How did that punk keep switching his friends in to get hit? What does a mountain lobster sound like? And how many more ice cream trucks are there in this city?! All those answers and more in the Afterparty!
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Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Milo Lane), Co-Producer, Editor, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Val Vesuvio), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host (Aggie O’Hare), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is a collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast, powered by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. That means a group of friends create a story together, chapter by chapter, that takes us beyond the tabletop to parts unknown. In the first campaign, we explored fantasy adventure, intrigue, magic, and drama. In the newest story, we tackle science, superpowers, a better future, and the responsibility to help others.
Every month, we sit down for the Afterparty, where we break down our game and answer your questions about how to play D&D and other roleplaying games at home. We also have segments at the beginning of each campaign to teach people how to play the game themselves. It’s a party, and you’re invited! Find out more at jointhepartypod.com.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to the After Party where we have as many questions about ice cream trucks as I think we did about Tuna last episode so I'm very excited!
Julia: A lot of ice cream trucks! They're very important in these episodes.
Brandon: Ice cream trucks, the new fan favorite! [laughing]
Amanda: We also started a very important discourse about soft-serve ice cream trucks, and the fact that those are very localized, regionalized, there's just lots ice cream discussion happening here.
Eric: Brandon learned what a boathouse was, we all grew.
Julia: Congratulations!
Amanda: Many architectural reference images, it was very fun for me.
Eric: That's true, it was nice to know that as we learned that it was not some Kennedy bullshit as Brandon described it.
Brandon: Did I?
Eric: Yes you did!
Brandon: That's pretty good, I like that!
Amanda: Let's start out with the fight that took up most of episode six I know Julia you had some questions about the mechanics of the fight.
Julia: Hey Eric, why why was he able to keep putting guys in front of him, and I couldn't hit him?
Eric: Well Julia, it's cause you're bad at Dungeons and Dragons—
Julia: Hey! No!
Eric: I've looked at the DM’s guide, and that's what it said! Uh, no, the reason why is I went into my bag of tricks and went into the monster a day wonderful compendium, and I found this little guy called the goblin boss. It's usually a goblin person but this was just a regular person now. It was just a challenge one and I have this wonderful ability called redirect attack when a creature the goblin can see targets it with attack the goblin chooses another goblin and within five feet of it the two goblins swap places and the chosen goblin becomes the target instead. Now what I did for this was ruffian boys replace the word goblin so in this fight I had goblin boss as Mantis they were the rat-faced one who talks like [in annoying teenager voice] this yeah I'm gonna get you [normal voice] and the very large high schoolers as I described them were boars.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: So I did three boars, and then a goblin boss.
Amanda: Is there a mentor pegs joke to be made here?
Julia: Probably.
Eric: Yeah definitely, you insert your own.
Brandon: Fighting boars is much better than fighting underaged teenagers, so yeah I'm gonna go with boars.
Julia: Okay cool, cool, cool, we did punch a lot—
Eric: Just cause you're 15, doesn't mean you can't get beat up by the heroes coming in, I'm sorry.
Brandon: That's true it's true that's— that was my favorite Superman comic growing up.
Eric: Yeah where he beats up teens!
Amanda: Are there any kind of pact dynamics at play among them? Or was that swapping ability the sort of main mechanic?
Brandon: Because that's what you used in the bank scene right? Was it the bank scene?
Julia: Yes!
Brandon: When you used pack dynamics?
Eric: Yeah that was when I made the guys in the bank as kobold, but I didn't have a pack dynamic thing here that's it was more the boars had a charge move much like Val does, which I was not able to deal with there, because you just kept pushing them over—
Julia: Ah hah!
Eric: And it's like ah they're not able to run but Aggie is using her way of movement to use everyone's energy against them. You just did a lot of pushing people over so he couldn't run at you and charted you and tackle you which is what I really wanted to.
Amanda: Woo! Not violence is the answer!
Eric: Oh no, it was still violence when you think about it. Still violence.
Amanda: That's true.
Eric: Yeah that was all that was happening with that fight honestly, I thought that it was gonna be like Aggie getting beaten down, while Val and Milo figured it out outside. But you were just able to take care of business, and you kind of progressed it from the inside.
Amanda: I tried, I tried but speaking of Val and Milo how did that noticing of River play out?
Julia: Yeah let's talk about that perception roll.
Eric: Again bad at Dungeons and Dragons. So I kind of just made it a reverse perception roll like it was a trap, so obviously it was being distracted by somebody else your perception it's kind of when you look at things but I think there is a way to be distracted by important things so I kind of turn that on its head.
Brandon: Oh I love that! That's awesome!
Eric: The wonderful thing about this and again Julia you're just wrapping up your own demise here, you were the one who described college students going to Lake Town and looking for Monty in the world-building episodes, and this was when the world-building episodes came out so I was listening to it I'm like “that's a really good idea!” [keyboard clicking noises] and I put that in. So they were wearing lanyards and you know the only people who wear lanyards are the beginning of school year freshman, because it's fall. So they were doing the traditional rite of passage which is trying to find Monty in the woods which is why the what they were doing in the forest.
Amanda: I am sensing a crossover opportunity here with someone writing in to Spirits about the lore of Laketown City.
Eric: Well I would have that! I can go into that, that’s for sure.
Brandon: I have major concerns about these college students searching for an aquatic creature in the forest.
Eric: Wow Brandon doesn't want children being beat up he doesn’t want eighteen year olds looking for monsters. Such safetyism, ugh such a snowflake!
Amanda: Ahh god, not allowed on our social justice warrior podcast.
Eric: We don't have that class, I'm sorry.
Amanda: Aw damn.
Eric: Val is a social justice barbarian.
Julia: That’s true.
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: The other thing that we didn't talk about was how you were gonna get into the garage so there was a padlock, I had found a PDF that I really liked about locks and keys that just like every lock needs a key, you can't just have a locked door. So I'm like okay if they're gonna lock this garage which has a giant mountain lobster in it, there has to be a key somewhere it might be on a person or they might have hidden it. So I was thinking about how smart these guys are so they're not, so they probably would have just hidden it around and I thought about this for a little while so it was under there was like a— [Eric pauses and laughs]
Brandon: Julia—
Julia: Was it under a rock or something?
Eric: It was under a rock yeah,
Julia: Ugh god damn.
Eric: I think it was like either under a rock and on the beach so under like a chair, there might have been a beach chair nearby I can't remember exactly what it was because you guys didn't do it, so I just kind of forgot about it but there was the key nearby.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: You know when you overthink things and then you realize that you overthink them and that is the worst feeling?
Eric: The thing is you could have broken it! That's what Val tried to do in episode six you tried to break it but you missed, you just whiffed it and you weren't able to break the lock I was waiting for you to pick it back up but try to kind of destroy it.
Julia: I was like well this isn't gonna work! And moved on.
Amanda: It's like that's the first lesson I learned in D&D I think like episode 1 of campaign 1, I tried lock-picking completely biffed it and then didn't try it again and then in the after party I think someone said like I could have done it again. I was like oh shit so I always I always tried twice now.
Julia: Smart.
Brandon: Eric what would have happened if we had made the other decision so we had the choice between scouting the clubhouse, and the jailbreak what would have happened if we had chosen the jailbreak?
Eric: You know that's a good question because I was going to plan that when I got ready for episode six so I laid it out for you and then I'm like alright I'm gonna do some introductory stuff, and just lead them to whatever the thing they had to do. I kind of just made all that stuff up when you went to Aggies house for tacos. I'm like alright you approach the boathouse and then some stuff happens, and I kind of just made that bond they'll fly and then backfilled that for episode six. So it would have been some sort of jailbreak, now that you have foiled it, the plan was that there was going to be two ice cream trucks coming from Laketown and then there was another ice cream truck that was coming from a different place, which was the one that ran over Val a few episodes ago. That was going to try to do the jailbreak and they were all gonna converge and use their tech to just try to blow a hole in the side. But the problem was in all of these places there wasn't enough people to help the jailbreak to happen so there was supposed to be like six people on the job to spring for but of course it didn't happen because you guys defeated all these people the other thing that didn't happen was that Val was able to corral the ice-cream truck before anything bad happen. So like I had a whole chase scene set up for eventually when they got in the open road, the Knight of Mirrors was supposed to grab one of you, and you were gonna have like a vehicle battle. I had chase mechanics lined up—
Amanda: That's good!
Eric: So you all take care of it before all this happened so that's why the Knight of Mirrors picked up River Greens and was able to prove that you were knew what you were doing and this was a criminal enterprise.
Julia: No chase scene for you! No chase scene.
Brandon: Bow when you say Knight or Mirrors picked one of us up, is that like an evil thing or a nice thing—
Julia: Sexually.
Amanda: Or ally in battle?
Eric: Listen, Knight of Mirrors is a mysterious person—
Amanda: Guys we can't cut to spoily corner yet, that’s at the end of the episode.
Brandon: That's fair, that’s fair!
Eric: But yeah I also I did have stats for the very large mountain lobster just in case.
Julia: Just in case we had to fight them.
Amanda: Tell us about them! What did Tuna say? What happened?!
Brandon: Yeah what happened?
Eric: Oh Brandon, I should ask you!
Brandon: I mean I rolled poorly but—
Eric: As always what was going through your head when you were like “I know I'll send my cat who doesn't like people to go deal with this interesting creature!”
Brandon: Well my thought process was one Tuna doesn't like people but Tuna may like other animals I don't know I don't know to do that well, and two, I figured that Tuna would might have a better chance speaking to another animal than I would, but now that I'm thinking of the fact that humans are also animals. I think that that logic was kind of lost.
Julia: Hey remember how Brandon's our druid?
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: He can talk to ghosts he can't talk to living things.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: I imagine Tuna was like, I don't know there's something about their favorite pastime is picking goldfish out of a fishbowl or something.
Julia: That's very threatening.
Brandon: Eric’s just looking at me.
Eric: Listen the dice also had some questions about that. I gave you the nat 1. Yeah man I mean there was a question that was like what would happen if Tuna didn't have a nat one. I'm like, I wish you could have told you, well what Tuna was doing, communicating and then Tuna swiped at it, and then it responded in kind and broke its above-ground pool. I don't know!
Brandon: So anyone who's a Tuna fan out there, I just want you guys to take this moment to realize that you're wrong, and Tuna’s bad.
Julia: Don't tell the audience that they're wrong to love Tuna.
Brandon: [laughing] I'm kidding, Tuna is fine.
Julia: Not good, fine.
Eric: [laughing] Man if only the person who had created Tuna had not created Tuna to make Brandon's life so it's easier. Let's go beat up that guy.
Brandon: Only if he’s under eighteen.
[Amanda laughing]
Eric: [laughing] We only beat up minors here! I did look up, and people were making fun of me for how the mountain lobster communicated. I looked it up and shrimp, all shrimp in that area that phylum communicates by blowing really powerful and you know relatively powerful air into the water that creates bubbles. If a mountain lobster was going to talk, it was gonna just be “blbmblbmblmb!”
Brandon: I didn't second-guess that for a second.
Julia: No I thought it was right.
Amanda: I thought it was very charming and real.
Eric: There's a lot of animal research that goes into planning this. I also found this video that is a crawfish place asking what crawfish calls are, and it is the most lo-fi ridiculous video I've ever seen in my life.
Julia and Brandon: Oh my god oh my god.
Eric: [Laughing] Here's just a little clip of it.
Brandon: Thank you!
Man in YouTube Video: What are we doing right now?
Woman in YouTube Video: I’m doing a call for them.
Man in Video: Okay, let’s do it!
[Bubbling noises]
Amanda: Incredible.
Woman in Video: Get over here now!
Man in Video: How often does that work?
Woman in Video: You know, I’m really not sure, that was just a first hand look, we’ll find out later.
[Amanda and Brandon laughing
Amanda: Incredible.
Eric: It goes on for a minute and twelve seconds. I think it was a radio station that was hosting a crawfish boil, and they were doing this to promote it and like this is from like 2006 or they've put it on YouTube it
Amanda: That person looks exactly like Angela Merkel.
[Everyone laughing]
Julia: Wild.
Brandon: This is what she was doing before she was Prime Minister.
Amanda: I looked over and I was like “why do you have a video of Angela Merkel? Does she have a lot of opinions about Lake Town City or crawfish?”
Julia: She does, she's the Crawfish Queen.
Eric: She's Chancellor—
Julia. Chancellor Crawfish.
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: Well let us now get into episode specific questions from everyone. I actually have one for episode 5. Can we hear more about Milo and Lucas's friendship please? It's very pure.
Julia: Yes please! It’s so cute!
Brandon: Yeah I mean Eric, you gotta weigh in on this one too. I think when we were prepping it Milo I had like a cadre of like four or five friends at the Museum, but I think all I gave to Eric was like that, and like they're probably like a researcher and like an archivist and like people behind the scenes cause I think Milo's the only real like edu-edutainmenter.
Julia: Edutainer.
Brandon: Yeah thank you, at the Museum so I don't know. Yeah what was going through your head Eric?
Eric: Well I have these things written down that happened from conversations that I have with Brandon. So Lucas is one of three or four people that are part of the museum and they're all friends, they're all in a bowling league, Milo and Lucas do amateur rocketry together.
Julia: Oh my god adorable.
Eric: They have TV show watch parties and they're out everyone is into Douglas Adams and then I have like four if there are four friends here I have the archetypes that there is a mom, a really smart guy, the newbie, and the steady friend. What I had for Milo was he was the newbie because he what we talked about was the most recent recent addition to the museum team, and Lucas is just like a steady guy he's very chill he just kind of deals with what happens in front of him, and Milo as we've established his run into work very late every single time that we've had him go to work, so we haven't been able to see it other people. I really want to flesh out this friend group. I kind of have a very strong idea of who they are but we haven't had a chance to like build them out, so hopefully we'll get there so we have to out of these four friends.
Brandon: I'm excited I forgot that we had a bowling league. We should practice probably. We probably have a tournament coming up.
Eric: Didn't you say that you had your own bowling ball in episode one.
Brandon: 100% yeah.
Julia: You just forgot you had friends as part of your bowling league.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: I'm glad you built yourself a friend group that's that's really important Brandon.
Brandon: Well you know, there's a lesson there Julia. If you can’t make friends in real life, you can build your own friend group in D&D!
Amanda: And when your parents are not mob bosses in real life, D&D is an option for you Julia tell us please about Val's dad.
Julia: I mean I don't want to get too too spoilery but we did talk about he's a capo for one of the New York families, and Val’s mom and he separated around— do we establish before or after the incident?
Eric: They separated after because Val’s mom went up there to chill to chillax but they were on and off after they divorced.
Julia: Right—
Eric: Or they didn't divorce they were just separated because he can't get separated in the Catholic Church.
Julia: Can’t divorce—
Eric: It’s explicitly what you told me—
Amanda: I mean you can, but should you.
Eric: But like can you really?
Julia: Not—
Eric: Are your spirits ever separated?
Julia: Exactly.
Eric: In the eyes of Jesus—
Julia: And the Lord? But yeah I have a family tree that I've given Eric, and we've talked about the family tree a bit I don't want to like spoil too much because I'm sure we'll meet at least some of Val's family in the future, but there's a complex family network there.
Brandon: God I want to see that tree so bad.
Eric: Oh I'll send it to you don't worry about it.
Julia: Yeah!
Eric: It's also fun because I don't have to come up with the names and Julia calling her dad's Mob nicknamed “The Macaroni” is incredibly good for me.
Julia: You’re welcome!
Amanda: Very good, I laugh every time I hear or think about it.
Julia: It's very good there's other very good nicknames in that family tree as well just saying.
Eric: Oh there’s definitely more —
Brandon: Are they all pasta?
Julia: No, they’re not all pasta.
Brandon: [laughing] Okay.
[Amanda laughing]
Eric: The other thing is that like we know a lot like we know a lot about Val's family we also have Val's aunt that has the sight—
Julia: I totally forgot about all that.
Eric: But yeah this totally fits into the world building that we did there is some sort of mob contingent in Little Italy in Laketown City, because everything that we talked about with the river and the docks and the building out of Laketown City. But Val's dad is in New York City and there is a connection between New York City and Lake Town city we established with a high speed rail and all that stuff New York State blah blah blah. But it's it's interesting seeing these two things come together and how different organized-crime can be in two different cities or at least like it's organized in incredibly regionally like they're not talking to each other they're not branches of the same office.
Julia: Right, they're not the same family, they're not branches from the main family they are separate entities.
Eric: Exactly so [his voice gets high pitched] uuuuhh who can say?
Brandon: In our fantasy universe is the pizza better in New York City or in LTC?
Julia: The pizza’s better in New York but also it's a different style of pizza, so.
Eric: Okay, yeah this is like when we went to New Haven.
Julia: Yes!
Eric: This was funny this was when we were where are we coming from?
Julia: Boston—
Amanda: Sound education,
Eric: Oh right we were coming back from Boston— remember when we took road trips? And Amanda flew to Atlanta for like 16 hours, so we drive—
AmandA: It was like four hours—
Eric: The drive back was me and me Julia and Brandon and we're like we're stopping in New Haven and we're getting this pizza!
Julia: I'm just real— I was personally really hungover and it was like I need pizza, real bad guys.
Brandon: It was really good pizza, pizza’s delicious.
Julia: Yeah Peppe's in New Haven go check it out.
Eric: It was so good like, I usually detest waiting on lines but this was totally worth it. Also the parking and New Haven blows so they'd be back together. There's too many one-way streets in New Haven.
Julia: There are!
Eric: That’s my hot take.
Julia: It's bad, it's bad parking, they should have like I don't know a municipal parking lot probably near that but what do I know?
Brandon: Should really just be Pepe's and then just an all parking lot the rest of it—
Julia: Yeah the rest of the town.
Eric: Or maybe—
Julia: Fuck y’all.
Eric: Or maybe maybe if the country was less car-centric, maybe we wouldn't have this problem. We’d get off the high speed rail and right into Pepe’s, then get back on.
Amanda: I was just fantasising about the fact that there are definitely like regional pizza crawls based in New York City that just like go up to the Lake Town for the afternoon to get pizza and like go back and it's not a big deal because there's fucking infrastructure.
Eric: Well there's probably a stop in Albany on the way up too.
Julia: Probably.
Eric: So like you go New York City and then Albany is in the middle and you can get like a giant Italian sandwich to eat on the train just like everyone it's like two feet and you cut it into twenty four pieces and you give it to give a slice to everybody and then you eat that on the train as you go off to LTC.
Amanda: Sweet.
Julia: Oh hold on now I need to Google if my sandwich shop is gonna be open after we're done recording, one second real quick!
[Everyone laughing]
Amanda: Joey asked about my nat one on the investigation check in episode five about learning more about The Nephews.
[Eric laughing maniacally]
Amanda: Asking why I didn’t use a luck point, which is a good point. But in this case I was worried about preserving them for combat. I feel like I've been watching so much to Dimension 20 where the combat is super high stakes and people actually die, that I was just really worried about saving that for a pivotal role in a combat scenario so you know if I had gotten more expositore stuff on The Nephews, then that's great; but I feel like I'd rather in a pinch have the ability to you know fix something or defend somebody in a fight. If I do it again I don't know maybe I would consider but that was my logic at the time.
Julia: I will say that nat one gave us the best interaction I think of that entire episode, which was you facetiming your sister trying to figure out why the toilet was clogged.
Amanda: Yeah it was so delightful to play and it was just it was wonderful I don't know where Eric pulled that from but it was perfect and I was it went on longer than the edit. Because Brandon made me sound very succinct to me edit but the phone call was a lot of like “I don't know like, where is it? What do you mean?” and it was extremely good.
Eric: Hey, none of your siblings listen this podcast right?
Amanda: Some of them do, but listen everybody has somebody who calls them with questions that they could Google. This is mine.
Eric: Again, you have all given me such gifts by building out part of your backstory and like there are a lot of people who we haven't met yet, not only because in episode 6 like I feel like we meet a ton of people as we look towards the future this entire arc is about meeting people and populating the world. But we’re slowly meeting more and more of your siblings and this was a perfect opportunity to do it.
Amanda: Yeah Joey also asked about what Quinn does and if they’re still a student what they're majoring in a bunch of just like world building questions about Quinn and I kind of don't want to answer because I sort of want that to happen in the fiction.
Brandon: I love that.
Amanda: Is that bad of me? Quinn is the theater actor, she's like a combo of Saoirse Ronan and like Tavi Gevinson, and has definitely like been in this apartment before.
Brandon: What number you and the siblings again?
Amanda: Number one.
Julia: Number one baybeeee!
Amanda: Number one.
Brandon: Oh you're the oldest.
Amanda: Yes, I am.
Brandon: Oof, cool.
Eric: Hey what are the names of all the siblings?
Amanda: [Matter of factly] Aggie, Danny, Cassie, Regan, Ryan, Kelly, Quinn.
Eric: Okay sorry I've missed it the first time can you say that again?
Amanda: Aggie, Danny, Cassie, Regan, Ryan, Kelly, Quinn. Is that a better emphasis?
Eric: Oh thank you now I understand.
Amanda: You just you gotta you gotta or else it won't come out the right way.
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: Alright n to episode six Ellie Paige would really like to know does the Knight of Mirrors reflect like a disco ball?
Brandon: I think yes
Eric: [with a wheezy laugh] I mean probably yeah it's — I wish I had some sort of comp here, but so imagine a medieval knight’s suit but then like break all of them off so that they all fit onto a football uniform so imagine each one was like a different piece that all kind of came together and you had to tape them onto a football uniform, so they all are surfaces. You know like it's not pieces of clothing these are like surfaces on top of pieces of clothing. So the answer to that by being just disparate mirrors is yes.
Julia: A large panel disco ball basically.
Eric: If you catch it at the right light and you just happen to have like some gels and some spotlights just hit em with it.
Brandon: They're really popular in the underground disco scene.
Eric: Who knows what the Knight of Mirrors is, I heard that the Knight of Mirrors was Chad.
[Everyone laughing]
Eric: That’s my headcanon so.
Brandon: I really hope that the mirrors are actually literally just scotch taped on that would make me very happy.
Julia: They seem like they have their shit together though.
Amanda: Yeah I mean their bike is a serious tech.
Eric: I think there might be something in between the two, like you can have high tech but also you're an independent vigilante. Like hey this is might surprise you but most vigilantes are not Batman you don't have a billion dollars. A billion— a trillion dollars whatever we've come to you how much Bruce Wayne's net worth is. So I think there is a certain amount of like literally strapping some some reflective things and chrome on to what is seemingly a football you know.
Brandon: Do y’all ever wish that Bill Gates was a vigilante?
Julia: A little bit, but I feel like—
Eric: He is a vigilante for malaria.
Amanda: He's a public health vigilante yes. Love it.
Julia: There we go.
Amanda: and Melinda, don't forget it’s a dynamic duo nothing's easy in this world. Except for maybe punching ice cream trucks, Kae would like to know: Julia is Val developing a sort of negative reaction to the presence of ice cream trucks in general?
[Eric laughing]
Julia: I will say, I'm really glad that we're in fall and hopefully going into winter next. BBut if it was summer and it was peak ice cream truck season I think that maybe, possibly there would have been some sort of complex.
Brandon: I do like to imagine that Julia wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night just like bolts up from her sleep sweating, and just imagines the Mr. Softee ingle in her head.
Julia: Yeah, that's how my brain usually works.
Eric: The studio is at the end of the road like there's a dead end that leads to a park and I don't know why it is but for like a few weeks earlier the ice cream trucks would just sit in the dead end and just play the song for like 20 minutes. It's like they were on break but also running the music?
Brandon: That seems like illegal activities are happening.
Eric: You think? It doesn't seem illegal, it's just terrible.
Julia: They're also near a park so they're probably hoping that people from the park will come and get ice cream.
Amanda: I also don't know how prudent it is to be operating an ice cream truck mid-Coronba. So there's just many questions to be had.
Brandon: Yesm many questions.
Amanda: Well we will get into our general show questions and of course the spoily corner in a moment but speaking of vigilantes, and heroes, and Batman. I would love to talk a little bit about a new item that we have for sale in the merch store.
[Brandon gasps]
Brandon: What is it!
Eric: Oh wow! What is it?
Amanda: It's No Capes! A D&D reskinning and superhero guide by Eric!
Brandon: That sounds so good!
Eric: Ahh! It’s me!
Brandon: I would pay $100,000 for that!
Eric: Well Brandon, I'll tell you it's not that much, it's actually just $12.
Julia: Woah!
Brandon: That’s a bargain!
Amanda: It’s 50 pages! That’s so long!
Eric: That’s true! This is a 50-page guy that I pulled together of everything that we've been doing in Join the Party Campaign Two - there's a lot of ideas about reskinning, and how to take the game mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons, and take away that high fantasy stuff on it and the turning it into whatever genre you want! In this case superheroes there's a lot of writing about this I kind of break down every single class into like its game mechanic components which is good for both DMs, old players, and new players alike.
Amanda: Yeah I wish I could have read that when I first started playing because I feel like I had no understanding of how the caster classes deferred, and the little like tagline that you wrote for each of the classes just like made it all clear to me it's like I saw God. It's like “oh my god, yes finally, this!”
Eric: Thank you—
Brandon: And isn't God worth $100,000?
Eric: No Brandon, it's just $12!
Amanda: Just $12!
Eric: But don't worry I have written some new and original stuff that you can put into your game regardless, I have seven different new subclasses, and like two pages worth of consumable items you can use, and I've also edited and published RPG city planner which we talked about which was the game that we use to turn Lake Town in 1985 into Lake Town City in 202X. So I poured a lot of energy and time into this and it's really exciting and I really would love to share with you. I think it's pretty neat and check it out! Oh! You all, Brandon also thinks it's neat!
Brandon: I think it's worth $100,000!
Amanda: Wowie!
Eric: But you can get it for just $12!
Brandon: No I think it honestly it's really cool, my favorite thing about D&D in general this is reskinning, and I haven't seen personally quite a like clear cut guide before. Like Amanda was saying it is like super easy to use and it makes things so much more approachable. And yeah I really like it.
Julia: Yeah some of those subclasses are so cool like genuinely I want to start a campaign with those subclasses, and just like, you know be stretchy and punch guys and stuff like that.
Eric: That's true I can tell you what the subclasses are. So I made a subclass for a bunch of different classes for the artificer, I made Mission Control which is kind of like the Oracle, some either it is like a man in the chair or the man in the van sort of type where you stay outside and you send information, and tech in. Or you're like just doing general support using the tech that you have I have put together a Mylo circle of spirits. The fighter is the pro hero fighter, so think like My Hero Academia, the professional hero using your charisma and your love of the audience to help out your team and to do more damage. The monk is the way of the stretch, so it's—
Amanda: ELASTIGIRL!
Eric: It's like Elastigirl, Mr. Fantastic turning yourself into different objects that can help you during your monk fighting. The rogue is the spacewalker which you can't ™ because this is a podcast, it's just Nightcrawler.
Julia: It’s very cool that it’s Nightcrawler.
Eric: The sorcerer is the Shocking Soul so something like Static Shock like paired with the technology there, like how do you have a superhero that uses the electricity of a modern world to your advantage, and finally the wizard is the chronomancer. I took a different stab at this looking at time like it was a story like being able to look forward and backwards at the roles that you can do, and remember you are telling a story in Dungeons and Dragons so the chronomancer has more control over that than a regular player was. You can even take narrative control away from the dungeon master.
Brandon: Absolutely.
Amanda: That is so delicious.
Julia: That is very very cool.
Eric: I think it's pretty neat.
Brandon: I would pay $40 for that Eric.
Julia: Woah!
Eric: Well Brandon, it’s only $12! You're getting closer to the price point!
Amanda: You can buy it four times I guess, that'll be pretty nice. But yeah that along with our digital merch, along with our Lake Town City Mountain Lobster t-shirt, hat, and poster by Squared are all available on jointhepartypod.com/merch.
Brandon: Every time I look at that poster, I'm amazed by it again it's so good.
Julia: It is very very cool.
Amanda: Well, let us take a quick break to head back to the kitchen and fill back up our trail mix bowls, it's custom blend™™ mine only.
Julia: Ooo.
Brandon: None of those weird garlic chips or whatever.
Amanda: No garlic chips!
Julia: No garlic for Amanda.
Amanda: Not for me! Alrighty see you in a sec
[Transition note]
Hey, it’s Amanda,
Thank you to everyone who has joined our Patreon in the last week: Julia, Claire, Lauren, and Anna Crochets Subversively. Thanks also to Jack, Chasie and Phoebe for upgrading to Annual plans! We say it every week on the Multitude shows, but we are truly grateful for each and every person who supports us on Patreon. You literally make it possible for this to be our jobs, and we could not do it without you. Talking about new episodes with our patron-only Discord is also the highlight of my week, along with the many fantastic pets we see each day in our Oatcake & Friends channel. The zoom intensification is increasing and I could not love it any more. To get access to the Discord and so much more, join us today for as little as $5 a month at patreon.com/jointhepartypod.
You can pick up NO CAPES as of today at jointhepartypod.com/merch! This is not just a guide to making superheroes in D&D, but how to reskin D&D mechanics for any new setting. It doesn’t have to be high fantasy, I promise! For just $12, this 49-page guide includes:
● Breakdowns of every class and their superhero parallels
● 7 new subclasses for your superhero game
● 13 new consumable items created by the mad scientist Dr. Morrow
● A deep dive into the mechanics of re-skinning, no matter the genre
● RPG CityPlanner, a full collaborative world-building game that can be used as an addition to any system
● And more!
I’m really proud of it and I want to hear what you do with these items and subclasses. So pick up the guide now at jointhepartypod.com/merch. And who knows, you might be hearing some bonus content about it soon...
Next, I want to recommend a wonderful podcast for you to listen to once you catch up on JTP: Hey Riddle Riddle. Every week, Adal Rifai, John Patrick Coan, and Erin Keif get together to play and unpack puzzles and riddles. The three Chicago-based improvisers tackle any sort of brain-teasers or head-scratcher imaginable. Some are impossible, some are absolutely improbable, and some often seem not quite of this time. Try and play along, or just listen as the hosts improvise and play out the scenes in which each riddle takes place. It’s such a great concept for a podcast, and it is so much fun! Find it in any podcast app or heyriddleriddle.com
We are sponsored this week by Hero Forge. Hero Forge offers fully customizable tabletop miniatures with dozens of fantasy races and thousands of parts to choose from. That means you can customize your character’s haircut, body proportions, armor, clothing, accessories, even animal familiars. There’s even a motorcycle mount if you want to stan hard for the Knight of Mirrors. And you can change the bases your characters are on, from a tabletop version to a special one for initiative tracking with DM screens, even a necklace, it’s awesome! So visit HeroForge.com to start designing your custom miniature today, and check back often because new content is added every week. That’s heroforge.com.
Finally, we are sponsored this week by BetterHelp, a secure online counseling service. They connect you with licensed counselors through their secure app, letting you message with your therapist and schedule live phone or video sessions. I’ve been seeing my therapist for about six months through BetterHelp and they have an LGBTQ arm called Pride Counceling, and I really, really appreciate her guidance. I really like that I can message her in between sessionsif I’m worrying about something or have something on my mind or just want to say “hey, next time I want to make sure we discuss whatever it is” it really helps me not forget that, and not just show up to my therapy call being like “uhh hi, um, so, brains.” Because BetterHelp wants to help you find the best therapeutic match possible, it’s easy and free to switch counselors if need be. And BetterHelp is also more affordable than traditional counseling, with financial aid also available. You can get 10% off your first month of counseling by signing up at betterhelp.com/jointheparty. That’s better h-e-l-p . com / jointheparty for 10% off your first month. Better h-e-l-p . com / jointheparty.
And now, back to the Afterparty!
[Transition note]
Amanda: Alright we are back I have chips nary a garlic in sight, and I have some questions from our wonderful community on Twitter, Email, and Discord about the general show in general characters! So one from Magdalena which I loved, speaking of our kind of modern campaign how do Milo, Val and the NPC's all text? And do I stand behind Aggies lowercase full punctuation style? What's your style guys? What’s your texting style?
Julia: I think Val’s is chaotic use of like emojis, and all lowercase, all the time.
Amanda: Very good.
Brandon: Yeah I think Milo is all lowercase, punctuation until the end of the texts and he leaves it off and uses a lot of gifs.
Julia: Good.
Eric: I was just thinking that.
Brandon: Yeah tries to text with gifs if at all possible.
Eric: Oh man, yeah I think Emily we've established uses a bunch of emojis. like emojis to punctuate her information and I really like that about Emily. I don't know we'll see what happens I think that Milo's group text is just blowing up with gifs constantly. Like you look away at the wrong time and like something drops like Final Fantasy VII remake and then it's just like 200 gifs in a row.
Julia: What is Milo's group chat name for him and his museum friends?
Brandon: Oh that's a good question!
Amanda: Good question!
Brandon: Um I think it's like “Bowled Over” or like “Science!” with an exclamation point.
Amanda: Maybe it's like the scientist emoji only.
Julia: Beaker beaker beaker.
Eric: Science friends! Scientist emoji.
Amanda: Cute, and a related question from Ruth in discord, how are all of us finding it to play a campaign where we do have easy access to tech, mobile phones, search engines, all of that, and Eric how is it impacting your planning?
Julia: I mean I think in this situation tech is just magic like if we were in a fantasy setting and we were in the scene where we called Aggies phone to overhear what she was doing we would just have like stones of farspeech, or something like that like I think there is a magic equivalent to all technology and vice versa in campaigns like this, because you are reskinning it for a modern setting. So it's basically the same thing like if I rolled a history check in a ancient library, I would probably find the same thing that I would find in like the computers if I was looking up articles on something that I needed to find out about.
Eric: Yeah I'm not afraid of people using Google. Listen, Google tells us the small things that we need to do in our day-to-day lives, it doesn't like uncover secrets. Honestly you'd get more in an ancient library than you would Googling it.
Brandon: Hot take!
Eric: Ooh got me! Yeah there’s a lot of things that you need to do that are secret, and you have to do by communications, and like you know if you could figure everything out with technology then there would be no like there's no conflict it's so many things. Like that's how TV and movies do their thing, like people still miscommunicate and there's still a lot of information you don't just have at your fingertips because you need to interact with each other, and like you do need to know what you're looking for when you're looking for it. So there is an element of investigation checks that just so happens you're doing it in front of a computer.
Brandon: I think it also just makes it more human to like— I appreciate it because you know there's definitely a lot of media where it's like a cellphone would ruin this entire plot. so I think it's it's more fun to play with in the realistic space.
Amanda: Yeah and I do feel like it means that the problems we're pursuing are more complex it's not just like the thing I hate in movies where somebody leaves a room like a minute before the person they need arrives. You know and just that that kind of like not having access to information that should be there is I'm sure fun for some amount of narrative tension, but I'd much rather kind of uncover information that we are uncovering for the first time, then you know need something that's someone who you know just left the inn had.
Brandon: Oh man if only the key was in a rock just a foot away.
[Julia sighs]
Amanda: March towards the beach chair, if only. Shel asks if Milo plays Pokemon, what is his dream team like?
Brandon: Oh good question, I think Milo's favorite gen is a second gen, he's a gold fan but I think he tries to go like old school in this team. You know he'll get like a like a Vulpix in there probably early game goes for like a Zubat but then eventually swaps them out. I think Milo's a Chikorita person.
Julia: Bold choice sir, bold choice.
Eric: Wow after all the shit you've talked about Bulbasaur, you would come to my house and choose Chikorita. That’s—wow.
Brandon: Look it's the final hour of Bulbasaur and Chikorita are completely different and the final evolved form of Chikorita is great and Venusaur is... Has a lot of HP.
Amanda: This is true, it’s a tank. HamiltonOtto asks Eric how high up does the spirit surge count go? You've mentioned 1, 2, 3, does it like keep going until it's just inevitable and if he misses 20 in a row?
Eric: Yes it does go until it's inevitable, but luckily for me Brandon's dice loves rolling ones.
Brandon: I was going to say I'm never gonna get more than three because I'm always gonna roll it.
[Julia laughs]
Amanda: Jaya asks on Twitter is Aggie short for Agamemnon which I just think is a fantastic headcanon. I want you to have that in your life Jaya. It is a short form Margaret like Maggie to Aggie, but you believe what you want and I think I'll try to live up to that standard.
Brandon: I had no idea yeah because uh in Texas obviously Aggie is an agricultural person. People go to A&M are called Aggies.
Julia: I would have assumed Agatha, so here we are.
Amanda: Fascinating, my grandma was called Aggie, and her name was Margaret so that's where I got that from.
Eric: Texas A&M O'Hare
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: Even another reason to idolize Coach Taylor. AWildSquirtle asks: what does LTC pride look like, and what mischief does Tuna get into during this time? I'm thinking a lot of neighborhood events, I am not sure if there is a citywide parade maybe folks who want that experience go down to New York, because it is such an easy journey but I'm picturing a lot of like local businesses, and festivals, and you know service events and stuff like that.
Julia: What do all of us wear to pride it's a good question um I think Aggie has one rainbow t-shirt from like a previous LGBTQ Center like food can pantry Drive.
Julia: Love it.
Brandon: Milo definitely has a pair of rainbow pants.
Amanda: Oh! Is that your bowling uniform? That would be cool.
Brandon: Oh yeah I love that! Let's do that!
Eric: Rainbow pants has a lot of different uses.
Amanda: That’s true!
Julia: Val's got a big non-binary patch that they put on their leather jacket for pride.
Brandon: I love that.
Amanda: Cute!
Brandon: Here's the thinking about LTC because it's fantasy and the city we live in, pride’s just all the time. Everyone just loves the LGBTQ+ community.
Amanda: And June is just an opportunity to make sure that the most vulnerable in our communities are being taken care of, and advanced racial equity and stuff like that. Wow LTC so good.
Brandon: Good town.
Julia: What a great town we built a good town.
Amanda: JamieDWN asks in the discord you're not omega-class now but presumably you will level up, in D&D level 16 plus characters are kind of godlike so what might the impact be on Lake Town City if there is level 16 barbarism for example hanging around?
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: What is omega class, I haven't heard that before.
Eric: Omega class is the ranking of mutants that Charles Xavier put together in the X-Men.
Julia: It's the most powerful kind of mutant, it's like it's basically godlike powers.
Amanda: Got it. So Eric how are your treating levelling up in this campaign?
Eric: Yeah I mean I think it's inevitable as we get farther and farther and you develop your powers. Again it’s something that we've established here is that people have powers but they're kind of just like using it for fun, like you have to imagine if there's like a flamethrower somewhere they're like :oh wow I can just like heat up my tea whenever I want” like that's kind of like the extent of their powers and like it is a very long used trope that you need to develop your work. We just finished a little Avatar The Last Airbender—
Julia: I was gonna say thank you Uncle Iroh.
Eric: 61 episodes, yeah we just watched all of our 61 episodes in three days. But like developing just because you have the power doesn't mean you don't need to work on it and there is a leveling up capability. So I don't know how high we're gonna go with leveling but like I also think to what Brandon said about destroying infrastructure, let's look at the Marvel movies like when a big when very big battles happen shit gets destroyed.
Amanda: Yeah, I think Civil War had the most the most like explicit kind of subplot about that.
Eric: Yeah I like that's the effect we're like that's what happened in the Avengers when all those aliens showed up like you destroyed roads, and buildings, and bridges, and you know those superhero movies has incredibly high body count so I don't know if something like that's going to happen necessarily, but like you know power is power there will be destruction.
Amanda: Alanna asked via email, since Aggie seems to be very by the rules did she ever have any struggles with her siblings becoming tops in their fields? She's very proud of them but did she ever consider their powers to be cheating or an unfair advantage over others. I think it’s a really perceptive question and I think she does to some level, and there's a reason that she decided to have a pretty low-key career, and not one where her abilities sort of factor into it very much. That's been a really interesting thing for me to kind of weigh in the character that pull toward duty and service if you defend others by any means necessary, that also means some kind of destruction or also relying on your powers to be better than others. I think that that is fundamentally like not a thing that she's super comfortable with so it's definitely something to keep your eye on I think as the campaign goes on.
Julia: Yeah it's very cool I hope you get to address it in a session at some point.
Amanda: Me too and oh this one comes in from Brandon! What is Ma’s most popular ice cream flavor?
[Brandon laughing]
Julia: I'm gonna guess I think it's like Moose Tracks or Rocky Road or something like that.
Amanda: Aw, cute.
Eric: Yeah I would say some sort of inverted Moose Tracks. I wonder if it's like chocolate but then there's like peanut butter cups in it you know then a caramel ripple.
Brandon: Ooooh.
Julia: Oh that sounds good.
Brandon: Something I don't see enough of is chocolate-covered clusters of like puffed rice little crunchy bits.
Julia: Like Bunch of Crunch!
Amanda: Sounds very tasty!
Brandon: Yeah like Bunch of Crunch.
Amanda: It'd be a little like maple swirl or a little maple candy.
[Everyone ooo’s]
Eric: Maple swirl I like maple swirls or a caramel swirl.
Amanda: There's like coffee maple swirl maybe.
Eric: It's Up Country Surprise.
Julia: Oooh, I don't like that it.
Amanda: No, that sounds bad. That sounds like a—
Eric: Okay so it’s not called Up Country Surprise.
Julia: A lewd act is what that sounds like.
[Amanda and Eric laughing]
Eric: That's like um so there's a bacteria you can get called Giardia, which is when you drink untreated water and you get it from I've done this for camping up in the Canadian wilderness you get it from beaver poop being in the water.
Julia: Gross!
Eric: So that's what Up Country Surprise is.
Julia: Oh I hate that.
Eric: Up Country Surprise!
Julia: I hate it, I hate it real bad!
Brandon: Val's mom has also named one of their sculptures Up Country Surprise.
Julia: Oh no…
Amanda: It's very boobsie.
Eric: It's just lots of boobs. Um something that I don't remember we noted or not, the ice cream trucks did come from Ma’s. Like that—
Amanda: Oh yeah.
Eric: Okay I just I didn't I didn't know that was something I need to explain or not I saw it floating around. It's like they did get it, we did talk about this it did come from Weird Al's Strange Vehicle Emporium.
Brandon: Weird Al’s Vehicle Emporium, No Relation!
Eric: Right, but Ma’s is like renting the ice cream trucks like it's part of their fleet.
Julia: How many ice cream trucks are in their fleet though?
Eric: A decent amount.
Julia: I just need to know how many I have to destroy.
Amanda: Yeah, Val has a list.
Eric: I think it's not many. I think you saw — I don't know
Julia: Okay!
Eric: I could tell you the number but then I’d just be making it up, I'd say like four or five they're pretty small—
Julia: I’ve seen most of them then.
Eric: And they tried to expand and it fell apart.
Brandon: So you’ve punched two fifths of them.
Julia: Mmhmm.
[Amanda laughing]
Amanda: Brighteyes29 asks in the discord, now that we’re solidly into campaign two, are there any lessons or wisdom that we learned in the first campaign that we find ourselves applying to the new one? Either as players/DMs or as podcasters, and Julia yours from your full podcast experience and listening to campaign one.
Brandon: We've talked about before but I think for me the biggest like two things are one like leaning in and not — none of us are terribly combative but like working with the DM instead of like against the DM, is something I learned in the first campaign to do better. Then also just like trusting the DM just like jumping in headfirst without necessarily — not thinking of the consequences, but like just trusting that your DM has your best interest at heart and they're like on your team as well.
Amanda: Yeah I think for me it's being less scared to sort of push at the world building and doing the world building exercise together was something all of us decided and we've talked about you know in the previous episodes, but that really gave me a sense of ownership and feeling like I can go places, or do things, or call people, and also just sort of add things that I discover along the way. It makes me feel both for my particular character a lot more sort of like in her background and in her head because that is something that she knows a lot about, and also just as a player you know more fully able to say like these are things I want to do and then it's on Eric to make them happen.
Julia: Yeah I think for me it's mostly just like doing the thing that feels true to the character, and not doing the thing that I think is going to like win Eric's puzzle the quickest you know?
[Amanda laughs]
Julia: I want to do the things that Val feels like they would have to do in the moment, which is why I went and investigated the teens even though I'm like I rolled a six and this is probably just a distraction but I want to go and do this anyway.
Amanda: Yeah!
Brandon: Punch a truck!
Julia: Punch a truck!
Eric: If you go do the distraction, I'll let you punch a truck later!
Julia: Thank you!
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: I think I'm leaning into the things that I like the most, and I think that I'm the best at as a dungeon master, which is world building and using game mechanics from other places to make Dungeons and Dragons more interesting and more fun to listen to as a podcast. I'm trying to let some stuff go, like I'm not being myself as much about not being good at voices but instead I'm trying to flesh out the NPC's instead. But at the same time I'll do a bad Russian accent for you! That's just what dogs sound like.
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: Yeah it's just kind of letting go and taking the experience that I had from campaign one and being able to do it from the jump. The thing that I was most excited about starting a new campaign is I thought I really started getting the groove of it starting in Bachelorette Party, and now I'm like oh I'm doing this from the beginning of campaign two. And I feel really good about it.
Julia: Mmhmm.
Amanda: I feel good about - I'm happy to be on the receiving end of all that planning!
Brandon: And Sour Anthony is an excellent voice so how dare you dismurge that voice.
[Julia groans]
Amanda: The more frustrated we get at that voice means the better it is!
Eric (as Sour Anthony): Hey I’m just trying to do my best here.
Brandon: AHH! Let’s get him out of here!
Amanda: Alright time for spoily corner!
Julia: Spoily corner!
Amanda: Woo!
Eric (as Sour Anthony): Alright spoils!
Amanda: Alright first one: Monty?! WHAT?!
[Amanda and Julia both hmmm]
Amanda: I don’t know! [her voice gets higher] Who can say!
Eric: Just put a figure, I didn't say it was Monty.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Yes, it is a giant mountain lobster that's a good point. It's a giant mountain lobster it is similar to the myth of Monty so that was what was first on Aggie's mind.
Eric: I will just — you guys can believe it's Monty I just want to say I have never confirmed that it is or is not Monty yes.
Amanda: I don’t think that it is literally Monty but I do think that this is the you know instantiation of a myth I grew up with, which is very funny. Secondly is Dr. Morrow the Knight of Mirrors?
Julia: Nooo.
Eric: Ahhh!!!
Julia: No, I don’t think so.
Brandon and Amanda: Who can say!
Eric: [Laughing] Julia can’t say anything just NO.
Julia: I don’t think so. I’m just reacting to these as me the player who you know knows stuff and is just like hmm, nah I don't think so.
Amanda: Is Dr. Morrow evil though?
Julia: Hmm…
Brandon: That's a question.
Julia: I hope not.
Amanda: I don't know!
Brandon: Who can say?
Amanda: I hope not.
Eric: Who can really say? In this world of gray, there's no black and white it is only gray, so who can really say what is true and what it's not?
Amanda: Fair enough, is that a quotation, or just a little emo poem?
Eric: Yeah that's Uncle Iroh.
Amanda: Oh well, we're off to start the Legend of Korra, in the meantime thank you everybody for your questions, thank you for being interested in our campaign. It makes us really happy, and we can't wait to share the next episode with you!
Brandon: Bye guys!
Julia: Later!
Eric: You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. But you can get No Capes D&D Guide to Superheroing and Reskinning written by me! It’s not even $100,000! It's less than that!
Brandon: It doesn't even cost $40!
Eric: It's less than that!
Amanda: It’s not even 13!
Eric: It's less than $13!
Amanda: And we'll see you next week with a brand new episode of Join the Party. Bye!
[Outro music]