The Adventure Zone - The The Adventure Zone Zone: MaxFun Drive 2022

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

It’s MaxFunDrive! To celebrate, let’s dive into The The Adventure Zone Zone: Ethersea edition. We’re answering a whole bunch of your questions about character inspo, worldbuilding, and more. 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

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's the sound of the ocean, and you're going deep down in it, like Nemo, the mariner, and the fish. Hey, welcome to the, the adventure zone zone, America's favorite talk show about the show done by the people who do the show. And the captain? What's that? Kept Mimo. I mean, is he... I thought that was the mariner, I said.

The mariner, so I did definitely reference... The mariner and also the fish and also... Well, when you said the mariner, I thought you meant Nimo, the Submariner. Okay. That's Namor. Namor. Okay. What about the boy?

There was the sleepy boy. A little Nemo, the sleepy boy. Oh, in Slumberland. Yeah. Yeah. No, a different one. I was thinking of a different sleepy Nemo boy. What about Captain Eo, the defunct 3D film starring Michael Jackson at Epcot?

More like defunkey. What about that? Yeah. You want to be starting something? This is a show where we talk about your questions about this season of the Adventure Zone, which is Ethersea, which we've been doing for, God, when do we start? We've been doing it forever. No, I don't think it's actually been as long as we think it is, just because we've been going weekly now for a while.

And so we've really been, I don't know, it feels like we've been really moving at a clip through this season. I was surprised to see that we are at just about as many episodes as like Amnesty had. Yeah, Amnesty and Graduation, I think we're tight. I want to say six months, I think. Yeah, that feels about, that feels about right. Yeah, so we have a ton of questions here that people send in. and we're going to answer them, and we're going to talk to you about the Max Fun Drive,

and we're actually going to do that last thing right now. Here it is. Let me give you the quick rundown, and then we'll get to the questions. Okay, you ready? Yes. Here's how it works. Once a year, we ask you to consider supporting our show and any other shows on the network that you might enjoy by going to maximum fun. org slash join.

There, you will choose a support level that works for you. It starts as low as $5 a month and goes up to other levels, whichever one you want to do. And at each level, you will receive a new reward for becoming a supporter. But I tell you, here's the secret thing, folks. The best one's right there at $5 a month. Because for just $5 a month, you get access to hundreds and hundreds of hours of bonus content from each show on the network, including stuff from past Max Fund drives that you won't hear anywhere else. There's video stuff, there's audio stuff, it's great.

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Do the thing. Come on. Please. Please. Okay. Let's kick things off. We got a question list here that was compiled by our own Sarah Davis. Thank you, Sarah.

Thank you, Sarah. One of the many people who helps us out that we wouldn't be able to do. do without your max fund support. There you. Yes, of course. I'm going to actually answer a couple of questions in here because we've, you know, talked about her contributions a lot this season, but I think there's still a lot of folks who don't realize Rachel Jacobs is responsible for all of the Foley work that has been going

on this season and the, you know, post-production and editing. Literally all we're doing these days is recording us rolling virtual dice and making butt jokes. We're able to focus on the art. is what Griffith. Right, exactly. The art of butt jokes. Thank you. The art of fart.

An enormous thanks to Rachel. She only just started with us in December, I want to say. Yeah, I mean, she started, like, just as we were wrapping up graduation, which is one of the main reasons, and we'll talk about this more. There's a question about it, but one of the main reasons we were able to go weekly is because Rachel Jacobs is here. Yes. Absolutely. Let's start with this one from Ellen Weatherford, co-host of fellow Max Fun Show, Just the Zoo of Us. What did the research and creative process look like for incorporating marine biology into a fantasy setting?

I want to give a big shout out to Dad because I started talking about doing this undersea season last, I want to say like spring or so. and dad like went hardcore on it as he always does I feel like whenever we start sort of workshopping things and started reading a bunch of books and I remember when I told him I was doing graduation and he enrolled in community college and he made friends with five other kind of like very different people from different backgrounds

but they formed a study group and they became like best friends but then eventually they did cut dad out of that oh god that one the Chevy Chase was oh of course you are I read a couple like sort of of very dry and boring books about marine biology that didn't grab me. And then dad bought me a book called The Eternal Darkness,

which is a fucking radical name for a book in one of my favorite GameCube era horror titles. But this is, it's The Eternal Darkness, a personal history of deep sea exploration by Robert Ballard, who is a deep sea marine biologist. One of my faves. Top 20 for me, easy.

Oh, really? Easy. It's just, it's a fantastic read. It's a cool book about, I mean, the invention of deep sea exploration, which is still like, you know, generally speaking, in its nascent form, like there's still so much ocean to explore. And the, like, extreme risk that goes into, you know, putting yourself under the immeasurable pressure of the ocean to take a picture of a fucked up fish. that more than anything else, I think, inspired a lot of those sort of thing. Yeah, you got to be a real fish pervert to go down and go to all those things. That's what I've always said.

Yeah, because you get squished pretty bad. Yeah. And so a lot of that, like, I don't know, a lot of the drier books I read inspired things like the Cambria arc, which is, you know, a very fantastical interpretation of like the Cambrian explosion, which was a big moment for Earth. And yeah, I've had a lot of fun learning about the ocean and stuff in doing the season. Not that a lot of that has made it in sort of, you know, one for one scientifically. But it's it's been very inspiring when it comes time to like figure out a, you know, an encounter you're going to do or a mission that you can go on or just like an event that is taking place in this, this world that we sort of whipped up. And Arthur C. Clark wrote a lot of marine books, a lot of explorations. a lot of exploration of the sea.

The best, I think, was the coast of coral where he and a guy named Mike Wilson went down to Australia. And this was in the 50s. I mean, where they were, you know, practicing with aqua lungs and trying out all this new underwater technology. And so, yeah, that was a big inspiration, too, because it, he. Of course, Arthur C. Clark's such an amazing writer. And it was nonfiction. He also wrote a bunch of fiction stuff about Marine. Well, we're not here to talk about him.

We're here to talk about us. I turn to the work when I'm thinking about Marine works. I turn to the work of Dr. John Cena. I think that his work in the Marine actually taught me the most. Absolutely. There's a question here from Megan. Do you have any particular inspiration for the characters in Ethersea outside? side of what was shared in the world building episodes.

And with that, I can also answer Tiger's question, Travis, why French specifically? The answer is Jacques Cousteau. That's it? It was just that? Not entirely that. But it was a combination of that. And I wanted him to feel like audibly isolated. Fancy.

And, well, no, different. Right? I wanted him to sound different from the earth separated from everyone else. Because that is how he feels and he was separated and cloistered. And so that was like part of it. But it also is just for a long time, this is not a joke. Whenever I, like, when we were like on the Joko cruise or wherever looking at the ocean, I'd be like, ah, the sea, how deep and beautiful she is.

And it's just what I think of when I think of like deep sleep exploration. And that's when it first occurred to me. And so then, you know, we, I don't know if everyone knows this, where for the last two years had a lot of extra time on our hands. and so I started like doing you know French lesson apps on my you know my various smart devices and that is how it developed. And dad you've talked a lot about sort of I mean literally that Arthur C. Clark book inspired a lot about Zooks, right?

Yeah, because the coral wreath and this was like I said, you know, keeping in mind that this was written like 70 years ago, they were just starting to worry about the coral reefs. Luckily, we fixed it. Yeah, everything's okay now. Not. Oh, Dad, great use of the notch. That was a really good guy. It was so good, my dude.

I pride myself on, you know, my comedy's schick. But another big inspiration for the character for Zooks was Mr. Data. Ah, yeah. And thank you for putting some respect on his name. Yeah, Mr. Putting Mr. on there. He's a person. Isn't he like a captain at this point?

No, he's... Spoilers, he's dead. Oh, wow. That was pretty big spoiler, yeah. Yeah. And juice, Amber Grie. Was it just the name was funny? Because it's like...

The name was derived from... It's funny that Richard Stink and Amber Grie have the same genesis. Like, I became interested in, like, fragrances for a little bit. during the pandemic, and I just thought it was an interesting world, mainly through YouTube. I think fragrance YouTube is fascinating because it's people trying to communicate something that is impossible to communicate via the medium

they have chosen, which I think is amazing. And I think it's a fascinating world, and when I started reading about And broxin is a very popular synthetic sort of smell that is in a lot of fragrances,

and the organic version of that is derived from something, called Ambergrie. And depending on what you decide ambergris is kind of depends on how you want to sort of interpret it. They don't have the same holes as us.

Yeah. So you could think of it as a lot of different things. Like it's not vomit. It's more like poop, but only a small percentage of sperm whales make it. It's sperm whale even. It's sperm whale drippings. Yeah.

The good stuff. But it smells a good. It's a nice and musky smell. But I just thought it was funny. I thought it was funny pun. Because it was the oceans and I knew we were doing an ocean one. So that's the name. The character is just like I wanted to do a type of woman that you see in Appalachia a lot.

I'm really, the work, most of my characters, like, with the exception of probably Taco, most of the other ones are informed by West Virginia and Appalachian in some way. And so I wanted Amber Grays just like the kind of woman you see at West Virginia, who's just like thin and wiry and indomitable. Like you could, like, this is the sort of woman that you see walking past CBS and you know that a truck could hit her and it would just split around her. And she continued to go pick up, you know, whatever. Her scratchers.

Her scratchers or whatever. Yeah. And like, I grew up around this kind of woman a lot in Appalachia. And that was just kind of the vibe that I wanted to capture. Like, I think the working class is always, like, the most interesting part of a fantasy world. So, yeah, that's hamburger. Oh, there was a third reason for the French, too. So as I was then thinking about Devo.

and I started like looking with those two things of mine, I started looking for like references for like that's what I think, you know, he would be like. The dude, the boyfriend from West Wing, the guy who dates Zoe after Charlie, who's a real piece of shit. Like a lot of like my, like, what a very specific. I know, right, isn't it?

I watch West Wing twice. twice his entirety, I don't know who you're talking about. But he's like this French dilettante, like, I don't know, Duke or something. And he's just a real piece of shit. And I was like, oh, yeah, like that. He's going to kind of be like that. Great. Perfect. Yes. Good. Maxwell asks, how much did you anticipate the random encounters table would influence the adventure?

The crit fail, obviously changed the course of the arc. But are many of the elements on that table, like the gold chip with ancient ruins designed to add to the story in such a fundamental way? also can you release what's on the table after the story ends cross fingers that clint rolls a crit zero zero as redemption uh i mean it's it's changed the story a whole lot like obviously the the one like what i forget exactly what i had in there for the one actually let me pull it up basically the one was like the sallow returns to founders wake like the sallow becomes a big bad thing and i envisioned that as being like a pretty big story arc, but I did not envision it as being like the third story arc. Are they all pretty specific or are they like they encounter a weird creature? Most of them are like very broad. The gold ship one was interesting because that was, you know, you find wreckage from a ship

that is, you know, laden with gold. And when you rolled that, like, I also have this like sort of vision. board for hominine in mind as being sort of like, you know, gilded and arcane and all this stuff. The Wisp and all that shit, like, that was just jazz, baby. And it's going on to be, like, sort of a huge thing for, like, the big plot kind of moving forward. Like, the idea of finding this, like, you know, map to a lost city is, like, not something that I anticipated. being, I don't know, a thing when I included it in this chart. I just thought like, oh, and they'll get some like weird magic stuff and some gold out of

this salvage. But then it just kind of ended up being a much, much bigger thing. Do you feel, I've been wondering this, Dido, do you feel like that you put yourself to maybe an unreasonable challenge with the combination of us picking the jobs and the random encounter table like that how much you have to like just be on like on the ready like basically the entire time we're recording or is it? No, because I it's it I mean it is a challenge right but it's also like what I think we're all trying to do this season or at least I hope we're all trying to do which is I saw this this really great I've been watching like a lot of like storytelling seminars

because it's you know it staves off the lonely times to just have people's voices in your ears. I'm sure the listeners at home know all about this. But funnily enough, of all the ones that I have found to be, like, the most helpful is one from Trey Parker and Matt Stone talking about the structure of, like, any given South Park episode and the way that, and I am not, you know, I love that fucking twisted South Park game. So, yeah, obviously.

I am not, like, I'm not a huge, like, fan of their work. I'm not, like, a big South Park guy at all. Why are you dragging out? What is your problem with the South Park twisted? skewed me. Too twisted for you? It's a little too twisted for me, yeah. The way that they talk about storytelling is that between each beat in the story,

if you have to use the words and then it's bad. Like that's not going to be a good story. Like, and then this happens. And then something else happens. And then this happens. But if you use therefore and butt between each beat, and therefore the story kind of evolves out of itself. And they do use a lot of butts and stuff.

That is what makes a good story, especially a good sort of self-contained story, which I think we try to do with each of our, each of our sort of campaign arcs. And so I've really just kind of been trying to let that take the lead. Like, I have a whiteboard with some, like, kind of ideas on it for, like, shit. So the other team that works for the bluespan brokerage, like your guys' sort of rivals are doing some stuff that, like, I kind of started. to spin out of the missions you all didn't take, right? And so, like, there's some stuff that's true about the world there. I know something about hominine, like where it is, whether or not, like, that ever comes to fruition or not, like, I don't know what the big story of this season is going to be, and that's kind of exciting to me. It's really just going to sort of land on what you all kind of want

to do with the information that you are, you know, receiving in real time. I think, what you all are in right now, what we recorded sort of the first episode of and then are going to continue recording, moving on, this sort of like sort of murder mystery thing is going to inform the next part of the season. And it could be the big story or whatever. But I'm also fine with it not, you know, having some big grand arc. I'm also okay with like us reaching a point where we've done some cool stuff in the world and we walk away from it for a little while. Like I feel like more than anything we've done in the past, Ether C is something that we could come back to with like a different team of characters in like a season two and like do different stuff. Like I feel that is my,

the thing I'm happiest about with this season is I feel like it is a, a very cool world. Yeah. With very cool rules. I mean, that's a benefit, right? Of, uh, Avery Alder's, uh, quiet year, right? of like we built the world first. Right. And like, you know, I wanted it to be this story of just these rough and tumble freelancers just taking on jobs. But like I feel like you all are entrenched

in the world in a meaningful way. Like you all are making big moves and you are involved in sort of big things. And, you know, I don't know how to get around that. There is a way to tell a story that is. less sort of, you know, grand heroism, et cetera. But that's, I guess I just don't really know how to tell that kind of story. But yeah, that's, that's, when it comes to, we have a lot of questions here about like, what do you envision as being like the big story of the season? And how much longer

does the season have to go? Like, I swear to God, I don't know. And that's, that's, that's, that's pretty cool. And, you know, a little bit, a little bit scary, but honestly, doing it this way is kind of easier in some ways. It's, and messier, uh, I, I have, I harbor no illusions about that, but, um, I'm, I'm, enjoying it doing it this way, which is to say, I think especially as far as D&D is concerned, like the correct way, uh, a lot more than I have in the past. All right.

We've only gotten three questions done. So let's pick up the pace a little bit. Uh, this is from Richie for Justin. It's a box of chocolates. Uh, whenever there's a, whenever there's a flashback, do you have most of Ambergris backstory already decided? or is it making it up along the way kind of thing? Are you sure you want the answer?

No, I love flashbacks are great because especially in the exact moment because I don't know what Griffin's going to come at me with. I don't know where it's going to open up. So when you hear a flashback, especially because it's picking up a random place and the calculus of it has to end

at the like we know where the like we know the terminus of it you know what I mean it's usually not hugely impactful on where the narrative is at that point but you know like Amber Greys not going to lose a foot or something you know what I mean like we know we know at least that much so when you hear a flashback it's just like pure invention and that's like really

My characters start in the way that Ethersea has with like a very, a pretty rough sketch. And most of it is like discovery and just like what I think is interesting. Like early on I was using a lot of like slang with Amber Grie. And I realized like it just didn't move things along that well. Like it didn't communicate enough. And it just sort of like seems self-serving because she wasn't encountering people who would use some of the same terminology. So I kind of like eased away from that But it's just like that's discovery

That's like chipping away at the character To find out who she is And like the The backstories are great Or flashbacks rather Are there are great times to do that So I just kind of like It's basically like free association

Like I imagine it and just sort of let it If you believe in like The way like people like Elizabeth Gilbert Or David Lynch view creativity Where you're sort of like going down into the depths and seeing what you come up with, like, especially for me flashbacks are just like fishing. I'm like trying to open it up and just see what sort of pops into my head. I love that that is exactly the polar opposite of me where like the way I, I like, basically every time now,

I've created a character for one of Griffin's campaigns, I have said like, okay, here's this is it, and this is what happened, and this is why, and this is who. And then Griffin's like, okay, great, forget all. of that and then if a moment comes up to apply it, so be it. And so it's just like, I've told him like, if it ends up being this, that would be great. And then like occasionally it perfectly fits what we're going for. So like that little door gets opened a little bit more.

But full transparency, most of the time it doesn't. And I feel like that is a point of contention that comes up a lot. And it is like this season especially, I have become completely disinterested. in backstories. Genuinely do not care about them. Beside the impact that they have on the story that is happening in the episodes

that we are all hearing right now. Because I feel like it is a huge fault that we have fallen prey to in every past season, all of them, right? Is this like reliance on, oh well, oh man, if you all could have been there, you would know why this person

is like this. That's why I'm trying to stay away from it, like even though my every fiber of my being wants to because it is kind of inherently manipulative, right? Because it's just like, I don't have to roll for this. I don't have to like role play it. I don't have to like make a decision with anyone else. It's just me telling you how cool or sad or important my character is.

It's honestly like if we did do another season in Ethersea or like another whatever you want to call it with like different characters, I would go even harder on insisting that there are no backstories whatsoever. Like, not whatsoever, but beyond like, you know, I have a character who has this kind of personality and this is where they got their, you know, the skills that they, that they have. Like, that's about, that's about it. Because it's, I don't know, it's becoming, it is inherently not collaborative to say, like, well, you see, so-and-so has what? Do you disagree?

Just a little, because I think knowing a backstory for your character informs that character, creates that character, and allows you to live in that character, whether or not that information ever comes to the four, I think that the backstory, it's like doing a character analysis in a play or something. I mean, to know how your character is going to decide or know how your character is going to react to something, I think you have to have some backstory. Okay, we're really getting in the weeds,

but I do want to say, I think though, while I fundamentally agree with you, I don't go in for much like scene study type stuff, but I do, I do, for me acting perspective, I understand that. What I think is interesting about this specific form of storytelling is that to me, Normally when you're doing character study like that,

you're starting with a text, and then you're bringing, as an actor, you're bringing the stuff to it, right? I feel like what we're doing is functioning in the immediate, and then that's the text. Like, we're making the text as we go, right?

So it is, we're writing the text, and then we're also doing the work of figuring out the backstory. But we're doing it afterwards. Like, coming up with a backstory without a text, is kind of impossible because you don't know what the text is yet, right?

I bet that there are TV actors who, like, do episodic television and listen to this, like, you dumb shit, you do it like this. But that's also, like, what we're talking about is just, like, different approaches. That's absolutely true. I think it's, I just can't do that. Like, I can't work that way. Speaking of different approaches, did you know there's many different ways that you can become a max fun supporter? Yes.

Bullshit. Yeah, no. You fucking chill. Oh, let's get dad on the ones and twos because this is how he's the master of this. Let him go. Let him go. Wind him up. Well, that's very nice of you, Justin.

Well, I think Travis has already covered the $5 tier. Sure. The 350 hours of bonus content. At the $10 tier, you get a, you get all that stuff, plus a letterpress max fund membership card. One of 35 embroidered patches designed by. They should have made more. We're fucked. Moree.

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It's a cotton canvas bag with the MaxFund Rocket logo embroidered on the front. And as we mentioned earlier between Sarah Davis, Rachel Jacobs, and many other people behind the scenes that you don't always hear on the microphones, we could not make these shows without them at that point. and we wouldn't have them without your support. Not to mention way, way back when we were able to make making these shows our full-time jobs so that they became the priority so that we would miss less episodes, so we would be able to tour more. So like with TAS, we would be able to go weekly. All of these things.

More than any other year, I feel like the proof is in the pudding in that we are able to go weekly because we hired someone who is incredibly talented to handle people. post-production. Like, that's, like, if you want to know exactly how it works. And that happened because you all came out to support us last year, uh, in a year where, you know, we weren't touring and we, you know, needed, needed help. But let's, let's like, let's not, I mean, let's not, uh, sugarcoat it.

Last year, we didn't hit our goal. And you all failed us. Well, first time ever, you let us down. And, well, are you going to make that, like, I'm willing to forgive and forget. Yeah. I can be the bigger Justin, you know what I mean? But like, not, you know, fool me once, et cetera, you know? I really need you all to prove to me that that was fluke.

And you can do that? You can do that by either becoming a new member, by upgrading your membership, you can boost your membership, or you can buy a gift membership for a friend or an anonymous Max Funster who wants to join but isn't able to. Right? And you can do all three of those at maximum fun.org slash join. You can see all the stuff there. Maximumfund.org slash join.

Think about joining now. If you want to do it now while you're thinking about it. Don't let this opportunity pass you by. There's not a lot of time left. Go now, maximum fun.org slash join. Let's see. I got one. Yeah, please.

Could I do one? And this is very important to me. It's from John. And I'm bringing this up because I took a lot of shit. from my co-stars about this. And I'm telling you my underlings, I took a lot of shit from you underlings.

Thank you, Dad. I really enjoy Taz. I wanted to send a question regarding table environment, house rules. Are there major moments? Do players try to ask about the outcomes? I'll frame this through episode 34, 35 of Ethersea. Clint has Zooks activate the self-destruct on the dreams of Deborah

during episode 34, but at the onset of 35, we hear Clint, express a desire to undo this for lack of a better term. We know that in Taz history events that the players do not feel our right can be modified to fit the overall story, but that did not seem to be necessary here. This is so weird. I'm watching Dad type this into the document as we're doing it. This is so weird.

No, Dad is not. Listen, this is honest to God the truth. I was trying to be a good player by using the ship worksheet for combat. Yeah, yeah. about the ships. And so there is a self-destruct. Uh-huh. So my intention was to try to over-bluff the bluff.

And you did. I would say spectacular. Yeah, right? Yeah, he bluffed the fuck out of it. Because it says, you bluffed it right to hell. Bluffed it up, man. Bluffed it to Davey Jones's locker. At the start of the user's next turn, the ship explodes,

but can be canceled as an action with a DC-15 repair check. and with my hand up, my intention was to start the countdown of the self-destruct, hoping they would back off and then to cancel it. And that is the truth. The way it worked out, I was very happy about it. Yeah. But that really and truly was my plan. I understand that.

I didn't think it would wreak the havoc that it did. You did leave, Travis. You did leave the ship. Yes, correct. jumped into the moon pool. And then you were going to like stretch Armstrong away. It feels like we're doing this again. Okay, here's the real thing though.

You guys about the table environment. And the short entry is like we like there's the story. I like to think of the show that we make more of like the writer's room, right? Of like it's more than just like recording a show to me, right? We're telling the story. But then we're also like real to me, damn it's real. But the four people are also like me, Justin and Griffin's dad are also like are. own characters in making the show.

It's one of the ways like the graphic novel, for example, is different from the podcast, right? And so there are character choices that the characters make that's like, yeah, I love that. That's great. And then there are also like us doing it where it's like, wow, okay, that's wild, let's do it, sure, right?

Where we are commenting and like maybe giving each other a hard time from time to time, but that doesn't mean we don't think it's a good story decision. It's just like a big, bold swing. that's like must be commented on. And in terms of like table rules, like is very,

very free form, very rule of cool. Like, I, I have, I say that. I think that also this season there have been more moments

of me not, uh, allowing sort of, uh, allowing you all to tap into godlike superpowers because I think that, um, I think that danger is something that has never really existed in the Adventure Zone.

Really. And I really want to be careful that we don't just, like, keep answering the same questions. Every T-T has, but, like, it makes things more cool when there's a chance they won't happen. Yes. And this season, like, we have not fudge rolls, really. Bad roles. We've had such bad roles. Yeah, obviously, like, there have been really bad roles and some really bad shit has happened to the team.

But I don't know. I hope we've been more consistent. about that because I really want there to be lots of cases where things don't go the way that you guys want them to go. Yep. So let's see. Griffin, have the boys ever thrown such a curveball into your story that you have had to pause the recording to figure out what to do next? I mean, yes, we've talked about this a lot with past seasons in terms of etherstee.

Um, I had some sort of like general routing ideas for this last mission, right? The menagerie mission, uh, that when dad blew up the station, were completely thrown out the window. But that wasn't so much pause the recording moment. That was a go back to what I had prepared for this mission after the episode, because that was sort of the end of that episode and then just like trying to figure out where things kind of go from there.

But yeah, I mean, that's sort of been more or less it. When Dad rolled the one, it was like, how do I introduce this complication in a way, that doesn't completely, like, derail the mission that they were going on. And so that was kind of the delayed time bomb of, you know, scraping on the bottom of the thing and then bringing the virus or whatever back to, back to the city. I want to ask a question from KD because I've also wondered this from its inception. The biggest baby, does it sit on the surface of the sea or does it sit below this? Is it a submarine, Griffin, or is it like?

The surface of the sea is sort of. occupied by a, like an extremely thick, dense, like, a field of debris that I imagine is, like, sort of gnashing, like, unnavigable. Okay. Like, people don't, people don't go to the surface because it's, like, you can't, you cannot get there without your ship getting, like, crunched, crunched up. So, no, the biggest baby is, is, you know, I imagine floats offshore, or not offshore, but, like, you know, in the, in the distance, I think visible from found.

But is it, you say floats, okay, that didn't answer it. Is it in the water? Is it underwater? Yes. Yeah, yes. You said floats. Just answer that. Everything.

Float underwater. Why are you being semantic? I know, I was honestly confused. And if I'm confused, there's at least one other person out there who's confused. Does it look like a submarine? Because I've always pictured it like a battleship that was underwater. I mean, it's, it doesn't look like anything because this is a podcast. No, it is, I don't know, I think of it as sort of boxy and monolithic and like not, not aerodynamic, because that's not its thing.

It's like a, it's like a big gun. Yeah. That like, like, if its power is incredible and, you know, I like the idea of this being, there being this like, narrative justification for why Founders Wake isn't just like under attack all the time. Yeah. I feel like would be stymieing. But yeah, it's like a submarine. It's underwater. Matthew asks, I was wondering how the party feels broadly

about role-playing their characters this season and the classes each character is. We talked about role-playing their characters this season. I want to know about the classes. I want to hear what you guys all think about your classes. I will say this. I think I chose a very specific kind of bard that was like a focus on like control

and like psychic stuff. and it's definitely a different caster experience than playing like a wizard or somebody with a broad range of like either attack or healing or whatever right like I basically built him specifically to be good at one kind of one kind of magic and it has forced me a little bit to try to think more and I think it works for the character too

but to think more in like growing in his ability to actually use words to persuade. But I enjoy playing at Barb, man. It's fun to have somebody who's really good at, like, one thing. Right. I think I over did it with the monk.

This is my second time playing a monk. And I just don't, I don't, I think that, okay, I think the monk is a little weird for us. One, it's like, weirdly cultural in a way that I don't love. You know what I mean?

Like, monk has a lot of, of like religious and and sociological baggage that I don't love. And I think it's a little bit like, I feel like the tactical advantages of the monk would be more obvious in a game that was played a little like less loose than ours. Sure. I think that, so I'm not like down. I'm speaking specifically to the Adventure Zone experience of playing a

monk versus like the overall experience because I know that there's like lots of benefits. It's also less flashy, which is, uh, than like the Wizard of the Druid. So that's tricky too because it's like when you're doing a show for entertainment, you don't just want like, okay, it's fun in Dungeons and Dragons when you're playing with friends. It can be fun to do an encounter because at that point. point you're playing a game. Yeah. And you can turn off the sort of like character part of your brain and just like think about tactics and strategy and all that stuff. And with what we do,

like, it kind of, there's sort of the impetus to still make it fun. Like, we can't just say like, well, it's not going to be entertaining to listen to for a little bit because we have to do a fight. I punch again. Yes, I punch again. And I feel self-conscious about that a lot with Amber Gray. You can tell in my voice when I'm like, I don't, I punch. I mean, I punch again. And it's not saying there's none of the things I could do. It's just like. I used to feel that same way with Magnus, man, where it's just like, I swing the sword a sixth time.

Like, yeah, I get it. But you all also have access to. And you know, it's funny, we just did a live show like two days ago. And that is where y'all's like lateral thinking skills, like really shine. I know I give Dad a hard time for it, but I feel like that is. the best at this where he's like, I wrap a chain around a chandelier on the ceiling and then, uh, and sometimes that gets a little bit too fantastical where it's like, and I wrap it around his head and he dies. Uh, but that's, I mean, that is something that I feel like, especially

Amber is like fully equipped to do. And also like, another thing to keep in mind is you all are level five. Yeah, that's true. Like you all are, you all are not. I think you guys are used to a certain level of like Swiss Army knifeness because of the characters that you have played in past sort of D&D campaigns. But, you know, you'll, you'll get there. Yeah, what about you? I love playing a Ranger. I mean, I originally kind of envisioned Zooks would be the point man.

and then I realized he was also sort of the tank. This is what I found interesting is the fact that the ranger aspect provided what I think is the defining characteristic about Zooks and that's the swarm. Because very early on we decided all of Zooks's quote unquote spells would be, swarm based and trying to adapt that to the play has been fun. I enjoyed that a lot. One of the first things I thought that Zuchs would do, a lot of coral is stings. And when I talk about coral, I don't mean necessarily. Stinks.

It smells super, super bad. It stings. And so that's how a lot of the population. up some things in the coral protect themselves. And I thought, oh, it'd be really cool if he had a burning touch. Well, that didn't function out very well. No, how would you high five? Come on, man. Yeah, that's true. With my non-stinging hand. So I've really liked having swarmed and it's kind of limited some of the things that Zeus can do. but it's been fun.

I really enjoy that aspect of it. I think that really defines him. I will also say without talking about specific character roleplay, but like just as a team, one of the things that I really like is that we all went into it. So like Zooks and Devo are very new to this world. Zooks literally and Devo through lack of exposure to anything. And Amber has kind of like is coming out of retirement. So we kind of established from the beginning like one, they have not worked together.

and to they're all not great at it. And so that was kind of like early days, I kind of decided for Deva like, he's got to fuck up a lot of like negotiations and interact. He's going to push too hard and he's going to do this shit because he doesn't know how it works. The journey Devo is on is interesting to me

because as a, as the DM for this season and therefore like trying to be in the headspace of like the characters that Devo talks to, Devo's kind of detestable. Oh, yeah. Like, he's kind of, he is, he is old school self-righteous heroism

in a way that, like, has died in this, like, that this world has no use for, right? I see that this world is being, like, fully pragmatic all the time. And shit is, shit is really bad,

and there are compromises that have to be made, and everybody is out here doing their best. is this cloistered 20-something who thinks he knows the best way to do it. Who is the definition of piss and vinegar, yeah. And gets on, but it's not piss and vinegar. It is like upstart, like young upstart self-righteousness.

When like the fact of the matter is like, it's not that black and white for most of the characters that he talks to. And so I don't know how much of that is like, it's fascinating because now we get into this meta-narrative thing of like that part of it I think is how we used to play D&D right like that feels very magnus to me this like we're on the side of justice and right but that's not like inherently true all all of the time absolutely Amber Amber did it too right with obviously there's some like backstory beef there with her and Shret but like Like that, too, was like a, you're wrong, you piece of shit in like a place where I don't know 100% that that's, that is, that is the truth. And so like, I don't know. It's interesting because I think the characters have justifications for feeling that way. But I also think a reason that that comes up so much is because it is sort of how our characters have talked and interacted and thought about the world in the past.

Well, it's also not to, I know, we can't get off a point. but divo is wrong. Like that's the thing is I, I, I, I, there was a reason I made him young and like the cloistered thing and the fact that he was born after they had come to Founders Wake that like he, he does not understand what his feelings mean. So like his anger and righteousness make him feel right, right? Like, he's wrong. Like, he is, he does not know how to think about other people.

feelings. He does not know how to like process that just because he wants it and it feels right and all that stuff that that is, you know what I mean? So like it's something I'm really trying to play is that he is not by, you know, my own now 38 year old standards, a good person. Yeah. That he's kind of a piece of shit. Thomas asked what inspired the crescendo. That was sort of the faction that honestly it was I had an idea for it to be like a bigger faction and then you all kind of blew up the ship and then I realized like yeah maybe it's more interesting if it just doesn't happen of just like uh you know I like I don't I mean I don't like but sort of narratively speaking like just rich asshole cults yeah you mean like Muffy and Winthrop yeah like Muffy and Mithra

yeah like Muffy and Mitherto but this one's even more like not even nihilistic well I guess kind of nihilistic where it's just like, I want to be the one to make polar bears go extinct. And then you all just like put the like only two characters that you ever really interacted with like completely in the toilet in that fight. And I was kind of okay with them just being like sort of push over jokes because they're, you know, they're probably not the most powerful of characters living in this world. Juice, you got one you want to answer? Uh, no, I like you guys asking me questions.

It makes you feel like I'm your teacher and I've come to the foot of the master to learn. I want to say sort of this is, uh, there's a couple questions about like asking us about the, deciding to do, uh, an underwater campaign and asking about, uh, the different sort of source books. I just want to say one just came out called spell jammer. That's apparently like a space theme, D&D, 5E, like, like, expansion book set in the astral plane. That sounds pretty sick.

Sounds pretty cool. I want to read that one and see if it's cool. It's called Spelljammer. And that alone is like a good name for a book. Yeah. It is a good name for a book. Let's see. Caitlin asks, have you found that your contribution

of the construction of this world gives you a deeper understanding of it? And the answer is 1,000% yes. Yeah. Like literally, if you look at it, I thought about this around like episode five where I realized, like, I was the one who introduced based on, like, a card, the parish. And so my character, I didn't make that. But you all did that. We've talked about that.

Yeah, right. You all did that shit. Right, that's what I'm saying. And then dad, Coralbottie was his name. And the, uh, Justin came with Uncle Joshy's playing sharks. Yeah. Yeah, it's made things, honestly, it's made things, uh, it makes things so much easier for me, from, from like a broader narrative perspective, because,

I have tried very hard to just focus all of the big story beats on that stuff. Like I had some, I had some things about the world. When we started doing Quiet Year, like about hominine and all that jazz, uh, that I kind of had in mind. But I,

so far I have tried to just focus on things that you all sort of, uh, you all kind of established about the world. Um, and I want to, Don't want to keep doing that. What does the ethercy taste like? KD asks.

Probably not. We haven't. Nobody, nobody, nobody's tasted it, right? Hmm. But what does it taste like to you? No,

there are characters who have tasted the ethercy. Okay. Imagine if you accidentally sprayed Axe body spraying your mouth? That's what I imagine. No, I think it has a good taste. You think so?

Yeah, I think it has like a good taste. You know how salt water is like, has salt, and it's salty in it. And we've talked about the salt, you know, as like a magic reagent in this world. But maybe instead it tastes good and sugary.

I mean, listen, Devo sprays it into his mouth. Yeah, that's probably shit. Maybe it's like Benaka then. See, the honest to God, bonacca is how I've always pictured the atomizer. That it is not like one of those, like, spray with a bulb on it. That's just like...

I don't think they make Benaka anymore. Really? Oh, my God. Finish the show. finish the show. No, I want to talk. Hey, Charles can't go on. Speaking of the show, it's this show, Max Fun Drive. It's going on now, folks. No way. Yeah. Max,

why haven't you said anything about this before? I should mention it soon adjusting. You're absolutely correct. We got lots of different levels that you could choose to support or upgrade your sport to. This is going out the second week and we're recording it day one of the first week. So I assume at this point we've blown past our goal. We're well on our way to triple digits. I don't know. We'll see. But we can only do that with your help. when you join, upgrade or boost your membership or buy a gift membership for a friend. What is boosting your membership?

Travis, you threw that right in there a minute. Well, I'll tell you. Maybe you've already reached a level. You're already a supporter. And you think, man, I'd love to give more. But the next level, that's a little too much for me. I can't afford to give that much. We totally understand that.

You can boost by giving a little bit more every month. You won't qualify for the next level gifts. But you will contribute to the goal. You will support the art and artist you love. And we will appreciate it. So there, there you go. You know what, Griffin? Yeah.

What is Max Fun Supporters' support meant to you personally? It's meant the world. Like, I don't think, the Adventure Zone is a difficult show to make. And it always has been from a, like, pre-production, post-production standpoint. It's, it is tough, right? It's not hard to get the, well, I mean, as we have more kids in the world kind of, becomes more challenging. I would say it is getting harder

to get the four of us together in a single call at the same time. But it's, you know, it is much harder show to make than anything else that we do, right? And so if we weren't, if we didn't have a large audience of people coming out to directly support it

and had been doing so for, you know, a decade now, we wouldn't be making it. And we certainly wouldn't be making it weekly. We certainly wouldn't be making it with like a big team of people that we been able to hire. Like, uh, and all of that means that like I've, I've gotten to spend my, my working days

on the most sort of satisfying and life affirming sort of creative endeavor that I've, I've ever come across. And so like it is, it means everything to me. Well, there you go, folks for just pennies a day. You could support waifs like Griffin to help us make this show. Uh, yeah. Your support means the world to us. obviously, as Griffin has said. And I think Justin, Dad, and I will speak for us to say, ditto to what Griffin said.

What? The same. No, sorry, the same. But we can only do this with your support by going to maximum fund.org slash join. I was thinking before we wrapped up, because we've covered most of the questions, is there any last things you guys wanted to say about Ether C? I actually had an idea for having to wrap up.

Okay. I want to know before we reach our conclusion here, what about either the world or the characters, even if it's not something that currently is sort of in the scope of the story we've been telling, even if it's not like a plot beat that we've introduced that we could return to in the future. Like, I want to know what you all want to explore more in this world. keeping in mind like all the shit that we established in the setup episodes and the stuff that is kind of even just popped up on the periphery like what's interesting to you guys about the world and what do you want to know more about i justin mackeroi here uh i would like a storyline that is similar to what that explores leisure um i feel like we have done a couple now that have explored like how how the upper classes entertain themselves, right?

We had like a sort of jizzy, uh, cha-cha auction. And then we had the obviously like hunting animals for sport is like definitely like an upper crest. I would like something kind of like pedals to the metal where it's like what are, what are the lower classes doing for recreation? I think that that's pretty, I think that that's, um, kind of an interesting like, is there sports? Is there like, what are, are we doing in that regard?

Because people will have to pass the time somehow. Sure. And I'd be interested in that. I think one of the things that we have not really touched on at all is like how this world of Ethersea and stuff has affected like family structure and affected like education. Like basically the like day to day life of people living there. Like do we send kids to school for eight hours a day? or is it like all hands on deck we need to work?

Is it like, yeah, you get married and yeah, if you don't want to have kids, that's fine. Or is it like, listen, we need to repopulate? Or is it the other way around of like we only have so many resources? And so we have to be careful about stuff like that. Like what day-to-day mechanics, I mean, Justin touched on it with like recreation, but what are the like restrictions and limitations that have been imposed because of limited resources and stuff like that? Okay. I think I'd like to know more about what happened to the Einar.

And I don't know how we can do that. But, I mean, the fact that a whole civilization was wiped out and their ghosts still hung around, I still find that a very compelling question. I like the really big questions like that and what caused the storm. What is the ether seat tastes like? Yeah, basic stuff. Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Why is Zook so darn cool? That was one of the questions. I'd like Devo to meet some sexy singles if we could figure that out. Whoa, yes, romance. We've been short on that season. Yeah, get Devo meet some sexy singles in his area. I think that would be really cool and just have him smooch a bunch of people. Okay.

More smooching, more smooching. I want to smooch my brother. Well, along those lines, let me say this, along those lines, they do still make bonaca. Thank you. Okay. Oh, God. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for confirming. What a huge relief. And you know what else is a relief? You knowing that you're going to support us at maximum fund. I think Travis, actually, you've done enough transitions to the pledge breaks. Yeah. Hey, listen, we really, really need your support. After last year, there was abject failure.

We got to come back from it. And I think this is the exact moment that you, insert your name here, should go to maximum fun.org forward slash join and do the right thing. We make this show for you to delight you. We do it for free, but we don't. And we probably wouldn't now that I say it out loud because it's so hard. We really, really appreciate your support. And it means the world to us. And it allows us to make the stuff we make.

if you like this stuff and you want there to be more of it, this is your moment. I've been waiting for you. Get on my back. I'm walking over to the website anyway. That where there's one set of footprints is where I carried you to the URL, maximum fund out or for a join. For just $5 a month,

you're going to get honestly nauseating amount of bonus content, Boko in the parlance of the network. The years of really honestly wild stuff. If you and Heroes Play Adventure Zone with Lynn Manuel Miranda, Miranda. It's in there. Matt Mercer. I mean, there's lots of incredible, incredible stuff. I just, by the way, did the quick math.

If you hit play on the 350 hours, that's about 15 days straight of bonus content. Get a poop sock ready. Yeah, man. Get ready. I wish that's how we ended the episode. I wish we had the guts. Get a poop sock. audio stickers

to end the episode on that. We actually have no way to end these. We've never come up with one. Thanks everybody so much for supporting us and listening to Adventure Zone

and Ethersea. We'll be back with more episodes next week. Bye. Fun.org. Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Audience. Audience

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