Keith: We're gonna try one more time, and I guarantee that we can get it, and if not, I can just— I'm— I have been lining up Audacity files for five years, I can do it. Uh…

Austin: [laughing] Keith is a time wizard.

Keith: Three, two, one.

[relatively in-sync claps]

Introduction

[MUSIC - "Autumn Not Winter" by Jack de Quidt fades in]

Austin: Hey internet! I'm Austin Walker of the StreamFriends. You might know us from the videos we put up online at streamfriends.tv or from watching us live at twitch.tv/StreamFriends. Today, we're going to do something, I think, pretty— pretty different from what we normally do, I think that's fair to say. Who's with me today for this experiment?

Nick: My name's Nick. You can find me at uh, Twitch, Twitter, Youtube, /DrEvilBones.

Keith: Hi, I'm Keith Carberry. You can find me on Twitter @SomethingDumb, and then you can find Let's Plays I do at youtube.com/RunButton.

Jack: Hi, hi! I'm Jack de Quidt, you can find me on Twitter @NotQuiteReal and at my game studio, theTallTreesGames.co.uk.

Ali: I'm @ali_west on Twitter, GoodFriendAli on Twitch.

Art: Hi, I'm Art Tebbel! You can find me on Twitter @aTebbel, you can find movie reviews I write on ComicMix.com.

[MUSIC - "Autumn Not Winter" fades out]

Austin: We're going to play Dungeon World, which is a tabletop… roleplaying game. I almost said "R-playing game." [laughing] Uh…

Jack: We are playing.

Ali: We are playing.

Keith: Role-playing G.

Austin: We are— One role-play— One role-P game.

[laughter]

Art: Rrruh— [laughs] That's the worst one.

Ali: Mmm. [laughs]

Austin: [amused] That's the worst one? Not a role-P game? Okay. [laughing] Um.

Jack: It's a genre!

Austin: And to— Dungeon World is a game that came out a couple of years ago now. It's a hack of a game called Apocalypse World. Apocalypse World was made by Vincent Baker, who has been in the kind of independent tabletop scene for… let's say a decade now? Put out things like— I just made that number up, but I know he's been making games since at least when I was in college about a decade ago. Uh, things like Dogs in the Vineyard. Sage LaTorra—

Jack: That sounds like a cute game.

Austin: Heh. It is not. Uh, the people who made Dungeon World are Sage LaTorra and… another person whose name I always forget but I'm checking currently. Something Koebel… something Koebel… the name of their company is Sage Kobold, which is adorable.

Ali: Awww.

Austin: Um, anyway, so in this game— it's kind of a throwback to old school D&D, but a lot more focused on making interesting fiction happen without a lot of clumsy and clunky rules. That's not to say there aren't rules, just that those rules are tightly tied to the way that we're able to tell stories.

Austin (cont.): I'm going to start off every time we do this recording by just going over really quickly what the three points of agenda are in Dungeon World. They are: to portray a fantastic world, to fill the characters' lives with adventure, and to play to find out what happens. Those are the things we're here to do. You know, obviously winning and getting experience points and loot is cool, but really, only if that is to the service of, you know, portraying a fantastic world, and filling the characters' lives with adventure, and to find out what happens.

Austin (cont.): This first time, we're gonna make characters and talk a lot about what the world is and what we want it to be and stuff like that. I'm also, only for this one time, I'm going to say what the principles of the game are. These are really tips for me as the GM, but I think that they are important for all of us to kind of know, so we have an idea of what Dungeon World is supposed to be going forward. One, "Draw Maps, but leave blanks." So, we're going to figure out how to draw maps in a second, if someone could get that link from that email…

Ali: I got you, I got you.

Austin: Awesome, thank you Ali. And that means, well literally, oh, it's cool to have maps! But also, let's not fill them with too much information, because we'll find out what that information is when we get there. But also, kind of thematically and in terms of fiction, we can talk about the big empire that exists, but we probably shouldn't like, know the name of each of its cities right now. That's not— We'll figure that stuff out as we go, that's really fun. I'll be "addressing the characters and not the players," so once we're in the actual game, I'm not gonna say, "Art, do this." I'm gonna say, "Art's character's name, this thing happens." And in general, it's also just about keeping your mind in the head of the characters in the game. Characters in Dungeon World aren't just a bag of experience points and gear, they are characters with motivations and bonds to each other.

Austin (cont.): Third, "Embrace the fantastic," and do this on different scales. I'm not going to be running a kind of dull fantasy game that's just like— I'm not dissing Game of Thrones here, right? But one of the things that makes Game of Thrones really good is that it kind of goes the opposite way with this and says, "No, the fantastic is going to happen every once in a while, but for the most part it's just going to be grimy and dirty, and just like, fuckin' people backstabbing each other," and like, that's not what we're gonna do here. We're really embracing the fantastic. We're going to have things that are really magical, and maybe— and maybe magical in mundane ways, but still really fantastic.

Austin (cont.): Third is— Or fourth is, "Make a move that follows," and that means that the fiction— the mechanics should follow the fiction. If you get, you know, slammed— If you get knocked off of a flying airship and land in some water, your next move should probably not be like, to snipe the dude who knocked you off the airship. Let's handle that water thing first. The moves need to follow what happens from the fiction. And the same thing goes for the opposite. Where like, my— If you guys run through— If you have a character on the ground and you have him at your mercy, I'm not gonna make you roll to kill him. Like, he's at your mercy, the move doesn't need to be rolled.

Austin (cont.): Third—or, I guess, fifth—sorry. I'm bad at counting. I'm never going to speak the name of my moves. And I almost left this off the list, since this is kind of a secret GM thing. In Dungeon World the GM doesn't roll dice like ever. Uh, I don't roll to see if I hit you. Uh, I don't roll to see if the trap goes off. You guys do all of that rolling. In fact, even you guys get to roll the damage dice used against you, if you want. Like, I'll do that if you— if you can't bear to pick up the dice yourself to do it. [Ali laughs] But, but it's important for you guys to know that when I say like, "Oh, this is the thing that happens," I'm drawing from rules that say this is what Austin's allowed to say happens, even though he's not rolling for it.

Austin (cont.): Six, "Give every monster life." Seven, "Name every person." The characters in these worlds will have names and intentions and goals of their own. You'll never fight a goblin just 'cause like, goblins are there to give you XP and be stabbed. Like, those goblins might have really basic, you know, desires. They might want to… They might like, want the territory that you're on or something, right? They might just want to protect what's theirs, but they'll have a reason for doing what they're doing. The same thing with characters.

Austin (cont.): Uh, "Ask questions and use answers." Uh, we both— We should all do that. Um, we should constantly be asking each other questions about like, "Oh, how do you know that thing? How— What is this place like? What's your history with each other?" Stuff like that. And those answers can really inform what the mechanics do.

Austin (cont.): Uh, some later number, I've already lost count. Be a fan of the characters. Uh, I'm here to be… I'm interested in what you guys build. Like, I'm really hyped for this, if it's— if it's not clear because I have like a list that I'm reading from and I've never been prepared for anything else in my life.

[Ali and Keith laugh]

Austin (cont.): Um, you know, I'm here to see you guys do cool things. Art can tell you this from when we used to play tabletop games back in college, uh, my favorite thing was like, setting something up for players to do and letting them like, do cool stuff. My least favorite thing ever is a GM who hears a cool idea from a player and then says like, "Yeah, no but my character's way better than that so it doesn't work." You know like, "No you don't get— No, I spent a lot of time on this NPC character sheet so he can't die right now." Um…

[Ali sighs]

Austin (cont.): That leads into the next thing which is, think dangerous. Ali just made that sigh because she knows who I'm talking about. Uh…

[Ali giggles, Art laughs]

Keith: Wait, hold on. Name names. Do it.

Austin: I'm not. I'm not 'cause he could probably be listening to this. Uh…

Keith: Okay.

Austin: Uh, think dangerous.

Art: Well now he's gonna know.

Keith: Is it Art? Hold on, is it Art?

Austin: It's not Art. Think dangerous.

Ali: It's not Art.

Austin: All I'm saying is, I took this guy and it was a scifi game, and captured him in a bubble of— of like, telekinetic force and then filled it with pure oxygen and set him on fire. And like, the rules let me do that, and he lived because the fucking [beep] was really, mmm.

[Ali yells and laughs, Art laughs]

Keith: Goddammit [beep] God [beep] you piece of shit.

Jack: We need to [beep] that out.

Austin: Yeah, we should.

Keith: Ali, I will bl—[beep] that out. [beep]

Austin: Thank you— The— No, the whole story stays. Think—

Ali: No, no, no, just—

Austin (cont.): So, tied to that, think dangerous.

Keith: Wait, hold on.

Austin: Yes.

Keith: So the whole story stays. He knows.

[Ali and Austin laugh]

Keith (cont.): You didn't do that to two different people in two different games. [beep] knows.

Austin: That's true.

Keith: [beep] is wicked onto your game right now.

Austin: That's— Probably.

Jack: Keith, you're adding to all of your (Austin: You [beep]) beeping that you're going to do— have to do now.

[Ali laughs]

Austin: Next is—

Jack: We're making work.

Keith: Every time I have to [beep-beep] that gets funnier.

Austin: Related, "Think dangerous." I have to think dangerously about, in the base game—the game that this is a hack of—this rule is basically called, "Look through a cross-hair." And that means, again, like I can't get too precious about anything that I've prepared. Whether it's an NPC or a faction or a dungeon, that stuff can just go away in an instant. I have to kind of do the same thing, for you guys. Like, I'm not here to kill you, this isn't a competitive game where I'm trying to kill you, but I do want to complicate your lives and I shouldn't hold back just because I like you. I should hold back because I think it's interesting to hold back in some circumstances, but I should always be thinking dangerously and like, how to make the whole world be at risk at all times. Both my side and your side.

Austin (cont.): Uh, "Begin and end with the fiction." Fiction in this game is both prescriptive and descriptive. Um, we've already kind of talked about that a little bit but like, the key here is, when you make a move in this game—A move is the type of abilities your characters have. Like, everything you can do is a move—you also have to make the move. Uh, and vice versa.

Austin (cont.) What that means is, if you say like, "Oh, I'm going to use Hack and Slash," which is the basic attack, like you can't just tell me, "Oh, I use Hack and Slash on this— on this bad guy." You have to tell me what did you do. "Oh, I charged— I charged at him and I pushed away his spear and I, you know, thrust my sword through his stomach." And like, okay, well you've done that fictionally now so now you can make the move Hack and Slash.

Austin (cont.): But I could also say like, "Well, if that's what you're doing fictionally, maybe you have to get past his spear, first. And to do that, you have to make the move, Defy Danger. You have to actually close that distance." And so, again, the fiction and the mechanics here have to work hand-in-hand, otherwise the game just doesn't work. So there will be times where both of us need to call each other out and say like, "Hey, wait. Does that really fit the fiction? Does this mechanical roll fit the fiction that you set up right now."

Austin (cont.): And finally, I need to think off-screen. Sometimes stuff will happen that isn't clear to you right away. Um, or that I have to like gesture towards the fact that the world exists outside the conversation that we're having right now. Other forces are always at play. There's lots of cool stuff in Dungeon World that lets me move the pieces on the kind of board uh, regarding the way that you guys are going and to inter— to interact with the way you guys are going, even if you're not always seeing it right away. At my best, I'll be able to like gesture towards that and you'll see the gesture and be like, "Ooh, what's happening over there." At my worst, it'll just be like a really annoying cut scene, where like, "Oh, meanwhile over here."

[Ali laughs]

Austin (cont.): I promise I won't do that. Um, so this is Dungeon World. And— And you know, one of the things that's great about this is we're about to make characters and talk about what the world is. And we've talked a little bit through Skype and stuff already, about what we hope the game can be and what characters we might want to play and stuff like that. But we've mostly come to the table without too many preconceived notions.

[0:12:48]

Austin (cont.): The one thing, that I am pretty certain on, is that there's a certain kind of thematic tone and one kind of big historical event. And everything else, I think, is up for grabs. Um, I pitched this game to you guys as kind of post-post-apocalyptic, post-fantasy in some ways. Um, and by that, what I mean is like, there was a time when there were elven sages in the woods. And there were orcish hordes. And there were greedy dwarves. And vaguely euro-centric men. And all those traditional fantasy tropes that I kind of hate. And then the Yawhg happened. The Yawhg is a really cool game [Ali laughs] if you guys haven't played that or seen us play it, you should check it out. I don't know what the Yawhg is. I don't know if the Yawhg is a big monster or a big storm or a big war. But everything got destroyed. Everything went bad.

Austin (cont.): And we're post the terrible period that followed that and at the point of uh… At the point where it could go one of two ways. It can either be a further decline into nothingness or it can be a moment of rebuilding. It could be a moment where we bounce out of this and move on. It could be fall or it could be spring. Um, I like fall colors a lot so I talked a lot about autumnal colors in my original pitch to you and like, that's kinda how I feel— That's the way the world's gonna go if you don't get involved, if that makes sense. If you guys can save the day, we can make it spring, but if you can't, then it's fall and we're heading into winter.

Austin (cont.): Um, so yeah, I think that that's basically the game I want to run. I want to run a game where what we can say is, we're tied down to the his— the kind of historical fantasy tropes. Or not, we're not tied down to it. Those historical fantasy tropes existed, but we're not tied down to them anymore. What can we make this world? Now we can make it what we want. How are we held down by history's baggage and how can we break free from it. Um, so it's been, I don't know, a couple hundred years since this bad thing happened. What do— What do people think about how long ago, whatever the event was, should be? How— What do you think is like a fair amount of time?

Keith: [cross] Well, if we're talking—

Art: [cross] Well, it's interesting because— because of the way generations work in high fantasy, right?

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Art: It's like, a human generation is whatever. Seventy years, probably less.

Austin: Sure.

Art: But like, an [cross] an elvish generation…

Keith: [cross] That's a human lifespan, but a human generation is like thirty years.

Art: Sure, but like the reasonable amount of time where people would like remember what things were like. I guess is what I mean by generation. Where as like a generation of elves (Keith: Yeah, yeah.) is fucking… a thousand years, right?

Austin: Right. Uh well—

Keith: Yeah, or—

Austin: Or it isn't. We can change that. Like I— I want it to be— [sighs]

Keith: You're saying elves can die at a younger age than infinity?

[Ali laughs]

Austin: Yes, elves can die at a younger age than infinity and in fact may have, at some point, died at a young— Like, maybe whatever happened changed that. [cross] Maybe elves don't work the same way, anymore.

Jack: [cross] Maybe something broke elves.

Austin: Right, exactly. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Keith: Aw, that'd be fun.

Ali: That seems like—

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: Well, maybe it happened.

Ali: Let's break elves.

Nick: Oh my god.

Austin: We can break elves.

Keith: Let's make elves the worst. The worst thing you could be is an elf now.

Austin: I like elves. I want to be clear. [Ali laughs] I'm pro-elf. Historically speaking. Um…

Keith: I'm anti-elf. I'm not anti-elf. I'm anti uh… I'm anti-elf stuff.

Jack: Thalmor. You're anti-Thalmor.

Ali: Mmm.

Keith: Yeah. There you go.

Art: Well there's like— There's mechanical stuff in the— in the stuff that seems to generate off of the ideas that elves have certain tropes like, [cross] living for a long time and…

Austin: [cross] Yes. Yeah, yeah, totally.

Jack: Yeah, I saw—

Austin (cont.): But all that stuff— all that stuff is flexible. I want to be clear (Art: Yeah) there's nothing in this book that I think is uh… sacrosanct.

Jack: Something that's—

Austin: Sure.

Jack: Always appealed to me about the Souls games has been this sense that time has passed and it's been a long period of time, at least in theory.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: But at the same time, it's kind of hard to tell exactly how long that is, sometimes.

Austin: Right, right.

Jack: Um, there was a really great example that I read somewhere which was, because of the sort of geological strata of specifically Drangleic.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: The difference between one Drangleic location and another Drangleic location is like the difference between the medieval cathedral in my town and the supermarket, or something. Um…

Austin: Right.

Jack: And so, I don't know. To me, it would be really interesting if we have this terrible event that happened at some point in the past. It would be interesting to find some way of conjuring, it happened a long time ago, but nobody is necessarily entirely sure of quite how long ago.

Austin: Or what happened, right?

Jack: Yes.[cross] Yeah.

Keith: [cross] Right, my—

Nick: [cross] I mean, the way that um…

Jack: I mean, but that could be two-pronged, can't it?

Austin: Yes. [cross] Yes it can.

Keith: [cross] When— When I think of—

Nick: The way that the Souls Games get away with that, is it's actually— it's very— it's fairly explicit in the fiction that time is broken.

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: Right, right. I would like there to be an element of broken time in this game. I— I, you know, [sigh]. Again I haven't done a lot of prep but a lot of the ideas I've had have been about the ways in which different factions might want things— might be— might relate to what happened.

Nick: Sure.

Austin: Um, I… I like the idea that there are people who think, "Oh it was better back then."

Nick: Yes.

Austin: And also people who say, "No, it didn't go far enough. Things are still too much like the way they used to be." Um, and maybe people— Maybe— I mean, I think this is a thing that I'm definitely going to have to dive into at some point for adventures and stuff. Like, there are probably groups that lived. That made it. Um, it's a big world and maybe you'll come across those people. The people who might still think the war is going on, so to speak. Who are still on their little islands who think, "Oh, this is it. This is— There are still the orcish hordes and the wise elves in the east," and like, "Nah, dawg, that— It changed," but like— So I'm torn between making it like eons ago. Ope, did I lose you guys?

Jack: I don't— No.

Art: No.

Ali: No. I'm fine.

Keith: No, no, we're here.

Austin: Are you— Okay.

Jack: I don't think it should be like, eons ago. I think it should be like— Like, I'm trying to think in like terms of British history. Maybe…

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: S-s—

Keith: We're talking Hastings? We're talking some Hastings?

Jack: Seven hundred years ago, maybe? I'm thinking of like twelve hundred (Austin: Hmm.) or thirteen hundred.

Austin: So no one would be alive then.

Jack: Well—

Art: What's that conspiracy theory?

Austin: See, I—

Art: What's that— There's that conspiracy theory where that—

Jack: There's that weird conspiracy theory where it's like, there's a chunk of missing time.

Austin: Uh-huh.

Art: Yeah. [cross] Where like the sixteenth century never happened.

Jack (cont.): [cross] In like, European history.

Keith: Hold on, am I going to have to start reading Time Cube?

[Ali and Austin laugh]

Jack: It's not that the sixteenth century didn't happen, or it's the— it's that a period of time happened in a way that was very strange. But I can't—

Keith: I—

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: This is the Phantom Time Hypothesis?

Jack: Yes, this is the one.

Austin: Is that—

Keith: I've never heard of this. This is like—

Jack: You'll like it, Keith.

Keith: My fucking favorite shit to hear about.

Jack: Um...

[Ali laughs]

Austin: "The hypothesis proposes that periods of history specifically, that of Europe during the early middle ages, AD 614 to 911 also called the Dark Ages, are either wrongly dated or did not occur at all."

Ali: [singsongy] What?

Austin: "And that there has been a systemic effort to cover up that fact." That's a big conspiracy, dawg.

Keith: [cross] Fucking love that, that's awesome.

Jack: [cross] Yeah, that is a big conspiracy.

Ali: [cross] That's crazy.

Austin: [cross] That's pretty cool.

Jack: That's going, "Hey, what should we hide? Should we hide a government organization?" "No, let's hide some centuries."

[laughter]

Keith: That's…

Austin: Well like, it's not just hiding it. It's inventing it.

Ali: Yeah.

Keith: That's some fucking ambitious Illuminati shit.

Jack: [sighs] Yeah.

Keith: Let's make people think that it's— it's 2014. It's actually 1814.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Yeah. I'd like— I'd like it to be 1814, just 'cause, I don't know, I don't like 2 at the beginning of—

Austin: But I actually really like that the— that basic idea which is like, "Well, we don't know how long ago it was.

Jack: Yeah.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Right?

Keith: I will say that I— One of my favorite— Well, like 'cause when I think of post-apoca— When I think of post-apocalyptic, I think of like uh— I think of wastelands?

Austin: Right.

Keith: And like, dry like, desert. Like everything is a desert.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: All the stuff is desert. Remember when this was a road? Now it's a desert. Uh, and when I think of —

Jack: [cross] Coffee machine? Desert.

Keith: [cross] Post-post-apocalyptic stuff, it's— it's all, which I prefer, is um, all like overgrown. Like, overgrown.

Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Keith: Like, that's the sort of thing that I think of. Like, uh, sort of an unprecedented growth of— of green.

Austin: Mh-hmm. Yeah, I think I have been seeing this as a world with lots of green in it, for sure. Um…

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: But also still (Jack: When I—) lots of buildings. Like old—

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: Not lots, but like, "Oh, [cross] what are these weird towers?"

Jack: [cross] And like—

Keith: [cross] Yeah, I like... green— green where buildings were. There's buildings (Austin: Right, right, right.) and then there's wastelands where the buildings were and now there's— now there's green buildings everywhere.

Jack: And like, correct me if I'm wrong here, but—and this might be something that's up for debate, but like—people live in this world, right?

Austin: Yes, yes.

Jack: It's not just like the six of us (Austin: Yes.) who've es— who've gotten out of Vault 101 where, you know stuff.

Austin: No, I—

Keith: Right, yeah.

Austin: I'm really— I see this as a place that has some burgeoning, you know, power players who are, you know, (Jack: Right, right) consolidating and building strength. And then lots of little, you know, little factions. Again—

Jack: Almost how like New Vegas has the Strip and also like, Primm or Goodsprings.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Right, and— and like, there are places where it— And the New California Republic in that— in that game where you don't ever go to it, but you get the picture like, oh no, people are living their lives from birth to death there, (Jack: Yeah.) successfully, and doing jobs that aren't just basic survival.

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: Like, I absolutely think that there are city states in this world. I know, if you guys are up for that, where that is where you know (Keith: Yeah.) basic living has come back.

Nick: [cross] So are we talking…

Keith: [cross] All— So this is sort of the image I was thinking of.

Austin: Nick?

Nick: Um, are we talking like a, obviously not as silly but uh, Adventure Time-style?

Austin: Yeah, absolutely.

Nick: Okay.

Austin: Absolutely, I think.

Jack: Yeah.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Adventure Time is one of my influences here. It’s that like, it's Adventure Time, it's the Yawhg. Uh, tonally it's this kind of like, [sigh] cynical but like really well… Not cynical, but like dark comedy of Wes Anderson.

Nick: Sure.

Austin: Um, kind of. Especially like Moonrise Kingdom's sense of adventure, right?

Jack: Yeah. And also the word you used was like, [cross] diorama.

Nick: [cross] What if uh…

Austin: What was that?

Jack: Go on, Nick.

Nick: What if the— What if the Yawhg is still occuring in some parts of this world.

Austin: Right. Totally, absolutely.

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: Uh, is the Yawhg— Yeah, totally.

Jack: And that could be a really cool thing as well because [laugh] 'cause there could be this really great moment of— Or there could be the capacity for this really great moment of us realizing like, "Oh, hold on a second. This is it."

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: "Or this is it in some respect. Or this is it rumbling away here somewhere."

Nick: Right.

Jack: "We've stumbled upon the edge of the expanding universe, as it were. Like, we've stumbled upon the edge of the destruction."

Keith: I'll— I'll say two things that came to mind. Uh, one just now, which I'll say second and then one earlier which is uh, like I think one of the important parts of trying to figure out what this world is— is uh like, seeing— 'Cause you mentioned, Austin, that the way that, "Oh there could be people in areas that are just living their lives." And that's just how like, they have—

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: Their lives have stabilized. That area had stabilized. Things are, (Austin: Right.) quote-unquote, "Normal." Uh, but the— the rest of the majority of this world, like, when I think of how they're living, I think of, maybe some big— maybe some cities. (Austin: Mh-hmm.) Not big cities, but cities but things that used to be bigger towns (Austin: Mh-hmm) all cleared out and everything like, I imagine, uh, those towns being partially taken over by greenery but cut back just enough so that they could finish rebuilding the town.

Austin: Right.

Keith: Like, I picture a town that is maybe like, one-quarter still overgrown, because that's like, (Austin: And maybe—) "We don't have time to fix that. We're still trying to fix everything else."

Austin: Right. And maybe a mash of um, different architectural types. Right like, [cross] "Yeah like this town is messed up, but…"

Keith: [cross] Yeah, yeah. Like the center of the town might be— the center of the town might be old and as you expand outward, you see like, "Okay, these building—" Like, at the beginning there's— there's these tall stone buildings (Austin: Mh-hmm) but as you go outward like, these are just all wooden house.

Austin: Can everybody—

Keith: Like, everything is wooden.

Austin: Can everybody go to the um, the link that… Ali sent?

Ali: Yeah.

Keith: Yeah, yeah. I'm there.

Ali: We're all there, I think.

[0:24:34]

Austin: Are we? Okay. So like, what's this— I feel like we should start on this one continent, right? Like, I think that's like the easiest way to do this. And— And—

Keith: Yeah. I'd hate to start on two continents.

Austin: I hate it. I hate starting on multiple— Two continents, too many.

[Ali laughs]

Jack: I'm more of an archipelago person.

Austin: Well, okay. Well here's the thing, actually is, I was thinking about how—this could be like, the fact that I'm kind of hyped for like, No Man's Sky, but like—if this is the continent, right? You guys see that?

Jack: No.

Art: No?

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Uh-oh.

Keith: You don't see the big, uh…

Ali: No...

Art: I just—

Keith: Square?

Austin: Refresh. Refresh the page.

Ali: Okay.

Art: I see a big...

Keith: Art, I see your thing. I see your little… little point.

Ali: Me and Jack have just been doodling. Are we somewhere else?

Austin: Oh, I have not seen— Yeah, you guys are somewhere else.

Ali: Oh, [laughs]

Austin: I have not seen that at all. I just clicked Ali's link?

Nick: Um…

Jack: Which one? I can just—

Nick: Go— Go to mine. The one that I— I'll paste it in there again. Dungeon World at…

Jack: For me— It says…

Austin: Okay, maybe we should—

Ali: Yeah.

Jack: It says, "Hi nerds."

Art: Oh. Mine's misspelled. I'm on Dungeon Worlf.

Austin: [laughs] Oh, so am I.

Keith: Oh, me too?

Jack: Ha!

Keith: We're all on Dungeon Worlf.

Austin: [laughing] We're all on Dungeon Worlf.

Ali: Oh, Nick!

Keith: [laughing] Okay, it still says—

Jack: It still says Dungeon Worlf.

Keith: I prefer Dungeon Worl-Worlf.

Austin: Worlf is right.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Wait, why are people not—

Nick: Oh, that's my fault. [laughs]

Keith: Okay, so let's get out of Worlf.

Jack: Okay, I can see Art. [Art laughs] Can you see my little dancing— My little dancing thing.

Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can see Jack.

Austin: I can't see anybody else's.

Art: Yeah, me neither.

Keith: I see— I see yours.

Art: I'm— I'm trying.

Keith: And I see what—

Art: I'm trying.

Ali: Yeah, I don't see anything.

Jack: Can you see my drawing?

Austin: Mmm.

Nick: Arr. Arrr.

Keith: Can we see the drawing?

Austin: No one— No, I can't see anything you're doing.

Ali: Me—

Keith: I see both of you.

Austin: Oh, wait. Wa-wait. Now I do. Now I see Jack and Dungeon Wo-World SF.

Keith: Okay.

Ali: Wait. Where are— Are we at World? Worlf?

Austin: We're at Worlf.

Art: Now I see it.

Austin and Keith: We're at Worlf.

Ali: I'm at Worlf.

Keith: Hold on. I'm good.

Austin: I'm erasing your junk.

Jack: [offended] Austin.

Austin: Yup.

Jack: [laughing] That's like me— That's like me, studiously, you know like, putting down some food (Austin: I—) and you eating it all badly.

Austin: I'd seen what you did.

Jack: [innocently] I drew— I drew a border.

Keith: Are we uh—

Austin: I'm recording this.

Keith: Austin, you were— you were saying, [laughing] Yeah, yeah. [serious] You were saying something and then I was going to say the second point of my two point thing. [cross] Uh... So let me finish the first step.

Austin: [cross] What state is that?

Art: That's Nevada.

Keith: What's—

Jack: That's... Tex-as.

Austin: Nope.

Keith: Nope. That's maybe like the bottom fifth of Texas.

Jack: Is that Milwaukee?

Ali: Oh, yeah.

Keith: The bottom-right fifth.

Art: Milwaukee's a city.

Austin: Hi, Nick.

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: Dungeon Worlf SF. Okay, we're all here.

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: We're all here.

Ali: Okay.

Austin: Let's— Let's—

Keith: Does mine say Keith Rad Radberry?

Austin: Wait, I don't see you— yours at all Keith. Where are you?

Keith: Oh, okay.

Ali: Do I have a name?

Keith: Um, right now, I'm in the middle of Nevada. And I can—

Austin: Move off of Nevada.

Ali: Oh, I know where this is.

Austin: I don't have Keith at all.

Jack: Art is Art 1.

Keith: I can see you guys, and everything you're doing. (Art: This is—) I'll draw. I'll do a four. Can you see my four?

Austin: No.

Jack: No.

Austin: Not at all.

Keith: Ah, you'll see it eventually.

Austin: Mmm.

Jack: You missed a spot, Austin.

Austin: I don't think we will.

Jack: Oh no.

Austin: Did I? Oh, whoops! [laughs] Oh, this is good. This is all good. This is all good radio right here. [Art laughs] Um…

Keith: You guys don't see my four?

Austin: No, we super don't see your four.

Keith: Okay, I'll just refresh.

Austin: Refresh. Okay.

Ali: Yeah, you're not with us.

Jack: Dammit Keith.

Austin: Great. This is— Guys, listen. This is a mistake.

[Art and Ali laugh]

Keith: No, no, no. I can— We're not live. I can edit whatever.

Austin: Okay.

Keith: See that?

Ali: See that's so rude.

Austin: I need— I need to draw a big block.

[Ali laughs]

Keith: You see this? You see that?

Jack: You're drawing a circle on Ali.

Austin: No, I don't see anything that you're doing. So…

Keith: You don't see that. That? How 'bout this?

Austin: You're lying to yourself.

Keith: No, I'm drawing— I was drawing this. Don't worry.

Austin: Okay. Great.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: So, I'm again—

Keith: I felt bad.

Austin: So, maybe it's—

Art: Maybe it's the size of your thingy.

Austin: The little snowman.

Keith: There's a snowman?

Art: Oh yeah, I see it.

Jack: With an extra head.

Austin: Right. So I've been like imagining this is like a nice big continent with like a bunch of islands on the outskirts. Or like, you know, there's like— It might be broken up with like a river. Sorry, like a river and then like, some mountains and other junk. But I really like this idea of starting in a corner and then, if the— if the story takes us that way, being able to work inwards to see what the kind of like, landlocked central regions (Jack: Yeah, totally) of this continent are like, does that make sense?

Jack: Yeah.

Keith: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Can I— Can I ask a really stupid question as somebody who's never played one of these games, before?

Austin: Sure.

Keith: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Uh, it's infinite, right? We're like—

Austin: Yeah, yeah. Yes.

Keith: Yeah.

Jack: And we can do— There could be anything in here.

Austin: Yes.

Keith: Yes.

Austin: Yes.

Jack: Within the boundaries of this story.

Austin: Yes.

Jack: We don't have to worry about, you know, how much we can afford, or…

Keith: Well, the boundaries of this story are kind of what we want, also. So that is, in its own way, also infinite.

Jack: Okay. But that's really…

Nick: We want boundaries—

Keith: The story— The story is kind of molding itself kind of around (Nick: [object clatters] Whoops.) Like it's— It's kind of what Austin sets up and it's kind of molded around what we're saying (Austin: Right) as characters. What we decide to do and what the consequences of our actions are.

Austin: Right.

Jack: Cool, okay.

Keith: Yeah.

Jack: So it's like Skyrim but ev… It's huge.

Keith: But you can do whatever.

Austin: But you can do whatever, yeah.

Jack: Alright, awesome.

Nick: We want boundaries in so far as, we need boundaries to define things.

Austin: Yes, exactly.

Jack: Yes, uh-huh.

Austin: Boundaries are very productive.

Jack: Mh-hmm.

Austin: So— So yeah, I'm thinking like— [sigh] I like this idea of being on one of the corners of— of this world to start in. I don't know if it's like, uh, maybe a region of little villages that have kind of become stable or— or what, but I really like this idea of—I don't know if they're fishing villages or—What do you guys think about that?

Keith: Uh, yes, yeah. I like fishing villages.

Ali: Yeah, of course.

Jack: I like— I like fishing villages, yeah.

[0:30:05]

Keith: I like um… I like role playing games where it— and it— where it starts in a little place.

Austin: Right.

Keith: Like, that's kind of— Like, I like start— I like Ocarina of Time-type beginnings where you're just like, (Austin: Mh-hmm.) [goofy voice] "I'm just in this little forest."

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: Okay.

Jack: My concern would be —

Keith: [goofy voice] I'm just in this forest.

Jack: That we would just get bogged down in doing like, village stuff.

Austin: No. I won't let that happen.

Ali: No.

Keith: No, no, no.

Jack: Okay.

Austin: Um, I mean—

Keith: Yeah, I also— I also would not let that happen.

Austin: Like this is the thing, right? Like, this is why— My—

Art: Yeah? Well I'm gonna fish all damn day.

[Ali and Keith laughs]

Austin: Great.

Jack: I literally have a skill for like hanging around, I think. Just like—

Austin: Well, you have a— you have a skill for— Actually you have a skill for going into neat places, right?

Jack: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Austin: Like, you're not going to get anywhere by just hanging around in your fishing village. Um, or maybe it's bigger than a fishing village. Like, maybe it's— What if it's like the— the trade center of a bunch of different like, local villages that do things like fishing and some basic like, metal working (Jack: Yeah.) and like, that sounds alright?

Jack: Yeah.

Ali: Yeah.

Keith: Yeah.

Jack: Like, in sort of like the world of Thomas Hardy-esque England, this is the bigger town that everybody from the villages goes to.

Austin: Right, exactly.

Jack: Except it's a fishing place.

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: Yeah. Um...

Ali: Yeah.

Nick: And also, like if it's— if it's a fishing village, it's gotta have ports. And…

Austin: Yes. Yes.

Jack: Mh-hmm. True.

Nick: It's probably not gonna stay —

Austin: [cross] And ships can go places.

Nick: [cross] at that small for very long.

Austin: Yeah, yeah. I also like this idea of having a local city, um because if Dre does end up joining us, one of the things we've been talking about is maybe splitting off into two smaller groups and having a local— having like, "Oh, this is our home base," could be helpful for like, "Oh, well once this adventure is over we're gonna shuffle up these groups." We all have this local home base. Um…

Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Austin: Alternatively, we could do something like, there are two cities. There is a sister city and these two groups come out of two different places but once Dre is around, what we can— Like again we're going to leave a lot of blanks on the map, and fill that in.

Art: Let's go Fishtown. I hate… whatever. Fishburg.

[Ali and Keith laugh]

Austin: Cattle— Right. Fishburg, yes. Uh… So yeah.

Jack: It just smells awful there.

Austin: Alright, so let's say— let's say then we are starting off here. Does everybody see the map?

Ali: Yeah.

Keith: Mh-hmm. Yeah.

Austin: It's like right up here. Maybe even further north… west than that.

Jack: This is so professional.

Art: How do you get further west than that?

Keith: Can you tell me? I must have missed it. I must have been, when I was figuring out how to (Austin: Uh-huh.) let you guys see me, which still isn't happening unless you're seeing that line that I just drew? Uh…

Austin: No.

Art: You're not 'Test'?

Keith: Anyway uh…

Austin: [cross] Wait, are you 'Test'?

Art: [cross] Are you that red line?

Keith: I was that red line but that's not mine, 'Test.' I'm 'Keith Rad Radberry'.

Austin: No, this says 'Test'.

Art: [cross] Yeah, you're 'Test'.

Ali: [cross] Yours is 'Test'.

Keith: Oh, that's— Maybe— Maybe my name is too long.

Austin: Yeah.

Keith: That's awful. Um… [Ali laughs] What are these? What are the— What are the dots?

Austin: Those are like little islands. (Jack: Islands.) Little islands.

Keith: Okay.

Jack: Something I've always liked and games kind of rarely do—other than I guess like, Wind Waker does a little chunk, is this idea of [cross] kind of vaguely isolated—

Nick: [cross] So is this all water?

Austin: Wah. [gasp]

[laughter]

Austin: That's okay.

Jack: It's a—

Nick: Is there an undo?

Jack: It's just a giant marshmallow floating in there. Um, is this idea of isolated, almost snow globe-esque locations. (Austin: Mh-hmm.) Um, this idea— And these islands are kind of interesting to me in that regard 'cause—

Austin: Sure.

Jack: 'Cause they're small and Austin can go to the island with a specific idea in mind. (Austin: Mh-hmm.) Like, "Oh this is the island of X or this is the island of, you know."

Austin: Right.

Jack: So that's why I like islands and I like archipelagos because I— I really like, you know, like inter— interconnected political stuff or interconnected social stuff, but at the same time, it's kinda nice sometimes to just go like, "Oh, man, that's the island with all the fucking gemstones or something."

Austin: Right, right. Uh, and I kind of feel like that's how adventures will— So Dungeon World, the word "Dungeon" in this means a really broad thing. (Jack: Mmm.) It doesn't mean just like, (Jack: Yeah.) dungeons under castles. It also means the island of the gemstones and you know, the caves of the death moth, you know or whatever. And— (Jack: Yes.) And so expect a bun— Like, it's designed to allow those little bite sized things. Anyway, so we're up in this little fishing village. Which— Or fishing port— trade— town—

Keith: Fishberg. Duckberg.

Austin: Fishberg. Uh…

Jack: That name is gonna stick, is the problem.

Austin: It is.

Keith: Duckberg, maybe, though? Duckberg?

Austin: Uh, we're not gonna be Duck— Let's— We'll get there. We're in Duckberg.

Jack: Are you giving — are you drawing it a head?

Keith: Ch, life like an airplane, man.

Ali: I— So the thing is that I don't want— This is a really weird thing to be like, upset about (Austin: Uh-huh.) but I don't want the continent to be like, bean-shaped.

Austin: Oh, it can be whatever. Yeah, this is not—

Ali: Okay. [laughing] It's just a—

Austin: Let's— Here we go— Here's a thing. Ready? We're gonna start fresh.

Ali: Oh.

Austin: We know— We know what the stuff is here, so we can start fresh and do better.

Ali: [laughing] Okay.

Austin: Uh, so hold on…

Jack: "Start fresh, do better," is an affirmation that I repeat to myself every morning.

Austin: [laughing] Oh... [sigh]

Jack: I can go there. Let's all go there.

Austin: We don't have— We don't— We don't have a chat right now, but if we did, VorpalFemme would be telling us that we could do better. Um…

Jack: Yeah, exactly. VorpalFemme, if you're listening, just shout it— (Austin: That's— Art!) just shout into the room. No—

Ali: Is that a bong?

Keith: That's not very good either. [Austin and Ali laugh] That looks like some cross between a lute and just a shit.

Austin: I was gonna go— I was gonna go, "A bong and a dick." That was I would say.

Ali: That was— That was definitely a bong.

Art: Woah, woah, if you wanna see a dick bong, hold on.

Austin: No… No. [Ali laughs] Oh boy.

Ali: Wait. This is just a shoe?

[Art laughs]

Keith: I'm not seeing it. I'm not seeing it.

Ali: [laughing] This is—

Austin: Okay.

Keith: I think your other thing was a better dick bong. That's a boot. (Ali: Wait—) That's just like you just a— (Austin: You gotta—) You got to reorient it a little is what you did.

Jack: It looks like a friendly grizzly bear, sitting on the floor, holding its paw out.

Keith: [rough goofy voice] You got honey?

Austin: Oh boy.

Nick: [deep rough voice] You pass me that bong.

Jack: Look, Austin, you knew what you were getting into. Just saying.

Austin: I did. I did. I did.

Jack: You invited us [cross] fun teens.

Austin: [cross] It's chill.

Keith: So wait, hold on. For in— in the interest of saying a thing about this game.

Austin: Yes, thank you.

Keith: Uh, what I was gonna say a long, long time ago.

Austin: Uh-huh.

Keith: Uh, when it was when Jack said uh, that— that this game— this game's Yawhg could still be around out there somewhere, doing whatever it does. Uh, the thing that I was imagining, I don't know if anybody else was imagining this.

Jack: It's America. It's America.

Keith: It wasn't like the same sort of thing. It was more like, imagine a gigantic uh, tornado and then just over the years, the tornado just got so, so small. [Jack laughs] And like, it was out there, and it was still doing it's thing, but on such a small scale that it was almost uh, uh… I don't know, just something so different. I don't know if that's what other people were imagining, but that's what I got.

Jack: Yeah, like—

Austin: No, no, that's I— Here's the thing, I don't wanna get too specific on what the Yawhg is. There's a reason why I keep calling it the Yawhg is because they chose that word because it didn't— it didn't necessarily mean anything. There— From what I understand is a true—

Keith: Right. Which is the one of the good things about that game that I like so much.

Austin: Right. So I don't want to talk— I want you guys to see a thing and then say, "Wait, is that the Yawhg? Is that part of that?" (Keith: Right, yeah.) So I'm not gonna commit— I don't want to commit either way to that stuff quite yet.

Keith: Yeah.

Art: [cross] So you don't want a tiny ancient tornado?

Keith: [cross] I wasn't asking you as much as I just wanted to know if that's what Jack and other people had in their heads when they were thinking about what he said.

Austin: Yeah, stuff like that. Stuff like, you know, areas where magic doesn't work. Stuff where, you know, uh… There's a bunch of stuff. 'Cause again. I don't know what it is. It could be— It could be a magic big tornado. It could also have been a really bad army. It could— You know what I mean?

Keith: I wasn't using tornado as a literal thing as much as a figurative thing to— to sort of (Austin: Right, right.) sort of communicate how it's been. How now it's just a (Austin: Mh-hmm) little duster.

Austin: Right.

Jack: It could just be something like— like letters stop receiving. Or letters stopped arriving at places. (Austin: It could— Right, right.) And it's a society where letters are really important. As soon as you stop being able to send stuff to places, for whatever reason.

Austin: Those are all of the things that I have— I have like a— I already have a list of things that can communicate, "Oh, this is one of those spaces where… Here is— Here is an area that was affected by this, right?"

Jack: No Wi-Fi signal.

Austin: Um… Or, or in our lives, you know, a Wi-Fi signal. In 200 years somehow, someone stumbles across a Wi-Fi signal. (Jack: Yeah) Like, "Oh shit, this place used to be a thing." Right? So yeah, [cross] I think— There's all sorts of ways we can get— But let's get—

Jack: [cross] So just to— There's a recording of someone called Art, talking about a dick bong. I don't— I can't— I don't know what's happening.

[laughter]

Austin: Um, so I don't wanna get too deep into that stuff because that's the stuff that we're gonna play to find out, right?

Jack: Yeah, mh-hmm.

[0:38:15]

Austin: Like, so we're in this— We're in Fishburg. We're in Duckberg. What sort of— What's life like there?

Keith: It's like a hurricane.

Austin: It's great.

[Keith laughs]

Jack: It's pretty sweet, I think. Not like, great but you know. I think it's alright.

Ali: Yeah, I like this— I like the idea of us coming from a place that like, has sort of found its rhythm.

Jack: Mmm.

Ali: That like, almost feels like a real town that is okay.

Jack: [cross] Yeah, like we could conceive—

Ali: [cross] And then we just like travel more and it's like, "Oh shit. Shit's still fucked out here."

Jack: Like, we could conceivably have met in a pub.

Ali: Yeah.

Jack: Like—

Austin: Absolutely.

Jack: Like, it's just a place where you can.

Austin: Yeah.

Art: Like, I don't think people from before, whatever the thing is, would mistake this for— for real life, right, like?

Ali: Right. Have we established if there's like— Is anyone alive who like remembers?

Austin: I would like there to be.

Ali: Okay.

Austin: But maybe you guys don't know them.

Ali: Okay.

Jack: Yes.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: I don't wanna take that off the table, is the thing, right? [cross] Like…

Ali: [cross] Yeah, fair.

Keith: [cross] Yeah, I don't want— I don't want to— I don't want to have information about what shit was like before but I also don't want that to be lost.

Ali: Okay.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: I...

Art: Well, I guess part of it is no one's really sure how long ago it was, right? Like...

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Art: Well, I mean, it was— everyone's sure it was probably longer than you know, a few weeks.

Austin: Right. No one— Maybe none of, you know— None of you have ever spoken to anyone who's who's alive before it happened.

Keith: Right, right. I…

Austin: And, no one you've spoken— And you know, one, that dude who lies a lot? He swears he talked to someone who was alive back then.

[Ali laughs] Keith: Mh-hmm. Yeah.

Austin: "And they were just real old. They were wicked old. You know, I was just—

Keith: "They were wicked old."

Austin: “I was just on a boat. It was— Yeah. But— But that's it, right?"

Keith: Thinking of that person. They died like right after. [cross] They died right after.

Austin: Ah, they died. Their last words were to me and oh, it was— It was real bad.

Keith: It was real bad. He told me exactly what happened. He told me, do not write this down.

Austin: I was sooo drunk. I forget. I forget what he said. It's crazy, I know. Um, anyway so like, that's the sort of thing that's—

Jack: So, Duckberg, huh?

[laughter]

Austin: Right, so it sounds like— it sounds like it's a place where there are lots of different groups coming to and from it, so somewhere that's fairly diverse in terms of uh, the types of people you would find there. [cross] Um, what's—

Jack: [cross] Uh-huh. Does it have uh, does it have a council that is diverse in terms of races or is it a city or a village run by sort of one person?

Austin: It's up to you. What do you guys think? Writing down, who runs Duckberg, down in my notes.

Nick: I uh…

Jack: That was the name of my first novel.

[laughter]

Jack: It was terrible. Um, I don't— I have no opinion here, partly because I'm not particularly sure— Humans are humans. I— Uh (Austin: Mh-hmm.) I've lived with humans for all of my life. Um, and sometimes dogs and cats. But like, humans are fine. Elves and—

Austin: Sometimes snails.

Jack: And sometimes fucking snails. Elves and— By the time this is released, I will be out of this house so that's gotta count for something.

Keith: You—

Jack: I don't know, I might not. No but like, so like, what do we talk about when we talk about elves and dwarves? And orcs?

Austin: Uh, is anybody here planning to play an elf?

Nick: I was thinking about it.

Keith: Uh, I'm not.

Jack: Uh, it depends on what elves are? I'm not a big elf fan, necessarily.

Austin: Nick, what's— Nick, Nick. Nick, what are elves like, now?

[0:41:24]

Nick: Uh… [Ali laughs] Uh, [lips buzz] shh.

Austin: Give me one thing that's— One little thing about elves, in this world.

Nick: They—

Austin: 'Cause okay, so— Go ahead, sorry.

Nick: Uh, they're very long lived but not immortal.

Austin: Okay, so elves are long lived.

Jack: Do they just die of old age? Like eventually will they just kneel over?

Nick: Yeah. Eventually they're just— they'll die.

Keith: How long lived? Like, 2— like 200 years? 800 years? More?

Nick: Uh, not 800. Um, I mean like.

Austin: [cross] A few hundred.

Keith: [cross] So but like you mean some like— There's— There is a concept of an old and a young death.

Nick: Yeah.

Keith: Like, ah, you could die of old age (Austin: Right.) (Nick: Yes.) at this hundred or this hundred.

Nick: Right.

Keith: Um.

Austin: Okay. Are they— Are, I mean, I— I'm again, this is a thing that we can play with going forward but again, I kinda wanna start at the— the pre-Yawhg is traditional old school D&D, Tolkien-esque, the elves lived in the woods and they were very smart and when they sung sad songs, people died. Um…

Jack: Is that a thing that elves do?

Austin: In— In AD&D they do.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: It's the fucking coolest. [Ali and Keith laugh] Um, but, but— Uh, that was before the Yawgh. That was before the terrible incident happened, so are they still— To what degree are they still isolationists, Nick?

Nick: Um.

Austin: Do they still like live in the woods?

Nick: Well, hm.

Keith: Have you even met other elves?

Austin: Right, you live here. Have you met another elf? Do you know other elves? That's a good question.

Nick: I— That's a good question. Let's say, um, I really want— I really kinda wanted my character to have a life, uh, very different um. Not necessarily— Not necessarily to have him be as old enough to actually have the Yawhg, but his life has (Austin: Mh-hmm.) changed irrevocably somehow.

Austin: Okay. Do you think he knew— Do you think he— Okay, so we're post-post-apocalypse.

Nick: Right.

Austin: Do you think he was from the post-apocalypse? Was he like—

Nick: Maybe, yeah.

Austin: Does he remember when things were really bad? He doesn't remember what happened but he was alive when there weren't stable towns and villages.

Nick: I want to say that he was really sheltered for awhile— for a long time.

Austin: Ooh, that's interesting.

Nick: Um, I—

Art: So then— So the elves have the capacity to live sheltered lives, right? That he had before this.

Nick: Or they did. Maybe not anymore.

Austin: Okay.

Nick: Or— Or maybe not even all of them. Maybe just his uh, um, I don't know.

Austin: Yeah, yeah, that's fine. [cross] Like, some— some small—

Art: [cross] No, no, yeah, no, that's good. Elvish aristocracy has a— has a weird fucking long history.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Right.

Austin: Yeah, do you think that you were related to some elf from before the bad time that was powerful? Do you think you have some lineage to (Nick: Uh.) the good old days?

Nick: Well, I had a very specific— Actually I already had a very specific idea for my uh…

Austin: That's fine.

Nick: So are we talking about characters?

Austin: Yeah, let's do it. Let's talk about characters. Definitely.

Nick: Um. I really want— I really wanted to play an elven wizard who uh, has done a lot of studying, (Austin: Mh-hmm.) um, for a hundred years, maybe. Like, live a really comfortable sheltered life. (Austin: Uh-huh) Was respected by his peers, uh, in uh—

Austin: Okay. So he had peers.

Nick: Yeah, he had peers. Was highly respected. Um, was like, just the like, crown jewel of wizard academia. And then, through whatever events, his university crumbled. Or maybe it was like, already like on it's way out. (Austin: Right. Right.) And it just took a long time because of magical forces or whatever um. And like—

Austin: Mh-hmm. You think this is like an enclave of knowledge that had survived until a decade ago, or something.

Nick: Yes. Yeah.

Austin: Okay.

Nick: Um…

Keith: Sort of— Sort of like an isolated uh, uh, like— like Alexandria sort of thing (Austin: Mh-hmm.) where— where like, "Oh, that's where all the books are. But also, like, twenty— twenty people know where it is."

[Ali laughs]

Austin: Or it could be more. I mean, this is the whole continent. How big is this continent, actually? Here's a question.

Keith: Right, I mean, I just drew— I just drew a small little berg.

Austin: Yeah, I know what you mean. How big is this place? That we're looking at on this map right now?

Jack: In comparison to what?

Keith: I don't think super big.

Austin: Uh, a real place. A place that we know.

Keith: I don't even think— I don't even think this— I think this is like, smaller than… I think this is smaller than like a— like handful of states.

Austin: Okay, but that's big.

Keith: That is big. You're right. But this is a continent.

Austin: It is.

Art: Yeah, it has to be like, it's smaller than Rhode Island. Like, fucking, (Austin: Right.) the states we got out here? They're huge. The western states? These things are big motherfuckers.

Keith: I'm talking about— As a— As a— As an east coaster. Like, east coast.

Austin: As a classical north-easterner. Yeah.

Keith: As a cla—

Jack: Maybe if the size of that little island down, coming back on the bottom bit is about the size of Ireland, maybe.

Austin: Okay. I think that's fair. So it would take considerable effort to get across this continent, still.

Jack: Yeah, but not— not inconceivable, on foot.

Austin: Right. It's not Oregon Trail. It's— It's—

Jack: No.

Keith: No. Sub-Oregon Trail.

Ali: [cross] So does that mean there's like—

Art: [cross] Does that mean this is like two Britains.

Jack: Uh…

Ali: Yeah.

Keith: No, that'd be a little— That'd be like three-and-a-half.

Art: Three-and-a-half Britains.

Keith: 'Cause I know exactly about— I know exactly about uh, square mileage. [laughs]

Austin: Um, Ireland is… about the same size as Indiana, says RelativeSizeOfIreland.com? I don't know what this website is. Um…

Ali: Isn't Indiana like, big?

Austin: It's— It's 32 thousand square miles, is Ireland.

Ali: Yeah, I can't—

Jack: That's big.

Austin: That's big. That's— That sounds big to me.

Jack: Okay. Yeah, let's make it smaller than that.

Keith: It's more that—

Austin: The whole place.

Keith: Let's say that— Let's say um…

Ali: So is this more like, New Hampshire?

Jack: [cross] I have no idea what any of that is.

Ali: [cross] So—

Keith: [cross] I'm thinking the entire blotch—

Austin: Yeah, talk about.

Keith: I look at the entire thing and I go, oh, that's New York.

Austin: The state.

Keith: That's the size of the state. (Austin: Yeah, I could see that.) The whole thing is just in New York.

Ali: Yeah.

Art: New York State's super fucking big too, though.

Austin: It is. It is.

Ali: Yeah.

Keith: Yeah, but it's a lot smaller than several Louisianas— or uh, Indianas.

Ali: And then, also I guess, would there be like another…

Austin: I'm checking to see if that's even true.

Ali: Like, another continent over here.

Keith: That's super— Yeah. [excited] I'm right about this.

Ali: So we should name—

Austin: Uh, it is— Yeah. New York is 54,000 square miles.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Uh, which means that like the width of it is 330— Or they're 285 miles, the length is 330 miles. So yeah, like 200 miles long. Or two or three hundred miles long, two to three hundred miles uh, wide.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Let's say. That seems fair.

Keith: Yeah, I like that.

Austin: Okay.

Keith: I like that. Because I don't— I don't want it to be so big that we never feel like we can actually—

Austin: Yes, agreed.

Keith: Like, I don't want it to be like, "Aw, let's go to this new place." "Yeah, but there's still… eighty percent of this thing that we haven't gone to." Our home.

Austin: Right, right. Yeah, I agree with that. So Nick, on this map, where on the map was the— the school or enclave or whatever that you were at?

Nick: Um… I kinda like it being right in the middle.

Austin: Okay. Well paint tool. That's okay. That's a good color to paint.

Keith: Yeah, that's a fun— that's a fun little off-white.

Austin: So how did you go from the middle to this far extreme, up to the north. Which would be, again, like a hundred miles.

Nick: Oh that's—

Keith: That's too much. [cross] That's too great.

Austin: [cross] That's too great.

Nick: I didn't—

Austin: No, that's fine.

Nick: I didn't know I was on the paint tool. [Ali laughs] Sorry.

Austin: No, it's fine.

Nick: I was trying to just draw, uh…

Austin: No, it's that top tool.

Ali: Ope. [laughs]

Austin: That's an alright color.

Jack: It is.

Nick: So yeah.

Austin: Alright.

Nick: There's— There's the university.

Art: That's very central.

Austin: It is.

Art: I'm suspicious. I think your people did it.

Ali: Yeah.

[Jack laughs, Keith laughs]

Nick: I mean, it's— it's there because it has to tap into uh, all of the ley lines and everything.

Art: Yeah.

Jack: How do these ley lines work? What are they— Are they…

Austin: Oh, is that how magic works? Is this— Is this what we're deciding about magic?

Jack: Well, I don't know, let's…

Nick: It's— It's a source of magic.

Austin: Okay, [cross] there could be other magic.

Jack: [cross] Yeah.

Nick: [cross] Magic requires power. Um…

Austin: Okay.

Nick: Of some sort.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Like, let's be— So, 'round here there's a sort of like— like south-western England folk mysticism surrounding ley lines.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Um, and they're sort of... People hold them to be almost magnetic, in the sense that they are invisible. They are in— they are invisible, subterranean source of reactive energy in some way but they're not particularly tangible.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Uh, and they're sort of aligned, aligned in the looser sense of the word. Are the ley lines that you use, similar to that? Or, if I dug a— a big hole, would I actually find something crisscrossing through the earth?

Nick: No, there's no physical component to it. You have to—

Jack: Right.

Nick: You can only find it through um— They were found accidentally, even, um by uh wizards far older than the university, even. Um, and you have to— you have to have specific incantations and even possibly devices (Austin: Mh-hmm.) to detect them and tap into them.

Austin: But you can also just use your spellbook and stuff (Nick: Right.) um, anywhere to cast a spell, basically? Like if you're in…

Nick: Well, but like I said, the ley lines is one source.

Austin: Mmm. Mh-hmm. Okay.

Jack: What are the ley lines concentrated around? Like, how are— Is that— Are they seemingly random distribution or— or there— are there patterns that you can notice?

Keith: I'll say it right now, before the answer, I've never heard the word ley lines before.

Austin: Oh, really?

Keith: And I'm— So I'm just imagining just a web of magic.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Yeah, that's pretty close.

Keith: That's what I picture it is.

Ali: Yeah, same.

Nick: Yeah.

Keith: Okay.

Austin: That's— That's fair. Um…

Jack: Nick, I mean—

Austin: I think—

Jack: Like—

Austin: If—

Jack: If I were in the university and I had the devices that were necessary and I just started following a ley line.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Would I eventually come to something? Or are they just sort of just scattered? Like, spaghetti on the floor.

Nick: If you were not at the university, the ley lines would eventually lead you to the university.

Jack: Right.

Austin: Okay, so.

Nick: But if you were at the university, [cross] you might not find…

Keith: [cross] Just— And not— not because the university… Not because the university is special but because they built it there on purpose.

Nick: Right.

Keith: To where it's sort of like the epicenter. Like, oh, this is just where— This happens to be where all this stuff intersects.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Yes. Yeah.

Art: I think we're getting pretty close to not leaving spaces in our imagining map, here. [cross] We're getting—

Austin: Yeah, this is as close as I want to go with that.

Nick: Okay.

Austin: And I like the fact that this is one of the ways you can get magic.

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: Because it does leave the room open for other types of magic and other sources of (Nick: Yeah.) magical energy. But it's good because now we have something in our vocabulary to say like, "Well why is this place special?" "Oh, well, hm… ley lines." [cross] Awesome so…

Nick: [cross] Anyways, so this university doesn't exist at all anymore.

Austin: It's gone.

Nick: It's gone. No trace.

Austin: So you're the last scholar of— of this university. The final…

Nick: Not necessarily.

Austin: Okay.

Nick: There could be other— other scholars, strewn about.

Austin: Sure. Right, right.

Keith: You're just not like all hanging out anymore. Okay.

Austin: Yeah.

Nick: Yeah, we're just— I mean. There might be— There might be others hanging out but no one's hanging out with me, for reasons, let's put it that way.

Austin: Right, right. [Art laughs] That's fine. Um, okay so. Let's, uh, here's one last question about that— that place. Was that— Was that all elves? Or was that a mix of people?

Nick: Um. No it could be a mix but there was definitely some um… There was— There was absolutely some um, racial profiling going on.

Austin: Sure.

Nick: And— And uh, elves—

Jack: Anti… Anti-anyone who's not an elf?

Nick: Not— I mean, not outwardly.

Ali: That's—

Nick: Absolutely not outwardly, but…

Austin: This is like the Rolodex problem, right?

Nick: Yes.

Austin: Where like the uh…

Keith: This is kinda elves whole jam, though, isn't it?

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: The um…

Austin: Well, it had been, right?

Nick: The elves hold all of the most important points— Like, all but like maybe one or two, of the most important positions at the university.

Austin: Okay, sure.

Nick: And if you asked them, it would be because they're simply the best people for the job.

Austin: Yup, got it.

Nick: After—

Austin: They did that through the current— That group of elves did that through the current like uh… moment. Through up until twenty years ago or ten years ago, whenever you left.

Nick: Sure, yeah.

Austin: Like this wasn't— Okay, so there were some elves at least still holding onto that belief. They are no longer in existence. Um, we'll find out what happened to that university, maybe, as we play. Uh, but there are— So I guess, we're at the last question about this again, which is, are there other elves in Duckberg?

Nick: Um… Yes, (Austin: Okay.) but none that were at the university.

Austin: Okay. Cool.

Art: [cross] Well there—

Jack: [cross] Do these—

Art: There were non-university elves to start with, right? Like, (Nick: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.) there was elvish society that did not include the university, right? Like…

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Uh-huh, yes. Absolutely.

Art: Like, Elfburg over here or whatever.

Ali: I mean—

Austin: Are those— Go ahead, Ali, sorry.

Ali: Um, I was gonna say, just in my mind, Duckberg is more of a place where like, people gather?

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Ali: So there's probably like, smaller little pockets of society like, around it. But that's where people go to like, trade and like, hang out, [cross] and stuff like that.

Austin: [cross] Mh-hmm. So you're gonna run into a bunch of different types of people there.

Ali: Yeah. Mh-hmm.

Austin: That's fair. Um, and maybe they're younger. Maybe they're, you know, maybe you're— Are you old for an elf, at this point?

Nick: Yes.

Austin: Okay.

Nick: I am old, even for an elf. I'm an old man.

Austin: But— And that doesn't mean— But that doesn't mean you're old for what elves used to be. You're old for what elves are now, does that make sense?

Nick: Sure. Yeah, okay.

Austin: Okay. Um… Like there were a time where you were…

Nick: I mean, I have all of the um, like visual markings of an old person.

Austin: Okay. Got ya.

Nick: Like, stringy grey hair. Uh…

Austin: Okay.

Nick: A little too—

Keith: So like a wizard look.

Nick: Yeah.

Keith: You got a wizard look going on.

Nick: Well, no beard though. Maybe a—

Austin: Okay.

Nick: Maybe a goatee. [laughs]

Austin: Yup, sounds good.

Keith: You got that wiz-fizz.

Nick: Yeah.

[0:56:19]

Austin: Does anyone else— Is anyone else being a non-human character. And again, I want to remind you that like, even if a race isn't in that book, for a specific class, (Jack: Yeah.) you can do that. We'll figure that out. (Keith: Um.) Uh, I have documents. Hang on. I have ways and means.

Keith: [cross] So I've got— I've so—

Art: [cross] Considering, but not— not anything certain.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: Let's so— real quick, if we can get into um, uh… You said that we're being—we can be—we're being pretty lenient with the— the stuff if we decide that that's a thing that we want to do.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: Um, I was looking at— For the— For the Races, it gives— It suggests for the Druid, "Hey maybe be an elf, hey maybe be an human, hey maybe be a halfling." (Austin: Yup.) And then it gives you, uh, a racial power (Austin: Yup, mh-hmm.) Based on, how set in stone are we, with that. Um…

Austin: Uh, I want there to be a thing you get to represent your heritage or your (Keith: Okay.) or your background, but that doesn't have to be about race and it doesn't have to be limited to whatever race it was.

Keith: Okay.

Austin: So um, what's the halfling one. I mean, that might be the one where that's a little problematic. Um…

Keith: The halfling is "You sing healing songs of spring and brook. When you make camp, your allies heal 1d6."

Austin: Yeah, so, see there's no reason someone else shouldn't be able to say, "Oh yeah, we— I'm from a culture that prizes, you know, um, making safe places."

Keith: Right.

Austin: Halflings don't have—

Jack: I want to be part of that culture, in the real world.

Austin (cont.): Monopoly. Yeah, well.

Jack: Mmm.

Austin: We're trying our best, Jack.

Keith: And uh, so I would be— I would be a halfling, but I would— I would prefer to have the— the uh— I prefer what it says about me, to have a human power of, "You learn to bind animals to field and farm."

Austin: Oh, okay. (Keith: I—) So you want— Okay, go ahead.

Keith: Uh, so because I imagine not— I imagine that where my character comes from is somewhere that like, like small— small stakes family farming (Austin: Uh-huh.) is kind of the— or it's community farming, was kind of the— their ticket out of not starving to death.

Austin: Like, after the apocalypse. So (Keith: Yeah, yeah.) they figured out farming again. (Keith: Right, right.) Things went real bad. (Keith: Yeah, and—) Hundred years later, people who survived, are like, "Listen. We gotta start farming."

Keith: Yeah, and I'm not even talking like livestock.

Austin: Right, okay.

Keith: Like— Like dairy and meat and stuff like that. Um, so that's— that's the direction that I was sorta wanting— yeah.

Austin: And again that's— Not all halflings do that, but there's a culture on this map somewhere (Keith: Yeah.) where farming and or livestock starting—

Jack: What's that actual—

Keith: Right.

Jack: What is that actual— What does that actually say?

Austin: Yeah, thank you, sorry. Read that off.

Keith: Uh, "As your people learn to bind animals to field and farm, so too are you bound to them. You may take the shape of any domesticated animal, in addition to your normal options." Is the… (Jack: Woah.) for Druid.

Jack: That's really good.

Austin: Yeah. 'Cause though Druids can change shape— And I think we're gonna— I think that's— So like, this is the thing that's tough for me is like, I don't want to say… I don't wanna— I kinda wanna keep things the way they were in certain really important ways and also challenge them in other ways. So like, I don't wanna say okay, well Druids can't turn into animals. That's what a Druid is, you know?

Keith: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: Um, uh... But I think that's at least a cool way of contextualizing it in this story, which is (Keith: Yeah.) that it used to be that only humans— that's how humans worked but now it's also… It's just this little society reinvented farming and cow-herding and…

Keith: Right. Because halflings— halflings are— Their whole thing is like, "Hey we live in— we live in seclusion. (Austin: Mh-hmm.) We're all— We're happy and we party and we dance and sing." But like, and like, hey you maybe don't even have the luxury to do any of those things anymore.

Austin: Right.

Keith: You have to— You have to learn how to make these animals work for you.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Um...

Austin: Where on the map is this place?

Keith: Um, I was thinking uh— I was thinking directly following the line south from Duckberg and then a little bit— a little bit to the east.

Austin: Um. I'm gonna mark it. Are we still on the same map? Are we off a map. I see Ali.

Ali: I'm here.

Jack: I'm— I'm here.

Keith: I'm— I'm seeing a map. Yeah. I'm seeing a map.

Austin: Okay. So like, uh, let's say…

Keith: I would go even farther south.

Austin: Okay.

Keith: I mean, it's fine. I mean, it's not a huge deal.

Austin: That's fine. Go head. It's fine.

Keith: It's—

Austin: I wish there was an undo. Why isn't there an undo?

Nick: Yeah.

Keith: I don't know. You're going to go over and redraw it.

Austin: I know, I have to find that green. This tool isn't great. We'll have to look at a different tool.

Jack: I don't know, something about the fact that we are [cross] thousand of miles apart.

Austin: [cross] Oh, goddammit.

Keith: [cross] Oh goddammit

Austin: God—

Keith: Oh goddamn— No, no, no, hold on.

Austin (cont.): Damn it. Okay. That's the wrong—

Ali: This is not the right green.

Austin: This is the worst green. I got the right green, somehow.

Keith: Go—

Austin: Oh, that's close. Here's about right. Anyway.

Nick: Whatever.

Austin: Yeah.

Jack: How is the— How are the podcast gonna see this?

Austin: I'm gonna— I'll post it. It'll be like the…

Keith: Ooh, what's that shape? Where'd that shape come from? I like that.

Austin: I don't know. What was that shape?

Keith: Let's make that something.

Jack: Like a tube.

Austin: Yeah, okay, that's a thing now.

Ali: Ooh.

Keith: Yeah, that's a thing now.

Austin: What is that? I don't know what that is?

Art: That was— That was an artifact from the erasure, from trying to find the color.

Austin: Oh is that— Is that wait— [excited] Is that what we're calling that? We're calling the Yawhg, the Erasure?

Art: Sure.

[laughter]

Keith: That's good. I like that.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Okay.

Nick: I don't know. Maybe— Well, I really like— I don't know, did you want to come up with our own term for it? I guess the Erasure works.

Austin: I like the— Well, it probably has a bunch of terms.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Uh, Nick (Keith: I think—) I bet your people called it something very different than what these fishermen call it, you know?

Nick: True.

Austin: You know?

Nick: Sure.

Austin: They probably have like a real technical-ass term for it.

Nick: Mh-hmm.

Keith: Erasure's a really good name.

Jack: Do we—

Austin: Erasure's pretty great.

Jack: Let's actually not say what that is and that it's there.

Austin: No, yeah.

Jack: And we'll find it. 'Cause it's kind of on the critical path as it stands at the moment.

Austin: [laughing] It's sort of is, right there. Yeah.

Keith: [laughs] Yeah, there's— It is unavoidable unless the ocean is where we go.

Austin: Right.

[Ali laughs]

Art: I don't know, we could like— We could definitely walk around it, I mean.

Austin: We could but (Jack: Like—) we'd have to walk around it and then you'd have to ask, "Why are we walking around this thing?" That we have to answer that.

Jack: Like the scout climbs the— The scout climbs over a hill and goes, [monotone] "What the fuck is that? We're not going over there. Going—"

Ali: We just— We can go onto this little island and then we're done.

[1:02:05]

Jack: Uh... So Keith do you want—

Austin: It's really long.

Nick: I uh—

Jack: Do you want to say more about the, what halflings are or as it stands for you, are halflings pretty standard halflings? You know, they…

Keith: Um, I think that— I like the idea that they were standard halflings until, like, of the world stopped providing them the luxury of being jolly, merry uh…

Austin: And now they're just short people.

Keith: Yeah, yeah. And they— And they— 'Cause there's a— there's a point in this world's history, it seems, where like you couldn't just hang out at the pub. You couldn't just walk around in fields of flowers (Austin: Mh-hmm.) and listen to like, nice flute music and smoke on your pipe.

Austin: Right.

Jack: Yeah.

Keith: Uh.

[Ali laughs]

Austin: Right. Okay, that seems fair to me.

Keith: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: Uh, who else— So again, anyone else…

Keith: And maybe— maybe they're cynical because of that and grumpy.

Austin: Ooh.

Keith: Maybe they're angry because that's what— now they're— now they're a working people.

Jack: [cross] Almost like there's this…

Austin: [cross] Do you think, even though these people don't remember those better times, necessarily.

Jack: Yeah. It's like, almost like there's this fictional (Keith: Right.) English history of uh, a bucolic pastoral England that never existed. But, mind you, almost be the case for halflings, that super did exist and now it…

Austin: It super existed, yeah.

Keith: It super existed, yeah. For— For-ever, forever, yeah.

Jack: Like, they lived in Constable paintings and then the paintings were taken away from them.

Keith: Mh-hmm. I think— I think that the— I think that there is a holdover in halfling culture of— of "Remember how we had it."

Austin: Right.

Keith: Like, they don't know— they don't maybe know how they had it, they just know they had it different.

Austin: You think there's like something a little bit bitter about it?

Keith: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: A bitterness.

Art: Is that why you like, left? 'Cause like, Druids aren't— aren't part of…

Keith: No, no, no, I definitely did leave.

Art: Yeah.

Keith: Uh, I don't— I haven't thought a ton about how I left, though.

Art: Okay.

Keith: Uh, and where—

Austin: We'll get there.

Keith: Yeah. Um…

Nick: I want to ask a question about uh… Um, like the nature of races (Austin: Mh-hmm.) in particular.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Like the— It always— This is a thing that I think about a ton in fantasy, and it rarely ever gets addressed. Maybe it has in something I've never seen, but (Austin: Mh-hmm.) um, fantasy tends to use the word 'race' (Austin: Yes.) but really they almost mean 'species.'

Austin: They do mean species, yeah.

Nick: So, is— are we different races or are we different species? Maybe there is a common root, um, to…

Austin: I like there being a common root, I do. Um, especially if this has been hundreds of years, we've definitely seen intermarrying of a sort that cultural pressures probably wouldn't have allowed (Nick: Sure.) um, previously. Uh, and I— I also kind of hate the like— I hate the, "Oh, half-elves are this special sub-breed."

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: Like, nah, they're just— They have aspects of both. So, maybe there are lots of people who identify culturally as halfling but are a little taller.

Keith: I wouldn't be sur— Yeah, yeah.

Austin: Does that—

Keith: I like that a lot.

Austin: Does that make sense?

Nick: Sure, yeah.

Austin: I'd rather— But I—

Keith: That's always— That's always how I— How I played it. Not taller but just not like… half-elf thing…

Austin: But what about the quote-unquote "monster races," [cross] like orcs and goblins?

Jack: [cross] Yeah, so I'm thinking about…

Austin: How do you guys want to handle that stuff?

[1:05:30]

Jack: I'm thinking about playing an Orc just because this sort of stuff is really (Austin: Mh-hmm.) fascinating to me and I would like— I mean, I don't know. It's a— It's a fantasy RPG so orcs are going to appear in some capacity (Austin: Yes.) and past a certain point.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: But it would be interesting to me, if right from the bat that's something (Austin: Yup.) we're thinking about and talking about, rather than just like, "Oh, damn here are some orcs. Like, we found the orcs." Um...

Austin: Yeah. I definitely— I definitely agree with that.

Keith: I'm really into having— like, because in a lot of fantasy games, like especially um… especially video games, but some games that I've played in that I wasn't uh, DMing. (Austin: Mh-hmm) Orcs are just like, "That's, hey, you saw an orc, that's how you know it's a bad guy."

Jack: Yeah, like...

Keith: I'm super not about that, even a little bit.

Austin: Nah, nah. Uh, I am about there being a time in this world where that's the case. Where— Where before—

Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure.

Austin: And in fact, probably— There are probably who are like, "Fucking Yawhg—Or not Yawhg—Those fucking orcs caused the Erasure."

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: "It was those orc hordes." Et cetera.

Jack: Well, because like, the—

Keith: Yeah, I'm not talking the perception of any particular people in the thing, I'm talking about more broadly on a scale that is above one person's perspective.

Jack: Yeah, like the language the— The narrative that's so often thrown around with orcs is with— leans very heavily on kind of uncomfortable ideas of tribalism, and aggression (Austin: Mh-hmm.) and savagery. It's like beast, inverted-commas, "beast races" but— but even—

Art: Well if it makes you feel any better, the original metaphor is industrialization, right? That that's what— that's what Tolkien was talking about. He was talking about—

Austin: Well, that's only part of it. No, mh-mmm.

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: 'Cause there were also the natural savage orcs, though, Art.

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: There were specifically— There were Saruman's orcs who were that industrialization. They were built by Saruman to be, like machine— they were—

Jack: The fighting Uruk Hai, I mean.

Austin: Right, the fighting Uruk Hai were like corrupted elf men who, back in the day, and those were like the natural savages. And then the Saruman orcs were like built in those pits of industry.

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: Um, so they— It's both. It had always been this kind of like, this savage brown folk and also the— the magma fire, you know, engineered.

Jack: There's something particularly, internally and externally prejudiced towards orcs, I think. Largely because in Tolkien, they're villainous. They're consistently villainous. But if you look at like the Elder Scrolls…

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: We talk about the Khajiit and the Argonians and the Orcs as, inverted-commas, "beast races."

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: But, the plotting is very different for the Argonians. Like, you get the impression that the Argonians have more of a foothold in standard Elder Scrolls-y society than Orcs do.

Austin: Well, it's especially weird with Orcs because they're actually elfs— elves in Elder Scrolls, right?

Jack: Yeah, they're Orsimer.

Austin: They're Orsimer— They're Orsimer, exactly. (Jack: Shat out by god.) So I guess here's the question. Do you want to answer that question about what orcs really, quote unquote, are? Do you want orcs— Do we want to say that orcs are actually of the same base species as men, quote unquote, and elves and dwarves and all that?

Jack: I don't know.

Keith: I think, I— Yeah, that's how I—

Jack: I like the idea… I'm playing— I'm hoping to play as a Bard, (Austin: Yeah, yeah.) because I've always been very, very prejudiced against Bards and…

Austin: I don't know how that's possible. It's un—

Ali: Yeah.

Keith: [cross] Yeah, Bards don't—

Jack: [cross] Well, because I have—

Austin: And you're Jack. And you're Jack.

Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bard is—

Jack: I've been— Well, so I've been thinking about them, completely, completely wrong.

Keith: Yeah.

Jack: On— On the Bard character sheet that I'm looking at right now. There's like— There's name choosing options, there's— I get to pick an instrument or something. And my— my terrible mental image of a Bard is actually right here on the sheet. Like, it would be somebody called, Sistranelle, with uh [Keith laughs] knowing eyes, a stylish cap, finery and a well fed body who plays a… fine lute, a gift from a noble. And that like, I am super not about that. But the more I looked at the—

Keith: No.

Jack: The more I looked at the Bard, the more I realized that they were like, uh…

Keith: Like, Bards are spies. Bards are like secret assassins. Like…

Jack: Yeah, or like the— like the customs people from King of Dragon Pass. Like, they're the people who go like, "Oh my god, I read about this, somewhere."

Keith: Right.

Jack (cont.): "Hold on a second," you know? And so when I was thinking about playing a Bard, and maybe playing an orc, (Austin: Mh-hmm.) I kind of like the idea of orcs, in seclusion for whatever reason, maybe because people were like, "Hey they fucking caused the Erasure." But I like the idea of orcs as— as almost culturably— culturally obsessive archivists. Um...

Austin: Ooh.

Keith: Yeah, that's cool.

Jack: They're a society that just— Almost like the Brotherhood of Steel is like, "Oy, that's a machine, we're taking it." (Austin: Mh-hmm.) But in a much, much wider sense of like, "You know what? We're gonna collect a whole bunch of songs. And not just orc songs, we're just picking up songs." (Austin: Mh-hmm.) Or, "Hey we found a weird inscription on a mountain. We're gonna take it. We're gonna chisel it off the mountain."

Austin: And that's even— That's even like a really nice inversion— Or not inversion but subversion, of this like, oh the orc barbarians loot and blunder and hoard.

Jack: Yeah, no, like…

Austin: "No, no dog, they're trying to save junk."

Jack: Like, yeah.

Austin: "They're trying to like make sure we still have stuff."

Jack: My mental image of— of kind of like orc settlements or at least like a major orc settlement is almost like warehouses. Or like, museum— museum very carefully organized museum storage. (Austin: Mh-hmm.) Like, they thumb through a book and find a reference number. And then go and like get it out of a little box. Or you could order it from there or something.

Keith: Sort of like last scene in Indiana Jones?

Jack: Yeah, totally.

Keith: Style.

Austin: Alright.

Nick: Yeah. [cross] I was just about to say, this is like a whole collective of people.

Austin: [cross] I like that a lot.

Nick: This is a whole collective of Indiana Joneses.

Austin: Right.

Jack: Absolutely.

Austin: And they—

Art: I'm entirely not presenting this as a problem but are we kind of like nudging out gnomes?

Jack: Uh…

Austin: Yo, fuck gnomes.

Jack: Austin's already [inaudible]

Art: I'm not saying that it's a problem that we are. I also don't have any affection for gnomes, but like… (Austin: Um…) we're— we're rubbing up on that stuff and we should be aware of it?

Austin: Yeah. So—

Jack: Yeah, I'm kind of happy— I'm happy with there being no gnomes.

Art: Alright.

Austin: I'm also (Nick: Wait.) fine with that, but—

Nick: I'm confused.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Actually, is that— Is the archivist— Is that a property of Bards or orcs?

Austin: He's saying orcs.

Nick: Oh, okay.

Austin: He's saying that there are just bards in the world who are the foppish dude who's like, you know, the noble's pet who you know, plays for the court or the— the dashing rogue bard type, or the, all these other— or the spy assassin bard type that Keith talked about. But he is— He, as an orc, collects stuff. And as a Bard, inside of that culture, is like especially— Is the guy who knows that stuff. Like, the orcs might— The orc culture he's talking about might also have… fighters who help go out and reclaim sites (Jack: Yup, totally.) so that the archivists can move in. They might have paladins, they might have clerics and all that, which is a whole other conversation we're gonna need to have shortly.

Nick: So is there—

Austin: But—

Nick: Like, is that— Are there societies of orcs that don't? 'Cause that sounds more like a societal attribute than a—

Austin: Than a racial attribute.

Nick: Racial— Yeah.

Jack: I think, yeah. [cross] I think it's cultural…

Keith: [cross] I think that's where this stuff gets inverted because that's what all— that's all fantasy is— is making [cross] societal things into…

Nick: [cross] Well, I know, but we can have an opportunity here to… (Austin: So—) upend that a little bit.

Austin: Right, so let's say then it— Let's say that historically it's tied to an orcish group (Nick: Okay.) that survived. But I think everything at this point, with rare exception, has had to become a little more inclusionist. Because there just aren't that many people.

Jack: Uh-huh.

Art: And there could be, you know, there could be orcs out there who like, "Well, everything's fucked. If these people think we're a bunch of violent, nothings—" (Austin: Yes, yeah.) You know, "Bunch of violent animals. Well, you know, I'll be a violent animal. That's what I got now, right?" Like, that— that could be out there, too.

Jack: Yeah, yeah.

Nick: Sure.

Austin: But— But let's set in the same way— In the same way, Nick, that the university is a mix of people with elves at the top, (Nick: Mh-hmm.) I have no problem with saying that the group that Jack comes from is one of the largest orc settlements in the continent and also, has this like, orc founding but now is a mix of things.

Nick: Sure.

Austin: Maybe there are some gnomes there too. You know?

Jack: Yeah. well, I mean.

Austin: Well, maybe…

Jack: Like, it seems like it would be within— There are kind of two aspects of the orc cultural ethos that I think, come through there. The first one is, "For whatever reason, people think that we did something wrong. Which means that we need to lock this stuff down." Like, I don't know— I don't know what our thinking is on dwarves but I almost have a mental image of the orcs as having retreated into caves. Not necessarily living underground but chiselling big holes out of mountains. (Austin: Mmm.) And being like, "Oh, right, you can't come in, unless you're bringing us something. Or if you're hostile, you're just not getting through this door."

Austin: Right.

Jack: But also, on the flip side of that, of course these people are going to be at least some level of inclusive in their society because the thing that they want is stuff. They want—

Austin: Right, right.

Jack: They want stuff. They want like, "Oh, hey, you're from Fishberg, up in the— up in the north west. And you were whistling a really cool song when you arrived here." (Austin: Right, come—) "Can I just write that down, please?"

Austin: Right, right. Come on in.

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: Let's talk about what you have. Yeah. I like that. I think that's a really cool turn on the traditional turn of the orcs who are— who are taking things and all that. And again, I think there's definitely a mix.

[muffled noises]

Austin: Was that a dog? What was that?

Jack: That wasn't me.

Nick: No, sorry. That's Matt.

Austin: Oh, okay.

Ali: Oh. [laughs]

Keith: Oh, so it's both.

Austin: Woah.

Nick: What?

[laughter]

Austin: Where— Where—

Keith: No, no, no, no. 'Cause Jack said, "Oh, it was me." [cross] And then Nick said, "Oh it was me," so it was both of you.

Jack: [cross] No, I said— No I said it wasn't me.

Keith: Oh, okay.

Austin: What was— What's this— What's this south, actually? Oh, this is hobbit—

Jack: Halfling.

Austin: This is the halfling…

Keith: Yeah, that was— That was where— was where my halfling's from.

Austin: Um, so it's like farm. Like, the old— the old cattle farm?

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Uh…

Jack: Farms and shit.

Austin: Yeah, far— farm. Wait, what did you say?

Nick: What's a— What's a hobbit? That's—

Austin: I'm sorry, I meant, a halfling. I'm sorry. Don't sue us, please. Um… Okay, what— That's two basic ideas down, right?

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: Three? Three.

Art: Three. Three basic ideas down.

Austin: And we're also—

Jack: Right. Where am I gonna put orcs?

Austin: Uh, yeah, where are you gonna be here?

Jack: Um…

Austin: Try to keep it within this north-western quadrant.

Jack: Mh-hmm. Mh-hmm.

Austin: Um, 'cause I think that makes more sense of (Jack: Yeah, I think—) being able to be— get up to that north-west spot. And it also leaves a nice blank spot— It leaves the— I want to leave the majority of this map blank, you know. Um…

Jack: Yeah. Is there an eyedropper tool?

Austin: No.

Jack: Goddammit.

Austin: Yeah, this is— this is less than ideal. Um…

Jack: Okay. It's gonna be a weird S.

Austin: That's okay. That's fine.

Jack: Right.

Art: You can just make a dot.

Jack: I've done it now. Um… Right, then this is gonna be…

Austin: They should see this live, huh. I feel like the Archives and the University definitely had some exchanges. Or maybe not exchanges. Maybe there's a little rivalry there? I'm not sure. We'll find out. But definitely—

Nick: Sure. There— There has to be a relationship, [cross] period, of some—

Austin: [cross] Yes, absolutely. And that can show up, even between the two of your characters. So that leaves Art and— and Ali. Are you both human? Do you have— What are your ideas at this point?

[1:17:23]

Ali: Um… I was definitely going to go with human.

Austin: Okay.

Ali: I don't know—

Keith: Art's the only person who I don't know anything about what they were thinking.

Austin: Me either.

Art: Uh, okay. Here's— Here's my problem.

Keith: Okay.

Austin: Yeah. I'm with you.

Art: What I was really thinking about was Paladin.

Austin: Okay, that's not a problem.

Art: But the ability for Paladin, when you pray for guidance, even for a moment, and ask, "What here is Evil?" The GM will tell you honestly. (Austin: Yup.) And, Austin can we talk about what relationship this is gonna draw between you and me.

[Ali laughs]

Austin: I'll be honest. One of my—

Art: But not like— like, like— It's a bigger question for you than any— from most other people.

Austin: Um, so—

Keith: I-I-I think that we can— Wait, before, can we just instead of saying, "What here is Evil?" Can we say, "What here is dangerous?"

Austin: No.

Art: No, that's different. That's very different.

Keith: No? Okay.

Austin: Absolutely not. That's super different. Uh.

Keith: It is super different.

Austin: Uh, I will be answering what your god thinks is evil.

Art: Okay.

Austin: I think that's the way I can justify it. Does that make sense?

Art: Sure.

Austin: Uh, the alignments in this— in the system are more universal than that. Uh, and the way they work is, they say that, "Yeah, no one thinks of themselves as evil, but deep down inside, there is an intention that they might not even have words for, and we can judge that." And I think they kinda break it down as like, selfless versus selfish is their good versus evil in a lot of ways.

Art: Okay.

Austin: It's altruistic versus greed. Um…

Keith: A lot of what it says for the Evil alignment is like, "Ah, it's when you put other people in danger to save yourself." Is what I'm getting—

Austin: Or to gain— Or to gain, but there are even some that go further than that, (Keith: Right, yeah.) which is just like, I think Fighter Evil is like, (Ali: Yeah.) "You kill someone who's already on the ground," basically.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Um, and that's—

Art: But like, if I was gonna do this, I would pick Lawful as my alignment and (Austin: Ooh, boy.) their alignment trait is "Deny mercy to a criminal or unbeliever."

Austin: Right.

Art: Because I think that's way more interesting than the Good thing.

Austin: It is. It is, yeah. The good one is— Yeah.

Art: But like— But like, that's not— That's pretty close to a lot of the Evil stuff.

Austin: Mh-hmm. I will also say that alignment is shiftable. Your alignment can and will change over the course of the game and that's a good thing.

Art: Right.

Austin: Um, you get XP for performing the act that you're alignment says, but you can also change that at important, you know, moments. Maybe you'll shift from Lawful to Good or from Lawful to Neutral, you know. Or from Lawful to Chaotic, depending on the— what happens. And I would love to see you kind of work through how you think what a god is, what a god demands, of you. To uh, see how that affects your alignment, if that makes sense.

Art: Sure.

Austin: But I will answer, I think I have to answer what your god thinks is evil. I think that's the only way it makes sense to me. Because like—

Art: Okay.

Austin: Um, I think that's the only way it makes sense. Do you have a god in mind?

Art: I—

Austin: In fact, everybody on the table, what's religion like? Let's start with Art since this is his purview as a… as a paladin.

Art: I think— I think you know, as with any, you know, big trying event, it's gonna push people toward religion, right? Like, you know, something really bad has happened. Let's pray about it. Like, that's— that's— I don't know if I want to call it a human instinct, but it sure happens a lot, right? Uh…

Austin: Though it also— There are also losses of faith, right? Like, how could god let this happen?

Art: Right. I'm sure a lot of this does go directly against, you know, several religious teachings. Like, there's been— there's been some rationalization over the years.

Austin: Sure.

Art: Or, maybe like— Or maybe a bunch of old religions got discarded and a bunch of new ones came up. Right, like?

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Art: Or you know, some case of that.

Austin: Okay, let's have some first— Let's have the big metaphysical question. There are gods? Are there gods? Were there gods, before— Forget about where we're at now. Was there a— There was a time when there were gods.

Art: I would say, yes— As someone who— As someone who, someone looking to play a divinely magical character, yes.

[laughter]

Austin: Okay. I mean, but that magic can work— We know that that magic can be— We can plug that in with something else, differently if we want to.

Keith: Yeah, you could— You— Like, paladins could just be wrong about their shit.

Austin: Right, it could just be regular magic. It could be faith-driven. It could be a bunch of weird things. But I do wanna start at that, before the Erasure, there were gods.

Art: I say yes.

Austin: And there were a pantheon of gods. Okay.

Jack: Yeah, I would vote [cross] like, provably.

Art: [cross] But we can talk like a…

Austin: Provably in so far as, you could prove ley lines exist.

Nick: Okay.

Austin: Or that magic exists. Do you know what I mean? Like…

Nick: Sure.

Austin: When you pray, your sword catches fire. That's a thing. You know?

Nick: Right.

Austin: Maybe there's even— Maybe there's even some debate about whether or not gods affected the Erasure in some way. Caused it or tried to prevent it, or something. Who knows.

Nick: [cross] Maybe it's a debate.

Art: [cross] Or even succeeded in keeping it from being worse.

Austin: Right.

Nick: Maybe there's a debate on uh, whether uh, by some members of the university, for example, on whether the gods really do exist or emotional— (Austin: Right.) emotional fortitude is another source of magical power.

Austin: Right, sure. Mh-hmm.

Keith: Uh, I will say, without saying whether or not I think that gods should or should not have existed in this universe, that I really like the idea of, like a foppish and disinterested fantasy god.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: Like, trying to pass time.

Austin: Um, so Art, do you worship a new god or an old god?

Art: Aw… I—

Austin: Let's say both exist. There's no reason both shouldn't exist in terms of sociological, someone still worships an old god. Someone still worships— And some other people might worship new gods. And some people might worship the old— the oldest gods.

Art: I think it's— it's most—

Keith: Yeah.

Art: I think I find it most interesting to play as someone who worships that middle tier. The old but not oldest (Austin: Okay.) tier. You know, this was an established religion (Austin: A free fall.) that's held on. Uh, it's probably weaker, (Austin: Mh-hmm.) but I don't think it's, you know. It's not destroyed.

Austin: But it has another religious rival. Or a bunch of them.

Art: Sure. Yeah.

Austin: Okay.

Art: May— Yeah, it's rationally probably a bunch. Like, that's what happens in times of upheaval is like, things catch on.

Austin: Yeah, I like that a lot, actually. Do you know what that god is? 'Cause like, that's one of the things you have to do, right? Or is that only… Oh only—

Art: That's only Clerics have to do that.

Austin: Or you get a— You get a move that lets you define them, I guess.

Art: Is that true?

Austin: There or you can— You can get a move.

Art: Oh yeah.

Austin: It's like one of the first ones.

Art: It's one of the first ones. Right down, just like. Freelance it?

Austin: I think we should still identify what that god is. I think that it's silly to not have…

Art: I agree.

Austin: A name, at least. Might not have like their domain or whatever, but like. So think on that, I guess. Once you—

Art: I'm scrolling up to the Cleric stuff.

Austin: Yeah, good call.

Art: To see what they're— what they're saying over here. That's not the Clerics…

Jack: Uh, is your paladin, more of a support role or an offensive role?

Art: It's— It's both.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Art: To start with, it's, you know, with the starting moves are that thing about asking what's evil, uh, Lay on Hands, which heals. Uh, something that helps armor. Something where I can command people.

Austin: Right.

Art: And something where I can— if I can dedicate myself to a quest and get bonuses on… (Austin: Everything, basically, yeah.) completing that quest if I also take certain vows.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Oh, yeah, I remember reading that. That's some good stuff.

Austin: But they— They have like a really strong starting HP and a really strong starting attack, but are definitely a little more supportive than like the Fighter.

Ali: Mh-hmm.

Austin: Which we're probably about to get to. Um…

Art: I like— I like being— The two deity traits I like here up in Cleric a lot are Civilization and I also like the Downtrodden and Forgotten.

Austin: So that's—

Art: And I think I'm speaking to a very like, clear religious idea just by saying those two things, right, like? And I guess I'm a little worried I'm describing Christianity and I don't want to be—

Austin: Well, I mean, there's a lot more to Christianity than just those things. There are lots of religions that have historically been tied up with civilization and the downtrodden.

Art: Right.

Austin: And we also know that Christianity has also failed those groups, uh, quite a bit let's say. Historically in moments.

Art: Sure.

Austin: So I don't think that you're of any— I don't think you're at risk of just— of just you know, biting Christianity's wholesale. As long as you're not gonna start talking about the living incarnation of your god who died to protect you or whatever it is.

Keith: Just don't say, "Ye."

Art: No, but I think— I think I feel it as a— as a divine calling to— to restore what we had, you know? And I guess that's not very Christian. (Austin: Mmm.) But I want— What I— Like, what I want above all things is for things to be what it— what they were before the Erasure.

Austin: What it was.

Art: Right.

Austin: Okay, that's— that's huge.

Keith: Aw man, that's— I've got some— I have some fun.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: I'm thinking of Bonds stuff, now.

Austin: Yeah, yeah, we're gonna get to bonds in like, (Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.) ten to fifteen minutes, hopefully. Hopefully.

Jack: Should I be… [cross] My character— My sheet's completely empty right now.

Keith: [cross] So I want to remember that stuff.

Austin: Yeah, let's start— We can start filling that stuff in.

Jack: We should do Fighter first.

Austin: We should. But you guys can— can start like, looking at that stuff and thinking about what— what to fill those things in for sure. Um, alright, uh…

Art: Oh, I imagine I'm— I'm local. I imagine that I've been in this area as long as I can remember. I don't know [loud noises in the background] if I'm native but if I'm not native, (Jack: Bless you.) I'm from one of the surrounding towns.

Austin: Bless you?

Nick: Oh. Sorry about that.

Austin: Oh, okay. Okay, okay. I again, thought it might have been a dog. [laughter] No offense to Matt. I love you Matt. Uh...

Nick: Matt's not a dog. You guys can talk to him through me.

Austin: I know, but I don't…

Keith: We're just not— We weren't sure if it was sneezing or Jack's dog's barking.

Austin: Yeah, that's what it was.

Nick: I know, I'm just kidding.

Art: So I'm somewhere in this crescent, you know?

Austin: Okay. Sure. [cross] Is there like an old church or something there?

Art: [cross] I think picked that with a fatter brush or something.

Austin: Is there like—

Art: Yeah, I think— I think there's a (Austin: I think—) This city probably predates the Erasure, right? It's a port. (Austin: Mmm. Mh-hmm.) Like, there— People always settle near ports. I think there is a big old church, there.

Austin: Okay.

Art: It's probably— Probably pretty nice.

Austin: Big old church. I'll add it to my notes.

Nick: Big old church.

Austin: Um… And is there any hierarchy to this group? Other than— Is there— Is there more than local hierarchy?

Art: Uh…

Austin: And like, don't give me details but is there—

Art: Huh. That— That— That raises questions I hadn't thought of, like what's commun— Is there long distance communication?

Austin: Right, right. Well okay. Just keep that in mind going forward, let's say.

Keith: Okay.

Austin: Let's not answer that yet.

Art: I think we have— I think there is— There's some sort of Vatican-esque city.

Austin: Okay. Mh-hmm.

Art: We have a holy site and it's not here.

Austin: Okay. Got it.

Art: Uh, you know, if you want me to just put a dot on the map, I will. I'll just—

Austin: No, don't. In fact, let's not— Let's not put it because then, in the future, I'll say like, "Hey, Art. Where's that holy city at, again?"

Art: Sure.

Austin: And then— And then you'll mark it and then we'll figure out where it could go. Um…

Art: But it's probably south and east.

Austin: Maybe. I don't know. It could be on that island. There's a lot of islands around here.

Art: Sure.

Austin: Those are cool. Um...

Ali: Yeah.

Nick: Maybe.

[1:29:22]

Austin: Who knows. Uh. So Ali, you are— You were gonna be a human fighter? Is that right?

Ali: Mh-hmm. Yup.

Austin: What's— Where are you from on this map?

Ali: Um...

Austin: As like, there's something interesting here which is like, "Oh, so what's the party like?" Like, oh there's a Paladin to a— to a possibly dead god and there's you know, elves and orcish bards and a halfling who's you know, left the halfling life behind. Also a human fighter. And in a weird way, that makes you the most alien in this group. Because it's like straight up, "Nah, I'm just a human fighter. That's what I am." You know.

Ali: Yeah, I um. With this character, I was definitely like, inspired by the idea of like, struggling to find usefulness?

Austin: Mmm.

Ali: Like both in this world and with the… like job that she has and the skills that she has. (Austin: Mh-hmm.) Um, and then like, bigger ideas I don't know— Like, so what we've set up here, I would think that she is from like this island over here, (Austin: Okay.) where there may be more like villages.

Austin: Sure.

Ali: Maybe it's more like human-centric.

Austin: Okay.

Ali: Um, just like from what we've been talking and what we've been setting up, like if there's this giant mark here (Austin: Mh-hmm.) This is probably where shit was really bad. So maybe there were some villages that kind of just like hopped over to get away from it. Um…

Austin: Okay. Like, refugees who fled (Ali: Yeah.) off of the mainland to this island.

Ali: Um, 'cause I like the idea that like I— For my character like, for like the sub-sect of humans that she's from, like not speaking for all humans, but magic is sort of this like—

Austin: Not all humans.

Ali: [laughs] Um, sort of this like distant thing.

Austin: Okay.

Ali: That there's almost like a suspicion there. There's almost like a… "it was magic that caused this (Austin: Right, right.) and now I don't want to fucking deal with any of that," sort of thing. Um...

Austin: Do you think that people actually go to that island spe— Like, even now, specifically because there's no magic allowed there?

Ali: Um, I— Sure, I was not even thinking that like, it would be allowed there but maybe that's like one of the pockets in the world where it's just not really effective anymore.

Austin: That's interesting.

Ali: So people go there 'cause they feel like it's safer, maybe.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Art: Is it safer?

Austin: [cross] Good question.

Ali: [cross] Probably not. [laughs]

Austin: Right, right.

Ali: Well I feel like— So it's near this port and if there's like— If there's enough travel going between here and there and then also from like the rest of these cities, they have to be kind of thriving.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Ali: In terms of like, anyone could be thriving right now.

Austin: Right. Do you—

Ali: So maybe there is this sort of like, blanket of safety.

Austin: And it's the only— I mean, they have an island, but like, that port is the big port. That north-west port is the place that someone would have to leave from to carry soldiers or some big amount of people over there, so maybe there's some degree of safety from the continent in general? Do you know what I mean? Like…

Ali: Right.

Austin: Yeah, um. Do you want to take— Is your plan just to take the human uh, the human racial ability or are you planning on doing something more interesting than that— Or not more interesting but like, more unique to represent the fact that there is this cultural dissuasion for magic?

Ali: Um, I didn't have one in mind, (Austin: Okay.) but I didn't have any like real objections to the human ability.

Austin: Okay, that's fine. We can just work through that stuff when it comes with bonds though.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: But I do like this idea of this group that has said, "Listen, we're gonna go over here. We're gonna make stuff. We're gonna do our own shit. And we'll ship it to the continent but this is it. This is us. We're over here. We're not part of this other thing."

Art: Do you realize you're describing the Amish?

Austin: Well didn't say that they didn't— Listen…

[laughter]

Art: I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I'm just— I'm just asking if you realize that we have those.

Austin: Well, I think it's like, it's the Amish if magic is technology but like, maybe this island also just has technology on it, do you know what I mean?

Art: Sure.

Ali: Right.

Austin: Like, one of Ali's things is that she has a signature weapon. Um…

Keith: Which is awesome.

Austin: Which is awesome. And—

Ali: I'm so excited.

Keith: It's also— I'm never like uh, drawn to fighter types but I was looking at the signature weapon stuff and I was looking— I was reading like the flavor text that they give for Fighters and I was like, oh man, whoever wrote that knows the shit out of Fighters.

[Ali laughs]

Art: Oh, there and like, the weapon can talk to you.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Yeah. Um…

Ali: I have some ideas for that too, I'm excited.

Austin: Like, what are they?

Ali: Um. A—

Austin: 'Cause this will help us, again like, think through things like, "What are weapons like?" and "What is magic like?"

Ali: So I was sort of thinking that it wasn't like— It was something that was like, bestowed to her but not like, (Austin: Okay.) in her family.

Austin: Ooh.

Ali: But it's maybe like a— like an artifact from like a different culture.

Austin: Ooh.

Keith: As— As someone who's— who is skeptical and lives with people who are skeptical of magic, how do they respond to your talking weapon?

Ali: I— Well, so—

Keith: And is it a secret?

Austin: Or it— Go ahead.

Ali: Are we— Are we establishing that if magic isn't on that island, it doesn't start talking to her until she comes over.

Austin: No it totally does. No, it totally does.

Ali: Okay.

Austin: It absolutely— I think it absolutely does.

Ali: Okay.

Austin: Like, it's way— Uh, the reason I say it like, that's more interesting. It's more interesting if, on this island where magic doesn't work, for whatever reason, (Jack: "That's not—") your magic sword still works.

Jack: "That's not my talking sword. Oh no that's just a person that's hiding behind me."

Austin: Or— Or, but again, so like so I guess Keith's— To Keith's question, to make sure that it's not just a leading question, uh, do— do they know about it, like Keith said? Do they— Are they upset about it if they do? Or— Or is it like, "Uh, no that's not magic. That doesn't count. That's not the— the danger magic. This is sword magic. This is okay."

Keith: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: [cross] You know how people do that like—

Jack: [cross] "Oh this is talking sword magic, you know."

Austin: Or are they like— Or is this a thing that you have to hide because it's important and blah, blah, blah. Like, which way sounds more interesting?

Ali: So my initial reaction is that it's something that she hides?

Austin: Okay.

Ali: Um, because the kind of idea, or like the relationship that she would have with her sword or whatever is that like, it was something stolen from a different culture.

Austin: Okay.

Ali: So like, I think one of my abilities is to like ask it stuff.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Ali: And like, there's a bond there where it has to be honest but like there's like a relentlessness or an aggression.

Austin: About— In other words, it doesn't like that it has to be honest to you.

Ali: Right, yeah.

Austin: I got you. Do you know what the culture is that it was stolen from?

Ali: I haven't decided that.

Austin: I guess we'll figure that out. Let's—

Ali: Yeah, okay.

Austin: We'll figure that out. Um… But—

Jack: Does it have a name?

Ali: What?

Austin: Does it have a name?

Ali: No.

Art: Well and it won't start talking until level 2 right, so we have time for a lot of this.

Ali: [laughing] Right.

Austin: Right, right.

Jack: It'll just, "Oh, I've upgrade— Alright. Hi, finally. How's it going?"

Austin: Let's say— But let's say that like it hasn't spoken out loud to you before, but there's a presence there and like a feeling of something.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: A feel— It's always felt alive in your hands, you know.

Ali: Right. Well, I feel like it was the sort of thing that she came about, just like— She was a hired hand for something and they were like, "Here you can take this cool sword off the rich guy." Or, "I'm not a rich guy, this is what I can give you instead of money."

Austin: I see.

Keith: Is it possible— Is it possible that it just— It like, it just fictionally it hasn't spoken in awhile. Or you've heard— you've heard it speak but it hasn't spoken for you.

Ali: Um…

Austin: In other words, that's why it's not speaking (Keith: Right.) now. But once she levels up it could.

Keith: Right, yeah.

Austin: I'd think that's— I'd be fine with that.

Nick: What if it's uh— What if it's spoken to you in dreams?

Austin: Yeah, sure.

Ali: Ohh. I— I'm kind of interested in that. I think um, if I was making the decision on my own, I would say that there's sort of like a weight to it and there's like— there's definitely like a suspicion that there's something wrong with it (Austin: Mh-hmm.) but then once it starts speaking it's like, "Oh, what the fuck?"

Austin: Right, right. I see what you're saying. So you—

Art: Crummy broken magic sw— magic talking sword.

[Ali laughs]

Austin: So at the jump you actually don't know that it speaks, then. [cross] But there's a—

Ali: [cross] But like or— Or maybe there's like some sort of like, nothing like concrete but like whispers.

Austin: Mh-hmm. Okay. I'm into that.

Ali: And it's like, "Am I imagining this? What's going on with this weird sword."

Austin: Mh-hmm. Okay, I'm into that. Uh…

Keith: "Hi, my name's Ali. I'm a human fighter. Sometimes my sword whispers to me and I'm not sure if I'm losing it."

Ali: These—

Austin: [laughs] Alright. What's— What's— Do you guys want to like dive into Bonds next? Where—

[1:38:00]

Keith: Yeah. I have— I have one-and-a-half very specific Bonds that— One I had in my head, and when Jack went, and one of them I had in my head when Art went. Specifically, Art talking about wanting to restore things to the way that they used to be.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: And I feel like there's a Bond there. I feel like the— the motivation for my hobbit to have left—

Austin: Your halfling, thank you.

Keith: Halfling. Yeah, yeah, halfling. My halfling. [laughing] I feel like my halfling's motivation for having left his halfling zone uh, uh…

Jack: [robotically] Entering the halfling-zone.

[laughter]

Keith: And learning to be a druid is specifically um, a respect for the changes that occurred (Austin: Mh-hmm.) uh, during the Erasure.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: Uh, and— and I feel like a resentment towards the Paladin that would want to revert things to the way that they used to be.

Austin: Yeah. Uh…

Keith: Because of my respect for how things are now.

Austin: Just so you know, the Bonds listed on these sheets are suggestions not…

Ali: Okay.

Jack: Oh yeah.

Austin: They don't have to be those Bonds.

Ali: Alright good.

Austin: You don't have— They're cool suggestions in a lot of cases but they don't have to be there. And there's also kind of a push and pull for me about a Bond where, [sighs] mechanically speaking, if you're playing to 'win,' quote-unquote, you're gonna want things that can come up quickly and that you can quote-unquote, 'resolve'. And resolve doesn't mean like, it never gets to come up again, it just means that you had your moment about it.

Keith: [cross] So when I— When I talk—

Art: [cross] So Keith, would have to like, convince me my religion was wrong?

Austin: Right he— [cross] Right, exactly.

Keith: [cross] No, no, no. I think— I think that this is a— this is like a respect or a trust issue, not a fundamental character issue. I—

Austin: Right, right. But at the same time, how you clear those big ones are also interesting.

Keith: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: Um, so— So don't feel—

Keith: Uh, and maybe it'll come back up. Maybe I'll learn to trust you and I'll still go like, "No but you are— but your mission is to— is fundamentally antithetical to my way of life."

Austin: Right.

Keith: Um, so I was thinking that. And then I was thinking specifically also, in terms of uh—and I'm glad that Jack talked about carving cities out of stone, uh for— for the orcs—'cause I was thinking very specifically the respect that my character has for that the way that the world has changed and it comes with it's capacity to uh, like to tear things down. Like, for the world to tear itself down and living on like, maybe I live on or near the mountains that these orcs are from and I know him, or know those orcs in some way.

Austin: Maybe you just run across them, before. Like, the Archives are pretty far from your farms, um but you know about them for sure. Maybe there's an outpost near you, or something? Do you know what I mean? Maybe there's like a—

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Maybe there— I wonder how close the— Hmm. Hm, we'll come to it.

Keith: Well, I wouldn't say that as a— as a person who's wandering. As a dru— As a Druid.

Austin: Right. I see what you're saying.

Keith: It's not inconceivable to have been there.

Austin: I see what you're saying. Right, right, right, I forgot.

Keith: And I feel like my character would specifically be drawn to that place.

Austin: I forgot that you left the farm. (Keith: Yeah, yeah.) So you could have literally traveled from the farms towards the Archives. And then to this place, with Jack, even.

Keith: Right.

Jack: Yeah, one of the Bonds that I have is, "This is not my first adventure with blank."

Austin: Okay.

Keith: Oh.

Jack: And I like that. And I kind of want it to be with Keith.

Austin: Okay.

Keith: Oh great. Yeah, that'd be great. [laughing] I have— My— One of my— Do you want to have tasted my blood, because I have shown— Or, "Blank has tasted my blood and I theirs. We are bound by it."

[Jack laughs]

Austin: That seems.

Keith: You want to be bound by blood?

[buzzing and humming]

Ali: That's intimate.

Austin: Mmm. I didn't know—

Jack: I don't know if I would go for blood tasting at this stage, Keith.

Keith: I— In my head, that is not— That is not a literal tasting of blood but a— a we have been in a fight together and have bled—

Austin: And then legit—

Art: We've all met, right? We're not gonna do the, here we're introducing each other game session, right?

Austin: I don't want to do that bit. [cross] In fact, um,

Keith: [cross] I don't want to, either.

Austin: If we had more time, I would just roll this right into an adventure. And so expect that whenever we regroup next week.

Jack: Yeah.

Keith: Yeah, yeah. I— This is— This is all stuff before we start, like—

Austin: We are not gonna be in a tavern. We are not gonna take a quest from the local noble. When we start next week, we're gonna be fucking in it, so…

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: So let's…

Jack: We're gonna be going, "What's that damn tube? Let's go to the tube!"

Austin: I don't— I don't— We'll see. We'll see.

Keith: So— Um, so Jack, do you want to have a— a friendship bound in surviving a battle together?

Jack: I don't know if I'll go for blood tasting, at this stage.

Keith: No, no, not blood tasting. A friend— Just a friend— I'm taking the tasting— The blood tasting to be a metaphorical of having sort of a— of a—

Jack: Alright. Cool, yeah, we got to some— We got into a barney or something like that can be fun.

Ali: Mh-hmm.

Keith: Yeah, and then Jack told me what a 'barney' is.

Austin: What's a— What's a barney?

Jack: It's like—

Keith: Like, I know what a barney is and it's not what I think you're going to say.

[Austin laughs]

Art: Are you using Cockney rhyming slang?

Jack: It's like, loose English colloquialism for like a bust-up.

Art: Oh.

Keith: Okay.

Jack: Um. Yeah, oh. Character names. Should we talk about character names?

Austin: Yeah, let's— let's— We can do that.

Jack: 'Cause I feel bad and then I should probably go to bed. And…

Austin: Okay.

Jack: I can fill in the rest of the stuff…

Austin: Well, let's— Let's— Then actually let's stay on— Let's—

Art: Let's stay on Bonds.

Austin: Jack, finish your Bonds up first, then.

Jack: Well, but I need character— Keith's character name in order to write it in because I'm not gonna write, 'Keith.'

Austin: But let's— Okay, (Art: Oh yeah.) but let's pick— Let's get you one more Bond first before we get names.

Jack: Okay, uh, I wanna do three. Um…

Austin: Okay, that's fine.

Jack: "This is not my first adventure with— with Keith."

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Um…

Austin: You just type it and then we'll fix it later. I'm also typing these, so.

Jack: Yeah, cool. Uh, "Nick doesn't trust me, and for good reason." If that's okay with you Nick, 'cause (Nick: Sure, yeah.) it kinda feels like we're both academics but we're kinda from different branches from Academia.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Uh-huh.

Jack: In that yours is like, "Why don't—" Yours to me seems to be like, "Like, ley lines, man. Like, let's actually mess around with all this weird magical stuff." And I'm just like, (Nick: Yeah.) "Aw, man I found fourteen really cool shells!"

[laughter]

Nick: Mine—

Keith: Fourteen. Great. [sighs]

Nick: My uh— My scholarly pursuits are study and experimentation and yours are, uh, catalogue.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Well, okay not study. So much as experimentation.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: And your scholarly pursuits are cataloguing and study. Right?

Jack: Yeah, absolutely, like—

Austin: Right.

Jack: It— It's almost like this semi-religious idea—I have no idea whether or not the orcs are religious—but it's almost like, "If we get everything (Austin: Mh-hmm.) we'll spot how it works."

Nick: Sure, sure.

Jack: Like, if we can get every facet, we can see how all [cross] the lines join together.

Austin: [cross] Whereas Nick is—

Nick: Whereas— Whereas I am more, "I'm gonna light this thing on fire and see what happens."

Austin: Yes. That is exactly what I was thinking, Nick. Yes. Exactly.

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: I love that. That's really good.

Jack: Your character would go, "I've got this really cool new potion. I'm gonna use it now."

Nick: Right.

Jack: Your character would use the Fat Man in Fallout whereas my character would go, "I need all the ammunition for some reason. I have to have all the ammo."

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: And I think my third Bond is probably… Oh my god, yes! I know what it's gonna be! If you're okay with it.

[Ali laughs]

Austin: You're so excited.

Jack: Uh, one of my Bonds is "I sang stories of blank, long before I ever met them in person." Ali, can it be your sword?

Ali: Yes. Yes.

Austin: Ooh. Ooh. That's so good.

Jack: 'Cause you don't know where it's from. But I might know where it's from and I might have heard about it from someone.

Austin: Mh-hmm. I love that.

Jack: Um…

Austin: That's actually super cool.

Jack: Yeah.

Austin: Okay.

Jack: 'Cause if we know that this— that this sword is also a bit of a dick, as well. Like. [cross] I don't know my reaction to that might be.

Ali: [laughs] [cross] Well the sword doesn't like me, but it might like everybody else.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Ali: I think is the thing.

Austin: Um…

Jack: Yeah. So that— those are my three Bonds as they stand.

Austin: Okay.

Ali: 'Cause humans sort of took it from wherever it was.

Austin: Uh, I just want a heads up on the way Bonds work. Like, what the thing is with them. Is that if you have a Bond with someone… One, you can have a Bond— You can have more than one Bond with one person.

Jack: Right.

Austin: So that's one, thinking forward. Two, there's a special move called, I guess it's actually a basic move, called Aid or Interfere. Um, and that uses your Bond— The amount of Bonds you have with someone to— as the Stat instead of—

Jack: Oh yeah, "When you help or hinder someone you have a bond with, roll +Bond with them. On 10 they take +1 or -2, your choice." [laughs]

Austin: Yeah.

Jack: That's neat, yeah.

Austin: Um, and so that's what that's—like mechanically—that's how this works out. So just wanted to point that out. And if— if after we do names and you have to go to bed and all that, um I'll message you the Bonds that people say they want with you, but I'm sure no one will want anything terrible.

Jack: I'm cool with actually—

Art: Well actually—

Austin: Well, actually— actually how 'bout that. How 'bout—

Jack: I—

Austin: Right now, does anyone want Bonds with Jack?

Jack: Yeah, like also—

Art: Yeah, I was— I was thinking, I have, "Blank's misguided behavior endangers their very soul." I think an orc man that disassembles things is antithetical to my restorative…

[Ali and Jack laugh]

Austin: Yeah, I love that.

Jack: Yeah, like as well, (Art: Uh…) in principle, I'm— I'm super on board with bad Bonds. Like, I'm— You've seen how I play Crusader Kings which is taking a very laissez-faire attitude towards good politics. I'm cool with, like, bad Bonds, it'd be fun.

Austin: Yup.

Nick: I actually— When I was reading the rules before, I was trying to come up with good Bonds?

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: And struggling with how they would be resolved.

Austin: Well they— Resolution here doesn't mean, and now it's gone forever. It means that you spoke to it in an adventure and it helped you or it hindered you or it was just a good talking point. So…

Nick: Okay.

Austin: I mean, let's— What are your bonds? What are the available bonds for the Wizard at the start here? So yeah, something like, "Blank will play an important role in the events to come. I have foreseen it." Like, well when they do something cool, and then you can say, "Aw, this is what I foresaw." Like, okay, that's resolved.

Nick: Oh, sure.

Austin: Do you know what I mean? Um…

Art: I'm having a little bit of trouble because like, the problem of being a Paladin is you don't want to end up just being the fucking group nanny.

Austin: Yes.

[Jack laughs]

Austin: That's true.

Nick: Yeah.

Art: Because that's— that's awful. No one likes that. I don't wanna be that. So I can't have another like, "Oh, so-and-so is a shithead," (Austin: Right.) Bond. But like, I'm also having trouble coming up with like, positives here.

Austin: Um. Okay so you can definitely pick someone, probably who's stood by your side in battle at some point. We don't know how long we've been in this space, right?

Art: Right. But I guess like, is it— is it antithetical to Ali's idea.

Austin: What— What's that? That?

Art: That— How great are we talking about her being?

Austin: We're all level 1, but we're— I mean.

Art: But we've all had— we've all had a couple battles in us?

Austin: Yeah. Nick's been studying magic for a hundred years.

Art: Sure.

Austin: Do you know what I mean? Like he's a level 1 Wizard because there are no other wizards on the planet. That's the other thing I should've actually mentioned. There are other people who do magic. There's only one Wizard, it's Nick. There are other people who fight. There are other warriors. There's only one Fighter, it's Ali.

Keith: Yeah, there're— Yeah.

Austin: Uh, there are probably other people who commune with nature. There's only one Druid, it's Keith.

Keith: That stuff was all in uh— That stuff was all in the um… Like, or I got that idea from the book when it was talking about Hirelings.

Austin: Right, yes. Right.

Keith: And what the hirelings are called. And like, there's no fighter. There's a warrior hireling, an adept hireling.

Austin: Exactly, there's a Minstrel but not a Bard.

Jack: "Let me tell you, if any of you got some shells that you need me to look at?"

[Ali, Austin and Keith laugh]

Jack: Oh fuck.

Austin: So yeah, it's fair to say that you guys have been in a battle. You and Ali have fought something, you know.

Ali: Yeah, I was assuming that there would be like a connection between us, as being like the two humans.

Art: Alright.

Austin: And you're both near the same space, you know what I mean?

Ali: Yeah.

Art: We're all near the same space. We're both humans. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: What's the actual— What's the actual Bond as written there?

Art: Uh, "Blank has stood behind me— Stood by me— by me— in battle and can be trusted completely."

Austin: Uh-huh. It's about trust.

Ali: Yeah, I was thinking for Art, it would be uh, "Blank is soft but I will make them hard like me."

Austin: [laughs] Ooh.

Art: Uh…

Ali: 'Cause that's like the nicest one that I can give you. [laughs]

Austin: I mean, again, we can come up with other ones. We can come up with other ones from this list, or other than this list. And as you resolve them— Every time you resolve a bond, at the end of a session, you can write in a new one about that person or about anyone else. Um…

Art: But no, I like— I even like what that introduces to the [cross] character, right?

Ali: [cross] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That like, we're cool. But at the same time, I'm like, "Why do you pray all of the time? You should just punch guys with me."

Austin: Right.

Art: Or maybe there's— Maybe there is like an infrastructure. Maybe I've grown soft because it's possible for a, quote-unquote, 'Man of the cloth' to be a little soft right now.

Austin: Right, right.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Things are getting peaceful.

Art: Things are getting too peaceful.

Austin: Does anyone else have a Bond with Jack that they want before we wrap?

Nick: Uh.

Austin: Before Jack has— Before Jack has to go.

Keith: Oh, so that— So I can write down— Does Jack have a name in his for— Jack do you have a name?

Jack: Yeah, I think so.

[1:51:10]

Keith: Okay.

Jack: I think— Uh, where's my pen. Oh here it is. I think, that if anybody, unless anybody has any objections, I think I'd like to be called Lem King. Like, Lem—

Keith: Lem King.

Jack: Like, Lem Doolittle from Kentucky Route Zero.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: And King like my friend, Luke King.

Ali: Okay.

Jack: Um…

Art: Uh, this is another, just like, just making sure you're aware this out there in the— the world.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Art: The— The Pathfinder series has a set of iconic characters, which they say that like, this is our Fighter, this is our Bard.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Art: And their Iconic Bard is named Lem.

Jack: You are kidding me. Seriously?

Art: [cross] I'm not.

Austin: [cross] Amazing.

Ali: I…

Jack: Alright, fuck that shit. I'm gonna be the best Lem.

Austin: Oh god.

Art: Alright. I'm just—

Keith: Oh, so you're doubling down on Lem. Great, perfect.

Ali: I…

Keith: 'Cause I wrote it down already. And Art, do you have a name, also?

Art: Uh, I'm just gonna pick one from this stupid list.

Keith: Okay.

Ali: Oh.

Keith: Uh, oh is there— is there another Bond with Jack and then I'll say my name?

Ali: Um, I think I want a bond with Jack. Um, there's, "I worry about blank to survive— the ability of blank to survive in the dungeon." [laughing] Um…

Austin: Oh, I love that because again this like—

Keith: That's great.

Austin: It overturns that traditional, "The orcs are these big tough— tough men. The tough boys gang."

Ali: Right.

Austin: And Ali is like, [resigned] "Oh no."

Jack: Sorry, the dog beast has come over.

Ali: So there's two pieces there which is like—

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: Have to—

Ali: Lem is this guy who's sort of like, just looking at the walls or like, (Austin: Mh-hmm.) trying to figure out what's there and it's like, "What do [cross] you have to do with this stuff?"

Austin: [cross] Literally humming little songs.

Ali: "What are you doing?" But then like, on my end that implies like, there's a worry there. There's like a care there. I want him to be able to get through the dungeon. And uh…

Jack: "Yeah, that's tough. Sometimes boxes fall on me."

Ali: Right. [laughs] Where it's like, I imagine me and Jack's character's meeting and him being like, "Where did you get that sword?" And then my character being like, "[gasps] You know about this sword? It's so weird."

Austin: Right, right. Yeah.

Jack: Yeah. "Oh my god, this sword!"

[Ali laughs]

Austin: Um, okay.

Jack: "You listen to its music, too?"

Art: Are we— Are we underbound to Nick?

Austin: What do you mean?

Art: Do we have a— a Bond deficit there?

Keith: Oh no, I'm about to— I'm about to bind with Nick.

Ali: Yeah.

Jack: And I've got a Bond with Nick.

Ali: Yeah, I have a Bond with Nick as well.

Jack: Nick doesn't trust me.

Ali: I don't like Nick.

Keith: I—

Nick: Yeah. And I— I actually have a— Well I was— So should we do— Like it makes sense for me to have a Bond with Jack but do I want to spread it out more, maybe?

Austin: Sure. I mean, there's no— There's no limit to how many Bonds you can have and there's also no…

Nick: Oh, okay.

Austin: Like, just write in those Bonds.

Keith: I'm— I'm writing— I am writing a Bond with Nick uh, that I feel like Nick's character's going to teach me (Austin: Okay.) about shit. Um…

Austin: What's Nick's character's name? Do we have names yet? Where are we at on names?

Keith: My name is— My name is Fero Feritas.

Austin: Great.

Keith: Uh, which means both, 'I bring,' and 'I bear,' 'Wilderness.'

Austin: Okay.

[Jack laughs]

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: In— in whatever the common tongue is?

Jack: Latin.

Keith: Uh, I mean, sure, sure.

Austin: Yeah.

Keith: Call it— Let's call it the Common Tongue.

Austin: The Common Tongue, Latin, right. Uh, we all know the same language, also. I'm gonna put that out there. There are many languages, probably. We'll get there, but I don't know.

Art: We don't get the fun slapstick-y game where we can't understand what anyone's saying?

Austin: No. No we don't. Nick, do you have a name? Who has names?

Nick: Uh, yeah, I have a name.

Austin: What's your name?

Nick: Um, it's not my real name but it's the only one I will ever give people. Uh.

Austin: Ooh.

Nick: "The Great Phantasmo^[1]."

Austin: Great, sure.

Ali: Great.

Austin: I really like that, in a sense, because it feels like— It feels like you don't know any better.

Nick: Yeah, no.

Austin: That like, that's what wizards are supposed to— That's a proper wizard name.

Nick: Right.

[Ali laughs]

Austin: And that's what other people, when they hear that, they're probably "Ooh. Ah, the Great Phantasmo."

Jack: The wizard.

Keith: That guy has something to teach me.

Austin: He's great.

Art: There probably aren't stage magicians at this point, right?

Austin: There are no more stage—

Art: So it's like, "Wait a minute. That's what that guy who does card tricks at the bar is called."

Austin: Right, exactly. That's gone. I actually like the idea of you, as a boy, like wandering into a wrecked tavern and seeing "The Great Phantasmo" sign somewhere, you know?

Nick: Oh, yeah, that's really good.

Keith: Oh um, and Art, what did you say your name was?

Art: Uh, I said I was gonna pick one off this stupid list. Hold on.

Austin: Oh boy.

Keith: Okay. I picked mine off a list, too. It was just a different list.

Jack: I just stole it from Pathfinder.

Austin: [laughs] Apparently.

Art: I think I'm gonna take Hadrian, because he's named after a Roman Empire— a Roman Emperor who toured the provinces and secured the frontiers.

Keith: Great. "The spirits spoke to me of a great danger that follows," What was it? Sorry?

Art: Hadrian.

Keith: "Hadrian."

Nick: I really— Has Ali said her name out loud yet?

Ali: I haven't, 'cause I don't have one yet.

Austin: Which— Oh.

Nick: No— No, you gotta use that name.

Keith: You did have one. She— She had a name in the Skype Chat.

Austin: Oh, that's a good name! That's a great name!

Keith: That's a good name.

Ali: [laughs] Okay.

Austin: What's your name, Ali?

Ali: My name is Hella the Fighter. I'm gonna have a cool last name, but my first name is Hella.

Austin: Hella, yup.

Ali: Hella.

Austin: This is not gonna make any— any sense in my notes. This is just like, 'Hella.' And I'm gonna come back to this in a day and be like, "What is— What is she— Hella what?"

Keith: "I think Hella— I think Hella smells more like prey than hunter." Is what I think.

Nick: Ooh.

Art: Oh.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Shots fired.

Ali: That's rude.

Nick: What if—

Ali: That's rude.

Nick: What if your name is Hella Buff Body? No, I'm just kidding. [laughs]

Austin: Uh, there was a— In Apocalypse World, the game that this is a hack of, one of the starting classes, like one of the big combat classes is the Battle Babe? And that's not gendered, like it's either. It's whatever gender you are.

Ali: What? [laughs] You sure about that?

Austin: Or genderqueer. Absolutely. Absolutely it is. I think the one that's written in the book is genderqueer specifically. And like, but it's just like, "Man they are hot and they kill things." And it's kinda the best class.

Jack: Hella. Hella would be a good Battle Babe name, yeah.

Austin: It would.

Jack: I'm trying to persuade this cat to come over to me.

Ali: I want to be a Battle Babe, what?

Keith: Oh, specifically to justify— to justify my— my uh, Bond, is that I— I feel like, as someone timid of magic, I might not mesh super well with— with uh, Hella because I'm all about like, transforming into shit.

Austin: Right, sure, sure.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Right, and like, the fact that her culture fears magic.

Keith: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: If— That's what prey does. Prey fears things.

Keith: Mh-hmm.

Austin: [cross] Yeah, so I have two—

Keith: [cross] Yeah, I imagine that the first time I turned into a thing and Hella freaked out.

Ali: [laughs] Yeah, I—

Austin: So I have— I have two bonds from Keith. Am I missing one?

Keith: Um, I have uh…

Austin: I have Hadrian, Hella.

Keith: Four— I have four.

Austin: Oh, what are the other two?

Keith: I have uh, um, gotten into battle with Lem King.

Austin: Oh, okay. Okay.

Keith: And then— And then Great Phantasmo has something to teach me.

Austin: Right. Those cats sound really cute, by the way, Nick. Uh… Teach me and uh… And Nick, what's your— What's your Bond situation? Oh did Nick actually step away to take care of his cats?

Keith: I think his cats flipped out and now he stepped away, yeah.

Austin: Yeah.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Um…

Jack: This is a really friendly cat though, has just come over to me and just super— I've never seen a cat this friendly before.

Austin: Wow.

Jack: Yeah.

Keith: I didn't know— Yeah, most cats are like that.

Austin: I love cats.

Ali: Yeah.

Jack: You can be really nice to us.

Nick: Hi, sorry. I'm here.

Austin: Welcome back.

Ali: No, it's fine.

Austin: Nick.

Nick: They're still gonna— They're still flipping out though.

Austin: Mmm.

Ali: Like are they okay or just meowing?

Keith: What are they doing?

Nick: No, it's almost food time.

Austin: Oh, I see.

Ali: Oh, okay.

Austin: We'll be done super shortly if you have to go cats.

Nick: Um…

Austin: I think we'll be done super shortly. I think.

Keith: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: I mostly trust you guys to be able to like, assign your own stats and pick your own alignments and get in touch with me if you have any questions, does that make sense?

Ali: Yeah, mh-hmm.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: I just wanted to make sure—

Keith: Especially because it seems like Dungeon World has a lot less reliance on (Austin: Yes.) like a ton— like a lot of different— like a breadth of modifiers.

Austin: Yup.

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: It's…

Keith: Like it doesn't seem like I need a ton of shit.

Austin: No, it's…

Nick: Like, you don't have to do your whole like, skill matrix calculations.

[Ali laughs]

Austin: Exactly. It's just—

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: It's just, Strength, Dex, Con, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma and then like, some basic gear. If you have questions about gear too, get at me. Nick, do you have— do you have Bonds? Have you made your Bonds?

Nick: Yeah, I've got a couple.

Austin: What are your Bonds?

Nick: Um. One of my Bonds is uh, "Hadrian is woefully misinformed (Austin: Uh-huh.) about the world. I will teach them all I can."

Keith: Uh, that's great. That's a good one.

Austin: Why do you think that about Hadrian? Like—

Nick: Uh, because.

Austin: We'll cover a lot of that in play but I am curious.

Nick: Uh, because gods don't exist, what are you doing?

Austin: Right, okay. Right. Uh… What else do you have?

Nick: Uh, "Ali is keeping an important secret from me." Oh, I mean Hella.

Austin: Hella.

Ali: [laughs] Well we both are.

Nick: Um, and specifically, I want it to be like, her lack of knowledge about her own sword. Like, I take that as, she knows, she's just not telling me.

Austin: Mh-hmm. Mh-hmm.

Ali: Okay. I think that works really well 'cause like there's not a Bond that's prewritten between us that really fits.

Austin: Right.

Ali: Um, but there's like— There's definitely going to be a distance there.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Sure.

Ali: And like a very like defined distance.

Nick: Right.

Austin: Yeah. Um…

Keith: I've got four Bonds. Am I overbound?

Austin: Four is okay. I wouldn't go higher than four. The only person here that I think should go— [dog barks] Or is allowed to go higher than four, let's say, [dog barks twice] is probably Jack. [dog barks and howls] That's a dog, that's not Matt. That's definitely not Matt.

Keith: No, it's Matt. No it's Matt. It's definitely Matt.

Austin: Goddammit Matt, no wonder the cats are all riled up.

[dog barks]

Jack: No, what are you making that noise for. Please stop making that noise.

[dog howls]

[laughter]

[dog barks]

Ali: Aww.

Jack: Oh, I'll be back in just a—

Keith: You have to— You have to pet it.

Austin: Go pet that dog—

[dog barks]

Keith: Go pet that dog.

Austin: It's so tired looking. I know it. I know it looks [dog bark] really tired.

Ali: Is there like someone walking by? Who's disturbed the dog.

Keith: There's a dog and it needs to get pet.

Austin: Go pet that dog please.

Ali: He's petting it.

Keith: Yeah, okay.

Austin: Okay, Jack's definitely petting it. Uh, I'm gonna say that even though Jack is gone but Bards are actually… It's not like— It doesn't come out and say this but one of the reasons that Bards have more default Bonds written on their sheet is because that's kind of a little bonus for being a Bard. Is like, yeah no, everyone likes Bards. Everyone— Bards know a lot of people. Or not likes, but Bards know a lot of people. [cross] Uh, and have bonds with a lot of people.

Keith: [cross] Yeah, Bards— Bards know people and they sing songs and they're entertaining.

Austin: Right, so they're going to end up having a lot of relationships with people. But that's not— It's not a necessity. But four, let's say— Let's just say that's the max. Otherwise it gets a little too— Who don't you have a Bond with right now? No one.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Uh, you have a Bond with no one.

Keith: Uh, no one. I have a Bond with everyone.

Austin: Uh-huh.

Keith: Yeah.

Ali: Uh, so…

Keith: And most of them are very judgemental.

Austin: Yes.

Ali: [laughs] We're jumping into this like we already know each other (Austin: Yup.) and this is…

Nick: I…

Keith: Yeah, we're in it.

Ali: Do we want to establish how we met at all or…

Austin: Yeah, sure. I'd like to establish…

Nick: Wait, wait.

Austin: What's up, Nick?

Nick: I got two more Bonds.

Ali: Oh yeah.

Austin: Oh yeah, you do. Sorry about that. What are your other two Bonds?

Nick: Um, but also I wanted to say that, so the like, the Wizard bonus for being an elf (Austin: Mh-hmm.) is that I just have magic uh, how do they say it exactly? Uh, "Magic is as natural as breath to you. Detect Magic is a cantrip."

Austin: Right.

Nick: So already know there's something magical about Ali's sword.

Austin: Yes, absolutely.

Nick: Like, that's where that comes from.

Austin: Okay.

Ali: Okay.

Nick: Um…

Jack: Yeah, 'cause it's talking, mate.

Nick: Even if it's— Well, even if it's—

Austin: Well, no.

Nick: Even if it's never talked (Austin: Right.) like, I still know there's something up with it. Um…

Austin: Right, 'cause he's— he's like— He casts Detect Magic like it's no big deal. And—

Nick: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: So I am curious about how you cast magic. We'll get to that when we start playing, so…

Nick: Okay, yeah.

Austin: But I am curious about that. What's that look like. What's that look like. Um, what's your other two?

Nick: Um, the third one is, "Lem King is uh, is wrong headed about the world and I must—"

Jack: Oh, come on.

Nick: Like, I guess it will be kind of like me just telling everyone that they're wrong.

Austin: They don't have to be.

Nick: But I'm okay with.

Keith: That's a wicked wiz-biz—

Nick: If you guys are okay with that.

Keith: That's some wiz-biz.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Ali: Fuck wizards.

Nick: That's sort of what I want Phantasmo to be.

Jack: You are literally—

Nick: This fucking—

Austin: But here's the thing is. Here's the thing is, the second part of that one is, "I will teach them all that I can," which is not, "Get fucked you idiot," it's…

Jack: Right, no, but at the same time [cross] he's basically saying that there's—

Nick: [cross] No, no, no, yeah. This one is, jo—

Keith: [cross] It still seems a little condescending.

Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nick: "Lem King is wrong, and he— he should get—" Like, well okay, "The world needs to be poked and prodded, not catalogued, what are you doing?"

Austin: Right, right.

Nick: You're wasting your life.

Austin: Okay, so you don't want to teach— Do you want to teach him or don't you want to teach him?

Nick: No, I don't want to teach him anything.

Austin: Okay, so I'm gonna delete that second part.

Nick: I know he's set in his ways, or—

Keith: You wanna teach—

Nick: Or I don't necessarily know that.

Keith: You want to teach Art, not Jack.

Nick: I want to teach Art.

Austin: I got ya.

Nick: I don't wanna teach Jack because I— I'm pretty sure I've got him all figured out already.

Austin: I got ya.

Nick: Like, he's one of those…

Art: But we're all friends here, right?

Austin: But we all work together. Yeah, there is— There is— You all work together. You don't have to be friends, but you do have to work together. Like...

Nick: Yeah.

Keith: Mh-hmm.

Austin: Um, and you have— I'm gonna say you have worked together in the past so there's already a rapport uh, between you to some degree. But it doesn't mean it has to be a super friendly rapport. Um…

Nick: Yeah. Uh, but Keith—

Austin: But I would want— But again, let's— Do keep in mind, how do you see that resolving in a session of play. Um, so just keep that in mind, when we play.

Nick: Sure.

Austin: Think about how you can bring that up in a way (Nick: No, I've—) that doesn't make it— You know what I mean?

Nick: Yeah, I totally. I thought of ways that that could be resolved. Like a hundred percent.

Austin: Awesome, awesome. And then finally—

Nick: Uh, basically, a better way to say that is, I just have this preconceived notion about Lem King.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Um, I'm— And uh, I'm holding onto it, a little too strongly.

Austin: You wanna then— How about that then. How 'bout— How 'bout um, something about how you know Lem King, how— Almost the opposite of the one with Hella, which is like Hella's keeping a secret from me, the one for Lem King could be about how you know, Lem King is an open book to you.

Nick: Sure.

Austin: And he is nothing.

Nick: Sure.

Austin: He'll never— And he can't surprise me, or something like that. Um…

Nick: That's good.

Austin: If that works. Yeah.

Nick: Yup.

Jack: What's the ap—

Keith: After the Bonds, if we're— if we're done after that, one thing I wanna know if we're getting into, real quick, Alignments.

Austin: Yeah, we could do—

Jack: Uh.

Keith: Right.

Austin: You guys can ask me to open it up for questions once— As long as Jack— I just wanna make sure Jack can go.

Jack: I— I need to go— I would need to go first because I don't have the Alignment stuff open in front of me.

Austin: That's fine.

Jack: Cool, so um…

Austin: And then one more from Nick. One more Bond I said he had.

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: And that should be to Fero.

Nick: Yeah, uh, "Fero is my little bird. I must shelter and guide him."

Austin: [laughs] Aw.

Ali: Mmm. [laughs]

Keith: [laughs] Aww. Adorable.

Nick: Fero is my— He is my uh, my Bilbo to my Gandalf.

Keith: That goes really well with mine.

Nick: Except.

Austin: Right, right.

Nick: Except I am the worst Gandalf. In the world.

[Keith laughs]

Austin: The worst Gandalf.

Keith: You're a Gandalf named "The Great Phantasmo."

[Ali laughs]

Nick: Right.

Austin: Okay, so again, I have four from Nick, four from Keith, I have three from Jack.

Jack: Right.

Austin: Is that right? Do you not have one with…

Jack: I don't have one with Hadrian.

Austin: Alright, that's fair. Um… Nick is Phantasmo… The Great Phantasmo and Hella's sword. Okay. And uh, Art, how many do you have.

Art: I have two.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Art: And I'm open to having more but I really don't want them to be judgy. I don't wanna be that kind of religious guy and it's rough.

Austin: Right, right. It is rough.

Keith: To— Well, it might make it easier considering everyone else's are.

Austin: Everyone is super— Mad— Is hella judgey.

Keith: Yeah.

Nick: Art—

Keith: We're wicked judgy.

Jack: I'm not very judgy.

Austin: That's true.

Nick: Hadrian's could be defining his character by like (Keith: That's true.) the opposite.

Jack: Oh my god.

Nick: Like, trying to keep the peace with everybody all the time.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Jack: This cat is lying on its back. It's being really friendly.

Ali: Yeah, cats do that.

Keith: Have you never seen a nice cat before?

Ali: Yeah.

Jack: What is cat— What's the cat tum tickling protocol?

Austin: What?

Ali: You— You touch it.

Keith: That tongue tickling?

Jack: It's tum [cross] and you can see it?

Ali: Yeah.

Keith: [cross] Like tongue?

Austin: [cross] It's tum. I thought you said 'tongue.'

Art: I got—

Nick: Uh...

Keith: Upper chest only (Austin: Yeah, good.). Do not go lower than that (Austin: Yes. Yes.) they will attack you.

Nick: Yeah.

Ali: No, but it's fun (Keith: Yeah.) when they attack you (Austin: It is.) 'cause then you grab onto them and shake them around.

Austin: It's cute.

Keith: That's true, yeah, you can play around.

Jack: I don't want them to put their razor sharp claws into my hand.

Austin: You'll be fine. Ehh.

Ali: Uh… It's not as bad as it…

Keith: They will give you warning.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: They will give you enough warning to draw away. Like, you'll be able to tell, "Oh, this isn't a thing this cat wants."

Austin: Um…

Jack: Nah, this cat's pretty chill right now.

Ali: Yeah, cat's are great.

Keith: Yeah, go. Take a pet, take a pet.

Austin: Art, you might consider having something that complicates what you think is a very easy thing. Right? So like, you're pretty set in your way, but maybe you like the Great Phantasmo anyway, for other reasons. Right?

Art: I was thinking like, "Phantasmo's a brave soul, I must learn from them," 'cause it kinda like, ties into that teaching thing. But like—

Austin: Right. Also he's old. He's the oldest person, and you like old things.

Art: Right, that leads into the inherent conflict of (Austin: Mh-hmm.) I'm not going to let him talk me out of my religion.

Austin: Right, right.

Art: Like, that's just— that's just never gonna happen.

Austin: Right.

Keith: I— Thinking of my bond with Phantasmo, I like the idea of being like a really cynical druid that's judgemental of all these different people. But then also being really impressed by the Great Phantasmo.

[laughter]

Austin: Right.

Keith: [laughing] Like, I'm thinking, [harshly] "Aw you idiots. You don't know, you living in villages, you dummy, you don't get it. [admiring] Like, but oh my god, this Phantasmo guy."

Nick: But also.

Keith: [admiring] "Huh, get a load of that guy."

Nick: Phantasmo is just like, "Yeah, of course— Of course you admire me. Of course you—"

Austin: Right. Um, alright, so that's three. Ali, what are you... I have Hadrian is soft and I have, you worry about Lem surviving. Is that it or do you want more?

Ali: Well, I have— I have one with Nick that I can't really put a phrase on.

Austin: Okay.

Ali: 'Cause the phrases that are here kinda suck.

Austin: Are shitty, yup, uh-huh.

Ali: Yeah. Um… But like, I think the fact that Nick doesn't trust me is interesting, because he senses magic but also because my character would just withhold information from him.

Austin: Right, mh-hmm.

Ali: And also just like, not be nice.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Ali: Well, not nice but like… You know what I mean.

Austin: Yup.

Ali: Um… So I don't like— I guess I would say that I'm distant from Phantasmo because…

Austin: That's tough because it's hard to… Try to— Try to make it a little more concrete, I think, maybe?

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Does that make sense?

Ali: Right, I…

Austin: Because like, distance will carry throughout your relationship with him.

Ali: Right.

Austin: To some degree. Across many other Bonds coming up and resolving.

Keith: We can call it Wary and then as soon as (Austin: Right.) Phantasmo does something that you like, (Austin: Or…) or saves you or impresses you in some way…

Austin: Or the other way. Or— Or fails in front of you (Keith: Yeah, yeah yeah.) you can—

Keith: Or feeds into that and then you're like, "Okay, just wanted to resolve because yeah, I should be wary of this motherfucker."

Ali: So I guess what I— Maybe I'm not impressed by Phantasmo, where this is this guy who's lived…

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: That's great, yeah.

Ali: You know, years upon years of my lifetimes and I should respect him and it's something but I totally don’t.

Austin: Yeah, okay. "I'm not impressed by the Great Phantasmo." [Ali laughs] Uh, alright, I think that's Bonds. Jack, I know you have to go. I'm gonna stay open for a bit to like make sure that we don't have any other questions about— Like we'll go into Alignment and all the other stuff and you guys can start just like filling out that stuff. Um, but Jack, thank you for joining us. Where can people find you again?

Jack: Cool. Um, you can find me on Twitter @NotQuiteReal and at my games studio, theToolTreesGames.co.uk.

Austin: Thanks Jack.

Jack: Cool. Alright.

Keith: Bye Jack.

Jack: Let's do this for real.

Austin: I'm excited.

Keith: See ya la— See ya Lem.

[Ali laughs]

Jack: Gotta go look at some— Gotta go look at some whistles that I found.

Austin: [laughs] Count how many whistles. How many whistles did you find?

Jack: Like fifty.

Austin: Oh jeez.

Jack: Just a whole box of whistles.

Ali: Oh, god.

Keith: I found— I found a— I found a pocket full of interesting granite.

Jack: Exactly, like.

[laughter]

Jack: They all need their luggage labels, kind of.

Austin: Yeah.

Jack: It's a difficult task.

Austin: It is.

Jack: Alright.

Austin: Bye—

Jack: Have a lovely evening, everybody.

Austin: Bye Jack.

Jack: Bye, bye, bye.

[2:12:14]

Austin: Alright, so what is everyone thinking about, in terms of Alignment?

Keith: Uh, as of— As, because I kind of, I talked about my respect for the— the immediate post-Erasure like, power of uh, that sort of change, I'm going— My Alignment is Chaotic, and the goal of a Chaotic character uh, says, for like, "to destroy a symbol of civilization."

Austin: Do you want to like, make that even more special here in terms of like, old civilization?

Keith: Uh, yeah, yeah.

Austin: Because it sounds like you like, new things.

Keith: Yeah, I like the small—

Austin: So you're not looking to like burn—

Keith: I like the— I like how— In, I was talking about this way, way earlier but the sort of like the tree rings of modern towns where you can see where the construction stops in the core and how it, outwards things become more and more, things made of wood (Austin: Yeah.) and like, the inner stuff is the stuff that I'm concerned with.

Austin: Right, I like that.

Keith: Concerned by.

Austin: Mh-hmm. Uh, who else?

Art: Think I already mentioned. I think I want to be Lawful (Austin: Lawful.) I think it's more interesting.

Austin: What's the write up of that again?

Art: Oh, in terms of this class?

Austin: Yeah.

Art: "Deny mercy to a criminal or unbeliever."

Austin: Ooh. Okay.

Keith: That's rough.

Austin: Yeah.

Keith: That's really rough.

Art: I mean, 'cause the other one's just boring. The other one's, "Endanger yourself to protect someone weaker than you." Like, that's just— That's— I'm gonna do that anyway.

Austin: Right.

[Ali laughs]

Keith: What does this game have in terms of— Like, are there systems in place for like, say Art and I to disagree on that and then, like… Do we as characters have to talk it out and come to a verbal resolution or is there a roll that happens there? 'Cause it doesn't feel like there is one.

Austin: No, I don't think there's— there's really a roll there. Um, I— You can do… What I would do in that situation is, uh the Aid-slash-Interfere rules, probably. Where the person who's trying to commit an act would then have to roll against— Or, they're gonna try to do their thing, but before they do, um, the person who wants to interfere with it gets their interfere roll on it, you know what I mean?

Keith: Oh, okay yeah.

Austin: Yeah.

Keith: When you hinder someone— Yeah, when you hinder someone…

Austin: That's where I would go with that. Like…

Keith: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so there is a roll on my end, not a roll against them though. Okay.

Austin: Right, it's not against them. There's no contested rolls in this game. You know what I mean?

Keith: Right, yeah.

Austin: Um, but for the most part, I think— Yeah, yeah. We'll see how it comes up.

Keith: Okay. And that's not— I'm not specifically anticipating getting into beef with Art, but…

Austin: Right, right, right. But it could.

Keith: I mean, a little bit, but yeah. I mean, just for anyone. Because that seems like something I might get into beef with.

Austin: Uh… Nick, do you have a— a thing in mind? An Alignment?

Nick: Uh, I'm really conflicted because I kinda want something between… Like I want like a selfish Neutral, sort of.

Austin: Well, the Neutral there is about like, going after power, right? Or something? Or is it more…

Nick: Yeah, but I don't care about power as long as people aren't holding it over me.

Austin: Mmm.

Keith: I feel like Neutral is very self-involved. The difference between Neutral and Evil for me, is like, Evil will go put people into harm's way to achieve what Neutral will just kind of, give up on.

Austin: Right.

Nick: Maybe. I don't know.

Keith: So...

Nick: I think even— Evil really sounds a lot like, go out of your way to do something. Like cause suffering for its own sake. Like um…

Austin: Is that what your— Is that what evil is for you on— on Wizard?

Nick: Oh.

Keith: Under Alignment should give you a little thing.

Austin: Yeah, it does. "Use magic to cause terror or fear," is the suggested Evil Alignment on the sheet.

Nick: Okay, I didn't see the actual class alignments.

Austin: Okay, so Neutral for Wizard is, "Discover something about a magical mystery." Um, is that too selfless, even though? For what you want to do.

Nick: Uh… No, I mean, like it's— That would be alright because—

Austin: Yeah.

Nick: He would do that in order to claim authority for himself.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: Yeah. And that— that could be as selfish as taking something that wasn't (Nick: Right.) that isn't something you can take.

Austin: I can also read off what some— some fans have kind of suggested for the other missing Alignments that I think are pretty good. Uh, who is this from? This is from someone named LemonKurdistan. Uh, welcome to the fucking internet. [Keith laughs] Their Lawful Wizard is uh, "Use magic to enforce the status quo." And Chaotic, "Use magic to bring about social change." Um, I think— I don't know that that fits with what you told me, though. I don't know that you're like looking to change or protect things with your magic.

Nick: No. I don't care. I— Phantasmo doesn't care about anything outside his own purview.

Austin: Mh-hmm. Mh-hmm.

Nick: And like, you know, he'll help his friends.

Austin: Right.

Nick: And he has friends, he's capable of making them.

Austin: Right.

Nick: He just doesn't— Like, he's not gonna go out of his way to save the village that's burning unless there's someone in there that he knows is—

Austin: Right, a personal… Yeah.

Nick: Yeah.

Keith: Yeah. Is so— Is it more because— What was the Neutral again? It was, "Learn something about a magical…" Something.

Austin: Mystery.

Keith: Mystery. Could— Should it be something more like, uh, uh… Uh, I don't know, I feel like there's something more about obtaining that you want to go after. Like…

Austin: I think learn is useful there because it's flexible and lets you play that even if it's not about—

Keith: Yeah, well I'm thinking about obtaining a thing or a knowledge.

Nick: Sure.

Austin: Right. Uh, well I think if you're— if you're—

Keith: It would—

Austin: If you're obtaining a thing of magical nature, it would fit this thing. It just like, he— It's not about going to get money. It ain't about them duckets.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Do you know what I mean?

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: Like, for me that slides away from Neutral, um. A little bit. Maybe that's just—

Keith: The problem is that Evil's so much harsher.

Austin: Evil's real harsh.

Nick: Yeah.

Keith: Evil's real harsh. There's kind of, yeah. Nick was right in saying there's something between Neutral and Evil (Austin: And Evil, yeah.) and I think that just means that, maybe we should just write a thing.

Austin: That's what I'm saying, I think— But I guess my question is, like is Phantasmo interested in gold coin? Is he interested in, like. What is he interested in when he's— When that— Okay, when that town is on fire, what will cause him to go in to stop it?

Nick: Uh… Probably only— Okay, so his— His motivation for everything is that he wants to get back to the status he used to be at. As—

Austin: Okay.

Nick: As a top ranking official, he wants power.

Austin: That sounds evil to me.

Keith: That does sound evil.

Nick: But he also doesn't— He— He doesn't—

Keith: Want to do the work?

Nick: Yeah, well he doesn't want to do the work. He wants power as quick as he can get it, but also doesn't want to like…

Keith: Yeah, he's looking for a way to make his fireball a little bigger.

Austin: Right.

Nick: Yeah, but also doesn't want to like, uh, cause trouble that's gonna come back on him. You know what I mean?

Austin: That just sounds like you're being careful Evil.

Nick: Okay, well.

Keith: It sounds like, yeah. You're— You're uh…

Austin: But that— That's useful.

Keith: You're an evil coward.

Austin: Where like, it sounds like you could be doing like, "Gain power without retribution," or something like that.

Keith: Now this— This sounds more like the lawful thing which was, "Use your magic to maintain the status quo," except for it is to create a status quo.

Austin: Well, in this case it would be almost Chaotic, which would be— the suggested one there was, "Use— Use magic to bring about significant change." Um, which is so open ended but like…

Keith: Which is very, like, a little bit too open ended.

Austin: Yeah.

Nick: Mmm.

Keith: Like, mine is super specific. But mine was written by people that make games.

Austin: Okay, so we know it's not Good. We know it's not—

Nick: Yeah.

Keith: You're definitely not Good.

Austin: Here's a question. Given what we know about Art, about what limited shit we know about Art's god, which is to say, Art's god is uh, a god of civilization and of the downtrodden.

Nick: Sure.

Austin: Would Art—

Keith: Art, does your god have a name?

Austin: Good question.

Art: No.

Austin: We'll get there.

Art: I mean, yes, but… No.

Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Austin: Would Art's god think you were evil for wanting that?

Nick: Yes.

Austin: Okay. I think we should go Evil. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Nick: Okay.

Austin: Um, I— I think that there is— Yeah, I think that we should go for it and see how it goes. I mean, again. Everything changes including— Maybe we could rewrite Chaotic though. That might be a better thing there, but it's so much about your personal increase in power um…

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: You know?

Nick: But like—

Keith: Yeah.

Nick: But also like, you know, I— He cares about people but on like—

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: In like…

Art: Well I mean, is there a limit? Like, are you— are you burning down the orphanage if it helps you gain power? Are you…

Nick: No, no, no, no.

Austin: What if no one knows the orphanage burned down?

Art: If...

Austin: Or if no one knows that you burned down the orphanage?

Nick: Nah, he'd still feel pretty guilty about that.

Austin: Okay. Okay, so not Evil then. That does sound more Neutral.

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: Um...

Keith: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Um, if he could burn down like, an important building, like something like— If Phantasmo could burn down a like holy building of Art's faith (Austin: Right, right.) without anyone in it, and that would gain him some power, he'd do that in a second. He would just— He would blow the thing…

Keith: That sounds Chaotic.

Austin: Does— Now it sounds Chaotic.

Keith: Now it sounds Chaotic.

Austin: Yeah.

Keith: Yeah, 'cause Chaotic— All the Chaotic things that I read for the Dungeon World alignments were all involved in like, removal of structure and power.

Nick: Mh-hmm.

Keith: Uh…

Austin: But for him, the thing that's weird is like, it could also be about him becoming the new law, you know what I mean?

Nick: Right.

Keith: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, there could be definitely a trajectory of your character from Chaotic to Lawful once (Austin: Yeah, let's start—) that law is the law that you have.

Nick: Mh-hmm.

Austin: Um.

Nick: Sure. Or, I mean, also, who knows? Like maybe Phantasmo, over the course of his adventures will realize (Austin: Right.) that there's more to what the world than (Austin: Mh-hmm.) trying to get back to…

Austin: What was, right?

Nick: He— He came from a very— Like a place of uh (Austin: Great privilege.) Super privilege, yeah. And uh, is confronted with uh, all of these lessers that (Austin: Mh-hmm.) don't know anything and don't understand.

Art: It's weird that— It's super weird that our characters are going to have so much strife when like, on the surface we want exactly the same thing.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: I really love it. I'm a big fan. So yeah, let's do Chaotic then.

Nick: Okay.

Austin: For now just write down just like a loose idea but I think we all know what you mean which is like, "To get power through…"

Keith: Yeah, I don't think any of us, if you asked like, "I did I do my— my Alignment thing?" I don't think any of us wouldn't be able to answer [cross] that at the end of that session.

Austin: [cross] Right, exactly. That's exactly. It's to get power, through— I don't know, to get power through power. That doesn't really— Maybe that works. Let me know what you're thinking.

Nick: To gain power without feeling guilty.

[Art laughs]

Austin: No, I don't think— I don't think you can bring guilt into, I think it has to be…

Nick: Yeah, okay, alright.

Austin: Because I want you— I want you to get that point, even when you feel guilty.

Nick: Right.

Austin: That's interesting, you know.

Nick: Yeah. Yeah.

Austin: Uh… But it's not at any means.

Nick: Gain power at most means. [Art laughs] Uh, yeah, I don't know. It's complicated.

Keith: It's power for power's sake?

Art: Like, if you had to lever— If there were two levers in front of you.

Austin: Mh-hmm .

Art: And one's like, this'll give you all the power you want and no one's gonna get hurt.

Austin: Right.

Art: And this one's gonna give you all the power you want and a lot of people are gonna get hurt. You're gonna pull the no one gets hurt lever, right?

Nick: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: Right, right. It's just about accumulation of power.

Nick: Well, it's—

Keith: Right.

Nick: But even that is, in itself, uh power to get back to what he had.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Keith: Just power.

Nick: He very much wants to go back to his comfortable place of privilege, yeah.

Keith: He wants some cush.

Austin: Maybe we should make it Lawful, then.

Ali: Is this— Is this less power than— This sounds more like stability, almost.

Art: Yeah, maybe it is Lawful. Maybe you're talking about order. If you're returning—

Austin: Yeah.

Keith: That's what— That's what I was mentioning earlier, when I said like a trajectory from Chaotic to Lawful. Like, ch-chaos (Austin: But now it sounds like…) to the goal of order.

Austin: Right, but now it sounds like, the core thing here. Not now, it always did but we're looking at it from a different perspective. Is like, the thing, his alignment, his goal, is to establish a status quo wherein he is back to being in privilege.

Nick: Yes.

Austin: Right?

Keith: Right.

Austin: Um, yeah, so isn't about power. It's about…

Keith: Okay.

Nick: My— My alignment is Reddit atheist.

Austin: [laughs] It is. It is.

Ali: Aw.

Keith: It kind of exactly is.

Austin: It kind of exactly is. Um…

Art: But so he's objectively pure evil.

Keith: Chaotic Lawful Evil.

[laughter]

Art: So like, the worst kind of person.

Nick: I mean, I— Yeah.

Austin: I'm looking at some Lawful things quickly. Let me look at what the Lawful writeup is again to see like the basic. Let's see here.

Keith: Um… Do you— Do you want— Is part of your— Is part of what your character's looking for, respect?

Nick: Yeah, sure.

Austin: That's a good way of thinking about it.

Ali: Yeah.

Nick: That is a good way of thinking about it.

Keith: Yeah, is it so if we— Could we—

Art: It's like the Rodney Dangerfield one.

Keith: Yeah. [laughs] Um, is— is that something we could word. Is respect and gaining respect, even respect through fear, a thing that…

Nick: Well, a respect from what he considers is the right people, though.

Austin: Right.

Nick: You know what I mean?

Keith: Okay. Or the right type of respect from the right type of people.

Nick: Right.

Keith: Like you can— You might want respect from people you consider [cross] so far beneath you, but that's a different type of respect.

Austin: [cross] Peers. Right, right. You want fear from those people, maybe.

Nick: Yeah.

Keith: You want fear from some people and admiration from others.

Nick: Right, true, yes.

Keith: So is— So could— Could it be— Could you be Lawful and the condition be in gaining respect?

Austin: I've made others— "Make others respect me for my power?"

Keith: Yeah, that's good.

Nick: Uh, sure. I mean…

Austin: I think that that's—

Nick: If— If this was D&D alignment, (Austin: Mh-hmm.) I would straight up be Lawful Evil.

Austin: Yeah, I know, I know.

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: And I mean, that's in here. Like, Art's Paladin Lawful is pretty close to Lawful Evil. Not in goal but in that— in the specific write up. That specific Paladin thing is pretty Lawful Evil.

Nick: Sure, yeah.

Austin: But yeah, I think that that's— Does that sound alright?

Nick: Yeah. Sure yeah.

Keith: I think so. And even if it's— even if it's still off a little bit [cross] we all still know really.

Austin: [cross] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we can you know, tinker.

Keith: This stuff is—

Art: I actually might disagree with whether or not this— the Paladin Lawful is Lawful Evil because I think just people don't play Lawful Good very well.

Austin: That's probably true, yeah. I mean, this might be with— This is one, I actually like this system a little bit more because I don't know that Lawful Good makes sense to me, often. Like, that's now how laws work.

Nick: Yeah.

Austin: I like having one, I like being able to say— I don't like Alignments. I don't think Alignment systems are representational at all, like successfully.

Nick: Right.

Austin: But I do think that they're useful for storytelling tools, and here it really quickly says like, no this is the thing. This is the big one, you know. This is the primary term. Ali.

[2:28:22]

Ali: Hi.

Austin: How you doing? How you doing over there?

Keith: Hi.

Ali: Oh my god. Um… You guys ready for another giant talk about Alignment?

Austin: Yeah, always.

Keith: Yeah.

Ali: I— 'Cause there's an option in like the Dungeon World thing to have it be a secret. And that's sort of like appealing to me, but at the same time like, I don't wanna use it as a cop out.

Austin: Yeah, that would be— For me, that's a cop out. [cross] Like, it's a secret to other people.

Ali: [cross] Yeah, like a really weird way.

Austin: It shouldn't be a secret to you.

Ali: Right, right.

Austin: We should all— And that's the other thing is, you can use secrets powerfully in a game like this, where like, only certain people know the truth.

Ali: Yeah. I guess the thing is like…

Austin: But it's almost more interesting for me now, for everyone at the table to know the secret out of character and like, be adults about that and make things interesting for the characters in game, you know?

Ali: But like…

Keith: This just reminded me of the one thing that was tying me strongly to the Thief before I decided on Bard, which was, I can tell— Uh, one of the thief's powers is that I can tell anyone my Alignment and they'll bel— I can tell someone any Alignment and they'll believe me. Which was like…

Austin: That's pretty cool.

Keith: Yeah.

Art: Wait, Austin are you sure you don't want this game to just have like, just thousands of pull asides. Just like, every game. [cross] Just huge chunks of it.

Austin: [cross] I, huh. Huh. I am… so certain.

Art: Just you and like one other person, in a—

Austin: [cross] For like fifteen minutes.

Art: [cross] In a tiny classroom.

Austin: Our college was really very rough.

Art: For like forty minutes.

Austin: Our college experience was rough. Also—

Keith: Wait, what is— What is— I think I'm misunderstanding what this is.

Austin: A lot— A lot of the games that I ran in college, had long pull asides where like, "Alright, you and me, we have to go talk about this thing secretly for like five minutes," (Ali: Oh no.) and then five minutes was like twenty minutes and it was the worst. And also sometimes there were fights with my girlfriend.

Ali: Yup.

Keith: I've only told— I've only had one pull aside in a game that I DMed and that was when a character died, they made a bargain with death, and I pulled them aside to say that their bargain, to stay alive, they had to kill one of their companions.

Austin: Sure.

Keith: That was the only— That was the only time I've pulled anyone aside. It was pretty fun. It worked out well. They all died.

Austin: Great.

[Art and Ali laugh]

Austin: When you say it that way.

Keith: It's— They all died and also it was the end of the campaign.

Austin: Right, sure.

Keith: It was like— It was the end— the end of Lord of the Rings where it ends and then it ends a second time.

Austin: Great.

Keith: Like, it was that second shitty ending.

Austin: So Ali, what are you thinking?

Ali: So thing about— The second issue here is that all of the Fighter Alignments are all like, about opponents where that's like, that doesn't feel like something that's gonna come up in this game very often.

Austin: It will. It can.

Ali: But it's not like, I don't—

Keith: You talking about like enemies or— or— or uh, like rivals.

Ali: Yeah, uh, well like rivals.

Austin: I think there will be rivals.

Ali: Okay. I think that if there are though, I don't know what that, like, that's still to be determined. Um…

Austin: Sure, um, but I want to look at these. It doesn't— These all seem pretty. Like, defeat a worthy opponent just means, defeat a worthy opponent, not a specific one. (Keith: Yeah.) Do you know what I mean?

Ali: But I feel like—

Keith: Kill a strong monster.

Ali: I feel like with what Art was saying before, like that's definitely something that happens often enough that it doesn't feel like special, like an alignment.

Austin: Right, right. Right.

Ali: Um, are there any interesting… I know you were looking at some of the fan stuff?

Austin: Yeah, I was looking at— And again—

Keith: I think it's interesting that Fighter Evil looks a lot like— lot like Paladin Lawful.

Austin: What was— What are those?

Keith: It's kill a defenseless or surrendered enemy which is…

Art: I think that's very different.

Keith: I don't know.

Art: And we can have that conversation.

Austin: Uh-huh.

Art: 'Cause defenseless or surrendered is different from criminal or unbeliever.

Austin: Yeah, but mercy.

Keith: Nonbeliever sounds like innocent to me.

Austin: [laughing] Yeah, unbeliever is rough, man.

Keith: Like, that's—

Austin: Unbeliever is where that gets real tricky.

Keith: Like, criminal— criminal, I will listen to that argument. Unbeliever sounds like a— a person.

Art: But I'm not like— I'm not like hunting— It's not hunt down and kill (Austin: Right, right.) non-believers. It's deny mercy to them. '

Keith: I know, but when you're— when you're a paladin, not showing mercy is— is a lot of the times, killing. Like, "Don't kill me!" "Uh, it's uh, sorry."

[Ali laughs]

Austin: "You accept my god? No? Bye!"

Keith: "I'm not supposed to show you mercy, or I won't get my XP."

Austin: Um, and again these aren't rules. These aren't hard and fast rules. Anyway, so the two that are here written are, "Lawful, fight honorably against an opponent who doesn't." And "Chaotic, teach the oppressed to defend themselves."

Ali: Okay.

Austin: Which is I think, cool, but also I'm not— It's cool but I'm not sure if the teaching (Ali: Mh-hmm) is a necessary element of it. Because otherwise like, "Well, here's another oppressed group for you to teach," you know?

Art: Yeah, it sounds like you're fucking running a libertarian thought party.

Ali: Yeah, I'm not like—

Keith: Yeah, yeah, going around starting militias all over.

Ali: That doesn't sound appealing to me, anyway.

Austin: No, no.

Ali: Um…

Keith: "Open carry, you group of kobolds."

[laughter]

Austin: Ooh, I saw this— I just saw this little broken bridge you guys built. I like that.

Ali: Yeah, I built that one.

Austin: Good job, Ali. Yeah, that's pretty good.

Art: Oh, I haven't looked at the map in a long time.

Austin: We haven't changed much, so…

Keith: Oh, wait, I don't see a broken bridge. Where is it? Oh, I see it. Okay.

Art: It looks like the continent's pooping on that other continent.

Austin: Great. Great. Cool. Uh…

Ali: I'm torn now. Because the um, like fight with honor against someone who's unhonorable sounds really cool. Um, but I think when I was sort of thinking about this character like being, of the three choices that I had, I was leaning toward the Evil one.

Austin: Okay.

Ali: Um.

Austin: Which is, kill someone…

Ali: "To kill a defenseless enemy."

Art: Ha, now all the people who use weapons are on the same team.

[Ali and Austin laugh]

Keith: And— [laughs] And how does—

Art: Suck it, do-gooders.

Keith: How— How do you feel that the evil potentially ties into you as a— as a character that isn't sure about their usefulness or place?

Ali: Well, so the sort of thing is like, coming from like a society that has understood that things have gone bad and that things are getting better but maybe not fast enough or maybe not in the ways that everyone wants or everyone expects. That like, there might be that like slow sort of rumble of a group of people to want to like start fighting other people again. Right?

Austin: Right, yeah.

Ali: Do you guys feel that way too? That there— Like there's definitely societies within this world that are like, "Okay, we're kind of on even footing now. Now it's time to make sure that like, what we want is the thing." Which I guess is sort of like what Nick was discussing, too.

Austin: Yeah, it is. I mean, that's the whole thing is that we're at this moment where these different groups can now have a say.

Ali: Right.

Austin: And can now make those claims. I guess my question is, what does that world look like for Hella?

Ali: Um… I'm— 'Cause there's a lot of like— There's inclusion there and there's distrust there and I think it would be sort of like, we don't want magic users to be powerful again. 'Cause we feel like a disadvantage but this is our time to sort of make sure that that disadvantage doesn't stay.

Austin: Right.

Ali: Like we can bind together and sort of win this thing, you guys. Or not like, win this thing, but like if we can make a mark here for ourselves, this is the time to do it.

Austin: Right. No, that totally makes sense.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: I guess the question then is how does she go about doing that? If it is by killing defenseless and surrendered enemies, then that's evil, you know? Um…

Ali: Right, yeah. I um…

Keith: That's real mean. We're on— I'm gonna have beef with everybody.

Ali: [laughs] So this is the thing is that I don't think she's part of like, some rebellion group or this is sort of like—

Austin: Right, right, sure. She's not on Cerberus.

Ali: I don't— Yeah, I don't think of her as a political person. (Austin: Mh-hmm.) I think of her as someone who, if backed into a corner, or in a situation where she doesn't feel safe, would absolutely kill someone who's defenseless.

Keith: Mh-hmm. So you're saying, okay. So if I'm understanding, the angle here is that, you, as a— as someone who is super distrustful of magic users, you have an enemy in front of you that is a magic user, they have no weapons. And in your head, like, "Yeah, but they have fucking magic."

[Ali laughs]

Austin: Right.

Keith: "So I'm gonna kill them because they can use their dumb hands and make me a fireball."

Ali: Right.

Austin: Right.

Ali: Maybe not like a—

Austin: And not like a gift. Not like, "Here's a fireball for you. I fucking—"

Keith: Yeah, here's this fireball. No, I'm gonna get roasted.

Ali: Right, and not even like—

Nick: Real spicy deli sandwich.

Ali: Not even as like a like an automatic thing. But like, in like the middle of the woods or in like a dungeon.

Austin: Right.

Ali: It would be like, this person isn't attacking me specifically but I feel like they could. And I feel like I would need to… I need to defend myself immediately before they have the chance, sort of thing, I guess.

Keith: And then I think, the part of the Evil is you're also unrepentant for it.

Austin: Can we blow this up then, to be not just about magic but about… Cut like—

Ali: Yeah, like, not just—

Art: A preemptive threat.

Austin: Preemptive power— Yeah, a preemptive threat.

Ali: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 'Cause I don't want to like—

Austin: Yeah, yeah.

Art: Like—

Ali: I don't want to write myself into that corner.

Austin: Yeah, that's— 'Cause that ends up being a lot more applicable, broadly. You know?

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: What were you gonna say, Art?

Art: Uh, it's— We're talking like, this as a— as a grand strategy, you're talking about the Bush Doctrine.

Austin: Right. Yes. [Ali laughs] You are George W. Bush. It's true.

[Art and Ali laugh]

Keith: Oh, okay. Now I understand.

Ali: Sure.

Keith: I was like, Bush Dog, what are you ta— What is that a book that I didn't read?

Art: I mean, ye-yes, but.

Keith: No, you said— Is that the name of a book?

Art: I'm sure.

Austin: I'm sure it was written in the— in the— what do you call it? Like a— Like a big write up. Like a big security report. You know? Um…

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: I'm trying to see if there is like a real— a real— snappy way of putting this.

Art: Jack Bauer was right about everything.

Austin: Right, is she Jack Bauer? Is that what this is?

Keith: Are you Jack Bauer? Are you— Are you Walter White?

Ali: [laughs] Wah, no, no.

Keith: Are you going to blow someone up with some meth-crete from some fake meth?

Ali: [laughs] Yeah, no. I guess I don't know Jack Bauer well enough.

Austin: He's a— You know, he's an agent who shoots people in the legs. He's willing—

Keith: He's a Walter White-type.

Ali: All I know about Jack Bauer is that he (Art: No, he— What?) was addicted to heroin and then through sheer will, was not anymore.

Austin: Listen, he had so much will. He had all the will.

Ali: I uh…

Art: He has a lot of will.

Ali: I— There's sort of— There's like, 'cause I like Breaking Bad and I don't wanna like do this, but there's sort gonna be that like, Walter White-esque sort of like, "I did a bad thing but I was totally… I had to. (Austin: Mh-hmm.) It was my only option and I was trying to preserve myself and the people around me." When like—

Keith: I mean, you can still say that and still like Breaking Bad.

Ali: Yeah, no, I know. [laughs] No, what I'm trying to say is that I like women a lot so I don't want to play like a Walter White-type character

Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you mean.

Ali: But I— I'm— I'm taking that aspect of it but applying to someone who's like [sighs] maybe more, like slightly more charismatic and also like, not to those extremes.

Austin: I think we can talk about this as just like, like Art said, about— It's about performing a preemptive attack. Defeating a threat before it grows too big. Um…

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: And I don't know if that's— We can spin that in a bunch of different ways.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: We can spin that to be Chaotic and say, you know, "Defeat power before it has a chance to stabilize." Or we can say that Lawfully and say, you know, "Preemptively destroy any threat to— to order." But the preemption is definitely the heart of this, in some sense.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: The willingness to kill before…

Keith: And then Evil would not be a structure but a person.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Right. Evil would be what it is, which is kill an unarmed or defenseless opponent.

Ali: Right.

Austin: Because they could always get weapons. They could always be a problem in the future.

Ali: Right.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: You know?

Ali: I think I would lean more towards like the Evil and the Chaotic.

Austin: Okay.

Ali: 'Cause like there's this— There's like a sense here that like the— the actions that she would take are she definitely believes that they're justified but they're sort of not.

Austin: Right, right.

Ali: Um…

Austin: Listen, there's a point of me which wants to say, "Fuck it, go Evil."

Ali: Right.

Austin: Like, that's the broadest application of this.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: And it is…

Keith: And you don't have to be evil forever. Like, that's the whole point.

Ali: Right.

Art: Or all— Or every second, right?

Austin: Right, yes. Yes.

Art: Right, like it's not— it didn't say, "When this situation comes up, this is what you have to do."

Austin: No, absolutely.

Ali: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's…

Keith: This is a— This is like a— This is a, like, once a session if it comes up (Austin: Yes, yes.) If you want to. (Austin: Yes.)

Ali: Right.

Austin: Um…

Ali: And sort of like, as I was thinking about that, that was appealing to me, was like, sort of playing this like cool fighter who, you know is generally likable but if like, if shit goes down, she's sort of for herself (Austin: Right.) and also really suspicious of everyone that she travels with.

Austin: Mh-hmm.

Ali: Um, and you know, that absolutely has the potential to change.

Austin: Right.

Ali: But like, as it starts, um she works with everyone and it's fine, but it's like, this guy shapeshifts and there's this like, crazy wizard.

Austin: Right.

Ali: Who like, is always glaring at me. And like, I'm into this priest guy and this other guy's kinda funny but like, what the fuck. So like, that's the— those are like Bonds in there— [laughs]

Austin: Is that the dialogue that plays over the intro theme to this— to the show. "And this guy's funny, and what the fuck." [laughter] We're Dungeon World. [cross] This… is Dungeon World.

Ali: [cross] This is sort of like the eternal monologue that she has with herself when like, when they're sitting at a table and she's like, "Wait, why am I with these people?"

Austin: Right, right. No, I like it. Yeah, let's just go Evil. I think that's the broadest application of it and it can always change and it, like Art said, it doesn't mean that all moments—

Ali: Okay.

Austin: Good and Evil people in this game get along. Can get along.

Ali: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Austin: There are going to be moments of high tension and that's what— what I'm in—

Ali: Right, like I know I need—

Austin: Sounds like we've set that up. Cool.

Art: Yeah, I'm also not, you know, yeah, I'm not just going to execute every prisoner we ever have, right, like?

Austin: Right.

Art: 'Cause that's not— That's not how people are.

Austin: Right, exactly. Um…

Ali: Yeah. And I don't intend to play her as like this brooding violent person, either.

Austin: Right, yeah.

Ali: But like—

Art: So you're not doing Jack Bauer.

Ali: No. Also not, uh…

Art: You'll watch 24 today like, "Oh those jokes were funny. That was…"

[laughter]

Austin: Alright um, so again, I guess if there's questions about other stuff, is there anything else before we should wrap, looking at these sheets?

Ali: Um…

Keith: Um…

Austin: Questions again about gear, about equipment, about tags.

Keith: It's pretty cool that I can change into shit.

Austin: Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Keith: Huh. Oh!

Austin: So yeah, what— what is that for you? What is your…

Keith: Oh, so um… You mean uh, as a— as a gameplay thing or as a— as a—

Austin: [cross] Both. I mean…

Keith: [cross] Like, a personal character thing?

Austin: Both. Where— Where were you born? So one of the Druid's things is Born of the Soil. Um, you kind of choose a land in which you are attuned.

Keith: Yeah. I think I'm attuned to the towering mountains.

Austin: Okay.

Keith: Uh, which plays into uh, me being drawn to the (Austin: The orc, right.) to the barrenness of…

Austin: Right.

Keith: Like a post-Erasure thing (Austin: Yeah.) and living— living in those mountains. Um...

Art: Wait, where are these mountains?

Austin: The orc.

Keith: Those are up where Jack is. The— The— The—

Austin: The New Archives, there are some mountains there.

Keith: The New Archives.

Art: There like some towering mountains up there?

Austin: Yeah.

Keith: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: A nice brown… black…

Keith: That's where— I think that's where my Druid shit started. Um…

Austin: I got you. So you left the halflings without being a Druid. You felt the call, let's say.

Keith: Right, yeah. Yeah.

Austin: That's good.

Keith: Um.

Austin: Good mountains.

Keith: As, let's keep this as far away from Into the Wild as we can go.

Austin: I actually really like those mountains 'cause they also look like there's a univer—the split. It literally splits the Archives off from the University.

Nick: Yeah, that's nice.

Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um…

Austin: Uh...

Art: People laughed at me when I took those amateur cartography classes.

Keith: What was I talking about?

[Ali laughs]

Austin: Um, you were talking about how— you left, you had to split with the halflings and then went into the mountains.

Keith: Yeah, yeah, and I went and I feel like this— this part of me—

Austin: But you didn't want it to be a call to the wild, is what you were saying.

Keith: Oh yeah, I do not want this to be Into the Wild because that is my least favorite shit in the whole world.

Austin: Yup.

Keith: Um, I can't stand it. So this is not that. Um…

Ali: Wait, what?

Austin: It's a—

Keith: Into the Wild is a book and I hate it.

Ali: Oh, okay.

Keith: It's, yeah. I can talk about it later. We'll talk about it fresh.

Austin: We'll talk about it off-stream.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Okay. Anything else?

Keith: Uh… Um…

Austin: For anybody else who has questions.

Keith: Yeah, so— Oh, so the— Right, you cut out. What were you saying?

Austin: Does anybody have any questions? Any other questions about stuff so we can wrap up?

Keith: Um, nope.

Ali: Yeah, like there is stuff I'll ask you, off whenever so when we end up doing it together.

Nick: I think I'm all set.

Austin: Yup, please do.

Art: Yeah, I don't think there's any—

Keith: Oh I do have— I do have one quick question.

Austin: Sure.

Keith: Uh, one of the— one of the advance moves, or two of the advanced moves for the Druid are um, Hunter's Brother and Hunter's Sister which is Choose one Move from the Ranger class list. (Austin: Right, yeah.) Uh, do you know if that's limited to their starting moves or if it's limited from their Starting Moves.

Austin: Um, it's you are— Whatever level you start that at, is like starting— It's a multiclass thing. So if you take that at the first— at your Starting Level, you basically can just pick from their starting moves, and I think if you take the second one, you can pick…

Keith: Starting Moves and Advanced Moves 'cause Advanced Moves is two through five.

Austin: Right, but you're not. You'd be a level 1 Ranger Moves there, is what I'm saying.

Keith: Oh, okay, so it's one.

Austin: Whereas the second one, yeah.

Keith: Yeah, okay. I see.

Austin: The second one would be any of the two through five moves.

Keith: Okay, great, yeah. So that works out, because I plan on—

Austin: Let's walk that bridge when we get to it, given…

Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Art: Oh, um, um. I didn't check every class. I'm gonna be the only remotely healing thing we have, right?

Austin: No. Bard, bard heals really well, actually.

Keith: I had—

Art: Bard heals? Alright.

Keith: I also have a healing thing.

Austin: Yeah.

Art: Alright, so I don't have to like— I don't have to just aim toward healer.

Austin: Right. 100% that.

Keith: Yeah, my— my…

Ali: Also we can just have like uh, potions and stuff. Or bandages.

Austin: You can. There are bandages and stuff that you can buy. Yeah.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Yeah, uh…

Art: We can also just like, have a lot of us die. I mean.

Austin: Right.

Keith: Mh-hmm. I don't— Yeah, the mechanics for death are really cool. Yeah, the— the uh. I don't know when I plan on taking this but I just want to read this Advanced Move for uh, two through five.

Austin: Uh-huh. He's very—

Keith: What?

Austin: Keith is so excited. And he's—

Keith: I'm so excited.

Austin: Months away from being able to do this thing, but…

Keith: Months away? No, no. 'Cause like—

Austin: It's August. I'm gonna bet October.

Keith: Okay.

Austin: Maybe September.

Keith: We're— These are long levels you're saying?

Austin: They're not super long, but like, we'll see.

Keith: Yeah. I mean I could take this level 2 if I wanted.

Austin: Yes.

Keith: Yeah, um. The wait, which is uh, when you take damage, take— "When you deal damage, take 1 balance."

Austin: Right.

Keith: "When you touch someone and channel spirits, you may spend balance. For each balance spent, heal 1d4."

Austin: It's neat. It's a neat thing.

Keith: Yeah. It's a neat thing. I've never healed before. I'm excited to heal. I've always been— I've always been an assassin or a rogue.

Austin: Right. It's nice to break out of those and try out some new stuff.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: It really is. But yeah, Bards— Bards can heal really well. So.

Keith: Don't mind if you take that if there's all these fucking healers, now.

Austin: There's all these fucking healers.

Keith: Begin this shit.

Austin: All these healers. Uh, alright. That's it. No one else has questions.

Keith: That's it, that's everything.

Austin: Hit me up, obviously, (Keith: Yeah.) You guys know where I live.

Ali: Actually um...

Austin: Mh-hmm?

Ali: So I kind of brought this up before and we can all like talk about it off-stream or not (Austin: Mh-hmm.) but like, does anyone have any like, solid ideas of how everyone came to know each other.

Austin: Right, sorry. We actually should have that conversation.

Ali: 'Cause I don't at all but I'm like really willing to listen to if anyone has any— anything so that's…

Keith: Um… I would like to discuss this with Jack, seeing as how— Well, not like all of us, like you— we can figure it out together now, but also because Jack— It seems like Jack and I would've come together from the New Archives is I think our— our past and so—

Austin: I would like you— Yeah, yeah.

Keith: And I— I think that probably he was the impetus. I don't think that I—

Austin: Yeah, that makes sense.

Keith: I don't think that he chose to go with me. I feel like I would've chosen to go with him.

Austin: That's fair. Um.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: But it also sounds like, it could be a situation where you were all put to task by someone in this town, to go recover something or uh, maybe you've been used as a group before to, um, you know, bring back an artifact or to, drive off some bandits, like. I want you guys to have worked together once at least, before, successfully.

Keith: Yeah. Who knows, maybe Jack went looking for that sword.

Austin: Right, sure. Um, and brought Ali back? Is that— Is that— Well, no 'cause I kind of want that conversation to still happen.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: I want to hear that conversation. Um.

Keith: Mh-hmm. Well maybe he doesn't know it until level 2. Maybe he doesn't know that he found it. Maybe he just hears it and, "Ah, it's that—"

Austin: Well, no he does because he has that bond already. So he does have it.

Keith: Oh, okay.

Austin: Think about, hm. I guess it really does depend on what you guys feel comfortable with in terms of having had a back history. But I— I think it's easy enough to say, you're adventurers. There's something in your heart that says, when there's an opportunity to go do a thing, when someone says, "Yeah, we need a group of five people to uh… There's been this whale. It's bad. Bad whale. Land whale. We gotta go get that…"

Keith: "Bad whale. Someone gotta go out there and get the fucking whale."

Austin: Right. And you guys have done that. Do you know what I mean? Um.

Nick: Yeah.

Art: I'm aw— Well one, I think it's super important we have like— we have some kind of connection because otherwise we are kinda disparate right now.

Austin: Yes, yes. Yeah.

Nick: Yeah.

Art: And two, I am willing to have it be that time we— we saved them from the bad whale.

Austin: Okay.

Keith: [laughs] I'm very into having—

Austin: Uh, three, we should call— we should call this place something that isn't Duckberg before we wrap.

Ali: No.

Art: I thought it was Fishberg.

Austin: Well, it was.

Ali: No, Duckberg is fantastic.

Keith: It was Fishberg originally and then I insisted it be Duckberg. We can change it from Duckberg.

Austin: Uh-huh.

Keith: I don't feel like Duckberg is fiction breaking. Although.

Austin: I think it is because I'll never not think of— of those—

Keith: Ducktales.

Austin: That.

Keith: [singing] Whoo!

Austin: And that breaks my fiction because otherwise I'll be just doing that.

Ali: What if it's like—

Keith: [singing the Ducktales Theme Song] Race cars, lasers, airplanes.

Ali: You know, it's like Duckberg because it's…

Austin: I'm not— Ali. [Ali laughs] We can't do Duckberg.

Ali: Please. [laughs]

Keith: Can we do— Can we do Fishberg and think about Duckberg?

Ali: Can we just—

Austin: It's gonna be such a distraction, guys.

Ali: Can we just do Berg.

Keith: Okay.

Ali: Like the opening in Lunar?

Austin: We can.

Ali: 'Cause I'd like that.

Keith: Can we do… Can it just be called Deadberg?

Austin: What—

Keith: The sister city to Undeadberg.

Austin: Oh my god.

Ali: Oh boy.

Austin: Oh brother.

Ali: Get out of here.

Keith: That's where you're drawing the line, Ali?

[laughter]

Ali: Oh.

Keith: That's where like, "It's gotta be Duckberg." "How 'bout Deadberg?" "Fuck off."

Ali: [laughs] I so—

Keith: It's an unfair line to draw, I think.

Ali: No.

Austin: You guys have homework, just get me a name. Get me— We can talk off stream. We'll come back next week and we'll have a—

Keith: Uh, uh…

Austin: Name for the continent and we'll have a name for the city. Um…

Keith: [cross] Shoreville.

Nick: [cross] Okay.

Austin: Great. I'm Austin Walker. You can find me @austin_walker on Twitter, the ClockworkWorlds.com. The clock— The clockworl— Ugh. TheCalcutech on Twitch. This whole bit, I'm just struggling. It's late.

Keith: Okay. Do you want to start over and I'll just part out.

Austin: Yeah, you want to just cut the part out. Yeah.

Keith: Okay, yeah.

Austin: You're not gonna do it are ya?

Keith: I'm gonna totally do it. Why wouldn't I do it.

Austin: Okay, I see.

Ali: He's not gonna do it.

Austin: I've been Austin Walker. I'm still Austin Walker. You can find me @austin_walker on Twitter, theCalcultec on Twitch and ClockworkWorlds.com. Who— Who joined me today? Let's start with Nick.

Nick: My name's Nick. You can find me at Twitch, Twitter, Youtube-slash-DrEvilBones.

Austin: Uh, Keith?

Keith: Uh, my name's Keith Carberry. You can find me on Twitter @somethingDumb. You can find the let's plays that I do at youtube.com/RunButton or RunButton.net. You can check out ContentBurger.biz for some extra stuff if you want extra stuff and also gaming things.

Austin: Art's?

Art: Uh, Art Tebbel, Twitter, aTebbel. Uh, movie reviews, comicMix.com. Uh, other, um. I'm also just— just around.

Austin: And Ali.

Ali: Um, I'm Alicia Acampora, you can find me at um, ali_west on Twitter. Um, I'm GoodFriendAli on Twitch, but you'll find me at uh, and the rest of— me and the rest of us— at uh, twitch.tv/StreamFriends or at StreamFriends.tv.

Austin: Thanks Ali. That was a good— You wrapped that right up.

Ali: Yeah.

Austin: Join us next week. Uh, Dre might join us. I don't know if it'll be on this first thing or what. We'll see. Um…

Art: He's gonna be all of our long-lost brothers.

Austin: I'm surprised actually. I'm surprised we didn't have any like, relationships. Um, like any familial connections in this. Think about it. Maybe one of those makes sense. We'll see. Anyway, everyone.

Keith: You mean with one of— among one of us, some sort of—

Austin: Right.

Keith: I guess I'm— I guess I'm the only halfling of us.

Austin: Yeah, but we've already been over this. That doesn't matter.

Keith: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: Maybe your uncle's a wizard man.

[MUSIC - "Autumn Not Winter" fades in]

Keith: Although that would have to be— That would have to be far, far, back right? Or I'm just half human or a quarter human.

Austin: You’re— You’re definitely have human in you. Is what I'm gonna say.

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Like, everybody, it's—

Keith: Yeah.

Austin: Think it’s—

Keith: Everybody like, "I'm— I'm orc but I got a little human."

Austin: Yeah.

Keith: Like, everybody, yeah.

Nick: And if not, you're…

Keith: I'm 1/18th human.

Austin: Heh. Have—

Keith: 18th? That's not right. 16th.

Austin: [laughing] Yeah. Have a good night, internet.

Ali: Bye.

Keith: Bye.

[MUSIC - "Autumn Not Winter" plays out in full]

[1] Spelled both as Phantasmo and Fantasmo.