, amongst all these other bennies at patreon.com/jointhepartypod.
We are sponsored this episode by our friends at Hero Forge. Five years ago, a Kickstarter allowed Hero Forge to launch revolutionary web-based design tools for custom minis. Since then, they’ve been shipping hundreds of thousands of miniatures to dozens of countries around the world. And now, they’re coming back to Kickstarter for HeroForge 2.0 with colored minis! They're not just grey, they are colored in beautiful technicolor! Using cutting edge 3D printing technology and online color design tools, the material is printed in color. It’s not even painted. The color is in the plastic itself. Finally, your minis will be just as colorful as the role-playing world in which you create.So go to the HeroForge Kickstarter at http://heroforge.com/kickstarter/ and start supporting! Good job to 2.0.
We are also sponsored this week by Hello Fresh. You can break out of your dinner rut with HelloFresh 22 plus seasonal, chef-curated recipes each week. They’ll help you save time and stress over your dinner plans, so you can enjoy cooking and get dinner on the table in just about 30 minutes – or even 20 minutes with their quick recipe options. Their pre-portioned ingredients mean there’s less prep for you and there’s less food waste. And now, HelloFresh is even cheaper, from $5.66 per serving. Which is so affordable! I recently had their pork chops with fig jam. I never really ate or cooked pork before, so it was great to give it a shot with instructions and relatively low risk.
To try them out for yourself, go to hellofresh.com/jointheparty10 and use code jointheparty10 to get 10 free meals, including free shipping, during HelloFresh’s New Year’s sale. That’s hellofresh.com/jointheparty10 with the code jointheparty10 to get 10 free meals, including free shipping.
And our thanks to Twenty Sided Store in Brooklyn, NY for supporting this episode. I finally picked up Kids on Bikes which is a really great RPG about teenagers and it’s very E.T., Stranger Things, but I also picked up the scenario books where some really awesome game designers put together NPCs, plot hooks, total settings, which is supposed to work for Kids on Bikes, but actually is really interesting inspiration for any RPG game. I actually found a lot of interesting inspiration that I might pull into Season 2 of Join the Party, so watch out for that. Just so you know… watch out. Blow the snow.So no matter if you’re getting a new RPG book, new dice, or want new friends to play Magic the Gathering with, head on over to 20 Sided Store in Brooklyn New York. And Get 20% off using the discount code JOINTHEPARTY, in store or online.
Alright, let’s get back to the show.
[transition noise]
Eric: Alright, let’s see what Sunset does. So this is where I figure out what to do next. So once you feel that you've covered that episode fully, which I think I did. I feel like I’ve talked for a long time there, which is funny because this is a podcast where it’s just me. Uh, once I’ve covered that episode fully, I roll my d6. I’m going to take that result and add that to the number of your current episode number. So if I rolled a four and I was on episode one, I’m now on episode five. And then et cetera.
So once you know what episode your next journal entry is, you roll your d6 twice for one of the following sections to decide what happens to your protagonist and what happens to your armor. So- and I’m going to talk about chronicling the episode. So while chronicling each episode, I’m going to tell the story of whatever time skips might happen. This can be due to episode jumps or even my moving the star date forward by choice. Episode 24 can take place ten years after Episode 1 or ten days. Once you're finished chronicling the episode, I’m gonna roll our d6 again and choose the prompt for the next episode. I can interpret the prompt in any way that makes sense to me. Each one of these episodes will bring my protagonist closer to realizing they are an invincible impossible being. When they become sure of this truth and in what context is up to you. And then I’ll get to my finale as I get there.
So I’m gonna roll...
[rolls die]
Oh I rolled a six! So now I’m on Episode 7. Alright, so this is gonna be forward just one season. So this is AFS52 Twilight, Episode 7 and it’s called “Flight School Showdown.” I’m going to roll for my d6…
[rolls die]
I got a 3. I went berserk and slayed a friend and foe alike. And then the armor…
[rolls die]
Is a 2. It temporarily transformed. Okay. So this is already on Episode 7, so I think we’ve kind of already established this person getting the - Sunset Park getting his friends and all the other misfits, and all the misfits coming together. And they also like suspect that Sunset is a- they probably suspect that Sunset is a like - the... amazing at what they do. And they - Sunset just doesn't actually have any sort of control over the mech, it’s like the mech does things quicker than even Sunset - but like when they have to make an emotional choice, that’s when the person inside of the armor is like... They’re starting to quintessentially embody what it is- armor for so many other people I think is controlling it, but I think this all-black armor… I wonder what he names it. It probably is something… maybe it’s just like Midnight. Yeah, the armor is named Midnight. Because it doesn't have an animal name. Like he - Sunset has to tell people that it’s a black cat, but of course it’s just a rolling ball, so I think this is the flight show.
Immediately Sunset is drafied into - is immediately drafted because at his regular high school, he's just excelling far beyond everyone’s wildest things, and of course he can't do it, but he doesn't want to disappoint his teachers and his mom, and he wants to be better than all the bullies who bullied him, so I think he went immediately… there’s like a flight school, like he got drafted early, and of course it’s like hand waved of why a fifteen-year-old- why a fifteen-year-old is now in flight school immediately.
So I think he has a show-down where he’s challenged by like a hotshot who has a - I literally think he has a duck, a duck armor. And he has very big wings and aggressive mouth, like pincers when he turns into a mech. Most of the armors I guess they have jets, but I like that this one has literal wings, which makes him fly faster. He’s like more aerodynamic. He’s using the - what was it - what’s a duck name? I think it’s named Quack. Like Quack is the flight school bully and Sunset is going up against Quack and they're doing like - there’s a… I think there’s a series of challenges and I think this is where it picks up in the beginning.
Eric [in game]: I always remembered what it was like to beat Quack. I didn't mean it. Sometimes things happen that I don't remember, but Quack deserved it. All of the bullies deserved it. When I found Midnight, I became more than just myself. I leaned into what Midnight wanted me to be. Midnight was the first thing that ever wanted me for something. No one else did, so Quack got what they deserved.
At the flight school, they had the ultimate obstacle course. You could go against yourself and do trial after trial after trial, which I know some of the cadets did, but of course I never needed to. I wanted to. I wanted to be someone who was grinding, but of course I couldn't. Quack challenged me to a showdown. I didn't know what that means, and he laughed in my face with literal, “Ha, ha, ha”s coming off of his face. And I shrugged my shoulders, and they led me through.
The first was a speed test where you had to go as fast as possible and touch a button on one side and touch a button on the other side. The second was a giant ropes course designed for armors and I had to do - you had to do it as fast as you can. And the third and final one, they set - you set both mechs on either side of an enclosed chamber, like a tunnel and they just need to run into each other and whoever came out came out of that wall brawl.
The speed I handled with ease. I had gotten better at leaning into the thrusters that popped up when Midnight was ready to run, and I think he was - Quack was surprised. Quack thought he had it with the aerodynamics of the wings and all. That was his signature move. The spin and tuck and roll that only a duck is capable of [laughs]. I got too cocky.I thought that Midnight would take me through, but I guess Midnight wanted to teach me a lesson of my own and I literally fell each rope I needed to grab through in the second obstacle and I lost.
And finally was the Wall Brawl. They set us - it was really just a soccer field with walls on either side. It was literally a straight shot for each of the mechs to run into each other. Midnight wasn't big. He was fast and sleek and smart, but he wasn't big. The wingspan of Quack - I didn't think I could make it. A quarter of the way down I thought I couldn't make it and I said out loud, “Midnight, this isn't our time. We’re going to lose. You're going to die. I’m going to die. You’re going to die. Whatever you choose me for, we can’t do it together.” And then Midnight grew and grew and grew. I didn't even know there was enough - maybe the darkness was obscuring how much size there was, but it kept getting bigger so that we dwarfed Quack, we dwarfed the building, we dwarfed the soccer field. We were just too big.
And as they grew, they were talk- I felt more. I felt more than I had before. I felt bigger. And of course, when you feel big enough, it’s just you telling yourself that the other person deserves to be destroyed. Of course that's when I saw it for the first time. It wasn't an asteroid falling from the sky. It was something else. It seemed like just a falling rock, but as it got closer, it had arms, and hands, and feet, and it looked just like us. But it was green and purple and nothing falling from the sky should be like that, not from an asteroid. And it was heading right for us.
So we had to do what we had to do. We destroyed both. At the impact of Midnight with Quack and with the falling robot - what did we call- I forgot what we ended up calling them. It was like Snakes from the Sky. We ended up- they were all snakes to me, even with the arms and legs. I destroyed the snake and I destroyed Quack. I don't remember, but no one pushed me around after that.
Eric: Alright, that was 7. [laughs] I also like the thing at the end, Sunset said- writes at the bottom of the journal, “I won by the way. If that wasn’t clear. I was the winner. I won the whole thing.”
[rolls die]
Damn I got another 6. This is like- they're just running through this. I guess it’s what happens. I like to think that these are released in very short seasons, even though I know it’s an anime. But maybe it's in batches of six, one through six is one season, seven through twelve is one season, now we’re on thirteen. I also like that this is one season later, so this is FS52 Sol. and thirteen… let’s see what happens.
[rolls die]
6. I came back from the dead, that’s great.
[rolls die]
And 2. Again, it was temporarily transformed again.
[laughs] Oh my god. Okay. Let’s see, this one is called, “Did ya miss me?” Okay, alright, 13… What is a group of snakes called? I’m gonna look that up. A roomba? Oh a rhumba, like the dance. Brandon - [laughs] Brandon thought it was a Roomba of snakes that they go around and clean things for you as they go around on the ground. I like the rhumba is a group of snakes, so I think this is the destruction … okay. No kids - This is only like a few months later. This is all in seasons. So this is FS52 Sol- this is the hot season, in the hot season.
Eric [in game]: The funeral was nice. It was tasteful. I don't even know if you're supposed to know what tasteful means when you're this young, but no one’s supposed to see their own funeral. The Armor Institute put it for me. And I think they did it because they knew they sent a kid up too quickly, no matter how fast, and smart, and powerful, and cool, and strong, and kind, and sweet, and nice, and kickass he was. But no kid should be up there. Not against the rhumbas. Not against the rhumba of rattlesnakes that fell from the sky that day.
What happens when an asteroid comes through the orbit? Most if it’s supposed to burn off I guess and then it collides, but when you throw something living through the orbit, do you think they can wiggle through? Are there cracks that would keep you from falling at such a height and maybe you just end up down here. There’s a rope ladder in the sky, maybe.
When they found me, Midnight was surrounding me like a coffin. It’s as if the armor knew more than they did. I was happy to be there. But it was more confusing than anything else. It felt more like a bed than anything - it felt like a bed. Like a really nice dark bed if you went to a hotel and the blinds are pulled. I was alive in there, it’s just the coff- the armor thought it knew better. It wanted to say something to everyone else. So they let me - they let me bury it.
Luckily, we didn't believe in a - we didn't believe in an open casket, and honestly no one should after dying. I knew- maybe you get some peace. Maybe the dead sleep. I wasn't - I didn't want to sleep I wanted to go, but the armor knew better. Midnight knew better than that, so they left snacks in there the last time I wasn't looking, and even a screen to watch my favorite shows. Eventually armor- eventually, it opened.
Do you know how I knew it was tasteful? I saw it. It was nice, flowers everywhere. Enough crying, like not too much crying but enough crying. Someone was reading a poem that rhymed Sunset with “inset.” I hadn't met them before, but they said they were my friends. I guess - I guess that was Midnight’s plan, bringing all the people who didn't know me before together so I could really get a chance to tell them what for. And I did. Someone posted the video a little while later. It got more views - almost as much as the video of me blowing up the - an asteroid the size of ten shopping malls. Well I guess Midnight did that. I did this one. I don't know Sally. She shouldn't say that she did.
Eric: Freakin’ Sally showing up to my funeral and saying that she knew me. I bet she also pushed me into lockers before. Not old Sunset!
[rolls die]
Alright, that’s a 4. So we’re going to go to Episode 17. It’s funny these are all - I feel like the episodes I’ve been describing are like season openers and season closers, like they’re reestablishing something or like ending a story arc, so this is the first one where it feels like it’s gonna be in the middle of something that’s already happening. So this is 17. This is going to be AFS53 - I like that maybe now the seasons have changed now that we’re like more than - we’re 17, we're nearing the end of the season. Or nearing the end of the series. So maybe it’s like there are different ways of talking about this. So I’m going to think of some - so maybe it’s more basic, it’s just Drip, Dust, and… what’s another word for the sun that also has D, like… and Dry. So we were in Monsoon before so now we’re in Drip. So this is AFS53 Drip, Episode 17. Okay. Let’s roll them bones.
[rolls die]
Oh see, oh 5 is “Use the power of love,” very good, that’s for the protagonist, and-
[rolls die]
5. “Learned a new ultimate ability.” I love it. I wonder if this is like he gets disillusioned from the army and now he’s just a space cowboy. Like they totally turn the whole thing into how he does heists and he’s like the spec- he’s like the wild card. He’s like a space cowboy and he gets picked up with a bunch of other armors, and this is in the mid- this must be in the middle of the heist. So it’s called, I think this is “The Heist Part 3: Returns.”
Eric [in game]: I still think back- I think-
Eric: Maybe there’s space pirates, they call themselves space pirates but they're just robbers. They're just like -
Eric [in game]: I remember my time with the space pirates. With Goober and Jiminy and Rose and Tiko and Alphons. And there were two Roses, I guess there was Rose P and Rose F. They didn't name themselves after their armor. I had to remember that Sunset wasn't my - that I was Sunset and not Midnight. It was important to me. I had to be both.
This is when the heist went wrong. We had everything planned out. We knew that the - we knew that the guards were going to be out around their lunchtime. They were still using humans inside of there. Everyone else had used robotics, but that’s why we were going to hit the oldest bank on this side of the solar system. The people on Mars, they're proud people. Too proud if you ask me.
Alphons and I, we were supposed to watch out if something went bad, and something did. One of the guards found - one of the guards tripped while [laughs] getting outside of their armor. And that’s when the fire started. It was like a red dust storm, all of the armors blending into the red dust outside. I tried to fight them off as best as I could but it was overwhelming. It overwhelmed Alphons as well. There was one, two, three, five, ten, twenty mechs surrounding, each color of red dust, and I’d be turned into red dust if I couldn't help him.
I bare- I’d died once before and I knew I could die again. I screamed into the radio interface, “Alphons, just duck!” and I reached out, and I knew that if I did this for Alphons, I could get him out. I couldn't die. Or I knew how to the first time, at least I would make it pretty. At that point, Midnight knew what they had to do, and they grew arms. I knew Midnight always wanted to be a cat, but I more assumed he wanted to be a spider. He grew, he went from four to six to eight arms, each with its own eight arms of rockets fired at each one of the mechs.
The rockets spiraled out like, well, fireworks. It was beautiful. It was blue, and purple, and green on red. And it all, every single one, exploded in its own fireworks of its own. I grabbed Alphons by the- by his boot and pulled him back to safety. He popped out, and he was fine. Just like I was. Huh. I guess I can't die. Maybe they cant? There was too much- there were too many simoleons on the line for me to worry about that now. There was gold in them hills and we were ready to take ‘em.
Eric: Let’s roll again.
[rolls die]
3! AFS - so this is 3, there was an episode, so this would be AFS Dust Episode 20. So this is after the heist. You know, this is gonna be the hot springs episode [laughs]. I think this is the episode - this is like there’s an extended season, and this is between all the six that usually drop. And I think in this hot springs episode, they’re finally- the whole heist crew is cooling off after figure- after all of that. And they came out rich people, but of course, both of the Roses exploded on impact as they got the - tried to get the simoleons out, and I guess the asteroid came- one of the asteroids from the snakes exploded and took both of the Roses on. Let’s see what happens.
[rolls die]
2. I’m transformed- [laughs] The protagonist is transformed into a new powerful form.
[rolls die]
3. Oh took over control of itself. That’s wonderful. I think in the… Episode 20.
Eric [in game]: We all needed a break. We all did. Even I- I was different. I guess what I thought was oil on my hands was just - it was still there, it was black. Maybe Midnight was rubbing off on me. Rose P. had mentioned something about a hot springs on the other side of Saturn. It was the best one in town. And when she meant town she meant planets around, so I thought I’d stop in. We all stopped in, we deserved it.
I washed my hands so many times and nothing came off. Eventually, I just laze around, talked about Alphons, played with his new robotic eye as he popped it out and it swam around in the water like a duck- of course I didn't remember anything after that. Why would ducks mean anything to me? Don’t talk to me like that, I know. How did I end up on the other side of this? I wondered, after all the- I had seen so many explosions around me. I saw them in my dreams now. They're beautiful, they're stars. Stars in the sky that fall down to where we are, and it’s nice.
I guess I looked down at myself for the first time. It was nice being in the hot springs, getting my clothes off. The oil- I was still calling it oil- had spread. It was on my knees now, and my feet, and one of my ears, but at least I could hide that behind my hair. The hot springs was nice. I remembered that. I still think of a bath when - I still take a bath whenever I need to stop stressing out. Of course, that was the most time I had spent without Midnight in some time, so when I went back and pushed the ball and saw the biggest - a ruby the size of two of my heads staring back at me, I knew I shouldn't leave them for long without me.
[rolls die]
Eric: 3! Alright, I’m on Episode 23. [laughs] So this is the one before the finale. Alright, so that was Episode 20, so now we’re on Episode 23 that is AFS53 and now we’re on Dust.
[rolls die]
I keep getting 2s, so I’m re-rolling.
[rolls die]
6. Alright, I’ll come back to the - I’ll come back to the dead again. That’s fine. And-
[rolls die]
3. The armor took control of itself again.
Eric [in game]: Midnight always had better goals for me than I thought I did. But maybe it wasn't me. Maybe Midnight wasn't an armor at all, it was something else. It was a suit. It was a pair of shoes. It was a hat. It was a lie. It was a device. It was homework. It was… well that one doesn't fit. Those are all the clothes that I wore. This is my journal, I’m going to write it the way that I want. Don’t criticize me, me.
After the snakes led their full launch on Neo-America, I fought as best as I could. I shot all the shots. I punched all the punch. They had mechs of their own now. Rattles, vipers, poisons and such. I fought off as best as I could the explosions, you know. But eventually you can't do it anymore. If you and the armor are one, maybe the armor would do better without you. If taking the part out of yourself that doesn't know what it’s doing - that could be better, right?
So I hopped out and I ran. I ran home. I knew I - and I made it home before my mom did. It had only been a little while since I last saw her since they sent me off to the Academy. She wasn't expecting me, of course. She didn't lay a plate for dinner, but I knew she wanted to see the sunset. That’s me. I’m the Sunset. Of course she forgot the milk again. Of course that was the only reason she went out to the grocery store in the first place. So I went- I volunteered. I thought it would be a nice thing for me to do. Of course, I realized I’d left my wallet inside with a pack full of simoleons that only I knew what to do with. When I turned around, it was gone.
I forgot what a blast- what a blast feels like outside of the armor. How fast it is, how much it explodes. How fast it is, how quiet it is. We’re living in the future now, it doesn’t need to ex- if it doesn't collide with another mech, of course it doesn't explode. So it was just gone. The Academy thought I had died. Especially when Midnight was spread into the sky by the final launch of the snakes using their super weapon. It- everything is just a giant laser when you think of it, but this was a particularly giant laser. Midnight spread to - Midnight spread into the night sky, and I was a nobody again. I wasn’t Sunset. I was nothing. And I’m happy for it.
Eric: Alright, so now this is the finale. This is Episode 24. The format changes slightly. Instead of chronicling the past, you also include the present situation your protagonist is in - the situation that will, unknown to them, be their last. Once you’ve completed the episode, the game is over.
Eric [in game]: Now my life’s not interesting. I’m the guy. I’m Steve. Steve Park. Everyone’s named Park now in Neo-America. I work in the last remaining bookstore in the city, and I have pride in that. That doesn't make me special or anything. Maybe I wasn't. Maybe I never was. The fact that I could resist dying so many times. That’s not a special skill. That’s a circumstance. And I’m bored. I’m bored at work. No one’s come in for a few hours. Why do you need books when there's a tyrannical-mecha-space-snake autocracy running everything? They have you in the venom minds, or watching their eggs, or pulling the snake off- pulling their snake skins off, which honestly isn't that different than… what nail salons used to do in the past.
Eventually, the door is knocked on, the one at the front. It’s pushed open and the bell rings. I look up and I say, “Hello? Is anybody there? I’m Steve, I can help you out.” I don’t see anybody. There's a rustling in the fiction section near the mystery novels. It’s almost like a bouncing, like something is just - is bouncing along. It’s not steps. I don't think anything of it. Weirder people have come in. I guess they're not even people now. They're half-snake, half-alien, half-mecha things. Oh well. Can’t save ‘em all.
The bell in the front desk rings. I look up. There’s nobody there. I say, “Hello? Is anyone there? Do you want a book?” I look down. There’s a book in front of me. It’s an old detective novel I love to read. It was called, “The Sunset in the Midnight.” That’s silly. Those are the two names I recognize. And I look down at the silent, dark, ball sitting in the middle of the carpet. And it fades to black.
Eric: Woo! That’s my anime. It’s super dark and it only ran for 24 seasons. And I’m sure people really like it on Netflix. Uh, well that was the first time I had done anything like that. I’m sorry if it was sad and there were explosions, but I feel like that’s what anime is about? I don't know.
Sunset Park is a great name. I think I’m gonna have to use that. Or Midnight Park, I also like that as a name. This is the first - yeah, this is the first time I’ve done anything like this before, so we’ll probably keep doing one-shots in the future, but everyone please pick up Plot Armor by DC. You can just get that at itch.io and search “plot armor.”
It’s weird talking to yourself- just - I know Brandon was listening, but it was weird talking to myself. And I don't even know how long that went for. It might - Brandon says four hours, so it might be four hours. Honestly, if you told me that’s enough. Well we’re gonna come back with more Join the Party stuff and I’m gonna make jokes with other people in the future. And I hope you had a good time. Uh, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here because I’m tired of talking. Buh-bye!