The Glass Cannon Podcast - Ascension Session Zero – Oops! All Guards!

Episode Date: February 15, 2025

As a pre-cursor to the start of an all new homebrew adventure for the 2025 Glass Cannon Live! tour, the crew got together in studio to talk about ideas for their new characters, party roles and how these people fit in to the world of Ascension! Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/rB71uN8Ifac Join Troy Lavallee, Joe O'Brien, Skid Maher, Matthew Capodicasa, Sydney Amanuel, and Kate Stamas as they tour the country. Get your tickets today at glasscannonnetwork.com/live-tour. Access exclusive podcasts, ad-free episodes, and livestreams with a 30-day free trial with code "GCN30" at jointhenaish.com. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's so many things I want to do and see. Like redoing the basement without having to do it all myself. Or doing absolutely nothing. With a spectacular waterfall view, of course. So, I'm starting here. Investing with RBC. When it comes to reaching your goals, personalized advice and performance matter. And now, you can get $300 when you invest with RBC.

Offer ends March 3rd, 2025. Terms and conditions apply. invest with RBC. Offer ends March 3rd, 2025. Terms and conditions apply. Invest with RBC today. You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network, the premier source for role playing game entertainment. What's going on everybody? It's your old buddy Troy LaValley. We have events on sale that I need to talk about.

The new tour, Glass Cannon Live 2025 Ascension. Those tickets are on sale. We already said for Dallas and Austin. We're coming to Dallas on February 21st, Austin on February 22nd, but now tickets are on sale from Milwaukee on March 21st and St. Paul on March 22nd, but now tickets are on sale from Milwaukee on March 21st and St. Paul on March 22nd. Those tickets are on sale as well and you can get all of those tickets and or VIGCP packages at glasscannonnetwork.com slash tour. In addition, Glass Cannon Network retreat number two in Las Vegas to celebrate the

10th anniversary of the launch of the Glass Cannon podcast. Those packages went on sale just a couple weeks ago. We've already sold a ton of them, but there are still some left. I had said on the state of the nation that prices would start around $3,000, which is obviously crazy high. This is a luxury item, but this is a very special and super expensive event. Well, we went back in, we crunched some numbers

in the budget, threw some stuff out, put some stuff back in. We now have packages as low as $21.99 if you're sharing a room with somebody else. If you've got a friend you're going with and you've already paired up, you're all set. If you don't have a friend, but you wanna keep prices low,

you can go to our subscription Discord. We have a channel called Roommate Finder Vegas. People from the nation are already pairing up because they do not want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime event where I'm gonna try and get every single person from the glass cannon network out there to just play games and hang out all weekend long those packages include a hotel stay from Thursday to Sunday that's June 12th to 15th 15 15th is the anniversary, of course. Breakfast buffets, cocktail party, open bar at night.

It is going to be a very, very special weekend that I know everyone involved will not soon forget. If you're interested in purchasing packages, just head to glasscannonetwork.com slash retreat and get them while they are still available. There are payment installment plans available as well if you want to break up your payments over time. I hope you're able to come to the Glass Cannon Network

Party of the Century. Either way, we hope to see you on tour this year. We're gonna be all around the country once more. Me, Joe, Skin, Kate, Cindy, and all Maddie caps. Glass Cannon Live Ascension and the Retreat. Best year ever? We'll see. Maddie Caps, Glass Cannon Live, Ascension, and The Retreat. Best year ever? We'll see.

Good evening everyone and welcome to session zero for Glass Cannon Live. Ascension! Yes! What is Ascension Mr. LaValle? First of all, thank you for calling me mister. Second of all, in 2018, we took our little podcast that could on the road with a show that we call Glass Cannon Live, and we started playing the Pathfinder at the time, first edition Adventure Path, Strange Aeons. We played that in 2018, 2019, World Got Weird in 2020, played a little bit less that

year, came back hot in 2021, all the way up until December of 2024. We played online some sessions, we did marathon sessions, we did COVID streams, and we did 99 episodes of that show. Episode 99 was in Philly in December. Glass Cannon Live Strange Aeons as of 2025 has moved off of the tour and will now be a monthly marathon stream live on Twitch. So that's where Glass Cannon Live Ascension comes in. Glass Cannon Live Ascension will be a brand new home brood story that starts this year. In fact, it starts next week live in Texas. We have two shows, one in Dallas on the 21st,

and then the next night we are live in Austin on the 22nd. Tickets still available, glasscandynetwork.com slash tour. Buy those tickets. Buy those VIGCP packages. It is a brand new story that will take place all the way from February till the end of the year, an arc, if you will. Will the story continue beyond that?

Who knows? But we're playing the arc. We're playing the arc. In Ann Arbor. Oh, that's right. There is a theater we're playing in Ann Arbor called The Arc. Tickets are on sale now for Dallas and Austin and Milwaukee and Ann Arbor and Toronto and St. Paul and one

other city that we forgot, Seattle and Portland. The one city, Seattle, Portland. Seattle, Portland. Seattle, Portland. PNW. We're coming to all those cities for a brand new show. This is a perfect jumping on point for people who didn't want to catch up to 99 episodes of Strange Aeons, brand new show and brand new characters

that we will start to create right here tonight. Man, I'm nervous. Mm-hmm. Woo. So is it a nervous excitement or is it a nervous? I'm very excited about the concept that's cooking around in here. I always immediately go to nerves and anxiety

when it comes to the build. Yeah. Like the mechanics of the build. I'm not doing any equipment today. I cannot. Equipment is essential. Yeah. Like the mechanics of the build. I'm not doing any equipment today. Equipment is essential. You're not allowed out of the building until it's done. I'm not doing it. It's just too much.

It's too much. I hate it. I hate it. I'm doing away with equipment. Just have whatever you want. Having an all nude adventure. Come and see it. Come and see it.

If it were first, if we were, well, we'll get into it. Yeah, I guess it could be a little nerve wracking, right? And some of you already come in with fully fledged concepts, which is always a terrible, terrible idea. You've left no room for the Holy Spirit. No place for Elijah. Do you have fond memories of that kind of dance? No, no, I don't.

But I think we have talked a little bit about what the setting is, but you guys really don't have any idea what's going on here. So you should hear that first before we start to create these characters. It's good to come in with concepts, but I hear these people, they're like, oh, I play so-and-so's brother's kids, uncle's niece. Like, well, you just hear what the setting is. This might be a world without brothers and uncles and nieces wow

Brothers wait wait wait uncle's niece is that yourself? Oh? I don't all are coming from inside that I don't want to live in a world that doesn't have brothers kids uncles nieces Is your first you're living in it your first foray into world building? The start that makes it unique is that no one's related. No one's related. Never can be. Right, you can never be related to anyone. By blood. So how are you born?

Don't worry about it. It's all immaculate conception. It's a weird world. Before I get into sort of the setting and how this may or may not connect to other stories we've done in the past, I want to know what our goal is here for today, because I was going to talk about this before we started recording. I wanna know what our goal is here for today because I was gonna talk about this

before we started recording. I'm like, no, let's just do it live, let's talk. Do you wanna walk away from here today being like, okay, Joe's gonna be a ranger, everybody knows that, you guys know it, Matthew's gonna be a cleric, a dwarf cleric, do you wanna walk away with that or is everyone just wanna kinda do their own thing and be like, I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna be

and other people are like, I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna be and other people like I'm gonna tell you'll find out in Dallas. Talk to me. I think we should all kind of know what class we're playing. Yes this was a mistake we made in campaign. I don't think that's too specific. No I think that sure. I'm fine with it. I think that we all should absolutely know role. Yeah. We should definitely walk away with what you're responsible for. You don't have to tell We should definitely walk away with what you're responsible for. Yeah, you don't have to tell me like what feats and spells you're going to, but role in a vague sense, yeah.

Yeah, role. In a five-person party, you're very lucky. Most people only have four-person parties. You guys have so many friends. It's crazy. I know, it's awesome. It's nice when you can pay people to play with you. Yeah, that's right.

All you have to do is pay people, it's awesome. So let's look at a four-person party. What are the four roles you want to have in a four-person party? Let's get old school. Like I'm in class. You want, it's funny, because we didn't really think that way.

No. Back in the day. We just had fun. Just had fun, but you want a, I guess a tank, right? You want a healer. You want a, like a striker, like a damage dealer. Yes. Right. DPS. And then a buffer and then Battlefield control, I guess. Yeah, that would be Battlefield control is great.

I would also just put it under the subject of magic user. Yeah. Somebody that can utilize magic and arcane some way is very valuable. Yeah. Not having someone to do something with magic can be, you can get into a jam with certain encounters and be screwed. So your typical old school party would be fighter, cleric, wizard, thief. Thief.

Thief, yeah. Yeah, and that's, the thief comes in with like utility, right, skill monkey kind of thing where like you. The thief is your striker or is that what you're talking about? Yeah, it can be a striker, also has a bunch of, yeah, just like all the skill stuff, but the stealth, the picking locks, like all that. Now you've got some options

because you have a fifth character. So no, your fighter could be a tank that just absorbs damage but doesn't do a lot, or your fighter could be the damage dealer, and then you bring in a paladin that is your tank. You guys have these options, or you can bring in a support, like a witch or a bard or an oracle, someone that is your buffer or a debuffer. You guys have some options. I also think we've never really done this before, particularly in 2e. I think it bears mentioning that everything changes when you're not doing pre-written encounters.

So you don't have to have the traditional roles if your GM is crafting a story around your characters. So you could have no magic users and the GM can craft encounters where you don't have to have magic to beat the encounter. Whereas with pre-written, you can get into a jam with that stuff. So I feel like we're even more free on that aspect as well. Yeah, for sure. And I should point out for those of you who don't know and also for the people around the table, I will be creating this campaign specifically for your characters and you'll be driving the story as much as I am. I have ideas for the first couple shows and I have ideas for the end of the year, but I'm not locking myself into anything.

In fact, I'm not even locking myself into what Dallas and Austin will be until I hear who these people are because that I want to be the driver of the story, not my conflict that I come up with. But I do have some fun ideas. Let me tell you a little bit about the setting. Okay? I think this is important to know because it will help you sort of decide what type of person you are bringing into this world.

So we've mentioned now if you've seen the promos for Glass Cannon Live Ascension that started dropping with the State of the Nation last December, you've seen the banner of High Berry. If you followed our original Glass Cannon podcast, Campaign One, we played the Giant Slayer adventure path, first edition, and Joe had a character by the name of Sir Willamette Kezwick. Sir Willamette Kezwick was from an area of Galarian that you created. Will Duffield A castle, really.

Yeah, a castle and surrounding area. Yes. And it was known as Highbury. Highbury. But the actual city was known as Keswick. When I started delving into the lore, I was finding old emails that you wrote me like eight years ago with backstory. His grandfather had taken the name, he fought in the world wound during one of the Mendevian-

The first crusaders. First Mendevian crusade. There was this like, the world opened up, demons were coming in, and they had to send all these crusaders to fight the demons. He fought in that. When he came out of there, retired or whatnot, he came to a land called Keswick and took that as the family name. Yeah, it was granted to him by, I think it was Queen Galfrey, I think.

I believe that that NPC is gone now in the lore. But like, back then during the Oh, yeah features heavily in wrath of the righteous. Yeah, so she's the queen of Mendev and I had you know imagined it and she had lived for hundreds of years. I believe yeah and so I had imagined it that Queen Golfry had bestowed a title land and title to Keswick's, you know grandfather who was not a landed knight at that time and became an Earl as a result of this heroism and war. And so then his descendants, you know, and then he came to the events of Giant Slayer.

Yeah. So if you know Giant Slayer, there might be some little Easter eggs here and there that you're going to enjoy a little bit more than others, but you can come into this totally blind without knowing that backstory. That was my goal and still be able to enjoy this. And so the idea is, again, without spoiling too much, something happened to Joe's character where he was brought back to Highbury. The heroes had to go save him.

The entire land, this entire city of Keswick, this village of Keswick, was completely destroyed and overrun by undead. And the land was, everyone was either killed or fled. And that land, we find out later, is basically like cursed. They brought in people from all around to try and like see can this be saved? Can we rebuild? And they were like nothing will grow here for a thousand years and In fact if anyone were to live here for too long their lives would be shortened by the Sickness that has infected this land That like Chernobyl this is like Chernobyl right and that is where our story takes place

So without giving a too much away from what you'll hear at the beginning of the Dallas show, as I'm sort of forming this in my head, there at some point, 80, maybe even 100 years later, a group of, you could call them missionaries, you could call them zealots, you could just call them just, you know, people looking for a new home. They come to this land. They are followers of a deity known as Saidana. Saidana is in this story known as the Cleansing Light. They're followers of Saidana and they see something in this land that others do not. Maybe some among them know

vaguely of the history of Keswick and others don't, but they decide to build on the gravestone of Keswick, as it were, and build a society. and over time it turns into a village which I'm calling Rosewood Vale. You are all either members of this second generation, now Rosewood Vale has been around for a generation, you're either all members of this community or maybe you're people coming from outside and visiting at the beginning of our story, walking through Rosewood Vale for various different reasons. But that is where our story takes place. While it was founded by these people who were heavily invested in their faith in Cydana,

and Cydana is the dominant religion of the area, You need not follow that. However, if you are entrenched in the, the, this, this little village, this burgeoning village, you are most likely a follower of Sidonah, the main temple next to the keep on the hill is a temple to Sidonah. You are most likely followers of the cleansing light. So where do you begin? The hell do you start? So wait it's roughly you said it's a generation since they got there so you're talking a hundred to a hundred and thirty-ish years since the events of Giants so there's like 4840 or something. Yeah I'm not good with my Galarian calendar, but yeah, it's at least 100 to 120 or 130 years after the events of Giant Slayer. And this-

Have laser guns been invented? Laser guns have not been invented. And what few there are are probably badly in disrepair. I was going to play an Android laser gun guy Yeah, no this this these these people have founded the city and now it's the second generation there was a ruler and there is a Council and there are you know priests and sisters that sit on the council as well as like masters of coin and

and sisters that sit on the council, as well as like masters of coin and masters of defense and ministers of defense and a court wizard. But it's not like a major keep, but they've started to build a keep. What's the population roughly of Rosemont? I'd say at this point, a few hundred. Okay. Yeah. Less than a thousand. Okay.

Comparable to Sandpoint. Yeah. More people coming by the day. Some who perhaps don't know the history, maybe other new followers of Sidon that are sort of drawn to this idea that the cleansing light has created this beautiful new society. I imagine a sort of, it be a it's in a valley right and there might be a waterfall that they call Sidonis tears. The idea being that the goddess wept when she saw the beauty that they created here and it's like constantly the windmill that's powering things and always spelling Sidonis. How are we spelling Cydona? Yeah. C-Y-D-A-N-N-A. C-Y-D-A-N-N-A. Not to be confused with Cydonia.

Right. The location on Mars where there's supposedly a human face carved into stone. Huh. The Knights of Cydonia, which was a guitar hero zone. Oh, right. A very hard guitar hero zone. That's right. That was like one of the hardest songs on the guitar hero zone. Once you beat it, you played that over the credits and it was impossible. Yeah, Right. That's right. That was like one of the hardest songs on the guitar hero. Once you beat it, you played that over the credits,

and it was impossible. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. So yeah, I mean, you can literally be anything you want to be, anyone you want to be. That's why we play real playing games. I want to be an android with some laser arms. Except that.

Oh, rats. I want to be a gunslinger. Also can't be that. I want to be a bard. I lied. I lied. You can't be any of those things. I want to be a leshy.. Also can't be that. I want to be a bard. I lied. I lied. You can't be any of those things. Except for that. We should also say something that you had tossed out on this is that we would like to make this

little mini campaign of ours Player Corps and Player Corps 2. In terms of where we're pulling character builds from. We'll be using Pathfinder Remaster and keeping it to these two books for now. For now. Just like, walk before we fly pulling character builds from. We'll be using Pathfinder Remastered and keeping it to these two books for now, for now. Just like walk before we fly a little bit here, keep it within those.

So use only classes and ancestries from there. You know, whatever software we're using that will be imported into Foundry, we'll just be rocking with Player Core One and Player Core Two for now. I have an idea. Oh, Sydney. Yay. for now. I have an idea. Oh, Sydney! Yay! She does! I love your ideas.

Hold on, let me just, yep, that should be good. Okay. I wanna be a wizard. Oh! Oh! One of the most core classes, I would say, of any TTRPG. That's as core as core gets. Yeah. My abs are hurting just thinking about it.

Wow, oh, cause you just thinking about it. Wow Have you played a wizard I've never played a wizard they're amazed, but I love Atticus I've seen you've had so much fun. I've played Spell casters suki's a druid I had Austin's a magus Yeah, but the magus is different a lot of versatility now because you're a you're a, here's the thing, I've played like Magus and Bloodrager. Both are like spellcaster adjacent, but not actual. They're using spells to boost their melee fighting attacks. Not a full caster. Right. I want to go full wizard. Nice. And do you want to do like, like a, a wizard you can do anything. And also. But do you want to focus on like

dealing damage? Do you want to focus on battlefield control? Like that I don't know. I feel like I don't want to deal damage. Also I don't really find that interesting. Like I blast him. I blast him. Totally. It's fun but it's like there's there's fighters and other classes I think that like do that more interesting and with more versatility than than a reach spell or something. But I think battlefield control is probably what I'm going to go for, at least combat-wise. But I'd also like the ability to use some stuff for diplomacy or shenanigans. I want to use some stuff for shenanigans.

Right. Wouldn't be Glass Cannon Live. Would not be Glass Cannon Live without shenanigans. Also, you don't have to decide now. Seeing you go through all this, nobody's a blaster, you might need a blaster. Like, oh, nobody's battle for control. I'll lean into that. That's the nice thing about just saying wizard is like, there's so many different kinds of wizards.

I'm looking at the theses now, and that's like a new thing. It's like the remaster. There's all these different schools of wizardry that you do. And basically it's like, it's not illusion anymore. I think it's called mind. It's called mind. Something. My God, that's what Atticus is.

A mentalist. Mentalist. Mentalism. And one is sort of like undead necromancy type stuff. So I'm looking at those and those give you sort of like a curriculum of spells that you would know having gone to that school of magic. I think it's really fun. It's like a cool way to think about it.

So I'm thinking about it. Human? I think human. What? Yeah. Old, young? Sydney. You know, I don't,

this depends on how old everybody else is. I don't know. Sex? Yes. Yeah. That's it. That's it. Pro-sex?

Like, nose, yeah. Nose how? Nose how? You're good in the sack, you're telling me. You're in the sack, right? For sure. When the doctor, when the doctor forms and it says like, da da da, sex, yes. Oh yeah.

Have a good opening scene. Let me just describe it. Your latest lay. Okay, wait for the Dallas show. We'll start with your latest lay. Yeah, buy tickets to Dallas. But also, I'm open. Sidney does Dallas.

Sidney does Dallas. Sidney does Dallas. Oh my god. Sidney does Dallas. Sid'll start with your latest lay. Yeah, buy tickets to Dallas. But also, I'm open. We're Sydney Does Dallas. Sydney Does Dallas. Yeah. Oh my god. Put it on the sign. Put it out front of the venue.

What did we used to say? We were gonna say that the show just says, girls, girls, girls, lie. That's what we should have called it. We should talk about level. I really left it up to you guys. I was like, what kind of level do you want to be? First, fifth?

Don't be tenth or something like that. You can be. 15. 15? I would recommend against that. I can build anything. I have some ideas. But I got the monster core.

I'm going to be pulling encounters out of there, altering stuff, creating stuff of my own, based on the level you choose. You guys have been tossing around a couple different ideas. I think four to six. Oh yeah? Yeah, my thought was start at four. Get a level up to five maybe during the year

and that will be so exciting because five is a huge level. The other idea is start at five and be awesome out of the gate. That would be pretty cool. The level to six, not as great. I like the idea of leveling up, but I also wouldn't mind being level five.

I'd love to be awesome immediately. I would love to be five, just because there's, you pack a punch, there's things you can do. There's a big difference for a wizard because it's third level spells you get, which is huge. But you know. Which is fine if it's not five. You think it's better to get those in the middle of the year

as a huge upgrade or start with them. That's a good point. Especially if you're learning, not five. I think it's better to get those in the middle of the year as a huge upgrade or start with them. That's a good point. Especially if you're learning. That's why I think I like the idea of starting at four is like I can learn the class, because I want to play something new. And I learn the class. Spoilers. And then when I get the level up, I'm like great, okay, I understand.

Now I really know where I want to put my ability boosts. Okay. I mean look at fourth level wizard gets a skill at fourth level a skill feed and a wizard feed. At fifth level you get third rank spells, attribute boost, ancestry feed, reflex expertise, skill increase. You kind of start hot. But it also changes the world a little bit. Who are these fifth level heroes living in? Pretty powerful at the Rosian Vale.

Yeah, maybe fourth level and also... Getting into grad school at that point. Yeah. I'm applying to grad school when I'm fourth level. I get in at fifth level. You get in at fifth. I think four gives us something to want. I like four. I want to know the character.

I think you make a good point too. I'm going to be learning the character and the class and everything and it would be cool to grow with them. Yeah. Yeah. Certainly in a couple months in the year you get that fifth level. Then we get the exciting big level them. Yeah. Yeah, and certainly in like a couple months in the year, you get that fifth level. And we get the exciting big level up. Yeah.

I agree. I kinda like that. Who else wants it? She claimed it. The schoolyard rules. She kinda called wizard. So we have talked about some. We talked about some rules.

We talked about some ideas. Okay. When we were tossing, when you first told us that we started tossing around some ideas and the thing we kind of landed on is wouldn't it be funny and also fun and cool? That's how you know it's a good idea. What if these guys?

You're lucky we didn't say the other ideas which were like oops all bards, we were gonna be leshy bards. All leshy bards? We said no to that. Why does everything have a joke to you guys? We thought wouldn't it be cool if we were all knights? Or like part of the same order, right?

So if, like, the joke, the joke I think is actually true is, Sydney's character might be the scribe for the unit. Yeah, I'm their knowledgeable scribe knight, but I'm a knight, I'm still a knight, technically. And we talked about being like, either we're from the town, or we've been embedded in the town,

like our order is nearby, and they've sent us a detachment, and we're stationed there, we've been there for some time, so we're familiar around the town, but we're on Knights. That's interesting. You could have been Hedge Knights. Or Knights of Highbury. That arrived here and became now you're the Order of the Cleansing Light. Yeah, we couldn't be Knights.

Could we be Knights of Highbury? Do whatever the fuck you want. Okay. But yeah, I mean, once you decide that, then we have to start reworking the world. So that means that Minderhals Cathedral, which has now been turned into this sort of agnostic temple to many different, to a large pantheon

that's churning out these Knights of Highbury, that means a century later, they're still a part. Or are they like, it's died out, and these are like the remnants, they are hedge knights former Knights of Highbury who have like returned to the homeland because they've heard tell of a new civilization there and they are kind of conscripted into this and they start wearing the banner of Rosewood Vale and become the hoarder of the cleansing light. I mean, I'm just fucking spitballing here or These like once the town was established by this, by these followers of Sidana, then like they wrote and like, we need some, we need some help.

Or it was the, or it was Minderhall's sort of, the Knights of Highbury's sort of felt an obligation to send a detachment to, to guard these essentially priests in the Not in the wild but in the in dangerous territory And they were sent as a as a detachment of guards the other thing I don't like about that is I Want to make I want my character to be there for a long time. Yeah, I don't want to be new there I like the idea of like being in Rosewood. Are you old? Are you an older person? Yeah, in my concept I'm old.

Talk to us. How old? How old are we talking to? We're all friends here. Alright, so this is my idea. My idea is that I'd like to play an elf. A straight up elf. And be like 120 or 130 years old. So be born around the end of the events of Giant Slayer would be fun. And the basic idea that I never thought of before with an elf is like, I want this elf to be raised among in a human settlement. And I already have ideas of kind of what that is tying it into Giants Lair, but then Like basically have a family and have that family all grow and die

And then start a new family like around the start of this adventure Yeah, exactly. Like I never thought about it. To be married to humans. Married to humans. Had half-elf kids. Had kids. So like Sarek in Star Trek, he just keeps marrying human women that keep dying. Yep, just keep turning out. I didn't know about that,

but that's the idea, basically. Wait, are his kids still alive? So my idea is that his first children basically didn't have kids and died. So either like one from illness or one I was thinking of could have died in the World Wound. You know, could have even, you know, it's possible, could have known some of the of the Keswick family and stuff like that and died in the World Wound, but that would be like a child, you know?

I don't know if it's Hyperion or Pandora's Star, where like, people go into deep space and come back, and they're gone very quickly, but everyone else has aged hundreds of years, and they have to start new families, because all of their, the family they left behind. Many, many start sci-fi. Yeah, it's very sci-fi, but elves,

so it was a built in story, the Old Man's, not Old Man's War is like one of them, but there's another one. Yeah, so anyway, that's the basic. Hyperion, I think is what you're thinking. That's the basic concept I was thinking of, and so I thought, I wanted to throw rocks at the traditional elf, and with Sydney saying

that she wants to be a wizard, which, you know, your elf would normally be, I was thinking of doing fighter. Doing like an elf fighter. And having it be his sort of second, whatever, third act, you know, for this guy who maybe perhaps once had, you know, because he's going to get an intelligence boost naturally and stuff, had some knowledge about some other stuff. Maybe perhaps once had you know because he's gonna get an intelligence boost naturally and stuff Had some knowledge about some other stuff also. This is coming off of the idea of the

elf ancestry feat At first level ancient elf that's basically like you get a free dedication because you oh wow have had like another life Oh, yeah, yeah, so anyway idea. Tank or striker? I'm thinking striker. Okay. Thinking like two-handed fighter, heavy damage, low AC fighter. First to die. Yeah, and that's the other thing is the elves are also, they take a penalty in Khan.

So it's like- Oh, you've got low health. Yeah, so it's dangerous, but I thought it would be fun for a live show. I want to be the tank. Okay Oh, okay, I would be thinking Paladin then. Champion. I wanted to play with a new Chewie champion from Because I played a little bit of the- is that core one or core two? This is core two. Okay. Because I played a little bit of the second Oh look at that. Poor old guy. Is that a gorilla on there? I believe that's a Cyclops? A Cyclops.

Looks like a gorilla. These glasses don't work! Send him back. Because I played a little bit of the 2e champion when we transitioned Sir Julie from 1e to 2e. I was not overly thrilled, especially coming off of the 1e paladin where it was like, I'll smite evil and do a thousand points of damage, you know, and then it was suddenly, but the new, the remastered champions actually is super fun. And now there's, do they still have champion redeemer and scooby-doo or? No, because alignment's gone.

Right, so it's just pshh, champion. So there's, yeah, champion is the first. Well you have, not orders, what are they called? That you have like, um. The, uh, there's the causes. causes causes. I think it's causes your cause and then there's the blessings also the kind of determine your bill So yeah, I mean if and especially Joe's gonna be the one who does damage I wanted to do a champion in choosing the the blessed shield Blessing which basically gives you basically you're choosing to tank instead of to hit. You know what's fun about that is every time

before we go on stage, I can lean into you and say, play like a champion today. You could do that. And that would be fun. Yes. So I think you should do it, if nothing else, but for that. Hey Matthew, play like a champion.

It'll never get old. 13 shows, I'll say that every single time. In the same inflection, like it's the first time I'm saying it. All right, so wow, all right. Well, this is starting to shape up here. We have an elf, fighter, human? Human. Okay.

Wow, human, human. Human, human. I mean, I think it is interesting in the setting. Yeah. I think it lends itself to human, human. I'm thinking human. I mean, I reserve it for that. Yeah.

Maybe you like something weird. I could see you being a... But I think... Water. A water champion. Or like something weird. I could see you being a but I think water a water champion or some fucking weird I'm a puddle Puddle Yeah, even a puddle kidding all right so puddle kitten champion elf fighter and Wizard we don't know maybe him. Maybe human. I think human, I think human.

Okay, where you going? I kinda wanna be in the sea of knights, the healer. Oh, the healer. I wanna do the healing roll. I had fun being the cleric during that one shot that we did to E for extra life. I think we were like level four. With Arugmona, yeah.

Yeah, that was really fun. I mean, we had like 19 bottle caps because of the situation, so that also added to it. But I mean, I had fun doing that. I kind of wanted to do that for the next, one of the next campaigns we did. So I think this is perfect being surrounded by Knights. You have a slinky little priestess.

Oh, a slinky. In the party. What does that mean? Like you're, is that your ancestry? Slinky. Not our first rodeo. Just wait, just wait till you see her go downstairs. We got a puddle, a puddle kitten champion and a slinky cleric?

Yeah, like, I don't know. I'm just picturing, well, except for we also have like a wizard scribe, but like these three knights who are in full armor walking around with you and I, and we're just kind of like. Flash bags? Yeah, like I'm just wearing a nice dress, and I'm healing. And I also thought originally that I wanted to be an elf,

because of what I knew about the campaign so far, I thought it'd be fun to have my domain be death. And if I was an elf, I would take the Demonbane Warrior Ancestry Feet. So a lot of mixing in my undead fun spooky things in there. Okay. But, don't know. All right, so you would all belong to the... What is Demonbane?

Ancestry Feet for an elf or an elf being warrior I gained a plus one circumstance bonus to damage with weapons and unarmed attacks against demons. Oh, that's cool Yeah, I mean in this area right this right on the borders of where the world wound once was I thought it went with like what it could be. I also thought maybe they'd follow for asthma I thought they would be like a mature elf I don't know how I would fit that in by just thought like could be, I also thought maybe they'd follow for asthma. I thought they would be like a mature elf. I don't know how I would fit that in, but I just thought like. Let me throw this out there.

If you all in your early concept think you all belong to the same order and if you do choose to lean into the setting and make it the order of the cleansing light, we could home brew some changes. Like if you want to take an element of your classes and change it instead of Demon Bay and have it be something else that is part of the order of the Cleansing Light, same with you, Matthew, we can kind of homebrew that.

You can also just reskin it and rename it and say it's that. But if you wanted a different bonus, I'd be open to talking about that. Okay, so we got fighter, striker, champion, cleric, priestess, wizard. Looks like you're the wild card. Yeah. Charlie Day. Yeah, I think I wanted to be like a ranged damage dealer, an archer.

Oh, okay. I want to do that again. Cool. Straight up archer. Yeah, which I don't know would lend itself well to him being part of a chivalric sort of organization or anything. Why not? Just doesn't really jive very well historically with the way knights would fight. I mean it's not impossible I guess we could do whatever we want.

See like a wandering scenario? Yeah, I was thinking about can do whatever we want. See, like a wandering... Maybe you just part of the town. Yeah, I was thinking about like, uh, Angai the Archer from Game of Thrones. Like I was thinking about... Like an outlaw. Bandits. Reformed bandit or something. Reformed bandit. Well, that's interesting. What ancestry? Human.

Another human. If the story wants that, I feel like it could be good for you. I mean, but I guess also, like, we might be hedge knights. So it's like- We also- Love a hedge knight. We can do away with the knight thing. I think there's no reason we can't keep the knight thing

and also skid it, skid it an arch, that resin of the town. Or the forest. One thing I think is interesting is if we just get rid of that, but we all are We all work to protect the town right we're part of the town guard could be But you could be the champion the only one that was sent from Minderhall or from Highbury You know what I mean like that would be an interesting like you are that connection to the story

We don't all have that connection and then we could have different We can pull from different backgrounds to how we all came here. And I'm just a wandering scribe. No, no, but we're all, you know, you're a scribe for the town guard and everything. And I mean we are in order, we just weren't in order before we came here. So you would be the guardians of Lord Percival Montrose II? Is that the Lord? And his wife Lady Abigail Montrose, formerly Abigail DeWitt. Did you just make this up or did you? No, I'm looking at my notes here. Nice! DeWitt

is a great name. I grew up on Montrose Avenue. Oh, well. And I loved playing softball at Clinton DeWitt Fields. And I had a crush on Joyce DeWitt growing up, so. You've chosen a good name, bro. Wow. I feel like I'm in the zone. But this is very interesting. Now, if all of a sudden you are the town guard, now it makes sense why you would be a higher level, fourth, maybe fifth. Yeah. And now your story is very much tied into the ruling class and protecting the king. That all of a sudden starts to get my wheels going about what this is. This maybe's something. Sorry, the king, do you mean the lord? The lord, yeah.

Lord of the Nantros? Yeah, maybe it has to do. What's his title? Lord. Emperor. Emperor. Tsar. Lord isn't a title.

It's an honorific, right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's what's. Is he an earl, is he a baron? Well, I think it's. He a baron, if it's a rebuilding settlement. They've kind of, when his father settled the town, he just called himself Lord.

They went, they did away with titles. They didn't want to call themselves King. So he's just, no one gave them this land, bequeathed them this land. They just claimed it. So they're operating outside of a higher... So he's not a Lord at all. He's just a liar. Right.

But... He's just in charge. He's just in charge. He's rich. Liar Montrose. He's Lord. So people will call him the Lord. Gotcha. But like they don't call him king. He's not a... He didn't crown himself. But they are

the rulers. Okay. Okay. Sidonah is the true ruler. I think that my character I would like... Matthew and I had talked briefly about this order idea and being champions. I think I'm gonna go fighter just because I haven't played one. I think it would be really fun to play a fighter. But I like the idea of having a religious sort of leaning, not leaning, a religious character that's not necessarily mechanical. And I didn't know.

Person of faith. Yeah. And I could totally do this. And I didn't person of faith. Yeah, and I that we could totally do this Sidon a deity so I'm down to do that and to be in that and to be embedded in the town Like I was saying I like the idea of him having like a family started there So I've been there for years is you know with these Missionaries priests whoever rebuilt it I could have been there from the jump Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, you could be part of... Oh, that's interesting if you were part of the original. Maybe he...

It has a lost feel to it, right? Like you were there as the others. I like the idea. Maybe he left behind that grief, whatever grief it was. It was just like, I'm gonna go on this mission. And then he became part of this whole thing. And then eventually, 20 years later, later 30 years later 25 years later he falls in love again creates another has another relationship again and now I like the idea of him having like little kids. That's interesting.

In this town. Yeah you will know more than other people. Yeah that's fine. For good or bad. Are you thinking ranger? Rogue? Not sure I don't know like I could thinking ranger? Is it rogue? Not sure. I don't know.

I could do ranger, of course. Rogue maybe, or just fighter. They all have great builds for ranged. I'll have to dig into that. I gotta think. I mean, I don't know. They say fighter is the most fun class in 2E. I've read that anyway.

I'm really excited to do it. In doing a little bit of looking into it, one thing that I can totally do is ranged. Like just as good as I can do. Not just as good, I'm sorry. It's definitely a step down if you don't focus on it. But like you can do it, which is really neat as a fighter. So even as like a ranged fighter, if they get up in your face, like you can make that change. Whereas, you know, as a pure ranger, it's a little harder. The bonuses are so different. Sort of my concept is that I think he,

one thing that I want to avoid is getting hewing too close to what I did with Nestor. I don't want to get too close to that, but I just do think that the archery sort of career sort of lends itself really well to being too cockiness for one thing. Because it's just like, I can deal death like God himself at, you know, a hundred yards or whatever. And I think about one part, just being really sure of himself and really good at sort of taunting and making opponents make mistakes

by getting so angry. And I always think about Gene Hackman. Like Gene Hackman, like in a lot of his characters, he was so good at irritating people. There's a movie called Narrow Margin, where he just like, he's so good at just like being he seems really happy but he's just like needling people needling people needling people and I'm just sort of picturing something like that in a sort of in a different sort of tone than like maybe Nestor would have done but like you know yeah similar very interesting. Gene Hackman. I mean stories are true that may not be they may not be a character trait, right?

So I read some Bernard Cornwell recently we talked about this And you got the book for Xavier, right? Oh, yeah, which I didn't realize was not the first book, correct So I got him the second book of a trilogy and he opened it up and he said So should I read the first and I said what you what? You could just jump right in. It sums it up pretty quickly. But anyway, it follows an archer, an English archer. And now I've since read a different book, historical fiction, that has some one or two English archers.

And it is a recurring theme, different authors, of how not cocky in a bad way, you they're like, you don't like the characters, you like the kid, they're not like overly arrogant. No, but they are so skilled and so strong. It is a rare skill. Because of the long bow, like yeah. It is a well-earned skill to be able to shoot a bow like that. Because it takes like decades of training

and stuff like that, and they become so powerful. And it's made me rethink the Pathfinder Archer, as you know I always think of it as the kind of You know that kind of elf elf in yeah sort of like wave way fish way fish sort of like squishy squishy like Magically accurate sort of like and yeah, and now I think of it more about how Ronnie these guys have to be to do a six foot bow, pull it back,

and fire an arrow 200 yards, and have it go through armor, and then into somebody's body. It's crazy, the power. We talked a little bit on legacy about the Welsh Longbowmen that won the Battle of Agincourt. It was just terrifying.

Just a terrifying force. And then how Henry V had taken an arrow from the Welsh Longbowmen when they were doing, with the Hotspur Rebellion, the Percy Rebellion, in the face. So he knew the power. He knew quite firsthand the power of the Longbowmen. And the rage that would build up and the foot troops that were like arrayed against them like had to suffer their volleys. It's just like they hated them so much. It's just like I'm going to kill them.

Yeah, because you can't get to them. Yeah. That was one of the stories. I think this is apocryphal, but that's one of the stories. It's just like where the figs come from was like people, the British, the European up yours as you do this. And the story was, one of the stories like going around was that the opponents, like the French at Agincourt were lifting up their fingers to the bowman because they were saying in effect, once we catch you, we're going to cut these fingers off so you can't pull the fucking bows anymore. I don't think that's true, but that's a story. Apocryphal like it.

Apocryphal. So in terms of roles then, you and I will kind of tank to get it. Well, I can't really tank. I'll be up there, but I'm thinking striker, but I like the elf end gives me, it depends on what you do if you go rogue or fighter, because the elf thing gives me a little bit of- Or ranger. Or ranger. Yeah. The elf thing gives me a little bit of intelligence.

So one thing I won't have dexterity, you will. So maybe if you could train in thievery, regardless of your class, we could have that covered. I might be like a ranger with trained thievery or something. So you're going to have to pour into strength, and you're going to have to pour into dex. I am going to pour. Con.

Yeah, he pours into con. And I will pour into strength. And so I won't put skills in thievery. But I'll, I think that fits with sort of concept. The thing we started, I feel like we started to learn in campaign two and gatewalkers. Like you kind of need two frontliners. Yeah, definitely.

You can, especially with it. You got, you, it's definitely. And yeah, so not like a fighter in a rover, you need two people who can fight and deal damage. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess the other, the other question is like, should I do that? Cause I could go, you know go sword and board and almost two tanks in order to just be more survivable,

but I won't put out as much damage. I mean, I think doing great sword is fun. I think it's fun too. I've started playing Darkest Dungeon and I will say it's great having two tanks. Yeah, two, or not even tanks, heavy damage dealing fighters. Yeah, up front. I'm actually not thinking great sword.

I'll be sword and board. I was shopping around in the, yeah. You will be sword and board for sure. I was shopping around in the gear and I'm thinking about, I haven't looked at it in a bit, but I'm thinking about going with a long hammer. Oh, fine. Two handed hammer. Wait, like Ornstein and Smog type hammer?

Yeah. Well, no, because that has two hammer ends. This is like a dwarven long hammer. So it's like a claw hammer, except it's like four feet long. So it is bludgeoning, and it is versatile piercing. You can turn it around and ram the pointy back into people. It has reach, which is awesome. I'm looking at it right now at it has trip. Oh, yeah And some other

Yeah, I'm like, where did you come upon this? So this is a fucking dwarf I don't have an idea for that yet I'm leaving some of that backstory open but I'm like this was a dwarf's hammer and how did he end up with it? Yeah in the last hundred years. I know it's this fun. Cool. Yeah. Yeah, well here I see a flashback I see a flashback coming. Slit in the last hundred years. I don't know, it's just fun. That's cool. Yeah, or here I see a flashback. I see a flashback coming. You just slit in the throat of your wife. What? My dwarven wife?

Your dwarven wife fighter. Man, I want that hammer. I love her, but. She must die, she'll never give it to me. I should. Yeah. I was gonna say, you could just outwait in that last year, but not with a dwarf.

A dwarf takes forever to die. Yeah, for real. Had to kill her to sleep just to get that hammer. And that's why you reformed and started following Sidonah. He was solely poisoned over the course of 50 years. Made a real asshole here all of a sudden. It would take a long time. Very strong constitution.

I'm going to keep upping the dosage. Poison a dwarf that way. The sixth sense style. style would take forever. So, Sydney, hearing ranged tank, fighter, are you still thinking, I mean, it seems like battlefield control or buffing could be helpful. Yeah, I'll have to look through the spells specifically.

I think I was looking through the arcane schools. I think the one that makes the most sense, even though I feel like this is, I don't wanna say the boring one, but it is the one that has the widest amount available. It's not so specific, like Mentalist or like the Necromancy School, but the School of Ars Grammatica

is sort of like classic wizard stuff. It's, you know, dispel magic, command, enthrall, like true speech, repulsion, and these are all like your curriculums. What is it? What's the summary of the curriculum? Runes and wards, numbers and letters, they underpin all magic, making them the logical subject

for a wizard who studies fundamental forces. Oh, interesting. Ars Grammatica. Ars Grammatica. Sounds so cool. But there's also, there's the School of Battle Magic, which is like more damage dealing. It's not so much battlefield control. It's literally like, you know, fireball.

Fireball. Yeah. Lightning bolt. Then there's School of the Boundary, which I really like School of the Boundary. That's the kind of stuff I like. But I don't know if it's right for this campaign because School of the Boundary is the necromancy stuff. Oh. And it doesn't mean you have to go in that direction, but you learn, like,

brr-brr-brr-brr-brr-brr, third level, Bind Undead invoke spirits sixth level vampiric Extanguination which I don't have to do I don't have to be like a bad naughty wizard, but I do think it's interesting if like they studied that stuff and Came to what was highbury because of what happened Yeah, I would just be careful with using that magic with a cleric of Feraz. That's what I'm saying. I don't think my character would be a necromancer, but I think she has all this knowledge that would be possibly helpful with, maybe possibly like spirits or I don't know. I don't know the campaign. I don't know what's gonna happen.

Yeah, we don't know yet. Yeah, yeah, interesting. And maybe if it, uh, you know, it's pretty clear that worshippers of Psydonna abhor that kind of stuff, then it makes it more, right now there's internal conflict there. You have all this knowledge that you can't plumb because it would be going against the faith. Yeah. The other ones are like the mentalism and then the protean form is almost like Druid-Wizard crossover. So I don't know, they're not all speaking to me. It's really just like the fundamental one, Ars Grammatica and the school of boundary. So I'll have to look into it.

Do you know if the curriculum is like, that's what I know and unless I learn new spells I don't know anything else no I think I'm not a hundred percent sure but you have extra spell slots oh wait curriculum spells it's in the book automatically you automatically add some of the spells listed in your school's curriculum to your spell book yeah so you'll get these spells when you start it sounds like, but you can learn anything. I mean that's the nice thing about a wizard is like money talks. As long as you have money, you can pretty much learn anything.

Now I don't know, like they used to have like- They used to have like anathema. Anathema school where you have to take penalties to learn those spells, but like I don't- I don't see that. I haven't seen that yet, but yeah, I mean you can do anything which is one of the reasons I love Atticus once you get to higher levels Like you can be like what do we need today? Yeah, and he can really vacillate between illusion and Blasting like you know not maybe on the same day because you only have so many slots a day But if you know what you're getting into like you can totally not prepare any runic magic in a day

Yeah, and just prepare other stuff or you know you really have a lot of versatility There's also some cool feats that help you to do that that you were telling me about Like spell substitution and stuff you can take later that allows you to like quickly swap out stuff in your spellbook quickly ten minutes But like yeah, yeah, well like you you don't have to you can do it during the day right right Well that might have been pre remastered, so we'll just take another look at it But I think it is it's in their spell substitution which I felt substitution That's what which I think I would probably take out of all the things that I've read very cool Now with the sorry real quick true. I really like this ours chromatica. This is really cool

Just kind of if you're talking about doing interesting stuff that wizards do, I think you, as a player, could have a lot of fun with command, with disguise magic. With runic body. That's what I'm saying. It's a lot of message, sigil. These are all flavorful things. Yeah, I think the way you play, having that kind of versatility would be very, very

fun for you. But I'm wondering, reading this, it's not really battlefield control magic. That's what command is. Command is. But what else do you see? As is Dispel Magic. I guess I could take other things too that are not in this like curriculum list. I was doing a little research into battlefield control in TUI and there's kind of, you kind of

can do battlefield control with most of the casters. There's no, whereas it was, it's not really specialized in one class anymore. So you can kind of make it work for you however you want. Okay, would you be going then cloistered cleric as opposed to war priest? I mean, I feel like you have to do that if you want to be an effective healer. I mean, I feel like you have to do that if you want to be an effective healer I would want to do war priests, but then you don't get like certain Feats available to you or something or like certain spells you told me about this briefly of why did she was cloister cleric over? War you don't get the healing font. Yeah, and like we already have these two fighters So and no Paladins or it's like I wouldn't be as effective.

Oh no, you, but you have, you don't have Lay on Hands or anything? Lay on Hands is a spell you have to take, which I don't think I am going to take. I think there's something else that I would take. There's other stuff. So the other big thing about the Chewy Champion is the auras, so I can do,

so that's more of what I'll be focusing on. I have to look. So you're gonna have some buffing abilities with those auras Or is it only affect you and no no it it it's much more versatile than it like so for instance I'm gonna take with I'm gonna take the justice cause Oh When the big feature of the justice cause is that if if you even an enemy damages an ally and you're they're both within my aura I can get an attack of opportunity

How yeah, it's not just like fortifying saves though. That is the thing like it's also both within my aura, I can get an attack of opportunity. Oh yeah. So it's not just like fortifying saves, though that is a thing. Like it's also. Wow. And I would have one, a reactive strike. So like if we were both up there, there's a lot of like free damage to be had, right? For free attack actions to be had.

That's cool. Yeah. Yeah, Kade, I don't, you know, I don't know for sure, but I just feel like The healing like if you want to be a healer. Yeah healing font is And I learned this playing brother amias it really Gives you the flexibility to prepare cool stuff in your spell slots Because you are always gonna have these heal spells every day for free. You don't have to prepare heal necessarily. Yeah. And I also just liked the idea of being not as armored and like maybe a bit more squishy surrounded by people who are more armored and

like outwardly aggressive seeming like just role playing wise. So. And also like if if if Sydney isn't going gonna take blasting spells, if we go for, especially, fifth level, you're gonna have access to some damaging spells. You could lean into that, have your healing spells and have damaging spells and Sydney can go buff or battlefield control. And then Matthew's champion can just be really selfish.

No, actually, so instead of lay hands, which would be the selfish option, I'm gonna take Shields of the Spirit as my focus spell. What is that? Basically, if you're in my aura. Shields of the Jawn? Shields of the Jawn. I spend action, raise my shield,

and basically everyone in my aura gets a plus one status bonus to AC. Oh, that's good. And each time an enemy makes an attack against that ally, the enemy takes one D4 Spirit damage spirit damage Oh their attack misses. Oh That's a focus also I can do it once for combat basically palettes. It's fucking cool. That's really cool So it's stuff like it's the thing that's really interesting me is like it's not just like oh you're in my aura You get a bonus of saves

So it's like you can find interesting ways to affect the combat so you know the Dallas show is one week from today if you're Watching this live. It's one week from today, but we're recording this obviously a little bit before then. After today's session, between now and, ideally, tomorrow, send me a physical description of your character, all of artwork ready for Dallas. Amazing. I have to think about that. I haven't even thought about that.

Oh, shit. I'm so excited. We'll get artwork for Dallas of these characters. I think it would look so cool, because once you get artwork, you can really start to visualize, you know, how this world looks by seeing the characters that inhabit it. Yeah. Oh, that's so cool.

Should we talk, spend a minute to talk about skill distribution? Uh, yeah. Yeah, that would be great. I don't have much to offer in this regard. I know, like, Sydney, you'll get a bunch of, like, knowledge stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Sydney, you get a bunch of knowledge stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, let's talk about, I have religion as a champion, and then as a guard, which I think I'm going to take as my background,

since we might be the town guard. I'm going to take intimidation. I kind of love that. I'm taking intimidation. Oh, yeah. So it's into one idea that I'm working with, if you guys are like defenders of the town, like that changes everything.

As a priest, I would be like Lady Abigail's is like one of her priestesses who helps her and like helps her plan parties and shit. Oh I like that. I can tell you on the ruling council, the ruling council is Father Selwyn Borvis who was a holy priest of Sidonah, Sister Violet Dewitt who was a holy sister of Sidonah and sister to the Queen, essentially Lady Abigail. There is a master of arcane, a female elf wizard named Riddian Silverfron. Minister of Defense is Barvis Tonk, a male dwarf fighter. And the Lord Treasurer is Doran Tumblehoney,

a male gnome accountant. Can you send us all this? Sure. I'll send you these because you can like form a relationship. So maybe you are an attendant to the queen or maybe you are, you're not quite close to the queen and you're friends with her sister, Sister Violet DeWitt.

Can you talk a little bit about Sidonah and like you said cleansing light, but are there like kind of a general thrust of the release of the followers. My concept thus far, which could change between now and Dallas, is that it was a newer religion, not in the sense of like Mormonism, you know what I mean? It was like, I went out of the forest, that's a religion. But it was like, I think that it began...

Wow, that's Mormonism? That's pretty much it. That's basically it, yeah. That's a religion! But it was like I think that it began I think that I do think there's an element to that though We're like there rather than having the one person that happened to several people where they were confronted by the goddess and They dedicated their lives to this and they left their old lives behind searching for a new world to create. They came upon the remains of what we will now know as Keswick and chose to settle there, hoping that the holy light of Sidon would cleanse this world of whatever affliction once inhabited it. It's a new world.

Is it working? Is the land arable? Is that the word? Can you farm the land? Oh, it's completely changed. Green, you know, when they first discover it, it's a wasteland. But by the beginning of our story, the water is potable. There's grass everywhere.

There's farms. There's trees, farms, yeah. They've become like a little bit of a trading post now So I had two ideas on the background one was Farmer or farmhand kind of liked the idea of that being the background of how you kind of come here And I have some ideas how that worked Because you also get a bonus of strength from that but another way I thought was kind of fun is

Night watch like like Night Watchmen as a background. I was like, if we do guards, it makes perfect sense that, like, the elf who, like, rarely sleeps and doesn't sleep need as much or whatever does the Night Watch. And the way that it's written, I don't have it up. When I read it, I was like, this is so cool. And it's basically like, you notice things bumping in the night, right? Things moving in the distance just out of sight and stuff or whatever. And one of the things that it comes with is you get trained in society, which I really like for this homebrew adventure. I'd like to know about this town, been there for a long time right you get trained in society for free and you get

you get what I see is you're training the intimidation skill and either legal lore or the lore scale of your home settlement that's what it is your home settlement so I was like I want to have lore hybrid in this case it'll be lore rosewood Dale yeah I should be neat I took Rosewood Vale as a lore I don't know what else maybe you guys can not come up like that. You guys can sorry that was I guess I can't do that Yeah, oh, yeah some book of the dead, but I'm sure there's something similar I took Rosewood Vale as a lore because I already have lore academia My skills are like arcana, lore academia, medicine, society, you know, those types of things.

Yeah, knowing about the history of this town that you're so invested in, I think it's huge. What else would make sense for lore? I looked it up and it's like I could have scribing lore, and I'm like that's, that is never gonna come up. Um, I don't think you're ever gonna ask me for scribing lore. Well, yeah, whatever you have, whatever you have, you know, he can record into the story now. Right, story now Yeah, I'm asking you guys. What do you think's a good lore lures are ridiculous? You know it's just pick whatever you want, and then you have to kind of like base the game around it I mean warfare lore is Completely broken in blood of the wild warfare lore is phenomenal roll it for everything for everything you can just use warfare I looked at military lore, and I was like we would have knowledge

Right you can always find a way to say that that would give you knowledge in any fight, right? Like serious I yeah trying to scribing lore. I guess I could say well, I must have it written down somewhere. Yeah To read almost anything or to decipher almost anything give you a bonus, you know, maybe I will take scribing lore I think that's interesting anything or to decipher almost anything, give you a bonus, you know. Maybe I will take Scribing Lore. I think that's interesting. Also, it could, I don't know if you could argue for it for learning spells, right? Like making it easy for you on the die roll

to learn spells and stuff like that. I was thinking of taking, what is it, magical shorthand as a skill feat, which already helps me with that. Man, wizards are so, there's so many cool things. There's like, recognized spells, like everything with spells. It's so cool. Wizards are just like, I know what that is.

Way better at fourth, fifth level than it is at first. It became guard, the one I checked. Oh, it became guard? I'm pretty sure. Guard, you guys with guards? Because you have to check legal lore or warfare lore with guard. You're on my client, clearly.

Ah, okay. Yeah, I think my guy is like, Lora Warfare Lora with Guard. You're my cloaker. That is clearly. I think my guy is like, he's a big, kind of like an offensive lineman sized knight. Wow. He's like a big bruiser. Six six. Yeah, but like. 300 pounds. Yeah, but in heavy armor.

Yeah. And he just, he's like, he was a knight who just like went out and caroused and had his fun And now he's trying he's rededicated himself, and he's rebranded himself as someone He's like trying to like be really studious about religion. Mm-hmm studying with our priestess We're teaching me the ways of the yeah, yes. She is Yes, she is. Oh boy So you just wanted to find another way to keep the smut going with Kate live on stage I guess why not I Will say that slinky priestess

There right now my idea is that they have The Montrose's have two daughters an 18 year old and a 12 year old. There is no heir right now. Not very forward thinking. Beatrix and Willow Montros. They can't possibly take the... As it is right now, they're kind of old fashioned in that way. Big yikes. Don't blame me.

Maybe we need to spend the campaign deposing the Montros. Yeah. For real. Installing their daughter in the fake throne. Yeah. See if their daughter is the worst though first. Yeah.

Maybe the priestess is involved with the, sort of teaching them the ways of Psydona. Maybe you're at your way in. Yeah, I was thinking like those are the skills I would take. Like obviously being the cleric, I do medicine, but I was also thinking like society. I don't know if diplomacy would make sense because like I need to spread my skills out too much into like charisma territory, but stuff like that, like social things.

Yeah. Is there a party face? You guys also have to get together because like you'd have to homebrew the deity. So like- Right, you're saying Sidana and that, so like I'm thinking should I do that instead of for Asma? You have to figure out what domains she has. Right, I was gonna ask you about that. Oh, right, right, you had said for Asma before,

but if you wanna shift it over, yeah, you gotta pick a domain that- Oh, that'd be so fucking cool. Homebrew domains and all this shit. I don't know if then it makes sense for my character to be the face or not. Yeah, who's the part? Who's we don't have? I mean, I'm plus one plus one to charisma. We don't really have a charisma. I mean, yeah I have one so far. Yeah, you're not gonna you don't really need I'm gonna invest in it

Just for the other stuff that I want to do. Okay, so I'm gonna skimp on really Okay, you know you want to put a little bit. They may put something in diplomacy. Yeah, yeah I'm gonna plan. I'm gonna take intimidation because if I'm gonna be yeah, I'll take in I'll take intimidation tonight I don't have any of that you guys take that I took athletics because for obvious reasons yeah, I Went I went up to expert in athletics. I figured that we're gonna need that Stealth skid you'll take I'll tell oh, I have a little bit of diplomacy actually Okay, a little bit not too much okay, and I took religion and warfare lore

Yeah, don't get my don't get much as a plus zero intelligence Champion yeah Yeah I spread, because of my intelligence, I had two intelligence so I spread some out into some of the the monster identification skills. What do you think about, so like my first level class feat I could do sudden charge. Great, great feat. Great feat where it's for two actions you can go twice your speed and then attack Yeah, so you know you can really positionally get to where you need to be that was my first choice But there's also combat assessment, which is interesting as a single action Make an attack if you hit you get a free recall knowledge on the monster

Yeah, and with a and it's on a crit you get a plus two bonus I think it's interesting if you my character is gonna have probably a plus two and intelligence or a fighter Which is like could be useful? To put some skill ranks do we have arcana that'll be that's me. I'll have it to we have Hmm I'll have nature occultism yeah, I have that okay and Performance What will we do with I have that okay and Performance no oh What will we do with I have? And you and skid you said you'll take thievery yes, and you have a device of society that's that's part of society

I also have survival because of wisdom. Yeah, can you do survival awesome? I'll do society You have religion I have religion medicine. I just I took my oh no. I have religion, I have religion. Medicine. I have some medicine too. Okay. Nice. The survival suit. Crafting. This is coming together.

Yeah, elves have a very cool, now it's making me question whether these were core or not, but elves have a cool trait, ancestral longevity. You have to be over 100 years old, so I'm feeding into that vibe. But basically, every day, you can get trained in one skill of your choice for that day. For that day? For that day. Wow.

You've learned so much. It's just like what you focus on for that day. Since this proficiency is temporary, you can't use it as a-rec for a skill increase or a permanent character option like a feat That's cool. You can use it for that day to be good knowledgeable at something that day. It's cool. Super fun It's cool. I feel like I gotta take diehard Yeah, so I and I think I have to take toughness. I was having a penalty to my con. Oh Yeah, I've got I've come got, I kind of want both, but then I want, I also want intimidating glare.

Yeah. I think you can get the other one at fifth level. I think that's when it comes in, the second gen. So you think I wait for toughness? I'm not sure if it's fifth or sixth level. All right, so we've made a lot of progress here. We've got what looks like an Elven fighter. Elven fighter.

That is going to be striker, not tank. A possibly human or puddle kitten champion that is the tank. I said puddle kin. Oh, they said puddle. Puddle kin. Puddle kin. That sounds even better. Puddle kitten, puddle kitten, puddle kin.

Just, yeah, let's get a meme of a kitten playing on a puddle. Yeah. It would be like that's not a character. I thought it was a kitten that was made out of puddle. That's how I figured it out. Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten,

Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, I haven't changed it yet. You are gonna be an elf. So maybe you were part of the original, both of you were part of the original set. I don't think I did. Okay. What could it be? That's fun. Human, maybe, maybe not, wizard. Wizard, wizard, and maybe rogue, maybe ranger, maybe fighter.

Ranger, fighter, Ranged. But human. Human. Human, definitely. Okay, wow, so wait, human, human, human, elf, elf. Like that's the party, interesting. Very interesting, I don't think we've ever had that makeup before. You wait, human, human, human, elf, elf. Like that's the party. Interesting.

Very interesting. I don't think we've ever had that makeup before. You kind of understand your rules. You've talked a little bit about skills. You see where your holes are. Any questions for me about setting or rules or anything? Setting or rules or anything. I'll have my guy email you all my questions.

Who's your batch? It's got to go. I'll have my assistant email you all my questions. Who's your batch? Kate's got to go. I'll have my assistant email you all about Zidane. I'll also have my guy email you. OK. We have assistants. Email me any time.

We've got to. Our people will talk. They do the thinking for us. We've got a couple of weeks. Well, honestly, if you could send that stuff, that would be awesome. Yeah, I'll send you what I have. It'd be great to know those NPC names, at least.

Between now and Dallas, a couple things may change here. Maybe I'll change a letter of a last name because I like the way it sounds better. But I'm kind of at the point now where I'm trying to lock stuff in and see what happens. Just hearing what you guys are up to gives me some fun ideas for the kickoff of this story because I've got about six ideas and maybe two of them I can push into what you guys are thinking. But we're thinking town guard, some sort of town guard. I think so.

I mean, to be a level four fighter in this town. In a tiny town. Well, maybe you're just this, you're new to town. I could be it's itinerant. I could be just passing through. Just passing through. The other thing I like is like not knowing each other at the jump. It helps.

Yeah, for sure. You know, but I do want to be there a while. If you want to be there a while. If we're aware of each other. We can know each helps. Yeah, for sure. But I do want to be there a while. If you want to be there a while, yeah. We can know each other. Or we're lovers. Could well. That's why she joined the priesthood.

Do my Kate face. Because of your tiny elf becker. And on that note. Thanks, everyone. Be sure to join us all around the country and Canada this year for Glass Cannon Live Ascension. We are kicking it off in Dallas. Next Friday night, tickets still available for both Dallas and Austin the following evening.

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