The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 10/9/24

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

It's show week as Troy and Joe prep for a trip to the West Coast! But before they hit the road, they'll break down a fascinating encounter in Gatewalkers that hasn't yet come to its conclusion. In Listener Mail, how has terrestrial radio influenced the content of the GCN? Submit your questions for Listener Mail at https://forms.gle/v5huj25dkVSmkbLEA Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/JKPOkkJAWQ0 Access exclusive podcasts, ad-free episodes, and livestreams with a 30-day free trial with code "GCN30" at http://www.jointhenaish.com. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Take back your free time with PC Express Online Grocery Delivery and Pickup. Get in-store promos, PC Optimum Points, and more free time. And still get groceries. Shop now at pcexpress.ca. Chiara. It means smart in Italian. Too bad your barista can't spell it right. So you just give a fake name, your cafe name, Julia. But the more you use it, the more it feels like you're in witness protection.

Wait a minute, what kind of espresso drinks does Julia like anyway? Is it too late to change your latte order? But with an espresso machine by KitchenAid, you wouldn't be thinking any of this because you could have just made your espresso at home. Shop now at KitchenAid.ca. 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. What is going on, Nesh? Welcome back to Cannon Fodder. It is Wednesday, October 9th, 2024, and I'm your good buddy, Joe O'Brien. And I'm Troy.

I should be in a pool right now, LaValley. Oh baby, welcome back to our weekly medical check-in on the ailments of the founders of the Glass Cannon Network, founders and friends of the Glass Cannon Network. Troy, what's the latest medical update on you? It's so sad we started this company so late in life. I know. I know. Could you imagine if we had launched at like 22 years old?

Oh my God, we would have gotten so many people pregnant. I mean, right now, right now we'd be 30. Yeah we'd be 30. Instead these poor people listening have to listen to all of us slowly die. Yeah, they're listening to us. Mass case scenario, someone retires first, but there's a good chance someone dies on air. Dude, I should be... I was supposed to fly to LA today.

I was going to spend two days in LA. I had meetings with clients. I had lunches with agents, dinners with clients, this stuff, all this stuff, going to see some studios and whatnot. Then I had this hotel all set up in West Hollywood. I was going to land, I was going to go to lunch with our agent, I was going to come back, sit by the pool, have a couple cocktails, then have dinner with a client, then I was going to see Jared's comedy show.

I had it all planned out and I can't fucking do it. I got to go straight to Portland now. But good news. I was going to see Jared's comedy show, like I had it all planned out and I can't fucking do it. I got to go straight to Portland now. But good news, I had my MRI yesterday and I do have a herniation, but it doesn't require surgery. They just got to get me a shot back there, but they can't do it till next week because American healthcare is- So living in constant pain.

Nonsense. Yeah. It's just, it's brutal, dude. I was saying to you before the break, like the heart of the break, this is the problem. The hardest part about this, beyond the pain, is I'm sleeping less than two hours a night and have been for two weeks. And it's not like I'm tired enough during the day or have time to even take a nap. So I just feel, I feel crazy.

I feel crazy. I haven't shaved because I can't stand up long enough to shave. I want to shave, but I like, I'm sitting down to piss. I like, like I can't, I'm sitting down to shower like a child. Just like, it's brutal. So having to go do cross country with this is going to be, it's going to be rough. I was hoping they could just fucking, I was like, awesome, let's get that shot today. They're like, oh no, no, no. You have to have seven or eight phone calls and then they can see you. Right.

We can't give you instant pain relief. That would be illegal. We have to go through several steps of red tape to make sure that you're not a pain killer addict of some kind. I know. They have some junkie. Even if they gave me oxy I wouldn't take it because I don't want to be like the oxy guy plus like I like to have a couple cocktails

I don't want to mix that shit, but It's just I it's none of the pain stuff works because it's nerve pain You know what I mean, and I've tried I've tried everything they gave me and nothing's working. So just got to suck it up I'm hoping that like the mental awareness of knowing that it's not a surgery and that like there is an end in sight Is enough to kind of get me through it, but man Portland LA is gonna be in for a treat You're gonna see a rare fucking dumb ass Can't speak Troy. You're gonna see a I mean, yeah

If you're not sleeping at all, you're gonna be crazy up there on stage By the way, if you didn't know already, it's show week It is show week ladies and gentlemen Portland and LA this week That Troy is gonna do on basically no sleep and jet-lagged and in constant Chronic pain so like imagine what you're gonna do to the player characters. You're gonna be so mean. I gotta take it out on somebody. Right. Yeah, I know. Like, you know, life throws you curve balls, man.

But if you wanna make it in the major leagues, you gotta learn how to get a curve. Otherwise. You gotta play. You know what they say? I mean, you know what they say in pro football? It's like when people start talking about injuries and getting hurt or whatever, a lot of those ex players will just be like, you are always hurt.

You play every game hurt. Everybody is hurt on that field, which is just wild. So yeah, you're going to just have to power through it, man. You have to power through it. It's going to be fun. These are big shows. I teased it on Instagram Live the other day. These are big shows. We're setting up.

This is show 97 and 98. I'm hoping that during the Extra Life Marathon, we do a little strange aeons. We've talked about that. That would be 99 and then 100 will be Philly. I'm setting it up. I'm setting up these pins for something big. I just hope that I don't have a nervous breakdown live on stage. That would be rough. That would be rough. So yeah, we're going to go through really very light news week this week with us leaving town to do the shows. That's the big thing on our on our plate.

We'll go through episode 54 of Campaign 2. Talk through that as we combine with We Are Stupid. What a chunky, interesting encounter that we're gonna delve into today. And then of course we'll get some listener mailin'. So it's gonna be a great one. I really, the only other piece of news that I can think of is, and you know what, I honestly don't even know

if this is happening with your situation. Are you gonna do New York Comic Con? New York Comic Con is like around the corner. That's your sweet ass I will. Dude, it wouldn't be a New York Comic Con if I wasn't limping to the stage and then leaving immediately after. But that's a week from Friday.

I'm pretty optimistic that something will happen. One year ago, you did the exact literal same thing. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying it wouldn't be a Comic Con if I wasn't limping to the stage. Oh, gotcha. Yeah, dude, that was the fucking worst and just stupid, but this is how I do things. Like I remember the cab ride was so bumpy and I just had surgery like three days before was awful.

Then I get out and the walk from the door to the performance center, a normal person would take five minutes. It took me 40 minutes. And CJ, our sound engineer, he was like, where do I meet you to get my badge? And he just went to the door that made the most sense. And it was the furthest door from the thing. So I walked all the way down, only to walk all the way back. It was awful.

And I remember I leaned to you after the show. It was like, great show. I'm leaving now. And I just picked up my chair, tapped a couple of people on the back, and slowly made my way out, tried to call an Uber. I mean, it was just awful, but it looks like it'll be the same thing again. I just got confirmation. Nick Lowe will be joining us on stage. I was texting with him yesterday. So it's going to be Skid, Matthew, myself,

Sydney, Nick Lowe, maybe somebody else, but you, you're a busy bean. You're not going to be alive. Not I, not I. It is my anniversary. And so we had had some travel plans booked before Marvel came to us. And so yeah, I was like, ah, shit, I'm out. But I think you're going to get some spectacular replacements in terms of Nick and maybe somebody else. That would be amazing. Dude, Marvel shows are, I hate missing a Marvel show.

They're always so fun. I know. It's so easy. It's so fun. It should be, it should be fun. I have no interest in Comic-Con, but I like performing. Remind me to tell you something really funny after Cannon Fodder that I almost just said on air, but then I realized in my broken state, I shouldn't say aloud, but it's really funny and I want to tell you. So, be like, what was that funny thing you wanted to say? What was that funny thing you wanted to say?

And you're going to laugh so hard. It's not even inappropriate so much, it's just like not something I should talk about, but you're gonna love it. And I don't wanna forget, so remind me. Well, yeah, so you heard it here first. If you are in the New York area or you're already going to New York Comic Con, when is the show?

It is Friday, October 18th. Friday at 2.30 PM. At 2.30, three o'clock, somewhere in that range. 2.30, can you not hear me? I said 2.30 PM. At 2.30, 3 o'clock, somewhere in that range. 2.30. Can you not hear me? I said 2.30. It's just not 2.30 in our calendar. So I think that you're crazy. Oh, really?

Yeah. No reason to raise your voice. So either you said it wrong or you put it in wrong. Let me see. 2.45. 2.45. It's on the calendar. It's 2.45 Marvel one shot.

And also, we got a two hour slot this year. So it's going to be a two hour jamboree at the Javits. And you'll get to see Troy walking with a cane probably. Just barely able to walk. It's crazy. You look like the oldest man. So I bought a cane, I bought a cane like a fucking, like Mr. Peanut, and I had to go get my MRI yesterday and the kids were outside and there were a bunch of acorns

on the ground that Dash had collected. I was trying to make them laugh and I was like, hey, watch out with this new cane. I threw the acorn up and swung my cane to try and hit a home run. I catch this stinger and the little fucking thing on the end of the cane went flying and I lost it. Now I can't use the cane. It either went into the neighbor's yard or the bushes and I got this cane that I already don't want to use

and now I can't use it. My wife and I are out there looking through the bushes, looking over the neighbor's fence and like, hey, what are you looking in our yard for? I'm like, I'm trying to find my cane thing. My cane rubber, I need my cane rubber. Have you ever had an MRI? Yeah, like in the tube fucking thing? I need my cane rubber. Have you ever had an MRI? Yeah.

Like a in the tube fucking thing? Were you in a position where laying down was okay? Yes. Okay. So I imagine if you're claustrophobic, it has to be the worst possible thing to do in the world. Yeah. I thought it would freak me out more than it did, but I did okay.

I just kept breathing and like went into a meditative state. Yeah. I'm good with that stuff. I'm a fidget. I'm a natural fidget. But the problem is I can't lay flat. I have to have certain things happening right now to be comfortable.

So they gave me the little thing to squeeze. And so it was adding to my anxiety, because I was just like, so much pain. She's like, you're moving. The doctors aren't going to be able to see this. I'm like, it's because I'm shaking with pain trying to sit still. And at one point, I was like like gotta get me out gotta get me out

and when you come out they have like a fake picture of the sky on the ceiling so that like you're you don't be so you have like a moment of like all right I'm free and it was just it was awful it only I thought it was gonna last hours it was like 15 minutes but it was they had country music in my ears which was nice I was just singing along to that but what a horrible, horrible experience. I see why they don't just say, oh, just give them an MRI because they don't want to subject anyone to that. Yeah.

I mean they have better ones these days. In some hospitals, I know they have one like standing MRIs and stuff like that. Yeah. I can't stand them. But like it's just very – I'm surprised at this point that the technology isn't more like, oh, boop, quick X-ray MRI, done. You know what I mean? I don't know why it has to be so involved still.

I know, it seems ancient, right? It seems like they're gonna leech you afterwards as well. Let's do the leeching. All right, let's talk about Glass Canna Podcast on campaign two episode 54, Tickled Pink. Great title, by the way. You like that one? Well, yeah, I mean, considering what happens in the episode, what an app, Tickled Pink. Great title, by the way. You like that one? Well, yeah. I mean, considering what happens in the episode,

what an app. Tickled Pink, it's such a disturbing image. When you add, when you put it in the title, and then you know where that comes from, where it happens. All right, so here's what I want to do. I want to go through, talk about some of the highlights in the app, and then also combine it with We Are Stupid, because it's just, it's all an encounter.

It's really the whole thing. So we're just going to kind of mix this all together today as we... We are stupid! I mean, there's actually only a couple minor things at best. For the most part, Professor Eric is really offering opinions more than anything because this was a wacky combat with a lot of wacky situations. So first of all, what an encounter. Holy shit.

Yeah. Talk to me about when you first read this thing and it's talking about trans, you know, splashing between worlds, stuff like that. So, I mean, we we cliffhanger on a third world, but we still haven't done that. We only did two in the episode, but you know there's at least three, which is what a cool encounter design. Talk to me about reading that for the first time,

what was going through your head. Chiara, it means smart in Italian. Too bad your barista can't spell it right. So you just give a fake name, your cafe name, Julia. But the more you use it, the more it feels like you're in witness protection. Wait a minute. What kind of espresso drinks does Julia like anyway? Is it too late to change your latte order? But with an espresso machine by KitchenAid, you wouldn't be thinking any of this,

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this Prime Big Deal Days, October 8th and 9th. I have like two feelings when I read that. First, I'm like, man, it's going to be tough to run. Then my second thought is like, what a cool set piece encounter and something we've never really seen across the network. I love like sort of mega encounters and that's what you're in the middle of. But yeah, I was like, this is just – it's so cinematic.

It's so glass cannon. So to see it come out and to see it work with foundries integration as well was really, really cool. I'm so glad. Yeah, to have like flicker, flicker, flicker change like the entire landscape around was so cool on foundry. And yeah, in general, just – I think we can look back, maybe a few fads from now, and just kind of assess the whole thing because we're in the middle of it right now.

So we kind of can't go into too much detail. But we will actually we can go into specific detail. And that's what I want to do. What we can't do is look at the encounter as a macro until it's complete. So we will do that eventually. But for now, let's let's get into into the nitty gritty of the app. First off, we travel to a planet that seems like a skid set. What is it, the one with the isokia on it?

Akitan. Akitan. They sent it right away. Akitan, Akitan. And we run into this rat folk like scavenger, which is just so cool. And that begins the first encounter. And that'll bring us to our first We Are Stupid, which is Buggles casting charm on the creature. Big point of contention.

Always is. So there are two. If you say the big point of contention, I'm going to guess what you're talking about is how you handled the charmed creature. Is that the point of contention, I'm going to guess what you're talking about is how you handled the charmed creature. Is that the point of contention? I think so, yeah. And also just charm in general. Charm in combat, charm period.

It always invites sort of controversy, you know. Yes, I agree. Friction between players and GMs and in our case between players and GMs. And in our case between listeners and GMs. We won't name the GMs. I think it's a good discussion, you know, because we don't say, hold on, hold on, stop recording. Let's figure this out. We really try and make it feel like a game

in which like I listen and I'm making a call on the fly. And you know, sometimes I go back and I'm like, Oh, you know what, maybe I do that differently. Sometimes not. And I don't know how I feel about this. I've given it a little thought, but you hit pepper me. What do you got? This is just a purely technical thing regarding charm, which we didn't bring up. I don't know if I don't know if skid new or mentioned it, but charm has the incapacitation

trait. Yes. And so we also don't know for certain what ranks get casted at. I would assume it's casted at rank one, which is what Professor Eric assumes. I'm not sure if that is because there's, you can't heighten it until beyond,

like I don't know if they're, yeah. So he casted it at rank one because the next heightened is rank four for charm. So you know it's cast it at rank one because the next heightened is rank four for charm. So, you know, you know, it's cast at rank one and a rank one charm up against that you Soki is going to suffer from the incapacitation trait, according to. So I'm looking at the Soki here. The Soki is creature four. Yeah.

So that. We. Yeah. So he says rank one would only affect up to creature level two without having the degree of success reduced by one. So charm on that success or on that failure would have been a success. So ultimately, if we were playing it by the book, he would have saved on it anyway. But yeah, I mean, as far as I got my gut way of playing it was, was right, we should have

done what we should have done anyway. Because the thing is, is like, the way I'm, I'm playing it is like this shouldn't be an encounter, enter for a for an encounter of this magnitude. Now, if we had known the incapacitation, it's built in so that it isn't, so that players can't do that. But to me, I was like, all right, well, the middle ground for this is like just the text of the spell. It is friendly to you, but it is still very worried about who all these other people are. So let's do a diplomacy check. And then he failed the diplomacy check. So then he's still wary. And then he's going to gonna attack and then once you attack him back You know now he gets a plus four to his save against and all this other stuff I don't know and then you come in with calm emotions. It gets very hairy, you know what I don't for me

I'm just trying to like create a good battle here within the rules of the game And I I think it worked out well, but I know skid was disappointed initially because in skids mind is like you're charmed That's the end of the encounter. It's a social encounter now. And I just, I don't think that that is the intention of the spell. But you could easily play it, you could play it either way. For me, in this type of encounter, let's take incapacitation out of it without even having that in this type of encounter. The stakes need to be raised. And so it shouldn't just be like, oh, you did it. You tricked you tricked the encounter.

You beat the encounter. To me, it should be like, all right, well, you've you've made a huge inroad here at escaping and not turning this into a knockdown drag out. But there's still a couple of the things you're going to have to do if you want to get out of this. And the way it worked out is just just slowing it down a little bit, sowing that seed of doubt, ended up having you guys come in, close, restrain it, tie it up. So I think it worked out narratively.

But I can understand people being like, no, you failed the charm. That should be it. Now, Calm failed. But I mean, I think Calm specifically is an encounter ender in this thing. If he fails on that save, I really don't know how you argue that he fights. He doesn't. He didn't though, right? No, he succeeded. The gecko failed and the gecko, I took him out of the combat. It was just like when you did to the

fungus leshies. That was the end of the encounter. So yeah, maybe. Does that have incapacitation, calm emotions? No. No, I don't believe so. Yeah, because- I'm looking right now. It does have it. Oh, Calm does.

The legacy version is calm emotions. Yeah, Calm, they both have it. Oh, it does have incapacitation. Okay. But it's ranked two spell, So it would not have had one degree higher. He's a creature for rank two spells will hit creature four. It's easy. It's like, divide by half and increase and round up interesting is sort of how it works with spell ranks versus creature rank. So that's what Professor Eric was saying was like, now rank two charm is ranked two or column is ranked

two. So that would have worked. But the die roll failed. Yeah, I'm sorry, the die roll succeeded. I will say as written, there is there is an opening for this to be a social thing. Yeah, that seemed like it. Yeah. So like, I'm just trying to keep the tension up long enough, because I know what's gonna what's about to happen. If I can take you guys down a couple of points. But can't you also just immediately transport us

the second the charm is successful? Just be like, he's like, oh, hello, friends. Boom, and then you teleport. Like, why do you have to wait for him? For sure, that would have been an option. Yeah, yeah. You could have done that. I could have done that.

But I don't know, I just felt like I'm looking at the wording of the spell. It's friendly to you. He's got this salvage that he's all psyched about. Five people show up. This guy says, we're not – what are you talking about? Rolls the diplomacy check and then fails. Now he's still confused and he goes right to fight or flight and starts attacking you.

Now if you guys don't attack him but continue diplomacy, you're getting out of that encounter without taking – without any fight whatsoever. But you guys took the offensive and that's- And that breaks the spell. Yeah. I also hate the wording. I've always hated these. The wording in charm of, sorry, I'm going to bring it back up here.

The wording in charm of, if you use hostile actions against the target, the spell ends. Like, this drives me insane when players argue that that just means you, the caster. It's like, okay, so while my friends are beating him to death, he's not gonna fight back because I'm not using hostile actions against him. It's like, I mean, the real problem, I think,

is the wording, in my opinion. I think that it needs to be- Yeah, what. It's like, I mean, the real problem, I think, is the wording, in my opinion. I think that it needs to be- Yeah, what is a hostile action? Well, it's also like, if anyone, if you are an ally, uses hostile actions against a target, it, you know, the spell immediately ends. It's just not meant to be an end to combat kind of spell, in my opinion.

I think it is more meant to be an end of combat kind of spell in my opinion. I think it is more meant to be an infiltration and social spell. You know, that's really where it shines. Right. And so... Or if you're up against like a mob of lower characters and you can like take a couple of them out with charm early on and then just be able to... I don't know, like with Razzmatazz, you know what I mean?

That worked perfectly, but that was one charm or whatever you cast. Yeah, but it's also like- It's not dominate, you know what I mean? Like it's not- Right, well there's two layers to it to me. There is the layer of, it is an encounter preventer, right? So like if you get it off in the first round,

it could prevent a fight as long as none of your allies attack and then it doesn't attack. I see that. That's totally cool. What would have otherwise been a fight or it's used to get by somebody in a social sort of situation or an infiltration kind of situation. I just don't like someone fighting you to the death, your allies flanking it, stabbing it to death, and then you cast charm and it just stops fighting. It just seems a little odd to me, or at least it would have to be rolled at a penalty. And it does have the incapacitation trait, which is kind of built, that's kind of built in, in a way to make it because incapacitation, I mean, it says it right in the text is an ability with this trait can take a character completely out of the fight or even kill them.

That's why they put the incapacitation trait in there because that one failure. Anyway, I didn't mean to spend all day on it. No, I think it's important though because these spells come up a lot in people's home games and I think every table is going to handle it differently. I know Skid was initially disappointed with it, but I also had the foresight of knowing that this part of the encounter is rather trivial. All I'm trying to do is ramp up the tension. If I throw one bomb at you, great.

If you guys succeed without me hurting you at all, that's great too. I'm fine with that. I'm fine with you guys skipping encounters. It makes the adventure path go faster. My goal is to ramp tension here and to sow seeds of doubt and having it just flip on a dime and turn into a conversation. That is one way I could have went. You've got three actions. Let's try diplomacy. Okay, now there's a bit of uneasiness here. Where is this gonna go?

And it ended up being a fun beginning of the encounter. Right, I'm just picturing like you coming up to me on the street, me being like, Troy, old buddy? And you have four friends that have machine guns pointed at my face. Right. You know what I mean? And I'm just like, what's going on here? I don't like, no, no, we got you, man. But they're

like, you see wildly pointing a gun at me. Who are these casters behind you with swords? Yeah, no, I don't know. There's, I think the bigger question that it brings up, and I hate to keep harping on it, but no, it it's important though. And it's a tricky one, is like addressing a situation as a GM, where not you have something planned and you want it to go this way, where you wanna show the entire party a great time. And part of that is ramping up tension, action,

all the characters getting to do stuff. And then one character does something that instantly ends it. It can be very jarring for a GM. And it can be frustrating because you, not because you had a plan for X, Y, or Z, but because let's say you had a plan for everyone to have fun. And maybe several of the party would not think it's awesome to just immediately end an encounter without them ever getting an action. So it's a tricky middle ground that you have to navigate carefully as a GM knowing your players,

knowing the situation. So yeah, anyway, ramping tension is a good thing. And we'll, we'll come up on that a little bit more later. Let's go let's keep it going. This is just really fun because then we teleport out of there and end up, I don't know where, some flesh world plane, whatever, and the night got. And this is amazing to me for those. I know a lot of our listeners probably don't listen to all of Strange Aeons, but to me, I could feel it in the moment. And as soon as it targeted Ramias, I kept thinking there's a term for you non-sports

fans out there and you non NFL fans. There's a term in the world of the NFL, the revenge game. It's whenever a player is returning to play against a team that they played on before. Maybe there was a dispute. There's one just this past week. The contracted workout. Stefan Diggs. Yeah, exactly. a team that they played on before, maybe there was a dispute, the contract didn't work out. Stefan Diggs. Yeah, exactly, Stefan Diggs had a revenge game

this past weekend, and it seems like those players get up a little extra for it. They seem to find another gear or do something a little extra to just take it to the people that had screwed them over before. Or it could just not be personal.

It could be one team beat the shit out of another team and then the next time they play, it's a revenge game for that team that got blown out. So in this case, it's the revenge game for the gauntlet for the night gaunt, the night gaunt who grabbed a character in strange a ounce, raised them all the way up into the air, attempted to kill them and then was unsuccessful at the last moment. We really thought a death was coming down the pike there in Washington, DC in 2020. I think it was the second to last show before COVID, something like that. I believe that's when it hit.

Was that the cliffhanger of the show or was that the beginning of the show? That was just in the middle of the show. I don't think it was even a cliffhanger. Oh, okay. I thought it was... Oh, wait, no, I think maybe the start of the show was that, because it was on the poster. It was on the poster.

I remember it was on the poster. Maybe the next show. If it was on the poster, it had to have been the start of the show, because I wouldn't have foreshadowed that. I guess so, I guess so. Because we were trying to figure out a way, anyway. And she survived, but it was a great fight.

And she survived. So now it gets Ramias up in the air, tickled, tickled tickled pink Scratches his back woman kills Ramious. He's dying bleeding out up in the air. Everybody's trying creative stuff So let's get into some we are stupid First of all per professor Eric There is no default way by the book to progress a creature from grabbed to restrained You typically need an item like manacles They buy the book to progress a creature from grabbed to restrained.

You typically need an item like manacles. Otherwise you're just rolling for a critical success. It's the same grab roll over and over, but you need to crit in order to restrain them. He says tripping them and then grabbing is often a simpler way to accomplish a similar goal. Since they are grabbed, they are immobilized and can't stand up until they break the grab. So let's get on to Matthew getting clever with that mirror flicker to flicker up and grab Brother Ramius.

Professor Eric's take on this for Barnes's attempt to grab Brother Ramius, I think you got to a good place. Period. That's it. It was like Sidney's dimensional assault. Period. That's it. It was like Sydney's Dimensional Assault last week. It's just fun. Right now. Let's get into Sydney's Dimensional Assault.

Professor Eric does not like this one. Was that this week or was that two weeks ago? That was this week. Okay, so these both things happened. Both things happened. Now the reason that I bring this up is, and I think the reason that Professor Eric brought it up is not that having her go up with dimensional assault to do attacks or whatever is a bad thing. No, on the contrary, he thinks it's great.

His opinion is we handled the mirror's reflection and the dimensional assault inconsistently. He felt like Barnes's ability to grab or grapple as part of that action that we allowed should have meant we also allowed Sydney to do a full spell strike up in the air while she was up there. His point just being, I don't really see the rationale behind why that quote unquote takes longer. It's so fast. You know, wasn't it about action economy? The spellstrike was a second action, whereas our third action, right?

She had dimensional assault strike and then this whereas he was mirror grapple. Right. But that's still a separate action. Like the dimensional assault. I allowed her the first attack. I allowed her to do the thing and do an action, which was the attack. Spell strike was another. Right.

Barnes's thing is one action. Right. Then the second action is grapple. But his dimensional assault, that includes the hit. One action includes the attack. Okay, so that's where it's inconsistent, yeah. Right. And so he felt it was a little bit inconsistent.

However, he does say there's something we can look at here in the books to say why this is, you know, you would be being very kind here with this because he says look at this is this why I love Professor Eric is knowledge of the whole scope of the game. He's like, for this we can look to the level eight barbarian feet, sudden leap, which allows you it's a two action ability that allows you to leap high jump or long jump and take an attack at any point during that jump. Uh, so like in the middle of a, of a jumper, whatever. So he's saying, I mean, look, this is a level eight feet that is like hard to get.

So it stands to reason that offering any of this is generous. So why offer the grab and not offer the spell strike, especially when in his final point is the spell strike had the map. So like you're already going to take a big penalty, you know, cool, just kind of let it happen. Anyway, that was his analysis of this very fringy gray area case. But he liked that you just said, yeah, you should be able to do it. It's awesome. Isn't it cool? One of the things I love about to is oftentimes you'll you'll find the answer to the question in like a feat from something else or a spell from something else, like where it's

not clearly spelled out the existence of something else shows you like, wow, if you had to pay to get that feat to do that, that means you don't get to do that at second level because it exists as a feat at the higher level. That's really cool. Right. And let's go right back there. Same thing. And this is amazing. The deep cuts this week from Professor Eric are awesome. Another huge, amazing question. All right. So let's fast forward. Brother Ramius is brought back up enough to just be conscious while up in the air Brother Ramius is brought back up enough to just be conscious while up in the air and Buggles lands the killing blow on the night gone.

Boom. Thus releasing Brother Ramius. So the question becomes, remember we were talking about can somebody stop, can somebody like prevent some damage to Brother Ramias by whatever the word is, catching, not catching him, but whatever his fall, breaking his fall, right? By breaking his fall in some way. So he says on the falling damage, voluntarily putting yourself in harm's way discussion to break someone's fall, also possibly relevant on the earlier Barnes grab against Ramious. There is a guideline slash less a rule to precedent. Now this is amazing from

the Gliminals violent healing ability. This is a monster, a creature, a Gliminal. I could go all into- How the fuck does he know this? Dude, it's insane. I could go all into detail about how this creature works. It's a creature, a gliminal. I could go all into- How the fuck does he know this? Dude, it's insane. I could go all into detail about how this creature works. It's a wild, insane monster, but basically, it has this emanating positive energy that is so intense that it heals you, pardon me,

it heals you just from like being around it or hitting it or whatever. If it heals you over your max, you gain temporary hit points over your max. And if you ever have temporary hit points equal to your maximum, so basically if you double your hit points with exposure to this positive energy,

you explode in a supernova of positive energy and permanently die. So there's an interesting thing within this creature that there's an interesting mechanic within this creature that basically says there are times you may want to be hit by this creature. You may become a willing target where you wouldn't otherwise. He says this happens more often than you would think across these games. There are moments when a someone will willingly fail a save, right, or willingly get hit by an ally in order for some unforeseen thing that we can't think of right now to happen.

You may want it to happen. Well, through this gliminal violent healing approach, this is an actual written rule. It says, quote, there aren't default rules for a creature choosing to be hit. This is right from the book. But you can allow and this is, you know, across the two system, it basically is what he's saying. You can allow an ally to improve their outcome by one degree of success against a willing target, or allow the target to worsen the result of their saving throw by one step. And that sounds confusing, but the basic premise is if you want to hit your ally, it stands

to, you know, Professor said it really well. Basically you can choose to make things worse for a willing target, but you still have to roll. There's definitely times when you want to hit, but not crit an ally, or fail, but not crit fail against something. So I think this guideline strikes a decent balance between still requiring a roll, not making it automatic, but letting the party try some non-standard solutions. So basically, if you become a willing target to something, the attack role, you can choose to increase it by one step.

So if the role would have missed, you can choose to make it a hit. If it was a hit, you don't you can choose to not make it a crit, but it is a hit, right? And then the reverse, if you want to be a willing failure on a saving throw, you can reduce that by one step, or you can reduce a success to a failure or just take the failure. Now what's interesting is even with that, there's the risk if you roll a critical fail, like then you critically fail. So there is risk in becoming willing, but you do have that, that the degree of success

you can have some control over, which I think is a fun mechanic. So we started to talk about this on the episode because there's in the falling and falling damage section, falling on a creature. If you land on a creature, that creature must attempt a DC-15 reflex save. Intentionally aiming yourself to land on a creature after a long fall is almost impossible.

So I should have just allowed Zephyr to do that. On a critical success, it's DC-15, so if she had rolled a 25 on a reflex, you wouldn't have taken any damage and gone to a further state of dying by the rules of this because critical size to the creature takes no damage. Success, you both would take damage, which means your dying condition would go down and she would take damage, but it would have been worth the risk. Right. But if she failed, you know, she could by this rule, this guideline, it's not really

a rule, but it's a guideline. She could choose to increase it to a success so that she takes damage she wants to take, right? Like that's kind of the interesting idea there. Or she could choose to increase a success to a critical success, but she would have to roll a success first in order to have that option so that she could save Ramias

by hurting herself, which is cool. I think it's really fun. Right, because if you're landing, it's just depending on the square that you're in. But if you're willing yourself to catch, you can increase, based on these guidelines, you can increase your level of success. Yeah, I mean, it's certainly, that's heroic, right? But you still have to roll.

How many things can you increase by in this guideline? Just one, right? So you still roll. So if you critically fail, like best you can do is failure. It's failure, yeah. So like you still have to roll to die. There still is some risk associated. I think it's, I think it's a great little mechanic. It's kind of like,

heroic, too. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Making that choice after seeing the role. Anyway, I think it's very cool. All right, last thing is, this is just a comment to you from Professor Eric, we don't have to go into details here. He says that there's some behind the scene stuff, like, we'd rather not like talk about I don't even think there's behind the scenes stuff. I think it's just, he's looking at deep mechanical things within how precarious Brother Ramius's position was. He said the double fly up of the night gaunt in round four, he felt in his opinion,

was a masterpiece of raising tension, but actually being nice to Brother Ramius in a way. So you raise tension, but you don't do the thing that just could automatically permanently kill him. So it's kind of taking your foot off the gas while also increasing the tension and the intensity of the combat. He just said it was a masterpiece of raising tension. Well, I appreciate that.

What I was struggling with is like, I know I can hit you and do more damage. What I want to do though is raise you up higher because I know they're gonna kill the Nikon. And so I want that fall to be brutal. And so that's what I was struggling with. I said, do damage now or have it just be that boom damage at the end? Do damage now. It's just, it doesn't raise the tension. It's devastating,

but it doesn't necessarily raise tension. Whereas with the fly up, you can both raise tension and get the devastating later. You can get both the best of both worlds. Anyway. I want to say two things. One, I want to shout out Narky on our Discord. They're one of the cartographers that worked on Gatewalkers for Paizo and Foundry. Oh, nice. And they reached out to me in June of this year. Oh, no, no. I think I saw them message me on Discord or like at me on Discord a while ago and then I forgot who it was. So then I put something in our Discord in June being like, did someone say they worked on the maps?

And then Narc, NarcE reached out to me and it was them who showed me how to do the back row that flipped through. Oh cool. I wanted to shout them out. And second, about nightgaunts, there at the Caravanserai, there was a multiple nightgaunt encounter that you guys skipped. If you go to the courtyard, if you remember, when you come into the Caravanserai, to the left was there was a vorpal sword there

that I think you guys got. Yeah, that's the first thing I thought was the amazing weapon. Right, and you didn't get that till you came back to the Caravanserai. Cause you guys went right and went around. If you go straight in, there's like four or six nightgowns in that courtyard.

But you never went in that way. And maybe you did later, like when you came back, but by then I just, I got rid of that encounter But initially I had like I want to say it's either four or six night gaunts that are like hiding in the stables and that encounter never happened Wow, so interesting. All right, let's hear from the nation a little listener male We're gonna go international edition a Troy. I'm gonna pee my pants. I have to pee too.

I want to thank Rusty from Melbourne, Australia for writing in. Thank you, Rusty. His question today, how has radio influenced the form of the GCP? Over the years, I've heard scattered references to radio across the network, e.g. a few Howard Stern mentions in the early days, someone talking about things being good radio, quote unquote. For me, the band segments are a standout of the network and remind me of the best sports talk radio where talented personalities create a vibe of friends just hanging out.

Please talk about whether radio was a conscious reference point for some Bant segments and any influence of radio on the show's style. Thank you, Rusty. I don't think you do much radio. You personally. I grew up on radio though. You grew up on radio? Yeah. People our age, they all did, right?

Didn't everybody? We listened to radio all the time on the ride to school. My high school was 25 minutes away. We would just listen to Kiss 108, Maddie in the Morning. Yeah, shock jock kind of stuff. It's like always on air when we were kids. Yeah. I was always a big radio guy.

Country music didn't come until later. I used to love using the Classic Ross station in New York and I knew the DJ because she would come into Caroline's on Broadway. So I got to know a lot of the radio DJs because a lot of the comics that came into town, they'd have to do radio in the morning to try and drum up sales for the weekend. So I got to meet some of them and so that I'd listen to their radio station. But then I got serious when I got my Highlander and I'm like obsessed with the country music station is like huge for serious. All the country music stars talk about it.

They write lyrics about the highway into their songs. And anyway, so radio certainly. But does that channel have any, is it just, it's just all music all the time though, right? There's no talk show aspect. I mean, it's mostly music, no commercials, but they do talk. They do talk. They chat a little bit. Do you learn stuff about artists or country music or upcoming shows from banter on there?

Yeah, like if Luke Holmes is going to be in Nashville for the weekend, he'll be in the studio talking about the tour and asking him questions and stuff. Okay. All right. They do have one of ones. And And then every Friday they have the Music Row Happy Hour at Margaritaville in Nashville, where people line up at like four in the morning and then they go live at five, five PM for four, four PM for three hours where the guys on stage bringing people up like, where are you from? Oh, we drove all the way from Manitoba. We listen to the Music Row Happy Hour every Friday. And like, we're here at a bachelor party.

I love shit like that. I love shit like that. I love shit like that. But anyways, for me, the banter is like, that's the format of the show. Like I set a timer and it's like, I'm looking to try and get 10 minutes of banter. Sometimes we go long, rarely do we go short. But like that to me is like,

that sets the mood of the show. That's the opening comic before the middler and the closer come out. And that's only partially for the audience. It's also for this cast. Yeah, to warm up the players. Warm up the players, loosen everybody up, start to set a tone around the table

before you start playing the game. Otherwise, you start playing the game in a undefined vibe, right? And it can take a minute to get itself right. The banter helps warm everybody up. I wonder, like, I've never listened to, like, other action plays more than like a couple minutes here and there. I wonder if like other people just jump into a recap and start playing, or are they like playing within minutes? That seems crazy to me. I don't think they do as much banter as we do. But yeah, a lot of times people cut right to the chase. They get right to the story, et cetera. And there's obviously differing opinions on that. But yeah, I think banter, I mean, for me, my style is enormously influenced by radio, Rusty,

100%. I grew up on radio. I grew up listening to sports talk radio. I still listen to sports talk radio almost every day. And so that sort of energy that kind of vibe, I mean, I think that I bring it to cannon fodder. I think that there's a lot of you could probably hear it rusty in the way that I open shows and the way that I introduce segments and the way that I interview people. It's all based on my years and years and years of listening to radio shows and radio talk shows and stuff like that. So yeah, I would say very, very much so influenced by radio in all the various ways. And segmenting things and going to commercial breaks, how you go into a break, how you come out of a break, all that stuff. It's all kind of informed by radio as an example. So yes, very insightful of you to point that out.

And I think that that's why I loved the podcasting medium. When we started doing it, obviously the biggest part about it is it's the easiest thing to get into on a low budget. You can just sort of like start doing it from home, 100%. But I also love the radio medium because it's like reading a book. There's all that imagination that is left to the listener to fill in the blanks, to imagine what we look like in a given moment, or imagine the scene that we're describing. To me, it's better to, a lot of times, to listen To me, it's better to, a lot of times, to listen to me play Brother Ramius than it is to watch me play Brother Ramius, right? Because you see that it's just me and you see what kind of whatever stupid t-shirt I'm wearing, whatever, to take you out of it. In the audio-only format, you can be totally transported if you want. You can picture that character and not picture me around the table. So yeah, I definitely love the

imagination that the radio format offers. But I'll also say I like it a lot better in in actual play and improv than I do in like audiobooks. I'm not a big audiobook guy, you know, so it's kind of hard to describe., I love the aspect of how radio allows your imagination to unfold. But I don't, I don't have anything against audiobooks. I'm just saying I don't really listen to a lot of them. Whereas some of the guys skid, particularly Matthew, they do a lot of audiobook listening. And they chat about it around the table before we start recording and stuff like that. And I've just never been that that into it. I don't know, I have a hard time. I got Wayne into audiobooks this year because I'm trying to read 52 books.

That's different though. That's audio nonfiction. Well, this is what I was going to say. I would never read, listen to fiction audiobook. I only do nonfiction. I've listened to a couple of nonfiction audiobooks. I love them. Great. But like fiction, I kind of struggle with. I've tried and I kind of struggle with. So I don't know what it is about the improv nature of our storytelling, but I like it in its audio only format. I think it's great. So yeah. I don't know why it's making me think of this. Maybe just I'm delirious, but it's like a Seinfeld where Elaine's like, do you want to go? I got tickets to, maybe it's Mel Torme or something. Do you want to go?"

And Jerry's like, watching a man sing, I don't know. Do you think that just going to watch a man sing makes you gay? And he goes, it doesn't help or something like that. But it's kind of like listening. Watching a man sing, I don't know. But there's this thing about like kind of an audio book. It's like listening to someone like really get into it. It's just like, that's embarrassing. That's definitely.

Let me create it in my own mind. Yeah, I don't know. I think there's an aspect of it. Hey, really well done audio books. I guess they're great, but like there is an aspect of it to me that feels like, lay in bed and I'm going to tell you a story. I'm not a child. I can read a book. I don't need you to tell me a story. I know it's for people on the go and stuff like that. I get it. But that's why I

love what we do. I think that we fill that gap nicely. It's not quite an audiobook. It's not quite a radio show. It's something in between and that's why I enjoy it so much. That's gonna wrap it up guys Thank you so much as always for coming out listening to the FOD or watching the FOD on the tube Appreciate you so much chunky episode We did not talk about some macro things that are going on here because this encounter is not done yet We have we have another week to go. So let's check it out Thursday night, 8 p.m. Eastern, not live, but premiering on YouTube, on our YouTube channel. And we're live in Portland and LA this week. So check us out there. We're looking forward to seeing some of you folks.

And we'll wrap it all up, tell you how it all went next week. So hopefully Troy makes it out there, been back alive. If so, we'll see you next week on The FOD. Take it easy everybody. Have a fantastic weekend weekend. See ya! Bye! Do you like what you hear? Well then it's time to make your membership official. You can start your 30-day free trial today and become an official member of the Naish at JoinTheNaish.com with the

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