A city of the future! A city on the move!
Follow along with the game document and our final city map here. We drew inspiration for our worldbuilding game from Avery Adler’s The Quiet Year. Check out Avery on Twitter @lackingceremony and her games on her website.
Housekeeping
- Merch: Pre-order your NEW CAMPAIGN 2 merch at jointhepartypod.com/merch! Our TeePublic with Campaign 1 merch (jointhepartypod.com/teepublic) will remain up through the spring.
- Schedule: Look out for a teaser next Tuesday, then Episode 1 debuts on April 7! New episodes will come out every two weeks, with full-length Afterparties on off weeks once per month.
- Patreon: Our Patreon is now monthly! Check out our new tiers and become a member at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. Join by March 31, 2020 to get your name permanently in the credits of Episode 1!
Multitude
- NEXT STOP is our newest show! Listen to the trailer at nextstopshow.com or in your podcast app and follow us @NextStopShow on Twitter and Instagram for behind-the-scenes content leading up to the April premiere.
- Head Heart Gut is our weekly friendly debate podcast. Get access for just $5 by joining the MultiCrew, which helps fund new work from Multitude!
Sponsors
- Brilliant, where you can sign up for free to take problem-solving courses at brilliant.org/jointheparty. The first 200 people to sign up will also get 20% off your annual Premium subscription!
- Multiverse, an online video game platform making it as easy as possible to make, play, stream, and share tabletop role-playing games. Check out their Kickstarter between March 17 and April 17, 2020; afterward, visit playmultiverse.com!
- Visit HeroForge.com to start designing your custom miniature today.
Find Us Online
- website: jointhepartypod.com
- patreon: patreon.com/jointhepartypod
- twitter: twitter.com/jointhepartypod
- facebook: facebook.com/jointhepartypod
- instagram: instagram.com/jointhepartypod
- tumblr: jointhepartypod.tumblr.com
- music: brandongrugle.bandcamp.com
- merch: jointhepartypod.com/merch
Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master: Eric Silver
- Co-Host, Co-Producer, Editor, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host, Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host, Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Creative Consultant: Connor 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
Eric: So, we have our first map. And, ordinarily, if this was A Quiet Year, we would skip this, and we will build off of it as events happen. But, since we are going from a town to a city, we are going to take a new piece of paper.
Amanda: Ooh!
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: (Gasp) Twist.
Eric: Now Amanda, I want you to hold on to this. This is gonna be our reference point—
Amanda: Okay!
Eric: – about where we start. I also want to keep all of the abundances and scarcities aware and all of the things that we've named as we were in there. So, now that we have our town, we’re gonna move to the second map. Oh, fuck!
Brandon: Map game!
Eric: Map game! It’s a map with a game. This is—
Julia: Isn’t it a game with the map?
Amanda: Map game. It’s a game with a map.
Brandon: No, it's a map with a game.
Eric: It’s map with the game.
Julia: Fucking, Eric.
Eric: So, now, I want to imagine that the second map is like we moved out two clicks on Google Maps. So, we're zooming out here.
Brandon: You can no longer see that guy frozen in his driveway next to this man.
Amanda: No. No.
Eric: Exactly. You can – and there is, like, now a little point that's like – that's like local crayfish. Lake Town. But we are moving back. So, the town is now gonna be a circle in the top-right corner of the map. I've created a rough topography of the land zoomed out here. We have a river stretching down the right-hand side of the page. There is a dense forest on the bottom of the page.
Brandon: Sticks with hats.
Eric: Sticks with hats. And there's a local road that stretches from the town at the top right all the way down the page to the bottom left. There are also a few small hamlets along the highway. This thing – there's like a few shops, maybe a church, maybe some homes, but like no more than like 1,000 people in any of these little hamlets, which I've dotted with Xs on the land. But, otherwise, the land is really undeveloped. So, we're gonna start turning this map, turning the town that we had in the other map into a city. I have a bunch of prompts that I've written down on slips of paper. And we're gonna go around the table clockwise. On your turn, you're going to take one of the slips of paper, read the prompt out loud, and then resolve it by talking it out with all of us and then making some sort of drawing on this new blanker map. The prompt might ask you a question, it might bring bad news, or it might create an opportunity. If it's your turn, it's up to you to make the decisions. You can ask all of us questions. But, ultimately, it's your call. Whenever it makes sense in a situation, again, add new drawings and symbols to the map to reflect what changed in the city. If these changes affect something else that's already drawn, someone else can speak up and talk about how it might change something that was already there. Maybe, preferably, someone who would draw on the thing, but anyone has a chance here. We also have our abundances as resources to guide your decisions. So, what is the city value? How do they respond to success and adversity? And who needs places and who will give them that space? I have four piles of six prompts. Each pile is gonna represent an era of life and growth in the city. As we start each new pile, we're going to transition into an arrow with an era events. I want you to treat this like an all play in Pictionary. I'm going to lay out the situation or problem. And all of you are gonna collaborate to figure out how the city would handle it. The players must come to an agreement. And then we're going to draw the results. Hopefully, I'm gonna be kind of hands-off during the era events, but I am going to take a turn as we go around and do the smaller events there. The names of the era are the Start, the Boom, the Build and the New Age.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Ooh, what causes this in the plot? We shall not to know.
Eric: Thank you.
Brandon: That’s when – that’s when they left the silver standard.
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: That is a joke I make. And I'm upset that you made it. I've done that. I've made that joke at least five times in Join the Party. I’m very annoyed. Alright. So, does everybody understand what's going on?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Alright, cool.
Brandon: I’m gonna name my character William Jennings Bryan now.
Eric: Damn it.
Amanda: Oh, no.
Eric: That would be super fucking funny. Alright. Here is one of your pile. Just kind of like pick a random one from there. But I'm going to start with the first era event for the start. This is 1988.
Amanda: Oh, city on a move.
Eric: Good news. You're allowed to spread outside of the confines of Laketown, and really be ready to make it into Lake Town City. Doo-dah, doo-dahp
Brandon: It’s Laketon? It’s Laketon City?
Julia: No, it’s not.
Amanda: No, it’s Laketown.
Brandon: Oh, no. Oh, no.
Amanda: Impostor, shakoz!
Eric: So, I want everyone to pick a new neighborhood to establish the vague space of it, who lives there, and what is its vibe. And you can use the hamlets here as a kind of the center of your neighborhoods if you want to start. But you can kind of do whatever you want.
Amanda: So, like a city glamming, all of the small towns around it.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Like, becomes neighborhoods in the bigger city.
Eric: Yeah, it's like someone put an initiative and is like, “Hey, make this into a city.” And there wasn't really any city planning. So, people kind of just rushed out and made the thing – made the thing as soon as they could. So, why don't you guys pick a place and tell me about what it's like?
Julia: So, I'm going to put like below Laketown on the riverside here, Little Italy.
Amanda: Oh, no. Oh, no.
Brandon: The best eggplant parmesan, crayfish mash-up this side of the Mississippi.
Amanda: Very good. Julia's drawing a big old pizza slice.
Eric: Nice. And then, Julia, can you just like make – put the bounds of it?
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Now, Julia, why did you choose next to the river?
Julia: So, because a lot of, you know, shipping and stuff like that happens via rivers and stuff like that. And, so, I'm thinking it connects to New York City. And the reason I chose Little Italy is because, whenever there's a city in growth, there is a mafia connection.
Amanda: Ooh.
Julia: So, there's probably like docks and stuff on the river here. So, can I build that out a little bit?
Eric: Yeah, go ahead.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: Is that where they like do the cement shoes and then, also, like, get their bottles of marinara shipped down to them?
Amanda: And enjoy a big plate of spaghetti.
Julia: Yes. You, you all are correct.
Brandon: I am just imagining like those little pizza parlor shakers of parmesan floating down the river.
Amanda: But I think that pepper flakes would float really well as well.
Brandon: That's true
Eric: I like those. Yeah. Tell me about the vibe. And, obviously, it's Little Italy. So, we kind of know who lives there.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: But tell me more.
Julia: It probably kind of has – like, the city underbelly is by the docks, but the closer you get to the highway is a little bit more like touristy with a lot of like mom and pop restaurants and, like, a good deli situation going on and importer/exporter area, that sort of thing.
Eric: Cool. I like it.
Brandon: I like it. Is there any well-known dish like pizza or—
Julia: I'm so glad you asked.
Amanda: Is it – Julia, may I make a guess? Is it mountain lobster pizza?
Julia: Yeah, of course, it is.
Amanda: Yay.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Love it.
Julia: I've been dying – like, I've been waiting. I was like, “How I will put a Little Italy and their specialty is going to be mountain lobster pizza?”
Amanda: This is the part of the movie—
Brandon: Cream sauce?
Amanda: –where we reshow a re-edit of the beginning of the movie, where, actually, Julia was in on it the whole time.
Julia: It's not cream sauce. It's actually like a – like a spicy red sauce.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: Ooh.
Amanda: Like Arrabiata or like a—
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: – a cocktail sauce type sauce.
Julia: No, like a Diablo.
Brandon: Ooh.
Amanda: Tomato based.
Julia: A little bit of like crushed red pepper in there.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Eric: That makes sense. That’s so much better.
Brandon: Then some optional hot honey.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Brandon, can I go next?
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: So, I'm going to base my neighborhood. There is an X on the left-hand side of the page. Like, behind another X. So, it's not even on the highway. It must be kind of like – or the local road. It must be like additional local roads to get to this neighborhood. This is gonna be the, like, crunchy granola, there used to be a cult, and, now, there's a bunch of like people who blog about their organic farming or this is pre-blog. This is a bunch of people who get like the Mother Earth magazine I think it was, where like original hippies who like bought nutritional yeast and things got them.
Julia: They’re probably making like zines and stuff that they hand out at the farmer’s market.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. I mean very much like, you know, east side of Austin, East Nashville, you know, kind of feeling where, yeah, it's people who – the land is pretty cheap. They can kind of do whatever they want. And they're just, like, weird in the best way, hippie granola type people.
Eric: Can you just put a little symbol to demonstrate that?
Amanda: Yes, I will put a bottle of Kombucha.
Brandon: Perfect.
Julia: Wonderful.
Brandon: Can you draw the scoby too?
Julia: Gotta draw that scobe.
Amanda: I drew a little spider looking scoby at the bottom of the bottle.
Brandon: Oh, gross works.
Eric: That works.
Brandon: I hate it.
Eric: You asked for it.
Brandon: I know. I regret everything.
Eric: Alright, Brandon, give it a shot.
Brandon: Okay. I have been fascinated with – whenever you're developing new space, there's like – they have to build these like shanty towns where the workers live while they are working on the project. That happened when they made the Hoover Dam too. And then, when the thing happens, it sort of either get subsumed or just like abandoned.
Eric: Sure.
Brandon: And I think that's so fascinating that they have to build a town before they have to build the thing they’re actually trying to do.
Julia: Sure. Yeah.
Eric: No, that's great.
Brandon: So, I think it'd be actually closer to the town because they started building closer to town. They started building outwards.
Eric: For sure.
Brandon: So – and I do think it has grown a little bit in size, because the projects that these people were on ended, but the people ended up just liking the town because the federal government covered some of their housing expenses.
Eric: Yes.
Brandon: And they – it was a nice place to live. So, they just end up staying. And, now, it actually becomes like a, a weird mix of, like, shanty houses but also like newly constructed nice family homes. So, there’s definitely some abandoned buildings in there. And there’s definitely some, like, 1950s Norman Rockwell style homes as well.
Eric: Yeah, that’s just like that's where the first neighborhood is, I guess.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Cool.
Amanda: I’m picturing like, like Manchester, Belfast, or some of these like industrial company towns mashed up with like farmhouses.
Brandon: Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda: It’s pretty cool.
Brandon: Yeah. So, I'm gonna draw – to represent Norman Rockwell, I'm gonna draw a turkey.
Julia: Okay. It makes sense.
Brandon: It's, it's symbolic, y’all.
Julia: Do you want to put your hand down on it? That’s it. Okay. And draw it appropriately.
Brandon: And then, to represent the, the shantytown, I'm just gonna draw, like, in a house. And then – Oh, dang, the hat fell off.
Amanda: Oh, no.
Eric: Oh, no.
Julia: Oh, no.
Eric: I like that. And I was inspired to make, like, an industrial district. I feel like a business district necessarily, but I think that it does need to be close to where Brandon did. And it should also be close to the only highway at the moment. So, I think it's gonna like just be this little slice right here.
Amanda: Like, the very middle of the page.
Eric: Right in the middle of the page. And I'm gonna make a little factory.
Amanda: So, smokestacks. Aah.
Eric: It's also like pretty close to the – to the original Laketown.
Amanda: And to the, the Hippie district.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Makes sense.
Eric: And, also, it's also pretty close to the docks as well. And, so, now all of this stuff that we haven't developed still is like open. So, maybe we'll add – end up adding more neighborhoods later. Alright. So, starting to my left, Amanda, why don't you choose one of our slips?
Amanda: Sure. I will choose the smallest one. So, what is the most beautiful thing in this area or what is the most hideous thing in this area?
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: They are both the giant crawfish.
Amanda: Aah.
Eric: That is good. And it's still there.
Julia: Crawfish. Crawfish.
Amanda: You are not wrong, Brandon. He’s too small for me to see him right now, but he's there waving all the time. I think that at the bottom left of the map, so kind of like the outside edge of this two-lane road leading up to Laketown, that someone built a sort of like rest stop. But it was in – whatever – it says the mid-80s. So, it's just like concrete brutalist.
Julia: Ooh.
Amanda: And it is mad ugly. And, on the top of it, it has a crayfish neon sign.
Julia: Ooh.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: So, it's the Welcome to Laketown Rest Stop.
Julia: Love it.
Eric: Welcome to Lake Town City.
Julia: Lake Town City.
Brandon: And, as the tourists come in, they stopped to this rest stop, and they're like, “Oh, the famous mountain lobsters. This is where we get them.” And then the real townies are like, “No. No. No.”
Julia: No. No. No.
Brandon: That's the fake crap.
Julia: You gotta get in the city to get to the real one.
Brandon: You gotta go to the Crawfish House.
Eric: Right. But it’s all --
Julia: You go to Crawfish House or you get the slice.
Amanda: I drew, at the bottom-left corner of the map, a little like access road, a big parking lot, a gross cube with a lobster on top.
Julia: Incredible.
Eric: Nice. Julia, grab.
Julia: Alright. So, what group has the highest status in the community? What must people do to gain inclusion in this group? Interesting. And doesn't have to be established like within the communities that we have already made?
Eric: Nope. You can start from what we have both in the town and in the city or you can just add somebody new.
Julia: I think it's like – I think townies. Like, people who were in the original town who have been there forever. Even as the, the city grows out, the original townies have this kind of like status to them that I think that it's important to highlight. Yeah.
Eric: Interesting. So, do we want to clarify? Do we want townies, or the summering people, or the original people who are in Laketown when it was Laketown when the inciting event happened?
Julia: I want to say townies specifically, but, as a larger group, inciting incident people. So, people who are in town, who were there for the quarantine as a larger group are very, like, well respected, but it's the townies who like owned all the businesses in Laketown to begin with.
Amanda: It’s like layers on layers.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Like, I was there. Well, did you live there? No, I was just vacationing.
Julia: Like, I've – I've owned the Mountain Lobster Shack in my entire life.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah. Anyway.
Eric: So, Julia, why don't you put something down there? And I don't remember if I clarified this, but, during our history that I, I talked with our players about, there is an inciting incident which kind of like kicks off the history that we're creating here, why the city becomes the thing where it is, and why the mad scientist and the science is in abundance. Later, I think the government tries to bring them back, everyone who was affected by the inciting incident, to be under quarantine and understudy, because things are happening to them. And we'll get into that later.
Julia: I just kind of read through the lake in this sort of sliver that is between the – what did you call before? The shantytown?
Brandon: Norman Shanty Town.
Julia: Norman Shantytown, the Industrial District, and Little Italy. There's just this little sliver leading directly into the original town. And I think that's kind of the occupying area that people – after the quarantine, maybe they left, but they didn’t go too far. Like, the super expensive parts of Queens.
Eric: Exactly.
Julia: Where it's like still suburbs.
Eric: Right.
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: It is the closest suburb, and that makes it very expensive.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: And – but it is nice.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I love that. Brandon, it is now your turn.
Brandon: Okay. The mad scientist decides to move elsewhere in the city.
Amanda: Wooh.
Brandon: Where did she go? What does her new house look like? I think the mad scientist – yeah. As soon as people start invading her space a little bit, I think she's gonna try to like – well, first of all, she has more status. Like, people know her now. So, she's – she's not really able to hide anymore. And, so, she also wants to like sort of stake claim. Like, make sure that she doesn't lose her town and her predominance.
Eric: 100 percent.
Brandon: I think she would be like within – like, on the very edge here of the new outcrop of, of townies.
Amanda: Cool.
Brandon: But, like, still on the perimeter. It's, like – yeah, you know, when you're, like, a senator who lives just on the border, like, in the very wealthy town.
Amanda: A good district.
Eric: I also love how she's still a presence in like the townies or the first people’s area. I like that a lot.
Julia: Brandon, drew a very good beaker with like bumbling stuff coming out of it.
Amanda: Yay.
Eric: Nice. Hell yeah. Alright. I'm gonna go. Oh, wonderful. The city elects its first mayor. Who is it? What is their platform? Represent them with the city government building.
Brandon: Eric, if it's not the giant mountain lobster, I'm quitting.
Julia: Everyone wrote in the giant mountain lobster. They had to call the election null and void.
Brandon: It was the second-place winner who actually got it.
Eric: I'm so glad this came about to me because I had this idea. I totally think it's the mad scientist.
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: 100 percent.
Julia: Yeah, do it.
Eric: And, like, you wouldn't think so, but I think that a lot of people believed in what she was doing. There's – she’s kind of like the spurring idea of why everything was happening. And there might be other reasons that we'll get into. I'm very inspired by the idea that Albany is the capital of New York instead of New York City, because I want something that's in the middle. So, there's this X, which is literally just on the highway in the middle. So, I'm just going to make a little circle. And I'm gonna make this like downtown.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: Cool. I love that.
Eric: Which is where the government.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And the X is literally – this was like an old state-building. And the, the mad scientist was like, “Yeah, fuck it. I'll just – I'll work there.”
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: This is where the seat of government is.
Julia: Sure.
Eric: Congratulations. So, I’m gonna make this—
Julia: We did it gang.
Amanda: And it’s a nice commute for her because her house is right on the highway too.
Brandon: It's like one of those downtown's where there's like one actual good restaurant, and then everything else is like, “Meh.”
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Exactly. That’s how I feel about the Portland Downtown.
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: It’s, like, there's so much about Portland that I love. But, like, the actual downtown makes absolutely no sense to me.
Amanda: Yeah, the real – those who are really in the know go up the road to Little Italy for lunch.
Julia: Of course.
Brandon: Or over to the Hippie Town.
Amanda: Crunchy granola town.
Eric: Dang. Dang good.
Julia: Depends on what you’re looking for.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: Some vegan stuff.
Eric: So, I'm gonna put the—
Amanda: The interns go west too.
Eric: So, this is the downtown district with the city government and the mayor. Their platform was just like on the growth and the creation. It’s like, “Let's make this the best city in America – the best new city in America. Like, the city of the future.” And I think that it now that she's a public figure, she continues to push that. And, like, she does scientific things. I think that she's also like, very involved in everything.
Brandon: A mountain lobster in every pot.
Julia: Incredible. So, only one though and they're about yay big.
Amanda: Ooh. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Eric: And, like, it's like a—
Brandon: It wasn’t very big. Promise.
Eric: It's like a mountain lobster in every pot and a robot in every home or something like that. 100 percent.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Oh, shit for so good.
Julia: We're all living in the Jetsons’ era.
Eric: Yeah. Like, that's what she's trying to do.
Amanda: Alright. I got, “There is one good road and one not so good at being a road that connects the neighborhoods.”
Julia: Nah.
Amanda: What are they?
Eric: Okay. So, you're gonna put down two roads. So, you're gonna connect one neighborhood to another neighborhood in a good way. And you're gonna connect one neighborhood to another neighborhood in a bad way.
Amanda: So, I think it makes sense for there to be a good back road that gets built between the industrial zone, the shantytown, and the government. Like, this one highway is gonna get a lot of traffic. So, I think that the mayor or someone else builds a road that sort of connects the rest stop actually to all the way up in the shantytown. So, it's like a back road that you can, can access.
Eric: Great.
Amanda: I'm gonna make it pretty straight just to be efficient.
Eric: Those of you playing at home, our dotted lines are where the neighborhoods are, but the straight lines are roads.
Julia: Got it.
Amanda: And then I think the inefficient road is going to wind along the river, but not, not close to the river. Like, it – it's kind of like winding. Maybe it goes around like trees or fishing holes or whatever, like, old farms that used to be there. So, if you want to get from the original Laketown down to the forest, good luck.
Julia: Oh my god. This is the worst road I've ever seen.
Brandon: Who built this road?
Eric: 100 percent that—
Amanda: Me.
Eric: That’s – that’s literally the highway for Bear Mountain.
Amanda: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I like that.
Julia: Wild.
ES: That’s – that is beautiful.
Amanda: And you'll note, it does not actually connect to Laketown proper. It only connects to the docks. You just drive through the docks if you want to get actually to Laketown.
Eric: I love this idea because we still haven't developed that area there. So, it's like, “Oh shit, something's gonna develop. And it's just, like, it's so hard to get there.”
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: Yep.
Eric: Or, like, the people are independent. Alright. We have one last one for the Start era. And, Julia, let's do it.
Brandon: Julia.
Julia: What belief or practice helps to unify your community? Ooh.
Brandon: Oh, could this be fun.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: I'm open to ideas if y'all want to throw things at me because nothing immediately springs to mind. Other than like, the concept of innovation, I suppose.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Like, everything is meant to make it better. And, in a lot of ways, I think that kind of has people step away from tradition.
Amanda: I love that idea that there might be a better way.
Brandon: What about to broaden it out a little bit? What if it's just like futurism? Like, it's not strictly innovation, but it's, like, we are the next step in township, in science, in pizza development.
Amanda: I think it's great because there are good and bad that comes out of that.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I like that too because that also keeps the opportunity in weird places. It’s that, like, it's not about necessarily changing, because there does seem to be some sort of, like, holding on to the idea that we were a town and, now, we're in a city or like we're a city of the future.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Like—
Brandon: Like, there's definitely like a museum somewhere that is dressed up in futurism, but futurism from 1982, you know.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: It never changes.
Amanda: Oh, Julia drawing some great Neo-Grecian architecture.
Brandon: Yeah. It looks like a Pantheon.
Julia: So, I think in our government center area, our downtown area, we have that, like, Museum of Tomorrow.
Brandon: Oh, I like that.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Eric: Oh, yeah. Fuck, yes.
Brandon: There's an exhibit that does, like, rotate.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: Alright. Ba, da, bop, bop, bop, bop, paw, papaw. We are in era two.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: The Boom. People are coming fast and furious to the city.
Julia: Vin Diesel's here?
Eric: Yes. Let's institute public transportation. What does the city invest in? Or, a major local employer builds a regional amenity, a hospital, an art center, et cetera, what is it?
Amanda: We—
Eric: So, is this – as people show up, are we going to invest in public transportation or we can go into invest in a different thing, but we asked a private person to build it?
Julia: Public transportation, please.
Eric: I know that's the good option, but what do you think actually happens? Based on what we've laid out.
Julia: I want public transportation so bad though, Eric.
Amanda: What if?
Julia: What if?
Eric: Marvel presents what if.
Amanda: What if the mayor, in the futurism theme that we're building on here, decides to invest super hard in trams?
Julia: Yes.
Eric: I was literally—
Amanda: And, like, – or – either trams or, like, a ski lift funicular gondola.
Brandon: Sky trams?
Amanda: Sky tram.
Julia: Sky tram.
Amanda: So, it's a tram but in sky.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: And, so, that would—
Brandon: With hat.
Amanda: Yeah. Little hats so snow does not fall. So, it would actually solve some problems. Like, if we're in Upstate New York, there's gonna be a lot of snow. If there are a lot of people coming, they are not gonna want to rely on cars. So, I can almost picture a – like gondola – I'm just going to call it a sky tram network. Like, zigzagging all across town. Maybe there's a couple different lines. Maybe it's a grid almost. Like, it’s imposed on it. I don't know how we want to draw it. Maybe there's like a central station.
Eric: So, like, Amanda, why don't you put the station. And let's assume that it spiders out. And there's limited connection on the outer rims between neighborhoods.
Julia: I feel like—
Brandon: I think it would also be less developed in the actual Laketown.
Eric: Agree.
Amanda: I’m picturing, yeah, like the city center. Yeah. So, why don't I do it on the edge of the industrial zone and the downtown? Because the Capitol Building wouldn't want it like next to the Capital Building. But it will be accessible to the people who are going to work in the industrial zone.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: And then from there sort of like hub-and-spoke style to the middle of the page. All of the different branches branch out to different area.
Brandon: I like said that the mayor, when they were like proposing this project, was like, “Let's show the world how beautiful our city is with the sky trams.”
Julia: Love sky tram.
Eric: Sky tram. Sky trams.
Amanda: So, I drew – I drew a little gondola sky tram kind of off the highway on the border between industrial zone and the downtown.
Eric: Nice.
Julia: I love it.
Eric: Hell fucking yeah. So, Brandon is gonna go first in round two.
Brandon: Is it spelled, like, with two Ys or an I? Sky?
Amanda: I think it’s—
Julia: It’s as in a ski.
Amanda: – all caps.
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Amanda: It’s styled in all caps every time.
Brandon: I like it.
Amanda: SKY tram.
Brandon: SKY tram.
Eric: So, it's about seven years afterwards. So, we started in ‘88 + 7. We are now in ‘90 – from ‘95 to about 2003. So, SKY tram is such a ‘90s ass shit.
Amanda: In Al Gore's alternate America, we lean hard into transportation.
Julia: Public transport.
Eric: Yeah, Al Gore is there during the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Julia: He's crying. He's so proud tears.
Eric: He’s fucking tears. He's like, “Bill wanted to come here, but I said, no, this is my thing.”
Julia: Yep.
Brandon: Whoa. This is fun. Okay, I drew mine. A headstrong community member decides to put one of their ideas in motion.
Amanda: Ooh.
Brandon: Starts a foolish project. Open to ideas.
Julia: What, what's a dumb hippie thing that might have been put into fruition?
Brandon: What's the dumb thing that a city – yeah, the city would, would do that would like fall out of misuse within like a year?
Amanda: It could be like a – within the neighborhood type transport. Maybe it's like car sharing, but their golf carts. And they forgot that it gets winter.
Brandon: Like, I was thinking scooters. Exactly.
Amanda: Yep. Yep.
Julia: It works for a summer.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I don't – the scooters are too much of a hellscape for me, but I like golf carts.
Amanda: Maybe it's a—
Brandon: Was like super future?
Amanda: On the street trams?
Brandon: I – okay. Here's an idea. I think they would do the sidewalks of tomorrow, and they're like people mover.
Amanda: Yes, Brandon.
Brandon: Yeah. What do they call – what are those called?
Julia: People movers.
Eric: They’re people movers. You’re right. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: And they put like six of them, and no one uses them, because why would you.
Amanda: They’re always broken. Yeah.
Eric: They’re always broken.
Amanda: There's no one in them much of the time.
Julia: It’s very good.
Eric: I'm gonna say we have to put it in a neighborhood. So, what neighborhood tried to do it and who is it?
Brandon: Tu, tu, tu, tu. I think that's like a downtown thing probably, right?
Julia: Yeah. It's seems like Government Center would put that in being like it's accessible.
Brandon: I think either industrial or capitol.
Julia: Oh, leading industrial to capitol, I think, would make sense.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Do you think they’re trying to encourage people to walk to work?
Brandon: Yeah, that’s good.
Eric: So, even in the winter?
Amanda: Yeah. Maybe between the tram station and the capitol building.
Eric: Now, this is created by a person. So, who thought this was a good idea? You can also create a person.
Julia: I like the idea of whoever the person who invented this is that we like to use it as slang in the city. You’d be like, “Alight. Great like, like Einstein but not sarcastic.”
ES: In—
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Julia: Where’s it’s like, “Great idea…”
Eric: This is good. I like – so, in the industrial area, there are, like, companies that decided to come in. And, for whatever reason, they, they see a burgeoning city. So, like, is there like a CFO or a CTO in, like, one of these dumb big companies that thought this was a great idea?
Julia: It’s [Antoine]
Brandon: Yeah, I think there's like a sort of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates kind of person in their garage making things that, that kind of people, but, like, fucking terrible.
Eric: Right.
Brandon: So, like Biztown but a tech.
Eric: I like that.
Amanda: I think last name should definitely be a noun. Like Gates and Jobs.
Brandon: Mhmm. Okay.
Julia: Stones?
Brandon: I'm bad at naming things. So, yeah, let's – so, there's like legitimate companies.
Amanda: John Profit.
Eric: Man, he really Jim that up. His name is just Jim.
Amanda: Right.
Eric: We just remember him as Jim.
Amanda: Jim Jimson?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: And he worked at one of the companies, and we'll establish that later. And, now, it's slang. That, if you – when you mess up—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: – you gotta be, “You really Jimmed it.”
Julia: Yeah, man.
Amanda: This is a real Jim Jam, huh?
Eric: Yeah, it’s the real Jim Jam.
Julia: A Jim Jam.
Eric: It's a real Jim Jam.
Julia: Yes, I love that.
Eric: That's perfect. Brandon, write the word Jim Jam next to them.
Julia: Please.
Amanda: Jim Jam.
Eric: This is the only time. Because we established it together, we're gonna include that in that’s now city slang.
Julia: Jim Jam.
Eric: I fucking love that.
Julia: Real fucking—
Amanda: I'm trying to redeem myself from Timbly Tumblies.
Julia: Fucking Jim Jam that.
Brandon: So, I think what Jim did was like a lot of legitimate companies came in and was like, “Hey, we'll take on your government contract to like build roads and your SKY trams or whatever.” And then Jim was like, you know, from fucking Silicon Valley, California. And he was like, “I'm gonna come in and fucking innovate. I'm gonna disrupt. Let's go. People movers.” And that—
Amanda: It is the first dotcom boom, pets.com.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Going everywhere.
Brandon: Yep.
Amanda: It’s the cut.
Brandon: And then, yeah, everyone was like, “I guess.” And then—
Eric: Yeah, but that's the thing with the mayor. It’s that she – anything that looks like innovation, she'll do it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: And then no one used them.
Eric: They really Jimmed it up.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: It was a real Jim Jam.
Brandon: It’s a real JJ.
Julia: It’s real Jim Jam.
Eric: Alright. Five. Fuck yes. I'm so glad I got this one. Name a bar of recognition.
Julia: (Gasp).
Eric: Why is it so? who hangs out there?
Julia: I wanted that one.
Eric: Sorry, bruv.
Julia: Darn.
Eric: I'm gonna say it's an extension of Astro Lane. I think that Astro lane—
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: – because they were—
Brandon: Astro Lane After Dark.
Eric: Astro Lane. So, now, there is a bowling alley/bar that is like all over the city. There's one in every single neighborhood. But I think like the really hip one is definitely in West – in West Town?
Julia: I think it's gotta be called Astros. It's not Astro Lane anymore, but it’s Astros.
Eric: Yeah, it's just Astros.
Brandon: Yeah, because Astro Lane is a family establishment.
Julia: Of course.
Eric: And they have – they have like slightly different names.
Julia: Astros. Comets,
Brandon: You can get a bowling ball on every single one though.
Julia: That’s the signature drink. If you don't drink a bowling ball at Astros, did you even go?
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I know. And, now, like, the bowling ball is like just local lore. So, I'm gonna say Astros is now in the hippie area.
Julia: So, fucking so not hippie.
Amanda: I love it.
Eric: Bang, bang. Alright. There you go.
Amanda: A contingent within the community demand to be heard, who are they? What are they asking for?
Brandon: Mhmm.
Amanda: Huh. Julia, do you have an idea?
Julia: Um, I'm leaning towards the hippies in this situation.
Brandon: I like that. It could be the hippies asking for like environmental protections. It could be the workers in the shanty town or industrial zone.
Julia: This could go with our mountain lobster theme, too.
Amanda: I was just thinking that. Yeah.
Julia: Where they can see that like, as the restaurants selling mountain lobster get more and more popular—
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Julia: – more and more and famous, they're like, “Listen, the species is gonna die out real quick.”
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: We need to, like, create some sort of conservation effort for them.
Amanda: Totally.
Eric: Yeah, this is also related. I think this creates a lot of tension with the underground crime. It’s that, like, they were – the docks were fine. We were just using it. Nobody touched it. But, now that there are environmental people, either it's government or there's now a company that does this. Like, very similar to what happens in in New York City with the – with the clams and the mussels.
Julia: Where are they gonna dump the bodies?
Eric: Exactly.
Amanda: Yeah, totally agree. So, I think, in West Town, there are a bunch of people who get really into local food. And they realize that this species is in danger of endangerment if the population keeps growing—
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: – like it does. So, can I determine the outcome or is that more up to you?
Eric: No, determine – render the outcome. That's totally fine as long as you can render it in a thing on the map.
Amanda: Yeah. So, I think the mayor is like, “Yes, protect the mountain lobster. Nothing is more important.” And, so, they put up a bunch of – in the same way that like you can grow oysters on like nets underwater, they make some kind of like artificial habitat in the river along the whole length of it. That makes it easier for the crayfish to like breathe and stuff. So, I'm going to make a bunch of little buoys in the river. That indicates where the underground portions of that are.
Eric: Love it.
Amanda: Well, yeah, maybe like the shipping is regulated. Or there's like only a certain amount let in and out every day. And they have to be more careful with their emissions, something like that.
Julia: I love it.
Eric: Love it.
Brandon: Is it—
Julia: Those mobsters gonna be real mad.
Eric: They're gonna be so pissed.
Brandon: Does it sort of mess up the water ecosystem? Like, the balance of it?
Amanda: I think they would do it properly.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: But it probably brings back more plant life to the river, which probably makes it harder to get ships up and down.
Eric: Yes, I think that's the big fallout.
Brandon: OK.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: It’s that shipping is harder. And Mafiosos are fucking pissed.
Julia: So mad about that.
Eric: Alright. Good thing nothing bad ever happens when that happens.
Julia: Uh, huh. Sure. Never.
Brandon: Do you guys want to go to Astros and get a bowling ball after this?
Julia: I would so much.
Amanda: It is one o’clock.
Julia: I actually really want a mountain lobster pizza slice. Alright. Huh. A celebrity moves to town, who is it? Why are they there? Who is excited about it?
Brandon: Matt Damon
Eric: Now, Julia. I will say here's the only constraints and the freedoms I’m going to give you. We are living in – this is anywhere from ‘95 to 2003. So, try to stick with that kind of celebrity. You can also have a real person or a fake person who is an avatar of things that would be popular during that time. So, make whatever choice you would like.
Julia: Who did we say before who's at the ribbon cutting ceremony?
Amanda: Al Gore.
Eric: Al Gore.
Julia: I think it’s Al Gore.
Brandon: Oh, god.
Eric: Wait. So, Al Gore moves his family there—
Julia: Yes. Yes.
Eric: – to Lake Town City?
Julia: 100 percent.
Eric: Amazing.
Amanda: He gets a vacation home in the hills.
Julia: So, I'm gonna put Al Gore's new house on the border of the Norman Rockwell area and the townies like sliver of land.
Eric: I love it. Alright. Brandon, you're back around.
Brandon: Oh, this is interesting. The two high schools in the area have a deep-seated rivalry over what? So, we have to add a second high school or—
Eric: So, you can do one of two things. There is still North Country in the Lake Town area, which services I guess that area. But you see you can add one or two.
Brandon: I see either like a – like a downtown high school or like a charter school type thing in the hippie area.
Amanda: I think there would be a charter school downtown like Miles Morales style.
Brandon: I like that. I like – because I – yeah, we had a – when I was growing up, we had an arts magnet, basically, that was like for singers.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: So, I think – yeah, there would be a STEM school downtown that you have to pass whatever test. And they're, like, heavily focused on STEM.
Eric: So Brandon, what, what do you want the name of this high school be?
Brandon: I think it would just be Lake Town City Magnet. Like, it would be very like industrial.
Eric: I like Lake Town City Magnet. And they call it The Magnet. Cool.
Brandon: And I think the rivalry stems from a couple places. Stems.
Julia: Ooh.
Brandon: One is definitely like socio economic and like academic rivalry, but that's more like deep-seated. Like, that's real. And then I think like there's a fun rivalry, where it's like a prank rivalry type thing where, you know, how colleges will like steal other people's mascots.
Eric: Mhmm.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: But like, in this one, maybe the STEM, like, people – they pulled some prank with an electromagnet that like turned off all the lights in high school one day or something.
Eric: I like that.
Brandon: And, like, the other high school doesn't know how to do that necessarily. So, they like – I don't know – hoist it.
Brandon: Yeah. Like, roll their high school or something.
Eric: I like that. The one does something very sophisticated. And the other one just does like a straight fucking prank. Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Well, I mean your public high school is not gonna have access to like a giant electromagnet.
Eric: Yeah, exactly.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I love that. I love that so much. That's perfect. Finally, this is the last one of era two, the Boom. The city council wants to attract tourists and families from New York City. Who do they focus on? What is that slogan? Oh, my god. Okay. I can envision that there's just, like, pamphlets just show up in every single person's mailbox. Just how beautiful and the SKY tram is really – is really emphasized. And there's a smiling picture of the mad scientist.
Julia: I forgot about the SKY tram for a hot second.
Amanda: Sky Tram. Sky Tram.
Julia: Oh, damn.
Eric: And it’s like – it is like Lake Town City. The city – I think it might be like the City of the Future.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: They’re is very much leaning City of the Future.
Julia: City of Tomorrow.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: City of Tomorrow.
Amanda: Or like Yesterday's Promise Today or something.
Eric: Yes, that’s it.
Brandon: Yeah, that’s it. Yeah.
Julia: Fuck yeah.
Eric: So, Amanda, write – write Yesterday's Promise Today. This is my demonstration.
Amanda: Okay. I am genuinely extremely hungry now for some kind of shellfish. So, will you guys let me run to the, the kitchenette and grab something real quick?
Julia: Heck yeah.
Eric: I'll be here. I’ll definitely – I'm just gonna stay here.
Brandon: Can you make me a lobster roll?
Midroll Music
Amanda: Hello! It's Amanda. We are doing our best, like everybody else, to live day to day and to make something about today worthwhile, and happy, and optimistic looking forward. That might be texting your friends. That might be taking your weekly game into a virtual version and showcasing your pets while you play. Maybe it's just posting a picture of the thing you made for breakfast or the new leaf on your plant to Instagram every morning. But that's what we're taking solace in right now. It’s those little bits of calm, those little bits of beauty of happiness. So, I hope this is one for you. Welcome to the Midroll.
First, thank you to everybody who has joined our Patreon in the last week. Now, more than ever, we are grateful for each and every person who supports our work. You literally make it possible for this to be our jobs. And we could not do it without you. So, welcome to Marissa, Osias, Steph, and Rachel along with just a few of the many existing patrons who have made the switch over to our new monthly tiers; Robin, KB, Amelia, Ileana, Isabel, Cassandra, Tyler, Bradley, Janel, and Moore. It's never been a better time to become a patron, because we're doing something very special for the start of Campaign 2. To immortalize everybody who's decided to support art they love with their human dollars, we are going to read the name of every single Join the Party patron in the credits of Episode 1 of Campaign 2. That means anybody who is an active patron on March 31st, 2020, both our current crew and anyone who joins in the next week, will get their name immortalized in the credits of the first episode of Campaign 2. Join by March 31st at patreon.com/jointhepartypod.
Don't worry guys. We've heard you loud and clear. And, yes, there is mountain lobsters merch. Hightail it over to jointhepartypod.com/merch to preorder our mountain lobsters hockey t-shirt, our mountain lobster snapback – that's right – and a gorgeous print of the Lake Town City map illustrated in full color by the incredibly talented Squared. If you've marveled at the character merchant stickers we made for Campaign 1, you know how skilled Squared is. We are so happy that they brought our little city to life with this map and the extremely adorable mountain lobsters logo. That’s jointhepartypod.com/merch to get your order in today.
One of my favorite parts of these pregame episodes and, also, D&D in general is problem-solving. How can I build infrastructure to serve a city but also the plot of the story? How do I optimize the stats for my new character to be a good member of my party? Playing this game teaches you skills like how to solve new and unfamiliar problems with critical reasoning. And today's sponsor Brilliant is there to give you a toolkit and a framework to work through novel problems. They offer a wide range of content building interactive online courses on topics from scientific thinking to math fundamentals, from programming with Python, to machine learning, including probability courses involving dice. And they know, just like a good DM does, that you can develop skills and intuition by problem-solving. Effective learning is an active process. And Brilliant lets you master concepts by solving fun, interactive problems yourself. Flex your adventurer brain by going to brilliant.org/jointheparty and sign up for free. Also, the first 200 people to go to that link will get 20 percent off the annual premium subscription. That's brilliant.org/jointheparty.
I recommended Multiverse to someone yesterday as a way to wrangle DM materials and world-building elements for a new DM starting a campaign later this year, because Multiverse is an online video game platform dedicated to making gaming more intuitive, more inclusive, and more accessible. Their tools make it easy as possible to make play, stream, and share tabletop role-playing games with a marketplace for creators as well. You can build with Pixel Art, both on PC and mobile. So, jump into your next adventure with friends, whether they're across the table or across the world in just a click. Check them out at playmultiverse.com.
Finally, we are also 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. Making a mini is one of those signs that a new character is real. And, as we get closer and closer to Episode 1 of Campaign 2, it's like – it's really getting real for us. This is a step you can take easily and affordably with Hero Forge to start designing your custom miniature today. Go to heroforge.com to see all of the new content that they've added this week. They add new stuff every single week. It's amazing. heroforge.com.
Alright. Onwards and upwards, lookout for a little teaser audio next Tuesday featuring a special guest voice. It is extremely wonderful. And you're going to enjoy it. And then, on April 7th, we are starting with Episode 1. Hang in there everybody. We're here for you. Now, let's get back to the world-building.
Theme Music
Amanda: Okay. We're back. Did you guys enjoy my, my lobster roll that I made for everybody?
Julia: It was delicious.
Brandon: Amanda, you need to open a lobster roll shop immediately.
Amanda: Maybe I will do it. And, so, where in our city?
Julia: In Lake Town City.
Eric: Where dreams come true.
Amanda: My brains, he wants to say, “Yummy, yummy, yummy after you say Lake Town City.”
Julia: Oh, no.
Amanda: Because there was – there must be something I'm thinking of. A commercial or something.
Eric: Lake Town City. Yummy. Yummy.
Julia: Oh, no.
Eric: Alright. We are now in the Third Age. This is 2004 to about 2011-2012. We're calling this the Build.
Julia: The good years.
Eric: We are—
Brandon: Is this when they got rid of the silver standard?
Eric: Yeah. This is the – yeah, this is definitely when we got rid of silver standard. This is where the infrastructure for all the people who’ve come in needs to be repaired and souped-up.
Brandon: So, this is fantasy then.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: We're building a lot of stuff.
Amanda: Yep.
Eric: Alright. This is the Build. The city has experienced a massive influx of people, adding a new neighborhood, a new high school, and a highway or improved public transit.
Julia: Oh.
Brandon: We can improve on the SKY tram. So—
Julia: No, we can add more of them.
Brandon: That's true.
Eric: Yes.
Brandon: More skies.
Julia: More skies.
Eric: We can do it. You can do a different public transit.
Amanda: Another layer on top of the SKY tram. The SKY Tram Tram.
Julia: The Heaven Tram.
Brandon: The SKY SKY Tram Tram.
Amanda: The SKY SKY Tram.
Eric: So, I didn't anticipate that you would come up with the perfect idea. So, yes, you need to have a new defined neighborhood, which can also take space that does not exist or you can encroach on other people's space. And then add another high school and some sort of transportation improvement, whether it is a road or – what else?
Julia: So, I'd like to do a neighborhood. And I would like to add a Art District.
Amanda: Cool.
Brandon: Fun.
Julia: Because we don’t have one of those yet.
Eric: Nice.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: So, I think it would make sense to kind of get it off of the downtown area, especially since we have the Museum of Tomorrow and this awful highway over here. So, I think that it would make sense to kind of put that in the middle of those two things.
Eric: Love it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Amanda, the road you drew, the squiggly drew, it looks like it's giving me the finger.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: Right there.
Amanda: Well, for that, I apologize, Brandon.
Brandon: Oh, very sweet, Julia.
Amanda: Aww. Very nice.
Julia: I did the tragedy in the comedy masks for the Arts District.
Eric: I love all of those neighborhoods that are just like about the direction of it. So, this is south of Little Italy. So, it's Solita or something.
Julia: Oh.
Amanda: Yay.
Brandon: It's the only place you can get a good cocktail in town.
Eric: 100 percent.
Brandon: Every time you walk into a bar in there, you're like, “Do you guys do bowling balls here?” And they're like, “Pfrtt. Nah. Pfrtt.”
Julia: Excuse me sir. You'll get a Mountain Lobster Martini, and you'll like it, sir.
Eric: So, now, add a high school.
Amanda: Well, I was going to mention I love the idea of the Magnet School and maybe the Arts Magnet School that Brandon brought up. So, why don't we add an Arts Magnet School to Solita?
Julia: Heck yeah.
Brandon: I was thinking the same thing I liked that maybe the mayor got pressure eventually to be like, “It’s STEAM not STEM.”
Eric: STEAM not STEM. STEAM not STEM.
Brandon: STEAM not STEM.
Eric: STEAM not STEM.
Brandon: I also want to put forward the idea that you can, for $2 more, put an optional Corona floater in your bowling ball.
Amanda: Yes, Brandon.
Eric: I mean that was always the truth.
Amanda: Brandon, this is the kind of brave innovation that makes you such a valuable member of the team.
Brandon: And, in this era, they now added, optionally, a salted rim.
Amanda: Incredible.
Julia: Alright. So, I added a school-looking—
Brandon: But it’s called Stardust. Sorry.
Julia: I added a school-looking building that had a music note and like an art palette with a paintbrush coming out of it. =
Amanda: Cute.
Brandon: Very good.
Eric: Do we have a name for this one?
Julia: The Palette.
Amanda: Whoa.
Eric: That – that’s only the nickname.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: That’s only the nickname. What's the official name?
Julia: Hmm.
ES: Do you think it's like after a contemporary artist? Or do you think it's like very class call?
Julia: It’s like the Lady Gaga School for the Arts.
Eric: Either – it’s like either that or just like it's fucking Michelangelo, guys.
Julia: I like the Lady Gaga School for the Arts, please.
Brandon: Did she – yeah. Did she endow money upon this town?
Julia: Of course, she did. She and Al Gore are real good friends.
Eric: Alright. So, now, who went last? Did I go last? Could I put the bar?
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: Oh, did we do the transportation?
Julia: No, we didn’t.
Eric: Oh sorry.
Amanda: Well, if the highway bisecting the page was originally just like a two-lane local highway—
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: – we could expand it to be four lanes or something like that.
Brandon: I think it's a good idea. Yeah.
Julia: So, we'll just make it a little thicker.
Eric: I like that those that people who still use cars and want to brave the winter, like, can – now, has a highway. So—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: So, kind of cool.
Amanda: So, I just drew the local teens and young people getting into a new activity. What is it? What businesses spring up to keep them going?
Brandon: Is there a Z on the word teens?
Amanda: No.
Julia: No, I’m up to that.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: You can imagine it though.
Brandon: Yes, I did.
Eric: Now, you're gonna come up with something that is like Upstate New Yorky or you can come up with something that is like very quintessentially mid-2000s.
Brandon: Smoking.
Julia: What's, what's very like Canadian?
Eric: Could be jewel.
Julia: Because we talked about how the is very close to the Canadian border. So, like, yeah.
Eric: It is. This is very close to Montreal.
Julia: What's a very like Canadian sport, or activity, or something like that?
Amanda: I mean the kids could get really into hockey fandom. And then, like, they actually invest in hockey thing—
Julia: And this is how we get our hockey team.
Amanda: – to diversify the economy. And then, like, a professional hockey team, like, starts practicing there.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: This is how we get our hockey team, Eric.
Eric: That's true. Lake Town City becomes a hockey town. I like that.
Julia: Lake Town City.
Eric: So, what you can do is I would put a hockey rink.
Brandon: We could also just make it like a general sports arena type thing that—
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: – in the offseason isn't necessarily hockey.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Well, we can also do, like, music concerts in there.
Amanda: Yeah, it could be like—
Brandon: Like a multiplexing or something.
Amanda: Exactly. I think that can go across from the rest stop. It can go like kind of right off whatever like I-95, where they get off the main highway. And it's like a whole kind of little complex down here.
Julia: Yeah. And it's a pain in the ass to get to much like many—
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: – New York team stadiums.
Eric: Yeah. This is like the Meadowlands or even Foxboro for New England.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's, like, outside of the city.
Brandon: Now, I do want to propose that, during some seasons, they do have roller derby.
Amanda: Yes, like roller derby regional finals.
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: Yes. Love it.
Brandon: Because I love roller derby.
Eric: Oh, 100 percent. I do like that, like, there is no professional team, but they're building it—
Brandon: Oh, wait.
Eric: – on the hope that maybe it will happen.
Julia: Mhmm.
Brandon: No, I don't want it in the big stadium. I think it should go in the actual roller rink.
Julia: Sky view, I’m putting them.
Amanda: Oh, I assumed that there was roller derby.
Eric: Oh, Astros 100 percent does.
Amanda: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Brandon: Cool.
Eric: Alright. Julie, then now your turn.
Julia: Yes. I briefly glanced at mine. And it's like the gods sent it to me. So, it's a heartwarming story captures the entire city's consciousness. What is it? What changes? Or a weird urban legend captures the entire city’s consciousness?
Amanda: Yay.
Julia: What is it? What changes?
Brandon: It's weird it says, Julia.
Amanda: Julia?
Eric: It says Spirits team on it?
Amanda: Julia, is the paper really hot? Is that why you choose it?
Julia: It’s like it's all wet. Why is it so wet?
Brandon: Why is it in your handwriting?
Julia: I don’t know. It's weird how that happened when it's typed.
Amanda: Strange, how that just the or was in pencil and then so was the rest of it.
Julia: Weird, how that happened. Anyway, let's talk about the weird urban legend that’s going on in Laketown. And is it a lake monster?
Brandon: Is it?
Amanda: Is it?
Eric: It could be Lake Monster in Lake Town City. That's a good one. I think that we should spit ball a bunch, because it's like our shit.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Yes. Yes.
Eric: So, just like let's throw a lot while I take it down.
Amanda: Okay. It could be like radioactive mountain lobsters.
Julia: Mountain Lobster. Yes.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. We got forests as well. We got river. We got lake.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: We got tram. Maybe there’s a ghost tram.
Brandon: Maybe there’s was a ghost tram.
Julia: Okay. Okay.
Brandon: It could be something in the shanty town, where there's like abandoned houses.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: Yeah, someone could have like died constructing the museum.
Brandon: Something could be built on top of something like a – like a waste dumpsite.
Julia: Yeah. I think like really leaning into like nuclear waste, or mutant creatures, or something to that effect—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: – makes the most sense.
Eric: I think it also definitely has to indict the mad scientist.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Maybe there's a rumor that all mountain lobsters are actually lab grown. Like, they're actually cloned or artificial.
Julia: Mhmm. It's that and also, like, every one in 100 has a weird mutant disease that it transforms into a giant one and like attacks people.
Amanda: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Julia: Because the scientist is still dumping waste into the lake or the river.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. What if there's like – what if the lake monster – river monster is like just – there's a legend. There's a giant crawfish.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. That like she was trying to breed them to be or like—
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: – genetically engineer them to be like heartier and bigger.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: And then the one got away.
Brandon: Yeah. So, when we started breeding crawfish more, they were like, “Well, instead of more, maybe we just make them bigger and plumper.” And the scientists tried that.
Julia: And then we got giant mutant—
Eric: Cool.
Julia: – lake monster crawfish.
Brandon: Yeah. But that’s not confirmed, right? It's just an urban legend.
Julia: It’s just an urban legend.
Eric: It’s all—
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Can it – can they be named Monty instead of Nessie?
Julia: Yes, we're naming it Monty.
Eric: So, the lake connects to the larger river system so that it's been spotted in various places.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: Because is not real.
Julia: Yeah, it can move around.
Eric: Right.
Amanda: And, yes, fellow map purists that would make it a cove.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: And not a lake.
Julia: That's fine.
Brandon: Oh, my god.
Eric: It’s should be, but they call it the lake obviously.
Julia: Both signs are nicknamed Monty.
Brandon: Yeah, I like that.
Eric: Very fun.
Julia: So—
Brandon: Or the, like, place on top of that, you know. Like, that wasn't where it originally was.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: So, to represent Monty, the, the crawfish, I drew a very bad crawfish in the Lake Town circle area.
Brandon: Looks good to me.
Amanda: Great.
Brandon: I do want to eat it.
Eric: Now, again, is this – is it crawfish, crayfish? Are they all the same?
Julia: It's all the same really.
Eric: Okay, just checking. I always forget.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: But we're saying—
Eric: Mountain Lobster.
Amanda: Mountain Lobster.
Julia: – Mountain Lobster is the colloquial term.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: 100 percent. Okay. Cool. Brandon, go ahead.
Brandon: I am picking one up. Oh, no. Oh, no.
Julia: Oh, no. What happen?
Brandon: A natural disaster hits the city.
Julia: Oh, no.
Amanda: No.
Brandon: What is it? What does it destroy?
Julia: I don’t want to destroy anything.
Brandon: I don’t want to destroy anything.
Amanda: It’s my perfect town.
Julia: Our perfect little town.
Amanda: Unless, it wrecks the horrible road.
Julia: What? It – mountains slide breaks the horrible road.
Amanda: Is there landslide? Yeah. Rockslide. And it cuts off the middle finger that you hate so much, Brandon.
Julia: That’s over here.
Amanda: Just an option.
Eric: So, what—
Brandon: I was gonna say flood. Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Like, it could be a flood in like February or something.
Julia: Can, can we flood the terrible river though?
Amanda: Well, there are often floods in, like, April and May as the – as the ice melts.
Brandon: Ice melts.
Eric: Okay. Cool.
Brandon: Yeah. I like a flood along the river from, like, outside the map boundary in and sort of like the flood tapers off. So, it didn't actually hit the lake. Like, the lake didn't flood, but the river boundary did.
Julia: Maybe like it creates like marshland too, because we didn't populate that area.
Brandon: That’s what I was gonna say. Yeah. I think it destroys some of the docks, which have been rebuilt.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: And then I think, yeah, the area where the windy road is now become sort of like a little bit swampy and marshy.
Eric: What happens now that there is marshland? Do they real – rebuild this highway and do they rebuild – and how do they rebuild the docks?
Julia: I want to say they don't rebuild the highway, because everyone agreed it was terrible.
Brandon: I agree.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. Maybe Julia's previous idea of turning some old highway into park and, now, it's like kind of a marshy preserve. And that's like a nature trail.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Hmm. It's like a green space.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Perfect.
Brandon: Yeah, I think, as you go further along off the map, it – like, it's worse and worse.
Amanda: Yeah, like into the forest. That’s great.
Eric: Yeah. Okay. So—
Brandon: And I do think they rebuild the docks.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: What's different though?
Julia: I do want to say probably, because they rebuilt the docks, it’s a little bit more structured. And, so, the mafia loses kind of its hold on that area.
Brandon: Mhmm.
Amanda: Cool.
Eric: Okay. So, less – now, there's less organized crime, because the docks are a lot nicer and a lot less shady.
Brandon: Yeah. Maybe they built a dock side or on the dock Astros?
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Uh huh.
Brandon: And it’s like a chain – a chain Astros comes in.
Eric: No, it’s like a navy yard. It's like the navy yard in Brooklyn.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: And put in lighting.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: They're gentrifying the fucking docks.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: And the, the people, literally, are not happy. Yeah.
Amanda: But only some of them. There are still some of the old timey docks.
Brandon: Right.
Amanda: And they're the ones closest to Lake Town.
Brandon: Exactly.
Amanda: So, we do have some.
Brandon: I think they also have a new special drink that's like – did you guys ever have ocean water sonic?
Amanda: No.
Brandon: So, it's like coconut and like lemon lime flavor, but I think they have like a – like a tropical version of the bowling ball.
Julia: Oh, interesting.
Brandon: It’s on the river.
Julia: Like a Baja blast.
Amanda: Like their version of a piña colada.
Brandon: Oh. And maybe they put a little – either like toy or a some sort of edible thing that looks like a little monster crawfish in it.
Julia: Yeah, that’s adorable.
Amanda: Or a Bloody Mary with a crawfish claw.
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: Ooh. Also, very good.
Amanda: A clawfish.
Julia: It's probably just a full crawfish, because crawfish are like smaller than the size of it. Yeah.
Brandon: Except for Monty.
Julia: Monty is a big, big boy. Bigger than all of us.
Brandon: He’d be delicious to eat.
Julia: He would be delicious to eat. That's the problem.
Amanda: Monty is our king.
Eric: Hmm. Okay. We lost two.
Amanda: Alright.
Eric: So, I'm gonna read two.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: And I promise—
Amanda: He lost it.
Eric: Alright. So, here's—
Brandon: Ugh.
Julia: It’s the sports one, isn’t?
Eric: It is the sports one.
Julia: Oh, motherfucker.
Eric: A sports team is coming to the city. What sport was the team name?
Julia: It’s hockey.
Eric: It – now, because of what you put in that we talked about, it's definitely hockey.
Julia: And it's the Mountain Lobsters.
Eric: It is the Mountain Lobster.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Yay.
Eric: I did want—
Julia: And Monty is the –
Brandon: Is Monty is their mascot?
Julia: Yeah, of course.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Yeah, the colors are icy blue.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And pink.
Julia: Interesting.
Eric: With like white and black. Like, white, black, icy blue and then the, the crawfish pink.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Which I really like. And then the name of the stadium is sponsored by one of the local – it’s by, by Thorn Hill.
Julia: Oh, sweet.
Eric: Yes. So, Thorn Hills is the coffee shop that Julia originally made. We were talking about – a little bit about this like franchising out. So, it’s Thorn Hill arena.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Because an arena is usually like indoor.
Julia: I'm so excited.
Brandon: Coffee in every pot.
Amanda: Very good.
Julia: Coffee in every monster.
Amanda: Alright. I will select one of the real slips.
Brandon: No.
Eric: I, I promise I just lost it. I'm so sorry.
Amanda: Alright. So, mine says, a neighborhood expands overtaking another one. What is it? Is there a blend or an erasure of the past one?
Julia: I think it would make sense for the shantytown to spread to the industrial area.
Amanda: Yeah, I think either that or maybe the industrial zone as like there are more and more jobs, depending on whatever is happening with the science thing, they could also expand into kind of West Town.
Brandon: Yeah, that might be interesting, because you could sort of like take some of these old industrial buildings and build lofts for like—
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. Or—
Julia: So, West Town moving into the industrial zone or the industrial zone moving into the Western?
Brandon: I think maybe that blend. I don’t know.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Industrial into West Town. And I think, yeah, like, maybe this is like coming to the late odds, right?
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: So, maybe there are, you know, like, artisanal pickles and local coffee—
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: – and more of a true blend of those two ideologies. That would be kind of cool.
Eric: Hmm. Now, what I want to do is I want to create a new neighborhood, which is the fusion which is like the super hipstery area.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: So, now, we have this gentrified area, which literally used to be nothing until now. And that is like the – it is the true like hipstery thing here.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Well, instead there was like a more of an agricultural crunchy thing in West Town.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: And, now, is industrial. So, like we're talking like fucking Bushwick right now.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Right.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: What did you make for your hipster segment?
Amanda: The tiara pickles.
Julia: Oh, my gosh. Amanda has strong feelings on how pickles look.
Amanda: Well, it has a little label on the jar.
Julia: Oh, of course.
Eric: Can I make a – can I make a suggestion?
Amanda: What?
Eric: It’s that the Astros is now in the hipster area.
Amanda: Cool.
Julia: You think it moved or you think there’s an additional one?
Eric: It didn’t move. It's just like – it's just like—
Amanda: It got et.
Eric: It got et up.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: That's the main thing that made West Town cool is now in the cool neighborhood.
Brandon: Yeah. But they go to Astros like ironically, because like, you know—
Eric: Exactly.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Got it.
Amanda: So, our new neighborhood expands out from industrial zone across the new efficient road and then kind of hugging the edge of that road all the way down to the left-hand side of the map almost to the rest stop.
Julia: What do we want to call the hipster area?
Brandon: Brooklyn.
Amanda: No, Brooklyn.
Julia: Well, I, I like the idea of like, like, Westownville or something like that. You know what I mean?
Eric: How about Astroville?
Amanda: Maybe it's Thornhill starts doing their own roasting and selling their products online.
Julia: Oh, interesting.
Amanda: So, maybe it's like Thorn space Hill, Thorn Hill.
Julia: I like that.
Eric: I like Thorn Hill. That's good.
Julia: Write it down. So, we don't forget.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Do we want put like a new flagship Thorn Hill store in there as well?
Julia: Oh, yeah. Like—
Brandon: Oh, like the, the Starbucks Reserve.
Amanda: The Roastery.
Eric: Yeah. Or like the Court—
Julia: Right next to—
Amanda: Julia, you, you take care of that.
Eric: – which is now corporate office. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: There you go.
Eric: Wonderful. Julia, it is now your turn.
Julia: Oh, Okay.
Brandon: I just want everyone to know that the bowling balls in that area, everyone knows that they're a little watered down.
Julia: Oh, it’s a shame.
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: You're so invested in Astros.
Amanda: Always the bottom line.
Julia: Ooh, a group explores the city more thoroughly and finds something that had been previously overlooked. What is it?
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: A go-go-go-ghost.
Julia: The ghost.
Amanda: It could be a natural resource. It could be like an old business and old history.
Eric: It could be inner city or it can be on the outer reaches of the city, however, you choose.
Julia: Oh, actually, that kind of brings me to my point. I like the idea of doing something with the forest area down here that's now bordering the marsh area from the flood. I'm just not entirely sure what is – what it's going to be.
Amanda: Maybe there is like an old mine, or old like fur trapper hats, or like mushroom, or a truffle, or some kind of—
Julia: More food things.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia:Yes.
Amanda: Maybe there are truffles there. Like, Eric got me a book that have people murder each other about truffles in France. It's wild. It's a real thing.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: This could also have to do with the expansion of organized crime.
Julia: Yes. Okay. So, it's not truffles.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: But it's like something as like the new – it's the American truffle.
Eric: But I think this is related to – Brandon, please read the next slip.
Brandon: The next slip says, “Where is the city underbelly in the city?”
Julia: Wow.
Brandon: What crime sustains them?
Amanda: I just really want a mushroom syndicate.
Julia: So, I think that it was in the Little Italy for a very long time, because that is where the docks are located. And I think that, now, like, fully in the space where, in the Marshland, you know, they used to do like rhum running—
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: – on like the bayous and stuff and use like fan boats and whatnot—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: – to like run things back and forth. And I love the idea of, instead of using the river, using the marshland to bring stuff up to the docks.
Amanda: Cool.
Julia: And then bring that back down to New York City. Truffle running.
Eric: I wonder if we have the mafia, the Italian Mafia, on one side and, now, we have another crime syndicate.
Amanda: Oh, interesting.
Eric: Like, do we have the – and Brandon, I think you should run with this, because this is your poll. But, like, who is the other city – and we had a city underbelly. Let's make another one. What is their crime? And it doesn't have to be as – it doesn't have to be organized. It can be something maybe a little more sporadic and give me like a smaller crew or whatever.
Amanda: Eco, eco-related stuff. Like fertilizers that aren't regulated or like a growth hormone for plants. That’s where my mind goes.
Brandon: Hmm. That's interesting. Okay. Yeah. So, here's my thought. I think there is an organization of, like, quasi eco-terrorists.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: That control the mushroom trade, because they sell it to the restaurants in town. That's how they get their funding. And they use that money to – we don't know exactly what they're doing. But I think they're funding potential technology weapons. Like, maybe they're trying to build a particle accelerator or something. I think they're also using that money to, like, bribe politicians to get what they want. Like, I think they're using – no one's quite sure exactly what they're doing with the money yet. But I do think they are selling – like, their, their laundering scheme is to sell these American truffles to the restaurants.
Amanda: Cool.
Eric: 100 percent. I love that.
Julia: Love it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And they're using, like, eco science and tech to make it happen.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: And they're, like, very moralistic. Like, they're like—
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: – you know, this is – this is for the good of the society.
Amanda: Right.
Eric: Good.
Amanda: Like, I could see someone like that being motivated to, like, kill all non-native species of plants.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: And it's like, “Whoa, buddy. Like, that's not – that's not small potatoes.”
Brandon: Do I have to draw that somehow?
Eric: Yeah. So, draw – why don't you draw like their hideout in the truffle area?
Amanda: Julia, I like your mushroom. They’re so cute.
Julia: Thank you.
Brandon: I'm just gonna build a house around the mushrooms.
Eric: Sounds good to me.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: Like they can be – that's their warehouse.
Julia: So good.
Amanda: A mushroom hut.
Julia: May I also stake a claim for the mafia truffle syndicate hangout to be like here.
Eric: Yeah, absolutely.
Brandon: Yeah. Maybe—
Amanda: The mafia resell downstate.
Brandon: I was gonna say maybe they – maybe they – the mushroom – the mafia are like the middlemen for the American.
Eric: Remember—
Amanda: So, they can – like, they can hide their involvement.
Brandon: Right.
Eric: Remember New York City still exists.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: If that helps.
Julia: And New York City wants those American truffles real bad.
Brandon: Yeah, I don’t think the eco-terrorists have the distribution network that the mafia has.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah, totally.
Eric: Definitely.
Amanda: Love it.
Eric: Alright. We are now in the final age, the New Age.
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: This is going to start in 2013 and continue to 2020, whatever that means to us and wherever we're gonna pick up.
Julia: Present day.
Eric: Yes, thank you. To present day. Here's the era event. Finally, the state has approved our plans for a high speed train to New York City.
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: Where is the station?
Julia: Oh, interesting. Ooh. May I suggest terrible visitor center that has been there since the 80s gets turned into big train station.
Amanda: Ooh. I'm into it. I think then we probably expand and add a new or a bigger tram stop.
Brandon: Sky Tram. Yeah.
Amanda: But people can take that into the city center.
Julia: Right.
Amanda: Go for it, Jules.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Can we do this the reverse of Penn Station where, instead of knocking down a beautiful example of like 18th-century architecture or next century architecture, they instead like build like a Nouveau Greco-Roman, like, Grand Vanderbilt Carnegie era train station.
Julia: Yeah. I love it.
Brandon: I like that.
Eric: For sure.
Amanda: But it encloses – instead of the Grand Central clock, we got that lobster. He's right in the middle. Welcome.
Julia: And then, also, right across from it, I am adding a secondary tram stop.
Amanda: Tight.
Julia: So, that people could easily get to it.
Eric: What else now pops up? Because there is a – the high-speed rail from New York City on the outskirts of town.
Brandon: I mean tourism.
Amanda: Hotels.
Brandon: Hotels. Yeah.
Eric: Alright. So, let's make this into a – into a neighborhood that is based around the high-speed rail.
Brandon: I think it, also, yeah, would become a commuter haven for New York City workers.
Eric: I think this also might include the arena.
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: And this neighborhood is terrible.
Amanda: So—
Julia: No one likes it.
Amanda: Yeah. Maybe there's a waterpark. Those happen a lot in the high – along the highways of Upstate.
Brandon: In, in, in the frozen tundra there.
Julia: They’re indoor.
Amanda: Indoor park.
Eric: In Erie, Pennsylvania, the most rustbelt ass town of all time, there is a indoor waterpark called Splashdown.
Brandon: Yeah, I think these, these kind of people that live here now – like, they do live here, but they are the kind of people that don't take any pride in where they live or the city. They’re just sort of like, “This is where I've sat down.” And, so, like the rest of the town is like – even the people who are in the newly – like relatively new developed area are, like, “You're not Lake Town Citiers.”
Eric: I don't think they want to be.
Brandon: Right.
Julia: No.
Eric: They're only there for the jobs and because they got forced to.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I'm also sure that like, with the new development, there's a lot of companies that are like, “Okay, now we're gonna put a company – a thing in there.”
Brandon: Yeah, for sure.
Eric: For sure.
Amanda: Alright. So, I will draw our first slip of the last era. So, this says what is the city missing? Add whatever you'd like.
Julia: Oh, what is it missing, guys?
Amanda: I think it is missing a – like hospital, research university, and like major – like Cleveland Clinic style. Like regional excellence in medical care.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: To expand on that further, big college campus.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah, I think it will go in our top-left corner—
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: – we're pretty empty. Kind of north of Hippieville. And I'm going to draw – maybe there's couple of universities and like a big hospital.
Julia: Uh, huh.
Amanda: You guys feel good about that?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, I love that—
Julia: That’s like the college town area.
Eric: Oh, my god. I fucking love that.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Because, you know, they definitely need some affordable part in there.
Brandon: Thorn Hill—
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: – now carries textbooks.
Julia: There you go.
Eric: It's Thorn Hill University, but now there's Sunni Lake Town City.
Julia: Oh, hell yes. Add both of those.
Brandon: I would also like to posit that the original incident townies who were involved in it get free college.
Eric: 100 percent.
Julia: 100 percent.
Eric: 100 percent. What about – isn't it the ultimate legacy that, like your, your parents were there during the fucking inciting incident?
Amanda: So, I've drawn, at the top-left corner of the map, a university in sort of like old school style, a gross looking Sunni building because lots of the Sunnis have bad architecture from the ‘70s, a hospital, and then a little bit of like student housing to kind of indicate that there's a lot of, like, apartments and kind of more affordable housing in this zone.
Julia: Sure.
Eric: Hell yeah. Love it.
Julia: Alright. It's my turn.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Of course, what is the newest food craze in the city?
Amanda: Yay.
Julia: Who makes it best? Who makes it second best?
Amanda: Ooh.
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: So, I think this is where we need to establish our protein, right?
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: Yep.
Brandon: It's got to be bad row.
Julia: Astros makes it terribly, but everyone goes there drunk.
Amanda: Yep.
Brandon: Yeah, because it's the original.
Amanda: Yep. Yep. Yep.
Eric: But there are definitely people from Montreal who come down—
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Eric: – to do it now.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Now, they’re – we have – maybe we can get some cool baker, some French people—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: – in the mix.
Julia: I'm gonna throw that actually in our newly established college area town.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Eric: Yes.
Amanda: Took the words right out of my mouth.
Brandon: Can I—
Eric: I love how the colleges now like quasi Quebec.
Brandon: Can I propose that Astros now has a range of bowling balls in different weights? So, you can—
Julia: Ooh.
Brandon: You can get a five-pound bowling ball, which is like the drink. You can get like the six-pound bowling ball, which is like – it's a bowling ball, but it's filled with gravy and fries and cheese curds.
Julia: Oh, god.
Amanda: Ooh.
Brandon: And then you can add up to like an eight-pound ball, which is like got crayfish and other bullshit in it.
Amanda: Loaded poutine.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, my god.
Julia: Alright. So, I added a little tray of poutine to the top of the far top there.
Amanda: Excellent.
Eric: So, Astros makes it second best. So, what is the name of this poutine place?
Julia:Oh. Oh, there was a place in Boston if I could name it after that.
Eric: Please.
Julia: Which is just called Saus, but it's, S – A – U – S.
Eric: Oh, my god. I love that.
Amanda: Love it.
Eric: Yeah, for sure.
Julia: And you would go to Saus. Saus.
Eric: Write that down.
Julia: Alright.
Eric: Because I don't want to forget that. So, Saus makes it the best, but Astros’ make it second best. 100 percent.
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: Do this place like – do they make like a poutine sandwich too?
Julia: They might.
Brandon: That sounds like someone call Sham do.
Julia: I feel like I’d eat that. Like a poutine burrito?
Brandon: Yeah, that's it.
Amanda: Ooh.
Julia: It’s gotta be wrapped in something.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: For the poutine lover on the go.
Brandon: Yeah. Like, they make a breakfast poutine wrap with like eggs and poutine and a burrito.
Julia: Yes, very good.
Brandon: I actually would eat that.
Julia: Like a poutine po’ boy.
Brandon: Yeah, sounds good.
Julia: Alright.
Brandon: Oh, it's my turn.
Julia: Your poll, bud.
Brandon: Oh, interesting. Who is the current mayor? For how long? What was their platform?
Eric: So, again, when I – we started in like the turn of the early 90s, the mad scientist was the mayor. And it sounds like she was the mayor for a while. But, now, is it different? Is she still the mayor? Who – or is there like an upstart? Who is the mayor now? How do you think we should change it?
Brandon: I would imagine that the mad scientist is still, mainly, because two reasons. One, the people who actually live in the town want to try to maintain control of their town. So, they would put an original townie in leadership.
Amanda: Sure.
Brandon: And then, two, she would become so integrated into global politics that she is their keystone to make staying relevant in the world.
Eric: 100 percent. I think that New York State changed the capital of New York from Albany to Lake Town City as an idea of futurism as a representation of the state in the country. And, now, whatever happened during the inciting incident where there has to be federal people, because we historically closed off Laketown, the historic district, in all of these deals that we've been talking about and how the environmental people are involved. And I think then she is, in fact, the liaison with the larger federal government.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: I do, however, like the idea that maybe she has like a challenger on the horizon.
Eric: Yeah, for sure.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah.
Julia: Yeah. Like, someone who's come in who is new, but, like, is, is raising questions and concerns about her and also like suggesting ideas that people are excited about.
Eric: That's interesting.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I would ask Brandon a question first. And then we'll go to there.
Julia: Sure.
Eric: Do you think she has the same platform? It's all about, like the futurism and being the City of Tomorrow.
Julia: Crowded in every pot.
Brandon: Yeah. I mean you can't get rid of that. That's just genius.
Eric: It's okay if the answer is yes. I just – I have a follow up question if it is yes.
Brandon: I think it's similar, but I think it's like an evolved platform of, like, Yesterday's Promise Today and Tomorrow. Like, it's a maintaining of this prominence in the country.
Amanda: Right.
Eric: So, let's make our challenger. Who do you think is challenging her? Why? And what was their job before?
Brandon: I think it's some – like senator from the city or something. Someone who's like 32 and really handsome and, like, sort of like a Trudeau type, where they just, like, come into town and charm everyone. And they're like, “Oh, I'll put two lobsters in your pot,” kind of thing. Everyone – or even like an Obama type figure where, like, it's just super charismatic. And everyone sort of falls in love with them.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Right.
Julia: And, also, like, coming in and being like, “Well, you know, the, the promise of the future In the 90s is not the promise of the future in 2020.”
Brandon: Right. Yeah.
Eric: Exactly.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Okay. So, where do we think this person comes from? I think let's make a – let's draw on the map this person's representation if the mayor stays as the mayor.
Amanda: I think it's possible they were previously a town council representative in, like, somewhere like Long Island City in Queens, where they helped oversee a real transition from like, you know, faded industrial zone to like mad condos.
Julia: How do we feel about them moving into our commuter town then?
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. And I mean the commuter town, to a challenger, would be a great example of the fact that, like, unthinking growth isn't good for a place.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: I’m just gonna put a little American flag in the middle.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: That’s good. Dope. Alright. We only have two more things left. It's my turn. The city finishes a long term public works project. What is it? When was it started? Oh, man. What kind of fucking boondoggle did the – has the mad scientist been trying to doing for such long time.
Brandon: May I suggest tunnels?
Eric: Ha.
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: I think there needs to be, like, a scientific research center that's like very kind of, like, cloaked and just like, “What do we do in the future?” And maybe it was like – it was – oh, maybe it was always trying to be developed in where the colleges are. And, now, the colleges sprung up around it. And she's like, “Shit,” you know. It’s like, “Oh, it's also finished. And, now, I guess a lot of young people are around it. Oh, okay.”
Julia: Oops.
Eric: Oops. And there's like a lot of, like, secret. There's like a lot of locked doors. And I think there's a lot of, like, secret stuff in there.
Amanda: Alright.
Eric: So, I want to put a scientific research center where the university is.
Julia: Do it.
Eric: Lots of eyewash stations.
Julia: So many.
Amanda: Beakers and beakers.
Julia: Those emergency shower thing.
Brandon: No.
Amanda: Satellite dish.
Julia: I can’t tell if it’s an atom or a satellite dish from here, but it’s very good.
Eric: Yeah, I put a satellite dish on top of a box, but I put Xs on the windows so people can't look in.
Amanda: Ooh.
Julia: Incredible.
Brandon: Satellite hat?
Eric: It’s a satellite hat. And, finally—
Julia: You got this.
Eric: Oh, man. I know which one this is. I’m so excited for you.
Julia: Which one is it?
Amanda: A series of bank robberies take place over a summer. Who is committing them? What is their MO?
Brandon: Geez.
Eric: Maybe we don't – the people don't know who they are, but I say creators know who they are.
Brandon: Throw out some options. Is it the eco terrorists? Is it some new villain group?
Julia: The Mafia?
Brandon: The Mafia?
Julia: The Punks?
Brandon: Is it the Punks? Yeah, that's fun. Is it—
Julia: A bunch of college students.
Brandon: Sentient monsters?
Julia: It might be a Monty.
Brandon: It might be a Monty in a hat.
Amanda: It might be Monty. Who can say? Monty’s grandkids maybe. Who can say? I think this is some kids who are living now in original Laketown, in the historic district.
Eric: Mhmm.
Julia: Oh, interesting.
Amanda: Who feel strongly that they are not fully, like, benefiting from all of the prosperity that is happening around them. So, they do some bank robberies. And their MO is to wear masks – Monty masks that they get at the rest stop. And they go in on skateboards and then skate away really quickly.
Julia: This is just Anara. What you just described? Just Anara.
Brandon: I don't – I don't know skateboards are most efficient escape system.
Julia: Students.
Eric: It can be like scientific – like futuristic like hover boards and shit.
Julia: Hover boards.
Amanda: I think they can like jack – like, with an app or something, they can like jack the bike share or scooter share. And then they, like, escape on those, abandon them, hop on a tram, and then like go to wherever they have to go.
Brandon: They’re techno hackers. Techno crimes.
Julia: I’m into it.
Eric: Techno crimes. Can I make a suggestion? That they are the descendants of Ma’s Ice Cream Shop. They're Ma’s kids.
Julia: All about it.
Amanda: I think they're Ma’s nephews’ kids.
Eric: What if they're called The Nephews or something.
Amanda: I think these are the kids that hang out on the dock at night. And they live in various places, but that is where they convene to plot to their, their crimes. So, they are the Dock Rats.
Brandon: May I suggest that they've also – maybe they steal from the eco-terrorists or like the eco-tourists were like, “Alright. Here's a laser weapon?” I don't know.
Eric: I do think I did like the eco-terrorists being floaters because I liked how they were not affiliated with the mafia. So, I have no problem with them giving them tech as well.
Amanda: Yeah, I think like someone's cousin is like in the eco-activist group. I don't think they would call themselves that.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: So, I'm going to – I'm gonna draw jewel on the dock.
Eric: I love that. Alright. That is the end of the Map Game. I want everyone here—
Brandon: Map Game. Map Game.
Julia: And what good map.
Eric: Alright. So, what – how do we feel? What do we think about our city?
Julia: I feel great. I'm really excited to explore it as a character.
Brandon: I'm super excited to go to Astros and get two bowling balls; one with poutine and one with alcohol.
Julia: I'm getting – I'm getting that, that mountain lobster slice.
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: Yeah, I'm stoked. I want to visit this town.
Eric: For sure. This is so good. I'm – I am truly so excited.
Julia: I'm extremely excited.
Eric: So, we're gonna post the photos of both the town and the city on the Instagram and on the internet. And, also, we can find it on the website. And it's gonna be linked to the episode description here. So, you can follow along. I'm ready to introduce your characters and let them loose on the city.
Amanda: I know you'll find out in two weeks what our characters are and what role they play in Lake Town City.
Brandon: I'm so excited to play the mayor.
Eric: That’s not – Brandon, you're not being the mad scientist.
Julia: I like – I like it though, Brandon. Push for it.
Eric: Oh, god. I'm ready. Yeah, Episode 1, two weeks.
Amanda: Alright. We'll see you then.
Brandon: Bye.
Amanda: Bye.
Julia: Bye.
Eric: Yesterday's Promise: Today and Tomorrow.
Transcriptionist: Rachelle Rose Bacharo
Editor: Krizia Casil