The Adventure Zone - Setup - The Adventure Zone: Abnimals

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Welcome to the world of humanoid animal heroes, Abnimals! Join Justin, Griffin, Clint, and Zoo Keeper (Game Master) Travis as they introduce the new world, the new system, and their new characters. Abminals Theme by Justin McElroy, Eric Near (https://bit.ly/ericnearmusic) and Jonathan Coulton (https://www.jonathancoulton.com/).Additional Music in this Episode: "Darlin'" by Beat Mekanik: https://linktr.ee/beatmekanik. Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointaz

What's up, you radical Taz fans? I'm your game runner, Travis McRoy. We are about to be so rich. We're about to get so rich off this one. Oh, boy. I think that this has the potential to be our most lucrative one yet. You know what I'm talking about toy addicts? The toyatics on this one are through the roof, dudes.

Let's just say this. What's up, kids? If you've never listened before, we're the McRoy brothers and our dad Clint. So the MacRoy guys. But he's not a narth. Don't worry. He's a cool dad. He's sitting backward in his chair.

I'm cool, man. Yeah. I don't know if your parents have ever told you about the Avengers zone or your guardian or whatever. But that's this. And we're going to do a story just for you to hang out with them and everybody to have fun together. Now, what does that mean? We're going to try to avoid profanity. Now, that's interesting, kid.

I should mention. Why did you say try, Justin? I don't like that there's a low level commitment there. I will try. Our editor Rachel will succeed in not letting there be any profanity in here. I gotta say, kids, I'm really excited. I'll be honest with you, I cuss in front of my kids. So I don't know.

I feel like I'm living kind of a glass house double standard. I do not. And I've got both of them just to the sides of my desk. They are watching me like fleshy statues that look a lot like me. I've never cussed in my entire life. But this isn't going to be boring. It's going to be fun. Yeah.

Okay, what about, what about minced oaths? Minced oaths. Who? Okay, I would like to ask a favor. Darn is okay. Darn is okay? I would like to, I would like to not say darn. What about Shucky Darn?

Absolutely not. Ding dang it. Oh, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be hearts. I'm gonna be sick from all this profanity. So I'm gonna start from the beginning. So when we were discussing what, was going to come after Taz versus Dracula. Which is not for you, kids.

That one's got, that one's rated. I mean, unless you're awesome. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, very cool. And so part of the discussion that we kind of got to was like choosing a thing because I wanted to run the next one. I think it was Justin who was like, you need to think about like what's the thing that makes complete and total sense

that you would be the one like telling the story and that it just is a perfect fit. And for a while now, I've had running segments on my brother, my brother, and me about abnables, which is my term for primarily it was like the late 80s, then through the 90s and early 2000s different TV shows that were like animals with muscles in places they should not be. So beginning with Teenage Meen Ninja Turtles in like 1987 and then you had like street sharks and biker mice from Mars. In my head, it's always like, I always think about animorphs, because I always think about if animorphs got stuck halfway through. You know what I mean? Like, if the animorphs got stuck. And they also all skateboarded and ate hot dogs. If you sneeze mid-morph, you get stuck in the morph.

A lot of people don't know. Yeah. Now, for me, the term animal is kind of expanded beyond just like street sharks by your way. I mean, I think it fringes into like dark green duck area a little bit, tailspin. I would say there's areas of like toxic avenger cartoon that's in there, which was a wild. By the way, wild call. Yeah, there in the 90s. Basically, and you'll see this in animals where we have it broken down into three categories of like animals that kind of evolved rapidly, like your ninja turtles, people that mutated with animals, like street sharks, battle toads, that kind of thing.

And then you have like aliens, which both includes like other planets or like fantasy, other dimensions kind of things, like your gargoyles. And I want to say Cowboys and Moons. No, Biker Marse from Mars is right. They're from Mars where it's just a planet where they are that. And in discussing that, like in talking about it, it also then just made complete sense to try to embrace the kind of Saturday morning cartoon feel of it. which is where that concept comes from. And if that's the case, why not make it so, like, everyone can listen and maybe not be embarrassed that you're listening to it while you drive your kids to school?

No, no, no. Oh, hold on. Wait, we can't promise that. You may still be embarrassed to listen to this show. We are, I think, in our peak cringe era, it feels right to me. And so, like, you'll be embarrassed by it, but it won't be, like, you can play it for your friends at church. Now, I also can't promise that, Griffin, because I have piqued my cringe so many times. And, like, just in the last decade and a half, I don't know how much more cringy I can be, personally.

Sure. And there might be complicated moral, morality things. Maybe you shouldn't play for your friends at church. Yeah. Yeah, you get it. So no cursing. No Satanism. Well, now hold on.

We're going to have a very positive Christian message in this one. Can't promise that either. Skibbitty. Skibbity, Ohio. We started with that concept and made up a rule set. Let's see, who do we want to start with when we discuss? We'll kind of go over the rules a little bit when we go through the character sheets. But let's start with Griffin.

All right. Well, for this season of the Adventure Zone, Abnambimals, I will be playing Navy SEAL. He is a seal. He is big boy. Ocean Commando and former member of the Royal Seals, an all seal-based team of heroes. He is not, nor has he ever been, an active duty service member of our armed forces. This is something he must make very clear anytime he is introduced. Maybe it's just his color, right?

Navy is the color of sort of his armor that was his assigned color in the royal seals. However, he was not aware that that is a type of like army guy. And so, or I guess Navy guy. And so he did, there were accusations of stolen valor that were placed at his feet that led to his, his removal from this honorable animal hero team. Well, did he start life as a seal or a person? Um, I think he started life as a seal. I think it would be weird if he was a person first and then got turned into a seal. Okay. So he evolved rapidly. Yes. To this anthropomorphic seal person. Got it. Yes, that's right. Um, so yeah, he's a Ross seal, which is a very round type of seal. Uh, big bug eyes, big bulldog sort of flappy mouth, uh, big beefy, well, blubbery body. Uh, he's got to big suit of sort of future armor. On the scale of shirtpants, both or neither, I think he's both, but I also think that it leaves

little to the imagination. Okay, so it's a scanty both. A scanty armor. He also has a signature item, which is a mechanic in the game that Travis has devised, that he uses a lot, which is basically like the flood pack from Super Mario Sunshine. It's a sort of double-barreled hydro blaster jetpack that he can use for sort of propulsion or spray combat purposes. Yeah, or just like, I don't know, if somebody is, well, it's saltwater. I was going to say if they're thirsty, but you wouldn't want that.

I bet he's got a filter that he can slap on there. A brita. A brita that he can mix in there. And, yeah, he's sort of the heavy. of the group I'm imagining. Sort of the Raphael, but without all the baggage. A non-toxic Raphael.

A non-toxic Raphael. Your kids can eat this Raphael and you don't even have to worry about it. It's not recommended. There's not a lot of vitamins in it, but they're not going to get sick. No Mr. Yuck sticker on this Raphael. Yeah, you know, in a bit of a career slump,

was riding high with the Royal Seals, but is sort of in a rebuilding phase with this new rag-tag abnimal. So the way that the signature item works is anytime you attack with something or attack in general, you have 2D8 of attack. But if you're attacking with your signature item, it's a 3D8 attack. This is a very eight-based system. Yes, correct. There's 3D8s that we roll to determine success or failures.

More 3D8s means more chances for success. So your signature item helps you to do that. So then we have two sets of kind of specials. specialization and skills. You have your abs skills and your animal skills. And abs is anything that you have learned in training or, you know, educated yourself on. You got to train abs. You got to train abs.

You don't just get abs. Right. You earn abs. And that's how you remember. This stuff you earn. Yeah. You earn your abs. And the animal is anything.

In the hall, in the church, in the iron church. Yes, thank you. And then animal skills or animal moves or anything that is inherent to the. the species that the, the player character is. Yes. Ross Seals have this cool thing where they can make these insane noises with

their, with their, you know, neck stuff that they have on inside. They just make like crazy. With their neck stuff? No, that's what I don't care about the noise part, Griffin. Could you not think of throat and like vocal cords? I guess. I guess that's what I was thinking of. They have these

vocalizations they can do to like communicate long, long distance. So that's one of the help come in handy. Yes, that falls under the skills to pay the bills. Unlike regular TT RPGs, everybody can, you know, check for a thing or lift up a thing or do that stuff, right? But each character has like special skills that are related to kind of their abilities and their animal, which are the skills to pay the bills. So Griffin, what is Navy SEALs, ABS skills to pay the bills? Abbs skills hydro-propulsion with his splash pack.

He also has a skill called bulky boy. That just means he's been to the gym a lot and he's hard to knock down. And then on the animal side, siren song, he's got this crazy loud voice he can do stuff with and bug-eyed. Because, man, look at a picture of a raw seal. These are good dudes and their eyes are huge and crazy-looking. Excellent. Yeah. And we'll talk all about what those do when they come up in the game.

And finally, as far as specialization goes, each character has Mondo moves. And these are moves that are conditional. If blank happens, then you can do blank. And once again, they're broken into abs and animals. What are Navy SEALs? So, abs moves? Yes, he has an abs move called torpedo, where if he is submerged in water, he can launch himself at an enemy at tremendous speed, closing large gaps and dealing

a bunch of damage that is facilitated by his splash pack. And then there is on the animal side, blubber shield, which lets me take damage for an adjacent friend. Or I also have baby doll eyes, which is that if me or one of my teammates fails a diplomatic role of some sort, I can bat my huge adorable eyes to try and repeat the role. They're really good. Oh, yeah. Oh, man.

He's a good voice. Oh, my gosh, so cute. Griffin, do you have a stolen valor kink or is it just like an unrealized path in your life that you never went down? It is, I think specifically, it's just about the Navy, I guess. Like, I've never wanted to be, that's not my life. But I think I look at the Navy. It could be, huh? I look at the Navy and I'm like, they've got a lot of great ideas over there.

They're cooking with, and I'm just talking about sort of aesthetically. Like, that's my aesthetic. This is the thing about that also the Navy can't be problematic. because they're just following orders. And they're just... You feel like you can't be bad at this. It's not Army, right? Army is like, we go into your place

and we like mess it up and we do like all kinds of wild stuff. People have some thoughts about... Navy, we're just a bunch of boat friends on the beach having a great time. And we should make it clear. We don't know anything about the Navy. I don't know anything.

Well, now, wait, man. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We have maritime blood. Oh, my God. Go back to the Titanic. Pursor Thomas Macquarie. I thought it was Herbert. Herbert.

Herbert. Herbert. Herbert. I just had a great idea. We should have a swear jar, an actual swear jar, that we have to put money in. And then at the end of the season, whoever has swearing the least gets all the money. I don't want your guys dirty swear money. I want to donate it somewhere.

No. Yeah, I will donate it. Well, that's bad because that incentivizes swearing. That's true. That'll be our fun drive bonus. I'm doing for the kids. There's all the swears we cut out all in one long track. And then like any good, you know, rule system, there is advancement that is based off of, like, when you score a perfect attack or when you fail a role or all those kinds of things, points that up, you can spend them.

But once again, we'll get into that as we go. Dad, tell me about your character. My character is Roger Muir. he is primarily a spy. He's a cow. Yes, okay, yes. He is like an master of infiltration. Well, he thinks he's a master of infiltration.

He's a charlese's cow, C-H-A-R-O-L-A-I-S. He's all white. Oh, wow. Oh, this is a beautiful animal. Oh, my God. You guys have chosen beautiful. Beautiful animals. Isn't he beautiful?

So furry, like wildly fur, like fuzzy furry. He does look like they got a perm. Yeah. He has like a two black circles around his eyes, almost like a bandit mask. Okay. And when he does his infiltration, he covers that with a white domino mask. So he can blend right into any situation. Where it's all white and very bright.

Knowing. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's kind of an Arctic cow. This guy looks like a sheep who got huge, like, really went to the gym and got freaking huge. A sheep who made a wish on a Zoltar machine or something. Exactly. Roger is very fond of his hair and uses that because he's, he's kind of, again, thinks he's a master of disguise. Now, he's an alien. from another galaxy. He was in a different abnimal type group

and they're all... The Barnyard All-Stars. The Barnyard All-Stars. And they were all very jock-oriented, very sports-oriented. And Roger loves the dance. His usual cover

is as a competitive ballroom dancer. And so all of his skills and moves are basically a derivative of dance. Hey Justin, I got that and I love it. It's very good. There's going to be a lot of that, guys.

A lot of it. Oh, yeah. Quick question, GM. Yeah. Is this in all animals world? Is it GM or GR? Because you said Game Runner. What's your term?

You got to make a good thing. Yeah, what do you prefer? You made this game. Master Travis? No, that's not it. No, that sucks. I think game, game, zookeeper? Zookeeper's pretty cool.

Hmm. Zeeke. Hey, you know what? Zika is, is, is Aliki to remember. Yeah, I'm going to go as Zookeeper. ZK. Okay, ZK, listen, is this in all animals world? No. So this is more in line with, uh, there are a lot of animals and a lot of teams, uh, ever since the convergence. Yeah. Um, but primarily the citizens of River City are still human. I need a guarantee right now. from all of us that we will not kiss any humans.

We will not have a Sonic the Hedgehog or Gargoyles-esque sort of intra-species romance arcs. Like, cut that off for your fellow players, Griffin. But yeah, that would be icky. So if you guys want to, no, I don't want to start with that energy. Anybody can kiss anybody they want to as long as essential. No, don't be cutting into Rogers' arsenal here. I mean, okay.

You just don't want dad kissing my characters, and that's fine, Gervant. That I get. I understand that completely. If there's any animal, babes. Yeah, okay. Nice. So, Roger's an alien, was with the Barnyard All-Stars, is no longer with the Barnyard All-Stars. Cool.

Tell me about Roger's signature item. His signature item is called the cattle prod, and there are these little metal caps that fit on the tips of his horns and they act like a taser. They can shock. I love that. I love that. But you have to like punch your head into an enemy to use it? It has to get pretty close to them.

Yeah. Has to get pretty close. Can you hack with them? I don't know if our team has a hacker. Hmm. We'll see. That's for future development. Yeah, I guess so future development.

The thing about the Abnimal's Rule set is intentionally very flexible and very flexible. and vague, because I don't know if you guys have watched any of those references I made earlier recently, but they're not very physics and science driven, so I'm not super worried about it. His skills, he is a master of of Mu-Tai, which is a bovine fighting style. So he can use his hind legs to front kick or side

It can use his front legs to block or jab. Awesome. You've really thought this out. Which is mechanics? Yeah. Which is back to X and which is math to A, dad. I need to make sure I have to come those. And then L2 is sidekick.

And then his other abs. Pull all together. He deploys his udders and he does his utter blast. It comes in utter bad now. I'm checking the others. Justin, I don't want to. Listen, Justin, I don't want to get too far into Calvians. biology. That's why he has to press all the buttons, Travis, let's leave it at that.

Oh, it's a special combo that makes him suddenly have an utter. Yes, it's utter madness. It's not utter normal. Utter madness. Oh, I'm stealing that, yeah. His other skill is counterfeit. He can speak most animal languages and imitate each one of them perfectly. I don't like that one. Uh, animal skills. I don't like animals having other languages. I don't like count counterfeit. Oh, just the pun itself. I feel like we should limit him to one for character.

Now they're all. Hey Justin, dad's fully embracing this and I'm loving. Okay. Bada, blah, blah. I'm so sorry. Now tell me by your animal skills. Yeah. Uh, prehensal power.

Uh, where he can use his tail like a whip or a somewhat short rope for like binding somebody. I love that. And C. Now, hold us. Now wait one second. You can use your tail to bind somebody. But then they're just like on you at that point?

Yeah. Tide to your butt. Yeah, right next to those hind kicking legs. Oh, cool. Okay. Come on. I thought this out, baby. I thought this out.

It sounds like it. And his other animal skill is CH4U, where he burps a clobst. of methane gas, which can be very disorienting, and is most effective up close, like if he's interrogating somebody's face. Burbs in somebody's face, it's a cloud of methane gas. What is his carbon footprint? How much of the current sort of climate crisis do you think Roger Moore is kind of like solely responsible for?

A lot of it? I think like 9% of it. 9%? That's a lot for you. much, dad. In defense of the world. I mean, you know. You have to destroy the world sometimes to fix it.

Yes. It should be clear just because it just occurred to me. Roger is a member of the, or former member of the Barnyard All-Stars. All the Barnyard All-Stars are not cows. It's a world of various barnyard animals with different sets of skills and everything. Which three of your Mondo moves are you starting out with?

I think I'm going to start with Huangobango tango. Okay. When somebody grabs Roger or attempts to grab him, he can countergrab that opponent and put them into a disorienting spin. Love that. And then I think I really think I want to go with the night fox trot. Okay.

When he hears a techno beat, he can do a fluid acrobatic tumbling dance like the French dude in Oceans 12. Yep. It's on the sheet. It's right there on the sheet. You got that on the sheet. Yep. It's so wild that.

Now, originally there was a misprint where dad missed I said the Grinch dude from Ocean's 12. And it took me way too long to figure out he meant French dude. You remember when Jim Carrey stole all that art? And then the animal move. I'm going to do is a scourge of the China shop, which in close quarters, he whirls around like a dervish and wrecks everything. Okay. And that's Roger last minute and least.

Justin, introduce us to your creation. Hey, I'm playing a character named Axo Lyle, and he's an extreme firefighter and Axelotl. he's both. Now, Justin, I do need you to... Some people can be two things. No, that's great. I love that. What makes...

He really can't have it all. Okay. Extreme firefighter was a thing I needed to ask you about when you told me you wanted to be... Yeah, so an extreme firefighter is someone who, like a firefighter fights fires. Yeah. And if you need to fight a fire in a situation that is otherwise dangerous, you call in extreme firefighters. So if there's a fire in an airport, firefighters, if there's a fire

in an airplane, extreme firefighters. Do you understand me? You couldn't expect regular firefighters to like, they're like the SWAT team of firefighters, basically. I love it. Okay. So they're all used to like extreme environments, extreme conditions, extreme action and invention of excitement. Yeah. Okay. And did Axel Lyell start as an action? Axelotles, he mutated, right? Yes. Well, I didn't have to invent anything for axolotl's guys. They are wild.

But did he start human, I guess is what I'm asking. No, he started as a regular pet axolotl that his owner read on Reddit that you could inject iodine into them to force them to metamorphize, even though that is not something that happens in the wild. There's experimentation with that. So he actually accidentally gave him cosmic iodine. Oh, man. Which his father had at the house from his experiments. Yeah. And the cosmic iodine transformed him into the extreme firefighter, Axel Lyle.

Excellent. I feel foolish because I realize I'm the only one that didn't think about how did my guy become a superpowered bipedal seal man? I didn't think about that. It's just that's... Well, it's part of the convergence. And we'll not cover what that is. Well, the convergence is the catch-all term for the two-week period where suddenly a lot of animals suddenly existed. Cool.

Yeah. Like, for a while, there was only the one set, the Greenback Guardians, who started in the 80s, because they ate some microwave lettuce, right? We can't, right. We can't. Well, it's got to be organic. They don't deserve all of it at once. You got to lift the skirt up slowly. Now, Axolayo, you mentioned the metamorphosizing because Axolio was formerly a member of amphibophores.

Right, absolutely. That was his last home after he, I mean, he's always on call as a volunteer extreme firefighter, and that's something that is tricky. Is that work can sometimes call him away at an opportune moments. He was with the amphibophoress before this team. But it eventually got weird for him because he was the only one that didn't actually naturally. morph because axolotlottles will do that naturally. They could. They just don't. They're really weird. As an adult you mean? Uh-huh. Yeah.

They don't, they don't metamorphosis. They don't go through metamorphosis, but if you give them iodine, they will, there's come something new. No biggie. Just like real Pokemon. It's weird. They're wild. Are you hoping that he has teeth? He does not. There's no teeth. I wasn't hoping

that, Justin. That was not I had no investment emotionally in it whatsoever. So you're telling me, the axolotols transform into adult salamanders with an injection of iodine. They never become fully mature salamanders in the wild. Yes, this is what I'm telling you. That is the wildest animal fact I've maybe ever heard. There's, oh, okay, let's, uh, they, they're only in one place. South America?

No, it's Lake Zoshimilko, Sochimilku. it's in a Mexico City. It's the only place they are, and they're canals around that area. They're just there. They're wild. No teeth. My powers are based on the axelotel. Well, before we get to that, I want to hear about your signature item, Justin. It's a hatchet, man. It's a hatchet man?

It's called hatchet man. In the amphibarce, the guys all had named weapons that they loved, and they would be like, so what's up with the hatchet? And I'm like, it's not a weapon. It's a tool to hatchet. And I use it for extreme firefighting. But what's its call? What's its story? And I would keep telling him, it's just a hatchet, man.

It's just a hatchet man. And then eventually they're like, Axelile, it never goes anywhere without Hatchet Man. I see. So I eventually just had to go with it. They just started calling it Hatchet Man. Okay. Tell us about your abnimal skills, your abs skills to pay the bills. Yes.

Okay. So Axelyle has some of his ab skills that are from his time as an extreme firefighter, like extreme exfiltration. When a structure or environment is in danger of destruction, I have a practiced sense of the best path of escape. I have extreme hiding because I can use camouflage to hide in the environment. That's just axoladdles though. But I've practiced that skill to where I can use it because it's not like perfect. It's not invisibility. It's like a, it's something that I've had to learn how to do. It's also not natural to me. My last abs skill is another one that requires a lot of focus and concentration because axolotls have gills and they also have lungs

and they only use their lungs sometimes if they feel like it so i can manually activate my lungs to help me breathe in challenging environments rather than just relying on my gills yeah um of course my animal skills are limb regeneration uh and man i was going to ask how often that's going to come up, but given the history of the adventure zone, every four episodes or so, someone gets something. Somebody loses an arm, yeah. Yeah, you want to know something? I'm going to switch these two.

I think extreme hiding should be animal and anything's a drum should be abbs. I'm going to switch those two. Anything's a drum is he's exceptionally skilled at improvising melee weapons in his environment, since he does not have a weapon that he carries with him. he is he's very adept at like finding melee weapons in in the environment what is his hatchet man if the tool it's a tool baby stop calling me baby yeah it's a hatchet man twice now and one it's twice in one show you call for baby it's gotta stop he's my thing he's ear i think he's getting into kind of

a roger moore kind of like hey baby i was inspired by um Teenage Ninja Turtles, the movie, where they keep their weapons on their bat the entire movie, they never take them out. They're literally just there the whole time. They don't use them. So you'll see them, like, get sausage links at one point and use those as nunchucks.

It's like, dog, you have nunchucks. Yeah. You have them. Yeah, but the shell makes it really hard to reach back there. The arms are so little, yeah. Tell me about your Mondo moves as Axelio. Okay, my Mondo moves.

I have nocturno sense in a darkened environment and when not an active peril Lyle can use sound and chemical detection to understand more about his environment and enemies, etc. But that doesn't work in danger and it doesn't work when it's bright.

It's only when it's dark because it's exceptional in the dark. This is an animal move. It's called Don't Look at Me. If Lyle loses multiple limbs at once, he can regrow them. But the noises he makes in the process, are so embarrassing, he's unable to continue

fighting opponents who've hurt it. Mm-hmm. And that's a power? If I lose one in a fight, okay. If I lose more than one, I have to lay down and grunt in a way that is, I can do it. I can come back from that, but I can't keep fighting. Uh-huh. Because it's too embarrassing. What's the use case

for, I guess if you're in a fight, you lose a bunch of lambs? Okay, truthfully, I wanted to use my mono move as a way of like creating a limiting factor around my ability to regrow limbs. Because I didn't want it to be a thing where I'm always, young axolotls will eat parts of their brothers and sisters for energy. Yeah. Because they know it's just going to grow back. NBD.

So it's like not even a big deal. Got too. Cool, man. Wow. Axelotles are horrifying and beautiful. Oh, sexy. That's the only thing about Lyle is like, he's like really sexy. and cool. In a rugged way?

In every way. Whoa. Okay. Once again, my character's also, my character's also sexy. I've encountered this playing with a bunch of different teams, not just us. I didn't know you could just do that. No, he's the hunk, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, darn it. I'm going to say, I'm willing to accept. That's pretty sexy, you guys.

Listen, I don't want to force this on you guys. If each of your characters wants to assume they're the hunky one, I'm on board with that. Let me make a suggestion because we will have younger people listening. I hope. Let's just make a rule that none of us say the word sexy again. That was the last one, actually. That was the last one. Can we say honky? I don't think we even need to talk about it.

Okay, cool. Hello, Internet. I'm your husband host, Travis McElroy. And I'm your wife host, Teresa McElroy. And this is a promo for Schmanor's. It's extraordinary etiquette. Ordinary occasions. Every week, we're going to tell you about a bit of culture, a bit of history,

how etiquette still applies in the modern day, all that stuff. We also love to do biographies and histories of and, you know, general procedurals. How to do etiquette in today's society. So come check it out every Friday on maximum fun.org or wherever you find your podcasts. Manners Schmanners, get it? My name's Doug Dugay and I'm here to talk about my podcast in the middle of the one you're listening to. It's called Valley Heat and it's about my neighborhood, the Burbank Rancho Equestrian District, the center of the world when it comes to Fuzball, Frisbee Golf, and High School.

speed freeway roller skating. And there's been a jaguar parked outside on my curb for 10 months. I have no idea who owns it. I have a feeling it's related to the drug drop that was happening in my garbage can a little over a year ago. And if this has been a boring commercial, imagine 45 minutes of it. Okay, Valley Heat, it's on every month on maximum fun.org or wherever you get podcasts. Check it out, but honestly, skip it. So that's the characters, and we'll learn everything about them, I'm sure, as we play on. The world that we'll be playing in is River City, USA, time now. The convergence has led to there are quite a few abnambemals teams throughout the city. We already mentioned the Royal Seals, amphibaphores, barnyard all-stars. There's other notable ones like the Dragon Writers and code named Bird, of course Unicorn, the Mercantial, Unicorn group. We'll get more into it as we go and talk about all those teams, but primarily this is still, you know, human population. But that said, at this point, abnals are such a common kind of

occurrence that these aren't like hidden from site scientists most not know we exist level. So you guys don't need to worry about like going out during the day or talking to people or anything like that here in the city. In fact, maybe the biggest entrepreneur, the guy who owns anything that's River City First Blank is owned by Walter Russell, who is a half man, half walrus. He owns River City First Bank, River City First News, all these different places. So he's well-known. Abdomals are not hidden here. There's also surprisingly very diverse environments, Biums here in River City. Part of the town is a swamp.

Part of the town is a desert. Everybody's comfortable here. Seaside? Seaside City. Oh, yeah. Seasine. With a long river, as the name would denote, running through the center of the city to the sea. So we even get a little bit of like marshland there in the delta where it meets.

Varied, varied, you would say. It's a varied, incredibly varied. Ballrooms? Are there ballrooms? Of course there's ballrooms. Don't worry. Don't worry. Don't you worry, in our many beautiful hotels.

The admiral's presence began in the 1980s when the Greenback Guardians came on the scene, and they were the only ones for a long time. But then they mysteriously disappeared in 2004. One day they were there, one day they weren't. But also by that point, they'd cleaned up a lot of the town. Their main opponent, Dr. Kildef, had actually at that point gone into politics, and I think by that point had made mayor. He would later become governor and then retire.

But they disappeared in 2004. The convergence happened in 2010, six years later, at which point there are a whole bunch of new abnambinels teams on the scene. As far as when you guys actually joined the kind of abnormal scene in River City, that's up to you. But my question now is how recently were you all removed or quit your team? your previous team, I should say. I would say Navy SEAL's sort of excommunications pretty fresh. I would say it's probably been just sort of a couple months. He is very much in the rebuilding face of his life and career.

Is there a new seal on the team to replace you? Yes. What's their color? Hmm. Don't lie. Yeah. Come on. Fuchsia.

Tell the truth, Gryphi. Fuchsia. Fuchsia. And I hate him. I hate his guts. That's got hurt. And Royal Seal is led by Golden Seal, who is the Seal Prince. I hate his guts, too.

Oh, okay. Because he booted you? Yeah. Okay. Cool, man. What about Roger? Roger, when did you leave or removed from the Barnyard All-Stars? I think Roger's been out for a long time.

He's pretty much a lone wolf. I mean, he's a competitive dancer. Yeah, alone, that was in quotes. I think he's been out for a long time. And, you know, especially since he's been establishing this cover as a competitive dancer, you know, he's going to try to make it on his own, going from partner to partner, trying to, you know, set up this whole cover identity as a competitive dancer.

I think he's been out for a long time. And I think he's got quite the reputation. really establish this cover. What about you, Axelisle? I'm not sure I'm out. I haven't gotten a call from him in a long time, but it was always kind of like a, you call me in when the situation merits.

I always felt like I was kind of on the fringes anyway. So when they would call, it's just gotten like more and more sporadic. I'm not 100% that I'm out. What was the, like, you're not in it anymore? What was the normal length of time between calls and how long has it been since they last called you? It's usually about two to three weeks, I would say, is the typical.

And how long has it been since they last called you? 13 months. It's been 13 months, but they, I don't know, you know, things change. Maybe there just haven't been any fires lately. There just haven't been any fires. It has been really rainy. Yeah, yeah, okay. How long have the three of you been operating as kind of a team?

Four days. Do you see yourself as a team? Oh, interesting. What'd you say, Griffin? Four days. Classically, I feel like two of us would know each other and then we'd meet the third one. Doesn't that feel, that feels right, right? I think given the proximity of our biomes, it feels like Axelile and Navy Seal have probably run into one another.

Okay, I like that. At some of the wet parties, which is parties that. sort of the ocean and river animals throw. Okay, you know what a wet part is. Implied. It was obvious. It was very clear from the words, Griffin. You painted a picture. And I don't think the Venn diagram has a lot of crossover with Roger. I mean, while and Navy don't really seem like the followers of competitive dance. I don't know.

We are of a similar build, though. We probably go to a gym specifically for big boys. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe that's true. Okay. I like that connective tissue. Yeah, that's good. We go to, we shop it like the, whatever the animal equivalent of big and tall, like animal warehouse is. River City. River City first close for big boys.

Yeah, exactly. Okay. So was it that you two, Lyle and, Lyle and Navy started working together, and then we're like, we need to, no pun intended, rope in a third? Yeah. There were some underwater fires that maybe we had to deal with. That feels... Oh, that's extreme.

Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty extreme. Fire and a sub. Yeah, underwater fire, regular firefighters are not ready for underwater fire. No. That doesn't even exist. They're like freaking out. There were these billionaires who did a deep sea sub exploration, and there was a big fire, and it made the news.

But in this universe, we got it, folks. Yeah. In this universe, no problem. I love that. We got there. And was it that something about in order to reach the thing, you needed some like spy infiltration skills? And you're like, I know a guy. We'll bring him in.

I know a guy at the gym. I know a guy at the gym who says he's pretty sneaky. Yes. We had to sneak into the ocean. It was shark territory. Oh boy. We didn't mess with them. Yeah, I would imagine that the Royal Seals have a lot of issues with the sharks.

Surprisingly, it's actually killer whale. Maybe it was the orca. Oh, there you go. The Orcaization. The Orcaization. That's very good. Very good. So you guys did this Undersea rescue.

It was successful. That is so important. Yeah. I don't think we got much acclaim, though, because I don't. think that billionaires would want this to come out and so I don't think that this is like a and then we became famous Yeah, the situation

But it was, it went well enough that the three of you were like, maybe we do like another and see how it goes and maybe keep. I think I think we realized that the problem with all the groups is that they're so specialized. Yes. You know

what I mean? That's the problem with a lot of these guys it's like if you have a frog problem, you know what I mean? But what if it's a problem that, like, requires a lot of different approaches? Exactly. You know what I mean? A lot of different skill sets that aren't so targeted. You know what I mean?

I think we all are sort of in between our specialities. You know what I mean? We're not not hemmed in. And a lot of teams won't allow there to be too big boys. Like a lot of teams are like, we have our big boy. We have our little guy. But us, there can be overlap. Well, a lot of in this world, right, because the.

Greenback Guardians were, they became kind of the template for these things, right? So it was like, okay, so if you mutate, if you evolve, right, if you're an alien with this species, you're going to join this group because that's where the other ones are. So it's also not like necessarily chosen. It's not like, ah, we work together the best. It was like, well, we're all seals. So. Right.

Yeah. It's just like, it's so short-sighted. Yeah. Yeah. And Roger doesn't really see himself as a big boy. I think Roger sees himself as the agile. I mean, comparatively, you may be. Because we didn't really cover this, I feel like in the character setup, but I do think it's worth saying, at least for me, like, Axelile is also very strong and tough. Yeah, we didn't really, like, that's implied for all of us, right?

Well, that once again goes kind of with the animals theme where they're all giants and BB and they're like, and he's the strong one. I'm like, what are you talking about? And it's like, he's the best one at fighting. It was like you all fight the exact same way. Yeah. So you guys haven't been together long, right? No, we're maybe looking at- No, I think we're still learning, learning.

Okay. But you're not new to the scene, right? You guys were all in these other teams. Right, exactly. So a lot of it is like learning to work together, learning, like, how your skills fit and stuff like that. Okay, well, I think we've covered a lot of stuff, and, you know, in the next episode,

we'll be doing, like, an actual, like, episode and story and stuff. But the last thing I wanted to cover before we went, what's your guys, like, radical favorite food. So to recover your hit points, you'll need to eat something radical. It doesn't necessarily have to be your favorite food, but of course you would prefer it to be.

So what is your character's like favorite radical food? Sushi. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks. Is there like a specific kind? Philadelphia roll. No. Philadelphia roll.

I don't think there's fish in that one. I think that's just cream cheese and onions, isn't it? Cream cheese and onions. I don't think so. I'm pretty sure. Maybe there's imitation crab stick in there. Smoked salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber. That's it.

And sometimes made with imitation crab instead of salmon. No, I really don't think he is. I don't think he's picky. Does he go spicy, any spicy mail in there? Absolutely. Cannot handle spicy food. He doesn't do spicy food. Okay.

Cannot handle spicy food. I'm going to write that down. I'll remember that. What about you, Roger? What kind of extreme food? food does Roger prefer? Mooseley. I said extreme food.

No one's ever like, oh, yeah, dude. He slapped me some of that. Musley, brother. Musley. Mooseley. Come on. No, we get it, but it's just so much extreme food imaginable. You just, you picked it because it had mooing it.

You can put anything. You can put anything in Musley. You could put fruit. You could put vegetables. It's still basically granola. You can put anything in anything, Dad. That's how things work. Like how old is.

I should be stream. Okay. Musley. Can I hang it louder and longer? It doesn't make it extreme, dad. It makes sense. Okay, put an X at the end of it. Musley X.

Okay, now wait. Hold on. We're getting somewhere with Musley X. Yeah. Because the idea. Musley X. Musley X is like a scientifically engineered special musli that dad has to get from the cops or something. Well, and he has to get from the cops or something.

And it's what keeps him able to live on this planet. I love that. If he doesn't eat Musley, he dies. Yeah. Musley X. If he doesn't eat Musley X, if he doesn't eat Musley X, then he can't breathe the atmosphere. Okay, yes, I love this.

Live on the planet. Provided by Barker Innovations is the kind of scientific. Guys, there is not a picture of Musley that exists on the internet that makes it look good. Yeah. It all looks like. It serves its purpose, Griffin. That's Musley's whole thing. It's there.

I don't think he... I didn't say he likes it. Yeah. He needs to eat it to live. It makes him poop now. Just with the amount of roughage. No, no, no. Roger has four stomachs.

Roger... His ability to digest is amazing. That's three. That's the third time the dad has called me baby in this one episode of sky. No, that was the royal baby. That was the baby of the...

I didn't think that was directed at you, Griffin. But we're going to have a swear jar and a baby jar. And Justin, finally, Lio, what's Lio's favorite radical food? Well, I, uh, axlottles have a, have an important place in, in the Aztec culture. So I thought I'd honor that with chocolate. The guy's wild about chocolate. Oh, yeah, baby. I love that.

Oh, see, I just said, baby, I'm so sorry, everybody. What's happening? What's happening? Stop it. Everybody. Stop it. I don't know what's happening. It can't not have been a problem for 11 years,

and then one episode it's a problem for everybody all at once. I don't know what's happening. I love an adult. All right, toddler. I think it's great. All right, so that I think. They grow up so fast. They grow up so fast.

I think that's a great starter on all of our characters. We're going to be back with actual episode next. But here at the end, a special treat. We wanted to play for you our theme song for Abner. Written by Eric Neer in conjunction with Justin McRoy, and performed by Jonathan Colton. With additional lyrics by Jonathan Colton. With additional lyrics by Jonathan Colton. So please enjoy the Abinamels theme.

And we'll be back with the next episode. We'll see you then. In spite of what you have heard, we're at the height of our powers at top the tallest and towers to stay. You'll never stop us now. Take my hand that you trust. That's like to play. The friend of a whistle round is long. But our mojo strong

And unless I'm wrong And I'm not We're at the height of our power Maximum Fun A Worker Owned Network Of Artist-owned shows Supported directly by you