The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 10/30/24

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Troy and Joe are back at it and get serious about the implications of Episode 57 of Gatewalkers. Major decisions, a perfect storm of events, and the potential end of the campaign in sight—this is a dose of Fod juice you can't miss! In Listener Mail: what would be in the GCN Show Bible? Submit your questions for Listener Mail at https://forms.gle/v5huj25dkVSmkbLEA Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/E4_mRdtamiw Access exclusive podcasts, ad-free episodes, and livestreams with a 30-day free trial with code "GCN30" at http://www.jointhenaish.com. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your group photos are likely missing someone important, you! With Ad Me on the new Google Pixel 9 Pro, never rely on a stranger again. Add yourself to any group photo through the magic of AI. Get yours with TELUS at telus.com slash Pixel 9 Pro. You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network, the premiere source for role-playing game entertainment. Welcome to Cannon Fodder, a behind-the-scenes look at the Glass Cannon Network. Yo, what is going on, Nesh? Welcome back to Cannon Fodder.

It is Wednesday, October 30th, 2024, and I'm your old buddy, Joe O'Brien. And I'm Troy. I just emailed the Get in the Trunk cast to say we'll be starting late today, LaValley. Fodder's going to run over into our Delta Green game, unfortunately, but we're here for you, Naish. We're here to give you the hot news, the hot topics coming out of the Glass Cannon Network, including a tight look at a controversial episode of the Glass Cannon podcast

this past week. We've got a We Are Stupid from Professor Eric, and of course, a nice juicy listener mail straight from the nation. It's good to see you, buddy. You weren't on last week. It's been a while. It's been a while since you've been on the FOD.

It was so cool. You put the schedule up in our shared task manager, and I saw that it was with the Legacy Agents crew, and I was like, I got the week off. I didn't know. I was like, awesome. I'm in so much pain. I don't want to do this. I was very excited. I wanted like, awesome. I'm in so much pain. I don't want to do this. I was very excited.

I wanted the whole Legacy crew to come out. Unfortunately, Nick had work come up and he has to prioritize Marvel. And so we were unable to get Nick. Unfortunately, we really wanted him there, but we had a great time talking Gatewalkers and talking Legacy. It was a really, really fun FOD. But now we're back to the classic Joe and Troy. Let's hit the news really fast and then we're going to spend a lot of time talking about the episode this week because it's a juicy one

Oh, so much juice. Light on the news this week Uh, I guess biggest news coming out of the glass cannon network is today's Matthew's birthday Hey, go wish happy birthday to Matthew Cabot of Cows on social. Shit. Funnily, it's also Paula Deming's birthday. Happy birthday, Paula Deming. Paula and Matthew. I'm gonna send one of them a picture of my wiener. You guess which one. That would be.

It's gonna be Matthew. Can I suggest which one? It would be inappropriate if I did that to Paul. Oh, I didn't know it was his birthday. Okay, happy birthday, Matthew. Happy birthday, Matthew. Happy birthday, Paula. I will be on streaming with Paula this week

and of course, Mary Lou and Sydney. We're gonna be starting a new Wildermyth adventure, which is very exciting. I don't think anybody has played it but me. I know it's a couple of years old now, but I was shocked that particularly Paula hadn't played it and she owns it. She just has it on Steam and hasn't played it ever.

And so this is gonna be a great intro to that awesome storytelling role playing game. So we're gonna have a good time with that. That's Friday. I don't know that one. It's Friday at 12 o'clock Eastern time. You gotta tune in live to see the start of a, what could be a campaign.

We may do several sessions of this. We'll see. It should be fun. I saw that over cut clip. Looks like you guys had a blast with that one. Wasn't that fun? Yeah, it was really, really fun. Super intense.

It's amazing. I went into that being like, you know what? I'm gonna keep it together. Like, I don't need to really get upset. It's just a video game. And everybody was saying this is what it was gonna be like. It's super intense, whatever. And sure enough, like within short order,

that game just makes sure that you're just screaming at your friends. It's just wild. And we had a great time. You should try playing it solo. The higher levels when you're switching back and forth between two chefs, it is so nerve racking and stressful because the board will start splitting apart. You can't reach the fryer or you can't reach the chopping board.

It's crazy. I had no idea what to expect. I thought it would just be a kitchen and that's hard enough. I had no idea that it would be on an airship and you're constantly, things are sliding off. And they're like, throw me the onions. You're throwing onions from ship to ship. I mean, it was really fun, really funny. But yeah, we're gonna try something different this Friday.

12 o'clock Eastern live, 9 a.m. Pacific on twitch.tv slash The Glass Cannon. The next day is a massive day on twitch.tv slash the glass cabinet as we begin in earnest, extra life 2024, a massive, massive day, 25 straight hours of gaming because it is daylight savings time. We have to roll the clocks back during McDermott's play through. He's always like that extra hours brutal in the middle of the night.

But we do 25 straight hours of streaming for charity, great charity, children's hospitals all across the country. We have a great team put together, join our team. What is the, what's the, is extralife.org? Let's talk about this. Let's get into the nitty gritty. This year we're aiming for a goal of $50,000. Last year we did 45, we blew past that.

This year we're doing $50,000. I have a personal goal of $10,000 just to get us a fifth of the way there. So you need to go to Extra Life and there's a couple of different ways you can do this. You can go to Extra Life, you can go to the Glass Cannon page, we're putting those links on social.

We'll put the link in the description of this episode. You can go and donate straight to our team, easy. We're gonna ask you all day long, keep donating, get ready to donate multiple times for, right? We're gonna ask you all day long, keep donating, get ready to donate multiple times for a little shit that we're gonna do all day. Also, you can start your own page, set a goal of $20, $50, $100, $500, and join our team,

and then every dollar that you raise to your personal goal goes towards our team goal of 50,000. That's kind of like a cheat code to help us get to the 50,000. So like, even if you're not gaming, if you're just like, you know what? I have a bunch of people on Facebook, a bunch of aunts and uncles that would throw money towards one of the best causes in the world.

I'm going to start a page on Extra Life. I'm going to join the Glass Cannon team, raise a couple hundred bucks. All that money goes towards Ard's goal, our goal, but more importantly, it goes towards the goal of helping children's hospitals all around the US. And we've got a real fun slate of gaming. Now this comes out on Wednesday, so this is a chance we've dropped the schedule, but we've run into a bit of a problem with that prime time slot. That's one thing we forgot to talk about pre this meeting today.

So we were going to, let's just talk about it. Do it live. The penis is out of the bag. Why was it in a bag to begin with? Our plan was to do a big strange aeons, like four or five hour John picking up where we left off in LA, but for the first time in 98 episodes, and what, 60 of those were live shows? We may have lost some footage.

And I super calm and excited. But we didn't lose the audio, did we Troy? No, we did not lose the audio. As far as I know- So the story can be heard. The story can be heard. But for the Portland show, I think we've recovered Majority of the footage we've now spent countless hours trying to find where that the this footage is We've sent it off to now to a like a production house that might be able to extract the code

To try and recover like the last fucking hour of the Portland show or last 40 minutes of the Portland show or whatever it is So this snafu has slowed down the release schedule. We've got the LA video done, but the Portland video is not done, so we're not going to be able to do strange ions. Really sucks. I was like already planned it. Now we're kind of trying to think what else we're going to do in that eight, nine PM slot as the main event.

But you know, it's going to be awesome because we've got a lot of money to raise and it's gonna have top personalities on there. But we've got so much other fun stuff happening that day. Joe's gonna be running a little RPG action. Oh! In the middle of the day, we've got video games all day, lots of different groups and people. So please take a moment.

We say it all the time. Go donate to the page. Get ready to donate multiple times to a bunch of different people as we try to raise money for a really good cause. This is like the only fucking charity thing we do all year because we're so busy, not a good excuse, but we try to really make it pop. So even if you can't join us Saturday, get excited for a fun day. It's going to be amazing.

All right, let's get into the episode, this week's episode, a turning point in the Glass Cannon network, I feel like. I mean, this is a massive moment, a massive decision that hinged on one player, one stupid, foolish player. Now, that's the first thing I was gonna ask you, is like, do you hold me? accountable for any of this

You yeah, no well Let's not let you out of the world too soon Because my guess and I'm not sure why all right. We're getting ahead of ourselves. Yeah, we're gonna have I'm sorry There's a lot to talk about Let's do things in order here, okay This is a what-if you don't like these feel free to just say pass and I'll move on to the next one Okay, this is what I was thinking in the moment and I just need to ask and I was like I'll ask on fodder

Okay, if Barnes does not chase the Raider Do does the Raider grab the other Raiders and run right back into the observatory? No, I knew it. No, okay, so that's a big first step because it is logical that they would. It's also logical that they wouldn't.

So it was really 50-50 and I was like, I don't know where Troy's head is at. Is he gonna come in and jump us while we're trying to rest and Asta's down? Or is he gonna like have them regroup, take a bit of time to plan a counter-attack and that gives us time at least to maybe do some continual recovery or something like that. And let me take a step further to clarify that was on the table in my prep you know certainly was on the table in the prep but part of my job as GM is like see

where everybody's at and that dropping that extra hammer wasn't necessary it wasn't necessary to the story it wasn't necessary to like where you guys were. I wanted you to rest there, but that's not what happened. But I was ready. My plan at that moment, if you guys had decided not to run, was to let you rest. And then I don't know when that encounter would have happened. Okay, so that obviously makes me even more angry at Matthew.

Now there are two ways to think about this. There is the very front doorway, which is like, why would you do that stupid thing that is metagaming wise is stupid when it's pretty clear the signs are pointing to like, this is our first chance to rest in five straight encounters. This is our first chance to rest in five straight encounters. This is our first chance to rest. Why would you blow that opportunity for what you consider to be a narrative reason? When you know the meta is like,

you gotta stop right here and heal up. The other argument is you always stay focused on the narrative, you never let the meta become a part of it and it creates great story. And of course, while I'm, I guess, you know, I'm really not mad at Matthew because it's an excellent episode. Like it creates this tension that is unbelievable. But what you have to be okay with is your character dying because someone else did something.

And that is a struggle for me, particularly with Brother Ramious. But I'm thinking, you know, it's good night, Saigon, right? Billy Joel. It's like, if we all go down together, then I'm happy. Like if it's a story where we have this epic end because we focused on narrative and not meta, and it ended up being a TPK, I would not be mad. I bust his balls about it literally forever. Right, for the rest of his life. But I wouldn't actually be mad about it. I'm not actually mad about the decision at all,

but I am like, it's something I would never do, but that's because I'm a filthy, gross metagamer. At times, at times. Particularly when it comes to five encounters without a rest and spell slot and you know your healer is completely out of spells and etc. etc. So off air, talked to Matthew, you know, even in between that, we took a break. We had a break in between that to talk a little bit. And you know, of course he was like, I never in a million years thought it would be an

ambush. I thought that this guy was going to have to run like a mile at least back to his people. And he wanted to kill him before he got there so that he couldn't tell him we were here. It makes it even better that he makes logical sense. I didn't think that that would happen. I think that's really cool. I mean, it's just an interesting story thing. It's like he's doing, he's playing his character without thinking about the consequences. Like real life. People do that shit all the time. Impetuous, foolhardy, but gut reaction and it leads to a really interesting story.

It may not be, you know, well, go ahead. Let me take it to another level on the meta. And I was, I said this during the break and we were all yelling at him about this because it's very, very meta, which is he put you on another map. As soon as he put you on another map, you turn back and come inside because you know it's an encounter. Like, if he describes narratively the Raider running through the town and doesn't put out a map, you got a chance.

You got a good chance. There's not an ambush coming. As soon as you see a map, it's a fight. What are you thinking? So yeah, anyway, those are just kind of the funny things that were bantering around among all of us during that. I can remember in Jade Regent sometimes putting out maps where there weren't encounters, just to kind of keep you always guessing.

And that's like a good GM trick. It's like, just throw it, oh, you go there, right. Let me get out a map. You know, it's a lot easier when you have that shit prepared, but like, if you can do that, then they'll never trust you again. And that's why it's great. I love, this could be borderline entrapment,

like illegal, but I love, and I've done this before, like putting out a map and putting out pawns for a non-combat encounter when it's like tense and immediately start by rolling initiative, but not have the enemies attack. But if they roll high initiative, you see in this situation, like, do they just attack because you rolled initiative or are their heads really in the narrative? And do they say, Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, well, wait a minute, there's a misunderstanding here. The other people don't have weapons out yet or something. It's such a fun thing to do every once in a while

to keep your players honest, and also to reinforce that you don't always have to fight. You don't always have to fight. Yeah, for sure. All right, so he triggers this encounter, this ambush. What's going through your head the moment that he decides to pursue down to the bridge, which really triggered it because he passed, and we see some sort of boss hobgoblin, mini

boss, whatever you want to call it. Are you thinking this is the end of all things at that time or are you thinking not thinking, just being like, I'm just reacting as the enemy here? I wasn't worried about the first encounter in the observatory at all, even with you guys in rough shape. Because it's a pretty simple encounter. When he started charge, and there was moments I was like, just turn around, just turn around, man.

I even say, just so you know, this is a bad idea. I think there's this weird narrative where I think a lot of you guys, and I know the audience thinks I push you guys into these encounters. Go back and listen to the tape. A lele does not push you from the Drake encounter into the multiple encounters at the gate at all. This is just not there. I also don't say, you sure you guys don't want to rest?

Because whenever I say that, you guys rest. You tell me if you want to rest. I don't I also don't say you sure you guys don't want to rest because whenever I say that you guys Rest it's like you tell me if you want to rest I didn't push you into that now of course I push you into this That first encounter in the observatory, but like I physically say you sure you want to do this at that point What am I supposed to do? I you know I don't think it's Fun for me to be like you sure you want to take another step, Matthew? You sure you want to do this? I've said my piece. If you're not catching on, then let's see how this story unfolds. Once he gets down there, once he gets halfway past that first intersection in the alleyway,

I'm like, this could be a TPK. Definitely someone's going to die here. There's no way because now there's no way to get back to the observatory safely without resolving this encounter some way. You've got all these hobgoblins, full HP, full complement of abilities, and you guys are completely depleted. I just- And separated.

Right. I'm like, as a storyteller, I'm interested to see what I'm going to do as a audience member at the same time. I'm just like, how is this going to unfold? I can't wait. I'm sitting there with popcorn wondering like, how is this going to unfold? And that's a great feeling to have at the table when you don't know. If you can get beyond the fear and this like need to preserve your character's life and just sit back and enjoy the story that's unfolding, I mean, that's a beautiful thing. I know it's hard to do and it's a lot easier for me as the GM to do it, but if you could take a step back as a player.

You're not emotionally connected to these hobgoblins. You don't give a shit. But like, some of us are emotionally connected to these characters. Right. I understand you gotta... You gotta let them go. But like, it's a lot easier to say than to actually do. And it's a fine line because it's easy to say

and it being not easy to do is a good thing when you have passion and love for your character. But you also, you don't wanna be ambivalent or apathetic about your character, but you also, you don't want to be ambivalent or apathetic about your character living or dying. That's not going to make a good show either. Very fine line. Like you say, you know, hold on tightly, let go lightly.

Like you have to love the character, but you have to see how good the story is if they die and go in that direction. Not very easy to do. In a one shot, we always say like, when're doing one-shots or live shows at Gen Con and stuff like that, we should be like, this might be the only time you ever see this character. We steal that whoever said play your character like you're driving a stolen car. You know what I mean? Like that's a great way.

Cumstone is the only one that I think plays that way all the time. And it just kind of works for him. You can't do that with these characters. It really is a tricky thing to be so fully invested and love these characters and not play so safe that your main concern is preserving their life. At the same time though as a human being, that's your concern. In a dangerous situation That is gonna be a concern of yours is preserving your life

Yes But maybe if not if you're an adventurer right like you get in the mindset of an adventure Which is like you're already wired a little differently. You're already prepared for a certain level of risk. You just have to You know not cross over into too much risk But yeah, it's but it's also like, it goes both ways. Just being bold and just being stupid also doesn't just make good story because it's bold. Like there is a balance and there's no right answer. It's all the chemistry of the moment.

What makes RPGs different in actual play in particular is like you're the actor, but you're also a writer. You're also a staff writer on the show at the same time. And so you've got to find, you've got to, you've got to put your what's best for the show, I think, over necessarily what, what you believe the character could do. And maybe not even over, but there's this constant dance that you don't have to do in like a stage play. Like even if you're the producer of that play, you know, the script is there.

You just follow the script, you do your characters actions. But with this, you are storytellers, you're producers, you're writers on the show, and all of those things have to be active at once in the medium that we work in. In a home table, keep them alive, do whatever you want. But like for actual play, there's so many different levels, there's so many different levels to what we're doing.

It's really, really hard. And I don't begrudge what you guys have to do as a player. The start of this book is pretty insane to me. I mean, in retrospect, looking back now a week, where we should have just rested and Barnes should not have chased, quote unquote unquote if you're talking about everybody just surviving. The element of opening, ending the book on such a climactic encounter, which always happens, and then starting the book with an immediate assault, even looking back and saying, oh,

these are low level, relatively low level guys. They never posed a real death threat to the party. This is still insane to me. And I'm curious if you've ever seen this before. Like an AP that literally ends on an encounter and begins on an encounter with no downtime. These APs typically, I mean, sometimes they're a month or more in between or they say, oh, you're on a clock, things are rushing, but you can always, it's always the next day or something.

This seemed so immediate. That's a crazy design choice. Yeah, I mean, it was one of the things that really attracted me to it. I was like, oh, this is different, especially that you've got that multi-level encounter to end the book, which was so unique and new, and then you're thrown right into it.

And let's talk about the elephant in the room. Let's talk about the level up, because I'm sure you guys are wondering where's the level up between books. Oh, I didn't think about it. I don't think you always level up at the end of a book. Do you always? If I've read a hundred of these APs,

in my memory, which is degraded every day by alcohol, I think there was one book where you didn't. You know, if you use- So almost all the know, if you use milestone leveling or XP or whatever, I think there was one where you didn't. But I could be wrong. So let's say yes, at the end of every book you do level up. At the beginning of the book, because these books are written for like characters from – there are some people who just like play a book, I guess.

Like this guy, this is an adventure written for fourth to seventh level characters, you know what I mean? So, there is this idea that you should be the next level when this book starts. To me, I just didn't see it. You know what I mean? Regardless of how I do leveling, if I use XP, if I use milestone, if I use my own system, it just didn't make sense for me to be thrown into this and have you level up without resting because that's the way we've always done it, resting.

Now maybe in that transdimensional jump between worlds you could have leveled up. Yeah, maybe. But it's written for Sakawachi to come down and give you healing potions. You know what I mean? And so I just was like, let's see how it goes. I'm going to really see how it goes. Now does that mean after that first fight, if you had rested, I would have levied you up?

I'm not going to say. Maybe. Ask me again in a couple of weeks. But now we're in it. Now we're in it. Now we're in it. Now we're in it. Does it make things extra dangerous?

Of course it does. And maybe that's not how a lot of people play Pathfinder, but like, I thought it was fucking awesome. And I still think it's awesome. We talked about this now on a couple of weeks of fodder as we have been really on fumes here for multiple encounters. With TPK seeming like a reality, you're not pulling back off of anything you said before, I presume,

should the listeners be prepared that if there is a TPK, that Gatewalkers will end and a new adventure would begin. Is that still where your head is at if this results in a TPK? Do they need to know that that could be a possibility here in the next couple weeks, it could be a new game? I'm trying to think how you want me to answer that. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think it'd be fun. I just think people need to be prepared.

Sometimes you don't want to pull the rug out from under the audience. Yeah, well, but like, I prefer to do prepared. Sometimes you don't want to pull the rug out from under the audience. Yeah, well, I prefer to do that. I think that's a much more exciting, emotional thing. Well, you said it. You've said it. I'm just saying, are you still in there? I'm going to punch you in the face. I'm going to punch you in the face soon. Get ready. Get ready. It's a lot better to just punch someone in the face. You said it on air. So I'm just saying, are you still there? I am still there, I think. But I'll tell you, are you still there? I am still there, I think.

But I'll tell you why I'm still there. I'm still there because it's an interesting choice, I think, for the network. Not because I don't like Gatewalkers or because I don't think Gatewalkers is popping. I just think it's an interesting choice for the network. And so that's why I- I think it's also narratively difficult

to resolve an entirely new group in Gatewalkers. Maybe, but I see that as a challenge. You know what I mean? Like I wouldn't be doing it just because like, you know, Riddleson can have another group ready to go. You know what I mean? I could pick up that story. If anything, that might be even more interesting.

Backup crew. However, I don't know. It's like that, it's like bringing in romance into Get in the Trunk was purposeful on my part. Cause I was like, I want to we've never explored that. You know what I mean? Bringing Colonel Luther and LGBT character was like purposeful on my part.

I want to bring in a guy where that's just a part of his identity and it's not a big deal. And it's like the first gay character on the network. It's like having this be a TPK and just be like end of adventure. We're starting a new one in two weeks. That's interesting to me me on a network perspective. So would I still do it? Yes. Okay.

Let's just talk about the very, very, very end. Why did you end the episode? After you rolled the die and before you rolled, revealed the results, like I guess more direct question is, did you know you were gonna do that before you rolled the die? Or did you decide in that split second after you rolled the die to end the episode?

I don't remember. You know, I have a timer that I'm looking at and I'm like, usually I'm trying to feel out where an end of an episode is. And sometimes I just see it. Other times I just like, oh, there it is. I think this was a, there it is moment. Cause there's the cliffy.

You know, we're in the middle of a combat that has no end in sight. I've got to find a cliffy here. I don't want to play this out for another half hour, 45 minutes, however long it's going to fucking take until all of you die. That was it. And it was fun. I don't think we've, we haven't done that one in a while. I think there's some giant slayer.

No, I think we've done. Yeah. Yeah. There was like, I'll write down the result of this role and we'll find out what it is next week or something. I think you did that once in giant slayer, but the, the, yeah, I think the decision was a good one because the first horrible moment is Barnes running down there and triggering the ambush. The next horrible moment is Zephyr exposing herself to this attack of opportunity, which if she goes down and buckles us down, it's very, very, very bad situation. So it's a turning point. I think it's a really good place for a Cliffy and because the whole combat changes after

this, you know, for good or ill, we shall see. I love it. You know, I just, I had, I had a thought of what this book would be like and obviously I'm making some changes and I think I'm going to make even more as I, as I dig into this because I'm like having fun doing that. But just seeing how it unfolds, how it's unfolded already is like, it's almost like reinvigorated me. I really, really enjoy it.

And I know a lot of people didn't like it, which I think it's interesting. There's this disconnect. People didn't like the episode? Yeah, yeah. A lot of people didn't like the episode. You know, I was, do you know who Rick Rubin is? No. Music producer.

He's a pretty famous music producer, very eccentric guy. I was watching this TikTok thing came up and he was being interviewed by someone. It was only 30 seconds long and I was listening. I was like, ooh, this kind of feels like where I'm at in my artistic journey right now. The guy was questioning him on this thing he wrote in his book where he says, the audience comes last. He was like, what do his book where he says the audience comes last. He's like, what do you mean by that? The audience comes last.

And he's like, I don't, when I'm making stuff, I don't think about how the audience is going to receive it. Don't think about like, I'm going to make something that I know the audience is going to like. I'm going to do this because they're going to like this. He's like, when you go down that road, you can never have your finger on the pulse of what the audience is going to like. So like don't think about them.

Make something that you yourself enjoy. It's like make something that you yourself would enjoy because when you do that, you're so invested in it, you're going to create something. You're going to create your best product. Now the audience that likes it might be different from the audience that you've had. It might be different from the, you know, it might be a new audience, but you're creating your best work when you're making something that you yourself would enjoy. And I think that's what's happening here. Now, I hope you guys enjoy it too, because that's equally important. You guys have to enjoy

it. And I know it's harder in these dire straits to do so, but I'm making something that I enjoy and I think that the Pathfinder purists who don't like the rules that I have, the bottle caps, they're not enjoying it because it's not how they would play the game. I get that and that's why we have Legacy of the Ancients and Blood of the Wild. You got Legacy of the Ancients, which is like the best home game. The skid runs games like a warm hug. You know what I mean? You listen to skid and you're like, I would kill to be at that table.

And then you got Blood of the Wild, which was like a challenge. This was like a personal challenge for Jared to like show everyone like I can be this brilliant improvisational DM and I can also work within a strict system. And then I put Mary Lou and Paula on there because I know they're workers they're going to make. They all come together with you and Skid to make that system sing. We have those shows. Those shows people love.

I would never listen to either of them. And that doesn't mean they're bad shows. They're just not for me. So I'm making Gatewalkers. It's a show that I would enjoy. And when I watch these episodes every week, I'm just like, from the banter, from like the whole way it's structured, I watch these clips. I feel like such a fucking loser laughing at our clips, things that I've seen three or four times. But whenever

Francis sends me the finished clips and McD posts them, I'm just like, man, this is the show that I want. I think it's going to keep getting better and more exciting, whether or not we change stories. I'm sorry that people don't enjoy it. Those who do though, I think you're going to be in for a fun ride. Yeah. I'm not really seeing what you're talking about.

I suppose this is a subreddit thing, I guess, but I just... Subreddit and Discord, yeah. I just kind of hang out on YouTube and man, people love it. People love it. I mean, there are some complaints, but yeah, you get people that are just like... It's a lot of combat. Five stars, amazing Cliffy, one of the best episodes. Yeah, so yeah, it's all over the place.

Yeah, it's mainly the subreddit and the data started to come into the Discord as well. And it's a lot of the same voices over and over again, but like, it's okay. I mean, I just, I watched this episode like, how could you not love this? This is like, it feels like these crazy situations. Like how the hell are they going to get out of this? And then if you do, it's really exciting. If you don't, that's exciting as well. I love this comment from at Travis MCCG on YouTube. I love the bravery or the stupidity. I haven't finished the episode yet. And then it says edit. I finished the episode and it's stupidity.

Yeah, good one. So, all right, well, then let's see what Professor Eric has to say about it because Professor Eric's gonna weigh in on a very, very important episode with a lot of technical aspects. Bam, right out of the gate, first sentence from Professor Eric. Pow! Extremely clean, weak on rules.

Nothing that had any outcome, affected the outcome at all. Wow, did you hear that everybody? Did you hear that? I don't think they did. All right, so there were some mistakes. So let's see, the first two rounds until Barnes caught up with the hobgoblin

felt very good in terms of still running it in initiative and players coming up with interesting ways of working within the three action system. The aquatic combat rule summary you got was correct. Good job resolving that one quickly because aquatic combat can be complicated. The hobgoblin who was fighting Buggles was stunned one by Zephyr's stunning fist, which is important for blocking their reactive strike, which we know they have, for blocking it, for stopping them for having a reactive strike, but it was never triggered during the stun

duration. So it had no impact, unfortunately. That's something we would easily missed. Yeah. As mentioned last week, the leader retreating back to be adjacent to one hobgoblin. Oh, we said this last week. Are you aware now that the formation needs to be three of them together, not two?

Oh, I can't remember. they're side-by-side No bonus three of them have to be three of them adjacent in order to get the formation bonus I don't remember what was going on in my head at the time But but and he said it and professor Eric said it last week We covered it in the FOD that they don't get the bonus until they have three but it never actually that they don't get the bonus until they have three, but it never actually impacted any rolls against AC because the raise shield action always gives them a net. So those two bonuses don't stack,

but the shield was a plus two bonus and you were adding it as if it was plus one. So you were giving plus one from that and plus one from formation. The net was, it was actually just plus two from the shield. But so the end AC was correct. End up being correct. Yeah, it's interesting.

Those are those one of those ones that in hindsight, I don't mind if I mess up or if I change on purpose to kind of accommodate the five person party. I know a lot of people don't like that. But like those little minor things with the difference of one or two AC. Yeah, give them a plus one if there's just two of them. Yeah. Now that makes a huge difference in two A as opposed to one E and addition to an AC. But those were those one of those ones that I like. I don't mind if I screw up because I'm like, okay, there's five people and I don't adjust a ton. So it's okay. But it's good

to know. I can't remember what I did in the moment. That's important. The hobgoblin. This was another the hobgoblin was stunned. Oh, this is the same one that was stunned. So didn't get the reactive strike. The hobgoblin was stunned. So no third is the same one that was stunned so didn't get the reactive strike. The Hobgoblin was stunned so no third action, the shield could not be raised, but it was never attacked. It didn't factor in. Okay, now this is going forward to next week. This is just an FYI for you. If for some reason Zephyr is successful in what she does, Professor Eric points out,

if she wants to carry Buggles, there's a table in the player core for the bulk of creatures You might need to know the bulk of a creature This is a quote from the book you might need to know the bulk of a creature Especially if you intend to carry someone this table lists the bulk of a creature But the GM can always adjust this number player core page 269 small creature is three bulk Typically outside of heavy armor. I don't tend to adjust that number. This is Professor Eric now. Three bulk is unlikely to encumber a monk. So an unencumbered move is most likely going into next week, a fine thing if it comes to that.

So yeah, that's one of those things where like I felt confident there was a answer in the book, but I was more interested in yes ending Kate's idea because it was so brave and cool. I'm glad, I would have been bummed if you guys found it and realized, oh, she couldn't do it or something like that because I felt like what we resolved at the table worked well. But, you know, hats off to Paizo that there's actually, it's in there, you just gotta dig. You know, we just wanna keep it moving and not take away from this brave moment.

Sefer needed that moment and you know, we'll see what happens. All right, let's bring it to a little listener mail. Your group photos are likely missing someone important. You with Admi on the new Google Pixel 9 Pro, never rely on a stranger again. Add yourself to any group photo through the magic of AI. Get yours with TELUS at TELUS.com slash Pixel 9 Pro. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch while we were recording this and he goes, it's tomorrow. Oh, that's so funny. I was like, I'm sorry, we're recording Canada Butter.

It's too late. It's tomorrow in our world. You're so good at doing it like, you're like, oh, today. And I'm like, wait, damn it. Cause even you said it, I'm like, I thought he was a day before Skid and Skids on Halloween. Such an idiot.

I'm out of practice. All right, this one from Ryan from Portland. Ryan did attend the Portland show. So that's awesome, Ryan, thank you for coming. He'll see it. Yeah, you saw it. What few, so few people will. Hey there old pals, not sure if this is the best venue

for this queue for the FOD, but here it goes. On a recent FOD, you answered a question about how you create the illusion of not recording episodes back to back by having an unwritten rule about not continuing running jokes across multiple episodes. This made me wonder about other quote unquote rules, implicit or explicit that you have in order to establish a GCN house style, sort of like a show Bible for a TV show. I'd love to hear you and Troy talk about what you think a GCN show Bible would include and how you prepare new guest stars

to be successful in GCN games. I think it's a great question. Yeah. We have talked about this in the past and we have had these conversations with guests when they come on. What do we do? How do we present things? What are a little different? I don't know, what jumps to top of mind for you about

how the GCN runs games? That's interesting because we just had a meeting, you and I before this, talking about like, you know, creating systems and it'd be good for us to like have a written system on how we do a GCN show so that, you know, we can eventually have other people make GCN shows without any of us. But at the same time, it's important for each show to have its own vibe, right? I like 10 minutes of banter for all of our shows, 10 to 15 sometimes it goes over. And then the show, giving at least an hour of show and it will see you next week and everyone kind of follows that thing.

But I think about early on when we started doing remote recording and we started working with those LA people, one of the first things we said is like, don't mute your mic when you're not talking. You know what I mean? Like this isn't a Zoom business meeting. You know what I mean? Your reactions are a part of it. And so one thing we always stress to people that aren't like within our core, although everyone now that we work with is in our core. But early on, it's like, don't just sit and wait for your turn.

Your turn is constant. You are a part of this. Laugh at people's jokes. Tag. React to their turns. Yeah. Comment on things they did. Yeah.

And just trying to make things... Get away from just rolling and reading results. It's like turn those things into storytelling moments. We always tell this now, but I guess we kind of started that. We tell people to be narratively descriptive about their combat actions. Don't rely so much on just mechanics, but describing it. We talk about the importance of the audio audience, not forgetting the audio audience is there. And so you can't lean on a crutch of the faces you make or the funny bits you do on air. Here and there. Yeah.

When you're on a map saying I go to this square or that square here or there describing where I come in behind Buggles, you know, like little things like that make a big difference to the audio audience. It makes it better for the video audience too. You know what I mean? It's just like always be more descriptive. Oh yeah. That's better all around. I mean, it's lazy English to just say here and there. I mean, that's literally, I learned that from an English professor in high school who was

excellent at what he did. And it was all about how much he hated using these basic words. I can't remember what the name of the grammatical term for those words are, but just those all encompassing words. He's like, No, like, be specific, tell people what you mean in every sentence. You know, what you're trying to say, by being descriptive and not relying on assuming people know what you mean when you use these general terms. Yeah, I think that that is that's part of our house style. We also, you know, there was a time early in Blood of the Wild where that is run by an outsider, quote unquote, and featured two new guests who are very dominant personalities, Mary Lou and Paula.

So this show felt like the first show that was really run and was really dominated and had a vibe that was outside the Glass Cannon Network where skid and I were just kind of guest stars They're along for the ride and early on I had to like make changes I had to like tell them things that we do that I didn't realize We did and one of them is the banter and I didn't say you need to banner for ten minutes but like Jared would start a show and get into it within the first minute or two and Jared would introduce the cast within the first minute or two. And Jared would introduce the cast every single episode because he was used to coming out of Stream of Blood where there were new casts all the time and it was always

live. It had like a live show feel. You know, it was like, this is different. It's a weekly podcast. This is like a family. People get to know everybody on this show. You don't really have to introduce everybody every week. Then it was like the end of the show, I remember. They didn't know how to end the show because it's a new group. You don't really have it written down. Nobody's decided. And so every time it would be this awkward, Jared would thank the audience for listening. He'd thank us all for playing. He would name us all again, like you were signing off of a live show. And so I had to explain that one of the things that we do, and I do think this is very unique to us,

is we always have that we'll see you next week moment. There's some sort of moment where you say that the thing is ending, and then we bent out for 10 to 20 seconds. Like bent out. We keep the mics rolling. We keep talking. And sometimes what we keep saying is not in the episode.

It fades out as the music fades up. But the idea is you don't say goodbye, and then everybody's quiet, and then the episode ends. It's like you're all still at the table. You're all still talking, jawing as the episode is fading out. And I realized that was something you had to say, and you had to plan. But we just did it naturally from an early stage.

And until you had to... Let's start with Fuck You Troy. Fuck You Troy, I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. Yeah, exactly.

So like little things like that became, you know, part of the show Bible. I'm trying to think what else. I think those are some really good points that you brought up about, you know, it's always your turn. You always need to be involved in the show. You don't just sit there and not say anything until it's your turn. Feel free to hop in whenever. We don't mind people being anachronistic with their jokes and, you know, you can come

in and, you know, comment on what's going on. And, you know, we do. Breaking the fourth wall. We're fine with know, we do. Breaking the fourth wall. We're fine with breaking the fourth wall. Breaking the fourth wall is fine. Yeah, going back and forth, stopping to talk about something in your life that, like, you know, you got to feel it out. Same thing with comedy.

It's like there's been episodes. Remember editing Giant Slayer? We're like, there'd be a bit. Somebody raises the bit, somebody else raised the bit, and then someone else would always come in and like just take it too far. We just cut that out. You know what I mean? It's like you just learn that, you learn that chemistry with the group.

It's like finding your time to speak while always being on, finding when to continue the joke and when to let it die. It's a rhythm. And we also describe to people that are coming in that the base of our idea for what these shows are, they are not comedy shows. Like they end up being funny, but they're not comedy shows. So like you don't have to come in with bits and you don't need to come in with silly character concepts

just to generate a laugh. Like sometimes that does happen. We let our hair down a little bit, we'll get a little silly in a one-off or a side quest or whatever. But by and large, like when it's new group, a little bit, we'll get a little silly in a one-off or a side quest or whatever. Yeah. But by and large, like when it's new group, a new party, a new story, we're like, we prioritize drama over comedy, but we will often roll into comedy because we're not trying to. We find when you try to be funny, it doesn't really work. If you're trying to tell a serious

story, but you're ready to crack jokes at any point, it makes everything better. It's funnier and it's more dramatic when the drama moments hit. Feel free to lean into drama. You know, we tell people that, like, serious moments are great. We love serious moments. And so, because a lot of people, I think,

can come to us and think that we just want silliness all the time because of some of our clips and stuff like that. No, that's not the priority. That is the beautiful surprise that comes out when you're being serious about the game. That's just always interested in me as an artist is like turning on a dime between super dark and super hilarious because it causes this reaction in the viewer.

I think we've just kind of perfected it without talking about it. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's really cool. I think it's one of our hallmarks. But yeah, you can't – but that wouldn't go in the Bible. You know what I mean? You just kind of –

It's so hard. Yeah, yeah. Like little technical things about how we post-produce shows and stuff like that. That would all go in a Bible. But yeah, some of these things are fully unwritten and will never be written, but you just kind of feel them out over time. Anyway, thanks for the question, Ryan. That was awesome.

Thanks for coming to Portland. We appreciate having you there. Man, that Portland show was awesome. You can hear it. You'll hear it on the podcast one of these days in its entirety, but yeah, dealing with the video as we speak. So that's going to do it for this week, bud. Thanks for coming back on the FOD.

Oh, pal. Oh, chief. Oh Thanks for coming back on the final pal. Oh chief All right, always always a pleasure nation remember Extra life this weekend huge deal remember Friday at 12 o'clock Eastern first me Paula Mary Lou and Sydney streaming a wilderness that's gonna be so fun a new story starting there And then Saturday starting at 8 a.m. I think Troy, right? Aren't you right up out of the gate? Kicking things off, yeah. 8 a.m. Eastern time with Troy. Get up at 5 a.m. on the, or 5 a.m.

Yeah, on the West Coast. Setting an alarm, hanging out with Troy. And we're going to start raising money for a really good cause all day Saturday into the night and even into Sunday morning. Really looking forward to it. Stay tuned for a very special one-shot hosted by your good buddy, Joe O'Brien. It's going to be great. All right.

We'll see everybody. Take it easy. Bye. Do you like what you hear? Well then it's time to make your membership official. You can start your 30 day free trial today and become an official member of the Naish at jointhenash.com with the promo code GCN30. That's jointheN-A-I-S-H.com and use code GCNash.com with the promo code GCN30. That's JoinTheNash.com and use code GCN30.

That's GCN30 to gain access to exclusive podcasts, ad free episodes, and live streams you can't find anywhere else. Once again, it's JoinTheNash.com. Use code GCN30 at signup to get your first 30 days for free. See what everybody else is talking about and join the nation today.