A Geek History of Time - Episode 116 - Diversity and Dragons With Teo Morgan Part I

Episode Date: July 17, 2021

I'm not here to poke holes and suspend at this belief. Anyway, they see some weird shit. They decide to make a baby. Now, Muckin' Merchant. Who gives a fuck? Oh my god, which is a trick on you, baby. You know what it's called. Well, you know, I really like it here. It's kind of nice. And it's called as Baccholomob. So yeah, sure, I think we're gonna settle.

If I'm a peasant boy who grabs the sword out of a stone, yeah, I'm able to open people up. You will, yeah. Anytime I hit them with it, right? Yeah. So my cleave landing will make me a cavalier. Good day, Spree. If Sysclothon it was empty-headed,

plubian trash, it was empty headed, plebeum trash, is not really good at grue. Because cannibalism and murder, pull back just a little bit, build walls to keep out the radiance. And it's a little bit of a ground tool. A thrill and tent doesn't exist. Some people stand up quite a bit, some people stay seeing a bit of us,

but it just... This is a geek history of time. Where we connect nerdy to the real world. My name is Ed Blalock, I'm a world history and English teacher here in New Orleans, California. And I'm going for go talking too much more about myself this evening, because I don't want to take up our guests time with that. Who are you? I'm Damien Harmonia. I'm a Latin teacher, turned drama teacher up here in Northern California. And you just said we have a guest.

We have a guest. We do. If you look to the other side of the table. Uh-huh. We do have a guest. Geek timers. We have a guest. We have a special interruption next week's Dune episode will be up and running. Don't you worry and we will get very granular about it. You all get a break from the Butlerian G-Hon. Yes.

And you can thank our guest for that after he lets you know where you can find him on Twitter and everything else. So without any further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Teo Morgan. Teo, how are you today? Down doing all right. Thanks. Thanks. So should I just like bust out all the social media stuff right off the top?

If you want, and we're going to have time to plug it afterward. But in the meantime though, tell us who you are. Oh, that. And what you do? People don't already know. No. No. Hey, I'm Theo Morgan.

I am the host of Diversity and Dragons, which is a role playing game slash comedy show that I normally perform at Sacramento Comedy Spot. It's actually going to be this month, January 29th we have a show at 8 p.m. July 29th. I know we've been in lockdown but like, yeah. July, yeah. They're both J-Word. I'm looking forward to the January show too. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I just got here from a different alternate time line. Yeah, yeah, no worries. I just watched Tomorrow Wars and I'm confused. Yeah, alternate timeline. Yeah, yeah, no worries. I just watched tomorrow wars and I'm confused. Yeah, but no, yes, July 29th At 8 p.m. The year 2021 just in case you're in a different timeline as well And if you're listening to this after that still listen, it's gonna be a really good episode because Teo's got some really cool stuff to share about Dungeons and Dragons. So, yeah.

I don't know if it's going to be about Dungeons and Dragons. I don't know if it's really about... Oh, sure. There were a lot of parts of it. Yeah, but a lot of other stuff too, knowing us. Yeah. We ask the questions here. Yeah.

But yeah, if you're interested in tickets or anything, go to bigblackdice.com. Also, if you wanted to follow me on Instagram or Twitter, that's a big underscore black underscore dice. And then I'm on Facebook, just you can look up diversity and dragons or tail Morgan, that's T-E-O-M-O-R-G-A-N. And yeah, I think like this week I was really excited. I don't know if I told you guys. I don't think I did, because we were talking about your, uh, what do they call,

Dulse and Mars? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but I, uh, there's an author I respect a lot, uh, named Julia Bond-Ellingbo. And she authored a game called Stealing Away Jordan. Okay. And it's actually an RPG specifically designed to create slave narratives. Yeah. And so, yeah, you make a, you know,

your party makes slaves and then the GM leaves and you all conspire with each other. And then the GM comes back and like runs, you know, the plantation or whatever. And then, you know, usually, usually it can be simple stuff, like just trying to figure out how to get the master to give, like, one slave of pair shoes, or, you know, it's more narrative, I guess it's not, you know, it's not quite like Dungeons and Dragons, it's a, I do think you can die in it still. But I wanted to get that because I'm actually

going to take the rules from my show because I actually had to basically redesign. I use like a D20 format, but there's so many rules to D&D that trying to cram it into one hour, which is what I have was tough. Oh wow. Oh yeah, I know it would be a stone. So I was kind of inspired by the BlackHack, which is an indie RPG that's, you know, it uses the disadvantage and advantage system that got introduced in 5e, but honestly it's kind of OSR, you know, our old-scorey Bible. Yeah.

Yeah, but it's very simple. It's only like a 64-page book, I believe, and then the WhiteHack is also super simple. That informed me because they kind of borrowed something from fate. Do you guys know about fate or fate? Well, I do. You do. I know. I know. Yeah, fate kind of a shoot hit points all together. They do like stress. And then if you take your stress, then you start accumulating or accruing consequences.

So you'd actually write what happened to you. There's different levels of consequence. So you'd write, yeah, and I would ask, like Damien, the guy shot you with a shotgun and you took so many shifts of damage, what happened? And then you just, you know, the guy shot you with a shotgun and you took so many shifts of damage What happened, you know, and then you just you could say because the mechanic the mechanics determine that whatever the consequences It's gonna affect it's it's gonna affect you in a way like I can say you'd say oh well it it You know, I have buckshot all embedded in my shoulder and then write that down But it's got a mechanical effect. It's consistent no matter what that is. Okay. Yeah. And there's and there's ways with within that system

there's ways that you can say, okay, well, I have buckshot in my shoulder. So I'm going to play off of that in this interaction with like later on, right? Carrying that around with you can be like, oh, well, you know, it really needs you to do me a favor because, you know, I got, you know, you remember, I got shot trying to help you out. Yeah, I can. Okay. Get a point. Yeah, you could you from a game master by essentially, yeah, I'm going to list a sympathy.

Okay. Or you, or if somebody was like, ah, you know, the guy's got a strong magnet or something like that. Whatever you, you know, you can try to, you know, say, well, I've got metal in my body, or I go through the metal detector, or, you know, it goes off, or I know when it's gonna rain always. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

And then meanwhile, it's a game master can then turn around and go, yeah, now you got a buck shot in your shoulders. Yeah. So, yeah. So, Renee Russo now is interested in you. Yeah, and there you go. You have a sexy.

That's cool. Okay. Yeah, and there you go. You have a sexy. That's cool. I like it. Okay, you see. So, the White Hat kind of borrows from fate in that way that like fate has two classes of things like aspects and then consequences. Consequences are basically like negative aspects. I'm sorry, again, so deep into this is what's fine.

No, this is the right place. Yeah, this is the place. I'm under this. Okay, yeah. Yeah, okay, so. And then. This is the right place. Yeah, this is the place. This is the place. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And then we'll start asking you questions. Yeah.

So then this guy, Christian, I forget his last name, but anyway, he wrote this. Later. Later. Yeah, but he wrote the White Hack. And he, on he took. That would be Sean Bradley. I'm Sean Bradley. Yeah.

Oh, these are all references of the beyond me. Basketball. Okay. 7 foot 6. Yeah. Yeah. But he kind foot 6. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. But he kind of took this idea.

And so in the White Hack, you have strength, the austerity, the Constitution, intelligence also. But what he did is alongside it, you can write things. So like if you're a dwarf, you look through a dwarf, and then it would say like dwarves have infarvision or whatever. So you could write that, write, or no, I think what is you write that you're a dwarf next to three

of the stats you want it to affect. Okay. You know, and then you get to roll it advantage. So there's an advantage. Yeah, you get to roll it advantage because you're a dwarf. Instead of it being like across the board, all dwarves are good at this thing. Right.

You know, you get to say like, well, this dwarf, it's affecting a strength and it's, you know, whatever, it's kind of. Yeah, so you could potentially say like, you know this dwarf, it's affecting a strength and it's, you know, whatever. It's kind of, so you could potentially say like, you know what, I'm gonna play a dwarf, but I'm gonna take that to my wisdom, but like, I'm gonna be sickly. I'm not gonna spend that in a constitution. I'm gonna be the dwarf who, you know,

I'm the dwarf who got TV. TV is a kid, you know. And I have to say, it's been a while since I played White Hatch, I think I may be explaining that wrong, but where that leads is that my buddy, I have a friend, Mike Oliver, he and I, he wanted to totally revamp make an OSR type thing just for him. Uh-huh. And so he did Gray Hawk, which is a combination of White Hack and Black Hawk. Well, he called it, I did not expect that reference. Yeah. You're welcome. Because it's okay.

Well done. Yeah. His thing is called D&D Redux. I think it can be found on Reddit. You know, like if you dig deep enough. But we talked about using that same kind of idea, but for wounds, you know, so that the idea was that, you know, if, if, you know, so much damage happens, then you take it as a wound right

at next to your strength, dexterity. It becomes a narrative focus instead of just like these points are missing from you. But then it's like when somebody tries to heal you, you would record how much value it was. So you still take points damage, but it goes to a specific thing. I have shattered, you know, collarbone. Yeah, you took like 12 points. And so you can still have somebody heal it.

And part of the reason we talked about this so much, it was annoying to us that hit points aren't really health. Right. But you use healing to give it back. Yeah, yeah. Because really what hit points are is points that you're using to buy off hits. You're not, it's not, nothing's happening to you.

That's why you can, yeah. You can have one hit point left when you had a hundred and you're fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's, that's not health. Because I remember in 3-5, there was the clobbering rule and there were a few other things.

But, oh, Ed is having a moment. You just completely, that phrase, you're using hit points to buy off hits. They're hit points, yeah, literally. That paradigm, like from now on, that's exactly how I'm going to explain it. Yeah, yeah, and that's why you're fine. That's why you're, there's no mechanical. That would have cleaved your head. Yeah, yeah.

And then when you lose the last one, you had no more points, so you pick it Yeah, you know, and that's why a guy actually explained it in the DMG as you know It's a factor because he said it's not experience because the older you get the weaker you get You know, so like you know, and it's not your health getting better necessarily But it is somewhat like toughness learning how to dodge or take a blow He explained like all these factors. Yeah, he spent like a lot of time. And a lot of charts. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he spent a lot of time on a lot of charts for everything. Yeah.

His points remarkably enough was not one of the things that had a lot of charts attached to it. Well, I think he was running out of time that night or something because he's like, well, I already took care of the eight charts for barding Don't forget pull arms right right God that man had a heart on for pull arm no length which are yes He does anyway, all right, but I'm glad because I wouldn't know what a is a bar to chase that that that I would know that was without Gary guy gets Volgis arm. Yes. Yes. Yeah, there's a lot of French words that I learned.

All right, so you're excited about this new thing that you got. Yeah, so then back a year ago, or when we were two years ago now, because of damn COVID. But like so, I was struggling, because I was like, how am I gonna not make getting hit boring?

Because hit points being tracked on stage is not fun. Yeah, you're right. So then, then I was just like, you know what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna crib from the stuff I was working on. So, but then I just, it's out cheese. So like, we, you take a out cheese and then I, I distilled it down to like, have you ever heard of micro like 20? No.

Okay, micro light 20 is a really compact in the version of Dungeons and Dragons that's meant to be backwards compatible, but you only have three stats. I think it's like, Strength, Exterity and Mind. They just basically collapse. Kind of borrowed from that. So like, I have Strength, Exterity and wit. And so what happens is if somebody rolls and to make everything really happen fast, right? You got a house. The players always roll. I don't know. Right. And it will actually audience rolls form if the player wants them to and then then I just even when they're being attacked. I just have them role defense. Yeah, I'm never right. That's a good. Yeah. And that's from. Blackhack is that's a good dog. Yeah. Yeah, but I could do it too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It only took you 170 episodes. Yeah, but so then if they fail, it's just a simple they took an outgie. I don't. There's no, we don't do a second roll for damage. They just take an outgie and then they write it down and I ask, you know, what happened to them in the audience tells me something wrong. He got kicked in the asshole. It's always something like this. So then I go write it down, rub it, write it down.

You got kicked in the asshole. And then what happens is, then if you get three, then you're kind of like, you lose agency at that point. You know, I don't necessarily kill you unless that's what I wanted to do. That's the right story. You know, I do exercise a lot of GM Fiat in the show. Yeah, but yeah, but it's because we got to get it done in like an hour.

Yeah. And so, but yeah, that's been something I'm working towards because I want to kind of publish it, but I want to fill it out a little bit more. I want to make it so that it's a little more, you can make it more crunchy if you want at the gaming table because you don't have, hopefully, the time limit so we have a stage. OK, you know, I think I like what you just said there is that you want to get a published,

but you still want to fill it out more. I think that's a really good term for what we need to do for this episode because you have fed people water from a fire hose just now. Which I was able to hang with it because I know you and I know about your show, but like I mean take us back to the beginning if you don't mind. Okay. And I'm talking the very beginning.

Like you and I, I mean you are probably ed's age, not mine, obviously your older. But, um, but you've been playing role-playing games for how long? Oh, I'm talking go all the way back to the beginning. I generally don't talk about my age very much because people leave me but I've been playing since the third grade. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and I've been playing so long that I remember when TSR wasn't a thing to be ashamed of. Yeah. High-fives. Yeah. And no offense to Jason Elliott who by the way Jason Elliott owned he's the guy who owns the registered trademark of T.S.R But it it lapsed and then I'm sorry I'm getting into that. Yeah

Inside baseball game. So let's go all the way back to diversity. Do I want to go all the way back to oh? I want to start from the beginning. Oh, okay, my first character was a half half elf half gray elf half human Acrobat named quick silver. Okay, so this has to be this has to be AD&D then right? This isn't second ed even. Yeah, it was AD&D. Yeah, it was AD&D. Yeah, my first book, my first D&D book was the one with the idol that I know that they're trying to pry the eyes out of. Oh my god, my daughter god My daughter just had a great discussion about that because he shows up in one of her cookbooks Okay, and and so then I showed her because I also bought her the the book the art in the arcana Like the the visual history of Dungeons and Dragons and like we thung through it until I found it like that is really important and

Oh, she saw it in Volos, I think. Volos guy. And because it's now its own creature. I want that book so bad. Oh, Volos is fun. Oh, no, no, no, the art is the art. Oh, the art one. That's also fun. God, I want it so bad.

I have no rationale to explain to my wife why I need to have it. Like, and with a toddler. Oh. You know, like, you know. Because honey, I need to give nightmares before you go to sleep. Yeah, I need to give nightmares before you But like we look through it and we found that very thing and that explained to her how important that picture was Oh, yeah, because in the Volos guide you see it's missing an eye

So they succeeded in trying it out and just like you know kind of telling her the history So okay, so that was your initial yeah, it's the first one. Yeah, I still have that book It smells like my mom's house, which is like just smoke and smoke. Yeah, top of smoke. All right, yeah. And then, yeah, what was weird? Okay, when I look back on my first experiences, because we were, you know, in third grade, how old are you?

Eight. You're eight, yeah, I'm like eight years old, playing this game, going over to other kids' houses. Okay. Each kid's house is like a separate ecosystem. Yeah, I'm like eight years old playing this game, going over to other kids' houses. Each kid's house is like a separate ecosystem. Yeah, exactly. I was gonna say a completely different country where the rules are all different,

the laws are all different. They speak a different language. Yeah, I remember I went around my school, Quilavanola, I'm entry. There was this weird thing and I don't know where it came from, but they would just make up spells.

They would just make them up. These kids had a spell called Death Crack Melt, or they were three different spells or something. Okay. And it was like, they would kill you, and then crack you, and then melt you. But and I was like, what's going on here? And I was looking through my player's handbook, like, where is this thing? But what it was happening is that no kid wanted to call other kids out for the bullshit they were doing on their

characters. So if people would just make stuff up, like, and they would just be like, what do you have? You have a that. And then they'd just write whatever the other person, it was like they were cheating and class. Yeah.

Yeah. So like, you have a plus five, holy, what does that do? Oh, can I see your sheet? You know, I'm just like write it down. And then they take that character to another game You know yeah, and just moving out. Yeah, okay, so third grade. So it's legitimized in your school Yeah, like it's not some underground thing like it's mainstream

That year yeah most of the most of the boys I hung out with doing it. There were no girls doing it. Okay, I know that That that you were aware of yeah, yeah, and it was it was There were no girls doing it. Okay. No, that you were aware of. Yeah. And it was, we were, actually, you know, when I look back, we were a pretty diverse group of kids. My school wasn't amazingly diverse, but like all of the kids, you know, my dad is black, my mom's family is Irish American,

my buddy Carl, his mom was Japanese, his dad was, I don't know, but name Horton. And so, and then there's a guy named Jorge who is from Honduras that played with us. And you know, at the time when I was a kid, I didn't, this, when I was a kid, I was exactly what Republicans want to be. You know, like I actually didn't see and none of it really affected us and how we interact So the reasoning of a third-grade yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's that level up for them. Yeah, all it was is that Jorge was very dark

Cuz he what he was darker than my dad, you know like the Jorge was Latino But he was darker than my father who is pretty light-scaled like dude and then Carl was like darker than me my father who is pretty light-scaled black dude and then Carl was like darker than me even though he's Japanese and white. Right. And I'm very light. Most people think I'm like the highest tier of Puerto Rican. I guess, you know, the highest political tier of Puerto Rican. I think that's how it works.

Colorism in Puerto Rico or BET. I think there's lots of colorism on BET. I think colorism seems to be tends to go toward whoever stayed indoors more. Yeah. Well, yeah, that was stats. Yeah. If you didn't have to go out and work in the field, then you were wealthy, which meant stats. Yeah, but when I was a kid, like, yeah, I mean, the game was very diverse.

We even had a kid that I didn't know he was gay at the time, but later on in school he came out. Yeah, but he was a feminine. When we were younger, he liked to play with the girls mostly, but he would play the game with us. And then I don't remember, you know what, I remember my buddy, Mike's sister trying to play with us, but then she cried in my way because I think he killed her or something. But you know, but you know, have game told you're a little when you're, well, you just know that when you're younger, like, kids are taking out their frustrations in the game. Yeah, well, then they're expressing power.

Yeah, exactly. Alright, so, so were you your first game master or did somebody else do that? No, somebody introduced me to it and then, and, and it, one of the, the strength, I used to draw, I don't know, as a kid, much like Sam from A Typical. That, by the way, that show, like when I watched that show, I was like, how the fuck they know about my life, you know? But I wasn't fortunate enough to have a therapist or anybody to try to help me.

But I used to sit in the hallway and listen to headphones and draw on my book, and you know, didn't smile with the right way, or you know, all this stuff he did, only my voice was a little different in his, and I looked different, but I'm nothing like Sam from A Typical Scratch that, but I relate to that. I relate to that, I used to draw a lot, and then some of these other people be like,

I mean, what is that? And they're like, that's my D&D character. And I was like, wait, there's something that lets you draw that, there's a reason to draw that because you know Because I would always kind of draw you know things like like you know like I like I love Joe's when I was a kid Yeah, and I so I would often times draw G.I. Joe's Snake eyes But I got snake eyes and stalker at the same time

Stalker is under song time. Oh, okay. Stalker is under song. Yeah, he is. I agree. So now, so now like original snake eyes, like before they got before the wolf. Yeah, yeah. So my first, my first GI Joe's were stalker and snake eyes. And, um, and they did not have the, yeah, they didn't have the twisty old. Yeah, yeah, which I know I said don't ask me my age, but yeah, they didn't have the twisty. Oh, yeah, up to down. Yeah, which I know I said don't ask me my age, but yeah, that's that's all that I am. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but that's that's what it was. I'm one of my first ones.

Yeah, he's right there with you. Yeah, did you watch that thing by the way, where they said why snake eyes was all black? No, there's there's on Netflix. There's a show about toys. The toys that we had the toys that made us. Yeah, the toys that made us and the guy says the reason that they did that is because They wanted a figure they didn't have to spend money painting

Wow, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, because he's just all black first snake eyes is all black Yeah, you know that never occurred Yeah, but wow, yeah, but yeah, so I would say this stalker is probably my favorite actually Stalkers my favorite but Snake Eyes pops to mind. Sure. But then as soon as he pops first, and that Stalker says, no, Brian. No, but be cool.

Be cool. You're mute. Sure, you're mute. Yeah, and then there's Dan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay, so. But then, so these kids, they're bringing like all these drawings of elves and dwarves and what

they're bad. But I'm like, or some, I think some kids, they're bringing all these drawings of, you know, elves and dwarves and what are they're bad. But I'm like, or some, I think some kids, maybe they asked me to illustrate one for them, something like that, because everybody's always asked me to draw stuff, he draws all the time. And, but yeah, then I was like, well, let me, what is this thing? And then they showed me the dice.

And I was like, what the, you know. You could swear on the screen. Yeah, well, I couldn't swear, I just was like, did my mom around? I was like, I'm channel you know. You can swear on this. Yeah, well I couldn't swear, I just was like, did my mom around? I was like, I'm channeling like into the third grade or whatever. Like, you know, what the fuck are those? You know, like, these are, these are polyhedral's, you know. Yeah, and then I went to comics and comics.

Do you guys remember that? Yeah, no. Is that Bird Cage Walk? Oh yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, for a long time. I'm originally from San Diego Okay, so my experience with comics and comics over there wasn't until 95 Okay, when I was in college and a friend took me over there and was like oh my god This is like for me it was Rachel games and books down in San Diego, which is sadly damn

But yeah, I know I know I know the experience you're talking and you're talking into that store for the first time. Well, yeah, because when you first, you're like, there's a, what? You know, because before then, by the way, I didn't get all my books that comes in comics. My first books were purchased from Toys R Us. Oh, yeah, there's a period where I can't

get back to them for that. Yeah, yeah, there was a period where I got, but I didn't get like, I didn't get the funky, old, like Monster Manual with the kids drawing on the front. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there was a period where I got, but I didn't get like, I didn't get the like funky old like monster manual with the like kids drawing on the front. Right. I don't talk about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The one I got. Like pitfall was done better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it looked like when you're a kid and you just draw a line for the ground. Yeah. And then, and then there's the right zone. Yeah. And then you drew, they drew all the monsters on top. Yeah. And then they drew the sub-training monsters underneath the line

Yeah, yeah, and it but I kind of wish I had that you know, but the one I got was I Thought it was better. It's the same book, but it was done by easily and it's the one with the the hill giant like swinging I think a matter or something like that Yeah, yeah, and that that when I got that, because I got the other one just to understand the rules, but when I got the monster manual, that's when the fucking world blew up and because I was like, oh my god.

And then I found out there was other books, and other kids had a DT's and Dan My God. So then, you know, I was like, what? What? And then, right, right. 25, you can get your stat up to 25. You know. And then what we would do for each other at the school again

Okay, so I the other book that was fiend folio. I couldn't find that that was hard to find Yeah, I don't think I got that one tells an adult but But so the thing I remember doing is we would run games for each other where we would fight gods That we wanted their stuff You know, so you're just farming yeah basically, basically. Yeah, and there's a there's a god named you on tea, I think, from the Chinese mythos and the DT's in them. I got it and he has a stone that he wears around his neck that would change into whatever weapon you want. Oh, so with my character quicksilver, we killed them. I don't know how we did that. The GM must have been, oh, you hit him again.

I want you to be my friend. I don't know how it happened. But because we weren't super high level or anything, but we killed him. And then I got that. I can't remember why. But then from then on, when I ever had fight something, because I used a bow, is I'd'd be like arrow of slaying that guy

And then go get it again Back when playing D&D was winning. Yeah, yeah, you're trying. Oh, it's still winning like I just think that that now it's like People are trying to win against the other players Like to be out more more creative than the other well, they want to exert their will on the direction the party takes They want to exert their will about how the rules should affect another person's character They want to exert their will on what you're allowed to say at the table as a player Yeah, and this is where like okay, so this is where we're in the same OSR group. Yeah. I've watched Paul, I believe Paul might, anyway, I need to shout out all these people, but the admin,

it has, like, was, I was mad proud of him during Pride because he just started kicking people out who were shit not anybody that talked about being gay during Pride months. Right. And how it related to gaming, this is a fucking game. You're allowed to talk about your fucking life, you know You know, yeah, the game is second to your life you may have joined this So it's not to have it have any you know But these people are trying to talk about hey

I just wanted to talk about pride month and how I really appreciated D&D and how it affected me as a kid Because it gave me some place to you know, and then they're like we don't want to talk about you being gay You know, well, why don't you bring a politics into it? Right. He's not bringing politics into shit. He's talking about his life experience. Yeah, and if his life is politics, you better rearrange your politics.

Yeah, because, like, yeah. Well, that's a fair point, because everything is political to some extent when you're talking about, but. If you're in a power system, yeah. If someone else's existence is political, there's problem with your system. But I mean, if the guy, if the person next to you at the table is allowed to go, yeah, me and my wife, you know, we went out to, you know, freshen up the marriage a little bit,

we spiced things up, went out to the coast, you know, rented a room, you know, how we do, he can do that. I say no more. Yeah, yeah. But the other person at the table can't because they have a same-sex couple. Or, you know, shoving it down our hot steamy throat. Yeah, or the one person can talk about how their Christmas

went briefly, but the other person can't talk about quans or hoonica or whatever. Why are you making it political? Yeah, you know, like, you're making it political. Yeah, you know. It's that meme that went around, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago, the two types of people to a black humor. Oh, yes.

You know, me and political. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And political. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, fuck you. Yeah, yeah. But that's exactly how those groups were.

And I'm sorry, I'm gonna segue myself here. So that brings me to diversity and dragons. Can I tell a story of that? How that happened? Well, I wanna get there. But okay, still, we're still, okay. So still, we're in third grade. Third grade.

Okay. Okay, so from third grade. This is how we never do a single bottle episode. Yeah. Everything is at least a two-parter. Yeah, okay. Okay, so you're in third grade. a single bottle episode. Yeah. It was the least a two-parter. Okay. So you're a dirt grade.

You get drawn into it literally because you're drawing and it just includes you and you fall in love with it immediately. Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Once I realized what, oh, they're just fucking telling stories. And this lets us make the story kind of fair, sorta. I mean, except for that guy gets to be an asshole, the rest of us

out there, like, to whatever he says. Right. Yeah. But yeah, then then then that's when I started realizing, oh, if I go to this guy's house, he runs the game a little different. And, you know, this kid's house, you know, I'm staying over at Bobby's house versus Jimmy's house versus so and so on. So they all run the games different. This guy, this guy thinks a armor class works like this. This one read it misread it and thinks it looks like that You know that you know that these guys and then when it got the second edition in you know Facco and yeah, well, yeah, well, I think in say in second edition They might have ditched that go were they still using that?

No, they're using that. Oh my god. Yeah, but but I do know that they started you know They expanded from just weapons proficiencies and AD and D right to proficiencies and other areas Yeah, you know, they expanded from just weapons proficiencies and AD&D. Right. Two proficiencies in other areas. Yup. You know, and then I was just like, that just started making me go, wow, this is amazing. You know, like, it just keeps growing and the technology, it's like technology, you know?

Yeah, yeah, built on itself. Okay, so. But, but, oh, what, go ahead. In junior high, I found other games. Like, they're, I was like, oh my god, my brain explodes like, teenage reaching into turtles. I remember that one. Fuck yeah. Yeah, put in a pen in that. Okay, put a pen. I know he's got something to say, but I god, my brain explodes. Like, teenage reading into turtles. I remember that.

I'm like, yeah. Putting a pen in that. I know he's got something to say, and I have a question for you. Sure, sure. So was TMNT the first non-D&D game that you played? Do you remember the first one? I think the first non-D&D game I played

was Marvel Superheroes. Yeah. And, yeah. But TMNT was second, I think and and we exactly my experience. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, junior high no shit. No shit. All right. Fifth and sixth grade Marvel superheroes seventh grade TMNT And I'd played D&D when I was like six So now was TMNT your first non-D&D game, okay, but I was curious about what your first one was because that's like for anybody who's a paleo gamer Is that a thing? That's what this called?

It's my turn. Is that OSR type of game? They were there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, old guy. We're fossils. Yeah, yeah, you know I like paleo-lessic, Neal, but because you know That for me seems to be to be kind of a thing where it's like a breaking off point for how you're development as a gamer kind of goes. Because there are people who are like, well, my next one was a palladium game, which is still D20 based.

So all of the, whereas you talk to somebody who's like, you know, so like all all of like you know Where as like to talk to somebody's like no man cyberpunk. Yeah, I School yeah, I school yeah, yeah high school with cyberpunk and Murp Oh, no middle earth role plan. Yeah, which is actually a derivative of royal role master Yeah, yeah, yeah, from ironcrane enterprises You don't talk about a shit ton of charts. Yes, and by the way, Iron Crown Enterprises from Ireland, that's, I mean, I basically project, you know, I'm black, you know,

by the laws of the land, I am black. But I am also very proud of the Irish people and the fact they survived the English Empire. Yeah, well, yeah, I am proud of all of my people. Yeah, yeah. And so the fact that Iron Crown Enterprises out of Ireland made Merp and I love the Hobbit in, you know, Grand School.

Yeah. I was like, fucking, I get to play this shit. You know, oh my God. Like for real, this is for real. It's not faith. It's not faith. It's fell on and the long thought of it. It's not a half-ling.

I get to play fucking Hobbit. Yeah, I mean, it's for real. And I get to be a Dunmer and fucking be like, and get further into this fucking book that I wish never ended. You know, like, and, but that's, I would say, you know, that's a thing for me, like, that I noticed the difference between me and other,

I guess I've heard them call us grognards. Yeah, which apparently this traces back to French. The Napoleonic war is it was the term used of veterans soldiers. Yeah, so Damien is holding up the rule books. Yeah, Damien is the chief which he still has. He'll get the phasor. And her daughter filled with the hand-roofed sheets. My kids, my son and I sat down and made characters all week. That was the best. Like, we made characters more than we played.

Oh, totally. I did the same thing in work. That was most of the idea. I couldn't get it in my... Like, I showed the robots to my buddies in my group, growing up, and they looked at it and went, I don't want to deal with all these fucking charts. Yeah.

So I'm not spending a bunch of time like when I was supposed to be doing my homework. I'd be, you know, creating row it and went, I don't wanna deal with all these fucking charts. So I'm not spending a bunch of time like when I was supposed to be doing my homework, I'd be creating Row here and, and you know, I'm behind you, you'll see a whole bunch of like, what are the composition notebooks, where my daughter has written stories, and my son has too.

Has, my son has planned out an entire campaign for us. You really? In Marvel superheroes. My daughter has written out entire stories of quartets of adventurers going on and we've even created subclasses and all kinds of stuff. That's really cool. Yeah, it's cool. But we're not here to talk about me.

You're not here to talk about me. That's okay. So back to you though. You were so former. Well, I mean, I kind of got the answer to it. Okay. But we were just kind of laughing on talking about that. So, yeah, so it's interesting to me to find out, you know, where was it when,

when, because nearly everybody, certainly our age or Damian's age and a little bit, you know, or the Damian, D&D is like the first, it was like the gateway game. I call it the, everybody's like first language of gaming. It's very common for people's first experience to be D&D And then I think that's why it's per dominates because you know other people might be like yeah, I've played groups And and whatever and only two people have another you guys really need to play and then they're like, I don't know It's just like people who won't venture out of English, right? You know, I like you like you like but I don't want to go in that store It has Spanish on the front, you know, it's like you know

Yeah, yeah I'm like you never been to 99 ranch. It's full of Asian people. I don't know what to do I think I You know like yeah, but I did do feel like there's so many you know the other system it turns out I didn't know it as a kid But it's BRP by Cassian basic role playing but elf quest They published elf quests so we were really into that so a lot of comic books on Indie comics or side bar comics or whatever you want to call them those were my vector into other games initially Okay, but I want it like speed right ahead. Can I just fast forward pass to cyberpunk? Yeah, I just want to I want to home home in just a little bit

though because what you said earlier was that one of the things that really grabbed you was there was such a different geation from house to house. Yeah. And that ultimately there's a phrase you used you said oh this is just storytelling but we can make it more fair. Yeah, is do you think that's what resonated the most with you because I have friends where escaping reality resonated the most with them Yeah, I have friends where um getting to tell stories was the most resonant thing other people were it's just like I get to act like Wolverine because I have a punch dagger You know, it's like you know some people got into the hyperviolence of it. You know what being powerful?

Yeah, a lot of people. So, like, what was it, was it that storytelling and the fairness aspect of it that? Yeah, well as an adult, now I realize that the narrative thing, because I did like Conan, the barbarian, I liked Lord of the Rings as a, no. Oh, I've never really played Conan. I had, I had a couple of supplements for the D20, right?

Right. But I was using it for fate. Oh, okay. Okay. Because later on, I was playing fate and I was borrowing other books and using it. Because it's fate is very easy to adapt. Right. And so, but yeah, eventually, so what happens? We go through this whole thing. I went through a phase of like, because I did think like, it's about telling a story and we all get to contribute. God, I did think like, it's about telling a story, and we all get to contribute. God, I didn't get to that until I was in my 30s.

Yeah, well the thing is, is I changed too, because when I was a kid, I bought into that idea that it's all collaborative narrative and stuff like that. But it really isn't the way you play D&D. It's like, the GM tells you everything. Right.

And then you go, I turn left. Yeah, you know, like, it's like, this is your own adventure. yeah, yeah, it's a little more complex Yeah, yeah, you got those four choices at the bottom of the thing either I attack it with spells I attack it with you know my web and I attack it with I see it yeah, or yeah, or and then somebody's like can we talk to it? Shut up, you know, like you know, you know, they can talk yeah You know, well what what if it's nice? No, it's evil, it's an orc.

Shut up, we all know. But some of them gotta be nice. Shut up with your liberal fucking bullshit, woke ass. Quick and political. Yeah, yeah, it's not making it politically. Yeah, yeah, but so yeah, it was about trying to like be in the stories that of the authors that I liked and the comics that I liked. Okay. And be able to like, I the stories that of the authors that I liked and the comics that I liked.

Okay. And be able to like, I said make it fair in the sense that I know that the DM can't do what of a fucking one. You know, like they can't just go, you're dead. Right. They're also restricted. Yeah, because I'm unlike a lot of Grognards. I'm unlike a lot of OSR people.

And even people that play 5E or, you know, we're on 4e for a second I don't know how to talk to them, but they I'm sorry people. I love you too. They would ever you like I didn't know I was talking about you Was it was it was its own thing yeah, and for what it was I really enjoyed it, but yeah, no, I totally I'm full of crap though. I never played it. I went right from Three I went right from three I bought the 3.5 players handbook and then I was like fuck this shit I'm out and then I refused to play the indie for a long time. Oh, yeah, cuz I was like it's just a fucking cash grab

You know, they're just constantly right you know It's like the new thing. Yeah, yeah splat hook after splat hook after splat hook after splat hook I'm like I wouldn't support I wouldn't support a software developer who's doing this shit Yeah, you know like why am I supporting them right now? Yeah, like I and all of the shit is still on my shelf. It still works, but nobody's playing fucking three three point oh That's my whole life. Yeah, well again I'm literally holding the Marley film playing game in front of you. That was made in 1986.

Yeah. Yes, there's a new version coming out and yeah, I'll probably get that too, but I get to do the thing that I did when I was 11 with my son who was now 11. Like, that's, that's fucking cool. Yeah, but back to the hit point thing. Like for me, hit point, the fairness thing is for me to be able to buy off that guy saying, well, because I remember when we were kids and we were like, well, my guy shoots your guy, it was a laser gun. And then you're like, my guy shoots your

guy with the bigger laser gun. And that's kind of what it could get like a battle book. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my dad would beat up your dad. Well, my dad and uncle will beat up your dad. And then, you know, we only did how old our dad's. Yeah, that's the earth's like that's their level. Yeah, so it's like well my dad's 100 I'm like doesn't that mean he's kind of like I mean I don't know anybody's own yeah like and then I realized I realized it's like a filter. That's why I'm seeing the only time anything like that happened with me was for the brief period of time I actually lived in military housing. And then it was well my dad's a commander. Oh, they pulled right? Yeah, they're really pulling right.

Yeah, yeah. And, and of course, I lived in the officer's part of housing. So it was all, you know, Lieutenant and above people jogging. Yeah, you know, so people, people turning the assholes. All right, so, so the middle school was TMNT. Well, you know, so people, people turning the assholes. All right, so, so the middle school was TMNT. Well, let me go to the hip points though. Hip points were very important to me back then because they were a way to buy off that whole, well then my guy does this.

You're like, yeah, you're like, well, he's just being arbitrary. Yeah, how many hip points does your guy have? Because we've hit him a lot, you know, and he should be dead. You know, like that was... So I got attracted to hit points for that reason. Okay.

But then it's different than what I notice other people, because some people will say, well, I like having death. Right. You know, at the end of hit points, because it adds risk. And I'm like, well, for me, the risk is I can't do what I want. Right. It's not that my character is dead, it's that I'm not allowed to do what I want.

And you can do that in Cyberpunk by horribly maiming people. You don't have to kill them. You can take their arm off, literally, take their arm off so they can no longer shoot, because they can't use their dominant arm. And they have to play that character. And now you can make that a fucking adventure that they're gonna go try to get a cybernetic limb.

Because they're broke, they already lost all their credits. Some robbery, something happened to them. Cyberpunk, cyberpunk, I will get, so that's fast. So cyberpunk blew my mind because that was the first time that I experienced my buddies, my buddy Rusty and my friend, Sal, their way of playing cyberpunk was different than most other people I'd played with. Most other people took the D&D kind of mentality

and they're just like, now we just have guns and cyberpunk mode and we're gonna go through the future. Yeah, murder of a future. But like while I was doing something important or whatever, rusty or Sal, Sal was much more like he's going to get a big credit if I fucking publish this game because he changed my fucking mind. But Sal would constantly have like when he rolled your life path because they had a life path where you'd roll. Okay. And for each year of

your life, first, first Mike's Ponsmith, the author Mike pontsmith is kind of brilliant in that the way you generate your character, you roll on a table for your nationality and your ethnicity, and you roll a D 10, and then it would say it would say like black this, that whatever. And then at black, white, Asian, you know, whatever. But then in parentheses, it would say what nationalities you could be in that. Oh, you know, okay. And then all of those, you could, of course, if since you're in the United States, because night cities in the United States, you could be in that. Oh, okay. And then all of those, you could, of course, since you're in the United States because night cities in the United States, you could be American if you want to be,

but you could be from Korea, Japan, whatever. So you had this built-in diversity first step of making your character, you get to like, deterring identity. Yeah, and since I'm mixed, I was like, I'm gonna roll multiple times on this chart. And they couldn't do nothing because there's no mechanical effect. Yeah, okay. You know, every GM was like, I'm gonna roll multiple times on this chart. And they couldn't do nothing, because there's no mechanical effect.

Yeah. You know, there's no mic, every GM was like, woo-woo-woo, and the worst, the one guy was like, you know, just for a once for your mom and once for your dad. And then I'm like, but if it's like Blade Runner and we're speaking of a polyglot, why does anybody know what the fuck they are? You know like, like, you know, like, and so,

and then I was like, but anyway, I'll do that because that does make it easier and more interesting if you know, you're like Korean and Mexican. Oh, I was out of that. You know, or you're Russian and you're somebody in Antarctica, you're penguin. You know, like, whatever. And so, but yeah, I think that blew my mind. And then then go through in a cyberpunk and you roll So each of your you might get a mentor and then you get because you had a mentor and you get to pick what skill Then you have like a plus two and you know to use a sword or something like that or or or or or you in and they and they they switch it up The flavor changes, but it's all effectively same can't you get a plus two because you had a mentor It could be like a martial arts thing or you a military mentor, whatever, or an academic mentor.

But what happened with my, so most of the people I played with, they just roll, they just roll through, they have you roll and document it, but then they just count all the pluses. Sal went through and he would name the fucking people that you learned from. Oh wow. And then he would have them in the story. Yeah, he'd have notes. Then he'd have, while you're sitting here trying to do like the thing you fucking learned from the fucking club or the bar, you know, the whole tavern type of, you know, introduction, he could still use that convention. You got a lead on to go steal

something from this guy because this guy, this guy, this crime boss and this poser gang wants it. So you're going to do that. Then you get a phone call from the guy who taught you how to use a sword that is fucking Dojo's burning down, and then you're like, what do I do? Steele this fucking thing, or go save my fucking sensei. You know, and then what, then you're like, well, fuck. You guys stay here, shoot that guy, and then I'll go, I'm gonna go shoot these guys. And then when you jump on your bike or whatever, you go to jump on your bike, there's people fucking stealing it. You know, like, what the fuck? And then I'm gonna go shoot these guys. And then when you jump on your bike or whatever, you go to jump on your bike, there's people fucking stealing it. You know, like, what the fuck?

And then I was like, how the fuck do you notice it? And then it turns out Mike Pondsmith wrote this excellent thing called Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads, which is a direct ripoff. Oh, you know, yeah. It's an amazing book of GM advice. And he's just basically,

he's never let your players rest. Never let him rest. Wow. And then when I went back to playing D&D after playing with all these amazing people who read my ponsumess Just like keep the keep the fuck it. You know, don't make it so the players are hunting the players should be hunted They are important. They're so important. They're affecting the power balance Yeah, the power should be after them or the people that are just marginally more powerful them them should see them as small fish to be eaten. You know? And, and.

Which, sorry, I can't go ahead. No, I don't want to jump on your toes, but one of the things that's interesting about that is the whole universe of Cyberpunk being built around power politics, corporate, you know, the issues that were being brought up just by the existence of the game, talking about corporate interests and all that kind of stuff.

And the difference in paradigm that was involved from what Gary and all those guys were writing, you know. That's a fair point. I mean, kind of, because it's inherently political. All the things he's, even though it's made up, he is acknowledging that, you know, there's a, the US had, it was an imperial power All the things he's doing, even though it's made up, he is acknowledging that there's a US had it was an imperial power that was dominating the Middle East.

Some of his stuff, shit's pressing it too, because he wrote this shit in like, yeah, early 80s and then 90s, like he revised for two in 2020. But it was pretty pressing it, but some of it steered another way, and then it's also funny to think he thought we were gonna have tapes in our arm.

You know, like a magnetic tape deck in your arm, but you know, but um, but yeah, you're right I mean I didn't I'd not thought about that framing of it, but that his game is Inherently political. He just doesn't take a sign I think yeah, yeah, I think any game is going to be obviously in response to what guy gax was doing in Ohio Um and it was Ohio, right? No, it was Wisconsin. Wisconsin, okay, that was close. But, it was the last coast.

But, you know, people who vote against their interests. But, I mean, true. Yeah. What do you call it? But what he was doing out in the Midwest essentially And what he was basing it on we had an episode a couple years ago now about being a first level or no being a ninth level fighter In going to 10th level going and in a D&D room where you got a you got freehold 10th level as a fighter you

Drag your rest of the party with you and I'm going to carve out this territory in wilderness and I'm going to be the Lord of this territory and I automatically start getting one silver piece ahead from all the commoners living in it every month. As though that's an assumption built into like well okay if you become like this level this is what happens. That is inherently political. I mean we had a whole episode about it. And it was basically, Guy Gaxe came from people who were home stethers in the West. So just clear out the Indians, the orcs. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, which he explicitly made remarks equating them. Yes. I've said that. Like D&D, some people are like, oh, Bernard Hobart. And D&D is Cowboys and Indians That's what it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so like but but so any response to that will be also political because it's either a

Furtherance of it or a rejection there up. Yeah, there you go. So now I have a question for you because you you have mentioned Systems a lot and and the intricacies of the systems Are you drawn to a game because of its system or because of its world? Or do you even separate those things? It's evolved. Like I was drawn to things because of the world. As I mentioned, you know, like I'm like,

TMNT, I can play, I can play, I can play. And then when after the bomb came out, because I love post-apocalyptic stuff after the bomb I was like fucking I can make mutant animals that's crazy. You know like I don't just have to make that stuff that's you know I get and it's because after the bomb like you just go wild you know and then and then I was never really new supers I'm still not super into supers okay but you know I'm respected to supers yeah I know I know yeah are you do you like vampires to no because vampires are supers I know yeah Yeah. Are you, do you like vampires too? No. Because vampires are super, basically.

I know. Yeah. I was more into vampires. Yeah. Because I think it's because I, I could catch it. Maybe if I thought about it, but I'm probably never gonna be a super,

I guess you get bit by a spider. Oh, but yeah. The odds are low. It happened to one kid. Can't have a different reaction. Yeah. It's an accident. Vampirism is just slightly more plausible.

Yeah, yeah. Then most super stories. No, then most of the stories are there. No, I never liked vampire stories that much. And honestly, any werewolf type story had to also do with vampires, so that immediately turned me away from it. Oh, okay. And it's kind of like why don't like the Oakland Raiders is because of their fans. And so I didn't like-

What? My brother grew up in Oakland and he was a raiders fan and like I would see like videos of people in the black hole That's what they called like the big fan center Oh, okay, and the like and like they'd be stabbing people literally wearing like click on outfits and stabbing people for wearing Orange because they're playing the demo wait they showed them on you saw this because they were playing the demo. Wait, they showed them on You Saw This? Yes, yeah. Oh, yeah.

There's video of them stabbing people. Yeah. Yeah. Fat white dude just stabbing the shit out of a guy as they're dragging him out. And he's just getting his licks in. But he's like getting a knife in there and jabbing him. Like, I'm just like, what is this?

Like he's British or something. Yeah. And this is soccer. Right. You know? So I've always had an in-tipathy toward that thing because of those things. Because of their soccer who will again get a vibe. Yeah, I've always had an antipathy.

I've always had an antipathy, literally, but I've always had an antipathy toward vampire type systems because of the people that are attracted to it. Who kept getting attracted to it and like it's like, I don't know. It just, I wanna revisit LARP actually because I've seen some fun stuff, but I LARP once. And it was in a vampire game. And it bothered me so much,

how much the particular community, and I'm not saying this about all vampire players, but that game was in. But game was in. No. Yeah. I was actually a bruha. Oh, yeah. And I was Russian.

And I got to use my Russian accent was pretty on point back then. But I guess probably I'd be canceled right now for use. I don't know. Yeah. But no, what would happen is I would do it. And then people who hate cancel culture, which I should be canceled because I'm doing the same thing.

Yeah, yeah. But I played it and my buddy got me into it. He used it really, I had a player. And then I was just, it's like, kind of, really not happy about, because larps are big masses of people, you know, generally. And so then they have clicks right now within there and Unfortunately my obliviousness to social You know like norms and yeah, yeah, just social cues and all that didn't make that invisible like I get obviously tell that they were Ridiculing this or the this group of players was ostracized and not let into the main storyline and that it was very important that the

That I can't remember the administrative part of it. It's not just one game master right there's right because they have there's there's there's several people because they have to run the game in different parts of the room and I think we were like in a office in Modesto or something like that. Sure. One of the major players that I got lawyer something so it was you know they this room with Chicago. This room was Los Los Angeles this yeah like you got a lawyer who's like I don't know it how to put this if a person sends emails excoriating people in character I'm done well that seems to be the type of person who who like is attracted to

Van so here's a thing as it gets next level gross for this because I so the vampire the masquerade the original edition of white wolf and I did we did play that for a while our group because we like white wolf's system you could you could actually cross any skill with any any stats okay so you could drive using social oh you know that would be

like ride to whip you know go ride to whip no we're never trying to be cool. Or get out of your car and then jump back in. What are they? You know, like, and but you could use anything with any other thing, you know, and you know, you could cook with strength or whatever they know.

I don't think they have cooking. But anyway, it's vampires, they don't need them. They don't make anything. But so. Well, I'll do something you do in werewolves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You see, I love werewolves and stuff, yeah, yeah, I love werewolves stuff like I've always dug werewolf But I don't they're too linked to vampires for me to think it's worth it

I mean I guess well in the world of darkness you could have one of the things that was it was kind of fun About the the white wolf games was if you wanted to run a game that was no No, we're all just a bunch of magi. Yeah, yeah, yeah Everybody in the group is a wizard and we're fighting with fucking technology and that's it. You could do that Yeah, oh man, I'm gonna start going on a fucking go ahead I'm gonna start monologue I love mage I love it. That's the best one. Oh my god, so but but you know, usually what it went I've had things you have one guy. I have that guy. I'd be like, no man, I want to play a

mage and everybody else wants to do vampire. Everybody else wants a race. A changeling. There's all these different. Yeah, changeling was fucking amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Rates like the first time I started creating a character and I was like, no, see that and just the explanation everything. I was like, no, no, see that. And just the explanation, everything, I was like, okay, I understand the Crow is a great movie, but I don't want to roleplay that for session after session. And it's just that particular one was not my thing. But anyway, just to rewind, real quick to that experience.

So in Vampire of the Masquerade, that's the typical kind of like vampire that's hiding. You know, they don't want humans to find out. But then they released another game called vampire the sabbat. And the sabbat embraced their monstery. They felt like we should control humans. They're just cattle. That's what these people were playing. So I come into this room, you know, my buddy, yeah, well, I can't remember exactly.

I don't hate on it. They're using their resources to kind of, you know, help the community, you know, whatever. But so we go there and, and so I get introduced. They're like, oh hey cool new player, you know, oh cool, I got your leather jacket and the leather gloves were your brew. Obviously, yeah, yeah, I know this shit.

I know this shit, man. I know, I know, yeah. So, and then, so then I come in and I'm like, hello, my name is, I know this shit. I know this shit, man Yeah, yeah, and then so then I come in and I'm like hello my name is you know You go out of a slow. I don't know what are you know, and I'm doing all the way like oh my god This is cool. He's got a little accident everything I was just I really was appropriating my co-workers accident is what I was doing I'm But I come to this table and there's people that are dressed like fucking from Buffy, the vampire slayer, interview with the vampire.

They've gone all out. They have frilly fucking French cause. Yeah, like period pieces. And like, and I'm like, oh, this is kind of dope. I mean, I used to make fun of it. Went back in the day when we first read the shit and said, don't bring an actual weapon to the table. Like, why do you have to tell vampires?

It's not to bring a weapon to the table in the book. Right, right. Like, we never actually brought any weapons to the table. So, but then I'm there and then they start talking about who wants to take the first sip and then I'm like, what's that? And my friends all, oh they just cracked open the head of a baby and they're all going to take a sip of the blood out of it and whatever. And I'm like, what?

And they go, this is a bot. So they're just like embracing the human and humanity as just ours to, you know, whatever. And then I'm like, can I kill these people? Like, am I allowed as a player? It's just our killing these people. You know, because they're wrong. Like, I mean, like, can I be from the masquerade where I'm like, what are you doing?

They're going to find us out. You know, and he's like, yeah, don't get, they'll then turn on you and you'll die. And then you'll have to hitch to hike home to Sacramento. You know, like, you know. So I just sat there being really frustrated and then I got put in that sense because I didn't even like the fiction they're doing.

You know, I don't wanna be the bad guy. You know, the thing I liked about the masquerade is you could actually do heroic shit as a vampire but the struggle was if you didn't eat people then you'd start losing your humanity and go into like a frenzy. So you wouldn't be able to control who you didn't eat people then you'd lose, you'd start losing your humanity and go into like a frenzy so you wouldn't be able to control who you were gonna eat. You know, so you had to kind of figure it was yeah it was kind of fun you know but like this just I'm just gonna go out and fucking just murder and eat everybody like what what is that you just made this into a murder hobo

game right like you know like because if I was playing at the table, it's like, okay, you guys just go try to kill everybody and then I'll have everybody try to kill you, you know, like, right? I mean, why are we gonna have a system where you can use social driving then? Cause we're just gonna be using Dodge and, you know, like, right back to your points.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, but that was the first experience, large ring and super negative. And then I had the negative experience with the baby shit And then I was walking around looking at all the disenchanted like it was like there's all these people that were it because what I noticed in these groups In and I noticed it today and the T.S.R. thing because I don't I don't know how much you listeners know about the old T.S.R. Debacle, but there was definitely clear delineation you could hear it when Ernie Guy-Gaxax made his fake ass

non-apology about shit. He went into his own life and how victimized he was by the jocks of his school and the girls never liked him and whatever. That kind of person does end up role-playing, playing role-playing games a lot because they're on the fringe. But then when you get them in a big ass group, they start doing that shit to other people within the group. Yeah, and then they turn around and they inflict the trauma. Yeah, they're trying to exorcise it, but really they're exorcising it. And there is a difference there. Yeah, and I've consistently had trouble with that ND and D groups. Like when I play D&D, I'd be there.

And then people are like, hey, yeah, shit rolls down. They basically figure, they know that the GM is best friends with that guy. I played D&D, I'd be there, and then people were like, hey, yeah, shit rolls down. They basically figured, they know that the GM is best friends with that guy, and that anybody that doesn't get clicky with them isn't gonna get the good loot. And then the reason they're picking on my buddy, Sal is because he's Mexican, and the reason they're picking

on Mike is because he's by, we just don't talk about it. And then one session I had was like, I'm not gonna identify who is at this session, but there was a store and Sacramento Viking hobby that's right across from, there's a synagogue. And so I was like, I was like, oh, I went into Viking hobby and I had this kind of, it was an interesting discussion with this guy.

It turned into an argument, but it was about immigration. You know, and we're right there, and then my own buddies like, you probably don't have the argument there. And then I'm like, why? And he says, well, because they're conservative. And he did air quotes. And then I didn't pick up on it right then, and I was like, oh, well, anyway, let's just play the game.

You know, I, that was the one time I didn't go out, didn't do a real game, but I often, what, there's somebody, I that was the one time I didn't go out didn't do any of the game But I often was so many But that's the thing that bothers me is it's okay for them to say don't be liberal right to interrupt the game to say that But then if I was to like try to piss it apart. They're like stop being political tail Don't do Status quo visions authoritarian. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's true So but then then the next time we played, I said, hey, before we start playing, I just want to ask you, what does this mean?

Conservative. Because you're a lifelong inner-right member. What is that? Because you're conservative in my mind, and you're a good guy. But you're compliant. You can listen to me talk about it. We can have a civil conversation about immigration

and how it benefited your family who came here from Germany. You know, you know. But not all conservatives, quote, unquote, you know, air quotes are like that. And then he then the whole table started telling stories about how the guy who owns the fucking place is a militiaman. And he had like all these weapons and, you know, fucking and and and I was like, what? And then and then he believes in the day of the rope and that there's an

instance where he might have shot these people. And I don't know the name of the sky, but I just, after listening to all their stories, they're just all, yeah, and then he did this, and then he did that, and then he did this, and then I'm like, why do you guys still shot there? Right, you know what I mean? You know, it's funny.

I went in there, I've been in there a couple of times. First time I went in, it was pretty straightforward. I went in, couldn't find what I was looking for. And then the second time I went in it was pretty straightforward. I went in couldn't find what I was looking for I left. And then the second time I went in it was for paint stuff for my Warhammer 40K problem. And I found it there and I was looking through the shelves trying to find it. Overheard who I presume was the owner, behind the counter having a conversation about this was this was in 17 It would then like yeah 17 or 18 and It was when we were worried that

Trump was going to start World War three was North Korea I remember that and listening to what was coming out of that guy's mouth about, well, you know, uh, uh, Trump's the only one that could, you know, deal with Kim Jong-un. And I'm like, have it took every like I did, you know, math you do. But as, as, you know, somebody in that setting, and I know it's funny me, there's a cis white guy saying that to you but like you know you in any time any time anybody's in a situation where you look around you like I'm I'm out number here yeah you're here and I'm in charge and and and like okay I'm not I'm not gonna say it because I immediately wanted to be like, are you fucking I?

Like, like, how divorced from reality do you have to fucking be? You know, and so yeah, but yeah, and I haven't, I haven't been back. Like, I, I, I, I found, I, I ordered what I needed online. Yeah. I have not gone back because like, nope, I don't need to give those people my money. Like, but yeah, your point is like, why are you, why are you still like hanging out with this guy? That's a thing within game or culture. Well, then even in our group, one of my buddies is, is, when his parents is Filipino and then his answer was, because there's the only place that gives a 10% discount for using your your debit card

I was a motherfucker. He's gonna use that money to buy bullets that he's gonna shoot at you and me on the day of the road Yeah, you know like that's that's what's gonna happen. I've only used 90% This this thing you said, why are you still, as you're explaining this whole thing, I started realizing this is an entire meta for Ford D&D in a way. Yeah. Because Dungeons and Dragons, like the people that play Dungeons and Dragons are pretty often, like it's the widest play

game, right? It's the most recognized brand. So it has the widest footprint. And so that means that it's the most basic ass people playing it. You know what I mean? Like the people that you're gonna it's for the masses. Yeah, it's for the masses. It's it's it's it's design and it's been. And so then when you try to do some shit like that's reasonable, you know, that in in in a in a group of the masses who are conditioned to be accepting of American exceptional,. American exception is them genocide, slavery, all this stuff.

And then they're doing stuff in the game that parallelize that. And you're like, hey, like if you're one of those people that like what would want to use an X card. Oh, I remember another time I played a character. It was like a NPC that was they made him gay, like to make a joke out of it. It was just they're like, ah, maybe because because I was gonna see if I like the group. And then I was like, no, I'll play him. You know, I'll play him.

And then they're like, well, we kind of made a joke like he's a gay, he's a gay illusionist. His name's Glen Rye. You know, whatever. And I'm like, I'm gonna play the fuck out of Glen Rye. And then like ever since then, every character I made has been gay. Because after I started playing gay, and I said,

he is gay. You know, he's not a joke anymore, he's gonna get him right as gay. Fortunately for you, I'm not interested in role playing sex at all, whether no matter what, my persuasion is, but he's gay, and then they didn't start, they didn't do jokes anymore. It wasn't funny anymore, because it's like now that I'm there,

and then I had a buddy online, and he said that, because I asked him about when he makes characters, does he ever make heterosexual characters? And then he's like, not really, because if I don't make a gay character, there's not gonna be a gay character in the game.

At all, the GM's not even gonna have a gay character, is like, generally, if I'm playing D&D, like if I'm playing it with a bunch of cis white guys and they're all in their hetero, presenting. Yeah, it's all hetero. You know, as far as they can tell, you know, hetero. Yeah, or they're just like, I just have normal, you know, thoughts about my brother, like any other, you know, evangelical fundamentalist, you know, like, you know, I'm not coveting

his wife. I'm not doing it, you know, and, you know, I'm not doing it. I'm not perfect. I'm not forgiving. You went from cyberpunk where you learned essentially a new narrative style in and then you had a... Oh, and I learned it's okay to be black and it's okay to be Asian and it's okay to be both. And it's okay to be a robot and it's okay to have a dick or no dick. You know, you know, you're not a robot. You know, you're not a robot. You're not a robot. You're not a robot.

You're not a robot. You're not a robot. Yeah, and then you had a and I learned it's okay to be black and it's okay to be Asian and it's okay to be both And it's okay to be a robot and it's okay to have a dick or no dick You know, it's okay to have your sex changed. It's okay to do all of these fucking things in cyberpunk Okay, and it's and it's authored in the same timeline So this bullshit about their products of their time Well obviously it matters that that guy was black or something because why can't white people not do it? You know, like, and why is it that if they're authoring a fantasy world, why does the fantasy world have to parallel our fucked up history? I often will ask that question is like why does

there have to be racism like in D&D? Go back back to the basics Like I wanted a I wanted to play a drought recently and I was playing with somebody who he's 100% forward thinking he's 100 and he just straight up admitted. He's like I have these biases because I grew up reading all these books Where the only drought that was ever good was the one Yeah, yeah, and all the rest were evil as shit. So like to me, it's like, well, NPCs are all gonna react and you know, react to them. And I was like, that doesn't need to be like, you know, the game I run for my kids, for instance,

we've run into way more vicious and angry, gnome barbarian tribes than then we have orcs. That's funny. Oh, it's great. I love that. Yeah, and my kids keep running. We don't have an appolitan complex? No, that's cool.

I love that kind of, it's like, it's almost like gamer and acronym, you know, stuff. Yeah, it's like, I just flip it a little. I just invert it like that. Yeah, well, in diversity and dragons, I try to make sure that all the goblins have New Jersey, like, or New York type actions. They're like, hey, what are you doing over it?

You know like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I really did you see the one about the elves having like a 1930s News announcer accent forever Sound and letting news news announcers 1920s that's funny yeah, yeah, every else everywhere is and well the great western purge will be happening That's remember somebody said door there's a different one. Yeah, we've punished the scots enough I know what what what happened? I don't know

I know what what without that happened. I don't know well, I think I think the Lord of the Rings movies Oh Yeah, and now I'm totally forgetting the actor's name I'm gonna say Brian John Reese Myers. Yeah, John Reese John Reese Davis Davis Davis Well, David yes, John Reese Davies Oh, I thought he said nice. I am the rule of the sea. But speaking of casting decisions, but but John Reese Davies was interviewed about, you know, playing Gimli and he said there was something about the dwarfish people

having a certain bloody mindedness that made him think of the Scott. Oh, so totally big. They got that North run. Maybe he's a Scott, maybe he's not quite kind of accent and being a British actor, he knows dialect backward and forth. You can do 15 of them. And that was how he chose to do gimli. And I think that played into everybody else's performance. Well, also I think 3.5 came out

a little before Lord of the Rings came out. Yes, or 3.0. 3.0. And the dwarfs depicted in the PhD were red, ruddy faced. This is true. That's a good point. Yeah, they looked like short scouts.

They looked, they looked scouts. Yeah. No, they're dead. So now that you said that the funny thing I got a funny one for you the only Scottsman I've met here was Punjabi Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and yeah, I work with the dude. Yeah, he's yeah, he's Yeah, and it took him then I did it. Yeah Yeah, he's uh, yeah, and it took him in, it did it. Yeah. Yeah, but you know, it's an empire. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so um, but I forget where we left off, but oh, I did want to like, so from cyber

punk though, um, from there, like I got what started happening like high school is each of us kind of had our brand that we wrapped. Like, Sal was the un, nobody, Sal was the best cyberpunk GM. Right, it just was, you know. And then so then, you want cyberpunk, you go to Sal. Yeah, yeah. And then you guys kept your group mostly together?

Yeah, we were pretty persistent, like a gaming group, which I had to let that go, you know, because in high school and then through college, I had a very persistent gaming group, and then I would be kind kind of a little I would kind of cheat on them a little bit like you know like with other people yeah we did a long ass riffs campaign with my buddy Dave was that yeah which is the worst system ever but the best setting yeah the setting it's savage worlds now do you know this like they they released a Savage World edition of RIFS, yeah. And so the system is vastly improved. But so-

I read it in mega damage, which just fixes so much, like instantaneously. Yeah, I think like initially, what is it in robots? It was introduced in Robo Tech and it wasn't quite as powerful. I think there might have even been deck of damage. So like, you know, the different, so, deck of, so there's hit points. Deck means 10.

Yeah, right. And then mega, they, mega means thousand. They mean it's 100. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What, so what is a, what is a hundred? What is a hundred? Yeah, center.

Yeah, center, yeah, center damn, yeah. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, that's how you fuck with a Latin teacher. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, so, so because it was giant robots. Right. Because robot tech. Right, so, yeah. Yeah, so you're done, yeah robots right because robot tech right so yeah, you know, yeah

So you're done. Yeah, I can't totally get it. Yeah, yeah, I totally get that Yeah, it was just a way to make it so this thing if it had 10 mega damage you had to do a hundred yeah, you know Points to exactly. Yeah, you know or a deck of damage or anything But the end of thousand if it had mega damage or something like that But in risk it got just out of control each subsequent supplement Yeah, if you made a character I write out of this core book and then you made one out of books that were published like five years later You know that there's no way no balance. Yeah, there's no balance Okay, so you were

Again high school you did You were, again, high school you did the cyberpunk and then you moved on to... Well, like you said, in high school, you had friends rapping different things. Yeah. Well, college is when it really started. Okay. We would go through, so in high school, I kind of got down to just D&D because I got into the campaign with my buddy Rusty, who is one of the most influential. He's the guy that, like, that's the first time, because I played other games more legit,

like, straight from the book, but like, really, I'm not kidding, like, my elementary school experience and a lot of my junior high experience with gaming was people just, that played D&D, just doing over the hell they wanted. You know, there was all these books, but they were really there to pick stuff out. And I don't know what it was about it, but then when I started playing Elf Quest and Marvel Superheroes and whatever, and TNT, we were reading the books

and we were running it according to how we understood the rules. Do you think some of that also just has to do with like literacy and emotional maturity though? Possibly, yeah. I mean, because I mean, if I'm not there to corrall in the kids, I'm sure my kids would just go far, far afield. For an apes, yeah. Yeah, you know, so.

Yeah, I'm sure there's something to do with that. And then as we matured, then like, my buddy Rusty got me to play D&D again. I was kind of like, I don't really want to play D&Ds. He's like, well, I mean, feel the cool. A lot of people are weird when they come back to D&D and they're like, oh, geez, why am I doing this?

Because it's very limited. It's very limited. It's super limited. It's very limited. It's reference. Thank you. What was that? Megazons data.

Oh, my Thomas is Arthouse Surgeon, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Arthouse Surgeon published a cyberpunk. So I never paid attention to creators, which I'm the worst. But I did that professionally. Like as an historian, like I could tell you schools of history enough to fuck enough. I just want to dive into a world. Like so I never paid attention to creators, or artists,

or writers, or even systems really. I was always the world guy. Like give me a world that I will enjoy, and I don't care what the system is, I learn it as we go so here's a weird thing Yeah, I pay attention to their names because I have a cool name guy yaks ponsmith, you know, I didn't Dave Arnison Who doesn't get I think enough credit? Yeah, yeah, and then I also understand I somebody educated me on Dave when Wesley or Wensley But he's a guy that Dave Arnison and guyaxe went sat with to see his style gaming and then rules for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, Mike Pondsmith, like I played Cyberpunk for a very long time before realizing he was black. He was, he was net, there's no pictures of him, you know, and, and but it just made sense when I found out he was.

I was like, it makes sense that he's the only person who's You know, yeah, when you start looking at the world that he's created that looks what is he responding to? Yeah, yeah, what is he including at the outset like you said yeah, and and how are things Metastasizing within the world yeah as well as like how do you almost as well as like how do you almost, there's no non-clumsy way to say this. So I'm going to just apologize after I guess. But you have a creator who his experience is so vastly different than GuyGax's experience.

And just by your description of the Cyberpunk World, there is a fair amount of hustle going on over there and urban hustle at that. And having to go extra legal and sub legal to make a living, I mean, that absolutely sounds like his experience, unless he grew up with Uncle Phil. Yeah, I don't know. I'm on his experience. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know my cosplays background.

He might be military like Gary Gaugas, but I think that Whatever it is, I think like if you play if you play D&D, you realize there's hella hustle in that too. That's all you're doing is like hustling. You've got thieves. You've got assassins. You've got he looks down on thieves. Yeah, who Gaugas? Oh, hella. Okay, but so looks down on this like it's so clearly a landed aristocracy Approach to it like he's including these people because they make they make his mayonnaise a little bit more spicy But like the archetype is the fighter the archetype

Miserie yeah, maybe the wizard but really the wizard is just like can we just Do you so you play dnd a lot? I do do you use vanstein magic the whole man memorization thing like I hate that I've always hated that with the wizard stuff. Yeah, cuz it's straight from jack vans Okay, his novels right and and like why do you forget your fucking spell? Why would you forget I can well, okay, so When I play the indie I never I've never played a wizard because I think memorization is is a dumb mechanic But I understand it in terms of come Come yes, so

Yeah, you can blow your wand, right? You have a refractory period. You just do. And when you're younger and more vibrant, maybe that refractory is a less so, so you got all these lower level spells, little jizzes. But as you get older, you got the Peter North money shot. But then you have to rest.

You absolutely needed eight hour rest. You need one. Unless there's some sort of ring of cock ring of enchantment of some sort. Otherwise, so that's how I conceptualize it, but I also never play a wizard. I think it would be a sorcerer. Exceptional funny. Yeah. In that system, I, a wizard cast all their spells and then they just have to go to sleep. They're like, I mean, I'm not done.

I'm not done, you're done? We're not done here, you know? That was Bebroll talk, baby. You know? Still here! Well, I'm sorry. I couldn't find the little knob you have to hit on it. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, fine as weak point. I'm sorry. I'll try again tomorrow. What do you want? Yeah, I put the rationale find his weak point. I'm sorry. You know, I'll try again tomorrow. What do you want? Yeah, good. The rationale, when I have run, I already cast one. I haven't, when I've been the one, like, designing a world rationale, like, used is, um, sorcerers have an egg magic

in their bloodstream, and so you're just able to sling shit. Wizards actually have to, like, cast the whole spell. And so what I the kind of dodge around the idea that's memorization it's not actually memorization it's no no you have had to prepare the ritual right up until the last five or six trigger words and so the reason you're able to cast fireball which by all rights should be like a no I'm gonna stand here and I have to monologue your ass for half an hour to summon the power to do this thing

you've got everything but the trigger word's done so wizards are just edging yeah pretty much to follow with your analogy yes but yeah it's you've gotten, you're humming. What wizard is done preparing all of those spells, like, you know, if you do detect magic on them, it's like, I'm gonna step over here. Yeah. It was like, it's easy. His engine is idling, you know.

Yeah, if you sneeze, you're way too many arpeggio. Right now, you're probably, you know, and so that was my, That was my dodger ad. I agree that when Vance wrote those stories, it was a way to, number one, make everything ultra-tune-weir, which was like his thing. And number two, it was an explanation of,

well, okay, no, you know, prismatic spray, which like disintegrates, whatever you point at, why do we even have a story when you can just go after the bad guy and, you know, do that? Yeah, it's plot armor. It's like a type of sort of plot armor. Yeah, it's like the first plot armor, I'm gonna give you a weakness is to do this. Yeah. So from a narrative point of view, that makes perfect sense. From a game-balanced point of view, that makes perfect sense. From a game balance point of view, it's like, well, the fault you need to do is stand there

and just keep going, you know, cradle in them over and over and over and over again. You know, what's the point? But yeah, narratively, it's like, well, it seems like you're gonna have a mechanic, like it, so we're just starting from scratch. Yeah. We didn't even, we haven't even read a book.

We don't know what they are. But like you could just say, I'm casting magic. So the next time you cast it, that everything's magic in the world. Like you're controlling some of it. Right. Everything's magical. So the next time you cast it, they built up a resistance. Like it's like, you know, they have like an immune, magical immune system. Yeah. And so it's less effective every time. So that's why you need to switch. You know, that, I mean, it could just be like a fight. You don't keep just punching this.

Hey, right. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Yeah. Yeah. And also, I mean, I think it could be the case that, you know, like depending on the spell, some spells you can't dodge or avoid, you know, but it,

sure. It seems like, you know, with the saves, with the savings throw system, you could give the person a bonus every time the same spell got cast again. It's them, you know. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh, I know what you're casting. I'm gonna start booking it this way,

because I've smelled that smell before. Yeah. But I really appreciate like, systems like Mage, you would have ever mentioned, that like make spell casting more into a matter of skill like it's you know how to shape you know the energy of the world but you're focused on this fear you know that's what mage was you'd have different classes of mage there's like the Akashic brotherhood versus I don't know who else because I only replayed the order of Hermes. Yeah, yeah. So they're different schools of that.

Yeah, yeah. And there's one guy that there's some folks that could focus on entropy, you know. And so what you would do is like if somebody pointed a gun at you, then you'd be like entropy on the gun and it starts rusting. Yeah. Or jams. Yeah.

Is your easier one to do would be, did you remember a little bit? Yeah, yeah. But I had, as an Acotric Brother, did you remember a little bit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I had, as an Acotric Brother Ed, this thing where I could transmute things. And so one time we had to fight a werewolf in there impossible. Yeah, and so I went up and I punched it because they're like David Caradine from Kung Fu. You know, that's what tears modeled after. So I go up and punch it.

Really slow. Yeah, yeah. Nice. Did I tell you the story of the eagle and the bear? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah it because we didn't have any weapons. I get damaged it. And then I said if I do that, would that cause aggravated damage? You have to cause aggravated damage to

monstrous creatures or whatever. But he didn't have to do that to us because we're people. So then my RGM was like, I like where your head is at. I don't know if that's enough silver, but I'm not going to, I made it really hard. So that was outside the box. Yeah. And so, but like that's the thing I liked about it is I made it really hard, so that was outside the box. Yeah. And so, but like, that's the thing I liked about it is you could take your spells, and even if you had some little bullshit thing,

like, ooh, I could change a hair in the metal. Like, I, I just made it so everybody else could now do damage to this thing, you know? Right, right. But you, like, in D&D, in D&D, usually my, That's a good, good idea. A power stunt, yeah, I guess so.

But in D&D, most of my experiences at the GM is like, you're not supposed to use it like that. Yeah, totally. Like, boil liquid. If I'm like, I want a boil as blood. And it's like, that's not. No, you can only boil soup. You know, like, you know, like, you're right.

Yeah, like, or yeah, no, I've talked to my daughter about, you know, why not, if you're underwater, why not, some in cows, and then have somebody else cast waterwalk on them. Because you can summon, you know, eight cows and cast waterwalk on them. Now they're moving 60 feet straight up and just blowing holes in the in the galley's above you. Nice. And you're doing more damage than like a meteor storm. Because, you know, you take falling damage basically and apply that

to the cow that's moving forward. Because nothing says you got to summon the cow on the ground. And so you just work your way upside down. Yeah, there's a whole set of assumptions. Calpitos. Calpitos. Yeah. This is interesting to bring up. Because I started to think, you know, as we're talking, I'm like, why have I played D&D for so long, or any game so long with that are authored by people who don't give a shit about me, and I'm playing with people, and it reveals that they don't give a, I thought they were cool, but now it reveals, they don't give a shit about me.

So here's what I wanna do with that question. I wanna hold that to open the next episode, because we're coming up on the end of this one. Oh, so, literally, that is a question that he and I both came up with to ask you Oh, yeah, and I think that will be a wonderful segue into explaining for the entire next episode Diversity and Dragons as well. Okay, so I'll try to get my I hang out with comics regularly and we're both teachers. We know how to bring shit right back to the point So all right

So what we normally do is we like to Suggest things for people to read and since there's nothing that we could have gleaned from this yet because we're literally in the middle of it I'm gonna hold off on asking you that so yeah, I'll ask you first Ed Do you have anything you want people to read this week? I'll ask you first Ed. Do you have anything you want people to read this week? Not really. I don't I don't have any kind of a major recommendation to make I Yeah, how about you? You know, I just got the Iliad in Oh that translation well, yeah, I also got that

But I got the Iliad in graphic novel form. Oh, and it is so good. Like, what's cool is it gives you a primer in the beginning to like, this helmet means this guy. So if you only see it in middle distance, you'll know it's Odysseus because of this helmet. You'll know that it's, you know, and on and on and on. And that's been really cool.

So visual dramatic persona. Yes. And then it is by Gareth Hines. Gareth Hines. And it's really good. It's fairly cheap. It's only like $15, $20. It's a really good telling of the Iliad. Awesome.

And I'm not quite through it yet, but I'm really enjoying just the visual aspects of it. Nice. So yeah. Tails, are anything that you would suggest to people to read? Oh, man. The only thing I think I was role-playing games.

Do it. I really like the BlackHack by David Black. It's hard to get. You can get it like a PDF. I think they might do RPG. Yeah. I think they might do print on demand. But I know like the ones I got, I had to order from England, because it's I think where might do print on demand, but I know like the ones I got I had to order from England because it's I think where he resides and then the

White hack the black hack is three sever words white hack is one word. That's also a really cool short condensed version of D&D That they they they have a totally different take on it and then fate. I really like fate that I didn't get to that. So when we talk about in the next episode, but yeah, fate is one of my favorite systems for various reasons. And you can actually check that out without buying anything, but I would recommend supporting you. They're pretty cool. But if you Google fate SRD, you're like system reference document, fate SRD, there's a guy who put together a really great site that has every Like fate core book and it's really well organized And then let's the last thing oh

It's a port evil hat because seriously they're they're awesome. Yeah, they're cool and yeah I mean even on that site it'll tell you you know like David But yeah, you can check it out there and then if you want to buy their books it's evil hat.com and and then if you want to buy their books, it's evalhat.com. And then, oh, Diaspora, which is fate 3.0, it's way back on my buddy Brad Murray and then JB Bell, their Canadians, so the super civil guys. And they believe in healthcare stuff. But like, yeah, they wrote the first sci-fi- that was got, well, actually, I think Starblade, anyway,

let me not get into that. Starblade is, I might have proceeded it, but diaspora is hard sci-fi, and they had like a lot of subsystems in there that were really cool. Like, they had wealth as a track, like a damage track. So it was, it was your health, your, so it like a mental and then wealth. So like, so healthy, wealthy and wise. Yeah, and so when you bring your ship into dock, you would have to basically make a check against your resources.

And if you failed, then you take hit to your wealth. And if you got a consequence, it would be shit like a loan shark is after you or, you know, like whatever. So it wasn't, yeah, it's fucking great, Brad, and JB really were awesome. And that, that's the first book of fate I bought Okay, okay, and then what is it what's the other one? Oh, I like that stealing away Jordan by Julia bond Ellingbo is a really great book You it's available on lulu

com and for none demand Ed working people find you on the social medias? I can be found, well where can I be found? I just had a complete brain fart right there. I can be found at Mr. Blaluck on TikTok, EH Blaluck on Twitter and Instagram, and where can they find you? You can find me at duhharmony on the Twinsda, and then there's two Hs in the middle, and then You can find me at duh Harmony on the Twin Stuh.

And then there's two Hs in the middle. And then you can find me on twitch.tv, forward slash capital puns. Every Tuesday night at 8.30 PM, Pacific Day of Day time. Although there's last week's episode is up there and that kind of stuff. So we have a lot of fun there. And that should be enough.

Theo, where can people find you? If you want to review old Trump jokes, I wrote, yeah, go to Twitter, and I'm big, underscore black, underscore dice. I'm the same thing at Instagram. It was mostly pictures of me during COVID. At this point, like, you know know trying to get outside because I was sick of looking at the wall. I go on Hikes with my friend and we take pictures

each other. It's weird how our Instagrams are stereo. But yeah then on Facebook most people are following me. Just look up Tail Morgan. It'll say I'm the bright black host of Diversity and Dragons. I'm that one. And if you want to buy tickets to my show, you can go to bigblackdice.com. It's going to forward you to Comedy Spots website where you can look at the dates we have and whatever. And that'll be July 29th. Yeah, the next one is July 29th at 8pm, 2021. I'm gonna go back to 1999 where I came from. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Awesome.

Very cool. Well, cool. Well, I guess. Oh, if anybody wants to shout at the two of us. Oh, yes, because we have screwed something up Got somebody's name wrong. Whatever other details we miss. I'm trying to remember what the most recent thing was We got I said Zen Deia's name. Oh, yes So thank you friend of the show Derek Lipkin and Timothy Shalamay Shalamay not shalamet. There you go. There you go. So which is usually your error because it's a kind of French name.

Yeah. I screwed up. You're a black guy. Yep. And you, yeah. Okay. So anyway, but I'm going to set it up. So anyway, you can find us to correct this on those kinds of things. At Geek History Time on Twitter and our website Gehistoryoftime.com. There you go. All right, well, for our guest, Tael Morgan. Oh, wait, can I recommend a movie?

Yeah, go for it. Oh, my God. There's this movie called Before We Vanish. It's a Japanese film about alien invasion, but you never see the aliens, because they actually, they're like body snatchers. They make a make us a body. But it's a brilliant movie because the concept in a nutshell is that the aliens come here, they're three scouts. And one of the powers they have is they don't, when they don't comprehend something about us, they can pull it from us.

So for instance, if they encounter somebody and they're like, the person's like blah, blah, blah, my wealth. And they're like, what's wealth blah blah blah my wealth and they're like what's wealth and then now they understand it but that person has no idea what it is anymore and they live as though it doesn't exist. Zero someone rocking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Before we vanish. Before we vanish and it's brilliantly written because there's three different aliens and they have three different perspectives like one of them's living through the life of a guy who's in a bad marriage and he's trying to sympathize with that one of them's like a teenager that's just excited to be able to use this power and then one of them's a teen girl that's just murdering everybody

because we're roaches you know basically yeah and it's it's you get to see from all their angles yeah it's really great yeah it's really great well for our guest Taehyung Morgan I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock, and until next time, keep rolling twaties. We're actually talking about DD this time. Yeah.