Read, Play, Game
Executive Decision - Game Discussion (feat. Sam Bible-Sullivan)
We go straight to the briefing room where we can learn the truth behind last week's tense situation from firsthand sources.
Want to try out the game yourself? Check out Greg Stolze's website at https://www.gregstolze.com/execdecis.html to download it!
If you have a suggestion for an RPG we should try out, email us at readplaygamepod@gmail.com or leave a comment on our socials: https://linktr.ee/readplaygame
Songs used in this episode:
The Star-Spangled Banner (Marching Band Version) by Kashido
Theme song is "Do You Really Wanna Know?" by Captain Qubz
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Broadcast on:
- 17 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to this episode of Read Play Game where we look at tabletop role playing games from every side of the table. We have just finished playing executive decision and this is our game discussion episode. Any thoughts anyone wants to jump in with? - Immediate, immediate. Also wanted to say just 'cause it's your first time on the podcast, fantastic job, Sam. - Woo! - Thank you, thank you, thank you. - Thank you, thank you, all right. - We were very excited to have you on especially for this game 'cause we know you love to argue. - It was very fun. - How did you figure that out? (laughing) - It's not like, you've ever seen me do that before? (laughing) - Well, feel asleep and I like to laugh. Were you in speech and debate or something? - No, I just, oh, you were. - I was actually, yeah, no, I was in speech and debate. Yeah, I'm talking Douglas. - I was a theater kid and a speech and debate kid, although I only did debate for two years and then I did speech for the last week. - It was amazing that you were as cool a person you are with that, with those ideas as well. - I started off, I started off, I started off, I started out of high school. I was in marching band, speech and debate and theater. - Incredible. - Oh my gosh. - I trifecta and I won prom king. So my school-- - You won? - You won prom king? - Oh my God. - Yeah. - Whoa. - We have very similar arcs, Sam. (laughing) - Did you go win prom king? - I didn't go to prom. - Oh, okay. I'm like, well, did you win? - These are two very different arcs. - I feel like you can still win. - Yeah, how many people on this fall won prom king? - I got ousted from student government. (laughing) - Oh. - Their face is killing me, why no one give me-- (laughing) - Why? - Why? - Yeah. - I was, because I made someone mad and then they tried to get me kicked out of the yearbook and then they like got me kicked out of student government because I told them, I was like, oh, the day, the application for student body president is today, but it was actually the day after. And they got really mad at me. - Wait, did you lie on purpose? Were you wrong? - No, it was an accident. Also, it's like, even if I had said it was that day, like if she had turned it in that day, it's not like it would have been late. - I don't know, it sounded like a misdow situation to me. (gasping) - Someone was rear-made males. - Misinformation, misinformation. (laughing) - Now listeners, that was a bit where we would yell misinput, misinput. So quite a masterful gambit on your part. - Thank you, we're cutting all of that out. - No, probably. No. (laughing) How dare you? - In regards to the game we just finished, I usually don't like big argument type games, but this game is making me rethink that because (laughing) I think the political setting and the sort of wacky tone of it all that we took with it made it incredibly enjoyable to try and pick apart people's arguments, see where I could get along for the ride with some people despite having opposing viewpoints. Like, I remember incredible, incredible character, Buster Ballot, you know, Sim for the president, keeps the voters first. We had opposing views on, you know, international politics. So anytime, you know, I would have a discussion with Buster about, you know, spinning something, I would deliberately try and not mention international politics. And then in other regards, I'd be really vocal about my opinion. So like, having to vote, or having to collaborate with people who also have similar viewpoints, but also different viewpoints, means that you have to like compromise in certain ways and like do some political double speak. That is honestly very engaging mentally. - I was worried at first that there might be like some like kind of like silence and downtime that would be hard to avoid. Like, like, I don't know, just because of how like sometimes like argument based games can go. It seems like a lot of times there's a lot of those games where you just like reach conclusions quickly. But I think the fact of like creating a character that you're arguing as adds a whole nother element to it. - So it's not like you. - Yeah, I think that it adds like a layer of like making it, like the discussion lasts longer because you're less likely to end up like kind of agreeing with like your friends. Which is like, can be an issue with argument games where you're just arguing as yourself. - Yeah, 'cause I was here in arguments and I was like, there are some points being made here. But I was like, that's not what, that was not what secretary made me think. - There's not a client of that. - Yeah, yeah. - I'd be very interested actually, like, I mean, you know, it is a very America, like United States government centric game. I'd be very interested to see how it could be kind of modded adapted to something else. Like, I mean, we were talking about like the wackiness that we kind of brought to it. Like, I think it could be a really interesting set up slash like rule set to bring to something like, you know, make it like sci-fi or like fantasy. Like it's a castle, like kingdom in a fantasy world and like you're like the round table for like Arthur, like, you know, galactic corporation type thing. I think that would be really fun. - I would love for it to be in the big Star Wars Senate room. - Yes, yes, exactly. - That would be delicious. - That would be delicious. - I have, I have heard a kind of version of this in actual play podcasts, friends at the table. They did a version of this game, I believe, but it was set in their like sci-fi setting. So like all these different factions, they established in different games, like kind of coming together and to talk about them. Very, very interesting. This game definitely has potential to be hacked. So. - Totally. I found out about this game. - Those were like my email. - For those like my email. - Where they played it. (laughing) - Yeah, they did, there's a Dungeons and Daddies episode where they played it and it was, they made up their own scenario where Pokemon were real. (laughing) - I just, I just, what did you do with the Pokemon? - That's awesome. The Secretary of Agriculture is saying we got it. - Yeah, no, I think like the only thing with the, I mean, there's a limited amount of like scenarios, crises in the rule book. And so I think that idea of like branching it out and making it whatever you want with that, is see, sounds super fun. Like you were saying with a Pokemon or any other thing. So I really enjoy the rule system and the idea of like making these characters for the argument is really fun. - Oh yeah, you had some good arguments too. Like I feel bad for shouting over them because they were very good. Like I felt the air leave the room when you made the point of, like, you know, the electoral votes, like. - Yeah, we were like, ooh! (laughing) - Like we were cheering up about Montana. - Yeah, I mean, I was-- - New York in California, do it at four. - Montana. - Yeah, no, that's what, I mean, I did, 'cause I was like, I was looking it up because I was like, Montana doesn't have that many electoral votes. And I looked it up and I was like, yeah. But you can imagine a world where, again, like, a politician doesn't make Montana about the electoral votes. It makes Montana a narrative that represents the American people. So-- - For sure. 'Cause Montana has Yellowstone and, like, Glacier National Park and all of these-- - And so many more sources-- - And American people. - Yeah! - And now a gorgeous factory. The Cavendish Corporation. - Yay! - Look, the factory's not over at Glacier, it's in the ugly part. - That's true. - No one cares about the ugly part. - Yeah. - This is so sad. (laughing) - I mean, it's kind of like the idea of, you know, like Joseph Tree National Park in California is the most-- - You mean Joshua Tree? - The National Park in the Joshua Tree. Did I say Joseph Tree? (laughing) - Senator Joseph Tree. - It's the most-- - Please, Joseph Tree was my father. - It's the most polluted National Park because, like, all of this smog from LA just kind of goes down there and it's like killing all of the Joshua Trees. - Oh, that's awesome. - That's bad. - Yeah. - I thought it was really fun. Like, I picked-- I'm curious how people picked their pros and cons whether it just felt like natural. I picked that I was opposed. Was it opposed or anti or what was it? - I think opposed versus-- - I opposed voter satisfaction because I wanted the president to fall out of favor so that I could be elected next term. And that was kind of how I thought of it. I also thought it would be fun to have at least one person who was against the president. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I think that was a smart choice. - That'd be interesting. - It was a good thing. - I think that made the dynamic. Yeah, very, very interesting. I just kind of like picked off like what I felt like my character would want. Like, you know, I felt like he, you know, he cared about image. - He knew the president for 15 years. - For 15 years. So he just wants the president to have a legacy that is like, you know, looks good. Like, like, he doesn't actually really care about like, I don't think my character didn't have any ideologies beyond like, look good and make money. - Like I say, I live my life. - I do wish I'd picked a con. I wish I'd picked something that I could be, that I didn't want to happen. I forgot. - It's very fun to oppose things, I will say, because boxing with the conservationists was always a joy. I thought about it as just like, again, military first, like upping taxes means more money for military, healthcare, you know, for veterans, international prestige. Who needs that? We're gonna bomb that. (laughing) Post conservation, you know, yeah. It's like to play somebody who favors the military, but you know. - You won! - You seem to enjoy it. - Yay, you won! - I did win. - Wow, that's so sad. - You crushed all opposition, all opponents. - You industrialized that military complex. - You industrialized that. - Yeah. - That's funny. - Thank you. - Oh, wow. - I chose mine because I was not offered the choice which I so graciously requested. - It was because you were singing it. - Yeah, it was 'cause you were singing it. - I chose both the Treasury and State-- (laughing) - Treasury and State. (laughing) - That's why I had balanced budget and international prestigious pro. And then I took anti-development 'cause I felt like that kind of went hand in hand with pro-conservation. - Sure. - Did you ever bring up the budget? - No, I didn't bring up the budget. (laughing) - The budget wasn't relevant. I mean, even in the final thing it went nil, you know? - That is an interesting part of this game. Some certain agendas are-- - Some things you just don't care about. - Yeah, these agendas, like we never brought up centrism explicitly. - I mean, technically, like centrism is about like-- - My point is that it's easier to know when somebody's anti-conservation or pro-conservation. It's less explicit when you're talking about balanced budget, centrism, like tax revenue health. Like those things are harder to see. - The reason I was anti-centrism was because metagaming, I was like, oh, we're not gonna come to an agreement. We're, it's gonna be either one way or the other. So I was like being anti-centrism because I was reading, it's like, oh, if there's like not a clear, like if it's hard one side or hard the other. So I was like, oh, that'll be an easy point. So that's why I did that. - I feel like you can make a character that's pro-centrism and it's kind of like, you know, like Futurama, those like, the people from the neutral planet, you make a pro-centrism character. That's just one of those, like, I feel neutral about this. - We never learned what happened to Jane Doe. - I was just thinking that. - Oh, what was the other option? - Oh, yeah, what happened to him? - Yeah, let's see if we just spay no re-go, rebuke the menu. - Okay, so if we had rebuked it, better to stand by my word, better for the environment, better for retaining face globally, better overall politically in parentheses, worse for business though. It would have been up for conservation, voter satisfaction, an international prestige, nil military-centrism balanced budget, and down development health tax revenue. - Can't have that. - If we spun the narrative, Ms. Doe is obviously just a political operative for the opposition. Presidents have always been approached by old friends and acquaintances for special favors to blow this single example, which was answered only out of kindness and friendship into a political issue is truly a repugnant of political skull-duggery. And it, this is actually pretty interesting. Two things go down, conservation and international prestige, everything else is nil. - Wow, so that would have been interesting. - I didn't think that international prestige would go down for that. I thought that- - I think that it's just like you even thought about going against the treaty. - Wow, I was honestly on the, I should have been arguing apparently- - It's on the wrong end of the pitch- - Review, I just, I didn't think that the American people would like it. - Yeah, that's crazy. - Wow, I feel like I really got into characters of political consultant there. - Yeah. (laughing) - Say nothing. - And he's probably would have won that one, because it was international and what is down? - Conservation and international. - Conservation and international, I would have gotten two points. - Oh, what would have happened if you resigned? - Oh, good question. - I, Loki was like, hold it together, don't save resign. (laughing) You have to keep your cards close to your chest. - I've tarnished not just my own image, but that of my political party and the office of the president of the United States. By stepping down, I sacrificed myself for the good of all three. Four things go up, conservation, voter satisfaction, centrism, international prestige, everything else is nil. Also, the vice president is now the president for the next crisis. - Wow. - That's what I was like, I can't, I was like, if anyone else does it, I'll go with it, but no one else is gonna say it. - One thing I find interesting and I wonder is like, is every crisis like one of the solutions resigned? - That would be hilarious. - That'd be so funny. - That, that I think is so funny. - No, I mean like, I wouldn't. - Yeah, you can always be real, I'm resigning. - I don't think so because this is specifically like kind of a kind of a scandal. Like it's kind of like you had a, it's like, I mean, it's, it's like emails linking, you know, like. - Oh, it's like, you know, if we got like, if a war was started resigning is not- - Yeah, if a war starts, I have to leave. - Oh, the war, peace. - I have a boundary about peace. I'm protecting my peace. - You have to have lines and veils as the president. - I think something that's interesting from reading what would have happened with those other options is hearing those other options may be realized, okay, like, I feel like there's some roles where you're gonna play the role and like maybe the better you play the role, the more likely you are to lose. Like in this sense of like, I feel like a chief of staff, why would a chief of staff ever argue to be like, yeah, like let's side with like, you know, the tree huggers and say no to like business and like, or for the other, why would it, like, the thing that got me was resign up to voter satisfaction, which would have helped me point wise, but like, why would a chief of staff ever go to prison? - But yeah, you're out of a job. - Yeah, exactly. So I feel like what's so funny is I felt like in the moment, like my character, the best option was to argue for spin. And I still would, I actually would have lost worse if I had- - Yeah, that's crazy. - I had a great time being the president. Thank you all for getting me- - You were a great president. - Yeah, you were president of the day. - You had a pleasure of my president. - Dammit, we've known each other since our Yale days. - Right, actually, so you knew the CEO as well. - Yeah, yeah. - Oh yeah. - And I wanted to highlight just this part of the presidential manual that I liked, which is you're the president in the game, but you're also the host of the game. It's your responsibility to make sure a good time is had by all. That means playing along with the one dissenters or she won't feel left out, do it. If it means arguing against all of them so that they'll have something to do, do it. For you, good sportsmanship is more important than finding out what would have happened if you picked the outcome you wanted. - I do genuinely think whenever we were getting loud, you did an incredible job of like separating viewpoint, making sure like interesting perspectives were being heard. I genuinely think that the order in which you picked everybody to go on the final round, date effect, like. - Jess, you almost had me. You almost had me. - Yeah. - Your last words were very convincing. - They were convincing. - They were convincing to me. - I think it was, it was- - Yeah, if only the time I'd gotten cut off. - Well, I think it was us as Sam being spin with the angle of supporting the friend. - Yeah. - It was- - Yeah, I had more sort of about how you can still be supportive of the friend and also how you could still spin, you could still spin it with, like you don't have, you could still mention her and still mention the FBI investigation while also rebuking the, but yeah, I'll get over it. - I think you did a really good job with like not only, you know, the order of like calling people out, but I think, I think it was fun like the, I like, like Sam was saying, like, I think I was also kind of worried like, oh, there'd be some moments of like silence or like figuring stuff out, but I think, I think everyone genuinely did a really good job kind of living in their characters. And I think you Tory did a great job of giving a trajectory 'cause it was like, we each had our own individual ideas of like, where we wanted you to go, but the way in which I don't think, like obviously you've made a decision at the end of which you wanted to go for, but I think you did a really good job kind of lifting each perspective and voice up throughout. - And staying undecided until the end. - Yeah. - Mr. President, a question. - Yes. - As we were, you know, yelling and truly chaos was just sending, what was it like trying to process all of that at once? - So it's interesting that you said I remained undecided, Mikey, because I wanted to support the memo, like probably from the first round. - Oh, well, fuck. - So because, and I'll tell you why, because Emma was able to put these very specific images in my head, which I think helped, like the American public, like someone who stands by their friend, like that I can, you know, the average voter, they don't like sneaks versus the more conservative in terms of conservation efforts, the more conservation, they were more like broad scale, like we have to protect the whole earth. And it was harder for me to picture an average like person. And then, Anish, you brought up like the healthcare. So now I'm thinking of the campaigns, like, oh, we get like, you know, wow, this saved my life. Like, so that was, it just became a lot easier for me to picture what that actually looks like in practice, whereas-- - Interesting real world barrel L. It's hard to conceive of the world melting versus, you know? - I guess that's kind of why I tried to reference like East Palestine and, you know, North Carolina with like how, you know, the train wreck that caused the, the leak of velvet in East Palestine, like-- - Is this in, are you talking? Is this in America with Ohio? - Yeah, it's East Palestine. - Yeah, it's in Ohio, East Palestine, Ohio. There was a train crash that caused a leak of velvet that poisoned like towns for miles around and like hundreds of people had to leave. And then in North Carolina, Duke power, Duke coal power like leaked a ton of coal ash into the river and poisoned thousands of people. It was a huge scandal. - But they're still in business. If you strongly disagree-- - Because it's the only option. - With, if you strongly disagree with the outcome that we came to in this episode, you should read The Injustice of Place, incredible book. And let me pull up, I have one more book recommendation for people. - Mm-hmm. - And let us know in the comments, get in the comments. - You should read-- - You should read, Injustice of Place, it's about American cities and towns that have been like gutted and left for environmental ruin, as well as all other types of ruin. And, oh, is this? Okay, never mind, I can't find it. There's a medical book that I read that was really good, that was invite about the environmental repercussions. - Oh yeah. - Under the skin, under the skin, the hidden toll of racism on American lives and the health of our nation. Very good book, very well-researched, looks at environmental racism. - That was the toughest thing about the beginning, 'cause I could, y'all made a good argument from the beginning, good argument in terms of the electoral politics, where I was like-- - Yeah. - And made me feel really honestly sad about the country because I was like, this is what works in the election cycle, like this is what the priorities are, 'cause I was sitting here like, we have to talk about the environment, and I was like, I'm not gonna get anywhere if I'm just talking about like the fucking tree-hugger stuff. So that's why I had to be like-- - Nobody's part of your character-- - It's part of your character. If you go back on your word to the American people, yeah. Which is very interesting, just way too. It's an interesting mental exercise to have to put yourself in those shoes. It's fucked up. - It's also fascinating to look at like other countries where politicians did stand up for things that are for the people, and they got voted out for it. Like in Australia, like several politicians like in Australia were very in support of like gun regulation and stuff, and it helped cut down shootings and all of that stuff. But a lot of those people didn't get reelected, but they were standing for their principles rather than get elected. And it's also like the fact that a lot of positions in America, like you get elected so often that you have no time to actually campaign for anything. You have to constantly be working towards re-election. - I think something that's very interesting about kind of like the stance this game seems to take though, is it kind of takes the opposite stance to that. Like we all immediately assumed like, okay, the voting, the people will care about, like the voting populace will care about jobs and they'll care about, you know, like, yeah, like not being a snake, like, you know, all that sort of stuff, like loyalty to your friends, which I think is so interesting because then the game actually punished that for voter satisfaction. Like, voter satisfaction was down for choosing that option. And so I think it's interesting where it puts you in the mindset of almost like a disconnected, like political official, where you're like arguing, like, I felt like a very, like, I felt like, wow, this is, I feel like this is so accurate of like a chief of staff who's like so actually out of touch with what the people really think and want. But like, they're so sure that that's what they want, you know? And then, and then ends up like not at all. - I will say I was lying through my teeth and saying that the voters would want that. I did not think that the voters would want someone who stands by their Yale friend instead of the international community. But I was like, you'll look like a jerk. - And it's very strange because in parts of the game, if I was a political advisor, actually, with the president's interests in mind, I would be swinging towards the Buster ballot solution, which is like legitimately like, find out more information. And I felt myself doing that at certain points. But like, when you remember that this is an RPG where you can win, like you have points. - You have a gender. - And you have a chance to like get points. Like you, at some point it's literally sometimes fuck the president, like listen to me and do what I say. - Your arguments were making the most sense politically, Sam. - Yeah. - Well, but then that's the other thing though, is like, we say that, but then the game also kind of punished that too. It was like, in action, it just kind of means that nothing-- - No, nobody likes that. - Yeah, it's just kind of like no one really cares. So I thought that was interesting too. - Which is exactly interesting, Sam. - I would also like to say, my personal like, if I were actually like a political advisor, I'd be like, hey, yeah, like stand in international agreement. Like, don't like, let's think about climate change, you know? - Yeah, this is a very good example of mechanic being tied very closely to theme and very effectively. The fact that it's a competition really exposing that, that kind of is how it works, in that all of these people are competing for their own agenda and somebody does win with each decision. - I also really like that you don't know what the results of the agenda you're fighting for will be. I think that forces you to really just be in the role play and like actually just be like, this is what I think is best even and then, you know, even depending on whether or not it will actually get you what you think it will. - And I think for some roles, it's more clear than others because I think it was like, like for me, I was like, obviously this choice is going to be bad for conservation. Obviously it's going to be good for economic development. So I already know this is going to go against my agendas so like doubling down there. But then there were more vague positions with the rest of you. - It was, I think the reason it was so easy to support it or like is because if it had been like, okay, we need to like mine this land and then leave. The fact it was like a factory which hypothetically and the fact it included healthcare. I think for me, that's kind of what tipped the, it's like, and I don't know, yeah, it was cool. And I liked being able to listen to everyone's points and the fact that like we get new information at different times was a lot of fun. Yes, it like reignites. - Oh yeah. - I wish such a fun job was done too. I'm like, wait a second. - I'm getting an urgent memo. - I was on the edge of my seat. - Freaking news. - After I go get a press conference right now. - Yeah. - That was fun. - 25 minutes. - We did non-stop yapping for an hour because one, I think we just like yelling. It was very fun to yell. But also like the structure of the game really keeps everybody on their toes. Like the complications really affect the win conditions for each individual character. And I thought that was super fun. - Is there anything people would have changed? - Yes. I have no idea how the assertion mechanic works. - Yeah, the assertion mechanic got lost. Got totally lost. I think he was lost. - I don't think it was discussed before, like it's only discussed in the winning like the points. Like I don't think there's any discussion of the assertion mechanic before that. - I think that in a more like, I think that we're also in it for the love of role play. I feel like groups that are in it more for like, I don't know, even with the whole assertion thing in mind, I don't know how often I would remember it to be like, I'm going to make an assertion here. I'm staking my claim on it. I think I'm just gonna live in it versus I feel like, like I do think that a more expansion on how that works would be helpful for it being a mechanic. But to me that didn't do anything. - I think if you focus more on the assertion mechanic, then this, it actually ends up being more of like a murder mystery situation. Like it adds in that element. So it like totally, it switches the dynamic of the game. I definitely think the assertion gets lost if you're focusing on role play as opposed to like, - Figuring. - Yeah, like getting points more. - Assertion, I thought this was executive decision, not exclusive bio. - Whoa. - I think I would prefer, I liked this scenario a lot. I thought it was very fun. I think in general, I would prefer playing hacks of it. Like I think the setup is really interesting. I think different worlds. - Yeah, like the Pokemon idea you were talking about, Sam sounds really fun. Really, yeah, or like, you know, yeah. - And what's interesting about that though, is that you kind of would have to have, in addition, like what this provider, a writer in addition to like, 'cause the president is somewhat a GM in a loose sense, but like the president can't write the scenario because they should not know the developments. They shouldn't know what things are gonna lead to 'cause they want to make a real decision. But it's what, I really think that this is an interesting thing to compare to other games we've played like executive, like exquisite biome and the ground itself and stuff like that. This feels like the exact opposite of a world-building game. This feels like this is exclusively role-playing. - This is- - It's exclusively interacting with the world. - Yes, that's already built already, not only in, you know, it's an existing our world, but it's also the scenarios built for you. The framework of your situation is built for you. - Yeah, I don't know if I'd rather live in a world where hard mechanics like assertions are removed or implemented, 'cause I think I just love the fact that there are just a couple of scenarios, a couple of agendas, and you just go for it. - I think there's a lot more than a couple agendas. (laughing) Sorry, I sounded like agendas, I'm sorry. - Oh, I did not get it. - Oh, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, roll that back, roll that back. - Propaganda, I'd like to take a prop again, roll it back, roll it back, roll it back. Oh, wait, what did you say, Jess? You think they're what? - I think there's more than just a couple agendas. - Yeah! - Oh, my role! - Good joke, ah! - We're cutting this out, we're cutting it out. - You don't want, you want to assert that the podcast believes that there's only two genders? - Gavagul? - Gavagul? - Come on, I'm sorry, are we pro? - Okay, I'm gonna get back in the show up there. - I'm pro people thinking you're funny. - We have to- - You've got a loser binary. - Yeah, Mr. President, Mr. President, I think the issue is that a lot of people in the public think that the gender binary should be said no more. - Okay, we have to stop talking about this. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. - Are you saying this is where this is- - Yeah, and we're getting back into it. - Now. - No, I'm leaving this in to show the American people how you guys have moved it to me, apparently. - You don't have your background on it, and it's kind of taking me out. Like when you turn off your camera, it's not the crying anime person, and I was expecting that. - 'Cause we have interviews. - On the assertions that we kind of just missed, something I felt compelled to do was to get everybody to recap and like explicitly state, are you option one, two, three, four or five? 'Cause I think that was helpful. 'Cause it's great to hear the arguments and get the ideas flowing, but at the end of the day, because it's a point system, I was like, are you support or are you spin? - I think I understand now. My opinions, in a world of political double speak, I don't think assertions belong in the system. Like it's hard to like really nail that down. I guess I'd need to hear a good example of what it sounds like, but I mean, I love the idea that you're just kind of whirming your way into an argument and like Buster Ballot found out. If we had went with his solution, he still would have lost completely. - Secretary Joseph, I missed your like snively voice that you started with. - I forgot what it was. I didn't remember what it was. I tried to remember it, but. - I had an idea of a voice too that just kind of fell away, but I loved the like, here, here, like. - Is that what I was doing? I don't know at the end. Came back at the end though. - Hello spider, hello, Mr. Spider. - I think the speed I do, one bite from Arachnus desiccuts. - I think you forcing us to recap and pick an option was incredible for multiple reasons. One of them being that it allowed us the space to not explicitly say what we were backing earlier, which I think really helped Sam be on my and Anisha's side more until the, you know, like allowed us to be like, yeah, we're all together on this. No, we're actually not, you know, like. - Yeah, that's how it felt. I remember thinking, oh, Mikey and Jess are kind of like out on an island 'cause y'all, I don't know. - Oh, I felt out on an island. - Really? - That's funny. Yeah, what? - Yeah, no, you're out on an island. - I thought you were in the same camp from the beginning. - We were on the same island. - Yeah, I was like, I was like, it's three against two here. Well, I was supposed to say only one of us had no people on their side at the end, so. - That's true. - That's such a, I just like the information. - We use you, Sam, and I'm sorry. - Okay, that's what happens to Chief of Staffs all the time. - I think it was also 'cause you were making so much sense that it felt necessary to like piggyback on your arguments and then be like, but actually we should do this. - Yeah. - Like all of that, and that was helpful. - Yeah. - Any recap thoughts? We feel ready to give a presidential sign off to this game? - Do we approve this message? (laughs) - What's up, my name? - We're gonna make one political statement here. Please re-elect President Zack Gordon for the next term. - I think Shane Wilson's taking the dog on this one. - I think Zack Gordon is about to be like out. - We did it, Zack. - It's definitely gonna be a Joe and Kamala situation where you're gonna step down. - That's a fun game. I think you can play in whatever tone you would like, but I think this game thrives in a sort of campy situation and a V-like tone. - And I think it's definitely worth considering what we talked about last time with kids on bikes where Emma was talking about like the context in which you play games is very important. And I remember when Emma and I were talking about this game behind the scenes, what? - The context. - We insist on the context. - We just call out of the coconut tree? - Like if you're playing this game in a, like Emma made a good point that this game was made, you know, 2005, which was I feel before a lot of modern safety tools and RPGs existed. And especially game like kids on bikes where the safety tools are so like explicit and ironed out where it literally mentions like, if you're playing this game, you know, like a store or like in a public place, be aware that there are people around you. So if you're like discussing big topics, like racism or whatever, like bigotry, you know, like if you're, if you're discussing that stuff, people will hear you. But if you're doing it in your own house, like it's good to have the, have the comfort of all the players in mind, et cetera, et cetera. If you're doing it on a podcast. - And the comfort of anyone who, yeah, this is your public consumption. - Anyone could listen to this. So it's like, we really, really have to make sure we're saying stuff that's like, - Not that we have to like censor anything necessarily, but it's just like. - Well, that aligns with what we believe and like, look, the woke mob is coming to get us. (laughing) - No, yes girl, they're coming, but we're stronger. - Role-playing gives us an opportunity to be scummy politicians and we don't believe in scummy politics, but you know, it's undeniably funny. - I mean, I believe in it. (laughing) - I believe in it. (laughing) - It exists. - Like it exists, it's real. - It exists, it's real. - I believe wholeheartedly. - Wait, wait, wait. - Wait, Pam, the earth is flat. - Oh my God. - Oh my God. - Sam, you were saying something? - I was gonna say, I will say that I do not play this game in public. If you play this game in public, you're a menace to society. Oh my God, this game is meant to be played in the privacy of a home where you can yell. Like, don't play this game if you have like neighbors too close by either, honestly. Like, I feel like you got to get lost in the sauce on this game. - Yeah, so yes, the fact it's almost 20 years old, happy birthday, we don't see some of those safety mechanics. Another thing I would love to be baked into the rule book just 'cause of like how I like to play is, I love that we gave our characters names and had like a little bit of an intro. 'Cause in the rule book, it says something like, you're not Martha of suburbia, you're Martha of whatever. - Yeah. - And so like they don't even have, they don't have that like degree of separation between yourself and the character. It's like, you're just taking on the mantle of the role. - And I like that, I think it's fun and it was neat to like have these, just like loose ideas of who these characters were. And I also love, this was a quick game. - Yeah. - Feel like we were able to get into it and also like had a nice satisfying arc and it's only, it's early in the night, wow. - Honestly, like an ideal one shot and even potentially like entry point to role-playing. Like if you, if like the like heady mechanics and a lot of dice like get you nervous, but you like the idea of like the improv element of it and just like playing a character, this is the game for you. - An intro to role-playing games for theater kids who did an improv. - For theater kids. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Don't be screaming at me. - If you are shy, this game, you would hate. - It's not for you. - It's not. - That's for the assertions I feel come in. - This game is for annoying people. (laughing) - It's, it can be pretty overwhelming though. So a word to the warning if you, you know. - I can imagine listening to the podcast version 'cause you know, playing is one thing. - But thank you so much for having done that. - Yeah, and you listeners. - And it's, I, this is not a game that I think I would wanna play with people I don't know. Well, I'm not like, this isn't an icebreaker game. This is a like, let's feel it each other. You know, like it's fun. - I'm actually really glad I wasn't one of the ones arguing. And I'm so serious. - No, for real, I'd cry. - You were one of the ones arguing. - You were one of the ones arguing. - You were one of the ones arguing. - You won the game. - You won the game. - Yeah, you won the game. - I almost cried. - This was crazy to be part of, for people who do not know Aneesh in real life. When we play secret role games, Aneesh is not, does not like that. Well, I don't wanna say that for you, but Aneesh always plays a chaotic version of the game that it's just like, I can't, I can't go for it too much because I don't wanna get like my, my assumption of it. And you could correct me if I'm wrong. It's like, I don't want to have to like, push too hard for my agenda. So I'm just gonna cause chaos. - Yes, that's honestly right. - And you won this game. You were like, all that out the window. I'm fucking winning. The military will prevail. - It was also, it was also very convenient because of the scenario and just the things I picked. But yeah. - Yeah, I mean, this game is kind of a flip side to the coin. It's like, it's the other side of the coin of like a secret identity. - Yeah. - I feel like this is like, the new identity. - Yeah, like you're doing the same, kind of the similar thing of like debating, arguing, but everyone knows who everyone else is and kind of-- - And you know, and you sort of know their agenda after a couple arguments. - I am curious, did anyone think that I was going to be anti-voter satisfaction? - I did not. - I did not. You got me. - I just thought you were on my side and I didn't care. - Yeah. - You, I mean, I feel like in the rule book or maybe you had said early on something about like, oh, I think it's actually in the rule book. Part of your rule description is like, the advantage of the vice president is to try to get as much revenue as possible for them to come. - And I'm not worried about, yeah. - Because the president's the one who takes the heat. And then in the next cycle, you'll have that tax built up and this person, the president will have dirt. So then you can kind of come up and like be sweet clean and yep. - What's interesting, and I just realized this, I didn't suspect you were anti-voter satisfaction because you don't, if you're in favor of, I don't know, like building factories and development, it doesn't matter if you're, unless you're pro-voter satisfaction and anti like, or pro-development, it's not like an internal conflict, right? I don't think we had too many internal conflicts with our agendas. - I didn't think mine would be and then they ended up being completely hot with the results. - Yeah. - But that'd be a difficult selection. So I'd be interested in playing this game with randomized agendas. 'Cause then you would have to like really make it work. We had like thought put into it that made sense with our characters, but it'd be super fun to be like, okay, we're handed this problem and I'm-- - I'm pro-military, pro-conservation, anti-voter satisfaction, let's go, let's go. - Exactly. - It was a good call making me the secretary of the interior because of the relevant issue there. 'Cause the other ones wouldn't have been as relevant. - I didn't even think about that. - Yeah, look at that. - I was being petty, to be honest. (laughs) - It's fair. - We're just punishing a Hamilton reference. - Treasury or-- - And that's always valid. - At least you're talking about it being like stressful and like, I don't know, just, this is not for the podcast or whatever, like, I just am like, if we talk about it later, you're like, I don't remember a thing. Like, I just, (laughs) I blacked it out. - That's why we record it, that's why we record it. - You're gonna listen to it and be like, oh, I yelled. (laughs) - Oh, I yelled. - I'm surprising, I think I'm okay, but-- - Yeah, I could see it maybe being stressful 'cause like, especially if I feel like, you're not listening to me, you're not listening to me, it can get like upsetting. - That's, I think it's fine 'cause it's y'all. If I was with a new group of people, like, I'd be like, time to end it all. (laughs) This sucks. - Speaking of ending it. - Yeah, good transition, that's good, that's good. - Yeah, awesome, thank you so much for listening. Now we are going to roll to see what the next game we're playing is. Sam, please take it away. (claps) - Woo! - Six. (gasps) - Oh, okay, what game is that, Mikey? - So our next game will be Heart, the City Beneath. - Yay! - Woo, woo, woo, woo! - Once again, thank you so much for joining us, Sam. A pleasure, Mikey, thank you so much for having me. This was so fun, this was great. - You can cry. - This is our home, Sam is part of one of our home games where we play as mice. - This is so true, this is a, yeah, shout out to mice. - Nice, nice. - Yeah, shout out to mice night, shout out to mice night night. - And also in a game with Anish and me that just finished after four years of running. - And we still have an epilogue session. - We still have an epilogue, still have an epilogue. - Suffice to say, Sam, we love RPGs on the podcast. - Woo! - And I love them in real life. - And on the podcast. - And on the podcast, yeah. No, thank you so much for having me, this was super fun. - Maybe you can follow us on Instagram now. - Yeah, sure. (laughs) - Wow! - Wow! - I think that's too beautiful. - You're using Instagram, right? - I don't, did y'all send me, did you follow me on Instagram? Like, did you send me an invite or something? - I have no idea. You're just, you were like, do y'all ever use video clips? I was like. - You see, I hear something about this all the time in person. I am never on Instagram, but I should be supporting y'all. - A great time to say that any listeners, please. - That was hilarious. - Link in our bio. (laughs) - It's so good. - Always on all socials. - And with that, we will see you at a different table. - Ooh! - Whoo! - In the heart of the table, by the city, the table beneath. (upbeat music) - Hello there, reader of players and gamers. We really appreciate you tuning in to our executive decision listening session. And we're so excited to play heart as a group in the coming episodes. However, we had a bit of a scheduling change. Sorry about that since the Secretary got fired, it's been all over the place. So please bear with us and enjoy our playthrough of Eyes on the Prize. I'm Zach Gordon, and I approve this message. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)