The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 1/10/24

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Troy and Joe recap a vicious storm in the northeast before getting back to business and discussing their upcoming live show in Canada (including the new VIP experience), thoughts on Baldur's Gate 3, and a potential date for the 2024 State of the Naish! In looking back at this week's GCP ep, Troy gives a look behind the scenes at the introduction of a new character, and in Listener Mail, have you ever told a player their character concept isn't welcome in your game? Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/G5B47Mq3ew4 For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com and for hundreds of hours of exclusive shows and benefits, make your membership official and join Glass Cannon Nation today by becoming a subscriber at jointhenaish.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, everybody? Welcome back to The Fod. It is Wednesday, January 10th, 2024, and I'm your old pal, Joe O'Brien. And I'm Troy LaValle, and it actually is Wednesday, January 10th, 2024, as we're recording this a little late. Yes, yes, a rare late FOD recording, courtesy of a Nor'easter that just blew through the East Coast, shredding my tree to pieces and leaving my house untouched, which was really the main thing,

and unflooded, which was the other main thing. My wife and I had alarms set every two hours overnight, just getting up and going to the basement, checking for water. We made out okay. How did you make out? First of all, would you call it a Nor'easter if there was no snow? I don't follow the weather at all. I just said that because it was a big storm.

Yeah, I don't think it qualifies as a Nor'easter. There was a storm if my wife wasn't like batting down the hatches like it i wouldn't have even known it was coming but yeah the wind was wild at like bedtime last night it felt like it was going to rip shingles right off the side of the house i kept checking my pergola because the pergola has just gone before when there's wind but yeah i think thing is like a kite i think to call i'll have to look it up but i think to qualify as a nor'easter you need snow and this was just wind rain and and massive flooding all throughout new york we were in the studio yesterday my wife texted me she's like you should probably come home and our plan was to do you know a recording of strange uh not strange onatewalkers and then do a FOD and then drive home.

Live from the studio. Not live, but from the studio. From the studio, yeah. And we couldn't and it fucking took me like almost two hours to get home. It was so slow going. There was so much fucking traffic and I'm driving so slow on the Taconic and a couple times I was just like, with the car and I'm like,

oh fuck, that was like really close to a major car accident. I mean, I'm getting old enough that it, whoop, whoop, with the car. And I'm like, oh, fuck. That was like really close to a major car accident. I mean, I'm getting old enough that it's getting bad, man. Like when I change lanes in driving windy rain at night, I have no idea if there's a car next to me or not. I can't see at night. I can't see. I can't see anything. It doesn't seem so crazy now when I'm so strict on the rules of night. You can't see anything. How old is your character? Over 40? They can't see anything. It doesn't seem so crazy now when I'm so strict on the rules of night.

You can't see anything. How old is your character? Over 40, they can't see shit. I don't remember. No, that's great. We never bring that into our games. That should be brought in more. Like, all right, you have dark vision, you have low light vision, and you're old.

So you have no vision. Are you a human over 40? Then no, you can't see by the moonlight. Dude, I don't remember ever having this problem, and I wonder if it's age or what, but even if I have my glasses on, I don't really drive with my glasses, I probably should at night, but I have had it on at night, and I'm like, this

doesn't help at all. I can't see shit. It doesn't help that there's not a single, like, hanging light in all of Westchester. You know what it's like? What was the name of that fight in Dark Souls? Is it the, the, the four Kings,

the four Kings fight in dark souls. Like that's what it's like for me driving at night. There is no road. There are no lane assignments. There's no shoulder. All I see are the floating lights of other cars. And I just base my positioning, you know,

somewhat on that. I'm like those two red lights lights that guy must know what he's doing i'll just follow those lights in this abyss of darkness so bad it's so bad uh not having street lights just makes it worse and so it's just it's causing my eyes to degenerate even faster i think yeah so we made it home safe i got a little water in my basement so i just had to move my rug this keeps happening. It never happened before. We have like two sump pumps to ensure that this doesn't happen.

But the bilko doors are like right near now that I've moved downstairs. And it's just if we get too much like we did last night, it eventually finds its way through. I went to bed around 1130 last night. And I look, my cold's clear. Pulled up my rug just to make sure. And I woke up this morning. It was just a pool. I was like, oh, it's clear. Pulled up my rug just to make sure. And I woke up this morning. It was just a pool. I was like, motherfucker.

Son of a B. Yeah, I had water coming right in the chimney, down the chimney into the fireplace. Just drip, drip, dripping. I was like, oh, my God. Just brutal. But it worked out okay. Everything was fine. I just got an email from McD.

And it says, quote, hey, bud, the natives are getting restless. What's the ETA on father? So we are taping it. We're in it right now. McD and it says, quote, Hey, bud, the natives are getting restless. What's the ETA on father? So we are taping it. We're in it right now. Well, there's another sign that we're old. I just said taping it. I love saying taping it.

We're taping. I still say that. Like I taped that episode last night. I love saying it. All right, let's get to it. Good juicy five today. We've got hot news off the presses. We've got uh we got to dig into episode 16 of campaign 2 we have a little we are stupid and then of course some listener mail so let's get right to the news toronto tickets are on sale

already over half sold dude they're flying they're flying So if you're in Kanata and you're hearing this and you haven't bought tickets yet, like, get on it. Yeah. There's like 20 VIP left. Oh, man. And we're already over half sold for the entire venue. Great start, Toronto. I was confident about this, but you never know until you put them up. I'm like, God, this is going to be a cash cow if nobody shows up. And we're already over half sold. So that's exciting. And more dates are coming like crazy, crazy soon. Also, if you do not have VIP yet to Toronto, and you're even on the fence, like grab it because Toronto is going to be a first. It's going to be the first of all time. It's a new VIP experience that is pre-show. So we're going to be doing a pre-show VIP where we're not as burnt out and exhausted. You're probably not as burnt out and exhausted.

You're really excited. And you know what I keep thinking about is like if I get some awesome dye or something like that, like I can use it in the show. Yeah. You know what I mean? And then yell at that person in the audience. Exactly. I'll know their name and they'll be in the audience that night. So I'm really looking forward to that. Like I can use it in the show. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like that person in the audience. Exactly. Their name, I'll know their name and they'll be in the audience that night. Like, so, so I'm really looking forward to that. If you're on the fence about it, try this out. This is going to be our first pre-show VIP. I think it's going to help all

of us to be not so completely burnt, you know, at the end of the night and, and hopefully it creates a, you know, a great environment and an exciting kickoff to the show. It's something we've, you know, everyone's wanted to do for a long time, and I was just against it for a million reasons, even though I really wanted it as well. And then in talking to our agent, I was like, all right, let's just fucking try it. And I think it's going to be better. So basically, let's say it's an 8 o'clock show. The doors will open at 530 for VIP, and you'll be able to come in uh choose your seat for shows that don't have assigned seating buy merch and we'll be there hanging out

until seven and then at seven o'clock the general admission doors open we go backstage do a couple keg stands and then come out and do a show and then after the show we get to fuck off which is great because we're so burnt out and so does the audience which is great because the show, we get to fuck off, which is great because we're so burnt out. And so does the audience, which is great because the show ends at 1030. And I don't know. The audience with us is getting older. And I think that they also are like happy to just either go home or take their party elsewhere. You know what I mean? And go have a good time.

So anyway, looking forward to that. Grab tickets to Toronto if you haven't already. Labs. We had Deadlands premiered on Labs last week. It is continuing tomorrow tomorrow it's going to be on tomorrow two o'clock eastern time troy it was so good it was so good if i had the time i mean you know that i love to do this i love to just sit and like recount for you blow blow by blow a great session yeah and you you're usually very polite you're like while you're usually very polite. You're like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, while you're sending emails. Checking my phone.

Texting other people. Cool. Oh, cool. It really was one of the best cliffies that we've ever had in a session one. It was really, really impressive. So great work by Jared and Mary Lou and Matthew. It was really fun. So looking forward to that tomorrow.

You're back today. Today. This fodder is probably going to release around the time that you're live, continuing your Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough. Are you enjoying it? Is it like a fantastic game? Is it living up to all the hype, I guess, is my question. You're a very critical guy. Yeah, it's pretty great.

I mean, I keep saying every time I play it, the only time I've ever played it, I've played it live for an audience. So I'm consuming it in a much different way. It's a much more slow playthrough. I think if I was playing this solo, I'd already be in like act two. I have no idea where I am in the game. Every time I play, I'm like, where the hell are we? But that becomes kind of part of the experience. And I mean, we've been having a lot of fun with it online. Last week was the first one of the year, but it really is just like, you remember Divinity Original Sin. It's that, but with all the D&D mechanics, the rolling of the dice, you really feel like choices you make have long lasting impacts. Things go sour all the time. You'll be talking to people that you have no interest in fighting. You know they're good people and they're just standoffish and you'll fail a diplomacy check or something and now you've got to

kill them and uh it that happens all the time and i'm so i'm playing a pretty loose loose moral playthrough where sometimes we just fuck with people that we shouldn't um but uh i'm excited you're you're giving me some i've been I haven't gotten the game yet. I look forward to the day I play it. I'm just sort of like staying away from your streams and stuff so that I don't get spoiled for too much. I pop in. But now I'm because one of the things is like I'm crippled about thinking what to play. Like, what character do I want to play?

Because it's such a commitment. You know, figure that out before you buy the game. Right. Exactly. And you just gave me an idea there that I had not come across my thought process, which was like a true diplomat, right? Like somebody that can crush any diplomacy check I want to, or do it the other way if I want to fail if I want to write like that kind of thing. That could be interesting in your power over the game, right? Yeah, you can always you can always pick up a warrior to join your party.

It's really, you should, when you're ready, you should dive in, and I think you'll be kind of obsessed. It's really, it's a no-brainer why it won Game of the Year, and I love Starfield. I talked about that on last stream,

but that's just a different experience. This is like a complete, fully one-of-a-kind game. Okay. So I'm excited to dive back in. I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm going to stream this week as well, Friday at noon on twitch.tv slash theglasscanon. Come by and watch me try out a game called Returnal.

I don't know if you're familiar with this, but it is a – I heard that it was a ps5 launch title which i didn't realize i know it's been around for a while the main things that i hear about it are that i would love it that it's uh kind of has an alien feel that it has the difficulty of dark souls and that it is uh an underappreciated title and i always like coming across them right like hidden gems right uh things that maybe because of the when the release happened or how it happened, the PR wasn't quite right and it didn't quite hit where it wanted to. You and I talked about it yesterday in the office and you went immediately to GameSpot and you were like, yo, it's a nine on GameSpot, which is no joke. And so I'm very, very excited about diving into that. So come by and check it out with me on Friday.

That'll be fun. Speaking of Friday, how about next Friday, the return of Time for Chaos? The return of the Time for Chaos. It is time! Friday, January 19th, and we are moving to YouTube. It's going to be premiering on YouTube, not Twitch. YouTube.com slash TheGlassCanon.

I'm really, really excited to get this out there. I wish we had more in the can, but I'm looking at our schedule. I'm like, you know what? We just got to get this out there, get this cooking. People have been waiting long enough. And I'm really excited, really excited to dive back in. It's already started off

completely off the rails. I'm really just letting the players drive things a lot more i'm doing in gatewalkers uh and i'm and i'm really doing in time for chaos because i feel like my prep is good enough like what do you guys want to do whatever you want to do i'll do it but it's funny because like sometimes in call it cthulhu unlike uh unlike uh how we play pathfinder sometimes you'll be like well i want to go talk to so--so. And you'll go and talk to so-and-so, and it's like, well, you need to make an appointment. You can't just show up.

And it's like, I can fit you in next Friday at 2 p.m. And then it's like, that was the role play. You know, it's like, right. All right, well, we'll be back here in three days for that appointment. And then they've got to like, all right, so now what else do you want to do? You know, I'm really trying to keep it feeling real, but it's a much different flow than Pathfinder because when we do gatewalkers, it's kind of like when you guys want to do something, I want to give you something at every location. But Call of Cthulhu is a little bit different. Like sometimes you just have to set appointments or like you should have called ahead or like you didn't go to a library to research that before you went there.

Well, if you did, you would have known that they were closed today. Right, right. Skid does that. He does a pretty good job of that in Legacy when he runs Rise. Like if you're like, I want to go talk to the town mayor, he'll have like an aide just be like, do you have an appointment? No, you can't speak to the mayor. And Nick will just want to go down the road of 100 diplomacy checks to make it happen. You know what I mean?

And I'll be like, Nick, the mayor's not available. Okay. The mayor's clearly not available. The mayor's clearly not available. Let's just move on. All right. So it's very exciting. Time for chaos returns.

Even more exciting for me in general, but I'm a little bit nervous to even bring it up. I don't know if I'm going to put you on the spot here. But last week, you beat around the bush on a state of the nash you did not commit to anything doesn't sound like when it's happening is is there anything happening there in terms of date do you have a hard date as we say a couple days ago i did but i i need i think i need more time i feel pretty good about either next Wednesday or the following Wednesday. No, wait. Two Wednesdays from now or three Wednesdays.

Either the 24th. 24th would be nice, but I may push it to the 31st. And I'll tell you the reason for that. Well, one of the things is there's a big project going on that I want to announce, and I want that project to be done. And it's a lot of fucking data entry and pain in the ass stuff. I want to give us more time to get that done. But also, we're very close to booking the entire

2024 tour, which we've never done in advance of the whole year. And so I need three more cities to lock in and it would be nice to be able to announce all of it. I guess that's like, it's not the end of the world. I could do a State of the Nation tomorrow and not announce that, but it would be fun to be like, here's where we're coming when and where for the entire year. You know, cause I think some people, um, may see a date

and be like, Oh, should I buy tickets? What if they come closer to me now? I'm like, buy both. Come on. Uh, but like now you'll know, like now you can plan out your year. Like we're going to be here, here, here, here, here. If you think we're coming here, we're not. So what are you going to do? And, uh, yeah, so we here, here, here. If you think we're coming here, we're not. So what are you going to do? Yeah. And yeah, so we're very, very close. Three more days. So you're telling me January.

Yeah. Yeah. January for sure. All right. Sure. Fantastic. So hopefully two weeks from now. All right.

Before we actually, I'm going to do a little unorthodox. Before we dive into this week's episode of the GCP, I actually want to bump We Are Stupid up. Wow. We Are Stupid first. I'm president. Only because there is no We Are Stupid. Professor Eric has no notes for this week's episode because this week's episode is all role play and reveals and stuff like that. I'm surprised he doesn't have notes because I have notes.

You have notes? I gave them to Sidney a couple days ago. Oh, yes, yes, yes. I gave them to Sidney a couple days ago. Oh, yes, yes, yes. There are some kitsune notes, some character notes, class notes that Sidney is going to be working on. But mainly, I wanted to go back in time to a We Are Stupid We Completely Missed because of the holidays. Professor Eric had sent me notes on episode 13, and I just never talked about it. And I'm just going to pick out two highlights from that that are more general and a going forward kind of thing

that I think is interesting. The first thing is, of course, devise a stratagem. And Matthew, his investigator, and devise a stratagem, which is, we've talked about this before, and there's one main issue that we have to address which is we just recorded yesterday is he still doing it wrong well it didn't matter yesterday okay but as usual it's the last line if you're aware that the creature you choose is the subject of a lead you're pursuing you can use this ability as a free action why doesn't he read that he did not do against bolat do you know how mad he would be

if someone didn't read the last like line of his play any play that he writes or just skip the third act you know like why does he have such a wild blind spot for this uh yeah i think he just he just forgot i completely forgot it's one of the best parts of the ability. It's what makes the ability – launches it into the atmosphere of awesome. It's shocking. And I completely forgot about it with Bolan. And so, yeah, not only the free action, but there are other couple plus ones that he could have gotten with Bolan that he missed. He just forgot that long ago he had pursued a lead against Bolan. So it's just something that we have to remind him of.

All right. So this is – the next one I want to get to is an interesting conversation. And this has to do with recalling knowledge. Okay. Now, recalling knowledge is something that it didn't really happen in this week's episode, because we weren't so much recalling knowledge as much as actively learning new knowledge at the library. We'll talk about that in a second. But there is an interesting concept that's brought up in the GM core, the remastered GM core that Professor Eric highlighted. And it's something interesting to be thinking about. I'd love your take on it.

And that is the concept of general versus unique. An oak steward versus Bolon, right? bolon right like a a type of creature versus a specific creature perhaps a famous one a well known one or maybe not even a famous one an unknown one but nonetheless a specific one of those if you go to the uh if you go to the gm core you will see there they put a sidebar in there which we can bring up here on Demiplane about. Oh, sorry. I don't know what that highlighted. Oh, look, it just like when you hover over it.

That's awesome. General versus unique. This last line here. So it says some elements such as creatures or items might require you to draw a distinction between a general concept and a unique individual, such as pirates versus Tessa Fairwind, the Hurricane Queen, or a harrow deck versus the deck of harrowed tails, a specific magical item. When a PC tries to recall knowledge, let them choose whether to ask about the general category or the unique person or item and determine the DC based on the specifics of the choice. If the unique character or item is famous enough, the DC for the famous one for the unique might even be easier than the general if they're if they're that famous. It's an interesting thing to think about,

because I think what you and I would default to our natural instinct would be, yeah, so just just roll recall knowledge. And I think I would naturally set a lower DC for the general, a higher DC for information on the specific person, and then just kind of relay both if they got high enough or relay only the general if they didn't get high enough. up an interesting point, which is it's better, in his opinion, to set that DC beforehand by asking them which one they want to know about so that you know clearly ahead of time, at the time of the role, whether it's a crit or not. Because if you set something that would be a crit on the general, but just a regular on the other one, it puts you in a weird position of how to dole out that information. And it kind of puts you as a GM in a position to like, well, I don't want to give them the critical information or whatever, right? I'll just give them the regular information for the specific individual. Instead, wipe away having to make that choice and just let the player decide

which one they want to roll on. It's something I never really thought of, so I just was interested in your opinion on it. Yeah, I feel like I kind of do this without doing it exactly that way in the sense that like – well, I'll tell you one thing. For example, like each individual oak steward had a DCX nature check, but Bolan was a higher one with parentheses hard. And the reason for that being is like, no one quite knows what Bolan- Right, he's a mysterious figure, right. Powers he got from walking through the gate. And so that made total sense to me.

And at that point, if Bolan was the first Oak Steward you faced, I think on a, if you would pat, like if he had rolled high enough, I would have given him general Oak Stewart knowledge. But at that point, you've already faced half a dozen Oak Stewards. You already had that knowledge. If it happened in the reverse, then maybe I'd be like, well, here's what you know about the Oak Stewards.

They tend to be able to cast Shillelagh. They tend to be able to do this. But you kind of already knew that. So when he was plumbing for more Bolan information, you just didn't know it. Nobody really knows what's going on with Bolon. But I do think that I kind of do that anyways in that like if you find a, the deck of Harrow is a good example.

Like you might find something like that that's very specific. And I feel like even if you fail the check, I'll be like, well, you know that a Harrow deck can usually do this, this, and this. But like, you don't know what this one does. I feel like I'm doing that naturally, even on a failed check. So I'm not really resetting the DC. I'm just like, what's your roll? 10? Yeah. I mean, you know that Harrow deck's like, if you do this, this, and that,

you can get this, but there's something else going on with this one. I don't know. I feel like this isn't my kind of rule that I'd want to get into the weeds into because it's just – with knowledge checks in a show, I tend to just give a little bit more even on a – unless you really biff the check, I'm going to give you something. recall knowledge check if you fail that i'll say you just don't know anything is typically you know when it's really rare material or something that's meant to be very mysterious uh and unknown but if there are general topics or if there's like a you're researching a city right like a nation or something like that like what do i know about near mythos or whatever? It's like, all right, roll a recall knowledge and you roll a 10. It's like, okay, well, I mean, I set the DC higher to know a bunch of information, but I can tell you this. It's located. It borders this one and this one.

You've heard rumors of this, right? That kind of thing. So, yeah, I don't like saying you get nothing. Typically, I usually do degrees of success. Yeah. And that, to me, it rolls over from early Pathfinder Society. When I was running Pathfinder Society back in the day in 1E, it always was tiers of success for, you know, gathering information. Yeah.

And recall – whatever they called recall knowledge back then, just knowledge checks, right? It would be like DC-10, DC-15, DC-20, DC-25. And each bit of information would add on to it as you went up higher. But I do like the concept. I think it's interesting, the concept of keeping in mind that sometimes the DC for a unique character could be even lower than the DC of the general because that unique character is so famous, right? So like if that unique character is so famous right so like if that unique character is so famous you could say oh so uh bolan is so famous that that uh he has this ability or in these abilities and you could assume that all oak stewards have those abilities but you could be wrong you know what i mean like you don't really realize because he's not representative of the entire uh organization

or whatever so anyway anyway, just, just a neat concept. And I appreciate Eric for bringing it up for, for conversation. Yeah. Let's get into this week's episode. A big, a big one,

obviously, because we're introducing a new character. This is not something that happens every day. No, certainly not this early into a series. I would like some behind the scenes information. So we opened with a scene where Asta, who we've come to know as Asta is witnessing the Bolan event, essentially the Bolan missing moment,

not what he saw, but yeah, sees him passing through the gates and passes through the same gates as Bolan. Yeah. Very, very interesting choice. How did that come up?

Is this your idea? Did she start an idea that you kept on to did, was it her idea? How did it come together behind the scenes? We record an episode. We have a meeting. We record an episode. Then we go take a lunch. It always takes too long. And we come back and do another one.

That's what we tend to do. Sometimes we do one. We've never done three. That'd be nice. But the first episode we did was Lucky's role, and she died. And then Sydney sat there and whatnot. I imagine she took that time to be like, what am I going to do next? We had a really long episode so the the whole episode if you watch her on screen mostly she's just got her head in in the book right in her computer yeah because she's making another character like during i

imagine right she's got to be looking at everything especially when you see you know you know don't forget like people watching this right now don't even know what class uh asa is like that hasn't been out so i imagine uh just from the ancestry choice alone, like she's looking at things and seeing what she likes. I didn't, I didn't, I don't remember even asking like, cause none of you had a concept.

I mean, some of you, I imagine you had like loose concepts, but I asked you guys pre-show a couple episodes before. You guys got backup characters? You know, just being a dick. And all of you were like,

absolutely not. Concepts? You should probably have some concepts so when the episode ends uh like all right that's break for lunch i just say hey sydney come here we we walked through the hallway and i'm like so what are you thinking and she's like well i'm thinking uh of doing a kitsune blah blah blah and was like, okay. So what's her story? And she's like, well, I think she's like native to the Wildwood. And I said, the only thing is I want her to be a gatewalker as well. So I said, this could either be someone that is like part of the Riddleson group already, or someone that's kind of a lone wolf. And if she's from the Wildwood, I'm wondering like, and so we're just having a conversation.

I'm like, this sounds like someone that maybe had experienced this. If she spent her whole life in the Wildwood, experienced this and didn't know that anyone else experienced it, never like found anybody. And I said, oh, what if maybe she watched Bolan go through and then stepped through? And so we're just – we're kind of improvising this back and forth. I'm like, all right, you go to lunch. I'll think on this and I'll come up with a scene and we'll just fucking play it out. And then like how are we going to get you to the party?

And we're just going back and forth. And she's like, well, maybe I saw them. Maybe I've been watching them as they came through. So that was Sydney's idea that she was watching. Oh, maybe I saw them. Maybe I've been watching them as they came. So that was Sydney's. Yeah. And I said, Ooh, I like that.

I said, all right. So, so yeah, if you watched them, then maybe I'll just have you show up at the, at the, uh,

wicker house or whatever the hell it's called and asked to speak with them. And, and, and let's just see what happens. And so that's really all we had. Wow. You guys went one way. I went another way for lunch.

And I came back and I just wrote up a couple notes. And that scene was largely just improvised because I could see it. I was like someone watching from the trees. It was a cool image. I feel like the camera floating just behind some bushes, right? Yeah. In the distance, seeing the seven oak stewards walking through the gates. Very cool.

Yeah. And you get to see Bolan again, which was nice. He just died and now he's back and you can see his moment before and get a sense of him, you know, how he, in that little moment, like how people could be like, yeah, maybe Bolan's right. He's like, what are we doing out here? Why are the Oaks? It's just like another complaint of his, you imagine.

Why are the Oaks stewards spending all this time having us guard this nobody even knows it's out here so fucking dumb right he sees something and jumps through and they all jump through and he was the only one to return yeah that's so cool so cool you know what else was so cool this freaking library tree. Like, what a crazy, cool concept idea. Is there anything about the library tree that we didn't get in the show that you can share? Or did you kind of just dump all of it? I don't mean the research of the show. I mean, like, about the tree itself, where it came from. Did they build a library around it?

Did they grow a tree in the library? Does it say in the adventure background like i'm just curious where this idea came from because it's freaking brilliant yeah i mean i was largely just riffing the whole episode like when you first went to the quaking stacks um at the like episode two maybe or like three you went to the quaking stacks because i was like is there anything you guys want to do you know you could go do. I'm just reading the locations in the book. The gazetteer. Yeah. And you're like, I want to go check out that library. I'm like, great. And I'm like,

I haven't read anything about that. So let's go do that. And so as you're walking there and improvising, I'm stalling and reading. And that's where Snailford Jones came from. I'm still reading the description for the library, which is like a paragraph long. And then during the role play, I saw the line about the tree, and I forgot about the library tree that comes later. And I was like, oh, you do see in the background, there's like a grove that looks like it's grown up

from the ruins of whatever the structure was before. And there's one big tree. And Snailford even mentions the library tree. Because at that point when I read that – I didn't remember it. I'm like, oh, shit. They're going to come back and they're going to have to do this thing at the tree. So let me at least foreshadow it here.

So you hear about the library tree. He even says like, oh, with that bark root, you could commune with the tree if you had more time. And so when you come back and got to do that, it was really, really fun. And so when you come back and got to do that, it was really, really fun. But just in general, I'm trying to write less and just kind of follow your lead. So I had nothing to go on. And I was just listening to you guys and just kind of making that all up along the lines of like knowing what the intention of the adventure path is. You know what I mean? So everything there is intentional, but it's extemporaneous. And I thought it ended up being a pretty cool scene. getting you familiar with the area you're adventuring in. Like that's not what this was. This wasn't. So, so sometimes I feel like as a GM, I, I can struggle with like how to convey this information in a way that isn't

just a lecture, right. You know, to make it interesting. Holy crap. Was the library tree, a really interesting way to do research in a library. It just,

it made it really fascinating. Yeah. And I think, and we'll talk about this more over the coming weeks that there's a way I think that this investigation can be – this investigation portion that you're into can be run as just checks. You know what I mean? It's like, oh, so what do you guys want to do first? All right. Well, everybody roll a check.

Here's what you learned at the library and I just tell you. And I don't know. Initially, I was like, how the fuck am I going to run this? There's like nothing here. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Initially, I was like, how the fuck am I going to run this? There's like nothing here but checks. And I just, I don't know. I felt like, let's just see what happens. And I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants a little bit. And the one thing that I had pre-decided was, I'm going to have you roll the checks, use the mechanics, and have what you learn come out of the results of those roles. Because there's a, you know, spoiler, there's a little bit of a mini game going on here as well based on those checks.

You know, the successive checks are going to give you more information both on the subjects you're looking on and the larger investigation. And so I need you to roll those checks. But I kind of want to just see what you guys were interested in and roll with it. And, you know, it gives a chance for you guys to role play some more with each other in and and roll with it and uh you know it gives a chance for you guys to role play some more with each other with npcs that i threw at you um which i think we needed after a long tree treehouse essentially dungeon crawl yeah yeah it's it's great to break that up and i just cut myself i noticed and so it's it's very distracting i apologize i'm distracted cut my arm on like like a loose chunk of wood on my desk.

Jesus, dude. I've sanded the desk down. A loose chunk of wood? There's blood everywhere. Did you build your desk from trees you chopped down? I'm exaggerating. It wasn't a loose chunk of wood. It was just like a splinter that poked right into my fucking arm.

So I'm bleeding right now. And I may pass out. Okay. Well, we'll try to get through this as quickly as possible we got uh we got listener mail coming up so uh just in just a second but i can't continue uh i can't skip over this amazing in my opinion alley encounter with the slim figure i mean it's just amazing yeah uh you're just kind of riffing this whole lap is this is this part of the riff is it like at some point they run into this or is it like when they leave the library because it was only minutes before we read about this slim figure from like

some elven like lore tome or something that's like thousands of years old. So it's super freaky. We are walking back to our lodge in whatever, and we have this encounter in the middle of an alley with a shadowy figure. Very cool. Is there anything that you have to add to that or anything that, I mean, it's so mysterious. I can't imagine you can really talk about it. Yeah, I can't really talk too much about it,

but I am thrilled at the way it's all kind of working out. It just feels like a pre-written TV show. You know what I mean? Yeah. Really, the pacing of that I was really happy with. Because I go into these episodes, I don't know what the end of the episode is until the end of the episode sometimes. And so when you're at the stacks, I'm like, okay, looking at the clock, like, all right, so that's where we're at where does this go well hopefully they'll maybe they'll want to go back to the hotel and that's when i'll do this and so yeah it just kind of worked out perfect what a great ending it was oh god it was awesome and then uh obviously a very unsettling event you know at the very very end with the the carving in the floor. So, you know, someone's watching us, following us.

I don't know. What is going on? What is going on? It's very strange, very disturbing, to say the least. But let's get into a little listener mail and talk back to the nation. The old nation. Gotta love that name. It's time to listen to mail.

Gotta get your brain out of the phone in time and listen to mail. Listener Mail! Write in with your questions for Troy and I, and we will hopefully get your question on the show. You can email at contact at glasscannonetwork.com with the subject listener mail. Send in your questions that way, or just go to our website, and you can find the listener mail link there,

and you can submit through a form. So we pull from both. Here we go. Let's get one in here from Paul from Tulsa. Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa. That's where I spent Christmas this year. What's up, Paul?

My wife's whole family is from Tulsa. Thanks for writing in. Paul says, new to the niche, totally hooked. Yes. Y'all are awesome. Yes. Love hearing it. Quick one for Troy.

Does Troy celebrate Christmas all the way to Epiphany, or is Christmas done when the last present is opened? Epiphany, is that little Christmas on January 6th? Yes. Yeah, I've gotten several emails about this this year from all over the globe as being like troy don't be don't be sad just keep pushing me until the 6th uh it's really really hard do i leave the tree up you know till i think i took the tree down on the 5th this year even though my wife wants it out on like the 26th and she's as big a christmas person as me but she she's like, it's time to move on. I'm like, I'm not ready. Let it go. You know, I've talked about it on the show before. Like the saddest thing for me is the January 1st

at 10 p.m. when the Hallmark Christmas movie marathon ends and it goes to fucking Golden Girls. You know, this starts like the penultimate week of October. it's 24 hours a day on both channels. And then at 10 p.m. on January 1st, Golden Girls. So I'm still watching it. And I don't really – I've tried. I've tried to keep the spirit going. You know, what we do do now is because there's so many family things we got to do is like we save one family trip for like right after Christmas. So we did that this year. It's just not the same, man.

It's just you can't fake the funk on a nasty duck i love that i love that saying that's fantastic you can't apply here on a nasty duck but i like it um i also like bringing it back to this week's episode there's a great joke in this week's episode uh where where i think it's you say something along the line. This is not Skid's joke from the end of episode 15. This is episode 16. You say something along the lines

of like, would you just move on? And we're like, we are at the funeral. Give us a minute. It makes me think of you and Sam on the day after Christmas. It's over.

Just give it up. It's time to move on. She's ready to take the tree out i'm like no all right let's get one uh one more quick one in here uh before we get out of here foreman we you know foreman foreman's an old school twitch uh twitch fan and uh and supporter of the nash uh nick from atlanta who is foreman what's up nick so i'm you Foreman. I'm a lot more comfortable that way. What up, Foreman? Thinking about the recent events in Gatewalkers and Troy's hatred of Leshies and gunslingers,

have either of you ever had to deny a player's character concept, whether it be because the pitch didn't fit the adventure or because you just flat out didn't want the character in your game? It there's a question you're not a uh social media guy but there was a uh post that went up last week that kind of took the ttrpg social twitter scene at least or the x scene by storm where um i believe it was a gentleman i'm not sure uh posted something believe it was a gentleman, I'm not sure, posted something, assuming. It was a clickbaity type of thing.

It was like, here's what's not allowed in my game or whatever. And it was like certain ancestries are just not allowed in his game. The way it was worded was sort of like how I would word something, like just being a dick. And I mean, mission accomplished because the- It exploded. Yeah. It's a sensitive group, the TTRPGC, that they did not like the way that he worded it.

And so like everybody was weighing in on like what they thought. I think there's a different way to sort of approach this. I think like anything, it's your game. You do what you want to do. If you want to outlaw classes, ancestries, this and that, then I think you have the ability to do that. The GM is a player too. If the GM doesn't want to play with something, then you should honor that. I'm always up for a conversation.

Like the one thing I said pre-Gatewalk is just no gunslingers because I just don't want to do that again. I don't think they're – I don't know anything about the 2E gunslinger. I imagine it's not particularly broken. Everything seems pretty well balanced. I just don't want guns in this game is really what it came down to. I don't think anybody had an issue with that. Nobody told me like, I really want to play a gunslinger. If someone said like, I really want to play a gunslinger, I'd be like, well, tell me

your concept. I'm open to it. There's no like really – I try to get away from hard and fast rules in general. But like if you have a great concept, I'll listen to it. If it doesn't quite fit what I think is going to be best for the adventure though, that's part of the conversation as well. So I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's all just how you go about it. Have you ever done it?

Yeah. Have you ever told a player like, no, you can't do that? Have I nixed a player's concept? I think I have, but I can't remember the specific of it. And I don't think it was like an outright nix. It was just kind of a redirection. Sure, sure. If you really want to do that, fine.

I really don't care. If that's what you want to do, that's cool. But it might be better to do this. I think that happened, like, on Androids and Aliens. Maybe even – I don't know if it happened on Giant Slayer. But I don't think I've outright really nixed something. I try to get ahead of it. Yeah, I definitely don't come – I don't approach it as an outright nix.

But I will say that I definitely have denied a concept. One that stands out to me is I denied one of Nick Lowe once for a when we were doing Curse of the Crimson Throne. And the reason is because that, you know, it's a pre written adventure, the thing is set up to be in a city where there is a very clear sort of plot and a series of events that occur. And Nick is a very passionate player. And when he gets into something, he gets way into it. And he kind of came to me with a massive backstory. And his backstory included like plot points, you know, that were like, you know, searching for the murderer of his father, like that wasn't it. But let's say it was that, you know what I mean? And it was something that I was like, man, I'm not trying to write an additional adventure, like murder mystery

alongside this adventure, you know? Like what I need is, and that's why player's guides I think are really great for these APs. It's like, what you need is to find motivation within the concept of the adventure path, which is like, you have to have attachments to the city. You have to have things you care about in the city, about people, maybe oppression or violence or your particular ancestry of people and how they're treated or your neighborhood of that city and how it's not getting support from the crown or whatever, like, things like that are all different. They're all unique. And they're all able to be crafted back into the AP really, really well. And so it was really more of a pivot. And Nick was, you know, completely cool with it from the jump and, you know, finding a way to, to make it work. So yes, I have done it. I don't just say yes to everything because I feel like

it can put you as a GM in a position to disappoint people and get yourself really stressed out. You know what I mean? So just know that it's okay to try to pivot. I don't really come at it from a position of, here's what's not in my games.. But I do like to say it just isn't going to fit. Trust me. I know this story and you're going to become irrelevant or this thing that you, it's going to be the main motivation for your character is going to have nothing to do with the story or any of the other characters. And it's going to like leave you on an Island.

Yeah. And this can happen amongst players as well. Like how many times have I said no? And so it was like, Oh, and I could be your brother. Yeah. Like absolutely not. Yeah. Not interested in role someone's like, oh, and I could be your brother. Yeah. Like absolutely not.

Yes. I'm not interested in role-playing that. You know, I just – let me do my thing. You do your thing. I don't like sibling stuff from my particular players. So it's – again, it all comes down to a conversation between the GM and the players, between players and players. between players and players. And if you try to keep an open mind,

I think that, you know, like this happens a lot sometimes where I'll see someone get upset about something that happens on the show. And I think about like, well, that specific moment, everyone at our table was actually very cool about it. Everyone like totally understood it.

And afterwards we talked about it and it was like, wow, that was a great moment. And it just is a reminder that like every table is different. There might be stuff that you don't like, but understand that the table decides at the end of the day, even if it goes against the rules of the game. That's what makes tables have longevity. You find a table of people that like to play the same way. Yeah. And I think we've done that and it's something that we always

keep an eye on. But yeah, it's a good question, especially very timely with that post last week. Yeah, I didn't know about that post. And so, yeah, it is very timely. Thank you, Foreman, and thank you always for watching on Twitch and hanging out. We appreciate it so much. Remember, if you want to get your question in, write us at contact at glasscannonetwork.com. Subject, listener mail. Listener mail. That's going to wrap it up, dude. Twitchject, listener mail. Listener mail.

That's going to wrap it up, dude. Twitch. That's all I have for today. Sorry for the late FOD, everybody. It's a little behind the ball, but it was raining. It was raining. It was raining in our cities. It was raining in our cities.

You guys are the best. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy episode 17 tomorrow night watch Troy's stream if you don't catch it here catch it on VOD I'm going to be streaming on Friday at noon lots of fun stuff coming next week more labs labs tomorrow at 2pm lots of great stuff so

until then take it easy everybody and we'll see you live on Twitch peace I gotta go clean up blood so much fun dizzy Peace. I got to go clean up blood. So much fun. Dizzy. 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 jointhenace.com.