The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 10/25/23

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

New games are hitting the GCN Twitch, YouTube, and more this week as the guys discuss some upcoming episodes of Friends of the Pod. Would you like to join the GCN Team and help us raise money for the Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals during the Extra Life Marathon on November 4th? Troy breaks down what you need to do to join and reveals some of the content you can expect to see during our 24 hours of non-stop live gaming. Plus, a look behind the screen into the prisoner interrogation and advanced scouting featured in Campaign 2 Episode 6 of the GCP! Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/ALb4TqaDDZU For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com and for exclusive content and benefits, subscribe today at jointhenaish.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And they're angry you left. Imaginary. Now playing only in theaters. This episode is brought to you by RBC Student Banking. Students, get $100 when you open an RBC Advantage banking account, which includes no monthly fee, unlimited debit transactions in Canada, Avion points on debit purchases,

and so, so much more. Unlock more perks for less with RBC Vantage. Conditions apply. Offer ends June 30th, 2024. New eligible clients only. Complete criteria by August 30th, 2024. Visit rbc.com slash student 100. You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network.

The premier source for role-playing game entertainment. Welcome to Cannon Fodder, a behind-the-scenes look at the Glass Cannon Network. Yo! What is going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back to Cannon Fodder. It is Wednesday, October 25th, 2023, and I'm your old buddy, Joe O'Brien. And greetings. I'm Troy LaValle. Hello, Troy. You're feeling dry this morning. I take it no comedy in the chamber there. I thought you meant like parched, because I am feeling a little dry.

You know what? I am too. It's so funny. I was like just about to launch into the like, what's going on, everybody? And I realized that like my throat was a little dry. And I was like, do I have one second to like grab a water take a sip and i didn't and then i was like i'm gonna screw up the open i thought it went really smooth though i think i crushed that that open i didn't want to say anything i don't want to pump up your ego but you nailed it you really like to keep

everyone's egos just right i'm not one for an attaboy. You are not a big patch on the back kind of fella. I hate sending an email that's just like, thank you. It's an implied thank you. I don't need to thank you for everything. You or anyone. I would suggest you say more thank yous. It's too... You know how much time it takes to go, thank you?

I thank you by signing your check. I think you just argued against yourself. You know how much time it takes to go go thank you i yes exactly that long i can't do it sometimes i'll do voice to text thank you and it'll be like thank lol and i'll just i'll send it and be like they'll figure it out i'm not retyping this they'll figure it out what's up everybody welcome back to the fad uh the hottest show on the network we are punching into a bunch of exciting news this week. Very, very excited to drop a few things. I mean, one thing we mentioned earlier, but we're going to dig into it a little bit more

today. We also have really exciting news about a whole new show that is about to launch, a whole new game that's coming this week, which is wild. We had to kind of keep it under wraps, but now we can bust it out and share with everybody. And yeah, we'll have a little We Are Stupid this week, just a little, just a slight one. We had a nice role play episode this week, but we'll also talk about episode six of Campaign 2, of course. And then as always, listener mail. But kicking us off is news of the network this week. And the

thing that I want to jump into first and foremost is the re-up on the really exciting Extra Life Marathon that is coming. It is imminent. It is, geez, like 10 days away now, basically. 10 days away from our next Extra Life Marathon. We talked about this on FOD a week or two ago. But I'm curious if you would like to share some programmatic details because we have we've made some decisions internally. I'm not sure where you're at on that. Yeah, we do have to start sharing some information about this. So yesterday I was working on the schedule. It's it's almost nailed down, just trying to get some other people's schedules lined up to make sure that we can announce this.

But it's a pretty strong 24 hours if this all works out. But here's the first thing you got to do. The first thing you got to do is if you are someone that wants to raise money for Extra Life, go to extra-life.org, extra-life.org, sign up for a free account okay that's the first thing you got to do you just sign up for an account you start an account then you set a goal for yourself could be twenty five dollars fifty dollars hundred dollars thousands of dollars whatever you want set up a goal and join the glass cannon network team we're going to be putting that link up but if you just search for teams glass cannon network team because when you do that, any money you raise for your own goal goes towards our rather lofty goal of $45,000. If we hit this goal or when we hit this goal this

year, this will be the most we've ever raised. We keep raising the bar every year. We've set it for $45,000. But the easiest way for us to hit that goal is for lots of people to sign up for an account and join our team because then their personal goal counts towards our mega goal. So that's the first thing you got to do. And then the second thing you got to do is just keep Saturday, November 4th, completely free because from 8 a.m. Eastern until 8 a.m.

The next day, we're going to be gaming all day and we're looking at, there's going to be some lies of P there's going to be some Baldur's gate three. There's going to be some like every's Gate 3. There's going to be some, like, every Mario game that's ever existed. There's some role-playing games we're looking at. I don't want to say what, because they haven't been

locked in, but Gloomhaven has been talked about. Can we talk about the Sims? Is the Sims happening? The Sims 4 is happening. Yeah, I mean, this is a really fun day, and you're going to get to see a lot of different personalities on the network if everything works out. Including you should at one time or another see every member of the Gatewalkers cast.

Yeah, that is the plan. At the very least. Yeah, we've locked in Sidney and Kate for three hours of just Sidney and Kate. Twitch takeover. Get excited for that. I mean, it's a really fun day it always creeps up on me and i felt like i was ahead of it this year because a couple months ago i was like november 4th dude we gotta do this and now it's like 10 days out i'm like

it was monday i was like all right i gotta start making this schedule because really like this is the the easy part is the gaming and the making the schedule the hard part is like letting people know get those donations coming in before Saturday so that like when Saturday comes around, we're already a few thousand dollars into our goal. But yeah, get ready, get ready to open up your wallets. It's an amazing cause. Children's hospitals all around the United States.

I mean, if you're not somebody like- Yeah, that was one thing that you kind of skipped over there is just talking about Extra Life for people that aren't familiar, the charity that you're not somebody like... Yeah, that was one thing that you kind of skipped over there, is just talking about Extra Life for people that aren't familiar. The charity that you're working for, especially if you start your own page, all these charities are children's hospitals nationwide, Children's Miracle Network hospitals. And that is...

So when you start your own profile and you want to raise 25 bucks, 100 bucks, whatever that goes toward our team goal, you get to pick your specific hospital that your money goes to. So even though it's part of our overall goal, it doesn't go to our charity, like the one we choose. It goes to the one you choose. It's just part of our overall goal that all of these hospitals are linked as part of the Children's Miracle Network. So you and I even donate to two different hospitals. Yeah, I do Boston Children's's and you do which one I do a Cohen's in New

York because that was, yeah, my daughter was part of that miracle network and she was in the NICU and everything when she was born. So I definitely support that one to have every year. So yeah, there's just anyway, lots of opportunities to do a really good thing here. So, and even if you, if you can't donate a dollar, the best thing that you can do is just hang out with us on Saturday. Yeah. I mean, just hang out, watch games.

Here's the thing. You can donate a dollar. And I say this all the time. How dare you assume. If you're like, I literally cannot eat. Gotcha. Been there. Sleeping on park benches.

Been there. However, a lot of people think like, I can't donate money. I can't do it. You can donate a dollar. There's a lot of people that can find a dollar. And you think like, oh, they got a $45,000 goal. A dollar is not going to make a difference. Oh, it absolutely will.

Because thousands of people watch our stream and watch the VOD afterwards. If ever, I always say this, everyone did a dollar, $2, $3. That shit adds up. And that's why we constantly hit our goal is because I preach that all day long during the stream, $1, $2, $3. You'd be surprised. Even if things are really tough, that dollar, that's paying it for it. If it's the end of the year and you're like, shit, I haven't done any charitable work whatsoever. Let me kick a couple

bucks to this. It really, really goes a long way, and they make it super simple. You're like, I don't want to, I gotta enter my credit card. It's super, they make it as easy as possible because nobody has any attention span anymore. Well, very excited for that, and we'll do one more little plug on that next week on

FOD, just to remind you, and hopefully we'll have some locked-in RPGs maybe. Right now, we've got our video games pretty squared away, but we're hoping to play some TTRPGs that day, too. Yeah, we're looking at about five hours of TTRPGs if everything works out. And TTRPGs are going to be the prime time slots. Yeah, five to ten, basically, like Eastern.

So it's going to be good stuff. And I thought by today I'd have it, but we're still waiting on a couple people's schedules. We'll see. We'll see. Let's talk about the tour because we're leaving today. So this is airing today, Wednesday, October 25th. And we're flying out today to Chi-Town, baby.

Our return to Chicago, going to City Winery out there. Chicago, really, after all of our harping on Cannon Fodder, got back on the horse. You guys were amazing, sold a ton of tickets, but there's still a couple left, from what I understand. At the time of this recording, which we record this the day early, there's 24 tickets left. And they're like, can you send us a video so that we can put up ads? I'm like, what fucking stranger is going to buy a ticket to our show without knowing what the hell this is about? No, we need the niche to buy those last 24 tickets. So if you're out there and you're on the fence, it is going to be a par-tee in Chicago.

It really is. And then we're going a little bit further south to St. Louis. I couldn't be more excited about this weekend. You know, Chicago is like my second favorite city, maybe third. It goes like Boston, New York, Chicago. And Nework and chicago are pretty close it's just i've lived in new york me too i absolutely love chicago um so yeah excited to get back there i feel like we are all as a as a cast we're all pretty punchy and like ready to get back out there it's been a while since boston and then before that was Indy.

And so we just haven't had like an isolated flight to a city just to do a show. So everybody is really excited for like, even when we land on Wednesday, just to get together, to have some deep dish. Except Kate, of course, Kate. Kate was talking mad shit about deep dish pizza. Yeah, Kate's talking mad shit,

everybody. If you, if you love Chicago pizza, get ready to, you got to blow up Kate's spot, because she's like, it's not pizza. It's not pizza,

it's lasagna. I think she said it's lasagna. That's what she said at our last recording. Anyway, we're very, very excited to all get together. And, and yeah,

Strange Aeons is wild, and in an absolutely wild situation. Combat, right out the gate. Yeah, you have all that coming. So, I mean, it's going to is wild and in an absolutely wild situation. Combat, right out the gate. Yeah, you have all that coming. So, I mean, it's going to be good. It's going to be juicy. Holy shit.

I mean, it was crazy because we went from like San Diego Comic Con two weeks late and we were in L.A. doing other stuff. Then San Diego Comic Con, then Gen Con, and then Boston even felt like it came right away. Now it feels like it's been forever since we've been on the road. And so, yeah, I'm just, I'm excited to play this game. We haven't played it in so long. Yeah. So also in between those two shows, you have the launch of Gatewalkers. So you have all these new characters, first level, that we're having a great time with that campaign.

But we have not been regularly playing Strange Anne's anymore. So now we're chomping at the bit to get back in those characters' shoes. I mean, literally, Sydney yesterday was just talking over email about her character and getting back into character and everything. So, yeah, I'm very, very excited for that show. Also, this is the Halloween weekend shows. So I think you're going to I mean, you're dressing up, right? I mean, I saw a little something, a little charge came through the old credit card. I think you got a costume. I got a costume here.

And one part of it is very easy to carry and then i'm like what was i thinking getting this costume it's not gonna carry this dumb thing around because i can't put it in a bag it'll get smushed but yeah i'm i'm decked out i should probably try it on make sure it fits but yeah so very much looking forward to that we encourage you to do the same so dress up up. Dress up for the Chicago show. Dress up for the St. Louis show. It's Halloween weekend. We're going to have a blast. Do your thing.

Cosplay or just wear a funny costume. Or a sexy costume. Yeah. Whatever your thing is. Funny and sexy. Go all out. Why not? Por que no los dos?

So that is the update on that. Oh, okay. So now we get into the juicy stuff. Because we, here at the glass cannon network have made some friends and that yeah launch that launches a little show we like to call friends of the pot so when our friends come to us and they say we're working on a new game we'd like you to play it and let's share it with the niche uh we put out episodes of friends of the pot i can't remember what the last one was.

Was it RuneQuest? Is that the last one we put out? Or did we have – or no, maybe it was – Vast Grim? Vast Grim. Yeah, so it's right around that Vast Grim, basically Gen Con territory, right? Everybody was gearing up for Gen Con. Well, now we've got the first post-Gen Con Friends of the Pods landing. And the first one is coming this Friday night,

live on Twitch, 8 p.m. Eastern. We are playing the new, unreleased, still in Kickstarter, Assassin's Creed RPG. We've actually recorded it. It's in the bag. Yep. And we had a blast. And Skid is running this one.

So very, very excited. I think it's skid's first friends of the pod that he's running yeah he jumped all over it because i was like i feel like you know this uh setting better than any of us um so skid's running it with you and me and sydney and abu salim it was the voice of one of the characters i mean i must have must have been so psyched when I heard we were doing this. I'm like, well, I'm going to reach out to Abu. And I didn't even know at the time that he had done one of the voices. I was like, I just feel like this is a great fit because I know he's a big gamer. And then I was like, wait a minute.

I think he did a voice of it. It was just amazing. And it's the first time that I get to play with Abu. So I'm very excited for you guys to see it. We're going to have two episodes of it. It's going to premiere on Friday night, this Friday night on Twitch at 8 p.m. Eastern with character creation and a little tease adventure, a little bit of adventure. And then we wrap it up the following Friday, November. What is that?

That is November. November is that? That is November 3rd. It'll wrap up Friday, November 3rd. So very, very excited for that. Then a couple weeks after that, we are finally getting around to playing Gloomhaven.

We're getting around to Friends of the Pod, the new Gloomhaven RPG, which we created characters during Gen Con. You can find that video on YouTube. Get yourself refreshed on who those characters were. That was really fun. That was the first show of the morning, day four of Gen Con. And everyone was so punchy and so exhausted.

And my voice is so fried. It's just hilarious. Check that out. It's just hilarious. Check that out, and you'll remember these awesome characters that Skid, Josephine McAdam, Paula Deming, and Sidney Emanuel created to do a one-shot in the new Gloomhaven RPG. So that is going to air Friday, November 17th. So keep an eye out for that. We'll remind you of that as we get closer. But it's a one-shot Gloomhaven prison break.

So very, very excited for you guys to check that out. All right. With that. What's going on? What's going on? Let's get into GCP. GCP episode six, campaign two. I love this.

This is a largely role-playing episode. We'll go into We Are Stupid in a second here, which really we're just going to look back at last week. So first, I want to get into this particular episode let's just start with the uh the capturing of cori mona and this entire sequence it's it's a very important sequence and my my first question to you uh seriously it's just one of the players in the game what was your thought process here with having one of these enemy combatants surrender and be subject to interrogation rather than fighting to the death? Well, it's a suggestion in the book, and I thought it was a good one because it allows you to get a little more intel depending on how you interrogate before you move on to the next portion of the adventure. um portion of the adventure and uh you know when i was editing it and and and and listening back to it now that we've recorded future episodes i was like oh man i didn't even realize in the

moment because we're it was improv um how uh how cool of a foundation was being laid out um i'm not tooting my own horn but i i guess I am tooting it a little bit because I didn't do it on purpose. I hear a little toot. There's a little toot toot, but I was like, oh shit, man, this was kind of perfect the way she laid it out because she was just telling you what she knew.

And it may be very different from the reality. And so now that I have the knowledge of how things have played out 10, 12 episodes later, it was pretty cool and telling. And so this is one of those episodes i think you should go back to and listen you know as later things unfold because the first you're hearing of like what bolan may or may not be up to particularly the philosophy that was my favorite part of it is you want to make sure that your villain has a good philosophy, right? Like a philosophy that you can wrap your head around, at least in one way or another, that seems like a terrifying goal

to achieve. And Corrie Mona is a great setup for that, because it's this fervent evangelist that has followed this teaching of we need to give nature back to nature fully. And in order to do that, we have to wipe out all civilized peoples in the world, including ourselves. And it was interesting. I hate asking what's from the book and what isn't, but you have a tendency to joke around as a GM and frequently, and I do the same thing frequently, uh, call the PCs out for murdering enemies and make it sound like it's not a fight.

Like, like it's not self-defense. Like these were innocent people or something like that. Like, you're the bad guys. Right. You always drop. And so you've murdered two Oak stewards so far. And just using that word, it implies a certain guilt that, you know, things you shouldn't have done.

I do the same thing. It was amazing. I remember back in the day in my Council of thieves campaign which was an urban adventure so all the enemies that you saw were just other people that lived in the city they're not monsters right they were just people with you know bad goals i guess you could say evil goals i would frequently just like call the pc's murderers and i would like try to get them arrested for stuff and like brought up on charges and they'd be and they would just be like what are you talking about these people are trying to take over the city and kill all the poor people or whatever and it was

just really funny to get them all psyched out in their own heads about it but in this case what I'm curious about is how much you actually believe this philosophy that because one of Cory Mona's primary objections to what's happening is like, look at what you are doing. Look at what you do. This is what we do. We just kill each other and we cause all these issues and it is a reason that we should be wiped out. Do you think this is something that's transferring over from Bolan's philosophy? Or do you think maybe this is just Cory Mona in the moment kind of reacting to the bloodshed that she just witnessed? No, I think that this is just Cori Mona in the moment kind of reacting to the bloodshed that she just witnessed. No, I think that this is definitely coming over for Boland's philosophy.

If he's turned a certain amount of Oak stewards over to his cause, it has to be a cause that has some worth to it. Now, obviously, he's an extremist, but you can't imagine that there was like so many dissenters that were just looking for an out from the, whatever the commanding ethos of the Oak Stewards was. Probably just the Druid Code. Yeah. I think that this is an extremist way of looking at things, but it had to be convincing enough that other people were like, yeah, you know what? This Bolan guy is right.

And the fact that like he's gone through the experience that you guys have gone through and he's come back changed and they kind of rever him like he's enlightened now. He knows things and we just think that he's in the right. And they even say they don't want to do this. They would never hurt a unicorn. But they have to because of the greater good that they're trying to go after here. But you also get the sense that like maybe Cori Mona doesn't know the whole story

because you'll ask her a question. She's like, I don't know. I wasn't involved with that. I wasn't involved with this. Right. She's like an enforcer, right? She's a footman, you know, just sort of somebody at the ground level. She's not necessarily making all these choices or doesn't know Bolan's mind

fully. So it was interesting to listen back and to hear. Also, is it Revver or is it Revere? Revere is a city in Massachusetts. No, that's Revere. That's Revere. Revver.

Revver. I think it's Revver. It could be either. Did I say Revver? You said's rever. It could be either. Did I say rever? You said rever. It is rever. And it sounded funny to me. It is rever. Rever. Am I thinking of like a reverie?

Yeah, I think you pronounce it that way in some usages of the word when it's like. Right, revered. He is revered. You would be revered. You wouldn't be revered. Right. Yeah, I fucked it up. No, you were right to point it out. right revered he is revered he is you would be revered you wouldn't be revered right yeah i fucked it up no you were you were right to okay point it out i just wanted to make sure everybody knew you were stupid you know i i'd make fun of you a lot i'm glad you see what we do this is what

we do this is the foundation of our friendship so the uh let's move on to the scouting of the scene. Love this scene because you have both – you have Lucky and Zephyr getting out on their own. So often we're so afraid to ever split the party in any situation that it's actually sometimes difficult for two characters to bond at all, right? To like have a connection in a role-playing way. to bond at all, right? To like have a connection in a role playing way. And so it was nice to have a scene where not only are they advancing the story through their scouting of the gnome forest fortress, whatever you want to call it, but they are also connecting. And even and not even connecting, like they're going to be BFFs, like, they're, they're connecting and showing how different that they are. But also these things that they have in common, they're both sort of like loners.

They both sort of have never really worked with people before, worked hand in hand with people. And I think that it was a really nice moment. But it comes on the backdrop of exploring this place, which seems, of course, to have no advantage to us. Like there's, there's no way in everything is trapped. All you can do is go in the front door.

This is a really frustrating situation. And I, and I want to know, like, I really want to know, is there really no like other way in really? There are, they just fail their perception checks.

No, I mean, there's probably other ways in, but they're dangerous. There's no safe way. Yeah. There's really no safe way in period. You know, it way in. Yeah, there's really no safe way in, period. You know, it's not like the –

That's really what it seemed like. It seems like there's one staircase, and so you have to have a plan. And it seems like you have a plan. Yeah, we have a plan. But, yeah, the trees have all been stripped, and there are, like, spikes and grease on them. So, like, they're fortifying themselves against any, you know, they know they're up to no good and they don't want anyone to,

to bother them. So yeah, they really have to go in the front door. Is this something you saw coming slash expected, like a full scouting of the area to give like as much information as we asked for about the location? No, no,

not at all. No. And it was, it was, it was, I'm fine with it you know i just i think in the past when people would want to do that i'm like i i would like steer you away from it like are you sure you want to do that but now i'm like all right let's see what happens here um and we got a great moment out of it that end moment i was because i'm just like all right what is the end of this episode now where are we going here we got to go back to the camp scene and have you get high with Talitha. And I'm still looking for the ending and also giving you some information,

kind of re-solidifying the fact that there's only one way in and one way out. And then was able to find a cool kind of spooky ending. Yeah, it was great. I loved the ending and I'm looking forward to, I don't know, expanding more on that scene with Brother Ramius and Talitha as well. That has a purpose. It's not kind of out of nowhere. And it will be revealed more over time. I think Brother Ramius is this connection to the Drake heart and what that is and and how that came to be uh is something that is a very early seed that i'm planting i hope he lives long enough to so that you can see where that goes but uh it doesn't doesn't come out of nowhere so yeah anyway uh great role playing app

like i said we are stupid is light this week so we'll just dip into it for a second here before we move on to listener mail uh let's go back. Oh, so obviously Professor Eric points out, and it's painful for me to listen back to that episode and continue to hear us screwing up the dying to wounded condition. And we talked about it last week on Fodder. Look, it's going to happen a few more times. And then it'll never happen again, right, Troy? Well, you know, it's funny.

In episode, what's coming out this week? Seven? Seven. All right, so I was editing eight the other day, and I said it, and I just cut it out. this week seven seven all right so i was editing eight the other day and i said it and i just cut it out i was like all right there's a cut here i can be all number here uh so i'm gonna try and do that because like obviously we've already corrected it and we also there's never there hasn't been any uh irreversible repercussions because of that mistake which is the most important thing that is the most important thing. That is the most important thing. And for those of you that cringe and find yourselves unable,

almost unable to continue listening because of such a mistake, just know it hurts me worse because I can't stand listening to it when we know that we did it wrong. You know what? It doesn't bother me that much. I know. It doesn't bother you at all. It drives me nuts.

I mean, it's why I first – There's a lot going on in the world. The missing wounded one and wounded two doesn't bother me. Well, when you put it that way. I kind of just move on. I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess I could get angry about that. I just move on with my life. I just look out the window at my children playing outside and realize what really matters in life.

Yes, you're right, Troy. That does matter more than dying to wounded. Clearly, you think this is more important than the conflict in the middle east and i think you've made that abundantly clear joe god and i'm gonna clip that and let the world know don't clip that joe and uh everyone that posts on social media uh care more about the rules than the conflict in the middle east how rude how rude um i'll tell you what i do care about i do care about a little spell called heel and we're going to dip back into it just for a minute because at my request professor eric wrote in a little heel treatise to me because i

said explain to me why i would use the three action heel and in my mind, the explanation that he has laid out has not, like, it has not turned on any light bulbs for me. This is exactly how I thought about this spell. And he starts right off saying that the two action heal, I want it word for word, that the two action heal is by far the most effective use of the spell. In general, the two action version is far and away the most effective use of the heel spell. The flat plus eight per level is just amazing to ameliorate poor dice rolls. And that's exactly what I'm saying. It's like those poor dice rolls are really bad. Now, what he does point out, and I did say this last week, very, very briefly, I said like, it gets better at later levels. the way he puts it which makes sense is the more dice you add to the pool so as you

level up it becomes 2d8 then 3d8 then 48 every level um or every level of the spell the as you heighten it and it it grows in power you just the more dice you add you just give yourself a much better chance of averaging of hitting an average when you roll the swing dice you add you just give yourself a much better chance of averaging of hitting an average when you roll the swing between one hit point and eight hit points at first level is wild i mean it is life and death at first level because that represents 50 basically of everybody's total hit points and you could go from one to to eight i mean it's just it's just intense so even getting to die is going to make uh – is going to ameliorate what he said, the horrible swinginess, to use his terms.

But in combat – or I'm sorry, let's talk about utilizing the three-action version. Here's where the three-action version is strong. When you're surrounded by undead. Yes, obviously, of course. Yes, that's very, very effective because in 2E, I don't know if you know this, Troy, but it both heals and harms in 2E. Like in 1E, you had to choose. In 2E, it heals all living creatures and harms all undead all at the same time, which means it's phenomenal when you're in that situation. We just are not in that situation.

And I'm curious if we are ever going to be. I actually am very curious about this point. And it's not a question I'm asking you because I think that it's a stupid thing to ask. Would there be an undead horde at all? Is there an undead element to these gates or this adventure? You know, it doesn't seem like it to me. But you never know. You never know. In that situation. And you know, it doesn't seem like it to me, but you never know. You never know. In that situation, and you know what, any adventure can just throw in an undead encounter

at any time. But I don't see this adventure as being heavily undead themed at any point in any book. But I could be wrong. We'll see. We'll see how that goes. And then also in combat, if you have multiple characters down and dying, you can stabilize multiple characters with an AOE heal. It doesn't matter what you roll on the die. So, of course, in those cases, it's going to be great. And then the last way is really when you're out of combat and you have multiple people that are hurt and you don't have time to treat wounds. So you're out of combat, you know another combat is one or two rounds away. The AOE heal is probably the better way to go once the spell is second

level and up. I would still say that it's probably better to do the two-action version even out of combat in that situation because I'd rather give the most hit points to the person that can do the most amount of damage. So keep them up the longest and the people that have low hit points just try to stay out of stay out of harm's ways as long as you can in this next combat and i'll try to heal you in another round so anyway some some interesting thoughts there from professor eric a lot of pressure on you because you're really the only one that can do it in combat so like do any type of legitimate healing in combat so yeah it's interesting it is interesting and something i'm i'm excited to explore um this you know this being a primary healer in combat is uh not something i've done too too much of uh and in this case there's a

lot of strategy to it. And a lot of, you have a very limited resource that you can use it for. And so you got to pick your moments and I don't know, I'm, I'm having fun with it. I think it's exciting. I think a lot of people don't ever want to do it. And I don't really know why. I mean, I'm even one of them and I can't really explain why I think it's tactically just as, as fun. Um, but I think, I don't know, people just like dealing damage, I guess. I guess that's theically just as fun, but I think – I don't know. People just like dealing damage, I guess. I guess that's the most fun thing is to output a lot of damage.

I don't know. I have fun outputting a lot of damage too. Yeah. It would be interesting to see how Colonel Luther would have played differently in 2E if I would have done more in combat healing. if I would have done more in combat healing, um, because I always would, was adamant that like channeling during a fight, wasn't a good use of,

uh, and I agreed with that for him, especially where I didn't take a selective channeling. Yeah. Um, but even with selective channeling, you know, it's just like channeling is like,

all right, let's get some juice after a fight. But yeah, it'd be interesting to see old Colonel Luther in 2E. So we want to do a Ruins of Aslan 2E conversion?

Don't tempt them. Don't tempt them. Oh, here's one more thing I just wanted to mention on it really quick. This is an interesting thing that I didn't think of. We have always thought of this, how much more dangerous it is

to bring somebody up from dying. We even say it in episode six, to bring somebody up from dying when they're in melee with an enemy. You're better off to just leave them dying for the moment, unless, especially if they have a bottle cap, you know, just let them die and stabilize with their bottle cap or whatever, like rather than bringing them up to three hit

points yeah and then you know so what professor eric says uh here if you're going to do an aoe channel and you have multiple people down or whatever one interesting tactic is to specifically and purposefully delay your action until you know you will have multiple PCs in a row in the fight go. So like you don't want to heal and then if the enemy's after you, it's better for you to delay your action, go after the enemy, and then burst that thing off when your allies are going to have two or three turns right in a row. So that's kind of a good point that I didn't think of. Usually, if your allies are dying, you think, well, I need to go as soon as possible and heal them or stabilize them. This is an interesting tactic, which is if you can get somebody who can

wake up and then heal themselves further, like somebody like Talitha could, right? Like if I just get her to one hit point, then she can quick craft a tincture, drink a healing potion on her turn, make sure I wait till right before her turn to heal her. Don't heal her when the enemy, there's two enemies that are going to go before. It's so tricky because if you bring someone back up, they're wounded one, and then if they get back into the

fight and get crit, they go straight to dying three. And now the chances of death have increased exponentially. But if the only other option is just like well figure it out with your bottle caps like that might that may be the safest option but uh when multiple people start going down it's going to get real real tricky because i'm not going to take my foot off the gas you know if you're going to get back in the fight you're a target uh and a really really smart enemy out for blood or like a, you know, a big combat where I'm like looking for a kill.

I, I might notice you're up and just fucking while you haven't even got a chance to grab your weapon, you're still prone. Yeah. I love doing that shit. So anyway, that was a good point.

I just, not something that I had thought of, not something I had experienced yet as brother Ramius. So it's something I want to keep in mind. It's like, you use that, that opportunity to delay because with Foundry, we can

see the lineup. You know, you can see the coming initiative, especially if you're into the combat where, you know, the enemies aren't going to surprise you with their initiative. You can pick the best time to bring somebody back. It's probably right before their turn so that they can then heal themselves maybe a little bit.

Okay, let's get a couple questiones from the nation here. I forgot about listener mail. Yeah, buddy. Thank you, good buddy Nick. The first question we're going to have today comes in from Thomas, who says, hey, good buddies. Hey. When are we getting more Matty Capps Star Wars content? Love the show.

Love you guys. Come back to Denver. I put it on the list because this has come up multiple times in the last two weeks over email has it uh we're cooking the uh the the beakers are cooking yeah in our emails with matthew everything he wants to run star wars we're trying to find a spot to put it in i think it's going to be. I think you're going to see some Star Wars in November and December, or either or, or maybe even both. Your thoughts? Yeah. Sure.

I don't want to play, but I will if the right opportunity comes up. I can't believe you. You're out of your mind. The fact that you wouldn't want to play that phenomenal It's a lot of fun, and I like the groove. Mon Calamari in Star Wars. Do you bite my blood?

Do we not both bleed? Wait, does your blood not come out blue and burn the ground? Does your blood not come out blue and burn the ground? Yeah, no, it's fun. That's fun. It's fun to be funny. But yeah, no, we have something on the books, but it's really dependent on a schedule. No, we have something on the books, but it's really dependent on a schedule.

So if one of the person's schedule doesn't work out, maybe before the end of the year. But as it gets closer to the end of the year, if it doesn't work out this time, it's going to be trickier. So it might not happen, but we're trying to make it happen, Thomas. We promise. Also, you don't have to play. It's true. But then no one will watch. play it's true but then no one will watch you see what's what's interesting about me joe is that like people who enjoy me watch and people who hate me hate watch yeah they love watching and so it's yeah it's it's a real tricky thing um the straw that stirs the drink. Jackie Robinson.

Not Jackie Robinson. Who said that? It was Reggie Jackson. Did you ever see that? Reggie Jackson. That wasn't a documentary. It was like, I don't know if it was an HBO show or something. I'm the straw that stirs the drink.

Yeah, no, Matthew, Matthew definitely wants to play. We're trying to make it happen. Stay tuned. There's more to that adventure, that endless adventure that we'll never finish that endless like starter adventure it's

supposed to just be a starter adventure we've been playing it for three years we really have across multiple that's not even an exaggeration we started that adventure in 2020 it's it has a longer run than echo quest. And it's just basically the quick start kit for, I mean, it's cause we just jack off the entire time. I mean, I don't even remember what Dalgo was.

I just remember what we made. Uh, yeah. Yeah. It could be happening very soon or maybe next year or maybe never again uh okay one more today this one is a little juicy a good question a heartfelt question i really appreciate it it's going to be hard to answer especially uh for troy i think but let's let's give it a shot joseph writes in uh saying hey fellas hope this finds you and yours well i'm a big fan especially of getting the trunk and wanted

to ask a question pertaining to group chemistry he goes on to describe uh getting into a delta green game with members of the niche on discord like they started up a dg game and he says that sometimes he finds himself holding back from a role play perspective because he doesn't know the people he's playing with super well and he doesn't know how they're going to react if he says something stupid or more importantly in DG, like does something stupid that could like foul up the mission. You know, any advice to help overcome this fear would help greatly as I'm beginning to

think I may be lessening the experience, not only for myself, but more importantly for the other players who are much more intelligent than me and far better role players and improvisational storytellers who deserve better. Thank you for reading. Well, thanks for writing in. And I'm so glad you started a DG game. I guess the question that I would frame out of that to you, Troy, is have you ever found yourself in one of our games on the network at all, where you felt like you weren't comfortable in your own skin in terms of the role play,

the character you were playing or the people you were playing with, and you felt like you were taking a back seat. Does that happen to you often? Because you always seem so confident when you're playing. Yeah, I mean, it certainly has happened over the years. I think less so, you know, as the network has grown and, you know, we don't really play with a lot of strangers anymore, you know, and it just doesn't, as a performer, it doesn't take me long to feel comfortable and also to feel like just from years of acting on stage, like you just know when it's your time, you know, that's something you just get through, through practice. You just know, like when it's your time and when it's time for someone else. And also when it's time to like pull people in who may be reserved,

you know, that's, that's the role of a, of a good GM is like making sure not only people are sharing the spotlight, but that you're helping to get performances out of people who are, you know, who are shy or who feel like they're,

they're, they're not as talented as everybody else. But it's definitely something I felt in the past, you know, and, and I think that, you know, when it everybody else. But it's definitely something I felt in the past. And I think that when it comes up now, it's probably why I lean more into just goofing off constantly because then I can – I don't have to worry too much about that. I just don't enjoy really serious role-playing unless it's – unless it really is called for. unless it really is called for. With Delta Green, what we do in Get in the Trunk, I feel like it – I like to go back and forth because that just interests me in terms of the character of Cumstone.

I like to go like, so off the wall, zany, and then also be super serious. But that's kind of what Delta Green is. I don't really enjoy the system of Delta Green. I don't think it's a very strong system. And so if you're playing Delta Green, you're there to improv. That's what I think. Maybe this isn't the right game because Delta Green is like story time with your friends.

And so if you're not feeling comfortable improv-ing, it might be better to find a more chunkier mechanical game where improv isn't necessary to move things along. With Delta Green, it's tricky. Unless you're really good at describing what you do and you don't want to improv. Like, I'd like to go find a place and I'll walk up to them and I'm know, I'm going to try and get this information rather than role playing it out. That's totally fine. And we've talked about that a ton on the FOD before. There's also the issue of being decisive in Delta Green and making hard choices because there's a lot of choices in Delta Green for how you approach combat. Not even – not just combat.

How you approach dangerous situations and also like legally tenuous situations. And that can be a fun thing to throw all caution to the wind with. But I can kind of understand where you're coming from if you're thinking, oh, well, I don't want to like torpedo the whole group and the mission by doing something bold that I think is my character would do. So I'm just going to just be quiet. Sometimes those things make for a really fun game. Like, don't hesitate too much to do a bold thing, not just for the sake of being bold, but if you think your character would actually, you know, would actually do it.

You know, Troy, you've played a couple games, one of which I know for sure has not aired, and I don't think ever will, where you played outside the network and played with other people. Did you ever find yourself in those games where you're just kind of a guest being a little gun shy with your, you know, how much you, I don't know, jump into the game? I definitely spend a lot of time early on, and I haven't done that in a while, just listening, you know, listening and choosing my moments, you know, especially in bigger casts, like choose your moments. And then when the spotlight comes on you, whether it's initiative or like you haven't spoken in a while, like just be ready with something. Like whenever we do shows that have like nine people on them and I'm a player, like under company and whatnot, it's like I wait until it comes to me and I'm thinking like, what's something really fun that I can do in this moment?

Because this is my time to shine. You've only got 30 to 60 seconds, right? To do something that really catches people's attention. But you've got 15 minutes to think of what that thing is. You know what I mean? So think about it ahead of time and start to plan like when it comes to me i want to have this thing prepared dude it's fucking crazy so i recorded this thing i've never i've never actually gone at length about it but there was like uh 14 people on it and it was like matthew

lillard jason charles miller b dave walters abria ian car brennan lee mulligan like everybody who's now like big big big time and and. And I didn't know anybody. I'd met Lillard once. I had met JCM once. And Nora was in it. So I knew Nora. I felt good about knowing Nora. And so I was like, oh, man, I want to use this as an opportunity to like shine and impress but not be a scene hog.

So I just made sure anytime it came to me, I was ready to go with zingers and with like funny moments. And I think that's like a good lesson is like if you're feeling nervous or you want to like shine, it's just like choose your moments and really think about what you want to do in that moment during the time when everybody else is speaking so that you can come in and blast something out there. Also, if you struggle with improv the way that I do, another thing to help break the ice a little bit for you is to go to your handler and just suggest a flashback and write yourself a scene. Because then you can do something that's outside of the immediate realm of the game, but it's something that can offer depth to your character, that can entertain the other players and get them into it a little bit more, maybe even spark some interest in your character. And it gives you the opportunity to just pre-write something so that you can be prepared and feel confident in it, and then just do it. And it has no impact on the immediate narrative. It's not going to turn the tide of the investigation in a way that's going to stop you from being able to move forward. That, to me, is a really good icebreaker to

hog the scene for a little bit, but you're already planning with the handler when the handler wants that to be in the game, when the handler thinks that moment is right for the game, so you're not shoehorning it in somewhere so i think that that is also a good uh tactic to use to to stretch your muscles a little bit and and break the ice yeah if you're worried about torpedoing the investigation you can also talk to the handler beforehand and be like i'm thinking about doing these things but like i don't want to like get killed right away or kill everybody else and maybe depending on the handler they might be like well try it or like well maybe don't do that, but try this instead. You can have that conversation so that you don't feel

like you're screwing around, screwing the group. But also like a good handler, a good GM should choose their moments on like when to bring down the hammer. Like there are times, especially in Delta Green, where you may make a decision that as written or whatnot can lead immediately to death. And it's up to the handler whether or not they're going to go through with that. But like, I don't know, I feel like if someone has been super shy and all of a sudden they come out with an idea that is like an idea that should mean death, it's a much more interesting result for the handler to use that as a teaching opportunity and have something, you know, a fate worse than death or something more creative and debilitating happen than just outright killing someone for being creative. It is a super fine line that you only learn through years of running these games. on the handler. Also, lastly, I'll say, don't be afraid to throw your ideas out there to the group in character for what you want to do in a certain situation. And you might get everyone coming down

on you being in character, being like, no, we're not going to do that. No way we're going to do that. That would set off this or this or this. And you would like, maybe you think, oh yeah, they're probably right. You don't have to double down on everything you suggest you can suggest fun and kind of like outside the box thinking and then everybody talk you down and then in character be like you guys are right you guys are right or you know just make it funny and it'd be like uh you know that's just fine fine and and just like curl up into yourself as a character uh i don't know, just because you suggest something doesn't mean you have to do it. Doesn't mean you have to, you know, dig your feet in. You can just throw things out there. And you never know

when somebody might be like, actually, I kind of like that idea. And then you have one person on your side and then two people are arguing about what to do with the body or whatever. And it's just fun. It just makes for a more fun game than if you were just totally quiet. So yeah. Anyway, thank you for the question.

I hope you can build a little bit more confidence in that game. Believe me, I know how you feel, and I know that it is much easier said than done. But you just got to rip the bandaid off. You got to try somewhere and just see how it goes. Is it really going to torpedo the group? If it does, and they don't even want to play with you anymore, then that was never a group you should have been in the first place. I mean, that's as simply as I can put it. now you'll have a night off uh free from the week exactly exactly uh yeah the the choice solution would be

just don't play because playing sucks go start a new group but people are cool remember we used to do this back in the original FOD. People would write in questions about like, I'm struggling with one of the players in my group. He's a real asshole, blah, blah, blah. And like 100% of the time we would be like, just kick him out of your group. Kick him out of the group. He sounds horrible.

But he's my best friend. We'll find a new best friend because he sucks. Amazing. All right, guys, that is going to wrap it up for the five this week thank you so much for hanging out with us uh always always a pleasure we are hitting the road heading to shy town baby hit the road jack hit the road jack and st louis and st louis which sold out twice so thank you st louis you guys are the best we're gonna have halloween costumes it's gonna be a blast can't wait to share with the nation via uh video and audio after the. So have a great time, everybody. Have a great Halloween. And we'll talk

to you next week before Extra Life. So we'll see you then. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to the Glass Cannon Network. For more podcasts and live streams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com. And for exclusive shows and content you can't find anywhere else, subscribe today at jointhenation.com.