The players reveal their characters for Campaign 3! We work through their Greenfolk species, their traditions, and how the classes of Valda’s Spire of Secrets helps us unlock new potential.
Dive into the Traditions mechanics, the countries of Verda Stello, the classes from Mage Hand Press, and other changes we’ve made for C3 HERE!
Upcoming Schedule
- February 14: Worldbuilding Game
- February 21: C3 Introduction Afterparty
- February 28: Story episode 1!!
Sponsors
- dScryb, your home for descriptive text, immersive sounds, and interactive maps for your home game. Get 10% off your first payment with code jointheparty at dscryb.com
- Twenty Sided Store, whose NEW LOCATION is open now at 280 Grand Street! Use code PIRATE for 20% off your first order in-store or online.
- Betterhelp, where you can get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/jointheparty
Find Us Online
- website: jointhepartypod.com
- patreon: patreon.com/jointhepartypod
- twitter: twitter.com/jointhepartypod
- facebook: facebook.com/jointhepartypod
- instagram: instagram.com/jointhepartypod
- tumblr: jointhepartypod.tumblr.com
- merch & music: jointhepartypod.com/merch
Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host, Co-Producer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host, Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host, Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators who make each other laugh each week. We welcome everyone to the table, from longtime players to folks who’ve never touched a roleplaying game before. Hop into our current campaign, a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, or marathon our completed stories with the Camp-Paign, a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
Eric: Alright. Hey, so everyone just come and sit down, you know I got a bunch of snacks, I got a pizza. Oh no.
[Everyone makes rustling and shuffling noises]
Amanda: It's all of our instincts.
Eric: Oh no, I dropped all my dice! [Makes a clinking noise]
Julia: Oh no.
Brandon: [Makes a chewing noise] Oh no, I chewed on your dice.
Eric: Ow! The D-4 went into my thigh!
Julia: Oh no, that's the sharpest one!
Eric: Now, I'm gonna pull it out. Ping!
Brandon: What do you made of, Eric?
Amanda: Oh wait sorry. I'm still listening to Serial season one. [Imitates Serial opening music]
Eric: Hold on, I brought all this bubble wrap out for us to have, oh no.
Julia: Pop, pop, pop.
Eric: Pop, pop, pop. But yeah, here's a drink everyone, just grab a chair. The pizza’s gonna show up soon.
Brandon: Screech!
Julia: That was the chair.
Eric: Oh, I thought that was the pizza guy.
Julia: The pizza guy.
Eric: He came into hot, and then he—and then he like slammed on the brake and did a Tokyo Drift.
Amanda: Join the Party campaign three, all practical effects!
Julia: All our own Foley.
Eric: Alright, so this is James. He's going to be our foley guy. You can see he's in a room with various objects. We're just going to record him and he's gonna follow us.
Julia: He's got shoes on his hands!
Brandon: That'd be really cool actually, we should do that.
Eric: Hey, everyone, be quiet. I have to sneak up on Amanda.
[Everyone makes indecipherable noises]
Amanda: Ahh!
Julia: This is great, this is a really good episode so far.
Brandon: I—so thanks for listening everyone.
Julia: That's it.
Brandon: It's been our time.
Eric: I had a—I had—let me finish the se—let me finish the thing before—Julia and Brandon fucking says it's bad. Hold on.
[Laughter]
Eric: Alright, so you know, we don't have to have any of our characters put together. Necessarily our character sheets, but this is more just like a session zero. You know, we're just gonna kind of, I know we've never played before and I met you all on JamesList, which is a list that my friend James put together who's also doing our Foley.
Julia: He's a really multi-talented man.
Eric: I know he's—he's organizational and great at sound effects. He organized—he has all of his sound effects. All of his items are put up on a pegboard and have, like, the outline around them.
Brandon: That's pretty good.
Eric: So yeah, you know, I just want to hear what y'all have. I mean, I told you all about Verda Stello, the great green world. You know we're all playing plants or bug people. It's kind of like One Piece meets Redwall sort of thing, you know, pirates and plant people. So I just wanted to know, and you know, I'm glad we all picked up Valda’s Spire of Secrets. I reached out to main ha—Mage Hand Press, and they're super excited that we're doing this. So yeah, I'd love to know about some of the stuff that you all have. Oh, hold on. Ding dong the pizza's here.
Julia: Ah.
Eric: Oh, hold on. Yeah, okay, let me… hey, does anyone have cash?
Julia: Oh, I have a five, is that cool?
Brandon: No, it's 2020, why would I have cash?
Amanda: Only have a $100. I have a single $100 bill, that's it.
Julia: Oh, no, that guy’s getting tipped real well.
Eric: Yeah, can one of you fold that into a paper airplane and throw it over to me?
[Julia makes folding noises followed by a woosh]
Eric: [Gulps] Oh, oh, no, I ate it. Amanda, can I have yours?
Amanda: Sure. [Makes scratching noises] I have a Velcro wallet.
[Laughter]
Amanda: [Makes unhinged mouth noises] That's the sound a dollar makes!
Julia: What is happening?!
Amanda: [Makes a sliding noise] And that's been putting a dollar bill on a table.
Eric: Oh, thank you. Alright, the pizza's here. So yeah.
Amanda: My lactose intolerance.
Eric: [Makes a rumbling noise]
Brandon: Oh, no, please don't do that one, Amanda.
Eric: Alright. Alright, so I'd love to hear what characters you're often thinking about. Listen, I mean, nothing really needs to be set in stone. But I would love to know your class and your subclass. And I have Valda’s here so we could talk about it. Plus, what tradition you're from, what country you're from, in Verda Stello, and then we can go from there.
Amanda: Julia's had a character idea since before you told us the world of the campaign, it seems. So I for one would really love to hear hers.
Julia: Okay, yeah, I can start. I think I'm going to start actually with the first couple of ideas that I had, that I didn't end up going with, if that's cool with everyone. So one of the first ideas that I had again before we got information on the world and Verda Stello, and the different traditions that Eric so wonderfully described for us in our last episode.
Eric: [Mumbles] Thank you, sorry, I had a pepperoni pizza slice in my mouth. I'm sorry.
Julia: Good, I love the pepperoni. Is there a little hot honey on that too?
Eric: Oh, you know it. It has a little cups that's holding the oil.
Brandon: Domino's got so fancy.
Eric: No, Brandon. It's not Domino's, it's Dominoo's with two O's. It's the only Dominoo's valid exclusively by Andrew Belucci of the Domino's Pizza Fortune.
Brandon: It’s Dominoo’s!
Eric: Dominoo’s!
Julia: So to get myself started, I was looking through the playbook for Valda’s. And I was looking at the various new classes that they put in there. And one of the ones that really intrigued me at first was the murder class, which is like a really interesting class where you basically use hit points as a way of using spell slots.
Brandon: That's cool.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Which is wild, because like, the whole concept of the martyr is like you're sacrificing your physical body in order to play into the Gods’ hands, right?
Eric: Yeah, there are these really wonderful summaries of each one that I think like, there are 10 new classes in Valda’s, and Mage Hand has written a little summary about each one. James, can you put like reading music behind me rereading this?
[Julia sings the Reading Rainbow theme]
Brandon: Alright, you know what the funny thing is?
Amanda: James is your middle name.
Brandon: My middle name was James, and my mom wanted me to go by James. So you're just saying me.
Amanda: That’s the jape!
Eric: That's fine. It's fine.
Julia: It's Brandon again.
Brandon: It's just all—all universe me.
Eric: Brandon James sounds like a jazz musician.
Julia: It does.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: It's terrible, it's a bad day.
Eric: He's a studio musician for jazz albums, and he plays the double bass.
Julia: I was gonna say Brandon's in the corner with sunglasses on playing the standup bass.
Eric: Yeah, a 100%
Julia: Eric, same brain.
Eric: Julia, who's that wrestler who hits people with a stand-up bass?
Julia: That's Elias Samson, who now just goes by Elias, though recently, they gave him a plot point where he shaved his beard, and he claimed to be the twin brother of Elias.
Eric: Incredible.
Amanda: Who hasn’t pretended to be their own twin?!
Julia: And everyone, everyone was like yeah, that's Elias’s twin, except for one guy, if you did for like six months being like “You’re Elias, admit it!!”
Amanda: Incredible.
Eric: So yeah, that's James! It's Brandon James, playing the standup bass. “Martyr, the sacrifice class, chosen by the gods to complete a task. Martyrs are set upon a harsh predestined path, requiring constant sacrifice. Martyrs use their hit points to fuel their divine abilities, and can supernaturally resist death's embrace. Play a martyr, if you want to experience the push and pull of sacrificing hit points for massive damage, only to heal moments later.”
Brandon: That's cool.
Julia: So I was really intrigued by the martyr, and specifically their subclasses are called burdens. And there was a burden of rebirth that I was like, ooh, that's really interesting, what kind of character would be part of the burden of rebirth? And I was like: a fuzzy caterpillar. And I thought that was a really fun idea. I didn't end up going with that. But like a fuzzy caterpillar that's like out talking about the doctrine of rebirth because they have to go and turn into butterflies is very, very funny to me.
Brandon: That's really funny.
Amanda: Incredibly good.
Eric: A lot of the—I feel like there's a lot of intention, like trying to do something different then what vanilla Dungeons & Dragons is doing. So the martyr to me feels like a more complicated or dynamic cleric.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: Really making you embody what it is a cleric is supposed to be doing. Instead of just like, I have a calling and I hit with a big hammer, you know what I mean?
Julia: Yeah, it felt very much like a mix of cleric and paladin to me kind of reading through the playbook, so I'm with you there. Didn't end up going with that, I thought it was a little bit too weird and I wasn't sure how it was going to fit with the world. And so when we learned about the world, it really solidified my choice.
Brandon: Wait real quick, real quick, real quick, Julia.
Julia: Yeah?
Brandon: What would that calibr—caterpillar sound like?
Julia: I have no idea, Brandon. I didn't—I didn't go into—
Brandon: Take a big old swing, what it—what it was sounded like?
Julia: [Sweet voice] People lives in, it's me, I'm the caterpillar.
Eric: [Tiny voice] All you have to do is give yourself up, and have your—your guts turned into acid and goo while you encase yourself in it, little kid.
Julia: [Sweet voice] No one knows how it works, and that's the beauty of it. Also in terms of like playing a bug character and more like the martial classes, because I was like, well, do I want to play a martial character again, that's mostly like fighting and attacking and stuff like that. I was stuck between two in terms of the martial class. One was the stag beetle in the warden class, which I thought was really interesting.
Eric: Oh, yeah. The warden class is wild. It's basically just, this is the riff on barbarians about straight-up being tanks.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: “Wardens are tanks of the battlefield that refuse to give an inch. When overwhelming enemies bear down, wardens hold the line for the party and single out targets from the crowd until the tide turns in their favor. Play a warden if you want to be tough to kill warrior with a focus on crowd control.”
Julia: The problem is I did that already. So I didn't want to do that again.
Eric: Yeah, there's definitely— I mean, there's more stuff it's—a warden is very militaristic in this way. Like that's the riff is like, going back maybe to more of the army stratagems of role-playing games and being able to like manipulate crowds, making choices that throw like, the DM, if you have like a ton of enemies and the DMs controlling you, like separate and you take—you basically like take out the general and then everyone kind of runs around and like that's that specific class like one-on-one-ing the strongest person in the—in the area, so no one else has to do it.
Brandon: Eric, let me help you understand, you're the linebacker right?
Eric: Oh, thank you.
Julia: I know what that means.
Eric: Alright, let me explain this to Amanda. Amanda, you are the—you're basically the— you're like the Azumarill or the Blissey of the team.
Amanda: Oh thank you.
Eric: You're the Steelix.
Amanda: Good.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Let me explain it Eric, you are a blue chip stock, and I am a pension fund of firefighters teachers, and also ironworkers from the state of New Jersey. I have $140 billion in my pension fund under control, and you, you produce plastic and my stock money is gonna go to you.
Eric: Okay. Hey, Brandon, let me explain it to you in a way that you understand, you’re Clive Davis.
Amanda: Who's not dead by the way?
Brandon: You're a fragile old man.
Eric: But he's surrounded at all times by wealth, money, and power.
Amanda: I thought for sure he was dead, not dead.
Julia: Not dead. My final one before I go into the actual choice that I made. This is how I do character creation, is I throw a bunch of things at the wall and they're just like which one I like best.
Amanda: I know. I love it.
Eric: Julia's like the Oscars. She tells us why movies are stories right before she even tells us what we’re doing.
Julia: I do that Nicole Kidman AMC monologue every time I create a character.
Amanda: That really works because I walk into work every day and say, “I'm Maria Menounos, welcome to the movies!”
Julia: Get there early for Maria Menounos!
Brandon: Wait, pause for a second I have a wild story. We were driving to Portland, so we were halfway between Seattle and Portland in the middle of nowhere. And we pulled up to a gas station because it was super cheap, but it was space themed.
Eric: What?!
Amanda: What?!
Brandon: And then I got out of the car to do my gas things, and I looked at the screen and it's fucking Maria Menounos about her fucking podcast.
Amanda: Yay!
Julia: I was in the car with Jake and he was getting gas, and all of a sudden he sticks his head in the window and he goes, “Maria Menounos is on the TV.” I'm like, what?
Eric: At a nondescript company that I will not name by name, that Brandon and I met.
Brandon: I will, it's Sirius XM.
Eric: Thank you. Well, I didn't sa— I didn't say that.
Brandon: Exactly.
Eric: I remember going to the movies back in like 2017 and 2018, and like no one knew anything about podcasts or the company, and that was like our job was trying to tell people about it. And then Maria Menounos was plugging her podcasts, even all the way back in like 2018 on that, and it was hosted by that company we worked at and I'm like, how do people not even know about Maria Menounos?! Like, Marino’s—Maria Menounos is on that tip and you guys aren't!
Brandon: Marino's is very good.
Eric: That's when uh, that's when you get that really nice wool from a J Crew sweater.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: So the flower character I was considering…
Amanda and Eric: Yay!
Julia: Was a sea holly character, which is like a very, like, purple-blue flower with very spiky petals.
Brandon: We’re getting closer!
Julia: I picked it because I was like, well, that's a very like sea-focused plant, and because we're playing pirates, that would be a really interesting one to do. And I considered for a little bit for that character, the captain class.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: Very good.
Eric: The captain was wild because it's explicitly about working with other people and controlling multiple dudes.
Julia: Well, Eric, there is a thing that at second level, you get a thing called the cohort. And I was like, do I want to make Eric play a little guy who follows me around?
Eric: Very good.
Julia: Do the things I say, and I said, no, no, I don't think so.
Brandon: I thought about that same thing, Julia.
Eric: And yeah, “The captain is the leadership class, brave commanders and savvy tacticians. Captains control a second character in the form of a cohort and enhance their abilities in combat with dice fuel maneuvers. Play Captain if you want to lead your allies to victory.”
Julia: So I didn't want to do that.
Eric: Hey, thank you. Thank you.
Julia: Seemed like a lot. So what I decided on, this is the final reveal.
Amanda: Yay.
Eric: And best picture of the 2020 Oscars…
Amanda: Oh, no.
Julia: So I decided on playing the witch class.
Amanda: Yay!
Eric: Hell yes!
Julia: And my character is a tea plant.
Amanda: [Gasps]
Brandon: Oooh.
Julia: And I am playing the tea witch subclass.
Amanda: Yay.
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: I saw that subclass and I said, that's-a-Goolia!
Brandon: That's a Goolia!
Eric: Alright, so Julia, let's start, what is a tea plant?
Julia: So it's just literally when you have a cup of tea, whether it is white tea, green tea, black tea, etc. Those all come from the tea plant. And basically like the type of tea is determined by when it is picked based on ripeness. So like the newest plants are used for green teas, and then the more aged plants which are then like dried are used for like black teas. Herbal teas are a little bit more complicated because they have add-ins and stuff like that. But basically, most tea derives from the tea plant. Also drying plays a big role in how the tea is categorized or classified.
Eric: That feels like something I've only read on the side of an Honest Tea bottle. And I'm glad you explained that to me. That's wonderful. I'm—I'm— we're going to talk about your look in a second because I want to know how this like bushy greenery is going to turn into your character. But let's talk about the class and subclass here.
Brandon: Well, let's let's quickly turn on Julia's camera. Oh, what, she's covered in leaves?! Oh the big reveal!
Amanda: She's a little shrub.
Eric: Oh, that's why she was a skeleton for so long because she was sloughing off her skin and putting the leaves back on.
Amanda: That's true.
Julia: You found me out.
Amanda: Think about it, branches are skeletons of trees. So.
Brandon: [Laughs]
Eric: Yeah. The witch seems to be a riff on the warlock, here. There's some similar spell-casting stuff, and also your spell-casting modifier is still charisma, but it seems like you're—you're doing something else instead of just like throwing stuff out. It's about like putting debuffs and hexes because the witch is “The debuff class! Affected by a sinister curse, witches can spin dark magic into hexes, which they use to debilitate foes. They are also accompanied by their familiars, loyal magical companions that they use to deal the killing blow. Play a witch if you want to hobble your enemies, and cackle while doing so.”
Amanda: Yay!!
Julia: So that is a great description, there are however some witchcrafts, which is what they call their subclass, which are very much more peaceful or passive, which is what the tea magic classes, which they describe as “A peaceful witch that practices tea ceremonies and divination.”
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Brandon: Love it.
Eric: Hell yes. We've touched on divination a little bit with Arnold Palmer.
Amanda: That's true.
Eric: From those campaigns two one-shots, which is wonderful. And I really like the divination magic and all that, but we've never had a straight-up divination witch before. And maybe that's a shout-out to Dimension 20, for kinda like taking that corner of—of how well Siobhan Thompson plays her. But I really love divination, your ability to like change roles and stuff.
Julia: Yeah, it's very, very cool. I love this subclass so, so much, I'm very excited to play it.
Brandon: I almost, or I considered doing the witch class too, It's very cool.
Julia: Yeah, it's dope.
Eric: The way we're gonna break down these classes, and again, you can check in the episode description here, we're gonna have a link for you all to check out the classes which have been provided by mage hand press, so you can read along here. Where all of our characters as we usually start to Join The Party campaigns are going to start at level three. So we can hop into all of our subclasses immediately. So I definitely want to talk about like the general shape of everyone's new classes, and also what people are going to be going into this adventure with. So we'll kind of just like touch on the first three levels here of what's in the class here. So our spell caster, you got cantrips, spell slots, all that good stuff. As I said, charisma is your modifier, so you—you're probably gonna be able to talk your way out. First thing you get, which is really, really cool. The first thing you get at level one is you got to talk about the Witch’s Curse, which is like the thing about the classes that you get your magic from something bad happening to you.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: And you get certain mechanical stuff based on that. So do you have an idea of what this could be?
Julia: I do, I think I'm going to go with Infested, which is, we might have to change the flavor of it a little.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: But basically, the way that Valda’s describes it, is: “You are constantly followed by vermin like insects and rats, which crawl on your skin and swarm in your wake. As a result, you're immune to being diseased. Additionally, you can command these pests as your own. Starting at second level, you can choose a form of Swarm of Rats as your familiar. Starting at seventh level, you can choose a swarm of insects.” Now, I don't know if I necessarily want to do rats and insects, one because insects already exist as humanoids, I guess, in this world. And I don't know if we have things like rats, but I was looking into different types of diseases that impact tea plants specifically. And there's a very coolly named one that is called Blister Blight.
Amanda: I was gonna say it better be called blight, Julia, better be called blight!
Julia: Which basically it looks like kind of these fuzzy gray spots that appear on the leaves of the plants, and then when the gray kind of dissipates, it leaves these brown and gray scars on the leaves, which I'm thinking, just for flavor and look, that part of my character’s leaves are infested by this disease.
Brandon: I love that.
Julia: However, because of that disease, it has stopped any other types of disease from spreading.
Amanda and Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: It's like a good fermentation.
Julia: Yes. Yes.
Eric: I like the idea of like, no, no, we already have one disease here, you can't—no more diseases.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: That's really cool. Yeah, I don't want to take away the—I think the thing that they're giving you is having the swarm of something, as your familiar, which we'll talk about the bonus as you get to familiars as we touch on what you get at level two. So like, I don't want to take that away, but you could definitely have like a cloud of mites, or a cloud of bugs or something.
Julia: Yeah, or like just spores, like poisonous spores swarming around me.
Eric: The little poisonous spores everywhere, that can talk or you can talk to it, or something, which would be really, really tight. So we can definitely talk about that.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: That'd be tight as hell. The next thing that you get, which is very important for witches, is that you don't just get spells, you also get hexes.
Julia: Which are very cool.
Eric: What are those?
Julia: So basically, hexes are these like powerful incantations that have some sort of insidious magic, and I get to choose, I think three at third level, and there are a bunch of different options. I haven't picked mine yet. But some of the ones that are definitely appealing to me are stuff like peace bound. “As an action, you can lock weapons to their owners. The weapons and ammunition of each creature within 30 feet of you become locked in their sheets, quivers, or holsters until the end of your next turn. During this time, a creature can use its action to free its weapon with a strength check opposed by your spell save DC.”
Eric: That is cool as hell.
Brandon: Cool.
Julia: So I think just based on how I want to play this character, a lot of the hexes that I plan on choosing are going to be much more passive rather than causing misfortune. So like, instead of misfortune, I can literally do one that's called fortune, which is, “As an action, choose one friendly creature other than yourself that you can see within 60 feet. The creature has advantage on saving throws until the end of your next turn.”
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Cool.
Eric: This is tight as hell. I mean, the thing that's really cool about this is like, why—why I'm saying this is like an inversion of kind of a warlock, is that you don't have a patron but you are cursed. And instead of you having these, like superpowers that you give to yourself as incantations for warlock, is that you have these things, you can do as actions, and you can concentrate on a hex at the same time as concentrating on a spell.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: So you get to balance those at the same time, which is really, really sick.
Julia: It is super cool.
Amanda: I love you as a magic user Julia.
Julia: I'm excited. It's gonna be fun.
Eric: The next thing you get is a cackle, which means you can extend the—whatever hex you do for one round—for an extra round is if you use your bonus action to cackle. Whatever that is, it doesn't have to be an actual witch’s cackle, but it is really tight as hell.
Julia: Yeah and even says in here, it says, “Not all wishes laugh maniacally when they cackle, but all cackles require a verbal component as a spell. These range from mundane curses and insults to the murmuring of dead languages and speaking backward.” Brandon, get ready to like do a lot of my stuff. I'm just gonna say a thing and be like, ‘Brandon put that backward!’
Brandon: Yeah, love it.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: The next thing that we're talking about is your familiar, which we touched on a little bit. Basically, the bonuses you get is very similar to the find familiar spell and what we know already from wizards and warlocks in vanilla Dungeons & Dragons, but here are the bonuses you get: “Your familiar uses your spell attack bonus for its attack rolls.” They add your proficiency bonus to its armor class saving throws in damage rolls, and their HP is you can add your witch’s level to their maximum, you can move them to a different point and then that becomes the point of your spell, which is really, really tight.
Amanda: Oh, I love that so much, it reminds me of Agent Agent Smith.
Julia: We also get a bunch of really cool options as witches for familiars that you don't normally get, like I can do a moon jelly, a pet rock, a rag doll, a tin soldier, a yarn Golem.
Eric: Yeah, those are all straight out of Valda’s. So like Valda’s made an appendix that grocks with witches specifically. And then we'll also see what we can do in terms of your—your swarm stuff if that's what you want.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: If you don't do moon jelly, I'm gonna be very sad.
Amanda: I know, moon jelly is tight as hell.
Eric: I don't even know what it is, but now I want it.
Brandon: I don't either.
Julia: I had an idea for what I wanted it to be, which like, again, a familiar can change forms based on what I need. It really depends on you, Eric, I don't know what animal life is like here on Verda Stello.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: But I was like, octopus, octopus, octopus.
[Amanda and Brandon also whisper ‘Octopus’]
Eric: I think it would just be like plant-animal hybrids, you know what I mean?
Julia: Maybe it's like an octopus, but he's made out of seaweed.
Eric: That's what I'm thinking like, you know how an avatar, like all the animals or two of them, put together it's like an animal and a plant put together.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Oh, hell yeah.
Eric: I think that'd be cool. Because, you know, we—you know, we did say that food also is produce.
Julia: That's true.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Eric: Which would be really cool. I was also thinking we touched on this before, during when I was describing the world. And Brandon said like, what do you do with the produce? And I'm like, eh, I guess they turn them into juice. I like the idea that like the main way of getting nutrition is just through the roots. Like you only take it in but you—it is polite to eat. There needs to be like a substance that people put in their mouths even if it's just like a thing you do.
Amanda: [Laughs] Sure.
Eric: So that is not just like below the table. I was thinking about that because I like the idea that again, like, there are only certain groups of people that can look at a produ— a small produce that's un-alive. And then you got to turn it into juice so you don't question where it's from, like the difference between a livestock and a slice of beef for example.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I mean, this is truly the dream, like you only—you only really have to eat for pleasure as opposed to—
Julia: Oh, yes.
Brandon: Having to eat.
Eric: Exactly.
Julia: Oh yeah.
Eric: Wonderful. Yeah. Well, let's talk about your tea magic as you start to fill out your character a little bit, Gools. So tea magic is wild. You have some really interesting spells here. You have hideous laughter and sanctuary, and augury and calm emotions and stuff, and you have this hex called taseography, which is, which is reading the tea leaves, which is really cool.
Julia: “You can see glimpses of the future in your tea leaves. As an action, choose a friendly creature, you can see within 60 feet, roll a D20. and record the number rolled. Until the end of your next turn, you can replace any attack roll, saving throw or ability check made by the creature with this foretelling roll. You must choose to do so before the roll. Once you replace a roll in this way, the hex ends.”
Eric: That's really cool.
Amanda: That's amazing Julia, it's like the opposite of Val in some ways, like instead of charging into danger, and dealing a lot of damage, I am so curious what you're gonna do as like partly a support character.
Julia: Yeah, yeah, that's what I really wanted to do was something very different than what I've been playing so far. And I think that sort of a passive support character with magic is very different from, one, Phoebe and two, Val. So I think it's a nice progression from the types of characters I've been playing.
Brandon: I love it.
Eric: Yeah. You also have the tea ceremony, which kind of just gives you a little bit of a bonus to short rest and long rest. And just as a very nice look ahead, as we are going from Monster of the Week, back to Dungeons & Dragons, Shapes and Omens is very similar. I guess I'm still giving you glimpses of the future, Julia!
Brandon: But now it's you get to like make shapes out of it, which is cool. Like, I assume it’s an at the bottom of a cup kind of thing?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. But again, it's like every time I just give you hints of future events, but I at least I can just show like an object, yeah, that you would see in leaves, instead of like something hazy, which I think is very fun.
Amanda: Oh, yeah. Hell yeah.
Brandon: [In a spooky voice] It's your own face!
Eric: it's a plant too!
Amanda: I hear a lot of echoes from Monster of the Week, this character so far, like things that I'm looking out for, or excited by. So I'm, I'm really loving that we sort of had, it feels like we you know, really, like, we did some like underwater training as marathoners or whatever.
Eric: Alright, I think I would love to just touch on your character a little bit if you—if you have it. Again, you know, you don't need to necessarily know the shape. And we'll— we'll get into this as we, you know, the first episode of the actual campaign. So let's talk about your look. What tradition, what country are you from, and why are you a pirate?
Julia: I think look wise… Actually, I want to tell you like my character's name and stuff.
Eric: Please, if you have more, whatever you have.
Julia: Yeah, yeah. So.
Brandon: What's that name?
Julia: I chose to use the Open Fields tradition.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Hell yes!
Julia: Because, I already knew what my character was, then Eric's like, yeah, you know, they kind of see the weird shit. And I'm like, oh, yes.
Amanda: That's right.
Julia: Very, very good. So my character's name, and because Eric said that all of the characters are named after virtues. I had already picked out a name, but I got to a point where I was like, oh, this transition is very good. So, so my character was born with the name Amity.
Eric: Oh!
Brandon: Love it.
Julia: Which means friendship, right?
Brandon: Is that what Amityville is?
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Amityville, is like friendship-ville?
Amanda: That's why it's the friendship horror.
Julia: It's a line from Jaws.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: What ironic twist.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Julia: I'm using she/they pronouns for Amity.
Brandon: Okay.
Julia: So Amity was born as Amity in Open Fields. Through the curse or the things that kind of led to their becoming a witch. They became known by their peers and their colleagues as Calamity.
Everyone: Yay!
Julia: And that name kind of followed them into the life that she chose to become a pirate. But she wasn't really vibing too much with people calling her Calamity. So she chose the name Chamomile, and goes by Cam or Cammie.
Eric: Oh, beautiful.
Amanda: So cute. I love it.
Eric: Cammie the Tea Witch, huh?
Julia and Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Calamity, Amity, Cammie!
Julia: So they—I picture them a little bit more on the like squat size because if you look at a very established tea plant, it's usually like a very thick trunk and then very kind of petite and lithe, delicate leaves, with these tiny little white and yellow flowers coming off of it. So that is kind of what they looked like before the curse. and now I would say a good third of their body is covered in that blight. And I also have this really beautiful image that when she makes tea for her patrons, or for her crewmates, she plucks the leaves off of her head and then puts it in the tea cups to either make or to age and ferment.
Amanda: Oh, so good.
Eric: I really love this. Yeah, the—the— we talked, we touched on this a little bit, but like the proportions can be whatever you like. So I like this more like square creature with like a bit a little face somewhere in there. Also, I cannot stop thinking they have a big floppy hat on.
Julia: I love that.
Eric: I like I know—like regardless of what you are doing, in my head, there's definitely a big floppy hat.
Julia: I picture them with the almost the proportions of a bonsai.
Eric: Sure. Yeah, yeah.
Julia: You know what I mean?
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Where it's kind of a gnarly, not gnarly and twisted but kind of an interestingly shaped trunk for a body, and then these very gentle leaves coming off of the head.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I love that.
Amanda: There are also like very beautiful kind of wicker and bamboo tea-picking baskets. Where you know, when you pick the tea, you like putting the basket on your back, so a little like bamboo, you know, or like woven hat would make a lot of sense.
Julia: Oh my god. Yeah, I love that.
Eric: I think there's always a wonderful especially because you know, the bonuses you get from Open Fields are having advantage on being charmed and mind controlled.
Julia: Yup.
Eric: And also, you know, one instrument really well which I think it'd be really fun to figure out.
Julia: Yeah, I think it's like a harpsichord or something.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: Or like a pan flute.
Eric: I like the idea, that you just picking at something when you're on the—the bow of the ship is really, really tight.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I love that.
Brandon: Harpsichord is very good. You should do harpsichord
Amanda: Brandon's like, mmm, want to play that in the—in the background music.
Brandon: It's just very like haunted pirate vibes.
Eric: Yes.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: A hundred percent.
Julia: I also just super like the idea of just like a fiddle.
Brandon: Fiddles are also very good.
Julia: I feel like she’s probably really good at the fiddle. Yeah, maybe I'll do the fiddle instead.
Eric: What if we were all a tea plant on the roof? [Starts humming “Fiddler on the Roof”]
Brandon: If I were a rich plant, that's all I know.
Eric: Then, that's good. No, that's good.
Julia: Love it. Far from the root side, love.
Eric: The pirates. The pirates. [Hums “Tradition”] Tradition! Okay, that's wonderful. I love this so much. Cammie sounds incredible.
Amanda: I can’t wait to hit the high seas with Cammie!
Brandon: So good, Julia.
Julia: Thank you, friends.
Amanda: Yay.
Eric: Wonderful.
[theme]
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda. Have you ever thought about how good fan art is and how cool it is to put an image to a character that you came up with in your brain? I am so, so happy that we have commissioned art of all these characters by the Fabulous Ren, which you can see on our social at Join The Party pod. God, it's so good. I cannot wait. I am so happy to meet all of these pals. And fan art is the bomb. Welcome to the midroll. Look at those lines!
Thank you so much to our newest patrons. It's like you guys are excited about our new campaign or something. So welcome to Jonathan, Rachel, Muffinz with the Z, Gallifreyan boy, Matthew, Katie T, and Katie P who joined within minutes of each other. You Katie is T and P are really on a roll? Noah, Paul, Yah boy, Nicholas, Kelly, Dan Karolina with a K. Michael and Shannon Gildersleeve, whose name sounds like a fantasy Taylor. Welcome to all of you, you along with our other patrons are the absolute bomb, you will be enjoying the One Shot, Battle of the Bronte's Plus, Welcome to the Sensibility Dome, which Eric has added on top of the original game from Oliver Dark Shire. We are so excited to play this game and it's only available for patrons. Join now and squeal with us in the Discord about these amazing characters, at patreon.com/jointhepartypod.
Now if you've been waiting to get someone you love into Join The Party, now is your time. Send them those illustrations from our socials of these amazing characters. Or check out the whole page on our website that we have all about how to start listening to the show. It explains what our different campaigns are, what the vibes are for each. And also links to the 10-minute explainer that Eric and I did all about d&d 101, for those who haven't played before. So text this link to someone you love, jointhepartypod.com/start.
This week at Multitude, have you ever wondered what life would be like on a planet different from our own? Or how writers make your favorite fictional worlds? Wonder no more because we have the facts for you. Specifically, every other week astrophysicist Dr. Moiy Mctier, who's also a folklorist. By the way, she's so cool, explores fictional worlds by building them with a panel of expert guests, interviewing professional world builders, and reviewing the merits of worlds that have already been built. Now Dr. McTier took a short break but Exolore is coming back in just a few weeks, so it's a great time to catch up on the catalog so far. You will learn and laugh and gain an appreciation for how special this planet really is. So subscribe today by searching for Exolore, E X O L O R E in your podcast app, or go to exolorepod.com.
We are sponsored today by Twenty Sided Store, who have recently expanded and opened up a brand new retail location at 280 Grand Street, just a block away from their original store, which is now by the way turning into an events space this month in February. We are so, so happy for them and now their old space is going to be bigger and better as a spot to host live events, like podcasts, etc, even more than they used to. Eric and I walked by their new spot recently after getting soup dumplings right down the street. It's such a good excursion every time right in Williamsburg. And gosh, they're the best. You can get games, gaming accessories, dice notebooks, minis, or just wander in intending to browse and walk out with something new and exciting. These folks are the best, shout out to Luis and Lauren, we love them. And they made a whole new code just for campaign three. So use code Pirate. That's right code Pirate for 20% off your order online or just mentioned Join The Party in-store. That's code Pirate at twentysidedstore.com for 20% off your entire order.
We are also sponsored by Descryb, a very cool company that we ran into at PAX unplugged. Now, this is an award-winning tabletop role-playing game publisher of descriptive text, immersive sounds, and interactive maps. So if you're looking for help elevating your home game with killer descriptions, thrilling music and ambiance, or a map and key for an adventurers guild, they have you covered. And they have both a free membership with over 600 completely free scenes and more released each week. Or you can upgrade to a paid plan, to access descriptions and illustrations for stuff like places, monsters, spells, items, and so much more. This team is awesome. They really care about paying all of the writers and artists that they work with. And the stuff they make is truly beautiful. So go on ahead and check it out at descryb.com, but it's spelled special. Okay, ready, it's D E S C R Y B. descryb.com, but don't worry, there's a link in the description, and you can get 10% off your first payment should you choose to upgrade to a paid plan with code Join The Party. So again, that's Descryb, D E S C R Y B.com. and code Join the Party.
Finally, the show is sponsored by BetterHelp. When you are at your best, you know, you can do great things. I know it myself when I feel like all my stuff is taken care of, and I feel supported. And I am doing all of my self-care steps and doing my stretching, my meditation, my mindfulness, and my affirmations. And I'm getting dressed in something colorful every day. And I am taking a minute to compliment myself and to feel good. And I reach out to my friends, and I reach out to my family and I make sure I'm fed. And all of these little things that I know makes for the best me, that is when I can show up and be my best self for my friends and loved ones and my work. And it's hard, and one of the things that can help me to figure out and troubleshoot what's going wrong, when is going wrong. And how to make sure that I know how to deal with feeling overwhelmed, is going to therapy. And for many years when I couldn't find affordable therapy near me, I used BetterHelp. If you want to live a more empowered life, therapy can get you there. Visit betterhelp.com/jointheparty today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterHELP.com/jointheparty. And now let's get back to the show.
[theme]
Eric: Brandon, Amanda, either of you want to go next, share your thoughts. Do you want me to roll? I can roll for you.
Brandon: Yeah, let's roll.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Alright.
Julia: Brandon's odds, Amanda's evens.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Okay.
Amanda: Alright.
Eric: Alright, I'm rolling D6. Amanda's, Amanda's even.
Amanda: I am.
Eric: Go ahead, Amanda.
Amanda: Alright. Folks, I—I subscribe to the first idea, best Idea.
Julia: You truly do.
Amanda: Methodology here, and we're gonna be a butterfly gunslinger.
Brandon: Yeah!
Julia: Yeah!
Eric: I forget, did we talk about this? Did we say this on microphone? I can't remember.
Julia: No, you guys were at my house, and Amanda was like, well, my gut instinct was this, and I was like, “Amanda, do it. Amanda, do it!!”
Amanda: And I'm gonna be a butterfly gunslinger.
Eric: Hell, yeah.
Brandon: Fucking love it.
Eric: The Gunslinger seems pretty self-explanatory. Amanda is going to be rootin, tootin, shootin, but I really want to say the summary here because I think what Mage Hand is doing is very specific, and why this is different than just putting a gun in the hands of a fighter, or coming up with an archer class that doesn't really exist.
Julia: I thought you're gonna say putting a gun in the hands of a butterfly, I was like yeah, Eric!
Amanda: That's what we're doing all campaign long.
Eric: Wizard of the Coast isn't courageous enough to put a gun on the hand of the butterfly!
Julia: Yeah, fuck em.
Eric: This is gunslinger: “Critical, the class! Narrowed eyes, smoking barrels. Gunslingers live on the edge, brandishing a special resource called risk dice to keep them alive by the skin of their teeth.”
Brandon: Cool.
Eric: “Play a gunslinger if you enjoy scoring powerful critical hits.” Amanda's gonna be crittin’ everywhere and having a—yeah, that was written in there, it said ‘Amanda's gonna be hard crittin’—“and having an entire arsenal of guns at your disposal.” Oh god, it's honestly wonderful. And I was like this will really work with just to all you folks out here, that like a lot of these classes are not like fantasy locked, like they're supposed to be played in any way, and they fit in, in various different ways. So the gunslinger might sound like it's a wild west construct, but really it does fit with anything—depending on what weapon you put in their hands.
Amanda: Yeah, they have lots of choices. You can be a gunslinger with crossbows. There's a gunslinger as inventor type thing, where like, oh, you know, you kind of invent black powder, gunpowder and you can keep inventing. And then even you can be a wand mage and use kind of elemental fire instead of like explosives or propellants.
Julia: That's cool.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: You know who I know, I know someone who really loves critting. And you know who that is, it's Amanda.
Eric: Amanda loves it, she loves hard criting.
Amanda: I do love to crit.
Eric: Alright, so the first thing you get because it's a martial class, you get a fighting style. But this is more tuned just to gun fighting. It's not like you're gonna plus two, you're holding a shield. This is very specific to what specific type of weapon you're holding, like there's one called bullseye which is for ranged attack rolls, one for being a duelist, if you're holding a fi— only one firearm in one hand you can—if you want to hold a shotgun like they also came up with a bunch of these gun stats, which were going to figure out what kind of weapon Amanda's character is going to have. You also get something called quick draw, which means that you get advantage on initiative rolls.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: Which is really cool. Of course, critical shot because Amanda loves hot crits, second level, you crit If you shoot a gun, you crit a 19 and 20.
Julia: That's wild like fighters don't get that until so much later.
Eric: Hey, Julia, starting at level 9, Amanda crits on 18.
Julia: That's wild.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Amanda also gets poker face which means her character has advantage and ability checks and saving throws about holding your motives inside.
Julia: Damn.
Amanda: So close to the chest, baby.
Eric: So someone does an insight roll on you, you get to roll twice.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Which is pretty freakin cool. Let's talk about these risks dice.
Amanda: Oh my god, I'm so excited. It's— I truly miss playing a monk, and there are some very cool new subclasses for monks in Spire Secrets, which you should totally check out. But I am really excited about risk dice. So basically, there are four D8s and which are my favorite shape of die, by the way. You gain more as you—as you level up, but the basic use of them and idea of them is that you can use a risk die to perform a deed of your choice.
Eric: These are so incredible.
Amanda: You get—yeah, like different deeds kind of depending on what path you follow.
Eric: I don't want to say all of them because I want to see you pull them out all of a sudden, but do you have a favorite that you're really excited about, just to give an example because I really liked this one called limb shot.
Amanda: I was just gonna say limb shot is really—is really awesome.
Eric: Yeah. Okay.
Julia: I love that Amanda's just playing Cassidy from Overwatch now.
Eric and Amanda: Yeah.
Amanda: But limb shot is, when I hit a creature with a ranged weapon attack, you can expand one risk die as a bonus action and aim for one of its limbs, attempting to force it to drop an item of my choice that it's holding. The target must make a constitution saving throw and on a fail, it drops the object.
Brandon: Cool.
Julia: Incredible.
Eric: And that's going to get stax, which I think is really, really tight.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: I want to hold some of these, so we'll come back to it during play. But there really is like, let's talk about your creed, that's your subclass. Amanda, this is the most Amanda shit I've ever heard in my entire life. There's a really cool stuff in here like there's one of you being called the gun tank, where you have a like a machine gun and you're also the ta—like you—you soak up a lot of damage as well.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: There's one I really wanted to do, but I didn't think would work on microphone which is called the high roller, which is where you lie to your DM and tell it, and see if they can call your bluff on what your role is and there's a lot of mechanics about that.
Brandon: Holy shit.
Amanda: Married couples should bluff more.
Julia: I was gonna say, I don't know if it's worse that you guys are married and would be doing that, or if it would be easier with a DM that doesn't know you as well.
Amanda: I can't wait, it'll be— it'll be sick. We have to have a home campaign now so I can do this.
Eric: Well yeah, we have to play this at some point, just—it might just be too much of—especially Amanda and I are in the same place—
Amanda: Game maybe.
Eric: Yeah, where we—where we all play this we wild. But Amanda is choosing the single most Amanda subclass I've ever heard.
Amanda: It's called trick shot.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Of course it is.
Amanda: And the description is accuracy means different things to different people. For me, true accuracy isn't necessarily in hitting a target on the first shot but might include hitting the mark after the bullet bounces around a dozen times.
Julia: Amanda, you're just playing Annie Oakley, what's happening?
Amanda: I know. Trick shots are just dangerous when they miss. Or even after hitting their mark as others are while they're still in the air.
Julia: Oh my god.
Amanda: So this is very exciting, and starting a third level, I get something called creative trajectory, which means I can start learning how to make my bullets travel in unexpected ways. And also my attacks can ignore half-cover. So it's not a thing that we've explored a ton and campaign two. But basically, if the target is like partially obscured, I can ignore a certain amount of like ducking behind stuff.
Eric: You basically shoot around corners. Amanda can shoot around corners.
Brandon: That's dope as fuck.
Amanda: I also start with ricochet, which means when I miss with an attack using my firearm, and I don't have disadvantage on the roll for whatever reason, I can use a bonus action to reroll the attack.
Julia: What?!
Amanda: Though if I make it, that attack only gets half damage?
Julia: But still.
Eric: Yeah, it's like you miss and it bounces off a pan and hit someone in the foot.
Amanda: Exactly. Yeah.
Julia: Incredible. Amanda this is the most you shit I—
Amanda: Thank you.
Julia: Eric's right, this is the most you shit ever.
Eric: If you liked Amanda coming up with random ways that her superhero turned into like, oh, strange forms.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: You're gonna love Amanda's describing how bullets fly everywhere in the silly directions.
Julia: What if giving Amanda more reasons to be unhinged, and that's fine with me.
Eric: Amanda's character is becoming a bald tattooed on the face pirate. Oh god, so as much as we can extol the gunslinger, which is one of my favorite classes here in Valda’s.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Let's talk about your character, and you are a butterfly?
Amanda: Yeah, I am one of the birdwing butterfly family.
Brandon: Oh pretty.
Amanda: And so—thank you, and so my wings are mostly black with some yellow, almost like a caution tape near the bottom, because my home is of course the crags and I am a guard for the royal family. So I am a palace guard, as those Royals rule and die and someone else sweeps in and rules and dies. I am from a kind of like, you know, minor kind of whatever family who are generational sort of servants and employees to the palace. So I came up like figuring out how to you know, assess the situation, make sure everybody is safe, make sure there is a clear exit. For that reason, the background that I selected is of the city watch. So I have some ability to you know, a little bit better athletics and insight. And I can always find an exit, we're doing a little bit of homebrew, uh on that one.
Eric: Yeah, we're taking the City Watch background from I think Sword Coast and changing it because right now it's just like you're a cop and you know other cops. So we're gonna change that to being very similar to Monster the Week, which is if you roll high enough on a perception or investigation check, I'm not sure what it is yet, that Amanda's character will always know where the exit is. And depending on how well you roll, it might be either a, not an exit and you're leaving yourself into a trap, or it's very well hidden, and you can escape if needed. So you always— that's going to be like always know the exit or something like that.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: That's true.
Eric: I think it was something that we're touching on the Crags, and I'm very excited to do with you, Amanda is like your family, It's part of a house that has some sort of area, but like, you know, for my Game of Thrones fans out there, like there are plenty of people who live in these like duchies owned by houses that aren't the ruling house. So it's like what do you do when there's no upward mobility in a like a royal area? I think there's also something we've touched on, but uh, maybe what we've learned from the British monarchy is that like, people just kind of work there, and like that's their thing. And the institution of the palace and of the castle, regardless of who is on the throne, maybe still works there, what do you think is quite interesting?
Amanda: Yeah. And I—
Eric: So we'll figure out like what house you're from.
Amanda: Well, Eric, I actually know.
Eric: Oh, you know.
Amanda: Because I came up with my name, and Eric and I talked through you know, these other elements and help me find my background and things like that, but I did hide from Eric my name because I just wanted to be able to tell you on microphone that my name is Troy Riptide.
Eric: Woah. Troy ri— thanks Troy Riptide.
Julia: Amanda, that's the coolest fucking— she have a surfboard or something.
Amanda: My name is Troy in the house Riptide. My parents don't really expect much of me and so I'm just gonna become a pirate. Glad to see, and yeah, maybe you know bring some distinguishment and I don't know maybe like a royal elevation promotion for house Riptide.
Julia: Oh my God.
Brandon: Fucking love it.
Amanda: That's like my family name. It’s rip space tide, like the Dutch. But we work for the current ruling family who they might not know, but Eric and I will work that out. And yeah, we're just like generational kind of servants of the palace, and we live around the palace and you know much like the White House Butler like you know people come and go and we keep working with the palace.
Julia: Oh that slaps so hard.
Brandon: Did you say your pronouns?
Amanda: Yeah, I’m cool with he or they.
Julia: Two slash theys! Love it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: So the reason why you're a pirate is you're like, hey, I don't want to do this anymore.
Amanda: Yeah, like listen you know I'm a young—I'm a young man I you know it could be garden the palace for the rest of my life, maybe die in a violent takeover. Or I could go be a pirate, see the world, maybe you know get a chance at the salmon of knowledge to make a wish and get kind of a better more distinguished life for myself and my family.
Eric: Hell yeah. I love that.
Brandon: She whispers for a promotion.
Eric: I think he's got also gonna be great, your resistance to some elemental damage depending on where the Riptides are from in within the crags, and you're going to be really good at playing one game which totally makes sense for you being a castle, a castle guard.
Amanda: Yeah, I'm gonna figure out some kind of like dice game that like you know, the guards are like playing you know, in the night shift. But I do think it's also important to say that the wings of anybody in the crags who worked for the royal family are clipped because they don't want you being able to rise above your station. And so Troy wears his wings kind of rolled up and protected in like a little you know, canvas or you know fabric sort of like pack on his back because A, that makes so much bigger target, and someone's bullets including my own might rip through that and that hurts. And B, you know if they get wet, it's a huge pain. So I picture Troy with like, kind of two almost like a scroll, like a Torah on his back. And then in the middle of the two scrolls is his ammunition case, because I think I'm going to go with the crossbow flavor of gunslinger. Yeah, he'll wear his bow and his—his little quiver between his wings.
Eric: I love that.
Brandon: That's awesome.
Eric: Crossbows are tight as hell too. They're just like guns with arrows like—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: How tight is that?
Amanda: I know.
Julia: Hell yeah, dawg.
Eric: That's incredible. Do you—you're gonna have to come up with a name for your crossbow.
Amanda: Yes, definitely, maybe Ripper?
Eric: Oh, there it is.
Julia: Amanda, you can't just say these cool as shit things!
Amanda: I'm just getting loose baby, I'm just getting loose. I came up with Troy Riptide right now!
Eric: Who are you, me?! Jesus Christ!
Amanda: Yeah. Well, also the family of butterflies that it's from it's called Troides, so I was inspired by that.
Brandon: I love that.
Julia: Yep.
Eric: Wow, this is incredible. Alright. Yeah. well—we'll start filling this out. But this is really— this is really, really cool.
Amanda: Thank you.
Brandon: Are you gonna make up your dice game, like make up a new game for the world?
Amanda: Oh, yeah. Fuck yeah.
Brandon: I love that.
Eric: Cool as hell.
Brandon: Crags, crags, crags, crags, crags, crags, crags, crags.
Eric: You get an extra attack at fifth Level, which seals very, very close. And then, oh, here's a fun one, got shot at six level if you score a critical hit on a large or smaller creature, the bullet lodges in the target. Either the creature needs to pull it out using an action, or it moves at half speed. It has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
Brandon: Dang.
Eric: Which is tight as hell.
Amanda: Yeah, so freaking cool.
Eric: So you get even more bonuses to crags. Oh, Jesus Christ, and you get evasion at the seventh level, my god.
Amanda: I'm really excited, it feels like another crack at playing a rogue which I was woefully underprepared to do in campaign one. And I really liked using qi points and luck points in campaign two. But now I'm really excited and I can't wait to describe all my trick shots in action movie form.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's gonna be even funnier thinking about an arrow bouncing around. You know what I mean?
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Split an apple, split a feather. We'll figure it out.
Eric: For sure. Alright, Brandon, you want to roll again to see who goes next?
Brandon: Yeah, go ahead and roll for me.
Eric: Okay. Hey, the D20 just says Brampton on it.
Julia: Oh I thought you're gonna say, oh, Julia goes again. Julia tells as about your second character.
Eric: Julia, tell us about the other characters you didn't do.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Brampton please, I want to hear about your character.
Brandon: Yes, so I decided to do the alchemist class.
Eric and Julia: ooooh!
Amanda: Classique!
Eric: I'm so excited about this. I really—when I—when I picked this up first Alchemist and gunslinger were the two I wanted, so I'm so incredibly happy for you too.
Brandon: Well, you know y'all talk about my tinctures all the time. So I figured why not just make it real.
Amanda: Yeah. Wait, what kind of creatur is doing the tincture-ing?
Brandon: Well, here's the thing Amanda, I am a pawpaw fruit.
Eric: Oh my god.
Amanda and Julia: Yay!!!
Eric: No way!
Brandon: Which if anyone is unaware of it, which I wasn't totally aware of it honestly. But it's the largest edible fruit indigenous to the US, not counting gourds.
Julia: Of course not.
Brandon: Yeah, but they're sweet, they have a custard-like texture on the interior and they have a flavor somewhat similar to a banana, mango, or pineapple. They're commonly eaten raw, but they're also used to make ice cream and baked desserts. They’re kind of like an American mango kind of vibe, almost.
Everyone: Yeah.
Brandon: Which I just thought was really cool.
Eric: Can I tell you the—the art headline of this article I'm looking at when you search pawpaw?
Brandon: Is it the Serious Eats one?
Eric: It is.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: It's incredible. It's “pawpaw: America's best secret fruit.”
Brandon: Yup a 100%. AKA banango, also called Prairie banana, also called poor man's banana, also called the quaker delight, and the hillbilly mango.
Julia: Oh my god.
Amanda: Hillbily mango??!!
Eric: I love this so much. Do you have an envision of what your thing's gonna look like as our first produce creature?
Brandon: Yeah.
Brandon: Do you wanna talk more about my class first, though?
Amanda: Brandon, you can't say pawpaw and not say what it looks like.
Eric: Let's do that and then we'll go back, and then we'll— I'll describe Alchemist. But I'm so excited about your secret fruit choice.
Brandon: Yeah, so my full name is Asimina triloba, it's the scientific name for the pawpaw fruit.
Eric: Sure.
Brandon: That's my real name, but I haven't gone by that or said that in like decades, right?
Julia: Nor will you.
Brandon: Nor will I. That's the only time I'll ever say that this campaign. But my real name is Unbi, which is the Choctaw word for the pawpaw fruit. It's spelled U N B I, but it's pronounced umbi.
Eric: Hell yeah.
Brandon: Which I thought was cool and cute.
Eric: That's incredible.
Amanda: Amazing.
Eric: You also—are you doing the thing that I hoped you were doing, is you're gonna have an older character?
Brandon: Yes. So that's the thing, is that I'm an old, old pawpaw fruit.
Amanda: Yay.
Brandon: Yeah, so I'm a—I'm just an oooold, oooold pawpaw fruit that is like they're kind of yellow, green, brownish, in color. So imagine sort of almost bean-shaped kind of, but like, probably medium-sized, like not wildly tall, not wildly short. And definitely sort of like, you know, when you get a fruit and the outside is sort of like, scarred up?
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: For lack of a better word. It's kind of like scratched up and stuff. But the, which, by the way, I pulled this quote from the Wikipedia article, which is I thought a very good character trait for me: “When bruised, the leaves have a disagreeable odor similar to green bell pepper.”
Julia: Oh my god, you smell bad, canonically you smell bad.
Brandon: To a green bell pepper, yeah!
Eric: I love—that's so funny.
Julia: I can't believe you did a character choice which is “Canonically I smell bad!”
Brandon: But only when bruised, Julia. But I want to be sort of Gandalfian, of course. So sort of like that old sage, like weirdo kind of person that comes into town and lights off fireworks, and then leaves you know.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: And so for my hat, the pawpaw flowers on the tree, they're perfect flowers. They're about one to two inches across. And they're rich, red, purple, or maroon. And they have three septals and six petals. So that's sort of like my wizard hat thing. It's just my flower.
Julia: They're so pretty.
Amanda: Oh, hell yeah.
Brandon: I could have a beard. I don't know. But I definitely have sort of like a walking stick for sure.
Julia: I love an idea of the beard made out of these like dark red and brown flowers.
Brandon: Oh, that's a good idea, Julia. Maybe I have that as a hat and my beard.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Kinda thing. So it's not really hat, but it looks like a hat yeah. Or maybe it's just like hair, that's like you know when like old men have like wildly hair going everywhere?
Amanda: Do you know when you buy like at the farmers market like a persimmon or an apple and has a little bit of branch attached, and they just kind of be gonna be like a fascinator almost.
Brandon: I love that. Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Oh my god. Sorry I got so taken by pawpaw fruit. I really—because I mean this informs your character so much. Let's talk about the alchemist.
Amanda: Yay.
Brandon: Wait, wait, I do want to tell you two more things, one not important never gonna come up but the pawpaw fruit has like three or four like big black seeds on the inside and that's my skeleton.
Julia: Oh, that's gonna come up. Eric, make sure that comes up at some point.
Eric: Writing that down when you're at five HP for sure.
Julia: We can see your big black seeds in the inside, slowly fade from this earth.
Brandon: And then I just liked—I have siblings that like I haven't talked to in decades you know not for any reason, just because we're old. But I've siblings that are a pair of twins are Soursop and Sweetsup. And then Lang Lang and Cherimoya, those are my four siblings.
Eric: Incredible.
Brandon: And those are all my related—the things related to the pawpaw tree.
Amanda: Stunning.
Julia: Brandon.
Eric: Oh my god I'm overcome by this.
Julia: Umbi, Troy, and Cami, this is incredible.
Eric: Oh my God.
Julia: What a wild party composition we have this time, gang.
Eric: Incredible.
Julia: Good.
Eric: Okay, do we want— we got so taken out by the pawpaw fruit. I have to ask because we will come back to the alchemist class. I have to ask, why are you a pirate? It doesn't seem like something that— that an old produce like yourself should be out doing?
Brandon: Good question. So I decided that I will be from Overstalk.
Eric: Great.
Brandon: So sort of the philosophical place.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Sort of the like heavy thinkers.
Amanda: Cool.
Brandon: Which makes sense like the old—old man sort of wandering the earth trying to think of things. So I think that's sort of what happened is like, honestly, I don't think he knows why he's a pirate. Like he doesn't really have a plan. But like, at some point, you're probably was thinking and then wandering away chasing some sort of thought process. And you—now he's a pirate. And like, who knows why he's a pirate? Maybe there's a reason for it. Maybe we'll discover something who knows? But I don't think he knows right now why he's exactly like, why he does anything. He just kind of like, is there you know?
Eric: He's like, I'm retired from whatever I'm doing. I guess I'm just, I'm just out here vibing.
Brandon: Yeah, kinda.
Julia: Just vibing.
Amanda: Yeah. I mean, listen, if the whole preoccupation of Overstalk is figuring out the sky, and the water, and the origins of things, even if it's not a conscious thought, it would make sense to be like, yeah, like, of course, you would want more data. Of course, you'd want to see, of course, you'd want to go out and see things for yourself.
Brandon: Yeah, definitely. And like yeah, he's like, he definitely is the kind of fruit that would, someone would have a late-night quasi-philosophical argument with him, and then he would go on a 10-year quest to figure out the answer to it, like the answer to this like simple question and what color is the blank tree or something you know?
Eric: Just so he knows.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: That's wonderful.
Julia: What about—
Brandon: He just kind of goes where his thoughts take him you know?
Eric: It's someone who you get into a conversation until the wee hours of the morning at a bar with.
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: The vibes I'm getting, yeah.
Amanda: Elements of this remind me of Les, and I think that's really cool. Like part of the, ‘I've seen this before,’ you know like there are throughlines that I'm loving.
Brandon: Yeah, I like that.
Eric: It was wonderful. Alright, let's finally talk about the Alchemist because I think this really pulls you together because although the—you haven't chosen the pirate life, the pirate life sure is agreeing with you.
Brandon: It's true.
Eric: The Alchemist is “Alchemy, the class. Using half-science, half-magic concoctions, alchemists brew up explosives and transmutive potions on the fly. Play an alchemist if you want to experiment with a wide array of scientific discoveries and lethal bombs.”
Brandon: Yeah, so I think along the way, you know, he just kind of collects shit that he finds. And like, I think he's got a little bit of that madman energy where he likes, you know, puts two roots together and they explode kind of thing. Because I am going to do the Mad Bomber subclass.
Julia: Oh my god. I like figured like, yeah, he's just like a cool Gandalf character. That's why I'm playing the mad bomber. Brandon!
Eric: He just knows how to put things together that explode. Oh my god. Alright, well, first, let's get kind of a fluff out of the way here. The first thing you get as natural philosopher, well, you can add your proficiency bonus— half of your proficiency bonus to any ability check about herbs, potions, poisons, or any alchemical substances.
Amanda: Cool.
Eric: So yeah, you this is totally within your thing of you just picking stuff up along the way. And now let's talk about bombs, yeah?
Brandon: Yeah. Gandalf had fireworks right? And like, those are just bombs.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's—it's like if you stopped reading Lord of the Rings before the people left the Shire.
Brandon: I love the idea of an old man. Like an old sort of spindly man just like running around the field like blowing shit up. I don't know why that is so fun to me.
Julia: It's just so fun. Brandon, it's so funny.
Eric: Gandalf only at Bilbo's birthday party.
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: It's fucking incredible.
Julia: I was like, oh, Brandon is playing an alchemist, maybe he'll play a healer again, or something like that no—
Brandon: Fuck no.
Julia: —not even close.
Eric: No.
Amanda: “I’m Troy Riptide! Can you teach me how to do that?”
Eric: Oh my god. Okay, let's talk about bombs here. So, the main way the alchemist attack is with bombs. And bombs are a ranged weapon, they basically—you get to use this action that only alchemists get called Priming Bombs. Alright, so here's what Umbi can do as an action. He has the regular bomb, right?
Julia: Oh, yeah. Brandon just checking pronouns: he/him?
Brandon: He/him.
Julia: Got it.
Brandon: Yeah, thank you.
Eric: So bomb is a range weapon that does one D 10 fire damage. You throw it at a character to attack, and then it explodes in a 15-foot diameter, right?
Julia: Oh, there's gonna be so much collateral damage in our fights.
Amanda: That's a big range.
Eric: Yeah, absolutely.
Julia: It's gonna be so bad.
Amanda: I was like, no, bullets might be, I mean, A) I don't necessarily wanna shoot a lot of guns, and B) like a bullet, could be a bad thing on a ship. Meanwhile, fast forward: Umbi’s bombs.
Julia: Yeah. Love it.
Eric: So that's the bomb, right? The other thing that you can do with a bomb is that in second level, Alchemist get something called bomb formulae, which is you can swap out the stuff inside the bomb to do different types of explosions. This is kind of like you choose your spells like a wizard, is that you have these stacks. So Umbi we'll have a few that he—that he really likes to use. But like there's some really interesting stuff like, you can make an ice bomb. You can make a holy bomb. You can make a lightning bomb. There's a lot of different stuff that you can do.
Brandon: You can make a nonlethal bomb. I can make a stink bomb.
Julia: A stinkbomb? Fuck yeah.
Brandon: Teleportation bomb.
Eric: I like every level going up you can swap out your—like the ones you know which I think will be really, really neat. So yeah every—as an action you're gonna prime a bomb and throw it, then you're—and we're gonna see what happens with it. It's just gonna be the coolest thing ever.
Brandon: Just also to hit your point, Julia, there is a thing where I can additionally as a bonus action, I can empty some of the bomb’s explosive material to permanently remove the blast radius from this bomb, dealing damage only to the bomb's target, so don't stress.
Julia: Alright I'm a little stressed, but less so now.
Brandon: I think that would do less—less damage, but yeah, no, a blast radius.
Eric: It's very interesting about the action, how this lots in the action economy. How like we're using quote-unquote the “use an item action” built into Dungeons & Dragons. And that is how you prime and throw a bomb. So the bonus, like the only thing the Alchemist can do if they're throwing a bomb is like, decide if they're going to use this bonus action here, and then prime and throw, which I think is very, very cool. It's like this character is only here to throw bombs. Field, let's go to field of study because you're the Mad Bomber. Can I read the text that’s written?
Brandon: Yes, please do.
Eric: It is truly so funny. So this is what Mage Hand wrote about Mad Bombers: “While many quote mad bombers aren't actually mad. It takes a special kind of crazy to devote one's life to studying explosives. Most alchemists who specialized in this field are incorrigible pyromaniacs, who take great pleasure in burning, blasting and blowing things up. Mad bombers are always working to improve their bombs' effectiveness.”
Julia (sarcastically): “Oh, I just want to be Gandalf.”
Brandon: I think an important point to note for my character is that every time something blows up, he's surprised by it.
Amanda: Like, “Wow!”
Brandon: He's like, yes, I did it.
Eric: This is some absolutely incredible stuff, especially because we're doing our pirate campaign here, you have something called Blasting Specialty. Which means that when you choose mad bomber, your bombs deal double damage to objects and structures, which include ships.
Julia: That's tight.
Brandon: Come at me, pirate ships!
Amanda: Amazing.
Eric: Very excited for you to try to throw a bomb at a pirate ship.
Brandon: I'm gonna load it up on Amanda's crossbow, and just have it shoot—shoot to the other boats.
Julia: Oh my god.
Eric: That might be tight, that might be truly amazing.
Amanda: That's the new steak and eggs.
Eric: Yeah. And then this is something I'm very excited about, which I think is going to come at sixth level, is that when you prime and throw a bomb, you can set a duration for its detonation up to a minute, which I think is going to be very, very cool for some team shenanigans as we figure this out.
Amanda: That's so cool.
Julia: It's pretty dope.
Eric: And then finally, I just think that just in case we thought that only the alchemist was just bombs. They do have something called reagent dice, which you can use to either souping up a bomb or brewing potions, which I think is very cool. Unbi's going to start with three reagent dice, they're 3 D 10, you're gonna either like put them into the bombs and roll even more, detent or you can spend 10 minutes and expend any number of reagent dice to brew potions, and the number of reagents dice you use will mean that you get to make certain potions, starting at level three, you can make a potion of climbing, a potion of growth, a potion of healing. You can make healing potions, will do you think it's really helpful?
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah, Brandon, you can make healing potions,
Brandon: Let's just go ahead and say that's never gonna happen.
Julia: Brandon!
Eric: You know, theoretically, you could make a healing potions. But I think it might be interesting, I was actually thinking about this a lot, like you could have a workshop that maybe you make them, like as part of the base building component is that maybe you have one, and you get to you all get to show up with a certain number of potions depending on how much XP you put in here. We're going to have a conversation when we do a world building episode about your base, because we're going to kind of start in media res within you all being on the ship together. But I think that there's a lot of— the fact that you also are a potion maker is quite interesting.
Brandon: My teachers.
Amanda: I can see a lot of collaboration possibilities between maybe hexed or cursed arrows, and maybe exploding arrows. I think we can work on that in our downtime as we proceed.
Eric: And then eventually right after this, you get some much like the warlock bonuses, you get these things called discoveries, which are kind of bonuses that you get to apply to yourself or your potions, or your bombs going forward. Which I think will be pretty, pretty neato.
Brandon: I do just want to say cause I don't think we'll ever get here. But I want to read what happens at level 20.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: If you get to level 20, you get to find or make a philosopher's stone, and then you get a new bomb formula, which is nuclear bomb.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Oh,
Julia: Yeah, we're never doing that. Chill out over there, Gandalf.
Eric: The apotheosis of everything is like yeah, I have a philosopher's stone and a nuke, is that bad?
Brandon: It deals 10 D10 plus a 100 damage.
Amanda: Holy shit.
Brandon: And has a blast radius of one mile.
Eric: Which is really funny too, is that you have to put your philosopher's stone in the bomb. It's like the Philosopher's Stone is nuclear-powered, and you got to flip it in there. It's so funny. Alright, folks, one last thing before we kind of wrap up here. Brandon, have you figured out how you're going to use your hover? Because again from Overstock, you get your—your—your hover?
Brandon: I have not really, I don't know, we'll have to talk it through.
Amanda: Can I make a little suggest?
Brandon: Please make a big suggest.
Amanda: You have lethal gunpowder at the bottom of all your shoes. And if you fall, you can just click your heels together and it provides enough force for you to kind of like propel up off the ground.
Brandon: That's really funny, I like that a lot.
Julia: I was going to say something similar, where it's like, you use the bombs and they help you blast off like Bakugo in My Hero Academia.
Amanda: Right, or like a little—like little seeds that your belt, that you can just toss down and like ride to the plume.
Brandon: I love that.
Julia: I also just like the idea that you've invented a little like parachute backpack for yourself.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I was thinking that one. I also think if we're in a third direction, you remember when Billy Bob Thornton had an Angelina Jolie's blood around a necklace in like a little thing?
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: Like, what if you just had a lethal flying potion? You just have for emergencies. But it just helps you hover for one D 6 rounds?
Brandon: What if both? What if I have the two reagents for flying potion on my two feet at all times, and I hit them together, they react.
Julia: That's cool, I like that.
Eric: That's very fun.
Amanda: It's really good.
Eric: I also love that since there's only going to be like once per day, they're like you're like oh, gotta put more… Oh, God.
Brandon: I do think I'm going to be unafraid of one common fear which is going to be death because of course.
Julia: Brandon, admits on the podcast that he has a fear of death.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Makes his character unafraid of death. Love that.
Brandon: Exactly. D&D is fantasy fulfillment, baby.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: That's true.
Eric: I'm excited for you to be like it tortured in the hold of like a Dread Pirate Ship and someone like, pulls out one of your seeds from your body, and you're like 4 HP, and you're like, I sound good, I love it. I wanted to see what I looked like in there.
Julia: Speaking of which, Brandon, do you have a voice picked out?
Brandon: Oh, I do.
Julia: For Unbi?
Brandon: That's not it. I'm not gonna te— I'm not gonna do it till the show.
Julia: Oh shit.
Eric: Oh, man, I'm very excited. This is gonna be tight as hell. So your character is also incredible. And we're excited to flesh all this stuff out. And please again, check out the classes in the episode description. There's a link right here and there's going to be a link every— in every single episode, so you can double-check what we're doing. And you can tell people to buy Valdas spire of secrets from Mage Hand Press, which we're super, super into.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Valdas.
Amanda: Yay.
Eric: Alright, so you all ate all my pizza and my mom's gonna be home in like four minutes. So y'all gotta go.
Julia: No.
Brandon: I want more pizza. I'm not leaving till I get more pizza, Eric.
Amanda: Let me—
Eric: You Brandon, you already ate four pies. I don't have any more pizza. That's why there's no pizza left.
Amanda: Let me shotgun this two-liter of Mountain Dew code red.
Eric: Amanda got a pocket knife and slammed it into a two-liter.
Julia: Yeah, well, Amanda's cool now so, Amanda's playing the coolest character this campaign.
Amanda: Troy Riptide can take a shot without sipping it.
Julia: Why don't you say that?
Brandon: Well, if you can't give me more pizza, I'm gonna knock over everything on my way out, so byee.
Julia: Brandon drop the bomb behind him. Oh no.
Eric: Yeah, that's why my mom doesn't like it when I have Brandon over. That's why y'all gonna go, because he keeps knocking over vases.
Julia: Rude. Highly rude, Brandon.
Amanda: And we'll see you next week with more world-building huh?
Eric: Yeah, we're gonna go base building and talk about your ship, and your pirate town that you put together in your—as you ride the tide on your pirate adventure.
Brandon: Bye guys.
Julia: Later.
Amanda: Byee!
Eric: I can't speak, I have pizza in my mouth, I hid a whole pile from Brandon.
Transcriptionist: KA
Editor: KM