The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 12/6/23

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

The guys share their impressions from PAX Unplugged 2023 and dig into a combat-heavy episode of the Glass Cannon Podcast! In We Are Stupid, they take some time to discuss Affliction round timers, the Khopesh, and changes to Disarm in the Pathfinder Remaster. Finally, whose job is it to take notes in a long-term campaign? Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/egM3PRhzHUM 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. welcome to cannon fodder a behind the scenes look at the glass cannon network Yo! What is going on, nash? Welcome back to Cannon Fodder. It is Wednesday, December 6th, 2023, and I'm your old pal, Joey O'Brien. And I'm Troy, switching my headphones live, LaValle. What just happened, man? I went live and you're not even in the seat. Yeah, you know, I was like, shit, I don't want to wear my big over the ear headphones when I've got these cool, lightweight ones. But I already heard the music going.

I'm like, ah, this will be fun. Let's roll the dice. Let's roll the dice. I don't know, man. I think that you might not make it as a news anchor in this town. You can't just drop off camera the second the show goes live. This just in.

I do what I want. I'd love to see a news anchor do that sometime. I'm hearing something from my producer. I do whatever I feel like. This just in. Do whatever I feel like.

Troy, we have just returned. I don't know if you can hear it in my voice. From PAX Unplugged. Three straight days of hot, sweaty gaming. Yeah. And it has dried out my throat. I don't have any con crud.

I'm not sick, but I am dried out. It doesn't hit you the first day. Give it to a couple days afterwards. Then you'll know. Yeah, but what about you? You were like, on the last day, you got up and you were like you were like i'm 100 sick i just always feel sick this time of year i treat my body like a truck stop toilet uh yeah no i feel i feel good i feel good i'm tired i'm very very tired but uh that's because i was up late watching hallmark movies um cons are exhausting man they're

fun but they are exhausting. It's so funny because we, from back in the day when we used to go, we it would be impossible to not stay up all night partying and then game all day, you know. And I was so tired all day, every day at those cons back then. And now

we're staying, we're not staying up as late. We do have some more work stuff to do, but it doesn't change the feeling. I was talking to Paula Demme about this, who is there. Like when you're at the con, I just feel so freaking tired the whole time I'm there. And I'm trying to like push through. And she's like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's that's everybody at a con. You just constantly feel that way.

I wish I could just feel great every day, all day. But I suppose I'd have to go to bed at 730. Yeah, I don't know. This was a weird con that like right when I walked in on Friday, because I went for a little bit before we had our call at the show. I was like, I feel like I've been to 50 of these this year. What am I doing? What am I doing here? And, you know, then after the show was done friday night we got to go back on

saturday and you know we had we had a lot of fun um actually just playing a game uh for about six hours and so that that was nice but uh i remember just being like i'm i'm ready to take a break now for the rest of the year yeah you know and i also think that you are in a unique position in that uh I also think that you are in a unique position in that people don't do what you get to do now, right? Like that you just get to fly to all these cons every year. Like the average consumer, which we used to be in this realm, was you went to the one that was close to you, right? Once a year. And it was like, yes, it's here. Yeah.

And all that. And that's whereas like us, we're seeing a lot of stuff that was at Gen Con. Right? So it's just kind of like making its way to the East Coast. And everything isn't so new and flashy, you know, at every single con. So it's kind of, yes, I feel like there was nothing that blew my mind on the floor. Right? Yeah.

I don't know what I was looking for. I'm always walking around being like, Oh, where is it? I have everything here. There's nothing here. I don't have, or could get from like a phone call.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I brought my kids for the first time. That was awesome. It was really fun. I mean, they had an even shorter fuse than I did,

you know, like after a few hours you could do it. The overstimulation, it was just like, you know, we got to walk away here for a little bit because you want to buy everything. You want to play everything, you know, and sometimes as a kid, you don't know how to manage those expectations, right? But we had a great time, but it really did highlight for me. So last year and the years previous, I was there and I was like, man, there's so much stuff for kids here. I got to bring my kids. Then I get my kids there. And man, does it highlight for me how much adult stuff is there and how little stuff is really for

kids? Because like, you're walking around. And at one point, my daughter was really frustrated. She was like, it's all just grown up games, you know? And like, while you can teach, you know, a seven-year-old to play grown-up games, it's hard to walk up to a demo booth for like a 14-plus game and have them just understand what's happening, right? It's like, you see how many games are deeply complicated strategy games. And I was like, okay, all right, well, let's just go to the games library and get something that says six-plus plus and we'll play that. And we did that and we had a great time. Yeah, like on Saturday, we all played Root.

You brought your copy of Root. You were really excited to find some nerds to play with. And so me, you and Kate and Sydney, eventually Matthew played Root. And we had so much fun. I was like, well, I mean, I would love to buy that. And it would just sit unopened in my closet because I couldn't teach this to my wife, my in-laws, nothing. I got them playing Wingspan and we played a bunch this summer. Like right after our Seattle trip, we went to a game store and you were like, oh, this is a great game, Wingspan.

We played nine games of that. And then we all went and bought it. And I'm like, this game, I couldn't teach to anyone. No, for real. For real. It is like it is not for the uninitiated. I joked with a buddy that if I tried to teach one of my neighbors in town here to play it, they might never talk to me again. Or like invite me to another board game night.

Because you'd be like, how dare you think that I would enjoy this? I don't think we could teach it to Skid. No, Skid sat there. I was so funny. Skid sat there. He watched. He asked for all the details as we were taking turns. He was engaged. He was like creating emergent story out of it like he always does. He was having a great time. And then Kate was like, I'm not mentally, I can't mentally play a second game. Like, Skid, you want to jump in and play? And he was like I'm not mentally I can't mentally play a second game like skid you want to jump in and play and he was like no no not at all so yeah it was just so funny he was like no this sounds miserable like it was really complicated but great we loved it we had a great time yeah

the show was awesome the the Philly show was great thanks everybody who showed up there uh it was way too hot in that room talking to mcdermott in our morning meeting this morning he said what did he compare it to so infuriating man it's so he said that it was like he's like i guess the vibe the venue was going for was 12 angry men like louisiana courtroom in the 50s like like that seemed to be the vibe it It must be a corporate policy because Chicago and St. Louis were hot, but we mitigated it with fans and telling them well in advance.

And we asked them to cool it off this time, and it was really cool backstage, but out there it's just uncomfortable. But beyond that, I mean, a fun show. And they kept saying it's because they're part of a mall and they don't do the HVAC. The mall does the HVAC. It was like a whole thing, but that was a bummer.

But otherwise, the show is great. Thanks to everybody who persevered and hung out with us in that steamy VIP after party. We're going to hit a couple quick news bits here and then jump right into episode 11, GCP. Of course, we got We Are Stupid, lots of that, a little remaster update, and then we'll get out of here on listener mail. So one of the news things that kind of dropped right at the show was the cast dice. The cast dice have dropped.

This is something we mentioned in the GCP, if anybody, Campaign 2, if anybody picked up on that. But we have negotiated with our sponsor, Norris Foundry, to create individual dice for every performer. have negotiated with our sponsor, Norris Foundry, to create individual dice for every performer. Once again, this time, though, new Campaign 2 dice, individual gem dice for each player with their own unique custom-crafted wood box that has their own engraving on it. You got one there? Yeah, I got mine. So this is what happened. We had Angeline, who does all the art for our tour, create unique individual designs for each of the boxes.

So there's a Kate box, a Joe box, Skid box. In order to get each person's dice set, it's only linked to the box. You can't get a Kate box with Skid dice. Can't do it. So everything is like down to the wire. And our buddies at Norse Foundry were like, we got them. They're ready to go. And we opened them all up like at 3 o'clock the day of the show.

And it's everything except Troy and Joe Dice. So we're like, oh, it just like fell off a UPS truck. Lost in shipping, yeah. Yeah. So the Skid and Matthew and Kate and Sidney Dice were on sale at the show. The rest will be putting up soon somewhere. So keep an eye on the store, yeah. And the Joe and Troy dice will be coming. We have the Joe and Troy

boxes. So this is the Troy box. You can see I don't know how I can do there. It's kind of like a beer bottle with some Christmas. I'm going to do like I'm teaching a karate class with the opposite hand. It's like a beer bottle with some Christmassy cocktail-y things and the water's coming out and a D20

is rolling out of it. They're all really, really unique. It's a very cool design, yeah. And everyone sort of contributed to the design idea, and then Angeline just did their magic. Yep. So look for that. Keep an eye out on this store. They should be coming up soon. So keep an eye out on the web store for those to hit, for those to drop.

One more thing before we go into the episode. I just want to give you guys a save the date niche. I want you to save the date. If you are a fan of blood of the wild blood of the wild is going to have a little Christmas party, little cast Christmas party because we can't be together. So we're going to get together live between Christmas and new year. Save the date Friday, December 29th, Friday, December 29th, 8 o'clock p.m. Eastern Time.

We're actually going to go live on our Twitch channel and just hang out. So we're just going to talk. We're going to talk about this first year of Blood of the Wild, and we'd love to interact live with you guys. So if you're listening to Blood of the Wild, make sure you get caught up and listen all the way up through that week of Christmas. And then on December 29th, we're all going to hang out live. So save the date, more details to follow on that. Let's talk about the Glass Cannon Podcast. Campaign 2, episode 11.

I really enjoyed this app. I mean, it always seems weird for us to talk about our own episodes. But here's the thing. Cannon Fodder was born originally out of this idea of we do this app. I mean, it always seems weird for us to talk about our own episodes, but here's the thing. Cannon fodder was born originally out of this idea of we do this anyway. We would always like hash out episodes after the fact, say what we liked, say what we didn't. And I really liked how this combat developed, how it was set up. And I think there was a lot of really fun energy and comedy between the players as we were getting into it. You know, just making fun of each other. You can tell that everybody is really starting to sink in to working with each other, right, in this show. Because there's a lot of like, oh, Sidney always does this and Kate always does this.

So it takes a long time to develop those kind of habits where you can understand how people play and then poke fun, you know, when the situation presents itself. This episode, I thought, showcased that a lot. Let's talk about the encounter to start, which is a dream spider over top of this room that we're in with another oak steward. And we begin by seeing this ladder being pulled up out of the room. Talk to me about the opening of that encounter. I want some behind-the-scenes knowledge here, and don't BS me. Just give me the straight juice. Is this encounter designed to start in this way?

Is there a way that you can surprise them and they don't pull the ladder up? Or did they hear us? Did they make rolls? How is this encounter supposed to start? And if it was different, what changed in our playthrough? Yeah, I'm trying to remember the exact thing that happened, like the core. I don't know if I had you all roll perception or if I was doing secret perceptions. I can't remember what I did.

I think I end up doing secret perceptions for all of you, basically. Now, there's no surprise rounds anymore. As written, I just wanted to see whether or not anyone would notice this happening, the ladder being pulled up. Because as written, it kind of like baits you into the room or like waits till you're exploring the room and starts to pull the ladder up. Okay, so that's in it. That's part of it. That was a cool encounter design.

Like the first thing you see is a ladder being pulled up. Right. What are you doing? What's going on up there? Right. Yeah. And so especially where they both have ranged abilities, it would have made it really tough if that ladder got up there. But I'm thinking like that's going to make noise.

I think maybe in the past, and I'm sure people would run it this way. It's just like you notice the ladder gets pulled up. Roll for initiative. this way it's just like you notice the ladder gets pulled up roll for initiative but this was like i'm starting to pull the ladder up and i think uh lucky and maybe zephyr heard or succeeded on the perception check i can't remember what it was and so now it's down to initiative if i roll a higher initiative that ladder is going up that's it game over but how much more interesting is it and it just kind of worked out this way that lucky's like i run and jump on the ladder like okay all right so this is what it's gonna be it was great it was a great little discovery in that moment and then of course it's still

kind of a tug of war until zephyr jumps on and then that's enough weight to pull it down and it was very interesting because zephyr is in a position where she is like and and this is something that i've dealt with as a ranger in the past. She's a monk, but like, Lork was kind of a switch hitter ranger, they called him in first edition, which was, could competently use a bow, could competently use a melee weapon. And when you get into these like dungeon crawly kind of things where it's all these small rooms your bow gets harder and harder to use and in the volley property volley trait has really it really encourages you to not use a long bow in a 15 foot by 20 foot room like right they're just like this isn't a feasible thing so zephyr

had stowed the bow contrary to how she had originally started this whole dungeon crawl and uh those free hands are actually what allowed her to jump on the ladder in one action grab it and pull it down so i thought that that was cool yeah and she didn't have to leave her bow behind it was just already kind of kind of strapped to her back but um all right so let's talk oh i'm gonna do something here i don't even know i just I just realized this might be a problem. But you know what? I'm committed and I'm doing it. Committed to the bit.

You're just going to have to deal with it. I'm committed to the bit. I want to go on Demiplane and show you a dream spider because I found it on Demiplane. And let's just look at some of these stats here. It's a cool looking spider. It's a very cool looking spider. Where does it come from? Do you know?

Did it say in the book? Was it from the book or was it like a... Yeah, but that's information you don't have yet. Okay, yeah, that's fair. Well, I just meant the dream spider like design. Like where they generally come from. Because I remember dream spiders in, whatchamacallit, Emerald Spire. They were in Emerald Spire. So they've been around.

But yeah, a neutral small animal, just looking at some of its stats here. I'm reading here. I have to see if there's something I can tell you. Yeah, no, you're still trying to figure out how this came to be. But in terms of the etymology of the dream spider, just keep scanning on there. You'll see. Oh, yeah, yeah. A dream spider's webs have iridescent blue hues and are infused with the same hallucinogenic compound as the creature's toxin.

So this toxin, what it was doing to us was not immobilizing. Immobilizing? No, that was the web. Oh, it was making us stupefied. Yeah. It made you stupefied in that first round. And we can actually put that up, right? So yeah, it's the dream spider venom.

Yeah, you just jumped out there. It says the shiver addicts. Like, that's where shiver is made from, from their venom. Oh, I didn't even realize that. What a cool inset. Yeah, Talented Alchemist processed dream spider venom into an addictive's where shiver is made from, from their venom. Oh, I didn't even realize that. What a cool inset. Yeah. Talented alchemist processed dream spider venom into an addictive drug called shiver. Now the difference with shiver is you start out being like courageous before you start tripping and pass out.

Right. Oh, that's cool. This one here, you just get stupid, stupid, and then you start taking poison damage. Yeah. It can be pretty nasty. and then you start taking poison damage. Yeah, it can be pretty nasty. I've definitely heard of shiver,

but I didn't, whatchamacallit, didn't realize it was developed from dream spider venom. That's awesome. Yeah, I feel like you ran a PFS for us a long time ago where we were like stopping a shiver operation. I remember that. Or maybe that was from Curse of the Crimson Throne. There was something where like- Oh, maybe it was. There were these guys that were pushing shiver. I mean, that's how I know it. Or maybe that was from Curse of the Crimson Throne. There was something where like – Oh, maybe it was.

There were these guys that were pushing shiver. I mean, that's how I know it. Yeah. But it just really surprised me because anything that hasn't been an oak steward has been fey, right? And now all of a sudden there's this dream spider and it seems almost like a companion or something, like a druid animal companion. I really don't know what the deal is. Uh, definitely want to find out more about it,

but it was, uh, I really enjoyed the different levels of the encounter being downstairs from a spider that is shooting webs down at you and immobilizing you while there's an Oak Stewart up there, just leisurely casting Shillelagh. It was a very intimidating, intimidating situation.

And, uh, and then Sepir getting stuck on the ladder created good things maybe ranged cover bad things we couldn't get up there right yeah it was tricky um this is what foundry does so well is like having the multiple levels like when lucky went up there and i could switch to a new map that only Lucky could see. Yeah.

And then it became this like two on one fight. And then we go back downstairs. You guys have no idea what's going on, but Lucky can see everything. It was just really fun. Like having different levels. It's also a testament to how cool this, this map layout is for this first part of the adventure.

Like there's just a lot of doors and levels and bridges where you can see other parts of the building, but not inside the rooms. And yeah, it's really, really cool design. We've said it a couple of times already in show at this point, how cool the level design is here. And it really does show in this one where you just have like a hole in the ceiling, right? And the only way to get through it is the ladder. All right. Well, let's get into this because with all the combat, there was indeed some notes from Professor Eric on things we did right, things we did wrong, and some interesting things

to discuss. So I'm going to jump into We Are Stupid here with – I'm going to come right at you, I think. Oh, boy. Excuse me. I'm ready. I'm going to come right at you i think oh oh boy excuse me i'm ready i'm gonna come right at you dude i got my dukes up so you as the oak steward went ahead as zephyr came up the ladder and you threw off an acid flask and uh man i was cracking up i mean this was so classic glass cannon like you were like i throw it right in your mouth and it just evoked such a horrible image like uh bam i pour it right on your face and uh and professor eric uh brought up that the acid flask itself is

actually uh one point of damage you roll you said six points of, but it's actually one point of damage and one D6 persistent. So that wouldn't have happened at that time. That ticks later. Here's an acid flask on Demiplane. I'm assuming it was a lesser, but it deals one acid damage and then the persistent acid damage and listed splash damage. I said six damage right So the other question. I said six damage right out the gate? Because I know this.

I think you rolled a D6. Okay. And you said six damage. That's so weird. I wonder why I did that. And then, if memory serves, so you were unfair to Zephyr there. And then, I think, I'm not 100% sure. I'm bringing up Foundry to see why I screwed this up.

Because, you know, since this recording, I've dealt with a lot of alchemists. I've been playing alchemists on Strange Aeons and alchemists, you know, or I don't know if I've done more on this. But I've been reading a lot of, like, lesser accident flasks, moderate flasks, greater flasks, and seeing, like, how they work. So seeing that I made that mistake surprises me because now I've spent so much time with it. But I'm also just trying to figure out how I fucked that up in the moment. But anyways, yeah, I mean, I definitely know that's how that works. Yeah. Like all of them are different.

The Alchemist Fire does one thing, the Lightning does one thing, and there's properties that are like hidden when you read on the page, like the lesser acid flask or the moderate acid flask will tell you what it does, but also all acid flasks do X. And so you kind of have to make crib notes for yourself. I'm just trying to figure out how to fuck this up. Yeah, it's, like you said, having a shorthand of notes is going to be very helpful. But the one positive thing that so like it's a little bit negative that you do that

that damage technically too early but then i uh you know i think that you didn't mention it on zephyr's next turn right so uh i don't know if you forget that there's this persistent damage but like you know we have to forget or remember the wash that that's out there yeah exactly it comes out in the wash so so we're all good um mat did a treat wounds. This goes back to just before the combat. And he mentioned he doubled his 2D8. And I told him on air that it's 4D8. The difference there, and Professor Eric points it out. It's like, it's fine. You guys caught it on air. But just remember, once your medicine levels up, and you are doing 2D8 plus 10, like you do not double. You just do 4d8 plus 10 on a crit.

You don't double the 10, you know? So it does not get doubled. So it's just important not to get in the habit of doubling, but doing double dice. I see why I did that. It's foundry says 1d6 plus one acid as damage. Really? Yeah.

And it's like acid flask, strike plus five, and then 1d6 plus one acid. Was it a moderate flask or something? No, it's a lesser acid flask. It just, that's how it was written here. It's up to me to know that's not how acid flasks work. But as written, it looks just like staff, strike plus six, 1d4 plus two bludgeoning it looks exactly the same ranged acid flask lesser 1d6 plus one acid oh so it's just like a typo

basically like yeah because when i when i look at the actual book it just says lesser acid flask um and so well but it says damage 1d6 acid plus one acid splash right in the John. Weird. Yeah. So it's, I think it, I think it's. You think you caught a mistake on foundry? I mean, they're the way acid flasks are written in the handbook is different from how it's written, both in the adventure and on foundry. So it could be that, like, they just wanted this to be different or uh maybe they

were more potent acid flask but here's why i think that that's wrong let's go back to let's look at a moderate right like if it was a moderate you go to a moderate here and it's uh it's still only one acid damage and what goes up is the persistent and i think that this is very interesting narratively it's like acid when it hits doesn't hurt right away yeah but it just starts seeping in and then it can be really really terrifying and damaging uh so as it levels up it still is only doing more persistent damage not more initial damage yeah it's always one damage and then it's more splash and more persistent. Um,

but yeah, we may have caught a little error or maybe they just wanted to call it something else. I call it, uh, an acid, uh, envelope.

Spider P. Right. Spider P. Uh, flask. Uh, okay, cool.

Well, I'm glad we squared that away. That's good. I'm glad that you stayed persistent with it too. You were like, I know I didn't make a mistake. No, I didn't make a mistake. I don't, I'm not stupid. You're stupid. No, stupid.. That's good. I'm glad that you stayed persistent with it too. You were like, I know I didn't make a mistake. I know I didn't make a mistake.

I don't, I'm not stupid. You're stupid. No stupid. The book's stupid. We're all stupid. Okay. Let's do this.

All right. So this was a big chunky one that we kind of debated in the episode. If you recall, it was, when do you make your save for poisons? Yes. When do the rounds tick? Right.

On the creature's turn on the afflicted characters turn. Beginning of the turn, end of the turn. Beginning do the rounds tick, right? On the creature's turn, on the afflicted character's turn. Beginning of the turn, end of the turn. Beginning of the turn, end of the turn, exactly. So there is no answer. There's no straight answer. Professor Eric lays out that it is vague and that different GMs handle it differently.

There are a lot of GMs who handle it as persistent damage to make it easier. It occurs on the afflicted creature's turn at the end of their turn. The downside of that is that you can have the first two saves of that poison be a little bit too close together. Right. So if it's like you, you do the first save and then you're the next character to act. What you have to do that again. Right.

Like, and if you check on the creature's turn because then a whole round goes exactly so what uh professor eric does is he does it on the creature's turn that executed the the poison but he does it at the end of their turn he always does it at the end of their turn he's like it just to make it easier to remember because most things that tick in across the game happen at the end of turns so he's like i just do it at the end to make it easier. I also like – he's like, you definitely don't want to get into the weeds of like, well, it did it on its second action. So does it tick during its second action of the next turn, right? It's like, just do it at the end of the turn. Or you could do it at the beginning because the problem is if you're then exposed to that again, it increases the stage.

So that definitely favors the enemy if you're waiting until the end of the turn. Because let's say someone gets hit, fails, goes to stage one, right? If you now comes back to the creature, if you don't do the save again at the beginning of the turn and that creature bites you again, hits you, you have to then roll again right away because you've been exposed to the poison again. You could be taken to stage two. And now you make your save at the end of the creature's turn

and it brings you back to stage one when you should have been cured. Whereas if you do it at the beginning of the turn, let's say you fell to stage one and then before the creature goes, roll your save. You been cured. Whereas if you do it at the beginning of the turn, let's say you fell to stage one and then before the creature goes, roll your save. You're cured. And now you get attacked again and you get exposed to the poison and fail. You go back to stage one. So it definitely favors the enemy to wait to the end of the turn. But I think the spirit of the game wants you to do it at the beginning of the infecting creature's turn. turn yeah the main reason he says he does it at the end is because it's easy it's just easier to

remember when it gets to the creature's turn you sort of do you're thinking as a gm like you have so much in your head and it's just like all right let me execute this creature's actions then at the end of its turn what's the cleanup right like what are the the cleanup steps uh that's the only reason so yeah if you remember to do it at the start of the turn then yeah i see no reason why it shouldn't be that way as long as it's maintained in that consistency um okay yeah and so that's it on that i think that that's a good thing for us to try to remember is is tick afflictions on the start of the creature's turn the other reason he said this is a good point that gms do it on the uh of the creature's turn. The other reason he said, this is a good point, that GMs do it on the character's turn,

the one positive of that, doing it on the afflicted character's turn, is that you as the GM do not have to continue to track a dead creature's initiative for the ticking of the poison. Yeah, right, right, right. Right? So that can get you in the weeds a little bit.

If you're like, all right, I want to get this off my initiative board. This creature's dead. Like, remember, you can't do, all right, I want to get this off my initiative board. This creature's dead. Like, remember, you can't do that. Like, you have to – that creature's initiative matters. I wonder if there's just a buried rule that we're all missing. It's like it seems strange they wouldn't have outlined something that's very, very important. It's funny.

I don't think that's weird at all because we have these discussions every week. Do we? The vagueness of the rules. Yeah. That seems like an oversight to me, not like a – You do what you want like this is this is like all three of those options that we've given beginning or four beginning of a character's turn end of a character's turn beginning and end all have like wild swings in like the difference of how things affect uh yeah it's it's maybe uh maybe the

remaster has hey comment on the youtube video let us know if you know an answer that we're missing. Yeah, please write it on the YouTube video. We'll find it. That'd be awesome. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about disarm for a second. So, you know, Lucky wants to disarm this creature.

And this just creates a bit of a shit show, which I love. I read something so funny about this. And like, I don't know if you're going to bring it up. So just remember, if you don't, I'll bring it up. Okay. It's just like a Sydney thing that I don't know if you're gonna bring it up so just remember if you don't i'll bring it up okay it's just like a sydney thing that i don't blame her for it's just like so shitty i'll just say it that like the thing says that it's used to disarm but the weapon doesn't even have the disarm trait so she can't use it yes this is exactly what i was going well one of the things i was going to say was and it's so funny you mentioned that because I was going to say exactly that. I was going to say exactly that. I don't blame Sydney.

So if you go to the Kopech here on Debbie Plain, it's like this curved sickle sword has a pointed tip allowing it to be swung like a hand axe or thrust like a short sword. The tip of the Kopech is usually hooked so it can be used to disarm an opponent's shield or weapon that's a real oversight and yet you can't use it to disarm an opponent's shield or weapon what it does have is the trip trait for whatever reason you could use this weapon to trip with the athletic skill anyway it seems like an oversight for sure it's certainly not uh it's definitely an oversight yeah exactly uh the weapon traits right here trip uh it would have to have the disarm trait to allow you to use it to disarm now you could i believe technically use it to disarm but you would have to have a free hand and as a two-weapon fighter she doesn't really have that so she

she really needed a weapon with the disarm trait a couple other things during this encounter uh oh and this is where we'll bring up the the uh the remaster because if you recall one of the things that i complained about was and we dealt with this in the um uh was this strange aeons yeah it was strange aeons right where we were dealing with the disarm in like the god scenario. Sorry, I'm just – I'm looking at this egg hole. I'm like, there's got to be something wrong with this. So the disarm action, you have at least – the requirements are you have at least one hand free. The target can't be more than one size larger than you. Anyone can do that.

Yeah. The only thing the disarm trait gives you is that you don't have to have that hand free. Right. So I don't think it's an oversight. It's just a weapon that can be used to disarm. You just, you got to do it, you know, you got to have a free hit if you want to do it. I think that it is absolutely an oversight. Oh, I don't think so.

Why would you write the tip of the kopisch is usually hooked so it can be used to disarm an opponent's weapon or shield and not have it have the disarm trait? Because the disarm trait just allows you to do it without a, even if you don't have a free hand. So then why don't you disarm with it? You can disarm an opponent with a short sword in every short sword, like, you know, description. It's just like, this one's really good for it. But it isn't. It doesn't have the trait.

It has no different, it's no different than a dagger, right? Like, in terms of mechanically how it works with disarm. Most people don't have a kopesh and another weapon, something else in the other hand. They're just like, because they know, like, this thing is really good at disarming. But it isn't. It has no mechanical benefit to disarming. It is strange. It is strange.

I just want to make sure we made that clear. Like, you can still disarm without a weapon having the disarm trait. I said that. I said that. I think while you were reading. I said that. And it's just that, like, but her being a being a two weapon fighter, that's what makes it funky. Right.

Like if you just did it with if you used the Kopech one handed, you could disarm just fine. What if you threw one weapon up into the air and it just it's like spinning. And while you second action, third action, grab the weapon. I'm going to suggest that she do that with Lucky at some point because she asked she asked and you were like, yeah, use one extra action to do it. That sounds dope. That's pretty badass. And then she kicks the weapon away because she just crit. Because speaking of which, you have to crit to disarm the weapon.

And this is what drives me nuts. Now, I agree, completely agree, that just rolling a successful athletics check would be overpowered to just knock a weapon out of somebody's hand. I mean, it would just be encounter breaking, right? I get that. A minus two circumstance penalty to attacks or other checks to grasp the item. And you, a plus two circumstance bonus to on further disarm checks until the start of the creature's next turn. And it was like, until the start of the creature's next turn. So that means you have to have the extra actions to try to disarm again. Which, by the way, I believe has the attack trait. So, right, you're taking the map on that.

Or you have to have an ally lined up to follow up your disarm with a disarm right away. And that person still has to crit before you're going to actually knock that weapon out. So it makes it kind of like, you know, why are we even going to try? Well, one update to the remaster, which makes things a little bit more interesting. It's not completely like swung the other way, but they added a very important line. completely swung the other way, but they added a very important line. The creature can end the effect by interacting to change its grip on the weapon. The penalty lasts as long as the creature holds the item. So it doesn't reset at the start of the creature's next turn. They have that minus two circumstance bonus to all attempts to a disarm until they spend an action to write the weapon. So that's a little bit better. It forces the creature to have to waste an action

or be at risk of having it disarmed, even if it's after its next turn. So that's an interesting tweak that they made to disarm. I like that they made it so that you've really got to like, let's all try to disarm and make it so that 19 people have to gang up because disarming sucks it sucks like it was so easy in giant slayer for like baron to just shoot him that was a gunslinger thing that was just preposterous i like let's make it as hard as possible to disarm and i'm fine with that and then the you know the the thing that i think that in the moment we were overlooking is that minus two, that's huge. That's huge.

So much more in this game. No, we said we didn't overlook it. You said it. But the problem is it ends at the start of the creature's next turn. Yeah. So the only way it would take the minus two to attack is on an AOO if it had an AOO. It has to be timed right. Like you're doing it before the monster attacks and before your friends can admit that you've got to really know the rounds and know when to do something like that, when it's even worth doing.

Yeah. Yeah, I just don't see it working before the remaster. It doesn't work. Like, you know, in terms of the attack penalty, like the attack penalty, it goes away at the start of the creature's next turn. So it's never going to take the attack penalty, it goes away at the start of the creature's next turn. So it's never going to take the attack penalty. But now, with the remaster, it has to spend an action to write the item and get rid of that penalty. Yeah, that is kind of lame. Yeah.

But it's been improved, and I'm happy with the improvement. Also, a note. The Kopesh, I'm sorry. Yeah, the Kopesh is not agile. I believe we, oh, she sydney said it was agile i think she was thinking of her other weapon so we gave her a minus four on her aoo or no not the aoo the the second attack that she did and uh uh i think she still hit or whatever but it was just like it should have been a minus five little little tiny thing but gotta have sid remember

that that weapon though it sounds like an agile weapon and cool, does not actually have the agile trait. Agile trait. All right. And then last thing before we get to listener mail is just this is climbing the ladder by the book. You have to have two hands free to climb. There is a feat combat climber that reduces you to only needing one hand. combat climber that reduces you to only needing one hand. I play with every player I play with just thinks that they can always do everything with one hand when they have a weapon in their other hand. And I get very like, no, things are complicated. Climbing is a complicated thing,

whatever. So he points it out here, Professor Eric, that you do have to use two hands. And so the whole like lucky leap up the ladder get into the room attack twice with a weapon he was just going cross-eyed i think i think professor eric was like how on earth are you making this happen like you gotta get up there you have to interact to draw the weapon maybe you get one attack in you certainly don't get two um but yeah so that's just something important for us to remember two free hands to climb to one action still one weapon second action still another exactly or really free action drop a weapon be like i'm just gonna be uh one weapon from now climb get up there another action to yeah and the thing is that's one of those things

that as a gm you're like this doesn't seem like something they're interested in doing it's true yeah you gotta kind of pick your battles. I want everybody to police themselves, but also like, I think the alternative is she doesn't go up there because she's like, that's too much. That's hamstringing me too much. There's no sense in going up there and end up leading to a more exciting combat.

So it's just this really tough thing to try and balance with like, you know, staying true to the rules and like trying to do things that make the combat more interesting i i don't i don't really have an answer for it like i wish what my ideal answer is like do it the right way and still go up there like be bold maybe i'll get a hero point out of it um but yeah i don't know yeah it's, it's tough. I feel like this line that we're always walking with 2E, with any game, this tactical, with rule books this dense, with movement and interact rules that are this complicated. You have this worry and concern of it constantly stripping away fun ideas, right? Being like, oh, it's grinding.

Like, oh, it's grinding. But what I think is people have to stop thinking that you just do whatever you want in your round narratively and start thinking of the actual complications that come with these things in a physical universe with rules and then make that narrative. You know, because that is really interesting to me. People would be like, oh, it's so much less interesting. She couldn't even get up there then that round. It's like, well, make it interesting. You know, it's like I sheath my weapons and I start climbing up. That's my round. It takes three seconds.

You know, it gives the enemy an advantage. Things are tense, you know, like instead of complaining about how many actions it took you and dragging everything to a halt, it's like just go with the narrative element that the rules put you into. And it feels more realistic and fun in the way that it gave you a – it's not even a disadvantage. It's just it takes you one more round to get up there. What's the big deal? A couple more pot shots. Oh, you get stuck.

Well, then it creates even a better show, right? Like if now two of them are immobilized how are we ever going to get to these people it just creates better drama uh so and then when the heroics come out they're that much bigger so anyway that's my two cents on it we've always talked about this for us like make the game harder on yourself and and not like uh um just for the sake of being harder on yourself but like assume that everything is more difficult to do than you assume. You know, like climbing. It makes sense. You're like, I'm holding.

I can open a door with something in my hand. I can do that. Be like, okay, well, maybe you can't. And then so how do you work within those constraints? And it's tricky. You know, some people just don't. How about this? How about a 12-foot ladder, right, up the side of your house and a can of paint in one of your hands, right?

We've done that. You got to do it. Do you think you could do that while people are shooting shit at you, right? Like in the harried hecticness of combat combat do you think that you'd have a good grip on that ladder and would fly up there at full speed you know what i mean like even even i have to go half speed when i'm holding something and i'm not having a arrow shot at me so i i do think that this is an interesting like that's why there's a feat and it's called combat climber you know what i mean it's like you know how to climb in combat so that means you can do it with one hand you can do it easily uh and then uh i believe professor eric uh believes

that cat folk get a climb speed at fifth level so that's cool yeah at fifth level this all becomes easier for you okay but early on we got to grind it out. Anyway, I just, I just think that that, thanks for pointing that out, Eric. And I just think that that's, that's one of those interesting things because I think we all at times find ourselves being like, and you've done this, I know, been like, God, like you just see it and you're like, I'm one action shy in the economy and it throws the whole round off for you. And like, I get it. I get that frustration. I've been there. Try to just, instead of changing the whole strategy and grinding everything down to a halt

to make the perfect turn, like just do a little bit less that round and then save it up for next round where you can. Yeah, I agree. Anyway, fun times. Let's do a little listener mail and then we'll get on the road.

Thank you so much, Nicholas. All right. This one from Andrew in Minnesota. What's up, Andrew? Thanks for writing in. This one, I had to throw this out there because as you, Troy, are now getting deeper and deeper into recording season two of Time for Chaos. I thought this one was appropriate. How much should my players be responsible for remembering in a long-term campaign? We play once a month for about a five-hour session. I send emails of recaps to recap sessions.

I have a Google Drive sheet with all the recaps. I do a last-time recap before we start each session, and all I get are blank stares and crickets. Do I need to not play with stoners, or do you have any tips? It's a great question, Andrew. Great question. I certainly don't have an answer to that age-old problem for GMs. I think we all suffer from it to a certain extent. I just wanted to tell Andrew, I feel you.

I commiserate. In Delta Green, it's the same thing. And I feel like players are good about focusing on their characters and their characters' emotions and their characters' development and their interaction with the other characters. They're doing a lot of work there, and that's important. And that will give lifeblood to a story that you're telling, not necessarily the clues. The clues aren't the lifeblood to a story that you're telling, not necessarily the clues. The clues aren't the lifeblood of a game. It's really the players' interactions with each other.

And as long as they care about their characters and want that to shine, you're going to be okay. But I'm just amazed that, like, when I put clues on a board, you know, on our VTT and just let people – they're there the whole season. You can look. You can relook. You can talk about you. And no one ever looks at anything. Nobody cares. It's just amazing. It's amazing to me.

What are your thoughts as you head into it? You know, as you get started on this next season of time for cast, how much actual recapping did, did you do behind the scenes with the players? None. I did no, no recapping. I had a big recap for the season,

season two premiere, which will be out eventually. So I did a big recap. the season two premiere, which will be out eventually. So I did a big recap. Did it get on air? Yeah, on air. And I have the added benefit of Michael, who works with us, is backstage for every recording and is writing recaps of the stuff that goes out to the players. He'll send it to me afterwards. stuff that goes out to the players, you know,

or he'll send it to me afterwards. And then I'll like add a couple of things, rewrite it a little bit and I'll send it to the players after each session, just to remind everybody, oh, you took this. I mean, it's great. Michael like will be like, you took this much sanity. You were indefinitely insane or this or that. Here's some things that you learned and you know, some books that you found here, the names of those books and everything. And so it's great. It's actually very helpful for me.

Even as I was preparing for season two, I would go back and look at like old recaps and be like, hey, who found that book? Who started reading that tome? So it's super helpful. And like, when I look at the VTT that we have for Time for Chaos, there's so much shit there. I mean, in episode like six, once they got to New York, it was just like a dump of 12 news articles. And I always think like, did we ever go back and read those? There's a lot of stuff in there. But then I it's not like I'm sitting there pouring over the get in the truck one so I have to practice what I preach.

It's tricky. It's a lot of information. I just came to the realization a long time ago that everyone engages in games in different ways. And some people are really into being on top of their studying and other people just want to play games. And, oh yeah, I forgot about that.

And I think that I've kind of fallen into that as a player because I don't play anymore. There's a part of me that always wishes I could start over again at like a, a first level character and really like, like first day of school, I show up with my pencils sharpened and I'm all right. I'm taking excellent notes, but like stick with it.

Um, and I just, I don't, um, and it sucks. So I can't ask the other players to do that as well, but it is frustrating. you know,

that's why I've also gotten used to just like, well but it is frustrating um you know that's why i've also gotten used to just like when i throw something out there and see like stone face reaction give it a moment and then be like now if you remember uh you spoke to someone because like i'm not going to just not like punish you because you don't know how important this information is that was going to be my next point is yeah yeah and i think you said it even better because you took it to a higher level of gaming in general which is a very important note people don't all play games the way you do or the way you want to meaning you the royal you all gms out there the way we approach it people don't care about the same things necessarily that you care about and you are in the business of catering to your players in some way.

Like, yes, I do agree that they don't necessarily have all the power. However, you're the captain of that ship. And if you don't want a mutiny, you got to kind of meet them halfway. And if they're the kind of players that just want to show up and play, maybe you don't do a campaign. You know what I mean? Are you doing a long-term campaign because that's what you want? Is it, is it something that they really want, but they're not doing the work? I mean, you know, that's tough that you got to deal with that, but maybe you could play these same characters over the course of modules, right? Like moving through modules that have shorter times that you have to remember certain details and but you still get the

process of improving and leveling up your character character advancement is still part of it uh i think you know you can kind of go that way if not then you got to do what troy says which is and i do this plenty in delta green like this is the person that first talked to you at the blah blah you read this name in the city registrar's office on the back of a blueprint of a of the building you know what i mean like dude nicolo in legacy of the ancients is uncanny with his note-taking he's unbelievable he has fun doing that yeah one of the biggest things that gets him geeked up is scrolling back and being like wait wait wait wait wait wait this person was mentioned to us it blah blah. And then he always gets bottle caps for it

because it's great work. And he has fun doing it. I don't have fun doing that. I just like to show up and play. So I get both sides for sure. Yeah. And sometimes maybe you realize as a player that this might not be the game for you because it doesn't it's not fair there was a certain point towards the um end of season one of legacy when i was playing rhapsody concade where i had no idea who the enemy was we were fighting and like people kept talking about something i was like hmm i think i think this is one of the reasons i was like i think i might want to replace myself on this show with someone who's going to be more engaged than I am. Because I felt like I was engaged and I was just missing key things. And it was one of those realizations like, maybe you got to pull yourself out of the game because you're not doing a service to the people around you and the GM who works so hard.

Dude, I can remember back in our Jade region pre-Glass Cannon days, having one night where I was like, you guys realize how hard I'm working to prepare this? You guys are just like, you're half-assed and everything. You have no idea what's going on. You're not prepared. And I'm like, okay, now we can move on with playing.

I just needed to say that. It's not like anything really changed, but sometimes you just have to have that outburst. It's hard. As a GM, you feel like you're constantly working your ass off to create this great stuff and it's one thing if you don't get reactions because when you do your little gm scene but it's another thing when you're like how do they not know who this fucking guy is we've been talking about him it works you know but you just you can't get mad you can't get too mad about it and if it's just one player who's who's like uh always the one

who you gotta you gotta decide for yourself does it bother you enough that you want to address it or do you want to move on and addressing it could be you know getting rid of that player or sitting down and be like hey man how do you i feel like you're not really paying attention and they might be like no i, I am. I just – I really – I'm really enjoying the game. I just hate taking notes. Yeah, yeah. I think that might be it too.

The key there is you don't necessarily need to say, what's going on with you, man? Even though that's what you're thinking, 100%. What you need to say is like, what do you enjoy about this game? Like, why do you want to play? And that's the only question you need to ask. And when they lay out what they like and what they want to do, then it's clear. You've got to do more of that, less of the other stuff. If you've got players that don't care that much about all the details, do less work.

You know, handhold them, railroad them in certain places. Who cares? Because if they're not going to do the work, you don't have to do all the work. It's kind of an interesting balance. But I do like the idea of shorter-form adventures with the same characters. The heroes who move from town to town doing these different missions, PFS style, can rid you of some of that need for remembering long-term details. But anyway, Andrew, thank you for the question.

We get it. We certainly get it. I'm sure there's a lot of GMs out there that do. But players going to play, man. Players going to play. Players going to play. It is what it is. All right.

That's going to do it. That's going to do it for us this week. Let's get on out of here and I don't know Get back to work We actually have multiple things that we're working on I'm actually doing some reading right now Exactly, this week that we can't talk about What if you're watching the video You might see some deets

Alright guys, big week this week Behind the scenes, we'll have more details Hopefully for you very soon on Fodder Until then, have a good one everybody and, and we'll see you next week. Bye. Merry Christmas. Thanks for listening to the Glass Cannon Network. For more podcasts and live streams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com.

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