So we'll pick it up here. We'll say we're two episodes in. We've
kicked off our adventure in the snowy town of Osk. How are we feeling
gang, Oh my gosh, we talked to a dead guy. We feel
great. Life is great. We're thriving. Actually, I think this is
we are so in our element. There's been blood, there's been dead people.
Yeah, I'd say episode one was like a real A cold start was
such a great title because it was like, oh yeah, real, real
cold. We're kind of we're just like muscle and scraping through this one.
But episode two really felt like, Okay, we got blood, we got
death, we're finally finally here, and we got paid. We got a
flake, we got a gold piece. To give me in more context,
because we're just about nonsense right now, our friends Farns kink Uh. At
the end of our last episode it had happened upon a dead body. Well,
in this episode, we got to help out with the investigation by talking
to our dead friend, and we got to get paid for that, which
we'd love. And what else did we get to do? Then? We
got to go to a fancier hotel and meet a hot center well not yet,
but we're excited about that. One hot centaur is looking for us and
is at the door that I just slammed in his space. You gotta play
hard to get you gotta play hard to get. Just shivered a little bit
really presumptuous to be like we're gonna have fan art, but like, let's
see, we met a Stelle Quick in the town, the law man in
the town. Uh, what did so fun peak behind what we'll do a
little bit in these after shows. Here is little peak on the screen at
like the decisions that happened, either planned or unplanned from the GM's perspective.
I had originally named her Esther Quick because I thought that was a fun little
bit of I don't know phonics, and realized seconds before I introduced her that
she was investigating Chester's death. And I was like, absolutely, no world,
can I have Esther investigate Chester and not fuck up every single thing?
So it was just like Stelle, It's a Stelle. So that was something
I think my new favorite thing is avoiding when you are very obviously trying to
have an MPC talk to us. Oh there's listen, she's coming. Look
you we are a goblin party. Through and through to the point that we're
just at actual goblins with our GM just annoying. It's fun, I think
gms and this is a little free piece of GM advice. The first couple
sessions, you've got to just sort of feel out like the game you're playing
is figuring out figuring out what motivates your players and their characters for this campaign.
So Maddie and I actually met. She's my wife. If you don't
know, I am her husband. We're charming. We actually not met,
but like got to know each other in a D and D five E campaign
that I was running, and it was an airship sky Pirates swashbuckling adventure,
which is gonna be a relic setting at some point. I went into that
campaign with a group of our friends and was like, I know what they're
gonna want to do. They're gonna want to do all this pirate stuff.
They're gonna want to like here's the big mystery, and like here's these like
big factions that are waging this like seafaring war and all this stuff's going on,
and there's these undead ships and blah blah blah. And they immediately were
like, fucking none of that I want no part of any of these problems
that you've placed in front of us. We are going to build a smuggling
empire. And they just that's what happened. And I was like, yeah,
I guess fuck that, Warlock and Lich and whatever. It's fine,
it's just we're gonna yeah, okay, and they did. They started just
hijacking boats and creating a fleet, and it was a ton of fun and
nothing that I had expected, but that's where the fun stuff is. So
you gotta just figure out, like, oh that was that was what I
was gonna say. It was one of the first indicators I had that was
gonna be a problem for me was I placed a sinking ship in front of
them, like this huge ship that was like going down in flames, and
like maybe the powder is gonna cook off, and I'm expecting there's gonna be
this like encounter, this like race against time. They got to get on
board and get people off and try and rescue any treasure that's on there.
And immediately everyone they pulled up they said, oh that looks dangerous. Fuck
that and turned around and left. And I went, oh, oh,
so, so my new my new policy is you set the world in motion,
figure out in a couple of sessions what the characters care about, and
then you hurt that and that's how you get them to do things. Yeah,
And in our first episode, we were given a few options, and
like I reflected on this later after the episode was over, Like we had
the option to look for someone with like a big like pay incentive in a
bunch of like warm, fancy restaurants. Or we could run outside into the
cold to track some people who were going faster than us into an unknown location,
and we're like, let's run out into the cold, Like I was
gonna say, I think the things that are motivating us are emerging, right.
I feel like when you're playing a character, sometimes when I start,
I don't even know, Like I have a general idea of the character's backstory
and everything, but I don't necessarily know what those pieces of the backstory will
do to like direct those decisions. But we've kind of established that Farah and
Skink are kind of knowledge seekers, relatively adventurous, a little bit mischievous,
have some taboo skills, And so I think what's emerging, at least from
Farah's point of view, is that, like she's going to go for the
thing that she finds probably most intriguing, and yeah, that's not it.
Yeah, I was curious earlier in this episode when Chris said that you got
a blood token us if anything was going to happen, that wasn't. But
there's a there's a time limit. Yeah, right, so we just ran
out of time. Yes, so it would I would have needed an action
that, like, I didn't have anything that I needed to do with it
that I could that I have found out now and I'm still kind of learning
all of the magic that I can do with Farah's character. But that will,
I'm positive come up again in the future, but I have I have
a time limit on it. It's about a minute, and so there wasn't
anything immediately that I could see that I could do with it. You will.
You will find that Farah can be a pretty brutal character at times,
if not to other people, then to herself as well. It'll come out,
I think. And that's like there's layers to that too, like it's
I have a three class or sorry, what am I saying is class?
Right? Yeah, I have a three class character in my brains at the
end of the day, Okay, but yeah, there's layers to that brutality
to her. But I don't feel like it's come out yet. No,
it's been This has been somewhat different than some of the games that like we
three have played in the past, and that I haven't thrown a lot of
combat immediately in front of you guys. I'm kidding. I have anticipation.
I'm like, I will say, peek behind the screen. There was I
was prepared. There were some chances today, uh, not as much last.
Like there was like one path last time where I was like, if
they go fucking hard in that direction, like narratively, something might pop off
there. But it wound up, you know, very quickly. You guys
kind of like we're just interested in other things, which is totally fine.
Uh, this time, I was like, there are a couple of ways
this goes. I know, we're starting with the murder. We're going to
see how involved you guys get with that, because there was there was a
whirl where you guys were like pace and just bolted out the window and then
it's like, well that's suspicious, Like that could have been a whole thing.
So like there were a couple of avenues and I don't want to spoil
because I like to recycle. There were a couple of ways where I was
like, there might be a fight this time, we'll see, didn't wind
up happening. Totally valid. So those are, you know, just things
in my back pocket. Because the thing is, every time you skip the
DM's hook on something or take the other path, it just goes back in
the deck. Baby, And it's just like, yeah, all right,
no, you guys didn't use my encounter that time. It'd be crazy if
that came up again in some other situations. So like, nothing goes to
waste here. We use all the parts of the game prep. But yeah,
I feel very much like I'm living in a sitcom where like there's this
character who like is around and we're just gonna have our encounter later. Like
Mysterious Eld Lady. We could have approached her in the first episode, we
didn't. We could have approached her in the second second episode, and like
we looked at her, but we actively chose to say, like, we
got enough going on right now, we'll come back to you later your hair
of day. We know where to find you, you know, I'm just
like we it's like we had to savor this meeting like it's coming. We
know we'll meet her someday, but like not today, abso absolutely, let's
do Uh. I've seen some other shows do like roses and thorns and stuff
at the end of like an after show or whatever, they're like, here's
the thing I liked, Here's the thing that sucked or hurt or my character
didn't like or whatever. I think what I'm more interested in doing is roses
is fine if you had like a favorite part of an episode that you wanted
to be like that was cool, or my character you know, I'm excited
for that or whatever. But the other the thing I'm more interested in is
like I don't have a short word for it, not like predictions, but
like, what is the most intriguing thing kind of on the board right now
for you or your character? Like could be meta, could be in character.
Can I go first? So I told you Farah is gonna go for
whatever's most intriguing. Well, now that she's had her hands on a flake
she's locked on, she might actually just might actually motivate her to talk to
the elf lady because she knows that they found flakes while going after her scroll.
So she's she's yeah, she's in it to win it now. Yeah,
for sure. I will say a rose from me was just, uh,
there's a hot centaur. Outside of the part of this episode is I
was like, oh, we I don't know how the cut's gonna come together
with the end of the episode quite yet, But for me, it was
just like there was a world where we continued that scene for another few minutes
and got to a nice like and you go to bed and that's what we're
in the episode or whatever. But immediately I was like, full stop,
that's where the episode ends, Like it has to be on that gun,
Like there's no world in which we get a better send. Absolutely, I
actually really like to For me, was that skink we got to see skinks
magic this time and then and there's magic last time. Like I think their
characters are starting to the characters are really starting to show their strengths. Yes,
and I love that. Yeah, I will say that before we started
this episode, I spent like half an hour thinking about what happened, and
I was like, wait, I finally have a dead body. Because I've
never played a necromancer before, so it's it's fun to It was fun to
review some of the spells and have like a little plan for what I was
hoping I would have the opportunity to do, and then getting to really do
it was great. And then another little rose for me was being pointed at
by a tail that was that was real fun. Don't be surprised if Skink
tries to flirt with that characters. I know what's happenings, But oh,
I don't think the flirting is going to work, Like I don't at all
think that it's going to be very receptive. But that doesn't mean skinks.
There are two types of role playing game players. There are the ones who
flirt with the t Flings or the Fiendlings or the Cambions or whatever other version,
whatever other system you talk about, and the fucking wires. Like it's
just like it always listen, Matty Knows. We've had discussions as I've been
designing relic and like coming up with these different like lineages and like, okay,
we're gonna do the Fiendlings and the animal people and this that, and
it's like you know people and it's like yeah, I know, I know,
okay, but they still it's fine. I know what they're gonna do.
It's fine. I will say an intrigue for me that I am looking
forward to is just the I like that we haven't gone all in on both
characters using all of their abilities from all of their classes all at once.
I think that's really fun. It is like, uh farah, until this
episode, you had really just only tapped into the Enchanter stuff and I still
didn't show and we've still only a little bit. Yeah, exactly. I
don't think like this is maybe something that will come up later. Yeah.
So I like that there's some layers kind of coming out that and I hope
that that is fun for listeners and viewers because it kind of I hope it's
intriguing. I hope it's intriguing as it feels it as it is to play
honestly. Yeah, I hope so. Sure. And then I think it
helps remind people that this isn't a world where you can just spend magic all
day, Like there's a cost, and so if the characters aren't using it
all the time, it's because like they know, this takes energy, and
it's probably more like realistic for the characters to be judicious about when they're using
their skills and when they're not. Yeah, well, and there's also there's
like there's social capital to factor into, Like we talked a little bit.
I don't know if it's going to make it end of the episode or up,
but like I think it was on one of our breaks, like skick
Scott and acromantic abilities. That doesn't mean if you raise the murdered brother of
the bereaving woman next to you as a zombie thrall, that's not going to
lead to a violent outburst. Like there's you know, there's also like yeah,
if Sarah taps into some of her blood token abilities in mixed company,
who aren't going to be amenable to that sort of thing in the moment,
Like it's not a barroom trick, you know, it's a it's a heat
of the moment, like chips are down situations. So like, yeah,
just because he can doesn't mean you should. Just because you can doesn't mean
you should. I kind of love that we both have taboo magic in our
repertoire. Yes, I think that's leading into the like slow unfolding because yeah,
I've definitely held back. I wasn't going to use a blood token for
ships and gigglescuse my language. On Nope, I will say you can pop
them for me. I know, and I thought about that, but I
didn't. I didn't really need it during this one. It wasn't super necessary
at that time. Just something to keep in mind. And I'll say,
you know, to kind of close this out here last little like looking forward
intrigue for me is just me as a GM. I'm starting to really enjoy
finding ways for Pip to instrut. That was fun. Yes, I love
that you had Pip pay for the hilarious Yes, yes and that And for
a second I thought you you meant that like Pip knows how much money is,
but nos coin. Pip had a coin, and I think he registers
when when you guys like gesture for a coin and he's just like a little
like here's what. Maybe it's right, and maybe it's too much, Like
it's just whatever he's got in his little nest. It every once in a
while, was that like a single copper? Right? Oh? Totally?
Or you know, a fucking platinum or something like just and then we have
to be like I get there and like pick it up, put it away.
I actually might start rolling a defour and just being like, you know,
if you guys have money, just like it's copper, silver, gold,
platinum, Yes, which brings me to a final question here. I'm
gonna I want to put this to you guys, because we're ending our first
day in game. Do you want to do a random role at the start
of every episode for who Pip decides to nest with his mother or do you
want to just well, I was gonna, I was gonna give you the
option to just alternate, because there's a chance that like we roll Farah or
Skink like ten times in a row, you know, So it's up to
you, guys. I'm happy either way. We're doing it every time we
play. We're doing it every day, right, every day in game.
Yeah, So I was like, there's a chance if he rolls it the
same person like four days in a row, that might be like twenty episodes,
you know, Like that's probably not twenty, but still there's I mean,
I don't I don't mind all that much. Like, I don't I
don't mind leaving it to randomness, especially because I do think he'll hop between
the two of us per Yeah, it's just like who rides along with It's
not like, yeah, yeah, it's just who he's on, really most
of the yeah, home base and like, if you guys split up,
he's gonna go with that one. So like that's kind of where it comes
in more right, right, Yeah, yeah, like it has it.
The separation hasn't come into play yet, but I'm still willing to. Like.
I like, yeah, the Dice Scots, I like, I like
leaving it to them, so it shall be, And so it is.
Uh, Pip is left to the Dice, adds him flipping the animation just
when he decides it was so cute. I love it. I love like
that's in a career of a lot of visual art stuff that is the greatest
clearly, Like just just flipping a bird p g one hundred eighty degrees at
the right time, like this the pinnacle of Q Fireworks thumbs up, Macro
whatever that is. That's too funny. All right, guys, we are
going to stop it right there. That is episode one and two of the
nixt Archive. After show, we'll come up with a clever name for this
at some point and put it up in places. This one might go up
at the mainstream future ones may be a Patreon thing days end. Okay,
okay, because the next archive is next is night. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, alright, alright, I like it. I like it,
so I'll make some brandy for that. Like it all right, Well,
thank you for joining me tonight. Ladies. We will sign off here
and yeah, be done until next time.