The Glass Cannon Podcast - Glass Cannon Radio #16 – The Star Wars Curse, Andor Season 2, RPGs Based on Film, TV, and Novels

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Why is it that so many extended Star Wars films and TV shows struggle to receive high praise from Star Wars fans? Also, water cooler talk about the first quarter of Andor Season 2 and a list of some of the best RPGs based on Film, TV, and novels. 0:00 Intro9:00 A Star Wars Curse50:45 Andor1:17:15 IP Roleplaying1:36:45 The GCR Brewery1:54:00 GCN NewsWatch the video here: https://youtu.be/Ps9IgPpKRz4⁠⁠⁠ Access exclusive podcasts, ad-free episodes, and livestreams with a 30-day free trial with code "GCN30" at ⁠⁠jointhenaish.com⁠⁠. 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 ⁠⁠https://hubs.li/Q03cn8wr0⁠⁠. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit ⁠⁠https://hubs.li/Q03cmY380⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We hope you're enjoying your Air Canada flight. Rocky's Vacation, here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet! Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation.

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No. Some wine? Yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets markets the app for details You are listening to the glass cannon network This is Glass Cannon Radio with your host Jared Logan and Joe O'Brien. Oh, uh oh, here come Gucci.

Oh no, no, no, no. I come in here salon and set your permanent on fire. Don't bring Gucci into Glass Cannon Radio. Gucci. Keep Gucci in the realm where Gucci belongs. He's a fan favorite character. People in the Twitch chat were requesting Gucci. I give the fans what they want, Joe.

Fan service. Something I think we're going to talk a little bit about today, actually. And be sure to check out, coming up in one exact month the Glass Cannon Radio Gucci special. The entire the entire two hours will be hosted by Gucci. So look forward to that. By the way his name is spelled G-O-O-C-H-I-E why would I spell it like the fashion brand? Why are you guys spelling it like that? Use common sense. For those that are not familiar,

please get them up to speed. So this comes out of Blood of the Wild, our subscription Pathfinder 2E run through of Quest for the Frozen Flame, where you spontaneously and on the whim created the character Gucci. What's the log line on Gucci? Who is Gucci?

The logline is what is the worst, stupidest intro band I could possibly open the show with? What is the most unbearable character to host a show? The most unbearable character in Gucci. Um, so, uh, Joe, uh, speaking of guest hosts last week, we had Mary Lou. She was absolutely fabulous. I heard fantastic. Yes.

I mean, the show felt like it was, it was pushed to the next level. My point is we now know that we have an option if we need to replace one of us. Yep. Yep. I hear you. I hear you. My point is we now know that we have an option if we need to replace one of us. Yep. Yep. I hear you. I hear you. I asked McD how it went. He was like, dude, amazing. Yeah. You know, as the host that takes that week off, you love to hear that, but there's also that little bit of like, oh man.

I remember one time when I was working for James Corden, Brian Cranston hosted the show cause James Corden couldn't be there and he was so amazing. And James Corden came back and we were all like, I miss Cranston. I miss Cranston. Yeah. Guest hosts I feel like are just so wonderful. They like, they come in with all this fresh energy, these different ideas, these different perspectives. It changes the whole dynamic of the show for a little while. It's super fun. And then they move on with their life. It's great.

Nice to have some feminine energy on the show because you and I radiate this sort of like macho, alpha dog. Yeah. There's sort of a male Muskk coming off of us. Yes war and bloodshed That Mary Lou didn't have she has exactly what I think about when I when I think about you Yeah, specifically I think about just Manly traits the most alpha dog. Yes, can you know construction work building? I'm a sigma. Is that right? Am I a Sigma? Am I using that correctly? I don't know what that word means.

I just know that now my six year old uses it and I still am. Am I a Sigma or at, or people that are lame? Sigma's I can't remember. I don't know. Chad will get back to us. They'll get back to us. How are you doing buddy? Are you good?

I didn't see you last week. How was your week? How was your weekend? Pretty bad diarrhea right now. Dealing with a lot of stuff family wise. Wife's pretty mad at me sleeping on the couch. Sorry I asked. Kids, I just, I'm just kind of dealing with this other stuff. So I've just kind of been letting them live on their iPads. Um, and, uh, yeah, I've, I've started smoking again. So, uh, really, really, really bad right now.

Um, no, everything's great. Everything's great. I'm sorry, guys. My life is a high five from Jesus Christ. Man, your pendulum swings. Sorry. They're hard to keep up with. Yeah.

Well, I'm excited to get into the show today. We got a great show in store for you guys. And man, we're going to hear a lot from you all today for our little slate, our slate. And thank you to Ejnar for putting our slate of topics up on the Discord. So what we're going to talk about today is we're going to start off talking about a very interesting angle to Star Wars, which is really the Star War. We're calling it a Star Wars curse. And it is why, why is it that so many of the expanded Star Wars content struggle

in our opinion and we want to see if you have that same opinion. Which of those extended things do you love? Which do you not like? Do you think that there's a common reason why some of these things fail? Is it our perception that they're not good or okay? Sorry, go ahead Joe. It is there's a lot of different angles. There's a very complicated topic

and it's gonna be very caller driven, so we're excited to hear you guys weigh in on that. And that's gonna lead us right into talking about what is perceived right now by a lot of us as a great extended Star Wars universe product, and that's Andor. We're gonna talk about a little, we're gonna dip into the second season of Andor

a little bit, a couple minor early season spoilers, look out, but we're not talking about the whole season of Andorra a little bit. Couple minor early season spoilers, look out, but we're not talking about the whole season yet. Then we're gonna talk about IP role playing, which is this whole genre of role playing games that have developed out of famous movie franchises and book franchises and comic franchises and stuff before doing a new segment we're calling the GCR Brewery. This is gonna be not beer related, but is going to be where Jared and

I and you live home brew a scenario. We're going to experiment with this. I think it's going to be really fun. For an IP property today, right? For an IP property today. Yes. And then last but not least, we're going to do a little GCN news. We're going to wrap it up with exciting news from the Glass Cannon Network. So stick around for that. All right. So first, do you want to wait, do you want to hear? I used to do a joke about breweries. Do you want to know what it was? Love your jokes, please.

This is my joke that I did on stage about breweries. I was like, the problem with the breweries is that the word brewery sounds like you're already drunk. Hey, do you want to go to the brewery? Brewery. Hey, a bunch of us are going to go to the brewery? very Hey, a bunch of us are gonna go to the brewery That's good looks like you've already been to the brewery brewery that's how I that's a good bit. It's a good bit Those are my albums on Spotify those those of you the one away in on all these things we talked about including

Getting your opinions in on the expanded Star Wars universe and IP role playing and helping us build a scenario. You can do that by connecting to our Discord through the Glass Kind of Network Discord. You can do that by going to jointhenash.com and signing up to subscribe to the network. You can do it for free if you use code GCN30. You can get in for free. And you guys should really sign up for Naish Vorpal tier. It's the top tier, and I do a cam girl show.

If you're Naish Vorpal tier, and I show full butthole. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Joe, here's why I like having you back. You laugh and stuff like that. And Mary Lou just went, yeah, okay. And I made her and made her own joke and made her own joke, obviously. But I know it's just, it's just, it's so funny to me, like ever since the beginning, since the beginning of us working together over COVID, since the first Blade session, I've just been, always been a huge Jared Logan fan. I can't, your style of humor is right up my alley.

And I read, I read plenty of negative comments online about your style, right? People are like, I don't find that funny or whatever. And I'm just like, I don't get it. I don't get those people because I, anything he says makes me laugh. I can't get it. I don't get those people because I, anything he says makes me laugh. I can't explain it. So people say I'm cringe. People say I'm cringe and I say those people are sigmas. Are you,

am I using that right? Am I, am I using that right? Are we using that right? Um, anyway, please, Jared, kick us off with, uh, your thoughts on a star Wars curse. Let's talk about the Star Wars Curse. Is it a curse? There is a sort of common knowledge among fans of science fiction, fantasy, geek stuff, that not all of the Star Wars content out there,

and there is now a lot, I feel like it's quadrupled in the last 10 years. Um, there are so much star Wars content and a lot of it is not very good. Now where the drop off occurred and, and by the way, and this drop off is theoretical. If you think that there hasn't been a drop off or that it is people's strange warped perception, please call in and let us know. But I think generally people say, some people say the drop-off occurred

after the original trilogy, that when they got into the prequels with Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman, that was a huge drop-off. Some people say that the drop-off didn't occur until the latest movie trilogy, the, the JJ Abrams movie trilogy, uh, if you will, the Kathleen Kennedy movie trilogy. Um, some people say it's the TV that has, that has really weakened the brand. There are all these shows out there on Disney plus.

I mean, there are a lot of them now, And I think a lot of them, at least among critics, get very lukewarm reviews. So what we want to talk about today is, is there really a Star Wars curse? Is a lot of the Star Wars content weak sauce? And why? Why is it so hard to make a Star Wars show? Yeah, it's a tricky question.

Like that's what we kind of want to drill down on. Like we're not trying to go property by property, idea by idea, show by show, and pick it apart and say why it sucks. Right. We're kind of looking for overarching challenges that creators seem to be facing with going to this iconic

trilogy and making expanded content out of it and having it fall short most of the time, but not all of the time in my opinion. Why is it hard to make a Star Wars show? Yeah, yeah. Because they certainly have plenty of money, right? Do you have any initial thoughts, Jared, on specifically that question? Why is it hard to make a Star Wars show? Well, I have a couple of thoughts. First of all, the first one I wrote down is, it's for kids, or is it? Yeah, it's a tricky middle line.

The whole property. There's a really weird middle line. So George Lucas has gone on record multiple times in multiple interviews saying that he sees Star Wars as being for 12 year olds But the audience that was around for those original Trilogy of films and even the audience that was around for the prequels have aged. They've become much older They are adults now and sometimes I think those people see the stuff that's coming out now which is still in the Lucas vein, geared somewhat toward 12 year olds.

And they go, this, this is stupid. This is like, this isn't what I want. This isn't as serious as I remember that original trilogy being. And I think it's because they're looking at a property intended for kids with adult eyes. Now, there are exceptions to this. Obviously, Andor is a show that is intended for adults. I mean, in those first three episodes, there is an attempted rape, spoiler alert. So that is a very adult show.

And I think that's why so many people I'm around are like, and, or is the good show out of the star wars shows. They're really just adults saying, I like the adult version of star wars. And then they look back at that original trilogy you're saying, and they just like that out of nostalgia. Like they wouldn't like that as much. If it was new today, they don't like that as much if it was new today. They don't realize that they're seeing it through a certain perspective or a certain kind of rose colored glasses. You know, there's a lot, there's a lot not to like in the original trilogy if,

if you're looking for it. I mean, uh, the thing about the original trilogy that I think is significant is that it changed movies. There really weren't these sort of high concept, sci-fi, fantasy, superheroish, like big genre movies coming out at the time that Star Wars came out. What is that, 74? 77, I think. 77, sorry, 77. So, you know, there really isn't like that kind of film coming out at the time, and it really changed, a trilogy of films where you need to see all of them,

it really changed movies. And so that's such a huge watershed. I think people are hit by that milestone in a very special way, and then can't really, can't really look back with anything other than awe and love. Yeah, I wonder. I wonder because I felt very similarly in that the whole and by the way, Paula joined us here on Twitch and said nothing is as good as the original trilogy quote unquote that

that's Paula weighing in. Paula get on Discord if you want to join us and talk about it, it'd be great to hear from you. But hop on Discord Discord we'll get you on. But it's there's that aspect of like, well, I really like Andor and that's because it's geared towards adult themes. Yeah, I just I just I don't know. I think that it's kind of crazy to think that, I just, I don't know. I think that it's kind of crazy to think that, you know, that some of these movies particularly, you know, like to me the worst of the worst is Attack of the Clones.

That to me is the worst of the worst. I'm one of those who do not like the prequels. I think that they're pretty bad. And I do feel like that's not geared towards kids. I mean, I don't think it's geared towards kids or towards 12 year olds. The prequels? Yeah, the second movie. The prequels are absolutely geared toward kids.

Well then, I think it's a failure because there's some, like, I mean, the way that it's portrayed I think is pretty, I feel like they're trying to do adult stuff in a terrible way. Not in the first movie. I think the first movie fits that. Everything in the first movie, of course, has a little Anakin in the pod racing and stuff. I mean, very clearly geared toward kids. Jar-Jar's in the first movie. The second movie, I don't remember as well. To me, it's mostly forgettable. But what I do remember is that all three of those movies are amazingly toy attic. You know the word toy attic? Everything can, everything can become a toy. Everything you see could be a toy. Um, and I remember in the second or third movie, there's this part where they have to sneak up on some Imperials or some bad guys and

they ride these like big colorful lizards that keep like making sounds. And I'm like, why are you, why are you riding those? Or like Darth Sidious with the robot guy with the four arms. That's a toy, not a character. Like there's really no re like, you know, it's so over the top and huge and silly. Well, what is the, um... Yeah.

I guess what is the purpose of... So, like, how do we narrow that down into a reason why it's hard to make good Star Wars stuff? Like, as an umbrella statement, is it because everything has to be marketable to tweens? Like, yeah, or younger. I mean, really younger, right? I mean, really younger. They want the toys to go to like six year olds if they can, you know?

Right. But like, but if you had a better, like if you made, so let's take the Clone Wars TV show, for example, which I did not see a lot of, but I liked it when I saw it. I remember, you know, back. That's like one of the things alongside Andor that I hear a lot of people going, this is good. Right. And that's obviously for kids in its own way, but it's like, but they just, it was good

writing, good characters, good story, you know, kind of compiled on each other. I don't know. For me, the, you look at it with rose colored glasses because you saw it in a formative time in your life and now nothing can live up to that. I just, I don't like leaning on that argument. I feel like it's too much of a, an excuse for failure that doesn't really make sense. These things are kind of.

But Joe, it's definitely a component of it. It is definitely a component of it. People become adults and then they're like, why can't I be a child again? And you just can't. I think that's a huge part of people's hatred and disgruntlement with Star Wars. Is it not possible to make a movie, like looking at the most recent three, seven, eight, nine, is it not possible to make a movie with an evil, you know, sort of empire themed kind of stuff, and space dog fighting and stuff like that, and have it not be for adults? I mean, have it be for adults? Like, is that just not really,

like once you get into space dogfights and rebellions, what I'm saying is the major themes to me are not child themes. They are adult themes. You should be able to create in this space the way Andor did with very serious themes that, you know, address these kind of these tropes of storytelling that are very adult tropes. So yeah, and I think, I think to some extent, the new trilogy, 789, does do that to some

extent, you know? I mean, you see Han Solo get stabbed, don't you? You see him die. Yeah. So it does bring in those adult themes. I mean, you see Han Solo get stabbed, don't you? You see him die. Yeah. So it does bring in those adult themes. It is supposed to, but it's still, I think, supposed to be kind of like for 12 to 14 year olds where they're ready for those adult themes.

But the film, I think that there's still someone with their finger on the family button saying, this is for mom, dad, brother and sister to all go see together. And that's always going to kind of hold you back a little bit from a complexity of storytelling. And you know, of course the reason that it is- But it shouldn't hold you back from quality of character. You know, it shouldn't. And I think that that is where you see a lot of things falling short. People don't connect, even 12 year olds,

that much with a given character. Well, maybe they do. We're not 12. I don't know how 12 year olds feel about The Force Awakens. That's why I want to hear some calls. Does anybody have kids that are 14, that are 18, that like love the seven, eight, nine? You know, I'd be curious to hear that.

Is there anybody out there listening who loves the prequels? I would love to hear that. And by the way, Joe, I think that there are other reasons why Star Wars movies aren't working or Star Wars properties aren't working. But I'm going to leave it for the callers to kind of weigh in. Yeah, let's take a couple calls and then we can keep going as we go. Let's go to Charles Froh.

Charles Froh wanted to hop up there and get on the record. What's up, Charles? Hey, how's it going? Can you hear me? Yeah, we can hear you. How are you doing, buddy? Hey, how's it going? Can hear me. Yeah, we can hear you. How are you doing, buddy? All right, doing great.

Thanks for having me. I think you said a lot of the sort of people's opinions and when they saw, and I think those are very true. One thing that I believe is also accurate is due to, I believe, what Lucasfilm has done with what they call the volume, their stagecraft stage. It is made, and McD called me out in Discord chat, relatively easy to film these incredibly looking sci-fi masterpieces.

But because of that, they're pumping it out so much and so often that I think that's led to what's now instead of, Oh, I didn't like this movie because I didn't feel like it was very good. Now we're seeing just an inevitable decrease in quality because so much is getting put out there. So that's, I think it's a decrease in quality on the side of the people making it, or do you think it's just all of us having franchise fatigue where we're like, I can't keep track of all this star wars.

Both, both, but there's obvious, there are show makers that have the passion in it, that there's still stuff that comes out that is either widely appreciated like GANDOR or selectively appreciated due to it being the target audience, but it's still good. I think Mandalorian belongs in that discussion. Well, that's what I was going to ask you, Charles. What do you think of the Mandalorian? I really like the Mandalorian. Didn't care for Book of Boba Fett.

Okay. Right. And I've heard that a lot. There's a lot of fans of the Mandalorian and people sort of universally dislike Book of Boba Fett. I wasn't that into the Mandalorian. When you show me baby Yoda, I don't go, oh, I go. It has also been a great connection point for, uh for my youngest has really appreciated it.

So how old is your youngest? He's the target audience. He's seven and introduced to Star Wars through all the Lego Star Wars stuff and is gateway drug to seeing all the other stuff. Awesome. Oh, thanks for the call Charles. Thanks Charles. A really good start.

I, speaking of the Lego stuff. So I was just in, oh my gosh, I can't remember what city it was. I feel like it was Seattle maybe. But a wonderful member of the nation handed me as a gift at the show at the VIP meet and greet a copy of the Lego Star Wars Nintendo video game that came out in 2023 and said, this is a great game to play with your kids like a co-op game to play with your kids. I just started it this past weekend, just finally fired it up, got it out because I watched the first three with my kids, four, five and six, like a month or two ago, and

it landed. My kids are six and eight, it landed. They really liked it, they were into it, and now we're in the process of watching them again, which is great. They wanted to play this video game game. So I fired it up and the video game is terrific. I mean, it is easy, you know, to make a... Right now we're just playing like episode four or five, and it is easy to kind of like work within that scope. Like if you just have to recreate Hoth, I mean, all the ideas are already there. They're already like set up for you. You just kind of like make little scenarios in it. And we'll talk about that a little bit in IP role playing later, right? Where you've been given all of the

foundational material to work with. And then you can kind of get creative within a box. That's really fun. The game does a spectacular job of making new and interesting complex scenarios. Like there's kind of new combats and new things you have to do during the battle for Hoth, like in the base and stuff and like getting the Millennium Falcon ready and like things that aren't really covered in the film as much and it's really, really fun. I've always wanted to get the Millennium Falcon ready.

Dude, I've dreamed of playing Star Wars. I thought, is there any way I could load cargo onto the Millennium Falcon? This is why I sometimes dislike video games. Although I have heard that Lego Star Wars is one of the best Star Wars video games, which is surprising, right? Uh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's just awesome. And I, and you know, a big part of it is gonna you know, definitely gonna be the The licensing of the music cuz hearing the music over and over while you're playing. It's so epic. It's so amazing That original music obviously does a lot to carry the the original franchise to a big fan of the original franchise has joined us on Discord Paula Deming is here Paula step up the stage

Your mic is muted, Paula. Just unmute that, we should hear. I'm unmuted now. There we go. There you go, I got you. Hi, Paula, good morning. Hi, good morning. I don't know how articulate I can be about this,

but you were like, I thought you were like, have your feelings heard if I didn't raise my hand. I would. Because I was here, so. I would, good read. That's right. I'm glad you're here. We're all glad you're here. All right. So the three movies, the three original movies are the best.

Nothing comes close in your opinion. Nothing comes close and you can't even get the best version of them anymore because George Lucas came in and ruined them. So I grew up watching the VHS set box set that you could get. the VHS set box set that you could get. Me too. At some point, I guess in the 90s is when that would have been available. And that's how I fell in love with Star Wars. And then you can't even see that version anymore because here's the problem. Here's where I think the problem really is. I think that when someone who has created something that perhaps was maybe just lightning in a bottle or a collaboration that really worked, and then it gets attributed to one

person who then becomes in our minds this like auteur, right? And suddenly they can do no wrong. I feel like that is why so much of the new Star Wars stuff doesn't work as well because I think too much credit is given to George Lucas himself and then he's allowed to kind of do whatever he wants and then that Branches off into a lot of like cynical Capitalism focused like well, let's just make money. Let's just use all these characters. Let's not tell news stories Let's use characters that people know because that they'll watch if it's about if it's about Boba Fett People like why do we don't do we obviously no one wanted? Oh my god. I so agree with you Boba Fett. People are like, why do we don't, do we, obviously no one wanted the story about Boba Fett. Do you know what I mean? I don't know, I think that's where all the issue is.

When the Book of Boba Fett thing started to get promo'd, I was like, I don't care about Boba Fett. Like, I just don't understand the obsession with this character at all. Like, he could carry an entire TV series. He was a really cool part of Return of the Jedi, right? I think that's what he's well. He's also in he's also in Empire. He's not even that cool. He has a cool helmet.

That's all he has. He's got a rocket. He's got a rocket pack. The minute he uses the rocket pack about one to three minutes later, he dies in like the most pathetic way. Like it's a joke. Sure. I mean, yeah, he was never meant to, you know, be the protagonist of a series. Exactly. I think Paula makes a really good point

that George Lucas is part of why Star Wars, a lot of it doesn't work. Now we can only really give him credit for not, you can't even really give him total credit for the first three. I mean, likedan can't yeah like the best one maybe arguably but you can't give him total credit for the prequels which he wrote and directed and those movies are not good they're not good and I was not a kid when they came out but I was young I mean I wasn't old when they came out I

was a young teen I think I can't remember exactly what year and I was not a kid when they came out, but I was young. I mean, I wasn't old when they came out. I was a young teen, I think. I can't remember exactly what year. And I was so excited for them. And I thought they were bad when I saw them at the time. I was so disappointed. And I think it's just when someone gets- I'm actually kind of surprised. I'm kind of surprised to hear that because I felt differently.

I was a little older than you, but not much. And I was very excited for The Phantom Menace, and I liked it. I remember not walking out of the theater at whatever I was, 18 years old, 17 years old, being like, that was terrible. I heard it was terrible from a whole bunch of people later. And then it sort of changed my opinion. Like, you definitely walked out of that first one.

Like, that stunk. Well, not the whole thing, because I did end up getting, like, I have the movie sound, walked out of that first one. Like, that stunk. Well, not the whole thing, because I did end up getting, like, I have the movie soundtrack from it. Like, so I liked it enough to buy the CD of the music. But I think the thing about the first one, Phantom Menace, that really bothered me, and I feel bad saying this because I know he got bullied

for it, but like the kid, whatever his name is, I can't remember now. Yeah. Jake or whatever. Jake Lloyd. Was not good. And I don't think that's his fault. I think he was probably poorly directed. But that's the part- And poorly written.

Are you an angel? Stuck out to me. And he's like, I just have memories of him like flying a spaceship and being like go left Whoa? Oh, no, and I was like, wow, he's really bad And I you know had dreams at this time when they announced they were making new Star Wars movies I was like there needs to be a young Princess Leia and I must play her and so to see to be a young Princess Leia and I must play her. And so to see kids get to be in these movies and not be any good, maybe I was just like jealous.

But that's the part in the first one that stuck out to me as being bad. There is a young Princess Leia in Revenge of the Sith, if I remember correctly, a baby. Yeah, an infant. Unfortunately, slightly too old to play her. So, yeah. Do you like Andor, Paula?

I will say, I have to say this. I have not seen any of the TV shows. Okay. Because it's the same reason why I haven't watched Picard like I have such a love for I Don't want to taint my love for the this thing right like I don't want to ruin Jean-Luc Picard in my mind with this new version of him that what if I don't like it I love Star Trek the next generation. Why would I ruin it?

Do what the rest of us do. Taint your mind by watching it, and then just complain and grouse about it online. Because you have no love in your life. I have heard that Andor is good, but I haven't seen The Mandalorian, I haven't seen any of the TV shows. I thought that Rogue One was a bad

movie. Um, I agree with that. I don't think, you know, a lot of people don't think Rogue One is good. A lot of people don't think that and Jared is one of them. He thinks it's bad. People love Rogue One. Rogue One, I will admit looks amazing. It looks so beautiful and some of the fight sequences are incredible. I should care. And some of the fight sequences are incredible. I should care about the characters in the story. Yeah, we don't remember any of those characters. They, spoilers, and not really,

because it's Rogue One, you know what happens. They die at the end, and I did not care. And I was like, wow, you've had what, two, two and a half hours to make me care about these people, and you didn't do it. And I'm the most empathetic person in the world, so if you can't make me care about your characters, you didn't do it. And I'm the most like empathetic person in the world. So if you can't make me care about your characters, you're doing something wrong. Yeah.

Paula cries when we kill a frog in Blood of the Wild. I cry every time we record Blood of the Wild. Like, come on. Yeah. I think a lot of these things end up suffering from character, a lack of character and an attempt to try to recreate or remanufacture characters from a movie that's not it. And I will say this, Paula, some of my viewings of those extended properties were so disappointing that it kind of started souring me on even the original movies. I started

just like not like, I was like, wait, are those not even that good? And then Andor saved me. So I would watch Andor if I were you. I'd give it a shot because to me, first of all, it is so different than Star Wars so that it feels like its own thing, which is great. But then it has elements of Star Wars that make it feel that much more real and interesting and nuanced.

And so, yeah, I would say definitely give it a shot because it's made me, it has reinvigorated my childlike love for Star Wars in a way that nothing else has by a long shot. I remember when I was a kid being, I'm gonna get Skid up here in a minute, Skid wants to join as well. I remember being, when I was a kid, being like,

like scared, I don't know, I'll use the term scared, terrified, really, of storm troopers and like walkers, right, like to be like, oh, oh, oh my God. And I feel like- Are you terrified of walkers because they are a vehicle that makes no sense? Yeah, I guess that's why. You guys have flying ships.

The rebels beat the adats with flying ships. It's just so funny. But when you're a kid, you don't think this way. You just think, oh, it's a weird fantasy world. And I just, I was so scared of them. And they, but as an adult, you're kind of like, oh, these are kind of funny and a little bit silly. And there's been a lot of obvious parodies made of stormtroopers and stuff. And, but Andor does a great job of

reigniting that fear as an adult of how scary a imperialist military is. It's really, really well done. Paula, if you'd love to stick around, you're more than welcome to. I'm gonna invite Skid up here now, our good buddy. You know him from Blood of the Wild. Skid! I don't wanna monopolize things here, but I'll just say, I think,

and then I'll say hello to Skid and then I'll bounce. But my final closing thought on Star Wars is I think maybe we should all just start making stories about new things and let go of the need to continually retell stories within these same worlds just because they're so old in the past. And I know that that's not how it's going to work, at least not for a while. That's not the cycle we're in. They're not going to spend that much money on a new idea ever. They'll never spend that much money on a new idea. It's very sad but we're growing. As you pointed out or someone

pointed out people will go to a Star Wars movie whether it gets good reviews bad reviews they don't care they will watch a Star Wars show whether it's good or bad all the way to the end because because it's Star Wars. It's why I watched the Rings of Power. I love Tolkien. If we want them to start making new things, I guess we have to stop watching stuff just because it's a franchise we like. Well, we can watch it if it's a franchise we like, if it's good, but let's stop putting up with, I don't know. But also, if some people like it, then it's fine. Like, there are people who like these shows,

and it's okay if you genuinely like it. For sure. If you like the prequels, you're an idiot. Yeah. Okay. Paula, thank you so much for calling in. Step it up. Yeah, thanks for having me. And giving us your opinion.

Great to hear from you, and we'll talk to you soon. All right, I'll leave. Hi, Skid. Bye, Skid. Hello. Bye, Paula. Skid, what's up, good buddy? How does this work?

I can't hear you guys. Oh, you got to right click and unmute me on Discord. He doesn't know that because he can't hear me. Anyway, we'll get to that in a second. In the meantime, sorry. I think another reason that Star Wars is so hard to make content about is that it's been going on for 40 years. So it's like.

Hello? Okay, there we go. Oh yeah, it's just like weighed down by tradition. So they always end up copying stuff, like the desert planet and the force awakens is just like a one-to-one with Tatooine. Hey, Skid, what's up? Hello.

I just wanted to speak out quickly. I know you haven't gotten to Andor yet. Skid's been on the show before, right? I have been on the show. I've never, first time caller though. First time caller, yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to speak out on the.

Skits was literally a guest, yeah, when we did the D&D settings show. That's right. Well, yeah, so I mean, people are afraid to take risks and there's just this like 40 years of tradition, which anything that goes that long, the cracks start to show. I think any institution that goes, you know, 40 or 50 years, it gets weighed down by all these arcane rules that have kind of, you know, developed and piled up and congealed over time.

So now star Wars has all these rules. And if you know anything about, uh, being creative, you want some rules, you want some guidelines, but you don't want too many or it really stifles it. And I feel like that's a lot of what happens to the star Wars shows is that they get weighed down by that 40 years of history. Yeah, I agree. Uh, skid, what, what did you want to weigh in on? I just wanted to speak out in defense of Boba Fett.

Please. The floor is yours. I, because a lot of people will say, it's like, well, he didn't do anything. He's, he's just a guy with a cool helmet. That's why people like him. And I want to say, no, that's not true. And there's two reasons why. There's two reasons why I think that he is, why he's an intriguing character to most people apart from it. He has a cool look. He does have a cool look. But apart from that, there's two substantial reasons.

And a cool name. He has a, he also has a cool name. That's a very cool name. The first reason is he is the only person who can suss out Han Solo's plan to evade the Imperial fleet. He's the only one that knows what Han Solo is doing. He figures it out and he follows him to, to Bespin. The second reason and the biggest one is that he is one of the only people in the movie that Darth Vader respects. To the extent that he even talks back to Darth Vader and instead of force choking him, he's just

like, all right. Yeah. Darth Vader, that tells us everything that we need to know about the character. It is pretty interesting and how he just is kind of like, yeah, he taught, he's like, he needs to be in good condition or whatever, right? Like he's no good to me. What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me. He's like, the Empire will compensate you if he is damaged.

It's almost like Vader saying, sorry, sorry. Yeah, so hey, no, it's cool. We'll take care of you, we'll take care of you. The Empire has your back, Boba Fett. Yeah, it's like, it's okay, don't get angry. So that's my defense, that's my defense, Boba Fett. Yeah, it's like, it's okay. Don't get angry. So that's my defense. That's my defense of Boba Fett. It's a good defense. And I will agree.

He does not, he's not treated well in Return of the Jedi. Like he is, goes out in a very bad way. I think that that was poorly, poorly planned. Some of the extended stuff makes them look pretty cool. But the book of Boba Fett, even though it could have been really good, like there's a reason to want it. It was so badly executed that it left a bad taste

in almost everyone's mouth and it made them look even worse. Yeah. Isn't there expanded universe stuff before they rebooted all of it where Boba Fett crawled out of the Sarlacc pit and like yeah yeah there is yeah like they sort of by the way Skid I'm sorry if I was interrupting you earlier I had you on mute and I thought you were having technical difficulties and it was me I had you on mute too so oh that's perfect okay yeah yeah very tricky Boba Fett's cool man Boba Fett's cool

yeah I think he's really cool. And I know also, I just want to say before I get off here, I know you haven't talked about Andor yet. It looks like it's on the slate. It's up next if you want to hang. OK, yeah, I'll hang out because I just finished episode eight of season two and I had tears streaming down my face. It is one of the best episodes of television I've ever seen.

All right, great. So we're only doing we're going to do minor spoilers today, skid, only up through episode three, we're just going to talk through the first three apps. And then we're going to come back and do the whole season in a few weeks. We'll do the whole look back through the whole season in a few weeks. But hang in there. Let's take a caller. We really monopolize the callers time here with skitt and Paula, but let's get back to them. Corvus raised their hand, wanted to chat on Star Wars. Corvus, if you're still there, join us.

Hey, guys. How's it going? Hey, it's going great, Corvus. Good to talk to you. Yeah, you too. I think the problem as you guys were getting at is kind of multi fold with this with the Star Wars curse thing. One is is as I think was Paula pointed out that George Lucas didn't seem to care that much to begin with. He kind of stumbled ass backwards into Star Wars.

I don't think he understood his own property. I don't think he really understood it. Yeah. And when all these interviews have like, you know, like Mark Hamill, like asking all these questions of George Lucas and George Lucas is like, man, I don't know. Like, what do you want? And it's kind of evidenced by a lot of people believing that Empire Strikes Back is the best of the original three, and it's the one he had the least hand in. The second thing is that the worst part of this is the fans. The worst thing you could do for any piece of media or art is like a thing because it turns you into the worst human imaginable.

So every, you know, these things become so important to people. And if you're just slightly off of like their version of what they think a thing is, they are going to become awful. Yeah, and I'll just say, I did a little dip into some Star Wars like videos, fan made videos like for this and the Star Wars fandom, it gets so toxic. I mean, role playing game fandom is Rachel Maddow compared to the Steve Bannon that is

Star Wars content. It is so scary. It is terrible. But a lot of things are great. I think Mandalorian is great. I really liked Acolyte because I'm the average Star Wars viewer, I think, because I kind of casually enjoy things. I do not love anything. But Acolyte, I thought was really fun because it's a Star Wars Kung Fu revenge show. Man, you got me.

I mean, that sounds awesome, but just to the point of there's too much content Until yesterday, I didn't know the acolyte existed The Like the video games are usually pretty good. I think outlaws I'm gonna be in the minority here, but I thought outlaws is fun Partially nice to the Old Republic. I mean Like is a feeling nominally I think Outlaws is great though because it doesn't have Jedi in it at all and it doesn't mention the Skywalkers once. Neither does Andor. Yeah, that's another reason why Andor is so good. Yeah. Corvus. I think people are done with the Skywalkers. I think that's what it is. Corvus, thanks so much for calling in. That was awesome. And yes, I think you're right. Maybe that maybe that

Skywalker arc has it has reached its pinnacle maybe a long time ago and we just kind of need to move on from that. And I don't know. Some shows are obviously doing that. I don't know. are we being too hard on Star Wars, on its content? I wonder because- I would love to hear an apologist on the line. Anything with this volume of work, isn't the percentage like not that bad?

I mean, wouldn't you say that of all the volume that's out there, 10 to 15% of it is great, and maybe another 20, 30% is good? I mean, is that fair to say about the star list content? Someone's definitely done the math on this somewhere. Someone's done the math. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to make hundreds of hours of TV and dozens and dozens of hours of films, all great.

I mean, in any genre, in any sort of one tone setting, universe, whatever. So, I don't know, maybe Star Wars isn't doing that bad, as Corvus was saying, when you consider the volume, and there is a decent amount out there that's good. Jared, I wanna ask you about something that you mentioned to me off air in a second I'm gonna take one more call and then I want you to talk about an interesting zine you read from the yes

About Star Wars. Let's get let's get Ben up here in them in the meantime Ben. Are you there? I'm here. Can you hear me? Yeah Are you I'm good. How are you guys? Really good Yeah, how are you? I'm good. How are you guys? Do really good Yeah, I just want to echo what Corvus said really and also add in that I was 11 when attack of the clones came out and With my siblings we must have watched it a hundred times. Okay. Wow. All right. All right, so you're right I guess I'm wrong. I guess I'm right. I was a little too old at the time of attack of the clones

Too and and do you? Yeah, yeah, what do you think of it now? Yeah, it's interesting. Um, I do not go back to rewatch the the prequels. That is true I don't go back to rewatch the sequels and I haven't gone back to watch the original trilogy that much either. In my mind, when I was a kid, the original trilogy and the prequels were pretty much on the same level.

I enjoyed them all. I just loved the world and I loved all the lore and just learning more about the world And that was that that's really what stayed with me with Star Wars. So like Corvus I enjoy The new properties the new TV shows and stuff that come out because I love the I love Building up this world in my mind and understanding the universe Yeah, you know, that's a very interesting point. Yeah, thank you. Um, the point that part of the enjoyment now, and this is not, this was not true,

I think in the 1950s or the seventies is that part of the enjoyment of these things is just learning all of the lore and going online in addition to watching the thing and finding out how all the little threads connect. People enjoy things that way now. By that yardstick, everything in Star Wars succeeds. All of it has these little Easter eggs and these little threads that tie the whole universe together.

In reading about this, I was reading something on Polygon that I found kind of interesting. That was like one of the things that makes these Star Wars shows and movies suffer sometimes is the need to constantly bring up those connections and those attachments. And it can sometimes feel forced and decrease and, and, you know, decrease the quality of what would have been something better if you just let it be on its own and didn't have to tie it in to some other thing so that a fan for one second can go, Ooh, neat. Yeah.

But I think that producers and filmmakers to some extent are like, it's hard to make them feel something. So we'll do this kind of cheap way of making you feel something. Yeah. You know, we'll do this kind of like straight across the plate, easy to do way of making you feel something. And they should stop doing that.

It's a narrative cheat. It also makes the universe feel that much smaller when it's just like, it feels like a small town when you've like, everything's interconnected. It's just, it's hard to make it feel expansive. Yeah, I've agreed, yeah. Jared, tell us a bit about that zine that you mentioned. So, so on my dad thread, where I have like a thread, a text thread with all these dads, I know some of them in New York, one of them posted this editorial from a Star Wars fanzine

from 1981, where the fanzine writers state that they are going to end publication of their fanzine because they are disappointed in the Empire Strikes Back. I've seen this. They doubt that the creator, one of the things they say, they doubt that the creators even know what their movie is about. And they say, they end it by saying that the Empire Strikes Back is a quote, dead thing with no life. Yes. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. So it was even like that back then. Yeah, we know. That was, I mean, that was sort of the vibe. There was a lot of sort of negativity within the reviews and like everything else is like this is in Star Wars that Happens like initially and it took time for people to be able to appreciate it the way they do now. Yeah

Let's keep it moving. I obviously these are major problems We're not we're not gonna solve today, but definitely some interesting Points on it and thanks for everybody who called in on it And please hang in there if you want to talk Andor with your call. I would like to move on to Andor though. We got to get a lot in this episode. And I want to talk about season two of Andor, which just started. We're not going to go too far into detail.

We're just going to do a little three episode dip. That first three episodes, they released all at once. That first release and you can kind of tell. Which is like a movie. Yeah. It's like a movie in and of tell. Which is like a movie. It's like a movie in and of itself. It feels like in the structure of making it, they knew this was the release schedule, but while they were shooting, editing, planning, writing, etc.

And so it does feel like it has an arc and man oh man does it come to a real incredible climax in episode three. So we'll do some minor spoilers here as we talk through this, and then we're gonna jump right into talking about some IP role playing. Skid, thank you for calling in, buddy. Why don't you tell us your first impressions?

Because you were a huge Andor fan. You turned me onto it in season one. And then what did you think at season two got out of the gate? Episode one, episode two, episode three, what were your thoughts? I was, I mean, I'm a massive supporter of the show, as I've made clear on every show that we do. I can't stop talking about it. But I really, I was, it sort of started the same way that the,

It sort of started the same way that the, well, they kind of made a contrast with Tony Gilroy, was just like, I want to, everyone's complaining about how slow the first season started. It's like, it's a little, it's a slow burn, it's a slow burn. So he's just like, I'm going to start with a heist like immediately. So I love that he's like, he steals that the tie fighter, the whatever it is, the experimental tie fighter immediately. And you think it's, oh, and it's the first time in Star Wars

where someone isn't amazing at something right off the bat. Right. You get anything he's going to, he's going to get away. And he doesn't know how to drive it. It's like, why would you know how to drive everything? You can probably one thing. How can you pilot everything? So the fact that it takes him so long to figure it out, he never quite gets it. So long. So long. It takes him forever. And it's like, I love that idea of like, he has this amazing ship, but he can't figure it out. It's so great. And yeah, like, so that was awesome. I really love, a lot of people had a problem

with the second episode with the, where he goes to what we eventually find out is Yavin and he got caught up. That's cool. Yeah. It's that they, you see it at the end when he like takes off, you can see the temples like in the, in the background. I didn't notice it. Remind me what Yavin is. Is that the third moon of Endor? No, that's the first. That's the rebel base. A new hope. No, that was the rebel base. A new hope.

Oh, okay. Yeah. So, the fact that he gets caught up in this sort of, this sectarian sort of struggle between these two, it makes, all this stuff, it really makes me think of Life of Brian, where it's like you have the Judean people's front, the Judean popular front, they hate each other more than they than the Romans. And it's like, I love seeing that. I like, I love seeing the real struggle that had to take place to get these

idiots on the same page. Yeah. Yeah. You adding that layer that that is eventually the rebel base is such an interesting layer, cause this is where, this is where the rebellion will one day be organized and, you know, ready to like fight, but right now it looks like this. It's like 10 people in an old trailer fighting with each other. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's like, everyone has a different agenda. And that's another thing that I love. One of my favorite little speeches in this show. I love Saw Gerrera, by the way, in this. Like, he's so great. And I love his little speech that he... Yeah, Forrest Whitaker,

one of my favorite actors of all time. And I love the speech that he gives to Luthen when he comes up and he's just like listing all these different factions within like the possible rebel alliance. And he's just like, all these different factions within like the possible rebel alliance and he's just like my apace brigade human cultists Sectress new Republic like I was listening all these up. It's like the loss all of them lost lost like it's just it's great Like I love that idea that there's all these yeah, so good It's so when you're a kid like I was and you're just watching Star Wars like you just think oh

There's the Empire and there's the rebellion right and they're all watching Star Wars, like you just think, oh, there's the Empire and there's the rebellion, right? And they're all in the Alliance and they are all completely organized. They have, they're a real thorn in the Empire side because they're growing in their strength or whatever. Man, what an interesting concept to bring in in Andor is just that, you know what? That doesn't start that way. It's all kind of like factional, all kinds of little groups that all have their own issues, and they don't even trust each other. And I'll tell you, in episode...

Was it episode two when he first gets to Yavin and starts meeting these guys, or episode... At the end of episode one? At the very end of episode one, I think, or toward... Maybe toward the end. Either way. Either way. I loved it from the jump. Like, the first lines out of those characters mouths

were so good. They were, and well acted too. They were funny, natural. It felt very real. And there were like every, there were like a dozen of them and they all had lines. Like they were all kind of talking over each other. I love the very first thing they say is like,

you have 15 blasters pointed at you right now. And the other guy's like, why would you tell him how many? Dude, it felt to me like I was running a role playing game. Like those people on Yabin were a role playing game party for sure. They were poorly designed role playing game party. Yeah. That's exactly what they were. Let's move into episode three where man man-o-man does it. I set their mouth agape for a good portion, especially

at the end of that episode. And in my opinion, tragic, tragic loss in that episode. Oh, yeah. Rasso. That's the character's name. God, why? You gotta do that, man! Like, I loved that guy in season one. Loved him!

I think people are gonna keep dropping like flies, man. People are just gonna keep dropping. Yeah, I mean, it's... Not to spoil the next episodes at all, but yes. Get ready. Prepare yourselves. Yeah, get ready. And we haven't even gotten into the mon-mophma of it all. Oh my God.

Yeah. Space wedding. I mean, the scene, so first of all, here's another thing I just want to bring up. What cool, you would call it world building, right? If it wasn't like it already built world. But obviously Tony Gilroy, in my opinion, is like adding a lot, right? To this world and the rituals. I mean, this is a really hard thing. If

you're writing a world as an RPG designer, a game writer, you're home brewing and you're trying to create rituals from scratch, belief systems, I have found that to be the hardest thing that I've ever kind of tried to do. And the way that he does the steps of the wedding and the multiple days and what is done and the wedding hike and all of that was like, so great. You, it didn't seem insane and it all felt very real, but a complete fantasy world, a complete different culture. Yeah. I like you cut world, a complete different culture. Yeah, I like you cut the girls lock.

Yeah, with a knife. That she's been growing that since she was a kid. And it's like cutting it as like you're a woman now or you're a wife now, you know, it's so sad. Yeah, the thought sort of echoes, it echoes the Jedi coming of age ritual too, where they cut off their Padawan braid. Right.

Oh, that's right. That's right, I didn't even think of that. And so the father of the bride gives the boy the knife, he takes it and ceremoniously says, I will not return this. To which the father says, I wouldn't expect to receive it or something like that. But it was very formal and then he turns and cuts the braid

Very interesting. Oh, by the way, can we just say his dick right? The knife is I'm giving you my dick What what it is Joe it's Clearly a space wiener Joe It's clearly a space wiener, Joe. Space wiener! I love that scene too because- Now, when are we gonna see full on Star Wars sex? Go ahead, sorry, Skid. Well it's just so much of the show is about sacrifice and what people have to sacrifice

to achieve this goal of defeating the Empire. And Lutheran has his whole speech like he loses everything. He loses his entire sense of self, his decency. He burns everything for a sunrise I'll never see. And Mon Mothma, like she's giving up her whole life too. Like she's giving up her daughter. She's giving up, like that is like emblematic of everything that she has to sacrifice. Yeah. And we're only just scratching the surface of it. And that's such a great theme in the show too. And that's a great like emblematic of everything that she has to sacrifice. Yeah. And we're only just scratching the surface of it. And that's such a great theme in the show, too.

And that's a great example of it. Yeah. And then Cyril and and Deirdre and Krennic, Krennic's great. I mean, it's Mendelsohn. But I mean, like all of that stuff, I keep saying I would watch a show just about people at work at the Empire. Absolutely. It's so good, especially when you got good characters like that, because everybody they introduced in season one was great. Same thing with season two, obviously Mendelsohn being the large one. There's an interesting concept that's introduced here. We've talked

on this show before, Jared, about if you liked her. The whole Empire thing seemed very inspired to me by a movie. It can be tough to watch HBO original movie that Stanley Tucci did with Kenneth Branagh called Conspiracy. We just rewatched it. We just rewatched it a couple days ago. It's an incredible movie. It's loosely supposedly based on a true story, based on found German documents about notes of essentially the leadership of all different elements of the German war front and civil leaders coming together to discuss the Jewish question and like what

exactly they're going to do. The Bonzi Conference. Yeah, it's a Nazi conference and the movie is almost like a play. It's like in one room, all these great actors around a table and they sort of talk through it and everybody is not saying what everybody knows

is like going to happen or leading to because it's all very like civil, it's all very, you know, policy-esque, everything has to be in writing, everything's being recorded, right? And to me, that was the analyte that I got, or I drew that connection in the way that Mendelsohn starts that meeting about this world, and starts going into detail,

and you can see Deidre being like, wait a minute, like we all know what we're talking about here, and I want no part of it. And there are characters like that in conspiracy. There are people sitting around that table that are like, wait, are we actually talking about this? No way, no way. And so yeah, anyway, I thought that that was such a cool

concept to bring in. I said the same thing when it started playing out. I was just like it's conspiracy. It's conspiracy I was like, yeah, I bet that was a I mean, I haven't seen conspiracy, but I bet it was a full influence on it Um, oh it was for sure. Yeah. Yeah, because everybody is like chiming in their things you see but like Everybody in the room including the audience knows what the Empire going to do if they feel like it at any given point, but they're all talking about it. How we do, you know, to get this mineral, to do whatever, you know, it has this, you know, I also feel like that, that a thing that they do all the time where all of the Imperials

are sitting around that big round table and the boss is in the middle. That feels like a writer's room. If you've ever worked in a writer's room, actually, yeah, it does. Where you're like, I'll chime in. And then the person at the top is like, no, that's incorrect. You've lost clout in this room. Let's stick with, let's stick with Dejah for a second. I mean, it just keeps piling on.

Her with the mom was so awesome. Oh my God, what a great scene. And for a a couple reasons, yes, it's badass, but it's also like, it's so cool to see that character from season one who is such a no-nonsense, you know, hard-nosed, going up through the ranks of the empire, difficult path sort of person, having to have like dinner with her boyfriend's mom. Right? Like just these very real life sort of situations

that they get put in and her trying to just be nice, be charming, et cetera. And seeing her play that was brilliant. I mean, she did a fantastic job with that. I thought that was so awesome. Oh, such a great scene. And yeah, I'm trying to think of what else jumps out. I mean, I guess that that's kind of it for now.

You know, I'll say- Well, there's one other thing. Sorry, go ahead. There's one other thing that happens in the sixth episode. Oh, well, no, no, the third episode, sorry, that a lot of people take an issue with, which is the attempted act of sexual violence. That like, you know, and a lot of people have said that it's just like, well, that's not Star Wars.

And it's like, that doesn't belong in Star Wars. And I'm like, well, no, like, first of all, they allude to it a lot in the rest of the whole sort of legacy of it that's alluded to. We don't see it that way. Actually, one of the arguments that I saw, this one particular sort of personality, who does not like Andor, just doesn't get it, and this is one of the arguments that he made, was that Darth Vader would never allow this to happen in the Empire. First of all, not sure that that's true. I don't think that that's true. But second, you think he signed off on it?

You think you think Vader like stamped an order for this guy to do that? It's like, no, it's like, he's doing it without any of the one's knowledge. He's not doing it. He's, he is a person. He is a fascist. Yeah. Who is taking advantage of the power that he's been given by the state. Yeah. People, people just don't let people, you know, that that's triggering for some people. And they're like, because it's triggering for me, it does not belong in a show.

And I think that that is incorrect analysis. Something can be triggering for you, but it's still, it's still belongs in a show because it shows the depth of, uh, evil maybe, uh, in the organization or in the world that they exist in, it shows, you know, that character Bix is just trauma after trauma, after trauma. And held on to her like again and again, like all these different layers of trauma that have been like thrown on her. And it's like, that's one of the reasons

that Andor has revived my love of this property so much is because it's added layers of real visceral, comprehensible evil to the empire. Like I hate the Empire more than ever after watching as much of Andor as I've watched. Samantha was just saying, it's like blowing up a planet means so much less. It's so much more difficult to really grok than like watching these individual acts of banal evil being perpetrated by the people in the Empire, by the system. It means so much more and it just elevates everything. Like I won't, the original trilogy, like it adds more to the original trilogy now when

I rewatch it, it's like, it's, it's great. Yeah, I agree. Let's take a call on it. Uh, clorp dock has joined the discord and wants to weigh in on and or clorp. Oh good clorp. Donk is here Orp is here. Hey, can you hear me? Yeah, we got yes we can hear you. Yeah. Yeah. I know Jared is a big fan and Joe's big fan Wanted to bring up this crazy thing, you know, May 4th, you know, you get all sorts of social media stuff

and everybody talking about this and that. Mon Mothma was in the prequels, the actor that plays Mon Mothma. Really? Yeah. I did not realize that. Yeah, she played Mon Mothma in, oh no, yeah, she was, she was, she played it in, yeah. There were scenes that were cut or whatever

and she was in, yeah, yeah, cut from episode three. By the way, Genevieve O'Reilly, she looks like she could be Sydney's aunt, I think. Yeah, I agree. Maybe not sister or mom, but she looks like she could be related to Sydney. I agree, I agree, very similar. She could play Sydney's aunt in the GCN movie.

She could, she's more than the GCN movie. She could. She's more than welcome. We're out to her reps. We're out to her reps. You got anything else there, Clorp, on Andor? Are you liking it? Clorp, any more factoids? Yeah, I guess that was factoids.

Yeah, I feel like it really is just like Nazis. They're just, what did the Nazis do? And how did we, how do people deal with that? And that's how they're kind of running this season. How does a resistance function, especially like a beginning, you know, all that. So, really enjoys this scene. I mean, it's not just Nazis, you know, all that. So yeah, really enjoys this. Yeah, I mean, it's not, you know, it's not just Nazis, you

know, it's, it's also, you know, Stalin, you know, it's also that regime and how they would like, relocate people and purge people. Yeah, there's been a lot of authoritarian regimes. Let's get infinite diversity up to chat in on Andor. Before we move on, pretty soon we're going to be talking about our little GCR homebrew. So get ready for that. We want you to help us homebrew a little scenario here. Infinite, your mic is muted. If you can unmute it.

Hey guys. Hey, how are you? Pretty good. So I just want to first off say, you know, long time, Mr. Person Caller. Yeah. Thanks for calling guys Spotted you guys since like, you know 2017 Wow, you know your content You know is a comfort to me in these trying times we live in so Just wanted to put that out there. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it With regards to Andor, I think with Andor,

I mean, like, so I've been, you know, I watched, so Star Wars was the first movie I saw, like, in the theater. I was like five at the time. And so it holds a special place in my, you know, in my own, in my heart, but, you know, it's kind of lost me, you know, last few years. And I think, and or for it's, it's just retracting me back to the property. I think the reason I mean, someone in the New York Times or reviewing the New York

Times put it best, it just recontextualizes Star Wars for me where I am right now. So, you know, when you're looking back at the original trilogy, it's like, okay, we got these space wizards and they're fighting, and these like plucky little rebels who are fighting this galactic empire out in the far reaches of space. And it's like oppressor versus oppressed. And it's all fun. It's kind of a very simplistic view of the struggle.

But I guess with Andor, what Andor does, it just, and I guess that review in the New York Times puts it well, it's like it shows the rebellion being built one brick and lip at a time, but it's like all these little people like underneath who said, okay, we're buying into this system of cruelty and dehumanization and racism and we're just going to perpetuate it. And it's not like that the ISP is taking orders from the emperor, or I mean taking orders from the emperor to like, let's do these inhumane things on people. It's just like, oh, these people are saying, well, we're just going to give, we're being told like, we got to accomplish this goal.

So we're going to do it in whatever way we see fit. Right? Yeah. It's a great point, Infinite, and thanks for calling in. We didn't really talk about what a great job the show does of developing the Empire. It's really great how it shows piece by piece how that gets developed. Good call, Infinite.

It really feels like all the other Star Wars properties were kind of holding back on the Empire. Like, we don't really quite get why, how evil and why they're evil. We don't really see the effects. We just see Darth Vader force choking people. You know, I think that when you see this show, you're like, oh, fuck the Empire. I wanna see them go down.

I think that's what's so great about it. I think that, and we're going to move on here in a second to IP role playing. I think that it's like, when I look at IP role playing, I look at Star Wars, for example, and the different ways that those games split up, right? You got like the outer rim sort of games, the age of rebellion game and the Force and Destiny game. When you look at it as the Sith being the bad guys and not the Empire, it changes things a little bit. There's this more fantasy, evil, magical villain, magical evil wizards aspect, as opposed to a straight up fascist empire aspect as the villain. It's so much more interesting to me.

And I will admit, as you said very early in the show, Jared, as an adult, that interests me a lot more than the evil magical wizards. An espionage show is maybe more interesting to a man in his 40s, you know? Maybe. I mean, it all depends on how it's done. But yeah. Yeah. So can I say one more thing real quick, and then I'll say goodbye? Almost the entirety of Star Wars up to this point

has been sort of like The Hobbit, which is this story being metatextually told through the lens that its child could understand it. Star Wars as a whole had never really gotten its Lord of the Rings, where it's like the story is told for a more mature audience through that much more mature lens and or is Lord of the Rings to Star Wars. Wow, very interesting. Yeah, I love that. Thank you, Skid, and thanks for calling in.

Thank you guys. Thank you for letting me rant. Love the show. Of course, anytime. Take it easy, buddy. Yeah, so that's a great point. I wonder if Tony Gilroy, if it has to be Tony Gilroy, or if he has set here a base off which other people can build a darker, more adult-focused story that involves Jedi, that involves Sith. I mean, Joe, I bet it has to be Tony Gilroy, because with these things so often,

it's about the people and not the trappings. And I bet you someone else will come along and try to do a very adult Star Wars show and boof it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I just, Tony Gilroy, so I don't know anything about Tony Gilroy, except that I know he did Rogue One, right? So I just know that.

And then I go back in digging, uh, in, in prep for this episode. And I'm blown away by all the stuff that this guy has done that I love. And these are not like people's favorites of all time, but he, whatever he does in whatever his special sauce is, like, I just lap it right up. I, he is known for on IMDB Michael Clayton. And I love Michael Clayton. I love Michael Clayton. I just, I have whatever reason. I just loved that movie. He did the born series, the born movies, born identity, born supremacy. I love the born movies. That trilogy is so good.

So good. He's on the writing team for Armageddon with J.J. Abrams. I love Armageddon. Oh wow. I mean it's right. Was Armageddon J.J. Abrams or was it Jerry Bruckheimer? Jerry Bruckheimer like production director, but let's see, the writers were Jonathan Hensley, J.J. Abrams and Tony Gilroy.

Oh I didn't realize that. Michael Bay directed it. Michael Bay, of course. Yeah, it was in the Bay Area. It was in the Bay Area. Wait, was that from this show or from Town Hall? I feel like it was from this show. I feel like it was from this show.

And then I'll just do one more on Tony Gilroy. His first writing credit is one of my all time favorite rom-coms that I kind of grew up with. In my house it was a big hit. The Cutting Edge. He wrote The Cutting Edge. I don't know The Cutting Edge. You don't know The Cutting Edge?

Well, I got a bone up on my Gilroy. You got to get some Gilroy in your life. I've got some Gilroy Gaps. Gilroy Gaps. Yeah. Yeah. The Cutting Edge is an early 90s, featuring D.B. Sweeney. Oh, it's the ice skating movie.

Ice skating, rom-com. He's a hockey player, she's a figure skater. Exactly. Can they get it together to have a figure skating duel routine? I know what it is, I just haven't watched it. That's awesome. Written by Tony Gilroy.

And you know what? If I want to say, like, what are the things that these all have in common? It is simply like great characters, just great characters that you just want more of. And they're flawed, and they're interesting, and it's the same thing. And you go all the way back to the cutting edge,

it's the same thing. Like, the characters are not perfect. Sometimes they're not even that likable, but they feel real. And it just, the story draws you in because it feels real. Um, I think it's great. Anyway, good job, uh, Tony Gilroy on, uh, the cutting edge. Yeah. Tony Gilroy in case anybody hasn't told you good job, buddy. Good job, buddy. Uh, let's get into IP role playing. I have a lot to say about this. Yes please. You started off. Kick us off. Here's what we're talking about today. We're talking about there are so many role playing games now based on a property that

exists in film, TV, novels. There's the Blade Runner game. There's the Dune game. There's the Blade Runner game, there's the Dune game, there's the One Ring based on Tolkien, there are Star Wars games, there are Star Trek games, there's a Conan game, there's a Fallout game. All of these things build on properties people already know and love. Is it difficult to game master a game set in a fictional world that people are already familiar with? Is it easier? Is it easier to do that than in one that's completely invented? What are the challenges?

What are the bonuses to this IP role playing? And what are some tricks to making it work? What do we think about the entire phenomenon? Do we think it's more fun to homebrew a world out of the pieces of the toolbox that D&D 5E gives you for example, or do we prefer to game in these recognizable worlds? I would just love to hear your thoughts on it, Joe,

to start us off. Yeah, and I wanna hear call our thoughts on it. Particularly, I wanna hear call your thoughts on it, Joe, to start us off. Yeah. And I want to hear caller thoughts on it. Particularly, I want to hear caller thoughts on what are great IP role-playing games. What are, I know Jared, I know you're a fan of the One Ring. I think it's a, it's a well-done game. I loved playing age of rebellion, the star Wars IP for, that is specifically like you can create your own and or game like that is essentially what it is You are not Jedi. You have no force powers. You just are rebels trying to make it in a tough tough situation It's like an espionage kind of game, but with you know, plenty of gunfights and stuff

It's like the Jason Bourne Robert Ludlum version of a right of espionage super super fun In general I and born Robert Ludlum version of, of a, of espionage, super, super fun. Um, in general, I used to not be into it. I thought that it was kind of like, uh, I thought that it was kind of, it had like a stigma, like fan fiction, right? Where it's kind of like, why don't you do something original? And with, uh, with a D 20 system, I could make up my own story using Tolkien's tropes and kind of like build my own homebrew. And I enjoyed going down that path. Big turning points for me were Age of Rebellion and Alien and the Alien RPG, which we're going

to talk about in a second when we talk about creating a scenario. I want people to help me today create an Alien RPG, one-shot little scenario. So we'll talk about that in a second. When we get to the brewery, yeah. When we get to the brewery, when we get to the GCR brewery. But that game kind of turned it around for me

because working with my buddy McD on that and playing it as part of New Game Who Dis, with a spectacular, spectacular cast, who was that? It was Grant and Kate, Troy, and was it Skid? I think it was Skid. I think. So like that original cast, we told our own original Alien story and it was so fun and it brought back all that nostalgia. But what's interesting is you have the capability to set the tone however you want to set it. However you're comfortable, your table is comfortable with you know, the level of violence or the level of whatever,

you know, that's in it. Skid ran me through Blade Runner. I loved it. I didn't, I liked it better than I liked the original movie, which I was not a huge fan of. Oh, I love that movie, but yeah. Oh, I learned to appreciate it more from the role playing game.

I mean, being GM'd by a passionate fan like Skid and you start to really see what the actual, getting to the depth of what the actual stories are you're trying to tell here, really helped me. It enlightened me about, you know, so much more about it. Playing the Alien role playing game enlightened me so much more about the deeper universe of the factions, the wars and the other companies besides Whale and Yutani, how they all interact, really, really kind of fun world building stuff. Yeah, overall, I'd say I am now a way bigger fan than I used to be. I think Free League does amazing work in this realm as those Modiphius.

Yes. And I never played Star Trek, but I would love to play Star Trek. I would play Dune, but I would love- I've never played it, but I have the new edition of the role-playing game and I'm dying to play a Kirk era game of Star Trek. That's what I would like to do. Yes, Star Trek Adventure second edition. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You might see some of that soon on the GCN, I'm hoping, but it's just, I don't know. I love it. And I do think that there are some, I'll say that one major thing I struggle with is, do you have to hit, it's the same thing we talk about all show with Star Wars. Andor, I love Andor so much because of how it separates itself from the original trilogy

and does something different, tells a different kind of story. As I got deeper into Alien, all I was inspired to do is tell a different kind of alien story. You know, you still have to have the major themes of horror of, well, this is the difficulty, Joe, like the difficulty. How do you make sure it feels like alien, but is something new? How do you make it sure it feels like Lord of the Rings but is something new? You know, when I was running my The One Ring game, I had this band of bandits, this band of evil men attacking my party and at one point they started laughing like ha ha

ha and stabbing people and everybody immediately was like, that doesn't feel like Tolkien. You know what I mean? It just didn't feel like Tolkien. And so the difficulty of these IP role-playing games, which I love to play them, is that sometimes you hit notes in your GMing that don't feel like the property and it sort of takes people out of it for a second. So it's tricky that way.

Another thing is, oh, go ahead. I was just going to say the other benefit to it, the positive side of that is when you're playing with folks that are all familiar with the IP, you save so much time in dealing with world building, explaining the world, explaining the faction, explaining the nations, explaining whatever. So many things can be given that you can just focus in on character, which is really fun. Almost everyone is at least passingly familiar with Star Wars, with Alien, with Tolkien. Blade Runner, maybe not as many, but a lot of people can go, oh, I'm on board.

I know what this world is. I'm ready to go, you know? And you're not sitting there going, well, in my fair rune elves act like this. Like people know what you're talking about. But another issue, Joe, is like, who do we play? Because in Star Wars, it often feels like the big conflict has already been claimed by Luke and his friends, right? Like who are you? The guy that helps Luke? Are you the guy that loads up the Millennium Falcon? Like, you know, uh, it's such a problem that in the Dune role playing game, the

big campaign that they've published for it just says, okay, instead of the Atreides, you're the ones who take over Arrakis. And it's just called an alternate history campaign where you play out the, the novels as if, or at least the first novel as if you are your family is the one that's doing it. So they couldn't even think of alternate things that could happen on the planet. It was too difficult.

They had to like go, it's just the book storyline, but you. So I mean, you see what I'm saying with the difficulty there, how it's like hard to find space. I feel like that's a, it's interesting. I'm not as well versed. It's hard to find space for your character sometimes. The space for the epic conflict seems

like it might be taken up. But you see, that's why I didn't have much interest in Force and Destiny, that angle of the Star Wars role playing, and plenty of interest in Age of Rebellion. I feel like, like Andor, the conflicts that you come into, planet to planet, no matter where you are, with the Empire, feel important. It doesn't have to be blowing up the Death Star to feel important.

Dune is tricky. If you're talking about Arrakis, it's like, it's Spice, it's, you know, Shyhalud, it's Sandworms, it's the Fremen. That's kind of it. That's, it's, you know, shy, Hulu, it's sand worms, it's the Fremen. That, that's kind of it. That's, that's what it is. The conflicts are big. The conflicts are big and I feel like there are less pieces, right? There are less pieces.

I mean, you could do, you could easily do a Dune story that does not involve Arrakis. Doesn't involve worms and sand people or Fremen, you know, and it's like- We did, we did stories here on the GCN that didn't you know That were set on Arrakis, but did different things. So it's possible to do it, but it's it's super tricky It's we take some calls. Yeah, let's see if anybody else wants to weigh in on on good Good IP slow. I Joe are you there slow? I Joe if you want to weigh in on IP role playing feel free Afternoon guys. Hey, how are you?

Hi, good afternoon. Good. So, my opinion on this, a good IP role playing game can help set the parameters of the world you're playing in, really hone the own and focus, kind of the feeling and the vibe of the world, whereas a more generic fantasy could just sort of feel plain Jane. And I think that the best IP role-playing games have mechanics that support the feeling of the world that you're in and help you kind of embody, and I think One Ring is a great example. The mechanics make it feel like Tolkien

versus some other fantasy world. I also think that... Did we lose you there, Slow Eye? Did we lose you there, Slow Eye? Slow Eye makes a good point about the details. The depth is there because it's an IP, right? The depth is already there, whereas when you're creating your own, it's hard to get that level of depth that's a middle earth. Oh, Slow Eye, are you back? Oh, jeez.

Sorry, Slow Eye. We got to let you go. We're hearing a bad echo on your microphone. But yeah, I mean, well said. Sorry, Slow Eye. We got to let you go. We're hearing a bad echo on your microphone. Um, but, uh, but yeah, I mean, well said. Sorry, Slow Eye. Sorry. We'll, we'll get you another time. We just, there was a bad echo on your mic. There's, there's just these, that, that setting up the world, uh, you know, and, and having the mechanics fit it is not always easy. Uh, it can, it can be a challenge. And I think Alien does a great job. I'm going to keep coming back to Alien.

The stress mechanic. Stress mechanic and buddies and rivals mechanic. It feels very out of the movies, but also feels like you can very much so tailor it to your game. uh, you know, Hudson and Hicks in order to be two colonial scientists that are buddies and, uh, get experience points when you look out for each other or get experience points for when you show up your rival or you do something against your rival. It creates that it feels like it gives you the tools you need. Now, this is not a role playing game, but let me jump to Star Wars Rebellion, which I was just email. I just emailed McD about because I was like, don't we have that in our collection? Because I want to take it back and try to play it again.

I don't know if you've ever played Star Wars Rebellion, the board game from Fantasy Flight, I believe it is, but it does a great job of setting all the pieces for the rebel conflict. But then you play it out and there's no way to tell how it's going to end up. The empire could win, the rebels could win, but it might not be at Yavin. It might not involve Darth Vader. It might not involve whatever.

It might involve some other empire higher that's becomes the primary conflict. So these games, when they give you a good, a good set of mechanics or pieces and NPCs to work with that can tell the story in your own way, I think that that's, that's interesting. Um, yeah. Yeah. Mechanics that, that support like the vibe of that IP, I think are super important to, to these games. Let's get another call in here.

Acting Grey just joined and would like to chime in. Acting Grey, if you're there, let's talk a little IP role playing if you want. In the meantime, we can see if there's anything else. I don't know. Is there anything else you think of? I mean, I have a lot of thoughts. Yeah don't know. Is there anything else you think of? Yeah, keep going. Well, my thought. Yeah, there we go. Okay. Hey, thanks for taking me. Um, you have a deep, deep base voice. Why? Thank you. Yes, I do. You're very observant, Jared. That's very good. My balls are vibrating when you talk. Geez.

I was hoping you'd be your glutes, but what are you going to do? The point I wanted to chime in with, because you're talking around it really effectively, is the scaffolding and the structure that all these sort of these games set up, it are just like when you set up successful improvisation games, right? So like, if you have a successful structure to play in that sandbox, that's when you can really feel free to take risks and explore. And I know a lot of personalities on the network are improvisers. So it's like when you have that structure set up, it can really create a lot of

potential to be specific about your storytelling and then also create that sort of infectious excitement like you picked up on from Blade Runner Joe. So that's, I was just listening to you guys. It's easier to improvise in an IP setting is what you're saying. It's easier to improvise in an IP setting. Well, because you've had those points of the shared knowledge base, particularly if you have a group of people who love that particular IP, right? So it's just easier to latch into those

different things than if you're just trying to sort of build your world from scratch or from, you know, reading a two page players guide, right? Yeah, reading like a little gazetteer. It's kind of tough to get your players to understand like, yes, how easily you could improv. I mean, really what's the difference between improving in an IP setting versus improving in just modern, you know, like a modern day set RPG. That's one of the reasons I like modern set games. One of the reasons I loved playing vampire because everybody knows the setting. Everybody knows what Pittsburgh is.

They can, they, they know what's in Pittsburgh. They know what cars are there and what kind of businesses would be there. They know other cities in the country that it's in. Yeah, like you don't have to explain all that kind of stuff. They know what their equipment is like, smartphone, you know. You know that you can't put a snake on a bow and shoot it. Right. There are certain rules. There's physical laws of, you know, reality to play with.

Is there a particular IP game that you've played more than others? Acting great. I haven't played a ton of IP games though. I've only really played Pathfinder 1e and a couple sessions of Blades in the Dark. But I just love the content that you guys put out on the network with all the different settings that the alien star wars they're just super fun to listen to because I those are worlds that I also enjoy I just I I I, I, I'm busy. I have a toddler, you know, I can't, he can't just go, can't just go fuck off and play games all the time.

As much as I'd love to. Thanks for calling in acting. Yeah. I had to make it, I had to make it my job in order to do it as much as I want. Uh, but yeah, the, um, that's the other thing is like on the network, there are complications when you get into IP, right? Like publishers have certain, we don't have to go down this road, but just a little tidbit like publishers have certain licenses to do certain things. That doesn't mean that we can go on and start talking about Whalen, Yutani and talking about, you know, uh, LV four to six, all this kind of stuff.

And then just like, let's say our alien game blows up and like there are a bunch of advertisers want to sell on it. Like all of a sudden, anybody at any time can, Sony can just swoop in and be like, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. We're taking all that money. That's, that's one of the downsides. When you're doing a show, there are complications with IP role

playing that definitely come up with licensing. Uh, yeah. Um, I had, I just had one more thing to say on this, which is a recommendation. Okay. So sometimes when you're playing these games, it can be hard to figure out what space to carve out for your campaign or whatever. I highly recommend a book by Graham Walmsley called stealing Cthulhu. The whole HP Lovecraft mythos, that's your first IP property really. He had this big interconnected universe. So I apply this book to when I'm doing Tolkien, when I'm doing you know Dune or whatever because what it does is it shows you how to like

take stuff from the fiction and mix it around so that it's an original thing that still still feels like the IP that you're working with. So, but feels fresh. It makes it fresh, but he, he's like, literally you have to, it's called stealing Cthulhu because you literally steal things from the stories. Or if you were working with dune from the novels or whatever, and then you mix them around. Like you switch the location. Like, uh, what have you did an aliens campaign, but set on earth or you

started more door and end in the Shire. Like, or switch your, uh, switch your timing. Like what have you played dune, but you play it when the Harkonnen's first land on Arrakis. Like these are all the little tips he gives you for how to make it feel the same, but new. And I really recommend that book, stealing Cthulhu by Graham Walmsley. If you're going to do any IP role playing. Yeah, I definitely, I definitely want to do more of it at home for sure.

It can be a challenge to do on the network as much as I'd like to, which is why I'm going to be playing, or at least I'm hoping to play a little bit of Alien in Vegas. In the Vegas retreat, I want to run some Alien for some Naish members because I love playing it and I don't like coming up against those licensing hangups. So anything that's all fair is fair game. So with that in mind, let's talk about a scenario build here. I would love to pull you, Jared, McD, feel free to chime in if you'd like, and Twitch chat, Discord chat, guys, right in. I want to kind of build a little quick scenario here, and what we're're gonna kind of build is setting, kind of from the top down, large ideas down to kind of smaller

ideas and then maybe we can come up with a hook or something like that. We don't have to, we're not gonna write the whole thing, obviously we're not gonna have a bunch of NPCs, but just that sort of basic concept that you could turn into a two to four hour one-shot experience with your friends And this is obviously fair game for anybody. This is whatever we come up with here, feel free to run it in your home games or expand on this idea and use it to run an alien session at home. But yeah, in my mind, I'm not sure how this is going to work, but I'm going to kick it off by going with almost like improv stuff where we kind of give a few choices, narrow

it down and then we just kind of pick some big, one of the callers said, I think it was Acting Gray, who was just on creating a scaffold that we're going to kind of build up and into to narrow as we go. So first, I want to say I've narrowed one thing down that I really want to focus on here, and that is I want to do a colonial Marines story. I'm going to do colonial Marines because from a home

brew perspective, McD and I have done space truckers and we've also done colonists. We've never done a colonial Marines one. So I just want to kind of narrow it down with that to start. So if we're going to, if you were going to run a one shot of colonial Marines campaign, Jared, I'll throw it to you first. Anybody chime in, vote as we go, just by typing in chat. Would you large scale set it on a planet or in space on a planet or in space? What would be your preference? Colonial Marines? Um, personally, or in space, what would be your preference? Colonial Marines.

Personally, I'm thinking planets, because I feel like Colonial Marines, they're a little limited if you're flying through space. You can't quite really open up with those guns as much, you know? You're gonna cause a complete pressure vacuum situation. So I see it happening on a planet. That's my druthers there. I see a lot of space in chat, a lot of space in chat, but I think there is a good bit of

the aliens story underneath the reactor when they have to pull their ammo. That is a fantastic story beat for a script you're writing, not as good at a role playing table in my opinion. Well, I don't know if I agree. Giving the characters a challenge like that is huge. And an alien, it's not about destroying monsters. It's not about beating the monsters. It's about surviving.

So I think putting a moment like that into a role playing game, that's a, I think that's a great idea. Well, yeah, but you are fire, but you're saying like, that's why you don't want it to be in space. Right? I mean, here's the thing. It feels limiting. If it is in space and you are going to do that moment, that's a key moment of your one shot, right? So it needs to be designed partially around that. Like that's a big encounter.

We're having an encounter with Colonial Marines where if they fire, it's going to be disastrous. Like, um, but it feels to me like if someone's playing Colonial Marines, especially for the first time, they're going to want to go full auto, you know? Uh, okay. Let's, uh, I agree with you. Uh, all right. Let, if we do, let's just say we're going to do planet. Let's move on now planet. We got a couple options here.

I'm just going to narrow it down to three. Urban, remote outpost, subterranean. Urban, remote outpost, or subterranean. Do you have a preference there? If we are going to have to land on a planet at some point, what kind of setting do you think would be fun to set a one-shot scenario in? I mean, I... So if you're going for a classic vibe, you're gonna go like subterranean or remote outpost, right?

Correct. But if you want something new, you're gonna go urban. But I don't think we've seen cities on other planets in alien. That almost feels like star wars or star. Right. Right. Maybe a little anti alien because you're supposed to be kind of cut off.

That's usually the idea. You're supposed to be kind of alone. The urban idea. Um, now we could do a, you city. A deserted city. A city that's been taken over by the xenomorphs. A large space, but that doesn't have any people in it. That could be kind of interesting. All these ideas are percolating, but I don't want to get ahead of you.

Maybe I'll save it. Maybe there'll be an opportunity for this thought. Yeah. Um, yeah. A city that's like been emptied out. That's really scary. You know, that could be cool and that could have the alien vibe. Uh, okay. I like this idea. Uh, it's, it is kind of new to the alien, uh, what we know of the alien franchise and urban setting, lots of buildings, lots of vehicles, lots of structures, but all in decay, like a Last of Us meets Alien kind of thing. Right, imagine, it's got like old advertisements, like this was a built up place, you know?

Like, imagine like walking through like abandoned Times Square in an Alien game, you know? Like, that's pretty cool. That's pretty fun, That's pretty fun. Uh, okay. Um, let's go into mission style. This is right out of the book. There's a lot more choices than this, but I narrowed it down to five.

I'm going to list these off, see if any of these jump out at you. And this could kind of go hand in hand with, well, actually trying to think of the best order here. Maybe we do. Let's do primary threat first. There are three options I have for primary threat. First was the xenomorph. That is that's obvious.

Second is a non xenomorph monster. So which they have, you know, in the book, they have non xenomorph aliens that it out. So is the xenomorph a non xenomorph monster or human Like whether it's Corp military some sort of human conflict that comes up Which would be your preference here? I always wonder I always worry if you're trying to do something new in alien Is it too far of a departure to make it? like and or new in alien, is it too far of a departure to make it like, and, or right.

To make it a human versus having a monster. If people are signing up to play the alien role playing game, they want to encounter a Xenomorph. Now that's not to say you can't do something where terrorists have hijacked an alien egg, right? You know what I mean? And then you're like versus people and you're trying to neutralize them

before the facehugger gets out or something like that. Or you know what I mean? Like there's ways to do a people conflict that still involves the xenomorph in some way. Okay, I'm gonna put the xenomorph in and I think you're right. I do think you're right. I think we could do new takes on it, but we gotta kind of go the xenomorph in some way. Okay, I'm gonna put the xenomorph in and because I think you're right. I do think you're right. I think we could do new takes on it. But we got to kind of go the xenomorph angle. What should we call it? Slow I Joe in discord chat says Chernobyl vibes seems cool.

That's an interesting idea, right? Like, here's the added thing with that. If we do that, that would mean like we could get into a situation of needing a spacesuit where you get into the cool alien mechanics of oxygen and exposure to the open air and stuff like that, which could be fun on a planet in a blasted out city where there might be residual radiation. That's kind of interesting. All right. So the xenomorph is the primary threat. Then we can go into mission style. Here we go. This is going to get us into our last thing, which is the hook really.

Primary mission style, recon, assault, search and rescue, bug hunt, classic, or sabotage. I don't know. Sabotage, I think is a little bit more esoteric in this sense if you're not dealing with factional kind of stuff. But recon, you're just, you know, an advanced scouting party assault. There is something that you are deliberately going into assault fight against. There is already set up defenses search and rescue classic bug hunt classic and then sabotage. Uh, Jason C on Twitch just as sabotage right out.

Interesting. Uh, I'm not sure what that hook would be, but I like search and rescue cause how cool is it to have to go into a city and find people or maybe even find like. Uh, alien biology samples or something and get them out. You know what I mean? Yes. And then you could have like someone go needle in a haystack, Sarge or something like that.

You know what I mean? That feels like something that they would say. But yeah, I mean going into a city. You have to find people in alien what? Biologic? Well, maybe instead of finding people to rescue, there was some sort of facility with alien biological samples and they want you to go in and get them out, you know?

Yes, I always love the the trope story of like, you got to get in and you got to get out. It's not just destroy everything that's there and then you win and you stand at the flag victorious. It is interesting when it's like you got to get's there and then you win and you stand at the flag victorious. It, it is interesting when it's like, you got to get something, but then you also have to get out escaping to me as a classic alien, uh, also a classic alien trope is you're working for bad people and the idea that they're trying to save alien biological samples, right? And get them off of a destroyed planet.

Like, and where are they taking them and what are they going to do with them? Like, you know, that's you're working for bad. Not your job to ask private. Exactly. It's not your concern. These are questions about your pay grade. Yeah. And you know, someone could play a scientist with the Marines or someone could be the

creep or you could have an NPC who's the creep scientist who, uh, you know, this was one of my things. Any key NPCs. Here's, here's an NPC I would love to see creepy. I feel like the blue collar people are always good in the corp. People are always bad. I would love to see an evil rough neck. Uh, okay. Like, okay. Like, you know, a guy that's like a piece of shit, but is like one of the very blue collar people that doesn't really fit into the thing that you've set up here though. I mean, these are big structural elements. Nothing is necessarily impossible at this stage.

You know, like, what if the, you know, what if the person that is surviving in this blasted out building where these samples are is, you know, a rough neck, right? Like, and you have to rescue them, but they're a bad guy. Like that's kind of interesting. And what if you're, what if coming along with you is a corporate agent who is not a bad guy, who's like a good guy, corporate. That would be turning, we're stealing Cthulhu right there. Yeah, no, exactly. Yeah, we're flipping it, right? We're flipping it.

I mean, like the idea of like, you have a scientist with you and you have to have them to get the biological sample, but the scientist is like a complete coward and has no military discipline and kind of holds you back and you've got to save their ass over and over. Like that's kind of a fun angle as well and feels very alien to me. Uh, that's cool. That's cool. I watched McCollet, uh, who said it, um, uh, somebody said, Oh, uh, Okini-chan, what's up Okini-chan. Good to see you said you can totally do a loyalist roughneck. That is interesting. A loyal, loyal to the company. Oh yeah. That's

a great, a great angle on the evil roughneck. Yeah, for sure. That is, that is a great angle. Um, okay. So, uh, usually when you write a scenario, you gotta have a hook. You gotta have something that just sort of like a one-liner log line, like this is what the adventure is. Now you can say, retrieving alien biological samples from a blasted out city and escaping. That could be the hook. Is there one thing here though that, what's the problem? Is it that it is, dead xenomorphs are around or is there one other thing

that's like, uh, you know, typically it's something the players would know right away in the scenario, it's like the signal that they receive or something. How do they even know the samples are there? Um, I don't know. Is there something here or do we have to think about this a little longer? What you're sometimes talking about with The Hook is really your beginning. People like Graham Swelmsley in that book I just told you, or people like Sly Flourish in his books, The Lazy Dungeon Master, really recommend your first scene being like, whoa,

holy shit. We just saw Andor do that. We talked about that today in the know, in the new season. So that's your hook really. I thought of an incredible hook, but I don't think you could do it for this scenario, which is my hook was that I wrote down was everybody wakes up and they're already impregnated

by a face hugger. And that's how the one shot starts. That's very cool. That's a good hook. That's a good hook. You wake up. You're like, what happened to me? Ow, my mouth hurts. What the fuck?

You know what I mean? Like, and you, you know, you only have so many hours before you get chest burst. That doesn't quite work for your thing. You know, it doesn't not work. Like, it does not work. So because the theory is this, right? And we got to go here in one second.

One angle, and we got some GCN news that I'm going to drop in a second. One angle is the Marines get the briefing. Chewing gum, smoking a cigarette, this is another bug hunt, right? And then you get dropped, drop ship onto the planet, recover this from the city and get out of there. Here's your mission Marines, be back here by 0800, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

The other option is you start a medias res and you have the opening scene is for a colonial Marine of a squad wake up in a research lab on a blasted out city, like coming out of it after getting face hugged. And their memory is all foggy. So they start to remember, wait, we were on a mission here. We had to save somebody and get them out of the city. We're supposed to, and then they can look through their, you know, whatever computer. Oh, it says we're supposed to meet here at this time, whatever. That is interesting. Or like we have to we figure out there's a medical facility across

the city and it has that thing from Prometheus that can give you a c-section. You know, it's got that that section machine and that's the only way to get this goddamn alien out of us. That's interesting. Okay. We got to get across town get this goddamn alien out of us. That's interesting okay, we got to get across town to get the thing out of us and the And the players, you know can decide like do they go and get the thing out of them or do they just like

Get off planet first, you know what I mean and not tell anybody that they know they're impregnated and find a way later To like get this thing taken care of once. They're in a safe facility off the planet Very interesting very interesting. Yeah, I have one thing. Oh my go ahead. Yeah, great. You got I've been taking notes. Yes It'd be fun. You do this face hugger scenario They're foggy amnesiac It'd be a fun reveal to be like, the Marines are the bad guys. Like their mission was they were sent as like, sent like Pinkertons to like break a strike for

the company. Right. It's like why they landed on, you know, like Celeste or like, so, you know, some alien planet. Like, things go bad, like, you know, you can like build it out from there. But I like the idea of like them. Ultimately, they were like, oh shit, we were just following orders. Going here, trying to dismantle this union. I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We figure out that our mission was being evil. And then also, I love like maybe they meet other

Marines and the other Marines are like, our job was to come kill you because you're infected. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe that was there. That was your job. Maybe your job was going and clean up this like anybody who was infected, like you just got to go and clean them up. And so as you're foggy coming out of it, you have these memories of just killing civilians. them up. And so as you're foggy coming out of it, you have these memories of just killing civilians. Interesting. Anyway, that's cool, McD, that's great. Well, all right, cool. I jotted all these ideas down and put this together, maybe in a little homebrew we could run at some point. I don't know if it'll probably won't be a show, but you know, we'll see. We'll see. Maybe in Vegas, maybe just for my own purposes at home. Before we get out the door here today though, I wanted to drop some GCN news.

I don't know how many of you have seen, but the Gen Con events have dropped. And I want to get you a quick update on where we're at currently with Gen Con events, as some of our games have landed and been approved. So major games that are going to be at the Con and ready to rock. We're going to do another Call of Cthulhu, 1920s Call of Cthulhu, live. We're going to do another Get in the Trunk Live. Get in the Trunk Live is back, so excited for that.

And we're going to do, this year we're going to do a Marvel. We're going to do a Marvel show live at Gen Con. More superhero shenanigans with Marvel. That's one we never mentioned in the IP role playing. We never mentioned Marvel on Hell. Yeah, yeah. I had it down here, but I forgot to say it. I feel those mechanics are wonderful in supporting the feel of a Marvel game, of a Marvel world.

So yeah, first time ever at Gen Con Live, Marvel show. I believe first time ever. I don't think we did that last year. Marvel show. And then we are doing a Starfinder 2E, an official Starfinder 2E show live at the convention. Very, very excited for that. So if you're tossing around coming to Indie,

please come out to Indie. Join us. It's going to be phenomenal. It's going to be amazing. And what else? What else? Vegas is happening. Well, Vegas is happening, no, but we have our live shows that are at the Athenaeum this year. So previously, we did Glass Cannon Live and we did Call of Cthulhu Live, Modern Cthulhu Live at the Athenaeum,

which was amazing. We are not doing Glass Cannon Live at the comedy club this year. Oh my God, I'm blanking on the name as I sit here trying to close out the show. It's helium, isn't it? Helium, yes. It was at Helium Comedy Club. Unfortunately, love helium, but we've outgrown it a little bit. So what we're going to do is do both shows in the Athenaeum back-to-back nights. So Thursday night, Glass Cannon Live at the Athenaeum back to back nights. So Thursday night, Glass Cannon Live at the Athenaeum, Friday night, Modern Call of Cthulhu Live at the Athenaeum. Got this whole deal set up at the Athenaeum. I'm very, very excited

about it. It's an awesome dinner theater style place with great rising table sort of seating and stuff. It's awesome. And we're going to do both shows there this year. So Glass Cannon Live at the Athenaeum, Modern Call of Cthulhu Live, and we should be having the same cast. Ross is coming out, Nora's coming out, Rob Kurkovich is coming out, so we should be able to redo a new Modern Call of Cthulhu show, which was just wonderful last year. And then of course, Gauntlets. Gauntlets you should be seeing hopefully dropping soon as part of the GenCon event structure.

You can come and play live with us at our booth doing live gauntlets. Jared's going to run some. I'm running some that everybody's chipping in to run a few gauntlets where we put you in Pathfinder 2e up against some impossible, impossible odds. Overall, it's going to be pretty, pretty amazing. So I hope you guys join us. I hope you

come out and get yourselves to Indy this year. If you're on the fence, definitely do it. We're going to have so many fun shows going on that'll be on sale and available soon. So just keep an eye out for that. As more news drops, we'll let you know. But for now, that's going to be it for us. That's it. Thanks, guys. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for hanging with us. Talking Star Wars, talking IP role playing, talking Andor. Thanks to Skid, thanks to Paula. Great calls today and it was just a great hang.

Thanks buddy. It was great seeing you as always. Great hang. Great seeing you friend. See you soon. We'll talk soon. Take it easy everybody. We'll see you next week.

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