The Adventure Zone - Setup - The Adventure Zone: Commitment

Episode Date: October 5, 2017

As we prepare for Season Two of The Adventure Zone, we're going to be doing a handful of short-form, experimental arcs, taking turns running new games and exploring new genres. Our first experiment is a super hero story created by Dad, who's running us through the Fate system! Come learn the basics of the Fate rules, and meet the new characters we'll be playing over the next couple of episodes. 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

Boys are back in town. As if we never left. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Adventure Zone. We're happy to be here. We hope you are, too. We're about to start our first sort of experimental game as we are between seasons, where we're all going to be taking turns, running stuff and playing different games and trying out new genres.

And this time, the person who's going to be in charge is Dad Maceroy. Yay! I wanted to talk briefly about how we came to this, because in a lot of games, say tag, The person who is the best at tag gets to be the new tagger. And I'm curious to what metric we just... What was it in Dad's mastery of Dungeons and this man needs? He needs to move on to a new game because he's mastered this one and let him lead, sort of lead the thing.

From my point of view, Justin, I think it was Dad's turn because out of all of us, he was the only one who was. ready to go. So by default, you could also make the argument that by knowing too many of the rules of Dungeons and Dragons, you may be too deep, it may be harder for you to fluently.

That's it. By being really bad at Dungeons and Dragons. Because he only lightly settles on the lily pad, he's able to jump to the next one so much easier. Daddy has what I like to call an empty old brain. And that's bad for most things,

but for this specific instance, it's good, because you can fill it up with more game rules. It's a good brain. Within the first three weeks of us deciding to go this route, dad was telling us, there's a few of the rules I'm going to tweak, and I'm like, oh, really, Skrill X? You're going to fucking step in and remix this game system rather than... I don't know if it's tweak as much as not no.

Sure. Big thanks to... Evil hat. Evil hat. We had somebody run us through a trial game of this last week. Thank you, Morgan. It was actually... Yeah, thank you, Morgan.

very helpful in sort of helping us understand how how the game is supposed to operate. It was very informative. And I think our first proper episode is going to benefit from that. But that's not this. This is sort of just our episode where we're going to talk about the game and the world and what dad has prepped and we're going to talk about our characters so that when we do actually start playing, we can just kind of step right into it. Well, first, just to start off, I don't think we've said we're playing the fake core system. Yeah, I was hoping dad could like start out with just sort of a surface level discussion of what it is we're going to be playing and why it is that he chose this system and

like what his sort of ambitions are for this little mini arc. Again, these are all going to be pretty short experimental things, probably two or three episodes. So, Dad, what's up? Well, I got a lot of feedback from a lot of folks on social media and actual letters, believe it or not. I don't, but go on. A lot of folks said that if you're looking at...

to do a superhero a game, that this would really lend itself to that. But the most compelling thing to me was in the stuff that I was reading and the stuff I was looking at, it looked like the fate system relies much more heavily on collaboration and

really emphasizes the dramatic angle, almost a theatrical presentation of the action. When it comes to creating characters, you do it together. There's a lot of back and forth and a lot of fluidity, a lot of flexibility involved in it. And it just seemed that a lot of the things that we have done up to this point really leans towards the storytelling, the dramatic.

And it just really appealed to me for that reason. Also, I would say to that point, one of the things, as we've been playing around with it and testing it out, one of the things that... I think you mentioned flexibility. There's a certain elasticity to the rules of fate that's like, you know how sometimes you have that house rule of like, if it's a cool thing, you're allowed to do it? Yeah, exactly.

That's basically one of the core ideas of the fate system. There are these things called aspects that basically they are character traits or traits of the situation or an item. So, for example, you might have a character who is, will of iron, right? They have a will of iron. And so maybe they're trying to cast a spell and there's something that would be distracting them from that spell. You can invoke the aspect will of iron to add like a plus two to your role. Yeah. And where that, where that system, it's really important. If you've never played fate and we are not going to overburden you with like a, you know, comprehensive

explanation. But it's important for you to understand aspects because there's other cool stuff that can happen where anything can have an aspect that will either benefit you or harm you in the future so that if there's a big, you know, a big piece of electrical machinery in the room, one of the players can use their actions to try to, you know, create an advantage for everybody else, maybe by, you know, disabling that piece of machinery or by, like, you know, punching it a whole lot. and then maybe it has the aspect like unstable. And then when it's your turn, you can invoke that aspect to gain a bonus or create some sort of opportunity or create some sort of action. Anything, not just your characters can have aspects. Aspects also come in the form of like injuries to your character. There are things called consequences where if you take too much damage, you have a consequence. And that's an aspect that dad can use against us.

Like, oh, well, because you have, you know, a broken rib, that's one of your consequences. aspects, I'm going to invoke that to, you know, do something bad to you. It's a really, really, really cool, flexible system. And also, a lot of the, a lot of the action comes from skills. There are a number of fairly basic skills that you apply. So when you do have a confrontation, if you are more skilled at, you know, athletics or more skilled at, you know, you know, you know, more skills in physique. It influences the role. The rolls are really kind of cool in fate.

It's fairly simple. You have these dye and you roll them. They either have a plus, a minus, or a blank side on the die. And when you roll the die, if the minuses cancel out the pluses, you accumulate those numbers, and that's your base for any kind of confrontation or something you have to overcome. Your skill points are added to that if it's applicable. And then you also have stunts, which in our case will be superpowers,

since we're going to do a super being, super person storyline. Enhanced individual. Yeah. Enhanced individual. Yeah. So that's very D&D-like, right? That is the main point of familiarity. We are still rolling dice to try to be either sort of static numbers that dad has in mind for different situations or traps.

Or if we are combating somebody, then dad will roll and we will have sort of a skill contest and we want to roll high and we want to add our skills to it. And then if that number doesn't get us there, then maybe we invoke an aspect like we mentioned earlier to try to get us there. There's also a really cool system. So usually if you want to do that, right? Usually if you want to add an aspect to your role, you have to spend what's called a fate point, which we all have limited numbers of. And if you run out of those, you're going to be in trouble, right? Because those give you more flexibility in certain situations.

But you can get them back with something that are called compels. And that basically means, like, I'm going to use an aspect against you or against myself to create a bad scenario for myself. But in doing that, I will get a fate point back. And that's really the only way to get fate points. And what's neat about that is we can suggest them for each other, Dad can suggest them for us. We can suggest them for ourselves.

Like, oh, well, I have the clumsy aspect. So what if, as a compel, like, I trip and fall off the roof? Okay, well, you did that. And because you agreed to do this bad thing, now you have a fate point that you can use later on to, you know, benefit yourself later. So that's the thing is what I really love about this system is the aspects and the, like, there's, like, troubles that you have and the consequences. All of this stuff is both a mechanics.

and a character-building exercise. Sure. So if you think about in the Adventure Zone balance, there were things about our characters that we established, right? That it's like, you know, Magnus Rushes in. But if we had been playing in the faith system, the rushing in would have been an aspect that, like, I could invoke in a battle. Rustic hospitality would be an aspect.

And then if you're talking to somebody, instead of just saying, like, well, I'm rustically hospitable, so I think that they're nicer to me, you invoke that. You use that aspect and maybe if you are doing a rapport role is what they call like one of the main social skills. And it doesn't entirely go your way. You say like, well, I am rustically hospitable. So I'm going to invoke that, have some sort of narrative explanation why it is applicable here. And then I will get the bonus from it. So if you take away one thing from this, we are going to be throwing aspects around a lot. And they are statements about our characters or about the scenario itself that we are going to be trying to use to our advantage or invoking

as a disadvantage when it is like narratively interesting and we'll get benefits from that also. We don't want to overburden you with rules. And I know that probably if you're anything like most humans, hearing a bunch of rules told to you is not very effective. We just kind of want to lay a groundwork because I think as we start playing, it is not a, it's a very intuitive system, I would say. And I think as we start playing, the important parts of this system are going to become obvious. There are, of course, if you're interested, plenty of great, like, super quick tutorials on YouTube or elsewhere. If you just want to get, like, the basics to get a little bit more out of it. But much as we told people who didn't have any familiarity with E&D, I think you're going to be able to enjoy this without understanding the system particularly well.

And you, the listener, will get the enjoyment as you did from balance of listening to a bunch of people who don't know how to play the game, try to play the game. So that's cool. And, hey, if you are an expert in it, all of our sort of social media handles and addresses are public. So if you are an expert in it and we screw something up, keep it to yourself and pipe down. Joking a sec, I think this is really important for people to understand. because this is going to be across the board for all these experiments. It's going to be a little messy. We are not going to have a complete understanding,

and I'm saying that kind of facetiously, of how this game works and how to best play it and how to make the best stuff with it, just because by virtue of the fact that we're new to this and we're only going to be playing it for a few episodes before we move on to another thing. Same goes for the world itself and the characters themselves. We are working really hard to make a cool cast of character

that are going to feel very rich, but we're not going to have that, like, deep lore that comes from 80 hours of us playing together and fleshing this stuff out together. So, like, I would only ask, and I'm not saying, like, don't criticize, this makes us immune to criticism. But treat this, the way we are treating this is as an experiment,

and it is, as by virtue of that, it is not going to be this, like, hugely fleshed out, thing that balance was by the end of it. And that's, that's just not, that's impossible. That's just not going to happen. So, um, I would ask you all to just sort of focus on what works and what doesn't work. And then we will incorporate that into, you know, whatever it is that we do next. So, dad, tell us about the world you have created in the adventure zone, colon commitment. Uh, the colon is very important. Yes. Tell us about colon commitment. It's good colon health. It absorbs all the fluid from your dooky, I think, and that's where it turns, like, you know, brown and stinky.

Whoa, whoa, slow down, Bill and my science, Kai. That's like third arc shit you're getting into right there. You've got to hold off on that. Okay, the basic concept is, I would call it a comic book premise in the sense that it's contemporary, sort of like Marvel Comics, or DC comics are contemporary, okay? Maybe a slight variation on reality, but close enough so that the decisions that you guys make and the choices you make are kind of rooted

in what's going on in the real world. Is it, are we calling it 2017? Like, is it like current day? Yeah, I would say, I would say, yeah. Is it that kind of bullshit thing or it's like present day and then it's like 40 years from now and it still just says present day and people are like, that's not present day? Or is it 2017? It's present day. Oh, no. Okay.

So here's the basic premise. You guys are brand new recruits to an organization called the Do Good Fellowship. And its name is pretty obvious. this is an organization that is dedicated to doing good stuff all across the globe. If there's somebody in trouble, if there's something that's wrong, they aren't a police force or anything like that. They are there to help people in case of a major disaster or things along that line. And they are like a humanitarian organization. Like a humanitarian organization.

Yeah. Okay. Without any real specific ties to government or business, it's actually based on a concept that Ben Franklin created. And that was called the HUNC, Ben Franklin, the first president of the United States. Oh, damn it, he beat me to it. The Hutto was 24 people who got together on a realtor. regular basis and met, and they were just, they weren't special. They weren't, they weren't the richest, they weren't the most powerful. It was just 12 people, I'm sorry, 12 people that got together and

started off every meeting by answering 24 questions. And I'm going to send you guys the 24 questions before we actually get started. But they were all about things like, did you see injustice today? Did you, did you get treated poorly today? And these 24 questions, they were basically to have ideas to try to do what's best for society. And that's what the Do Good Fellowship is kind of a spinoff from. So this is not necessarily a military junta, which is like a completely different thing. No. I want to make that clear.

No, Franklin called it a junto. Honto. Yeah, which was a word he actually made up because the proper form is junta, and this is not a He had a grand slam with news and he got a little cocky. He thought that was pretty cool. He thought he could just start coming up with whatever already wanted. That in this world is the do-good foundation of good, right? Yeah.

Fellowship. Fellowship. Is it actually based, like in canon based off of Benjamin Franklin's concept? Or is that just you have been inspired by that? No, I think it's probably, you know, no, I think it was inspired by Ben Franklin's, Honto. So there's probably a portrait or two of Ben Franklin in the Do Good Fellowship. Okay. Yeah. And in addition to that, also hanging in the Do Good Fellowship, there's a symbol, and I just sent it all to you guys, and I'll put it on Twitter as well. That's kind of a cool, stylized 24 incorporating a question mark. And that represents the 24 questions that they would have at every meeting. I'm just wondering about that. You can see that in our new album art, which is very, very cool and features sort of dramatic artistic takes on some of the ideas that we have for these experiment games. This will be sort of our temporary art while we do these experimental games. And it's, I love how it turned out.

Yeah, that's, Evan Palmer created our new album art that we're using for the foreseeable future, something that would be a little bit more flexible. We love our old art. by Justin Gray, but it was very specific to that campaign, and I think this is a new, new page. So, new art. Okay, so the Do Good Fellowship has always kept the numbers very small, very manageable. You always had 12, I guess you could call them department heads, and that has kept it easy to manage. and so they still maintain the 12 departments. So there are 12 departments represented in the Do Good Fellowship, and each one has a department head. You have security, and that's just sort of like the internal, it's just that.

It's a security operation. You have engineering responsible for any kind of equipment, You have transportation, which gets people to and from the base to the action spots and the places they need to go. You have facilities, which is just that, keeping the facilities up, feeding everybody the day-to-day needs and requirements. You have R&D research and development, which is very important, as we'll find out. It's also information tech, which is the media and information gathering. Also, cybersecurity. They are very, very savvy to all of that.

It'll be interesting to hear Dad role play those characters. Yeah, that's good. They totally know how stuff plugs in and what switches. These superheroes set up their own printer. I need you to help me with Skype, Justin. risk understanding, which is the wing that makes decisions about where to actually send people to deal with things. You also have diplomatics because the fellowship works with all countries and people from all over. Legal, which handles all the legal issues.

Finance, which handles the business and the acquisitions and getting funds. Also, humanity, which is kind of their fancy word for human resources, for making sure people are taking care of. And then one of my favorites is diversity slash inclusion. And this is a wing that is dedicated to making sure that everybody is represented in the decision-making process, to make sure that maybe you don't go to. to the biggest emergency or the biggest conflagration, but you go to the most important. To make sure that everybody has a voice. I got you. Right. Okay. So you have these, each one of these departments has a department head. The fellowship has just had a major technical breakthrough, and they are using that for the next big expansion of the fellowship.

And that is to recruit one person for each department. and using this breakthrough technology, give them super abilities to go out and deal with these situations that are going on all across the planet. And you three are three of the people who have been recruited to be part of this effort. Now, just, I'm not telling you what your characters need to be or anything along those lines, but this is not just a job. This is kind of a calling. Sure.

Everybody is on board really wanting to be part of this organization. So you three are three of the 12 new recruits that are coming in. Let me do one last thing. Let me set the actual scene for you. It takes place on... Smash cut. It takes place on... Wait, I do you want to do.

to touch on something. Can I make a formal request that we encounter the super accountant just as early as humanly possible? Oh, yeah. I am so curious about the super. The super lawyer is going to be one. Super facilities manager. The superhumanities person is the one I'm excited about. It takes place on a gigantic floating base in the middle of Gulf of Mexico. Well, okay, hold on. You've kind of chopped my flavor a little bit. I called, you know, I said I get the only floating giant base. And, you did it anyway, and now I'm all P-Oed. Well, I guess you have to redo your thing. That's why I didn't.

We already, we already fucking did our thing. We'll go back and redo all of it. Adventures don't balance, Dad. I have to have a base. No, it's fine. And it's got to be floating. It's floating in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Oh, it's floating on water.

Yeah. And like 90% of it is below the surface of the water. 10% is like an iceberg. Okay. It's called the Roger. To be, okay, wait, hold on. To be fair, isn't that more of a submerged base then? I mean, 90% of it's below the water, it's not really a floating base.

I mean, it's not touching the ground, so it's... That's fair. Good point, Justin. We're going to have to take a break and discuss this. Imagine a diamond and then three offshoots from each point of the diamond. Okay. So it's almost like, I don't know, like a snowflake or something. It is, it's a huge facility.

each wing, each one of those 12 wings is where one of those departments is. Okay? And they call it the Jolly Roger just because it's research and operations. The do-good rectory is what it stands for. So they call it affectionately

the Jolly Roger. And some people call it the iceberg or the Berg or the Snowflake. Or the Peterberg who directed battleship. So the Berg is kind of what we have agreed to call. Unfortunately it's only going to be called the Berg. Sorry. Yeah, the Berg.

And the Berg. Okay, that works. So that kind of sets the scene for you. I have a question. I have a question just off the top of the head. So it sounds like superpowers are a discovery by this organization. Are we to assume that this is not going to be a sort of comic book story where we are going to be going toe to toe with countless super villains out in the world who have powers and are using them to accomplish bad? I think it is safe to say that, yes.

Okay. I tell you one of the, this is, you know, one of my influences is a 50-year-old comic book series. The Thunder Agents from Tower Comics. And, of course, now this was in the height of spy movies and James Bond, a man from uncle, and Honey West and all these things. And what they did was they introduced superpowers into an, organization, Thunder, T-H-U-N-D-R, and they went out and dealt with these kind of issues. So that was kind of a template for me, because it was one of my favorite comics. You had Wallywood Art, and you had Steve Ditko and Gil Cain and all these great kinds of

comments. I think it's great. The idea of us not following the traditional arc of like, uh-oh, the vultures here. Let's get the vulture, and instead focusing on, like, actual issues. I think it's really fascinating. Do the people, so do the people who are currently in the organization have superpowers? No. Are they worried about us just sort of like taking over it?

Because it seems like that would be a concern if you had 12 people all of a sudden with superpowers, they would want to be in charge. It would be hard to have like my boss really chew me out when it's like, yeah, laser eyes. Yeah, boo! Well, there are certain controls in the giving you the powers. There are certain things that will. That's a good point. But hopefully one of the things that'll happen, while that is a real concern, one of the things that'll happen is everybody's on it on board for the cause. Okay.

Okay. Are we to assume that this technology is fairly new that maybe like the outcomes of this process of giving people's superpowers may not be like 100% well controlled? Exactly. Yeah. And you aren't exactly the first guinea pigs, but this will be the first major implementation of the technology. In addition to the, there's been a lot of biological screening to make sure that your, you know, your bodies are capable, have the capacity to handle this, this augmentation. So it's not just something you can grant upon anybody. There are certain genetic necessities that keep it from being just anybody can.

just get, boom, have superpowers. Well, cool. Should we talk about the characters we have planned? I think that's probably a good next step. Sure. Who wants to, who wants to kick things out? We may also, like, this might be a good time for us to come up with our interpersonal aspects, which I think is an important thing that we just, we have not talked about at all. Correct. So maybe we talk about our characters first, and then we figure out sort of where the dots connect there. Yeah. I, a matter of fact, I think it's important to the story that you guys establish who you are as people, who you before you are augmented, you know, and like we,

we hinted at earlier, aspects are not just positives or they are negatives too. That's what makes interesting storytelling is, you know, the things you have to overcome. Sure. So are we talking about in context of this, are we talking about just our pre, right now, Do we want to talk about our pre-superpower characters? I mean, this was such an important aspect in making them. We should also talk about the power suite that we have in mind for them. Okay. Like, for instance, even though when we start the first proper episode, we will not have those powers yet.

But the aspects don't necessarily have to reflect the powers. You know what I mean? The aspect should reflect who you are as a person. And then we can add an aspect afterwards if it's, something that comes about from the granding of the powers. Okay. Does that make sense? Sure, yeah, for sure.

Who wants to start? I feel like I start every time. Every time we've done character creation. Why don't I start since I've never played a character before. This is my first character. There we go. Yeah. So I was trying to think of, like, what appealed to me in comics.

I don't read a lot of comics, and so I was trying to figure out, like, what I liked. There was a Spider-Man fan comic called Your Friendly Neighborhood Cowboys. Bebop made by an artist named Hannah Blumenreich that I really enjoyed. Spider-Man is probably my favorite superhero, and I like the idea of just like making a sort of acrobatic

physical hero, and that comic is about sort of a Spider-Man who is obsessed with cowboy bebop, which I've also been watching a lot of, so I think those two are probably my biggest inspirations. And I also have been watching a lot of Ninja Warrior

lately, and so that was a big inspiration for me. So like my, my character, the first idea I had was sort of a, um, a cowboy bebop-esque figure who, you know, was this sort of, uh, acrobatic, um, flexible, use their own power against them kind of fighter. Like, cowboy bebop, uh, Spike Spiegel is the name of the character by way of like the wrestler Xavier Woods was sort of my original inspiration. I've made this very inaccessible to my family on this recording. And I apologize. Yep. So, but there's people listening who I think understand where I'm coming from.

So, so my character is, uh, named, uh, Chris Rembrandt, uh, but everybody calls him Remy, is his name. And he was a high school gymnast and he was really good at, at gymnastics. Um, he was, he made it on the 2008 Summer Olympic team. Um, but he missed the games, uh, because shortly before he was supposed to leave, his, uh, his parents, disappeared. And while sort of figuring that out, he missed the games, which he's, you know, still pretty hung up about. And in the wake of that, he, you know, had a hard time. And he has a brother, a older brother. And he sort of came together with him over Ninja Warrior, because his brother is also sort of a gymnast type also, although never as accomplished as Remy was. Um,

And because of that, they had a connection formed over them opening up a Ninja Warrior training gym in intercity here. I didn't know what, like, I didn't know if this would be taking place in a city. And so I kind of envisioned it taking place in that city. But I don't know where it is. So maybe we'll just have to figure that out as we go. So his brother invested, like, all of his money in this gym. And the idea is that Remy would go on the television show Ninja Warrior. and crush it and bring in clients for the gym.

And what happened was the very first obstacle in the qualifiers, Remy, who probably had like a whole package dedicated to him. Like, the Olympic Ninja is here and he's about to plant his flag in the ground. Very first obstacle, he is overconfident and he goes out. And it was a sort of hugely embarrassing and probably for those watching, like, hilarious thing that happened. He kind of embarrassed himself on television. Oh, was it those paddle things?

It was the paddle things. It's like, come on, it's the paddle things. Everybody can clear the fucking paddle things, Remy. And because of that, like, he didn't get clients for the gym, and so the gym is kind of failing. And so he, at that point, I think he just, like, gave up on gymnastics and is so disill- because, like, nothing has gone right in that particular part of his life and started to, you know, find odd jobs to raise money to keep his brother's gym. float and one of those jobs was in IT for this organization because in addition to like his other traits, I think he's also like kind of a big nerd and he knows a lot about computers and other

geek stuff. And so Remy found a place in this organization and is one of these candidates probably because of his other skill set that he doesn't really talk about a whole lot. And so that is my character Remy. His super power suite is called super agility, which basically gives him a lot of different bonuses whenever he's doing anything with athletics. He also has what's called natural weapon, which just sort of represents like he, his super abilities allow him to fight really well. I like the idea of a superhero, which is like really powerful jumps and kicks. And his legs are very good. He kicks super good.

And in line with that, he can do these acrobatic feats basically without having to roll. Like, they require very little effort. Leaping up to a second-story window or from rooftop to roof top across a wide alleyway is a simple test that doesn't require an athletics role. And then he has some other stuff, one ability called Katz Landing, where just like, he can't be hurt by falling, which you know I'm going to use that to do some dumb shit. And he has like some Spider-Man-like dodging abilities, which are going to be very useful. there's a really cool system. He's also like a personal trainer, right? So I gave him sort of some flavor there where he has skills in conversing with people.

I think this is a character who like wants everybody to be their best and wants to help everybody else get there because that's what personal trainers do. And so I think that's an aspect. He has a stunt called psychologist, which I sort of treats mental stress. So I think after a fight didn't go well. Oh, that's okay. That's okay. I'm going to help you out. And he's also popular as another skill I have. So if he's in a place where people knows who he is, then that's going to help him out. And so his high concept is Ninja Warrior themed personal trainer. And his trouble, his family comes first, which I think could be interesting. He is like kind of beholden to his brother. He feels this guilt. He's very, very close with his brother and he feels guilty that he is kind of responsible for his life not going very well right now. His brother also has a young.

son who he's very, very close to, and he will do anything for them first and foremost, no matter what. And then we were supposed to come up with another aspect. And so one that I thought would be really interesting is humiliated myself on national television. They're probably going to be situations where people like, oh, shit, you're the Olympic ninja. Better watch out for those paddles, man.

And so that is my concept for Remy, sort of an acrobatic kind of Spider-Man in style inspired figure. The superhero name I came up with is Spring Heel, which represents he can jump super good, and he's very athletic and acrobatic and stuff. On your skill tree, what I was thinking about

for skills is that you basically have one great, two good, three fair, and four average. What I thought we do is apply those skills and then add

a fifth one in superb up the top after the superpowers. Would that be all right? Yeah, we can do, or we can bump the four up to a five, because right now my highest skill is athletics, which represents like, even before I got these superpowers, I was still an Olympic level, like, athlete. And so I already have that one filled in with the one

that I think should be highest for this character. And just to talk about my skills, like I said, it's mostly sort of athletics and, you know, physical fighting, which is like hand to hand, or in my case, foot to head. But I also have some stuff in there for, like, talking to people and helping people out with their stuff. I have crafts in there, which is sort of the tinkering around with electronics, which in my way of thinking is his, like, computer expertise. So, yeah, that is, that is Remy or Springheel is what he will go by as his superhero name. And that's, that is him.

And again, I think one thing that we should all do is leave some gaps. Like, I don't know where this gym is. I don't have a name for the family quite yet. But I think we can maybe fill that stuff out as we go. Or maybe we won't get around to it. Either way, I think it's more interesting to sort of leave that stuff blank until we get to it. And he will be in information tech, right? Yes, he is in the IT department.

Okay. Can I talk about mine? Because I think I have already been inspired by an intrapersonal from RIM. me. Um, so when I started thinking about my character, I was inspired, two different kind of inspiration directions. One, I kind of wanted to play a character that was as different from Magnus as I could think. Um, and so I sat about making a character that was very intellectual and analytical. And also on like a personal level, much more reserved. Um, and, um, and so, I sat about making a character, um, As far as like interpersonal relationships goes and much more withdrawn.

And then as far as kind of the abilities go, my two biggest inspirations were Green Lantern, who is my favorite superhero, and Mr. Fantastic. And the thing I really liked about Mr. Fantastic was this idea of really, if you look at Mr. Fantastic, it is not his, you know, elasticity. that is his strongest ability, it's his brain. It's the fact that he's like one of the smartest people in the Marvel universe. And the elasticity is kind of a secondary thing. So my character, her name is Nadia Jones. And her background is what I'm about to read to you on this piece of favor. Nadia Jones 25.

Her mother is second generation British Bangladeshi. Her father is American. He never cared much about his ancestry past that, but often answered simply, Irish, German, I don't know. What does it matter? Her parents divorced when she was three years old and her mother returned to Britain. She has only seen her mother a few times since. Are you going to do a British accent? No.

She was raised in America. Okay. I'm down for it either way. I just wanted to compare myself. No, it would be so inconsistent and so terrible. I could never. She's only seen her mother a few times since. her father was granted sole custody, and while he cared for her in his way, he was not a nurturing man, a scientist himself.

He held several lucrative patents that allowed Nadia a string of private tutors rather than attending school. Her father worked as a highly paid consultant for the military, and so they bounced from one base to another with no permanent residence. So all those things kind of added together, interpersonal relationships hold very little interpersonal relationships, hold very little interest to Nadia, as she has never had much use for them. She can relate to other people just fine. She just doesn't see the purpose. She followed in her father's footstep, and many would argue has surpassed his most impressive achievements.

She earned her doctorate in biochemistry at an impressively young age, which I left blank, because I don't know what an impressively young age to earn your doctorate in biochemistry is. But it was, believe me. She also holds advanced degrees in biotechnology and biomedical sciences. So my vision of her is she is a very big-picture kind of scientist. And what's interesting is the work that she does is to benefit humanity, but she doesn't see much value in humanity on, like, an individual basis. Like, she doesn't have friends. She doesn't date.

She just, like, doesn't see the purpose of it. Like, her work is her life and science is her life. But the project that she was working on before engaging in this kind of individual enhancement project was she had developed a what she called smart biopolymer. And basically, it can be used in skin graphs and mimics human skin. and it heals and adapts like human skin has the sensitivity of human skin, but can be made in a lab and doesn't need skin donors. So that was the project that she was working on before. Keep that in mind. Also, she holds many lucrative patents herself. She's not doing this for the money.

She is very rich. So I actually gave her the skill resources as a plus two skill. Yeah, because there's no money in the game. There's just a skill called resources that you roll when you need to know if you have the thing. And it's like, oh, yeah, I'm fucking rich. I have the resources skill. Yeah, so it's kind of the, you know, the Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne kind of skill. So she has resources. And I think that takes the form both of like money and also like her lab, you know,

of like the resources to investigate something. But her, her high concept is hyper-focused scientist. and her trouble is values logic over humanity. Think like Spock kind of deal. You know what I mean? It's that kind of like highly analytical, isn't going to rush to save a single person when she could take an action

that would benefit a much larger group. She is a good person, mind you. She's not like an asshole or anything. But she just doesn't, she's not, she doesn't rush in, is the thing. You mentioned that, and I want to pause real quick, just to say, I don't, I don't, I don't think any of us are going to adhere to these sort of static archetypes that define our characters

or your characters in Taz Balance. Like, I do not think of Remy as the Magnus this time around. He is also brilliant, and he is all, like, he's not this sort of foolhardy jock who always rushes in. Like, I want to be careful here, because I want to make sure that everybody understands, like it's not like oh well this time Griffin is playing the the you know unintelligent you know tank and this time Travis is playing the you know cerebral taco like that's not that that's how it described taco necessarily I don't think there's a correlation there I just want to be

clear that like we are not we are not going to be filling we're not going to be filling those like sort of traditional archetypes of that do you guys know what I'm saying like does that make sense? Yep. Okay. Yeah. Nadia, I created her pretty whole, like, specifically because it was a version of a character I was interested in playing. Whereas I made Magnus because I wanted to fill a role in traditional D&D of like, you need a fighter, you need to cast or you need to healer. That's going to take us a long time.

When we talked about what we're going to do next, I remember having a conversation with you, Travis, where you're like, I don't understand how we fill the four usual party archetypes with three people. And it's like, no, you don't have to, we don't have to be a healer. tank, magic user, and nimble fighter. Like, that's not how RPGs, like, have to work, nor should they work. Yes. So, I, my vision of her kind of super, so let me run through her skills. Her great is a skill that I call science, exclamation point. You made your own skill?

Well, yeah. You can't make your own skills. But I did. You can, actually. That is part of fate. I read through it of, like, the skills are a suggestion. and you can make your own that fits your character because lore is one of them

but I wanted something very specific to her. Why don't we do this? Why don't we just call the crafts skill science? Because there are rules in place for crafts and it sounds like you're describing kind of the same. Okay, we can call that, but I'm still going to call it science with an exclamation point. Because I want to be able to say,

I want to use science. And so her other skills in the good category are will and investigate. in fair is intimidate lore and resources. And in average, I put notice and athletics. Because I think that along with having a discipline in mind, she also takes good care of herself. She's in the biomedical field.

She has, you know, knowledge of the human body, and she takes good care of herself. She's not like, I don't think she's at the level of Remy or anything, but, you know, she can run if she needs to, that kind of thing. You've also known to kind of address that and also Griffin's suggestion about intelligence. Remember, these are the cream of the crop. Yeah.

Through the selection process, the fellowship has done, you know. So they're going to be good physical and mental, you know, specimens. And to that point, my vision of her, as far as the superpowers went, was I think she was selected, of course, because of her intellect and knowledge and, you know, rapid analytical mind. But I think that when she goes through the process, what ends up? up triggering is because of her exposure to this biopolymer. And like she has, you know, tested it on herself and that kind of thing. Just tiny patches, that kind of thing. But I think that that triggers.

And what ends up happening is she ends up with the skill to shape her body, both as weapon and as defense, so that she can. Is there power in the book for that? I'm tweaking one. Shapeshifting is in here. Yes, shapeshifting, but rhapshifting. but rather than having it be animal-based, it's inanimate-based

is basically my slight change to it. Cool. So it's almost like a green lantern... Or like a Mr. Fantastic. Yeah, so basically if Mr. Fantastic had to shape specific... So like turn his hand into a hammer or that kind of thing, but it takes a will roll to do it. And the drawback is the power is physically exhausting.

So if she relies on it too much, it, she'll faint, she'll pass out. It is physical exertion to control the power. It is not an instantaneous thing. So she uses it as an attack, but her first kind of line of attack and defense is a skill. I renamed Knowledge is Power. It's actually called them the thing,

something like Shield of Knowledge or something, but I called it Knowledge is Power, that basically she can use science as the attack and defense skill. but I have to be able to justify that science applies to the situation. But basically, she is much more analytical kind of fighter and approaches the situation very disassociated from it to like figure out the best way to proceed in it. So her skills much more kind of pertain to breaking down what needs to happen and addressing the concern, you know, the issues rather than fighting.

So is she in R&D, I'm assuming, is her? Yes, she was in R&B. And what's, does she have a superhero name? Do you have that figured out yet? Her superhero name is Nadia Jones. She doesn't go in for that. Oh, so you got like a Tony Stark, like revealed identity thing called? Very much so.

She doesn't do this for the flight of fantasy. She had, so basically, this is where it comes down to. I think that she, um, sees, uh, as a failure. I think that she sees him as the representation of failure where she has always succeeded. It feels weird to have such a combative, like, thing starting out. Okay, let me do it a different way then. I still want this to be, like, I still want this to be a positive story about people who, like, I think that was a defining characteristic of balance, which was like, this is a group of people who care about each other and want to take care of each other.

I think having an aspect that's like you're a, you're a failure is maybe. Let me try a different one. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, minute. We're meant, though, but this is just a team just coming together. That's true. Can aspects change, I guess? They're not going to, well, I mean, you don't have to invoke it, I don't guess. Yeah, I would say that basically what it comes down to, to justify my choice, Griffin, is I think that Nadia represents someone who her whole life has been about honing her mind and being the best and being the best she can.

can be so she can do the best, you know, and create the best. And everything about her is about the best, the best, the best. And I think that on some level, she sees Remy being elevated in the same group that she is as an insult. Not necessarily a personal insult from Remy. I don't think she holds it necessarily against him so much as she looks at it as an insult of the choice being made that they are on the same level. Yeah, I understand what you're saying, but it's like Rumi was also an Olympic level athlete who also worked to like do that same exact. But he didn't go. He chose humanity over success, which Nadiou would never do.

I think it's interesting. I just, I think it's a good angle. I just think Remy is a failure as maybe too harsh of a way of like phrasing the actual. How about this? Like I don't know himself. Remy encouraging others to succeed, she sees as hypocritical. That could be good. Or, like, I think Justin's suggestion is not a bad one about what was it?

Remy failed himself or something like that. Then it's less. Oh, how about this? How about this? A piece of shit and more like... Remy needs to be pushed. That's great. That's excellent.

That's good. That's going to be... Can I suggest another one? And this may be off, off limits, but, like, I think Remy has specific reasons for having a hidden identity, which is, like, the same reasons that all superheroes do, which is, like, it limits your... It limits collateral damage. to people that you care about.

And it sounds like Nadia doesn't have, like, a ton of people in her life that fill that category. But I also think, like, I think exposed identity is a really cool aspect that could be used for all kinds of things. Yeah, I think, I think let's keep exposed identity as just a general one, because I also like that. So we'll go with Remy needs to be pushed and exposed identity. Well, now, would Remy needs to be pushed?

That's her opinion, or is that a fact? Because if it's a fact, it would be Remy's. No, no, no, I don't think, I think that's her thing. I think Remy's great. Yeah, because I think that being part of this team, it is important to her that this team is a success. And she knows that in Remy's past, he has allowed himself to fail because he has allowed himself to think too much, to like feel too much instead of thinking logically. So I think that now that she is a part of this team, she sees it as an extension of herself. And so if any member of the team fails, it is a failure reflected upon her.

So I'm going to go with Remy needs to be pushed and exposed. identity. Okay. That's great. And she will be an R&D. Yes. Nadia Jones, N-A-D-I-Y-A-J-O-N-E-S. Okay. Real quick, before we get to Justin's character, let's go to the money zone.

We didn't never have had a name for it. The zone, the, the, the, uh, it's somewhere in there. The lead zone. I got a message here. I want to tell you all about the aspect of separation. It's a sci-fi fantasy adventure novel set in a world of immortal beings, lucid dreamings, mysterious towers, the control physics, invisible demons, and a yellow drug made from river water flowing from an inexplicable hole in the middle of the countryside. The novel was written specifically for people who have short attention spans, love it, or don't normally like reading for fun.

And you can pick up this book, The Aspect of Separation, at Amazon and e-book, or in paperback. You can visit The Aspect of Separation.com to listen to the first few chapters. as an audio drama before you buy. And separation is spelled S-E-P-A-R-A-T-I-O-N. A lot of people struggle with that one, including myself. Separation is a tricky word. It'll get you. I'll sneak up on you.

Travis, have you done an ad? I haven't. Who is this message for, you might ask? Well, it's for Marlton. Who's it from? You might also ask. What's from Med, E, E, Gwerf, Jick, and Christine. Thanks for all the work you put into Being R-D-E-E-E-E-R-D-E.

Sorry we get distracted and veer off topic so often. We're the worst, but you're the best. Your expert storytelling gives us the chance to leave notes to cover up murders like, Had to go. Forgot to pick up my kids from soccer practice. It's their birthday. Thanks for everything. What is your...

Oh, that is not the rest of it. And what is your preferred time frame for this message to air next available? Got it. Heartfelt words. You all are maybe not as familiar with this because I always do the ads by myself, but I love hearing everybody's D&D names. It is so good. I love that it's Mid-Eeb, Grievjik, and Christine.

Yeah. Christine's like, you know what, you nerds? Sorry, I'm getting a real name. How's it going, everyone? I'm Oliver Wang. And I'm Morgan Rhodes. We have a brand new show on the Maximum Fun Network that we'd love to share with you.

It's called Heat Rocks. Morgan, we should probably explain what a Heat Rock is. It is a banger, a Fire Track True Fire. Right. dope album. Each episode, we will bring on a special guest to join us to talk about one of their heat rocks. It might be a musician. A writer. Maybe a scholar. I mean, I would have been happy to just talk to you about your heat rocks, but this is a different show. Yeah, I think people might enjoy hearing maybe the guests instead. To do that, you'll have to go to maximum fun.org. So if you

want to talk about hot music, you should check us out. Heat rocks. Lastly, I wanted to talk about my character. Thank goodness we had the ads in there to give me time to make one up. What a relief that was. Just kidding. It's a little fun joke. Just a little humor between friends. So I'm playing as, when we begin, I'll be playing as a character called Irene Baker.

And she is in the Human Resources Department of the organization. She got her MBA in Human Resources, and she is basically the best. Paycheck didn't come in. you need to get some health insurance. You got a problem with a co-worker you need solved. You need a softball team organized. She is the person to talk to. She likes Dad Rock, like Elvis Costello and Wilco.

That's her, in her private life, that she has some eclectic tastes like that. But in the office, she is really sort of the glue that holds everything. everybody together. She makes sure everybody is getting along and make sure that it is a great environment for everyone and make sure that the trains run on time. Justin, can I ask a question? Yeah, please. Is she cool? Or is she a narc? Yeah. Do people like her? Are they like, she's fine to hang out with, but like, you know, she's very HR all. the time. I would say she probably doesn't have a ton of great friends at the office, but she's someone that everybody likes, but like less of the close connection because she's very focused on

making sure that everybody is getting along and everything's going swimming. She's a little bit reserved, a little bit mousy, I would say, but she is not, she's not unlikable. She's a likable person. Except, when I was going to create a character for this, I really struggled because I, I don't know, sometimes I'm not a very creative person. It takes a while for something to come to me. I'm sorry, that's just the truth. And the idea that I eventually, like, hit on was kind of unnerving for me because it's

kind of out of my lane a little bit, and I was nervous about doing it. But the longer I tried to put it off and come up with something different, I couldn't. And this idea kept sort of stirring around in my brain. So for a while now, I've been sort of interested in Inuit mythology. It's something that we don't see represented a lot, I think, in popular culture. We're very much inundated with the mythology of the Greeks and the Romans and the Norse mythology and what have you. but we don't get a lot of, there are some mythologies that I think are

unrepresented and I think Inuit mythology specifically is really interesting. Now, I am not attempting to you know, directly sort of tap into that or make a 100% perfect simulation of Inuit mythology because that would, I think, not be... It would be pretty appropriate. It has been bad. It would not be great. But I'm definitely inspired by that.

I think it's a really interesting, the more I thought about it, the more I thought that it was something that I really wanted to try. Irene is someone who I think that is definitely her culture, but I don't think it's something she's particularly connected to, but it is definitely her sort of background. And so it is something that I have tried my best to sort of learn about and familiarize myself with and talk to people about. and that is what I am trying to attempt with Irene Baker. So Irene Baker, the best way to, the thing about her transformation, it is very much a transformation.

When she gets her powers, she becomes the thunder goddess named Cardala. And Cardala is somewhat inspired by Cadlu, who is a thunder goddess in Inuit mythology. So Cardala is basically a juggernaut. She is incredibly strong, incredibly tough, has control of the weather. Her main power suite is basic weather control. So she can create weather. She can use weather to attack people and sort of has the ability to control weather and uses that against her enemies.

her secondary power, which is a synthesis in the nomenclature of Venture City, is super toughness. So she's really hard to bring down. And she is very strong and sort of operating at peak physical capability. But she is also very different from Irene in so much as they're practically the inverse of each other. I'm very much thinking of sort of an Inuit mythology version of Thor. And I thought, the more I thought about that idea, the more it's sort of like resonated with me and seemed like something I'd really like to try to do a good job with. So that is Cardala in a nutshell. Now, her main trait, the high concept is she is a thunder goddess among mortals.

and she does not value or even approach humans in the same way that Irene does. In fact, quite the opposite. I think that for Cardala, she sees the other people with super abilities as somewhat on her level, and I think she sees people without them as humans that need to be perhaps shepherded, perhaps protected somewhat, but does not consider them her equals in any way, shape, or form. And I think that that really colors who she is as a character. And that is her trouble aspect, again, in the Venture City fake core nomenclature. She struggles with having a mortal's perspective on things.

Is this something, I want to make this clear. Is this something she believes? or is it the truth? Is she actually inhabited by Cardala? When she is Cardala, that is her. Okay. Okay. But there is one other aspect that I have, oh, so cleverly, in my patented Justin McElroy style, called On Comes Irene.

And that trait. Oh, I see. Yeah. At inopportune times, or maybe opportune times. times depending Cardala can revert to Irene I have a separate character

sheet for Irene Baker who shares the physical things like consequences and what have you would be shared across the two so I can't use it to game whatever but her skills are very much the inverse

of Cardala is fucking great this is such a good character in such a good game She's very good at when she's Irene, she has high ratings in empathy, in rapport, in, rapport, which could be a defensive skill in fate and things like that. And that is, Irene has those skills. But in physical confrontations, Irene is severely lacking. So that is sort of the, a big problem with Cardala.

Does she have absolute control over when the transfer? I would say that if she had absolute control, it would be a little too O.P. Because I don't want it to be a situation or overpowered. I need athletic skills, so now I'm the Thunder God. Exactly, right. Or I need to be empathetic right now, so now I'm this. It's more about, I think, one, places where it would be a good story opportunity for one or the other to manifest, but also a way of, I think, balancing that very sort of distant God character. I'm actually thinking of a specific manifestation of Thor that was in, of all things, a made-for-TV movie.

that I believe it was called the Death of the Incredible Hulk. And it was this very cool, it was a very funny take on Thor where it was all about him sort of adjusting to human life. And you see that trait, I think, somewhat in the more recent adaptations of Thor, but very much a goddess among mortals. And that is the way she is approaching the world. So she can, I would say that like maybe if she concentrated. very hard, there is perhaps a chance that she could become Irene Baker, but I would say that the bias I would have is that I don't believe Cardalo would necessarily see any benefit to doing that. So it would be very hard to justify.

It also puts a huge arrow in Dad's quiver of a compel. He can drop it any time to make you be whoever is going to be the most like narratively interesting and challenging for you at any point. That is like the strength of the system and stuff like this like proves the worth of of this system. Yeah. And I think that Cardala for me, I think that Irene is a character that is not perhaps super connected to this mythology personally. And I think that that makes it a really interesting counterpoint for her to actually manifest some portion of a version of that of that mythology. So that is that is what I am going for.

I also want to say, and I know that this is not something you would do, but something we should probably make clear that this is not going to be a like manifestation of like bipolar disorder, for instance, which is a real thing that folks suffer from. This is, I do not believe that this is like your, you know, what if that was a superpower sort of thing. Like that is, that's not something that we would ever do. Yeah. And that's why I wanted to make it clear that it is not, it is not a delusional. state. I mean, this is, that is what she is in that moment. That is who she becomes. And whether or not that's, you know, metaphorical or literal, I don't know. We probably don't have enough episodes to cover it. So I probably lost to answer right away. I say that not to like stigmatize bipolar disorder, but just to say that like, it would not be appropriate for any of us to say like, well, what if it was a, you know, wouldn't it be a cool superpower? Like, that's not. That's, that just as it was. And again, I know that just like a lot like I did with Taco, this is not a character that is necessarily drawn on my own experience.

And so I'm, I'm obviously, like, really hesitant about doing it. But also, as we've talked about so many times on, on this show and what have you, like, we are four straight cis white dudes. and I just don't feel like a show, a team made of, of, of straight cis white dudes entirely is, is very interesting or sustainable or valuable or useful. So I'll say, as always, like, we're doing our best and we're, you know, we're trying our best. You've talked to some people who, like, deal with Inuit representation and media, which I think is very, I'm very proud of you for having put in all that, that effort. I mean, it's a hell of an email, y'all. It's a long way to walk around before you get to the part. It's a long road before you get to the part where you understand why I'm emailing.

Let me ask you this. And you may have touched on this, and I just missed it. Is there a physical manifestation of the change between Irene? Oh, yeah. She's huge. Okay. She's huge, yeah. Well, there's also another aspect that's going to be built into this that deals with the...

Cardala. Sorry, I should. I should, I should be more clear. A height, a height difference. There's a physical change. Irene is, is smaller and I, I think, now that you say that, I hadn't really thought about it. I think maybe a little more stout. Yeah.

And, uh, uh, Cardala is, is, uh, just big. She's tall and strong. And I was about to say down to get the friction on. I don't actually know if that's accurate or not, but, uh, there you go. I want to, also the technology will, lend itself in an aspect of this as well that I will reveal when you get your powers. Also, I also need to point out it was the return of the Incredible Hulk with Thor played by Eric Kramer, who you all know from The Thundermans.

Motherfucker, don't try to act like you didn't just Google that. I did just Google it. Okay. Well, at least we agree. I want to add an aspect because we have to have them for each other. I like the idea of Irene's sort of human-focused approach to her day-to-day thing. And that seems very sympathetic with how, like, how Rimi thinks about people and why you join this organization. And so, like, I like the aspect for me of, like, we can trust Irene's instincts as just like, yeah.

And that way, like, if Irene wants to make a decision, like, I think Remy would be like, well, you know, she has everybody's interest in mind and she's approaching that scenario from a very human-oriented place. And so, like, I am, I am down with it. Does that make sense? And that's a nice balance. that's a nice balance also to to trav's character yeah so i think irine would need one for nadia right just so we have one for each other i think probably more useful would be cardala because i see cardala like probably be more prominent um rather than irene i think irene would have different um sort of a different take on these characters but um i think that irene believes that nadia is a demon

And what I mean by that is like literally believes that she is, she's unnerved by Nadia's abilities, and she finds them very upsetting. Irene does or Cardala does? Cardala does. Okay. Yes. Because Cardala also has lore as one of her abilities. I think Cardala is, like, has an awareness of other parts of that mythology. And I think that she would be, and she is convinced.

that Nadia is a demon. A literal. A literal demon that she needs to be wary of. What I love about that is I think I was going to suggest like kind of a similar thing but for Irene, where I imagine Nadia has been complained to

HR a lot about. Like, I think that people have a lot of issues with Nadia. She's not very good at interacting with humans in any kind of nice way. And so I imagine that there's been a lot of complaints about her made? So this idea of you could have one aspect on Irene, which is I want to help Nadia open up.

And then when you transform, you think she's an actual literal demon from hell. Right. Or that's also. And that's sort of my logic that sort of colored that perception, I think. Parts of where their personalities, I think, sort of overlap. God, that's so cool, dude. This is very good. I love that.

Yeah. That presents so many interesting moments. I like these. I like these characters. I do, too. So these are the characters we're going to be playing in the game. We're going to be playing. And you are going to be, you said HR, so humanity.

Yeah, it's humanity division. Okay. And like I said, we're just going to be playing a few episodes with these and sort of exploring the space. And I think we're going to do some. What gives me hope about this, like, I was really nervous about the idea of moving away from balance. And to be frank, like, since we wrapped up balance, my head has been in a really

weird place. Partially because I'm not creating as like in the way that I used to when we were doing the show and there's always nerves like, oh, we're moving away from this new thing. But like Adventure Zone nights, I thought was really fun. And I thought we did some interesting stuff there. And the opportunity to do that a lot of times, I think is going to end up being really great. Dad, do you have anything else you want to say to like set up this first episode? Well, I think just a couple of things to keep in mind. We're going to start. You will get your powers in that first episode. And I think it's going to be kind of a mystery as to how your powers are going to manifest.

I mean, not to us as the players, because we already kind of have an idea. But I think in fiction, except for, I think Nadia, I think has an idea. I think that just is too. She's working in R&D. R&D, so I think she has some ID. So I think that maybe she has some idea that this, you know, this might happen to some respect. But that's, you know, I'll let you guys figure out the reaction of that. But we will start non-powered.

There's a big cast of NPCs, not nearly as big as the whole, you know, 69 episodes of balance. But you're not going to be thrust into a situation where you are going to have to remember a whole bunch of names and everything else right off the back. And then you'll get your first mission and things will kind of, you know, take from there. And I also want to tell folks that there are similarities, I guess, with balance and the fact that, you know, there's an organization and there's going out on missions. But if you really stop and think about what we're doing, that's kind of a basic, at least for a startup story to kind of operate from. So when I steal, I steal from Griffin. I steal from the best. They say.

I'm really excited. I'm really pumped up about it. I think you guys are going to enjoy the story, but I'm already digging the character. Yeah. And I'm going to say this a lot, and this is sort of the sentiment we all have. Please be patient with us and bear with us. I hope that you can get as excited about this process as we are going to get because I anticipate that we will get folks telling us, like, I liked Balance better.

And Balance was an incredibly great and special thing. that is always going to mean a lot to us, but it had to end when it ended. And I want the next thing, the next full season that we make to be not just as good and as special as balance was, but even better. And I think that this is, I think this is going to get us there, like doing stuff like this and seeing, like figuring out the best stuff in all the games and figuring out what suits our play style and the way that we put a show and a story together the best. Like figuring that stuff out is what's going to make for the best second season. So keep in mind, it's going to be a short thing, a temporary thing, and we're going to be

trying some stuff out, and we hope that you enjoy the result of that. I think that's it, though. Yes. Thank you all for listening. Remember, it's the hashtag the Zonecast. Tell a friend to listen to it. Again, it's going to be, while we transition here, like, it is going to be very important that you help spread the word.

If you think, like, oh, I have a friend who's in a comic book, shit, go listen to this thing. Like, that would, that would mean a lot and it would be super helpful to us because it is, you know, it's harder to keep retention and everything whenever you're doing something like this. So anything you can do really means a lot. And if you've had, and this is a great time, perhaps the best to get people on board. But thank you, more than anything, even if you don't share with anybody. Thank you to you, uh, dear listener for hanging in with us. Um, we, we would this show literally, I think, would not exist. had you not responded to it the way you had,

and it means a lot to us that you're still here listening. So thank you. You're great. And thank you to Maximum Fun for having us. Go to MaximumFund.org. Check out all the great podcasts there. You can listen to other stuff we do and see our videos and stuff at mackleroyshows.com. And go to the Comic-Con panel if you're going to be at New York Comic-Con.

Is that it? Yep. Yep. Cool. Well, the next episode's going to be up in two weeks on October 19th, And that's going to be the first episode of our new arc. Taz commitment. So we will talk to you then.

Bye. Maximumfund.org. Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Listener supported. Every week on Inside Pop, we take turns recommending something great from the world of pop culture to each other. And in the month of October, we're going big, very big, with the Big Cell 30. Every day for 30 days, we're going to suggest some type of pop culture to check out.

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