The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 11/29/23

Episode Date: November 29, 2023

It's show week as the guys prepare for the last Glass Cannon Live! show of 2023! Troy and Joe discuss PAX Unplugged and the Philly live show before looking back at Season 5 of Get in the Trunk. In Listener Mail, we find out what the Naish is thankful for and find one question that's IMPOSSIBLE to ask of your GM. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/StJ0wV6abf0 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

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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 Yeah! What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to Cannon Fodder. It is Wednesday, November 29th, 2023, and I'm your good buddy, Joe. And I'm playing the air drums to the Cannon Fodder theme. Dude, those drums were all over you. Did you have drums upside down over your head? That's how I do my kit. I can never have enough. Do you know how to play drums? I do not.

Do you know the basics of drums? I'm terrible at drums. Terrible. And I consider myself somebody who has rhythm. Like, I can dance. Yeah. And I get beats, and I can hear beats and do beats well. And when I get behind a drum kit, it's like it starts the way it's supposed to start,

and then it just bonk, bonk, bonk, like every drum and cymbal hitting at the same time. I can't do it. Dude, I played piano for like 10 years growing up. I took piano lessons and I taught myself guitar. I could play very passable guitar. Now I'd be like clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk. But put me in front of drums and it's like alchemy.

I don't understand how anyone makes music with drums. No. How do they make it sound so good there's the you know i'm a slut for uh looking at uh instagram and tiktok people there's this dude that's like his handle is something like the world's greatest drummer and it's just like other professional drummers watching this dude and being like this guy's a magician and he's amazing he'll be like drumming smoking a cigarette and you still hear like 17 things hitting the drum they're like how is he doing that he only has one stick in his hand

it's so incredible i give a friend of the show nick low a lot of credit because nick low is a singer and a musician he knows how to write music he knows he's trained right he plays guitar at like a modest level uh he's not an excellent guitarist, but he can play chords on a guitar and he can play some piano. You know, he knows his way around because he understands music in general. Well, he'd set out to try to learn drums and he had a really hard time at first and he's getting better and better. And he's like kind of good now.

So credit to him. But I mean, it took it took a lot of work like to just get basic drumming down you know it's a whole different ball game it's a fun skill that'd be something i'd love to do is like you just you happen to walk into a room with a bunch of people as a drum kit and you're like hey you mind if i just take a how does this work hold on Drinks on me. This is so funny. I love this idea. This like world that you live in in your head is so amazing.

A world in which you can walk into a random social situation and there's a drum kit in the room. It works with a piano, right? Like if there's a piano laying around, you're like, hey, do you mind if I tickle the IVs? And you're like, don't you start playing piano, man. But with drums, it's like an elegant black tie affair. Oh, do you mind if I just do-do-do-do-do-do-do? Play an anthrax. Yeah, you might as well like come into a cocktail party with like a bunch of buckets.

Be like, I'm going to play the buckets. Oh, God, that's amazing. Sorry. Real distraction there on Troy's Air Drums. Welcome back, everybody, to the FOD. Exciting week of the FOD this week. Another attempt on our part to do a short FOD. We're going to attempt it. We don't always do so well. But this week, we actually have no GCP episode to talk about. No, we are stupid because it was Thanksgiving week. We took the week off. We didn't have an episode airing. And so we don't have any of that stuff to talk about. But we'll fill the time with a bunch of fun stuff. I'm going to talk news this week. It's show week.

We got a live show this week. Show week. We're going to talk. We'll finally do a little bit of our get in the trunk season finale talk where we can look back a little bit at the season. And then, of course, listener mail. We'll hear from what you guys have to say. And I want to do something a little fun in Listener Mail. I want to look at some of these YouTube comments. Last week, we were like, hey, tell us what you're thankful for on YouTube.

And I do feel like since this show started going on YouTube, which it never really had before, at least at this frequency, we haven't really been addressing those that watched on YouTube and comment on YouTube, and that is extremely appreciated. So I'd love to shout out some of those folks as well. So yeah, it's kind of like it's a laid back FOD. We don't have to delve into our poor play or the narrative situations of a given episode. We can put that off till next week. Quick news hits at the top. It's PAX Unplugged. It's PAX Unplugged this week. How are you feeling? Are you looking forward to it at all? Do you think you're going to get any time

at the actual convention this year? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, the way we have it set up now is we do our live show on Friday night to get that out of the way so that we can enjoy the rest of the weekend and network and hang out and enjoy the con because we're still fans of tabletop. So there's no better con besides Gen Con. But this is really nice because it's in our backyard. We've been to, I think, every single one, right? Like we even went to that slow COVID one. So that's kind of cool too.

And, you know, where PAX East was my first ever con, it's fun to like be such a big part of the evolution of PAX as well. You know, I wish we had a booth on the floor. We reached out to just kind of kick the tires with that. Not for this year, but maybe for next year. Be good to have a presence there like we do at Gen Con. Maybe something smaller or maybe the whole booth. But yeah, I'm looking forward to the show.

This is, I mean, we couldn't have ended the St. Louis show better. Like in my head, I'm always, trying to set up the next show. But I want to let the show breathe, too. And it just worked out perfectly that the Philly show is going to be the perfect show to end the year with. You guys are in a crazy, crazy situation. Yes, I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the con. I love this one.

This is also going to be a little bit of a milestone for me. This will be the first con that I bring my kids to. I've never done that before. They're kind of old enough now to actually walk around, be interested in games and toys of this nature, and they can hound me every single minute about buying a thousand things. It's just so wild. You put kids in a place like that, and they're going to want to buy everything. wild you put kids in a place like that and they're going to want to buy everything so i think it's going to be mostly just saying no the whole time but it will be i'm looking forward to picking up a game with the kids or trying to game with the kids you know it'll be fun do you think you're going to take your kids to a game convention uh anytime soon how long you got until uh you're ready to do something like that i think about it a lot we just have we do so much work at the cons that we do go to like you know archer's birthday falls right around Gen Con and next year kind of overlaps. And so I'm like,

Hmm, maybe I just take the fam out, watch them setting up the booth. And, but like, I, then I think about the amount of work that we have to do. I just like,

it'd be really, really hard, but you know, as we continue to grow, it's nice to have other people do a lot of that work. And then we get to actually, you know, network and do more business and less – I'd say less performance, but that's kind of impossible.

It would be nice. I think Gen Con would be kind of the first con that I might take the whole fam out to. We always talk about like, well, no, we've made it when we can like – we're flying the whole family out to each of these cons to like have a little taste at home. Because one of the hardest parts of being on the road now is being away from family. Like when you're just married, or like, even just one kid is kind of like, it was hard, but you got used to it. Now it's just like, I feel like I'm leaving so many people behind. Be nice to bring them all with us. Yeah, yeah, it would definitely be nice. We've already been sort of planning, looking forward to what the potential tour could look like in 2024

and starting to think about making family trips out of that right so like we get to see each other more when i'm traveling uh which which would be great but and like my kids love like your kids they love games and it's like i'm not a big game pusher like you are you're a game pusher and i just kind of started introducing him to games it It's obviously a big part of my life. And I mean, Archer, especially, I could see he's just constantly like coming up with ideas for games. And now Dash is doing the same thing. Like, I've got a game. And Archer is just like, he's a chip off the old block.

Like now he doesn't want to play the game. He wants to run the game. He wants to be the game master. Oh, no. Yeah, so that started. But now I'm researching all these great classic kids board games. You know, you turned me on to Sleeping Queens, where we love that. We just got Outfoxed, which is, I'm sure you've played Outfoxed.

Just phenomenal games. The kids were literally, I yelled at them to play. I'm sitting there trying to watch the Eagles game. They're climbing all over me. They're getting in my face. So I was just like, just get Outfoxed and play a game right in front of me on the floor. And they were like, can you play? And I was like, no, I can't play.

I'm watching the game. But they played right in front of me. It was great. And my son, Joe, was like cheating. He was like doing, it's a cooperative game. And he's doing like the thing where like the die didn't come out exactly how he wants. And he's just like, ah, we'll just do this anyway. And my daughter is like, no, no, you can't do that you know what i mean it's it's interesting seeing the dichotomy of like

how kids want to approach a game and it's so innate like i didn't teach them one way or another it's like innate some people are like ah it doesn't matter we'll just have fun we'll do this some people like you gotta stick to the rules like. Like, it's just funny. Yeah. How do you like the Chronicles of Aval? That was one that I researched at Gen Con and brought home. And it's one of the best games I've ever played. Yeah, it is. It's a great game. We've had a bunch of games of it.

I think we've won twice out of like eight attempts, you know, something like that. Same, yeah. It's a challenging game. Chronicles of Aval, yeah, that one's really fun. I just played, we got a gift from a great member of the niche, Dungeon, like the old school Dungeons and Dragons board game for like families. It was like ages eight and up. And I busted that out over the Thanksgiving holiday. And we tried that out. And it was fun, very simplistic, but it's sort of like you move from room to room, you fight a random monster. And if you beat them, you get treasure. And it's the race to get the most

treasure and get back to the start of the dungeon before the other players. So like, it's pretty simplistic, but it was it was fun. And I really appreciated that gift. I got to play that with my kids. They loved it. But they keep asking me when we're going to play more role playing games. And I keep being like, ah, later, later. That's not what I feel like doing because I'm so exhausted after work. I don't feel like doing that. But I do need to do it because they love it so much. Yeah, he loves No Thank You Evil.

And I'm just over it now. That's what they keep wanting to play, and I'm over it. Let's just play D&D because I'm tired of making up these scenarios. I just don't love the mechanics i mean like i've kind of changed the mechanics to be more uh like a little harder and a little more like closer to dnd and pathfinder but now i'm just like why don't we just make dnd characters yeah yeah we gotta we gotta get uh gotta get there all right anyway let's get on with the show here i'm gonna spend a little time i'd like to spend a little time on getting the

truck and then we'll just talk to the nation. We'll do YouTube comments and listener mail, and then we'll get on our way here. Get in the trunk season five. This represents the second season. By the way, if you are not caught up, this will have some spoilers probably, but just go ahead and skip ahead. I mean, we're not going to spend any more than seven or eight minutes on this. I'm curious to talk to you because, I mean, we have not discussed this at all. And, you know, the fact of the matter is we decided in season four to move forward with a more campaign style of Delta Green. Delta Green is very much so scenario built. It is sort of short adventures is the main way that people go about playing it.

But now they've released a couple campaigns and this one was just an incredible work of art and we really want to do, explore it. So we're ostensibly halfway through it.

We're at about the halfway point. Now, we're actually in reality probably a little bit half, past halfway of how long it's going to take to finish this thing. But I'm curious, if you are enjoying the long term nature of in in a Delta Green campaign, or if you think that maybe shorter scenarios are the way to play it? I don't know, how are you feeling right now? No, I think long term is right. I remember the day when

impossible landscapes showed up at our old office, I said, start prepping that. And you're like, shut up. And here we are. I think it was the right move. I do miss that sort of cast turnover, I think was nice. Something I'm constantly thinking about, such a hot property of ours, I think it would be a show that would benefit from being weekly as opposed to seasonal. But with the constraints of budget and our schedule, it just makes it hard. And I know that I couldn't commit to 52 weeks without some major sponsor stepping in. And so I've thought about maybe we mix it up. We do Impossible Landscapes and when a season of that ends, we just do run scenarios. So there's no gap. But I think that in terms of the get in the truck brand having a longer campaign is kind of a no brainer. And I would think that like if another one exists to maybe go right into it when Impossible Landscapes ends. So maybe go right into it when Impossible Landscapes ends.

What do you want to see more of in this campaign? Like what have you liked about Impossible Landscapes and what do you hope you see more of in the following seasons? You know, I've talked now a number of times about my dissatisfaction with the system, and I think it boggles people's minds. It's like – it's a very, very different system. And it could be that we're just not using the system to its fullest potential. Oh, that's certainly true. I mean, when you have talked about this before, I just don't want to go down this road. think it's kind of uh boring but i i do believe you know you're entitled to your opinion and i don't really see the point in trying to talk you

out of your opinion it's not going to happen but like people should probably know that what i'm not saying behind the scenes is that i do feel pretty strongly that you're seeing my interpretation of the system and how we play this not the most objective interpretation of the system and how we play this, not the most objective interpretation of the system. You have not had a bunch of different handlers. And I play a very rules light way of playing this because I focus all of my energy on story and narrative and none on game mechanics. I just don't care that much, especially with the players that I have, who are fantastic role players and improvisers. It's like, I don't want that getting in the way. And so I tend to eschew some of those more important things. So there is more depth and crunch and shit to it out there. Requisitioning equipment is awesome. It's deep, it is complicated, and it can result directly in you going to prison if you screw up roles.

And I don't, I just don't do it. That doesn't interest me. Exactly. I'm sure it's a really cool system. I think just something as simple as having pushed roles, being able to spend luck, and having gradations of success. That is what I really enjoy about Call of Cthulhu because I find what happens a lot is that we are either rolling and failing all the time because we've got like four skills that we can actually do anything in that very rarely improve to any significant number. Or like you are stuck having to be like, all right, 15 minutes passed, roll again.

Because you've got to move the story along and we're not passing the roles. And so I just feel like the roles become sort of insignificant in a certain point. So then it's just storytelling. And when it gets to that, it can be very, very hard where you have a structure, a story that's pre-written that you've obviously added so much to with the help of the other two guys that you're working with. And we're contributing to that. But I think that you have to like kind of keep us on the tracks. when you, I mean, you let us go rogue as well, but like, ultimately you've got to get us back on tracks. So when you take out the importance of roles and the need to kind of stay in some,

on some sort of train track, it just, it sometimes feels very limiting as a player. Like I feel like, I feel like nothing really matters. And that's kind of why I like playing Roger the way I do, where I'm just digging into the relationships with the other characters and his sort of own personal problems and just letting the story sort of unfold around me, which is a different way of playing. it's a coin toss but it's like it very rarely results in uh anything that that that feels like i'm moving the story forward i feel like the story is going to move forward regardless and the roles are just there so that it seems like we're playing a role-playing game yeah i mean i think that that's a really extreme interpretation that could be applied to any pre-written campaign in any system. You know what I mean? Like, ultimately, you got to get on some kind of a track. And there's certainly

failings in my part there that, you know, you can work on. You certainly don't want players feeling that way. And so that's always something that you can work on. One can work on. I can work on. But I think that it's, I think interacting directly with the story, I think the challenge really that you're facing with something like a Delta Green is that deep mysteries, deep mystery investigation is so complicated to run because if players are just stupid, you have to handhold them to the answer. And they're all like puzzles. And so it's like, if you don't think like an actual investigator thinks, then you're going to have to get handheld at some point into how these things get done, because otherwise, you'll just die or go to prison or the story will never happen. thing um i think that i i've certainly been open to you guys being arrested i've been open to characters dying a hundred percent um it's not something that i'm like trying to protect people i want to see it through to the end you know because it's a campaign i don't care about any

of that i think that there's a lot of roles that have vastly affected the story in ways that you don't know but there i do want to be i don't want the players to feel the way that you feel. So I do have to work on that. Yeah, but it's not – I don't think it's a fault of you because I – and I've said this to you before. I think what you're doing with Delta Green is your best work. And I also don't think it's necessarily a fault of the system. I think that we have sort of as a group gotten into a habit that is worth examining and maybe throwing some rocks at. It's not bad per se. It's still arguably our most popular show, but I always, I think we can do better. And maybe that

means going back into the book a little bit and, you know, on our part, doing some more homework. Yeah, I agree with you. I do think that there's something to be said for, not to put it on you guys at all. It's a whole group effort, but I do think that that's sort of that's prescient what you're talking about, if that's the right word with how you guys have begun to approach with this attitude of like, well, we should just role play with each other until the story comes to us. You know, it creates entertaining content. But it's not as fun when you feel like you can drive the story. And, yeah, that's a – yeah, it's a fine line. And it's interesting, the chemistry of some groups, how they kind of come together. Jared Logan turned me on to this book like years ago, and I just recently started reading it.

It's more of a pamphlet than a book. It's like 90 pages. Yeah. And, you know, as I'm recording more time for chaos, I'm like just trying to surround myself with more stuff to kind of get me in the zone. And it's a book by a guy named Graham Walmsley called Playing Unsafe. And I don't think it's particularly enlightening because I've taken, you know, I've studied improv. I've done a lot of improv. If you've never done improv, it's going to seem mind-blowing to you.

But it is nice sometimes to go back and see things in a systematic fashion. I'm really trying to study systems in general. And one of the things he talks about is, you know, the basic concept of improv. It's like, always say yes, right? But like, how interesting is it when like you constantly, if everyone is just saying yes to each other, even if it goes against what you planned, either as a GM or a player, you just say yes and go with it. What ends up happening is you get led down a track that is probably going to be a more interesting discovery than if you try to push someone onto something else. Now, for what you and I are doing with Time for Chaos and Get in the Trunk, it's very difficult because ultimately,

we've got to move this story forward. But what I'm trying to do, especially with the next season of Time for Chaos, is give them the information, let them move it forward. And if it starts to go in ways that I'm not ready for, just lean into it and kind of figure out while I'm in the mess, whether or not I can get them back on track. Because I think that even if I can't right away, or in the most perfect way, I still think something interesting is going to happen. But it's really hard because you don't have any safety net. Even though we pre-record these, we're not editing them. We want them to feel like real gaming sessions. And it's really

fucking difficult. But the more we do this, I think the better we're getting at it. It's tough. It's tough with these pre-written things. And I wouldn't then want to just go complete no pre-written adventure because I like having that. I like having a team of authors that made this for me that I can work with. But it's a real tough thing balancing the pre-written with the, yeah, sure, you can do that. But in general, I think that what I'm learning from this is just to say yes more often. I think sometimes, especially in Pathfinder, I tend to like be on guard and be like, no, no, you can't do that. Because I'm just worried that it's going to lead to something game-breaking. And nine out of 10 times, it doesn't. So I'm better off just being like, yeah, sure. Is that what you want to do? Sure. And like, if I think it's ridiculous, just make it more difficult to

do rather than being like, don't do that. Right. That's a great way to behind the scenes, just be like, yeah, go ahead. You know what I mean? And then they're like 27 and you're like, it's a fail. Period. What are you going to say? No, it's not. No, it's a fail. You know, like I have the DC. I don't have to tell you what the DC is. I made it harder because I think your idea is ridiculous, but I don't have to tell you your idea DC is. I made it harder because I think your idea is ridiculous, but I don't have to tell you your idea. Right? You're excited about your idea. Yeah, exactly.

You should be able to try that. And so just say yes, but then make it more difficult. If the dice push it that way, then they push it that way. Yeah. It's interesting. And I – yeah. Yeah. I think that there's – let's talk about season five for a second.

Yeah. There are some beats in there that you kind of have to hit. for a second. Yeah. There are some beats in there that you kind of have to hit. And it isn't necessarily that you that it's railroaded. It's just that I mean, it's certainly not railroaded if you're looking at what I'm looking at, because there are massive entire sections of story that you just didn't do because you weren't interested in them. You didn't pursue them. I mean, there's at least there's no less than 40 pages of content that you skipped in season five. Because I remember telling you early in the season, I was like, this one part could be two full seasons, depending on the choices that you make. Well, you guys made pretty tight choices and move things, you know, you were very, very

focused on the hospital. You were very, very focused on what you consider to be this kind of this demonology and this like, this idea that that Dallin is a demon, and is orchestrating this massive thing. And you just focused your eyes on him and drilled down. And that made things move pretty quickly. I think that you um well there's there's two things that i think you're one i think you're interacting with the story a little bit more than you realize and two you're taking some of these things that you're trying to do as a gm and you're doing them really well as a player like with roger in terms of saying yes like i'm throwing things at you that are just flat out fucked up you know know? And you just kept saying, yes, like knowing that this could probably kill your character,

but you're, you're going with the flow and going with the story. And to me that created some amazing moments. I mean, the moment with the needle in the eye and like pulling that stuff out, you know, like you can, you know, we can make that a combat instead, you know, and that's, it's interesting. I don't think it's as interesting in a cinematic show, right? Like in a, in a show, I think you saying yes, and just your instincts there were really good.

I thought that was really good decision-making on your part to just keep saying yes, keep not fighting back against it and then see what plays out. You know, I always think of it as like, especially it's because I'm a GM and like, I know you're, I'm trying to, I'm trying to be helpful here. Cause I know what it's like when you're brick wall and against a player, who's not understanding that,

like what we're doing here is, and I've said this before as a wrestling match, you know what I mean? Like the only difference is the outcome is not predetermined. It's just that we all know that we're in this to tell a good story together. So if I'm just like opposing everything, like that can be interesting too, right? But it's like, you kind of have to pick up on the hints. Like in a wrestling match in the ring, they'll be like leaning over each other, throw me against the ropes and clothesline me and then

I'll climb the rope. It's like, we're kind of doing the same thing, but we're just doing it by listening to each other and reacting. And I can be like, okay, it seems like he wants to take the story this way. I don't really want to go that way, but let's see what happens here because he's trying to direct this and I'm a player. So let's go with it and see where it leads. And then if I really don't like it, then I'll push back. But, you know, that's part of the yes and as well. But it's really hard, especially there were so many moments in this season where we lost agency.

And that's something that doesn't bother me as a GM, because I've gone on record saying, I don't really care about player agency. I think it's overrated. It's overrated for what we do, you know, in a home game, it can lead to fistfights,

but like for what we do, you know, let, let, let, let it happen the way it needs to happen. There's a lot going on here, but yeah,

no, I'm, I'm always, I'm always on the side of the GM because I am a GM and I hate having to deal with pain in the ass players. Was there anything that stood out narrative-wise this year for you with Roger, with Vicky, with anybody or the kind of narrative in general that was memorable to you? Anything you walked away from like, man. When I think of season five, I think of this. Yeah. I mean, I went into the season being like, okay, season four was the, was a romance. Okay. And then it ends with some level of uncertainty. And then it was the first episode where we, I kind of figured out that we're taking things in a different direction. And that all happened in improv in that first episode because we had very, very little planned going into that.

So then it became for me as like the dramaturg and the playwright, it's like, all right, so what is going to be the Roger arc here and the Roger Vicky arc? The part that I can plan and then see what happens. And I don't think it quite hit. We had such a special four, I think five, we needed like a couple more episodes. There was just so much investigation going on. We couldn't really get to the heart of this like divorced couple seeing each other again and kind of falling back into old habits. It didn't quite have the same arc that season four had. And I kept trying to find it and it wasn't there, so I didn't want to force it because there was so much else going on.

But it'll be interesting to see now that they're going to be on the lam together, how that may take form. There were some great episodes where they, you know, I loved, I loved like getting, having too many drinks and then like, uh, take a, take a shower together and be like, try to get her to come up to my Airbnb. You know, there was some, there was some fun stuff there. I needed, I think the season, I needed to do that a little bit more, but you know, I'm also trying to share the stage with everybody. I don't want to, I don't want to hog stage time. And, um, but yeah, that time. But yeah, that's the stuff that I remember. you're,

there's going to be a manhunt, right. Of some kind for you in, in the real world, ostensibly the real world. What do you think Roger's move is? What do you think his first move is in this situation? Well,

I mean, there's no one more equipped for this than Roger. He's John, he's John Rambo. Like this is exactly. And this is what like real quick, like this is what I kind of wanted to get to because you are, uh, so frustrated and understandably so through season

four, mostly season four and a little bit into season five with how much the campaign relied on search roles and you had no points in search. And the whole time I'm just thinking, wait till it gets here at the start of season six, where roger where his skills are going to shine you know uh and so yeah that nobody is better equipped to deal with this than roger or bobby you could say the two of them sure but even bobby he folds under the pressure you know what i mean like he i mean his sanity is so low yeah roger's still keeping it together this it's first blood you know what i mean but what makes it all the more difficult is he's got these three people who are ill-equipped to deal with it. So he has to protect them or bail on them.

You know he's not going to bail on Vicky. But you saw it in that fight for the bottle at the end there or whatever it was. He was taking it from Neil. He was taking it from Bobby. But I think he was thinking like- To get it to Vicky. Yeah. I got to get her out of there. And then we'll deal. It's like put your own oxygen mask on before giving it to child. It was taking it from bobby but i think he was thinking like to vicky yeah like i got to get her out of there and then we'll deal it's like put your own oxygen mask on before

giving it to child is the reverse of that make sure vicky's safe then we can deal with that but i mean if he was on his own i think he's fine but the fact that he's got this three these three suitcases he's got to deal with it's going to make it uh i mean that's where the drama is going to unfold yeah yeah i'm really excited to see where it goes. I think that the Rambo example is perfect. There's also, if you ever, I don't know if you watched it, I'm sure you didn't watch it. They made a movie or a TV series out of Without Remorse, which is one of my favorite Tom Clancy novels that like got me into reading for fun. Like, I used to just consider reading to be like, shit you did in English class that sucks, you know? And that was one of the

books that was like a real page turner, a real beach read kind of thing. And it's just this solo ex special forces dude in Baltimore, that is just like, taking out all of these people that did something wrong, right? And it's just this solo vigilante story. That's super bad ass. And so I could see Roger like just taking out anyone he wants to, if he was on his own, it'd be so interesting to see. Dude,

I'd never seen Rambo. My buddy had like Rambo toys and growing up, everything was Rambo, Rambo, Rambo. And so I just always assumed that it was just like him in Vietnam, like fucking doing all this stuff, like fight the Viet Cong.

And then I finally, as an adult, watch First Blood. And I was like, this is not what I thought this movie was. That's what the later movies are, you know? Right.

But holy shit. First Blood is a phenomenal movie. Brian Dennehy is the sheriff. I mean, it is, I think about it all the time and that's really what this is. But imagine if- That's what you're heading into. I think it's a really interesting thing to explore. I thought the same thing. And I watched Rambo maybe 10 years ago or something like that.

And I was just like, God, this is fascinating. Because when you're older, you're thinking so much more about the psychology of a veteran. And you're thinking about how people on the home front don't understand and how there's this disconnect and the trained weapon, all this kind of stuff. Anyway, I also just recently watched that documentary on Sylvester Stallone that's on Netflix. And he talks about the development of that script and the changes that he wanted to make uh to make him more human you know like uh because it you know it's kind of originally you think of as a mindless sort of like killing machine right like a a government trained weapon that is sort of set loose with no emotion or feeling and he wanted to make sure that it had more humanity in it he thought that was important

to the story and i just think that like uh that like it's a great combo for Roger. I mean, it really is an interesting analog to where Roger is now. He's very Rambo-esque. Not me! Awesome. All right. Let's kick to listen to me You gotta get your brain up on it

It's time to listen to me You gotta cue that fucking beat Start it off with some YouTube comments Because thank you guys so much for writing in with things that you're thankful for. We'll kick it off, of course, with Noah JB, who says, quote, it'll be a short FOD this week. Looks at the video length. You know, we're doing the same thing this week. We just we just we haven't talked over the entire Thanksgiving holiday.

And so, yeah, we need to do some catching up. Yeah, but we need to do some catching up. Yeah. But we need to do some catching up and, um, and, uh, we get a little bit wordy, but, uh,

at Doe at Don C I'm thankful you guys finally came to St. Louis to give us the best show ever. It's a hot one. Uh, what about Mario Varga? I'm just going to say it. The beard looks awesome on Troy. Is this a conscious beard decision? Are you like, I'm going beard for the next couple months or?

When you're a man of my particular virility. Oh my God. You don't grow the beard, Joe. The beard grows you. I just, I shaved yesterday morning. I was completely clean shaven yesterday morning. Are you serious? My doctor is like concerned with the amount of testosterone in my body. Wow. Wow. Can't help it.

Mike Landefeld. You should see my pubes. I was going to try to cut you off, but you really wedged it in there. You should see my paws for edit. I shave them three times a day. Friend of the show, Mike Landefeld, our own Sergeant Farva.

I'm thankful for the community of friends I have found through our shared love of the GCN. My life has been so much richer because of them. Well said. I got this email from Farva. I emailed him back. Yeah. Yeah. Stanbone says, sad to see we didn't get in the trunk analysis this week. I'm hoping it's in the next one. I just want to see someone pick Joe's brain. Yeah. Stanbone says, sad to see we didn't get in the trunk analysis this week.

I'm hoping it's in the next one. I just want to see someone pick Joe's brain. Yeah. I'd love to talk more about it. Write in some questions. Write in comments in this video, and maybe we'll talk about it a little bit more down the line. But, yeah, thank you guys so much for writing in with your thoughts. Some really, really sweet messages here.

Let's get to the emails. It's nice to have some sweet messages on the FOD. You don't get that too much anymore. Well, dude, I think you do on YouTube for the most part. On YouTube and the Discord. People are pretty great on YouTube. They matter. Adcon says, who is that guy on the right?

Oh, so good. This is my thinking beard. I have a lot of things I'm thinking about. So when you see this shave, you'll be like, oh, he figured it out. He figured it out. It's all glass cannon related. All right. I got two questions this week.

We're already running long and I need to make some time for the second one, which is this guy wrote in with a question that is going to make me go off. But first, let's go to Trifton. Trifton. That's not a real name. Exactly. It sounds like a fake name. Trifton. That's not a real name. Exactly. It sounds like a fake name. Trifton in Silver Spring, Maryland. Pathfinder 2nd Edition did great things for simplifying play, but are there any aspects of the rules that you actually wish were more complex?

For example, one of my players is unsatisfied with how simplistic grappling slash wrestling is in 2E, but certainly does not wish to return to the PF1E or earlier grappling systems. Curious if this has come across or come into your mind at all, because you and I both like chunk. You can get a little bit frustrated. I've seen you with other game systems with simplistic ways of doing things. You're like, just make a complicated rule for it, and I'll be excited about it. Is there anything in PFf2e thus far we've been at it a few years now i i can't think of anything off the top of my head that i wish was more complicated i i think but you go ahead first yeah no i certainly nothing off the top of my head and uh i've thought about this before. You know, I think it's also, in many ways, Pathfinder 2E isn't an easier system, but it's also at the same time not a more complicated system. Streamlined is a good word, but the more I play it, I don't even know if that's accurate. It's a different game with a lot of changes.

And I think that if you were just picking up 2E for the first time without ever having played D&D or 1E, it would be like learning Cantonese. It's still very – it's a very too, to a certain extent. And so I think it's a fair question. I think it's a good question. But I think that that's why our answer of no is a reasonable answer. Because I know from playing Blood of the Wild, the amount of times, you know, Paula comes into 2E with a lot of mechanic experience, but no Pathfinder experience. Mary Lou is relatively new to RPGs, only a few years. And Jared has been playing all different systems his whole life. And the three of them, we consistently, as we go through things like, things that we deal with on this show, like concealment, hidden, undetected, a precise sense, imprecise senses, you know, some of the,

oh, there was another example. It was on the top of my head that was, oh, some of the, um, oh, there was another example. It was on the top of my head that was, oh, some of the conditions, right? Like enfeebled versus frightened versus what stacks with what or what doesn't stack with it. And you know, it's, it's dense. Like if you dig down into it and you want to read these rules, I mean, we were doing tattooing in that game as crafting. It's like a whole, it's like a whole thing. And there's like the layers of the depth to it are – we have to stop the show. We have to stop the show, read through it. Everybody's having a good time with it.

Everybody's really enjoying digging into those mechanics. But nobody is like, oh, well, that's easy. No one has that interpretation of 2E that I play with. I think everybody thinks that it is a nice chunky game to sink your teeth into. Here's something. I don't think I could spot anything specific, but I wouldn't mind magic being a little more complicated.

That's something that's always interested me is just having magic be less... Accessible? Less accessible, yeah. More difficult to access. Not doing a low magic game, but just making it like I think in 1E with the concentration checks and the casting defensively. More difficult to access. the spell. And that does still happen. But those little wrinkles, I don't think I miss metamagic

feats per se, but I do like another layer of complexity around magic. Magic should be a little more wild, I feel. And then as you level up, you're able to control that a little bit better. Yeah, that's an interesting one. That's interesting. But I'm kind of grasping even saying that. Yep. All right, let's go to our second question here. This one, I mean, this question blows my mind. It's so funny. And as somebody myself who has spent a lot of time studying and being trained in public speaking, I thought that this was an interesting question to delve into, and we'll do it fast. This one's from Eddie. Eddie. Hi. I find I get quite distracted by frequent speaking tics and fillers, such as um, uh, you know, kind of.

Infrequent uses doesn't get to me, but when they become frequent or too excessive, I find myself mentally checking out. My GM consistently uses fillers all the time. mentally checking out. My GM consistently uses fillers all the time. Any suggestions on how I can gently address this with my GM, or if the issue is with me, any suggestions on how I get over my hangup? P.S. to any GMs listening, please consider reducing your use of fillers. It might boost your players' enjoyment. Oh, boy. Eddie, I mean, first of all, very bold to send this in. This is a tricky situation because it can be very sensitive. It can be – it's a very sensitive issue. So let me start by saying I use too many fillers.

I have these little speaking tics and I'm trained. I have these little speaking tics and I'm trained and I constantly listen back to myself and think, would you shut up with filling every available second of air with sound? Like you don't need to constantly make sounds. But when you're in it, you're in the moment. It takes a great deal of discipline to know how to not do that. And so I suffer from it and I understand the idea of telling someone that they have this problem and they need to fix it is pretty mind blowing. I mean, your thoughts? The word you're looking for is impossible. Impossible.

That's the word. If it's really a problem, you're going to have to go find a new GM. You're going to have to drop out of that game and go find a perfect human being uh to run days how can you say that to someone it can't be done and this is coming from a guy that is like just tell him or move on um i think yeah no you've gotta you've just gotta go find a new gm that's hard i don't know if i still do it i'm'm sure I do. But lately I've been going back to listen to old giant slayers just as we're putting ads in the old thing. So I'm just listening to the back catalog.

So I'm listening and trying to find spots to put these fucking ads in. And like, I hear it and I'm like, oh, LaValle, what are you doing with these ums and ahs? I hope you got rid of these. This is amateur hour. So I hope that I've gotten better at it. But it's really hard. It's really tricky. I wish I was better at it than I have become.

I do. It is a goal I constantly work towards. Let me tell one quick story that you'll appreciate. I think I've told you this story before. When I was in my old job, we had a client, who shall remain nameless, who there were reports from casting directors. Oh, I know this story. Yeah. I know this story.

There were reports that this actor smelled. Right? So whatever it was. Stinky. He was stinky. I honestly can't remember if it was a BO situation or like a halitosis type situation, but the person was obviously struggling with something and they smelled. So casting directors contact this person's agent, who's my boss at the time and, uh, says, this guy's going to lose out on work because of this. Like we can't bring him in. Like people are complaining in the waiting room. I mean, it's awful, right? So my boss has to call this person

in, close the door behind them and have this conversation with a person who is in their 50s, maybe 40s, 50s, and a totally clean cut, normal looking dude. You wouldn't know, right? Until you got, you know, close or whatever it was. So when he left, our friend who we've mentioned many times on the show, Ambrosia, who was my coworker at the time, went up to my boss after he had this conversation. My friend Matt goes up to my boss and is like, I just want you to know, you have my lifetime respect for having that conversation how on earth did you do it like how did you even have that conversation i can't imagine asking your gm to tighten up their uh their tics uh and speaking fillers it is impossible is the correct word you have to get a

different gm but i will say all that said, Eddie, I get it because if I'm listening for it, it'll drive you mad. Like if you're listening to a speaker and you're paying attention to any ums, uhs, or kind ofs, or you knows, and that's all you hear, you start to like, like, it'll drive you mad. You have to find a way to tune it out. And I'm fine at tuning it out from time to time. It's like getting a song stuck in your head. Sure. How do you tell somebody to not get the song stuck in their head?

Like you can't. And so I understand how you struggle with it, Eddie, but like the problem is with you and there's no way for you to fix that unless you think differently. Yeah. It's hard. If it really bothers you, it's, you're's you're gonna have to move on you're gonna have to move and when your friend asks why you're leaving the game you have to be like i don't know because you can't even tell him why you can't even

tell him why i'm busy any night you ever want to play again so sorry oh. It's so fucking funny. But I appreciate the reminder. In fact, you know what? It's very possible that Eddie is a slick operator and really was doing the, like, asking for a friend thing. But really, he's just trying to tell me to ease off on my fillers. So message received, Eddie. I'll keep working on it. Yeah, I know.

This was like, I'm secretly Eddie Yes Now that would be smooth That would be smooth Oh man That's going to do it for us this week Thank you guys so much for hanging out Post Thanksgiving chilling with us

For a little FOD Episode 11 Airs this week. So we're back, baby. Thursday night, episode 11 is airing, and we'll talk all about it on next week's FOD. But for those that are coming to Philly, we'll see you at the City Winery this Friday night. For those that are bopping around,

PAX Unplugged, hopefully we see you on the floor. I'll be there all weekend. Looking forward to it. Play us out, Troy, with a little air drums. 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 jointhenash.com.