The Glass Cannon Podcast - Glass Cannon Radio #29 – Improv/Mythic Bastionland/Conspiracy Theories

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

With Joe out on vacation, Mary Lou joins as the guest host today! They give advice on how to get more comfortable performing improv at the gaming table, talk about the new TTRPG by Chris McDowall, Mythic Bastionland, and share some of their favorite conspiracy theories! 0:00 Intro 9:40 Yes, And? 51:30 Into the Mystic 1:22:00 Tin Foil Hat 1:42:00 Horror Sweet Spot 1:57:00 GM Fiat Watch the video here: ⁠⁠https://youtu.be/txdwsWljVlY 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

You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network, the premier source for role-playing game entertainment. Hey! What's up? Welcome back to Glass Canter Radio. It's me, Jared Logan, with my new, I've got to say, permanent co-host, Mary Lou. Stop. Yeah, we're getting rid of Joe. He's gone. He's done. Yeah, we just said, no. We thought, nah. This show needs more female energy. And Joe's a misogynist. And we know that.

He's a toxic male. He's a toxic male Everybody knows it, we know it And we're sick of pretending otherwise You know what I realized it When we were at Gen Con and he wore that t-shirt That just said Andrew Tate on it With a photo of Andrew Tate

Yes, yes That's his favorite shirt And none of you saw it Because we told him to take it off We said that's not appropriate That's going to isolate Our viewers, our audience So we made him

take it off, but he, he insisted. He was, he, he actually, he fought Jared. Um, Jared had to wrestle it off of his body. Yeah. And you know, another time, uh, I didn't, I didn't tell you this, really, but one time Joe and I were hanging out and we were having a couple beers. And he told me he doesn't like it when girls talk. He said that. That's what he said. I can't believe it. God, that is just so classic Joe. I'm just so sick of his sexism. Yeah. Yeah, me too. So now, so now he's gone. We've cleaned up shop around here.

Hold on, I'm just getting my Twitch up and running. Welcome to Glass Canaan Radio, brought to you by Star Wars Coca-Cola. Whoa. Why is it Star Wars? I don't, I was going to ask that. There's no Star Wars movie coming out. Is there a Star Wars show? No, there's no new Star Wars show.

War just ended. Why is it Star Wars? This is Yoda. Why is there a Star, why is there Star Wars Coca-Cola right now? We haven't needed, we haven't seen Yoda in a long time. I want to, I want to point that out, right? Like, he is dead? Is he dead?

Did he die? Yoda dies. Yeah, Yoda dies in, I think, Return of the Jedi. Yeah. Yeah. So why is he on your Coca-Cola? He gets shot. he gets

Really? Why don't I remember this? Well, he commits suicide. No. Yeah, Yoda commits suicide and return to a Jedi. You don't remember, but have you ever seen the Star Wars films? I've seen them all. I watched them, I watched them in order during the pandemic. That was really fun.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, they're okay. I like a lot of other things better. Yes. D doesn't agree with me, but I prefer the Lord of the Rings films, which are epic masterpieces that McDee is wrong about. He doesn't like those films. Yeah. Oh, I'm so glad that McDee can't talk right now.

He's chatting in our private chat. But McDee famously doesn't like the Lord of the Rings movies, and he's wrong. Hold on. No, let me turn off McDee's talking here. What button is that? The Lord of the Rings films are masterpieces, unparalleled in John Rink. cinema. Yeah, pretty much.

So that's the final word. Yeah, I love the McDee has to listen to this and he's probably just railing in his office by himself and nobody can hear you because you're wrong. Because I did a computer thing. So welcome to Glass Canaan Radio. Let me say it a third time.

We have an incredible show today. We're going to talk about all kinds of things RPG and nerd related. As always, you can call in on the Discord and make your feelings known. We're going to take a lot of calls today. We want you guys to weigh in on everything we're talking about. But today we are going to begin with one of the editorial type sections I often do called GM Fiat.

That's what we're going to start with. And look, actually, can I, you know what? can I delay the GM Fiat till later in the show? No. I want to delay my action. You can't delay. Yeah, I'm going to delay my action and then it'll happen later in the round, which is the show. Are you going to be able to handle that, Jared? I want the GM to have to remember another thing.

I want the GM to remember another thing. I want the GM to remember another thing. How are you going to keep track? How are you going to keep track of this? I need McDee, who's kind of the GM of the show, to change the topics. Is that easy to do in OBS? Just change the topics so that I can delay my editorial down to the bottom. Well, I don't know what I'm going to do it.

I can do it in any time. Yeah. I can do it in any time. I think McDee can do that. That sounds easy. Maybe I'll do it in the middle of a segment. So there's a first half of the segment, then my editorial. than the second half of the segment.

I think McDade can do that. I think most GMs, people who are, like, familiar with the tools of their trade can, like, be pretty flexible like that. It's already done. It's done. Already done. No worries. Well, it was pretty annoying, though, wasn't it?

Oh, yeah. It really wasn't. I don't know. I feel pretty fine about it. I feel pretty cool, normal. It was just kind of, it was kind of a pain in the ass, it seems like. Sorry to be a pain to me. I just feel like strategically it's better if I do my edit.

at the end. You don't need to apologize for anything. You're doing great. You're doing your job. You're awesome. Thank you. Okay. So today we are going to talk about improv in role playing games.

Yes. And how we use different, you know, we have a master improviser here with Mary Lou. I've done a little bit myself and I've read books about it. We're going to talk about how you can use improv techniques, you know, for improv performance in role playing games to make them more fun and betterer. then we are going to get into a new game is a lot of buzz for this game Mythic Bastion Land Mythic Bastion Land by the designer Chris McDowell

Mary Lou you've played it I have You've played it So Mary Lou will give us a little capsule review But we'll also talk about Chris McDow and how he designs his games And sort of his design policy Because he's written a lot of essays on that

Some of which I've read So we can talk a little bit about a very different approach to game design. Then after that, it is time to talk about, is it conspiracy theories after that? Check the initiative order. I completely, I was looking at the topics on Twitch and then an ad just came up. Oh, okay. After that, we're going to talk about horror because the movie weapons just came out. I saw the movie weapons.

It was really scary, really terrifying. Oh, be careful, Mary Lou, because I don't know. It might not be in your... Is it too scary for me? We're going to figure that out. We're going to figure that out with as little spoilers as possible. We're going to talk about the horror sweet spot. You know, what is...

We're going to see, Mary Lou, what's too scary for Mary Lou? What's not scary enough for me? And you guys out there can pitch us horror movies, and we can see. if it's in our horror sweet spot where the Venn diagram of me and Mary Lou can both watch that horror movie. If Jared and I were going to have a movie night, what movies would we both agree to? The J.L. and ML movie night. It's happening.

It's coming up. Joe's not invited. Joe can't come and watch Fight Club or one of those movies he's into about how hard it is to be a man. be a man in the world. He's always saying that. He's always saying it's so hard to be a man in the world. Then we will do, actually, I've gotten this all of order, but it doesn't matter. We're also going to do, in honor of Delta Green debuting, we are going to do conspiracy theories.

We're going to talk about our favorite conspiracy theories, general thoughts about conspiracy theories. You can call in with your favorite conspiracy theories or weird ones, maybe even local ones you've heard. So get ready to do that. Then the horror sweet spot, and then somewhere in there, you don't know when, because I've delayed, I'm going to do my GM Fiat and do a little editorial. That's up to you, whenever you want. Okay. That's going to be a little editorial about initiative. So let us go ahead and begin by talking about improv and role playing games.

I think that this is a really interesting topic because I think that no matter what kind of role playing game you're playing, if it's rules. heavy or it's rules light, you are acting out a story. A story is happening. And especially in 2025, I think much more so than in the 80s or whatever, the idea that you will be fully role playing and acting out a role and sort of building scenes together, that's way more day rigour. It's more expected for any sort of game that you're playing. So, All of us could be better at that, even if you are a master improviser like Mary Lou or someone who just picks on people and stand up comedy crowds like I do, you can still improve your improv skills. So I'll just start by asking you, Mary Lou, what are some ways that you think improv is really useful, knowing how to do improv, things from your improv classes maybe way back in the day? what are some things that you think really help in a when you're playing a tabletop role-playing game?

Well, it's, I'm so glad we're talking about this because actually at Jen Con, I helped teach a workshop with some of my friends, Dave Hill and Amy Vorple, a workshop on improv for role players. And the first thing that I kind of talked about was in improv, you want a breadth of characters, right? You want to be able to play anyone and do anything at any time, right, when I'm doing a show. But in role-playing, you have your character, right? Unless you're a DM, then you do want to be anyone at any time. But as a player, you've got your one character. And so it's less about breadth and more about. depth, right? Making them a

layered and multi-dimensional and interesting character. And that's where the story comes from, right? Like, a good GM is going to take their characters at their table and make the story happen between them and around them. And

so depth of character is really important. And I know a lot of friends love to, like, write backstories for their characters, and that's so cool and awesome. But I like to develop my characters in, like, at the table, in play through improv, because it's, like, surprising and exciting that way. And you develop the backstory through improv, right? You suddenly realize, oh, we knew each other a long time ago or... Yeah. Yeah. I can start somewhere.

right and have my concept and have my bare bones but then in play with my characters discover new things about them just in my you know reactions and in what I think is interesting or funny or cool in that moment and um that's what I think improv helps us teach is like or learn that it's fun to listen to that and that you don't need to plan it that it can be, you can discover things about your own character at the table. And that's so fun. And there's like a magic in watching your, your, um, I said this at GenCon too. I keep wanting to say playmates.

That's okay. Playmates is good. That's true. They are playmates. Fellow players is like sort of, I think, what, what I should say. But my brain keeps wanting to say playmates, which sounds way different. but your fellow players, there's like a magic in watching your fellow players like discover their own character with you.

And that's so fun. Yeah. So I'm seeing one person jammy on the Discord chat is saying heavy improv systems are those that don't rely on a battle map. Disagree. Hard disagree. I think whether there's a battle map or not, the expectation is that you are going to be playing out scenes with each other.

So improv helps for, I think, any kind of game you play. And I don't even know if there is such a thing as a heavy improv system. Improv is a way that you play the game or you help play the game or make the game better. I don't think that it's like, well, you know, maybe I'm wrong about that. I mean, Blades in the Dark, you literally can't plan. Like it forces you to improv. what is happening in the adventure or the score. So I guess there are heavy improv systems, but I think any system you can use improv.

So you were talking about not planning ahead, right? Yeah, like for example, instead of writing a long backstory, you just kind of bounce off what the other players are doing and you kind of make up your backstory as you go along. Or, you know, instead of saying, oh, when I get to town, I'm going to do X, Y, Z, and Z, you you sort of just kind of let things happen and see where the game goes. So what do you think is the advantage of not planning ahead? Why is that good or why does that help in an RPG? I think surprise is such a great feeling when you're playing a game, even when it's about your

own character, right? Like one of the tenets of comedy is surprise, right? That's part of what makes things funny is that it's surprising. Not that every campaign has to be funny. Right. That's just... I would say, Mary Lou, I would say I only like stories that are surprising in some way. I want to be surprised.

I think the best movies and books and TV, I think it surprises you. So if something is not surprising, if it's predictable, it's probably not that good, right? Yeah. And I think that's a really easy way to, like, build in that we're writing the story together that we're creating it in the moment because that's the difference between writing a novel and, you know, playing in an in an RPG. Right. In a game, anything can happen. In a novel, things have already been decided. In a video game, there's really strong guard reels. You can't go anywhere and do anything. So the only

advantage over those other types of media that a role playing game has is that you can literally do anything, have any interaction. So if you're not improvising, you're not taking advantage of the one thing role-playing games have over other types of games in entertainment. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That is the one thing that we can do in role-playing games that no other medium can allow. And isn't that exciting? Don't you want that?

not only for your GM to like do less work but for everybody to really be a part of it and to make it together by surprising each other and you're not like going into it going to be like I'm going to throw a curveball today and I'm going to just weird out my whole table right I'm going to do something that makes no sense

in order to yeah kind of derail the game and have everybody try to figure out how to get back on the on track yeah that's yeah that's not what improv is no it's about being true to your character if you if you you you know through exercises and through play and maybe by writing some backstory if that's what works for you um you know figure out your character and make them a dimensional you can think like how would my character react to any situation and then you can put them in any situation. What would you say to somebody?

Sorry, did you want to finish that thought? No, no, no. That was it. My thought was, that's cool. That's cool. All right. Yeah. So it is cool.

What would you say to someone who says, well, that's all well for you, Mary Lou, who's been acting for a very, very long time. And that's all right for you, Jared, who's incredibly intelligent, charismatic and handsome. Mm-hmm. But I, you know, I'm an accountant or, you know, I work as a systems administrator and I am not a performer. So, you know, recently I played a game. No joke.

I played a game with some people I didn't know very well. And we were all just kind of doing a scene. It wasn't crazy. We weren't in like a really emotionally fraught scene or anything that made anybody vulnerable. vulnerable, but we were just kind of doing the very basic roleplay you do at the beginning of a first role-playing session. And we, my friend Clint, you know, Clint, threw it over to another player and said, like, some of his character said something like, well, what do you think?

What should we do? And that player went, I'm just not, I'm just not going to do the whole improv thing right now. And I was like, wow, I'm so used to playing with performers that I sometimes forget. That was the whole game. Right. Yeah. Well, sometimes you think that's the whole game because you're used to playing with performers. And I want to be clear, I don't think that's the whole game.

I think that the game part is super important. I love it. Right. But I think that both of them need to work together and improv helps. But I would say I sometimes forget that that's very hard for some people to kind of access that part of themselves. It makes them feel very nervous, vulnerable, or more likely that they're just like, I don't know how to do that. So what would you say to someone who's like, Mary Lou, I don't know how to do that. Well, the thing is, is that, like, I'm sure he knew what he would say in that moment if he were there, right?

Like, there's a funny joke is that, like, everybody's really good at improv until they, like, take one improv class. Like, your first improv class, everybody's really good at it because you're not, like, thinking too hard. and you're just sort of like, what would I do in this scenario? Or you're just trying something and there's no pressure. And then your second improv class, everybody gets really bad at it because they're like thinking and there's like this pressure. But the truth is, is that everybody's good at improv because that's what you're doing every second of your life is just like reacting off the moment and then acting accordingly.

Like we're improvising right now every single day. that is that that's just what you're doing what improv like as a performance art does is like okay what if it wasn't you what if it was somebody else what if it was not you on a stage what if you were imagining you're in a kitchen with your mom making a birthday cake right like just adding a like tiny detail shift um but the truth is is that everybody can improv and everybody does all the time it's when you think about it like a like as if it were anything other than just acting normally, that it becomes this, like, big scary thing. Yeah.

So I love this book called Play Unsafe by Graham Walmsley. And he gives a little advice on this pretty early on in the book. His book is just really kind of taking improv rules and then in his book, applying them to how you play role playing games. Uh-huh. And he says, I think this is an improv rule, to be average, be bored. be boring do the next obvious thing and I think sometimes people get nervous about role playing or improvising in role playing because they're like oh I've got to be really clever yeah

I got to be smart I got to be funny I got to be I got to be clever I've got to be witty you don't have to do any of that you can say the thing the next thing that seems obvious to you you can give yourself permission to be boring right yeah I mean you're you're You're not on a stage. Luckily, you're with your friends playing a game. So if your character is a little not, like, sparkling and super memorable at first, it's absolutely fine. But what improv training, at least some, tells us is that actually it's when you try to be average and you try to be boring instead of being clever or you allow yourself to do those things. That's when you're interesting.

Yes, it's true. It's so true. That's when it happens. When you try to be all witty and smarter than everybody else or come up with something really creative, the opposite happens. You just end up being kind of annoying and dull in a strange way. So, you know, being obvious, doing the next obvious thing, that works in a role playing game. And honestly, probably in an improv scene on stage, too, because. Yeah.

And from an acting perspective, We always say, and writing, you know, like act and write what you know, make it honest, use what you have, right? There's a little piece of you in every character, even though, you know, I might be playing an orc barbarian, orphan, who, you know, rages at the world. There's always a little bit of me in every character, and so it's very easy and very... not only acceptable, but encouraged and great, to just be like, what would I do? What is what? What would I do in this moment? And you would do the competent thing, the safe, boring, expected thing. And don't worry, life will happen, right? Like, interesting things will happen because of that, just like in life. Interesting things happen. Yes. So, yeah, no matter what you're throwing,

out there, if people are focusing on reacting off of each other instead of staring at their character sheet or planning five moves ahead or, you know, I even think in combat, people are like, oh, I'm going to plan my turn perfectly. And then right before their turn, something changes position or blows up or someone else does, you know, someone else gets in the path of your fireball or something like that. And your entire turn is completely that you thought up in your head isn't going to work anymore. So learning to improvise even helps in like rules-heavy things like combat where you just simply can't plan it all ahead perfectly and organize it perfectly. Sorry, I really have a really quick thought that you just get some brain blasted into my mind

that I think is so important for both role playing and improvising and the game mechanics of it as well, the numbers in the crunch, and that's listening. And Ron even mentions this in his comment in Discord about listening. That is the easiest way, I think, to take the pressure off of yourself and participate even better in both the game mechanics of your game and the role-playing. It's just by listening and reacting, like you said, Jared, reacting to what's happening. It's so much easier. It's so much easier to be reacting off of what's happening at the table than like planning your next move or planning whatever funny, cool, interesting thing that your character would say next, right? It's hard. That's hard. That's writing a play. Writing a play on

the fly is way harder than just having a conversation by listening and reacting. Listening and reacting. And it sounds so basic, but God damn, is it hard to get people to fucking listen? And I've been a player too, and I have trouble listening, you know, I start to get into my character sheet. I start planning my next thing. I start, I fucking, you know, I want to check my messages sometimes because the spotlight isn't on me for a second. So it's so hard to get people to listen. But as a GM, I would say, if I wanted to ask. ask people to just do one thing while they play.

That's the only thing I really would love for them to do is just to listen, to listen when other people are going. And then, yeah, of course, react off of what's happening. I was talking about this the other day with a friend. I forget why this came up, but we were talking about Pathfinder and how because Pathfinder is such a crunchy game, which I do love, I'm very into the crunch and the mechanics and the min-maxing, and I love that. Even though I'm a role player and character-driven, I think, above everything, I do, oh, I love the crunch and the mechanics. But something

about Pathfinder is that it's so hard, you have to work as a team, right? Like, you are punished if you're not optimizing as a team, if you're all acting as individuals. And I think we found that in Blood of the Wild a little while ago. And so I think Pathfinder is great, because it forces me to pay attention to what my teammates are doing and the moves that are being made before me because I can have a plan for what I want to do on my turn and then somebody else can do something or move somewhere that's going to make that not the most optimal choice anymore. And because it's such a crunchy game, like that could be life or death. So I like when games kind of like force you to pay attention and listen in that way. I think D&D

sort of suffers from, like, you know, individual star player disease where you can. You think so, yeah. It's a little easier to just be like, this is my turn. This is what I do on my turn. You guys can do whatever you want. Yeah. Well, I mean, this is, I mean, working together and sort of planning an attack plan together

is why sometimes, you know, I tell people there's a thing called side-based initiative. I'll get into it later when I eventually decide to do my GM Fiat. But there's like a type of initiative where it's just your entire side goes at once. And it actually really helps people to plan out at work together and plan out an attack plan together, you know, actually listening to each other. But I just wanted to go into just a couple other things that are in this book that I have found are really cool when you are role playing, which is one thing is to, Graham Walmsley is the writer. He recommends letting your guard down, which I think is always good in any kind of acting or performance. But basically do things that maybe, well, do things that scare you or that are uncomfortable for you.

Not, I know the book is called Play Unsafe, nothing actually unsafe. But to basically not worry about how you're going to look or if people are going to think that you, So his example in the book is he wanted to play like a suave debonair, like sort of face man who could charm anybody. And that meant that in certain scenes, he was like trying to seduce female NPCs. And it made him think, it made him think, oh, no, are the other players going to think that I'm a pervert or that I'm here to somehow enact these fantasies of having women like fall in love with me or whatever? And ultimately he decided, well, maybe it's good for me to get out of my comfort zone and try this and not really worry about what other people are thinking. And that applies to all kinds of things, even if you're GMing, like bringing up topics that maybe you're uncomfortable with. And not to just like be edgy or controversial or to be like, look, I, you know, I'm going there.

You know, I'm making it that. violent or that disgusting. That's not what we're talking about, but things that are personal to you, like being vulnerable and exposing a little bit of yourself during the game, it gets this, it creates this electricity in the air where even if you're just saying the most obvious thing or you're just reacting off of others, if that element of discomfort or friction or vulnerability is really what we're talking about is there. It really kind of heightens everything and makes it kind of, you know, um, can I, can I bring a

good example, I think of when I've witnessed you do that exactly. Oh, oh, okay. Yes, sure. Um, when we did our episode of Faster Purple Worm, the TV show. Yes. Um, and we played half brothers. Um, and, uh, I know that you, Jared, because we're friends and we talk. that you are not, like, a hundred percent comfortable singing in front of audiences,

even though you have a beautiful voice, as I tell you all the time. And there was a scene where your character had to sing a song of mourning, a, like, serious, like, dirge. And you sang this song in fake elvish. And it was everybody's favorite part of the show. We came off and everybody said, Jared, that song. That was amazing. And I know that that wasn't, Princess, can you please relax?

I'm trying to tell a story. Princess, please. We're on the air. We're on the air. I know that that's like not something that you, you know, I'm very comfortable singing. It's my job. I love singing. But I know that that's not, you know, something.

that you feel is extremely confident doing. And I watched you do it without thought, without judging yourself, without worrying, without trepidation. You had the moment. It became like the move that you were like, oh, I should sing in this moment. And then you just did. And it was magical. We all loved it.

It was electric. You know, I think if you're not using the game to do this. these kinds of things to step out of your comfort zone and get these sort of new experiences, even though they're all in an imaginary world in your head, but to get these new experiences and push the boundaries of kind of what you are as a person or a character, then I'm not sure, you know, I just feel like you're missing out on part of what's great about these games. And if you're just playing, if you're playing to go to do 40 damage, that's why you're playing. I'm sort of surprised.

You know, I feel like you're playing to be a hero in, for example, a Pathfinder game, right? I mean, I'm just, I just really think that these things, for me, they are an integral part of the game. But you know what? I want to hear what you think. And maybe you disagree with me or maybe you disagree with something Mary Lou said, or maybe you just want to give your own experiences and how improv has, has aided you in your games. So let's take a couple callers right now.

Let's get them on stage here. Who has their hand up? I see Rodeth. I think Rodeth has had their hand up for a little while. Let's get Rodeth. Hi, Rodeth. Can you hear us? What's up?

Sure, Ken. Sure, can. So, yeah, one of the things about your last statement there with the 40 damage, if you're just planned to do that, then that comes out really quickly when somebody fumbles or whatever, and they can't. All they do is just go, I just fail. they're not interested in making that story work right the improvving like what is the result of my fumble or failure right in this desperate moment that's that's going on um it's one of the reasons

why i'm not a huge fan of most leveling systems and and kind of like the bigger combat systems because they're you know 45 minutes is a long time to make somebody wait to have their their moment in the spotlight in some of those games and if they're right on a certain way. Yes, you're absolutely right. 45 minutes, and then they roll and fail the attack roll. Right. And not even fumbling, right?

They just fail. So it's like, oh, I missed. Yeah, they just whiff. Awesome. And everybody's kind of bummed about it. And it's not, that's not the experience that, you know, most people are kind of angling for is the improv, so much of it is about failing, you know, to make that connection.

and still yet making the connection, if that makes sense, where you're, you know, you use the difficulty, as Michael Cain says. You know, if you had something that was difficult that happened, you tripped on your way on stage or whatever it might be, use that. Make that part of the story. And just one of those things about the game, no matter what you're playing, failing forward is so cool. Yeah.

Players who can enhance and embrace that are some of my best players in the best times I've ever had around the table. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Rodeth. It's funny that Rodeth brought up tripping on the way to the stage because that's a formative memory in my life in seventh grade in choir. I was president of my choir. And so when we got first place at the middle school show choir competition, I went up to get the trophy and on the stairs up, we, poof, like, absolutely flat on my face in front of everyone.

But that is like, I remember coming up like, and it got a huge laugh and a huge cheer. And I was like, uh-oh, that's formative for me. So, yeah, failing, failing forward, turning it into a success. Yeah. That can be fun. It's why you're funny is because you've, you've, Because I failed in front of hundreds. Internalized, yes, you've internalized that trauma and you bring it out a different way.

But I really did, like, Rodoth's point that, like, you know, if you're playing just to do damage or just to pull off your special ability, it's, the game is going to be a frustrating experience for you because you're, it's not going to happen every time. It's not. But the thing you can do, almost every gaming session, even if you're in the middle of a combat, the three hours. Is talk in character, react to the other players, you know, describe your actions and basically role play is what I'm saying. Roll play and improvise. Okay, let's see who else wants to talk here.

Let's bring up. Anybody else got their hand up? I see Draconic, aka Jeff. Yeah, Draconic. Hop on up here and tell us your thoughts. on all of this. Here he is. Hey, what's up, man? Hi. Good, thanks. How are you?

Very good. So I played with you in Vegas here at, uh, your private ramdam. Oh, yeah, yeah. Earlier you were talking about sort of like bringing in your own experiences. I got to think in a Delta Green, my, myself, I would always run probably. I think the first time you would just run away? Yeah, because that's horrible. So I think I find when I'm trying to get into a game I often get wrapped up in what are the rules of the world

I think I get too much in my head to try to go forward. So I guess what are your thoughts about like how do you get out of that? Like just trying to you not get wrapped up in your head? Yeah, wrapped up in your head in the rules and how the world would be. I mean, Delta Green was a little better because we were at least it was in our sort of world, but some of the others, like you're in medieval times. I know this is illegal from this time, but back then, would that have been okay? You know, that's, listen, that's the GM's responsibility to tell you what would have been legal in that time. And hopefully he's just pulling it out of his own

ass and he's not sitting around researching medieval law. But listen, that's not, that's not of your damn business, whether something would have been legal in medieval times or it would have existed. Just do it. I do have advice for this. And I think that instead of, to get out of your own head, you have to start looking the other players and the GM in the eyes and just listening to them and reacting to them. You know, there's this very OSR mentality.

And Ben Milton says this all the time on his chance. channel questing beast, which I really recommend. He says the answers are not on your character sheet. All the answers are not on your character sheet. You need to, if you want to get out of your head, stop thinking and start listening, just looking the other players in the eyes, trying to make a connection with them and listening. Even if you're in the middle of the combat and the other players are just describing their actions, even if they're getting into a rules discussion with the GM, just being present.

for that. And listening to what's happening instead of worrying about what you're going to do in, as Rodeth puts it, 45 minutes, I think that's the way to get out of that. And then my piece of advice would be, it sounds like you had an idea, right? If you're worried about the rules and whether something would be allowed, it sounds like you do have an idea of what you would do. You just don't know if it would be okay. The rule of improv is don't think. and don't judge. Don't judge, right? If you have the idea, just do it.

And it's your GM's job, like Jared said, to be like, well, actually, that's not allowed. But here's what you could do instead. Yeah, hopefully the GM's doing that. Which they should be, because that's their job. Yeah, they should be going, well, maybe not that, but this instead or this version of that, you know. And then in that way, you're always moving forward and it's still always propelling something new and interesting instead of, you know, that interaction would never happen if you just keep it to yourself. So I'll a little bit say ask for forgiveness, not permission, right? But it sounds

like you have ideas. If you're worried about the rules, you have an idea. Just do it. Who cares if it's slightly wrong or something? I mean, in actual life, there are so many things you can't do because there are all these rules and things that are constraining all of us. Definitely in a role playing game, get in trouble and do things that you're not supposed to do or that you're worried you're not allowed to do. Please do those things. This is the only time we can't. Jeff, thanks for playing with me. Who did you play? Oh, I was Sergeant Criptowicz. Oh, that's right. So the one where I blew up the monster. Well, thanks for your call. And definitely You know, if you want more advice on that from someone who's thought about it a long and harder,

I would get that Graham Walmsley book that I keep mentioning. But thank you, Jeff. Is anybody else here? Yeah, I see someone else. I see Thruly. I see Thruly. Arita? I see Thruly.

Let's grab Thruly. Oh, is Clancy got her hand up? Oh, damn. All right. We'll try to get to everybody. Thruly. What's up? Hey, how's it going?

Can you hear me? Good. We can. are you pretty good um maybe a little bit of counterpoint but there are there are times where I just kind of want to show up and do a dungeon for like three hours and not have to put like the emotional effort into role playing and sometimes it's more like a board game or even like a like a miniatures like tactical game But sometimes that can be a lot of fun for a few hours.

Right. So I totally get that. You don't want to play. You don't want to role play. You'd rather just play a miniatures tactical game or a board game. Yeah. Like maybe just this week. You know, like sometimes you just don't have the energy for it personally.

Well, yeah. No, I mean, fair enough. But like, also like that sounds like it's really more about your mood that day than it is about whether improv is good in almost every role-playing game, right? And my counterpoint to that would be, well, then, why couldn't you just role-play that as your character, right? That sounds like a very fun and interesting mood for your character to be in, to be like, I just want to hit stuff today. And that sounds fun to me. That's true.

That's a good point. Yeah, I just... Because sometimes it is fun to just hit stuff. We should talk about on this show at some point, you know, the way people show up to the table sometimes. Because I have people show up really tired or people thinking of or hungry or I've talked about people eating at the table and how much it drives me crazy. And people show. I mean, you wouldn't like sit there eating a hot dog while you're performing improv on an improv stage. I don't think you would.

I wouldn't, no. So, so, but, like, people show up distracted. They really have maybe important emails coming in and stuff like that. To me, honestly, if you show up and you're, you're feeling a certain way, the thing that's going to make you feel better is really engaging with the game. And I just, I just disagree with you. I think if you show up and you go, today, I don't feel like role playing, then you're, you're, you're not giving yourself an opportunity to feel differently. or feel better or you know get outside of your head like that's why i'm like put the phones away everybody you know like let's let's like focus on this thing and give ourselves over to it for a little

while um all right well thank you so much and uh and and and and by the way i mean totally get having different moods and showing up to the game with different moods that absolutely does happen so thank you through let's get let's get erita up here. Arita's had their hand up for a minute. Let's get Arita up here. Arita, what's up? Hello, can you? You sure can. Oh, excellent. Long time caller, first time listener. What is this show again? Today I learned callers can be funny too. Arita, no one's ever done the first time caller line on Glass Canaan Radio. So I'm here to give you. a first time that

joke's ever been done a word. I'm going to send you I'm going to send you Star Wars Coke Zero, the only Coke Zero with Star Wars on it. Areido, what did you want to say about improv?

Yeah, so it's something that I think is very interesting to me, how I noticed recently how effortlessly you guys do what you do. Because I've played TTRPGs for a while. mostly in text through forums. And I got to sit at a table for the first time recently.

And it really surprised me how difficult it feels, like getting into your character, giving your character a voice. And it's crazy that you guys do that while also being like so, so funny, so entertaining. And how do you recommend people being able to more get into their character? It's a really, really good question. So I will just start by saying, I 100% all the time sit down to the table. I don't know what my character is going to sound like.

When my character starts talking, I'm like, this is stupid. I haven't thought this through. I'm not doing a good job. And I sound dumb. And my character is not interesting. I feel that all the time. Even as a GM, I have. to do an NPC, even what I planned to do. It was in my notes. I knew it was coming up and I

launch into the voice and I'm like, fuck, this is terrible. I hate this. This is exactly the voice I fucking did for the last guy. I am blowing it. And the thing that really helps. And it's in this Graham Walmsley book and it's in a lot of advice on just succeeding in general is to give yourself permission to just do an okay job to not think I got to sit down and create beautiful golden moments of meaning right now or that I have to blow everybody out of the water with this unique amazing nuanced character that I've brought but instead like we're saying earlier saying all I have to do is sit down do whatever's coming out of my mouth is fine and I'm doing the next obvious thing.

I think, yeah, I think, Arita, if you're talking about, you said it feels effortless. First of all, yeah, we are, we're trying really hard. And second of all, I like Jared, I want to crush it all the time. I want to get a home run every single time, right? I want my voice to be the funny voice. I want my character to be the best character. And that's because I'm a handbone, right?

And I want that attention and I need it or all die. But that's not going to happen, right? I'm not going to crush it every time. Not every single hit is going to be a home run. And so giving yourself permission, like Jared said, to just do an okay job for most of it just allows you. It takes the pressure off, right? And allows you to just relax. and let it happen and have it be more effortless and less effortful and which actually

allows you to to hit more home runs, right, more often if you take that pressure off. Like Mooky Betts is showing us right now in the Dodgers, right? Take the pressure off. But like, Rita, like what you don't realize and what all of us have a trouble believing is that you, your own ideas and the way you would react and the things you would say are really so unique and original because everybody is really different and original. So if you just like go with your gut and just say the next thing that comes to mind, you really will be fine and you don't need to like worry about building a really interesting character. It's just

not that it's just, it's just going to get in your way. It's going to get you in your head. okay makes sense you gave me a lot to think about uh i appreciate that advice take that advice do exactly as mary lou and i say because we've never made a mistake and um report back on your incredible success all do thank you i go before my boss something thanks for oh get out of here oh thank you so much erita for um being such a giant supporter of the gc n i see arida all over the discord all the time so thank you you for being here. I think Mary Lou, we need to move on to our next topic. But I will just say, if you have more thoughts on improv, we would love to hear them. So, you know, hold those calls if you

wanted to talk about that. And when we get you up here, you can talk about that. But right now, I want to talk about mythic bastion land. So this designer, Chris McDowell, he is a UK gentleman. And he has been designing OSR games. And we should have a whole episode. on the OSR at some point. But basically, some people might call them rules-like games that sort of harken back to the dungeon crawl philosophy of 1970s or 1980s, D&D. Chris McDowell's games, though, are quite a bit different.

And they are original and creative in a lot of different ways that I think people have been really delighted by. He created a game called Into the Odd. and then later he came out with Electric Bastion Land. And recently he debuted Mythic Bastion Land. And Mythic Bastion Land is a fantasy RPG, a medieval-type fantasy RPG. And Quinn's Quest, Quinn from Shut Up and Sit Down, has a YouTube channel called Quinn's Quest. He recently reviewed it and raved about it.

And now I feel like this game, Mythic Bastion Land is getting a lot of buzz. It's winning a bunch of awards. I think it won an any. Yeah, I think it won an any as well. I haven't played it, Mythic Bastion Land. I've played Into the Odd, which was his first game. But I want to talk to Mary Lou because she's played Mythic Bastion Land. So what did you think?

How was your experience? Yeah. So Hot Boyfriend found Into the Odd and loved it. And then I bought him Electric Bastionland. for his birthday and he loved it and then so he was keyed in for the release of mythic bastion land got it as soon as it was released um and i've played it um in a campaign that he's running and it is so unique and so so so cool um the setting is awesome uh it's this very weird sort of dark but whimsical, high fantasy, sort of Arthurian setting.

Right. Everybody plays a knight, right? You're a knight. Yeah, we are knights around the realm. And our job is to protect the realm and encounter these myths that wander the land and generally are generally destructive and bad. and you have to and confront them in some ways. And what's really cool about the book is how many tables there are.

Right. He loves tables. He loves random encounter type tables, right? Yeah, yeah. So I love when people say that OSRs are rules light because there are no more tables than an OSR. And I love that. It's true. Yeah.

It allows you to improvise because it takes the pressure off. You can just open up a page. And on every single page is on one side, you have a knight. And then the other side, a myth. So he has all these tables for character creation is you roll two dice. You roll like a D12 and a D6. And that tells you what night you are and the powers that you have. And they're all very very.

Wait, I don't get to choose what night I am. am, it just gets picked. You can. You can choose if you want to. If you want to read it through all the nights and pick one, I'm sure you absolutely can. I actually like random characters. Yeah, I like just rolling for it. Yeah.

To me, that's like a cool gift. Yeah. Is to like roll randomly and see what I get and what I have to deal with it. And all of the nights are so specific, but also so vague. So like the night that I rolled was the banner night. and my weapon is this huge pike with a banner on it. And my special ability is that I'm like a leader and I go forward in the battle. And so we can all re-roll our attack die if we all want to, like once per round or something like that, which is really cool.

There's another, I think the mirror night is that can any surface that they're touching, they can see through. Whoa. That's weird. Yeah, weird. And then there's another night, the tankard night, where if you're drinking with somebody, if they're drinking with somebody, that person will tell them too much. They will over, overreveal.

And they'll only realize that. They've done that the next morning. Right. So these abilities are really weird. Very specific. Very specific, but also you can sort of like make them happen in any way you want. So it's, could you even see through water, Raya asks? I don't know.

That sounds impossible to me. You need to have a specific feat from finder second edition. Now, let me say, you said the attack die. So do you roll to attack in Mythic Bastion Lane? because I know that into the odd, you didn't even roll to attack. You just auto-damaged things when it was your turn. Like, there was no attack roll. So what's cool is it's side-based initiative, kind of like how you talked about.

I think, at least, I'm pretty sure that's how it worked. But, yeah, we all roll and then who for, you just roll for damage. So you're not actually rolling into the odd. Yeah. Yeah, like Into the Odd, there is no, like, to hit. It's just you roll damage, but only the highest damage actually happens. Interesting. So we all rolled our attack die and based on, you know, what weapons we have, which were either D8s or D6s or D10s, and then whoever rolled the highest number, that's the damage that actually happens.

but if you rolled above a certain amount, even if you weren't the highest, if you rolled like above a six or something like that, you can do other actions like flank or disarm or block or like other sort of like helpful maneuvers so that you're always doing something. in the action, and it's always moving forward somehow. And because it's side-based, and because you all roll together, and it's whoever's damage is the highest is actually the damage that happens, and the rest of you have to choose your, like, support maneuver, it's very interactive. Like, combat, you can't just sit and wait for somebody to take their turn. Everybody's turn is kind of happening together, and then the GM, in our case, Hot Boy, friend sort of crafted a narrative out of like our roles and would be like, okay, so you did

this and you did this. And when that happened, you know, he slipped under your, your pike, but then, you know, your other night came around and stabbed him and he took eight damage, right? And so we're able to like craft this sort of like cinematic fight sequence together. Super fun. That's what side-based initiative is good for. It's kind of like before, you know, and I think with some versions of side-based initiative, you roll the initiative every round, right? And so you don't know if the monsters are attacking first or you're attacking first.

But with side-based initiative, the idea is that you and the other players, each round, come up with an attack plan. Like, I'll get on this side. You get on this side. Wait, wait. No, no, no. Wait. Let me throw my fireball first.

Okay, you throw your fireball. Then I'll get on this side. and then you get on that side and you hit in because you do the most damage. Now, you can also do that in individual turn-based initiative like we see, you know, at basic, basically run in 5E and in Pathfinder. You can also do that, but there's a really different feeling to it. And I think that it is true that a lot of times in a Pathfinder type system where people have their own initiative score, they do sort of go rogue or forget to sort of coordinate with the other players.

I think that can happen a lot. And it's sort of a feature and sort of very prominent in a side-based initiative. But I just want to, you know, I read up, so he has, Chris McDowell has, first of all, Mythic Bastardland sounds awesome. And if you've looked at the book, it's absolutely gorgeous. Gorgeous. Yeah. So there's also that.

Yeah. So, so, but I read a lot of what he had at the end of Electric Bastion Land. He had a thing called the Audendum. And a lot of it is just sort of like his design philosophy. And he has this thing called the ICI doctrine, which means information, choice, and then impact. So what does that mean? This is what he thinks every encounter should be. Information choice and then impact.

So information, he really, really, really hates perception and. knowledge roles. He thinks that the GM should just give you actionable information when you walk in. There should never be like, hmm, how do I, you know, sorry, you don't know anything. You don't know anything about this. Like, you can't fail to learn some things. And he hates when DMs keep secrets from, from their players. But keep going. No, no, you're absolutely right. So he thinks that, you know, you give them information when they walk into the scene. And that information should be actionable or give them some, you know, they should have ideas for options of things they could do based on the information they get, that they get automatically. And that's when choice comes in.

He thinks that there should be multiple things that a character can decide to do or that the party can decide to do when they confront something, you know. And this is a big thing in this book. I read by Ben Riggs called Encounter Theory, where he says that encounter shouldn't be like it's a fight. It should be like every encounter should be this thing where you can decide multiple ways to handle it. And the example he gives an encounter theory is there are guards at the front of the castle who won't let you in. You can fight them and kill them. You can sneak around them. You can bribe them and charm them. Every encounter should be like that. And I think that Chris McDow sort of also agrees with that.

So choice, and then the choice should be impactful. If whatever they're doing, once it's done, doesn't change the story in some meaningful way, then why are they bothering to do it at all? So every choice they make should have impact. But I really think it's wild that he really hates, like, anything that would cause you to whiff. That's why his attack roles in his games just automatically, you know, You hit, you just automatically hit and you deal damage. And he, he says like with monster powers, like he would never give a monster a power where it's like you have to pass a reflex save or the monster does 2D 10 damage to everybody around it.

He would just give the monster the power. It does 2D 10 damage to everybody around it. And because he feels like, and I agree sometimes. I do really love 5E and Pathfinder, but when you have an awesome monster power and you try to pull it off and then everybody just succeeds at their save and you're like, well,

that's a whiff turn. So Chris McDowell thinks that players and GMs shouldn't have these whiff turns that each round of a combat should be like, holy fucking shit, something's happening. And I think it's a really interesting. I think it's a very interesting point of view. I mean, what do you think, Mary Lou?

Like, you played the game. I did play the game. And I mean, I'm of two minds about the whiff turn thing because I do love like passing a reflex save. And the chance of it happening that makes things feel a little more up in the air or a little more dangerous, like a little more. a little more mystery but what I what I truly love

and what really sings to me about his philosophy is the secrets thing is the and they're not being any one right way to do it

because I can remember some so viscerally frustrating experiences in games where like I know everybody has this one

where you like walk into a room and you're like I look around, do I see anything, any dangers? And the GM's like, no, you don't see anything. And then you like, are like, okay, I walk in. And they're like, you stepped out a trap and now you died. Yeah.

And it's like, oh, like, oh, I just hold your thought. But I just want to be clear about how Chris McDowell would do it. Because he gives, he gives examples in this addenda. A trap should not be a perception check or some sort of check. And then if you fail it, you hit, you hit the trap. To him, they walk in the room and he automatically gives them the information, hey, there are a bunch of dead bodies in this room. Or, hey, there are these weird sort of like little pock marks on the wall, like something's been hitting it. Or, hey, some of the panels on this floor are glowing slightly.

And then he lets people say, okay, I don't step on the glowing panels. And then another player is like, wait, wait, wait, maybe we should step on the glowing panels. And now a conversation is happening and people are making meaningful choices. Anyway, sorry, I interrupted you. No, yes, because that's what I love, right? Is if the DM tells me something and I can go, oh, maybe there's traps in this room, that's great. But if I just walk into a room and they're like, surprise, you get shot with an arrow, because you didn't check for tracks. It's like, oh, I didn't know that I, rah, you know, that's so frustrating.

or if I'm trying to do something and I'm trying to go about a task a certain way and the GM is just like, that's not working, that's not working. Oh, nope, they're not responding to that. And I'm like, well, if there's only one right way to do it, then tell me how to do it because otherwise we're stuck here, right? Give me information, right? Give me information that allows me to solve the problem because I hate the secret thing. I'm super guilty of this for sure.

I've done it many times where I just don't give the players enough information when they walk in to the encounter. And then they can't figure it out. They're like, well, I try this. I try this. I try this. And I'm like, nope, nope, nope. And I'm like, damn, I didn't give them information that would allow them to figure this out. So it's just a really, really interesting sort of philosophy on everything.

And where you're saying, like, don't keep secrets, he says expose your prep, meaning like, go ahead and show them all the prep you've done, like, almost like to the point of showing them your notes or like, what he basically means is like give them the map. Like, a part of the game shouldn't be like figuring out a layout. Like he doesn't think that that's that interesting. He's like, don't put all the monsters and challenges on the map, but give them like a blank. map that they can use to make decisions. Yeah. A hot boyfriend did GMs a lot and I don't, but I see him prep and I see all the work he puts into it and it's so awesome and so cool and he's GMed for me a ton and, you know, sometimes

he'll be like, oh, this was a great session, but I had this whole room, you know, or I had that I prepared this whole thing that like we just didn't get to or you guys didn't see or anything like that. And it's like, well, I would have loved to. I just didn't know it was there. And I think Chris McDowell says, like, yeah, you put all that work into it. Let's make sure we go there. Let's make sure we do that.

Like, tell them, hey, there's something really cool in this room. Yeah. There's something over here, you know, like give them, at least give them information so they can decide to go or not go. At least give them the information that the room is there. Let us bring up some more people. Maybe you've played a Chris McDowell game. Maybe you just have thoughts on Chris McDowell's philosophy. Maybe you just want to talk about improv.

Robin Gaming. I see Jammy. No E. Jammy, No E, who I believe has had their hand up for a while. Jamie, would you like to come to the stage? How are you? Yeah, I can hear me, okay. We can hear you. Great. Good to hear from you. How are you doing? Oh, good. I'm a mess right now, Jamie. I've been watching a bug. That's why I put them out of me there, but maybe I can clarify it. Oh, Jamie no E. Sorry, I didn't get it. Can I call you, Jamie? Uh, no.

Thanks, you say no. Okay. Fair enough. Jamie, uh, what's your thoughts? Share with us. Uh, yeah. So the last topic about like the,

the mapping of dungeons and just giving them the map for where they're exploring. Um, there's a module in limitations where you kind of, to drop players into a dungeon from like a well. and then they're expected to kind of map it out on their own. So I think it can kind of go both ways there on what's exciting to do. But running that sort of thing with different players, like some people hated it after like two hours of not knowing where they're at. And other players really enjoyed just getting into the mapping.

Right, right. I mean, certainly. So you're talking about limitations of Flame Princess, which has so many a wild OSR. adventures, some of which are not safe for work. I don't know if you've heard of this game. Yes, I know. The one I'm talking about

is God that crawls but has like a giant surprise for players. Yeah, yeah. Let's not spoil it in case anybody wants to play it. But in old OSR systems, you know, old D&D, mapping the dungeon was a big part of

the dungeon. So our friend Chris McDowell here who developed these games would say, maybe don't make players do that. Maybe instead just give them the information. I mean, what do you think about that? I mean, I would definitely give my players a map,

but then they would say, well, here's this little square here that's got a room, must be the treasure room. Do you think they would be able to tell that just from looking at a blank map? If the map has the rooms, why wouldn't they? Well, how

would they know which one is the treasure room? How they figuring that out? It's somewhere that you would probably just walk by if you didn't notice it. Like, how do they do secret rooms in that sort of system? Well, obviously, if you were doing a secret room, that probably wouldn't just be on the map. Just like, you know, I'm saying a blank map because you're not like giving them, like, here, these are the monsters or, you know, here's where all the monsters are and here's where all the traps are.

But it would be a little bit more prep than for the GM when they initially get the module themselves, it has like all the rooms numbered out. So you're saying, like, remove the numbers, remove the secret rooms, do some Photoshop, and then hand it to the players. Right. I mean, or you can do what I do, which is just sort of draw it onto a dry erase thing. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, we all of my games are ran through foundry.

So it's, I guess it's easy there. Also, you can just kind of draw on the map. Sure. I don't know what the solution is. I'm talking about the philosophy, right? Like the philosophy of giving information instead of withholding it. Like, that's what this particular designer has in mind. So. And I'm thinking about, I'm thinking about, too, though, like in video games, when you have a mini map and you can see the map and, and, you know, I can see on the map there's an area there. And that's probably a secret treasure area. Right. But I still have to figure out how to get there. Right. Or, you know, you're like, that's the boss room.

I can tell. But like, am I going to be able to get through everything that's between me and that room to get to the boss? You know? Yeah. And it also kind of bit rid of the mystery of what's in this cave that I can only see 30 feet into because of my light source is only 30 feet. Well, I have to go further in to explore. have to prepare before going into it. Yeah, I mean, he also says, like, in his book, like, you know, give them opportunities maybe to meet someone who knows things that are in the dungeon or find more detailed maps that tell them, you know, where the treasure actually is placed or what to expect in different rooms, where the traps are, like, give them opportunities to get this kind of information.

So it's just an interesting philosophy and it's kind of counter to. It's interesting, too. A lot of the things we... Can we talk about with improvs? Sure. You guys didn't bring up the topic of players that use AI to generate their backstory and things like that. What are your opinions on that? Well, I think that they're missing out on one of the best parts of playing a role-playing game.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like using their own creativity. They care so little about their character. character, that's awful. To me, it's like that what, what's the point? The whole point is doing it and going through it, right? It's like having somebody else do push-ups for you.

You're not going to get the gangs, you know? What's the point of that? The whole point is getting stronger and better and more interesting through the exercise. And again, we're not saying that someone needs to sit down and write a novel about their character that is interesting and beautiful and unique, we're actually advocating they can just sit down the table having done almost no work except creating the character and just go from there.

So why even do the extra work of having the AI write it up and printing it out? Yeah. That sounds like more work. I totally agree. Yeah. And then you have to read it. Yeah, that's stupid. Those people are shitty and fuck them.

Oh, no, no. No, no. They do. They're misguided. They're pieces of shit. They are garbage people, and I hope they die. I said it. Okay. I'll share this clip with him. Okay. Do you have players that do that? Yes. Yeah. Whenever his character dies, he says, all right, give me five minutes. I'll make a new character backstory of a new character. No.

And then after like five sessions, then they switch up the character anyways and just roll up another one. So it's kind of their thing, I guess. All right. Well, they're obviously into. They're playing a different game for me. Yeah. They want to play the game for very different reasons. And I don't really understand them and think that they're missing out on some things.

But, you know, what I think is really funny is that people on social media, and like message boards about this kind of stuff are always like everybody does it in their own way it's okay to want to play the game for different reasons and I'm like okay I disagree with that yeah um all right your reasons are weird yeah your reasons are weird and wrong AI guy all right by Jamie thank you for your call yeah thanks but thank you all right um uh anybody else let's see if we get one more person up here to give some thoughts on mythic bastion land i see i saw uh is it l j i saw lj a bit earlier yeah lj you want to hop up here and uh give your thoughts my friend hey l j how you doing what's up guys was it was it was up

first of all just i'm going to say it's super excited to see you guys on the new season of delta green I'm very excited about that. I got into Delta Green because of GCN, and now I've ran a couple games in it, and it might be my favorite TTRBG. It's amazing. It always kind of turns into a therapy session between you and your friends. It feels like.

It's dark. It's pretty dark. The only OSR game I've played is Mark Bore, and I guess my comment is sort of more about how those games I mean for me with the improv question all of the rules any different setting any different module that is all there to support the improv that's the way that I look at it you know I mean it sets the settings it gives you a base of sort of rules a framework to operate in but the improv is really the most important part and I think that you know I run a lot of games have run everything from AD&D to 5E to Starfinder, like, all this stuff. And, you know, all of the games always seem to kind of boil back down into the same thing. And it's exploring the dynamics between the people at the table, not the characters, but the people at the table.

You know, and I feel like, you know, when I'm running games, yeah, like, I've got a D&D game that's got seven players in it, you know, so like to try to, it's too many players. It is, it is too many. And two of them to leave. LJ, I really, I know that you love your friends, but I don't know why people do this. Do not play with seven people. I think it's, well, you know, it's, it started with five. And then people's partners were like, oh, this sounds really fun. You guys are interested in your playing.

They're not allowed. You know, trying to be. Talk about a 45 minute wait for your turn. But we have, we've been playing for four years now, you know, there's, and we get together. with seven people, yeah, yeah, I mean, like, honestly. That's scheduling. It is a nightmare. That is the hardest part. But the point being that, like, you have to meet your players where they're at at the table.

And, you know, some people do find it like the, I think Jamie the caller before, like, it's, for some people, it is very hard to improv. It's hard to break out of that shell to get into the voice and it takes like a lot of coaxing for some people. but the rules and the tables and the settings can like just give those seeds of improv to them and I think that that's their most important function is to kind of just like set them in the rule in the world and give them direction to go to because yeah I don't know so often you guys kind of talked about it before but when a session turns into rules nitpicking that's my least favorite thing I mean it's awful when you come into just like the minutia of, you know, capital letter terms, capital letter push, you know, capital P push, things like that. You're like, you know, you can usually just like arbitrate it in a way that is like, okay, you know, what's your acrobatics? Let's just make this a simple role.

Does this make sense to you? Will it feel fair if I set this number, you roll above it or below it, below it, you pass or fail? And then just kind of move on with your life, you know, it's, it's so easy for. for the rules to take center stage. And then it just becomes this bookkeeping session that doesn't, you know, go anywhere or feel fun for anyone. And that's where the OSR stuff, you know, I appreciate the minimalism of it.

The rules to support the fiction. The rules support the fiction. The fiction isn't there to support the rules, right? We're doing it to be involved in a fiction. that's that's the whole point we're to create a story yeah um well thank you so much for your call l j and uh good luck with those seven players maybe one of them will uh quit or get sick or drop dead no no it's it's a lot of work but i'm i'm taking them i'm taking them all the way i'm taking them to 20 i swear gun bet they you can do it this awesome fighting you're a better man than me thank you

LJ. All right. We have got to move on to our next topic. I hope we can get through them all today. In honor of Delta Green, which L.J. just mentioned, we are going to talk about conspiracy theories today, Delta Green, a game of conspiracy and horror. I think our new season, I don't want to spoil anything, but our new season where

Mary Lou and I and Rob Kirkovich are The Stars is definitely filled with this sort of conspiratorial feel, you know, this is like a more political intelligence agency sort of type season of Delta Green, less law enforcement, more like, you know, CIA and things like that. Yeah. So it's definitely got a conspiracy theory vibe. And it made me think I would love to kind of dive into conspiracy theories for a little bit. First of all, I want to start by saying, the truth of the. about conspiracy theories to me is that a lot of times they are a rationalization for

despicable attitudes and beliefs about other peoples and people who are different from you politically, religiously, and things like that. And I went on to Reddits, our conspiracy one time. And I was like, ooh, this is a scary place. I thought it would be cool. cool theories about the JFK assassination, it was not. And I think my favorite thing to do with any conspiracy theory is... Yes, tell them about your game. Yeah, this is my game. Anytime you encounter a conspiracy theory, if someone says it to you,

keep asking them questions until they get to the Jews. Because every conspiracy theory eventually gets to the Jews. And you try to see how many moves, how many questions it takes before someone goes, well, the Jews, because a lot of conspiracy theories are horrifically anti-Semitic. Six degrees from a conspiracy from the Jews. Yeah. You get to it eventually. But conspiracy theories can also be fun.

And there are other types of conspiracy theories that I think are interesting. So, Mary Lou, do you have a favorite conspiracy theory? Okay. What's your- It's easy. Clorpe Donk already said it. Birds aren't real. Birds aren't real.

Now, man, I'm about to, I'm about to try to blow up your spot because I heard that birds aren't real was a planted conspiracy theory, that people did a parodying conspiracy theories made up birds aren't real and tried to get people to believe that other people actually believed it. Well, even if that's true, that's funny. Let's do a, that's the conspiracy theory about the conspiracy theory. That is a conspiracy theory about the conspiracy theory. And who would have, would have done that? Was the theory here, I'm using AI, was the theory that birds aren't real?

Using chat, GPT. This is an okay use of chat GPT. I'm not creating my character backstreet. Was the theory that birds aren't real concocted by people who. It's a satirical conspiracy theory. I thought it was, oh, it's a joke. I thought it was real. You know, this is the thing.

This is why conspiracy theories thrive right now because we're all in this weird online space where there's all this misinformation flying back and forth all the time. And I don't know about you, but when I read the news, I read the headline and then just move on and then pretend that I know what it was talking about. Of course. And, you know, when I scroll Reddit, I probably don't read all of the posts, you know, and I miss out on a tremendous amount of context, but yet somehow feel like I'm smarter than I've ever been when, in fact, I'm stupider than I've ever been. So, for sure, yeah, birds aren't real. Was a deliberately created as satire.

But let me tell you. But are there some people who got it and we're like, yeah. Are there, is there some people? Are there, are they out there? Are there real, are there real birders out there? Yeah. We have funny slogans. If it flies, it spies.

If it flies, it spies. Well, I mean, it says something about our current state as a society that people would believe that the birds aren't real theory is a real theory. So, we live in terrifying times. I'm going to share my favorite conspiracy theory. And it better be real. This one, I think, would make a great, a great actual, like, novel or movie where this was true. I don't think this is true, but I think it's interesting.

So this guy, Anatoly Famenko, who was a Russian mathematician, who specialized in topology, which is, like, geometric mapping or whatever. This guy had a conspiracy theory called the new chronology theory. And he proposed that human history before the 17th century is mostly made up, fabricated, or severely distorted. So he thinks that all carbon dating is either unreliable or fake, and that he thinks that ancient Greece, ancient Rome, ancient Egypt, all the things that we know about them are mostly myths that. that were built or extrapolated from medieval events, events, and that human history, as we know it, history as in recorded things that have happened, only goes back about a thousand years.

And that at some point, a shadowy elite rewrote the past or came up with the science of history and made a bunch of stuff up. What happened instead? Does he have any theories? Or he's like, we don't know what happened because they won't tell us. Exactly. He says it's, well, I'm guessing. I haven't read the book, the new chronology, but I think he's proposing that we really have no idea what happened because it's sort of what really happened has sort of been erased. And he's saying that you can't really believe all of this literature that came from ancient Rome or ancient. in Greece, you can't believe that it's necessarily real, all the histories that have come down, Herodotus and all that. He thinks all of that.

All of that. All of that and carbon-dating. That would be a lot of work. It is a lot of work. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm interested to read the book, but what I like about it is that like it's nuts, first of all. But it's also like, I'm a big history person. it's like very creepy to me because the truth is like the thing about the past is like you just

you can't know there's no way to go there like you can't know and I think it's probably true that some things that have come down as historical fact are probably false I think that there are probably a lot of things that we all go yeah that we all go yep that's true maybe a lot of it is false you know so so there's a there's a kernel of truth in the new chronology theory That is my favorite conspiracy theory. Other people like that 9-11 was an inside job, right? Yeah, that's one. The JFK assassination.

Again, they did a poll. I was reading this. They did a poll a couple years ago. And like, it's something like 60% of Americans believe that JFK was not just assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone, that he wasn't acting alone, that someone was helping him. Oh, I have a friend who brings up, I have a friend who brings up about the JFK assassination that everybody knows where they were when, when JFK was assassinated, except for George

H.W. Bush, he was, my friend says this all the time, that he's always quoted as going like, huh, I don't know where I was that day. And he's like, yeah, what, everybody knows where they were. Why would he not say where he was? Because he was on the grassy fucking knoll. That's why. He was on the knoll. George H.W. Bush was on the knoll is a t-shirt that I'm having made.

So chem trails. You know, one time I got into an Uber with a guy and we were driving and he was driving the Uber and he had all these decorations up around his car that were like, he was a white guy, but they were like Hindu sort of imagery and mandalas and things like that. So I said, wow, I like your decorations. And he started talking. And then he started telling me about how he, the reason he's going to have to keep changing the radio station was because if he doesn't do that, they send signals because they're sending signals into all of our brains through radio waves and that the government would, you know, would control him if he doesn't keep changing the radio station. And then he started pointing up at like jet trails in the sky and going, look, look.

And he believed in chem trails as well. He was showing me all the chem trails in the air. Well, when I was in a shuttle at an airport and the shuttle driver, I, like, coughed. And he was like, yep, everybody's coughing these days. You know why? Camtrails. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And then his boss was like, operating heavy machinery. You're fired. Yeah, it doesn't really make you feel safe, right? He might dodge to avoid a, he might like turn the bus and crash in in order to avoid a lizard person. So I always think about when I think about conspiracy. theories. I think about something Alan Moore said, the writer Alan Moore, who said that, you know, conspiracy theories, you know, and I'm very much paraphrasing. But the basic gist of what he said was that conspiracy theories aren't real. There isn't like one New World Order or Illuminati or Deep State controlling events. There's actually just like hundreds of conspiracies all over the place, all the time. And most of the Most of them are just out in the open.

We know that they're there. We know who is fucking up our society and trying to control us. We're quite aware of it. And it's a hundred of different bad actors all the time. So, you know, the real conspiracies are right there out there in the open. I'm not sure the conspiracy can be in the open, but I'm saying that they are. Yeah, he says, the truth of the world is that it's actually chaotic. There is no, the truth is far more frightening.

Nobody's in control. The world is rudderless. I love that crank. Rutterless is a great word, a great description. Let's get some people up. Maybe they can tell their favorite conspiracy theory. We only have a little bit of show left. So I want to get maybe one person for this and then we'll get into the horror movies.

Let's get, I see just at the top of, well, actually, in honor of conspiracy theories, let's get all hail Lord Bezos. up here All hail Lord Bezos All hail Lord Bezos What's up? What's up? How you doing? I'm doing all right.

How are you all? Are we hailing Lord Bezos today? What did you want to say to us? What do you want to talk about? Oh man. Well, I don't know if I have any great conspiracy theories outside of some of the more. But what you talked about with Alan Moore

and kind of like some of the more basic day-to-day ones that just kind of like creep into your life and you latch on to that there was one, not super insidious, but are you familiar with Luca Donkich

the basketball player? Yeah. No, I'm not. So, the conspiracy theory that I have personally latched on to is that there was this trade with Luca Donkich from the Dallas Maverg to L.A.

Lakers. Uh-huh. And that the conspiracy theory is that the GM, Nico Harrison, was paid and hired by the league, sort of behind the scenes to trade Luca to the Lakers pretty much for nothing on the surface. It was a crappy trade. Everyone was up in arms, fire Nico, most horrible GM.

But then come draft day, the Dallas Mavericks had a, I think it was like a 1.2% chance of winning the first pick and the NBA draft to draft generational player Cooper Flag and they won it. There's like, it's unheard of like the percentage that they had to get that draft pick and they won it.

So the big conspiracy that's going around is that the league has rigged this, rigged this draft to give it to Dallas due to Dallas doing the favor of giving Luca Dunkage to the L.A. Lakers. So the league, The league thought that it would be better for the league, NBA sales, the NBA brand in general, to have this player, Luca Donkich at the L.A. Lakers? Correct. Instead of the Dallas Mavericks, yeah.

And then in return, they gave the Mavericks an incredible draft picking order, right? Like a, okay. I understand so little. I don't believe that one. I figured it out. Okay. I understand so little about sports that while you were talking, I was like, well, but now I think I did, I did actually understand it.

Well, look at that. There are sports conspiracy theories. That's real. Do you think it's true? Oh, I have leaned into it. But what I am, what I am going to say in coming back to your game, Jared, is it is a very shaky line here because a hundred percent folks can lean into this, and then it all comes back to, well, the Jews were behind it. That is a thing that has come up

with this one, and it makes me feel icky. So I'm just like, I have to take it, like, despite, like, despite, this is one, I'm not a big conspiracy theory guy into believing them. This is one has drawn me in. Like, there, I had some, partially I hate Dallas, fuck Dallas, sorry, as a former Houstonian, but so I've gotten dragged into this one, but Adam Silver, the, the commissioner of the NBA is, uh, is a man of the Jewish faith. And so therefore, there has been some, uh, definitely some easy creeping. The, uh, the degrees of separation are very minimal. Yeah. Yeah, like two degrees to

the Jews. I mean, isn't it, uh, awful? I mean, just to be, also. clear. It's despicable, this sort of anti-Semitism. And I know why it makes you feel icky. But it is funny that eventually all conspiracy theories, even a sports one about an NBA player trade gets to the Jews in like two moves. Wow. Thanks for sharing. Can we call up, can we call of DeCiccio because he's got a super obscure conspiracy theory from the Philippines that I think sounds intriguing. Okay. Tell me about this, DeCio.

Last time you guys did obscure obsessions, I was actually going to bring this up. And so I figured, hey, throw it out there for a second type category. Get it in here. Perfect. Have you guys ever heard of the Filipino cryptid called the Capri? probably not. It is Filipino Bigfoot with a tobacco addiction with sort of of fay mind control foresty powers.

How is this a conspiracy to CCO? Because so far you're telling me about a paranormal cryptid. Well, here it is. So it's like the ancient history, the ancient myths of the copra go back hundreds and hundreds of years, which is my obscure obsession because I was actually called the copra. I'm a six foot three white man with very hairy arm. and a little Filipino kid when I was in the Philippines saw me, screamed copyright and ran away,

and ever since then, I've been researching it. But one of the conspiracy theories about this is, again, so they're obsessed with tobacco. They're constantly presented smoking and all this kind of stuff. The conspiracy theory, the copraire. The conspiracy I ran across when I was in the Philippines is somebody told me that that tobacco smoking aspect was added by Catholic Spanish colonizers

in order to scare their, like, effective slave labor in the Philippines from not stealing from their tobacco fields. And then it went first or further. This person took this idea and said that this was so successful when the Spaniards did it, that the U.S. CIA is currently using this and the beliefs encrypted like Oswongs, which are like crazy witch creatures, in order to hide black sites on the islands and convince the locals not to go near them. Okay, so they'll kind of, they'll seed a belief that an Asmeng dwells in a certain area, and that's actually a CIA black site?

Yes, that's what I heard. And this is all like a practice that started from Catholic colonialists protecting tobacco fields. Okay, but how, okay, how many steps can we get from the Catholics to the Jews? Yeah, how do we get to the Jews? I don't know if this conspiracy theory has legs. It doesn't play the game. But I guess to the Catholics can be. It got to the Catholics.

No, that's a thing. Papists, that's a thing. People also distrust and hate Catholics. So this gets to Catholics. It's an alternative form of the game. Yeah, it's an alternate form of the game. It's a different religion to hate. That is an incredibly obscure conspiracy theory.

I love it. The Capre, don't smoke his tobacco or he'll get you. Yeah. I do think it reminds me of in Dune, how the Benegeserite like seed myths. Yes. You know, centuries ahead of time. Yeah. So that like the people accept them when they get there and everything.

Yeah, that's really interesting. I do think it seems like the stupidest way to try to protect a black site. But what do I know? There's probably like a fence. Yeah. Or maybe just make it. It's hard to find. Yeah, I don't think you need to like, be like, it's haunted.

There's a big foot. That's very Scooby-Doo. It feels like more people would go to find the monster, but, you know, maybe I'm just a weirdo that would want to go find the ass wing. Maybe. Well, thank you so much to Ciccio. That's great. And it was a conspiracy theory. I'm sorry for stepping on your story.

That's awesome. All right. Can we do horror sweet spot? We can. We, yeah, let's move on. Let's do our horror sweet spot. Guys, I just saw weapons by Zach Kregor. You're going to night, Mary Lou.

I'm going to night. Okay, so I'm going to figure out whether you're going to be completely brain-melted by this movie. Yeah. So can you give me an example of a horror movie that? that you love. What's one that you love? Can you think of any? I can approach this for a minute.

Nosferatu. Nosferatu, the one, the most recent one, the 2025 one. Yeah, I just saw that one and I loved it. I loved the witch. The witch, okay. So you like, you like that filmmaker whose name is currently escaping at Robert Eggers. Thank you. Okay.

So, interesting. All right. Okay. All right. I like Bram Stokers, Dracula, too. These are just the ones I can think of. Yeah. So you love things where people are in costume.

I love costume. You like costume? You like pageantry. Those movies, there are parts of those movies that get pretty graphic or intense. Yeah. How do you deal with? I like 28 days later. But when I first watched it when I was a teenager, I couldn't sleep for two weeks because it was too scary.

But then I watched it as an adult and I liked it. But it was really, really scary. So that's about, I think that's about at my, that's my threshold, 28 days later. 28 days later is your threshold. And did you find Nothferatu or the witch to be too scary or did they bother you for days and days afterwards? No, no, no, no. I didn't find those too scary. It's mostly like jump scares that I really, I really don't like.

Like, I have a very high nervous system. So, and I have a high startle reflex. So I don't like things when the things go, ah, and I go, I don't like that. Have you ever seen, you know, things that people say are, you know, legendary for how sort of vile they are horror-wise? Like, one movie that I really love is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Have you ever seen that? I have not seen that one. Okay.

I don't mind gore too much. Gore violence. I think that you're pretty tough then, Mary Lou. I think you're a pretty tough horror watcher if you can handle. So my thing is like, I like... I don't like things are sad.

I don't like sad. Okay. I don't like when horror is sad. This is a great thing to bring up. So because like there have recently been like, I feel like a spate of horror movies that are sad or just really depressing by the time you get to the end of it. A lot of them are like foreign horror movies sometimes.

I mean, two that I can think of recently that I thought were, or I can think of three, actually, that were just absolutely incredible in terms of acting and directing and production were one called Speak No Evil. They made an American version, but I'm talking about the original Danish version. Speak No Evil. Then there was a movie called When Evil Lurks. I think that was a Spanish film. There was a recent movie, like from 2022, called The Coffee Table, another Spanish film. And then I always think of this old French film called Martyrus, which when I watched it, it was so graphic and so dark and sad that I passed out. It made me pass out.

Jesus Christ, Jared. Yeah. So I put myself in for these experiences, but I want to say, like, it's so weird because, like, when I get done watching, the Danish version of Speak No Evil where just horrible things happen at the very end. I feel sad and bummed out and just sort of generally like icky. And I'm like, man, why did I watch that? Why did I do that to myself? But then, like a couple months later, I'm like, I don't want to watch that again.

Or I'm like. That's fucked up. You're fucked up and wrong. I really like depressing things. I don't know how to, I don't know how to describe it or what's wrong with me, but, um, okay. So, so, so you prefer more of like a fun horror movie. So, uh, I'm not going to tell you, I'm not going to tell you anything about weapons yet. Maybe I'll, I'll tease a couple of things with absolutely no spoilers about weapons since you're seeing it tonight.

But right now, why don't we take a caller? Would anybody like to kind of describe their horror taste and see if it aligns with me or Mary Lou? What is your horror sweet spot? how much, you know, graphic violence can you take? Does the movie sort of have to be fun and not like a deep, dark meditation? Why don't we get up Adastra here? I see Adastra has raised their hand. Adastra, come talk to us about horror.

Here comes Adastra. Hi. What's up? How you doing? Well, horror is not my scene. My hand's been up, but I can comment a little bit? Well, that's okay. Can I just ask you really quickly why horror?

So is horror or not you're seeing because you don't, do you not like it at all? Because a lot of people really don't like to watch horror. Well, I think it kind of goes along with some of the stuff you're saying, which is like, you know, some of it's very serious. Some of it's very sad. Some of it is just very intensely scary. But like I love when there's some, you know, camp and humor. You know, Army of Darkness is a classic, but the original evil dead gets darker and scarier than that. I like, that's my favorite one is the original evil dead.

That's the, of the evil deads, I prefer the original. It's good. Yeah, but it's still got that kind of camp and humor to carry it through for someone like me who's not really into it. Absolutely. I also recently watched Alien for the first time. What did you think? That one's not. very camp that's not a very camp movie what did you think of that no i thought it was an incredible movie

um because it was just very atmospheric and visual and artistic for so much of the movie and it was it was tense it felt mostly like a suspense movie where people are getting horribly murdered by a monster um yeah right liked it a little less because the last 40 minutes felt like a fever dream um oh i like that feeling the lead up to that i felt was a lot better but um i don't know i just thought that the end of it was just super weird well um i i think you i think you're into horror i think you didn't think you were into horror but if you can enjoy alien then you you can enjoy horror movie it just happens to be in space. It is. It is. Yeah. And so, like, what I, what I realize is kind of like, you know, stuff like slasher's jump scares, a lot of that kind of stuff is kind of icks me out. But something with a lot of suspense, pension is, is right up my alley.

Now, this is so interesting. So you can watch an alien do horrible things to people's bodies, but you really don't like a slasher film where another person is doing horrible things to other people's bodies. What do you think the difference is there? Why is one easier for you or acceptable and the other is not? Hmm. I don't like being confronted with the darkness of humanity. Uh-huh.

The darkness of humanity. Maybe. Maybe it's real. Sometimes I do. That's a really great question. That's a great question. You don't have to have an answer for it. I just think it's interesting because I've,

I hear that from a lot of people. They're like, I'm okay if a witch does it with a magic spell. But if it's just a person stabbing people, I have a huge problem. And I'm like, that is an interesting difference. I think some of the reasons are obvious. Like, one is really more realistic and closer to home. Adastra, you had, you said you had your hand up for something else. Did you want to make a comment on anything else we've talked about?

Oh, well, sure. you know we were talking about um how improv plays into things and i think that ties back to a previous topic of ours which was when to ask for a role like right um if you're if you're gming you you can use it as an improv opportunity to say hmm there are a couple of ways that this could go let's roll a die. You can't just roll a die willy-nilly. That's what we said.

But you have that mental exercise to say, this could be a challenge that leads to interesting results. What could happen if this fails or succeeds? Yeah, if there's impact. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You're thinking about the impact like our friend Chris McDowell does. All right. Thank you, Adastra. Yeah, really interesting. It's interesting to see where people's horror line is. Let's see if we can get someone else up here.

Thanks, y'all. Thank you, Adastra. Let's look at, I have Scram. I see Scram down here. Scram. You want to tell us how you feel about horror? Hi, everybody. Hi.

I love gore in a lot of ways. I read a lot of like horror gore manga. Yeah. Watching it. I have a very specific, if it's medical, no thank you if it's monsters tearing people in half totally fine but like for some reason medical stuff probably through to some like that it's real and those are like human beings and not just like fodder for the big guerrilla trip in half when you say medical do you mean like a horror movie that is set in a hospital

or do you mean like when you see gore and it's really had a time of times when they show stuff you know like the reenactment things like that is still like where I guess Don't not watch the pit. Don't watch that show. People tell me about the pit and I'm like, damn, I can't do it. Don't watch that. You don't want to watch that. Not for you.

Something about that is. I loved it. I love watching Vicerra and all these crazy monsters exist. That's really fun. But if you show it to me in like a real world situation, I'm out. I'm 100% out. Yeah. Are you a Junji Ito fan?

I'm a pretty big Junjito fan, even if I think some of his more popular work are a bit so ridiculous. I don't think they're scary. Like the one with the fault where there's a hole in the mountain and like you're drawn to the hole and then you die at the end of it. Oh, right. I've had some people tell me it's like this.

Carries together and I just don't get it. It's just too silly. Yeah. Some of Jinji Edo's stuff is sort of surreal, right? And some of the scariness comes from how surreal it is as opposed to how graphic or like, you know,

know, basically frightening it is. It's just so strange. He had one where he made sharks get like legs and they attack people on land. And people ask him, was this inspired by like the pollution of the world? And he's like, no, sharks on legs are just terrifying to me. That's really scary. Leads into his silliness. But yeah, I love his works.

That's awesome. Great. Well, thank you so much. Scram. We're going to make you scram now. Get out of here. And let's take one more call. to describe maybe their horror sweet spot.

I see infinite diversity has their hand up. Infinite diversity. Come on down. How are you? How's it going? Good. Do you have any thoughts on horror and where your sweet spot? My horror line is like, you know, I love like sort of the supernatural nealism of like, you know, movies like, you know, speak of evil or, you know, or like long legs and stuff.

But, like, as you said before, like, I have trouble, though, like, you know, with the horror of, like, human nihilism, like, movies like, you know, American Psycho, their house with house and corpses. I guess it's like what Mary Lou said is, like, I just have trouble, like, confronting the fact that it's, you know, that it's, that there's a very thin line between, you know, being like a normal person and just, and just engaging. your in your basis behaviors and being absolutely cruel and inhuman to another human being. So, yeah, I mean, like, slasher films, like, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I will faint at. But, you know, but, like, speak to New Evil and Speaking of All, like, I absolutely passed out. But, like, movies, like, you know, whatever, the Spanish movie that you mentioned before, Jared, from a couple years ago. When Evil lurks? Yeah, when Evil lurks, like, oh, I have no problem.

that because, like, it's demons who are doing all that shit. It's supernatural. Yeah, but some of the stuff that happens is a real bummer. A real bummer. Yeah. And just a quick point about the conspiracy theory. So my wife works as a clinical social worker here at a mental hospital in Berkeley. And I find it interesting that, you know, I guess one of the main sort of symptoms of schizophrenia is like, you know, from, I guess from her, you know, Diagnostic manual is the identification that you're feeling persecuted that, you know, there's a conspiracy, you know, there's a conspiracy against, you know, you. And it's, it's funny that, you know, people are willingly sort of like engaging and believing in these conspiracy theories when, you know, when in fact it's like, oh, this is like a, that's a sign of like a symptom of like mental. So, you know, it's. No, it is very interesting. Is that a conspiracy theory to silence people who have conspiracy theories that the government put in the DSM-5? Yeah, that you have, that's a symptom of schizophrenia so they can lock them all up, anybody who has conspiracy theories. That's a good conspiracy theory.

Again, rabbit hole. Anyway, thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you. And I've decided to delay until now. I am now going to do my GM. Fiat to bring us on home. Are you ready, Mary Lou? All right. Yeah, I think this is a great time.

Today's piece is called Lack of Initiative. And I just want to preface the entire piece by saying, I am a lazy man. Okay, let's accept that to begin with. All right. Now, my thing on Rolling Initiative in a D20 fantasy RPG is that what's so I ironic to me about initiative is that it's supposed to be when the action starts, but it's actually when the action stops and a TTRPG. Do you know what I'm talking about? You're like, oh, this guy comes out and he's got a weapon and the fangs and everybody gets all excited. It gets all suspenseful and you're

like, he's drawing his blade. He's running toward you and a fight's about to begin. And then you go, okay everybody let's stop and make a list of names with numbers beside them like the minute you're in a fight you're suddenly out of it that would be like if you're watching john wick and then right as john wick's about to punch someone they just cut to like two minutes of footage of them fixing the lighting on set um the rules immediately take you out of it and um the same it's true. I mean, like, there are rules like delaying, which takes the initiative that I have just spent minutes writing down and forces me to rewrite it. And I don't like that because as I have mentioned at the beginning of this essay, I am lazy. Okay? I'm a lazy person. Now, some people, lots of people online. It takes you minutes to write down names with numbers. Listen, it takes. It takes. long enough that I feel that the flow of the fiction and the pacing of the game is

interrupted, okay? Minutes is maybe not fair. Now, there's a ton of people who would be like, just use a macro on this specific VTT. I think you should invest hundreds of dollars in. And that is horrible advice. And please stop saying it online, okay? The person is saying, Here, just buy and learn this complex software program. I'm not going to do that because, as I mentioned, I am lazy, okay? Other people. What about the complicated technological innovation of index cards? Right.

Okay. So now we're getting into index cards or some people would say, hey, use this magnetic board with all these different pieces that the company sells. And I'm sure this is a fine solution. I'm sure index cards are a fine solution. I've actually used them before. But again, just as you're like kind of really playing with other people and you're getting the action ramped up, you suddenly are breaking eye contact with all your players and turning around to go fiddle with other stuff on the side of the game.

You know what I mean? You're fiddling with refrigerator magnets or cards. You are pausing the excitement to do bookkeeping, which I don't want to. I'm kind of like how we pause the action to roll a die. Um, okay. So, listen. A truth nuke. Got him.

That was a truth nuke. You got me. Now, listen, I want the rules to be simple so I can focus on the fiction of the game. And the problem is that initiative and reordering it is just one more thing I need to keep track of. And I am not good at keeping track of things. Guys, I was a theater major, okay? I'm not a strategic thinker, all right? Taking theater as your major is not a strategic choice.

I can't keep track of a lot of things at once. I'm dumb. My brain no think good. And also, I am lazy. That's why I became a comedian. You work for like one or maybe two hours a night. That's why I took that as a job. So, you know, it's not really about initiative.

As you pointed out, like rolling the die, stops the action. So really all of the rules kind of get in the way of telling the story, conditions, skill checks, counteract checks. This is why tabletop RPG should have no rules. It should just be a bunch of adults playing pretend in someone's living room. And I'm mostly making a joke here. But I think we could all agree that the best moments at most of our. games happened when people were just playing pretend in someone's living room. So I love rules-heavy systems.

I actually do because they're a challenge. I like to challenge myself to run an exciting game and a complex rules system because it's hard. And I love it when things are hard, positively turgid. I love that. But every GM listening knows that the more rules there are, that means it's also a lot of hard work and I am lazy so if you are ever playing with me don't ever delay your action during combat or I will be mad at you it's a pain in my ass because I have to rewrite my

whole initiative tracker because as I mentioned I'm not learning your fucking software system and please also don't ready in action either because that sort of gets confusing for me Don't summon anything. Summoning thing is usually a bitch. And Pathfinder, please never counteract anything. That's another pain in my ass. Don't inflict any kind of persistent damage or conditions. That's another thing I have to keep track of.

All right. Just like, I just, I'm begging you guys, remember that your GM, all joking aside, remember that your GM is a person and not a CPU, all right? If you want us to get all of these things perfect, then I guess go play a video game. And speaking of video games, my advice, Jared, would just be to get good. Get good. Yeah, just get good. Be better.

Get some index cards. Just be better, I guess. Be better. Okay. Do better. I do want to say that, like, have you ever noticed that right when you're getting into the action, like, that's when the action stops, is such a true. truth nuke, but it also does sound like, have you ever noticed that we drive on parkways and park

on driveways? You mean that it's a very clever wording? Oh, it's so cool. Like, whoa, blew my brain. And also, like, I want to do cool stuff, Jared. I want to do persistent bleed damage. And I'll help. I know you want to, but it's annoying to me because I have to keep track of another thing.

so please never use any powers that do persistent damage thank you but we're gonna okay you probably are gonna and you're probably right that I should just be better but I also reserve the right I reserve the right to bitch and complain um that's what this show is all about uh anyway thank you Mary Lou thank you everyone for tuning in to Glass Canaan Radio let's continue the discussion in the discord um you can recommend a specific VTT that you think I should spend several weeks learning. I love you all. Thank you for your calls and tuning in. Mary Lou, let's have you back soon. Yeah, love you guys. Thanks for having me. Princess Bye. Next week's going to be special. You'll find out. Bye-bye. It's time to make your membership official.

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Greetings, Adventures. Today we're excited to introduce you to a new story. Dark Dice, a horror podcast that blurs the line between actual play and audio drama, where the story is determined by the role of the dice. Six adventurers embark on a journey into the ruinous domain of the nameless God. They will never be the same again. One of the players is not what they seem after a doppelganger, a creature that can assume the form and voice of whatever it kills,

infiltrates the team. As the players are picked off and replaced one at a time, can they figure out who the monster is before it's too late? Can you? Here's a quick example of what our show sounds like. The, uh, shambler with the jar of liquid inside of him. Soren Arkwright let loose an arrow that cracked the glass, passing through the spine of the creature. The shamblers still managed to maintain its forward momentum, but stumbled as it eagerly tried to bite and swipe at Soaring landing near his feet. As Jeff Goldblum has now joined our cast, Dark Dice is available, however you listen to podcast.

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