None. Everybody back to campaigns and
concoctions where we are a bunch of tired troubadours who like to
drink and play TTRPGS. Today is going to be a little
bit different also welcome. Happy New Year.
Hope you your holidays have been great but unfortunately we are
down a few players. Some things have happened and
Matt and Curtis are not here, so send them just good vibes and
good good intentions and hopefully you guys are seeing
some faces of us. Now we're going to try.
We've changed our recording services and our hosting stuff,
so we'll hopefully be able to see at least some of us now some
of us don't want to be seen dusted.
Very specifically. But thank you, as always, for
joining us in this adventure of cooperative storytelling.
So here's what we're going to do.
We're going to kind of give you a brief state of the pod what
our plans are. We, you know, as our players
have reached level 10 now we are kind of at the official
unofficial halfway point of campaigns.
If you get to level 20, which if we do, it's something
spectacular. I don't think it's going to
happen, but just kind of give you guys an idea of what's going
to go on. And then we're just going to
have a, we got some questions. Some of the general, like,
interview questions of like, you know, get to know the players a
little bit better. We've never really done this.
We've kind of talked about some stuff on Discord, but even then
we never really got into it. So we're just going to kind of,
hey, introduce it. So, you know, you've got the
names, you've heard the names, you've heard the voices.
We've got Nate and Dustin and John and excuse me, Jared and
myself, Morgan, the DM. So, so here's the the state of
the pod. We are obviously still
recording. Holiday times are always tough.
So This is why these things happen.
But what we're looking for is here.
Hopefully, you know, however long it's going to take, we're
going to finish up this campaign and then we're going to take a
break. You know, we're going to test
out some new systems. You'll hear from us.
We have some opportunities maybe for some, some collaborations
with some brands that we're looking into.
We're very excited about doing some special short adventures
for them. You'll hear us pop up, do a
couple of other sort of ventures, but we're looking to
test out some new TTRPG systems. We're not really sure about what
we're going to do for the next campaign, but we're going to
figure it out and we'll let you guys know.
But then after that, we'll start a campaign too, whatever that
may be. But yeah, is there anything else
that anyone wants to pitch and talk about or anything like
that? Hey everyone, it's Morgan the DM
again. We've had some massive technical
difficulties when recording this episode.
We're still trying to test everything out.
I think we got it figured out and you'll see in the next
segment. So this is just my intro of like
the state of the pod and everything.
There were a bunch of questions that got asked, some really good
conversation that was had. Unfortunately, you're just going
to have to miss out. You're going to have to take my
word for a minute. Now the second-half of the pod
is really good. Curtis shows up.
We have a really, really, really good time.
But I want to apologize. We are testing things out.
Thank you to everyone who is watching and listening, those
who have joined the Discord recently.
We really appreciate it. But thanks for sticking with us
and our technical difficulties. And now back to the show back
everybody as we get settled back in.
Yay, welcome to Curtis. Welcome Yay.
So that's a good thing. So let's let's start like we
should have started last time. What has everyone got to drink
now? Oh, I'll.
Start because mine's easy that I handed out for everyone.
Everyone's trying the four noses.
El Hefe con leche Imperial style.
It's tasty. With sweet Bloom coffee.
It's as it's as dark as my soul and as black as my heart.
If you're in the Denver area and you want a really good cup of
coffee, Sweet Bloom is amazing. I have a glass of Scotch.
Macallan. Macallan 12 In front of me,
yeah. I made kind of sort of a
Vouqueray ish Manhattan Ish sort of mezcal rip this time around,
again using the Dos hombres mezcal.
I'm I'm currently workshopping cocktails again.
By the time you hear this, I'll either be out of the competition
or I'll be in the quarterfinals and quarterfinalists have to
submit a dose hombres cocktail of their making.
So I'm workshopping cocktails right now using their stuff.
So it's the dose hombres, it's the Toya Ume, it's Benedictine,
and it's pay shows, bitters, and again, just a little bit of
turbinado rich syrup. I like this one.
It's fine. The last one was fine.
It's very soft. Yeah, it's very soft, especially
in comparison. The last one I I upped my yeah,
you can, yeah, it's very tart. What what I really want to do is
I want to get more of the Uma Boshy juice that I had, that
really salty plum juice that I had, and I'd cut it with agave,
Right. So what I really want to do is I
want to do a Serrano Uma Boshy Agave, because I think that
would be fucking delicious. That saltiness, that tartness,
the spice, the sweet, right like that in and of.
Itself is such. A Yeah, Basic.
Yeah, exactly. So doing that with like maybe
some of the Ume Cholla and maybe like some Benny or some, you
know, I don't know, Campari, some combination of one or two
other things in there I think would turn out really nice.
Cool. Anyone else got anything?
Nothing's still working on his plums of.
Course of. Course, trying to save her,
'cause it's not my bottle. It's fair, very fair.
It is a big bottle though, so you know, I'm not super worried.
Also, I'm very excited to open that bottle when it's done and
eat those fucking plums that are floating.
That's going to be in and of itself and it's actually, yeah.
All right. So let's get back to our
questions, right. So our next question was going
to be what got you into tabletop role play games?
They're sitting at this table. Give us some context here,
gentlemen. You're right.
I would say the first my first real experience with Tabletop
role Play Games was listening to Brian Post Sain's podcast called
Nerd Poker who was on Ear Wolf back in the day and it was just
a bunch of old dudes in Hollywood that like were severe
nerds. I think one of the other guys,
his claim to fame was he's an actor on the original Karate
Kid, one of the one of the skeleton guys.
And I think he's the one that goes like give it to him,
Johnny. And yeah, yeah, but it was like
a few different individuals. They're just boys and his that
were out doing a podcast and I was listening to, I think they
were playing second edition Advanced Dandy.
I think so, Like it was, really. But I was intrigued by by the
storytelling and by the world that they were.
They were experiencing the mechanics of the game I was not
interested in, weirdly enough. That's very out of.
Character, I know, yeah, yeah. I mean, like they were just,
they were just fucking around drinking and having a good time.
And I was like, yeah, next time this comes up, I'm doing that.
Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah.
I just like to. Drink and play TV.
Sorry guys, I got a little mixed up there.
Hit the wrong button. Yeah, so cool.
Who? Wants to go next.
I'm going to wait to the end because I'm also going to tell
the story of how the tables start.
Out. I can go next.
So I worked at a computer department store called Micro
Center and lots of nerds think I always love playing, like RPG
video games. And so a couple guys I worked
with, they were playing, I think they were playing D&D.
And then, like when I joined them, they actually switched
over to Vampire the Masquerade that.
Was fun. And I played like 2 sessions
with them and had like a crotch rocket motorcycle.
Some Cortana's I'm pretty sure as as one does.
As one does playing vampire. The Masquerade.
I didn't play very many sessions with them, but like just a ton
of fun D10 system. I saw the bag of dice.
I think my buddy bought them for me, which is cool.
I mean just it was a fun I it couldn't fit into my schedule
and I was pissed about it. But yeah, these guys, when they
were playing, I was able to join them what, like four years ago,
probably already now been. A lot longer than four years.
I think it's like 4 for. US Yes, for Jared.
No. Four, maybe longer, maybe longer
than that. I.
Feel like it's longer than 4. Years COVID.
Just time worked. Everything.
We all know just. It's been like 4 years for
because Jared's the only one who's newer than me.
In my head. So, like, this is the thing.
I know that neither of you started with our original group,
But in my head, you were at that table in literally all of my
memories of our very first campaign.
You were there, all right? I know that you weren't there,
but you I was. There, but not at the table
because I've known you longer than.
Anybody here? That's the thing, right?
Like, I've known both you since long before this, right?
But like, in my head, I'm still like Jared character doing when
we were, when Matt was spent two hours running to try to get to a
bow. What?
What was Morgan's character
doing? Oh, right.
They weren't at the table like, but I have to like, really think
Hard to remember that you weren't actually there because
as far as I'm concerned, I've always played with you guys.
And to be fair, Matt was reading the jump rules.
I will never, I will literally never read the jump rules
because I know as long as Matt is at the table, I don't need to
write that he can. He can do a Ted talk on jump
rules in D and D5E. So you know, why would I bother
to read the jump rules? I don't need to know.
Yeah, you've you've compartmentalized that knowledge
into that. Yeah, exactly.
You asked. That I have an external hard
drive. Yeah, that's.
Right. Who's next?
Mine like the first first experience with TTRPGS was back
in middle school I think OK when I was playing Magic Gathering
nice. And the shop that we went to for
the for our cards is the IT. It might have been the shop that
the stereotype came from. Just a bunch.
I'm so glad it's not open anymore.
Was there a No girls allowed sign on the window?
There might as well, yeah, right.
I think it was just the cloud of stench.
Everything on the door, it effectively was a sign.
Yeah, it was a red flag in and of itself.
But I think, I think at that point, I've been playing long
enough that we were building specific decks and we were
looking for specific cards. Nice and.
We ended up getting some kind of MEC TTRPGI don't remember which
one because the books were cheaper than the cards that we
needed. That's.
Very valid Magic cards get crazy expensive even 25 years ago.
Yeah. We I think we bought the entire
all of the books for it for less.
Than battle tech on spend was it battle tech?
It might have been that. Wouldn't because.
I bought, I bought a thing of battle tech, not knowing what it
was and I brought it home and I took it out and I was like, I
don't know what it. And then it got we ever touched
it, we ever touched it again. I was like this looks really
cool and I opened it up. It's like, oh.
Curtis beyond me. But it is very cool back in the
background. You can find it at Barnes and
Nobles. I'm sure.
Now, yeah. I'm sure it's wonderful.
I just did you have it? Have the like the grid sheet
with the mech. Yes, yeah, yeah.
You put like little tiles on it for damage and stuff, yeah?
That was positive I had. One of those as.
Well, we tried to play it for like 3 weeks.
I don't think we ever actually finished a full like.
One session or even like session zero, yeah.
Fight. Right.
I I have to go back because mentioned a middle school.
I forgot my first role-playing experience was in middle school.
My friend Spencer if you're listening this is Jared.
We didn't have a system. Spencer Made-up from his ass
Star Wars world and no shit it's.
Impressive. No, it was amazing.
And we didn't like. We didn't roll anything.
It was. All.
It was, yeah. Right.
But it was, it was all, it was all role play.
There was not really a system. Yes, we said what we wanted to
do and Spencer told us what happened and we did that for try
a couple months in middle school, at least a couple
months. So you played it was a.
Before Fate exist, Yeah, you played Fate before it existed.
It was amazing. I forgot about that.
So that is actually my first role role-playing game.
So the. Game.
It was a kid. Making up a story.
Made-up a story? Absolutely.
It was amazing. Oh.
We didn't. We just walked around outside on
lunches and. Yeah.
So it was free form, collaborative story.
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it was amazing.
It was so far. Yeah, it was, absolutely.
So Nate can go last. I'll go next.
I grew up as as Dustin will know.
So like the one, the coolest thing about this table is that
there has been some weird reconnects with people.
Dustin and I actually knew each other as kids.
Like it was the weirdest thing that when we figured out,
figured that out. But like so grew up in a fairly,
you know, zealous Christian home and you know the the the Satanic
Panic was real. So the idea I've always wanted
to play Dungeons and Dragons just because it was forbidden,
right? It was like, is the verboten
thing that you wanted to try. And it wasn't till I was in my
30s that I just, I put, I randomly posted on Facebook and
I said hey motherfuckers who wants to play D&D?
And John hit me up and said, hey, let me introduce you to my
DM, which, like that Facebook post, literally changed my life
because not only did it introduce me to this group, but
then I ended up living with Nate for three years, which is one of
the best three years of my life. Because Nate's one of the best
roommates that you could ever have.
And I met all of these people and like tangentially all of
these people who I've met who have been wonderful influences
all my life while we still talk with each other.
I mean, I am literally 4 hour drive from these people.
We're still connecting because I love them so much.
I was like that one Facebook post that's like, that's why I
love the like these things is because it's like there's so
much like realness involved beyond the the game.
Like the game is fun and we get serious about it, but it's the
connections you make outside of it.
And so like for me, it's like the greatest, one of the
greatest things that's ever happened to me in my life.
So thanks boys. Cheers.
To Morgan.
Cheers to. That.
Hey man, I love you. You know that, right?
I don't know if you guys can tell.
I'm fighting it back right now, so.
I have, I actually have like kind of a similar ending to my
story as Morgan does. But so like I I played like
Super Nintendo games as a kid. And when I say I played them,
what I mean is there was a rich family that lived 2
neighborhoods over that was in the same church that I was in,
and they played Super Nintendo games and I got to watch because
I was a poor kid, but I vicariously played like Chrono
Trigger, Secret of Mana, you know, stuff like that.
Eventually I got a PlayStation of my own, played like Final
Fantasy 7, but I also played like I stole their Gameboy at
one point and played a lot of Pokémon on Gameboy because I I
just, I literally just burgled their home.
I was like 8. I snuck out of my house.
I broke into their house. I stole their Gameboy and
Pokémon Red at the age of like 8 and didn't give it back for
about 6 months. Yeah, I didn't give it back to
them for six months. Now the problem is I was 8.
So when I give it back, I was like, hey, I took your Game Boy
and I just handed it back to them.
I got in huge trouble. But, but I also, you know, like
played Pokémon cards, played a little bit of magic.
But like, I was gifted a deck by a kid that was like 4 years
older than me and was leaving elementary school and was like,
I'm leaving kids stuff behind, 'cause I'm going to middle
school. And he gave me like a massive
Magic deck. Yeah, fucking moron, yeah.
But I didn't really know what I was doing.
And then when I was in middle school, I tried to play D&D and
I think it was AD and D didn't understand anything about it,
had just heard about it, wanted to play it.
My best friend at the time was like, this is stupid, it's for
nerds. It was his brother's AD and D he
ran about a 15 minute session for me.
I built a character, He had me walk through the woods and meet
a Hobbit, a halfling. That halfling started a fight
with me and promptly 1 shotted me and he was like, there's D&D,
we're done. That was the the end of my first
D&D experience. I spent like 15 minutes creating
a character. It was dead.
Within 3 minutes, Killed by a kneecapper.
Yeah, I got kneecapped like a motherfucker.
Yeah, but you know, Fast forward decades, literally, and I had
known all the guys at the table right now through the church
that we all used to go to. And I'm a dirty, rotten atheist
at this point in my life. And I became a dirty rotten
atheist before we started playing D&D together.
And I think that was part of it. And also like other life, shit
just happened and I fell out of touch with all these guys.
And it just so happened that Dustin moved into, didn't you
move into 5151? Dustin moved into the same
complex with another former friend of, well, friend of ours,
former friend of mine. I haven't talked to him in, I
don't know, five years, but the two of them moved in just across
the parking lot and they hit me up.
And I also was roommates with Nate.
Let's mention that the reason there was space at the table is
because the guy who lived in that apartment couldn't make it
to the fucking session. I mean, that was part of it,
yeah. That was one of the first one.
He made it to the first one. He didn't make it to any after
that. I was at the first one too.
But, but they they invited me to play D&D.
And honestly at that point I had had one really terrible
experience with D&D and I was like, I couldn't give a fuck
less about this game, right? But these are friends that I was
like very close with for half a decade and not entirely sure why
we don't hang out anymore. But this is them asking me to
come and hang out and I would love to go hang out.
And I ended up going to the session, and I think it was
session one where I got extremely drunk and ended up
sitting on Curtis's lap for most of the session.
Or was that session two? I think it was.
Was that session two? OK, so I kept it together for
the first session. I think the first session you
got not quite as drunk. It ended up on my lap for most
of. It that also checks out, that
also checks out. But it was just like it was for
me. It was more an opportunity to
reconnect with people that I had been very close with for a very
long time and had fallen out of touch with and then ended up
being like oh fuck, this is incredibly fun.
This is like such a good time. Also like going to work out some
demons on some non existent human beings, you know, and
other species and subspecies and races as well.
But, and then, yes, saw, you know, saw what it had done in my
life and how it did, like, helped me develop the
relationships that I had and the friendships that I had that
honestly, these are the longest running friendships that I've
got to date, you know. And so when I saw Morgan's post
on Facebook, you know, Morgan and I met in college, I think
it's my freshman year year sophomore.
Or were you a freshman? OK, I just took longer to
graduate from college. It's not a year longer.
Yeah, it's fine. It's fine.
But I saw Morgan's post and
like, Morgan and I hadn't really hung out for like a couple years
at that point, I think. And I was like, well, if this
dude wants to do some good shit, like, I fucking love this man.
Why don't I reach out, You know, extend that, that offer to him
and like, like you said, changed our lives, right?
Like, absolutely changed our lives in such meaningful and
awesome ways. And like, you know, I love every
single person sitting at this table and the one douche bag
that's not sitting at the table too.
Speaking of that one douche bag that we all know and love, I'm
going to be Matt and I will tell his story because I was there.
So, so like, yeah, like I used to work at Starbucks with Curtis
and like. Oh.
My gosh, he was so fucking annoying.
But like, it was just like us dudes and it was just like a
bunch of other ladies and like, which is great and all, but like
he, you know, I was like much better at Starbucks than Curtis.
And then eventually I, like, I like, upgraded and I started.
He became an engineer. Some shit, some stupid.
Shit. Some stupid shit.
Losers and I started to work at Jake's and when I was working at
Jake's, Jake's is like a bar slash coffee shop, which is now
a little longer coffee shop but like, so it's just a bar.
But I worked at the bar too. And like, so I was there and
Curtis came in one day and he didn't have me work that day.
And he was like, hey, I I just levelled up and nerd.
And I was. And I said to him, I was like,
you started playing D&D, did you?
And I was like, yeah, do you want to play?
And I was like, fuck, yeah, I do get me in on this shit.
That's my story. Also also part of that story
though is you told him I got this buddy John, you guys are
going to be best friends. You're going to love him.
He's not going to be there next week.
Oh, that's. True.
And he showed up the one week that I wasn't there that month.
Yeah, And then we ended up meeting at the next session and
we became best friends. And he's been holding it against
you ever since, because he misses a lot of.
Sessions. He misses a lot of sessions, and
I blame it on myself. I do.
Because you were missed the first one.
I missed the first one he was at.
I know, I know. I'm sorry.
I was trying to save democracy at the time.
Spoiler alert. It can't be saved.
But you know. There are only really two kinds
of DND groups that you get. You get the one that fell apart
like 2 sessions in, right? And then you get the people
who've been playing together long enough that they don't know
when people showed up. Right.
I don't know. That was like 15 fucking years
ago. Right, exactly.
Also, it's like there's always one person missing.
I got, I got to mark this one because now this is it.
This is what I've been talking about for two years.
I'm pointing down this is our group that no one knows when the
fuck we showed up. No, we don't.
I honestly don't know when you started playing with us.
And I don't have that Facebook page anymore, so I can't even
look it up. I don't.
I. Don't.
Even know? That's right.
You know the exact first session.
It was A. It was a Session 0 where we were
I played characters. Did I was that when I played the
elf it? Was it was the Firefly TTRPG
that we tried? That's right.
It was the Firefly. It was so.
Bad it was. I wish it he was nice.
So all of this one with the fingers pointing down, he was
going going back to a world that I wish had a TTRPG Firefly.
You mean a good one? Well, I haven't.
Played that one yet? The only one I've played
shouldn't count. Yeah, the one you played was the
old one, all right. It was terrible problem.
It was so bad. Is that we?
All wanted to be book shepherd, book so.
No, I wanted to be Jane. Oh, you.
Wanted to be Jane. Of course you did.
Matt and I were fighting over Wash.
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, half of you wanted to
be book. I wanted to be Jane.
I wanted to be big dumb idiot. Tell the Tell the story.
Tell tell your story. OK, so.
My, what brought me into TTRVGD&D specifically was like,
I just grew up on fantasy and that kind of stuff.
Like I was reading Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey
before I hit middle school kind of stuff.
So like, I wasn't a Harry Potter nerd because I was like, no,
that's for kids. I was.
Too old for Harry Potter? Yeah, yeah.
Fantasy for whatever like I can remember being would have been.
What house was that at? You know, probably between 7:00
and 10:00 and picking up The White Griffin by Mercedes
Blackie because of the cover. And right, My mom and I read the
entire like 40 book series. Kind of.
Anyways, that's awesome. So I've always been into it.
My Uncle Mike. Had.
Played second edition. I'm fairly certain that's where
I got that book from. So I have a Advanced D&D
Monsters manual over there and I can just remember flipping
through the pages, just they have these creatures like spec
it out, kind of stuff. Histories and like reading
through all that stuff and it wasn't until I think.
Side one side note, if you listen to any like like Big DM,
they all started with only a monster's manual.
Interesting. Merles, Perkins, Ija, Caso.
All Mercer did too. Mercer only had the monsters and
he made everything up. Not that guy, not that guy over
there. But but so.
It wasn't until eighth grade that he got introduced to
actually playing D&D, and I had a buddy come in and he basically
tried to run me through Dragon Lance, starting just kind of
play it. Just like he built characters
road and like we played games at lunch and stuff like that for a
little bit and then he moved. Fuck.
Get to high school, all the stuff and I think I got my mom.
Talked my mom to buying because this was right as third edition
came out. I forget the 3rd edition
existed, like I know that it goes D&DAD&D and then in my head
it goes 4 E 5 E 4 E 4.5 Pathfinder.
That's 333. By Pathfinder, but in my head it
doesn't even go to three. It goes to 3.5 Pathfinder and
then 4E and then five. EI skipped two whole actual D&D
editions in my head. Makes sense.
We found a group that I did offer fighting with in high
school too, and we played D&D and then college.
I experienced some other stuff, like I played Werewolf, I played
Shadowrun, which when we get to that question, that's a fun
thing. Like what?
System thing. I think those are the only other
ones that I played at that time and then just stopped after
college as far as actual tabletop games.
And then Dustin and I both found a critical role within like two
months of each other. Like independently found it and
it was like. It was early, early.
You still try to figure you to watch it within, like there was
only like 8 episodes out when you guys told me to watch.
It Yeah, like, so we found critical and we're like, we're
doing this stuff and we're like, dude, I want to play DMD now.
Yeah, I do too. All right.
We got to figure out who's going to do it.
And then we just looked at each other and I'm like, fuck, I have
more experience than you. I'm running it.
So that's how I started. D Like DM ING is I was like I've
got more experience. Fine, Kind of.
Begrudgingly, because I wanted to play it turns out I like D
Ming too. But so that's like how the table
started was just like started watching Critical Role.
Yeah. And had previous experience and
it was like who you know, who wants to play.
Right, right. Well, and that's like.
What's what's spectacular there too is that, like, even just
this thing that we do here, this this actual play podcast thing,
right? There may have been some before,
but like the fact that that we have an audience for this right
now, we have to give a big shout out to Critical Role because
like I got into it in Season 2 and like I listen to it all the
time up until the end of the Season 2.
But like the just this whole ecosystem of content creation or
surrounding and like some of our favorite people like Jenny D and
who's a, who's a Colorado native and like all of this stuff
around like. And his wife and yeah.
It's all thanks to Critical Role and I think that played a huge
role in so many people finding this space like.
He played a critical role. Oh boy.
Yeah, throw things. Throw things at him.
He literally. Just he did.
He did say he played a critical role.
Yes. I I just to piggyback a little
bit on what you were saying. I forgot that I was invited to
play Vampire the Masquerade with some folks when I was like 1718.
And I thought that I was going to get to play Vampire the
Masquerade because they said, hey, would you like to come play
Vampire the Masquerade with us? And I said yes.
And then I showed up. And what they were actually
doing was they thought they were legit vampires.
They had gotten so deep into the role play that it was like the
Satanic panic was accurate specifically for this group of
fucking idiots thought they were legit vampires.
And I was like, I hung out with them for like 3 weeks because I
was like, at some point we're going to roll dice, right?
And then we didn't. And I was like, oh, these people
are insane. And I stopped hanging out with
them. So I've got multiple fake outs
with plain TTRPGS where I'm like, I really just want to roll
some dice. Guys like, I don't know why this
is so complicated. If I could just roll some dice,
that would be awesome. Shiny math rocks.
Go click click. We need to make a We need to
make a new shirt for John. Yes, and the shirt needs to say
I roll dice and pontificate. Absolutely, dude.
That is the perfect John shirt. Yeah.
This table also was not originally for D and D5E.
The original plan when we started talking about it was to
play the Dresden Files RPG, because that had just released
for the. No, that's right.
I originally tried to get a group to do that.
Before we did, we talked about that, too.
You and I talked about The Dresden Files.
Well, yeah. Together group.
Together, Yeah, it was when. We were living together.
Yeah, it was when we were living.
It was a couple years prior because at least a year prior.
Because I Yeah. Well, no, because I printed off.
The Yeah, I know it's it's in the coffee table still.
From. Yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's right. So it hadn't been like three
years prior to when we actually started playing because that
that print off is under the coffee table right now.
I left it here for you because it's yours.
Yeah. Anyways, yeah, I was trying to
get. I found it.
And I was like, I've had this for seven years.
I mean, it's definitely needs. Yeah, probably more than that.
Yeah, you're right, 10 plus. Years.
Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Well, because we've been playing at this table for at least nine
years now. I think I've been around for
nine years, so it's been longer than that.
I. Think you're probably right
around 7 actually. Yeah, it's right there, but
it's. Got to be just entering 9
because I was working at STEM when we started this.
Get that job until 20. Well, so it's so we started what
do you remember what month we started?
I feel like it was like November Ish, was it or no.
It must have been like May we? Didn't get started May or June,
started February or March, OK. It was like one off and then a
couple. Yeah, yeah.
We started regular. Well, no, we did.
We did like once a month for for like 3 or four months and then
we started doing twice a month. I think we tried every week for
just a little bit and it didn't work out.
And we went back to like every other week and we've been pretty
steadily every other week except for holidays and weird things
that come up and shit and schedule adjustments to get
around holidays, that kind of shit.
But. Because.
Because it was after young life and after we moved out of.
We've been playing for at least a year before the 2016 election.
Yeah, at least a year. So that would be about.
So about a year and a half. 2015, Yeah, 20/14/2015.
Yeah, it would have been like 2014.
So I got. That means that like.
Middle of this year, it's 10 years, yeah.
Yeah, it was, which is. Fucking nuts.
I haven't done anything for 10 years in my life except for
breathe in and out, you know? And even that.
I've stopped a couple times. There was a.
Few months. You started a few months.
After your wedding. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Yeah, so. Jesus Christ.
Which would have been like, so that would have been.
It was after. Maybe we're playing for over a
year, then maybe we're in Year 9.
So essentially guys so you so you know out there in audience
land if you were. If you have never tried to to
maintain AD and D table or any RPG table.
We're we're unicorns, man. We really are.
Oh yeah. There there's not a lot of
tables that last this. Morning like 10% of tables last
more than a year, and of the tables that last more than a
year, they last a decade plus. Like 80% last, like a decade
plus, which is. Nice.
With that though, let's roll on to our next question because I
I'm, I'm slowly scratching out questions I had planned to ask
because we keep going longer and longer because it's shocker, we
talk. Don't forget us telling stories
about ourselves. Stupid shit we do.
No, but see that that one that was actually, that was that was
way more heartfelt and just like I was expecting, and it was
fucking awesome. This one's going to be a whole
lot more frivolous. But that, you know, that's fun
too. Your favorite D&D class to play.
It's a hard one. It's a hard fucking question.
I can start. I mean, today I I still the
first thing I played was a cleric and I kind of fit it
that. Was the.
Father's group that I was trying to start.
Yeah, So anyway, the yeah, Cleric was the first thing I
kind of, like filled in at this table.
I just love like the versatility of that class.
Like you can do damage, you can heal, you can tank, you can do
lots of different things with that class.
I just love that. For.
For the cleric. I'm kind of torn, you know, like
if I were to pick a multi class it would be Bard lock.
Because I can't decide between Bard and warlock.
I've I've enjoyed both of those. Don't like it?
Down one class. OK, Bard, it's got to be hard.
There is a level of versatility to Bard that is just nutty.
Caveat on this one Five. E Bard is broken.
Super. Broken.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, I can literally
play any character I want to with a bar.
Oh yeah. Yeah.
Like, yeah, 5E Bard is super broken.
Yes. But like I.
Was playing in a three five game and tried like I wanted a Bard
and yeah yeah bards and three five or not bards and 5E.
So I made a Sorcerer of flavor as a Bard.
Yeah, that's totally valid. Totally valid.
So like what I've found with So it it also goes back to my
favorite character I've ever played, which is definitely
Yuri. Yuri is my favorite character
that I've ever played. I've been invited to play at
other tables specifically as Yuri, so, and I will, I'm going
to. It's going to happen.
But Yuri was just so much fun. I'm a relatively happy, go lucky
kind of person, but I also have a mean streak.
You know, Like I can. Yeah, I know, I know it sounds
weird, but Yuri was just so unbothered by anything and
everything that even when he was fucking somebody up because he
thought they were a piece of shit, you could not tell that he
was not having the time of his life because he was.
And if I could be like that in real life, I would.
But I cannot. So you know, I think that's
probably part of why I'm so gravitated towards Bard is
because of Yuri. Yeah, Bard Bard's it.
I'm going to say for for Matt, it's Bard too.
It has to be he. Hasn't made anything the.
Size of Bard or a paladin that was really just a Bard, right?
Or a sore throat? That's really a Bard.
He did play a cleric for my our first campaign at our side table
and it was the the whole the IT was his second character because
the the first character who was a Bard drew the the throne card
and it was a throne card whatever.
One of the cards in the the the econy things and he he's that
that character is currently floating in the dungeon of a
Astral Dreadnought right now still to this day.
I mean, you guys could go find him eventually.
You. Have to have a reason to though.
Well, and it's kind of a weird space, but.
Take over the Astral Dreadnought.
But. Use it?
Yeah, Pirate the Stars 'cause if I could take over an Astral
Dreadnought and use it to pirate the stars, Skeld would be on
board. There are pirates.
In the. Astral Sea in my in my universe.
So just saying. The, the the most fun I had
playing a character. Is right now with Morgan your
favorite DM? Damn right.
I would say I would say Patrice has been my favorite character
to play but I think it has nothing to do with his class.
My I was pointing somebody at the at our my favorite episode I
think they should listen to which was who wants to meet
Frankie. That was my favorite episode
because shop. At Frankie's, yeah, is the name
of. The episode.
And within that episode, I was like, we were all exactly who we
were supposed to be. We were all in character, and
Morgan was several characters, and we just had such a good
session. I don't know how many times we
rolled the dice, maybe two or three.
Times. Maybe three times.
Two or three times. But it was it was so much fun.
And that's definitely been one of the high points of all of my
TTRPG experiences. I think Patrice has the most is
definitely the most interesting character.
But class wise, dude, Bard is just so good.
Like it's so much fun to think about what?
Because you can the possibilities are endless.
With Bard, I played a completely different Bard than than you did
right? Like and you played a completely
different Bard than any other Bard you played.
And we we could, we could have 25 different bards and they're
all. Unique.
And Otto was such, was such a joy to play like he was such a
he was, he was, he was the puppet master kind of like he
was everything and everything I wanted out of a out of a
character maestro. Right.
Yeah, he was the Maestro Bard, which is the matter.
That was awesome. It was super cool.
It is. Some of the shit that character
did was so awesome. Like to this day I'm like.
Including so, hypnotic, pattering you and me and letting
people beat the fuck out, yes. Which was also amazing.
So I was like, oh, we're fucked, yeah.
We're. Super.
Fucked. But like, like, that character's
really cool for me because I made it a point that I wasn't
going to take any spells that did damage, right?
Right. And that was super awesome,
because a Bard can be the pivotal character in a combat
without any damage. With no damage, yeah.
Dustin, What's yours? I think everybody here knows the
answer to that. Yeah, but I want, I want to make
sure that our audience. Artificer always are.
Yeah, we halfway built an artificer and.
A Yeah, Yeah. Before either of those existed,
correct. Yeah.
Like you were ahead of the curve.
Yeah, right now. I should have thought about it
before I even I I should have known exactly where the the
shape of this campaign was going to go.
Act of what I fucking introduced you guys to based on Dustin
existing as a human being. Just.
Just just be happy that I got out my attempt to have dual
wheeled firearms on Nate and not you.
Well, I guess Dustin's current character could do it for me,
right? I've been trying to get Dustin's
characters to make firearms for me for most of a decade and.
It's all like I gave you a list of things I wanted to make
before the first session. That was that.
Was a God damn book. An inch and a half thick, bro.
It was significantly longer than any back story I have ever
written for it. Was a single page.
It was a single page. It's probably longer than all of
the back stories I have written for characters combined.
Offer doesn't surprise me. All right, neighbor.
Part I've had playing a character was actually not L.
Really. It was a character I got brought
into a different group when I was in high school because
they've been playing for a while, but apparently they had
recently gone a little murder hobo.
Nice. As one does.
And my friend was DM ING it, so he brought me in as AI was
playing a chaotic evil character and none of them knew that.
So my entire job was just to fuck up all of their plans.
I only played it for like 3 sessions, but it was so much fun
being pure chaos in a campaign where you don't.
Rate is increased. Your job is specifically to fuck
up every idea that happens. I I ended up TPK ING them
because I dropped them in a volcano.
As they were walking on a bridge across it.
Nice and I just. Left.
That's perfect. All right, Nate, your turn.
I think I will always have a fondness for rogues, because it
was. Very fair.
Rogues also are awesome. They.
Picked up for 3rd edition? Actually, yeah, drawn to the
sneaky dexterity based guys. Although in fivey.
Might be Druid, I don't know. She's been one of my favorite
characters. Shep was really good as the.
Spores. Drew it.
Shep was really cool. Because it's nice.
I want to go back and play like another version of that or some
of the other ones like. Those are both good, even
though, like, I have characters that fill roles too.
Like, Terseal's going to be around forever, right?
Cleric Shimmer? Yeah.
Probably mostly a Bard. Just because the Mystic class
didn't come off and the first version of her in the Mystic
class was broken. Severely broken.
That was so especially Shimmer when you shot her.
Shimmer in my head like they are a they but they are fem heavy
day. Oh, OK.
When? We built shimmer and shine.
Shine was the muscle to Shimmer's brains, and anytime he
referred to Shimmer, he rotated. Pronouns, right?
I will say that session might be my favorite session of all time.
We don't need to go down that road again.
But yes. We've talked about that enough.
We have, but also it was amazing.
It was so. Now my turn.
My my favorite class actually has led to this whole fucking
thing, right? So Wizard is my favorite class
because if for most of the reasons that y'all like Bard,
because it's the same thing. It's like you can be anything
that you want as a wizard. Sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's and it's. So I actually created I I played
A1 shot for a friend of mine. It was the first time she was DM
ING and she one of the requirement is that you had to
have a fairly deep back story that had some some trauma in it
because it ended up being like kind of this dark, twisted and
fun house. And so I created Prosper and
Richter's daughter. Nice, right?
You can make a character without trauma in their back story.
I have. I actually have.
Did it not? In your last campaign, Matt's
character had parents who were happily married and alive and
who were very supportive of him and, you know, thought that he
was just the bee's knees. So, yeah, so Patrice has
apparently untramatic. Well, but Patrice also has like
some like his parents, are not necessarily approving of what
he's doing with his life. His parents, they're not, like,
really excited. And he's a They're gangster.
Light. They're still gangster light.
Well, they're not gang bangers, but they're gangsters.
Yeah, yeah, they're, they're, they're, there's some in family
stuff for sure. But he has some trauma.
Matt's character had literally and and mine too.
Because we were twins, our characters had literally 0
familial. Trauma until Matt's character
met mine. And until Morgan's character
chopped my character's head off, which is why that.
Character had trauma, yes. That was the trauma, but it
wasn't back story trauma. It was in campaign trauma.
But sorry, with Prosperin, the thing was, as you guys have now
recent have recently learned in the last couple of months that
she was learning vampiric touch and she had not really figured
it out. So she killed her, her wife,
Charlene, and. And then then I just started to
write and started writing and then Matt came to me and he
wanted to introduce mostly his partner and a bunch of other
people to D&D. And he's like, hey man, I'd love
for you to D for you to DM. And it was like I had just kind
of started my DM journey. I had stopped DM at another
table, just wasn't the fit for me.
And then that's where I created Liberarth and all of the lore
that you guys now know and love. But it all started because of a
wizard, and it is still, to this day my favorite class.
It is the most complicated class of AT, AD and D you.
Know. It's hard it's but it's it's a
blast I love it it's one it's my all time favorite so yeah that
one's fun So let's go ahead let's let's this will be our
last question of the night What systems do you want to try?
1 System each What is? What is the one that you were
looking forward to trying the most, and you cannot say one
that you created that's. Right.
I want to play the Dune system Dune Imperium Top released a
year or two ago. Don't want to say at least a
second one too. Yeah, the most.
Frequent one. I think it's the third dune
system. Yeah, they're all independent of
each other, but this most recent one, I've read through it.
I like it a lot. I'd like to run a game in it.
Maybe I'll run one for us, but it looks super cool.
I like that it's it's got strong combat elements, but it is not
combat centric. It is RP centric and it's very
focused on the concept of like higher level, almost like forex
style intrigue where it's like you're dealing with houses and
you're dealing with politics and you're dealing with diplomacy
and you're dealing with economics.
And you know you're just as likely to physically assassinate
an opponent as you are to crash the economy of their planet,
sending their entire society into a downward spiral so you
can sweep in and you know be the the savior who comes and saves
their planet from their poor rule that you set up on your
own, you know? So I think it's fucking great.
Real CIA type shit, you know? The one that I would like to to
try would be the MCDM one that just came out that was created
by Matthew Colville and James and Tricasso.
James and Tricasso of fame of writing Demon Plague for Cobalt
Press and running at CTRPG Live Action Play podcast with our boy
Robert on it. Oh really?
Yeah, I didn't think it was on there.
Yeah. Fucking love rocks, I missed.
The prefunding 'cause they didn't do it through
Kickstarter, they didn't. I don't know like.
Backer kick or. Something I just saw, I just saw
a video of James and Cicasso being like, and he was talking
about the the system and he was like, yeah, and this really
intricate dice system, I was really proud of it.
And then when I looked at it on any dice, it was exactly the
same as rolling 2D tents. Oh fuck, that sucks.
Yeah, and then Maddie Cole was like, well, at least we came
about it, honestly. Right, right, right.
I just keep time. Matt Colville says something
just like the way he says it. I don't even have to agree with
it. I just like the way he says it.
Right, right. Yeah, he says things
dramatically, which is pretty awesome.
He does. Nate, what do you got?
Too many choices. Hang on, I'll.
Give you 2 because I've got two. I want to try real bad.
I'll give you 2. You I can go all you're
thinking. Go go.
The one that I've that I've always wanted to play, that I've
never actually gotten a chance to is Shadowrun.
Sperm Yes, the classic. Play Shadowrun.
I love dice Blues systems. Anytime you can combine science
and magic, I'm in super on. Super on board did.
You play the video games. I think so.
Turn based. Yeah.
That is 1 system that I don't feel comfortable running because
you have to keep track of three worlds simultaneously.
Yeah, I couldn't do it. Headache.
Which is. That's why I want to play it.
I will never be able to run that yet.
So if you're ever going to play Shadow run, because now you have
to run it. Yeah, we have all these DMS at
the table. We could have three DMS to run
Shadow, Shadow Run. We have like like when we're in
the the tech world, you do the tech thing, you have a tech the
time. Scale is different on all three
worlds sometimes. I'd have to look into their new
version. I might be at a spot that I
could do it now it's. Crazy, because it's Sharon is
wildly complicated, but it looks so to.
Quote my good friend Nate who who said this about me.
He said That's why you do books in history, not math.
Right. Right.
Damn right. What do you got, Jared?
I think I looked over the kind of can.
Candela. Obscure.
Yeah, stuff Nate printed and that looked very fun.
That system looked fun to playing.
I forgot. The name of that system.
But yeah, it's. I'm not like super like read up
on very many other systems at this point.
Nate, you got you got it figured out yet?
I mean, yeah, I'll just pay it because I oh, I spent the money
on the thing I want to do the Cypress system, but for old
gods. Old Gods of Appalachia.
I've got a character in mind for that game.
We We Are simps for Old Gods of Appalachia Podcast that that is
probably the best Eldridge horror podcast you can find.
Yeah, it. Was really good.
Anything else or just that one? Well, I'm going to let you go
because I'm pretty sure you're going to name a couple that are
similar to the ones that I'm thinking of.
So go ahead, I. Actually forgot my second one.
I think the the first one though, for me, the big one is
the anything in the World of Darkness, but specifically
Vampire the Masquerade. I want to play all of them.
I love the lore of the world. I just, I love the Shades of
Grey and no one's a good guy. Kind of a setting.
God, I can't remember what the second one was.
It was it was right on my forefront and I forgot.
This is what happens when you have TBI post concussive
syndrome. PTSD and your brain just don't
work no more. You forget.
You're 41. Yeah.
I mean, I there there's two others that I would love to
play. I'd love to play the Star Trek
some. That would be super cool.
I would love to be a Starfleet crew or Klingon crew, whatever,
you know? And I would also really love to
play like Inquisitor or Rogue Trader.
One of those, Yeah, that was. The second.
One Inquisitor. Inquisitor would be super cool.
We tried to look at it once a very long time ago, but we were
very early into playing TTRPGS at that point.
I think it was after your very first campaign, Well.
Yeah, it was really early when you guys were here, 'cause you
Yeah, 'cause I remember trying. To build characters here.
We tried to build characters here, and it was just a lot.
And it was a world that some of us knew a lot about and a lot of
us knew little to nothing about, and it didn't play the same way
as what we knew of the tabletop war game.
So it was like it was trying to combine these two worlds that
was just very difficult to synthesize.
But if we wanted to try that again sometime in the not too
distant future, I would be super down for that, because now
several of us are nerds about that world and I think we could
have a really good time. Playing that fucking Harlequin.
Oh, absolutely you should. Yeah, I'd still be down to DM
Bat too. The other one that the other
world that I love, that I know has a tabletop system is Oh my
God avatar. Oh, there's tabletop RPG.
System for Avatar I love. There's a new one that's so
good. Oh, is it OK?
You're talking Air Bender, not firm Gully, right?
OK. Thank you.
I was.
About to question your stanity, Jared.
Fern goalie is different. No, we don't.
Yeah, please. Don't insult Fern goalie with by
by putting its that name in the American avatar I.
Love the world even. Even.
Better. After I I actually made it
through. I made it through Legend of
Korra and that the world got better from that.
Steam. Of Core is still my favorite of
all of that. Like so fucking so good.
The music, the tone, everything is great.
Republic City is great. Yeah, all of.
It. Yeah, that.
It is steamed up Steampunk done very, very well and a borderline
magic punk. You know what else?
Going back to a previous question, I would also love
ATTRBG System for the Aeronauts, Windlass.
Oh. That's a good one.
That would be fucking amazing. That's what I was going to say.
My second one for a TTRBG that I want to play is The Dresden
Files. Yeah, I mean the Dresden.
Files has this whole thing started.
The Dresden Files look super cool.
We've already I. Wanted to run it, and I really
wanted them to run it because I want my will mage, my Willpower
mage. Doesn't matter what magic you
throw, I'm just going to take your will out of the spell and
throw it back at you. Right.
Yeah, that'd. Be super fun.
Well, that was awesome guys. So thank you as always for
joining us on this adventure of cooperative storytelling, be it
real life or fantasy in this case, I think this is going to
be something that we're going to start trying to do when we have
too many players missing out. We'll still get together.
We're still going to, I think we'll just do stuff like this.
I think this, we've tried it before.
It didn't go as well. This tonight went really, really
well. So I really enjoyed it.
I think this was really, really great and I think you guys will
hopefully you'll get something about it.
Hey, answer the questions yourself.
Hit us in the comments of Instagram of getting the Discord
server. Answer the questions that we
have, I will put, I will put so. Yeah, yeah.
Yes. Some questions for us.
Yeah, ask us questions. Welcome.
And we'll go through them the next time that we need to do a
session like this, Yeah? So thank you as always for
joining us as you can always click below in in the show notes
so you can see me finally. See me now.
How is he not? Getting somebody.
Somebody get this. Somebody who's better at
technology. Than I'm going to clip this in
Riverside. Thank you Riverside.
Even though we've had technical difficulties you guys are so
much better than our previous stuff.
So thank you Riverside. I'm going to put this on there.
I'm. Not going to blame Riverside.
I'm going to blame my Microsoft. Tablet but so if you if you want
to get with us in real life, click the link below on the show
notes. You can get with us our Discord
or Instagram all of those things, but until next time,
drink well, drink well. The.