Latest / Flail to the Face: A "Compatible with Mörk Borg" Actual Play Podcast / Season One, Episode 41: Post Flail Clarity: A Season One Retrospective

Transcript

Season One, Episode 41: Post Flail Clarity: A Season One Retrospective · Flail to the Face: A "Compatible with Mörk Borg" Actual Play Podcast

0:00
Greetings, scum, and welcome to Flail to the Face.
0:03
I am not going to be your host. I just wanted to say hello right
0:06
off the top. I am Nate.
0:07
I've missed all of you guys very much.
0:09
I know. I have been in and out.
0:11
Like something we were just talking about here before we got
0:13
on. Yeah.
0:14
I'm sorry. Like that?
0:19
Kevin, please take over. Hello, I'm Kevin and I'm here
0:24
for now. I really expected you to be more
0:28
put together than me today. No, not today.
0:31
Fuck, who's next? It's Levi.
0:33
Oh, hello. Hello.
0:35
It's Levi. I'm present.
0:39
Bringing, bringing the real energy today, yeah.
0:41
Yeah. Hello, it's Jacob.
0:44
No. Then it was supposed to be me.
0:45
And then Jacob. Yeah, it's me.
0:49
It's Thomas. I'm.
0:51
I'm here. We're out of practice, okay?
0:54
Give us some bread. Some shit doesn't change.
0:57
I love it. All right, I come here.
1:01
Last but definitely not least. I I'm Walt bottom billing.
1:05
Woof. Oh fucking drop that beat.
1:34
Guys, it has been far too long since I've seen all of your
1:37
beautiful faces. How are we doing?
1:39
This is how we know that he's dealing with an audio podcast
1:43
And yeah, Beautiful Faces being. Y'all handsome, fuck off All
1:49
right, so we finished season 1. We did our holiday episode.
1:52
We're also here just to kind of talk about season 1, how we felt
1:56
about it talk about you know, which arcs we like the most,
1:59
which characters spoke to us. You know, just kind of reflect
2:03
on on season 1. First and foremost, characters.
2:08
I mean well, do we want to start with arcs?
2:09
Do we want to start with characters?
2:11
What do we want to somebody jump in here?
2:12
I don't know. I have the list of questions
2:15
that Mister Phillip Jensen posted in the discord.
2:19
I yeah, I do have those as well, but.
2:21
I have pulled up. Let's hold up on those for the
2:23
time unless they're relevant to what you're saying, because I
2:25
think I mean. It's all question, yeah.
2:28
It's all questions about season one, yeah.
2:30
For sure, let's let's. I don't remember any of these
2:33
characters I played. Yeah, OK.
2:35
It's like, I mean, I'll, I'll kick it off.
2:38
The first question is, is your favorite moment from Season 1
2:41
and. The one I can remember.
2:44
Which one is? Which one do you remember?
2:47
Bad cum. Bad cum jokes.
2:49
That you are definitely reaching back into the Wayback Machine.
2:54
I know that. Looks we all know how bad my
2:56
memory is. I'm, I mean, I, I'm looking at
2:59
this paper. Oh, hi, Levi.
3:01
Was this was this paper, this campaign or a different?
3:05
Let me see it. What does it say?
3:07
Prospector, Mobius, Richard. That was the New York we did
3:11
with Daniel. Oh, yes.
3:13
OK, OK. Yeah.
3:14
That was a crab, dude. Moby Dick.
3:17
There was a weemit. There was a Todd word.
3:18
Ingrid screech. Oh.
3:21
Fuck Todd was in this. Tommy Yeah.
3:24
I don't know what that one is. I scribbled it out.
3:26
Because the dad I probably died. One of my favorite memories that
3:30
just kind of throws it in is with Jake, with Brian Cranston.
3:35
Because this no Brian, Brian was the goblin.
3:39
You were playing this screeching voice that we all absolutely
3:42
disguised. Brian was the goblin he killed.
3:44
His name was Brussels. Oh yeah, that's what it was.
3:48
OK. But like, what got me like,
3:50
still sticks in my head with that.
3:53
Oh God, it's but like. How eager he was to die for you
3:58
while you choked him to death. Exactly that was the thing I got
4:01
me is like he he spent an omen to befriend this goblin only
4:05
till like 5 minutes later spend another omen to kill him.
4:09
Yeah. Like he did it in the I want to
4:12
watch the life leave his eyes way and it only gave him more of
4:16
a hard on to know that he was enjoying it while it happened.
4:19
Fuck. And then I was like, so glad to
4:21
see Brussels die so unceremoniously later.
4:24
Like, that's one of my favorite things.
4:26
How did this guy fuck man? He got, was he?
4:29
The one who got. The ball that the.
4:31
Ball that was watching. Yeah, Nope.
4:33
The big the ball was Paul that. Was that's right, should have
4:36
kept a track record of all of the fucking characters and.
4:40
I know you had it. You were averaging a new
4:43
character every other episode. Yeah, you, yeah, your stats were
4:46
were unbelievable. The world really had it out for
4:49
me. Dude, I have never met somebody
4:52
so ready to like, as a dude that's played TTRBGS for a
4:57
while. You go into a dungeon or
4:59
whatever and a more traditional thing and you're like, OK,
5:01
there's a hallway here and you're going here and you know
5:04
that you have a fucking objective.
5:05
And somebody's like, OK, I'm going to do an investigation
5:08
check or something similar to like make sure I want to check
5:12
for traps. I want to make sure that I'm not
5:14
going to get stabbed in the side of the head by something or
5:17
whatever. I've never seen somebody so
5:20
absolutely fucking oblivious to that concept at all.
5:24
Like I was thinking specifically the moment where he pulled the
5:28
fucking daggers out of the skull when it was the the bone family
5:32
reunion bullshit. And it's like, it's my favorite
5:36
thing in the world because everybody gets to play the meta
5:39
bit of how Jake just fucking like he's either going to die or
5:44
get somebody else killed. But then also it leads to those
5:47
types of moments where like, everything's chill until he
5:50
pulls that out and then you guys are fighting about family
5:53
reunions and why you're not invited to the fucking picnics
5:56
anymore. And fuck, your Aunt Kathy thinks
6:00
that she's psychic and all this or whatever like.
6:02
That's a real thing. Yeah, I know it's a real thing.
6:05
So when I listened back to it, I was like, how did I not catch
6:08
this? In the moment?
6:09
It's because it just felt so organic and real, that kind of
6:13
shit. And then it's immediately
6:14
followed up by the the behind the door bit, which is one of my
6:19
favorite, favorite moments because everybody is involved in
6:24
it at a certain point. And the best part is that
6:26
everybody was on board without it being like behind the scenes,
6:29
like, hey, guys, OK, we're going to, we're going to play this
6:31
like, you guys are fucking behind the door, right?
6:33
You know, like, it just, it was seamless.
6:35
It was organic, and it made it even funnier.
6:37
The longer it went on, the more I forgot that Fisk Baskins knew
6:41
completely that that wasn't what was happening back there.
6:44
And he was just playing into it. And I just totally forgot.
6:47
I was just like, yeah, this is fucking weird.
6:49
And what's going on back there? And he's like, yeah, man,
6:51
they're fucking yeah, like that. It's weird.
6:53
And he knows completely that they're getting fucked, killed
6:56
by, by worms. I forgot all about it until I
6:59
realist listen to that recently and I was just like Jesus
7:02
Christ. I think my favorite part of the
7:05
whole season has been pairing up with random people throughout
7:09
the season. Like I've got favorite moments
7:11
with as Todd Word, with Screech. Like those are my favorite.
7:15
That was my favorite pairing up with Nate throughout the whole
7:19
season was Todd Word and Screech with Levi.
7:22
It was. Dude, Phil and Phil and
7:27
syphilis, dude. Like, yeah, as as a listener, as
7:29
somebody who wasn't on the show at the time, Dude, listen to him
7:32
go back and forth. Like, I know for a fact neither
7:35
of these two talk to each other about the characters that they
7:38
were bringing into this portion of the show, period.
7:41
So the idea that they just got on Mike and essentially, like,
7:45
exposed these new characters to each other and were just back
7:49
and forth 1234, it fucked me up, man.
7:52
I'm just like, dude, holy shit, the whole the whole thing, the
7:56
whole arc with Daniel, I everybody, I was just like, God
7:58
damn, dude, you guys are on fire.
8:00
Like it just it's one of those moments where like as sitting in
8:03
this chair specifically for me, I get the very unique blessing
8:08
of actually just watching my friends be fucking absolutely
8:11
talented and I and I have no quarter to just take up a bunch
8:16
of time saying shit like Dick whistle so.
8:20
What about you, Walt? As a listener or as a
8:23
participant? I've forgotten the question.
8:25
It's been favorite moment in the in Season 1.
8:29
Not really a moment so much as just a scene, but the end of
8:33
Black Antlers. And it's purely subjective as a
8:36
player, but that was tense. That was a race against the
8:39
clock. Can we've solved this puzzle
8:41
before Calma and the reindeer kill us?
8:43
Like, I remember, like my heart was going a mile a minute for
8:46
about an hour and a half as we did that fight.
8:49
It was a black all right, which is a really, really intense
8:52
moment. That was that was a really good,
8:54
really good story to play through.
8:56
That was a fun arc and I I can't wait to get that fucker in my
8:59
hand. If I had to pick a moment very
9:02
soon, yeah, I've already sent Daniel the money just to give me
9:05
the shit. Now I'd have to pick either
9:07
between Rundle killing Lefty for Lefty just to come fucking back.
9:12
It's like Lefty was giving Rundle shit the whole fucking
9:16
time, the moment he walked in. And it's like it was just
9:18
brewing. And it's like, oh man, if I get
9:20
the fucking opportunity I'm going to stomp a mud hole in his
9:23
ass and walk it dry and then end up fucking killing him.
9:27
And then he just comes back as that fucking Candelabra thinks
9:30
Rue goes. And then and then Rundle ends up
9:32
fucking dying right there. It's like, fucking hell.
9:35
I mean, but that was a fun moment.
9:36
And then the fucking playride and black antlers with fucking
9:40
Jake's character and fucking Yotna and fuck.
9:45
What was it? What was your character's name
9:46
there I. Don't remember which character.
9:48
Was he on at that point? True fuck, I think I think I use
9:53
it as one of the episode names, but just going he lit, he lit
9:57
Yotna on fire and then Yotna is fucking grabbing on to him to
10:00
fucking take him with because she's not dying alone.
10:02
It was just just that time was fucking chaos.
10:04
And it was, I loved it. But I mean, there's probably
10:07
countless other scenes that could be classified as a
10:09
favorite. It was the this whole season, as
10:11
chaotic as it was, was just absolute blast.
10:14
Yeah, what I think one of my other moments that I was like
10:17
proud of myself personally, it wasn't even recorded and that
10:20
was showing your my ass tattoo in the same.
10:25
Hall That was a pretty good season.
10:27
One part, yeah. No, Yeah, yeah, that definitely
10:30
checks even even though it is like.
10:32
I didn't know he bleached it. That's the weird thing.
10:35
Yeah. So it was the lighting.
10:38
It was the lighting. It's for contrast, so that the
10:40
tattoo looks like it stands out more.
10:42
Oh, so the perfectly placed ring light wasn't a weird thing?
10:46
No. No that.
10:47
Just. Flow from his ass.
10:48
That was just yeah. It wasn't premeditated.
10:50
It was a pageantry, OK? Standing on a chair facing a
10:53
studio. You didn't have to spread.
10:55
OK, I'm done. I'm done.
10:56
I'm done. Sorry.
11:00
Getting back into that holiday special energy.
11:02
OK, you got to give me. A little, right?
11:04
All right, what else do we got? Who?
11:05
Who else is asking questions and why?
11:07
What do you what? Do you want from me?
11:08
Phil's got a bunch of questions that he asked.
11:11
I'll jump in here outside of Flail and World Standard and you
11:16
know now Whispers to the Dying Lands, my other show.
11:19
What other podcasts you guys listen to and do they help draw
11:22
inspiration for the characters that you play on the on the
11:26
shows that you were in? A trillion percent.
11:28
I'm sure that that's not hard to believe on my part, but I've
11:32
said it before. Hello from the Magic Tavern
11:34
inspired me a lot when it came to the, the environment of the
11:38
shows and stuff. And I would, I would assume it
11:40
inspired you as well as along with how TRS did their stuff.
11:45
I I think that's what you had said previously anyway.
11:48
They, I can't even remember what it was.
11:50
I think it was like maybe like when it really hit me, it might
11:53
have been like the first time Usador fell off a chair or
11:56
something like that. It's just like, oh man, man, I
11:58
am here in this place. I was like, I want to give
12:01
people this feeling as much as I can while also holding on to the
12:05
integrity of playing the game itself.
12:08
So that inspired me a lot there. Nad Pod, I listen to that a lot.
12:12
It's super good. It's always been good.
12:14
Dungeons and daddies. I fell off Critical Role after
12:17
like season or campaign 2 or whatever.
12:19
But I mean, easy to do when they're 5 hour episodes for
12:23
three years. Yeah, yeah, there's a few other
12:25
things that, but those ones are like really mainstays for me.
12:29
Other than our shows of course as as as soon as they drop I'm
12:32
on them. I don't listen any.
12:33
I'm not. Surprised at that either.
12:36
I listened to an arc of Monster of the Week to get into being a
12:40
podcaster, whatever the fuck we are, and that was about it.
12:44
I enjoyed that. That was fun it.
12:45
Makes it even more interesting though from like that
12:47
perspective because the way that you play is very unique, very
12:52
unique to you both in the way that you play characters and
12:56
improvise with them and also. I never read the.
12:57
Rules use the mechanics. Yeah, exactly.
12:59
You don't. You don't.
13:00
You don't sully yourself with somebody else's influence.
13:04
You just come in and pull away big out of people's ass, you
13:07
know? Yeah, world is what you make of
13:10
it. I haven't listened to a podcast
13:15
in over a year and a half. Oh geez.
13:16
But. Man, it was adventure, Adventure
13:20
Time, Adventure zone. Adventure Zone.
13:23
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I listen to their monster
13:26
of the week thing. Yeah.
13:27
Super, super good, I cried. Yeah, me too.
13:29
Yeah. I cried.
13:30
I was a really good one. And I watched a lot of improv
13:33
comedy. I'll tell, I'll tell you right
13:34
now specifically if we're going into that realm, like when it
13:37
comes to Dungeon Masters that you can tell care about their,
13:40
the people that play the games they care about, like the
13:43
characters that they're playing and want to make them feel seen.
13:48
Griffin McElroy is an amazing, amazing Dungeon master for that.
13:52
And so is and so is Brian Murphy from Nadpod.
13:59
He is an amazing Dungeon master. A lot of NANADDPOD.
14:03
Yeah, yeah, don't sing it, don't sing it.
14:05
But at least those were like the main ones.
14:08
Well, and then I listened to all of Magic.
14:10
I can't even remember. Hello from magic hello from up
14:12
until like season 3 or so, I. Drop off 'cause I.
14:16
You don't like how rough? I I get annoyed with him, he
14:19
gets annoying. The the character that he plays,
14:22
I understand why you would, yeah.
14:24
Other than that, Pink Pink faux hawk was really good.
14:27
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You know.
14:29
Except for that time you hated them, I also.
14:33
No, I hated because they're inconsistency.
14:35
Yeah, boom. Go through my job.
14:39
Yeah, because you listen to the whole first season.
14:41
It's like damn, it was really good.
14:42
And then just ghosts. Yeah, I get it.
14:45
Yeah, I enjoyed that stuff too. They, I, I really felt like we
14:47
would have jived with them if we sat down and played some games
14:50
so that. Game wise, I listened to Monster
14:54
Hour quite a bit. They're fantastic Monster of the
14:57
Week podcast. And then other than that, like
15:00
the two main ones I really listened to are like Welcome to
15:03
Night Vale and Old Gods of Appalachia.
15:06
Yeah, yeah. Which is fantastic horror
15:09
storytelling. Yeah, I hadn't thought of
15:11
outside of tabletop game stuff. I have a lot of different things
15:14
I listened to there but like really it is kind of my my go to
15:18
is the tabletop stuff anyway so. Well, oh, and Mission to Zix.
15:22
Phenomenal. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:24
Highly edited, yes. But it's all improv and I, I
15:27
love that about it. Yeah, from beginning to end it
15:29
is super solid. I just have not.
15:32
I pick and choose on that a lot and I need to just go through it
15:35
and do it again. What about you, Walt?
15:37
What have you been picking up on the 1940s radio stations?
15:41
Oh, it's a joke about my headphones, so it's clever.
15:45
They're. Silent.
15:46
They're really good. Outside the TRS family and
15:49
whispers, which I guess is like the redheaded cousin of the TRS
15:53
family. I thought you're going redhead
15:54
stepchild, no? It's because you got red hair.
15:57
Well, and I'm also a redhead stepchild, but that's neither
15:59
here nor there, so. The only podcast I really listen
16:02
to outside of like, oh, I'm doing research for this.
16:04
So I'm going to go listen to this interview on whatever
16:07
podcast, the Maniculum podcast. And we started that because I
16:10
interviewed the host Zoe on a Kickstarter project that they
16:14
did last year. But they look at every episode's
16:17
devoted to a medieval manuscript or book and you'll learn a lot
16:21
about medieval literature as well as society and culture in
16:24
the Middle Ages, which can be incredibly helpful when you're
16:27
running fantasy RPGs, but really, really in depth
16:31
research. Very entertaining to listen to
16:33
you. They use a lot of fuck words,
16:35
but they have some really incredible episodes, like about
16:37
stuff that you never even fucking do exist, like
16:40
contraception and birth control in the Middle Ages.
16:43
It was a thing. It's really interesting.
16:45
And the episode on sexuality and gender where Matt goes into
16:50
detail about a literal transgender St. from the Middle
16:53
Ages. Like they get into some stuff
16:55
that you never knew this was going on in medieval text or in
16:58
medieval times. So that's what I listen to.
17:00
I think it's really interesting and I think it could be helpful
17:03
to anyone who's especially if you're interested in like a
17:06
really realistic rendition of medieval ages or that kind of
17:11
setting has lots of really interesting stuff to get into.
17:14
Sweet, nice, you have to send me that name again because I won't
17:17
be Maniculum. Maniculum.
17:19
I guess I'll just write it down. Scott.
17:22
Bakulam, I'll have Kevin. I'll put a gun to Kevin's head
17:26
and make him put a link in the show description.
17:29
I will. OK, perfect.
17:31
Possibly shit. As far as the shit, I listen to
17:35
pretty much everything that everyone said.
17:36
You know, Nap Pod hello from the Magic Tavern monster hour.
17:41
I initially started listening to nerd poker, Brian Posain's D&D
17:45
podcast. It's it's a decent 1.
17:47
Brian does he's, he's usually stoned out of his mind
17:50
throughout the whole fucking thing, so he's not paying
17:52
attention, but everyone else is really invested in it.
17:54
I've also started getting into more of like the interview
17:57
shows, but for the for the genre, for the TTRPG, like
18:00
between two Cairns with Yochai Gall and Brad.
18:04
I can't remember his last name. He'll never listen to me.
18:06
So it doesn't matter. I I kind of like what they do.
18:08
They take modules and they break them down explaining what's
18:11
going on, what they think is good, what they think is bad,
18:13
all that sort of shit. Limit Thrones, Ship of the Dead,
18:16
He has a bunch of fucking cool people on there and been pretty
18:19
informative and let me know what's going on out there and
18:21
the other expansive TTRPG gaming universe.
18:25
But yeah, I mean, just listening you guys, I've got like at least
18:28
another half dozen. They need to start because
18:30
that's what I do at work all day is just listen to podcasts and.
18:35
Yeah. Yeah, I'm making dream babies
18:37
all day long. You.
18:37
Beat off all those bad employees that wait wanted to work
18:41
properly. I'm no, no, no, I'm making dream
18:43
babes anyways. But yeah, that's, that's pretty
18:47
much it. There's been a lot of them that
18:48
aren't necessarily in the D&D universe that have been pretty
18:52
influential for me, like Pink Faux Hawk as far as like their
18:55
production and you know, the way they do like the the sound
18:59
effects and everything has been phenomenal.
19:01
Monster Hour, the way that their GM did the first season with
19:05
Monster of the Week and the second one with oh gosh, what
19:08
was the name of the game? The one that the GM came up
19:10
with. Absurdia.
19:12
Absurdia that they went off the fucking charts with that.
19:16
They just went, they took Obscure to a whole new level
19:18
with that one. There's a bunch of them out
19:20
there. You can't listen to them all,
19:21
but I'm sure as hell gonna try. So Thomas, you wanna hit him
19:24
with that? Next question from our good
19:26
friend Full Frontal Fill. Sure.
19:30
What is your favorite TTRPG? And like for a lot of people,
19:34
it's probably a given, but so like initially for me, Mork Borg
19:40
always will have a top spot for me.
19:43
It's had much more of an impact on my life than I honestly
19:47
expected it to. close second at the moment right now is Shadow
19:51
Dark, partly because I'm I'm involved in several different
19:54
projects that will be coming down the pipeline.
19:58
So I've been investing a lot of time into that game and it's
20:02
it's been a blast so far. Oh, I'll, I will go then.
20:10
Viking Death Squad. Death, obviously.
20:13
Obviously. I mean, the last time I heard
20:16
him go on a game was Fiasco, so oh.
20:20
Man, oh man. Fiasco.
20:21
Man, absolute fucking insanity. We never got to really finish
20:26
it, unfortunately. No, we finished.
20:28
It yeah, we finished it. It was.
20:29
It's not. Finished.
20:30
Did everyone else get to listen? Is it out on air?
20:33
No. I lost the first 3 steams so
20:36
it's. Never.
20:37
I dream that you wake up in the middle of it and your hose gets
20:41
crimped. You got.
20:44
Fucking cocked. You're just still bitter that
20:47
you didn't get to get laid as Abraham.
20:49
Looked yes, my one goal. I was you.
20:54
Deserved. It.
20:56
Yeah, like I still could not think of a way to release the
21:01
episodes we had without those first scenes because they were
21:04
so funny and like. Calm the lost episodes, just
21:08
like Super Mario. You can just.
21:10
Record them, I know it's not going to have the same fucking
21:14
chemistry as when we improv. It's true.
21:17
OK, Fiasco's up there, but since I'm a little temperamental with
21:22
that one, but I think my 3 tops right now would be monster of
21:27
the week because that's kind of what really opened me up to all
21:30
of this. And then obviously Merck bore
21:32
because it's what has brought a community to what what I got
21:36
involved into and it's made me really want to stick around.
21:40
And then Lycoma, not to rub waltz nutsack or anything,
21:45
powder them or whatever. Lycoma is pretty fucking good.
21:48
I I really enjoy it because you're giving, you're basically
21:53
giving tools for your imagination to work with and
21:57
that's how you play the game. Well, you're the one who
21:59
remembers the Jake quote. What I have a quote.
22:02
Oh God yeah, it was on the Kickstarter.
22:04
It's like the game just gives you permissions to go fucking
22:07
insane. Or.
22:07
Something like that you. Don't remember it verbatim.
22:10
Yeah, no, I, I like in video games and shit.
22:13
I, I, I do really random weird stuff all the time.
22:17
I, I tend to break games before I finish them, so it's kind of
22:20
fun. Like Merk Borg.
22:21
Even other GMs, guest GMs have mentioned to me, I really like
22:26
that you go out of your way to just look at and do things even
22:29
though you know you might die and like, I don't know.
22:32
That's what I say all. The time, because fucking half
22:34
the time when I'm fucking around with something, especially as
22:37
Curl or Arthur, I was finding like some pretty dope ass shit.
22:41
So I I think Merk Borg has that like tendency to look scary, but
22:46
sometimes it's not as bad. But then again, you look at Levi
22:49
in his first role and he opens a bag of Moss and almost dies.
22:53
So yeah, in the game, you're meant to die.
22:55
But you're, it's also open to interpretation.
22:58
Like the the community's so, so loving and caring.
23:02
It's nice to have a group of people that are like, yeah, fuck
23:05
the rules. If you want to change things up,
23:06
go ahead. That's why I like deathlessness
23:08
so much. Yeah, I should have went before
23:10
you because I don't have answers.
23:13
I don't have like a a list between them necessarily.
23:16
But specifically of like for Monster of the Week and like
23:19
Homa, both of them have different ways of facilitating
23:23
or like essentially they're have mechanics built into the games
23:26
that are like, it's your turn to figure out what this is because
23:30
like months of the week, what I loved about that when we were
23:32
getting into it was the all right, which which one of these
23:35
things do you want to deal with right now?
23:37
You know, like, are you going to deal with like an unexpected
23:40
fucking something or a consequence to your actions or
23:43
something like that? And it's like a lot of those
23:45
weird things, even in the smallest way shape how stories
23:49
go when we were playing that. And again, like for anybody who
23:52
doesn't know TRS stuff like that, it was the very first game
23:56
where we really started to be characters while we were on a
23:59
show. And I, it holds a really special
24:02
place for me for that reason, like Oma I, I have to put up
24:06
there because it was just so weird for me to I, I liked
24:11
jumping into something where like firstly, I, I, it's like,
24:13
of course, I have no idea what I'm looking at because it, it
24:15
doesn't exist yet at this point. You know what we're playing it.
24:19
It's nobody has it and whatever else.
24:21
So I, I have no idea how I could know anything.
24:24
And when we first started and I'm looking at my, the cards
24:27
that I have and stuff, I'm like, oh man, how am I supposed?
24:30
How am I supposed to do this? Like, that's not that's not how
24:34
I do characters like I but you know, over the course of that
24:38
time, like so much of the again, for people who don't know TRS
24:42
stuff, I apologize. Like a lot of the things that
24:45
exist in our weird little community exist because because
24:49
of a very short time frame of like 11 or 12 episodes of TRS
24:54
that happened all of the, you know, back-to-back, like the
24:57
fucking I approached the bench line.
25:00
It, it persists through everything.
25:02
I'm sure we've heard it here. It it started in like coma.
25:07
Everything. Necessary in beaten crawl
25:09
classics. What?
25:11
I was a lawyer back then too. Well, like coma is where it
25:14
flourished for me then, apparently.
25:17
It was, it was, it was. It became viable in the game
25:20
instead of just a meta joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:22
And then after that, again, going back to Merck Borg and the
25:25
things that fucking influence who we are and what we do now,
25:28
as much as cold and deathless was huge for us on TRS.
25:31
And the reason why like Flayer was here in a certain to a
25:35
certain extent, of course, the reason why we're all together
25:38
right now doing this kind of I don't want to.
25:41
I don't want to overlook our little arc of something rotten
25:44
and Guth fig because like that's where bro hub came from and it
25:48
was a meta joke that somebody just brought in the first like 2
25:51
seconds of the of that little arc and it's got a fucking
25:55
T-shirt. The whole fucking Discord stuff
25:58
is that everybody says good morning bro hubs and like it is
26:03
that is the group of people that we are.
26:06
I like how when I did a good thing, Levi offered me the
26:09
bottom of the pile for the night and that was like the best that
26:13
you could do as a bro hub. You're getting the bottom of the
26:15
pile tonight, buddy. Jesus, did I say?
26:19
That, yes, yeah, that was, that was.
26:20
Still a lot of words. Yeah, apparently if you want to
26:24
enjoy all of our Merk Board content, you have to pick
26:26
through our old show too. But yes, monster of the week,
26:31
Merk Borg, Lycoma, they're they're all big to me.
26:34
There's some that I haven't played yet that I love like
26:36
conceptually and things that I've read through about them.
26:39
Heart Inspire. I mean, obviously they're not
26:41
like the most separate of entities, so I'll put them kind
26:44
of together. But like going through the
26:46
mechanics of that game, it was just like, man, this seems like
26:48
really, really interesting to play.
26:50
And the the setting was really interesting to look at too.
26:52
So but I don't branch out a lot through all the stuff.
26:55
You guys are far more versed than I am in those things, so.
26:58
That's just mainly because I back almost everything on
27:00
Kickstarter that comes up and I, I, I make bad financial
27:04
decisions. Yeah, you guys have problems.
27:07
I do. I'm sure my wife's listening to
27:09
me right now. Hi, Kevin's wife.
27:15
I think her name is Misses Kevin, Yeah.
27:17
She's a lady. My wife's name is.
27:19
Your wife's name is Misses Kevin.
27:25
See if you wanna jump and what what you like.
27:28
I, I can't really say that I've liked a certain game more than
27:33
others. I can really tell you that what
27:35
campaigns or, you know, stories we've told from those games I
27:41
can enjoy more, you know, like. The hunt for approval was really
27:46
good. You know, Murkborg, fantastic.
27:49
You know, that's up there like coma super.
27:52
It's kind of slutty, but I loved it.
27:56
You were. Kind of.
27:57
You were the face of like coma. I love using the word but I
28:04
won't say it. I'm like, you know?
28:06
Yeah, sure. Bleep that out.
28:08
That's. No, honestly, I'll find myself
28:10
just for no reason during the day, just being like, I'll trade
28:13
you these bullets for that briefcase.
28:16
I I fucking all the time. Gosh, like.
28:19
I'm not even talking to anyone fucking.
28:21
I got to get a life. You know, and then I don't know,
28:26
we were doing this like really fun mouse rider hack with Tessa
28:31
and I would love to finish that because I was having a fun time
28:34
doing that. Oh yeah, that was going to end
28:36
forever. Yeah, I was just going to say
28:38
that would have eventually been a a lasting bit as well.
28:41
The Batman Forever. Thing, finish that campaign
28:44
because that was super enjoyable.
28:46
Yeah, yeah, that those are a lot of fun characters.
28:49
Yeah, yeah, actually. Unfortunately, Tessa's back on
28:52
Ireland time. Oh.
28:54
Wow. OK, I see.
28:56
Yeah. OK, Well, it in case you're
28:59
listening, we had a fucking blast with that and it is it.
29:03
If you want to wake up early, early.
29:04
In the morning, it's a higher. It's it's a game higher on my
29:08
list for that experience. Yeah, I I totally agree with
29:10
you. Thanks for bringing it up.
29:11
Suppose that's this table. About you, Walt.
29:16
And I see you over there doing the same thing I'm doing,
29:18
looking at my bookshelf, trying to decide.
29:20
Yeah, I was flipping through my notebook with all the games we.
29:23
Played. I was looking, I for some reason
29:25
I have Levi's binder here in front of me.
29:27
So I was looking at his like because it has a bunch of his
29:29
names like Huey and Faroon and Guy Fault Foe and all that
29:33
stuff. And I was like, damn.
29:34
So I can't, like, I'm not going to put these in a bucket of my
29:37
favorite. I certainly can't pick a
29:39
favorite RPG. Different games do different
29:43
things well, and I like a lot of those different things, so I
29:46
don't feel like it's fair to, like, stack them up against each
29:49
other. Yeah.
29:50
Obviously Marc Bori holds a very special place in my heart.
29:54
And I mean that in the sense of not just the system, like in the
29:57
abstract, but like the book and the way it facilitates you
30:00
playing in that system. You know, it's.
30:03
It was lightning in a bottle. I don't know when we'll ever see
30:05
anything quite like that again. Yeah.
30:07
Yeah. Frontier scum.
30:09
I also love that. I feel like it's one of those
30:12
rare hacks that really keeps that energy of the original.
30:16
What turns it into something different?
30:18
New and fresh for sure. Obviously I love like Homa, but
30:21
I worked on it, so I don't really feel like I, you know,
30:23
get to elevate it and it not be biased.
30:26
I've never gotten to play it, but Errant is a fucking
30:28
fantastic system and the book is an absolute usability
30:32
masterpiece. And you know, it should be
30:35
everybody's go to. If you're running a medieval
30:37
fantasy campaign, takes note. Fuck man, Like I don't know,
30:43
Apollo 48 technical manual? It's like over 1000 fucking
30:47
pages and there's only like 30. Pages of.
30:50
Crunch in it like. So tempted to make up a copy of
30:53
that like. Is there a hidden bookshelf in
30:56
your fucking office that I'm not looking at?
30:58
Oh God, here we go. Oh yeah.
31:00
Oh yeah. Oh.
31:01
Yeah, gotcha. Oh, just so I can get it out
31:03
there too, like I really enjoyed Kala Cthulhu.
31:05
I wish I could I if I played it more I feel like I'd enjoy it
31:08
even more. I'm actually starting a Pulp
31:11
Cthulhu game with some my locals here.
31:13
Very cool. Yeah, no, I just, I love like
31:16
cosmic horror, the Lovecraftian type of been listening to a lot
31:19
of audio books like that looking Dick Cutter stuff and whatever
31:22
else. So like that stuff always really
31:24
speaks to me. Sorry, didn't mean if I just
31:26
remembered it. No, yeah, no problem.
31:28
I'm sitting here trying to think, I don't know, like I love
31:31
Forbidden Lands. Got a Forbidden Lands game that
31:33
I've been doing for years that we've run without a GM.
31:35
That's fucking fun because everybody, you know, has
31:37
democratic saying what happens in the game.
31:40
That's been a really good experience.
31:41
And you can do it just with the core books and one page from the
31:44
Mythic GM emulator. No, that's cool.
31:47
I don't know, games are cool. It's hard to explore games and
31:51
find things you like. Stop playing just five EI beg
31:54
you. I also like.
31:55
The alien RPD. Oh God, I said it.
31:59
I mean, I'm, I'm I. Mean I'm running.
32:01
As long as you're playing, it doesn't matter what you're
32:03
playing. Yeah, I'm running a home game of
32:04
5E just because it's, it's what everybody locally knows best.
32:08
And I didn't want to like feel like I, I was hand holding
32:12
everybody through something else, you know, So it was
32:15
easiest enough that way. And we're having have a good
32:16
time doing it, you know, play what?
32:18
Play anything as long as you can sit and play with your friends,
32:21
man, That's fucking. That's half the reason why, more
32:24
than half the reason why we're here doing this now.
32:27
Thomas, do you have got some stuff for or have we been going
32:29
on long enough that I forgot that you said a bunch of things?
32:32
Yeah, no, I it was my first. I wouldn't I?
32:34
Figured I figured that was the case while I was saying yeah.
32:37
Did Kevin? I'll add the Alien RPG is
32:41
another 1 is really good. Oh yeah, I heard that was good.
32:44
Of course. I mean, fuck.
32:45
That was the one where I was high in space.
32:47
I like that one. That was mothership.
32:49
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
32:53
That's another fun one. Fucking MCC too God damn just
32:56
'cause it was just oh had so much options for the wildest
33:00
shit man. Oh damn corduroy bean water
33:03
alone was like one of the please go.
33:05
Literally I can't say those two words together without you
33:09
knowing. Please just go listen to some of
33:11
MCC arc on the World. Yeah, that was a good one.
33:14
Yeah, that dude is fucking wild. What happened to him?
33:17
Oh, and on the topic of mothership, Cloud Empress is an
33:19
absolutely phenomenal setting and streamlines the Panic engine
33:24
in a really, really clean, nice, usable way.
33:27
I'm. Always panicking.
33:30
What about you, Kevin? All right.
33:32
Well, Kevin? Kevin likes all the times that
33:35
you and him are at odds. We're not talking about, but
33:38
that I do. Actually.
33:39
I dream of that. First and foremost, I'm going to
33:43
talk about whole human occupied landfill.
33:45
I've said it 1000 times. I'll say it 1000 more.
33:48
I've had a love affair with this game since I picked it up in 96.
33:53
I've had a couple different copies.
33:55
Of four years old. You're a fucking child.
33:59
I was three years old. I was graduating high school.
34:05
What? After being held?
34:06
Yeah. After being held back a year.
34:08
What? I'm an.
34:10
Old man, three years old. I according to Facebook I'm in
34:14
my mid 60s. This game is a letter chaos and
34:20
damn near unplayable, but it is fucking beautiful.
34:23
I love it, I love it. There is a time that I would
34:26
look to see if anybody had done anything with it online, and
34:29
that's actually how I came across Merck Borg itself.
34:32
I was looking up stuff about whole saw an article by our very
34:37
own Walt Wood here. Hey, that's me.
34:40
That is you and it compared whole to Merk Borg.
34:44
I'm like, well, what the fuck is Merk Borg?
34:45
And I looked it up. I'm like, Oh my God, splooge all
34:48
over wherever and bought the book right there and then.
34:51
It's been, I would say, financially depleting my wallet
34:55
every second, but it led me into where I am right now with Merk
34:59
Borg. I absolutely love Merk Borg.
35:00
The system is great. It is we all we all know what
35:03
Merk Borg is. That's why you're listening to
35:04
this podcast. It's because it's about Merk
35:06
Borg. The game is fucking awesome.
35:09
And if I had to pick another setting, old school D&D stuff
35:13
like Basic Fantasy or BX or like Cairn or Nave, the ones that
35:19
just streamline everything down to you're, you're not a hero,
35:23
you're just there trying to survive.
35:26
And those games just absolutely kill like Nave 2 is the system
35:31
that Daniel Aurelia used that did the jam for his Furious
35:36
Creeps of Crimson Creek, which I had him send me a couple of
35:39
copies from Doctor Seuss Oslo. I know a guy that said was
35:43
playing that on a on a show recently.
35:45
You are correct. And that guy was me.
35:51
That's funny, because I I was like, play this.
35:54
Yeah, I'll give you the PDF copy.
35:55
Just play this. And then they finally did.
35:57
I'm like, yes, I got to play it. Yeah, but it's.
35:59
On Wandering Monster. Yes, wandering monster, one of
36:02
my other many shows, because I not only am IA TTRBG hoarder,
36:06
I'm also a podcast. I am a mic whore and a mic
36:10
whore. I am you're a pod horn and Mike
36:13
slut and I have no shame. Yeah, just nave to Cairn.
36:19
Just those the BX type games where it's just like the old
36:24
school feel like when I started playing back in, you know, back
36:28
in 1843 when you know. When you were backing.
36:32
With Pertius. Before when I was yes.
36:34
Before the games were written on paper.
36:37
Yeah, when they're at that stone, you know, he came on down
36:41
the hill with two tablets and he said roll AD 20.
36:45
It just, it brings me back to that when I first started
36:48
seconded playing second edition or the hybrid first second
36:51
edition of D&D when you know, back in the day.
36:55
Back in the day when Vampire the Masquerade core book was still
36:57
25 bucks. I mean, how much was the Yeah or
37:02
fucking You can get the Palladium Teenage Mutant Ninja
37:05
Turtles without selling a fucking kidney.
37:08
So you guys saw? That somewhere.
37:11
About your kidney. On the shelf, yeah.
37:15
Nice, but I mean, it's just I like we've all said, whatever
37:19
you're playing, whether it be, you know, 5 E or some obscure
37:23
hack of whatever game, just as long as you're around the table
37:27
with people throwing dice and laughing, it's it's literally
37:30
the best thing so. As a matter of fact, this might
37:33
not, this is just going to be kind of random out of nor, but I
37:35
talked, I, I asked Kevin about bringing it up and I and I
37:38
talked to them too. So this is not a nowhere for
37:40
them either. I just wanted to bring something
37:43
up in that same vein because it is, there's a local game there,
37:46
a game made locally by a bunch of dudes that used to like TT or
37:51
like they used to play TT RPGs together, they used to play
37:54
Magic together and all that kind of stuff.
37:56
They have a cabin out in the woods, I don't know, a few miles
37:58
from here where I live now. And they just eventually they
38:03
got tired of all the normal stuff that they were doing.
38:06
And I don't really care about the motivation.
38:07
I just like the product and how dedicated they are to it.
38:11
But it's a card game with dice mechanics called Ward and I
38:16
haven't had any any opportunity to play it with anybody or
38:18
anything because obviously you guys all look confused about it.
38:22
Obviously it makes sense to you guys that you wouldn't know
38:24
because right now it's very local.
38:26
But you can buy card, you can buy packs of stuff on Amazon and
38:29
whatever else. There's places on their their
38:31
own website. Yeah, I've seen that at the
38:33
local Lucky 7. Yeah, yeah, there anybody knows
38:36
about the Lucky 7 gas station chain they linked up with them
38:39
or whatever. Essentially, they're just a
38:40
bunch of guys that, like us, like to get together with their
38:43
friends and play games, and eventually it inspired them to
38:46
do their own thing. And I have no stake in this
38:49
whatsoever, but I just want to really shout that out.
38:53
If anybody's interested in seeing those things, you can
38:55
find Ward the Ward TCG stuff online.
38:57
WARD yes, not OR Yeah. Word.
39:03
But yeah, I just wanted to throw that out there for the same
39:05
reason, exactly the same message from those guys, as we're saying
39:09
is like, dude, just get together with your friends, play games
39:11
and stuff, tell stories. It is.
39:13
I have a circle jerk once in a while.
39:15
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
39:18
Just make sure that you're doing it like where you're pretending
39:21
to be, you know, the paladin. I'm not supposed to be doing
39:25
this. Or the cleric can spit on the
39:27
paladin shield. Yeah, in quotes shield heal.
39:31
Yeah, just get together, friends, do things, play games.
39:33
It's very fun. Exactly.
39:35
It's. Speaking of Circle Jerks, Kevin,
39:37
can we take a break? Ohh.
39:39
Shit, yeah. Come one, come all, join us as
40:02
we dive into the dying world of Mork Board and the Board
40:06
universe. Whispers of the Dying Lands is a
40:09
podcast with one mission to spread the word of Meckerbell as
40:14
third party content creators share the prophecies of Verhoo.
40:19
Hi, your host Alaska's teams up with everyone's favorite scum,
40:23
Iron Tusk Tevin. From Flail to the face, we sit
40:27
down with content creators to help promote and try to give
40:30
maximum exposure and efforts to support their crowdfunding
40:35
campaigns. Out now on Kickstarter, howling
40:51
of the unfortunate dead, a brutal novelization of hallowed
40:55
Christian Eichhorn's bonehart crusade adventure penned by
40:58
horror author any Wonderland, godless 666 wandy's and critter
41:02
award winner John Balthspringer. The continuation of the dudes
41:06
brungari chronicle howling of the unfortunate dead follows
41:09
dudes brungari as he is plunged into a war not his own.
41:13
Conscripted into the Bonehart Crusade by his own brother,
41:17
dudes must journey deep into the Valley of the Unfortunate,
41:20
undeaded face, rotting fiends and foul spirits.
41:23
Joined by a motley crew of crusaders, the damned of the
41:26
Dying Lands must face down the terrors in a terrible game of
41:30
cat and mouse orchestrated by none other than Skelvic the
41:34
Profane himself. Included in Howling is the
41:37
official fiction storyline New Scum to follow into Hell, a mini
41:42
adventure with contributions from Simone Tameta, Nate
41:45
Southard and Christian Icorn. Follow the link in the
41:48
descriptions. All right.
42:14
We'll skip a few questions, but we'll go to the last one that
42:17
actually kind of from Phil that just kind of stuck with me.
42:20
His question is, is are there any home brew rules you tend to
42:24
play with at your own table? I have one primarily that I use
42:29
when I play Mark Borg at home. I don't like the fact that when
42:33
you fail using a scroll, you can't use it for like AD 3 hours
42:38
or so. So I allow kind of like a
42:41
devil's bargain. So like I allow people to
42:45
continue to use their scrolls, but I roll AD six behind a
42:50
screen and add that to the difficulty.
42:52
So there's a floating difficulty when they try to cast a scroll
42:56
after the fact. And if they fail with the higher
43:00
difficulty, I roll on the Arcane Catastrophe table because I
43:05
always loved rolling on that table and I never get enough
43:07
chances, Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I, I in, in my
43:11
personal worse. I've been inspired by the
43:13
catastrophe table a lot. I think that those things are I
43:17
am like, man, it sucks that it sucks that some of the most
43:21
memorable moments for me are in the adjacent show.
43:25
Levis character soup turn having his whole everything explode off
43:30
his skeleton and that being like an integral part to some of the
43:34
meta jokes that we had during that my character Mel and that
43:38
character soup switching bodies later on in in that same arc.
43:43
Those things are like they especially on a show.
43:46
It fucks you up so bad to have to deal with weird shit like
43:49
that, especially if you've already had a good idea of who
43:51
you're going to be. And then it's like, oh, you're
43:53
going to switch bodies with this guy that fucking that, you know,
43:58
you know, I don't know, it's hard to explain exactly.
44:01
It's just that those are very cool mechanics to me as well.
44:03
And I suppose if it came down to it, like if I, if I saw more of
44:07
those, like a somebody put out a, a third party thing, like a
44:11
list of extra catastrophes of some kind or whatever, I
44:14
definitely use them more or find it up opportunities to do so,
44:18
because that should just, it makes me so happy to to see what
44:22
when it comes to like home games and stuff, though, since I'm
44:25
already going off, I really don't, I really can't think of
44:28
many things. I, I really do a lot of stuff
44:30
off the cuff when I'm running games.
44:32
It's just really for me, basic shit.
44:35
That's just quality of life stuff, you know, like I wouldn't
44:38
like, you know, a 5 E. It's like, you know, just use a
44:41
potion on a bonus action or something.
44:42
Stop, let's stop making this very sad for everybody and they
44:47
give up their whole shit for this very simple stuff like
44:50
that. Usually that end.
44:51
Of course, credit where credit is due if you go to listen to
44:55
the Cold and Deathless arc on TRS, fucking deathlessness made
44:59
so much of what we did so much more important and fun, and it
45:04
made our characters mean something so much more to us
45:07
while we were doing that show. So deathlessness was very cool.
45:11
Very Dark Souls Y if you want to use some kind of mechanic to
45:14
keep your characters alive past death.
45:18
That. That one's like top shit for me,
45:20
really. I like spite omens.
45:24
Oh shit, damn dog. You're right though.
45:30
I. Yeah, I think Murk Borg is so
45:32
fucking like insane that having spite omens added to it just
45:36
adds a little. Salt to the Peppa.
45:38
Yeah, absolutely. I I love how antagonistic that
45:41
is. I love how it went from just a
45:43
bullshit throwaway sentence to being a a companion piece.
45:48
Yeah, well, my, that's fuck, dude.
45:50
All the companion pieces we did throughout all of the season,
45:53
those those were. I don't know if those apply to
45:56
homebrew rules, but. I mean, we were at home and we
46:00
brewed them. But yeah, I'm going to agree
46:02
that all the companion stuff that we as a group came up with
46:05
and and developed was a was a lot of fun to integrate.
46:08
I mean, me having a random skull that had powers that either
46:13
aided me or fucked me over was, was great.
46:15
I mean, the spite omens, you know, were even if you don't
46:19
even use them, it's just that fun to just throw in bullshit
46:21
just to, you know, throw a wrench in the Gears of shit.
46:24
So. Can what AD 20 table of what
46:27
happens when you fall down the fucking stairs?
46:29
Exactly. Yeah, I mean, and it's it's this
46:32
weird kind of like this relationship we have to like
46:36
each other and our characters and the weird shit that we do
46:39
that that creates such weird. I it just reminded me that like
46:42
we did, what is it 3D6 or 3D 66? It was a it was a bunch of
46:49
tables for the next terrible name for your character or
46:53
something that's on the world standard.
46:54
It's too. And it's that comes from the
46:56
these dumb ass things that we come up with all the time.
46:59
Yeah, that, yeah, the, the, the companion content or the things
47:03
that are inspired by what we've created specifically make me
47:07
make me very happy to see exist. I think my favorite one like
47:10
culture wise is the rule of cool.
47:12
So even if you roll really poorly, if you you can talk your
47:16
way out of it. I mean, if there was anybody who
47:19
should like that fucking rule, it would be you.
47:23
Yeah, it's called. It's called.
47:25
There's the rule of cool, and then there's.
47:27
Jake's rule of cake. It's it's Jake's rule of may I
47:30
approach the bench? What about you, Walt?
47:34
You got any homebrew rules that you institute?
47:38
Not consistently, but, you know, I'll make rulings in the moment
47:42
and make decisions and so by homebrew things.
47:46
But it's not like I always do this.
47:48
It's like we're going to do this in this situation because it
47:50
makes sense. Yeah.
47:51
Yeah, gotcha. Make it fit the scene and all.
47:53
Mm hmm. You're like, you're like, you're
47:55
like me when I get home drunk and I wanna cook.
47:58
I just. Throw whatever together it's.
47:59
Never the same. I don't know what you are, but
48:01
I'll. Just gotta microwave everything.
48:03
Oh, you of. Course she doesn't have a
48:05
microwave. She's fucking 100.
48:06
Maybe I just puts a raw steak in there.
48:10
You only got to cook the outside.
48:12
Fuck you're not wrong, but hate to see what you do with your
48:16
chicken. No, I don't want to hear about
48:19
it's Chicken anymore. Couple questions from a good
48:22
friend of the show and special GM and just fellow brother
48:25
husband Tom Gambino. Question one, do you ever have
48:28
an ending in mind when you are doing a campaign?
48:32
Especially for a game like Merk Borg?
48:34
Do we have an ending in mind? Survive other than surviving.
48:38
Never as a as a player, I only ever hope that I can like.
48:43
To the next. Find find a yeah, yes,
48:46
essentially. And that's really just because I
48:50
merk Borg is a bad game for it. But like, I build out a bunch of
48:55
dumb bullshit for every character that I make.
48:57
And then I hope that I can I hope I can touch upon it.
49:01
I suppose this episode would be the best for like the two that I
49:04
think of. Obviously, 'cause it's Cedric
49:05
and Screech. I'd never made it past that
49:07
point. Cedric.
49:08
Cedric had a whole back story about having crucified a a sun
49:13
scorched zealot and that one essentially being Rumba from TRS
49:18
and that was his whole thing. Like realistically it started
49:21
coming about cause Levi had pre rolled Sasha like early, early
49:25
on and he like kept him in the back pocket.
49:28
Well, he went through some other characters and stuff, but what I
49:30
really hoped for was Cedric and Sasha meeting because I loved
49:33
the potential dynamic of like you're no fucking son Lord or
49:38
whatever. And then just like that same
49:39
energy of like what the fuck you got?
49:43
Yeah. It just made me.
49:45
I hope to see it. And then of course for Screech,
49:48
there was like a lot of background conversation about
49:51
how I I was going to try and play this character and like
49:55
hoping that it would play out. And I'm very, very glad that we
49:58
all sat like it just kind of worked.
50:00
But. I think for this season there
50:02
was no way to like picture an end unless you were focused on
50:05
specifically that one character. 'S that's exactly.
50:08
Want because there there was no cohesion between the group.
50:13
I mean, there was new people coming and going and it, it was
50:16
like one journey that multiple people without any real
50:21
connection ended up on. Yeah.
50:23
And it, it's it wasn't a bad thing.
50:25
It just it, it's hard to answer that question with with this
50:29
season because it was more of a story of the world and just
50:34
individuals in it. Sure.
50:35
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so I guess.
50:38
To answer that question would be more about the world itself.
50:41
And we didn't even, we didn't even really get there yet.
50:44
Yeah, it doesn't make sense as then, like now that you say it,
50:46
it doesn't makes sense as to why like it.
50:48
My answer would only ever be for the characters that I played,
50:51
You know? I mean, you're right.
50:52
It's a showcase of the world and how a bunch of assholes try to
50:57
survive. It is essentially like, yeah,
51:01
those are the endings that you hope for.
51:02
Is the ones that, like you create with those characters.
51:05
Really, all I wanted, like for Screech, all I wanted was to get
51:07
to the point where people found out that Dorian was there
51:11
somewhere, you know, like to expound upon why he is this
51:15
weird dude, you know? And once we got there, I was
51:17
like, sweet, that's cool with me.
51:19
Then. Then he got the blood, the blood
51:21
farts or whatever. And I'm like, yeah, I can.
51:23
I can find a way to get him out of here, so.
51:26
Then you became the Turd Knight. For me, there's really no way to
51:33
come up to have an ending in mind like like you guys were
51:36
saying, because it's basically the world is doing what it's
51:39
doing and we're just kind of rolling with the punches.
51:42
I think I kind of lucked out with my the arc that I did at
51:46
the end because we're already 5 miseries deep or six miseries
51:50
deep. And you guys had pretty much
51:53
gotten to the end of the adventure by the time the 7th
51:56
Misery hit, which was like, OK, well, you guys, you guys did
52:01
everything I had written down. So now the world is ending and
52:04
you guys are going to have to deal with that now.
52:05
But I mean, as far as like trying to figure out an ending
52:09
for a game like Mark Board, it's you really just kind of have to
52:12
watch what the players do and then just roll with it.
52:15
And I mean, if you're going to make into a long term campaign
52:18
style, just let let the players do what they're going to do.
52:21
And then, you know, basically wait for the 7th misery to
52:24
happen. That's exactly it.
52:25
Like the premise existentially of the game is what do you do
52:29
when nothing that you do matters?
52:31
So let the miseries guide the course of the game, and beyond
52:35
that, watch the players see what they're doing.
52:37
In my home game, one of the characters rolled on the best
52:40
list demands tables and gods gems from overflowing pockets.
52:43
So that's been his overriding mission throughout the entire
52:46
campaign is get a bunch of valuables and go present them to
52:50
Verhue. So, you know, like that led them
52:53
N they went to Allianz, they did the clam dash, they won, they
52:57
got an audience with Anthalia, she gave them a bunch of gems
53:00
and now they're on their way to the Valley of the Unfortunate
53:02
Undead. And Clam Dash by Carl Druid's.
53:04
Plot is the Carl druid. No, like they wrote their own
53:09
plot in this game and you know, it's it's been rewarding for
53:12
them and it's fun for me and I don't have to do any prep.
53:15
I just have to keep like the overland tribal table Andy and
53:18
then PC generators and shit like that and pick out some fun
53:21
adventures along the way. So I feel like this game
53:23
especially really doesn't want you to go in with an end in
53:26
mind. Like let the end come to you.
53:28
No, it's about escapism, Yeah. It's it's weird.
53:32
It's yeah, you're absolutely right.
53:33
Maybe it's just weirder for me. And like probably you guys like,
53:37
I don't know how much you guys play Merkborg outside of this
53:40
specifically, but for me, it's all here essentially, which
53:44
means my motivation is always to make sure that when that
53:49
Sopranos ending happens, the character that I'm playing at
53:52
that time feels well enough fleshed out that somebody's like
53:55
somebody's not like, well, whatever.
53:58
Like a good example of guess of that.
53:59
Like, even though the whole story was great itself, the
54:02
something Rotten and Guthwig little mini arc that we did, I
54:06
played a character named Daeru and he he he lived 98% of the
54:10
story. And then his death was the most
54:12
hilariously great thing that happened for me.
54:16
But then the next character that I played did you like was there
54:18
for Buffalo Wall? I I fell down.
54:20
AII fell down and my head. He was, he was a Lantern.
54:24
Yeah, yeah. What was that wandering Wick
54:26
head? That's right.
54:27
So so he fell down off of a rope that they were trying to climb
54:31
down and his head smashed on a rock and his light went out and
54:34
shit and everybody was just staring at him all but like, it
54:37
was fun. And I wanted something like that
54:39
to happen for him. But there was still another 40
54:42
minutes of that episode, and I had to play a character later.
54:45
And I'm like, that's the only regret that I have for that is
54:47
that he didn't get to really be a character, you know?
54:49
So as a storyteller, when it comes to wanting an ending, I
54:53
just hope that no matter where it is that they're cut off in
54:56
their story. I hope that people aren't like,
54:58
well, who? Well, who the fuck was that?
55:00
You know, like, I guess my motivation always like just
55:04
hoping to tell a better story with the character.
55:06
And my caveat on what I said earlier, my one single exception
55:09
was Pruegel and the Black Antlers Dark.
55:12
She was going to bang that reindeer goddess and make her a
55:14
bruvlub. I knew it.
55:19
Oh my God. Jesus Christ.
55:21
Man, Pruegel, like that's the other thing too, by the way, is
55:24
that like I love the interconnected world without it
55:28
ever being like to like really explicitly the same place.
55:33
And then it also wraps back around to the the season finale,
55:36
where all of it makes sense to exist in the same way because it
55:41
is, guess what? The world sucks.
55:43
You're back in the world. That sucks like.
55:47
What about you, Thomas? Oh, I mean like generally for
55:51
like a lot of games I run, I have a general outline of kind
55:55
of like a sure, if we can make this in this general direction
55:59
work, that's great. But I also leave it a very loose
56:04
outline for the simple fact that my players are going to throw
56:07
all sorts of wrenches and stuff into it anyway.
56:11
Like a prime example is I just recently wrapped up a five year
56:17
Vampire the Masquerade campaign. And as I played for that, like I
56:22
would go to the session and I would have like 4 bullet points
56:27
and that was all I had for prep or that session.
56:30
Because it's like my players are going to just like RP most of
56:34
the time anyway. And as long as I can, you know,
56:36
have these contingencies to keep the story moving, we're good.
56:40
Tom Gambino had another question.
56:43
How do you handle unexpected situations on role play?
56:46
Example when Jake used the grenade to blow up the bell
56:50
ringer in Good Scoop. So good.
56:53
I mean, first and foremost is the mental scream of God damn it
56:57
Jake. I don't know what a fucking
57:03
grenade is. I really wanted that too.
57:05
That's really the benefit. That's the benefit when you are
57:09
Jake's partner for that character, when he, when he,
57:12
when the teacher assigns you to him and you got to hold his hand
57:17
like you get to be the person. I'm with the autistic kid going
57:22
to the zoo and we're going to go see the lions.
57:24
You're going. To tell me every fact about
57:27
Lions. I'll love it though regardless.
57:30
Like you as the player get to sit and be like oh fucking Jake
57:35
and then you get don't you fucking dare, like, OK, fucking
57:38
any screech, God damn. You get to be like a little.
57:42
What is it left from? Like Quaddo?
57:46
Is that what it is from Total Recall?
57:49
What the fuck is it? Oh yeah, is that what it is?
57:52
Quaddo, The little dude in inside that dude's belly.
57:55
Sorry, I don't know why I'm the one who remembers the movie from
57:59
the fuck from before I was born. Whatever.
58:03
Regardless, yeah, you get to be somebody just half attacked
58:07
Quaid. Quaid.
58:09
Yep, Quaid. Fuck.
58:10
All right, I don't know. Then regardless, when you get to
58:14
be that character, you, you have a little umbilical cord
58:17
attached, attached to Jake's decisions, and it's fun to play
58:21
tug of war with him on it, you know?
58:24
I give and take. I'm I'm a respectable lover.
58:29
I mean, I, I will say game playing games with Jake is a
58:33
constant treat, even though my younger brother who listens to
58:37
the podcast likes to state how both Jake and Nate are like his
58:42
favorites. And I'm like, I'm, I'm your
58:44
brother. I'm literally right here.
58:46
And. Hey, my dad listened to the show
58:50
when he was still around and I would assume I'm not his
58:53
favorite character. You just tell your brother you
58:56
haven't met Jake in person yet. What?
59:02
About you, Walter, I was going to say, by the way, I, I was
59:06
just going to say, because he brings up Jake and it's and it's
59:10
a, it's a deceptive question because of that.
59:13
Because like, to me, playing with Levi is just as unhinged
59:17
sometimes, but not because he's the one that's gonna go press
59:22
the button all the time. But he will probably second to
59:24
Jake. The reason being and it's.
59:27
'Cause he's cute. It's the reason I love and hate
59:30
being on the opposite side of the table from him sometimes.
59:32
And it is that you can see an idea click in his head and he's
59:37
like, Oh yeah, Yep, this is what this is what's going on, baby.
59:41
And you said it earlier, Kevin, with the fucking killing him and
59:45
the Candelabra being bringing him back and stuff.
59:47
It was far too late that I recognized that he knew exactly
59:51
what was happening during this thing.
59:52
He was going through all of these steps of like getting
59:55
attacked by these creatures so that he can build up this
59:58
fucking death counter attack with a bunch of D sixes or
1:00:02
whatever added on top of it and shit.
1:00:04
And he's going after people. And it was only after he started
1:00:07
coming at people that I like. I'm looking at him always doing.
1:00:09
Doing all this shit and like, you are so much more calculated
1:00:12
than you usually are right now. And it's the most terrifying
1:00:16
shit. I, I love that.
1:00:18
Or like, I mean, I experienced it first with Lefty with Cedric
1:00:21
was, it was just like, we're so antagonistic toward each other
1:00:24
and we're, and he's like, I'm definitely not going to die here
1:00:27
for these people. And they got a point where like
1:00:29
we nearly killed each other over it and shit.
1:00:31
And I'm like, I, I really liked the confrontation.
1:00:33
It doesn't happen all that much in TTRPGS for it to be that
1:00:38
quick to be at with each other, but Merckborg does a great job
1:00:42
of facilitating it already so. Walt Thomas, anybody got
1:00:45
anything they want to chime in about handling unexpected
1:00:47
situations or? I pee on it, Wolf, no.
1:00:52
Add that to the counter. No, congratulations.
1:00:56
The universe just gave you a plot twist.
1:00:58
Roll with it. You know you got a gift from
1:01:00
someone else at the table. If I wanted to do something that
1:01:03
had no surprises in store for me, I'd go write a novel.
1:01:06
Fucking name, Brother? Exactly.
1:01:07
I mean, just like the the first question, you just roll with it
1:01:10
and see how it all turns out. I mean, it's like Walt said,
1:01:13
it's a plot twist to keep everything interesting.
1:01:15
So Thomas, what do you feel? Talk to me.
1:01:18
I mean, I, I kind of led into that with the the goddamnit
1:01:22
Jake. How about you, Levi?
1:01:25
Yeah, Levi, How about you, Levi? I'm just a player, man.
1:01:29
You know I gotta. Roll with everyone's bullshit.
1:01:34
I got to kind of deal with it once when I did Zombie Zombie
1:01:37
World, Zombieland. Zombie World.
1:01:39
Yeah, when you guys were fucking around with the golf cart.
1:01:42
Oh, yeah, yeah, Actually, no, yeah, it's I'll.
1:01:46
I'll let you guys know as as the only.
1:01:49
Person it's all coming back to me now is.
1:01:50
The only person here who has played in the game that Jake
1:01:53
ran, as much as he catches us off guard with his crazy shit,
1:01:57
you can't catch him off guard. It doesn't happen.
1:02:01
He has something to fucking say, something to do.
1:02:04
It's just like, no matter what you hit him with, there's a
1:02:07
point where like, we've got this mythos of this dude who is.
1:02:10
The the fucking warden. Yeah, he's well, it's just like
1:02:13
this big buff guard dude that's there.
1:02:15
I can't really not beefcake. Yeah.
1:02:18
And we're just trying to, we're just trying to breakthrough this
1:02:21
weird barrier of Jake being able to play this dude bro.
1:02:24
And it's just like, oh God, holy shit, what happened to you?
1:02:27
Just got shot in the chest. Like, oh, is that what it was?
1:02:29
And he digs, digs the bullet out and he's like, oh damn, here,
1:02:32
you can take it. It's souvenir.
1:02:34
I'll make a necklace out of it for you or whatever.
1:02:36
I'm like, Jesus, can't do anything that catches this dude
1:02:40
off guard. Then again, then he shows up as
1:02:42
fucking the the worm milker. I'm like, holy shit, how do I
1:02:47
how do I play opposite this dude who's like, let me get in touch
1:02:51
with those worms. They're like, what the fucking
1:02:54
how do I play opposite you? Yeah, I don't know, man.
1:02:58
Fuck I love this show. All right, I got like one piece
1:03:03
of trivia that I want to throw out, and then we got a couple
1:03:05
more questions to end this out. You guys, how many times do you
1:03:07
think Walt said. I pee on it in the holiday
1:03:10
episode. 17 did. You.
1:03:11
I was going to say 16 shit. Did you take count of it?
1:03:15
You're God damn right, absolutely.
1:03:17
Wow, 22 how many times I said it?
1:03:19
17. 43 times. Thomas.
1:03:23
I said 22. Oh, 18.
1:03:26
I was. Damn it.
1:03:27
I was so close. What do I win?
1:03:31
You get to come back to Season 2.
1:03:34
Oh shit, I didn't know that we were on fucking.
1:03:37
Oh no, we have a test now. I didn't study.
1:03:41
I get to come back to season 2 and Walt pees on me.
1:03:44
Great, sounds like a win for everybody.
1:03:46
I was going to say, you have a fucking bonus prize.
1:03:50
Speaking of season 2, I've got a couple different questions that
1:03:53
kind of blend in together. One from Seth from Facebook.
1:03:56
Love the show, can't wait for season 2.
1:03:58
Will you ever dip your toes into other Merkborg systems?
1:04:01
Would love to hear pirate Borg or cork Borg arcs and Noam
1:04:05
Lackey from Reddit and from the the TRS Studios discord jumped
1:04:09
in with when do we get to hear your sexy voices again?
1:04:12
So we were talking about before we got on Mike that we we have a
1:04:15
plan for season 2. We feel like we're probably
1:04:18
going to dip into more of the the Merck Borg hacks with A
1:04:22
twist and. We can't reveal too much of the
1:04:26
genitals here though. You.
1:04:27
Just want to show the shaft, not the head or the balls, yeah?
1:04:31
No it. I think he just showed the base.
1:04:35
You know, you leave. No, you don't even do that.
1:04:37
You show the shadow well on the walls.
1:04:40
On or off? You're you're so you just show
1:04:43
your pupus, you know? Oh.
1:04:45
The Bush. Yeah, you guys keep ripping for
1:04:47
just a second. Let's just say it's going to be
1:04:49
a whole different experience for Season 2.
1:04:52
With that. I think we're going to call it
1:04:55
Nate left. I think we've kicked him out.
1:04:57
Then he's coming back, right? He's coming.
1:04:59
Back, he said. He'd be back.
1:05:00
I think we scared. Him, well, good.
1:05:01
Season 1 has been an absolute play pleasure to put on and
1:05:06
produce and distribute. I've had an absolute blast with
1:05:09
it. Personally.
1:05:10
I'm glad that we had everybody on that we did as far as guest
1:05:14
GM's and guest players and Walt jumping in and helping out when
1:05:18
we needed them and just everybody in the cast.
1:05:21
It's been a pleasure sitting around this virtual table
1:05:24
playing with all of you guys. So I personally want to thank
1:05:26
you guys for giving me Season 1, and I can't wait to get into
1:05:31
Season 2. So yeah.
1:05:33
We're all dads here. We are all moms and dads here.
1:05:38
Just love it on each other. Yep, spooching.
1:05:42
Oh, I got one thing Noor I make. I know you're making that
1:05:46
fucking game. I'm ready to voice act.
1:05:48
Come on. Oh, the the video game, Yeah.
1:05:51
I haven't. I haven't heard from you in a
1:05:53
while, Noor. We may have to hit him up for
1:05:56
it. Speaking of which, we have some
1:05:57
stuff in the works as well beyond just the planning.
1:06:00
Season 2, we've had some artwork submitted and we're
1:06:02
commissioning artwork for logos and stuff, so that's going to be
1:06:05
coming out soon. As soon as that comes out, trust
1:06:07
me, we'll blast it All in all over the socials.
1:06:10
But Season 1 has been an absolute pleasure and I can't
1:06:14
wait to get into Season 2 and see what these absolute maniacs
1:06:18
decide to do. What's past the moms pubis?
1:06:21
That's what we're trying to figure.
1:06:22
Past moms pubis. No skin.
1:06:25
Whatever it is, I hope it's not an infection.
1:07:14
Hey everybody, Kevin, at the end of the episode, on behalf of the
1:07:16
cast of Club to face past and present, I just want to thank
1:07:19
you guys so much for listening and sharing and doing everything
1:07:22
you've done to help this podcast grow.
1:07:24
And without you guys, we wouldn't be where we are today.
1:07:27
So from the bottom of our cold, heartless cadavers, thank you.
1:07:32
And with that, season 2 is right around the corner.
1:07:35
And let's just say you guys are in for a whole new experience.
1:07:41
Thanks for listening. We'll see you guys next season.
1:07:43
And while you're at it, check us out on our social medias, our
1:07:46
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blue Sky and Thread, and
1:07:50
wherever you listen to podcasts, make sure to rate, review, and
1:07:54
share with all of your friends so we can get out there to more
1:07:57
people. While we're at it, if you
1:07:59
haven't already, please check out our sister podcast, The
1:08:01
World Standard. With that, thanks for listening
1:08:04
and we'll catch you guys next time.
1:08:19
It's a taste kind of fruity. There's like some mushroom stuff
1:08:24
in here too, but what? Yeah, but it's not like.
1:08:27
Just like Bieber. No you're not.
1:08:29
No, you're. Not they can't do that shit.
1:08:31
Just don't watch. Jake Melt over there.
1:08:34
Oh please, let me melt. Don't sniff.
1:08:39
Come. Beautiful.
1:08:44
Oh fuck.