Oops, It's all bars. Hello one, Welcome to the Bardbacue, where
the cast and creators of Oops All Bards grill each other about the most recent
episode. I'm your hosting game master, Jillian Ashley Blair Ivy, and I'm
joined at the table by several of our Barts joining today. We've got some
of the Bards. We're an incomplete party this evening. Ashley Banks was not
able to join us tonight. Let's have the rest of the players reintroduce themselves.
I'm Chris Clinecki. I play Ruckus, the aspiring best Boy. I'm
Anne Coleman, and I play Clarice Sarah Cloud. I'm Ross Curry, I
play Andrew Harold, I'm Bob Gillian, I play Keilony and Stumps the guitar
playing Pacifist and with us as always, also is Nate Runkle, our producer.
And I am Jillian Ashley Blair Ivy. Although anybody who calls me anything
other than Jill makes me worry that I have done something to offend them.
So what we're going to do for these episodes that are coming in between the
regular campaign episodes of Oops All Bards, It's just an opportunity for us to
talk about what just happened, any questions we have for each other, any
questions the players have for me. Eventually, you know, this is only
our first one of these, but eventually, hopefully we'll have some questions from
you with the listeners as well that we'll be able to answer, and we're
gonna go ahead and get started. So what I'd really love to start talking
about episode one was an opportunity to introduce everyone's characters. We did a lot
of work before the recording on developing everybody's characters. But what I'd love to
know is if anybody was surprised, either by something that came up in your
introduction scene or something that came up in somebody else's scene that you weren't expecting.
I don't know about surprised, but one of the things I really liked
about we started with Belle and her whole chaotic family and then moved immediately to
Clarice in a very isolated situation. I thought that was really well structured,
especially because when I listened back, you know, Belle describes herself as being
curves everywhere, and then Clarice comes across in very sharp pointed everything is angular
everything, And I just thought that was a very interesting first two characters to
introduce, and for the DM, I'm wondering was that set up intentional?
That was a very happy coincidence. It's really too bad that Ashley's not here
to be able to talk a little bit about Belle. But I know that
Anne and I spent a lot of time talking about Clarice and how Clarice was
going to present herself as more of a loner, as somebody who was not
going to be surrounded by her family on this day. So and did you
want to talk a little bit more about the way that we kind of worked
through developing Clarice. Sure. I started actually with a bit of a challenge
because I've never played a Bard before, and I didn't want to commit myself
to either of the sort of core archetypes that I know for Bard, which
is the songs all the time barred or the sort of lascivious lecherius Bard.
And in thinking about the different colleges and ways that Bards can specialize, I
found myself really drawn to a Bard who plays with sarcasm and who uses words
as their tool, but in a perhaps less conventional way. Than speechifying,
although obviously we get a little bit of creative talking from Clarice. But all
of that led me to thinking about when Aubrey Plaza, the actress, plays
April Ledgate on Parks and rec the episode where if You're Familiar, the Pawnee
township is has just merged with its rival town and the character gets to meet
her counterpart in the other town's administration, named Tinifer, and Tennifer is just
one of the worst humans. She has a very affected manner of speaking,
She's very superficial, and the character, as played by Aubrey Plaza, does
some really fun layering of personalities where she is performing as Tennifer's equal and familiar
while also performing her character of April Ludgate at the same time. And I
thought that was a really intriguing thing to play around with, and so that's
what I ripped on. That's where we get the really infuriating sort of vocal
fry, and I think it's a fun start. I don't know how closely
Clarice's journey will sort of cleave to that narrative, but because I needed some
way to enter Bards, I really took inspiration from that performance. Bawtvery Plaza
and similar to the character of April Loodgate, Plaza plays, you know,
a very anti human, not not necessarily misanthropic. She has the people that
she loves, but she only loves them. She has little time or patience
for others, and I thought that would be a fun thing to play around
with. I have just a comment on Clarice's character. I think that it's
really cool that Clarice is like a loner character, and then you've developed this
loner character, but in fact, Clarice's family is a very important part of
the story and her and her character, which I think is a really neat
thing. I think if I were making a loaner character, I think I
would have maybe not thought about that as much, or like you know,
included that. But it works really well with Chlorice his character, and it
works really well with the story and gives a reason to give, gives more
motivation like to be, you know, part of the things that are happening,
which I think is really cool. And if I may, you know,
as someone who's played Dungeons and Dragons a lot, I think it is
a great thing. If you're starting a campaign or you're doing something is to
give your characters some relationship to each other or some relationship to what's happening in
the storyline. I've found that that that has really helped character players in the
past and made like role playing really fun. So I think good job with
that. I think we did a good job as a team as well,
thinking about how our characters would know each other be related. Yeah, we
did. I made a little diagram at the beginning if you'll all remember of
the kind of solid and dotted lines between all of the character's relationships, and
everybody had at least a dotted line to everybody else, because you know,
the the beginning of this campaign is set at a university, and it's not
a huge school such that you wouldn't have at least encountered each other on the
go, And certainly Clarice working in the campus coffee shop allows Clarice to kind
of be a nexus point for all of these people. So in spite of
being a loner, Clarice is actually possibly the one who's got the strongest bonds
to everybody else in the party. Yeah. I also took inspiration from another
real world context piece. I really appreciate, Bob, what you were saying
about how she's connected to this world, and that was one of the pieces
I gave more careful thought. And I took particular inspiration from the nineties political
power couple of James Carville and Mary Madline. So, for those who don't
know, in the nineteen ninety two presidential election, James Carville was sort of
the chief political strategist of Bill Clinton's campaign and his wife, Mary Madaline,
was the chief political strategist of the Bush second campaign, and they are still
happily married. Longtime couple. They have worked against each other in many elections
and have very different closely held beliefs, but they are also real power players
in the US political scene. James Carville, famously nicknamed the Region Cajun,
continues to be a pretty colorful pundit in democratic political conversation, although he is
definitely more unhinged than he was in the ninety two election. And Mary Madeline,
who maintains a little bit less public punditry, is equally interesting if you
do a deep dive into her work. And while that particular couple has no
children, I thought, thinking about somebody who was the child of that legacy,
you could come up with some really interesting ties to the world and relationships
to not just government, but also to people. Having having lived with two
people who think so strategically about every human interaction and about the play of interplay
of power, I think would really shape a young person in untold ways when
that is really cool. Yeah, in the in the first episode, when
you had that letter from your mother that was signed with her full name including
Esquire and then scribbled out and mom, but then also referencing who you were
going to do your internship or post grad with, whether it was I think
it was the violets or the Greens. Kind of wondering like what and this
is maybe more a question for for Jill, Like we know that there's the
triarchy. We've established that there's the violets, the greens, and was the
turquoise corals the corals? Kind of like what each of these parties in the
triarchy? Because I think we would each No, we've all been living in
this world, know what can you tell us about how the triarchy functions and
how these parties interact with each other. So Anna and I did a lot
of talking about some of this structure because as the child of political operatives,
she would be intimately acquainted with this in a way that your average college student
might not be. I mean went to I was in school in the early
through mid aughts, and it was, you know, during the George W.
Bush administration. He was reelected when I was in college, and the
people that I was in school with were kind of divided into people who cared
deeply about the Bush Carey election and the war in Iraq, and people who
just did not care. Were very oblivious and in a lot of ways.
And this is funny for anybody who knows me. Now, I was pretty
separated from what was going on politically at the time, and so I think
that for the most part, the student body, I mean, this is
a country that's been at peace for thirty years. I think the student body
in Uva Major and Marshall in the country of Udva are aware that there is
a triarchy. They're aware that there are three major political parties, that the
legislature is set up kind of more like a parliamentary system. But I don't
think that there is a lot of awareness for most of you at this point
that there are major distinctions between the parties. I think the only other person
in the party who might know that is Bell because her family is involved in
politics. But I think for the most part, it's not something that is
on your daily radar, although Kilonian I would be or Bob as Kilonian,
I would be really curious to know, since you're a pacifist, whether you
think that Colonian is paying attention to the political landscape in Udavrera at this time.
Yeah. So well, I think I think Bob doesn't know enough about
the political landscape to have a good to make to make a good like I,
you know, thought to make a good thought on that. But I
think maybe there's an opportunity for that as we keep going, because I think
for Keilonian's character, I think it's really I'm really kind of crafted it as
like a personal journey, you know. He's like sort of discovering, trying
to discover some wisdom in the world and and so, but I think he
doesn't really have a connection, uh to the world. You know. I
think we I don't think we've had too many specifics, but I think we
just established that he's sort of from like far away, you know, and
you know, maybe there aren't many like turtles around. It's a sort of
part of the total lore that they go out and they go sort of traveling
and adventuring around the world, and so I imagined that he was from somewhere
far off. But I think maybe through the campaign it could be an opportunity
for him to figure out where he fits in the landscape or doesn't fit.
Surprise question or comment, would would Colonian be someone who would see them all
as different shades of the problem? Possibly? Yeah, Like I think it
could be, but because I think Kelonian is trying to sort of think of
or figure out where where he where he fits, because I think he is
somebody who stands back and watches or you know, learns or experiences, but
he's being thrown into this world of where he has to act, and so
I'm not sure yet. I think we're going to find out like what Kilonian
is, uh, how how Keelonian is going to evolve in that in that
world. There was something else that really surprised me about Keilonion in this episode,
which is when you talked about he kind of creaks as he's standing up,
and I think Chris had jokingly asked how old he is and you'd said
he's twenty four. Is that so twenty four is older for his middle aged
for a turtle, and that had really surprised me that you'd made that choice,
that he's kind of like this non traditional student. He's older than most
of his peers, at least in maturity levels. What was the thinking behind
that, Well, there wasn't because I think I thought turtles were about the
same, or maybe I was looking at the wrong information about turtles because I
thought that was like older, but like I thought they had a comparable age
too. I think they lived to sixty or seventy is what I had seen.
But it's okay because you rolled with it. Yeah, yeah, I
mean I think it would make sense. He's the sort of the character who
appreciates learning and wisdom and so would not feel any shame or weirdness in pursuing
a learning path maybe later than his peers. So, speaking of characters that
are maybe on a non traditional path and really interested in pursuing wisdom, Chris,
you're playing a character that is of a lineage that doesn't usually attend or
pursue higher education, and you gave yourself the added challenge of not being able
to speak the common tongue with everybody else. You can understand it, but
you're communicating largely through bark buttons, and then we have Ruckus's internal monologue to
kind of help guide us. I'm really curious about your decision to create the
character in this way, to give yourself that limitation. So first and foremost,
it's really important for me to emphasize that it's critical for me to be
respectful as I'm attempting to play a character who doesn't speak the native language.
I don't in any way intend to be jabbing or punching down at anybody who
finds verbal communication in their own communities to be challenging, not at all.
Rather, in a way I'm trying to empathize, as some of you at
the table might know, I majored in Mandarin Chinese and lived for three and
a half years in China, including a full three year stint, and the
first iteration of that across the you know, the years three and a half
years was a summer teaching English in China. Before I studied any Chinese at
all, I didn't speak a lick of it. It was incredibly challenging to
be able to communicate at all with people who also really didn't speak any English.
We weren't in like a major city center like Bating or Shanghai. But
I found everybody that I interacted with to be incredibly helpful and really supportive and
very friendly and understanding of kind of like how I was trying to do my
best to ask where the restaurants were, or like how to do my laundry
or where's a bathroom pleaser I'm thirsty. And I picked up around ten to
twenty words during that first summer, which ends up kind of where Ruckas is
right now, right at at level four. So yeah, I've had a
lot of experiences not being able to articulate myself as a full person, even
though I might hopefully have a vibrant inter life or inner monologue. But just
I can say yes, I like this, or please and thank you.
But if somebody were to ask me, like, what do you think about
this piece of art, I could be like, it's pretty, I like
the colors, but I can't really tell you, Oh, it remind me
the neoclassical era. I just I don't have the vocabulary to do that.
So I wanted to explain that first, like this is where the Ruckus stuff
is coming from. In an angle, there's another part of it too,
as those of us at the table will recall, for our session zero,
when we sat down before we started the campaign, we essentially had what I
would think of as like character selection screen, like where people were either gonna
say which character they were playing or say like I have like one or two
ideas, like which one's gonna make more sense? I prepared four characters and
intentionally volunteered to go last so that my character could fit in hopefully with what
everybody else wanted to bring to the table of those four characters, and over
the course of that conversation, it was pretty clear to me from the other
players and from Ujil that I needed to pick Ruckus that iteration as the fifth
party member. So that was sort of like the of the ones. The
other ones all spoke common natively, this is the one that didn't, but
this is the one we went with finally, just from like a you know,
what do I find interesting at a at a table when I find engaging,
and it's something like a project that I that I enjoy working on.
Characters with the strong memorable like hooks are pretty essential to me for my own
RPG gaming experience. Those are really the only characters I'm like interested in exploring.
This character is part dog, and I think many of us have seen
the YouTube videos of dogs have been trained to communicate with buttons to you know,
say basic things, and so I follow so many of those accounts.
It really appealed to me as a like this, this could be an interesting
character that would set themselves apart from the rest of the party and hopefully an
interesting and not boring way would hopefully be one that people who are listening in
Hi, everybody, people who are listening and be like, oh, I've
seen one of those videos, or I kind of get what this is going
for, and that's kind of fun. And also the character is that,
you know, a capital G good character. So hopefully, you know,
going with the dog folk, going with somebody who's making you sort of recall
videos that hopefully charm you or experiences that make you smile was important to me
too. Does it answer your question? Yeah? Absolutely, And I want
to just add on to that because Ruckus is he's a dog folk. That's
a home brewed race. It's not my homebrew, that's your homebrew from one
of your home games. And so I'd love to know a little bit more
about dog Folks as you first created them, or first imagined them. The
initial dog Folk in a separate campaign that we won't really engage in, but
they serve as essentially the police force in the capital city and that's their main
job. Like you don't really encounter them anywhere else, And at least in
that iteration of the world, the idea was, we don't know, like
which race we can really trust to like to do a good job with this.
They're all like they had their ultory motives in this particular group, Like
they seem to just be in it for, you know, the justice and
goods. So like all the other factions sort of collectively agreed to submit to
okay, Like if a dog folk pulls me over, like I'm gonna say,
okay, it was probably in the wrong. And they have like their
own little like judicial system. But it started there, and so when it
came time to bring one or more characters to this campaign, I had had
a good enough time with the dog Fokemon campaign, I figured I'd throw that
into the mix, and that was the one that came out. Chris,
I got to jump in here because you have not shared what you actually said
at that session. Zero was the inspiration. What did I say, It
was a long time ago. I'm thinking of the iconic late nineties blockbuster film
series air Bud. Yeah, I mean that we've I think we've sort of
edited that out along the way by and large, but other things that you
know, you may have seen in the nineties where you know, I grew
up and like a lot of those things are near and dear to me.
Not just the Airbud, but like Homeward Bound. There's a line where Shadow
tells Chance that dogs are supposed to be faithful, loyal, and true,
and that is an exact SoundBite that I pulled my lead for my description of
characters other things as well. I talked about Snoopy earlier at this particular recording
for episode three. We might see some of that later, but yeah,
homages to dogs that are near and dear to me from my childhood. The
only reason I brought up that air Bud is because I like that you've stayed
in sort of the same color pellette now that we're going with like the it's
a Tibetan, right, Tibetan mastiff. Yeah, so you have that that
sort of like worm reddish ochre. That's also in the Golden Retriever and Irish
Setter lines gods are good. As someone who played in the game, where
that Chris is mentioning that the dog Folk were introduced, I just want to
point out a fun fact that our characters Wants got some help from a dog
folk prison guard by consistently telling him that he was a good boy. No
persuasion checks were required in that session. Amazing. Yeah. So, so
just to kind of catch the audience up, we are recording this after we
recorded episode three, so you're hearing a couple of references to things that happen
later. I hope that there are no spoilers, but there might be a
couple of channelizing hints. And I think that you know right now, in
as far as the audience is concerned, we're at the end of episode one
and we're just starting to see the characters as individuals. Now, you all
around the table have a better idea of you know, what's going to happen
next and how the characters are going to coalesce. But as we came in
to episode one, I'm curious what you were all expecting would be the point
at which you intersected. I had no idea. I'm chuckling in the corner
here because I have dutifully written down everybody's coffee order for their character. I
actually did want to circle back to that because one of the things thinking about
like developing characters, that I don't think was intentional was Clarice's thing was that
she remembers every single customer at Enchanted Grounds order. That also put on all
of us to think about what our order might be, and that that became
a weird like kind of internal exercise of like, Okay, what what would
my character be drinking while studying reading the things that he's reading. And you
haven't actually said anything about your character yet, so I'm going to turn it
on here. Why did you choose a red eye? I well, let's
go to I'm probably the person here who has the least performance background experience.
You know, I did theater in high school and college, but almost nothing
since you know, there are a couple very seasoned voice actors here, which
I'm not. So I came into this thinking, well, what's something that
I want to play just as a Dungeons and Dragons character, Like, what's
and for me I wanted to do? I thought about the same things that
and did in terms of like, well, I almost I literally have ever
play at a Bard because a again, I don't have a very good singing
voice. I don't like some of the barred tropes. So I was digging
for something that was very much not in that vein. They're not a sponsor,
but I will say I absolutely adore the Taldore Reborn campaign setting book.
It is a tremendous source book. And I was really drawn to the College
of Tragedy Bard and mechanically I decided I wanted to play that and then start
So I started with the mechanics and then built, Okay, what type of
person would study this? And built from there. The red eye is specifically
because when I'm thinking about it, Andrek is someone who would study late at
night because he prefers solitude. Not to say he's anti social, in fact,
he's very much not. But in terms of doing deep thought, he's
doing that on his own in that study room with just the gramophone, like
that is his normal course of work. I borrowed that a little bit from
my wife, the DMO, who does a lot of her best deep work
late at night. I was going to ask you if you were if any
of that was a subtle dig at me. No, No, it was
not at all a dig. It is just drawn from I live every day
with I have to ask Jill what time she came to bed the previous You
don't have to ask me that, but it's nine am somewhere right. But
the answer is I decided that he was going to be a late night studier
and read eye made sense for that. Do any of you have any questions
for me about yes, Yes, an all barred party? What were you
as the DM thinking? Honestly, it's been an inside joke for so long
in one of the campaigns that you DM, so Ross Yes, if you
didn't notice from Ross's previous answer, Ross is my husband. We've been married
for eleven years now. And uh so Ross runs to other home games that
I play in, and at some point in one of those campaigns, we
were just musing over what would happen if you had to, like if your
party balance was thrown off because you had too many people of one certain class.
And I will say that also, everybody here at this table, save
for Nate, played in a campaign that was run by our friend Michael,
who's one of the members of the port room, and so one of the
executive producers of this podcast, and Michael. Michael is the nicest person in
the world, and so anytime somebody said, you know, I'm really curious
about D and D I'd like to play, It's like, sure, come
on, join the game, which sometimes meant that we would have eleven people
playing at the same time, and that sometimes meant that we would have to
clare it or three I guess three sorcerers. Maybe we had. There was
a lot of overlap. It's a very heavily magic user, very very heavy
magic party, and so we were telling our friends in our home game about
that, and I play a Bart in that game in our home game,
so we were telling in We were telling the people in our home game about
this game that Michael ran, and I was saying, you know, I
think it'd be really fun if there was an all Bard party. And I
think it was our friend Eddie who's in that party, and Eddie did all
of the art for Oops All Bars. I think Eddie actually said Oops all
Barts. It was like, yep, that's it, and it stayed in
my head and I kind of just had to run with it. So Nate
and I had been talking about making a podcast together and it was like,
Hey, I have this crazy idea, and for some reason Nate said that
he would do it. Yes, for some reason, No, No,
I thought it was fascinating, Like, you know, one of the main
tenants of podcasting is to always niche down and this is like the ultimate it's
already a niche podcast, but then to like kind of double that and hyper
focus on one class. Like I know. I was immediately just like,
oh, this is something that could definitely work, Eddie if you're listening now.
Oops, all patents so that next time at it and thanks. You
got to ask as you're talking to me, what did you know about D
and D when you were agreeing to that. Okay, so my my,
my D and D background very limited, but is all based in high school.
And I'm older than everyone here. I'm forty six, so high school
was like early nineties and primarily you know, what would that have been?
Second edition, right, A D and D. So you know, I
came into this and was like, oh, there are a lot of new
rules, there's a lot more going on here. It's funny that you say
that as a second edition player, because I started in ninety five or ninety
six, which was also second edition, And I feel like five y is
much more streamlined than two he was even than three point five was, and
certainly more streamlined than four was. And now we're playing inside baseball. Sorry,
No. I think that there are definitely folks who are going to be
listening to this who have been playing D and D for a long time.
I think that there are also folks who're going to be playing or who are
going to be listening to this, who are pretty new to D and D.
And maybe, in fact, I know for a fact that there are
people who are listening to this podcast you've never played D and D before.
So before we wrap up this episode, I'd really love to just go around
the table and get one piece of advice from everybody about what you'd like to
say to somebody who's either just starting to play D and D or maybe has
played D and D but isn't familiar with stretching outside of their comfort zone in
a game like this. The biggest piece of advice I would give a player
is to just take big swings. Take the swing. Yeah, I would
say, it's a game, have fun, and there's a lot of different
ways to play Dungeons and Dragons, and I've played those in different ways.
Some people really like the role playing. They really like to do voices and
characters and interact with each other almost like they're doing improv and that's really fun.
Some people really like the game mechanics and you know, being able to
make you know, really efficiently make your character so that it's you know,
like a powerful build or whatever. You know, there's just a lot of
different ways to play it, and I think that when you are getting together
with you know, people who want to play together, is that you should
play it in the way that is really fun to you, and you know,
think about what would be the most fun. Bob speaks my mind.
The only thing I might add is that you have to trust in your DM
and the players that you're playing with that they will help you to not take
up too much space, because that's one of the things that I think,
at least for me, in trying to take big swings, can often feel
like a risk that the game is supposed to be fun for everybody, and
you don't want to monopolize the mic literally or figuratively. But when you trust
in your group and you've sort of established clearly that you're open to feedback and
that you are happy for when other people have their ideas and you want to
run with those two, there can be balance and joy yes to everything.
And I'd also say, at least from my own experience, the most successful
sessions and campaigns that I've been a part of have been ones where it's like
a big group of yes and to everybody, and generally speaking, everybody at
the table has you know, volunteered to spend their time with each other with
a collective understanding of what we get out of this depends on what we put
into this, And so having a good idea of your for yourself of like
what are you hoping to get out of us? Like if you if you
aren't as engaged as somebody else as is in the role playing or the combat,
is there something else that like you actually do enjoy it is chatting,
spending time with your friends, spending money, if that's like a cool thing
for you to do, make sure you have a you know, think about
what you would most enjoy, make sure you communicate that to your players that
they understand and can yes. And when you're hoping for a chance to do
the thing you're here for, Nate. I realize that you're not playing five
ey, but do you have any advice that you'd like to share? No,
but not really. But the one thing that I would add is,
you know, Bobb, you were talking about what different people get out of
it. My pure enjoyment of Dungeons and Dragons in any instance that I've ever
played it or any kind of other role playing game, is literally just rolling
dice. I just like rolling dice. Ross just threw his arms in the
air. I have forbidden Ross from buying any more, from bringing any more
dice into our home. And then, you know, of course, as
our first recording, as a gift to everybody in the cast, for our
first recording, I bought a set of dice for everybody. But that's the
last set of dice that Ross is going to be responsible for in this home
for some time. So it's it's it's on the record now. My piece
of advice for I did not agree to this, we'll see. My piece
of advice for folks who are just getting started in D and D or who
are trying to get more involved in it, is, you know, podcasts
like this one, and like some of the other really big podcasts are wonderful
and they're extremely helpful in learning how to play the game, So listen to
them when you have the opportunity to. But the flip side of that is,
don't expect everything that happens at your table to be like what happens in
a podcast. You're not going to have a DM probably who does a bunch
of voices like Brennelly, Mulligun or Matt Mercer. You're not going to have
a bunch of people who have been playing D and D for fifteen twenty years
and really know all the games ins and outs. But that doesn't mean that
your experience should be disappointing or insufficient for you if it doesn't seem the way
that you watch other people who are doing this professionally, the way that they're
they're playing the game. So watch those to get ideas, to get inspiration
to learn some of the mechanics, but don't watch them with the expectation that
you will have the same experience. You also are not going to have an
editor or a producer. Yes, not to be me, but you know
what I mean. Like, so, like you know a lot of there's
a lot of stuff that gets cut out of these episodes. That is,
you know a lot of breaking down rules or trying to better understand you know,
a room layout or map and stuff like that, so you know,
when you don't think that what you are playing is going to come across,
hopefully as smooth as this show has, I mean a dogpile on this point,
but I think I might piggyback if I may. At this time,
I would say, don't be afraid to make mistakes, and you'd like Although
some people may find it extremely helpful to sort of pour through a bunch of
you know, manuals, the player's handbook, you know, videos, watch
other people play it first before you feel ready, that's totally fine. It's
also okay to take the fail forward approach. I was in a campaign for
about a half a year from my first experienced in D and D, and
I thought to myself, this reminds me enough of Nights of the Old Republic
and World of Warcraft. So I'll read fifteen percent of the player's handbook enough
that I can start my own thing and then I'll just you know, roll
with it from there. Was I great at the beginning, Absolutely not have
I gotten better? Hopefully but that campaign is in its fifth year and every
session, every story ROC gets better. So I don't think that you have
to feel like you need to do all the sort of reas search if you
don't want to. You can if you want to, but like you can
also just jump in and make mistakes and have fun too. Yeah. The
phenomenon that Jill is referring to is often commonly referred to as the Mercer effect.
It could as easily be called the Mulligan effect or the b Dave Walters
whatever it might be. But I think all of those dms, and any
DM in any either podcast or streamed game would tell you, yeah, no,
you're not going to be any of us. But you know what we
can't do. We can't run your home game with your friends, with their
characters, because each table is different, every experience is different. So just
yeah, you'll never be them, but guess what, they'll also never be
you. If you're If you're scared of DMING, because I'm not going to
be Brendan Lee Mulligan, No you're not. Open up your player's handbook,
get a decent enough grasp on the rules, grab your dice, grab some
friends, run a game. Just do it, or you could just be
a hanger on like me and join everybody else's game. It's great, genuine
recommend if you've got patient friends, dive in and on that note, I
think that's a good place to leave things. We're going to call it here
and see everybody in two weeks for the next episode of Oops All Bards,
and then back here two weeks after that for another episode of the Barbecue.
Thank you so much to everyone for joining us again. I am Jillian Ashley
Blair IVY and it's been a pleasure. See you in two weeks. Oops
All Bards is created, GMed, and directed by Jillian Ashley Blair Ivy.
This episode was produced, edited, and sound designed by Nate Runkle. Oops
All Bards stars Ashley Banks as bell Sernamio and Coleman as Clarice Sauerklown, Ross
Curry as Andrek harrow Hold, Chris Klinecki as Pooched and Ruckus, Bob Killian
as Kilonian Stumps, featuring Paige Klinecki as the voice of the bark Buttons.
The Oops All Bard's theme song is by Bob Killian, with additional lyrics by
Jillian Ashley Blair Ivy. Oops all Bards is executive produced by the porch Room.
We are part of the porch Room Network on Spreaker Prime. For more
information, visit oopsalbards dot com. Thanks and be sure to subscribe to oops
all Bards on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your podcatcher of choice. We'll
see you next time.