We talk food hacks, bags of tricks, the Speaker, and what the heck this arc title even means. This is the Afterparty, where we sit down after every episode to break down our game and answer your questions about how to play at home.
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- website: jointhepartypod.com
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- music: brandongrugle.bandcamp.com
Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master: Eric Silver
- TR8c (Tracey): Brandon Grugle
- Inara Harthorn: Amanda McLoughlin
- Johnny B. Goodlight: Michael Fische
- Creative Contributors: Connor McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, Heddy Hunt
- Multitude:
Transcript
[theme music]
Amanda: Food hacks!
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: Favorite food hack. Fish, go!
Michael: If you squish a shrimp, they’re yummy.
Amanda: Brandon!
Brandon: You dip your salmon crostini inside of some tahini, you get a salmon cros-tahini.
Amanda: Eric!
Eric: Make sure to butter both sides of french toast!
Michael: Amanda!
Amanda: When you’re assembling a taco for yourself, put the lettuce first, that way the stuff doesn't get the bottom of the shell soggy and it breaks!
Eric: Food hacks!
Amanda: Food hacks!
Michael: Also, just use a tortilla and don’t make a taco!
Eric: Hard shell tacos are the worst! Food hacks!
Michael: Unless it’s around a cheesy gordita crunch Taco Bell shell.
Brandon: Those are delicious.
Eric: Then it’s the worst for different reasons! Food hacks!
Michael: I had Taco Bell this week.
Eric: Yikes!
[all groaning]
Eric: Are you allowed?
Amanda: Oh, how you doing?
Eric: Are you alive?
Michael: It was a mistake.
Amanda: Oh no.
Michael: Speaking of mistakes…
Amanda: Listen, I thought shrimp was a really good way to get Alonzo to come with us, but he just-
Brandon: He resisted the call of the shrimps.
Amanda: He did. I didn’t think it could be done.
Michael: What does a shrimp call sound like?
Amanda: [trying to make a shrimp sound] blurururururur
[Brandon cracking up]
Michael: That is the correct answer actually.
Eric: Oh my god.
Michael: You might think that was Amanda doing that, but no Brandon just Googled it.
Brandon: I just held up a shrimp into the microphone.
Michael: Yeah, Brandon found a shrimp and held it to the microphone- that certainly wasn’t Amanda doing a spot-on shrimp impression.
Brandon: So the shrimp foley…
Eric: Remember when we taught people to play Dungeons & Dragons during the Afterparty?
Michael: What’s Dungeons & Dragons?
Eric: I don’t know.
Amanda: Okay, here’s my theory though: Bridge is Mercutio. Am I wrong?
Eric: Similar. Yeah, occupies a similar role I would say.
Brandon: Name from a patron?
Eric: Yeah, this is Bridge!
Brandon: What up Bridge!
Eric: The very nice Bridge who also edits ‘Tides’ and is a very big member of the audio drama community. We knew you back before you even edited anything!
Amanda: I know!
Eric: And we’re happy that you are a part of our Join the Party fam. Talking about Bridge the character, here are my notes for what I wrote for him.
Amanda: Oh good.
Eric: Uh, ‘This is Schubes.
[Amanda laughs]
Very cool. A good dude. Watches Bachelorette TV. A v good boy.’
Amanda: Aw, that’s sweet.
Eric: That’s what I wrote as the character.
Amanda: Also good hair.
Eric: Yeah good hair as well.
Michael: Bridge with the good hair.
Eric: Brid- yes.
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: I really appreciate the chance to make friends with another woman who's here in Fidapolis just living, just trying to get through the day. This happens all the time where you'll meet another person and be like, ‘Flirt! Flirt! Flirt! Flirt! Flirt! Oh no, we’re gonna be friends now.’ Like that’s how all friendships start. So I appreciate that Ella and me are friends.
Michael: I can’t tell if she’s disgruntled because of the position of what she’s doing in life, or if this is the personality.
Brandon: No-
Amanda: I think- I think she is fucking cool and no one understands her.
Brandon: Yeah, I’m gonna be honest, Johnny, like she’s cool-
Michael: Johnny?
Brandon: Yeah, I’m talking to your character right now.
Michael: Okay…
Brandon: She’s cool, you just had a weird interaction with her. I want to be her friend.
Michael: She’s in my character sheet as ‘Friend.’
[Eric laughing]
Brandon: She is.
Michael: Question mark.
Eric: She’s not dis-
Michael: And she’s always been in the character sheet as friend.
Eric: She’s not disgruntled. I think that you can imagine that in Kiko castle, not many people use the library. That was always my assumption. There’s like people of specialty, so like James shows up all the time, but she’s kind of lonely in there, so she amuses herself. So she’s disgruntled as a person, not because her job… She loves being a librarian-
Michael: Oh, okay.
Eric: But like, she likes fucking with people.
Michael: That’s what I meant to ask is- is it the problem was being a librarian, or is it that’s just who she is. It’s who she is.
Eric: It’s who she is.
Michael: Because that was what I- that was the question. I have the answer. And thus the Afterparty continues.
Eric: Yeah.
Michael: Tune in as we come back from this commercial break.
Eric: I was not ready to pull an old character out of my pocket. I’m worried that like- I just hope that my voices are not running together.
Amanda: I really appreciate it though, because I was like, “I’m leaving!” and I’m glad I was able to go explore other parts of Kiko Castle which I have not been able to do yet.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: So I have a question.
Eric: Okay.
Brandon: Religions are running headfirst into each other at this point.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: So, the Speaker is a god? Demi-god situation?
Eric: The Speaker is an aasimar which is like half-god-
Amanda: [whispering very quietly]
Eric: No, that’s ASMR.
Amanda: Oooh!
Eric: That’s different.
Amanda: Damn. Damn.
Brandon: Oh, she’s not that?
Eric: She is [laughing]... So I guess the aasimar-
Amanda: Yeah, I think turning purple and yelling is the opposite of ASMR.
Brandon: That’s my ASMR.
[all groan]
Eric: The aasimar are- and I must have talked about this when we first met the Speaker- The aasimar are demigods, but with like a fantasy bent to it. They have like a literal peace- a celestial peace inside them.
Brandon: Well, I want to know more about her role and her stature within, like, this religion.
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: Yeah, because we had a little bit of table talk during the game when I was asking about Cronopolis to say like, “Wouldn’t this be Grenovis” like what does and doesn’t she know about the like day-today- goings on in the city states? But clearly by the end of the episode we figure out that, you know, this is kind of happening under the radar, or at least not to her knowledge until things got kind of too bad and need a real intervention.
Eric: I think there’s a balance going on here. Like she knows everything to an extent [sighs]... I’m trying to think if there’s any sort of parallel, because it feels really clear in my head.
Brandon: In my head, she’s sort of the CEO of a massive company, but there are also board seats, so she can sort of be out-voted by a majority of the board, or whatever, you know what I mean.
Michael: And the board is the Representatives and that’s why I was referencing- in my head, it’s actually very similar if not the same, because in my head I’m thinking there has to be a chairman or something that’s giving this CEO power. Because the Speaker is that- a speaker, and ostensibly divine right is the ultimate form of government in these places, even though there can be elections, so the divine right is given through the Speaker to give these Representatives the power over their city-states, that center is Concentra.
But that doesn’t make the Speaker the ultimate like chain-of-command, like higher up person, or ultimate in charge of everything, because if not, things wouldn’t have gone so disastrously for our team so far.
Eric: I think what we’ve learned is that one person can’t do it all. So she knows a lot-
Michael: Well that’s why she’s so stressed and I’m just trying- Johnny’s just trying to like give her a night where she can just calm down, we can-
Eric: Uh oh.
Amanda: Oh no.
Michael: -talk some- some friendly things about religion-
Amanda: Oh no.
Michael: - we can talk about meditation, swap stories of like dealing with stress. I’m not-
Amanda: In candlelight, sitting close to each other-
Michael: I’m not intending-
Brandon: Maybe one hand slips on top of the other hand, and then we’ll see where it goes from there.
Michael: Basically-
Amanda: A knee touches a knee.
Brandon: A knee touches a knee.
Michael: I’m just trying to help a fellow religious-
Brandon: An elbow touches an elbow.
Amanda: And that’s all.
Michael: I’m trying to help a fellow religious person who’s going through some tough times.
Eric: The role of Speaker and aasimar I guess is passed down from aasimar to aasimar, they live for a pretty long time, so it’s like she is in fact the chairman of the board which is all of the Representatives.
Amanda: Mhm.
Eric: I think it’s closer to that. She knows as much as she can in the way- it’s the best way to think about the American government and [mumbling] I don’t know, we have some problems with the American government, but- [speaking normally] when you think about just like a government that has to collect information, and like they go off the information they have, but at the same time, she’s not gonna get involved with every single thing that’s a problem.
These city-states are independent. They’re a confederacy of states that lean on Concentra and the Speaker and the larger powers that be when they have a very, very large problem.
Brandon: So then I’m- maybe we’ll have to discover this in game, but like I’m super curious about how these three gods- now that they’re sort of less ethereal and more tangible, or at least pieces of them are, how does the Speaker fit into that three- trinity-
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: And then Johnny’s lantern. Also hey, you have a piece of your god in your lantern.
Michael: No, I know that.
Amanda: [laughs] I wonder what proximity to the compass is going to do to your lantern.
Michael: The way I’ve been thinking about religion- and I’ve sometimes talked with Eric about this- is that with D&D, you have- when you have religions and gods, like people have different relationships with them, and this is interesting to have a system of government that’s very connected with and very- almost inextricably linked with their religion, because normally that’s not the government’s role-
Amanda: Yeah.
Michael: That’s like the religious corners or sects that live within the, and alongside, the government. Or even clerics.
Amanda: Right.
Michael: Like the Speaker who derive their power from their god.
Amanda: Yeah, when we learned about the Centering, my kind of read of that whole situation was that the Trinity was kind of decided upon. That’s how it sounded to me, was like there were lots of things happening before we decided to come together, and the most stable and like broadly appealing version of whatever religious life was like beforehand is the one that we have now.
And so to me it’s almost like Church of England style, like yes we’re talking about Labor Party so, you know, maybe there are some comparisons to be drawn, but Church of England is like yes it’s religious, but it’s also political, and yes it’s sanctioned by the government but also it’s separate from the government.
So if I were somebody growing up in the Concentric Sates, my wonder would be like how tangible are these gods, like are they a presence, are they personalities, are they a story, are they a metaphor? You know it feels like we don’t have a lot of really tangible links or experiences yet.
Michael: And the thing is, that’s like the normal D&D experience though, right, because unless you’re a warlock who’s associated with some deity-
Amanda: Divinity, yeah-
Michael: Or a cleric or a paladin-
Amanda: And even then you just channel it, you don’t even necessarily communicate-
Michael: Right.
Amanda: Unless you're really channeling the divine.
Michael: But- but- but the fact that you have a power would suggest there is some sort of divinity there.
Amanda: Right.
Michael: The fact that the Concentric States are basically divine righted by these Trinity would suggest that either because of the Centering these gods were created, these gods existed beforehand and they just picked three of the many gods that could have happened, or they don’t exist and the Speaker is speaking on behalf of other deities that exist, just as the Undying Light and the Undying Shadow, in the Player’s Guide, it shows that it’s beyond the plane that even the gods are, so like it is divinity but it’s a different kind of divinity in that it’s enveloping a lot more.
Eric: I drew this little chart here, and you can see, and I’ll pass it around, but it’s basically like there is a triangle in the middle, which is Devar, Adamah, and Zeol, which is the Trinity, and then the circle around it which is like- there is a positive plane and a negative plane, which is kind of what we’re getting at here is that the Undying Light is the entity of the positive plane and the Shadow is from the negative plane. And it’s not that they are- they are not inherently good or evil-
Michael: Right.
Eric: It just positive and negative.
Brandon: It looks like-
Amanda: Like electrical charges.
Michael: Right, it’s like- life and death, like that’s why you need the balance-
Amanda: It’s a balance.
Michael: And that’s the whole conceit of Johnny’s religion. Sign up now, call this number,
[Amanda laughing]
You know, donate as much as you can for reasons that will help the religion I’m sure and not my new obsession with buying cars.
Brandon: And it looks like- for the listeners, it looks like if you’re looking at the front of a Pokeball, but instead of the circle button, it’s a triangle, and then at the top of the Pokeball it’s the Undying Light and at the bottom it’s the Shadow.
Eric: But the triangle is much bigger than the button of a Pokeball.
Brandon: Sure.
Michael: Yes. Draw a circle. Draw a triangle inside the circle. Draw a line dividing the circle in half, but it doesn’t divide the triangle in half. Boom, there you go.
Brandon: And then go catch a mewtwo.
Amanda: This is an audio medium, we’re doing really well.
Eric: This is also not to say that Devar, Adamah, and Zeol are not- like they’re not good or evil, they are not positive or negative, they are just the forces that the people of the Concentric States and this major religion- this is what they believe control everything.
Amanda: Yeah, right and any of them can deal in any of those forces.
Michael: Like we found out today, Zeol has dominion over time, even though previously we have heard that it’s only death.
Brandon: How do you guys feel about going on an adventure with the Speaker?
Michael: Well I feel bad for her. [everyone chuckles]
To be honest. I feel a little bad for her, because like-
Amanda: Or is she gonna be like your band director who on your annual trip to Virginia Beach gets wild?
[Brandon laughing]
Michael: I just feel bad because, you know, she has a lot to deal with, and she had put a lot of faith in Alonzo- we all did. We want Alonzo to be better. I personally- Johnny disagrees with just leaving him there, I think Inara does too-
Amanda: Me too, yeah.
Michael: But I’m not sure Tracey cares.
Brandon: I don’t- Tracey doesn’t want to be his keeper anymore, but I don’t think it’s the right decision to just let him like wallow. Like as a way of fixing his issues and problems, it’s not gonna work.
Michael: But I will say it makes sense that this is the decision she’s made because she’s like frustrated that every time Alonzo leaves, something happens, or-
Amanda: Yeah, he can get into a lot less trouble at home than he can in a new city.
Brandon: He ran off last time. I don’t think this time’s gonna be any different.
Amanda: I don't know, but I mean at this point I was kind of surprised with how firmly aligned with him Inara feels. I mean it makes sense if you wanna just think about the psychology of their situations for like 25 seconds, but I wanna go to Greg and kind of take him by the front of his shirt and say, “What is going on here? Can we fix this?”
Brandon: Oh my god guys, we buried the lede, they broke up? What?
Michael: Yeah, did they?
Amanda: Yeah, I’m assuming people are making assumptions just because Greg left the city. I hope.
Brandon: Or is Greg telling people that they broke up?
Amanda: I don’t know. I mean, it- I see how he could be doing that in order to get Alonzo to come find him and face this.
Brandon: Just being dramatic, or something, you know-
Amanda: I don’t know.
Eric: If there's anything we know about Greg, he’s definitely not dramatic.
[Amanda laughing]
Michael: I like that the three of us are basically- each of us are interested in a different aspect of Alonzo- Amanda and Inara are- it seems are a lot more focused on the relationship, Johnny and Michael are a lot more focused on responsibility, and Tracey, Brandon, want him to become an independent person who doesn’t need-
Brandon: I want him to be someone who’s happy with himself-
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Michael: Like fully realize as a person, which is also why we have such different thoughts on how to handle Alonzo, but we can all agree that, um, I don't know what we can all agree on.
Eric: Food hacks!
[all laughing]
Michael: Food hacks. Take out the line on the scrimps because that is the intestine.
Brandon: Cut a hole in your bread and fry an egg in it! You got a hole- what is it? A frog in a hole?
Eric: No, let ‘em figure it out.
Brandon: Toad in the hole. That’s what it’s called.
Eric: I did not know that.
Amanda: Toad on a log.
Brandon: Toad on a log!
Amanda: Log on a marsh.
Brandon: Log on a [laughing].
Amanda: Marsh in a forest. Willow o the Wisp in the marsh, what?! I’m dead!
Brandon: I’m following you- oh no! We’re both dead!
Eric: I think it’s interesting that you guys have these really complicated feelings about Alonzo but sometimes they get expressed like, “Man, fuck that guy.” [laughing]
Amanda: I was-
Brandon: That’s what you do in real life, though.
Amanda: Yeah, I- that was something I’ve been thinking about a lot is, I think exactly as Fish just pointed out, each of us has something that we care so deeply- I mean this reminds me of my own siblings, you are the maddest at them because you love them the most. Like I would often say when my siblings got me really mad, like I would jump in front of a bus for you, but I would not sit next to you on a bus if you paid me.
And so I think each of us as players and our characters, you know, something about his quirks, his deficiencies, his like hot spots, map with us individually in a way that make us just react so strongly to him, but clearly we care about him. You know, it’s never been clearer to me that Inara would and has done anything for him. And I really want to see him succeed, but maybe Alonzo’s dad thought, “You got married, you’re a man, you’re starting your family, you’re branching out on your own, becoming your own person, and you’ve wanted independence for so long, and okay, do it.” You know like kind of like pushing the fledgling out of the nest a little.
But it’s so hard when you have a sibling, a kid, a friend, whatever who, you know, need to stand on their own. Do you let them fall over and over again, do you swoop in and pick them up every time they stumble? Like it’s so hard to judge what the person needs and what like the happy medium is.
Michael: This also makes me wonder, why is the Speaker at the Kiko Castle even when Alonzo isn’t there? And not at Concentra.
Amanda: Yeah, I don’t know.
Eric: That’s a good question.
Brandon: Also she’s like a- she’s a super saiyan?
Eric: Uh, yeah, the Speaker’s a very, very, very high level cleric. Um-
Michael: I’ll catch up.
Eric: And the reason why Alonzo probably won’t break out is because she cast a spell called Planar Ally. And Planar Ally says that you beseech an other-worldly entity for aid, the being must be known to you, a god, a primordial, a demon prince, or some other being of cosmic power.
Amanda: You know, just demon princes.
Eric: That entity sends a celestial, an elemental, or a fiend loyal to you to aid it, making the creature appear in an unoccupied space within range. If you know the creature’s name, you can speak their name, blah, blah, blah.
Amanda: Well, this unicorn’s name is Scrimps, so I that’s all I have to know.
Brandon: I literally imagine just [giggles] Alonzo escaping on top of this unicorn now.
Amanda: I pictured Scrimps in wellies, so congratulations I now picture all quadrupedal creatures with shoes on.
Brandon: With shoes? Very good.
Amanda: And now for some questions from our listeners.
Eric: This is from Sky the Goose Lord: I was curious about this and wasn’t sure if it was asked before, but what would have happened if Inara failed that Dex check when the hooded Assassin Guild person threw marbles at her? Would she have not been considered ready for the Guild? Amanda, what do you think?
Amanda: I feel like that’s more of a question for you, but I don’t know I- maybe there would have been another trial, you know like another kind of pass or fail test. And certainly would have made things more challenging when Autumn showed up if Inara had no proof that this was something that she’d encountered before.
Eric: Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, it’s a big ‘if’-
Amanda: Right.
Eric: But I had an idea of what would happen if you totally just like spilled all of them. I think you would have had a lot harder time dealing with this whole Assassin’s thing.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Because this has kind of been in the background and they were like, “Oh yeah, new recruit, whatever.”
Amanda: I haven’t like messed anything up horribly yet.
Eric: Exactly. The only thing that happened is that like Johnny keeps trying to be friends with the Assassins’ Guild.
[Amanda laughing]
Brandon: I think that’s what would have happened-
Michael: Why would I want to be friends if I’m- why would I want that when I already am? Like, you know?
Eric: [chuckling] This one is a question for me, but I think everyone can throw stuff in for this. This is a question from Gordita Lives, who is also known as Jordan.
Brandon: Gordita live?
Eric: Gordita!
Brandon: That’s delicious. Okay.
Amanda: I’m so hungry!
Michael: I’m so hungry.
[Eric laughs]
Eric: As a DM, have you ever had times where players left loose ends that came back to haunt them? Do you think that might happen in this campaign?
The short answer is yes [laughs].
[all laughing]
Amanda: Uh, GREG!
Michael: All we do is- that’s like- that’s [laughing]
Eric: You guys breeze into town, you’re like, “Pew, pew, pew, nah! No consequences!” and then you leave and go-
Amanda: Blurt! Wink! Flip Day? Bye.
Brandon: I don't’ see any problems with that. I don’t know…
[Eric laughs]
Eric: You’re right. Tracey has never done anything that had… consequences.
Brandon: Consequences. No, never. I’ve never had to answer for anything. Fish, do you have any campaign stories like that?
Michael: I can think of regrets I personally have as a DM, like letting a character use a whip to heal.
[Brandon laughing]
Like it was a joke.
Eric: I have one that I never got to pull on, but there was this campaign that I used to play with Amanda and Julia Schifini from ‘Spirits’ and Eric Schneider, and Julia’s fiancee. Julia had this relationship with- she used a Bag of Tricks and got a panther, and then she got really close with the panther because like a god got generated, it was this whole thing. Basically she had this really emotional moment with the panther because after 24 hours, the Bag of Tricks animal goes away.
And she gets pulled in her head by like this panther god that got created, like half-god, half-displacer beast, and she was also a Horizon Walker, so it would have been like this whole extra-planar thing. So what I really wanted to do, I wanted to keep pulling her and see if I could get her corrupted by this god, and we stopped playing, and I’m upset that I never got to really pull on that thread.
Brandon: I have one, actually. My favorite thing to do in campaigns is to like have a theme that I sort of just like bash you over the head with, but like turns out to have a fun ending.
[Amanda laughs]
So like one of the campaigns I did, the end goal, which we never got to, was- is it druids that can summon things? Something- some creature, some class whatever can summon things from like the underworld basically, like hell, and there’s this big dead dragon thing that they were gonna have like tied up in an arena and they were gonna meet them, and that was gonna be a big turning point in the story. So I sort of like, from episode 1 started like planting little dragons throughout the campaign.
[Eric laughing]
Amanda: That’s adorable.
Brandon: So like the first thing like they would find scales somewhere, and then one person got a little dragon and then a mini dragon familiar, and then like they went into a town and there was a guy- it was Necromancers, that’s what it is.
Michael: There it is.
Brandon: So one of the guys that works for the- like assistant of some of the necromancers, was like dressed up in like a big dragon foam costume, and like was handing out fliers. So like I like to add in those little details of like what your upcoming campaign thing is gonna be like. That’s always fun.
Michael: I’ve got another one. Again as a DM, and it was again a mistake on my part- this was not a like good group of people, character-wise, good, evil, lawful, neutral, whatever. And they had to like find a shady person, part of the Underworld in a specific town to get some information, and then when they returned after like whatever thing they were doing, they decided they want to take over all the illicit activities of this city. So they did. And I kind of had to build gameplay around that.
Amanda: Wow.
Brandon: So like they ran like-
Amanda: The mob.
Brandon: - drug rings and stuff?
Michael: Yep.
Amanda: Wow.
Brandon: Cool, so I quit that campaign for you.
[Amanda laughs]
Michael: No it was great. It was actually a lot of fun because they had to figure out how to, you know- it turned into like a completely different game. It turned into like this weird crime thing, but they were the bad guys. I don’t know, it was fun.
Amanda: I would love that. Like I love that kind of like underground, like figuring out how to get the things that you need and especially in like a corrupt society, you know like if the services were such that you had to kind of do your own thing. I find that to be really, really fun, the sort of like logistics of crime is fascinating to me.
Michael: [mumbling] There was a lot of logistics.
Eric: That’s what Blades in the Dark is for. That’s what- we should play that game.
Amanda: It looks really fun.
Eric: It’s all about heists. Yeah, we definitely need to play.
Amanda: Or if people have media that they love: books, movies, TV shows, et cetera, along those lines, like please hit a girl up.
Eric: I know this is a little off track, but I really want to play a horror game. I hate horror movies, but like a kind of love the tension of being in it.
Brandon: I think it’s hard to pull off. Like in a good way, like it’s so rewarding when you can get a horror game going that like feels good. It’s hard to do, though.
Eric: Yeah, so Thirteen Candles I really want to try again, we played with Fish once. And I really wanna play Dread, which is the one with the Jenga.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: With the Jenga system, which I freakin’ love.
Amanda: We should do it.
Michael: There’s a Shia Labeouf.
Brandon: [in high pitched voice] Shia Labeouf!
Michael: Do you remember that song, the Shia Labeouf song?
Amanda: Yup.
Eric: Yeah.
Michael: So someone on Reddit, a hero-
Amanda: [laughing] A gilded hero.
Michael: -made an RPG system based off of that song, and I’ve had it bookmarked forever, and I’ve always wanted to run it. And the rules are crazy. It’s a lot of tension. You only get like one item. Shia has like multiple lives. The mechanics are brilliant, and it would really work. One of the things I like about horror is when horror has like funny moments, because you need that kind of tension-cutting, because everything-
Brandon: Like ‘Get Out’?
Michael: Yeah, because it can’t all just be jumpscares, because otherwise it’s not- it’s not good. ‘Cabin in the Woods’ I really liked for that.
Brandon: Yeah, and it’s interesting for horror because a lot of the tension and suspense you get from horror are based on sounds.
Michael: Yeah.
Amanda: Yup.
Brandon: LIke there’s that new movie that’s all silent with John Krasinski- jump scares, they’re not scary unless you have the string hit behind them.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: So like figuring that out in the real world is really hard to do, but when you do it, it’s so satisfying.
Amanda: Yeah, that’s why Thirteen Candles was fun for me, because you have that kind of real like sensory and atmospheric element, which was really, really cool.
Eric: Yeah you just gotta keep it intimate.
Michael: And you knew like at the end, you were going to die anyway-
Amanda: Right, which as a player-
Michael: -so it was all about the journey.
Amanda: Yeah. Makes me really relieved.
Michael: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, which is why I like the Jenga one, because there’s inherent tension in Jenga.
Michael: Yeah.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: And then it’s like you put that on top of the horror movie you’re living in.
Michael: Jenga’s already a scary game.
Amanda: It is.
Michael: Like I don’t- it’s scary.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Alright, this one is also for Fish. This one is from Artemis: Hey, what’s Johnny’s opinion on black lights?
[Amanda snickering]
Michael: Johnny has dark vision...
Brandon: Is this your goal, whatever thing you’re moving towards is just a blacklight? Because it’s both dark and light?
Michael: I guess that is the solution- Johnny’s done.
[all laughing]
We can pack it up.
Amanda: [laughing] Artemis solved it!
Michael: Johnny- Artemis solved it, Johnny will invent a blacklight, and that will be the ultimate combination of Darkness and Light. Ooh, or red lights. For like photography studios.
Eric: You don’t have to put on the red light. Roxanne. Wait, wait, wait, I have a question. Why do you think it’s called Labor Party?
Brandon: I literally don’t have a clue.
Amanda: No I have no idea.
Brandon: I have no idea yet [laughing].
Amanda: I pictured Parliamentary debates, so if there are going to be a bunch of Representatives yelling at each other… sounds fun.
Brandon: Why do you think it’s called Labor Party?
Eric: Well, I actually know why it’s called Labor Party.
Brandon: Do you wanna tell us?
Eric: Noooooooo!
Brandon: Okay, this was a fun discussion.
Amanda: Fun question for us to have.
[Brandon laughing]
Michael: We will ponder it and once- once henceforth we have an answer, we will verily entreat upon you a seat at the table for us to together-
Brandon: Can you say that in a British accent?
Michael: [in old, British accent] And verily we shall entreat upon you to have a seat at the table with us henceforth to discuss matters concerning the naming of this arc, so we share with you the ideas and theories of what this could possibly be.
Brandon: Very good.
Eric: We just need more voice work from Fish, really.
Michael: [in accent] Truly, because he does not like the voice that he had for Johnny, and wishes it were something different.
[Eric laughing]
[in scratchy old man voice] Like the old man voice.
[all laughing]
[in Southern accent] or Southern Johnny!
Amanda: Thank you very much for joining us in this first Afterparty of our new arc. Ooh, so exciting!
So please leave us your theories, your questions, either in our Discord which is the most poppin’ place on the internet. It’s where all of the patrons for Join the Party hang out, trade theories, trade photos, where we pull all of our NPC names from. That’s at patreon.com/JoinThePartyPod. Or talk to us on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Tumblr. We’re @JoinThePartyPod in all the places.
And if you have a friend that you think would love the show, this is the perfect time to share the show with them. It’s a new arc, new me. We have recaps of all the previous arcs, so if they don’t want to listen to all the previous episodes, no shame, that’s cool, they can just listen to our very short plot summaries at jointhepartypod.com/recap. So share that link, tells you how to listen to the show, tells you where to start, and recruit more listeners to the cause. Alright, without further ado.. No, sorry, that’s ‘Spirits.’ Uh, alright.
Brandon: Do it. Meld the shows. Meld the shows.
Amanda: Multiverse.
Michael: Become one.
Amanda: Multitude-averse. Cool, well I think that’s pretty much it for our Afterparty. Anybody have wisdom to leave our listeners with?
Brandon: Food hack: don’t store your bread in the fridge. It’ll go stale. Store it in the freezer.
Michael: Food hack: don’t let your ice get smelly.
Eric: Food hack: you can make your own chipwiches at home with a Ben and Jerry’s pint and those really soft cookies from Pepperidge Farm.
Amanda: Food hack: if you only have one appliance, make it a toaster oven. They can do more things than any other appliance.
[snapping]
Brandon: Snaps.
Eric: Good one.
Brandon: Bye guys.
Michael: Undying Light be with you.
Eric: See you later.
[theme music]