How do you run three fights at once? How is Val doing? And is Aunt Min a #girlboss? All those answers and more in the Afterparty!
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Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Milo Lane), Co-Producer, Editor, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Aggie O’Hare), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Co-Host (Val Vesuvio), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is a collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast, powered by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. That means a group of friends create a story together, chapter by chapter, that takes us beyond the tabletop to parts unknown. In the first campaign, we explored fantasy adventure, intrigue, magic, and drama. In the newest story, we tackle science, superpowers, a better future, and the responsibility to help others.
Every month, we sit down for the Afterparty, where we break down our game and answer your questions about how to play D&D and other roleplaying games at home. We also have segments at the beginning of each campaign to teach people how to play the game themselves. It’s a party, and you’re invited! Find out more at jointhepartypod.com.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello and welcome to the Afterparty, where the overwhelming question this week is, "what the fuck/thank you/NO!/Yeah!
Brandon: I like that the overwhelming question is "no!"
Julia: No! Not a question, there's a period at the end of that.
Eric: Well, first, I'm sorry, we have something very important to do. [Singing] Happy birthday to you, [Brandon laughing]
Amanda: Marilyn Monroe, I didn't invite you here.
Eric: Happy Birthday to you!
Amanda: I thought that was a private thing?
[Julia and Brandon laughing]
Eric: Happy birthday [stammering] Uhhh Amandaaa. Uh Mr. Amanda!
Amanda: That's me!
Eric: Happy birthday to you.
Amanda: Oh, thank you.
Julia: I was going to sing along, but I didn't want to ruin that.
Eric: That's fair.
Brandon: Eric, put your shirt back on Eric please.
Eric: Okay, sorry. My shirt. I got to put my shirt back on. I realized how much hand movements I do during voices.
Amanda: There's a lot of handwork. Yeah.
Eric: Like you guys, for everyone who was at the live show you saw what Tuna is. But like Marilyn Monroe was like up here, I did like a cop and his his hands are like up on my chin. So...
Brandon: That's true. You do.
Eric: I didn't mean to derail your happy birthday with talking about voice work. Happy birthday, Amanda!
Amanda: Thank yoou!
Julia: Happy birthday!!
Brandon: Happy birthday!!
Amanda: Much appreciated.
Eric: We're also celebrating Brandon's birthday because Brandon won't tell us what his birthday is. So happy birthday, Brandon.
Amanda: Yes. So we just have a vague sense that by the time it gets to mine, we've missed it. So sorry. Sorry we missed your birthday, bud.
Brandon: It's fine. It's fine. Maybe next year. Maybe next year.
Julia: We just wish it every day will get it right eventually.
Amanda: It's true.
Eric: You have all the clues Batman!
[Everyone laughing]
Amanda: But there is a lot to talk about in these two episodes. I'm so glad that they were paired together just in the way that the Afterparty cycle ended up working out, because this is awesome. So getting into the real questions here, something that I would love to talk about everybody is the fight mechanics, I think was our first fight where we were all kind of engaging with different enemies in different places at different times. And I frickin loved it. So Eric to sound off a little bit on the mechanics?
Eric: Yeah, absolutely.
Julia: Some of you fought and some of you got fired from jobs. So.
Brandon: That's like fighting the system, though, you know.
Eric: Yes, exactly. Once as always, I like shouting out Mischa Stanton, who I say, "how do I make this work?" At least I just yell at Mischa until we figure something out. And Mischa gives me wonderful ideas. And it was just the idea that Aunt Min wanted to threaten Val in a way that really hurt them. As we said, Aunt Min. That's the kind of person who's going to shoot you with a gun. She's going to ruin your life in so many ways. She was executing that at the same time. That was phase two, which was Salimony trying to take out preserver hiring Cottonmouth. I want to make this clear. Cottonmouth was hired by the mob to ruin Milo's favorite place.
Brandon: Oh!
Eric: Which is Thornhill.
Brandon: I don't even know if I realize that.
Eric: That's why Aunt Min said Kilonova's neighborhood was in danger. And that's why Cottonmouth was running around saying like, "oh, look at this gentrified hipster shit! Hate this. You must hate it that I'm ruining your place."
Brandon: Self-hatred is a really powerful emotion to feel, you know.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yup. And then Aunt Min was trying to systematically ruin Val life. I mean, they didn't want to hurt Val, but they didn't want to realize that they didn't have anything left to do but to join the mob. And I think that - was that was the ultimate thing, like putting the fear of God in you, that you don't have anything and your mom could be hurt at any time.
Amanda: That's true. Before we get into the specifics
Brandon: [Laughing] JULIA'S SO SAD.
Amanda: Yeah, Julia, the people would like to know how you doing? And how you coping?
Julia: It's just really funny because I feel like the past three Afterparties, everyone just keeps saying "are you doing okay?" And the answer was, yeah. But also I realized all of the anxiety built to this episode, which was the most anxiety filled episode, and I just was like just so anxious. This was like the peak of the anxiousness. Now I can relax a little bit, quote unquote, but. Yeah, I'm okay.
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: I just loved it. I mean, I love it because I feed off your anxiety. It's delicious like chocolate syrup to me. But I love this because although this arc was called Join the Channel, I gave you all two things to pursue, one of which was the criminality stuff and the others over the YouTube stuff. And the way that the roles worked, even from Episode one, was that you guys just never messed with Bones Botti and you never ran him down or tried to figure out what his deal was. But instead it was really all about the crimes. So that's where we got the Danny stuff. That's where we got the Knight of Mirrors stuff. Became you guys pursuing the mob stuff that again, I had to put the squeeze on Val. And this is the the culmination of that. Yeah.
Amanda: To me Val is so capable and sure of themselves that I didn't feel anxiety as a player because I'm like Julia's got this like A: she has the rolls, and B: Val knows what they're doing and like knows what the right answer is. So I think you did a really good job Julia like, you know, really considering something and kind of weighing all those factors. I hope I hope people are not too, too worried.
Julia: You know, this was something that I wanted to kind of reveal early on, but I wanted this episode to come out first. But in my head, when the whole thing with the painting and Val failing that wisdom check, I in my head said to myself, what is the thing that Aunt Min can say in order to get Val to turn to the mob? And if Aunt Min had said that, like in canon, Val might have taken her up on that offer, but it wasn't said and then Val didn't.
Brandon: Can you share that is that's something that still in play?
Julia: Yeah! If Aunt Min said out loud, you can make your community a better place by working with us. Val would have done that.
Eric: Oh, that's a good point. I don't know. I don't think that but Aunt Min's out from the community never in a million years would have said that.
Julia: But that's how I kind of interpreted Val's experience with the painting was I can make my community better. So if Aunt Min had said that to them, they would have 100 percent been, okay, I'm down. Let's do this.
Brandon: Yeah, Min went the other direction. It's like, wouldn't it be a shame if your community wasn't as good if this happened.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Where the things you loved about your community were the things I took away from it.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Mhm. Yeah. I mean I never would have done that so that's wild here. I'm just like I think the painting is really interesting because it exists in this other way. Like whatever Danny's powers do is kind of divorced from what Aunt Min is trying to do, running the mob of LTC. And like that is what people also see like mobs and I guess other like armed groups, they do try to improve, quote unquote, improve the community. But do they actually do that or is that just a front for you to collect money from them? And I think that Aunt Min never would have said that. So I think that's really interesting. And the the relationship we have with the painting is much deeper than anything someone could have said, which is, quite frankly, much more interesting to me.
[Amanda laughs]
Julia: I'm glad it worked out the way that it did. It would have been interesting. You've Aunt Min had said that and Val and down the other road, but didn't end up happening.
Brandon: It would have been very difficult for me and Amanda to have a mob player.
Julia: Yup!
Eric: If that would have been wild, though, I feel glad that I never would have thought of that. Like if I had missed something and I didn't say it, I would have been kicking myself. But that's incredible. I love that. Amanda: Yeah, but especially in a campaign two, where like there is no perfect organization and no perfect system like Dr. Morrow is fallible. Certainly the state and the police are not like the people that we hold up as like this is right, and everything outside of the law is wrong. So I think there could have been a really interesting way for us to, like, deal with that choice of Val's to be like, how do we, you know, just like Dr. Morrow, how do we take a platform and turn it for, like, genuinely the most good? You never know. Maybe in a maybe in a one shot we'll all be mob people.
Julia: That would be fun.
Eric: Oh yeah. Let me talk about the fight mechanics!
Amanda: Right yes! Get back to it. SCREETCH!
Eric: Yeah. So I wanted to speak on the fight mechanics. That's why I wanted the Val to have to deal with this in a different way. They were always going to be like very small scenes of you on the phone making yourself sweat out the ride to your mom. So is this going to be straight up charisma checks, I am happy that we were introduced to Mizzi, who is my new favorite and sorry. Sorry, Chad. Sorry, January. It's all Mitzi now. Mitzi dice coming 2021. Which was wonderful. And I love that you couldn't convince Dom because like. Was there a gun to his head? Was there something else happening here, has he been under the thumb of of mobs for so long that he can't get under it? I found that really interesting. Someone who we met in episode one being cracked like that I loved. So then that was paired alongside the thing the Preserver had to do, an elongated skill challenge, something I've used a few times throughout, Join the Party, but I'm really leaning into it like a scene building here. For those you don't know, skill challenges are really just like depending on how many successes or failures you get is how the scene turns out and it gets played out that way, whether you need to attack or whether you have to make a saving throw or whatever, like I keep track of the score on my side. So, like how that played out, it was really like a mixed success there. You had like pretty even wins and losses. So I really love, like the tension and realizing it Salimony at end who's just like blowing up buildings, which I just love. Julia: I loved his outfit.
Amanda: I loved his outfit too. I do have to confess that this is the one time in either campaign where I have felt like frustration at failing a check where at the end of that scene, because I didn't know what was going on, like looking back, obviously, like I see it was happening. But I was so caught up in the fiction that when I had that split second decision to fall off the building and I still got hit anyway, I was like, "Why Eric! Why can't I fall off the building?"
Eric: I remember that. I remember that
Amanda: Listen, that's on me. I personalized it. It was still awesome anyway, I just wanted a little accountability moment for everybody. And yeah, I was like, but "that was such a good idea, why can't I succeed?!"
Eric: And that's why you survived.
Amanda: I did survive.
Eric: So you totally survived, which was awesome. I keep forgetting that you have like supernatural powers.
Amanda: I'm a monk baybee!
Brandon: I love it when Amanda just says, yeah, like without hinting at it at all. It's just like"I fall off the building"
Eric: And I was like, okay, I have to do math. And she's like, "no, no, no,"
Amanda: No, no, no, can I get this back as change>
Julia: No, no, no, you did the math already.
Eric: And then of course, I paired it with the one on one superhero fight that happened between Cottonmouth and Kilonova, which I loved, because it actually like a twist on. And maybe this is like how I see Join the Party at large. But it was a twist on something that I had seen from not another podcast. They had done this because they love Kobold Press. They figured out this like boxing mechanic, which is like if you have two people who are in a boxing ring, you're going to do the same thing that I explained in the episode. But I'm like, okay, well, we've been talking about like what it means to have power and what it means for two magical folk, or two powerful folk, or two like PCs even, or like a PC, an enemy. What
does it mean when they fight? And I'm like, oh, this is a perfect opportunity for, like those big Marvel ass superhero fights where people are just slugging each other. And it's not fun necessarily watch the HP go down. But I do want Cottonmouth to become like a fucking smoke genie and I want Kilonova to respond
with with ghost powers. Like that is how we do it. And I think is because, like, it's swing for swing and then who wins that? I like the contest of that. And I really want to keep using this for when we have to one on one powered folk. I think it's really fun and we're going to keep doing it.
Brandon: Yeah, I think it's really effective. I love it. Especially when I win!
Eric: Yeah, listen, I rolled like dog shit. I rolled like dog shit. You beat me fair and square on that second round and there's nothing I could do about it. Like Cottonmouth had the upper hand on you and then you wailed on him man. Yeah, I really love that you could like put your spells into it, which I feel like is the best way to to have like a magic user do it. I was really happy with how you were like burning those spells. It was like you were taking the power of a spell slot and like putting it in a punch.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: And I felt that that was really just like mechanically that was really satisfying.
Brandon: I love it.
Amanda: It'sJen9 would also like to say not a question, but the music in the last episode slaps fire emojis.
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: Good job, Brandon!
Brandon: Didn't write it, but I appreciate the appreciation for the use of it.
Eric: Thank you for putting it together.
Julia: It's the use and the placement man.
Amanda: It is, yeah. We're going to move now into a section that Eric titled "How Are You??" Question mark, question mark, italics, and first Julia, Brae as well as a bunch of other people in the Discord, want to check in on how you are and I'm glad to know that you are good now. But DeadlyKitten98 on Insta asked I thought was a really interesting follow up question. Why didn't Aunt Min attack Val mom? Was it because she knew Valse Mom is a bad ass or. My editorializing is just because, like, the fear of attack was enough.
Julia: I think it I think it was a intimidation tactic for for instance.
Eric: No, I definitely think it was an intimidation tactic. While knowing it was coming out, I was kind of kicking myself about giving you another moment. If you and your mom had to fight a powered guy in the apartment, much like in Into the Spiderverse when they fight in the Queens house at Aunt May's house. But I loved the scene that we got out of it, was so beautiful and poignant between Val's mom and Val, which is so nice and yeah, I don't think Aunt Min still thought she could get you. So why would she hurt your mother?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Is just like there were still the opportunity for her to call you and be like "this is what could happen. Do you want to come over?" And then remembering, even if you say no, that the fear of like Amanda said, the fear was enough and that if you say no now the fear is still there.
Julia: I'm going to admit I had some real fear going into this episode. I genuinely thought you were going to hurt either my mother or Hitomi.
Brandon: If you ever hurt Hitomi-
Eric:: I shut down
Brandon: We riot.
Julia: I know, but physically.
Amanda: Jinx!
Eric: Brandon and I both - both said that at the same time because we did we know. Brandon: Where does your mom keep her vegetables? In the refrigerator?
[Eric laughs]
Julia: Just on the bottom shelf. If the crisper's too- other occupied.
Brandon: Aw but the lettuce. The lettuce is going to get all wilty!
Julia: See, we - we have arugula in our house. Not lettuce.
Amanda: Ooo I love it. Got that peppery green.
Eric: [Laughing] I know it's true. I just like said it.
Amanda: Thank you.
Julia: All our salads are caprese salads!
Amanda: There it is.
Eric: Well Brandon. You don't keep tomatoes in the fridge. So what other vegetable do I need. Amanda: That's what I was going to say, you keep the veggies in the fruit drawer in the fruit on the counter because that preserves the flavor.
Eric: Exactly.
Brandon: That's true. That's true.
Eric: And I can and I could just leave the onions where although ever the fuck ever. So like where what am I going to need the crisper for?
Amanda: Cool dark place baby. There were multiple questions to if Dr. Morrow and Carmen are okay. So
Julia: Carmen's fine! Carmen, just living her best life.
Amanda: Absolutely. And Brae also wanted to know what’s Carmen's social media handle.
Eric: I really want to shout out Tanya, who responded to this on our discord that she suggested @CarmenNotSanDiego as her main.
Brandon: It's extremely good.
Eric: And then @CafecitoConCarmen as their priv, their private.
Brandon: Damn that's good!
Eric: Muah, thank you.
Amanda: Tanya, it's beautiful.
Julia: Those are canon.
Eric: That's it. Carmen would 100 percent have a Spanish referring Twitter name. So thank you, Tanya, for bolstering that. I appreciate that. Listen, so I saw someone was being like "is Carmen okay? Why does she drink so much coffee?" And I'm like, because she's 23. And she runs social media, social media for the government. Like that's why.
Julia: Cause she can!
Amanda: And all social media people are overworked and underpaid and expected to just like be awake at midnight when when their boss you know, tweets something irresponsible. I, I really several people
who work in social media management were like, I feel seen thank you very much. Athena would also like to know, by way, a follow up. Does Dr. Morrow need a witchy girlfriend and can I volunteer?
Eric: Eric, those fanfics, baby. That one's out of my hands. Mayor Dr. Morrow is too busy.
Brandon: I vote for it.
Julia: She's too busy trying to genetically engineer Blockbuster, which was ridiculous. [Everyone laughing]
Amanda: I love it. And our final. How are you? Cece asks in discord. Everybody asks, who is the Knight of Mirrors? But how is the Knight of Mirrors? They seem stressed, to say the least. Julia: How are they doing?
Eric: Yeah, they're like stressed Batman.
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: Yes. Hilarious. I love that so much.
Eric: Yeah. They're like uh
Amanda: If this is the 90s. I'd be like, turn it into a new strip.
Eric: Yeah, it's Batman Beyond. They're like Batman Beyond or Red X. Like they're such there's such a Robin like Dick Grayson in my head that well I guess we never established the Red X was Dick Grayson anyway. Whatever. Yeah.
Julia: It it!
Eric: It definitely is. It super is but we don't - but who can say really. Who knows. Never seen Red X and Dick Grayson in the same place. But who knows who can say. But yes, they are very stressed but they're dealing by driving around on a motorcycle.
Brandon: Don't we all?
Julia: Wind in their hair.
Eric: Wind against the reflective surfaces of their face.
Amanda: A couple of questions on fame and fame mechanics. TangSu on Twitter asks, Could you fine, folks please describe how fame works mechanically in your game?
Eric: Sure. The fame mechanic was a little squishy for me. It was kind of like bringing in some more storytelling and lyric, more lyric games into year. Like I feel like it's very Mask's, or very Monster of the Week, just like have an ambient famous score. Basically, you can use a famous score if you want to do something in front of other people. It's kind of an ambient whether or not you remember to do it or like if we remember it's happening or depending on who's around. But it's kind of like, here's this extra bonus, but people will see this. So to your own detriment or success, if it all works out so it's a little squishy. Sometimes I forget to use it. Sometimes we don't we don't end up using it. But it's more like this superhero story is an especially modern superhero. Stories need to reckon with people looking at heroes and then having feelings about it and either saying it in person on the Internet. And I think that this the episode with Carmen kind of put a button on it. We didn't really end up running it down because, like I said, we didn't really run down Bones Botti as much, which is fine. But like, it is something we need to talk about. And like, listen, we're not going to have we're not going to have a whole arc about brand building. I'm sorry. We're just not going to do that.
Julia: I almost consider it proficiency in superheroing.
Amanda: Yeah, like public acts of healing is how I see it too.
Eric: Yeah. There's a playbook in Masks called the Star, which I'm playing in a home game, and it's a lot of like ask your audience or offer yourself up to your audience for help and you get bonuses. But if you fail then like they're going to demand more of you and or you get a penalty and people like you, lesser people are going to comment on you. So that's kind of like what the fame mechanic is going for. It's a little bit different. I mean, remember, the fame mechanic only only went down in that one episode, like lots of times ago, just because of the roll of the dice. Brandon has 0 or had -1 for a while. Julia had 2 and Amanda had 0 or 1. So it's just like he doesn't do that much, but it does do something.
Amanda: Yeah. Red smoke in discord said Val has always stood out to me as the most recognizable as in anyone who doesn't realize that that is Val who knows Val already is kind of oblivious the social media pro Carmen just seems to slide by that and say that they can change their outfit now. But how many people already know about false identity, their whole family?
Eric: This is something I wanted to put a little bit of a button on for this. Like, listen, a nat 20 is very powerful. I said this last time and no one's going to recognize Val. I think that we understand this because Val is the main character of this story. But like I would say, Val is the least recognizable publicly in the world of Lake Town City. Aggie is relatively public and so is Milo and at least their small worlds. And they understand them. And yeah, the Little Italy community knows who Val is and like, yes, Val has the least cover up costume. But like I think Val also fades into the background the most.
Amanda: They also vibrate.
Eric: Val also has the most, I would say has the most subtle power out of everyone because Preserver has a sharp hat and can run up walls, and Kilonova has ghost powers. So like, if you don't put the fire on, I think that Val can like slip into the background is just like a rather short person with a cool haircut.
Julia: This is also the argument that people make. It's like, oh, why doesn't anyone realize that Clark Kent is Superman? It's because they hold themselves differently. And, you know, I'm also mostly face blind. So it's really hard for me to identify someone I've only met once. So if I saw someone in a superhero persona and then I saw them later in. A just like average citizen persona, I probably wouldn't put two and two together, no matter how bad their costume was.
Amanda: Yeah, our relationships are so contextual. And I think, too, that's in the genre of. It's a little handwavey, like it's a little bit like, oh, there are heroes, you know, and we can we cannot drill down on that too much because I think I speak for all of us when I say, like, it wouldn't be super fun to constantly do stealth checks to, you know, see if like your neighbors recognize that you're driving your pickup truck toward the scene of a Preserver, you know, fight.
Eric: Absolutely. And I mean, listen, I have to hew to that nat 20, that was incredibly dangerous for Val. Val put themselves in an opportunity to be seen and luckily it didn't happen. So the I handwave, the fictionist to respect the role. So if it does feel handwavey more like - it's because we're not writing a novel, we have to respect the respect the dice.
Brandon: It's weird that Eric's wearing a T-shirt that says the fiction has to respect the roll. [Amanda laughing]
Eric: That's new dice, actually, it doesn't have any numbers. It just has that different sides. Listen, you would also fucking recognize Batman. Like think about Batman. Bruce Wayne is such a public figure
Amanda: So rich!
Eric: And he's so rich and he's always having benefits. And then you see a guy in a in a spandex like, is that Bruce Wayne's ass?
Brandon: But his voice Eric. [in a Batman voice] I'm Batman.
Julia: Oh, no, he does a different voice!
Brandon: [Regular voice] That's why no one can understand, no one can understand who Milo is either, because his voice is so different.
Eric: Milo is very similar to Michael Michael Keaton being Batman in that just like he just whispers a little bit. It's just like, hey, hey, I'm Batman.
Amanda: And Joest on Insta says, and now for a cursed question. Do people ship Flyboy and Kilonova after their public display of affection? There was that close talking.
[Eric laughing]
Julia: They probably do, which makes it so much worse.
Amanda: Listen, no judgment here.
Brandon: No, I'm judging that ship a tiny bit, but you could do whatever you want. But that one in perticular.
Julia: No, I'm saying like publicly, I feel like publicly people are starting to ship them, like in our fiction.
Brandon: OHHHH.
Julia: I don't think anyone would ever actually ship Kilonova and Flyboy, but after they, like, embraced for a very long time and threatened each other in order to save them.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah.
Julia: That looks intimate.
Eric: Yeah. Because you guys held each other for like 30 seconds, yelling at each other quietly.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Exactly.
Amanda: Dominant ships in fandoms have been based on much, much less, such as a single frame at the end of The Devil Wears Prada and two moments, you know, around practical jokes in Inception. So it happens.
Eric: I want to give a special commendation to that scene because I was a little worried that I didn't know what I was going to do with Milo because you took care of the fight so quickly. And then I was like, I wanted if it didn't go well, I did want. There's always the threat of a Upcountry Keepers coming to help, which I think is like ultimate punishment for you, losing that someone else needs to mop up your problem.
Amanda: So true.
Eric: So I wanted that to happen. But then I was like, oh, I need to do this anyway. This is going to be so funny. Or like I need to do this because I had to give, like Kilonova a victorious moment of dunking on Sour Anthony. And it just that played in such a way that I was so happy about. So I loved that scene. Brandon: I think is also funny because Milo and Sour Anthony were like quasi-like nice acquaintance's at the very beginning of this.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: His name is because of you.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Oh my God. I forgot that. Amazing.
Brandon: And of course I'm not actually judging anyone. I'm totally joking. You can ship whomever you want to just to put that out there.
Eric: I don't think anyone in the real world is shipping people in Lake Town City.
Amanda: No I misread I thought you guys meant in in my universe of podcast fiction and not within the world of the podcast, in it's fiction.
Eric: In Lake Town City. They actually have AO4. Pretty impressive.
Amanda: Archive Of Our Own - open.
Eric: Omega.
Brandon: Omega.
Amanda: Oh no, no, no. That's a whole other thing. Eric.
Eric: Oh I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Amanda: Alright before we get into the O am going to go right into the kitchen and grab us a refill on our punch.
Brandon: Yay!
Julia: Let's go!
Amanda: Be right back!
[Transition note]
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda recording here from the fields, I am away. It's my birthday weekend, and I think it is pretty wonderful that I have coworkers who are in the office and like, "hey, dog, how how can I help you to get things done? How can I help you actually take time off?" And I think that's fantastic. So here is to the rest of you. I want to thank each and every one of our supporters on Patreon and the people especially who joined this week, Kristin, Bridget, Alek, Jady, Catherine, Ashlee C, Ashlee L, both Ashlees with two E's, by the way, which is great. Erin, Courtney, Millie, thank you so, so much for joining. We are incredibly grateful to every single one of you who make it a priority each month to support creators, not just us, but any creator that you support if you want to be part of our Patreon family. We are always looking for more people to come in. You get our Discord, NPC stories, all the stuff that's been there for years of Patreon and like at least five cat and dog photos every day. Sometimes when we're lucky a snake. It's amazing. So if you're able please do join us for as little as five dollars a month at Patreon . coms / join the party pod. You may have listened to join the party, but what about the other podcasts here on Multitude? If you like games, try Meddling Adults where adults need to solve children's mystery books, all benefiting charity. If you like me and you like Julia, please listen to Spirits, even starring Eric Silver from time to time where we look at mythology and folklore from a queer and feminist lens. And if you like Eric storytelling and Brandon editing and music that slaps you got to listen to Next Stop, a 90's style sitcom, but a podcast and none of the 90s style cringe moments. There's Potterless, there's Exolore, there's HORSE. There's so much to love here on Multitude. So search for Multitude in your podcast player or go to the website Multitude . Productions.
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[Transition note]
Eric: Punch like like superheroes!
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Pop, pop, pop!
Eric: Pop, pop, pop, pop!
Julia: Pineapple, mango.
[Everyone laughing]
Amanda: Incredible. I couldn't come up with a better segue back from the midroll. So thank you, Julia. Julia: You're welcome.
Amanda: Into some game and character questions. Always a really fun grab bag category. This comes from Ergenson Mench, I believe on Insta asks, Have Aggie, Milo and Val ever played a sport? If yes, what did Milo play Yu-Gi-Oh?
Brandon: Play Yu-Gi-Oh?
Amanda: Of course.
Brandon: Yeah, of course. Professionally.
Eric: Now, is that a sport?
Brandon: I think Milo probably played a little bit of baseball was like a kid, you know, but that's it.
Amanda: Baseball's a good soft boy sport.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Like you quit by 11 because you were just were not having fun and you got hit in the face. Brandon: Well, he kept daydreaming about like the Hulk versus like Flash in the outfield and would miss fly balls very occasionally.
Julia: Oh boy, yeah, that's that's too real.
Amanda: Pick daisies.
Eric: The second time you broke your glasses, Hank was just like, alright, let's say you're an indoor kid, okay?
Julia: I feel like Val was probably very good at football or soccer or field hockey, but never wanted to be on the team.
Amanda: Swung by during practice.
Julia: It's weird being non binary in high school, you know?
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: No. And I don't know. It sounds hard and difficult.
Amanda: I can picture Val like stopping by practice like, you know, whatever the the equivalent and that's part of a hole in one is doing that and then being like "see ya later" to like you know impress them.
Julia: Just a hundred yard throw.
Amanda: Yeah exactly.
Eric: I just love this. It's like if this was the Mighty Ducks, you're the ringer who they found. Like "no! There's this kid who's super good at hitting the ball really far!" And you watch them do it like in the in an alley. But instead of like you have to join the ducks and you're like, no, no.
Julia: Actually, that's a good point, since ice hockey is such a huge deal in Lake Town City Val probably played a little bit of ice hockey.
Amanda: There's also like a trans ice hockey player. I think it's a specific team in a broader league in Canada, which I think is amazing. So let's let's bring gender inclusion to more sports. But starting with hockey.
Brandon: I bet Val be a good kicker, too, on like a high school team.
Julia: Yeah, probably.
Eric: Aggie strikes me as a real rugby person, like you played rugby for three years in college. Amanda: You got it. Exactly. I think Aggie played Gaelic football at the like Irish American Cultural Heritage Group.
Brandon: Love it, love it love it.
Eric: Oh my god.
Amanda: Yeah. I knew so many kids growing up who did like, you know, Irish step dancing, stuff like that. Eric: That's very funny and impossible for me to relate to.
Amanda: Fair enough. Let us move into a bunch of very sweet questions from Elena, who says one: is Sour Anthony simply a reincarnation of Kevin Vacation from campaign one?
Eric: Entirely possible.
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: Who can say Elena is still curious about Clippy. Will we get a back story about Clippy? Eric: Very who can say.
Brandon: I think if you just look up Wikipedia, and enter Clippy, you'll get Clippy's backstory. Julia: There you go.
Eric: Listen, you guys, that's what happens. You never ran that down. So that that thread is still is still dangling a dangling.
Brandon: Which one?! Wait which threads?
Amanda: Oh, I was like, oh God, I don't know. Clippy was like a ticking time bomb.
Julia: The thread being Aggie running into Clippy at the stewards.
Brandon: It was never confirmed that that was Clippy. So if that's a thread
Julia: It looked exactly like him, apparently.
Eric: It looked exactly like Clippy. Brandon's right. But also you're not right.
Brandon: [Laughing] That's the space I like to live baby!
Amanda: Does the Bone Witch from the Midroll live in Lake Town City? And if so, is it Aunt Min? Eric as a podcast ad professional, I have to commend you on increasing our our ad retention even more by putting a beloved NPC in the midroll only.
Eric: Brandon. Who - what are the names of those people in Marvel where like they live outside the world of Marvel? Look at it. The Watchers?
Brandon: Uh Julia who are the people in Marvel that live -
Amanda: It's The Watchers.
Amanda: Glad, glad we're all here.
Eric: That's right. I keep forgetting I need to defer to Julia even though Brandon work inside the bowels of the Beast. Hey Julia. Is it The Watchers, the people who are on the outside?
Julia: Yes.
Eric: The Watchers. Yeah, the Bone Witch is kind of like The Watchers, they're like extra fictional. And that's why she she lives in the midroll so she does not live in Lake Town City.
Amanda: I love that. What excuses each of the PCs text their friends or family to get out of social situations. Aggie's is always an exploding toilet, not just running, not just leaping, exploding toilet. She dealt with it once and then was like, no one will ever need anything from me again if this is what I say. Julia: I think I said in a recent campaign that I was like, why do all of Aggie and PCs always have running toilets?
Eric: That's right.
Julia: None of them know how to fix it!
Eric: It's more like I know that that's very fun. I think it's very funny because after living with Amanda. I realize that a running toilet is very easy to fix, however, if you don't know what you're doing, you will have a running toilet for like two years. And it's very funny to me.
Brandon: I think Milo, just like texts friends is like, hey, I got some glue drying on this model. I can't step away. Otherwise it could fall. Got some paint I got to finish. You know, it's very time time consuming and sensitive, so - sorry.
Amanda: My head canon is that they would stop by anyway because they know that you're just worried about social situations. But if they bring popcorn in a DVD, then you'll you'll be fine.
Brandon: Yeah, I think Milo is fine. If it's one of his, like, you know, three good friends either can stopped by the time, but if it's, you know, Mr. Brewpot, then he'll drop out of a window onto the fire escape and run away.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: My mother has some lasagna that needs to be eaten before it goes bad.
Amanda: Incredible, of course, take all the time you need.
Brandon: That's not excuse. That's just real.
Amanda: This is something that I realized. I really want to know what are the PC's middle names?
Brandon: Oh!
Amanda: Have you guys thought of that?
Julia: It's a V name. I can't canonically tell you what the V is.
Eric: That's fair.
Amanda: Aggie's is Clancy, which is my real-life brother, that's his middle name. But Margaret Clancy O'hare is her name.
Julia: Nice.
Brandon: What if I told you that Milo's name -
Julia: Oh no.
Brandon: Was Mi Lo Lane. I don't know. I have to think about it. I'm bad at naming things so I have to give a lot of consideration to them. But I will think about it and I will come up with one.
Amanda: I also know in my brain that there is no like kind of person with no middle name. But I feel like Milo is the kind of person that doesn't have a middle name.
Brandon: Oh, there's tons of people have don't have known names like a lot of them.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon: Oh I see. You're saying. Yeah, yeah. I think Milo comes from a you know, you Judeo-Christian background. So you probably would have known names like I think about it as so but -
Eric: It definitely feels like a thing that like Hank is like. Oh, I'm going to - I don't have to give him the middle name. Well, I already gave him Milo. I'll think about it and then just never went back to it. Brandon: It's probably his his birth parent's last name. But I got to think of what that is.
Amanda: Does Milo have a relationship with them?
Brandon: No, I think just like, you know, Hank being a good dad, adoptive father, he wanted to make sure that Milo didn't forget and they would always be like, you know, a part an actual part of his life. Julia: Aww.
Amanda: I love that.
Brandon: Hank's a good dad!!
Julia: Hank is a good dad.
Eric: Now, what if I told you -
[Julia and Brandon laugh]
Julia: No! Hank's a good dad!
Brandon: That his name is Ha-nk Lane?
Amanda: Oh my God, I'm just thinking about if the Bone Witch was Milo is godmother now. Okay, moving on.
Eric: The Bone Witch is Milo birthparent, sorry.
Amanda: No, no, no. What does Tuna do all day Eric when they are not with Milo? Is there some sort of ghost plane where they just chill?
Eric: I assume that all cats chill out on their own ghost plane, like whatever you think, your cat does exactly what Tuna does, but like Tuna just floats.
Brandon: Some ghostly sunbeam?
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tuna moves on the y axis to get in the sun beams on the x axis.
Julia: Adorable.
Amanda: And here are a few from Question Surgeon Michelle Spurgeon. Will Tegan want to interview the other members of LT3? After this interview, I don't know if Tegan will ever be anybody again. I think they're tenacious enough, but we'll see.
Eric: Who can say?
Eric: Who can say.
Julia: I recently watched Man of Steel and Tegan in this episode has Big Amy Adams as Lois Lane vibes for me, where it's like I went to Antarctica or somewhere in the Arctic, I can't remember which I met an alien. He saved my life. I'm going to write an article about it now.
Eric: Yeah, hundred percent! I love to get in that Lois Lane spot. It's very funny to me, especially because Tegan's like, so fucking cool. And I think that that was always something that was lost on Lois, was that she was always like a much better reporter than Clark was.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: It was something that I really wanted to capture in Tegan's whole thing, especially because Tegan's working for Average Bear like the BuzzFeed News equivalent in my head.
Amanda: My comp was Jeremy Jordan and Supergirl, which I think between Amy Adams, Jeremy Jared, we have a real, a real, a real Tegan right there in the middle of it.
Julia: Mmhmm, mhm, mhm.
Amanda: Will Val tell Hitomi about their alter ego now that there could be danger? Julia: Maybe when the time is right?
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: I'm sorry for the spoiler corner creeping into the main Afterparty.
Julia: Sorry! To give you, like, a more thorough answer to that. I think Val is the kind of person who just like, assumes that if they don't tell people, they won't be in trouble and they won't be in danger, which I think in this episode it kind of implied that, like Val hasn't told Hitomi about their mob connections and Val obviously hasn't told Hitomi about their powers, other than the fact that they're just very strong because Hitomi saw them lifting people over their heads at the Christmas party.
Amanda: I mean like, that makes sense.
Brandon: That's just normal strong though, I mean, come on. I do that every day. It's my workout routine. Eric: Val has a really tight core.
Amanda: Really, really compact.
Julia: That's all you need. It's a tight core. It's all about the back and forth.
Eric: As long as you live from your thighs, you can do anything.
Julia: Shoulders too.
Amanda: Incredible.
Eric: It's all about the traps. I know I'm not exactly what the truth, not exactly sure what the traps are, but it's all about them.
Amanda: I'm all about those obliques. Are we going to see any more results of Aggie sibling's powers? Another who can say there.
Eric: Very much, who can say, oh yeah, that was a little lost. I wanted to give give you a chance to talk about that. It was lost within the haze of Carmen De La Paz and the coffee and the coffee. Yeah, I didn't know you were going to do that. I was not ready for you to give me a list of the rest of your siblings powers.
Amanda: Me neither. I came up to them on the spot. That wasn't something I prepared. Julia: Wow. Great job.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: Damn. I thought you'd written those down because we have had we've had ambient conversations about it when starting to play in the beginning of this arc and getting into Danny. And like you said, some of it or like I knew there, there I knew their jobs. So I'm genuinely surprised.
Amanda: Yeah. I also only knew their jobs going into it. And so in in the sort of light of talking more about Danny's powers, which kind of kicked off this whole process for me, the only person who I knew like you decided Quinn because we met her, you know, in in action. And I didn't know what her power was going to be before she stuck to the wall, which is very funny. And Regan being the tattoo artist, I wonder if there is some kind of connection. I have to imagine some something somehow.
Eric: What's wild to me is how you threaded the needle that I was doing, which was do- because this is the entire question of I think of this campaign, which is what do you do with your powers when no one tells you what to do with your powers? And the O'Hares are very interesting in that some some of them are using it explicitly for gain like their parents, and some of them are moving as far away from it as possible and or is just like naturally talented plus sticky hands. So, like, you really threaded that. You threaded that needle just like what I was doing and you did that off top of your head because like with the one who plays the music, it wasn't like I played. It wasn't a fucking bard like, oh, my powers, creativity, man. It was like, no, she makes them jump. And I'm like, that's so fucking smart.
Amanda: I got it backwards. By the way, Regan is the Kacey Musgraves and then Cassie is the tattoo artist.
Eric: Right.
Julia: That's it.
Amanda: You know, we all mix up our siblings from time to time.
Brandon: I really want to get a tattoo from Cassie like Milo does.
Amanda: Yeah!
Julia: That's such a cool idea. And like has a D&D mechanic already built into it is something that exists in the comics, which I also think is extremely cool and I just man. So good, so good.
Eric: I also like I envision a lot of them like the Moana tattoos that Dwayne the Rock Johnson's character has, how he has the little Maui like on his running around like that was also how he envisioned it, which I really loved.
Amanda: Yeah, it's very cool. I also was thinking recently that this is I'm going to categorize it as head canon, because I think people can. I think what they want, but I believe that Aggie has the same tattoos as me, which is one half sleeve of hydrangea and dune grass from downstate New York, and then the other one is like pine trees and an ash tree, berries and ferns from upstate New York that I've been working on that tattoo throughout campaign two, which has been very fun for me.
Eric: Oh, that's right. We were making this joke a few days ago was that you only know Aggie has tattoos if you see them not wearing a flannel.
Amanda: Yes. Like- like their tattoos stop exactly. After rolling up the sleeves of a lance flannel twice. Two cuff ups. And then that is where it stops that.
Julia: Classy!
Brandon: Love that!
Amanda: And then a few really interesting questions for Michelle, I'll sort of say them all in a row and then let's play or speculate Eric you can weigh in or not, depending on what you want to do. But one, are the villains getting their powers the same way our heroes did while putting the power to personas on social media bring national attention or pressure to power politics? A great question. Secondly, is the water from the lake being used to water the mushrooms? Brilliant. And thirdly, is there a connection to the giant mountain lobster we saw in the basement earlier in the campaign? Monty, maybe.
Julia: I mean, we we know the answer to one of those questions. I will say that.
Brandon: That is true.
Amanda: Yeah, we learn the answer to one of them.
Eric: Yeah, I think I can say two things in the world building episodes. We said that this was a little bit environmental as well. How like the Delta radiation and all of that getting in places like it's an environmental issue. So it is something we need to deal with. So I can't say for sure if the water, water to mushroom connection or water to humanity connection. But like we did say that there was an environmental like problem we were going to talk about, which I found really interesting. The other thing, as I've said before, the comp that I wanted to put here was in Static Shock. How like just the big blast created a lot of superheroes. So it is like the in fiction version of why, like the people who live in Lake Town City is related to this to the Delta radiation thing. But also like, yeah, sometimes people to show up with powers, so like there are there are plenty of other regular superhero reasons that people get powers.
Brandon: Oh, okay, I see what you're saying. Are there powered people in other parts of the country, too?
Eric: Yeah. I mean, we said that there was a guy running around in Nashville. Oh, he is the Golden Knight.
Julia: But we didn't specifically mention that he had powers, just that he was a superhero persona.
Eric: Yes. So it is a little ambiguous. So, I mean, we're probably not going to we have not touched that yet. Yeah, I mean, I can't say that, like, we all this is canonically X-Men. Like, I'm not going to say that, but I can only imagine it's not like people are also getting powers in similar ways. I can only assume.
Julia: I do think it's interesting, the idea of, oh, like what's the national news going to look like as superheroes become more prevalent? But I will also say that the federal government has a role in the superhero situation already. And we've seen that with the the OTA.
Brandon: Remember that the government, the federal government probably also has a role in disaster management.
Eric: Mhmm. So that's what only I can say for this. You know, it's interesting. I was thinking of this [makes beeping noise] but we're having once again, we're having a Join the Party listener is telling us things about our campaign has reached out to me on Instagram! Breaking news.
Julia: Oh, cool.
Eric: I talked to Natalie, who's from Australia, who is a trained molecular biologist and neuroscientist, wanted to give me some information about things that Dr. Morrow could do and some other wacky plot points!
Brandon: I love it.
Eric: So I'm like, oh, that's awesome to know. And I asked them these two questions. Do you think that people could find an element that is energy efficient, like diaphragm? And what about a new type of radiation like Delta radiation? So Natalie said a new element would be difficult as newer elements that are usually manmade are extremely unstable radiation wise, potentially there it does exist and we just aren't aware of it or haven't gotten anything that can measure that type of radiation. However, if someone made a stable superconductor from an isotope or an element, then 100 percent superconductors are materials with no resistance. So they are probably super energy efficient. The problem is that the only ones we've discovered only occur at ridiculous temperatures that are very impractical. So if I wanted to justify it, that's how I would the radiation would be super cool. Alpha and beta radiation are particles, while gamma is very short wavelengths and super high energy. So Delta radiation could be like really, really small and really, really high energy, which is probably how a term people and into superheroes invested their DNA. So I have science behind me!
Amanda: Wow!
Julia: ask this person next time how to biologically engineer Blockbuster.
[Everyone laughing]
Eric: Yeah. Natalie, please let me know what what do I need to go into crisper to make Blockbuster. Amanda: Have we sequenced the genome of Blockbuster yet? Is that something science has gotten to? Brandon: I know that superconductors can only exist in like subzero freaking like subzero temperatures like zero nearly zero Kelvin, which is like out nearly absolute zero. But yeah, if we ever made a stable superconductor at room temperature, we would change our society. So that makes sense.
Eric: Yeah. Which is what Dr. Morrow figured it out and that's why our technology jumped forward like 30 years and why Laketon turned into Lake Town City in the first place.
Amanda: I also really appreciate from a podcast point of view that getting messages that are like I'm a blank and rarely end well because the people are either, you know, giving you a correction or nit picking on something that you kind of glossed over. But shout out to Natalie for giving us cool science knowledge without saying, hey, your fiction has to be 100 hundred percent. You know, in keeping with current molecular biology.
Eric: I do appreciate the backfilling of science into the fiction. Like justify this for me, please.
Brandon: Yeah, if you are a if you were on Chopped or are a molecular biologist, then you're allowed to comment.
Eric: That's it!
Amanda: I'll take Top Chef too.
Eric: But yes, if you want to share stuff that happens in your professional life that you think would be fun to tell me and not correct me, please reach out to the Instagram.
Brandon: I would love to hear if anyone is a like a museum worker in some kind of weird museum. Hit me up. With some vocabulary and some cool things I could be doing with that.
Julia: You know I've worked at several museums, right, Brandon?
Brandon: No.
[Everyone laughing]
Julia: I was like my first real job. I worked at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. Oh shit. Amanda: Which is what I had in my head for our our fight at the at th MMFC.
Eric: Yes.
Brandon: That's awesome, I did not know that!
Eric: I would love it like someone at a practical or a science museum. I'm so fascinated by those. Like what is it like working in a museum where people touch things?
Amanda: Aquarium, I love that, I love zoos and aquariums get at me!
Eric: Well, that's a personal- that's a personal problem.
Amanda: We're all just putting personal requests on the podcast here!
Eric: Alright, reach out to Amanda's personal Instagram if you work at a zoo.
Brandon: If you can get Amanda into the Louisiana Aquarium where she can pet the otters, that would be wonderful.
Julia: [Gasps] You can pet the otters at the Louisiana Aquarium?! Oh, my gosh. Brandon: Yeah, I took Lauren and she Lauren is dead and has been a ghost ever since. Julia: Oh, my God.
Amanda: Sorry. She's been a ghost in the in the years since. Yeah. And let's close out with some DMing and D&D questions before we we take a quick little tour through Spoiley Corner. My first one is going to be the end of Elena's email. I'm about to start a one shot. Major quotation marks there for a couple of my friends who've never played and are unsure if they'll enjoy it. How can I plan and write a plot that would be exciting and engaging for the players and for context. Elaina is also a young teenager.
Eric: Mmm fair, honestly, I think if you rip off your favorite movie or book and just condense it and do it in there, there's nothing wrong with it. They're going to love it. However, it is. Honestly, I think that if you enjoy it and you think it will be fun, they're probably going to enjoy it. That's always what I say about DMing, is that if you're putting yourself out there and you created something for someone else, then they are going to enjoy it. If you are having fun and you really throw yourself into it.
Amanda: That's why Goat Party was set at the Met Museum during an Ocean's 8 style heist. Eric: That's what you wanted and therefore that's what we wanted. Absolutely.
Amanda: April in the discord, would like to know how we prep or bless our dice. I know Julia does something, and I'm desperate to know because my rolls are infamously shitty eyes emoji.
Julia: I have specific sets for specific characters I do not cross the streams. For example, when we're doing our one shot for slam, I have a specific set of days for Moxie. I do not use my Val dice.
Amanda: Ahhh Moxie. I'd love to see Moxey and Val interact.
Brandon: Oh my God, that's my dream.
Julia: Wild.
Amanda: It's so fun!
Julia: Val would hate Moxie with a burning passion. And Moxie would be like "what is this whole look?" [Brandon laughing]
Julia: I also just cookham my keep them on the highest number possible so they get familiar with that and just give them good vibes.
Amanda: I do that too. I've been intermixing my Chad dice with a - the dice that Eric and I bought together at Twenty Sided Store (shout out) when we were starting campaign two which is like navy blue with bright green numbers. It's very like Join the Party art vibes. And so I intermix dice from both the sets and if something's rolling badly, I'll switch em out.
Brandon: I like to keep track of every single one of my rolls so I can come back to my critics and say statistically my rolls are on average and that they are very normal and I will not hear anything to the contrary. You do not need to cook your dice. The dice are as long as they are not misweighted are, you know, randomish.
Julia: Ritual is important for human beings Brandon we get good vibes.
Brandon: I will not deny that fact. But I will also say write down your numbers.
Eric: I actually stopped using the gold weighted dice that I usually do for DMing. It just has not been good for me lately. I'm really like absolute dogshit. So I'm switching back to my straight up just white on red dice. I have specific player dice which I never use for DMing.
Amanda: Ask Bergman and instead wants to know, hey, I'm a new DM. How would you try to explain spells to somebody new to D&D?
Eric: Oh, good question. This is actually something I was thinking about a lot when I wrote No Capes, because the idea of spells and spell slots are just kind of like the D&D way of keeping track of magic and the wild shit that you do with magic. And like how much different magic users are than fighters is really interesting. So what I would say is spells are ways for magic folks to be more powerful in when physical folks or fighters can, like, be strong or be fast. You need to be able to kind of like warp reality or do something special, which is a spell, a very specific effect or power that has to do with how they're changing the world. And then you can kind of get into the different types of magic, which is a really good way when you realize that not all magic are the same, like some are divination looking into the future and some are just evocation making a fireball appear or some are transmutation where you change one thing and do another thing. Like, I think breaking that down would be really helpful is like, yeah, well, my fighter super strong my barbarian can take tons of hits while my wizard can change fucking reality. And I think that's the way it's just it's just a game mechanic I think the way for you to describe it as like magic users have a power and then where they get that power is the interesting part.
Brandon: From a player perspective, just some quick tips. Think of your spell slots, don't call them spell slots. Think of them as ammo, like you have six shots to do this or charges. And then if you by the rules, if you're allowed to have an endless list, keep it for yourself. Say like I can have five spells and then picked five spells and don't do anything else, otherwise it's too difficult.
Julia: Can I tell you a funny story from my home campaign real quick?
Amanda: Yes, please.
Eric: Only if you change all the names so that I don't get any promotion on our podcast other than Mischa. You can keep Mischa's name, but no one else.
Julia: So in my home campaign, I play a school of invention Wizard, which is an unearthed Arcana class where it's basically like instead of preparing a spell, you basically can roll a d10 and cast a random spell based off of that d10 roll. And I chose to do it extremely hard mode where all of my spells are that instead of preparing any spells whatsoever. So all of my roles are randomized because I am a weird person. But
we were playing a like Pokemon, one shot as kind of a spin off for an off week. And the fighter from our campaign was playing a spell caster for the first time. So he went to go do a magic thing and he's like, "so I just roll for to see what spell I cast?" I'm like "oh no! I've broken you! I'm so sorry. You don't understand the mechanics of magic that's my bad!"
Amanda: Well now I want wild magic table rolls after every spell I hear cast on other podcasts, so..
Eric: Absolutely
Julia: There you go!
Eric: Now that you said Pokemon, that's another way of thinking about it. Like a spell is like a Pokemon attack, like fighters have normal moves, but like magic users have everything else. And I think that you need to think of it like that is like if you can do something interesting that is like your move in Pokemon and you have a certain number, which is just like Pokemon, you only have for four cool moves you can do.
Brandon: PP!
Julia: Yeah. And there's and there's a limited amount of those moves that you can make like PP. Eric: Exactly, like people and also only certain and certain numbers-
[Amanda laughs]
Amanda: Julia said PP.
Eric: They both said PP. So funny, very good. And only and certain types of Pokemon can only learn certain types of moves, which is the other way for you to think of it.
Julia: There you go!
Amanda: I've been doing that to myself on streams, Julia. So it's not to you.
Julia: I'm just mad that you called me out on it and not Brandon.
Amanda: I didn't hear it. I'm sorry.
Eric: Hey Brandon said pepis.
Brandon: I did not say that that is liable, and you know it.
Eric: Let's bring it back to the tape - let's check the tape, Brandon said pepis!
Julia: [Singing] It's only liable if it's written!
Amanda: Oh my. Okay, Ice Clecks asks: Eric do you the hard time keeping some of your ideas for this campaign a secret?
Eric: Yes. Yes I do.
Brandon: Can I know them? Can I have them?
Julia: Do you want to tell us all the secrets?
Amanda: Just give me please.
Brandon: Gimme.
Julia: Gimme gimme secret, please.
Brandon: Give me please.
Julia: I will say in a recent recording I think I guessed a plot point and the look on Eric's face of him trying to keep it together was extremely funny.
Amanda: He was devastated.
Brandon: One of the best moments of this campaign.
Eric: I keep a lot of things from you guys. And I think that I try really hard because the reveal is fun for you just as much as it's fun for the audience. So I try really, really hard. It's the moments before I do a
game where I'm not really sure about my notes, both like I'm anxious about them, but also I'm excited about them and I want to share them. That's why I just talked to Mischa. I'm like "MISCHA! THIS SI WHAT I'M GONNA DO!" so I do have a person who I can reach out to, which is nice. But yes, it is very difficult. And I want to tell you so many things. This is really helpful doing this because you guys have to keep the secret of the next few episodes with me.
Amanda: Yeah,
Eric: Like we've already recorded a bunch of episodes in the future. So, like, now I'm unburdened, thank God.
Julia: Huzzah!
Amanda: I know the moment we're referring to happens in in ten weeks from from now so sorry.
Eric: Yeah!
Brandon: Woof!
Amanda: Or nine - nine weeks.
Julia: We're that far ahead? Dang!
Amanda: It's fine, cause it's an Afterparty. Yeah. And JJ Pern on Insta says I'm loving campaign two and I would love to know how it feels to be powerful versus an adventurer.
Brandon: That's a good question.
Julia: I think it's about consequence.
Amanda: Yeah, me too.
Julia: I mean that is where the difference lies because as an adventurer I feel like the world is used to adventurers. But in our campaign, the world is definitely not used to superheroes. So more of my actions feel like they have immediate and direct consequences.
Amanda: Yeah, sort of. Paradoxically, as far as I'm concerned, it feels less like there's a right answer when I'm playing a powered person versus an adventurer. Maybe because I've - I've taken in so much sort of high fantasy that it feels like there is one solution, like there's an item to get, there's a place to go, there's a secret word to say or whatever. And as a superhero, it feels way more like, I think maybe more experienced players feel in D&D, which is like I'm living my life. I'm making choices like my character would. And, you know, there's there's many, many roads in front of you at all times.
Brandon: Yeah. I wonder if that's I'm just thinking about - I wonder if that's because, like, there is like, you know, three major works of I make it up a number of high fantasy that like Lord of the Rings is the basis for everything. And then like in comics, there's so much has been explored that it gives us the feeling of having more options. I don't know. It's interesting.
Eric: Yeah, I think I mean, this is why I wanted to do what we're doing now as opposed to fantasy, because I think with since fantasy, you're building something from whole cloth where you need to also build the societal relationships and like how people view each other. Then you can like handwave a lot of stuff to just be like, yes, this is how it is. Like your your people. It's fine that you people are rising up to fight a great evil. That's just how it is. While like you, we need to exist in the idea like Lake Town City is supposed to be our world in so many ways. So I think the we're trying to relate to our modern world in the world we actually live in, as opposed to fantasy, which is again why I wanted to do this. So I really like this. I like exploring that and making you all responsible for the actions that you take because like, you can listen, you can do tight shit and people can think it's cool or people can think it's devastating. And I
think that is an extra element that is always going to be involved, and I don't know, I find that really interesting. Maybe that's just me.
Brandon: No, I do too. I think we all do.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And now follow me friends into the spoiley corner.
Brandon: CREAAAK?
Amanda: Cammie Miel Tea says -
Eric: Wait, no Brandon need to do more sound design, gimmie more sound design.
Brandon: And swap! Door closed. And then.
Amanda: Oh sorry Brandon. I'm uh - I'm drinking coffee.
Brandon: [Slurping noises] And then just [shuffling noises] like that's me sitting on the couch and now we're in spoiler corner!
Eric: Hold on, Brandon I need to walk across the room, hold on!
Brandon: CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP! You're a horse! Eric: I'm riding a horse up a staircase.
Amanda: I actually cut the coconuts from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and I use those as all my footsteps. Little Easter Egg for everyone, all the Amanda sound design stans out there.
Julia: This hurts too much.
Amanda: Catmomile tea says, are we going to get a Tegan/Preserver versus Tegan/Aggie love triangle because they're both Aggie.
[Brandon laughing]
Julia: Oh my god, I would love that! That would be so good.
Amanda: Fantastic!
Julia: Give that to us!
Brandon: Oh my God. That's so brilliant.
Eric: That's up to Amanda man, like let's see, let's see if Aggie or Preserver pursues Tegan like let's see. Julia: Like make a move!
Eric: Someone needs to make a move.
Amanda: Oh my God. I felt like my - I felt like the world was on fire when that scene happened because I was just like "OHH TEGAN NO!"
Julia: It was wonderful watching Amanda in the moment where Tegan was like, you remind me of someone and then full panic just being like, "I don't I talk a lot, don't don't think I'm else. No, no." I was like, oh my God.
Amanda: Yeah. Oh, it was amazing. But I do want to give full credit to here's a username, I guess, who had the best answer following up to Camolile's question. All I want is for historians to be able to say Aggie and Tegan were close friends.
Julia: Oh ha ha ha.
Eric: There's a photo of Aggie and Tegan holding hands. "Tegan Murphey and their friend Aggie O'Hare." Amanda: Their close friend, Multi-Cap on Instagram, says, Please tell me we're going to get a Lois Lane and Superman Clark Kent situation with Tegan and Preserver/Aggie.
Julia: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Amanda: Listen, we'll see.
Eric: Someone needs to make a move first. Superman made a move.
Amanda: I'm also like, I don't know - yeah anyway, I've I have complex thoughts, but. Eric: Please do it, act on them.
Brandon: Who can say.
Eric: Who can say but act on them! That's out of my hands. I can't even say.
Amanda: Holly Jessica on Instagram says, Did Val's mother put the third boob on the back? The people need to know.
[Eric and Brandon laughing]
Julia: Did she?
Amanda: We'll never know.
Eric: Oh, I also love that I oh, here's why I love doing emotional scenes in our podcast is because I've already said the majority of these NPCs up as goofy and then like we build the stakes and there's the emotional thing. But then I can always just go back to the well, which was the original thing, and they just end up being like, hey, remember this over this thing that happens. So, like, she laid all that out and then she's like. Putting some boobs on things. What do you think?
Julia: No, I think that was that was me playing in your space, too, because it was like we were sitting down and there was a moment of pause and I was like, "the boob should go on the back"
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: No that was great!
Amanda: It was so good editing Brandon, good playing Julia good, giving Julia space to play Eric good all around. ESPSethMann on Insta says does Val's Dad, know what Aunt Min is doing, will he make an appearance?
Eric: Who. Can. Say!
Amanda: Who can say!
Julia: What's Marco up to? Who could say?
Eric: What's the spaghetti doing? Big spaghetti.
Julia: That's not that- he's the macaroni.
Eric: I know. I know. He is!
Julia: It's just - it's just because you referred to him as spaghetti and the last one too and I'm just like oh, no. Did we forget his -
Eric: I know, his name is Macaroni. He's Macaroni. I know.
Amanda: It's quite disrespectful, though, to refer to him by the wrong pasta shape. Eric: That's true. Big rigatoni.
Brandon: Macaroni can refer to any pasta, right?
Julia: No.
[Amanda and Eric laughing]
Brandon: YEAH HUH!
Julia: What?!
Brandon: Macaroni is like the name of also another name for pastano
Julia: No it is not ok.
Brandon: Alright.
Julia: It's the specific shape of pasta.
Brandon: Okay, okay.
Julia: Do you want me to get Jake. I'll get him in here.
Brandon: No, don't get Jake.
Eric: Wait Jake from Lake Town City. I love that guy?
Amanda: Oh how's his career going as a building inspector?
Julia: I was canonically again in this episode by the way.
Eric: [Laughing] Yeah that's right.
Julia: Eating at that diner.
Eric: That's right.
Julia: A very good joke filled episode.
Eric: I realized that I this is like me kicking myself a little bit, that you landed on a bunch of old pillows because I thought it was funny how you laid it on old pillows. Even though you were a monk, it wouldn't have taken damage. So I know you're supposed to do the Marvel superhero jump down and Aggie was supposed to have the moment. But I like the idea that you did the jump and then you landed on the pillows.
Brandon: I know it's so good!
Amanda: It's a great image. And then some final questions from Athena, but corroborated by others. What what if Carmon's superpower is SEO. Incredible joke to do we know what Kelly does outside of starting a lot of fires?
Eric: Oh, good. We don't. Yes!
Amanda: We don't.
Eric: We don't. We don't know if she's like a pyromancer, if she just lights things on fire, if she has wishing powers, it's very good.
Amanda: Kelly is like a former model whose face is on Pantin bottles and in CVS and stuff. So maybe Kelly is a whole side career doing fire related stuff. We don't know.
Julia: What is a career in fire related stuff look like?
Brandon: Uh smithing, glassblowing uh -
Julia: Oh yeah. She had a real good run on Forged by Fire.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: It was a bunch of sixty year old dads with massive beards and like a 25 year old model it's wild. Amanda: It sounds like great television.
Julia: They all, they all adopted her at the end.
Brandon: Oh cute.
Amanda: If Salimony is mountain lobster through and through and seems younger than our protagonists, what are the chances he might have powers?
Julia: Well, I think Aunt Min is new to the area, so it wouldn't make sense if she had a kid who had powers.
Eric: Salimony's not a kid. Salimony's just a guy who works for the mob.
Julia: He's related to me, though, right?
Eric: In my head. He was like your third cousin and like, who uses family with a capital F like very loosely and like that supersedes-
Julia: He specifically referenced to one of my grandparents though. So that's why I guess I thought he was closer.
Eric: You know, it's everything is so mixed up because it's like capital f Family in lowercase f family that like he knows people, he knows you by name. You wouldn't have seen him at, like, anything more than like the equivalent of a cookout or like the feast of many fishes. So like
Julia: So Christmas Eve.
Eric: Yes. Yes, exactly. So like, I don't know, it's very like you might not have known about him. He's just kind of around. But he knows about you because you're Marco's kid.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: That's what I imagine that like he was also putting on airs about knowing shit because it was capitol f Family thing which was mixed with lowercase F.
Julia: No, that's good to know.
Amanda: And per spoily corner we don't know. So it's a it's a fun thread that we may be able to follow. And then finally, is the People's River working on mushroom weaponry to take out powered folk? Is Bones' potato gun like a prototype? Is Gutenberg involved? Truly who can say.
Everyone in sync: Who can say!
Amanda: Who can say. And then we have a final Yahoo section here that Eric has put into the document. There's two of them, which I love. One is Aunt Min a girl boss. Oh, what a good question. What a good question. And then again from Athena, is Carmen's coffee addiction a foil for Emily's vehement insistence that caffeine is poison?
Eric: Caffeine's just poison. That's what Emily thinks. Caffeine is poison and it ruins your body. And you just
Brandon: Does Emily think caffeine is poison? When was this?!
Julia: Well, yeah, that was in the first introduction of JUICE!!!!!
Eric: She gets all of her energy from fruit smoothies. That's why she doesn't touch caffeine.
Brandon: And that's incredible.
Julia: That's just sugar.
Amanda: Character Emily Slaughter, as opposed to patron, Emily Slaughter. Character Emily Slaughter has all the wrong opinions in my - in my in my view.
Eric: I do love that we've been putting the girl boss stuff on Aunt Min. But Emily Slaughter is such a girl boss. Like she's canonically I've said so many times on mic that she she's asking Aggie to "Lean In" and be a girll boss.
Amanda: Incredible.
Eric: I just want to say something just to everybody. I mean like there was such a wonderful response to this last episode, we're so happy, I mean, where I feel like we're just like we're out here in the podcast minds making stuff and like we know what's going to happen in the future. But thank you, everyone, to the responses that you did to this episode. Also, a lot of you said why and told me they were going to come fight me, which I find as the highest compliment for a dungeon master. So I will keep trying to make you upset and mad and wanting to fight me.
Brandon: It's like imitation threats of violence.
Eric: Threats of violence to DM on a podcast is 100 percent how you show love. And I'm so blessed and so, so thankful that you all love that. So thank you, everybody. "Hey, Eric, what the fuck?" Might be the highest compliment so thank you.
Amanda: Yeah. After episode release day I was like, "oh like hon, did you have a hard day with everybody yelling at you on the internet?" And you were like "no I thrive on it!"
[Everyone laughing]
Amanda: Kind of yelling by the way.
Eric: I want this yell at you guys saying why don't I take Julia's anxiety and put it on like chocolate syrup. And I eat and I eat it like a like a 1920s toddler in a very fancy hotel ordering a sundae. I'm just like, [in an old timey accent] "mmm daddee thank you!"
[Amanda laughing]
Julia: Thank you daddeeee.
Brandon: You have a sailor hat on?
Eric: Yeah, I have a I have a pageboy cap on and like chocolate syrup all over my mouth and be like "this is the height of luxury!" As I'm eating a sundae.
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: Incredible. Well thank you everybody. You'll get a new episode in just a week. What a luxury. Speaking of luxuries and listen, it only gets bigger from here. It does. That's all I got to say.
Eric: This is the perfect time, I think, to tell people in your life to listen to campaign two Join the Party. I think right now, now that we're established and we had this hot episode that getting people to start with campaign two listen all the way through and then they go to campaign one like this is the way to start.
Amanda: And then get join the party origins for campaign one.
Eric: Yeah #JoinThePartyOrigins.
Amanda: It would be great for my birthday if you can recommend Join the Party to one person who doesn't listen to it
Eric: [Singing again] Happy birthday to yooou.
Amanda: Oh no,Julia quick you got to fade out, gotta fade out. Okay, thanks everybody! Julia: Eric has to stop singing and say the outtro! Go!
Brandon: Bye guys!
Eric: [Laughing] Bye! [In his Marilyn accent] It's Marilyn Monroe. I hope you all had a good time. We'll talk to you next time
Julia: Amanda dice!
Brandon: [Frantically] You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here!
Julia: No the other one!
Brandon: OH SHIT!
Amanda: May your dice roll ever upward.
Eric: [Still singing] Happy birthday to you!
Amanda: [Laughing] Bye everyone!
[Theme music]