Dice Shame - 2-200.1 | 'Retrospective Part 1'

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

Part 1 of a Season 2 Retrospective!______________________________________________________________________________________________________________Imagine your best game of D&D. The shocks, the twists and turns, the moments that can’t be caught because you just had to be there. That’s Dice Shame.Join our DM Jo, her husband Harlan, their brother Alex & their friends Nic & Timm as they experience those unmissable, gut-wrenching, heart-aching, joy-filled moments.This legendary AP releases a brand new episode every Thursday morning at 1:20 am!Content Warning: animal death, swearing, violence, claustrophobia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Dyshame. With season two wrapped up, we're heading straight on into season three, but not without taking a few weeks off. In the meantime, we thought we'd fill in the next two weeks with a bit of a retrospective on the last season of Dishame. Hope you enjoy. Sea, it's all over. It's over.

Why are we here? Liza Woodgiff. Why are we here? It's over. Again? Again? Wait, we're still making Dice Shame? We're still here.

After centuries. How many years has it been? It's been almost seven years. Seven, that was right. Okay. Well, how's it feel? Pretty crazy. Feels good.

Yeah, we started recording Dyshame in August of 2019, and we released the first three episodes of the show on Halloween, I think. We predicted COVID. We just knew it was going to hit. We were like, well, better stuff. start making something remotely. Actually, it's not true. The first sessions were in person. That's right. I think it was up until about episode 16, we were recording in person. And then because of COVID restrictions, we didn't meet up. We went to virtual sessions. It was awful.

But then we realized how amazing, how much easier it is to schedule things when you're doing it online. Yeah. There was mostly pros of moving to online. So many cons. There were very few cons. Well, in those early days, we used to have Alex and Justin and Rob over to our house on like a Sunday. We would make everyone breakfast. We called it ham cakes. We did pancakes and ham. And we would record for like six or seven hours. Yeah.

Because we were only able to really get everyone together maybe like every three weeks or so. How was that for you guys? because I know y'all have professed to prefer shorter sessions. We were young and not even. You were young, full of energy and hope, honestly. I feel that. Maxi. We could always tell what episodes were cut from the beginning of a session

versus the end of a session. Because after lunch, we would break for lunch, and then the energy just tanked. And I would say that. I'd be like, man, the energy just tanked in this whole recording session. People just being like, yeah, yeah. I like to think that you were eating like huge bowls of pasta. at lunch

just like carving huh we would make like big caraffs of coffee and we were all jazzed from the ham the ham and the coffee

we had ham energy and then you know but I I don't think I've ever been a love the eight hour session D&D player even in my youth

I've always sort of the farther away from longer sessions I've been the more I've enjoyed it I find that's fair I'm a sprint D&Der

were you to say Alex I was going to say I don't know if you've noticed that I get a little impatient. Tell me about it. Say more. It was a slog for me to do those. I don't know. Energy is one.

Also, like, I'm not going to say it's a problem, but I think my mind tends to want to shift gears often. Often, the irony of that. But listen, I think the beauty of seven years is like obviously the straight off of the time sync, which you feel it, I think it's so cool to look back at like a massive catalog of like stuff. Like it's very neat. And I don't know, my brain is a little weird, but like I like to think of like if, you know, if I die, Henry gets to like hear hours of content of his dad when he misses him, which is like a weird place to go. But I also think there's

something kind of cool about that. Legacy. That's a great. That's a great. That's a great. great point. And you know, this is a great opportunity now to kind of take a moment to look back on the years that that we've done in. Oh, I'm so glad you mentioned that. Harlan, time to pull your montage together. Oh, no. I'm not editing. Go ahead. Lots of editing right now. Thank you all for being part of Dyshame season two. I had a really fun time. And I want to look back on season two together as the cast. And just we'll start with like some opening questions. I want to know as you're thinking about season two.

So we begin at the Hamperat House for us for Red and Doran. And then ending all the way it's Silvery Moon between that space, what moment immediately comes to your mind? when you think about this season. And it can be something that's happened that was special for your character, an exciting combat, some moment of accomplishment,

some failure. But just thinking about season two, what is the first thing that comes to your mind that happened in the show or in the game? Start with you two because you guys got to short to pull from. Sure, sure. Well, now I don't want to.

I mean, In terms of like the, like the, I really enjoyed the bits through iron slag. It's kind of a broad chunk of, it's not really a single event. But I do remember kind of the planning up until facing Duke Zalto. And like, I'm not really used to that much meta planning at the table. And it just felt like this big, this big. deal that we were working towards. And so that definitely sticks out.

And then also, I'm going twice because you guys talk to you ever. Because of the last episode or the last session, Tim, the callback to the dragon chess reminded me also of like there were some really great battle moments, some great combat moments, some really interesting story moments.

I also really do love those quiet moments of like connection between all of the characters. And I feel like we kind of hit everyone at some point. So I I don't know. Those are the things that stick out. Nice. Nice. Absolutely. What about you, Tim? I feel like I got spoiled in many ways because I got to sit down with Joe in advance and be like, this is an adventure. I know a lot of the key details of, and I know I'll be able to withhold that and make terrible decisions anyway.

But that means I then get to set up narrative beats based on what I know the nature of certain things to be that I feel very privileged to have gotten to do, namely being like, all right, so I know there isn't going to be a rugpole where the Vohn and Dod is not. something like there were many good surprises when it came to the von and dot in particular but knowing that I could make certain assumptions I was able to kind of create Witted the way that I wanted to and then the moment when Witted met the Vonen Dodd given that that was an inevitable and almost like so embedded into his story and I was so overly confident it was going to happen at some point there was not going to be this is the kind of things we're trying to weave in someone's backstories was very tough because it's like, and the surprise will be, the Vonen die was an illusion. And then Tim's furious.

I'm like, no, that's not what I wanted at all. But you thought you were setting up something good. We got to sit down and set up so many cool things. And then when Witted met the Vonen Dodd for the first time, and I got to sit back and enjoy this sort of image we had created of a little robot that's an imitation of this larger robot that he idolizes and looks up to. and it shows how like witted in some ways is haughty and full of himself, but also like humble in the face of this sort of technology and like inevitably because he appreciates and understands

it, there were certain images we got to create that I really liked. And I think that was my favorite one was just this simple notion of flying up. And the fact that then we worked in some like immediately the romance joke started there was the unexcated twist that made that moment even funnier was like the comedic beat to follow up this majestic like cover art. for the episode to Whittedd you kind of image. So I really like that moment in particular. Nice.

Yeah, I mean, that moment, it might be the same way you're talking about, where Witted floated above the trees and saw it in the distance. And like that little, like, there was some moment description there. That one stuck out for me too. That was really cool. Seeing it twinkling in the distance was awesome,

but I specifically when we got up close to it and I flew up to its face and like looked at the eye and Witted's armor was almost reflected in its face a little bit. It was like a very, there's a certain amount of that I'm sure I wrote in my head that I didn't. No, no,

vocalized. It's funny because when my brain went to the moment, I went to the battle at the arena. What was that? Al hamore. Yeah. Alhammore. Good memory, Al.

Because that was a good battle. And I just, I love the flow. I love the creatures. I love that, all that kind of stuff. But then as each person was saying, it kind of snapped me back.

And it's funny because I was edited. that last episode where Witted pulls at the chessboard. And I turned to Joe and I was like, man, I think that's the best character moment that ever has happened in Dice Shame. And it happened from Tim in episode like 200, which is like 350 really, which is like, I was just like,

man, that's so crazy. And it speaks so highly to both of you playing off each other in that moment. It just works so beautifully. But yeah, I'm going to say the al ha more because I think that was like the first moment that everyone like, I don't know, clicked a little bit. And not click because we had fought before them,

but I don't know, something about that battle. It just felt really cinematic and really fun. And it was just, I think it was the most fun I've ever had doing combat and dice shame. Really? Yeah, just because I think it felt so fluid and quick and seamless. Like, you know what I mean? There was no waiting for, I mean, this is the meta side of it, but there was no like, oh my God, make a decision or anything like that.

Everyone was just kind of like, you know, the stakes were the right level. It was like fun and quick and I don't know. I remember running that combat and being like, oh, this is really fun mix of monsters to throw at you. You know, like the giant frost salamander and a hydra. Like, who doesn't want to fight a hydra? Yeah. And when Wim like controlled the monster at the end and then we got to like do our gladiator thing where it's like, are you not entertained?

I don't know. There was just a cool, it was a really fun battle. Totally. I'm going to second that. I just want to say that was maybe the most fun I ever had playing D&D combat as a character. Because it was very, and as a DM, I was very much impressed. Like, this feels punchy. I remember I was thinking, like how quickly we were moving through turns.

Something about it being an arena, maybe like we weren't over-analyzing everything. But it was just great combat. Great. Yeah. It was really fun. Well, you know, I was going to say something different. Or let me rephrase, I was going to try and say something different, but Harlan was kind of, I was in the same kind of mind space there.

You know, prior to you guys joining in season two, there was a lot of... We focused on Doran a lot really. That's true. Yeah, there was also a lot of character development for Doran. Yeah. We met your mom. We went to your hometown. We did all that stuff.

I think that was a big... That was a big, dorn in a wig. Peace for me. But also, you know, the fact that I do want to involve you guys too in some of these memories because literally, well, no, I mean, I have really very few memories prior to you guys joining because we've just done a lot more if I could, if that makes sense. But if I could answer the question directly. I wish you would. I wish you would. It would probably also be Al Hamara.

And the, what was the name of that town? Winter? Dead snows. Dead snows. Thank you. I mean, we're all dealing with recency bias, right? The things that happened most recently, you're going to stick in your house. No.

So, dead snows. Dead snows was awesome. And in particular, it was Tamil, your interactions with Camilla Gem star. That was fun. Yeah. Carilla gem star. And just there was a bit of an ego battle there. I kind of learned a little bit about you as a person as well as like your characters that you play.

How I meant more about, I learned about you and the characters you play. Let me. And how you play them. What did you learn, Alex? Be specific and very careful. No, I'm kidding. Details remember the crost office, which was also really funny. The crows office was, yes.

I mean, you play a really, I'll say this, Nick, you play a really tough, badass character. Not to say that you're not in real life. I just don't know you that well. But like your character development in that, I was like, oh, yes. Finally, someone that's going to like be a badass stand-up to Yeah. It's so interesting. I was just talking this to Harlan like the other day. When you were first talking to me about coming on board, the kind of like role description was very similar to a character that I played in a Call of Cthulhu game that you ran for Ayn Slade Nobody

And so kind of like thinking about Like Because like Red and Doran are such strong personalities and we didn't know Witted yet But I think that that is true of Witted as well And like trying to find a way to like have an adventure Who was also just kind of like Not the voice of reason but more of like a like an anchor

You know what I mean? Like someone who isn't as like big of a personality and I'm so glad that you brought this around to the concept of characters Alex because I want our next sort of topic of focus to be not just about the events of season two but about your character's journey during season two

I want to learn a little bit about your own individual perspectives about what your character has experienced specifically during season two, what do you think your character's biggest mistake was? And maybe their biggest victory as well. Let's start with you, Harlan. Perfect. Man, biggest mistake, I think, I mean,

Red has been prone to having some emotional reactions to things, which I love about him, but I think it's apt. I suppose there was a moment in the tower, with the shadow where he was like freaking out. And he got really like, you know, he got emotionally worried about the fear that was surrounding him. Now, I suppose that was Red's biggest mistake. I don't think it was like, you know, my biggest mistake.

No, no, no. Characters and players are different. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I think, I suppose that was probably Reds, right? Because I think there was a point where he like pulled his bow on Doren from like, I remember him like running in front of Doren and like putting it to him, being like, stop. So him threatening another party member was like,

probably Red's biggest mistake. But Biggest victory was probably in the same boat. I feel like Red's got a few final blows this season. But, oh, biggest victory was that sleet storm in the Vaughn and Dodd. That was a game changer. That was pretty good. I was thinking about a specific moment pre-Nick and Tim during the Midnight Carnival

series. I love the Midnight Carnival. And I think if I had to say one of my favorite one of my favorite moments of season two, it could have been that series because I really liked the three hags that I ran, each of them very individual. I totally agree, actually. That was a really good series.

You played Red as a honeypot for the first time, I think, and it was pretty funny and very successful. Yeah. I remember Red being... I had my disguise self- spell on. Against hags is very good. Yeah. Because Red is canonically asexual. You were also like, let's go have sex in that hay over there. Like, kind of not really... Kiss your body. Not that he's stupid, but he's also stupid.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that was pretty fun. I forgot about that series. That was a really good series. What about you, Nick? What were Timil's biggest victories, biggest mistakes this season so far? I mean, I feel like this is a bit of a thorn, now that you phrased the question like this, for me, because I wasn't really thinking about her growth arc as much. And so I feel like her biggest mistake was made before she joined the group. And that was not, like, trusting in her party, you know, to kind of, like, stick with everyone to try to, like, handle things herself. Yeah. But the thing is like, and that's, I think that that's like, yeah, that's fine. But I, for, especially for actual play, like, we want to see the mistakes in the, you know, like, like, in the show.

We want to, like, the characters most interesting when they're growing, when they're failing and, like, and then, you know, like, having to claw themselves back from it. But to cut you a little slack. Okay. You made so many mistakes. We have only been with your characters. Can you guess how many days in campaign? how many actual... I'm not going to do that thing

where I try to guess low. 300! It has been 21 days. Oh, my God. It's like 80 emotion days, though. That's like... Gandalf wasn't making a statement at the end of Lord of the Rings.

He was saying the ratio is one year of adventure is a lifetime of knowledge. I'm giving you the formula. What I'm saying is we can't come down hard on you as a player for not giving her this huge emotional journey with peaks and valleys and failures and successes because Tamil's only been experiencing this adventure for 20-something days. Like she failed before we met her and she's been clawing her way back from that ever since. I mean, I mean, I appreciate that. And also you're getting in the world. way of my self-flagellation, so if you could just cool it, please.

I'm sorry. No, but it's like, I think that there were probably, I think I have more like, like, Nick mistakes than, than Tameel mistakes, which I think is like, is not, that's not the way the ratio should go, I don't think. So, so I feel like, Nick cast magic missile at a level when she, sorry. I mean, like, listen, twice in two different sessions, I took two actions on a two actions. turn. That shit, that's rookie, that's rookie shit right there. Don't worry. Listen, we're going to talk mechanics after. Okay. Don't worry. We have it. You have, we have a list. Don't worry.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to go back to the biggest foibles. Alex, what do you think was Doran's biggest victory, Doran's biggest mistake in season two? Oh, I'm scouring through my notes. I'm really trying to pull out some memories here. Do you want me to just give you like a little synopsis? We've been recording it all during Dorn had diarrhea in episode 12. Well, I'll tell you what.

I'm going to say this. I'm trying to think of my errors because I know there's been a few and some have been really like kind of key to the story. But I will say, I think one of the biggest victories that Dorn had was going home to Scarborough facing what he thought was

being ejected from the city. for his war crimes when really it was like a conspiracy against him. Yeah. And unveiling that and like basically solving that mystery and now everything's fine in his home. You kind of solve the mystery of your brother's disappearance as well. Yeah. I had brothers, you know.

That's right. You used to say that all the time and you used to like think that was your fault that they went missing but then you come to realize your cousin was behind it this whole time. Now, before we go to worst mistakes, I do want to circle back to favorite moments. And it just occurred to me that when we were going into Scarborough, there is that moment where there was a guard on a guard on the top of a wall. And Doran like climbed up and like tricked him or something and just pushed him off. And everybody else is at the bottom of the wall waiting.

And so this guard came down. There was a whole, there was a whole like, see. sequence of tricking the guard. I mean, I would say not a mistake. Again, I mean, Reds wasn't a mistake either. But like his view on the Von and Dodd, I think was a good resolution too. You know, him kind of being like, yeah, has to be a war thing. And then that was kind of cool.

I think so, too. He never closed the deal with Corrilla. Big mistake. What an ally that would have been. I mean, maybe he was reeling from the fact that, you know, he, he slept with Mari and then she pieced out. He didn't want to get his heartbroken again. That's true.

Oh, shit. Oops. Doran, did you bang the druid? That probably could have been one of my biggest mistakes. Honestly, the way you guys played it was pretty fucking funny. I like to play these things, and I'm just going to just riff for a second here, that I think all of these situations make for great stories. The fact that just wanted to leave, we had to do something about that. The fact that Rob and Alex had to leave, we had to do something about that.

It created great story moments just like in life. when you're throwing curveballs. And that's interesting. Just like in a roll of the die, a natural one can be just as good of a story as a natural 20. Yeah, for sure. All right, Tim, what do you think about Witted? What was his biggest victory? What was his biggest failure?

I mean, his biggest victory got to be just meeting the Vonen Dodd, I feel like, and getting to like everything after that is gravy, getting to like essentially be armor roommates with the Vonen Dodd spirit, like, interact. the vote and died and they were roommates he's going to get to. In terms of like strategies that he did

where he won something, I actually really like when Witted can kind of use first of all I think it is sort of his character growth was both emotionally but also mechanically getting better at working together

with the team and I kind of had the idea I would do more and more support magic as I became more comfortable with the team and that would be a fun way to illustrate. So really getting to do

the hypnotic pattern in the final battle was extremely how I wanted, witted to participate in a final battle. Far from being the one to take some sort of final blow against anybody there. The idea that it was almost like this crazy battle, two guards are off to the side, and it's like, get them out of the way

and line up that final shot for somebody else to do. That felt like a cool win for me strategically. That was fantastic. I got it. For a mistake. For sure. The mistakes I feel like are also kind of just written there. It was all of like the mistrust he was having in the beginning, which I largely feel like I intended to be, oh, he doesn't trust and that's going to create this big rift.

And I feel like what ended up happening was Widdid's big mistake was not communicating his intentions clearly and like asking people and what do you think about that. because I think the biggest surprise was how much people were like willing to work with Witted on it. And Witted kind of went on with the idea like, I can't trust anybody to even talk about this stuff, kind of. And a lot, it was very much less a I have ulterior motives and more of the romantic comedy. Like, if only they would talk kind of thing with the rest of the party a little bit. And like one solid conversation actually, once I learned how the group felt, feels like it would have actually diffused. a lot of the tension, so I'm glad I went about things how I did, but it was a different direction that it ended up going in, which I feel like was an even more fun reflection

of Widdid's not, it's not his lust and desire for technology, is that he assumes other people can't relate to that at all. And they're like, no, it's treasure. I get it, man. It's a big robot. I understand the appeal. And he's like, you don't get, oh, you do understand the appeal and why it's dangerous. It's like, yeah, it's a big robot, Witted. We all get it. Like, and I kind of like that was more where things landed. I love it. Actually, I also just thought of one of my other favorite moments that I did think about while we were talking and it slipped my mind. But I also thought when you mentioned mistakes, I did think of a mistake that Witted did that I was like, man, that's what mistake.

And it's funny because it was pretty early on that I think if it was like season three Red probably would have made a bigger deal about it. But it was in the encampment when you fired quick and you ended up. I think someone died as a, it was the, they had prisoners in the, um, non-escapees. In the top of iron slag, right? In the yak folk village. Okay. I want to talk about three specific story beats in season two that all of us were present for. So we're going to talk about when you guys went to the thousand fist work tribe. Then we're going to talk about iron slag. And then finally we'll talk about the silvery moon battle. So let's take a second to talk about the Ork Tribe and then we'll go back and we'll talk about the Yakko Village and I'm sorry.

Because my other best memory was the Ork Tribe and it was. No, it was, and I bet we all forgot. It's the pool where you forget the treasure. Oh, yeah. Remember? Yes. Get up. You don't, when you drink the water, you don't want it anymore or something.

Yeah. That was so good. That was when his biggest disappointment. man, I was really like finding, I was struggling with like, how do I say that Witted doesn't just ditch the party and go back for that treasure? And at that point, the fact that the Vonen Dodd was ahead was really the only reason why he stayed in the party at that point. But I love that moment and the way everyone played it.

I remember like Doren was like drinking, oh, I don't want it anymore. It was so funny. And it was so unexpected. It was a great little twist. Really fun dungeon crawl. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I can't help but feel like reading the names of the Patreon supporters is becoming longer than the episodes themselves.

So, uh, I'm gonna try something a little different here and use some magic. We would like to thank our Patreon supporters. Lita J. Christopher, Colin Burckhardt, Merlin, Adam Frey, J.D., Liz, Merrick's Moon, Ruthan Reed, Trin, Lorelafeldman, Scotty, Haley, Kass, Nicky, Brooke, Bendinelli, Nerd Ferry, Luna Demaria, Sray 96, Moon, Shannon Robinson, Pan, Mizra, Abby May, Berk, Wanderer Fenn, Full Control, Anna, Gareth Bradshaw, Absolute O'Celly Manderpans, Melinda Curley, O'Bird, A-Krashpanda, A-Krash-Pan, A-Krash-A-K-K-K-T-T-LUHRU-E-KKIN, Oakland H. D. Amai. Shadow O Haven. Zill Street. Axel. I. Repita Nazchees. Danny. Cereau Time. Fischer. Roses of Envy. Nick D. Minty. Aaron Lightning.

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Bye-bye.