How did you decide who played with who? What did we learn about Verda Stello that only one shots can surface? And are these characters going to come back?! All that and more on the Afterparty!
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Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Umbi), Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Chamomile Cassis), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host (Troy Riptide), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Theme Song: Lyrics by Eric Silver, music by Brandon Grugle. Vocals by Brandon Grugle, Lauren Shippen, Julia Schifini, Roux Bedrosian, Eric Silver, Tyler Silver, and Amanda McLoughlin. Available for purchase here.
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: https://multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators who make each other laugh each week. We welcome everyone to the table, from longtime players to folks who’ve never touched a roleplaying game before. Hop into our current campaign, a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, or marathon our completed stories with the Camp-Paign, a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to the After Party crew. We're back together. Yay!
Brandon: Woo! It's us!
Julia: We did it.
Eric: I haven't seen the 3 of you together in 30 years.
Brandon: I know. I haven't talked or seen Julia or Amanda—
Amanda: No.
Brandon: —for 5 weeks, you know?
Amanda: It's true.
Julia: That's wild.
Brandon: I know.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Brandon, I've seen you.
Brandon: What? Julia's in my closet. Julia's in my closet. Little gremlin Julia.
Julia: Yeah. Remember when I went on vacation, I was just in Brandon's closet the whole time.
Eric: Dang. That's why you couldn't record. You didn't want Brandon to know.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah, because then he would—
Amanda: Wow.
Julia: —have heard my voice and he would have been like, "What's going on? Julia, where are you recording from?" And then the door slowly creeks open.
Eric: I like the idea of that Brandon doesn't notice because of where hearing you. He's like, "Your recording space sounds different."
Julia: It sounds much smaller, it's actually better.
Amanda: "It sounds like my room."
Eric: "It sounds like there's a guitar in here. Where— where— why do you have a homemade amplifier in your space?"
Brandon: I got two now, Eric. I— I built the second one.
Eric: And they're both—and they were next to Julia when she was recording.
Amanda: But we are so excited to have concluded the One Shot: The Legends Across the Tides. Eric, you've been here the whole time, and we got a couple questions about where the idea came from to do this in the first place. All of us have put a bunch of crap, and tried new roles, and did new things when doing these last three weeks of episodes. So Eric, why don't you start off and tell us, where the idea to do these One Shots come from?
Eric: I thought it would be fun.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: I have no further comment.
Julia: Gotcha.
Brandon: I think what the audience doesn't understand about Eric is like his ideas are like inspiration from the Almighty.
Amanda: They're fully formed.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Just like— yeah, come like— like beamed from an alien ship just directly into his brain.
Eric: Yeah. Jenna Stoeber walked out of my brain fully formed like— like Athena.
Julia: Like, Athena, yeah.
Eric: Yeah. Just like Athena. Shout at all— all my li— Spirits listeners out there. Well, no, I mean, we've been trying to figure out how to have guests on the show for a very long time. I think that from Campaign One where we shoved Julia in a corner, because like, literally—
Julia: Literally, I was literally in the corner of that first recording.
Amanda: Yes. You were very small.
Brandon: Somebody puts Julia on the corner.
Julia: Only Eric.
Eric: And then we— we brought people on to kind of fill out the end of Campaign One, but I think that there was a lot of hesitation for people jumping into a campaign and doing canon things.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like, oh, I'm responsible for the main thing. I think that was also when we had Lauren come on to do goat party.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I was like, "No. Let's do One Shots because Lauren doesn't want to, like, sneeze somewhere and then Milo's dead for real this time, you know? So I've been thinking of episodes we could do that aren't necessarily, quote-unquote, "canon"—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —much like we did with Join the Paper in Campaign Two.
Amanda: Ugh. So fun.
Julia: My fave.
Eric: And I realized that this would— this was perfect. Let's figure out a way to get guests in that also would keep the players involved, because we— I didn't want Brandon, and Amanda, and Julia to, like, sit there and do nothing.
Julia: Twiddle our thumbs.
Eric: Yeah. So, like, literally putting one player with two guests is like this is the maximum number to do it. I've been trying to get Jenna and Jasper onto Join the Party for such a long time. And then filling everyone else in was just— it was really sweet. So yeah, that's— and I'm really happy with— with how it came out.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: This is slightly unrelated, but whenever you guys hear Join the Paper, do your brain immediately go to a camera zoom in from outside of an office building, inside of the office into the most beige room you've ever seen where Todd is sitting alone with no other furniture except for a chair and a fluorescent light, and he is just staring at the wall, is that— is that what you guys picture or—
Julia: Brandon, I'm gonna be fully honest with you. I forgot your character's name was Todd and I was like, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Amanda: Todd has been through like four or five media layoffs and mergers, and is now the like North American President of sales for a magazine that no longer publishes.
Brandon: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Eric: He's— he— he has the— has been in the office the entire time, and only sits there by himself.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah, he never— he never leaves that office, no.
Julia: Uh-uh. Security can't take him out because they don't know where he is.
Brandon: Exactly.
Eric: They want to take him out so bad because the rent on that office is so expensive. It's in the downtown, and Todd is the only one there.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Specifically from the Question Surgeon, Michelle Spurgeon, "Why did you decide to do these One Shots?" So I— I think that's a great point, Eric. Like, we want to get guests involved. We want to explore more about the world of Verta Stello that is not related to the, like, fixed perspective in some ways of the main characters and campaign. And it was really fun.
Brandon: And bonus— this was not part of the calculation, but the bonus was that we got to do it a little bit ahead of time, so we got a tiny bit ahead for the holiday December time, so—
Eric: Oh, yeah, that was— that was certainly helpful.
Amanda: Yes. Fact. Yeah, so we recorded these— we recorded like five episodes of actual play shows in the same week in November.
Eric: Yeah, that was wild.
Amanda: We're not gonna do that again. But we were able to— you know, Brandon had time to do the wonderful remix of the theme song. Julia edited one of the episodes because we were a little bit outside of normal production style and cycle, and got to try new things.
Eric: And we were able to make those clips and commission those— that art and—
Brandon: God, the art is so good. I love it.
Eric: —make sure everyone was happy. Shout out to Chris Pickett who fucking slammed it—slammed down.
Brandon: I know.
Julia: They absolutely nailed it. I love that for them.
Amanda: They're available as commission, you can just go.
Eric: If you want that or a tattoo, you can have it on paper or body.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: The best mediums in both.
Eric: Two choices.
Brandon: We'll have to reuse Chris for some of that in the future, because that was—
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: —wonderful.
Eric: I know. I—
Amanda: Like, Chris, would you be open to drawing several dandelion people, and they were like, "Sign me up."
Eric: Absolutely. We have two dandelion people, can you make them distinct? "Coming right up. Absolutely."
Amanda: But Dr. Spurgeon wanted to know specifically, "How do you decide the groupings and how did you find these specific guest players to collaborate with?"
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Well, me and Amanda and Julia, were fighting that month, so Eric was like, "Fine, I'll fucking split y'all up."
Julia: Separate you.
Amanda: I better split you up. I better put you in the two different rows in the minivan and one of you in the front, even though you're 11 and not really supposed to be.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Facts.
Eric: Well, it's— it's funny. I think that— because I understand the players the best, I think I was trying to put the players with two guests to make sure everyone felt comfortable.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So it's like Jasper and Connie have played with each other a while, but they're both like actors. So putting them with Brandon at le— who is definitely— your play style is not actor, I think— I— I do find this to be a neutral and just different. Your play style is more like someone at home than something that is performed.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And I think—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: —that— which again, is a fine thing and a good thing that you should have— that you shouldn't only be concerned about making for production. So I thought it would be nice to like balance those two out. Amanda was with Sarah Podzorski who— this was her first time recording on microphone and then—
Brandon: Oh, that was her first time on microphone at all?
Eric: Yeah. So she— she's a video gamer—
Julia: Whoa.
Brandon: Like for anything or just for D&D?
Amanda: She streams.
Eric: She's a video game streamer and a podcaster.
Brandon: Oh, cool.
Eric: But she does video game stuff mostly.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: And I know that she plays D&D, and I was like, "Oh, let's get Sarah in here. Amanda is going to help her out." And also Kristen is such an experienced person on the microphone.
Julia: So good.
Eric: It was wonderful to put that in. And of course, like Jenna is such a utility player. I could put her wherever I wanted.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: And Julia and Danielle, Julia, can you explain to me all of Danielle's wrestling references?
Julia: Yeah, I've been on Danielle's podcast, Tights and Fights, which is very, very fun.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: We're also scheduling across five time zones, so that played a—
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: —pretty, you know, pretty medium part in it. We were able to— to really get it done.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: But it was— it was so fun. It was so good.
Julia: It was.
Amanda: So Melanie wanted to know, Eric, what your specific inspirations were for the plots of each One Shot? So let's use that as a question to segue right into the plot of these episodes beginning with The Gold with Brandon, Connie, and Jasper.
Brandon: The Gold.
Amanda: So Eric, where did this—
Eric: The Gold.
Amanda: —where did this concept come from? What was your little emoji in notion for this plot?
Eric: I kind of threw them all together—
Amanda: Okay.
Eric: —for this one. I didn't have separate ones.
Amanda: Well, assign it now, assign it now. Gold bar?
Eric: I— no, it's probably burb, big— big burb.
Amanda: Okay.
Eric: It's burb.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: For this one— listen, the reason why we made the Cool Cryptid Compendium is the first— in the first place, is that I think monsters are neat.
Julia: Whoa! Me, too.
Eric: Whoa!
Amanda: Whoa!
Eric: And I think that you should end up using a lot of these monsters from what you learned from mythology on Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into myths and legends. Every week we pour, drink, and learn a myth [mumbles]
Julia: Oh, you were so close.
Amanda: Eric—
Eric: I couldn't figure out— I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.
Amanda: Eric, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What if we went on a joint seven-city tour through the US doing both monster bones and luck-related content for both podcasts?
Eric: That's such a great idea. We should do that.
Julia: I don't know how I feel about bone-related content, but okay.
Amanda: Julia.
Eric: Bone dice luck-related content.
Julia: I like it.
Eric: And I think that using them like NPCs as the lever of your One Shot was something that I knew I could lean on. Which— and I was able to take some inspiration from how I planned Monster of the Week campaigns. So it was kind of funny. Also, like Jasper and Connie, D&D players and they— I think they spent a lot of time— as Jasper told me, he spent a lot of time making a character to ruin my NPCs and monsters, and like, surprise, it didn't happen all that much. Like there wasn't that many monsters to fight.
Brandon: It's so fun— just a little bit of a tangent, but it's so funny to me and that— because he— he said that once or twice at least on mic, and then I'm sure more off and—
Eric: Oh, when he was WhatsApp-ing me, yes, he told me that many times.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Jasper is way too kind and sweet of a person to actually fuck you on mic. He can't do it.
Eric: And, like, I was prepared.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: I was prepared. So I was—
Julia: I have a follow-up question, if any, whose character/part fucked you up the most?
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Honestly, I was not anticipating Wangling to talk to the alicanto straightforwardly.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: So I was very excited that I got to come up with a voice for the alicanto, who was kind of a bro, which was— which was really wonderful. That— that was the thing that surprised me the most.
Julia: Nice.
Amanda: Amazing. Yeah. Anna wanted to know what your prep was, like, generally, because Anna was surprised that you didn't have a voice ready for the alicanto, but it's a bird. We didn't know that Wangling could speak to beasts.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. It's like, we— we didn't have session zeros necessarily, but they did tell me what characters were— they were going to be. I was like, "Oh, this is how the dynamics of the thing is gonna go." But I didn't know that Wangling had— speak to beasts. And I'm like, "Alright. Here we go, let's do it."
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And that reminds me, Eric, you reached out to some of the players to get their perspectives on these sessions. So let's hear from the Mantis themself, here's what Connie had to say about playing with us.
Connie: Several things surprised me about the session. One of them— this actually isn't much of a surprise. It was just how much fun it was just to play with everyone and experience this world full of plant and bug people. It was a ton of fun.
Julia: Nice.
Brandon: Kind.
Amanda: Cute.
Connie: Again, honestly, I'm kind of cheating the question because it wasn't a surprise. It was—I was expecting to have a lot of fun, and I did have a lot of fun, but I wanted to share that anyway. It was— it was truly a blast playing with everyone. Something else— the second thing that surprised me was how much of a dick that farmer guy was with his son, us showing up, and he just immediately on site did not like us. Glad he got his just desserts, even though we probably went a little too far. Probably broke a couple of— couple of laws on the way there. And the third thing that surprised me was— again, this wasn't necessarily a surprise, just— just— just a star I had. I really enjoyed the montage sequence in, like, the— the treasure camp— the Treasure Mountain. Like each of us getting to describe what we did while we kind of did like a time skip through our adventures. It felt like a really smart, fun, and engaging way to kind of, you know, go through— go through the experience of Dungeon Delving without having to go through the nitty-gritty of Dungeon Delving that was a ton of fun. So, yeah, two not surprises and one genuine surprise. It was a lot of fun.
Brandon: The montage, an Eric Silver special, baby.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. It was fun having them come on. And I was like, "Here are things that I do all the time." The— you guys rolling out a table to introduce something about your characters, and the montage, and they were like, "Whoa!" And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm the best DM podcasting. Yeah, yeah."
Brandon: I need to stick up for the farmer's son for a second, because he— he wasn't a dick. He was annoyed that his older father kept beans— not only just a little bit maybe too trusting, but also kept just bringing home strangers to the farm over and over again.
Eric: Thank you, Brandon. Thank you.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: That was 100% what I was trying to get across.
Brandon: Yeah, you got it across. It was like not only is this weird, but it's also just a little bit annoying to have a bunch of strangers.
Eric: I probably flagged down Orello for a magic item to protect my farm from the randos my dad keeps bringing home.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yup.
Brandon: Because he's an old, sweet man and he just wants to have friends over, you know?
Eric: Yeah. That was always the hook— that was always the hook that like, "Oh, this sweet man is bringing pirates to his house."
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: I mean, how to make your life more exciting?
Eric: That's what the old man— that's what the old band thought, for sure.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Julia, is that what it's like now that your husband's in the band and bringing bandmates to practice in your living room?
Julia: Yeah, and they're all cool. It's great. I have no complaints.
Brandon: None of them murder my— murder me or my— my husband/son.
Julia: Yeah. No one's murdered anyone yet.
Eric: No one tries to release my literal most prized possession into the wild.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Now, Eric, I have a question. It's from me, Brandon—
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: —in the Discord. Did— the fact that we've had an alicanto in the past, was that a thing that you're just like, "Oh, I love this, let's use it again."? Or like, "Oh, Brandon knows this, the other two don't, so it'll be interesting."? Or was it just—
Eric: For this one, it's the first one.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: I love the alicanto. I knew that they didn't know them. I liked the alicano, one because I think it's an incredible monster, and it worked very, very, very well as an NPC. It's like— it's a monster that has wants and needs, but also is a himbo. So I think that there's a lot of tension that— actually that makes them such a good quest giver. But I think that it was so exposing new people to that. But the fact that you knew what it was, and you were able to be like, "Oh, this thing's tight." I think was a little bit helpful. Yeah.
Brandon: Cool.
Amanda: And Brandon, for you, what was it like playing with new people and also editing new players? I— I can't remember the last time that you edited a new player in the style of Join The Party.
Brandon: Yeah, that's— that's a good point. It was a blast to play with them. Jasper and Connie are— are wonderful. It's always a bit of a like, you— like, you know when you're in, like, elementary school, and you went to someone's birthday party for the first time, and you're like— it's like a bunch of eight-year-olds like, "Hi. What do we do?"
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: There's always that little bit of a thing, but—
Amanda: Or meeting, like, your cousin's friends—
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Amanda: —that's the feeling for me. Yeah.
Brandon: So, you know, I— I don't know if this is what you were pointing to, Eric, but definitely, like, it took me, you know, a coup— 15 minutes or something to sort of click in and be like, "Oh, this is where I fit in this party."
Eric: Yeah, for sure.
Brandon: Because I had a different incarnation— or a different sort of, like, personality for Abel, and what I was planning to do. But I was like, "Oh, no, no, no. I gotta swap this because this is— this is better for the party and this is more fun for me and for the show to play it more, like, demurely, I guess.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: In terms of editing, it was— I mean, it was obviously easy because they're— they're all professionals. But the— it's definitely fun to— like, after six years of editing us, like I know everyone's quirks, and so it was fun to, like, see other people's new quirks and— and try to edit around them. But yeah, I mean, otherwise, you know, normal process, but it was a blast.
Eric: Yeah. I really liked the part where I gave you a chipmunk or the chipmunk, and I'm like, "Kill it. Kill it, Brandon, kill it."
Brandon: Yeah, you asked me to kill a cute, little chipmunk.
Eric: You are playing a necromancer, Brandon.
Julia: Brandon's all for violence in the main campaign, but the minute he starts playing a necromancer, "I don't want to do a murder."
Amanda: Uh-hmm. He doesn't want to bully strangers into murder.
Eric: I'm like, "I'm so sorry. I keep making Brandon— or Brandon's characters hurt. Oh, your character has a way to replenish healing, all you have to do is kill this squirrel."
Brandon: I only like to kill people who deserve it, Julia.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Oh, of course.
Brandon: The chipmunk didn't do anything to me.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: And so— until Eric made it bite me and then it did something.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah, and it did something to you. It was— it was so funny. I will say we spend more time— because of the relationship with the alicanto talking to it, specifically, I had to change some stuff around the montage I did on the fly. I just decided we were going to do that instead. There was a Golden Ooze in there who was like a guardian of the spirit of prosperity—
Julia: Ooh.
Brandon: Ooh.
Eric: —where all the— all the alicantos came together who was on— who's going to be like right before the bridge. But we ended up montaging through it instead, which ended up being really fun. But, you know, I have been doing this for so long. It's like— I feel like Jasper was messing with me, and he was like, "I'm gonna ruin your One Shot. I'm definitely gonna ruin it." And I'm like, "Dawg, I've been DM professionally for a long time. I don't know if you can. I don't know if your ability to cheat out on stage is going to ever give me— make it hard enough for me to have— make you have a good time." And I'm glad Connie had a great time. It was— it was wonderful. It was really, really fun.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Now, was this Golden Ooze just Chad covered in gold foil?
Eric: Yes. Next question.
Brandon: Okay.
Julia: I really like when Eric answers questions like he's a NBA player who's like, "I'm just here so I don't get fined."
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Amanda: Yup.
Eric: "Yeah, we really played 110%. Ball didn’t go our way, but we just gotta go out there next time. Next question."
Amanda: Yup. Alright. Anything on the cutting room floor or any final questions from my fellow players about the gold?
Eric: Yeah. Well, Julia and Amanda, what did you think listening to it?
Julia: I really enjoyed it. I was gonna ask Brandon, Brandon, how did you enjoy the necromancy class from Valdas'?
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Oh, it's really cool. I— there's so many options with it, too. I sort of had to choose the— for lack of a better word, like least interesting, but they're all interesting, but sort of—
Julia: The most basic.
Brandon: Yeah, the most basic, the most streamlined one in order to make it easily playable in a One Shot.
Eric: Yes. The vampire is definitely the most streamlined of the subclasses because the other subclasses are fucking wild.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah. They're really cool. I would definitely play a necromancer in a different campaign where I could really delve into the different aspects of it.
Amanda: You practically did with Milo.
Julia: Yeah, that's true.
Eric: I got— but Milo's idea— I mean, the— what I really liked about the necromancer class is that the way that Mage Hand Mike and the folks over at Mage Hand Press wrote it is like the goal is to be a specific type of death lord.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And you really— your activation on that really moves you to it. Yes, Brandon was a vampire, but that was like— eventually, he would be a Dracul if he got to level 20.
Julia: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Which I find really interesting because they have that with like Death Knight, and regular Lich, but also there's like Pharaoh, like you want to be a God King. And I think that—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —the— another thing that I love about a lot of games made with care, like when I talk about Monster of the Week and when I talk about Masks, this was made with form following function. You play the subclass you want to play that is like also connected to what you want to see as you play it out in story.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm. And then Brandon, the only other follow-up question I had was— I know that during the process of creating our new characters for the One Shot, I had, like, two or three backups in case, like the people who were playing with me were going to play something— and I wanted to give our guests the most opportunity as possible to, like, get to play the thing that they wanted, so I created a bunch of like backup ideas. Did you have a backup idea?
Brandon: I don't think I really did.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I feel like I had—
Julia: You were just like, "It's vampire, we're going for it."
Brandon: Well, I feel like I had some initial ideas that I just, like, threw away, but I don't— honestly, I don't remember.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: Did I Slack them to you, Eric?
Eric: I think that you wanted to do something similar to what Colo ended up being and— but you were like, "No."
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: But I think that was just like from the beginning. You're like, "Oh, I want to be a strong man-beetle, but I'm like, "Oh, we have that."
Julia: Uh-hmm. Whoops. Uh-oh.
Eric: But I think that you were already— you were already trending towards Abel by then.
Brandon: Yeah. I don't even think it's like we already had one. It was like— I think we were talking about like, "Yeah, that's, you know, fun but, like, maybe not, like, the most interesting." It was just like spitballing and we decided, "Oh, vampire is fun." So— yeah.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: And yeah, I— I just had a ton of fun listening to the episode. I was so tickled by Brandon being a necromancer and being like, "I simply can't kill this creature." It— it was very relatable. And I really enjoyed Wangling as a character, and I really enjoyed his sort of— not even naivete, but just like lightness of— of being, and reminded me of the kinds of characters I tend to play in One Shots.
Julia: Cute.
Eric: Yeah. Wangling was interesting because Connie was— was like, "Oh, Wangling got resurrected and is following it again. The Death God must have done it." And I was like, "Oh, we haven't talked about this. Like, this is interesting." So then I ended up talking about— you know, I think that being resurrected and getting a second chance is like very— a Christian idea of like the dea— Grim Reaper showing up and St. Peter—
Amanda: Turning you away.
Eric: —turning you away as Val said, so it was fun. It's like, "No, I think that the planter just told you to do new— new Game Plus." Like, you got to figure it out. And I thought that that was really fun to do.
Amanda: And they were like, "Yeah, got it. Yup."
Eric: Yeah, for sure.
Julia: Makes sense.
Amanda: Alright, let's move on to The Island, this one stars Julia, Jenna, and Danielle, and—
Eric: On the island where nobody goes.
Amanda: So much fun. Eric, let's start with you. Where did the plot inspo for the island come from?
Eric: Well, I was playing God of War Ragnarok.
Julia: Absolutely called you out that episode, I'm so sorry.
Eric: I know. I said it, I said it, that was my fault. I said Allfather at one point.
Julia: Yeah. And I was like, "Oh, really? Uh-huh. Tell me more."
Amanda: Tell me more, tell me more.
Eric: I— I wanted to do something where someone was lying about what the salmon was. And I thought it was fun to do this kind of like— I was actually a little bit inspired by Breath of the Wild where there's that one side quest where you're on an island, and you're naked, and you got to just like figure it out without having any of your equipment. I kind of liked having an isolated island adventure where you had to do stuff. And also I wanted to be a little bit of a mystery, which would allow you to fig— once you triggered the mystery being done, then it was done. It didn't— which didn't necessarily have anything to do with the tasks that were put in front of you.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah. So smart, so good. Julia, what was it like? How did you feel about making these characters? I know you're always deeply rooted in character and they seem—
Brandon: Deeply rooted?
Amanda: Exactly.
Brandon: Woo!
Amanda: They seem to come to you, like, you know, fully formed, like Athena. So where—where did your beautiful idea come from?
Julia: Yeah. So I was between two characters that I kind of, like, fully fleshed out, didn't create character sheets for, but like, knew what their background was, what class I was going to use, what subclass I was going to use. The original character that I didn't end up using was because it was also an investigator class, and because Jenna was doing the investigator, I didn't want to have a double investigator group there. But RIP to Sazerac St. Herbaine, the investigator/archivist, antiquarian from Overstalk who was an hemlock plant.
Amanda: So good.
Eric: Oh.
Brandon: I mean, maybe they exist somewhere else. Yeah.
Julia: Maybe they exist somewhere else, we don't know.
Amanda: In the multiverse. Yeah.
Julia: Yeah. And then we ended up with Sir Indunia “Dune” Frostridge, who my idea was like— I wanted a retired knight from the Crags who— and then I was like, "But do the Crags knights get to retire? Because there's so many of them probably dying in service."
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: And I was like, "Well, what if she got kicked out before, like, all of her comrades got killed during a coup?" And then I was like, 'Well, why did she get thrown out? Gambling debts. Okay, we're doing the cards— War Mage House of Cards."
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Love that.
Eric: My favorite thing about Sir Dune is how lazy she is.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: You only peeked out a little bit, but when I realized that's what you were doing, like that's so funny.
Julia: Yeah. Because this is—
Amanda: So good.
Julia: —like her— her working retirement is basically what I consider it.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: And so she's like, "I don't want to have to do like hard work and labor. I just want to like do a cool fight every now and again, and live off the profits of that."
Amanda: "Do you know how many times I didn't get killed in the Crags? Like, come on, people."
Julia: Exactly. Exactly. Like, I'm done serving anyone else besides me.
Brandon: What do you think of the Warmage class? It seemed really cool.
Julia: I really, really liked the Warmage class, and in particular, like when you get to, like, actually get into combat and start doing all of the, like, cool cantrip stuff and adding all the bonuses and everything like that, you can do a lot of damage. And also shout-out to Mage Hand Mike because finger guns is my new favorite cantrip.
Eric: It's very funny.
Julia: It's so good.
Eric: It's so funny.
Amanda: Seriously. I can't remember life before Valda's Spire of Secrets truly.
Eric: Truly, yeah, for sure.
Julia: I'll also say I really enjoyed playing with both Jenna and Danielle who are both like very fun players in general when it comes to the tabletop RPGs. There were moments where I think like, there's always a little shyness at the beginning of— of—
Eric: Of course.
Julia: —like a One Shot when you're working with new players and—
Brandon: That was the eight-year-olds that I was trying to describe.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Exactly. Like, there's a certain amount of shyness. And so, I felt at times where I was like, "Alright, no one's doing anything. I gotta be the one to, like, move the plot forward a little bit, you know? And get to where Eric has, like, little designated spots for us to do things."
Amanda: Totally.
Eric: Yeah. This one defi— this one had required the most amount of going to a place. It was more— this one was the most— like a point and click adventure.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Where it's like, "Here's the thing, go figure it out," which—
Amanda: Interact.
Eric: —which we do sometimes where it feels like— you know, when you walk into an area, and then you get to like, beep and boop. But, yeah, this one needed the most of, like, people deciding things out of all the— all of them.
Brandon: I mean, we just also have developed a shorthand in sort of your gaming style on our play. Like, we know when you want us to sort of move forward and when you want us to investigate. Whereas like if you're a new player, you're trying to figure out what kind of style of DM you're working with. It's like, do you want us to sit there and investigate this chest for 20 minutes? Or do you want us to, like, you know, throw the chest overboard, and then keep moving— moving forward, you know?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Totally. And also, the three of us will just like nod at each other, or Brandon and I be like, "Yeah, this is a Julia problem. She'll, you know, have a great idea right away."
Julia: Yup, that's fair.
Amanda: Or Brandon will, you know, do something or, you know, one of my characters will act brashly, you know, and then we'll sort of deal. So it's— it's always— you know, you got to come up with a new dynamic. So—
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Exactly.
Amanda: —that's why I think it was really smart, Eric, to pair, you know, two new players with one of the PCs because, like, we are a known quantity to you and—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —versus DM-ing a whole group of new people. A, the audience got to see us play new characters, which was hopefully fun. But B, you know, we got to sort of be a— in transition or like a— you know, an easing of the newness for the new players.
Eric: For sure.
Brandon: That's why it was so— that's why it was so surprising for me to play with Jasper and Connie, because I thought I was gonna have to do that, and then they just, like— or took the reins.
Amanda: And you were, like, keeping up. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. Took— took the reins beautifully, and I was like, "Alright. Let's go, baby."
Julia: Hell yeah.
Amanda: Let's do it. We actually have a comment from Jenna here, she wrote in to say, "I was impressed at how well the fun puzzle-y the One Shot elements were integrated into the overall Join the Party mythos." Look at that.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: "Sure, we were on a deserted, quote, 'island' in the middle of the ocean, far from any beloved characters or locations, but I still felt like I was part of JTP canon. Also the feet stuff."
Julia: Also the feet stuff.
Brandon: Can I just say? Jenna, wonderful. Jenna, wonderful player. I— I don't think I've listened to Burnt Cook Book Party more than a handful of times just because no— for no reason other than I can't do more D&D in my life.
Eric: Fair, fair.
Amanda: It's her Pathfinder Podcast Brandon doesn't listen.
Eric: It is— it— it's the Pathfinder Podcast that says it's a D&D podcast which—
Julia: Not anymore. She said she changed that.
Eric: It was so funny. I thought it was the funniest bit. I loved it. It was so good.
Brandon: It was funny. But yeah, such a good player, you know?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Truly. I think De Leon was probably the most fleshed-out character that I saw. I'm like, "Man, you really know everything about De Leon." And it was just a— and it was like— but it also had a vibe. That's why I kicked off that episode by being like— like— like, I was talking about the comedian in Watchmen. I was like, "It wasn't a war for— in the—in the beginning of the One Shot."
Amanda: Oh, my God. That's so funny.
Eric: It's because I understood that character inside and out.
Amanda: And I just like— more— more so for that character than any other, I had Chris' illustration in my head of just like that ripped dandelion like smoking a cigarette, and it was so funny.
Julia: With their little Hawaiian shirt. I loved it so much.
Brandon: Yeah. I was gonna say it was funny to— in my brain to think about Jenna voicing Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Eric: Yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Chris also said that De Leon was their favorite portrait to work on.
Brandon: I love that.
Eric: Fair, fair, fair, fair.
Amanda: So good.
Eric: Fair.
Julia: I also— I really enjoyed playing with Danielle solely if not— because Danielle is a wonderful person, but also all of the wrestling references were so fun for me.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. I think Danielle's ability to just, like, hone in exactly on the character that you wanted to play and then, like, just execute, it was like so good, it was so funny. I loved it. Fucking Sleeves, that's such a good fucking name. Are you kidding?
Julia: It is a great name.
Amanda: Sleeves is a great na— and yeah, just like a fully— fully shaped as a person from the minute Danielle started describing Sleeves.
Eric: It is— it was like heat-seeking missiles on jokes for Danielle.
Amanda: Yes, yes.
Eric: Which is why I— I didn't mind that Sleeves is a bard. It's like, "No, no, no. I know what you're doing here." And being— taking bard things and then saying like, "I'm the stupidest person who's ever existed, and I'm going to leg drop everything." I'm like, "Okay, I get it. That's why you're gonna roll charisma and people are going to think you're charming."
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Because it actually is charming.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I think you need to— if you're going to play a bard you actually need to be a charming character. You don't get to say, "I kiss you, and I play my guitar, and I rolled a 22." Like, you really got to back it up.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: 100%. Had a lot of great audience questions on this episode, y'all, so let's jump in. From Kendyll, fainting goat, "Did the fake tree tastes like pine because Ellis is related to the illusionist Piney?"
Brandon: I was wondering this too. Also I kissed you, played my guitar, and rolled 22 is the name of my autobiography. Continue.
Eric: Nice. Good one, good one, good one.
Amanda: Great.
Julia: Good one, good one.
Eric: I was trying—
Amanda: Brandon, you misspelled two, that’s a typo.
Brandon: Yeah, I know. I thought about that, too.
Amanda: Just so you know.
Eric: I didn't even think of that. Dungeons and Dragons has a hard time with insight and investigation of allowing nuance to ideas. Like insight is a lie detector as a skill, which is hard when you're trying to build intrigue. So what I was trying to do, I was like, "Yeah, you are allowed to examine this thing, but I think it was more the idea that I wanted it to taste fake and smell fake was what I was trying to get across more."
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: The pine is like— this tastes like—
Amanda: Yeah. The car air freshener.
Eric: It's like you're eating an air freshener, you're not tasting the tree, was what I was trying to get across, but that's really—that's really smart that I've had my illusionist both to be trees right now, which I thought was neat. Yeah, that was my God of War inspiration. Mimir stuck in the tree was something I loved, and of course, the All salmon and the Allfather. I— there are some like the metal elements of Norse Mythology is something that really spoke to me.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Julia, I do have to ask.
Julia: What's up?
Brandon: What was— what was going on your brain when you were like, "Oh, maybe I should lick it."?
Julia: I think I wanted to see if it tasted like tree.
Eric: No, surgeon was right.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah. Surgeon was right.
Julia: So then I was like, "I'm gonna lick it, and if it doesn't taste like how it smells, then it's not real."
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: That was my favorite moment listening to the episode because I'm like, "Cammie would never do that." And it was so fun.
Julia: Cammie wouldn't— Cammie would like maybe sniff it a little—
Amanda: Right.
Julia: —like, you know, because Cammie's smells magic.
Amanda: You'd be like, 'Hi, friends."
Brandon: Pretend you're a dog.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Different tastes, you know, can't be real.
Eric: Ellis was so regal to me that, like, Ellis just was like, "No, you're— don't talk— hey, the giants gonna smash you. Leave me alone. I can help you." But, you know, if you had gotten to the end, Ellis would be like, "Alright." And then you die. And so I— I thought it was really interesting that you decided to break that in the second one, which I was okay with. I really wanted you to do the stuff that I had planned for you, but I was never really— I never really thought you were going to do every single activity.
Julia: Yeah. No, I— I also immediately called it out. I was like, "Oh, this is an Eric Silver fetch quest. Got it."
Eric: Where you have to do stuff and it doesn't really matter.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And to that point, a question from Librarychick, who at this point, I think we should call Librarychick the indexer, because—
Brandon: Whoa.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: —we are slicing and dicing information, we are bringing in great questions. Librarychick, let me know if you enjoy that, because I— I think you deserve it.
Eric: As long as Maureen is still allowed to set betting odds and— and those can keep going.
Amanda: Maureen is still the bookie. Oh, yeah.
Eric: Okay. Okay, okay.
Julia: Can we— can— can I make a suggestion, I like the Postmaster for Librarychick?
Brandon: Oh, the Postmaster is nice, too.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Oh. That's good. Alright, the Postmaster. Librarychick keeps the clock.
Eric: Librarychick has to— has figured out how to send regular packages from Australia to the United States. I think we— they— they deserve some sort of doctorate or at least a certification.
Amanda: The Postmaster, PhD (Librarychick)—
Eric: Yeah. The Postmaster, PhD.
Brandon: Postmaster, PhD.
Amanda: —says, "I was wondering what would have happened if the crew from the islands completed Ellis' fetch quests."
Julia: We would have died, apparently.
Eric: Ellis would have acted— it would have like tickled the salmon giant, the berry giant to smoosh him.
Amanda: Okay.
Eric: And then you would have immediately gone into an issue.
Julia: Uh-hmm. That makes sense. It was easier to just kill Ellis, now that I think about it.
Eric: Yeah, because— and now they are an illusionist. They're trying to fool you, and that's why they— that's why they separate, they turn themselves in so much that they could escape. You would have had to fight the berry while Ellis was hiding until they could come out again and do this— do this prank on another crew.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: The thing I wanted to get across was that Ellis has done this multiple times and was using the berry giant island to enrich themselves.
Julia: Yeah, yeah. That makes sense.
Brandon: I like that you're just trying to say very giant island, and you just messed up—
Eric: Berry— ber—
Julia: That's a real big island. Tha's a big island.
Amanda: Amnotagoldfish said importantly, with clapping emojis in between each word, you can picture it, "More huge bois."
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm. More huge bois, agreed, agreed.
Amanda: Alright. And then a couple questions around the salmon. Let's start with Christinarovensen. "Wait, the salmon was actually a berry? Here I thought it was just a fun, little joke in the intro." Eric, how long you've been planning this one?
Julia: Did you know The salmon berries were a thing and you were like, "Maybe it is a berry. Who can say?"
Brandon: We don't know that that's true, right? We just know that in this One Shot.
Eric: In the intro was a line I say is, what is the salmon? Is it a berry? I don't know. And that—that's the one that's been going the whole time.
Brandon: Right.
Eric: I'm— I'm here so I don't get fined. Next question.
Amanda: That's fine. SavedMan wants to know, Julia, did you believe you'd found the actual Salmon at any point during this one shot.
Julia: No. I was like, "It was way too easy. There's no fucking way. Like, I was looking for the keys, what the fuck are you talking about?"
Amanda: Julia's absolute skepticism that this was the salmon at all was a real highlight.
Julia: Yeah. I was like, "No. Actually, no."
Eric: I— that's why I like that Sir Dune was lazy because they kind of kept Julia's dramatic irony to— from saying anything.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: So while Sleeves was bouncing everywhere, like De Leon was the one who was like, "What is happening?" And I kind of liked that, like, Sir Dune was standing in front of Julia from spilling the beans.
Julia: Yeah. I was like, "Nope. I'm not gonna ruin this for the rest of the players, but no way."
Brandon: Sir Dune just has their— just has a finger on your lips.
Eric: Shh, shh. I'm— I'm tired. Shh.
Julia: I'm tired and so tall, shhh.
Amanda: Alright guys, well I have some giant cheese puffs in the kitchen.
Brandon: Woo!
Amanda: One is like the size of a basketball. Yeah.
Julia: What?!
Amanda: So I'm gonna go grab those and I'll be right back.
Julia: You just described my dream.
[theme]
Amanda: Hey, everybody, it's Amanda. Like, you've probably heard by now, we are going on tour. We're going on the Rolling Bones Tour with Spirits across the US, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, DC, Philly, Boston, and New York. Not in that order, don't worry about it. We're so excited. Please help us make this tour a success. We want to do more of this and we need to know if you like it too. So if you're able, please grab some tickets. Please come and join us, jointhepartypod.com/live is where you can get your tickets now. Cool? Cool. Thank you so much to our newest patron, William, who joined recently and has been enjoying benefits like our patron-only Discord, aka the best place on the internet. The bi-weekly Party Planning Podcast that we make in both audio and video form for the $10 patrons, the video. Five is for everybody. It is so exciting. We love making Party Planning and planning all-new shenanigans for you to enjoy. So if you too would like to support the show with your dollars and enjoy even more JTP content, do it, patreon.com/jointhepartypod. This week at Multitude, we are also getting a bunch of good stuff going over on Spirits. The history and comedy focused about folklore, mythology, and the occult, by me and Julia. Every single week, Julia brings me another story from somewhere around the world, and we talk about it over drinks and learn why the stories that human beings tell ourselves remains important. We have just started a mini-series all about ancient Egyptian mythology. So if like me, that fascinated you as a kid and you want to revisit it as an adult, now's a great time. Come on over, check us out, we are Spirits in your podcast app, or go to spiritspodcast.com. We are sponsored this week by Green Chef. This is a meal delivery service where you can enjoy different items from their really varied menu each week. In fact, they have over 80 flavor-packed options each week that you can choose from. And if you have specific dietary concerns and preferences, like a vegan or vegetarian diet, something that's gluten-free or filled with protein, maybe you're trying to get those gains, you get to customize your week, every single week, and figure out what it is that you need. They have unique farm fresh ingredients, organic whole fruits and veggies, and premium proteins for you to enjoy. And they also do seasonally inspired recipes, which I think is pretty cool, so you can celebrate the ingredients, flavors, and freshness of every season. I am waiting on my first box and I am so excited to get it because we have had a ton of company recently and we've been, you know, going out to eat, or kind of eating leftovers, or like ordering in, and I am really excited to get all of the ingredients I need for several really good delicious, good for me, home-cooked meals. I'm really looking forward to it. So go to greenchef.com/60jointheparty and use code 60 Join the Party to get 60% off, plus 20% off your next two months. Go to greenchef.com/60jointheparty that's 6-0, jointheparty, all one word, and use code 60jointheparty to get 60% off, plus 20% off your next two months. The show is also sponsored by BetterHelp. Hoo, man, guys, if I think back and look at all that I am proud of and all that I have done, I feel like I am really proudest of the relationships that I have in my life. I'm really proud that I have learned how to express myself and navigate conflicts and advocate for what I need and also express to my friends what I love about them, and what I appreciate about our relationship and show up for them in ways that are you know, that— that are meaningful to them and not just kind of the things I wish people would do for me. And I know I'm at the very beginning of my sort of journey to, like, get even better at that. And it's something that I work on a lot and I— I really value how the people in my life feel about me, and whether or not they feel valued, and if I'm expressing to them correctly how valuable they are to me. And one of the ways that I figured out what I can give, what I can do and kind of work through, how I can better show up for the people in my life is therapy. That is where I can talk about both the impacts it has on me and how I want to show up for the others in my life. Therapy is a super useful tool for you to consider. And if you are looking for therapy that is online, convenient, flexible, suited to your schedule, please consider BetterHelp. They are a place where you can just get started with a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Also, by the way, for any reason, you can switch therapists which is really, really helpful and I did when I was using BetterHelp. So become your own soulmate, whether you're looking for one or not. Visit betterhelp.com/jointheparty today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp. H-E-L-P, .com/jointheparty. And now, let's get back to the show.
[theme]
Amanda: Alright, I'm back. I've also brought napkins the size of tablecloths, so don't worry.
Brandon: Smart.
Amanda: Don't be embarrassed, it's gonna be fine.
Brandon: Smart. Smart.
Julia: I'm gonna wrap myself in it, is that good?
Brandon: Aman— I was— I was gonna say, Amanda, you just described a dream I didn't know I had, which is instead of having many napkins, it's be inside napkin.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: Just wipe everywhere.
Amanda: Yeah. Well, I am going to just go ahead and tease a reveal that, Brandon, Jenna, and I just recorded February's Head Heart Gut. And in Jenna's survey episode, she comes up with an idea that has fully haunted me. Like, it's a category of the judgmental feedback. It's haunted me, this idea has not left me. And it is not unlike being wrapped up in a napkin the size of a tablecloth. So—
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —I'll just leave that there.
Julia: Damn dude.
Eric: Interesting. Interesting.
Amanda: Alright, let's get into The Insurance, which had myself, Sarah, and Kristen, as players, and Julia edit it.
Julia: I did.
Amanda: You edit every month, the After Party, but this is your first play session that you've edited for the show. How did it go?
Eric: Wow.
Julia: A lot of respect to Brandon. It's a lot of work.
Amanda: Oh.
Julia: I'm very impressed that you do that on a weekly basis, Brandon.
Brandon: Why? What was rough about it?
Julia: No, it wasn't that it's rough. It's just like I—
Brandon: Oh, sorry, I thought I— that's what you said.
Julia: It's more that, like, I find it really impressive that you create such a coherent flow for everyone's, like, speaking and stuff like that, especially like from character to player speaking voice and the amount of— I really like adding atmosphere into my sound design, so that was a very fun aspect of the sound design for me.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah. Y'all notice how good that cave sounded? So good.
Julia: Yeah? Oh, thank you. But like I—
Eric: It sounded so wet.
Julia: It was.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: It was a wet cave.
Eric: It was a wet cave.
Julia: Bro, wet cave.
Eric: Bro, it was a wet cave.
Amanda: Bruh, it was like a big throat.
Julia: Uh-hmm. It was a big throat. It was a real wet cave.
Amanda: I really got Eric with that one.
Julia: But Brandon, I'm just— I'm very impressed by what you do on a weekly basis, and I just wanted to share that with the audience. So, you know, you do fucking lot.
Brandon: Well, as I am one to do, I'm gonna say boo, Julia. And also, Julia, you did a fantastic job, and you deserve the credit. For all of it, for every time that I edit during the week, it's Julia's credit now. So now it all goes to Julia.
Julia: I don't— no.
Amanda: Brandon, we talked about deflation of credit. Brandon.
Eric: Julia, you did— Julia— Julia, you fell into Brandon's trap card, he reversed the compliment back to you.
Julia: He Uno reversed me, no1
Amanda: Alright. Well, let's— let's—
Eric: Mirror Force! Sorry.
Amanda: Let's stop Brandon from getting too uncomfortable. Eric, where did The Insurance scheme idea come from? And Katja wants to—
Brandon: So funny.
Amanda: —know, "Was this a scheme to recruit for Audrey? Was the Rotten Queen involved?"
Eric: Who can say? My—
Brandon: My— hold on, Eric, I just want to say—
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: —my favorite thing and all of Joined the Party is when I get to edit a thing that I was not in or, let's say, before—
Julia: Same, big same.
Brandon: —because then I get to discover the secret bullshit that you do along— along the way. And I was like— since I heard you start going like, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga with the little boat, I was like, "What the fuck is this gonna be? This is gonna be so good."
Eric: First of all shout-out to Dredge. In my head, it was the little boat from Dredge—
Julia: Of course, of course.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —that was— the insurance agent was driving. I— you know me in my world-building, I love putting companies into my world-building because I think it demonstrates, one, that there are entities that want power and money in the world that kind of makes it more vibrant. But two, then they want something and they will pursue it at any cost, even if it means contracting other people which is a really wonderful way to get quests because you can't fight a company, it doesn't have a face. Like you can't—
Amanda: Or— Eric, can I say, rights?
Eric: Yeah, it also don't have rights. You're exactly right.
Brandon: The law of Verda Stello agrees with you.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: I will say if my favorite thing to do is add food to world-building, Eric's favorite thing is to add companies.
Eric: True.
Amanda: But it's so good, because like, of— of course, in a post-Cascade drying up economy, there are going to be whole cottage industries dedicated to supporting pirating.
Julia: Yeah,
Brandon: Totally.
Amanda: Like, of course, there would be. And that's, I think, my favorite takeaway of all of the One Shots is just seeing how different people, and archetypes, and organizations respond to this world because we only see the ones we run into. And part of the fun of collaborative world building, but especially Verda Stello is just like exploring that nuance.
Julia: Yes. I also really liked it too, Eric, was— because I'm watching now Delicious in Dungeon, which I know you've read all of.
Eric: Yeah. This was part— no, this was part of it, yeah.
Julia: Okay. And the idea of, like, the characters will just say offhandedly like, "And that was the first time I died." And I was like, "Oh, no, is it the same thing. They just have good insurance and they're bringing the bag." We have like these— these papaya seeds.
Eric: Yeah, that wa— that's exactly what it was.
Brandon: I've made this comparison before, but it is exactly like the gol— the people who would sell the gold miners the tools in the gold rush.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Like I was like, "Oh, a fucking course I would do— I would sell insurance to pirates. Like, that's brilliant."
Julia: Yeah, because they're gonna use it.
Eric: Yeah. I was very excited to really try to flesh out parts of Verda Stello throughout this whole thing. Like, with the alicanto is like there are monsters, there are things you don't understand, there is magic. And then the thing with— with Wangling, I was able to talk about death and where the planter fits in with that. And then with these— with The Island, the whole thing was people try to use the salmon as a hoax, and then what— where does that come from? And then with this one, who profits also on the Great Salt Sea? Who— who does the support—the support class for pirates.
Julia: hmm.
Eric: And it's— it's companies like this.
Amanda: Eric, Like—like Mariska says, "Qui bono? Who benefits?"
Julia: Qui bono?
Amanda: Law & Order was filming outside the office today. It was very exciting.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Did you see Mariska?
Amanda: No. Law & Order: Organized Crime, there was just like a Ferrari. It was boring.
Julia: Not as good.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I— I really loved Agent Whispers. I loved Blue Lotus Life. I was just really excited to kind of, like, reveal this to you. And then it was like the anci— it was like the ancillary thing as you wandered into what we— turned out to be a giant flesh-eating plant, which I thought was really fun. Which, again, would make sense. Like there is that trope and fantasy of like, "Oh, this isn't a cave, it's a monster, it's a worm. It's something." And I thought that having a giant Venus flytrap would be similar and would work well for Verda Stello.
Julia: Yeah, it was sexy. I liked it.
Eric: Thanks, dawg. And then the pirates inside of it fucking— in Stripes.
Julia: Oh, my God.
Eric: Oh man. The pirates inside of them were so funny.
Amanda: Those guys were real characters.
Eric: Sarah did such a good job interacting with the other NPCs that was like— because like Kristen was out here being Lucas.
Amanda: So cute.
Eric: Lucas has my entire heart but like Sarah, and— and Dandy were like bouncing off of the other NPCs so well, especially as being the only one who knew what insurance was. I thought that was so funny.
Amanda: So good.
Brandon: Yeah, it was really funny.
Julia: Also, Sarah's just full skepticism while having that conversation being like—
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: "—Yeah, the salmon. Sure."
Amanda: I— Sarah needed no help at all, like you— you would not be able to tell if you hadn't told me this was her first recorded actual play session. She did so well, and like her and Lucas' dynamic was so much fun just to like observe and play off of. But yeah, especially— especially Dandy interacting with the— the, like, wayward pirates was so funny. And also a little bit gross, like this episode was a little bit grosser.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: And like us, like, getting into like, the bodies and the resurrection, and like carrying the parts. It was great to do that when, like, it wasn't Gloria's bottom.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And it was just like some guy, like not related to my crew, but like, who cares? It just— it was— it was liberating almost.
Eric: Yeah, it— it was hard trying to, like, reverse— what Julia said about the casualness that people see in depth—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: in Delicious in Dungeon. I was trying to, like, inject that. It's like, no, this is silly, but you do need to put some body parts together. It's gonna be fine. It's fine.
Amanda: Yeah, it's like, you know, zombie-ish style or like Frankenstein's monster, you put them on next to each other and then they pop up back again.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Well, I was also thinking of like Princess Mononoke—
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: —like the level of gore in that, where it's like— or like when you see someone get cut in half and you just see like meat and a— and a bone in the center.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It was like that's the kind of level of gore I was going after.
Julia: Like a ham.
Eric: Yeah, just like a ham.
Amanda: Yeah, it's like a ham. But let's— let's get into the uvula of that throat, if you will. Melanie says, "Was that a real key? Imagine the main crew having to run into Lucas, Dandy, and Captain Salamander to get the key off of them. Is the Sea Whip bigger than their boat? Would Lucas jump ship and join the crew?"
Julia: Well, luckily, you guys didn't get the key, so that's a real win for us.
Amanda: We did not.
Eric: I was fully prepared. I was fully prepared. I really— we really did roll for it.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And that was all— and whether or not everyone was dead, those were straight rolls. We didn't— I didn't fudge anything. I was prepared for anything at the end of that one.
Julia: Yeah, my favorite part was Amanda kept trying to talk and you were like, "No, you're dead. Shut up."
Amanda: I was like, "What do I— like now— I— in the moment, I just forgot about death saving throws, I was like what do I do?"
Eric: I just never get to say— I never get to say it to Amanda.
Amanda: I know.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: I feel like it's all always you two. I was like, "Amanda, you're dead. Stop it."
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Glass Cat Owl asked, "If the crew had managed to keep the key, what would you do? Like, would that affect the main plot?"
Eric: Yeah, a 100%.
Amanda: It would, right? Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. I was fully prepared.
Brandon: I would have had to kill Lucas. It would have been sad.
Julia: Also wait, just a total aside, can we talk about Amanda being the only actual captain in all three One Shots?
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: I felt— so I feel self-conscious that because I'm, like, not nominally in charge of Multitude and just have an assertive personality.
Brandon: Nominally?
Amanda: I'm walking to a room like— no, no, no. Like— like, I go to brunch with my friends, and the server gives me the bill without asking anyone else. Like I just—
Brandon: Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda: I just bring that energy to my every interaction.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And so I was like, "Is it, like, boring for me to play the captain? Like, you know, will these— will"— like I know Kristen well, but I have not met Sarah before. So I was like, "Will— will Sara be, like, weird if, like, someone else is the captain of like a thing I'm in?" And they're just— their characters were so perfect and the class was really cool.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Well, I— it actually mean— it actually did inform the themes. I think of a lot of the One Shots.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like The— The Gold was all about three pirates on shore leave, getting into an adventure, which I thought was very fun. And then like, oh, no, you're separated from the crew. We got to make decisions was what happened on the island. But for this one, this boat got a job, and I thought that that ended up being very interesting. Because also like Captain Jones is responsible for her crew and also her babies was so funny.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: It was very good.
Brandon: Someone of the Discord said that they were imagining the babies as the little spider creatures in Spirited Away and I was like, "Exactly."
Eric: Oh, the soot. Yeah, the soots.
Julia: Soots, yeah.
Brandon: The soots, yeah.
Amanda: Someone else and Pikmin, and I'm like, "Oh, that's so right. Yeah."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Oh, the Pikmin. Yes, I think Pikmin, Yeah
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: The Pikmin? Oh, both very good. Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Well, Amanda, you had a voice for the babies. You definitely did it, right?
Amanda: Yeah. No, I did. It's not unlike the—
Eric: Well, what is it? What is it?
Amanda: [screams]
Julia: Yeah. Yeah, that was it. Also Amanda, total aside, that happened to me for, like, the first time ever at a restaurant when I was away, where like—
Amanda: Oh, really?
Julia: — I— I did, like, the ordering and everyone else got drinks, but I had water and the guy looked at me he's like, "Oh, so you're in charge." I was like, "What?"
Amanda: I think in Florida, they smell the New York on you.
Julia: That was Vermont, but yeah, still.
Amanda: Oh. Nice.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: What did you think about the class that you were playing? You said you liked it, but what did you think about it?
Amanda: So much fun. I was drawn to the captain class when I was originally building my character for Campaign Three. It wasn't quite the right fit for the vibe we were going for, and I was also, you know, really taken by the gunslinger and first thought, best thought of Troy Riptide. So that—
Eric: Butterfly cowboy, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: I simply had— I simply had to do first thought, best thought, but the— the captain is so cool because I'm jealous of y'all's familiars, and it was— it was nice.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: I know we didn't get into— we got into a little bit at the end, but the real like crux of that subclass— but the real crux of that class is being able to have this cohort that can be like, A, you know, a second in command, can be more of like a horde type situation. And, you know, they'll act as they think you want them to act if you're not there. So truly like being a captain, being in battle, being on a ship, and like sending a battalion out to do something, that's why the Pikmin analogy tickled me so much because it—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —that's totally it. And it was tons of fun, easy to understand. I think Mage Hand Mike does a great job of structuring these classes so that they, like, have opened— they're open to shenanigans and they give you flexibility. But also it's easy to, like, get at what they're going for. Like, I— I didn't feel like I was trying to, like, grasp for the heart or the intention of the class. I just got to do it. And for One Shot, especially where I sort of want to, like— I want to like quick select my character. You know, I want to, like, take the— the bill that's offered to me, it was so easy to do. And as soon as I heard Lucas and Dandy, I was like, oh, I know how Captain Salamander fits in to your world-building game, Eric. It was really, really exciting to, like, build that relationship with them too, and be like, "Oh, yeah. No, this is— this is what her fears are and this is who she is."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Getting worried that people would drown from the beginning was so funny and that came up— and it came back so quickly.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yup.
Brandon: Oh, I also must ask, Amanda there's been a trend over the past couple campaign thingies where the names that you come up with, they seem like for a spot thought, best thought, this is what happened for this name again too?
Amanda: Yes, Brandon. Yes, Brandon.
Brandon: I'm absolutely buck wild. I love them.
Eric: In the marketing, I did around this one, I was like, "From the mind of Dr. Bertha Bones.”
Amanda: Well, I don't have Julia there to refine my crude oil into petroleum. That's all we get. it's crude oil all the way, yeah.
Julia: I love Captain Salamander Jones. No notes.
Amanda: Thank you. Thank you. It was very fun.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah. No, I'm not— I'm not complaining or critiquing. I think it was amazing.
Amanda: You're right— Brandon, your observation is right. Yeah. Helen asked actually a really interesting question both for me but the other players as well, "Did you approach your in-game choices any differently knowing these were One Shots versus the main campaign? I'm especially thinking about Captain Salamander's near-death experience. Is there a temptation to be more reckless with a One Shot character?" What do you guys think?
Brandon: I don't enjoy being— y'all are gonna fucking roast me when I say this.
Amanda: I'm ready, man.
Brandon: I don't— I don't love being reckless—
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: What do you mean? That's not even true.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Say more.
Brandon: It is true. I don't like—
Amanda: Councilors, hold your— hold your objection.
Brandon: What —what is colloquially called in the TTRPG space, a murder hobo, I don't enjoy playing that style of game. I like creativity and like solving problems in a way that is maybe not intended. I'm a very much a plot person, so like I don't want to destroy the plot, I want to see the plot. I want to enjoy the plot.
Amanda: Right.
Brandon: That's— that's my thought. So not really— like I don't really change the playstyle that I do for One Shot, unless like I'm told to, you know? Like— like, you know, this is like a fucking mock campaign or like a rampage campaign. Let's go. But—
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: I don't think that I play recklessly in terms of like, "Oh, I'm just gonna throw my body in there and hope I don't die." But I do play more recklessly in terms of, like, allocating spell slots, and the things that—
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: —I can utilize—
Eric: Yeah, for sure.
Julia: —that I don't need to worry about, "Okay, but now I need to take a long rest, because I know that it's a One Shot, and I'm probably not gonna get the opportunity to do a long rest. So I might as well just use all my shit.
Brandon: True.
Amanda: Yeah. I mean, I think— I think it's more that it's only one session and not that it's a One Shot or like, quote-unquote, "like not, you know, canonical campaign episode". Like, this is canon, this is in, you know, Verda Stello and in Campaign Three. And for me, like, would I have, like, provoked the sneeze at the end of the episode if I were Troy? Maybe, but I—
Julia: It feels like a Troy thing.
Amanda: It feels like a Troy thing to do, but—
Brandon: Yeah, almost certainly.
Amanda: Amanda really wanted to see what would happen.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And I have like— I— I try my best to make decisions that the character would make, because that— I think that's like the most compelling listening, and that's been my, like, anchor of playing TTRPGs. Like, I've always ever done it as narrative, and so I wanted— I want to stick to what's true for the character. Sorry to, like, talk about what's true to the character, but like—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —that— that's important to me. And when it's the first episode, we've met them. They don't have all those ties, like we did in, you know, Lake Town City by design where, like, Aggie couldn't do a damn thing without having consequences on somebody that she cared about, which I liked and really wanted to explore.
Eric: Right.
Amanda: But this is very different.
Eric: Yeah. Can I— can I make a— a metaphor for how Brandon plays tabletop RPGs?
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Brandon, I— I think you'll like this.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: Brandon, I— I understand this. Brandon doesn't like murder hoboing. He doesn't— when he sees a house, he doesn't try to destroy the house, he doesn't light it on fire. But what he will do is he'll say, "What do you mean this house isn’t zoned to put a nuclear reactor inside of it?"
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: "That's what I want to do."
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm. That is accurate.
Eric: "You get—"
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: "Why is the government telling me that I can't separate the atom inside this house that I found?
Julia: Libertarian Brandon strikes again.
Brandon: Libertarian Brandon. But only if the nuclear reactor is an important way to solve a problem that we have to solve.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: No, you— you— you zoom out and you're like, "Why does— why did the givens have to be given?" Which I think makes you a—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: —really good magic user and spell user.
Julia: Facts.
Amanda: Couple more questions on this one and then we'll round out with some— some spoil the plank and some future questions.
Brandon: Ooh.
Amanda: This is also a follow-up from Glass Cat Owl, "Was this a real key? Was it the key that still hurts?" Eric, will you answer that?
Eric: Yeah. Yeah.
Julia: Ooh. So now we know where it is.
Brandon: It was. Confirmed.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Assuming it's still there, because someone might have gotten in between that One Shot and the present.
Amanda: Hell yeah. And then, equally as important for the podcast from Melanie, how big is Lucas? How could he both fit on somebody's shoulder, fit another pirate's boots, and also get misplaced on the ship?
Julia: He's an eight-year-old—
Amanda: First I'll say ships are big.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. He's also eight. Eight-year-olds have the ability—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —to get lost—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —all of the time.
Amanda: I pictured Lucas—
Brandon: I think—
Amanda: —like a little kid wearing the mom's heels. You know what I mean?
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: You know, the dad's dress shoes.
Brandon: Well, I think they're asking because in— in Lucas cannon on the YouTube, he's— he's the size of a small spider, so—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: —like, I think Lucas is as big as you want Lucas— as you need Lucas to be in the moment, you know?
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: I'm standing by Lucas is the size of an eight-year-old because he is an eight-year-old.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: I— what I really like about this was also the subclass that Kristen did when— it's usually— this was a joke so you could play a Spider-Man, but it ended up working out really well of doing this and having Lucas be so agile at all times.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Very cool.
Eric: So that Lucas could perch on a shoulder regardless of size because of his abilities.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: So I thought that was really smart from Kristen.
Amanda: Yeah, like— like cat fits and sits.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, exactly. Now, very importantly, Eric, do you remember the song that you said in the episode that you would remember for the rest of your days?
Eric: No, Brandon. That's why it's recorded. So that you can go back and hear— so you can go back and hear it.
Brandon: Okay, cool. Yeah.
Eric: Kristen could hold it in her heart forever. Kris— Kristen's the best. Kristen's very talented.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: It was great.
Amanda: I love the moment that you were like, "Ah, yes, that's what you get a voice actor, huh—"
Eric: Because we got all voice actors. Yeah. For sure, for sure, for sure.
Amanda: So good. Eric, SavedMan wants to know, "What all of the questions were in the relations table? Because he really enjoyed them."
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Julia: Read it off, my friend, read it off.
Brandon: And also a question from Brandon, a follow-up from Brandon in the Discord, "Was there anything else that you didn't use or deleted that is fun or interesting that you want to share?"
Eric: No, I guess it wasn't— yeah. I mean, I knew what the third task that you guys didn't do on the island was—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —but we didn't end up getting to it. But it was just like go— well, which one was it? It was—
Julia: It wasn't the feet.
Eric: It was just like stu— yeah, it was just like go up to the head and do some stuff—
Julia: Sure.
Eric: —you know? And, like, it was really tender. And the whole point of the toes and the feet stuff was, like, the giant was supposed to be extra sensitive there, so it would be easy for you to get slapped.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah, because you're a pervert.
Eric: Yeah, 'cause I'm a big pervert. You're right, Brandon. Nailed it. Good job. And then, no, I think that you guys pretty explored the insurance. I didn't know at the time that you were all going to die by drowning, but I thought it was really funny that Agent Whispers said that. But I did know the entire time that Agent Whispers have the ability to see how people die.
Amanda: Sure.
Eric: I was very excited that I got to see that thing.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Dang.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Man, it's so weird that you put an accountant in the game.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Stop, we're not doing this.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Okay, one that I did— number one the first time the crew got drunk on pedal rot, I told everyone my greatest dream was blank. Other character, did you believe me? Why or why not?
Julia: Cute.
Brandon: Petal rot is fucking great. I think I'm gonna start using that.
Amanda: Yeah. Where's that lore? Yes.
Eric: Needs more petal rot. The one— that was the one from— the second one was the one from Sleeves about talking about someone back home. Number three was I am this much into treasure and doublooms that was a—
Julia: That was a Lucas question if I remember correctly.
Eric: That was a Lucas question.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Oh, for number four, I need a specific comfort to feel like a person when we were on long voyages. What is it? Other character, when did you see me eat, consume, or partake in this comfort, and what did you— what did it make you think of me? Number five, was— am I good at this job? Number six is hidden talent. Number seven is I'm extremely afraid. Number eight was I would make a great captain. That was a— that was a good one.
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: That we did. Number nine— oh, number nine, I went missing for three days on an island we docked at, what happened to me? Other character, do you believe me? If so, how are you involved in finding me? If not, what do you really think happened?
Amanda: So good.
Brandon: That's awesome.
Eric: And then number 10, I believe something that I know is outside of acceptable Greenfolk society—
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: —even out on the sea. I really liked that one. I love that Colo was like, "Yeah, pirate superstitions are stupid."
Amanda: Just fake.
Julia: Fair.
Amanda: Fake.
Julia: Yeah, fair.
Eric: "They're not wrong— they're— they're all wrong, and you guys are all weird."
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: So good. Mixelle91 asks, "Which of the guests PCs would you most want to meet in your campaign besides Lucas?"
Julia: But that's the answer.
Brandon: Yeah, Lucas. Yeah. After Lucas, I think De Leon and then—
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: —all of them after that.
Amanda: And I mean, I just have so much fun hanging out with Dandy. Like I just— I imagined Dandy and Troy to be, like, absolute BFFs.
Eric: In my head, the way that the island resolved, I just feel like we never see those characters again. They're like— it's— it's like we zoomed out and they didn't know what to do next, you know?
Amanda: Fair.
Eric: But I could definitely see running into Captain Jones' crew or the new— or with the alicanto with the first crew.
Julia: Damn.
Eric: Because, again, in my head, the alicanto did go with them to go do whatever next.
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: I mean, almost certainly, like in the taverns, you know, like there's gonna be that rumor of like, "Did you guys hear about the pirates that, like, went in and are now billionaires because they found an alicanto?"
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Amanda: 100%
Eric: Yeah, we go back, Abel is fucking balling.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Dripped down in ice.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: He's got like— he's just got like a line of chipmunks that are just there waiting for him to drink their blood.
Eric: You're wearing a gold chain that says Abel Mortensen on it.
Amanda: Tight.
Brandon: Fuck yeah.
Amanda: So heavy, my posture changed.
Eric: It's so— it's so heavy, he— he needs— he needs little zombies holding it up.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: From Mcuello17, "Not a question, but I need that mandolin version of the theme song, I need it."
Brandon: Oh. No mandolin in that theme song.
Amanda: Really? What are the instruments?
Brandon: Banjo and acoustic.
Julia: Wow.
Eric: Oh.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: Yeah, acoustic guitar. Yeah.
Amanda: Banjo around mandolin.
Julia: And a djembe.
Eric: The peo— the people's mandolin.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: The people's mandolin, but yeah, we can upload that to the merch store, probably.
Eric: Yeah, you— you did a really good job. I'm really happy you did that.
Amanda: Let's get it done. We can do it.
Julia: Woo.
Amanda: Rchldebruin says, "most players chose unmoored. Eric, were you hoping more would choose country?"
Eric: Well, Jasper wanted to be unmoored so that he could use a feat to hurt me.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: But no, I— it's— it's a little restrictive, for sure. I mean, everyone loves being a variant human for that reason, but you know when it came up, it came up. Like when Dandy knew what insurance was because she grew up somewhere. It's like, "Oh, there you go."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: It's something that I think would have come up more with a longer campaign, but I can't fault people to make One Shot."
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's fun. But yeah, when— when Dandy—Dandy and De Leon and Sir—and Sir Dune did it the best.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's like their past really did inform who they were now.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: 100%. And from Luce Goose, "my friend and I are convinced that Abel is Milo-Coded, Sir Dune is Val-Coded and Captain Jones is the love child of Dr. Bertha Bones, and Aggie. Was this purposeful, a happy accident, or do my friend and I listened Join the Party too much?" Not possible.
Brandon: You can't listen to Join the Party too much.
Amanda: Not possible. Not possible.
Julia: Yeah, I don't think that Dune is Val-Coded at all. Val has a very, like, strong moral code and like is the opposite of lazy. And Sir Dune is, like, maybe had similar voice I guess, but like Sir Dune is there to, like, be a lazy bum and, like, you know, gamble on some cards and do some magic shit.
Brandon: I mean, we can't escape ourselves, right? But, like, yeah, I— I would agree with that too. Like, I think— well, one, I think I had a different plan for Abel, and I had to sort of pivot in— in the moment so maybe you're getting some Milo vibes, but I don't think Milo is timid. Milo is just like a— like a young, idiot boy, you know?
Julia: True. Facts.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Facts about Milo.
Eric: Well, Abe— Abel's like, "I can— I can suck blood but no one look at me."
Julia: I'm shy. Shy about it.
Eric: A shy vampire is very funny.
Brandon: I know.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: It's— it's underrated— I think it was underrated how funny Abel was during the— during the whole time.
Brandon: I— I'm glad I had to pivot because I liked that better than what I was planning, so yeah.
Julia: Wait, I really love the energy of a vampire who's like— those girls who are like, "Would it be gross if I ate in front of you?"
Amanda: Yes Julia. Yes.
Eric: "Guys, would it be weird if I turn this guy into a zombie? Would that be weird?"
Julia: Do you think that Captain Salamander Jones was Aggie/Bertha Bones-Coded?
Amanda: Yes, in that she's stoic, but also insane, which is a Venn diagram I love.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: That it's like you're watching Treasure Island, or Muppet Treasure Island, or Treasure Planet, and you're in this last act when you realize that Long John Silver is insane that you didn't know it the whole time.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: That's good, that's good stuff.
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Brandon: Yeah, I like that.
Julia: How did you not know that it was Tim Curry? Of course he is.
Eric: That's— that's a good poi nt.
Amanda: You don't cast Tim Curry to not be insane in something. Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. It's Tim Curry in his— or— or in the Scooby— in Scooby-Doo and the—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, what's the—
Amanda: Ghost Island.
Eric: And Ghost Island that— no, no, no.
Julia: Zombie Island.
Amanda: Zombie Island.
Eric: No, no, they were in— he wasn't in— that was— Mark Hamill was in—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —Zombie Island.
Amanda: Oh.
Eric: Tim Curry was the one where he was fake Stephen King, and that's the one with the—
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: —with the lady band.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: It's something with vampires.
Eric: You know what I'm—
Julia: Oh, the Witch sisters or something like that.
Eric: Yeah. Well, whatever that— the one with the lady band.
Julia: We know.
Eric: Yeah, we know— you know, you know it.
Julia: You know out there, you queer ladies.
Brandon: You know.
Eric: But that one— that one— I remember— I think I did that one for Spirits and I'm like—
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: "—Oh, I remember this because Tim Curry only lets out being Tim Curry."
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And truly the last 20 minutes of this entire cartoon movie.
Amanda: Yes. Well, guys, as we approach the end of this episode, we have lots of spoil the plank questions about whether or not these characters or maybe even entities and themes like the alicanto, the insurance are going to come back. I definitely— to Brandon's suggestion earlier, see people— you know, mentioning them and kind of gesturing at the fact that these events are real in our world. But—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —Eric, what can you say about whether or not any of these characters are going to return?
Eric: I'm here so I don't get fined. Who can say?
Brandon: We do need to come up with some rules to find DMs over their bad activities—
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: —you know?
Eric: Yup, yup.
Julia: Emotional pain, $10 please.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I don't know. I'll think about it, because like, these ideas are definitely around. But again, the whole reason why we did these episodes is, one, because they're fun. But two, I never want guests to feel like they have to do canon stuff. So, you know, I mean, Kri— you know, even for Kristen, someone who— who we love and we know is a really good person on— on a podcast. I don't want to throw Lucas in a cannon episode and— and then— and what if Umbi kills Lucas? What do we do?
Julia: Brandon, how could you?
Brandon: He would never.
Eric: But like what if accidental? What if— what if a mountain falls on Lucas?
Brandon: Oh.
Amanda: I know.
Eric: Because— because Umbi exploded it—
Julia: I think because of the bomb. Uh-hmm.
Eric: —with— with bomb.
Brandon: If that happened, I think Umbi would retire from life.
Eric: Retire from life.
Julia: There's a word for that.
Amanda: It would just be—
Eric: They should start saying that on TikTok.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I retired from life.
Amanda: It's just like a crushing pressure, so I mean, yeah, I— I think— who can say? And stay tuned, and I'm excited. You should also stay tuned to your web browser and go to jointhepartypod.com/live to buy tickets to our 7-city live show tour.
All: Wooo!
Amanda: You saw the feed drop, but hear it again, folks. We are coming to Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC the last week of March 2024. Couldn't be more excited. For a Join the Party and Spirits, doubleheader—
Eric: Wa-hoo.
Amanda: —two live shows, one ticket.
Eric: Wa-hoo.
Amanda: It's gonna be great.
Julia: Wa-hoo.
Brandon: Wa-hoo.
Julia: Soda.
Eric: There's gonna be some stuff. We're gonna do some stuff, like we're— there's gonna be a Spirits live show and some Join the Party stuff. There's gonna be games, but there's gonna be stuff—
Julia: In the middle.
Eric: —we don't do on these shows.
Julia: In the middle.
Eric: There will be—
Brandon: Oh, yes.
Amanda: Ooh.
Brandon: There will be stuff that we only do live.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: We— that we couldn't do it.
Amanda: Very true.
Eric: It's— we can't have someone record it because it's too hot.
Julia: Too hot.
Brandon: Exactly.
Amanda: We're gonna have exclusive merch available at the shows that you cannot get anywhere else.
Eric: That's true.
Julia: Fact.
Amanda: And Julia and I are going to coordinate our printed button-downs, and it's gonna be great.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah. Bring it.
Brandon: Me and Eric are gonna coordinate our pants, so it'll be like--
Eric: Okay, Brandon. You gotta go buy some $400 sneakers right now.
Julia: Do it.
Brandon: Yay!
Amanda: Yay!
Eric: I've already started picking out my— my outfits, but sneaker up.
Amanda: Sneaker up.
Julia: As you should.
Eric: Sneaker up.
Amanda: Sneaker up. Got them excited. Alright, folks, we got so much more coming. This has been a such a wonderful start to the year. Can you believe the One Shot Derby was a year ago, and now we are—
Julia: What? No, it isn't.
Amanda: —a full year into—
Julia: Lies.
Amanda: I know.
Eric: That's true, that’s wild.
Amanda: Into Verda Stello. And God, I'm just— I'm— I'm happy to be here. I love making this podcast, and thank you to all of our guest players who we paid with money, but we'll also pay right now with thanks.
Julia: Thanks.
Amanda: Thanks, guys. You were great.
Eric: I was wondering— I was wondering if we— now that we're here in 2024, do we need a new end to the After Party?
Amanda: Oh.
Eric: Like one that we can yell—
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: —loudly from the li— at the end of live shows?
Amanda: That's a great idea.
Julia: Huh.
Brandon: Did you have an idea in mind or an example?
Eric: Well, I was just like— well— like, may your rolls turn ever upward, like what's the version of that, that you can yell?
Julia: I mean, Brandon needs that, so I don't think we should eliminate it completely.
Amanda: Something's gone wrong, Julia.
Brandon: It hasn't been working, Julia.
Amanda: It's not that helping, no. Is it— is it Hi‐Diddle‐Dee‐Dee, goddamn, a pirate's life for me?
Julia: No, it's not that.
Amanda: Okay.
Julia: Sorry to “no, but” you but I was just like, "Whoa.”
Brandon: That's a pretty— that's a pretty good option, though. I do like it.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Alright. Well, maybe—
Eric: Well, it could be like—
Amanda: —we can, like, think this over.
Eric: Yeah. And as we say when you roll it— as you say when you're rolling bones, uh-oh, it's the knee!
Brandon: I don't think it's that one though, Eric.
Eric: What those toes do?
Amanda: Okay.
Julia: Lovingly, respectfully—
Amanda: Okay, we're gonna—
Julia: —should it just be, "Avast Ye."
Eric: Julia, I don't know if we can make your character— your character—
Julia: We all say it.
Eric: It is fun.
Brandon: It's something about joining the party. We joined the party. We partied so we joined. I don't know.
Eric: Something like that.
Amanda: Alright.
Eric: I want to workshop, and I want to think about it.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Lets us know.
Eric: For next— we'll have it next time, we'll do it next month.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And then this is what we're gonna yell at the end of li—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —at the end of our live-- at the end of our live shows.
Julia: So you gotta be caught up.
Amanda: Yeah, we have—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: We have four weeks.
Eric: Well, they— they'll still enjoy it, Julia.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: They just won't laugh about it at the same time.
Julia: Fair, fair.
Amanda: We have four weeks. Let us know.
Brandon: Folks, let us know if you have ideas.
Eric: Yeah. Something about rolling dice. Something about having good— your dice doing well. Like something—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And then something you can yell victoriously to keep energy up through a plot, through applause.
Julia: Roll them bones.
Eric: Maybe we just yell—
Amanda: Rolls high is a thing no sports team has ever said.
Brandon: Nope.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: No, it's not. I like— maybe we just say roll them bones.
Julia: Roll them bones.
Eric: I— it's pretty— that might be the—
Amanda: That's pretty good.
Brandon: That's a solid contender.
Amanda: That's pretty good.
Brandon: I do like it.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: I think that's our— that's our hypothesis un— until we get a better one.
Eric: Just like a skeleton falling down a hill, roll them bones.
Julia: Roll them bones.
Amanda: I mean, that's simply what we can chant every time we roll at a live show, like that—that sounds great.
Brandon: That's true, yeah.
Eric: I know. I just like it. I want to yell something at the end and I think roll them bones is good.
Amanda: Okay. Okay, okay.
Brandon: We— okay. The first time that we do roll a— a dice at a live show, we must say that.
Eric: That's fine.
Amanda: Certainly.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Maybe we should get one of those really big inflatable dice so we could, like, roll it all over the— all over the stage.
Brandon: Eric, yup.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I'm gonna order that right now.
Eric: Great. Yup.
Amanda: Yeah. Brandon, Brandon, on your corporate card, just go ahead and put that in.
Eric: Hey, can we have one for Brandon so he doesn't— solely ours? Actually, the turn— actually, buy two, so we have one just for you.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: Brandon, buy two, buy two.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: Yup, yup. Yup, yup.
Eric: And we'll mark it. We'll write Brandon's on it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Or we'll get two— give them two different colors so we know.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: Okay.
Amanda: Love to hear it. What a good After Party. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for sticking with us and being so excited about this experiment. We love trying new shit here in year 7 of our podcast.
Eric: Yar!
Amanda: Love it.
Eric: Wild.
Amanda: Alright. Well, I have no sign-off, so say goodbye, folks.
Julia: Later.
Eric: Roll them bones!
Brandon: Bye!
Eric: Roll them.
Julia: Roll them bones.
Eric: Roll those motherfucking bones. Uh.
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