The Adventure Zone - The The Adventure Zone Zone

Episode Date: March 17, 2016

Happy MaxFunDrive, everybody! To celebrate, we're doing a between-weeks episode of The The Adventure Zone Zone, an informal chat show about the rest of the podcast that we do. Join us for a discussion of Taako's Taco Quest, the origins of Barry Bluejeans and what's in store for future campaigns! And visit maximumfun.org/donate! 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

Hey, everybody, welcome to The Adventure Zone Zone, a podcast about the rest of our podcast. We're talking about our own podcasts that we make. It's kind of like Talking Dead if the creators of Walking Dead talked about their own show and how dope it was. So it's kind of a snake eating its own tail, but it's also like a snake sucking its own dick. I love that you're explaining this. Like we haven't been releasing The Adventure Zone Zone Zone on every off week since we started the podcast. On the fucking Deep Web. Yeah, I put it up on the big gulp.

S-S-Feed. Yeah. Everybody's been getting it, right? Like, I've been putting a lot of work into the Adventure Zone Zone. It's Max Fun Drive. Should we introduce ourselves? It must be so, so weird for regular listeners to hear us talking with our normal voices. Because we always do character voices, right?

Yeah. Well, I got some surprises for you. Oh, wow. I'm really looking forward to it. My name is Justin McElroy. I played the role of Taco. Interesting. My name is Travis McElroy, and I inhabit Magnus Burns.

My name is Clint McElroy, and I am Merle-Hyde Church. Church, not Tower. Uh-uh. I'm Griffin McElroy, and I play the role of fucking Clark, Gundren, Barry Blue Jeans, Yeomick, the director, Killian, Kurtz, Jenkins, Angus, Jess. Davenport. Davenport. Yeah, that's me.

Actually, Davenport? Not a lot of people know this. is the guy from wings. Was Stephen him? Stephen Weber? Travis's friend, Stephen Weber? My dear friend, Stephen Weber? Stephen Weber does Davenport.

He actually knows that this show exists. I told them about it once at a party, and he was... I was about to say fascinated, but I feel like that's probably not true. I doubt very much that that information maybe stayed up in the spongy brain of Stephen Weber. I doubt that information still exists in his mind sponge. It probably didn't... get past, oh, look, they cut those little weenies wrapped in bacon.

Yeah, that's probably his priorities. Yeah, if I'm triaging information for Stephen Weber's brain, I'm tossing out the Dungeon Dragons podcast in flavor of pork wrap pork. So this is going to be weird. I was so excited to do the Adventure Zone zone, because I think there's a market here after podcast discussion shows. But typically in this type of medium, it's not the people who make the shit talking about their own shit.

Right. Well, can I make a suggestion? Please do. What if we just kind of took turns asking each other questions and having some audience questions and until we hit on like a conversation nugget and then we mind it for all it was worth. Let's dig for that nug. I do want to talk though. It is the Max Fund Drive. That is why we're doing this mid-week episode. Max Fun Drive. We are a member of the Maximum Fun Organization. We have been for a very long time. We joined them with my brother, my brother and me in. in 2010, 2011, 2011. And we've been a happily been a member for years. This network and the people who listen to it and donate to it have supported us and allowed us to branch out and do new stuff like the adventure zone. Like straight up, the adventure zone, it takes a lot of time to make and we kind of knew it would from the beginning. And we just, we wouldn't be able to do that if it was not for the donations and support.

So like, we're going to talk about the max fund drive and how great it is to be a part of the network. but like this, this show, this thing you're listening to with your ears right now, would not exist if it was not for the maximum fun community and the Max Fund drive. So just to give you a quick rundown here, we'll get more into this later, but if you'd like to give to the network, if you listen to just our show or a few shows on MaxFund, you can go to Maximumfund.org for it slash donate. We've got several different levels for you.

I want to talk to you. Let me just pick one at random here. Let me tell you about the $20 a month level. If you can pledge $20 a month for the shows that you listen to on maximum fun, here's what you're going to get. You're going to get the max fun adventure necessities kit. That is a sort of a multi-tool, a paracord bracelet, some toilet tissue in like a travel container, and a hot cocoa mix.

And you're also going to get a bandana with the, original designs from your favorite podcast on the network, whichever podcast you pick, you get that design. I'm going to assume you'll pick the Adventure Zone and our bandana looks dope as fuck. It's a really good bandana. But maybe most fun of all is you are going to get

an archive, access to a maximum fun archive that has so much bonus content. It is a fucking National Treasure Book of Secrets, Dungeon of Radio Content. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say, I think it's 75 hours worth of material. Yeah, it's several days. Not just of our show.

There's not 75 hours of Adventures in out here. That would be nice. No, but there is. I'm very, very excited. And I hope that you donate so you can listen to. I DM'd a bonus episode of the Adventure Zone where we created a whole new world, all new characters, played through a puzzle, It was my first time ever DMing ever in my life, and it was incredibly fun, and I'm pretty

proud of the way it turned out. So I hope everybody gets to check it out. We call it. You did a great job, son. Thank you, Dad. Finally, he's proud of me. I've done it. I've waited for you to say those words, Dad. I'm also, Papa, can you hear me? No. I'm just psyched that somebody else in this podcast now knows how fucking hard this is. It's so fucking hard, you guys. Yeah, it's really tough. Anyway, we call it the Adventure Zone. We're calling it the Adventure Zone. We're calling it the Adventure Zone. Steam or the Adventure Zone Nights. I kind of like the Adventure Zone Knights.

Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah, we're trying to also figure out. We should talk about this now, too. It was a lot of fun, and we really liked that world, and we didn't want to just, like, suspend it, and then maybe return to it after we were done with this campaign, after the core Adventure Zone campaign. So, do we want to commit to this right now? Do we want to fucking throw our hat over the fence? I want to commit to if we hit the max fun goal of 5,000 new and upgrading donors, we will do at least. We will do at least three more Adventure Zone nights bonus episodes this year.

Now, those will be only available to donors. So if you want to hear them, you're going to have to donate. But we will do more Adventure Zone nights. The cool thing is, if you donate just $5 a month for, like, the shows that you listen to on the network, even if you're just listening to our shows, it's like two hours or the podcasting fun. More than that. Five bucks a month. Like, I think it's pretty good. Because you also get the stuff that we did last year, which includes the live show that we did at L.

I meant like two hours a month of this show for five bucks. It seems like a pretty good deal. You'd pay more than that to see Deadpool. And we'd make the fourth wall way more than he does. That's true. And we say, especially if you win every day. We make a lot more jokes about weeners and boobs.

Maximumfund.org for it slash donate is that address. We'll talk more about that in a second. First, I'd like to hear a question from dad. Okay. How do you play Dungeons and Dragons? I still don't get it. I'm still so confused.

How do dice work? Help me, boys. Help me, boy. Oh, boys. I swallowed all my. my dice. Oh, no. What out rolling?

Oh, dang, I got all my dice down in my pooper. All right, that's the first five. Checked off. I just want to go ahead and, like, raise a concern that I swallowed all my dice and now they're stuck in my pooper is not really a question as much as it is, like, sort of a cry for help. Well, it is, but it's so obvious. No, it's not a question at all, Dad.

There's no interrogative statement. It's fact. You swallowed all your dice and they're stuck in your pooper. Is the question, did I swallow all my dice and now they're stuck in my pooper? The answer is you? Yes. All right, here's the first one. Off to a great start with this one.

Griffin, any advice for new GMs? Apparently general managers. Game Master. New Griffin Macaroys. Game Master. I am running my first campaign, long-time player, first-time DM. And just like a talk show. And anything you might have would be helpful.

Lindsay is asking that. What kind of advice would you have for GMs, which I can only... Game Master. Game Master. Game Master is like how you would refer to it. than like an MMO, like somebody who works like an MMO and like logs in and I don't I don't really understand like for games like so there's there's lots of other RPGs out there there's there's stuff like Pathfinder and uh uh I I mean uh oh shit shadow shadow run is another one

um there's like a ton of these pen and paper RPGs and most of them use the term game master not dungeon master which I get right like I think maybe we should adopt this terminology because how many fucking dungeons have you boys been in that's true so one right well I guess we're I'm in like an expansive dungeon. The whole world's a dungeon, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's true. And it's a vampire. Yeah.

Yeah. It's funny you say that I get books sent to me for Polygon stuff because I write about D&D sometimes for Polygon. And so the Wizards of the Coast folks send me those books. Maybe it's for this podcast. I don't know. I've never really stopped to ask, but they just... I get them too and I don't write for anybody. Oh, really?

Oh, that's awesome. Okay. Did you get cursive straw? There's a new, like... No. They have these, like, campaign books that they send out and then, like, you're just supposed to read them. It's a really interesting way of doing it.

And I like perusing them, although I haven't like straight up lifted anything from them. But they have like campaigns arranged in these books and you like read them and then you use them to lead your players through these campaigns. And the most recent one they send out is the curse of strawed, which is basically like, basically like Quest for Glory for the Shadows of Darkness where it's just like everything, man. Frankensteins, vampires, all that shit, spooky stuff. That has nothing to do with anything. It's just you mentioning vampires made me think. Can I just say if we could have a campaign where we meet a Frankenstein. A Frankenstein's monster? No, a Frankenstein. Vic. Let's meet Victor. Okay. Or like any Frankenstein,

like his cousin, Stephen Frankenstein. Alan Frankenstein. Please, Dr. Frankenstein was my father. Come on in. I dropped out of med school. It was a little intense. I'm more of a musician. Do you like the obo? Like, if Griffin could just answer the question. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No joke. One piece of advice. I can't. Like, it's, it's hard to say because what, what I do and what we do here in the show, like, I think it's actually pretty different from what most Dungeon Master game master people are going to be doing, like, just playing around a table with their friends, because

when we talked about this before, the folks who run, like, the official D&D podcast had me on us, I guess, a couple months ago, and I talked at length about this because, like, I don't think I do a lot of, like, proper DMing, because this thing is, as, as much as it is a like actual play podcast. Um, like, it's also a very storytelling heavy podcast. And so there's, there is like, there's a lot of narrative going on and not of, not a lot of like, for instance, long battles. Like when I used to play D&D with a group in Ohio when I was living in Cincinnati, uh, we would get together. And then like one night, one two hour session of us hanging out would just be like, we get through a single big battle. And if we did that, well, that was also fourth edition, though,

when we used to. For the edition, yeah, it was, it was like, four. fourth edition was more of a tactics tabletop board game fifth edition is is more like about i think more about like you know creative solutions to problems and stuff like that which just move things along a little bit faster that's right trap but like i i i you guys don't get into that many fights in this podcast right and and when you do they typically don't aren't prolonged as a rule i try and keep them shorter than at least half the length of the episode because i don't think there's anything like particularly interesting about just getting into a big long fight um Do you guys agree with that?

I'm curious how you guys feel about that. We've never really talked about it before. Well, we don't really look for conventional solutions to our fights. Like Gary was on our dick about how there was a big barrel. That red barrel is the albatross around our necks. And we were like, why didn't they do it? And like, some people were like, some people thought that they, like, it was like a, we were working around it like from a creative strategic, like, I mean,

or we just didn't think that that was the right. Like, we just didn't listen. Like a lot of times you just don't listen We're not good at this It is really actually genuinely kind of tough to And I'm sure Griffin's doing the same thing Many times over But it is tough to balance like

There are a lot of times where like If I was trying to win an encounter I would do different things Than I do on the show Because it's like really hard to find a balance between Like okay I have to find something that's like Funny or entertaining to do but like makes sense from a gameplay perspective.

In real life, when I've played D&D outside of this show, the number of times that I've said, okay, tell me again. And if you take the number of times I do that actually on this show, multiply that by like 10. Because I'll make the DM just like describe the setup over and over again. And then I can do things like pick out like, oh, I'm supposed to do this. It is so hard. I'm like really genuinely like really bad at like imagining environments in my head. like at holding like I think maybe the part of your brain that thinks of dumb shit to say maybe

the same part of your brain that imagines fantasy world because like I can't keep two of them spinning at the same time so like all all of this is to say that we do a lot I I do a lot of stuff in the planning of the the campaign and stuff um to make it interesting radio um and I that you don't have to do that when you're playing around a table and it not I'm saying one is not better or worse than the other, it's just like a different thing. Some of the like people who have gotten more frustrated with our show, which is like totally fine. It's all an expectations thing. Because if you expect us to just like play straight D&D, then I imagine this podcast would actually be kind of disappointed. The only like, it's just a different thing. And I think there's

something really entertaining about honestly that type of game where we, the, the more actual play rules heavy stuff, we can't do that remotely. I honest to God, don't think we could. Because the, The amazing stuff that happens, like, my entry into D&D was the Wizards of the Coast Penny Arcade sessions that they would do. And, like, at times, it would be hysterical when somebody, like, rolls a critical miss on, like, the final hit against the boss and everything just goes shitty. Like, that's some of the funniest shit ever. And you don't get that when you're playing remotely. So, like, we have to do that, too. So I have not answered your question remotely.

Like, I think the most important thing for you to do is to just have a, the way I've structured this is to have a broad arc with microarchs inside of it. And just sort of like structuring it out like that is really helpful because then you, you, you can let those micro arcs be inspired by anything. Like, Rachel and I watched all of the Fast and the Furious movies. We bought the whole collection on Blu-ray and just like burned through them on a weekend. That was pedals to the metal. A lot of people thought it was Matt Max. I was actually, I had written that like way before we had seen Mad Max, although certainly the similarities were there.

It was all like, it was specifically the fucking scene where Vin Diesel jumps out of the car to catch Letty in the air. Y'all know I'm talking about fast six? I do, yes. Like, I saw that shit and I was like, bitting. Like, that's it. That literally that one moment from one Fast and the Furious movie was like, okay, I'm going to do a whole arc about this.

And then once, all you need is that one like foothold and literally the rest of the thing just sort of writes itself around it. I think just like not, not adhering to the books. Like, read the books if you want. Buy the starter set and just read. There's basically essentially a magazine-sized, like, starter for the Fandling campaign, which I'm really happy to use because, like, I was so nervous. I had no idea I was doing.

I had nothing written out when we started. I was just going straight off that book. And three episodes in, I had a lot of stuff down. So, like, I don't think there's any. problem with like starting out with somebody else's stuff and then spiraling off into your own thing. But don't also don't feel like you have to adhere to like the book so completely, both in terms of like the plot and also like the setting and tone like the monsters and stuff. Do you like adjust that? I don't use anything. I don't use anything from like the monster manual. I make all that shit up

from whole cloth because it's easy. It's just like you come up with a thing and then you plug some numbers into it. It's easy as hell to come up with your own stuff. And I think just sort of coming up with an idea. and letting that be inspired by literally anything. Like, this whole Crystal Kingdom arc, I was watching Alien and Aliens. And the idea, and it's kind of spiraled off into something different even from what that was, but I like the idea of this, like,

sci-fi setting where you guys were being pursued. That was, like, literally the whole impetus for Crystal Kingdom and the fact that I really wanted to use a vocaloid voice. But that's what I'm talking about, like, those were two, that was because the vocaloid stuff was I was listening to a lot of Porter Robinson, who has an album called Worlds that has, like, vocaloids in every track and it's awesome. It's like one of my favorite albums maybe ever.

And like listening to that, I got inspired to do a vocaloid voice and that inspired this arc too. And he was also one of the greatest artists ever on the grand old Opry. He used to team up with Dolly Parton. Yeah, Dalai Parton and Hatsunei would get together and do some beautiful duets. Can I ask? I have a question for Dad and Justin. Can I ask? Certainly go right ahead.

So this, Justin, you had played once before, and Dad, this was your first for A Incted Dungeons and Dragons. when you approached character creation, what inspired you to make your characters the way that you did, both in, like, personality and, like, the way that you decided to, like, play them? Well, for me, yeah, I had never played D&D before, which always, it shocks me how surprised people are when they hear that. Well, you're a big old dorkass.

I know, and I wear it proudly. But I've also played a lot of fantasy-based, video gaming and a lot of, I've been playing wow for, you know, like, let's, I want to specifically ask about wow, do you feel like that, when I started playing D&D fourth edition, I was amazed, because it was that, that was my first time playing D&D. I was amazed at how much, like, video games have cribbed from this system that has evolved over time, but like, there's some stuff in here that is just like, well, that's in every video game.

Well, and I've been playing, though, I mean, I was playing Zork. Yeah, and Ultima and all those. When it first came out. And, and I think you learn a lot of things that are. real basic level, such as when you guys started talking about the roles you wanted to play and what kind of characters you wanted to play, I mean, it became real obvious that we were going to need a healer type. So that was, you know, I started from there and then I kind of, I kind of looked at and saw the other races we had and we wanted to try something a little different. And if memory

serves, you, you and Justin kind of re-rolled at the end of the first art because you mostly use like the pre-generated sheets, but then after playing for a bit and you got really into the players' You figured out that you wanted it. The whole nature thing was not how you started, but it's where you are now. And I'm really glad that's my favorite thing. And it's like we said before, you know, what we're trying to do is not necessarily be overpowering the best players winning all the time, overpowering every battle. We're looking for scenarios that are fun and interesting.

And I mean, and it's a different kind of fun. I mean, because really three players is not a full team. We're supposed to have four. Right. So we don't really have enough to like. ball, you know, bruise in and like smash apart everything. Sure. And I think that, and I think that I really, it really came home when, when we created the new

characters for the, the, the steam universe. That was fucking great. Yeah. Then it was fun. Then it was, it felt it was a little bit more liberated. It was a little bit more, you know, okay, what do you want to do that'll be fun? And I think that's where we came up with those characters. I have a, uh, Taco.

I want to know about Taco. I want to know about Taco's inception, creation, everything. Okay. So Taco is a character that I play on the Adventure Zone, who I largely improvised everything about Taco. Including the name. Including his name as he was created. And I started doing the voice for him. And like, I don't know where the voice.

it was basically my friend Michael Beck Oh my God, yeah it is Yeah it is Yeah Oh yeah That's just a Michael Beck voice Yeah And so my friend Michael Beck is Taco

Or it's like his voice is Taco So I'm basically doing Michael Beck's voice for Taco Um This is an amazing revelation for me And I imagine for the audience too That there's somebody who exists and lives In the real physical world that we all know Who kind of sounds like Taco a bit

Yeah I mean he's basically He doesn't like really act like Taco No, he's not really an elf wizard. I want to make that clear. I had wanted to, um, I had wanted to play with Taco's, like, sexuality, like, not in a way that was like, particularly prominent in the story, but in my mind, when I was, like, doing the character and, like, had Taco's, like, story in my head, Taco was, was a gay guy, and I, I don't know why.

That's just how it always seemed to me. And then when we brought up the, when we brought up the, when, when we were going to bring it up in an episode, Griffin made the point that, like, hey, that backstory combined with the voice you are doing makes it seem like you're doing like a stereotypically,

a feminine gay character, which is, which didn't occur to me because I was just doing, I'm doing Michael Beck's fun voice. I'm just doing Michael Beck's voice, who is, who is not a gay fella. So I did not,

it did not occur to me that like the two combined, like, oh, I could see where he was coming from. But like, in in in so that that is sort of like the weird backstory behind taco and and and and I did you know it's part of why I wanted to play a woman character in uh the uh or not a woman female like not to get too fringy but she's thaw so she's not a woman uh you know I wanted I like the idea of playing

somebody who's really different from me and has like a different perspective you do that in video games a lot too like we were playing division together and you were playing as a as a black woman and I feel like anytime you get the chance to make a character in a video game, you usually like don't make it look like Justin. I just don't see the point in that. Like what's the point? You get to be Justin every day. Can I be honest?

A lot of it deals with the fact that in almost all character creation generators, I can't make an overweight character. And I don't feel like if I'm going to try to represent myself, like if I'm going to try to recreate myself on the screen, I don't want to create like an idealized fake-ass version myself so I'd rather just like play a beautiful black woman who like who's great at shooting guns at people yeah that sounds amazing too it's so funny to hear jessie talk about creating taco because I spent so much time creating like an intricate backstory you did you sent the magnus Bible about one week it was like four pages long Griffin nixed it because I made it way too dramatic it was extremely

dark like extremely extremely extremely but like dark and serious how much thought I put into the character and so very little of it has ever come up. But, like, that was my, like, I know Magnus. And then I honestly, once we started playing, kind of felt restricted by it. And people have commented, like, I thought he was supposed to be, like, lawful good. And I was like, yeah, but that's not actually how I wanted to play it.

A lot of people ask about our alignment, or your guy's alignment. It's like part of the comment. Yeah, exactly. Like, that's part of the running commentary in stuff like the, I feel like the Reddick, it's like way more. into like talking about how we navigate the like rules and ideas of the of the of the d and books and this idea of like well i don't understand like are they lawful evil like they're just murdering people that they didn't really need to murder there's and it's like that i don't i don't

i think that's a weird thing dn d fifth edition also introduces um this table of characteristics that is like uh do you guys know i'm talking about it's like flaws and yeah backstory But it's supposed to summarize your character in these four sentences talking about, like, their ideals, their flaws. And then I don't understand why you have to put that shit on your character sheet because it just seems like brand cuffs, you know? I just assumed that it was like for people who were like, I'm not good at creating a person out of nothing. I need some kind of skeleton to build off because it gives you, that's where like the option of like folk hero came from, you know? because that idea of like, oh, and like, I did it because I like to exercise every option that's given to me and carry. So when it's like, do you want to trink it?

I'm like, yeah, fuck, yeah, I want to drink it. But then, like, I start playing and I'm like, oh, I'm going to ignore half of this because it's not interesting to me to be like, I'm lawful good. So at every option I have to be good every time. Yeah. Like, that's not fun. Yeah. I think part of it is also the, it's to sort of chain yourself from, like, keep your, like, keep your yourself from doing what you would instinctually do.

Yeah. Because, like, my characters, like, it is not necessarily what I would be doing. You know what I mean? Like, but to have some guideline that you yourself have to be beholden to, that this idea of the character is immutable as height or skin color. I mean, it's why I stuck with Magnus rushes in. And I try so hard not to be a puzzle solver, problem solver as Magnus, because that's what I, Travis McRoy, love to do.

The characteristics, I feel like. that these characters have developed. And Magnus, you've had the Magnus Rush's End thing for a while now, and I feel like that's still your sort of defining, like, thoughtless action, like, total reflexive response. Like, that's been sort of good to go from the beginning. Like, Merle, I really like how Merle has become, like, this weirdly irreverent cleric. Like, when he discovers, like, Boylan's dead body, like, he cracks a joke and that's the first thing he does, and also he has this weird sexual relationship with plants.

I look at myself as a lapsed cleric. Okay. And I love that. And Taco, like, Taco hangs back. Taco's good back here. Like, that is great. Like, do you guys have these characteristics I feel like are really great that wouldn't fit on a character sheet?

I want to hear another question from Dad. Okay. This kind of ties in with what we've been talking about. There's kind of a running thread that runs to a lot of these questions. And I think outside of, well, I think maybe applying to you and me, Jews, that, that feel like we have had a lot more thought going into this than we have. Is Taco, this comes from Jeff, Jet, I'm sorry, is Taco eventually discovering the recipe for tacos somehow the key to defeating a really,

really big-ass boss, whoever he or she may be? And if so, can this really, really big-ass boss be a representative of some sort of rival food style such as Italian or American cuisine? Okay. Can we talk? The taco thing. The taco thing. Let's talk about the taco thing.

Okay. Let's dive into fucking Taco Gate. Because Justin, I didn't, I edit the show. It is the most intensive edit. Between both the audio and the video shit, I do. Like, when I edit Monster Factory, that is a half hour production cut down from usually like two and a half hours of video. And like everything that goes into video editing, the adventure zone is still a rougher

edit than that. just because there's a lot of, let's call them, optimization points and not whoopsie daisies and uh-ohs and long pauses while we look up rules and shit. But there's also a lot of overtalk we do on the show because there's fucking four of us, which is a gaggle of people. And during the hodgepodge bit, I think we actually got a bunch of questions about this for the Adventure Zone Zone too. So let's address it now.

Justin asked about tacos. Taco asked about tacos. And the reason that we didn't respond isn't because tacos don't exist in the world. I mean, to open things up a bit, if I introduce this planar system that our real world is a part of, like they do exist in our world, right? I can go eat a real taco whenever I want. So they do exist. That's not the easy to.

I'm just saying, well, I live in Austin. You can right now, couldn't you, tough guy. Go ahead. Go get a taco. You think you're so big. Eat tacos whatever you want. I live in Austin. I could open up the window in my office right now and stick my head out and open my mouth, and I'd probably catch a taco in it.

They deliver tacos to your door like the milkman there. But the reason I cut that out isn't for any narrative purposes. It was literally because Dad and Travis also both asked a question at the same fucking time. And Justin didn't circle back to it. And Travis's question was the more pertinent, like, relevant, like, puzzle solving. And I don't think I asked him about tacos. It was something... I think it was, like, ground beef.

It was cows, wasn't it? Yeah. Like, yeah. No, it was... The thing about the taco thing is, is a dumb-ass fucking dumb, dumb joke that it, that I, that I came up with like in the moment. And I think a few problems with returning to that particular thread are one, I don't remember which ones I have.

You got sour cream. You have the concept of grinding. There's cheese. You have the word cheese, but you don't understand what it means. And a lot of people, this might be news to a lot of people who haven't listened to the LA live show, which is a bonus episode that you can get if you are a maximum fund donor. at least the $5 level. Shells.

Maximumfine.org for it slash donate. Yeah, shells. Because you destroyed a turtle with a fireball and you got hot meat in a shell. So it's like pretty close. You're getting pretty close, actually. Yeah, but you know what?

It has turned into something. We don't want to abandon it. The thing is if we had... Okay, so this is the really hard thing about this. The Adventure Zone is a sort of a collaborative storytelling Yeah. Show in part.

It's also, though, a story that Griffin has composed, right? Griffin does know the structure of this. So, like, things like this, if we were to ever have some, like, big payoff for the taco thing, it would have to be something that Griffin and I came up with. Together without talking about it, because I can't reveal that to you. Yeah, like, it would have to be something that Griffin and I somehow, like, simpatico, or Griffin like open the door for me to do and I like inevitably missed it. Which is something like I feel like conceptually we have kind of butted heads on this.

Not without like us, any of us like actively, you know, fighting about it. But it is really, I want you guys to be a part of shaping this story. I really do. And there have been times where like your decisions have changed things both on the like micro arc to arc and the macro like whole campaign scale. it's really fucking hard, guys, because it's like, just writing the thing is hard. Right? Like, coming up with an idea is really, really hard. I think it's, I've never written fiction before in my life.

I think this is probably the most interesting way to start it, because you're not just writing a story. You're writing a story where the fucking characters in your story are at times fighting against the ends that you are trying to design. And there's an even deeper layer than that, Griffin, where the characters are created, to want to do stuff, and the players know stuff that the characters don't. So, like, I would do something, but Magnus would do something different because of the character I've created. Right. You know what I mean?

So you have to deal with both me and the character. It's like, J.K. Rowling, writing Harry Potter, but then, like, Hermione was like, you know what? I don't go in that door. It's like, well, fuck. Okay. Well, shit, there was some dope stuff behind that door. I guess I got to write another thing. Like, that's, that's what we're dealing with.

So, like, the Taka thing, I have, it is a part of, of. my plan on a long-form thing, I don't want you to give up on it. It's just like, it's hard incorporating that stuff fluidly into the stuff that I have also prepared. Let's get another question. All right, let's do nuts and bolts a little bit. Quick question for Travis. This is from Jesse. Thank you, Jesse, for taking time out from all of your many podcast. Quick question for Travis, have you considered buying more types of weapons when you come up against a creature resistant to say slashing, you could drop the

axe and equip a warhammer or spear, Jesse asks. We don't buy a lot, well, I guess in the fantasy Costco, right? Yeah, we could. You know, I'll say this. It's one of those things where up till now, we've been

moving forward pretty well. Like, I know, I like to joke about the fact that I don't have any magical spells. In fourth edition, they gave, like, fighters. Everyone was a wizard in fourth edition. Yeah, you have the equivalent of like magic fighting spells. Right. All the time. And I don't usually play a fighter, like in anything. I'm almost always a rogue. Yeah, almost always a rogue. So I'm never really that bothered by like, oh, I tried to cut him with my axe and he's resistant to like hacking damage.

Because then it's just that's the twist. Also, it's important to note that I've never felt like Griffin was playing against me as DM when it was like, okay, your axe doesn't do it. It's not like petty. It's not like, your axe doesn't do anything. What I appreciate, and what I actually really love about fifth edition is the class isn't called warrior. It's not called fucking strongman. It's called fighter. And what's great about that is, yeah, they're the best at fighting. And that's not, like, in fourth edition, to go back to that, like, anybody could do like a bunch of damage in combat. By the time that the fighter reaches, like, I think it's like 14th level, they get to do three attacks in a single turn. They're wicked fucking.

fucking good at fighting. And I like that. Like not... And I get special fighting skills that are like, okay, now you do so, then. And come with me. What I think is interesting is I think a lot of RPGs are like, everybody can do anything in combat. Everybody, which I always thought was kind of selling a short shrift to the like fighting classes of like, well, they should be the best at fighting. And what I like about Fifth Edition is like unarguably, the fighter is the best at fighting. They don't have as much utility like outside of combat. And I think Fifth Edition kind of shines outside of combat a lot of the time.

But if you get into a fight, the fighter is going to lead shit and be really, really good at fighting. In terms of the other weapon stuff, like, I guess part of that is on me, although, like, I feel like Rail Splitter is so iconic now. Like, like, you look at any piece of fan art

with Magnus in it. It's kind of nice compared to Fourth Edition, because in Fourth Edition, there were so many options that you could do as a fighter that, like, I felt like it kind of bogged stuff down a lot of the time. Fights took so fucking long in four.

Because you had to worry about like, well, when do I use my daily? When do I use my encounter power? Oh, should I use it against this person? What is it in common? And now it's just like, okay, I'm going to tackle that dude and try to punch him in the face. And also because fourth edition was kind of designed to be played on a board, like a board game, movement was a huge thing. Like there were powers, there were lots of powers based around like slowing enemies movement or increasing your own movement or freezing them in place so that they couldn't be in the proper position. I don't worry about movement. It was the thing I struggled the most with in like trying to figure out how he would do this show remotely. We don't even like screen share a game board, although there's some really cool

tools to use that, do stuff like that, like, roll 20 and tabletop simulator. There's like some really cool stuff, although I doubt that we could like work that into our workflow, which is we don't even keep our character sheets up to date. Right. It's pretty fucking some of us do. Well, actually, I mean, what would be great is that those systems actually do that stuff for you. But I think it'd be tricky for us to like gather around computer software and do the stuff that we're doing normally. But I also like how we don't get bogged down and stuff like position and movement and and all that, that jazz. Which again, that that harkens back to it's great when you're playing in person, you're playing with each other. That is that is kind of awesome because then you're seeing it all.

Right. We're working through an audio medium and so it, we, and we need to keep it moving. So yeah, it's one of the reasons I get asked all the time why we don't go to the store and why we don't have to stop and eat and why we don't stop and get water. Well, that's just like that. That's like, we talked about that episode one. There's so much stuff. We got a question about that too. Like, I noticed that you guys don't follow, like, a lot of the, uh, a lot of the rules in the book. And specifically stuff around like ammunition, stuff like, um, there are most- Spell components, spell components, right? There, there are ritual spells, um, that you can cast by using spell components, which we need to talk about this, boys, because it might actually change the

game for you to, um, you can cast rituals using those components without having to burn a spell slot. Hey, that's good to know. What's a spell slot? Yeah, exactly. Like, there's, there's so much stuff that we don't do because I think in terms of it being a like resource management game I think it could be interesting like you have to survive this harsh world so like yeah instead of just like getting you straight to the dungeon by shooting you there literally out of a fucking story canon um you have to like walk there and along the way you got a forest for forage for berries like I can see how that could be cool but but all of that is fun is like an immersive group of people getting together once a week in like your living room I don't know that it would be super interesting especially since one of the things

that I've liked most about the Adventure Zone is we've seen a lot of people say, I've never played before, or I never had an interest in Dungeons and Dragons. And then I started listening to your show, and it's kind of made me want to play it. Because I think we don't so much worry about the mechanics. Like, I get asked constantly about, like, rolling and about my same ability to roll really help. We have a question. We can address right now of how many times you fudge your numbers. About fudging numbers? Um, the question about fudging numbers. Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, um, um, um, Um, I think, oh, like how much of the dice, about the dice? Oh, actually, you know what? We should stop and do a, uh, let's, let's talk about the

pressure. You're going to hear about me fudging numbers right after this place drive. We're going to talk about that. We're going to get to Travis Nass's 20-sided die that has 18, 18s on it here in a minute. But, um, before that, let's talk about, uh, what is, what is being on the Max Fun Network mean? Um, for, for us, like, we started, we joined the network in 2011. They, uh, uh, picked us up after what, like 30 episodes. of my brother, my brother and me. It was, they got in on the ground floor. And because of it's...

The bad floor, huh? The bad, the bad, shaky, rotten floor. And because of the support that we've gotten from the network and from the listeners who donate every max fun drive, which we only do once a year, runs for two weeks, we've been able to do things like live shows. We've done like fucking 25 live shows for my brother, my brother, and me. We did our first live adventure zone last year. We've launched other podcasts like the adventure zone, like Sawbones, like Bunker Buddies,

like Schmanters, we're able to, like, dedicate more time and resources to it because of the support that we get from, from you all. And if we weren't a part of this network, we'd probably just still be doing fucking my brother, my brother, me, just with rock band microphones. And no joke, like, over the five years of being our max fun, I, this is my full-time job because of listeners and donors and supporters like you. And Travis is poor, and he has to fix that. He has a horrible life.

He has a horrible life. a box here in Los Angeles, but it's a super nice box. Don't get me wrong. Yeah, $1,400 a month. It should be. Yeah. That's actually underselling the price, but thank you. It's the LA rent joke. But yeah, it's like, it's an amazing, and not only great for the support and the ability that we've had to be able to grow the shows financially, but also just like the listener community of Max Fun is intensely supportive and wonderful. It's the best in the world. Like, Justin and I both work in the video game industry, which has some, let's call it, troublesome sects inside of it.

And that just doesn't exist here because it's the, it's the, just across the board, it is the coolest community of people ever. Was that S-E-X? Yeah, it has some bad, there are bad sex in the, no. So, as your father, I want you to immediately leave. So here's the thing. It's a weird punishment, Dad. If you are a fan of our shows, Adventure Zone and everything else on the network, you could become a donor for as low as $5 a month, which it's a really good entry point, I think, because $5 a month to me is like one nice cup of like cabuccino or something at a fancy coffee shop.

And for joining at that level, you get what I think is the absolute best reward, which is hundreds of, well, maybe not hundred, dozens and dozens. and dozens of episodes of all of the podcasts at maximum fun, including three bonus Adventure Zone episodes, the one that Travis led, we did have the LA Live show where the boys have a beach vacation kind of, and then the prequel episode, which I don't know that we've ever talked about, where you guys first meet.

Well, of course, Dad and I, like, remembered all of it. It's part of our... It's all canon. Well, that is where we learn about Taco's backstory of being a traveling chef entertainer who accidentally poisoned a whole town. Oh, yeah. Do you remember that? That's like my favorite taco backstory thing like ever.

I don't, I mean, I, this is gonna say, I'm fucking, you be like, I, I do. I mean, that is, that's a big part of why Taco is the way he is. Yeah. Like, he's kind of a self-preservation. We try to keep this, we try to keep, like, the LA Pod Fest. I don't think there's much like overarching character development stuff that happens in, in that one. But there was cool stuff. But there's cool stuff, though, I think.

Yeah, there's cool stuff in it, but I try to keep the story stuff out as much if we can. I think that prequel episode, there is, there's some interesting character development, like background stuff, stuff that is maybe not is germane to the whole arc, because it takes place, like, way before it, but some interesting stuff about your guys care. And you can get that for as low as $5 a month, get access to all of that. And remember, our goal is 5,000 new and upgrading donors. If Max Fun hits that, it'll be awesome. And if we, if Max Fun hits it, we're going to try to release more of the additional.

Adventure Zone nights episodes. We talked about $20 a month. Dad, can you tell you? What about $10 a month? Well, $10 a month? $10 a month, you can get the Max Fund bananas. These are the... No, daddy.

No, daddy. Bananas? No daddy. Oh, yeah, but bandanas. There you guys. Like, yeah, a max fund bandanas. I knew. I was joking.

I'm a radio perfect. This is another behind the scenes thing. Sometimes, Dad pretends to be... I'm not. Welcome to the Dad joke zone. zone. Either dad thought that was funny or he thought it said bananas, both are equally troubling. Was it not funny?

All the art by Megan Lynn Knott, so it is really, really cool. And you get to pick the show you want, so I guess we know which one you're going to pick. Judge John Hodgman. Yeah. Up to 20. We talk about 20. Let's talk about 35. Okay, 35.

All right, 35. Oh, this is pretty cool. This is a travel tumbler. It's a vacuum thermos. And when you go with $35 a month, that's a month. Max Fun Thermis is there for you to drink your frosty beverages. Or your hot beverages. It's got a rocket chip.

Or your adult beverages? Put your adult beverages in there. It has a rocket chip on it, which, as you all know, makes the fluid inside taste way better. Yeah, and it has fire come out of the bottom for the hot beverages, and it's going into the cold vacuum of space, so it takes care of your cold beverages, too. And it's important to note that every level you donate at, you get everything below it. So at 35, you get the thermos. you get the adventure kit, you get the bandana, and all the bonus content. Yes.

More importantly, though, like, you, well, I don't know. I can't rank your priorities, but, like, you also support us and just feel a sense of ownership over this thing. Like, we are all donors to the Maximum Fund Network, which is, like, silly if you think about it, because, like, we also get, you know, the money that you guys donate to us, so we're weirdly donating to ourselves. I try not to think about it. But we donate to the Maximum Fund Network because, like, we are, we think, we think what is happening at the Maximum Fund Network is radical.

Um, I, I, I listen to like three or four Maximum Fun Podcast because I think they're great. And I think the ethos of the network is, is really terrific. So you can like become a part of that, become a supporter of that, feel some ownership over, over the network too. Just go to maximum fund.org slash donut. You can find out all the details and stuff there. So here's the thing. Wait, I'll hear the question. What's the official question first about. Why is Travis such a liar? Okay, here's a question. This comes from Clay. How much of the dice rolling gets edited out? The pace of the podcast makes D&D seem fun, not a bunch of cumbersome rules in rolling like I remember, which we addressed a few minutes ago. But I think this might be a nice way to segue into Travis's skills at dice rolling. Okay, so here's the thing. Travis is great at rolling. He's just really good. Since he was a child, he was just like rolling them bones, just like six, that's a six, that's a six, that's a six. I'm awesome. Hear me out.

One, one of the keys, we always joke about like being really good at D&D, but one of the keys is know the strength of your characters. What are you like trained in? What are you proficient in? And then do that. And it's a lot easier to have successful roles. Two, as a fighter in fifth edition, you get like plus seven bonus. Magnus is what we like to call min-maxed in D turns, which means that he is very, very, very good at a few things and very, very, very bad. I don't do a lot of intelligence

Right, like if I, if I, I haven't really introduced many, like, psychic characters who can, like, fucking mind flares that get deep in that dumb and make you do things you don't want to do. They would destroy madness. That would be a guaranteed death, like, 100% like that's... So there's things that, like, I feel like your charisma is probably not great. Your intelligence is probably great. Wisdom is probably great. I don't mean to slam you right now. No, no.

I mean, you're right. Like, I've poured a lot into dexterity, um, into strength and into, like, constant. But like my wisdom and intelligence are like super duper low. Yeah. So a lot of it is just, yeah. And then three, I will say that maybe one in 30, I will fudge slightly. You're fired. You are banned.

You're banned from the game. Cheater. This whole thing was a sting operation. Cheats me geets. There's the door. Take your dice with you. Only on skill checks and only so we don't have to like keep trying. Because like, okay, we need to like jump over a pit.

Like that's, it's clearly what we need to do. and we only have an hour to, like, tell a story, it's not interesting to listen to me, like, attempt to jump over a pit six times. You know what I mean? I will say that that is the one and only time that if I'm, like, off by one, I'll say, like, 15 instead of 14.

And if I can, if I can part the burrito just a little bit, to point out something, point number four, of the three of us rolling, Justin and I are together for this recording, so we have witnesses. We can keep each other's great. Yeah, but also like, and Travis is by himself. Gold medal.

Like, what's the point? Like, I'm not trying to cheat to win D&D. The thing that I wish we could do. I watched you grow up. I watched, I played Clue with you. I played Clue with you, too, one round old man. Yeah, this guy just do it. This fucking dude.

How did you fucking do it, Clinton? We were on vacation. We were on vacation in a hotel somewhere. I forget where we were and we played Clue and dad got it first round. I don't know how. I mean, cheating, probably. but I didn't cheat. I learned it from watching you, Dad.

Don't accuse Dad of cheating. I am the Patriarch. I'll fucking re-roll every once in a while. This is a comedy podcast for doing folks. Not the fucking Olympics. It's a comedy podcast. I'm not juicing. I'm trying to keep a good fun flowing for you.

The one thing I wish we could do, and like the one thing I think it would be great about playing in like a virtual environment. I don't make up rolls, by the way, whole cloth. I don't make up rolls of whole cloth. It's just like, If something is about to happen that would be particularly funny,

like, I'll sneak another roll in to see if we can make it happen because that would be better to listen to you. We can do that? And then you don't. What? We can do that? Dad, I have literally lied about your rolls to the microphone for you because you couldn't figure out what the number is.

So this is just fucking rampant then. No. This is just rampant. That part is said, one and 30. If I, my rolls are so shitty. That's rolls are really shitty. Yeah, he's very bad. So the thing that I think would be great is,

we could use, I wish there was a version of like roll 20 or desktop, what's it called, tabletop simulator, where I wouldn't want like the game board and all that shit. I just would want us to have a shared environment where we could see each other's dice rolls. And it's not just because I, you know, would want to fact check you guys. It's because I think there's an inherent hilarity and an inherent sort of excitement that comes from everybody seeing the dice that you roll, right? Like it's that perhaps mentality of it being like really high stakes. And then when you see Travis is like doing a desperate last-ditch attack and rolls a 20, like a Nat 20, like that's thrilling and exciting.

And we miss out on that just for Travis saying, uh, that's a Nat 20. Or from dad saying like, oh, that's a critical failure. Like if dad rolls a critical failure world in an intense situation, that's funny most of the time. And we miss out on that. And not surprising. And I would never fib about that kind of thing. Yeah, me neither. No, and I'm not even talking about it.

I get not fib, more like a re-roll every once a while. If I get like, if I get like a one, I'm going to get my ass handed to me, like, I'll fight. Yeah, I'll learn that. Sounds great. But I'm less talking about fact checking. I'm more talking about like, there is an excitement about this game from watching other people do what they do. And we don't get that here. Which is like, you, I actually disagree with you at this point, Griffin, because I think that if we could all see the dice rolls, there would be, we would be about 50-50 on whether or not we said what the rule was out loud if we remembered to actually do that.

I think the 50, like, I think by and large, we would just forget and be like, oh, shit. I can't believe it. Then move on and forget to say with my own. All right. How much can we edit out? Right, Traff, hold on. Let me be perfectly honest. I have lied about most of my roles because they're usually really, really good.

Okay. And I lie about them being bad just for the comedy. Yeah, just to keep it kind of funny. Perfect 20, perfect 20, perfect 20. To answer, like, how much of the game process I edit out? Like, oh, a fair amount. Like, I don't edit out like when you guys do, you guys so rarely, how much. many fucking perception checks have you guys done it like when i play d and d i'm just you heard it in the

bonus episode every time we walked around i'd be like perception check i'm not going to walk into a fucking bear trap perception check like you guys you guys don't execute the game rules very often so when you do those precious few times when you do i don't i typically don't edit them out wholesale um i will edit out like rule checkups and math breaks which are humiliatinglyly long that's well no i left that in the show because he needed to be taught a lesson well that that's the next point. All right, I got another question. And this is one that we get asked a lot. This comes from Andrew. Actually, yeah, Andrew, who said, when can we expect a Barry Blue Jeans themed dungeon, explaining his dark and mysterious past? It could aptly be named Barry Blue Jeans Origins. You've

really thought about this, Andrew, or Barry Blue Jeans Awakening. And Barry Blue Jeans is one of the characters who was in the show for about 35 seconds He was in the show for about as long as Yemick the Gherblin

usurper was and nobody's nobody's fucking throwing parades for old Yemick everybody's crazy for Barry Blue Jeans which I get

I think Barry Blue Jeans actually for me represents the moment where we kind of all collectively broke from that's a good point

where you were like name him these like weird fake characters Sildar Sildar Hall Winter I think And you were like, you know what, I can just call him whatever the fuck I want. How about Barry Bluchin? Can I, can I tell you guys where the, do you guys know the origins of the name Barry? I have an idea. I know where it is. Is it from Michael Ian Black in the state? No, no, no. It's from via variety. Huh? He also played the same character on the state. Oh, was he on the state too?

No, that's not where he's from. That's not where the name is from. Really? I always assumed it was Johnny Blue jeans. No. It is from. There is. is I'm going to have trouble remembering these circumstances. There is a public library in Barbersville that are good friends, the Minskers. I believe Chuck did a video thing to sort of promote the library, and it was like a mystery that took place in the library. Oh, my God. Do you remember this, Chad? I do. And it featured many of my friends from the theater we were doing, including my best bud, Evan Minsky.

who played the character, I believe, was the janitor at the library who he named Barry Blue Jeans, which I thought was the funniest thing I had ever heard in my entire life. See, folks, we don't plan this out. We have no idea. I never knew that's where it came from. I really thought you're going with the Michael Ian Black character. Every time I play like an MMRP to like preview at events like E3 and Pax and GDC, and it's being led by like one of the developers or a representative, I guess, to antagonist.

them when I make a character for those lead demonstrations, 100% of the time I name that character Barry Blue Jeans. Just to let them know, like, I'll take your... Let's all right about your game, but I don't have to take this seriously. So, yes, that is the origin of the name Barry Blue Jeans. And I guess, I think you're right, Travis. I think that's probably why people like it. Like, why he is cemented is because that was the point in the game.

We're like, all right, this is how seriously we're going to take this. Yeah. But, yeah. But that doesn't answer the question. Would we ever bring him back? He's dead as fuck. Like, I don't know how many times. I have to say it.

Barry Blue Jeans. He's super dead. Barry Blue Jeans soul has left his body. He is no longer, he is gone. He's gone, so he's dead. So as long as you're DMing, he's gone. As long as we're talking about, like, the classic days, I have written out. And I don't know if you guys actually think this would be good radio or not.

But I spent this morning writing out basically a full rundown, a full recap of the show so far. Holy moly. Okay, do it. Can we close with that? Is that a closer? We could close with that. I don't know if people would be interested in hearing that. I figure, like, it may be good.

Well, that way, if we close with it, then we give him, like, they can just skip it, you know? Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, okay, we'll save it for the end of the show, but I have a full recap here that I wrote down. So here are some fan questions. Let me throw this one out. Holy shit, is the void fish, the eater of everything? No. Okay.

I wanted to get ahead of that. Like, I don't want to drop any big spoilerinos here, but I feel like one of the problems is I have these micro- arcs, right? Like the murder on the Rockport Limited, that was a micro, that was an arc. That was like one part of the storyline. And there's stuff that happens in there that affects the broader campaign. And I feel like, and maybe there's a storytelling fault, but just like looking at sort of the theories that are boiling up on Twitter and on Reddit. A lot of people are like kind of confusing the two. And like I think there's, yeah, it's not, that's not, that is not that. Okay, I love this one. Do you have any tips on creating items for the fantasy Costco? How should, Should I walk the line between truly useful and overpowered? When the show first came out, Griffin talked about user-submitted quests and dungeons. Has that idea been phased out? No.

At least not when it came to the items. The items definitely the dungeons and quest, like, I just can't. Like, I just can't fold something like that. It's just so hard to work those into the story art. Yeah. Unless I had an idea for, like, how we could do that as like one-off stuff, but I don't, I don't, yeah, I don't know. The items, though, like, just don't send anything that's, like, a sword that does a billion damage, or don't send in something that's like, I mean, if you

want to send it in as a goof, like, I'll read it and laugh, things that are like referential of like my brother, my brother me jokes and stuff like that. Like, I like that, I like reading that stuff, but it's just not going to make it in the show because the items I like are things that provide interesting utility. Especially the ones I like the most and the ones I'm most likely to buy are the ones that seem very geared towards how we play our character. So like Phantom Fist is a great example of like, yeah, that's something that magnet. would own. I like the things that provide utility

outside of the normal sort of loops of the game, stuff like probably my favorite item that's ever been submitted is the pocket spa. I love this idea of just like, from a storytelling perspective, but also like from a mechanical perspective, you have a private, you have a secret room.

I think that came out of, there's a item called a, like, mobile fortress or something like that. And it's a literal fortress that you press a button on it and it folds up into like the size of a credit card that you can put in your pocket. My favorite's been,

My favorite's been knit picker. Nick Picker's really great. I mean, the Shield of Memories is also like... The Shield of Memories is so great because, one, incredibly well detailed and created. Two, it's something that I really needed, you know? Yeah, I think something that has a cool gameplay construction is probably more valuable than like a joke. Right. But just remember that like the thing about Knit Picker and the thing about the shield,

they're elegant ideas that can be expressed really simply. and I think that that's the like that's kind of the hook for those that makes those works for you guys I feel like you guys forget a lot of the time other stuff that you have um I feel well no I'm being I'm being serious here because like um when Justin busted out the rod of Switcheroo the want the wand of Switcheroo to win the race at the end of Pallas to the medal I was like I can't like I was in disbelief that you remember that you had that and you have stuff like the immovable rod that you bought in the last one which I think has all kinds of cool implications like do you get do you guys actually keep track of that stuff. Oh, I did forget about that one. Yeah, see, that's... I do. I have very detailed notes and character sheets and stuff, but it also just comes down to, like, I'll have a really funny idea. Like, for example, I have the tankard, the one that, like, makes booze super strong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, like, that just hasn't organically come up. Like, I don't know when I would use that. Or, like, the lens of straight creeping that lets me, like, see where people have gone. but like it just hasn't organically come up yet.

But I've got it so that like when something happens, I can be like, oh, this is the perfect time to use this. And as long as we're like talking about it, like, I think part of the, part of the reason that the wand occurred in that particular sequence, and one of the reasons I like that arc so much is that I feel like by the nature of our show, there are sections of it. and sometimes like parts of arcs that don't seem, that we don't seem to have a lot of agency.

Yeah, sure. And like, and I think this last, this last episode, like we talked about this like after we were done recording, but there are some episodes that are just like, they are extremely narrative heavy, like extremely narrative heavy. This last episode unfurls some shit that is going to affect, uh,

it sort of sets the tone for this arc. Yeah, but it also like sets the stage for literally the rest of this. campaign through the end of this storyline. And it's stuff that, like, I just kind of had to get out there. And it's really, again, we talk about budding heads. Like, it's really tricky to also give you guys agency in situations. Can I, can I say my favorite moment out of the Adventure Zone so far, out of playing it?

I loved pedals to the medal. I loved the concept of it. My favorite moment was when the three of us were in Captain Captain Bain's office, and he handed out drinks and there was no editing in this. The three of us did not discuss it. We all independently decided that we weren't going to drink the drink. Yeah. And it was like, I'm not even joking when I got chills in the moment because it was this very like, you know, like, simpatico moment of picturing this scene and not trusting what was going on. And I think what was really great about that is it didn't come out of roles. If you weren't doing, you could have done,

this is that scene I haven't really thought of it this way Travis but it's a perfect sort of like it's a perfect little capsule of what this show is yeah which is you guys did you could have rolled an insight check Merle you could have used that that earring that you bought in that first arc that gives you advantage on insight checks to do an insight check on this dude to see if he's on the level offering you these drinks you could have done an investigation check you could have done a nature check to see if like you could identify the poison and you didn't do any of that we just talked. Like I was doing a character

and you guys were doing your characters and we just talked and in that conversation you came to the decision not to... Well, I think you also got a very strong... To give credit of credits too

it's a good example of like storytelling by implication. Like, why... Like, we've seen enough books and movies like, why is this guy trying and get us to drink something?

Like, and honestly, that attitude gets us into trouble with this show. Yeah. You can't talk that up to that because like literally every other time that I've set a trap, you fucking fell into it. I like I keep the kid gloves on a little bit because I don't want you guys to die because I feel like from a storytelling perspective that's just not interesting. But like this might be rough for you to hear dad.

Merle didn't need to lose his hand. Like I was fully, I was 50-50 on whether or not you would grab that crystal. I was literally, I literally did not know which way that was going to break. Good. I'm glad you didn't know. You guys almost realizing not to do that was like, that was really powerful for me. Because here's the thing, frankly, I play Magnus in such a way that I'm perfectly willing to accept the fact that he will probably die. Like, I am not protective of Magnus because I don't feel that that's a good way to play a fighter whose main characteristic is that he rushes into shit. Yeah, sure.

Yeah. So, but like, there was something in that moment that it was just like, yeah, like, yeah. Like I think we're all on the same page, not in the same room. Like we're not like side-eyeing each other and kind of going, I don't trust it. Like we all just kind of went like, yeah, no, we're not going to do this. Okay, that kind of ties to win in, and we have to honor Drew Davenport. Yeah, sure. Drew sent this in.

He says, after the grand relic storyline ends, what changes can the listeners expect? You know, you were just talking about Magnus Dying. Will you guys re-roll characters switch who D&N? or add new players. We've talked, so we've talked a little bit, because this storyline has an end. And that might be like, I don't know if we've talked about that. That might be rough for folks to hear,

but there's an end to what we're doing in this universe. And I don't know if there's like a potential for a sequel or whatever, but I mean, we've talked about, I mean, Travis has, now we have the Adventure Zone Knights. Like we have another story that we can transition to. Well, we talked about that. I was really excited about is each of us doing pilots essentially for our own thing where we would do like a couple of episodes and we would take turns DMing coming up with their own worlds and stories and characters and shit and then just doing a straight up and down vote for what people wanted us to do for the second season I guess I mean if you want to call it. I've already got an idea about mine. Yeah. That's for real. I want to do a I want to do a superhero one. I'm going to try to make my whole shit because there's no way I'm DM.

No, but see, that's exactly why I want you to. Like, I want to hear what you would turn out. I think we all got to do it. Like, I don't think you want to hear what I would do. No, I absolutely do. If yours is like, we're in a fucking clown college, and like, I want to hear that. I want to hear, like, I think that's really neat. Now, it would be looking around my office, like, and then a big bioshop poster comes over to you,

and he's like, what the guitar is going on here? And the picture of Charlie Gale comes to live. Yeah, and then my Abraham Lincoln bus is like, and then my Abraham Lincoln bus is like, I've got monsters in my pocket, too. Let me say this. If you're listening to listen, you're like, but I don't ever want this to end. Trust me, you'd do. It would hit a point where we wouldn't have new ideas for what Magnus and Taco and Merle would

get up to, and it would get stale. And it's not going to be... If you really, really, really, really don't want it to end. I mean, if the money's right... Oh, yeah. No, you're not going to fucking Georgia Armourney me. We won't end the adventures, though. It'll just change.

And we won't. And we won't kill. off the Dowager. It's okay. That's fine. I might kill off Magnus. I'm not above letting Magnus die. What gives me a lot of hope, though, is like the adventures zone nights went really well, I feel like. I think any of us would be capable of doing this, and it's still going to be the four of us. So like, no matter what, we're going to, you know, it'll still be the same. I think there's like a tone that sort of pervades our show as it is now that would be, that would exist in it. No matter what world we were doing, like if I did, if we did like a

I want to do like a persona style like teen mystery like but I think we would still do I think we would still have it would still very much be like the adventure zone in it you know what I mean like I I think I think there's just no way that we could keep this thing going in perpetuity because that would that would whatever ending that would have would be disappointing like I and it's not going to be anytime soon it's probably going to take us like it's going to take us a while we're probably close to the halfway point of what I've got written down now but I have no idea how long these things take. The Crystal Kingdom mark has already gone like a couple episodes longer. Or it's going to end up going a couple episodes longer than I thought it was going to take. So, yeah, there will be an inning. We've talked about how to get past it. And let's talk about the Max Fund Drive, though. Okay.

Let's talk about those levels that are up there. Obviously, $5 a month, you get access to all the bonus content, the National Treasure Book of Secrets of Content. At $10, you get the show-exclusive bandanas, which look really great. And the bonus content. And the bonus content. $20 a month you get the maximum fun adventure necessity collection, which includes a multi-tool, a toilet paper, a badge, basically camping supplies.

You also get the band-a-dana, you also get the bonus content. $35, you get the thermos and all the other stuff that we've talked about already. What if you want to go bonkers, Dad? What if you want to go like, what if you want to go zany? Like $100? Like a hondo a month. Oh my gosh, Griffin. I mean, we're not made of money.

Well, we're not donating. You silly boy. $100 a month. And if you do that, you have membership in the inner circle. That is our monthly culture club. And I think you three guys know exactly what that means. Yeah. So let me break that down for you.

Basically, along with all the other reward levels you get, you also will once a month get some form of media or some kind of cultural thing picked out for you by a max fund host. It could be a book. Exactly. It could be a movie. It could be music. It could be some other cultural media, but you're going to get that once a month.

Last time we did it for my brother, my brother, and we picked the album Music Evolution by everyone's favorite funk rap jazz fusion band, Buckshot LaFunk. And it was awesome, and you're welcome. But you're going to get that along with all the other stuff. And at $200 a month, which may seem like a lot, but let me first say, that's a lot of support. And it goes a long way. That's just like 70 cappuccinos. It's just like 70 cappuccinos a month. It could really add some years to your life to stop drinking so many cappuccinos.

But along with all that other awesome stuff, you're also going to get free registration for Max FunConn 2017. And believe me when I say, it's totally worth it. Max FunCon is the most fun an adult can have in this world. But those are legally. Yes. Those are pretty high levels. We're not expecting everybody to chip in a higher bucks a month. That's that's that's that's uh that's unreasonable just like if you if you like to show and

you want to support us you know five five bucks a month's fine 10 bucks a month is fine like we we the support we get like the financial support it's great it's a lot us to do more stuff with podcasting than I ever thought we would ever do like when we did two tours last year for mac for my bim-bang like that's i in my in my wildest dreams i never would have expected that would be the trajectory that our life would take. But it has because of this support. So like the gifts and stuff are great. The money that we get to help us expand and do more stuff is great.

But really it's just like the support that we get for doing these shows and the just sort of the symbol of you guys showing like, like this is this stuff that you're making is stuff that we like and we want you to do more of it. That's what means the absolute world to me. There's a couple more things that I want to make sure everyone knows about. One, we have challenged donors. So no matter how much you. you donate or at what level, there are donors who are committed to giving a little bit here and there

for every new and upgrading donation. And also, I want to say that our goal of 5,000 new and upgrading donors will not only help us, will not only ensure that we do more Adventures Zone nights, but after last year where I had a new My Brother and My Brother Me tattoo designed because we hit our goal, I'm now having, I've got a Dungeons and Disoing. I'm not. I've got a Dungeons and dragons design in the works that if we break that 5,000, I will get... You mean adventure zone design? You mean adventure zone? Yes, it is adventure zone specific.

You're going to get fucking... That I will get if we break 5,000 donors. You're going to get a tattoo of Drizzed's face on your butt. Exactly. I also, Griffin, what's the deal with the toast to Max Fun again? If you tweet about, if you tweet the link, Maximumfund.org slash donate to your friends. You know, if times are tight and you can't donate, we totally, totally understand. If you just like spread the word about the MaxxFundon.

Fun Drive, it means a lot. And if you do that while using the hashtag Toast to Max Fun, you'll be entered into a drawing for John Hodgman's favorite Breville product, which we're assuming is a toaster. And I guess it's a dope-ass toaster if Hodgman's a fan of it. And one other things that I want to talk about that's kind of adjacent, Max Fun Drive adjacent, is MaxFund Meetup Day. It's Tuesday, March 22nd, at 7 p.m., whatever your local time is. Go to MaximumFund.org slash meetups.

people are organizing MaxFund community meetups all across the country. You can go to that website and you can find out like if one's happening in your city. If not, you can email Stacey. That's S-T-A-C-E-Y at maxmonefund.org and set one up and they'll add it to the page, which is again, maximum fun.org slash meetups. So wait a minute, out of continuity just for a second. Because I thought about this since last year. Trave, would it take away from your tattoo or would it up the answer?

and add to the tattoo if I agreed to do it too? No, no, no. Come on. What? My tattoo is very specific to me. It's a... Okay. That's really good.

That should be... That should be a... That's fucking great. I'm serious about this. You want a testament to your failure on your body. Yeah, I do. Well, okay, let's not commit... Okay.

You don't have to commit to what the design is. But dad will also get... We're talking about two tattoos. If we hit 5G, 5K. I'll do it. If we have 5K new and upgrading donors, me and dad will get Adventures Zone tattoos. Oh, my God.

I love it. I will. Okay, so I have one question, and then I think we should be each other question. And I'll... I will, like, I'll up the end of even more. Yeah? I'll cash those checks.

Dirty money, 2016. And you'll probably have to drive me back from the tattoo because you know I get that thing about blood. Yeah. But Justin and I are just going to go, if we get 5G, it's just spinning spree. Live fast, die, young, bad girls do it well. Live fast, die young, bad girls, do it well. Now you're on a jet.

Something like a dolly. Mark wants to know, and I'm very curious about this, would you ever consider one-off guest to do MPC voice work? No, I just can't figure out how it works. It's hard enough, like just modulating my own shit and like editing that in posts is rough like I don't it would also like be weird because they get it's they wouldn't be having a conversation with you right what I have to tell them what to say to say like it's just it would have had to be something like I mean like some I'm glad you did

it the way you did it but like if we had gotten somebody to do the crystal kingdom songs yeah something non-discussion based something that's just like I actually have an idea for it in adventure zone nights okay I'm really looking forward to implementing I don't have a way now but briefly thought about reaching out to Hodgeman to do the Hodgepodge voice since that's who he was based on. But what if we did it like with us? Yeah, it's not. Yeah, because he's answering questions. What if we did a live podcast

in New York and got your little play buddy to be on it and play an NPC? You mean when? You mean Arthur Miller? Daddy's been dead before you do. I had really, that was it. I thought if he took some scenes from all my sons,

it would be so appropriate. Exactly. Okay, fine. Stand in the way of another idea. I want to do this recap. But before we do that, we've talked about, like, questions from everybody else. Do you guys have questions about the campaign? Things you're still confused about that you want to ask about it. Keeping in mind that I'm not going to reveal any, like, big spoilerinos or anything like that.

I have one, Griffey. Hit me. Have we, has there been a point so far where you are like really super laying out some kind of clue that our characters were supposed to pick up that we just breezed right over that you were like, ah, damn it. You guys. And don't say red barrels. Yeah, don't say red barrels. I mean like story arc wise like we were supposed to put together that the red cloaks were such and such. There have been a couple, yeah. And it's, it's not like bad that you miss them or whatever because it's like I think that nobody's gotten it right. Like looking at the Reddit or the Twitter or whatever, like people guessing it's sort of the whole storyline because like I think it's impossible. Like there's pieces missing that you're not going to get for a little bit still.

there's some people who are like kind of getting a little bit close like to sort of the shape of the thing but yeah there have been things that have been said that really to be completely frank i'm mostly putting down so that whenever the thing is revealed there's at least some groundwork being laid for it but it's it's i i think you would have to be pretty man i like obsessed with the thing in order to sort of put the pieces together because there have been clue like i've there have been clues about the whole, the whole campaign arc in each arc to answer your question. I feel like you've gotten some of them, some of them you probably just, just, you know, I tell you what I really struggle with is I think that,

like, I would be better at, at this and the show would be better. If I, like, went back and listened to it from the beginning, I just, like, can't, it's just like an exercise and ego.

I'm about, yeah, I'm also about to do a full recap, which might help a little bit. Okay. Yeah. But I do that all the time. I listen back to them.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Well, I only listen to my parts. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, you guys keep talking about some other podcasts. Bullshit, bullshit.

My part. What are those? Dan, do you see you guys have any questions? I actually have one. Okay. Was there something in your upbringing as the third child whose every birthday was ruined or a disaster that makes you take out all this anger and animosity on point. Poor Merle.

I've had a lot of people ask me that during this arc. There's a, there's like, gang. Are you working through some stuff? No, but there's like a, there's like a story reason why you are the person being harangued. It's not just like, I'm not just picking on your character. That would be petty and little. There is a, there is a story reason why your character's being harassed the most in this, in this particular arc. Well, and, but you're also pretty strident about the root.

tools. Yeah. Oh, please. Pretty hard on me. I have let you get away with so much fudging. I don't want to hear it. You're fucking... You're the fucking cheesecake factory.

You are a, you are a like tourist trap strip mall and pigeon forge. Just fudge, fudge, fudge all over the fucking place. I can live with that. What about you, Juice? You got a question for him? Yeah. On, on, um, like my brother, my brother and me, which was the first podcast, the three of us together, it is very much a show that is built around, like, it's an improvisational

comedy shows. So, like, we're, we're creating structure and, like, destroying structure, like, as we do the thing, like, constantly sort of, like, throwing shit away the instant that it stops, like, being funny or worthwhile. Yes. In, in the course of, like, doing it. Is it hard to, is it hard when the four of us are recording, and you've got, like, something of a Bible that you're working off of, or a plan, at least, in your head? I have a text document called Plot Bible in my fault. Okay. Is it hard to like resist the impulse to not just like throw a pipe bomb in it from time to time just like or to like throw shit out in the moment because it feels right like from a story. Is it hard basically I'm saying to like have something that you are beholden to right other than the exact moment? I can think I can think of a couple of times where I thought he had done that. I don't want to say what they are. Yeah. Well what's what's great is and it's been really really helpful.

and it really unlocked the writing of this show for me. And I mentioned it earlier is this idea of having a macro story and a micro story and adhering to the macro story and letting you guys do whatever the fuck you want in the micro story. I would say you guys, any adjustments that you have made to the grand campaign, like the whole thing from start to finish, have been not you making a decision that has gone against my plan. It has been more you guys suggesting a characteristic or referencing something that I'm I then think, oh, that's fucking great. I'm going to add that to the thing. So it's not, it's, you, you guys have done very, very little to destroy or even disrupt the whole campaign. You have, if anything, added to and enhanced it. And the, the whole story when it's finished will only be what it is because of the things that you guys have suggested.

And to fully part the kimono, things that other people have suggested to. Griffin, that actually leads to a question we got a lot, just real quick. People have asked, when this is all done, would you think of ever, like, releasing this? I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't think it would be, no, I don't think it would work, because it's not like a campaign book. It's not like the fucking, like, cursive strawed, like, based on what your characters do, do that, it's a story.

Like, it's a story. I have it written down, like, a book, and when you guys change it, I rewrite the book, but at the end of it, it's still a book. It's not a, it's not an adventure guide. You know what I mean? Yeah. Also, like, I also, like, I also do a lot of fudging in terms of, like, character stats. Like, the, so Curse of Strod, just to keep using that example,

there's like a monster entry for the main boss of the thing, and it's like two pages long. And it breaks down, like, all of his stats and, like, his saving roles and, like, his characteristics and his specialties and his abilities and his spells. And I don't do that for fucking anybody. So, like, I feel like there would be some pretty ginormo gaps. And there are also other media. Yeah, sure. I mean, people adapt stories into other media all the time. Absolutely.

But to get back to the original question, the macro story, you guys haven't changed at all. But what's really helpful about the way I structure it is the micro story, you guys can go hog wild. The, I mean, already, like, the, the Crystal Kingdom thing has gone sort of a different way than I originally intended, which is perfectly fine, because I think it's a better way. The mystery that you guys solved, which that was the hardest thing of all, writing a mystery and then trying to get you guys to solve it. I was really worried that. Do you mean in the train one? In the train mystery, yeah, I was worried that you guys wouldn't, like, just wouldn't get to it. And it's not, it's not, I'm not calling you dumb.

I'm saying, like, I wrote the thing, and I had no idea how easy. difficult it would be to solve. I completely, I think I bet my eyes. You can't, can't to it at all, like you can't point or like you can't even nudge us towards it. Right, because I, I think my eyes were maybe a little bit. I, I, I, I think I may be overreached a bit. I'm happy the way it turned out, but like, I think the mystery was maybe a little too difficult. I think it's a lot too much-wise. We don't have, like, an investigative, like, rogue character. Yeah. Whose job it is to, like, solve puzzles and study shit. We don't play it that way. I introduced Angus

as a surrogate for that stuff who could, like, help you out. if you needed it, and he certainly did from time to time, but when I think it was Justin finally kind of cracked the case, I would never forget. It was a big sigh of relief for me. So, but like, you guys have done things that I've taken entire, the Crystal Kingdom plot Bible, just this plot Bible, just for this one arc is, has, is about 14,000 words now. It's gotten ridiculously long, but I will, I will delete pages of shit. I will, highlight all delete like entire, entire fight.

There was a fight that was supposed to take place on top of the train, Trab, that you just blew right by. Oh, man. I know, it's going to be sick as fuck. Let's circle back. Bonus episodes. Yeah. But that's what I'm talking about. And it's helpful.

I don't know if it's helpful for GMs in a broader sense or just for this particular storytelling type of thing we're doing, but preserve the macro, keep the big campaign going and preserve it and defend it as much as you can. Change it and add it if you think you have ideas that are better. but try to protect that macro storyline as much as you can, but while allowing your heroes to like just go hog wild on the micro level. Okay, let me be a dad just real quick before we get to the summation of anything else.

Let me just tell you, and I know the other guys, and Travis has got a taste of it, Travis did a great job on Adventure Zone nights, whatever we're going to call. Adventure Zone Knights! Griffin, you really have knocked it out of the park when it comes to. to DMing this. I think you've raised the bar. You've set the mark really high for us when Travis and I do it. And Justin. Justin's never going to do it. But seriously, the work you put in is really obvious in the show. And I think the work you put in. And I think it adds to that flexibility that it is able to be that kind of story. Yeah. I appreciate that. It's like it's and Travis, I'm sure you feel this way. now too about Adventure Zone Night, it's like, it's terrifying.

Putting it together. It's really scary because you don't, you don't. I went into it, like, scared in a way that I didn't think I could feel about presenting a game because I poured. To us, to your family members who you've known your whole lives. Yeah. I was not worried about people listening. I was worried about how it would play out because I poured all of this work into, like, building puzzle dungeon rooms.

And I was like, what if they start playing and they either solve it in 30 seconds or they never solve it? Or they start playing and it doesn't make any sense. And like, it's fucking scary. But it's not just that. We also can't get, like, we can't ignore the fact that we're fucking making up fantasy stuff. And that's like there's a vulnerability there. You know what I'm telling? Like when you, when you, there's a vulnerability, an inherent vulnerability in role playing.

Even when you're dealing with this literally the lowest stakes imaginable, which is my family, like, and I don't, like, I have very little shame when talking to and dealing with you guys. But even then, like, it's still really embarrassing. But at the same time, it is the most fulfilling, creatively fulfilling thing that I've ever done in my whole life. It really genuinely is. And Justin, Daddy loves you too. Yeah, I do my best.

Whatever. Good job. All right. Let's hear this summary. All right. Step in wherever you want because it's, it's beefy. But I feel you should probably let you just get through it. Yeah, maybe.

Yeah, let's just. If I forget something that I've left out. Anyway, here it is. Well, we won't interrupt you. Well, no, please do. If you hear something I've forgotten. The complete summary of the Adventure Zone saga. Well, it wouldn't be right if we interrupted you because you can't, you know, that way you won't be able to.

This is a man-a-favorant joke. Yeah, this is the, let's start with the prequel. The prequel episode. I don't have very many notes here. It was it to our heroes met. That's the prequel episode. Done. That's it.

I'm just kidding. Here'd there be gurblands. Started off with us adhering to the adventure book. The three of you had to prove your salt. You were hired to transport gungronron rock seekers belongings from Neverwinter to Fandilands. and he had a ward named Barry Blue Jeans on route. You found that they were attacked by Gerblins and abducted. You reached a cave that housed the gerblins that attacked them,

and you met Clark, the bugbear leader of the band, and Yemek, his second in command, and were embroiled. And Yemik's short-lived plot to overthrow Clark, who in turn just murdered Yemik. Taco charmed Clark, and we learned later apparently permanently to learn that Gondren, had been kidnapped by a powerful wizard named the Black Spider, who wanted to use him to unlock Wave Echo Cave,

a source of tremendous power near Fandolin. You rescued Barry Blue Jeans, who told you how to access the cave using Merle, who's Gondren's distant cousin, using Merle's blood. After fighting through the strange fauna and machinery of Wave Echo Cave, you meet a few interesting individuals inside, including Killian, who is an extremely capable orc woman who warned you not to meddle in her own pursuit of the Black Spider,

and then you met the spider himself, who's a dark elf named Magic. Brian, who you kind of befriended and then summarily killed. And then the three of you with Killian and a worse where Gunnran Rock Seeker entered the vault in the middle of the way of Echo Cave. Not Before Taco finds a powerful umbrella-shaped staff on a skeleton wearing a red robe. Inside that vault, you find a gauntlet which Gundren takes us his birthright, but it grants him a fiery power. He seems incapable of controlling. You flies from the room.

You pursue him back to Fandolin, stopping a convoy of orc slavers. and you free Kurtza, who is a young orcish boy, whose campment have been destroyed by Gundren. You rescue him from a cage, although he leaves without thanking you. In Fanolin, Barry warns you that Gunnard has grown too powerful before Gundren, who is now just made of living fire, destroys Barry Blue Jeans. You nearly talk him down from his rage,

but Kurtza, in retribution, shoots him with an arrow from outskirts of town. U3 and Killian dive into a well at the last second as Gundrin goes thermonuclear, and Fanolin is reduced to a circle of black glass. Killian explains that she represents an organization designed to stop these things from happening, and unless you, after you're able to reclaim the gauntlet without falling prey to its thrall, Killian summons a glass vehicle from the sky, which you ride up to a hole in the moon. And let me just jump in now and say, yes, we caught the thing with the red, with the umbrella, had a red robe.

Thank you, everybody who keeps like tweeting that. Well, okay, but in their defense, you definitely did not remember that. Next arc was moonlighting, where you were introduced to the Bureau of Balance and enlisted. You emerged into a hangar on top. of the other side of the moon, which you realize is fake. You got a wicked headache. You're nauseous for some reason, but you're aided by Avi, the hangar manager, who offers you a stiff drink, make your way to across the quad of this strange outpost, and Killian puts you on an elevator in the center of the compound where you meet Johan, musician that is lamenting that few people planet side will ever know his musical genius. He introduces you to the voidfish, gigantic jellyfish-shaped organism whose body seems to be filled with flashing streaks of light. It's capable of consuming information and removing that information from the world, save for those who drink its icker.

after inoculating yourselves, you remember years of war and turmoil that you had forgotten during which nations, tribes, and individuals fought for control over a few powerful magical artifacts. The Bureau Balance is director, a tall older woman carrying a white oak staff who does not reveal her name, explains that there are seven grand relics in the world, which are items of unchecked power created by a band of rogue wizards called the Red Robs. Her organization, the Bureau Balance finds, recovers and destroys these relics, which she demonstrates by having her servant, Davenport, a gnome capable of only saying his own name, put the gauntlet, the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet, which belongs to the School of Evocation,

into a large spherical chamber where it is pierced by beams of light and seemingly destroyed. She offers you jobs with the Bureau as the Reclaimers, which is a sort of rare position dedicated to actually bringing those relics back without falling prey to their thrall, which is something few people can accomplish. After passing an initiation test, you are fitted with braces of initiation and rewarded tokens to the fantasy gash upon, and its operator, the artificer Leon, shows you how to get goodies out of that. You also are introduced to the fantasy Costco and its owner Garfield

the Deals Warlock. You level up. Holy shit. That's our... You got this. You're doing great. All right. Murder on the Rockport Limited. A relic's been discovered by the reclaimer Lehman Kessler who was unfortunately murdered in the town of Rockport after loading his precious cargo onto a train. The Rockport Limited, on route to Neverwinter.

You're assigned the job of impersonating Lehman and seeing the train to his destination at which point you'll be able to retrieve the relic from storage. After a brief detour in a leech-filled swamp. Outside of Rockport, you make your way into this town of industry, which is apparently home to hundreds of people who look like beloved radio personality, Tom Bodette. You board the train after learning a security message.

I still can't believe you plan that, by the way, Griffin. That's a crazy storytelling. Did you guys know that's on his Wikipedia page? Yeah, he actually got asked about it on the show on MPA. No. Yeah. You board the train after learning at security measures. The relic is in the crypt safe in the last car of the train, which cannot be open

without an hour of prolonged contact from an employee of the train. You're introduced to your fellow passengers on the journey, including Hudson, the engineer who stays locked in his engine car. Jenkins, the magical attendant who operates the pleasure chambers, which is a kind of teleportation magic that can take you to any enclosed room as long as it keeps the door open. Just the beheader, a prize fighter and all-around badass, Graham the Hedge Wizard, who didn't end up having that many interesting traits.

And Angus McDonald... He was juicy. He had a juicy road. And Angus McDonald, a precocious boy detective. After meeting them, you're investigated by Angus, who explains that he's on the train in pursuit of a serial killer in Rockport, who seems to be capable of tracking down objects of great wealth and collecting them from their deceased owners.

revealing this, you hear a scream and find a beheaded and behanded Jenkins between cars. Some sort of fiery crowd monster destroys the crime scene before you're able to do much CSI work on it. I know you're pretty sad about Jenkins right now, but just hang in there. Stick with us, folks. For this next sentence, you work through a convoluted mystery to discover the truth.

The body was not Jenkins, but the engineer Hudson's who is spliced... Told you so. Who is spiced between portals by Jenkins' teleportation magic. Magnus does a daring maneuver outside of the train and gets rid of a whole fucking great fight I was going to do back there. you fight Jenkins and throw him off the back of the train seemingly to his doom. You recover the grand relic, which is the Oculus, which allows you to turn illusory image as real.

And with some quick thinking from Taco, prevent the runaway limited from running into Neverwinter, saving Graham, Jess, and Angus in the process. The Oculus is recovered and destroyed. Then there's a brief lunar interlude where you guys have a harvest festival at the Bureau of Balance. Some fun stuff happens, but really the only thing of consequence is you witness an event where the sun eclipses, the sky grows dark, and you see millions of glowing white eyes in the sky. There's a deafening sound

that incapacitates nearly everyone around you. Magnus eats a unicorn dick. Yeah. And it was the best part of the whole show. Just a couple more... Everyone agreed the unicorn dick joke was choice. He won a lifetime achievement award for it. Very good.

A couple more arts to go. Almost there. Almost through it. Pedals to the medal. Another grand relic is discovered in the prosperous town of Goldcliff. The Gaiasash, which gives its owner absolute power over nature. It's in possession of a master criminal named the Raven.

You arrive on the scene of a crime in progress and scale the Goldcliff Trust, which is under attack from some giant vines summoned by the Raven. Taco, after blinking into the ethereal plane, you see figures with white eyes seemingly spying on you. After intercepting the Raven on the top floor, she seems somewhat peaceful and not wanting to harm any of you. She also seems kind of out of control. You're saved by Hurley, a halfling monk and lieutenant in the Goldcliff Militia,

who seems to have some sort of relationship with the Raven and calls her by her true name Sloan. The militia captain, Captain, Captain Bain, who's also a seeker in the Bureau of Balance on the secrets, on the secret level, tells you to follow up with Hurley for more information. You learn that Hurley and Sloan were teammates in the Battlewagon Racing League, an underground racing league in Goldcliffe where racers duke it out in the desert while wearing animal masks to hide their identities from spectators.

Hurley believes beating Sloan in a race would convince her that the power given to her by the Gaia Sash is not infinite and tells you to sneak into the headquarters of a rival Racing League to steal the arcane core, which she would use to power her battle wagon, you do so murdering a couple of their members in the process, like Barbara, and enraging their leader. During that race, you cleverly disable the wagons of your opponents, including the giant shark tank driven by said gang leader, and beat Sloan in a neck and neck finish.

It's too late, though, the Raven is being completely corrupted by the Gaiasash. Entombed in a Tower of Living Vines and surrounded by a tornado, you crash your battle wagon into Sloan in attempt to freer, but to no avail. She surrounds herself in Silverpoint, a porous in barb with no known remedy, and Hurley throws the three of you to safety, jumping into the fray. You awaken in the middle of the town. Sloan is holding a severely poison

wounded hurley, and she gives up the guy's sash before using it one last time to turn the two women and embrace into a beautiful cherry blossom tree. After debriefing with Captain Captain Bain, he seems to insist that you drink a suspicious cocktail he's whipped up. You wisely refuse and see him taken over by a figure that seems to be a floating red robe. Under his command, Bain drinks his own drink and dies instantly. The figure explains that Sloan, Magic Brian, Jenkins, and Bain all fell prey to a hunger for power that eventually consumes all before he disappears. Another lunar interlude where some developments have happened, you are promoted and selected as the organization's only reclaimers.

You get a new sweet dormitory and learn that your prior roommate Robbie has been arrested for unknown reasons. Angus, the boy detected, becomes... Is Robbie Pringles? Pringles, yes. Okay. Angus becomes your sort of personal aid while in the field. Our Girl Friday. You're a Girl Friday essentially.

You are given information on Captain Bain and told to feed it to the Voidfish, as it's custom for Bureau of Balance members who die to be forcibly forgotten. During your visit of the Voidfish's chambers, you meet Lucas, a scientist and consultant to the Bureau who seems to want to study the Voidfish back in his lab, which Johan refuses. Their argument is interrupted by the Void Fish who sings a mournful song, which Johan swears he did not teach it. Last one.

There's also a really nice moment of connection between Magnus and the Void Fish. I just want to like they touch the glass It's really nice you guys Yeah uh you'll Yeah you guys have a nice moment And then the Crystal Kingdom mark Which we're on now It's candle nights

Which I've kind of forgotten Um You're celebrating in your dorm with your friends at the bureau Giving and receiving presents Including a set of strange badges Emblazing with an unreadable type Given by an anonymous donor The director is contacted by Lucas

Who calls her by her real name Lucretia He explains that he has a grand relic The Transputation Philosopher the Philosopher's Stone, which belongs to the School of Transputation, but that something in his lab has taken it and used it to turn the exterior of his lab into pink tourmaline. The spell is still being channeled, meaning everything the crystal touches is also turned to crystal. His lab is sinking into the Stillwater Sea, and if it touches it, the world will get crystallized and destroyed. You are sent to his lab with another party in tow, a team of regulators sent to arrest Lucas for abusive information.

That includes Boyland, a gruff dwarf fighter, Killian, and Carrie Fang Battle, a dragon-born rogue and sister to Jeremy, the fang battle. a bard introduced in the flop-house switch episode. The team of regulators is separated during the fierce winter storm. The three of you enter a conservatory, which has been crystallized and are attacked by a golem, which has self-formed out of the shards of crystal. You escape and hear a song sung by a synthetic voice, but you can't quite piece together what is going on there. You might have at this point, but after besting a few traps, including the puzzle robot hodgepodge, You meet Noel, a helpful floating robot

powered by a large glowing fuse in the middle of her chassis. You find a peculiar mirror in Lucas's private chambers which show you sites from our world and find an abandoned bedroom belonging to Lucas's deceased mother Maureen. You meet a family of bug bears

who Clark once belonged to, all of which have behavior modification chips, which make them pretty chill. And you also find a very dead boyland who has been crystallized after having a smoke by an open window in the lab. After a few more running, ends with the golem, which seems to only want to attack

Merle, you regroup with Killian and Kerry, and Merle is tricked by the golem, who speaks with a man's British accent impersonating pan, Merle's god. He entices Merle to grab a crystal, which shatters and pierces his hand. Magnus quickly chops off his arm to stop the crystallization. Heroically, some might say,

to stop the crystallization from spreading through his whole body. You're whisked into the med bay, where Lucas treats Merle's moons, and gives him a new arm made of soulwood, a living wood with psychic capabilities. He takes you to the cosmoscope, a room filled with gemstone windows into other planes of existence which he crafted using the Philosopher's Stone. The room is designed to show, to allow the user to study those planes and perhaps see what lies beyond them. The seven of you, including Lucas, Killian, Kerry, and Noel make your way towards the elevator in the center of the complex.

But Killian and Carrie turn on Lucas to arrest him before you can get closer to the relic. The crystal all around you changes forms a few times and Lucas disables your whole party by activating a trap in your null suits, which is protective outerwear, which has kept you from getting crystallized this whole time. lying paralyzed on the floor, the golem appears in front of you once more. That's where we're at. And I would like to say that this is usually the point where I pretend I've been out of the room and didn't hear any of that.

I appreciate it. That's all right. That's it. That's the story so far. I don't know if there's stuff in that you guys forgot about, but I tried to include everything I could. I haven't done shit in this show. That's not true.

I haven't done anything. That's not true. He didn't like break down. There's like 35 hours of stuff. stuff that he just did in 15 minutes. He left out a lot of our awesome antics. We do have antics. Oh, do we have them? Yes, we do. And goofs? All right. One last mention, maximum fun.org for it slash donate. If you like our show, if you like other shows in the maximum fun network, we'd ask you to visit there and try to kick in what you can every month.

It means the world to us. Again, for just five bucks a month, you're going to get a ton of bonus content, exclusive stuff that you won't find anywhere else for $10 a month. You can get all that plus a bandana with your favorite shows imagery on it. Those are original designs. $20 a month, you're going to get the Max Fund Adventure set. And that's got like the Paracord bracelet and the hot cocoa and the multi-tool. That even has adventure in the name. Yeah, adventure right in the name.

So if you can do that and $35 you get the thermos plus all that other stuff. And again, this is for new and upgrading donor. So if you're already at one of those levels and you want the gifts, you're going to have to kick in a bit more. So, and we love our listeners more than all those other guys put together. Yeah, and maybe you started listening to some new shows of Maximum Fun this year, so you want to kick in a few more bucks. That'd be awesome.

And if you do, find out org for it slash donate is the address to do that. And if you do become a new or upgrading donor, be sure that you tweet at us so we can say thank you. You know, let us know that you did it. And the other thing you can do to help out, if you already are a new or upgrading donor and you've done your part, make sure to share the message of Max Fund. Drive, let everyone know that it's going on. You know, be sure to tweet about it, tell your friends, talk about it on Facebook. You know, it only goes for two weeks, and we really just want this to be the best one yet.

And I know we say that every year, but we want it to be the best one yet every year. So help us be a part of Max Fun. Come to the meetups on, you know, on the 22nd. I think there's going to be another live, you know, special to end Max Fun Drive on the 25th. So look out for announcements about that. hashtag toast to Max Fun to be entered into that drawing Yeah just help us make this Max Fund Drive epic Please

Well put scraps, well put Because I want to get a new tattoo Yeah, that's that's That's it We'll have a new episode next week Which will be just another regular episode In the Crystal Kingdom thing But we're also going to be talking about the drive

And then Or back to back to normal Back to basics after that So until then Thanks for listening to the Adventure Zone Zone, zone. I think it actually got a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be like super uncomfortable all the time. That pretty much sums up the adventure zone though, doesn't it? Yeah, I guess that's a good point. Thanks guys. Maximumfund.org

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