Talk and more talk. We discuss all things RPG and more.
Knights of the Night
227_RT_KotN_Round_Table_Night
(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to Knights of the Night actual play podcast. This is a special discussion edition, episode 227. The discussion will begin after these short messages. Hello listeners. Once again, we didn't get a chance to play, so there will be no actual play episode nor feedback. But I do wanna give you a quick reminder that Swordnut Radio episode 20, inspectors, is kind of a crossover with Knights of the Night. And don't forget, just give RPG Gamer Dad, episode 33, listen, where Scott and I are interviewed about the podcast. And now, please enjoy the discussion. - Hey, this filler part episode, we're not gonna have you. - Potentially, because we're running really well. So there might be a time when I have to release something. - Okay. - So this is a filler episode, not a feedback episode per se. - But Scott's out of town, Rachel's out of town, Bob's not here, Jim's not here. - What time is it anyway, Dad? - And that voice that nobody recognizes is my other, third son, geez. - Scott, it sounds like fucking Ebola. - You're on the third son? - Yeah, I'm gonna be double. - Now, how many of you can make? - How many, what? - Like six. - What do you mean, when do you make them? I'm made. - You made deals with the devil in your life still sucks this one? - Yeah, I'm telling you. - Yeah, should I see it before? (laughing) - This train wreck, please. - You need three promotions to get the asshole. (laughing) - I think that we should stop now. (laughing) I like this video. And our fan page I threw up a post asking what we should discuss where we need to do such an episode is this. The number one vote getter was Michael, Rachel, or John running a one-shot story. - Oh, excuse me, it said Mike. - Oh, I'm sorry. Mike, Rachel, or John, are you there, right? - I don't think I'm gonna be good. - All right, well, first of all, John, if you complain in that it's Mike and not Michael, they spell John wrong, it's G-O-H-N. John is John, and it's Jonathan. - How does he not know that? - It's all on Rachel then. - It's all on Rachel. - There's nobody here that qualifies who are fictional people on Rachel's. - That's who they meant. - Well, one disputed person, one fictional, and Rachel's not here. - So, they don't work. - Neither their birth certificate say Mike. Probably. - My birth certificate say John. - Mine says Michael, and I could produce it, John. - Yeah. (laughing) - I don't have to go all the months. - You trumped me then. - I didn't come with documentation. - I didn't come with the documentation. - Anyone calls me Mike. Are you gonna be directed to Michael? So, you must be Mike. - No, I'm Michael, but I'm used to-- - Here, go this way. - Well, you should, you have to be on the one shot. - And everyone, you're on the one shot. - Go. - All right. - We're not. - You guys are in darkness. What do you do? - I thought it was a brilliant chicken. - There was a brilliant chicken. - Yeah, it's not mine. - What? - Yes. - I don't want to be here for that. - It's old, old, old, old, old school. - It's terrible. - So, possibly going back to the question, Rachel just got like introduced, right? - She's been around for how long now? - Well, in the real time. - Yeah. - It's pretty close to a year. - A little bit less. - Pretty much a year. - She listened to the Newman era one. - How many systems does she have? - So, that's why she joined us. - She saw him in fate. She suffered pneumonia. - She saw. - The second place vote category was the DM discussion of past campaigns and how they differ from the plan. So, that doesn't really work either because Scott's the other GM. - And he's not here. So, he can't discuss those things. - I could, but that's hardly fun for you. All the sit around and listen to me talk. - Yeah, I get real tired of it. - Now that you mentioned it. - Well, it also has a one that stands out in your mouth. - No, it also doesn't work because I usually tend to run fate, which I don't have a plan. - I know that. But, what was the time you were challenged the most, I guess, by your players because they went-- - prescription, yeah. - It would have to be John's becoming Gold King. I saw that right quick. - Dressing. - Yeah. - I lasted for a few months. - I just intended to put them into a blender anyway. - Yeah. - Invoking the Accords? - That was good. But, it wasn't really all a plan. I see certain situations I don't have. Well, first of all, I never knew that you were gonna actually meet her face-to-face. You guys just didn't want to leave that place. 'Cause you would have to leave your mentor trapped. So, understandable. That was all winging it. So, there was no plan to be off-land. So, I swore to have a plan where you guys went to find the baby, and then you would extract it and leave. And then, John's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, this can't-- - That's gotta be the second most annoying trope of our whole career is-- - It's so embarrassing. - Doors, and children in peril. - You can't seem to stop it. We'll eventually mention it every time, next time we won't do it. (laughing) - Uh, ritual, there were no children in my house. - I believe Scott said there was gonna be no children in peril in this world. - And then he put it in the fire. - And then the whole thing is built around the children. - Yeah. - He's like, don't worry, I'm like, fuck. And then, he saddles us with two extraneous kids that, you know, dramatically, we just have to-- - 'Cause they not have come back in time with us. I think the alternative is the point of them flying out of the car while we travel back in time, which would be terrible. - But it would have been implied children in peril instead of-- - Over, definitely. - Well, there's also something to, I've noticed, is that genre-wise, regardless of what system we've played, everyone lean, well, Scott mostly, 'cause he's the one who shoulders the majority of the burden, you know, he really likes the horror genre. He likes that. - It's good genre. - Well, it is. - It is. - For some people, for some people. He likes it more than I do. - He's a dark soul. - Yeah, he's working out some issues. - On us. - Why children in peril, did you see this? - No, he's having fun. - Oh my goodness. - The baby armor? - Yes. - He posted it to the flip board page, like PG. - It's actually the ultimate meat shield. - Wow. - Wow. - Oh, me, Scott's next villain. - Yeah. - Oh, can I see that? I think there-- - There it is. - Okay. - Questionable. - There's one from an actual car where the dude's like, "You can't punch me, I'm covered in babies." And I've never seen the rest of the car. I'm like, "What the fuck's happening? Is it the Hulk? Is it the Punisher?" Those are the only two comics I can imagine that. - He's a doll. - Really strange. - Yeah, but they got the dolls. - What? - Yeah, who'd be the largest one? - This thing. - That could be a bad guy. - He invaded the nursery. - You ever see the movie "Hard Boiled" with Charion Fett? - Don't know what to say. - It's a great movie, great action. - Okay, that's the baby armor. - Well, there is an amazing shootout seen in the middle of a nursery. It is terrifying. - It's been gone well if you're talking about it. - But it's very disturbing, but it's like, oh my God, they're having a shoot out in the middle of a hospital's nursery. - Wow. - But his character's so bad. It's such a badass movie if you haven't seen it. "Hard Boiled." I highly recommend it. - Do you think you have to move these similarly to that one time? - It really got cheesy, but it was in the same. It was very badass genre. You gave it to me. - Oh, yeah. - Wow. - He's called Cheater or something. - Oh, yeah, with Clyde going. And, oh, what's his name? - He can deliver a baby in a shoot-off on a normal chord. - Yeah. - Was it Paul Giamatti? - Paul Giamatti, who I really like as an actor and I really like Clive Owen. And that was a, hopefully, Mark didn't see the scene. - It was only third-screen. - Mark Giamatti was... - They're talking and it's also like... - The gunplay in that movie is bordering on just a... - This movie is gorgeous. - Which movie? - Some of it's called... - Shoot 'em up. - Shoot 'em up. - Shoot 'em up. - Some of that shoot. - Shoot 'em up? - I think it's shoot 'em up. - Yeah. - It's a horrible title. - It's bad. - But some of it's really cheesy, but most of it's great. - The guys use making love to a girl in a hotel room and they bust in and try to shoot him. - He does not stop. - And he shoots everybody while still making love. It never stops. - Oh, by the way, he's... - He doesn't complain. - He's always eating carrots because he's maintained his eyesight. So he's... And at one point there's a great scene where he shoots a guy and then he doesn't have the angle on the other guy that's trying to attack him. So he uses his gun artistically to... - He keeps shooting the arm. - Yeah, he shoots the arm and then clips the finger so it fires the trigger. It is hilarious. So over the top and stupid, but it is so... - Oh, shoot 'em up, 2007. - Yeah, all falling from the airplane scene was a bit much too. - Yeah. - Five on. - What was the Cheyenne fat one? - Paul Geometty. - Paul Geometty. - Hard boy. - I'm sorry, hard boy. - Is this what we call it again? - With Cheyenne fat. - We got off topic. - He covers all the bases, too. - Things that go off plan this conversation. - Also, I don't know, I'd have to really go far back because of my style change, where I don't really... - Yeah, that was another question. I guess for any question that it's legitimate for, how about the old school version, like back in D&D, whatever we were doing originally? - People know me younger, much. - I'm sorry, what was your joke question? - Players, how does the execution of an adventure compared to the plan that originally started it? - Well, unfortunately, the lost campaign of the Dominion University one that I did, the Phage one. - Oh, yeah. - Which is really too bad because I think that would have been nice to give you. - Yeah, it would have been nice to have. - I'm really annoyed that I lost it. It's all my fault, but I can't... I know I've been looking. And when I got my new computer, I did a whole new career in the series, purge them on the outer space on mine, so... - Yeah. Anyway, well, I got terrified. - I had another drive. - We've been playing together for so long that I remember having a harder transition from the traditional tabletop role play, where there's a plan in roles and whatever. And ever since we introduced the Fade system, playing Fade is almost like Jazzy. You have to have a kind of a plan and follow some rules, but there's a lot of improvisation and you gotta be free to let it go certain places. And that was way outside of my comfort zone, especially when certain things that I had accepted, like Scott's character, who is a psychologist, who was a professor at this university, this is a kind of place that it's very hard to get into to become faculty and the only way you leave it is if you f up and die and you're killed. And so when he threw a curve ball at me to... I was expecting him to kind of at least have some... I was trying to not stop him, but give him a check. Just, you know, a pause and he says, "I don't care if you fire me." And it's just like, "Well, this is going down a road "that is going to... "but I don't want to stop it, "but it's going to completely end "whatever your guys are going to do." It's 'cause if that's how he's talking to his boss and this is the way it is, and that made me realize that, you know what? I bet he doesn't, either he doesn't care or he doesn't remember that we talked about this. And my course of action is, if that's the way you play it, that's your choice, but the consequence of that action is, you're going to be dead and disappear without a trace because this is kind of the sinister quality of that university. - Just heads up on the downside. - Right, and he was okay with that or he didn't care. And I'm like, "Well, then whatever you guys "have been doing is going to completely change "and I didn't want that to happen." And I think I personally made the mistake where I'm trying to hold it together to my plan. - Yeah, that's always a-- - Versus, okay, if that's your choice, then all the other stuff that you're here and that you've experienced and that you were investigating or experiencing, you've just rendered null and you're on a different track now. And instead of trying to improvise and go that direction and see how it plays out to a horrible end, it's-- - It is a world of darkness. - It was a world of darkness, but we hadn't gone to the vampire part. (laughing) - Tom, you recall one of the adventures I run that wasn't the giant adventure D&D-- - Total party kill? - Yeah, and it was one of those things where I tried to warn them off and you were the low-level characters. I mean, remember, you played back. It had to be 80s or maybe earlier. - Yeah, the only bragging right I have of that one is I was the last one to die. - Last one standing and you took a potion. - I thought it was-- - Yes. - What it was is you broke in at basically a school of mages and then we're all like second level of double wizards and there were, I don't know, I forget a dozen or two guys. - We were all first level. - I mean, it was just way over your head and I gave you, I thought I gave you warning and warning and warning and you're still-- - We were-- - You were very young, you forged ahead. - I found a potion and I was the last one alive and I was so badly hurt and figured you can't possibly hurt to drink it, maybe it was a healing potion. It was a weapon poison. (laughing) - I died horribly and yeah, that was it, we all died. - But that was an adventure that I had planned out. They were gonna get back to that kind of thing with those, there was a reason those people were there but they just, you know, they like, you know, fell through the dungeon and they love us deep. - The third topic as far as the votes collected was RPG War Stories, which I think we slipped right into accidentally. - It was kind of a tie in there, but yeah. - Mike and Michael have both mentioned one. Perhaps Mark has a RPG War Story. What's your best RPG story? - I went through a con once and played a legitimate like war. - Oh yeah. - It came, it was fun. - Twilight 2013 or something. I forget-- - That's a lot. - It was a comic hat. - Yeah, it was really fun. I played it with my sister and my father. We went through like an entire lab room with nuclear plants. - It was in Europe. - It was a nuclear power plant taken over by the enemy and we had to take it back. - We got so far put in the end, like, we all got to explode or nothing. - I think you won the missile. - Yeah, I kind of missed on the face. - We all got radioactive to the point of death. Megan managed to get to the control center. I was the only one that had the skills to turn down the nuclear reactor. So basically everyone in the neighborhood died. - In my neighborhood, I mean, you know, it sounds like we're coming to hundreds of miles this year. - No, is it five years ago? - Yes, two years ago. Well, we won, but we died. - Did you? - Yeah, I think you did say that we managed to stop the meltdown, what we all died. - On our country, I forget the country we were fighting for. I think it was American, I don't remember. - We might have been German or Russian. I don't remember what it was. - It was German. - I think it was German. - It was a big man told me part of that story. - It was a fun game, though. - That's a war story, anyone else? - What was that German game with the trains that we played? And had that-- - Oh, if I take a drive, you're talking-- - Rotterdam, that's the word I was thinking of. I got it, I got obsessed with the word Rotterdam. - Turned taxes. - Rotterdam! - I think it was turned taxes and it wasn't a train game, but actually mail delivery. - Mail delivery, that's what it was. - Now that's an exciting topic for a war game delivery. - Yeah, it's expensive. - I wouldn't have thought of it, but it was a fun game. - Yeah, it wasn't that good game. - Yeah, Scott's got it. - That's a war story RPG? - I'm thinking of it a lot of things, but I can't think of a coherent story that didn't happen like six plus years ago with it. - Well, actually, there's a lot of things that we didn't know about six plus years ago. - Yeah, they know the last four years, although there are some games we play that aren't recorded. - Right. - You're laying content to slip through your fingers like that? - It's on that, my own. - Playing enough to clarify you to risk. - That was interesting. - Well, I do remember a war story we were playing. There's just something about Scott's mentality. And we're not bashing Scott, or I'm not, but you were running it, and I can't remember exactly which campaign, but I was the bard. - Tibilt. - Right. - Tibilt Montreser. And... - You were storming a castle? - Well, so Tom, the idea of everyone's involved and he's Tom asks us to draw a keep. And so we were drawing the keep, and Scott starts drawing all these ballista and crossbow in placements. But they're all pointing into the courtyard where we are instead of out. So we've just walked in. - Scott's world. - Yeah. And it's just one of those things that you're like, first of all, Scott was a player character on our team. So I'm like, what are you doing? But then you're like, well, that's the way he drew it. And this is the way it is. It's like, ha ha, we're gonna, you know, we've laid and weighed for you. And it's just like, not mine. - Although I do remember some of the early things, again, with a Scott world, you know when you're in a Scott world when there are about five to seven factors arrayed against you at any moment. And I remember we were climbing up a hill that was a very steep precipice. So there was only a single path to go. - That's over time back and forth. - That's over time back and forth that gave everyone else cover, but we were exposed. If we were to fall off this narrow path, oh, we had to go single file so we couldn't back up and support each other. If we fell or stepped off this path, we would fall down the cliff to our deaths and we were taking withering crossbow and bow fire. And then when we finally got with an range to return fire with some weapons, that's what we would discover that the wind was blowing against us and we got a further blindness. And they were just like, what the hell, man? - I thought the same adventure we were running across the tops of, and there was a drop very far and there was a rope bridges that connected different things. And there was a dragon swooping down on us while we were trying to and burning through bridges. - Were you storming hell? - I know. - But then we also, I think that is the same adventure we encountered. - This was a trip to the grocery store in Scott's world. - We encountered cobolds, which traditionally our cobolds are one of the lowest level with shackles. - Well, we called them seal team cobalt. Because we were all highly trained ninjas. - These coballs were smacking us around like we couldn't do anything. I think we've already told the story of guarding the door that was open the entire time. - One time a similar thing happened. We were playing World of Darkness. We were in Shagrin and I was like demanding things of the, I think it was Nash or something. My buddy in the class first Valkyrie. And I was like, "I'm screaming at him." He's like, "You sounded pretty high pitched there." I'm like, "I'm eating fucked pretzels in your basement, Scott." Yes, I know it sounded like a gruff man who's just been shot in his shoulder. What the hell do you think? He's your imagination. - Well, I don't know if this counts as a worst story, but didn't you? I think we calculated how much time in real life my character spent with a sniper wound. - Oh, Bernard, yes. - And it came out, like once you said it out loud and realized that-- - It's like three months or something. - And then it was a year. - Really? - It was like a year of real time. And like one day Tom said something about, we all started back in last Christmas, right? I'm like, "Yeah." And he was like, "Well, we just had new year "of the next year, so you've been bleeding "on this death field for a full year now. "I'm like, "Oh my God." - What is my life? - I'm just like, "Yeah." - One of the reason war stories is so hard to tell is 'cause you were there for most of mine, listeners. I can't tell you about chagrin. You were all there for that. It was absolutely terrible. And all my other games were with Tom as the GM who was trying to teach his children how to play a game. And so didn't murder us grossly every single night. - It was like one time-- - It had never killed a character. - Oh, you gave him one-shot character in a new date. - Oh, okay. - And D and D, yeah, I-- - We did a one-shot characters to introduce us to the concept of morality. - Which is a joke. We knew how death worked. (laughing) - Yeah, you're on a simple rally. - Whoops. - I wanted to kill some character. - I'm sorry, I heard carnality, which is an entirely different thing. - The way this worked is they were going, their characters were coming up to like a tower or a fork that was on the edge of a swamp. And I wanted to set the mood at what was really going on in this place. So I had them play guards, first level guards there. And the place was overrun by monsters. And the intent was they were all going to die. Or if some of them managed to survive, then their real characters would be coming in to save the characters they just played for a one-shot. - That's pretty cool. - Yeah, it killed me. - Total bitch. - Everything killed him? - Yeah, sister killed him because-- - You were on the same side, weren't you? - I had just barely been attacked and you did a hidden role. So I might have been infected by the zombie plague of the day. She proceeded to kick me in the face and charge up the stairs. - Ah! - She was playing like a thief character 'cause that's what she specialized in. Very stealthy, which I have taken her role. All hard of me. - Yeah, everyone's a fatal picture. - I'm trying to remember. - She kicked me in the face and left me down to the-- - Swarming zombie. - Where all the zombies were. - Yeah, fatal kick in the face? - Yeah, she proceeded to, I believe, borrow the door. Now, first she pushed down a barrel of booze that then-- - On top? - On fire to burn out all the zombies and then borrow the door. - Which you happen to be. - So two weeks later, we arrive and our characters in charge, and I'm like, fuck you. (laughing) - I just met you, but I don't like that. - All right, it's not really fair, but also I believe I was 12, and I'm playing a paladin, so it took every attempt I could to detect evil. If he wasn't, she was just told me. (laughing) - See, you gotta watch it. - I like how they changed that in the new rules, too, by the way. - So much? - No. - Is that a section? Did they modify the detect good, detect evil? - Oh, yeah, I did. - So I thought that was clever. - Why did they do that? - Instead of trying to gauge or detect and define morality, they detect if you're a celestial, or an infernal, or an undead, or something that's powered by positive or negative energy to kind of give it a little bit more-- - You can cast spells of those domains that you register on that scale. - I think-- - That's why I'm more limited, but it makes sense. - If you were directly affected by it, or if you were-- - Yeah, I would say that if you were a certain level, you'd begin to rate, you know, because of your power. - Yeah. - Okay. - That would also depend-- - I was wondering how it works for people instead of-- - Yeah. - Just do more categories from the fan page on Facebook. - Did we properly address whether or not it would do a one-shot or could we just like-- - Oh, no. - We're not doing one-shot. - It was very highly rated. - It was going to be a one-shot? - It was going to be a one-shot? - No. - We're not doing one-shot. - We've never even seen-- - I'm sorry. - Apparently. - It involves a lot of people dying. - Apparently I would be, okay, I get this from you guys. - I can't remember the name of it. - It's a perfect one-shot. - That is a good one. - Fiasco, that's what it was. - Everyone could say it now once. - Fiasco. Jen, you're going to run Fiasco? - Yeah, exactly. - Now I'm going to do it. - The second last category was the evolution of KOTANA as a podcast. - I wasn't there. - It started with an iPhone. The equipment has constantly gotten better. - What kind of was this? - That way, it's four years ago, five years ago. - This is within 2010. And I remember that-- - I was in high school. - Tom and I would exchange editing duties, but we played music and had a lot of background that we were-- - I mean, we started playing with the background music. - Well, you did more. - During play. - During play. - Yeah, during play. - And then editing it didn't work that well because the music was-- - Choppy. - Yeah. - Because you know, you're chopping out sections and the music. It's too bad because there were some funny moments where the hospital lobby with the elevators was a funny-- that was a funny or a funny thing. There's a lot of people in that hospital. - I kicked Mike out as editor because I'm staging. - Better? - I was sectioning. - I was sectioning. - I was sectioning. - Later. - That's it. - Well then, you know, I was editing out everybody else but me. So it was-- - I'm sure you were. - Mike Knight. - Well, not everybody. - Mike. - Mike and Mike. - I did everything. - We mentioned it before that as players, we've changed how we play because of the podcast. - Well, try not to talk over each other. - Some of us have changed. - It's an evolution. It changed a lot, I remember. For like World of Darkness, I-- the nature-- well, it's not even about like really the playing the game or investing in the character for the mechanics of the game. What I mean by that is, as long as I've had Michael Clay and collected beats and experience points, I don't think I've bought anything. Experience-wise, because I don't think of it. - So the type of games we play are different? - Yeah, because-- - It's about leveling. - Well, in a way, that it's not a character sheet anymore as much as it's a bio that will inform our role play or are acting, if you will. - Story telling. - Yeah, that's a better way to say it. - There's too many systems that are fading more on the darkness, and neither one of those are really heavy on World of Darkness, certainly more than fake, but I'm lovely. - Well, it's just funny, as I am doing some prep work for the inevitable D&D game. - That's all about leveling. - Well, yes, it's still about looking up for some reason. It's like, wow, I'm like, I can read this book and I can absorb this material far better than reading anything by White Wolf or even the Dresden stuff. And I really am a huge fan of the Dresden, but even reading that book was like, you know, how long have we been playing that? And I really don't know how to cast a spell, the mechanics of it, 'cause I'm gonna go to you guys. - I don't blame it at all, it's a fucking mess. - I like the spell casting and fate is horrible, and the World of Darkness, just in general, just to mix in story with their role. - Yeah. - And it's impossible to pick out the role. - And I just, yeah, I would rather just kind of roll with it in World of Darkness, and not worry about, you know, already enough points to get an ability, which I guess I'm short-changing myself, but I don't feel the need to-- - We're talking an inherently and we'll die anyway, so your differences make. - It's interesting, 'cause earlier you said what if your complaints was, you never stick with a character long enough to level, and now that's-- - But yeah, but that's-- - So much. - Is that a character? - Yeah, and even, 'cause I know that we were collecting the beats and counting 'em up, and I'm just like, you know, I could probably buy some really cool school that's gonna help me out, and maybe I'll look at that since I, where we left off. - Maybe you should level up in your-- - Or if my organization's called-- - Oh, yeah, just pick up the role. - I'm already pretty high there for what I wanna be-- - A new toy or something. - It'll be like retirement, you know, you level up. - That way you're on the studio, and you get a higher rate of pay. - For Rachel, you can find your own cool thing. - I don't want to steal her, I just want to analyze it. - I just want to analyze it. - I want to let's give you an output for your experience. - Yeah, if you remember where we left the last time you-- - I've got nothing to spend money on, 'cause I'm in the past, none of my toys exist yet. - No, no, no, we're on the past anymore, remember? - What? - We're in the spirit world. - The spirit world. - Hey! - We're in the spirit world. - We're tired of this bullshit. He has been every witch away. - You guys are ghosts. - All right. - It's like you. - In 1935. - You know, who's last-- - Kurt Tine, 1935, okay. - Michael Clay and Silverville. Michael Clay's gonna put two slugs in Silverville's head and take her, watch, and go home. - I don't know if it's stuck here, he's like that, I don't know. - I'm gonna try to hear. - I mean, maybe after a few nights-- - Where are you? - I'm going home. - Well, I can try to do that, but apparently she'll turn back time in. - Could you open the next episode with like, a couple of things, or something? (laughing) - Didn't it, didn't it? - Oh, that's a good idea. ♪ Didn't it, didn't it ♪ - Thanks, John. - Yeah. - I'm welcome. - So-- - No, it'll be funny, I've got some ideas for that, but it's gonna be weird 'cause I don't know which way to go on before she'd kill a child. - She's not a child anymore now. - She magically turned to a-- - Listen, she has power over time and space. I'm sure she's gonna have a wonderful plan. She's gonna be completely bullheaded about everything. - Wonderful plan. - So I'm like, let's go to the matter. - I'm gonna have a-- - I'm gonna go check my phone. - We can't go to the matter. - Make sure I have cell service. I'm gonna order a pizza, order a beer, time that affects the fucking problem. - Let me know where you're done. - And let me know where you're done, because that's the only way it's going to-- - And do you know what? She's gonna be angry that you did that, which is amazing. - I'm going to act on what she wants. - Well, here's the other thing. I was going to-- - I was gonna question the question about Rachel. Apparently, sorry, yes. - No, but-- - No, no, no, no, I don't wanna do that. - I'm sorry, not Rachel. - No, no, no, no, no. - Not Rachel, sorry. - The other chat I thought it was that I'd be so, so polite and understanding that it would just drive people crazy. I understand how you feel, let's work on that. - Does that make you feel? - How does that make you feel? I think you have a valid point. - I should be-- - I should go fuck myself. (laughing) - The last category was RPG gaming in general. - What about it? - What about it? - I play it. - You hear me? - I'm for it. - Yeah. - I'm well, anti-scud. - Yeah, but what? - I think it's changing-- - I mean, we're going more towards storytelling type of shorter one shots because-- - Tell me about us or the culture. - The culture. - Because I think most people that role play are older and they have less time and they want to play shorter little games. - Good, overall. - And if we eat right now, I'm older than when you started that sentence. - Prove me right. - Never been this late before. - Right. - And I've never been that late before. - You've seen new generations playing it though. I mean, there's us, but you can force that on us. - Yeah, it's a-- - You guys, there's Jeff. - You're welcome. - Jeff. - Sorry. - Jeff picked it up without us at all. - Yeah, his him and his friends, Jeff being a cousin of my kids. - Because he has him and his friends, they play you-- - Pathfinder. - But I think he's playing all of favorite. - Yeah, and he's trying to turn him on to fate because he plays all of his boss. - Well, I like the storytelling aspect of the role-playing games and it's been a definite transition. I think podcasting it has changed my outlook on some of the role-playing games and because it's just the nature of what we do. I don't know if it's because we want to try different things or we don't want to become stagnant with just one thing and we want to do a new Monera. We do want to do tried indie. We talked about trying some other ones. - Oh, I think it's like that. - Well, I get that. - I get that. - Well, it's just 'cause I-- - When did I come in? I've been in this two years and I've never played the same kind of system. - Yeah, it started with Dungeon World. - Yeah, and you get character fatigue a little bit. - Yeah, and then we're playing different ones. - I think keep on playing different ones. - Yeah, 'cause in every case, when the game ended, I wanted to continue playing that character. I'm not sure that's gonna be true in my World of Darkness, but with all the other ones. - Well, it's really kind of weird now, especially when talking about our current situation with World of Darkness is either we have to choose to live out of our time or you have to choose to live out of your time or do something where, in fact, that's actually one of the things. Maybe I should, you know, I'm gonna forget I said that. I'll save that for a different thing. - A little different than what I expected when I made my character. - If we became time squad, we went around and saw him. - Time show. - Yeah, but then when we were playing, then we had the record. - Right, you can drift in and he could be like a til the time. - He could be like a til the time. - He could be like a til the time. - He could be like a til the time. - He could be like a til the time. - He could be like a til the time. - Oh, wait, so in his eyes. - He uses alternate bodies, actually, he possesses. - Is it always the same universe? I've never actually watched. - I think it's supposed to be the same universe, but he possesses someone else's body. - Anyways, that's the end of the questions from the fan page and Michael had some questions. - Oh, that's a lot. - Just some ideas. I mean, you have to go to any of them. - Take one. - A bullshit session. - Why do you have a beer? - I'm out for beer. - She doesn't have to be D-favourite, it could be A-favourite. - Because I don't have a heart center. - I don't have a name, is it Quinn? - Quinn and the vampire hunter possessed by-- - I love you. - You know, it was a fake accelerated. - Yeah, sorry. - Yeah, over here's Justin, where Mark was a vampire hunter. - He learned his skills from his ancestor. - That's right, you got a ghost. - I didn't have it, did you have one point? - Nah, it was a weird one. - When I was younger, my favourite character was-- - When I was younger. - And based on myself, you were not existent when I was younger. - Yeah, sure, yeah. - It was, and he was kind of a dual wielding ranger type. And we actually based the characters in D&D and ourselves by doing IQ tests, push-ups, and running around the block for endurance. - Yeah, and agility tests with the ruler, drop it out. - Yeah, see how quick it is. - See how quick it is. - So, as characters went, that's a long time ago, but I remember in my youth, that was my favourite one by far. But, I mean, in recent history, it's Tila and Jay. - Tila, really? - Do we have her? - Yeah, that's one of your favourite characters? - No, I mean, those would all be two characters. - Oh, yeah, it's in history. So, that was a fun one. - Yeah, I mean, it was cool being siblings, you and I, playing, it was, Tila was an interesting character because she didn't have much control. And there was an arc that would have eventually developed for her gaining control of her power. And she would have became a badass-- - Made well, commonly developed. - Or would have, yeah, killed everybody at the party. - One or the other. - Well, everybody but me. - After 50 years, I think. - Well, again, it's like, the one, that's where, you know, what's more compelling for the story, what's more, oh, well, the only thing that can possibly save everybody is the one that got some, the thing that got smashed. You're like, "Come on, man." What do you got? (laughing) - She claims that fate's too easy, but I play fate as-- - It's not hard. - It's not that hard. - It's not about making it difficult for the players. It's giving that players' opportunities to be awesome. - That's what players have to understand that, too. Sometimes they wanna take the easy route. - Yeah. - But I don't think they have to have the fate to be. - I don't think anybody in our group really does that. - Well, no, not ours. But they just have to keep it in mind. - It helps that there's a level of danger, you know, possibility of catastrophic failure. - Yeah. - To understand that. - That's fine, too, but that's, one of the things that I think that is a factor is when you try to lateral it to someone. Or there are times that I, since you edit, you probably know better than anyone, that there are times where I try to shape how things are going by, like I'll throw it to you to offer something, and you know, you do your research, or I'll let you take that, you know, that lead, and try to get somebody involved in something, or whatever, because one, I don't wanna, I want our airtime to spread around. I want everyone to have a chance to shine. I want everyone to take advantage of something. But, then sometimes it makes me, it makes me crazy. (laughing) - When you choose something in the ball and they drop it? - Well, you know, and it's, like, spike it. - In your face. - And then there were times where I have, like, I have definite mental lapses. I think-- - You can cross the streams a couple of things. - There was one where I completely crossed the streams and I thought Jim's character was another character. (laughing) - The drug country? - Yeah. - The drugs and character. - Oh, I thought I had, I was so proud, and I thought I had a solution. - You're a vampire? - And then you're like-- - Yeah, that's great, Mike, but-- - Yeah, that's a whole different character. I felt so stupid. I'm like, "Oh, too much information in my head." But yeah, there was that whole thing where, because everyone was keeping their powers kind of secret, and I was never sure when Jim went analysis. He was a black-quared vampire. And I could never find my notes about it. - It's just, of all the characters that should have kept their powers secret, you figure the black-quared vampire would be pretty far up there. But then the first session starts, and he's like, "I'm a vampire." And we're like, "I know." - "I know." (laughing) - How's that going for ya? - You can't convey my face to her, Mike. - Yeah, it was a fun one to make. - It was incredible. - How about drinking? - I would say one of my favorite characters, way from back in the day, was a dwarf fighter thief named Adihan Hammerfest, and... - Sir Kyle, what? - I must have been, and Mike, I was a teenager, so that was in the '80s. - Yeah, that's about the timeline was, too. - And that was fun. - Yes, none of you others were born. - You know, they're not so high-level that they have all these, well, we're also talking about the, I think, the first edition, D&D. But we had a guy, a DM, who was a lot, he was pretty progressive for it. He lived it way too much, and he was into, you know, he had books written before they came out with the books, and, you know, it's like, when the new editions came out, I'm like, "Oh my God," and it's like they looked at his stuff right out of it. - You were a book. - He wasn't that crazy, but he was a painter and he asked for a lot of things, and, you know, when he was way more focused into it than I think the rest of us were. - Actually, he's the owner of the hobby shop over by the airport. - Really? - No way. - Yeah. - Have you been there for a while? - I'm not kidding you. You know what I'm talking about? The one over? - Yeah, the major war zone. - Yeah. - Let's go visit him. - All right, that even remembers me. - Are you fucking kidding me? - No, that's it. - It's a small world. - Wow, that is crazy. - Go check out that shop for you, this is there. Good. - Yeah, we're not saying-- - It's in Cleveland, everyone knows we're from Cleveland. - All right, good. - That shop is insanely crowded. - Yeah. - Yep. - I've always liked Clerics and the Holy Kirk. We did have, when Frank ran the Toles campaign. - Yeah. - That was interesting. - That's an interesting adjective you used there. - And the monk priests that I had in that one Ignacio DiAngelo, Angel Fire. - Oh, I don't remember who I played in that one. - But I remember having to, there was one specific tenant that that, oh, I had some special focus where I could never use a magic weapon or wear armor. But because of my purity of my religion and my training, I would get certain bonuses if I was fighting on dead and these kinds of things. But I also was almost like a saint, and there was certain things I couldn't let happen, which was anyone killer, like you can't kill a prisoner or you can't torture. - Oh, you're a paladin. - Is even, it was like a paladin on paladin drugs. So-- - Not regular drugs, no, I don't have to take that. - No, but he was high with something, but so, of course, you guys wanted to kill a prisoner and then I had to, I had to almost fight you guys. That's a theme, that's a recurring theme, I guess. (laughing) - Almost had to fight a killer prisoner. I don't understand that. - What's Michael's favorite character? - The one I'm playing now, I mean, not-- - The way it always works? - Yeah, the way it always is, I don't want to stop. But I guess if I went back far enough, yeah, I'm thinking of creating a roll of devolve. - Which I think is a G and D campaign. - We'll do it in the '80s as well, isn't it? - Yeah, pretty much so. - Since we're working on a dwarf campaign, I wouldn't be surprised if-- - There's some bodice on the run. - Or pro-cashes, or add a hands, or any of those guys might be. But I got more, I like the storytelling and I like, you know, I don't like the idea of, okay, you get a verbal weapon and then because if you have this powerful weapon that now dictates, your character becomes the weapons that they have, you know what I mean? - Sure. - That never really was interesting. - You know, riffing off of what we talked about earlier, the way that role playing is going now, I like, and again, it might just be, because of the style of GM I am, I like player narrative control. - Yes. - I think it's correct. - I like the opportunity that the player has to influence and change things like via fade points or via willpower, or, you know, that you can do things or have some influence. - And based on that, if I had to pick a favorite character that wasn't mine, I thought Rachel's tarot card user added a lot of potential. I don't know if it's necessarily my favorite. And I think John's Roberto has, hopefully, what will be a good character arc that comes to a satisfactory conclusion. - Yeah, it would have ended. It's a lot of potential. - Those are good choices. - I enjoy playing Ruppa. So you have a character that was a whole lot of fun. - I wanna see John's river to go out in a place of glory, somehow sacrificing himself. - This is gonna come to some kind of ad where you either have to give up the power and that's kind of, the just taking on. - That's kind of anticlimactic, but it's a possibility that you give up the coin and you walk away for it for good. But if you continue to use it, it's gonna end badly. You know that. And he's like, "Yeah, I don't have the problem with that." It's got to, and it should end in a way that he goes out in a place of glory. I mean, if it's gonna end that way, it should be. - You broke it? - Like save the city, we have his own death. - That's one of my favorite characters. - Saves the city. - Who was in mine? - From himself. - He's probably under a dome that is, favorite character, Thomas. - There's a hard, before I got here, I didn't really do any actual world playing because I was young and stupid. And actually we attended. - Well, you get a role fight, but you really didn't get into your character. You were just a funny sort type of guy. - I like character progression and looking at the numbers more than other people. - Oh, I love you like it more. - No, I just don't like it. - I understand the D&D side better just because I've been, it's in my head. - Right, right. - I mean, when we first got into World of Darkness, it was funny, then frustrating, and then it became kind of the joke that you could hear us all trying to look through these books, trying to find an obscure rule that should not have been obscure, and it's buried in fluff and story, and you're like, "I don't know." - That's actually one of the things I wanted to talk about. If we could force Scott to choose another system, what would it be? Because I don't know why, Gary, the little darkness is by far my least favorite system, just because the volume of-- - Don't worry about that, I'll give you the system review at the end. - To be honest, I would have expected, honestly, Scott to have created his own stripped-down version or core system that he would address these. - We have a core number of fans that really like the world of darkness. - Tonight, it's an old school. - Yes. - And it's dead. Like, have they helped? - They have to go through books and books and books and books and books. - Given the choice, World of Darkness is the one I like least, even though I like Michael Clay better than-- - As a character. - That doesn't help a job, but I think he does it in spite of the system instead. - The system is not helping him, other than that he likes it bad, and the premise of World of Darkness is, if you survive the night, you win. That's the win, that's, you're not going to excel, you're not going to-- - I feel good. - Yeah, you're not gonna achieve victory. - How is the last one to die? - You win. - Yeah. You're not gonna achieve victory, you are going to endure. - I think we're gonna figure out what's happening 10 years down the line. You're not gonna be wrong. And then we're open to die. - 'Cause he won't kill us without telling us the story. - He's gotta combining that murder and story. - Yes. - I think a long time ago, he read the rules and fell in love with what they were telling in their story and their law and stuff, and he's like, "I can make a story in this world." And he learned the system after that. - But it's, you can't take the world of darkness and put it in fate. Because the system of fate is so different. - So I agree, that's what I was asking, what does anybody know a system that would work? 'Cause I know there's a lot of great-- - Well-- - When you stop out there, the shark shoe and the other one, though. - Night's like agents? - Yeah. - Night's like agents, I do have a look at that stuff. Night's like agents is hamming on the investigation, but I don't know if it does horror all that fun. I think it does, but I don't know. - Well, and that's a thing. He has anything he said this before, so I'm not trying to put words in his mouth. He's made it clear that that's where he is. He wants to be in the middle of a horror genre, not high adventure, not high fantasy, not-- - No, fate is-- - Fate is not-- - Space or sci-fi? - Not horror. It's-- - Fate is-- - Does pulp very well. - I do like pulp. - It's hero-based. Everyone's a hero. No one's gonna die unless the whole story's kind of built up to that moment. - That's really-- - Like I said, I can see in fate, I can see Roberto dying. - See, I'm not against people-- - I can see him dying in a blaze of war, saving the universe. - I'm not against people not being able to die. I mean, or it should be challenging. It should have risk. There should be consequences. And I think that's perfect, but at the same time, for my personal entertainment value, and the same reason why I don't watch a lot of heavy dramas or horror films, 'cause there's enough-- - Yeah, saw? You won't-- - You'll get watched. - What's up? - I don't understand that. - You mean human centipede three, the final-- - Yeah, what? - I was just like, why is it-- - Why does it even exist? - The final one, yeah, yeah. - That makes me-- - Can you get it right here for the first detail? - No. All right, Thomas, you don't want to pick a favorite character. How about this? If you had an opportunity to play one character, which one would it be? It's almost the same question, but different. - That's actually a different question to me, because it means what system do you want to play? - Right. - Well, for that, I just wanna play name and error again, 'cause I miss it, it was neat, and it's the one we haven't played the longest time. I could see going back to fate after a D&D, because that's how it flows. Scott's probably gonna wanna take a break. But-- - It's kind of difficult to believe that we're gonna play anything that I've already played. - Yeah, so we're probably moving on. - Nice to come up. - Jim's gonna run paranoia, just so that it's over really quick. - I'm gonna do a one show, Fiasco. - And then John's gonna show stuff. - Oh, God, how much is Fiasco? - On camera. - I didn't hit the hell up. Oh, God, that stays in, because that's the end of it. - The beginning of it. - It never has to be mentioned again, because you've made the joke. - Right. - It's not true. - And in this day, we finally beat him down, and he accepted his fate. - That's exactly what we got. - If we want to talk about it, Fiasco's out in my car right now. - You're from the God now, please. - I like each of my characters a lot. Whoever I'm playing currently is usually my favorite. - It's kind of like Michael's answer. - Yeah, most of it Michael. - John, which one would you play if you could play it next week? - I want to play Roberto again, and it's a big surprise. - No, I didn't think so. I thought that's a piece of advice. - I don't feel the mountain man. - Next question. - Are you sure it's not the system? - Sometimes I get into the mountain man. - Or least favorite system, I think we kind of touched that. - What system would you like to try? - New manera. - I have to try it. - I think we're good, 5e. - That's what I'm talking about. - That's not gonna happen. - I almost played it three times next week. - Sorry, it's probably. - Fifth edition. - Fifth edition of D&D. - Oh, thanks. - Other than that, it's just gonna happen. Is there one that we could put in? - Yeah, baseball agents, I really like to try that. - Just because we typically tend to play mysteries, and this particular system is built around mysteries. I mean, that's what it's built for. - Knights, black, black agents. - Isn't it? - It just comes from new. But it's got a different flavor to it. - It might be based on the gum she uses, but I don't know. - And who rubbed that? - That would be. - Tonight, we met him. - Yeah, he's not being the host this year, that makes me sad. - Yeah. - What's the difference, host? - Nothing is just fun, probably. - I'm pretty sure you're gonna be able to do that anyway. - He did an hour, he did two different hours, one was running a horror campaign. - Yeah, he did a little... - You know, I still have that perils of the hollow world. I don't know what that is. - Yeah, I was never playing that. - Does it have like a time frame, or it can be anything, any time? Modern? - It's more modern. The latest one they, something that they put on it, was called the vampire dossier. - You read the strain, right? - Yeah, yeah. - So that to me was a Scott world. - Yeah, and to mention Scott, you know, replacement world for World of Darkness, that might be it. - That's why I thought of it. - Here's part of the challenge though, because we're not playing a straight up RPG. We're producing content for a podcast, so one of the things that has affected all of this, and I've been thinking about it a lot, in anticipation for five E, is, you know, when it comes time to, like, I want you guys to explore the world and have options, but then you're gonna have obstacles, you're gonna have puzzles, you're gonna have interactions, you're gonna have combat. And combat is going to, you know, there's gonna be some tactical stuff, not a lot, but I'm trying to already think of how am I going to, you know, I wanna, you guys have a good experience in a positive one, and feel empowered, and still feel a risk, and still have consequence, but how, as you're trying to sort through a puzzle, or solve a quiz, or interact with the challenges that I'm presenting, it's like, okay, we're gonna have some dead air there for a while, or I have to be careful of how I describe things to make sure that I'm painting pictures for everyone, and I think that's gonna be a big challenge, because-- - I noticed the times in our podcast, 'cause I'd listen on a pretty regular basis of what it-- - Me, too. - What it grinds to, what it grinds to, what it grinds to a halt is when we're using a map, there's something like it, basically using a map, because, you know, we're saying things like, well, I move here, you know, and then we'd say, oh, yeah, I move east, which is still kind of like-- - Yeah, it's big, yeah. - But I was even thinking of, if I'm going to try to maybe pre-draw some maps, and give names to the areas like, this is the grove of trees, or this is the orchard, or this is the mountainside. It'd be more descriptive than that, but you know what I mean? And then somehow, as you guys describe, and tell me what your actions are, I'm going to have to reiterate that A, to make sure that I'm clear in what I'm hearing, and then B, make sure you guys are clear about what's happening, and then help support Tom in editing the content for putting together a story. - Yeah, I can see that being a slightly problematic. It depends, because all the days when we played D&D, or a comic, it could take an entire night, maybe even two. - Yeah, we didn't find that, but-- - And that was all good, but I could edit the crap on it, so it's more listenable, but then we've got 15 minutes left over of an entire night, you know? I don't know what we're going to do, but I want to see how it plays out. - I think I've said before, I've played D&D just twice, and they were both very different from each other. One was Theater of the Mind, where there was no map involved, and I'm just like, "I want to attack this person." Well, okay, he spent the start moving towards them. She either said, "You're close enough," or you're-- - Right. - And the other one was the old school map guy, where, which wouldn't have translated. - No. And I worry about that because there are powers and abilities that are dependent as reactions to movement, to people doing other things. So, as you are, Michael, as you're taking a turn, then you move past Thomas. He might have an opportunity to do something to either help you, or if the goblin is running between you two, you know? And there's these opportunities that come up, and part of this will be on the players, too, you have to kind of know when you get to jump in and contribute to the story and help. 'Cause it's not one person telling it, where storytellers, everyone is telling the same story and describing the same scene, if it works the way. I hope it works, and I'm tweaking and riffing on what you guys give me and what I'm giving to you. That's what I hope it's gonna be. - If we tried to do Theater of the Mind stuff, I wonder how me throwing a fireball would work. I can blow my companions up, but how do we say who's where and who's getting hit? - Well, it all depends, because that's why I also buffed you up a level, because someone has the metamagic ability where, or you can use a power to minimize the damage to your buddies. - Or let me know the other way. - It's called careful magic, and I believe my gnome has-- - Oh, really? - See? - Play thrower. - Even in a more general sense, or the mind, you know. You're a melee, engaged with somebody in close combat, or if you're a missile weapon, or an archer user that's further away, who isn't gonna be bothered by the fireball, so you have a vague idea of who's gonna be affected in any other case. - So, I'm almost like, you remember, and a theater, the battle of where it was just, I mean, we really didn't have a map, and it was like, I'm down here, I'm over here, he's on the stage, you're here. And only a few times that we have to clarify. - I'm not thinking of, again, this is just a prelude to what eventually we're gonna be working towards. But, at most, I'm imagining I'm gonna have a sheet of graph paper that I have outlined in detailed things, and we'll either mark it up in what we're doing, but we're always gonna be aware that we have a microphone, and we need to tell the story, and not just, you know, like you said, we're at Granstone-Halt, where people are looking at a map and thinking. - Well, 4th edition was a miniature game. - Yeah. - It really was. - Absolutely. - Like this guy free spaces, and it's not what I loved about 4E. - No. - But 5E looks-- - There was a lot of things I didn't love about 4E, but. - You know, Numenara, I would like to go back to. I don't know if I would wanna keep boss, but, and I'm also not sure how I feel yet about the future world, because it feels that it's so, so bizarre, and especially with the, what's the magic items that we're supposed to use that you can, oh, Numenara, yeah. - Duh. Jesus Christ. (laughs) - You know, just like, you only can carry two at a time, and you know, it just kind of-- - Yeah, you realized after we finished the game that I had been carrying two that should've been interacting the whole time. - Well, that's what I mean. It's, and I think because they're using different names, and they're a different property, that's like, I don't even really know what they are, and so I don't think of them. - Mm-hmm, it's a finicky little system. - The only way I would want to play a game is if it was in some magical time chamber where we didn't waste our time playing it, because I don't want to spend a year playing something. I want to play something, a character I already have. With those stipulations in mind, I've always wanted to try burning wheel. - Me too. - I've heard you guys have told me about it. I still have to go ahead and read the hell out of it for a week or two, and it was engrossed in it, and I'm not sure. - I'm not sure. - I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I can read the hell out of it for a week or two, and it was engrossed in it. - What's good about burning wheel? - It's not story telling me as much. There's parts of it that are, but it's like, that end of the spectrum, past the end of the evening. - It's got a hell of a lot of crunch. - It's a fantasy. Ideally, if everyone knew it, great. It would roll like that, and there's systems that give meaning to things that would just have to be waved away in a story setting. They give, like, weight and gravitas to getting a mortal wound, and I think that's kind of cool. - But there's also, it's got a lot of heavy grit. There's a lot of rules to it. Like, you can try anything. If you don't have a skill, you can open the skill by trying it, and you need to succeed and fail at something to increase your level at that skill. So it keeps track of virtually everything you do. Your character, there is advancement. There's a lot of advancement. It was a system that the guy hated D&D, but took it and made what he thought D&D should be in the other direction. - Yeah. - It sounds like it's the premise of a sandbox online MMO game. - But it also is the very beginning of aspects. - It's almost where fate got it from. Like, aspects that define your characters. There's Arthur, which are, like, fate points. - That you get for acting to your characters. - Right, for acting like you're supposed to act. - And you know how Scott has us pick out these things that we want to accomplish? Very similar to that. There's a lot of that stuff where you state before a session what you're working towards. - I found aspects very... It's funny because now that I've been exposed to them when I'm reading books or I see a nice little turn of phrase, I'm like, "Oh, that'd be a great aspect." But I find them very problematic. I wanted to come up with them because it's like, well... - It's gotta be good. - I would almost rather, instead of trying to come up with five before I play, I'd rather have them evolve out of what I'm doing. - Which is allowable. - Yeah, but then it's... - You need to have something to take advantage of the problem. - You definitely have a high concept. - If you're not happy with what you're describing, if we spot one, can we point out to you and maybe you'll add it? - I think we try to find something. - Sure, when we notice you're doing things. - You seem to do this a lot, it should be an aspect. - It's kind of how it should work, I think. - Yeah, I don't see why you couldn't. I mean, you kind of did that already where we were assigning aspects to other people. NPCs, more than other players, if I remember. - Now, John, everyone has kind of talked about how you want to still kind of continue the characters. Do you think it would work if, like, Scott ran, or who runs New Manera? - Scott runs New Manera. - Scott ran New Manera. - Scott ran New Manera. - So Scott runs New Manera, and we go through that part of that campaign, and then if someone else took over the duties, and you still keep your character, but... - Someone else is jamming? - Right, 'cause, you know, there was a moment there before we decided in the VV, where I was working on something that would have been in the Dresden universe, that would have been what I was calling an interlude. So it would have been a, you could have used your characters, but they wouldn't have impacted your storyline, unless I don't think they wouldn't, because people died. - That would have. - But, you know, that might be a way to do it, but that might break a continuity, because now you have to make adjustments for what happens in different storylines. You know what I mean? - Like, if you get your arm chopped off, and in my thing, like, "Okay, do you need to..." "Okay, what happened to them?" "Well, this one you got one on." - Less. - I could work with him. - Sure. - Eventually, what I'd like to see is incorporating online tools, or some type of sandbox environment that... - For what purpose? - Bookkeeping? - Possibly. - You know, maybe the bookkeeping, or maybe a way of... I'm not quite sure if you can get a story out of it, but if we're all out of it... - We're all out of it. - We should do a wiki page, but that would just be one person. - Yeah. - And everyone else will ignore it. - Couldn't we have a wiki page? - That works. - But then we'd all have to get out of the test, so we can get online somewhere and then record it and feel that way. - Individual mics. What system do you want to play next to this last one? Or which one would you like to play? - What would you like to see in KOTN's feature? - Individual mics. - Really? - No, I want to see the end of the podcast. - Well, I know you do. - I want to see the world burn. - You just want to play? - I just see the world burn. - That would be... - I don't know about that. - So basically, you don't like the experience at all of the recording... - I try to ignore it as thoroughly as possible. - Yeah, I get that. - You don't do very well when it's feedback then. - No. - Is it hard to ignore it? - I mean, what can I do with that? There's nothing to work with. - I have to sit there and try to zone out. - Like meta jokes and... - You're entitled to that. Just part of what I like about it is... Part of it is the social aspect of seeing you guys and... - I like that. - And talking and discussing. Well, that's kind of what emerges and evolves from the feedback. - Yes. Okay, I get that, yeah. - I don't mind that. - With everyone else, right? - Yeah, we make cuts about that. - This is an attack. I'm just explaining myself. - It's a bit easier for us because when we get home, there's still three of us to talk about it. - That's true. - And we like each other. - So... - That 'cause you don't. - It's easier to talk. - I'm quite sure how to respond. - Yeah. - What? - Yeah, usually I'm just driving a load of my car rage monster for the 20 minutes that I gotta go home. - I got a load of your stuff. - Just like, "Motherfuckers!" - Why does he have to let the vampire go in and goddamn neighborhood? - No, it's fun. - Which actually might have happened. - That was much funnest moment. - That was the first time I fucked up the whole team by sneaking out during a session to let a vampire out of the car into an occupied neighborhood because Maxwell does not think very far at that, which is one of his aspects now. - I didn't think that's real. - Good, I incorporated it. - Only thinks one move ahead. - I've set him free then. - Oh, shit! - Yeah, that's one thing around the mansion during favorite characters. - Why? - I went forward to all of them equally, but Maxwell's gonna... - Once again, the warden's pissing and moaning about something I did. - I don't even know why he's got his, you know, pans in a bunch. - Last session. - Last session. - Oh, sorry. - I didn't do anything because we had plenty of people. - We had plenty of people fucking it up besides me. I didn't need to do anything. - You drove a truck into a house full of vampire suppliers. - And he worked out great. - Well, technically they died so they don't... - It doesn't matter anymore, right? - Yeah, some of them really have rights. - Which is why it's gonna be interesting. - Well, my vampires aren't dead though, they're... - Yeah, they're just presenting demons. - They got some demon deal going on. - But that wasn't not part of the plan. The plan was shot to fuck by the time I got into the truck. - Everyone knew the plan was gonna get shot to fuck. - Also sick Ryan. - I didn't do anything. - That's a lot of... - Yeah, because I meant exactly. I didn't do anything. We played a game. I had to do something. - Okay. - If you were arguing something... - Or nothing. - That was like my big last known. - What was the name of the Sasquatch that was helping us? - Sasquatch. - Oh. - The legit... - Clear as rivers or something. - No. - It was not river shoulders though, it was a fake one. - It's the one for the book. - Oh, I can't remember. - What was the actual question? - Yeah. - I don't know. - I have a question. - What do you want to see in the future of the podcast? - Oh, yeah. - Somebody said individual mics. Somebody said the end of the podcast. Those two were the same person. - Yeah. - That was serious. - I think we're out of questions. - Sorry for comment. - Well, do we want to talk about what we... - Well, Michael, what do you envision or what would you like to see happen with the group? - You don't wanna... - I just ask the question. - You wanna, like, adding... is there adding functionality or technology? - I mean... - Ronan. - I think if you have an interesting answer... - Well, you know what? You raise a point that I mean... - Nine people... - Is a lot. - Is a lot to manage or add a table. - Yes, it is. - And it's ironic that it takes the person who lives in the house the longest to get to the table. - Oh, boy. - Perfectly understandable. Absolutely terrible. - But at the same time, you don't want to rotate people in and out for different campaigns because... - Not while we take a campaign and play for six months. - No. - Right. - I suggested that we... - Wait, it didn't make no sense and I'm not gonna suggest that. - All right. - You split the two groups. - Yeah, we tried that once and in my opinion, it didn't work. - So... - I didn't know we were gonna get rid of it anyway. - I always had a problem with... - Evil, though. - Yeah. - Scott wanted to make up an adventure where we were all evil. You remember that one? - No. - I don't know what evil is. - Well... - I don't know what I see it, but I don't know what it's by. - So, perhaps it was about context. - That's true. - To me, it's always selfish. It's the closest I can come. You don't care about anybody but yourself. You don't care if others are hurt as long as you get what you want. - And there's also where you feel either you're compelled or you desire to hurt people for no other gain or no other purpose other than to hurt them. - Oh, he must get pleasure from that. - Hmm. - Not always. I mean, you can be young. There are reasons where that might be a legitimate, just inexperienced, or... I guess if you're gonna try to define evil, that's a good place to start. - One of my problems is that usually, or at least in my experience, it's not an absolute. So, when someone says, "Okay, well, you once said something when you were 20 years old, do you still believe that?" I don't exist in a static world. The world's always changing and I've gotten older in my perspective of change. So, yes, I did say that. Yes, that's how I felt back then. But guess what? I've learned, I've grown, I've changed, I've... Whatever. Have I done stupid things in my life? Absolutely. Have I been mean to people? Yeah, sure. Have I done things I shouldn't have? Yeah, I better have. But I'm pretty much... Yeah, you're a dick. You're evil. Yeah. You know, arguably, you could say that at any point in a normal human's lifespan, you are all of those alignments, at some point. And you can be in the heat of a moment. You're enraged. You just want vengeance. You would ever, and you will do whatever to win. I don't know if anyone's ever been in a fight. There's a moment where you're fighting and kind of like, there's like, kind of rules. Like, don't try, but then there's like, you really have to defend yourself, and you don't know, you don't know what you have to go all out, or else because you don't know. And I hope no one's ever in that position, but that happens. I see that a lot where I work. People dealing with that stress where they have to... They're veterans. Yeah, they're veterans. So, you know, they have to... Imagining office workers grabbing air and pulling them down to the ground and kicking their faces. Jesus! We're kind of part of the IT department. We very rarely see that. I've had someone pull a gun at me in a working environment, and it's not a pleasant experience. You're supposed to be training for that sort of thing? No? Jesus. He was a weird person, and he was in a lot of pain. That's the only situation you can see that happening. But he was burned out at 24. He looked like he was 48, but he was pretty young. He was dealt with a bad hand, you could argue. I kind of am not too sure about that, but because I still believe people have choices and make choices. But he was clearly in a lot of pain. Now, was he evil? I don't know. He wasn't strong. He wasn't, and he was a victim of a lot of vices. Back in the day, he's got one in the run dimension, which everyone was evil, and it was just like... I don't think he thought this is true. Because I don't think you could do that. I don't think he could be a group as cohes or as D&D requires while being that selfish. Right. If everyone's been ever alive at one point, that evil person just acts with evil as their default. Yeah. I mean, that's what I was having trouble with. How could you even be close to being social and being evil of any... I'm going to go in a party with you and trust you only as much as I can use you. There is that. Well, let me describe that you have selected a certain group or peer group that you feel, if not equal, to then at least subordinate to, and then you're okay with that group of people. But everyone else, everyone outside of that group doesn't mean anything. Their lives are meaningless. So if you kill them, if you steal from them, if you hurt them, there's nothing that bothers you about that. That's just the strong versus the weak, and that's the way it is. And actually, that's the way I had to end up playing my character. You playing this one, then? Yeah. Because my character was just about strength. It was just about, you know, you either subordinate to him or... Well, again, it's an absolute, it's a guy, I mean, as far as alignment goes. And I think we talked a little bit about it when we're describing some of the 5e stuff that, in a way, while the society is somewhat based on laws and being good, and so therefore a lawful good society, that's not to say that you don't have people of all alignments or all outlooks, and you can have poor people. And actually, that whole conversation sparked a really good idea that, okay, while there was a threat of this dragon, okay, we're going to have to deal with refugees coming to our, you know, one of the only safe places in this forest. And something now that John and I had started talking about last time, which was, now that the threat of the dragon is gone, maybe it's time for these people to move on and get out of our, you know, it's like, okay, the threat's over, so back to your homes, back, you know, back to where you're laying. You can't stand our doorstep forever. And that could be an opportunity that, no, this is a talent that's been established over 50 years. So is it a legitimately part of this thing? That's an underlying stress that can build up for a future thing. But that was set in the stage where... Going back a little bit, talking about the all-evil adventure, I think that would be interesting, like, there's a YA novel called The Hunger Games, pretty sure a lot of people have met it. One of the things is, like, the people in the story have, like, ever-changing trusts of people. And I think that would be interesting in, like, a big of a group as yours, as little subdivisions of group forms, and then new things happen, and then you can't trust that person anymore, and you go to a different person. That's what everybody's trying to do. We're trying to get to each other. We really fucking kill each other. That's what we plan. Sounds like Mike's biggest nightmare. I would not. Well, I would die first. It's not hard to imagine, but it sounds interesting. Logic perspective, it would kind of hard to have that happen, because everyone might have to talk in their own groups. I would choose to die first, and then I'll go home, and you guys let me know when you guys are doing it. I'll be back in a year. We were talking about playing a Paladin, and how that's not, you know, all one-dimensional. There can be a lot of layers. You can still play a dick player, who's just crazy gonzo, lawful good, who has some other issues. So, the reverse can certainly be true, where this guy might be an evil character, but have some... Well, some of the most compelling and evil character... Well, I would consider evil. Well, I don't know. It's weird. But a villain, a great villain in the past twenty-odd years, was Professor Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series. And she was following the rules, and was all about taking things to this extreme of this ultimate bureaucracy. But it's soulless, and she was all about kind of control, but it's still legal and lawful. And she loves craft paper. I would think she loved craft paper. But, you know, she was probably more despicable and more... Because I've met people like that, and you're like, I think that she is just a horrible character. Or a very well-drawn, very great villain, but you just love to hate her because she is so... So, you're saying that you had an issue that she was lawful in addition to being evil? No, I don't even know if she's evil. I think she's evil. Very lawful. Yeah, she's just following... I'm not even describing it very well, but never listened to Lee Biz. Yeah. Okay, so Jean Valjean, a thief who stole the piece of bread to feed his hungry family. He's a pretty good guy throughout the whole thing, but he broke the law. You know, he broke the law. But Javer, who was just kind of like him, but he was... You know, he broke the law, so I'm going to have to come after you. I don't care about your excuses. I'm not going to be caring about all the circumstances. And he ultimately kills himself because he's shown mercy by Jean Valjean. Because he can't handle being in this man's dead whom he despises and looks down upon. That's a good one. But I find him... I find his character extremely tragic. And he's technically not wrong. He is... he was driven and he was methodical and he was legal in the context of what's going on. But he was wrong because we have the ability of being an omniscient... We're omniscient in that we know the full story, we know all the details. But I find his character not evil, but tragically flawed. De-classic evil characters, probably a Nazi. Look how awful they are. We're a very tight-knit group and enjoyed each other's company and had parties and got married and had kids and stuff like that. And then he went outside of that group. Not since we're bad, the Gestapo were... I think they were really evil because they were the ones that were made for horror. Mass murdering it, you know. Podcasts. I don't. Are you kidding me? I was in a tons of... I was 25-minute drive to work. I listened to Smodcast, the Nerdist, and ours. The last podcast I listened to was the last time you listened to ours. Liar. No, it depends. If I'm in the car, I'll listen to it. Or if it's something coming up that I want to be able to use against people. No, I just have to fact-check. I have to make sure that I understand. It was never a teddy bear. Yeah, it was. It's got it here on record. Well, here's the thing. Every time Scott takes her back in the other room, you know, and like talks about secret things, it's kind of like, okay. What, you know, does this mean that the sucker punch is going to come from? I don't know. Your subordinate, Jay, seemed to get all up at you all of a sudden after he had been whispered to someone. We don't know what she said. Who knows? I think she's trying to use it. But that's my crazy part is that I also list these events that happen so I can just roof that I listen in the car. Oh, my God, anyway, I have proof now. Jeez. What's your picture, though? The new car displays what you're watching, a Bluetooth listening. Watch it, not watching. I've only ever looked at it. You've got facts, you win. Yeah, I listen and I go like a year ago and then more recently I caught up with you guys on Dresden because I like Dresden. If you haven't heard, there's another series I listen to is the thrilling adventure hour. You're like adventure hour. Are they going up here? No, but they're usually, if you caught up, they're about months between episodes. No, I just thought they had an episode recently that they said they were ending it. Is this an hour really? Well, that's been going on for 10 years. No, it's not. It's kind of a... It's an old timey radio show podcast. They do, it sounds very pulp, but they do it. That's very good. Was it the one that Mom was listening to? I don't think so. They have a bunch of different storylines. The Captain Laser Beam is a fun one. Jefferson Davis American is what I really like. Jefferson Davis? No, I have Jefferson Davis. Was it Jefferson? I can't remember his name. But it's, what's his name? Nathan Fillion is him. And then there's Sparks Montana, or Sparks Nevada. Marshall of Mars. That's a fun one. I had to wrap it talking about stuff I listened to. That's a good one. Disdirected mark, I listened to. Yup. Gavrich Table. I don't think you listened to it. That's a good one. It's like a walking tie. That's a good one. I listened to one a couple of years ago, and I listened to it a lot. It was like Science Friday or something. It was just finishing up Bond and Bond, which is a... Hot fan fiction? No, but they do a full retrospective of every Bond movie. And they watch the movie and then have people talk about it. And it's a lot of fun. It sucks, man. RPG Gamer Dad? Yes, I know that. That's fun stuff. Scared Swarmcast. It's so guys in the Carolinas. Scared Wormcast? Scarab. Scarab Swarm. Swarm. Sword Nut Radio. Sword Nut? Sword Nut. Wow. I took my sword and hit you in the... Nut. Yeah. Singular Nut. It's so precision. Yeah, it's okay. It's a great beer. It's like one over a nightmare. That's a good one. You should check it out. It's free. Yeah. Did the pizza come? Not yet. So... So Sword Nut is... Well, it's actually the guy we gave the teacher to last. Oh, cool. He's in English. Oh, he's in English. I like them. They do different... Oh, I understand. AP. So, the last one they did was by me. Oh, okay. Development stuff. It's worth a listen to. I'm not checking out. Who's that? Sword Nut. They did inspectors, which they keep telling us we have to play. Fate. What's that? Yeah. What are inspectors? What's fate? What's fate? What's fate? Well, you see, it's this one. Okay. Inspectors is... Think Ghostbusters combined with... A reality show. Oh, okay. And they have this mechanism in the game where you get to, like, you know how they end a reality show? They'll have the camera just on one person and they're talking about it. I couldn't believe it. It was like an assessment. There was a lot of this goes, but... Right. It looked like he was into it. Right. Exactly. They'll have those type of scenes that you can... Why? I triggered professionals. It's a silly game, right? Oh, well, certainly. Okay. Cool. I like those. It's what a lot of people suggested we should do for, you know, tonight when we didn't know Scott and everybody else, but I don't know in the game. Right. Yeah. We are dirty pirates. How much money do you think it is? Oh, I don't think it's terribly expensive. It's probably a PDF. 20 bucks. Mysterious Universe is another one that I listen to. It's an Australian-based podcast. It's, like, paranormal and just... Oh, you're cool. It's really weird stuff, but it's cool because they're skeptical. Yeah, I mean, they're a big fan of a lot of stuff, but they talk about stories where there's, you know, multiple witnesses and... Have you ever heard of Dreamland? Oh, yeah. I just finished reading a book by Whitley Streiber and, well, I liked the book and I thought it was well done, but when I listened to him on Dreamland, and I only captured every once in a blue moon. That guy, if he's not a true believer, he is... He... He just has this... Like, the zealot... He believes. No skepticism. Yeah, there's no... And he's now looking for any... He says he wants evidence, but he believes anything is evidence. It's just fascinating. In fact, I just listened to one. You know how sometimes you go down to Rabbit Hole with YouTube? Yeah, I looked up something that I just wanted to see and then... I've gotten lost on many things. Yeah, and I... Why am I watching these people eating hot peppers and trying to describe video game reviews? What the fuck? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Whatever. But I just... They found one of, I guess, some Alaskan pyramid that was a big deal. And, you know, I'm just like... It's in a big louver. Well, no, but... It's not interesting. It does. And it's apparently a structure that's thousands of years old, that older than what humans have been around for, and, you know, it's a big secret thing, and... A dream lab is actually one of my favorite things when I'm leaving Scot's house like at midnight, and I want to listen on the way home. Well, there's... I listen to that, and, like you said, it's... It's entertainment. Yeah. Well, it's 10 after 11. Yeah. And I've gotten a longer drive than usual. Mm-hmm. I have a shorter drive than usual. Yeah. [Laughter] Is there anything you can read that was a good one just to cover it for you? What's that? The list. We finished it? Just conferences. I think they actually addressed it. We're actually planning on going to... Oh, cons. Yeah. Sometimes I'm afraid of what cons means. [Laughter] I understand this. You mentioned earlier what are the things that, like, the podcast has changed, or how it has changed over time? One of the things I enjoy the most is that we are on Facebook now, and I have funded a lot of the money to get to chat with them, and speak with them. It's really interesting to hear from people from all over the world. And to see the response and how much they are doing with the videos, and with the wiki, and with the Facebook page, and the fan page, that has actually been kind of fun. And I like how, over the past four years, we actually had opportunities to build some in-jokes with a group of people that we've never met. So... Tom Rock. [Laughter] Tom Rock. Everybody's got their own rocket. Thank you. Yeah. So, at the very least, it's got to be a lot of interest in people. Well sure. So, task made my life different. [Laughter] John hates every kind of it. But you hate each one. And everything. He likes to play the role-play. Man, that's the end of our... I don't know, that's the end of our bullshit session. Yeah, podcast, podcast. Hopefully, next day of the Fools. Suckers! She looks to the end. We'll be back to the normal. It's got to return. Okay. [Music] Thank you for listening tonight's of the Night Actual Play Podcast. If you'd like to send us questions, comments, or feedback, you can reach us in a number of ways. From Twitter, @KOTN_podcast, or by email feedback@KOTNpodcast.com. And don't forget the iTunes reviews. Or our Facebook page, Facebook.com/KOTN.podcast. Speaking of Facebook, join like-minded folks at our Facebook fan page. And lastly, there's our blog page, KOTNpodcast.com, where there's an Amazon link on the right-hand side. Thanks to Zen Audio Smith for the intro and outro music. Get your own music at zenaudiosmith.com. And join us next week for more Mystery and Adventure. [Music] Third vote getter and the poll. Vote getter, vote getter. We talk about war stories. One of the things that I, unfortunately, we never stuck with any one campaign long enough to build up the characters to kind of- I think John Thomas would agree to. A powerful level. So you could even have some of these epic powers or other stuff. So that was something that I always regret I had with some of the D&D stuff. Although I really did like how they changed the system where your powers were. You know, it didn't matter what armor or weapon you had because your powers were intrinsic in yourself. Thousands are still hundreds. It's hundreds. My heads are hundreds. Okay. What are you giving me? Think about your favorite character that you've ever played. I want to answer one of those. Oh, okay. Can I get a pot of cream, Grinch? You can help yourself to anything. I don't like favorite questions. I really don't. I get too many of them from that dude. Well, before I got here, I didn't do all that. Why do we have to pick our favorite? You didn't have to. I mentioned that I thought Roberto and Zelda were the two that were not mine that I really like. They're like their potential character. It's kind of cool. It might fall inside, but my watch buzzed. Does anybody buy an Apple watch for seven bizzles? Let's hope not. Not right now. This is really expensive. What is it with? A tiny little screen. Why? It's a Fitbit. Oh. A buddy of mine has a watch that's a dick trace you like, you know, you can talk to. We're in a restaurant for a watch. He's like, watch me. He turns up all the TVs in the play. He's the dick. He's watching. He's watching. Geez. Whatever tab wants is fine. What do you want? Sausage. What? Like what happens? That was like my big last known. What was the name of the Sasquatch that was helping us? Sasquatch? Oh, the legit... Clear as rivers or something. No. It was not rid of shoulders though. It was a fake one. It was the one for the book. I can't remember. I thought it was the name we came up with. We did a game. Yeah. I can't remember it now. I don't recall it either. I think it's whispering. Oh yeah. Yeah. I don't remember. We could look it up. No fun. No fun. No. I stayed for more than before time. Okay. That was true. No. That was gonna land up for time. That was... Yeah, it was, dude. Nice try. I was trying to think of the... That was Billy Jack. The Indium Public Howard. Billy Jack. Billy Jack's an old martial arts movie with an American Indian twist to it. Any five-barrefoot. He was really... Who was the Indium Public Howard? Little Bear. A little Bear. Little Bear. Little Bear. Little Bear. What? Nada-ing. Mark's a child. That's okay. He can't help it. How many people do you guys have again? Two minutes. Way too many. Two minutes. But eight minutes. Two minutes. Twenty-four. John and Thomas. Myself. Scott. Rachel. Mike. Michael. Jim. And... Bob. Anybody leaves? That's nine. But, you know, somebody's... I'd be there if you weren't. So let's take place. I don't actually know about this. When did you guys run? Like 16. I joined for Tullis for one day. I was like, "That's it. I couldn't handle it." You just didn't like the set of time or the... I don't know. I think it was... I think Dad pissed me off because I was taking a nap and he was like, "Let's go." And I was like, "What?" "What?" No. I don't know. I was 16. It was a while ago. I missed. What? What? Something pissed me off. I refused to go that day and then he said, "Fine. You're not going on this day forever?" You were trying to say you were a typical kid. You were sick. I was sick or tired or something like that. I tell my son often. You are the architect of your own prison. If you will just stop and think for a second, a lot of these problems that you're having will evaporate. And he's always like... He's always last. Or he goes dragging his feet to do something. And I try not to be the one that loses his cool, but you're just like, "Okay. We had to be at this place. We have to leave now." Oh, you're not dressed. Oh, and all of a sudden you've got to go front of shoes. Oh, and all of a sudden you have to go to the bathroom. You know? And you're just like, "God bless him, kid." I was like... I had something like that. Last time we were doing Round the Table, it was Thomas. Well, we got to you. Alright. It comes to you screaming all. Yeah, so... You're a renuminator or something. What are my favorite things? I don't remember what I was reading. I want to pick on John just a little bit. But it reminds me of when you're in the laundry grocery. So I was a kid. He's in front of you. And she stands there the entire time, and then the lady asks for the money, and she's like, "Oh, well." And then it starts. You didn't know you had to pay? Yeah. So it didn't occur to you that you had to pay. Just like any person in a fast food restaurant, like a McDonald's, many who hasn't changed in 50 years. And they're like... Like, they're cracking the code. They can't figure it out. Look, I never go to McDonald's. I don't know where they are. They're always stumped when I drive up there. I think I still finish fast food. That's not about about it, too. Yeah, probably. Breakfast? Yeah, breakfast. I think I still finish that turned fast food up. But Bob wasn't there. Okay. You said it was last time? Exactly. Unless I'm ahead. What am I supposed to do with that? I couldn't have been any time. No, I was going to be talking until later. What did you want me to do with that? He said you wanted to make fun of John? That was last time. I said you were reading "No Manera." I'm sick. There's a lot to make fun of. So what? You're going to make fun of John? Oh, I was... You hold your nose when you do it. When... I noticed that I was talking. I hold the nose. It sounded different. No, it's just one of those times where, you know, he doesn't like the feedback. So he's usually checking out. And so then when we finally get to start, it seems it happens more... It happens to me a lot where I noticed that's when he chooses that moment to open a bag or drop up. He drops something. It's always at the very beginning. It's always like... I always think it's funny. Because you're obviously not doing it on purpose, but yet it consistently happens. So it reminds me of my son who is always... He's not doing things on purpose, and yet they happen with almost regularity that you can predict it, and they're just like... So I think that's fun. Are you sure it wasn't when we were recording which was there for the night? Because I thought I remember to come in and then I stopped and we all met jokes. And I thought... Okay, I went around and Mike said I'm, you know, Mike playing... Michael Clay. When it comes to me around that time, I know. I never dropped that. You know what hasn't happened a long time is a giggle fit. We haven't had too many of those in a long time. Don't touch me, I swear to God. You're supposed to have fun. No, but there would be times where you'd be, you know... Well, we're laughing about stuff, but... It's a lot of stuff we have fun. It's new and airy. I mean, it's world of darkness you can't. Well, yeah. The three main ones are all themed, horror themed, so there's really not a lot of happy, fun, or even... Well, you hate the jokes and the puns anyway, so... You hate the puns. I think you're okay with some of them, but... I hate life, yes. The ones you make. Fun. Some guy at work posted on Facebook. Why did the mushroom get invited to the party? 'Cause he's a fun guy. Yeah. See, that just sucks. That's... Okay, it's hard to laugh at that. This is a bad pun that doesn't mean all puns are bad. Yeah, right. I've made puns before, like, 80% obvious time. You're just so disaffected. You're just like... I'm pretty sick, okay. Why did the potato chips say to the battery? You don't have to read these. I don't know. If you're ever ready, I'm free to lay. It's hot. That's just trademarked. These are reasons you unfriend people. I'm just saying. You are cutting them. This is why I never join Facebook. He knows I hate puns and he does it on purpose. I don't get why it's a potato chip and a battery. Why a battery? Never ready is a type of battery. And free to lay is a type of... Ever ready? Okay, you didn't say it like, "I'm ready." You didn't say it like, "I'm ready." Right? That's how I heard it. Okay. It doesn't make you suffer. I'm not your fact, explain it. Yeah, I get it now. Whoo-hoo! It's been a fun day. See who getting is? I've never had fun like this. I think if you go back and listen, you will hear me lose my mind. It's in there. One pause. You're gonna have to narrow it down. Yeah. That was... I remember new manera the most. Well, yeah, I did get one hinge there too. We all forgive you. But there was one where... I'm going, man. That deals with the little hoo stuff. I can't say that word. You just got to drop the... Is a monster hunter or something? Yeah. It's just a hoo-hoo. I've heard that one.