The Adventure Zone - Setup - The Adventure Zone: Steeplechase

Episode Date: September 29, 2022

It’s a new game and a new world. Welcome to Steeplechase, the immersive theme park experience from the Dentonic Company. On the surface, everything is perfect for the guests to live out their fantasies – but that’s only on the surface. Justin GMs his first game, Blades in the Dark (https://bladesinthedark.com/). Meet the new characters and learn the cutthroat rules of the game - and of the park. 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

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Adventure Zone, Stevel Chase. A Justin McRaeaughy fantasy. A Justin McRoy, joining. My name is Justin McRoy, and I will be your game master for this adventure. I'm Travis McRae. Like Captain N? Are we all supposed to introduce us? I don't know what's happening. Probably not.

Why wouldn't you introduce yourselves at the beginning of a program? This is Dear Rigger. My name is Justin McRoehrie. Someone's starting right now, right? Like, they're starting. They heard about this podcast. Yeah. From the friends.

Yeah. Got into it because they've been waiting for you. You. To take the rudder and now we're here. And my name is Justin McRoy. They know that because it's mainly the Jayheds here. That are. So you guys please.

Jayheds sounds like a derogative term for people who are, who do possess an addiction to, I don't know what a J. I guess. Jumping? jumping. Anyway, this is Griffin McElroy, and I also love to jump. Thanks. Thanks. Just the name is good. Travis.

Oh, I actually ruined yours. Old man. What's your name? I am Clint McElroy. You mean me, not my character. Yeah, not your character. Oh, just a brief note. A couple things before we start.

Dad, if I see you put another bite of food in your mouth while we're recording, I will jump through the screen and kill you. That's the first one. I'm a little on edge, so just like, just don't eat on the bar. podcast anymore. That's like the thing one. Yeah. I know we know that you did just wake up at 9.30 in the morning. And so your body probably does need caloric intake to function. It's so wild now. But just to be in the inversion of like dad sleeping in and me and Justin and Griffin having to wake up early with kids, it makes me mad at you. Well, he's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair.

I went through many years of leaving early. Welcome to the world of steeplechase. I've been working on this for many months now. I've written this. I'm not nervous. I wrote an introduction. Okay. And I wrote an introduction from all my work.

So I'd like to begin the table setting now. And let's just say no goofs until Justin gets, until Justin does it. Yeah, Justin needs to focus down. so there are knights let's take a second run of this there are many knights and other wizards and they all are fighting

oh sorry is K-nights okay sorry going you are the children of knights and wizards they're combined your night wizards and welcome to the court of the night lizards of Justin McElroyd

sorry one more time is it K-night or is it just in-night I'm so confused your half-night half-wizard You have both the powers of both and the weaknesses of neither. Right. But what if I'm a wizard who goes out in the daytime?

This is not anything. So we really went off that no goof rule real quick. This is all serious. Once it hits serious mode, though, the goofs will come to a complete stop. You think so, huh? Okay, welcome, welcome to steeplechase. I would like to first tell you a little bit. Here's what we're going to do.

This is session zero. We're just starting. I am wildly uncomfortable because I haven't done this before. And my brothers and dad are going to help me through it. We're all going to do this as a family. It's a team building exercise. Not a podcast. It's a team building exercise.

We're going to do some trust falls, some low ropes courses. We are going to be playing the game Blades in the dark. And I'm going to tell you more about that right after I tell you a little bit about this world. It is set in the future. not like a thousand years, maybe a couple hundred from now. And our story takes place. Well, let me, let me, you know, I'm getting ahead of myself. Carmine Denton was a farmer's son in rural Georgia.

This is the story everybody knows. He always wanted to be an entertainer or storyteller, someone who would lift us up with these incredible stories and bring us together with valuable lessons. Carmine, as soon as he could scrape together the money, founded a company that we now know today as Dentonic, the first name in entertainment. Denton started small. He was operating a string of traveling carnivals at state fairs and they evolved into the regional theme parks throughout the U.S. I think like a chain of six flags or, you know, bush gardens, those parks. Eventually, like Denton was, was fight. He had all these ideas and dreams, but he was fighting municipalities.

and state and local governments at every turn. Every time he wanted to expand or change something or do something different, he was constantly having to fight with these groups. So he did something very dramatic. In 2030,

he grew tired of fighting and he disassembled the parks. And he sold the land to Chinese multinationals. This would have been in 2030. And he focused all his time into just one. Steeplechase. It was nestled into a big,

expanse of the same rural countryside in Georgia that he once called home. Steeble Chase started like the other parks. You know, top-notch roller coasters, decent food. Nothing right home about. But then, rather than sell the previous parks piecemeal, he brought

them to Steeplechase. And he started organizing them and building them up and taking all these different mechanical parts, all these different worlds into a real, like, a center of of entertainment. And he could have stopped there.

But as we all know, Denton's motto is that he never knew when to stop dreaming. He expanded steeplechase in 2040 with a second gate, a satellite park, if you will, the kingdom of ephemera. Now, Ephemera, this kingdom is different. It was not just a theme park. It was immersive. It was a world where you could go and live out your fantasies, as long as they were of the Knights and Wizards variety.

And this was wildly successful. We'll learn more about the Kingdom of Ephemirah in a bit. But you should know that he continued to grow these parks and expand these new gates. And the Denton family continued to grow these parks. And when they ran out of land, they went the only direction they could up. So now these lands, these layers, as they're called, are these immersive, worlds for the rich to come and experience their deepest fantasies. And you, three, work there.

You are employees of Dentonic. You are employees of steeplechase. And you are going to find your fortune there. In the cracks between the fantasy, there where people are misguided. They're looking over here. while they're having this magical family moment, you'll be the ones with your hands in the pockets. We're going to meet you.

But we are going to talk about this game. First, Blades in the dark. Now, this is going great. So you're crushing it. I don't know if you need the massaging. Oh, but if you are, I'll put. Rule one. Massage anytime.

If anything's even palatable, just like. I'm in dreams. Oh, I'm on, I'm in. Yeah. So let me read this exact. I'm going to read this exact. exact text for attribution purposes. And then we'll talk more about it.

This work is based on Blades in the Dark, which can be found at Bladesinthe Dark.com. It's a product of one-seven design, developed and authored by John Harper and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 unported license. One of my favorite licenses. What a thrill it is.

I will just say that is the, and you will see this system, I will say about this book very quickly. It is the best. Hands down. The best one of these I have ever written. It never gets bogged down in mechanics. It's always bringing you back to practical application.

It's so well written. There's a great thing that he says, that John Harper says at the beginning of his games, that he attributes to a friend of his name Avery. And I wanted to say that now. It is the number one rule is to play your characters like you're driving a stolen car. and I really like that metaphor and that is what we are going to be doing Blades in the Dark is a game about bad people

doing bad things. I'm so sorry. I built my whole character using Bay Blades in the Dark. That's funny. Yeah, I expected something like this. I'm so sorry, Travis. If you just let him get one out of his... Travis, if you can just give us a little time to rip,

like let him get it out of his system. Oh, Griffin, by saying the word Bay Blades, I have used up all of my Bayblade knowledge. Oh, okay. I have now used it all up, and Justin, you may continue. Okay. So it's a game about scoundrels doing crimes. There's different kinds of criminals and bad people.

But the core of the game, the metaphor of the game, is that it is in terms of scores or heists or like crimes. You know, you're going to do crimes. Yeah. You're going to do crimes in this world. We're going to talk mechanical. You're going to be part of a crew, a criminal crew. You're each going to have your own criminal background and your own.

own criminal skills that you're going to bring to this little group that you have. We're going to pick a type of character class here. You're also going to pick a crew. And that crew is going to have different relationships with the world, different ways that they focus on interacting with the world. And we were still kind of hammering this part out. So that is something I think that we can come to a consensus on once we've met all of our characters.

So with that all being said, and boys, please feel free to, if there's questions or you want to stop me or I miss something or, I mean, and if you just feel like interrupting, you know, keep that to yourself. But if you have something real good, then please, by all means. But how can we tell if it's good or not until we say it out loud, Justin? The Travis McElroy story. Yeah. Okay. So let's start with. You know what, Travis?

Let's pan to you. The camera pans to you. Let's meet your scoundrel. I am playing beef punchly. But wait, wait. Hold on. Wait. Did you change the surname?

What was it? I thought it was beef strongly. Oh. No, it's always been punchly, but I was. Beef Punchley is extremely good. Yeah. Now, which is better, Beef Punchley or Beef Punchkins? Not Beef Punchkin.

Beef Punchkins feels too cute. Okay, yeah, Beef Punchley. But that's not as real. It's like a smurf name. Right. He is a cutter, which in this game system is a dangerous and intimidating fighter. Okay. He is a very large man, a very, as his name might imply, very beefy, former, like, heavyweight boxer.

But this is not his real name. Beef Punchley is his alias. His real name is Lyndon Jewel. I will never, I want you to know at the top, I will never use that name. No, everyone calls him beef. It's fine to call him beef. Okay, good. That is more of his nickname than it is his real name.

But as I said, he is a cutter, primarily focused in like hand-to-hand fighting and grappling and that kind of thing. But he is far more intelligent and gentle than he appears. But still, he is, and I have taken the special ability. not to be trifled with, which means that he can push himself to do one of the following, perform a feat of physical force that verges on the superhuman, or engage a small gang on equal footing in close combat. How much do you want to know about beef, Justin?

I would like to know if basically with heritage and background, which is a lot of Blades in the Dark is really narrative, which is, you know, you might, some people might say dismissively, but when you're making a narrative podcast is Chef's Kiss. So good. I'm sorry that I made the Chef's Kiss noise and also did a Chef's Kiss.

I don't know that I said the words. I like, appreciated it. Yeah. I would like to know, basically for heritage and background, I'd like to know your relationship with the park and the company. Like what is your deal? What's your background with Dentonic and Steeplechase? So he grew up in a small town

and he hit like puberty, Grossbert, pretty late. He was like a small, somewhat like nerdy, gentle boy, like the, you know, Wells for Boys kind of guy. This is too long. I just want to know about your relationship to the park. I'm getting there. You want to leave something on the bone there, Trow. What if somebody's like, I bet you're always a strong kid. And then this is from me to you, if you're always a strong kid and then you're like, actually, I wasn't.

Let me take you inside. I don't need that dent. Hey, Justin, you're doing a great job GMing so far. Thank you so much, Travis. And so, basically, he then was a heavyweight boxer for a while. Then there was some issues. And he wasn't allowed to do that anymore. That's good.

I love that shit. That's good. You just put that little checkoffs issue right there on the wall. We'll come back to it. And so he, like, had a name, right? Everybody knew of beef punch or the boxer, but he needed work. And so he basically made a deal with Dintanik and Siebel Jays to come and be like a representative of Beef Punchley. And we talk about like that they work like at some kind of arcade or there is some kind of like punchout ask a game that it's like Beef Punchley's Punch Out.

And he's like, hi, it's me. Fight me in my prime kind of deal. So he's not quite a mascot, but that's the feel of him. Sorry, sorry, but the idea of an arcade game with a picture of Beef Punchly, there's like a balloon coming out of his mouth that says, Fight me in my prime! It's so dire. Yeah. It's not a flattering or happy circumstance to be in.

You should know that my head canon for Beef Punchley is already King Hippo from Punch Out, which is very powerful. Let me say real quick, actually, because I should. should have established this. The layer that these three currently work in is called Eustabin. And Eustabin is a layer that is built around

nostalgia. It is the idea of taking the experiences that you thought that you would never have again and bringing them directly to you for a very reasonable fee.

And you all work in Eustabin, we will talk about, Travis mentioned the arcade that you all are working in, and we'll talk about that. To give me an example, there's like one of the attractions in Eustabin is called Super Slumber Party, where every night there is a gigantic parkwide slumber party where you can have your nails painted and you can eat huge piles of wood fire oven pizza for $13 and absolutely house an entire 12-ounce mountain dew that you get to keep all for yourself. you don't share it with your brother, no problem. But that is like the kind of experience

that used to have been traffics in. It is about the feelings that you... It's not just like selling you like funcos with the greatest American hero on them. Although Funkopopop, please. Any of my characters are open for licensing for a very reasonable fee. Come at me.

Love to get some of those funcos going. Anyway, but that's used to been. It's not just about like retro. It's not retro, right? Retro has that like clanging, sort of obvious shilling. This is designed to, like, actually give you the feelings of being young again. Or the feelings of being young in an age that you never got to experience, but always seemed very, very pleasant. So Beef Punchley works at an arcade, former puncher, maybe still a puncher.

We'll have to see. Well, he's still a puner. He was a boxer. There's a term for it. Oh. So you really have done your homework. Dad, let's go over to you. Clinton McElroy.

Tell me about your character. I am playing Emmerick Dreadway. Ooh, I like that. Good, Dad. Yikes. That's good, Dad. Emerick Dreadway is a whisper. And in this game, it's about as close as we get to magician, would you say?

Yeah. Wizard. someone who deals in the in the fantastic um but americ is um slim uh waspish is kind of the word i was using i'm what is what is what is you mean like why anglo-saxon protestant don't like he has you mean no i mean what i mean slim and um think vincent price i really was thinking like Vincent Price. When I think of Vincent Price, I don't normally think what a waspish fellow,

but okay. But he is waspish in the waspies. Yeah, if you mean like literal, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He is a creationeer.

Is that the word you, or? That's a fucking great word, Mac. It's write it down, maybe. Creation ear. He is one of those people who has, He's older.

He's been with dentonics for quite a while. And one of the things that is a key in the newest iteration of attractions and stuff at steeplechase are these hard light constructs. Do we want to talk about the hard light constructs here? Yeah. And, Dad, since you're sort of the expert in hard light, I think I will be sort of like, hopefully collaborating with you on like the specifics of this technology. But the basic idea is I didn't want to have magic as we would think about it in in this, but there is a supernatural element to blades in the dark.

So I started thinking about that like sufficiently advanced technologies in this Englishable for magic, the Carl Sagan thing. So the big like secret to the success of Dentonic and the reason that they've been able to expand at the and evolve at the speed they have is this technology called hard light, which is basically solid holograms, holograms that have shape and form and a physicality to them, which the applications of that technology are just as wide-reaching as you can imagine to the point where we might think of them as magic. And we are for this like sort of whisper purpose, is that it is so advanced. is basically like a supernatural thing.

You are one of the few people who have the like prowess to shape and, you know, rejigger hard light constructions. And not just magic, right? Because one of the things in Blades in the Dark is ghosts, right? Right, yes. Yeah, hard light is, yeah, hard light holograms are standing in for ghosts.

And when you first described the sort of like Disney World analog of animatronics. Yeah. And this being that, like hard light, like living, living in quotation marks figures. So yeah, that's hard light. I kind of ran with that. And kind of the background was that Emmerick was, if not the main guy that first came up with the hard light constructs. at least he was one of the first innovators with it,

seen as the father of Hardlight and other people in the company have taken credit for it. And Emmerick is not a very forceful person, but found himself demoted, found himself pushed to the side while other people benefited from his genius and it wrecked his life. I mean, he still works for them, but it's in this very, you know, he's been pushed back to used to Ben. Instead of being one of the innovators, now he's like practically just a maintenance guy who keeps the machines working.

I love this, Dad. What is the special move that you took? We'll get more into some of these different character classes. But like, what's your special move that you, that you went with? I think compel the, in the special ability. Yeah, right? So, yeah, the special ability. Which are the special abilities did Zemrock have?

Yeah, I think compel. He can attune to a ghost field for, but we'll say hard light field. Yeah. And force a nearby ghost to appear and obey a command. You give it. and, you know, this will allow him to use even hard light constructs that he hasn't created, he will be able to control. Dad, do you feel like hard light is projected from a source or hard light is, you know,

made by a bunch of tiny nanomachines? Like, how do you think hard light works? I would say that instead of a whole bunch of nanites, I would say there is one nucleus, one device that projects out. Like a little B. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That you would have a little. Did you say B or bead? Well, I said B because I'm literally thinking of there's a hard light projection in Red Dwarf. And it's like a little capsule that like projects Rimmer whenever they leave the ship. Oh, I thought you said bean. Sure. But whatever the saying is. We're all having a lot of fun here with words that sound like other words.

I think there is some kind of very small device that projects outward and creates these construct. So maybe to make that sort of work, you need to find some sort of projection source in the world, something that's doing something else that you can repurpose in that way. Maybe you have some with you. I don't know. We'll figure it out. Uh, Jessam, I had a quick question about this world. Yeah, anything, Travis. Um, so we talked about like, so far both dad and I have mentioned, like, that beef ended up having to get a job there and that Embrick was like demoted but still works there.

How much of like a ubiquitous employer is Dentonic in this world? Is it like at some point everybody ends up working there? Or is it like a much smaller, like how influential, you know what I mean? Uh, so. It's the kind of place where you live. It's the kind of place where you post up there. I'm thinking about people who do like a tour, you know, on a cruise ship maybe, that sort of metaphor where we are like living there and what have you. A lot of people.

Sort of, yes. But a lot of the people who are there are there for the money, but really money is not that important. important because they live there. There's this idea of coin in Blades in the Dark and coin are big chunks of cash. Like a coin is like a lot of money. Running around money, you don't really track, right? So like, do I have the money to get a sandwich? Yes, you have sandwich money.

It's just assumed, right? It's not that. I got a life pack. You're never watching an episode of CSI where they're like, and I'm going to get a cup of coffee. Oh no. I don't have any money for coffee. Let's do a scene of me going back to get some money for coffee from an 18, right? I just want, I want you to know my first action in the game is going to be buying 100 sandwiches for nothing and then selling them in bulk for coin. If you, well, Griffith, if you buy them in bulk, it's going to cost you coin. We don't have

coin. What we have is, this is kind of a slangy thing, but people call them sweets. So rather than coin, you have sweets because it is the equivalent cost. of a deluxe two-bedroom suite in the layer of your choice. So a lot of people who are here are there to try to get enough to stay there in one of these layers that is a fantasy of theirs. So they are both the clients, but also the employees. So it's sort of like, imagine like an employee discount. Okay. So I imagine, though, if it is like basically the only thing that brought you any pleasure or joy was your company.

So, like, that's how deep most of these people are. In fact, we have this idea of factions also from Blades in the Dark. And for me, for Steeblechase, these factions are going to be represented by different groups within the company, but also denizens of different layers. Because we've been divorced from a space or a region, a physical geography. that we are living in, we're inherently tribal creatures, right? So we are drawn to creating these tribes

to form our identity. And for these people, their identity is where they work, right? Yeah. They're not just a maintenance man. They are part of the cogs and gears, which is the faction of maintenance people,

because that's how deeply they identify with that and how much that means to them. I remember working at Best Buy, and for whatever reason, we decided our store had a rivalry with another store. Who fuck cares? But, like, that was a thing. And then we, like, went to a conference and, like, chanted at them. It was horrifying.

Anyways, I can really relate to this. If you are an employee, if you are a cast member, let's say, of the, of infinitum, which is the sci-fi layer. It was the second layer that Dentonic built. But if you're an employee of infinitum, then you are a member of the sidereal age, which is your faction of people that are from the sci-fi world. So you need to stay on the good side. And you might encounter people from these other layers. That is a possibility, even though travel between the two is not that common when you're an employee or a guest. Is the end game us trying to reach the heavy side layer?

Because if so, I need to know now. Because I'm going to change my character dramatically. A great point, Griffin. let me just take my book of all the things I was going to do for the next few months. And, okay, it's in the trash because you already guessed. I get to be old Deuteronomy. Yes, it's purgatory. You can't just call that, dad.

Steve will chase is purgatory. You win. Okay, anyway, does that answer your question, Travis? Yes, it does. How big of an employer in this world is Dentonic? Yeah. What do you think? I mean, it kind of feels like to compare it to you, and I hope past session zero,

we can not compare it to Disney constantly. but to think about that you have Disney World, right, the Disney World, Disneyland, Euro Disney, right? You have the Disney Parks, and then you have the Disney television, and you have Disney movies, and you have Disney stories, and you have Disney, like, so.

Right. Is it like... So imagine if all that was boiled down into the parks business, right? And you can start to get an idea of the scope of this, the sweep of this. Got it. Dentonic does not produce outside media. right they are not like in the movie business they're not they're in this

business because no experience that you would have on the outside no movie no TV show no book nothing would like equal what you are doing there in fact that's a little bit of the charm is that like you don't exactly know what you're going to be getting into when you're there right so it's it that helps it make it seem more immersive too because if you're seeing a bunch of characters that you already know, it's like, oh, you're just pretending to be this guy. Okay. Griffin, I believe that leaves you.

Tell me about your character. I will be playing Montrose Pretty is his name. It's a fine name. Montrose Pretty is a slide. Is the Blades on the Dark Claybook I'm using. Wee! He loves going down those diagonal things. Oh, I thought people could get on him and slide down him.

Yes, he is 15 feet long. No, a slide is a subtle manipulator and spy, according to the playbook here. There are a few sort of adjacent roles that he does not exactly fit into. There's a playbook called The Spider, which is all about sort of leveraging influence and connections and stuff like. That's not really him. There's also a lurk, which is about being incredibly sneaky and dexterous. that is also not him. He is more of a salesman sort of impresario type.

I think his place in the deltonic, is that it? Dentonic. Pentatonics. And the pentatonics is, he was, I think, just a sort of cast member like a, I don't know if there are mascots here, but if there are mascots here, he would, he would, fill that role sort of begrudgingly. There are. We'll meet him. While on the side, Montrose had a connection to the underworld, to the seedy belly of crime

that happened here, was part of a crew, not a very important part of that crew, and to leave some spaces on the map blank, left that crew on bad terms. and now has this different role working with working with the others at this arcade, or at least that is what we have talked about so far, although it seems like that might be subject to change. He is, I would say, a charismatic opportunist, and I think he sees a lot of potential in the skills that fist meatly and... That's not my name.

It's beef. Please don't make this get more confusing. There's a lot of proper nouns here. That beef in Emmerich bring to the table. And so that is, I think, why he is teamed up with them. Okay. So, yeah, former scoundrel in the traditional sense. It's worth noting, and I don't know if this is the way this is going to swing,

but it is worth noting that characters in Blades in the Dark are not meant to be permanent. They can die. It is not that wild to think of. there is they can retire they can leave the the game they can be arrested they can be arrested and sent to prison like yeah this this has real actual stakes uh and that is all i will say is that i well not real actual stakes justin because it's all make believe it won't hurt me Travis Mattra in real people if people have a fun time listening to it that's that's real I guess that's true oh my god yeah you're thinking about that I'm gonna my my

Can I say my special ability? I'd love that, I've taken an ability called cloak and dagger. One of the items that slides get access to is a fine disguise kit, sort of integral to the thing.

And I have this vision in my mind of a, he's always wearing a mask, like a hard light mask. I'm envisioning sort of like hexadecimal from reboot, where the face just kind of like

changes to display certain emotions. Cloak and dagger allows you to use a disguise or other form of covert misdirection and then you get bonuses to a role to confuse or deflect suspicion. When you throw off your disguise, the resulting surprise gives you the initiative

in the situation. Now, are you, so this is a mask you're always wearing? I think so. Hmm. How does that figure into your like day-to-day life as, I take it off to eat spaghetti. When I eat my spaghetti, I take it off So I don't get the mask all dirty and messy

Right, but what is your day job? I mean, we work at this arcade, right? So you're the guy who worked, oh, have you ever heard of Montrose Pretty? Yeah, he's a very charismatic guy. Yeah, he is. It is weird that he works in an arcade and is always wearing this mask. Well, it doesn't look like a mask, I assume, right? No, I mean, I don't think it's photo realistic.

I think it looks like a mask. when Mr. Pretty rolls up, like, you are, you are in source of, but you know what? He's into that. He's okay with being, being memorable. But yeah, but it's also, but I just want to really, I'm really trying to drive into this, girlfriend. I really want to drill down. You're a character that is defined by their ability to sway other people. And on the other hand, you're also a super creep who's always wearing a mask. Like, it's, it's very, I'm trying to align the two in my head. I have to know what, what does the mask look like? Because right now I'm picking up. like,

like one of those completely neutral, like just white mouth that like that one dance troupe I think is Jabberwocky wears. It's terrifying. What does it actually look like, please, Griffin? It's Guy Fawkes.

I'm a revolutionary. No, it's not a guy fox mask. I think it just, it looks like a, it looks like a human face but slightly exaggerate. No.

Okay, so like the clear masks that they wear in heist, like just to hide your, okay, perfect. If you have a Marlequin mask, something that's, I don't want a valley,

an uncanny valley here, Griffin. I'm scared. I think it is an uncanny valley situation, but it's, it's beautiful. Now, just as long as we're having fun,

I'm looking at Griffin's character sheet. I see that Griffin has given himself four items that are completely without purpose because we are not doing a heist right now,

but Griffin has just made a note that he's got some weird stuff in his buckets. Oh, those are load free. So I was like, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I've got all those. For sure.

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And this part is a little less like defined at this point. Yeah. Let me talk first about the different types of characters. Next, we are going to make a crew. And this part is a little more less like defined at this point. Yeah. Well, let me talk first about the different types of crews that we have, very briefly. We've never played a game that had this particular element in it where, like, the organization is just as much a game mechanic as the individual characters are.

The crew is a character. Think of it that way. And actually, if you want to be particular about it, the crew is the constant. Yeah. These cats can come and go. But the crew, and, you know, we could even, like, find some, if there's another person, who wants to join. I mean, eventually this crew is going to be,

I mean, God willing, the Creek don't rise. I have a lot of people other than you all, right? It will be an expansive criminal empire if all goes according to plan. So we have several different crew types that you can choose from. We've got, hold on. Assassins, which, I mean, does what it says right on the 10 there.

I mean, why playing in the game what we already do in real life? That doesn't seem fine. No, Travis. Mercenaries, don't tell them. Mercenaries and thugs are bravos. If you're a Bravo crew, then you start battles, extortion, sabotage, smash and grabs, burly, burly criminals. Cult is acolytes of a god in this case.

I'm not exactly sure what the analog would be, but I'm sure we could have some fun with it. Hawkers sell vice. They sell vice items or different types of vice. shadows or thieves and spies who do burglaries and espionage and robberies and sabotage and then smugglers transport contraband they execute

clandestine deliveries territory control and expeditions outside the city so those are the ones we have to choose from what are you all we had talked about hawkers how are we feeling about that right now based on

what you have told us about this world. I think that owning a small business is a fun idea from a gameplay perspective. You'd also talked about how these layers are separated. Yes. And so smugglers also seems like it would be, you know, a narratively, it would fit. I worry that the jobs would get a little bit samey if it's just get this thing from one place to another. But Hawkers is what we had discussed before this episode. Yeah. Yeah, I like the, I think I can also see in this world how Hawkers has the most, like,

growth potential as a business goes, where I can see the, especially as you talk about, like, the L-A-Y-E-R layers expanding through those instead of it being like everybody has to come to us to get the jobs done, we're trying to expand our influence of being able to sell this stuff or offer whatever our goods and services are. I think that's good. I'm kind of interested in Bravo's because that also sounds like a lot of flexibility, battles, extortion, sabotage, smash and grabs. I will say, Dad, I think that the only thing I would push back against Bravo's is that it sounds like,

you have two people who are physically not super threatening so that for a crew that is built around like physical violence and physical actions bravos may not be the best fit because you don't have the a lot of the muscle i also would worry because i thought about bravo's too because beef would do well there but i also worried that in a park like this in a setting like this i worry that being too uh aggressive and like smash and grab kind of thing is going to draw a lot of attention from like potentially we could get fired which isn't like a thing that would happen if we were just like playing in a New York City you know kind of place where it's just like

oh we got to go underground for a while but if somebody's like yeah beef broke that window didn't show up to work the next day yeah it also seems like if we have this hard light pioneer and this you know famous boxer

and this this charismatic salesman like it seems like those align with Hawkers really well. It's just a question of what do we hawk? And that kind of eliminates shadows too. Yeah. Because it'd be a lot harder to be a spy if everybody knows who you are.

Hey, that's thief. I love hawkers are, yeah. Hawkers are vice. Well, let's go with hawkers. You want to stick with hawkers? Yeah. Just can you describe Vice in like a short, a short way? Because I feel like that will inform what we hawk because vice is a mechanic in the game.

Right, yes. Let me search for vice. vice real quick. Yeah, let's mention the Blades in the Dark website. If you are curious about this game, you should buy it and get the book and read it because it's one of the coolest like RPG books I've ever read. But there is also this online resource with which you can look up anything we talk about. Very so vice is something that you would use to blow off some steam. Which is an actual mechanic in the game. Yes. They call it they call it stress. but that is what Vice is.

It is what you do to cope with the stress of what you do in your day-to-day, your day-to-day lives. Which could be gambling. It could be luxury. It could be religion. Faith. Yeah. Obligation is one of them. Weird.

It's a good one. Weird. Oh, obligation is interesting. So Vice is not just a metaphor for drugs and alcohol, right? you could have an obligation to your family, which is your vice. Like, your vices that I have these two rotten kids that I have to take care of.

I mean, that could be your vice. Yeah. If you think about it in the fast and the furious terms, it's like, oh, you know, I would do anything for family, even like get myself in trouble, that kind of thing. Right, exactly.

You can overindulge in vices, which has bad consequences, but. Pleasure and stupor are the other two vices that we haven't mentioned yet. I feel like we are missing a trick if we do not focus what our like hawker business is around the fact that we employ a famous boxer and a hard light pioneer. I have an idea. Okay. And I think that this could fit in really well with what used to been kind of represents, but taking it to this like extreme.

that would not be approved by the, you know, the higher-ups. What if we could use your intellect, beef, and your hard light skills, Emmerich, and create moments you can spend with the dead that we recreate based on your description of some past person and then you can spend time with them. That's like, that's tough because like there's several places and used to been to do that. Like that is a big part of the service they offer. I am interested in the fact that they, Dentonic is is peddling vice. Like they are dealing vice.

Like they're dealing like the immersive fantasy experiences. So, like, I don't want something that overlaps with that because they are peddling vice. So it's like, at a certain point, it's like redundant. You know what I mean? Like you can't operate within that. Then one way to think about it is, you know, if they are very, very, very strict about keeping the different layers separated, right? insulated from each other, correct? That is the key to what we do

if we're going to have an illegal a reason for our illegal existence. Okay. I have a thought that I want to hit you guys with. Hit us. What if you are smugglers, but what you are doing is smuggling, you're basically peddling to dentonic fans on the outside.

So, like, what you're doing is you are stealing things from the, from steeplechase, that you can then sell to, no, no, no, the real shit. The real deal. Yeah, but I mean, you're set, yeah, you're buying, you are stealing things from steeplechase that you can sell to collectors on the outside. Oh, I like that.

How does that grab you guys? I like that a lot. That gives us a lot of reasons to go to the different layers. Travis, Griffin, you see my move. I'm trying to think of how that would complement our characters. One thing I wanted to throw out that I thought of as advice that we had not considered luxury, but for employees. So you talk about the suites, right? This luxury experience that everyone's trying to earn money for.

for, right? So, like, the toiletries, towels, a manicure experience, like they get, you're talking about at the slumber parties, or these kinds of, like, luxury experiences, but we are hawking them to employees that the employee can pay for the same kind of luxury experience that a guest would have. That's interesting. because what you're talking about is yes I like that a lot because it

you aren't relying on guests to fund the venture you're peddling to whether or not it's luxury I feel like that's the angle right it's like what is the vice that people who work there I mean that idea of any vice that a guest would want I like the luxury idea but like what does it look

in a concrete state? Like what is like the practical application of what you're talking about? Do you have a hotel? Do you have a spa behind the arcade? I mean, what is it that you're, I think, what if this is how we leverage the hard light thing? What if it is like a hidden in plain sight like the mirage and it is a place that employees know where it is and we are able to cloak it with with, uh, with, with Emmerx, like, hard light capabilities. Or the other way around is the hard light is what creates the, like, spa experience. And otherwise, it's an empty room, right?

So it is a thing we can take with us when we go to different layers of, like, we take the mirage with us and offer this luxury experience. Or you, or you have, okay, okay. building on both of these ideas. What do you think about this? So what you're stealing, what you're stealing is the, or what you're trying to accumulate are hard light programs.

Mm-hmm. That you don't have. Like, you're going to the other layers to find elements that you can use in the mirage and make the mirage, which could be on the different layers,

there could be hidden mirages, you know, throughout as you expand, right, to the different layers to have mirages on each one, and you're basically like improving the experience for employees. You know what it's like? That's very thematically, for what I'm thinking about for the art, thematically very satisfying. It's also what it reminds me of is like when we worked at a where, when I worked in the

Best Buy warehouse and it was literally like there's space between these two refrigerators back to back if you want to go just like lay down and you can't see it on camera and like You didn't like lay down back there and the bosses won't know where you are. Right. We did the same thing. Yeah. Taking a break on company time. When I worked at Bartram Brothers and back on the stock room, we used to build a gigantic forts out of paper towel and toilet paper boxes that the bosses didn't know about.

And we'd sneak back there for breaks. What about like the liminal room, like the space between layers that. that we can that fulfills this role for it's occupied place the liminal layer is occupied yeah so we'll we should have um

we should have uh okay so I don't know what you have heard from what we haven't been discussing the past 20 minutes Rachel's probably you might have just heard a big record scratch uh so guys talk to me about where we're at let's

let's recap this this Hawkers what do you all what are you our selling, where are you doing it, et cetera. So here is what we're looking at, right? We ran through the different vices that a hawk or good hawk. And what we realized was any vice that a guest would want is already being catered to by the park, right? Whatever the experience is. And that means that the opportunity that the market is employees.

So what we offer is a luxury. experience in that it is basically like a hard light break room, a hard light sneak away, take a nap on the company dime kind of experience for employees where we have a hard light projector that we can set up in an empty room or whatever to be this luxury experience for them and then breaks down in an instant and we can carry with us. And so we are trying to expand this idea to have more of these programs, you have more of these projectors so we can have these like kind of secret break rooms generating money for us.

If you've ever seen like it's, there's like rent by like 15 minute nap rooms and airport sometimes. It's kind of like that. That's what we want to set up. So let's, mirages seems like a really cool way to refer to these things. where you a time has forgotten who came up with it It was great for it

10 minutes ago You know it's There was a season Of Friends at the table Called Twilight Mirage That was sort of about They stole it from us In the past?

The holograph No Like holographic Uh Okay So we'll try not to call it Mirage But it's like

It's basically like what it I mean It's like such a good name I mean that's There's a reason they use that Because it's like It's like the best thing to call it. The charade.

The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, twilight. It doesn't matter. Twilight Room. Mara. Nirvana. We'll come up with, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You all go into weird dictionaries and come up with something good. Where do you operate out of what's like your home, your home base? So right now, because I want to stick with the arcade so bad. I think we're just right now operating in the, you. the back room of an arcade, that the maybe kindly old boss lets us use that room. So there's a kindly old boss? I think so. There's a kindly old boss who does not.

What's his name? Poppy. Mervin? Mervin. Perfect. Poppy Mervin. See, that's all it takes sometimes. You guys said this would be easy.

I had no idea how easy. Yeah, I told you. Just wait for two people to say things, squish them together. And he got a new character name, Poppy Mervin. Poppy Mervin, and he runs this arcade, which is called Poppy's Place. It's called Poppy's Place. What kind of games do they have at Poppy's Place? So I think it is like ski ball and air.

I think it's like full-blown boardwalk arcade. Yeah, boardwalk arcade. Well, your punchout game needs to be in there too. Oh, yeah. Well, but they have those, they have those, like, speedbag games at, at this type of establishment, I feel like. So instead of it being like a, a, oh, it's, maybe it's like also like an arm wrestling, one of those where it's like the fake arm is up. Fuck, yes. Yeah.

I want to see a bunch of, of, like, plastic beef wasn't a bosser. He was a professional arm wrestler. Really? Okay, great. Yeah. Whack a vole? We have to whack one of all pops up out of the ground. That's fine.

Punchly part was more of a thursday. at like if the arm wrestling doesn't go good. I know my last thing. It could be snakes. It's just his last name. It's just his last name. I don't know what to tell you. It has something to do with punching.

Yeah. Beef leverage is a different guy. We don't talk about beef leverage. I hope you guys know that the more kindly you make Poppy Mervin, the higher the likelihood that you will have to kill him. Like I'm just telling you now. Okay, so your crew is starting out at Poppy's place. We are going to choose your tier zero, which means that you're barely even a thing. You have stronghold, which means that you're pretty tight on your place that you're in.

You have two coin to use to further your ambitions and zero reputation. You're just formed, you got your home base, given what you've done, what kind of reputation do you feel like, if any, do you think that you have with the rest of steeplechase? I don't, I don't, the rest of steeplechase, not much. Nothing, yeah. Because it just depends on how much crossover there is, like, you know, maintenance people that maybe move from park to part or layer to layer. maybe there's like one or two of those who have been to our break room and have like gone to other things and mentioned it to other people. But this would also be how you boost your reputation is how you advance your crew. So if you think about the kinds of things that you would like to be perceived, right, that would increase this reputation, the sorts of actions you'd like to take.

And this is a thing we are choosing off of the list. Can I read the reputation? Ambitious, brutal, daring, honorable professionals, savvy, subtle, or strange. Okay, so I think, oh, maybe it's subtle. This idea of, like, you're not going to get in trouble. Like, your secret is safe if you use this thing. Like, if you go take a break on the company dime or whatever, your secret is safe. They know how to keep their lips shut.

Okay, dad, how do you feel about that? Yeah, yeah. I like that. Okay. That also helps in the big scheme when people are like, hey, I've heard that discretion is like your strong suit. I have another job for you. Yeah. That requires that, right?

So, like, I think that that is a good balance of doing the job and doing our goal and how those grow each other's influence. You guys know yourselves, right? Like, you know the way that this is all gone before, right? And you understand what you are saying to me, the facilitator of your fantasies, is that what you want to do this time, the watchword is subtlety. This is what you're saying. We're trying something new. You know, I will not advance you as a crew if you're like, yeah, we blew up the whole building. Well, no, as long as we don't track that dokey back home, right?

That's fine. As long as we don't bring that noise down on our clients. Subtle, subtlety. Tastful, subtle operators. Okay, so you're subtle. I am not going to establish a hunting ground specifically right now because that is not a mechanic that I am needing to deal with at this exact moment, and I want to leave some room to find out about it.

Choose a special ability. There is a list here of special abilities. I'm not going to read them off all because it would be, a long time, but is there one that appeals to one or more of you? If you look at that special abilities box there in gray. I mean, I know it's the first one, but Silver Tongue? I like Silver Tongues. I also kind of like Ghost Market, but that brings up questions for Juice.

Like, do Hardlight people come to our thing? We do not discriminate. They do not pay in coin. What do they pay with? I mean, we could do. the good stuff since we have a pioneer of hard light in our crew and isn't that what we're offering our customers is high quality i mean good stuff i mean they're they're there to get the best of the best i i i silver tongues is appealing to me because that is very much the character i am playing

and if we're playing subtle right if we're playing subtle i think the three of us being good at like talking to people is a safe bet. Also, I don't think any of us have command. I do. I have one in command. It seems like having more command, like being able to make people a friend. I can convince people of anything. I think if we do this one, I would have three points in sway.

I mean, if you take that one, like you can put it in one of those three. Yes. This is one special ability for the whole crew, correct? Correct. Yes. I think that's the way to go. As much as I like the good stuff, I think, okay, so, Justin, here's what we've decided. Since, as you have said, the watchword is subtlety, we are going to choose Silver Tongues as our special ability as a crew.

All right, so you all are taking Silver Tongues. Yeah, we're taking Silver Tongues, and so we each get to add one to command consort or sway. Now, I can't see Dad or Griffin's character sheets, but I already have one in-co. command, and command is basically to intimidate or threaten, lead in action with one of the cruise gangs, command of obedience with your force of personality. I think I'm going to take that. Another point in there, to have two points in command? I have two in sway. I might actually take one in consort because if we are trying to peddle our wares to other, like, organizations with the park, it seems like being able to talk to them on a sort of broad scale.

scale. Sway is more like convincing someone of something or using deception. Consort is like hitting the streets and like having contacts. And I think that that would be much more valuable for Montrose pretty. So I need to add one to you can choose. Command consort or sway. Command can say consort or sway. I have two in consort and sway. Trav has two in command. Do you have any right now down? Well, sway would sure help me in trying to influence hard light structures, wouldn't it? It wouldn't. No, sway would be, you would use a tune for that.

Like, because sway would be someone who has independent will, which a hard light construction would not. So you couldn't convince a computer of anything, right? It would just be. Now, I think it would make sense that if you said that Americh, because of his former career as a creation ear, has contacts. in, you know, maintenance or context in that kind of thing for consort, that would make a lot of sense to me. Yeah, like people you know, Dad, like previously, like, might be a good one. It's up to you, though. Okay.

I'll put it in consort. Okay. All right. Let's see. What's next for us? We need to pick up two upgrades. Two upgrades. We're not going to read this list.

Just tell me what two upgrades you guys want. There's a lot. It feels like hidden would be great. for us. Yeah. Hidden is an upgrade. Your layer has a secret location and is disguised to hide it from view. If your layer is discovered, use two downtime activities and pay coin equal to your

tier to relocate it and hide once again. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we're going to take Hidden. And then one more. The ones up at the top in the gray box are like kind of recommended. So I don't know if any of those look interesting to you all.

Oh, man. I like Hawkers rigging because I like being able to conceal things. It seemed like it would be up Dad's Alley too, but I didn't know if that looked good to you guys. Yeah. I think that that would aid, especially in field operations. Yeah, perfect. That's also going to be good for y'all because you'll be traveling away from your home base a lot. So it makes sense.

And especially if we take our projector thing with us, if we're taking technology with us, we don't want our shit to get confiscated or else. So here's what I'd like to do very briefly. If you could look at the map that I have made for you of Eustabin, if you could load that up. Obviously, the people at home can't see this, and I don't want to go over all the different areas of Eustabin. This is sort of like your neck of the woods. This doesn't encompass the entirety of the park this map. Oh, that's very pretty, Justin. Thank you, Dad.

I will give five adventure points, which is. by the way, a currency that I've invented for my arc. When you do something good, you can earn adventure points that are redeemable for prizes at the end of the arc. So five adventure points to the first person that can tell me what this is a map of. It's Camden Park. Nope. No? Damn it.

Is it? Cedar Point. Nope. The roller coaster is your big hint. Kings Island. Which part? Oh, yeah. The racer?

I mean, that's the roller coaster. That's the roller coaster. Exactly. Pony Island. Yeah, this is the Coney Island area from like mid-70s. Oh, wow. Okay. Anyway, there's a map of all the different nostalgic experiences.

We're not talking about Prize Palace today, but are there any others that you are interested in or would like to hear more about? Or you feel like, so here's what I'm thinking. You do not have a lot of expansive contexts outside of used to Ben for the moment. We will blow that out once things start. But right now, in place of like steeplechase wide factions, I'd like to think of these like different stores and restaurants of used to bin as like little factions just for this first outing. So is there any that you like have a relationship with, any that you feel like we want to establish some narrative hooks with, like something that you have a history with or ones that you wanted to like know more about very briefly? Whittle Around You had mentioned was hard light based of like

You know There's grandpies Whittle around is If you ever seen Like an old timey TV show or movie And you see an old grandpa And he's like sitting on the porch And he's whittling

Yeah I've never actually seen anybody do that in real life And most people who I have I do it but Well you're not a denizen Of this futuristic world dad So you

Not yet. Yet. It just gives you that experience of whittling around. Now for a exorbitant fee, they will take images, videos, details about your own grandpa

and recreate him as a very basic hard light projection. I mean, he's not going to like have great memories of your lives together. But if you want to pretend, you can have your grandpa in there for a price.

What about the anachro knickknacks? A macro knickknacks is a store that sells physical objects that are no longer produced. There are like handles for rolling up and down car windows. If you ever wanted to experience that, you can. They have rotary phones in there. They have different devices. They have like record players, cassette players, all the outdated technology.

Things that shouldn't exist anymore, but they have found. And what is Backseat Blast? Backseat blast is a great. That's actually an extremely popular attraction in used to been. In backseat blast, you have the experience of sitting in the backseat of your parents' car, and it's raining a little bit outside. It's the evening, and you've just been at a party, and you're listening to your disc men, but you have the volume quiet enough that you can listen to your parents talking in the front seat.

as the window windshield wipers move back and forth and you listen to your music and you know with complete certainty that you are as safe as you will ever be. And that's backseat blast. And it's just 20... Yeah, yeah, it's actually very affordable. It's 20 bucks for a spin on backseat blast.

If you want the parents to look like your parents, they do have some like free standard parents that you can go with, but that's up to you. Are they huge, too? Are the cars big? to make you feel small? Exactly. Exactly.

Yes, Griffin. They're very big cars. What about All Mixed Up? All Mixed Up is a store where there are 30 radios playing to different AI-generated stations, and you are given a cassette where you have to dash from radio to radio to create a mixtape of songs that you love. I like the idea of our crew contact being somebody who is higher up. at one of these places who uses our services. And about a former coworker of Emmericks.

Hmm. Who stayed in good favor. Maybe somebody that was instrumental in getting Emric pushed out, but Emmerick doesn't know it. Okay. Yeah, it doesn't need to be too complex because we're going to be out of here pretty quickly. but like if you want to say like a former where do they work dad personally i would like him to work

at infinitum because i want to go there oh i know but we're right now we're just staying in used to it's just stuff for this first like little chunk i would say uh the two that sound the most hard lighty to me are whittle around a backseat blast right that they would require programmers right people who had programmed grandpaws and program parents so i think it would make sense that if The connection is like somebody who worked with Emmerich that either whittle around or backseat blast would make the most sense. Daddy of a preference? I have an odd thought. Okay.

What if the basic grandpa hard-like construct is one of Emmerich's earliest creations and he considers him to be his friend? Oh, shit. So instead of it being, yeah. So our contact is a hard light. Dad, what is your, what is your, what is your, what is your, what is your, what is your, um, what is your, um, what is your, um, what is your, um, what is your, um, you see. What's his name? E-U-S-T-A-C-E. Eustace, Ben.

Eustace, uh, Shabon. He has a last name. I mean, he, okay. Uh, I'm, eustace Shabon. The, the hologram. Uh, hold on. Let me make a quick note about who he is, because I will, I will remember, but you guys may not. He is a hard light grandpa.

Yeah. And the fact that he's been. Hardlight constructs are AI. They are not people. I want to make this really clear going in. I know. I know. All right.

But that's the world that, that Emrick lives in. I mean, he, and I think Eustace is, is, because he's been reprogram so many times, you know, and changed for him so many times. He has a very bad memory. Okay. All right. So you have a friend there over at the, the, uh, uh, uh, whittle around who is a hard like grandpa.

You said Chavon, the first grandpa sounds like, uh, like a from software boss. Uh, all right. Now, this is a plus one you have with him.

One, uh, I need somebody else to come up with somebody you hate in used to have been. Uh, oh, you know what? I'm going to say

the proprietor of a Nacro Knickknacks We've had to deal with To like get parts for things What is their name, Griffin? I don't know.

Tell me more about them, Travis. Well, they're a real company person And so we have to be really careful About how we ask for the pieces And they're really nosy And they are trying to figure out What we're doing. Hmm

I like Okay I really like the First off I've just discovered that I have no idea How to spell the word proprietor Here we are I like the idea that there are some Hard Light things that aren't worth programming

And it's just easier To get the things from an acornick-knacks Like it's just to Have you ever tried to model a You know Whatever it is The wax cylinder on a victrola It's easier to just get the fucking thing

Well and we There's not like a radio shack For us to get technology You only take apart so many machines before people start to notice. So sometimes you have to like buy, you know, old-timey stuff to use in place of other things. And just like that, I have the name.

His name is Victrola Gold. Trolla Gold. Okay, great. Fantastic. Okay, so we have established someone you don't like, someone you do like. That's all very well and good. The last thing I wanted to touch on real quick, in terms of sort of like red lines or things that we feel like are sort of out of bounds for this, and we're setting some like parameters, which is something we've tried to be better about modeling, even though it's the four of us. We all know each other pretty well, so there's not as much discomfort. But, you know, I do think it's an important thing to sort of establish. So for me, one of the things that I don't enjoy and will not be part of this arc is like violence against kids. I don't love it.

And I don't like, I don't want to like hang out there. I would also extend that. I mean, how many kids, related question? Like, how many kids are here, right? Because this does not sound like a child friendly experience necessarily in the sense that it is like a nostalgia play for. I'll say this. You don't, well, you don't see a lot of kids in used to been for sure. Okay.

That is about what you know, I think. I mean, you don't see a lot of kids in your neck of the woods because, like, they're living the dream. I mean, they're creating the nostalgia. That's where they make it. childhood. I also think, I mean, I think it's important just to establish as a baseline, too, because we're talking about, like, vice and fantasy and stuff. And anything related to human trafficking or, like, sex trafficking is off the table, I think. There being a distinction between sex work and human trafficking.

Yeah. Of course. Anything else that anybody does. I will not be protracted torture. Not, not. And then we know we're nasty now. nasty characters. That's a little too nasty.

It's a little too nasty for me. Yeah, and I think the level of violence or at least the... High. Yeah, high violence. But I think, I mean, in all seriousness, I think almost to the, like, Deadpool level. You know what I mean? So it's still... Fun.

Fun violence. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I do. And dad, you should know by this point everything I do in my creative. endeavors. I strive to be like Deadpool. Yeah. So he is something of an icon and a hero for me. So we'll aim for Deadpool. Well, okay, but but I mean there's a subtle difference between a James Bond movie

where he's mowing down people left and right. If it's important to you personally, okay, that there be, I need you to be specific about this because it is something that like this is a violent game. This is a, this can be a nasty game. So like I want, if there's specific things that you want to avoid. Like, that's the kind of thing we're talking about here. I love it all. I don't have any problem with it. Okay, great. My dad's a nasty dog who loves murder. Well, this is where I think we can get into like the X card and the red, yellow, and green.

So we have a verbal X card because we're in audio medium and it's just easier that way, because who knows what you'll be looking at? If you say, hey, bud, then that means I'm going to stop, but we're going to talk about what's happening. Well, that's not a magic catchphrase. We would say, like, hey, bud, I'm uncomfortable with this. Because there might be times where our characters say, hey, bud, and we don't want to. No, they can't. They better not.

Oh, okay. It's a verbal ex card that I have a staff. Tell me something, Griffin, that would be a good verbal ex card that I could say with certainty that you'll not be saying. Parchesee. Parcheasy. It's not a sexual saying for it. A banana stand. Okay.

What we're going to go with is, hey bud. So if something is uncomfortable with you, just say, hey, bud, and we'll talk through it. And that'll either be on mic or it won't. Okay, so now I'd like to close. It is, time isn't that important here, but for simplicity's sake, let's call it 1 p.m. Over at Poppies. Emrick, what do I find you doing? Tinkering.

I just came off my lunch break. Very sad. I had a little cucumber sandwich, and I ate it back in the corner. And then I go back to tinkering on a... I still have a few minutes left in my lunch break. So I'm working on a personal project. Montrose?

There's a new hire here who works at the concession stand. and I'm trying to sort of gauge subtly their interest in our product. Okay, and beef. Beef is arm wrestling the machine and like loudly proclaiming like so realistic, just like the real thing, me and my prime, and like trying to get attention to it.

And I don't know, he's probably not that convincing. At that exact moment, it was one, 103 p.m. There was a loud sort of crack unworldly, impossibly, impossibly loud. The sound of a crack outside above you.

What would you all do? Don't overthink it, guys. Yeah, I'm going to peek outside cautiously. Okay. Emmerich? Are you going to take a look? I think take a look, but kind of position.

I'm just position myself behind beef. Okay. And then mantras. I don't want to break my stride here, so I'm just going to kind of keep an eye on the other two and see what their reactions like before I decide. So you're standing in relative proximity. The sky in Eustabin is during the daytime, at least, always the same.

It's the way the sky looks on a snow day, where you wake up and it's brighter than it should be. It's impossibly bright because the sunlight is being reflected off the drifts of snow. It's always that color in used to bin. Except for right now, at this exact moment, you hear another crack. And you see above you a break in the sky. It looks to be maybe a thousand feet across. And then it cracks more.

and you see that it's starting to crack into something that approximates a rectangle, a gigantic thousands of feet wide rectangle. And then the sky starts falling. But as it falls, what you realize is that it is not a thousand feet of sky. It's maybe six or seven. It's six or seven feet of sky that thousands of feet of sky have been projected onto. Above it is only blackness. And you see the metal, the projection screen that was just above you a moment ago,

careened down towards the ground. And you see a woman on it. She's wearing a black trench coat. She's got three knives sticking out from back behind her. Her face is covered in soot. And she's got a bala clava pulled down just to her forehead. And she is falling. She is falling.

And the piece of ground, piece of sky now ground. smashes below her. But she does not smash. She is hanging. You realize she is hanging six feet off the ground suspended by a wire from a hole in the sky. And she looks at you and she says, well. And that's where we'll start. Maximumfund.org.

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