What’s it like going from D&D to Monster of the Week? How do you turn a simple melody into so many different theme songs? And what’s new on the Patreon? All that and more on the Afterparty!
New Patreon Tiers
- Ad-free episodes, DM Eric office hours, playing a game with the JTP crew, and a goal to get a one-shot DM’d by Brandon! All of that and more is new at patreon.com/jointhepartypod
Sponsor
- Pick up Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald wherever books are sold
- BetterHelp, a secure online therapy service. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/jointheparty
Find Us Online
- website: jointhepartypod.com
- patreon: patreon.com/jointhepartypod
- twitch: twitch.tv/jtpsidequests
- youtube: youtube.com/c/jointhepartypodcast
- twitter: twitter.com/jointhepartypod
- instagram: instagram.com/jointhepartypod
- tumblr: jointhepartypod.tumblr.com
- merch & music: jointhepartypod.com/merch
Cast & Crew
- Co-Host, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host, Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host, Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Co-Host, Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Multitude: 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 the Camp-Paign, our Monster of the Week story set in a weird and wild summer camp, or marathon our D&D games with Campaign 2 for a modern, sci-fi 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!
Julia: Hey ho hello!
Brandon: Hey ho, hello!
Amanda: Welcome to The Afterparty.
[laughter]
Eric: Hey!
Julia: There's a reason behind this, I swear.
Eric: Ho! Yeah, we're the Mumford- wait, so whose Mumford and who are the sons?
Julia: I’m a son.
Eric: Just to get it out of the way.
Brandon: Are we all the sons?
Eric: I think we're all of the sons, it's like Hootie, and the Blowfish, how there's no Hootie and the Blowfish
Julia: There's only blowfish.
Amanda: There's only two genders, Eric and it's Mumford and Sons. So you know, you got to choose one.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Eric: I like going up to a couple of asking them which one is the Mumford and which one is the sons.
Amanda: We are relaxed. We are sweaty. We are in our Camp Die merchandise because people it's our first Afterparty for the Camp-Paign.
[modest cheers]
Brandon: Hey!
Eric: Ho!
Amanda: Our mic tracks peaking real bad.
[laughter]
Eric: Sorry, I was the guy from The Flaming Lips for a second.
Julia: There you go.
Eric: Bow!
Amanda: That's really good. My, honestly my goal is to be like the person laughing at the end of a take on like a studio record.
Julia: I know exactly what you mean. Like when they have small children doing a chorus and then at the [giggles]
Amanda: Yeah, yeah. Or someone's like, "That was it." Like, that's all I want to do. That's all I want to be.
Eric: I want to be the guy of the end who is like, "Alright, let's try it again."
[laughter]
Eric: Oh, shit,
Amanda: Brandon. That's how music works, right?
Brandon: Uh-huh. Actually, yeah.
Julia: Alright.
Amanda: Beautiful. We have so much to talk about. You have so much to say we have so much to answer. There's a lot of watermelon discussion, and I am looking forward to it. But first, folks, we have some exciting additions to the Patreon that we want to tell the people all about.
Julia: Patreon!
Eric: Hey!
Amanda: Weee! I'll start with our goal, which I hear there are-- Julia and Brandon are doing the dance where you make a little box around your face. It's really good. Is there a name for that dance?
Brandon: Is that vogue? I think that's something else.
Julia: I think that's vogueing yeah.
Amanda: Well, there will, heretofore be known as make a little box around your face. Let's begin with our newest patron goal. So it can you remind us, Eric, what happened to the last Patreon goal? What did we sail past and what did we achieve?
Eric: That's right at, oh man, we passed so many goals at 500, we went weekly At 550, something happened. And then at 600 We got the poster from a wonderful Sarah Barra Campaign 2. I saw someone put their poster in a frame.
Brandon: Yes!
Eric: So congratulations to you for knowing where to buy frames.
Julia: Nice.
Amanda: Yeah. You're the fullest adult you can possibly be.
Eric: So there are posters in a frame in someone's house, which is wonderful. So that's what happened in 600. But well now we got to step it up a bit and now we're going to do something at 750, right?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And sorry, I'm just gonna spin a little wheel here up Brandon. Would you tell me what that is?
Brandon: Oh, um, I think it, I have no joke here. I will do a DM. I will do a DM I will do a shot that is one and I will DM.
[cheers]
Eric: Yeah!
Brandon: Folks may or may not know depending on what I decide what that will be. But the three the two might not know. Definitely don't know whether that what that could be. I'm speaking very vaguely because I don't want to give you any hints.
Julia: Ah.
Amanda: Brandon has some stands out there. Brandon has people who want to see him run on one shot. Multitude has a staff editor now who can edit Join the Party so that Brandon One-Shots a game and here we are. It's gonna happen people, 750.
Julia: Here we go.
Eric: Also, just DM me and tell me who I should play for Brandon's campervan One-Shot, no character concept is too weird. Please let me know.
Brandon: You just play the actual like human epitome of Chaos.
Eric: Yes. Hi, I'm playing Loki, god of chaos.
Julia: Sup?
Eric: Any pronouns?
Brandon: I want to make out with myself in another universe. I slapped in a joke again, say it one more time for me.
Eric: No, any pronouns? I'll turn into a woman halfway through.
Julia: Okay, so you guys are making the same joke.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yep.
Amanda: So that is one exciting addition. A new goal. 750 Brandon DMs a One-Shot? Julia, would you tell us the new, new all about Party Planning?
Julia: Ooh, yes. About Party Planning. So instead of posting on Mondays, we're now going to be posting every other Friday starting on July 15th, which is oh, this Friday. Whoa!
Eric and Amanda: Whoa!
Julia: Also, we're dropping simultaneous episode previews on our public feed on Fridays as well. So if you are not subscribed to the Patreon at the Party Planning level tier, there's gonna be a little nugget a little hint for you guys to be like, ooh, a little teaser, a little taste.
Amanda: What are they talking about this time?
Brandon: That the hors d'oeuvre of your four favorite hosts?
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: We are the cheese on the snack plate.
Julia: That is true.
Amanda: It's true. It's true. We're like that TV show The Taste, which is just the fancy spoon with a little morsel on it.
Brandon: Oh, god, that was such a good show. I love that show.
Amanda: That was a good show. I still that's the only thing I own on Prime Video. I'm gonna own it, and I downloaded it. I'm gonna keep it till the end of my days.
Eric: Alright, we're just gonna cut out 30 minutes of Amanda talk about The Taste and Julia, come back now.
Amanda: Excellent. So that's our second little tasty treat for you is Party Planning. Before we were like, hey, we're gonna do this, we're gonna post it when we can. And then we liked it so much. We're now making it every other week. And we're giving you a taste here in the public feed every other Friday. And then we have a third tasty morsel. Eric, would you tell the people all about our new Patreon tiers?
Eric: Yeah, baby, we got new tiers! So we have one new new new tier, this is coming out of the ground rising up, we've grown it from a little seed, we are now doing ad-free episodes.
Julia: Whooo!
Eric: No midrolls, we have now created a new tier just for that. That is the $8 tier. If you are in the $10 tier or above, you now will get access to those $8 to the ad-free. But you need to go up from five to get to the $8 tier, basically, $8 tier is ad-free episodes plus everything you get at $5 which is the Discord and the audio version of Party Planning. We're going to do it retroactively from the first episode of the Camp-Paign. We'll get those up ASAP and then we'll be releasing them as the new episodes come out.
Amanda: Yeah, cuz some people you want to catch up on Join the Party, uninterrupted. Some of you love the midroll, some of you love listening to our house, you know, keeping updates and our ads and little anecdote that Eric and I start them with and thank you. You're welcome. But some of you really like listening to uninterrupted episodes. And we've decided, okay, that's cool. So if you if that's you, if you want that, join the Patreon at $8.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Also, this is not going to change anything about how you consume Join the Party.
Amanda: So exactly. If you're in a $10 tier or above, you will get this already, you'll get ad-free episodes in the Patreon audio patron-only audio RSS feed that you already have. You can listen to them or not, you can listen to them or listen to midroll or do whatever you like. And if you at the $8 tier and you join newly or if you're at 5 now and you upgrade to eight, we'll give you instructions when you join on how to get that RSS feed.
Eric: Yeah, if you're at the $5 tier, this the same thing that you use for listening to Party Planning. So it's just gonna be right there.
Amanda: If you upgrade, boop! It'll be right there. Every Tuesday,
Brandon: The S in this RSS feed stands for Secret.
Amanda and Julia: [Ooooh!]
Eric: And the one before that stands for saving.
Amanda: You can join for an annual pledge and save get two free months patreon membership.
Eric: And then finally, we have our highest tier and a little hat we're putting on the highest tier.
Amanda: Say what?!
Brandon: Oh, so jaunty.
Eric: A very jaunty hat. So we're our Party Favor tier, our $50 tier is going to change a little bit.
Amanda: You know, Eric, you may have heard of a supply chain of-
Eric: Yes, we have.
Amanda: -inflation of rising costs of goods and also not wanting to contribute to waste in the environment. You may have heard of all these things. So what are we gonna do about them?
Eric: So we are going to change the Party Favor tier from being stuff from being a care package, maybe we'll change the name, and I'll come up with a Party pun after this. Maybe it's not Party Favor, because it's not things anymore. Party Planner? I'll come up with something else later. But we're chaining the highest tier from stuff to time with me, you– we're gonna have office hours with everyone's favorite DM of Join the Party, Eric Silver.
Brandon: Party Professor.
Eric: Party Professor is good.
Amanda: That's it. That's the one.
Eric: Party Professor, each patron gets 30 minutes with me via Zoom per quarter for you to ask me any games-related questions that you might need, we'll figure out a time for us to hang out one on one. So it'll be a Zoom, there's won't be like a stream, we'll- we'll come up with a time for both of us to hang out. And then above that, the little hat we're putting on, we're now making $150 tier.
Julia: What?!
Amanda: Whoa! People have money.
Eric: The fancy party hat, the fanciest party hat in all of the land in which is a One-Shot one-page RPG session with the four of us. And we're going to pick a One-Pager together. And we're going to play once a year and it's going to be wonderful. And you get to hang out with all of us and play game. Because we know how much you've been loving Goatcrashers and Space Party. So now you get to deal with us.
Brandon: Fuck yeah.
Amanda: Exactly.
Brandon and Julia: Love it.
Amanda: We get the advice to other creators all the time that like when you make a Patreon, you should probably have a tier that's a little bit uncomfortable for you that you're like, surely nobody will want to give me this much money a month for a podcast I make for free. But it's you know, there are people out there who have money to give and think that the thing you're doing is good. And maybe you don't agree with how much they think it's worth up to you. You know, it's up to the person if the person is like, "Hey, I love your thing." and they tell you that in a tweet or an email or just by texting it to a friend. That's amazing. And some people do that with money. And so we're trying to take our own advice here and say like, hey, if you would like the experience of playing a One-Shot with the four of us once a year if you're a patron at this level and you have this money and want to give it to creators who you think are doing a fantastic job and that's us one year. Awesome. Like please do.
Brandon: Thank you in advance. Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: And noted Join the Party listener, Steve Jobs. If you want to join this tier, this is for you. We know you love Grant Howitt and his games so if you want to do that, Steve Jobs, just come on board.
Brandon: I would love to play a One-Shot with a zombie, Eric, that would be so much fun.
Julia: That'd be dope.
Amanda: Great.
Eric: Yeah, he would roll for brain.
Brandon: I do want to keep the tier called Party Favor because I do want to imagine our DM Eric in a little party favor bag.
Amanda: That's true.
Eric: Okay, that's fine. So we'll get- we'll do Party Favor and then Party Hat as the-- because of the hat on top.
Amanda: That's really cute. I may have to request Eric's and less than candid graphics for each of the tiers when you get some spare time.
Eric: I'll have to do that. I also like there's gonna be no pun for ad-free. I just want you to know it's gonna be Party Invited 5, ad-free at 8, Party Guests 10, Party City 20
Julia: Party Interrupted.
Eric: Oh, shit, it's the cops. That's the $8.
Brandon: They arrested the ads.
Eric: Oh, no.
Amanda: True.
Eric: Yeah. So Amanda, will you summarize everything very quickly?
Amanda: Absolutely. So one, you're getting Party Planning more if you were a patron before and you're a patron still you're gonna get it every other Friday without fail and you everybody listening now in the main RSS feed. You're also gonna get a little preview. Little taste, little mass morsel little smorckle.
Eric: A smorckle.
Amanda: A little Megan Smorckle. A little- I was trying to say morsel snack and smack roll-off.
Julia: Oh, boy.
Amanda: It just happened in my mouth,
Eric: A Meghan Smorkle.
Amanda: Exactly.
Eric: Yeah, from Suits.
Amanda: And then we are adding to the Patreon, 2 new tiers, okay? We're adding the ad free party uninterrupted tier $8. If you want to listen to Join the Party without ads, you can do that now. And secondly, we are adding a little party hat on top, we're giving you an option if you have lots of money and love us to play a One-Shot with us all four of us once a year for as long as your patron at that level. And finally the $50 tier party favor which we have several patrons for and we love you all very much. You are now going to get time with Eric once per quarter instead of stuff instead of things in the mail. Because the postal system is burdened things cost a lot more than they used to. We don't want to add to waste in the world. And this isn't quality time better than stuff anyway?
Julia: Wisdom has more value.
Brandon: That's true.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: People always say experiences instead of materialism. This is what we're doing.
Amanda: Exactly. So those are all the new and exciting things happening at the Patreon. If you're a patron already, you're getting more stuff, congrats! If you're not, it's a great time to join. Please come on over.
Julia: Also if we get 750 of you Brandon DMs a One-Shot.
Brandon: Yeah, come on.
Amanda: Hey!
Eric: Oh!
Brandon: Make me do work.
Amanda: Okay. It is so exciting for us to be continuing adding improving bringing new more and more because hey, camp spirit need to come to all of our bones and pores. So folks, shall we talk about Camp Die? Shall we talk about the Camp-Paign?
Julia: Let's do it!
Brandon: I would die!
Julia: For Camp Die!
Brandon: I would die!
Everyone: For Camp Die!
Brandon: Yeah!
Eric: Hey, that's the thing I said and now you're saying it.
[cheering]
Amanda: Oh folks, so much to get to you. I am so so excited. So first, of course, we released our planning or worldbuilding episode, and then Episode 1 which is Monster of the Week, Episode 0. It was our kind of like training day when we learned all about camp learned about the NPCs and the other staffers at the camp. We have lots of questions and things to say about them. But first, I think the thing that we got the most questions about the thing that we got the most comments about the Brandon with the fox, which is a new addition to our lingo, the music slops, Brandon. Explain yourself.
Brandon: First, I want to take this opportunity to thank Eric for giving me the little present to the bag of the perfect setup for a title sequence.
Amanda: Yeah!
Brandon: In Episode 1.
Amanda: Tell me about that. Tell me about that.
Eric: Oh, I couldn't help myself. I mean, here's the thing the artistic language we're doing in the campaign is TV, right? Like I get to have an imaginary camera and I get to do all the stupid tricks that you do on a TV show where you start it and you have cold opens and you get to like turn the camera 360 degrees around and stuff so I thought I couldn't help myself and do like a beginning of the television thing and then Brandon just made it fucking slap.
Brandon: Thanks. Thanks. Only because I only slapped because you slapped, do you see?
Eric: Oh, damn.
Brandon: We all slapped.
Eric: We all slapped together
Amanda: It's like a metaphor for violence, is that what's happening?
Julia: A little circle, we all slap each other.
Amanda: There were a lot of people who were very excited about the theme, myself included. And you can buy it, by the way, at jointhepartypod.com/merch. But Skrokengen said, Brandon, how do you keep making the theme better as a musicology student, I must know. So let's let's get nerdy, how did you approach this? How did you remix and improve on and make some how perfectly camp-efied our Join the Party theme?
Brandon: Talking to a musicology student is an interesting perspective for you to talk to us. I think honestly the answer is I got older. I learned more.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: The thing that I try to do every time is I take a little nugget which is always the melody obviously which is the thing that you sing it then everyone sings and dances to and I just imagined like, what if? What if? What if melody a bit different? And like if you, the same way you would imagine, like, let's draw this character in a horror movie or draw this character in like a period drama, romance, whatever it's like, how would they dress differently? And that's sort of like how a metaphor of like what I'm thinking of. And luckily, like, I don't have to be like super original I can just pull from existing genres and what people expect from those things. So like, as you musicology student you would probably, if you're doing modern music, you would read about like, yeah, how the certain chord progressions we use mean different certain things, or, yeah, like what, what instrumentation portrays what vibe for people, for lack of a better word, I mostly think about like, alright, this was one's gonna be camp. I think we either offhandedly or or purposely talked about, like, what the influences were.
Amanda: I know that in our process, you started writing this music after we had done our worldbuilding episodes.
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: And then Eric, I think you followed up with some kind of notes about like feelings and mood and things like that. You did for our artists Allyson Wakeman, as well, when she redesigned the cover art. So do you remember if you provided any, like, reference points or adjectives to Brandon?
Eric: No, I don't think so, not to Brandon. I also want to say that like, sure does help that you know how to play the mandolin.
Julia: Not a, the thing most people know how to do.
Amanda: That's true.
Eric: Well, my deep my inspiration was that I know how to play a little- a little guy, right here.
Brandon: Well, yeah, someone at some point, said Lumineers. And then I was like, yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. Brilliant.
Amanda: Well, it was after you shared the first draft. And we were all very excited to listen to it. And I was at home. And I think I wrote something like, I hope this is not offensive. But this is Lumineers in the best way. And you were like, oh, yes, it is. And I was like, oh, phew.
Julia: Phew!
Brandon: Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what I was looking for. And it's easy again, when you're just trying to like emulate a genre like I know exactly what things to pull on, which is like the hey-ho's, the stomps, the claps, the folk instruments like mandolin and acoustic guitars. It does help that I taught myself or I took some lessons and then learned mandolin in college, because I'm a ridiculous person who gets bored a lot. So I learned other string instruments, but that it was fun for me, on a personal note, it was super fun to me to do this one particularly because I did because I've learned so much and have built up my studio. I actually did get to record the mandolin acoustically, recorded the bass myself like I actually got to record instruments instead of using strictly software instruments before. So that was super fun for me. But yeah, I'm glad you guys like it.
Julia: It's so good, Brandon.
Brandon: Thanks.
[general agreement]
Amanda: I am the bird at the end.
Eric: I'm the guy going, "Ah!"
Brandon: I do regret not asking you guys to say hey, and ho and throw those in there.
Amanda: Well, we'll just do now. Let's do it now. Let's do it now.
Eric: You have the tracks. Julia, can you give Brandon the stems?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Can you, hey, Julia, can you release the hey-ho cut on Patreon? Would that be okay?
Brandon: Yeah. I'm gonna get this from you put them align them in the track and then just solo those out and put that out.
Eric: We love that. Hey, is the melody
[everyone hums]
Amanda: So good.
Brandon: And I will remind everyone I'm not a musical genius. I that was a sample that I took from a sample library before and then I just rearrange everything about it.
Eric: Was it the Matt and Kim like sample YouTube kit sample thing? Was that what it was?
Brandon: So the Converse used to have studios, I think it's-
Eric: Oh my god.
Brandon: -called Rubber Tracks.
Amanda: What?
Brandon: That I've been to a lot in New York, and it's a dope ass studio. And they used to take samples from the sessions they record for musicians for free and it was part in order to get your session for free, you had to supply samples from your sounds.
Amanda: Oh, that's cool.
Brandon: So they had a whole library of stuff. And I don't think it's around anymore. But I think someone from someone who had a name Hot Hot Heat, maybe was that musician and they just like jams and I picked out a little section that I liked, so-
Eric: That's so funny.
Amanda: That's amazing
Eric: I remember when you show that to me, we must have been in our old job and it was like I was like This is Matt and Kim's stems? Where do you get these.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: And you were like, Converse and like, that's- that doesn't make any sense.
Julia: That's not an answer.
Eric: That's not an answer.
Brandon: The coolest thing about going to the Converse Studios is every time you go you get when you leave you get to go into their big closet and take a pair of Converse.
Eric: Oh, that's tight.
Julia: Whoa!
Amanda: Is that true? If that's a lie, Brandon, you have to tell them I'll be really sad but I need to know.
Brandon: It's not a lie. I got free Converse.
Amanda: What?!
Julia: That's really cool.
Amanda: Oh my god. Amazing. Well in terms of building our world we went a lot into our inspirations in our in our world-building episode of course talking about Gravity Falls and Monster of the Week in our camp feelings. So if you're curious about any of that, listen to that episode. It's a great place to start. Why don't we hop into our first plot episodes beginning with of course the Icebreaker. Eric, would you remind us what all went down and Episode 1: The Icebreaker
Eric: Yeah, I told you guys we're gonna play in character thru 2 Truths and A Lie
Amanda: A real Eric Silver joint, I have to say. As is we just saw the new Top Gun movie recently. And one of the all the call signs are like Maverick, Iceman like cool things are like two you know two-syllable like awesome monikers and then one guy in the new episode, skip forward 15 seconds. If you don't want to know an extremely minor spoiler, for Top Gun Maverick.
Brandon: There's plaids!
Amanda: His callsign is Bob. And I'm like, that's an Eric Silver joke I've ever heard one.
Eric: Thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, no, that was really fun. I just like there was a, there's a lot of orientation in camp, especially for staff. And I thought that like because you guys are counselors in training very much in this liminal space between being a camper and being staff, and you're going to have like a lot of people telling you things. I thought it would be really fun to have like a full episode devoted to that which is similar to the exposition you would do in Episode 1 or an Episode 0. So I wanted to combine some of the stuff that the director was saying that he that Assistant Directors Z was saying, that Jane was saying with like, you all sharing your characters, meetings and more people and then eventually ending with Steven.
Amanda: Yeah, which Gervásio characterized as, "A real fun WTF right out the gate."
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: It was just so perfect. Like, if you got a block of marble and chisel, the perfect Eric joint out of the marble, you would get a the image of Steven, the skeleton.
Amanda: Yeah, exactly.
Julia: Hanging out on his lawn chair.
Amanda: Growing watermelons, sucking them dry, discarding them. And then an eight year old being like this is normal.
Julia: That's exactly it. That's exactly it.
Eric: I was really committed to kicking things off from the jump. The campaign is gonna be 20 episodes max, right? So I needed to set some stakes from the beginning. I'd also done a rewatch of Gravity Falls recently. And I really liked how the enemies were set up from the beginning, which is something that you know, I kind of buried the lead on a little bit in Campaign 2. So I really wanted something very funny to start from the jump and the big bad to be known right from the beginning. So, Steven, I was just like, man, what if he's a skeleton? What do he had sunglasses? What if he's like the embodiment of chaos and summer, I just, I wanted it to go from right from the beginning. I also wanted you all to be able to talk to Steven, that was a really important thing, which I think all of did.
Brandon: Eric, you told us so many times, we shouldn't talk to Steven!
Julia: Some of us tried, Eric, some of us tried!
Eric: I mean, I wanted that to happen. Director Löw was going to tell you not to do it. But I wanted Steven there for you to talk-
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: -entire time. And I knew I had Steven say one of you was going to betray the rest. So I wrote that in my notes, I needed to say that. I'm so glad that you you all like Steven and Steven will be around. Something that was really important to me was kind of as Director Löw was explaining who Steven was. I liked that Steven was the name it was just the moniker we gave this like skeleton trickster figure.
Amanda: The latest in a long series of names.
Eric: Right, I've written down with Beelzebub, Coyote, Satyr, he was in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He was he might have been one of the horses of the Apocalypse, et cetera. So I wanted to bring about like all of the possible traditions or mythologies, or stories that could have come from the various different things that we know whether we're talking about like a pan-Americana thing I know, like, Coyote is the Trickster and a lot of Native American traditions. So I want to honor that. But also like, the stories that other people tell, I mean, there's like the tall tales thing that's there. Like, he might have also been a big blue box at one time. You know, I just is like, we don't know who Steven is. Now, this thing is a skeleton with sunglasses. But now we have given him the name of Steven, as Director Löw said of like, Yeah, this is what we call this fucking guy who's so annoying.
Julia: Yeah, and because we're telling like a very uniquely Pan-American story and like North American story, I think that the folding of all of these different traditions into what is the central trickster archetype of Steven makes a lot of sense.
Eric: For sure. I think there's also something from Monster of the Week that's helping them with that, like when I- when I come up with monsters or creatures that are like the main baddie of the stories, Monster of the Week is really interesting in the way you put this together that you they need to, like fall into like a particular archetype of like intention, you know, like, do you have an assassin? Do you have like a queen? Do you have like a brute? Do you have someone who just wants to destroy so Trickster is one of them. So making me clarify what archetype I'm working with, I think is really helpful. So Steven is like big, big trickster energy, regardless of how you consider trickster in your own traditions or, or fiction reading or, or whatever.
Julia: Listen, I didn't know that about Monster of the Week and I was just talking about archetypes and I love that we combined forces.
Amanda: No, that's, that's amazing. And I think pushes against you know, some of the limiting nature of D&D coming from a war game where there is, you know, someone you are opposing and your aim is to like to boil their health to their dead and that's the end of it. And I think you've done a great job, Eric on the show so far of you know, complicating monsters and opponents and enemies and saying like everyone has their own agenda. And if you're opposite me, then maybe I think you're my enemy. But it may not be the like, you know, dragon lurking in the cave that you have to slay, and not think about kind of why or how, and I, one of the freedoms that I'm feeling from Monster of the Week and that I'm so excited to explore in the campaign is like, what? What other forces exist here? And you know, are you necessarily my enemy? And what do I have to do about that?
Brandon: Yeah, I love that conflict. Because like, in the, do you guys remember and the episodes of the Campaign 2 where Milo decided that to team up with Gutenberg, because like, they had the same intentions and motivations, and they weren't-
Julia: Spoiler!
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah, it's because Gutenberg told Milo he reminded him of himself and 25, remember?
Brandon: I also hate shorts.
Eric: Hey, you seem to be really fucking weird, do you want to come on my side? Just a white guys ripping it up? Are you good like that? Gutenberg did say that to Milo at one time that he did say that-
Julia: We just cut it for time.
Eric: Oh, we did. I did say that once. It was very funny. But ya no, it's Monster of the Week, it has been really interesting. I think we'll touch on a lot of this. I think about Monster of the Week as well, is that like you can't, for most monsters, especially ones that have like capital W weaknesses. The thing about Monsters of the Week is you need to figure out how to defeat them first, or you can't do damage. That's a very big deal. So for example, if you are fighting a prototypical vampire, you would need to figure out which of the vampire mythologies are real. And they'd be like, yeah, dude, I can fucking come in your house whenever you want. What do you mean? But like, but garlic is real. So then you'd be like, Oh, we gotta get this garlic, we're gonna make a garlic bomb, etc. And then you can do damage. So there's a lot of like, instead of just like doing what you're good at, or like, I'm gonna do a Level 8 spell. Instead, it's like, you need to do the creative thing. Or you need to figure out what's real and what's not, in order to progress in a Monster of the Week game, which I think is why like, Les' character exists.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: You know, someone who's not necessarily good at like fighting necessarily, but is good at information. Because it's like, 50% of the game.
Julia: Hell yeah. And we're lucky to have a character like Les on this on the team.
Brandon: Oh, stop.
Amanda: Sorry. Let me train my mouth into saying this and a person who rolls as well as Brandon?
Julia: I saw someone by the way mention, they're like, "Well, you know, the highest that someone can roll in Powered by the Apocalypse game is a 12, which is like average for Brandon."
Brandon: Hey, that person, fuck off! I'm just kidding, I love you. It's very funny.
Eric: Yeah. Another thing about the class and I think we'll get there as we talk about characters is like, you got to stay in your playbook.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Right? And I think that that's been a real thing that we've been starting to touch on and we will touch on as we listen to more episodes. That like your the thing you do is the thing you do and when you're put into a situation where you're not good at it, you're gonna be a lot of trouble.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Amanda, you know, I'm realizing I think maybe someone put a curse on us or something. Because like, as your roll started getting worse, mine started getting better.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Something's happening.
Amanda: It's really get to the magic situation where I got you some die that only roll well and you got me some that only roll poorly and I sold my watch and you cut your hair.
Brandon: Yeah. I got a comb for dice. I'm confused, I don't know.
Julia: If we want to reverse the curse, we just need to get a cow as white as milk. cape as red is blood.
[mumbles Into the Woods theme]
Eric: Julia, I got you Meryl Streep in the first half of the show.
Julia: Perfect!
Eric: Is that good?
Julia: Yeah!
Brandon: Guys, I watched that. Finally, I watched the whole thing. I understand the jokes. I'm included.
Amanda: Yay!
Eric: Oh, you went to watch James Corden sing. Sorry, buddy.
Brandon: That was, it was-
Amanda: And Chris Pine dance.
Julia: Brandon, just watch the stage production, it's on YouTube.
Brandon: That's what I watched with Lauren.
Julia: Alright, good.
Eric: Oh, okay, I got it.
Julia: Well, yeah, I was like, why would Lauren show you the other one?
Amanda: Do you need paid time off, are you okay?
Brandon: She has taste!
Julia: Exactly.
Amanda: But speaking of Monster of the Week, speaking of our characters, you know, one question that lots of folks ask us is like, how is this new system feeling? How are you enjoying this? What is playing Monster of the Week like? Let's start pleased with my fellow players. How are y'all feeling about this new system and about playing teams specifically?
Julia: So to start with the system, it's really interesting to play something off of D&D that is so rules-light in the way that we just do stuff and I don't usually have to roll for it, which is kind of wild.
Eric: Yep.
Julia: Like I keep trying to roll for things. And Eric's like, no, you can just do that. And like, what? What are you talking about?
Brandon: Dad chose to stop me.
Julia: He's supposed to stop me when I do wild shit.
Eric: I do think there's something helpful about playing different Powered by the Apocalypse games. And maybe this is Amanda, Amanda, and I are okay with this because we played the Masks game. We've talked about Masks a little bit. You're playing teenage superheroes. And the main thing that they say is like you can just do regular things that your powers allow you to do.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: But only once you push yourself to do something extraordinary then do you have to roll and that's something that I'm trying to allow all of you to do. So it's like, oh, I want to climb up a ladder really fast, or I want to run away, or I want to hide, or I want to sneak, you can just do it until you get into a situation where there's like a breaking point, you know what I mean?
Julia: Yeah. And in terms of RP-ing as like young adults, it's really interesting because, well, I'm coming from a character that was like extremely confident with Val and now to Phoebe, who is the opposite, which is like, it's just like, it's playing person with no confidence. That's what I think being like a young adult player character is.
Amanda: Sorry, Julia, none of that resonates with me.
Julia: No, no.
Amanda: Carrie-Ann has all the confidence in the world.
Julia: Well, like Carrie-Ann is like motivated by a mission. So I think that helps in terms of her confidence, and also the fact that she has the next 60 years of her life planned.
Amanda: Yeah, and it's gonna happen.
Eric: Fuck.
Brandon: Yeah, and you just think that's new, Eric?
Eric: No, I just love Carrie-Ann so much.
Brandon: I know.
Julia: I get it.
Brandon: I think for me, I won't lie. Like, I think the system was intimidating for me. And it's still getting, but by getting much better through the help of Eric walking me through stuff and talking with me and stuff. But I think for the exact same reason that you just mentioned, Julia, that it's better for you or like, I don't know if better. But it that's what's making it difficult for me is because there's not enough rules. And so like, I don't have the guide rails that I normally have with D&D, and a lot of that's just familiarity with the system. And once you get familiar with it, you you understand it, and you can begin to play it and mold it better and bend it better. But I'm definitely a person that needs a sandbox. And to have the sandbox at least this expanded a little bit. It's like disorientating for me. But I think I've gotten better, especially this last session we just recorded that you'll hear in a while was really I felt much better about this game system. And yeah, I think that's thanks to our the guidelines of our good GM. Our good keeper, Eric.
Eric: That's me. I would love to say more about this, but I need to hear about Carrie-Ann and also the goddamn the, I listen for all my NBA Jam heads out here. Amanda has been heating up with Dr. Bertha Bones and she's about to be on fire with goddamn two in a row. I love Carrie-Ann so much. How are you enjoying being like, I get into character we haven't had on the show before.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Somebody who is confident, but also like an asshole. Like, Val was very confident but always doing things for the greater good.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I don't know if that's true for Carrie-Ann.
Julia: I'm sorry, Eric. Are you forgetting Rose Gold?
Amanda: Rose gold too though. Rose Gold was in your face about her-
Julia: Passive aggressiveness?
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Is Carrie-Ann my wayward son or anything? Is that something?
Eric: Yes, it's true.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: Yeah, it is.
Brandon: Brandon, that's exactly it.
Julia: As the one person who's a Supernatural fan on the call, Brandon, I appreciate that joke.
Amanda: Oh, VidaliaRose also asked about how much of your younger selves are in the PCs and NPCs. And I know Julia, you've said in the Discord and elsewhere that-
Julia: So much.
Amanda: Yeah, there's there's a lot there for you. Brandon, I'm curious about your experience. For me, you know, Carrie-Ann like I always sort of much like realizing I was bisexual. Okay, when I was like 10, or 11. And follow me on this journey.
Eric: It's like John Greene said a little bit and then all at once.
Amanda: A little bit then all at once where you're like, it's strange that I'm noticing boobs a lot. And then and then like, two years later, it's like, oh, yes, there is a there is a word and a reason for this. And for Carrie-Ann, I'm like, I don't know, it's the character I'm kind of drawn toward. And it is reminding me of how as a child, I felt like trapped in a child's body. And I was like, If anyone just asked me my opinion, I could tell you how to fix things. Like Immigration System, my family dynamic, the way this office is organized. The way that like this classroom is run. Like, if you could if you would just ask me, I could be like, yes, I know what to tell you to do, and they will be better. I was wrong some of the time but I was right a lot of the times and nobody ever asked me.
Julia: The confidence was there.
Amanda: The confidence was there and the confidence was, you know, may not be on me by life. And I realized like, oh, I need to I need to like pretend not to have these opinions to have friends. Is that a thing I'm still learning? It sure is. But as usual role-playing games provide a fairly safe and in my case, public environment for working through my childhood trauma.
Julia: For therapy!
Amanda: So yes, Carrie-Ann is you know, the child that I was without any of the inhibitions and with one specific thing to channel that into and you know, I'm glad that my other my fellow players are not throwing me out of the game because it is so much fucking fun to be to be selfish and wild.
Brandon: I love that.
Julia: Your characters so good, why would we throw you out?
Brandon: How do you feel about the system though? I'm curious.
Amanda: Like Eric said, playing Masks for- we played it for like most of lockdown and we have very regular games with previous guests on the Patreon, Marquez, the DM or GM as as our GM of masks so I was familiar with the system and that is not as big of an adjustment for me. Using my moves has been interesting and we'll talk about kind of magic and specifically like being a person who doesn't use magic in Monster of the Week is different to playing like a superhero in Masks. So that's the one thing I'm kind of wrapping my head around is, you know, Carrie-Ann's thing is assisting and like that's the move I chose. And that's something that we you know, almost got to see come into play in these last couple episodes and you will see more.
Brandon: Oh, I think we got to see a lot of it like the, your-
Eric: You definitely used it in the first day.
Brandon and Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Your help- your help move came in.
Amanda: Oh, that's right.
Brandon: [35:28] like twice.
Eric: And when your blood on.
Amanda: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool.
Brandon: For sure.
Amanda: Many questions and also answers to come when we come right on back from a break in the kitchen. A little refill of the charcuterie board. I'll be right back.
Eric: Get bug juice.
Amanda: Yay!
Eric: For the camp.
[midroll]
Eric: Hey, it's Eric. My mom is here. She's in the office right over here as I'm recording and I think that's pretty neat. Everyone say hi to my mom. You can wave. She'll see it, definitely. Welcome to the midroll. We're gonna go get dinner later. It's gonna be fun. First and foremost, thank you to our newest patrons. Aidan loves January, Wise Girl, the bean, Holly tomorrow, Donald Marcus and Whimsical. Listen, the beginning of this episode is all the good stuff that we're doing with the Patreon right now, we think you're gonna like it. If you're not a part of the Patreon you gotta get on it $5 a month for Party Planning, ad-free eps at $8 a month, video content and $10 a month, and more and more and more. You heard it patreon.com/jointhepartypod. Once you've caught up with every single episode of Join the Party and you've read it a bunch of times and you've sent me your ideas on themes and you listen to all the campaigns again to make sure that you didn't make any mistakes and then you email me again. You can listen to plenty of other shows that are part of the Multitude collective. If you like Amanda and Julia you're definitely going to like Spirits. Spirits is a history and comedy podcast focused on everything folklore, mythology and the occult told through the lens of feminism queerness and modern adulthood. Every week, mythology buff, Julia and her childhood friend Amanda get together to learn about a different story from mythology and folklore over drinks. That's everything from the mythological origins of major franchises like Lord of the Rings and Wonder Woman to modern urban legends to a round-up of Werewolf stories from around the world. Start listening to any of the nearly 300 episodes they've released over the last five years. There's so much you enjoy. Whether you're here for analyses of mental health in mythology or creepy modern ghost stories, dive in at spiritspodcast.com or search for Spirits wherever you get your podcasts. We are sponsored this week by Tor Books. They think that fans of tabletop RPGs will love the book Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald. Here's a quick synopsis.
Eric: [in a raspy, goblin-like narrator voice] All her life, Raine has hidden, lied, and run to save her skin. She's made some particularly bad choices along the way. So when for once in her life, she decides to be kind and rescues an injured woman in the snow, that becomes the most dangerous decision Raine has ever made.
Eric: Sounds really good. Page turner, quick action dialogue. And Raine is a main character with a great mix of tired cynicism and youthful hope. Aren't we all? Aren't we all just a great mix of tired cynicism, and youthful hope? Check out Daughter of Red Winter or-
Eric: [in a raspy, goblin-like narrator voice] Daughter of Red Winter-
Eric: Now available wherever books are sold. And now a word from our sponsor BetterHelp. There are plenty of ways you got to be intentional to take care of your mind. You can't like take it out for a tiki drink or buy new clothes, or go to the PokeCenter website and buy a giant Snorlax for it to fall asleep on. But we can do is give yourself a break. It's really odd when you have to like think about your mind and your mental health as something separate from like your waking self is like there's me, and then there's my body, and then there's like the environs in which the me who is speaking lives, it's confusing. But you need to be nice to it so that all this stuff can function together. How we care for our minds affects how we experience life, so it's important to invest time and care into keeping them healthy. And the equivalent of taking your mind out to a tiki drink is finding therapy and BetterHelp can help you with that. BetterHelp is one way you can access therapy, meaning with a therapist via phone, video or even live chat. You can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours and switch to a new one for free if you need to. Because finding the therapist that's right for your mental health is actually one of the hardest things that you have to do and BetterHelp makes that super easy. If that sounds interesting to you, our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/jointheparty. That's better H E L P.com/jointheparty. And now back to the show.
[theme]
Amanda: Eric, from your perspective, how is planning for the sessions different to planning for 5E.
Eric: Oh, man.
Amanda: For example, like we had our Icebreaker episode? Yes. So then we also of course, got into the first day part one and two are Episodes 2 and 3, our first mystery which is the parlance that we use here in Monster of the Week. So, I being person that lives with you saw you look up and go, oh, I have it now and then kind of decide on the mystery of the first couple episodes. But how have you approached planning this?
Eric: If planning a Dungeons and Dragons session is 10% Good idea, 90% mechanics, a Monster of the Week mystery is 90% Good idea. 10% mechanics.
Brandon: My nightmare.
Eric: It's really hard. So like, I will be like, the night before. I'm like, oh, this is what I'm going to do. And then I write it down in like 30 minutes. It took me a really long time to get my head around it. To figure out exactly how we're going to do it. I asked a lot of people about their opinion, especially Marquez has been running, Powered by the Apocalypse games for a long time and like throwing ideas off of people, I've been throwing ideas off of Mischa somewhat a lot in the beginning, but it was more like does this hold water? I've also been using Zoe, our merch person at DFTBA as like a rubber duck because she's really good at that. And she's played a ton of different types of games, because her partner is also a game designer. So she's very used to like non-D&D mechanics. And also she loves she's a cryptid lady.
Julia: Shout out to Zoe, she's the best.
Eric: Shout out to Zoe.
Amanda: Buy Zoe's cryptid tarot.
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: And buy all of our things at jointhepartypod.com/merch. So I've been throwing a lot of ideas at people before doing it. Basically, like, I could talk about this for a really long time because it's all I thought about for the last few months. I taught myself how to play Monster of the Week, I taught myself how to plan it. And then I taught you three how to do it and it's been like, it's been a really long process. I've been trying to figure it out. It also helps that god damn Monster of the Week made a second edition, and didn't tell people about it. So I was using a first edition manual for a while until Julia pointed out that's not how experience works anymore and I'm like, fuck me. So-
Julia: I don't remember doing that. But Sure.
Eric: Remember the experience was when you rolled like a like 2 targeted skills that you got and then like you Julia was like, that's not what it says on my cheat sheet.
Brandon: Yeah, I think Julia just happened to have the second edition of the manual.
Julia: The book.
Brandon: Because you bought the actual book, right?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Because you have the book, but I had a PDF, and then I had to buy the new one. So the other thing that people don't see is that I have on my Adobe Acrobat, I have a cheat sheet-
Amanda: Not sponsored.
Eric: -on a cheat sheet.
Amanda: Please sponsor us, it's so expensive.
Eric: No, I don't want spo- I don't- I don't want Adobe shit.
Julia: We don't want that Adobe money.
Eric: So at all times, I have the Monster of the Week 2nd edition PDF, I have the Tome of Mysteries PDF, which is the supplement that we use in addition. I then have the Keeper reference sheet, I have the Hunters reference sheet. And I think I have that I have my own notes up at all times. Monster of the Week is very rules-light. But the rules that they do have are very specific for making the game works.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: So we're making the game work. So you can't just be like, ah, whatever, fuck it. Yeah, roll it, make the saving throw, do whatever, you really got to follow what they say because it's the the form is following the function. Because we're playing a Monster of the Week television show. We're playing Gravity Falls, we're playing X Files, we're playing Supernatural. And like you can't just like fucking freewheel that because it's a very specific genre that we're playing, we're playing a television show. So we need this the, the successes and the middling successes and the failures to be what's been written. To that end, I fucking love it. And there's a lot of things that they've written in here that I will then move, especially when it comes to perception and investigation. The rules of investigate a mystery and read about the situation have been so helpful in clarifying storytelling and like, why I don't need to write things down because you're going to ask me an agreed-upon question. And that like you can only choose one is really it has been very, very helpful and I love that.
Brandon: Hell, yeah. That's true.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I haven't thought about that.
Amanda: That's true. Yeah, you can, you know how you would answer those questions because the questions are spelled out what we can ask.
Eric: To that end, I actually, the way that you plan a Monster of the Week session is like you come up with like, the people and the places and that's it.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: So that's what I'm saying is like you need to have- have a good idea. You come up with the monsters and you come up with NPCs and maybe a cool new place. But like you do not, I do not write down how shit goes down. I don't even write down the clues necessarily. So everything is based upon what you all want to do. For example, in the in the first day, I didn't know necessarily that you would want to go check out Frankie. However, Les has the move, go see the Trippers, you know what I mean? So I knew that was in his bag, but I didn't necessarily know it was happen. And also things changed because you decided to go to the Swimmers' Cabin, instead of immediately go to the Trippers.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: That's why you ran out of time and then shit went down.
Julia: That's why Jane got hurt.
Eric: That's why Jane got hurt. But I didn't write that down. I knew you had to go back eventually. Because that's where the mon- that's where the waterhole monster lives in the waterhole, but like I didn't write down the clues you're going to find in the swimmer cabin, or necessarily the Frankie would give that to you. I kind of thought that like you. You could find whatever you want and you are all really interested in diving. So I pulled that out of the shack. But like, the other thing that they do let you do is you have to write down what would happen if no one intervened and kind of like a you know, six events that would happen if no one stopped it.
Julia: Right.
Eric: So that's where I pull from, but like, it's only like for inspiration. I really don't write down all that much.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Terrifying. Amazing.
Brandon: I know.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: You're really giving me a heart attack here.
Eric: I probably, it's all Brandon. It's all fine. I got- I've been getting a little bit better at it. But it's certainly- it's certainly a change.
Julia: We're all anxious here.
Amanda: We are. Speaking of the Trippers, Brandon, how did it feel to meet the heart of the cards for Les' playbook.
Brandon: It's cool. I was excited, I think because Eric and I had just talked about archetypes. And so I'm all excited to see what Eric comes up with to fill out those sorts of like archetypes of things.
Amanda: Oh, so you were just like the leader or the like rafting guy-
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Amanda: -or whatever.
Brandon: They were all skills base. Yes. So Frankie was the, what was Frankie?
Eric: Frankie did diving. That was the thing. Yeah.
Amanda: Oh, right.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Of course.
Brandon: So, I love yeah, I love seeing the sort of rich- richness that Eric can pull out of his brain to integrate to characters because to me, they’re just like, you know, 2D cardboard cutouts with the word diver written on them.
Eric: You know, it's funny that you did that, because I really liked touching on in the first mystery, the ambiguity of if monsters were real or not. And I think they like we hadn't touched on it a little bit because like, Les was pretty sure they were real. And Phoebe was very sure they were real and Carrie-Ann didn't care because she was at camp. So like, I liked how Frankie was like, well, according to my cryptozoology, the waterhole monster, it shouldn't exist. But should I be telling people that monsters don't exist? I don't know. Anything that that was kind of a real interesting push and pull that I got to do. Because it was like your move as the searcher who is very into monsters. I felt that was very, that was a very cool thing to do and using that as a plot point.
Brandon: Yeah, I would characterize Les as the David Duchovny, I want to believe.
Eric: Oh, for sure.
Brandon: You know what I mean? Like not necessarily that he does believe but he wants to.
Amanda: And Julia, we got to see you unleash your powers as well. How did that feel? How that feels a moment and what are you thinking and feeling about Boo having perhaps some lasting consequences from that?
Julia: Um... okay to answer the first part of the question. Magic and Monster of the Week is like really interesting because mostly it's just, I tell Eric, hey, I'm going to do this thing with magic. And Eric tells me either yeah, you could do that or not, that's not gonna work.
Eric: You say and I go LOL, go ahead.
Julia: So because magic is so like, weird, and flexible in Monster of the Week, and it's something that I'm still adjusting to. I always feel almost like nervous about using my magic, which is hilarious because it feels like such a true Phoebe thing to be very nervous about using her magic, so it's interesting.
Eric: Yeah, magic is really funny because like, theoretically, all characters can roll magic.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: All you have to do is roll + Weird, but we kind of took that away to make sure which shout out to tome of mysteries. If you want to play more of like an X Files game instead of a Supernatural game where like, Dean Winchester can just like, do magic I guess for some bit-
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: or an angel just shows up. Like, I like that it’s-- this is only Phoebe's thing. So and like man, effects you can do with magic are so wide-ranging, and the glitches are so big.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: There's also a fun thing about Big Magic which we, which I didn't really understand. But like at any time, you can like do a capital 'S' Spell-
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: -in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer sense.
Julia: Like rituals and whatnot.
Eric: Exactly where like, all you need is like a Grimoire and some shit and like, I need to come up with what the shit is.
Julia: Like research and preparing though. Like the whole thing with Big Magic is it takes much more preparation than what Phoebe does, which is just like it happens, whoea!
Eric: But I like that because you don't need to be a magical person to do Big Magic.
Julia: Right, yeah.
Eric: You just need to-
Amanda: You just need time and materials. It's very cool.
Eric: Yes, so, let's like Phoebe can do spells, but anyone can institute like a big fucking spell circle.
Julia: The way that I see it in my head not to be a fucking Marvel fan here is like the way that Wanda/Scarlet which is magic is at first and then Big Magic is like Stephen Strange level of magic where you are preparing a thing and learn how to do magic through research and spells and whatnot.
Eric: Sure. Alright, all of us need to go around because Julia said the magic words that we all need to do our Benedict Cumberbatch American accent.
Eric (as Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange): Hello, I am Stephen Strange American guy, go Yankees!
Julia: I refuse. No.
Amanda (as Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange): Hello, Peter, welcome to my townhouse.
Brandon: Those are too perfect, I can't-
Julia: Yeah, I can't come up with that.
Amanda (as Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange): I think we need to Dr. Strange spin our way into the game and character question corner.
Eric: Oh, my god.
Julia: Sounds good.
Amanda: Ready for some rapid-fire questions from the Discord and also Instagram and Twitter.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Hit it.
Eric (as Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange): Thank you, New Yorker, Amanda McLoughlin, let's do it.
Amanda (as Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange): I love and frequently eat pizza.
Eric (as Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange): Give me a slice Peter Parker.
Julia (as Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange): I only pay $1 for pizza.
Eric (as Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange): It is not a p- a pound only of pizza? If you know what I'm saying?
Amanda: Well, speaking of character voices, Delia.sully, great name but like to ask, "Eric, do you have favorite character voices? And does the character voice you choose for a character end up impacting how much you like the character?"
Eric: Oh, good question.
Brandon: I'm gonna answer for you. 100%. Yes.
Julia: 100. Yes.
Eric: Good question. No, I really try not to play favorites. I really like doing funny ones and surprising people. But I really try not to play favorites with the NPCs. I do think that once they're off and running, they're kind of like their own individuals. I talked about this a little bit about Dez. In campaign two, they're like Dez wants to do with Dez wants to do and that's what does sounds like. Because I don't sound like Dez. Like does when I go into Dez voice. I do what Dez wants and not what I want necessarily. So I've been trying to embody that a little bit more. Because like, and also I'm trying to stretch my range of character voices a little more. Like obviously, I love Boo. But I also love Assistant Director Z a lot in that like, it's not only a voice it's like a thing you say.
Julia: It's the vibe.
Eric: I like, every time we speak as Assistant Director Z, there's like a flash of lightning in the background.
Julia: You know, it's funny, it sounds very similar to your Benedict Cumberbatch.
Amanda: Weird to put that on, on our little is Assistant Director Z Supernatural side effects?
Brandon: You guys keep referencing this TV show that I don't know what you're even talking about. What is, I don't even know.
Eric: No. But no, Assistant Director Z is like, he's like-
Eric (as AD Z): I'm going to kill anyone who gets in the way of my campers' fun this summer.
Eric: It's like-
Amanda: And Carrie-Ann is like-
Amanda (as Carrie-Ann): Yeah, yeah. Me too! Me too, to tell you to kill. Yeah!
Brandon: Feels very like a Goosebumps adult or like, Are You Afraid of the Dark adult or whatever, you know?
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Exactly. So-
Amanda: Like on a TV show where the adults are only shot from like their feet. Something like Rugrats, right? [general agreement] Really often they were just like, be the feet in the background like, Toy Story.
Julia: Peanuts, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. Peanuts, right.
Eric: Yeah. So I don't like to play favorites. But there's definitely I mean, sometimes it's just funnier to say something in a voice. You know what I mean?
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Always, always.
Amanda: Yeah, always.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: It's always funny to say things in voices.
Eric (as Boo): Alright, here's our new Patreon tiers.
Amanda:
Fuck, we should've done that.
Eric (as Boo): Give me $8! No ads! Fuck the man!
Eric: Like it's just funny. It's just funny.
Amanda: President Nethra would like to know, "How did Brandon manage to give Les, a child, a deeper voice than anyone he played before?"
Brandon: Oh, that was a choice. I like because he knows your options are either for voices either go higher or lower. And I usually go higher because it's easier for me.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: And so I wanted to try to give him I'm not successfully doing it very well. But my intention is to do an impression of the climber Alex Honnold or Alex Honnold or I don't know how to say it properly. But where he kind of has this like, deep down in his chest voice and he kind of like, doesn't let a bit of a stutter like not literally stutter, but like I shorten the speaking pattern. So that was my that's my goal. Because I think it's a fun a fun voice for a climber for very confident climber boy.
Eric: Well, it's because Les went through puberty when he was 7.
Brandon: That's the really answer, yeah.
Julia: We talk about that later.
Eric: So funny.
Amanda: Julia, the Question Surgeon Michelle Spurgeon would like to know, “Has Phoebe always had magic or is it something that is developing now?"
Julia: Hey, so I know the answer to that. Eric knows the answer to that. But for you guys, it's a who can say.
Eric: Who can say?
Amanda: Exciting. We'll get to that in just a moment. Michelle also asked and I think it's a great clarification corner to dip into briefly. Ooh, the lighting is so good in here. Oooh! Are our characters actual camp counselors or are there older people in charge? Eric, would you remind us how CITs work and if it's perhaps a metaphor for the liminality of I don't know, adolescence or other things.
Eric: Yeah, it's a thing Amanda said.
Julia: Yeah, that's what it is.
Eric: Yeah, when I went to summer camp, the oldest age group were also CITs, which were counselors and training, but they were also campers. But I know other places with summer camps hire like their youngest camp counselors are CIT. So their counselors and training their interns, I guess in a summer camp sort of way. They are assisted usually by other staff, which is why like, I've kind of organized this program to be like, the CITs are in pods of three. And they're kind of just like, out in camp helping people out. And then they do get training from Matthew Jane.
Julia: Training.
Eric: Training. Like Matt, like they talk to Jane, if they have any questions, or they probably, you know, we cut all this out of the show, but like, you know, you spend 60 minutes reading pedagogy, and you're like, this sucks. And then you have to take a quiz that Jane is giving you I patted you on the head while it's happening.
Brandon: That was my favorite episode. So I don't know what you're talking about.
Julia: That was part of the unreleased session that we did beforehand, as well.
Eric: I forgot about the unreleased session.
Julia: Yeah. Someone asked what happened during that? A lot of shit.
Eric: That was really fun. Can I say what it was about?
Julia: Yeah, go for it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Unless you're planning on reusing it for something like-
Eric: No, no, no, I, I burned it. This is from that. So I decided to choose something from the Worldbuilding episode. And I burned it. Basically, there was a Mario Party-esque game called Fruit Fight 5. They basically possessed people and made people and made people fight each other. And that was like a phenomena that you guys needed to tackle. And then there was like a death cult that was cursing Fruit Fight 5 CDs. And then the kid of the parents who moved there from the death cult like was at camp and you had to destroy it, which I thought was really cool. So that we burned that one. But that was a really fun session. I'm glad that we played one-off.
Julia: I'm glad we practiced with that too.
Brandon: Party star!
Eric: That's true. Now you Brandon rolled so badly. He was so, Les was so addicted to Fruit Fight 5.
[general agreement]
Amanda: He was, he fully fell.
Julia: And I rolled shockingly well, which was great-
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: You did.
Julia: But not as good in this one.
Eric: I think Les punched an 11-year-old in the face.
Brandon: I don't, did I? I don't remember.
Amanda: No, no. You punch one of the counselors.
Eric: Oh, you punch one of the counselors in the face for getting-
Julia: The like sports counselor.
Eric: -for like taking a pomegranate from you. It was really funny. It was like- it was like everyone was super aggressive in the way you know how people hate each other during Mario Party. That's what I was playing off of it. But that was really fun.
Amanda: Eric, I have a couple, like a question or complaint for you. This one is from Lena, "When will you stop making me fall in love with your NPCs?" That was the complaint.
Eric: Never.
Amanda: And the question here is from Finn, "Where did the idea for Jane come from? He's perfect."
Eric: Oh, Jane. I love Jane.
Amanda: Everyone's best friend. And for me, it's a real like your friend's older brother crush vibe.
Eric: Yeah, I wanted there to be like a cute older counselor boy. I think this was when John Cho was promoting a new movie. So they were like a bunch of profiles up about him and I was like, yeah, John Cho. And also like he wrote a YA.
Amanda: Cooler and hotter than John Cho.
Eric: Yeah, seriously. And he wrote a YA novel about like, that was at inspirations of him as a teenager. The name of the book is called Troublemaker. The cover of the book had an illustration of him or whoever the main character was, was like him. And there's a really great-
Amanda: Oh, look at that. Look at that Jane right there.
Eric: There's a cover of a of like a teenage boy who I kind of envisioned as Jane. But then I like camp-ified fight him a little bit. As I read there was a line from Superbad, but it's like when you look into his eyes. It's like listening to The Beatles for the first time.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Like that's what I did for him. I don't know. I just really liked that. Someone also asked me why isn't it last name is Jane and I'll tell you. It's because his parents are both non American. His mom is Korean, like from Korea and his dad is like from a Scandinavian country. And they both met like in Norway. And then they moved to the United States. And their last name is something that has like bury in in in Norwegian skin, some Scandinavian language.
Amanda: Like circles over the letters and American- American immigrations is like I can't read that.
Eric: I don't know what this is. So they just changed their last name to Jane I wrote down. I wrote down his parent's names somewhere. But I had thought about that. And I also wanted to keep the tradition of calling people by their last names alive. So I thought that calling Jane, Jane was very fun.
Eric: That happened to your family, right? Going from a word that wasn't Silver to Silver?
Amanda: Oh, yeah, we went from Silvergilt to Silver somewhere.
Julia: Cool.
Amanda: Which is a name that's tight as fuck.
Julia: It is a cool name.
Eric: It's a cool name.
Amanda: Just a couple more questions here for us today, folks, because there is so much more to uncover and explore for Camp Die. Moss would like to know, "Did you consider calling the Camp-Paign, Camp Pain?
Julia: Yeah, we said it at the end of the Worldbuilding episode.
Amanda: We did consider that. We did indeed.
Eric: I still want to shout out, Brandon for writing the short story as a child
Amanda: Thank you, Brandon.
Brandon: There's a copy of it somewhere. You'll never read it.
Eric: Hey, at 700, at 700-
Amanda: Hey, Adam, at 900 patrons, could we read that story, please?
Eric: Yes, please.
Amanda: Brandon's sad, you're a patron you can make this happen.
Eric: I still think it's so funny how the first thing that happened with Brandon was like I wrote this. And then Julia was like, Oh, you mean Camp Diogenes? And we're like, we're off and running. We're here. We did it.
Julia: That's what happens. Sometimes someone says something, and then your brain is like, fill in the blank, Julia. And then you have a fully-fledged thing.
Eric: I also want to say, my favorite joke, and I hate that I'm saying my own favorite joke. So it's something I was thinking about as I was prepping Episode One was like, someone needs to say, hey, don't- don't say Camp Die in front of campers.
Amanda: Hey, quick branding, quick branding note right here.
Eric: Because like that's so something that would happen from going from camp to staff.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Is you can't say the nickname everyone says, that was like, really? That one was really important to me.
Amanda: So beautiful. And another question everybody's minds MK1109, is one person who asks, "Does Dougie Juice just grow up to be Sour Anthony? Is it a Mirror Universe?"
Eric: No, It's different people?
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: Are they different people?
Eric: Dougie Juice is much richer than Sour Anthony. Sour Anthony has real, real working-class chip on his shoulder.
Amanda: I love it. Well, finally, folks. We have of course, some Spoiler Corner. Because there is there there are dog days of summer left to stretch out and more mysteries to explore. So first, from Abby, "Is the land on the other side of the wall with Steven, Steven's universe?"
Julia: That's a good question.
Amanda: Good joke. Dominique asks, "Will the moss on Boo's head heal?"
Brandon: That’s pretty good.
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: I want to say yes. Only because I don't want to hurt Julia. I don't want to hurt Phoebe that hard.
Julia: I'm not hurt.
Eric: I like the idea that Boo just has like a smear of dirt on his head for the entire month.
Amanda: And then when he gets to school, it's gonna wipe it off and they're like, oh, it just wipes off.
Julia: Permanently.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Here's one that you definitely want to answer, Eric, from Mell118, "What's up with that watermelon rind?"
Brandon: Yeah, Eric, what's up with the watermelon rind?
Amanda: And Steven also eating watermelons, hey, is there a connection there?
Eric (as Boo): I like it. It's pink.
Amanda: Alex says, “What is the deal with Steven?” Put your fan speculation to rest #WatermelonLife.
Eric: Okay, so here's what's going on with Steven.
Amanda: Never Alex. That's how we live is on your WTFs. Wyvern Apologist, "As someone who leans firmly Lawful on the D&D alignment chart, Carrie-Ann getting into trouble has me more worried than moss growing out of Boo's head. Hope it doesn't happen again!"
Brandon: Hey, Wyvern Apologist? I'm worried for Amanda too. Like-
Julia: Worry for Carrie and Amanda's fine.
Eric: Oh, there's no, there's nothing like fiction or storytelling about someone being devoted to an institution and then maybe being disillusioned as you realize that the institution is made out of people and it's not like a flawless thing. There's no stories about that.
Julia: No, never heard of that before.
Eric: So Amanda is gonna have a bad time with her boring character.
Amanda: Yeah, I'll just be sitting around like everything's fine and I have no goals and you know-
Eric: The director and I are best friends and it's fine.
Amanda: Yeah, I called her mom wants it it wasn't weird after. And finally from the Question Surgeon, Michelle Spurgeon, "Have spooky things always happened at Camp Die or is it a new thing? And exactly how many children are you allowed to lose before the camp gets shut down?"
Julia: Who can say?
Brandon: That was easy they have an official policy it's 4.
Julia: Per year though.
Brandon: Per year
Eric: I hope no one is like surprised with the with the light horror elements I'm putting in this thing.
Julia: Oh, yeah. It's gonna get dark y'all. Get ready.
Eric: Already.
Amanda: Lightly dark.
Eric: I mean already. It's like, yeah, fucking Jane, his legs going the wrong direction. That's like the level.
Amanda: Like a K.
Eric: That's the level of horror I'm putting in. Is like, hey, that person's very injured.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Watch out.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Well see, it's not called Camp Die for no reason people.
Julia: That's true.
Amanda: You know.
Eric: It's because everyone dies.
Brandon: It's based on my original novel from 1998 and I will tell you everyone died in that so...
Julia: Oh, no!
Eric: Yeah, but Brandon, you wrote that when you were on Percocet. And you were living in Bangor, Maine, right? So like, that's different.
Amanda: Alright, folks. Much more to come. Lots of updates over on the Patreon whenever we make a big housekeeping announcement by the way, we put all the notes in the description. So if you want to review all the changes, and see what's new, and click on over to the merch store, the social media, the Discord, any of the fun things we have going on, check it out in the old episode description. And until next time.
Brandon: Bye guys!
Julia: Later.
Eric: It's summertime.
Amanda: May your rolls trend ever upward.
Brandon: Party star!
[Outro music]
Eric and Amanda: Hey!
Eric: Oh, we said at the same time it was pretty good.
Eric: Twins!
Amanda: And twins!
Transcriptionist: KM