The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 3/1/23

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

Troy's got big news! Plus, the guys give a progress update on the new studio, discuss the return of the Alien RPG to GCN airwaves, and explain why Strange Aeons Episode 64 had one of their favorite roleplaying moments in recent memory. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com and for exclusive content and benefits, subscribe today at patreon.com/glasscannon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It is Wednesday, March 1st, 2023, and I'm your good buddy, Joe O'Brien. And it is I, Troy, Big Daddy La I, Troy Big Daddy LaValle! Big Daddy LaValle! Big Daddy! And we're not saying Big Daddy because he runs a big gambling operation. He's Big Daddy because he has too many children. I've overdone it. I was saying to you right before we went live, we didn't realize it was going to be a problem until we came home.

We're like, oh, no. What have we done? It's so funny. For people that don't have kids or are about to have their first kid, I think one of the things they don't understand is, like, when you're in the hospital and those couple days right after, you don't realize how good you have it because you think you're exhausted. You think you haven't slept. And, of course, I'm just speaking for the dads. But when you get home and there's no one to help you but you. And you also – there's no doctor there.

Like for an immediate need if there's something wrong with the baby, right? It's just you're on your own. It's such a terrifying feeling, the first days at home. The hospital seemed like a wonderful place to be after I got home. Dude, it's Tuesday, February 28th. We got home from the hospital yesterday, and this all started on Friday, and you and I have not talked. No, we just jumped on here. on Friday and you and I have not talked.

No, we just jumped on here. I just like pulled myself away from my new life to do this. And I'm like, let's not even catch up. Let's just record and talk. Yeah. Life. Yeah.

So tell me how it all went down. This is no exaggeration. We have not talked. I don't know how private you want to be, so I will just let you leave the discussion. All I know is I got an email on Friday that said, shit went down. Don't tell anybody I'm in the hospital and we're in labor.

So, uh, no, please cancel the recording Monday night. Uh, yeah, I, um,

so we, we, Sam and I, we, my wife and I, we were pregnant with our third baby. We've got two boys at home and we – well, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Yeah, you did it.

On Friday. Yeah, on Friday, February 24th. It's so crazy. So Archer, the plan with Archer, our first kid, was going to be let's do it. Who's four and a half. Who's four and a half. Was like, let's just do it the old fashioned way. We're going to have a baby.

And he ended up being an emergency C-section. Because this is the thing. It's like when you're going to have a baby, you can take – Oh, sorry. You're going back to the story of your first baby. Yeah. I'm going back to my first baby just to tell this story because it's just wild. No matter how many classes you take, how many books you read on pregnancy, how many people you talk about, how was your pregnancy?

Like we're three in and they were all fucking different and crazy and wild and like the whole entire time. So, yeah, Archer, we were just planning on like let's have a baby. You know, at 40 weeks, she hadn't gone to labor yet. And then at 41, we're like, did her labor water break? We're not. Went into the doctor that day. And they were like, yeah, it looks like your water broke. But it was a high break. Tonight, let's induce you. Let's go have a baby. Go home, have dinner. Let's have a baby. So we came back. They induced her. Ended up giving her too much, I think, in my opinion. And it was an emergency C-section. We thought we were going to lose the baby. It was horrible. But, you know, then we had Archer. Then with We thought we were going to lose the baby. It was horrible. Then we had Archer. Then with Dash,

we were going to try and do what's known as a V-back. Look it up. But anyways, you can try to do it the natural way after having a C-section. Again, at 41 weeks, Dash didn't want to come. So they were like, we're just pulling him out. So we pulled him out. That was pretty

standard. A lot less harrowing than the emergency C-section. So with Evie, it was we we have to do a C-section. After two C-sections, you don't get a choice anymore. You got to do a third C-section. So we're going to schedule it at 39 weeks because you want to do that so you don't go into labor. You want to do it a week early. So great. Friday night at like 430 in the morning sam is like i think i think my water broke like what what are you talking about and we we had a rough night like dash just was like not sleeping well and her and i were like going up and down the stairs trying to get him calmed down and so we had we were on no sleep at 4 30 in the morning she's like i think

my water broke it was like all right i guess we're doing this. And so I got up. Did you have a bug out bag packed? Were you like ready? We had a backpack, but like we had nothing else prepared. Like we had decided that my folks were going to come and watch the boys while we went and did this on the planned day, March 9th. It was going to be all set

up. We'd have spreadsheets of how to deal with our children because no one watches our children. We don't have babysitters. We don't have any friends out here. We have no one. We have literally no one in the middle of Westchester. And so it was like a whole thing. We were like planning to do.

We were going to have all the food and everything. I hadn't even gone grocery shopping yet. Water broke. But on top of the water break, and I want to get like a little graphic here because I want people to understand these things and how this works um there was like a blood everywhere and i'm like oh uh i i put my brain immediately thinks the baby's dead or you know what i mean like we're the baby's hurt um because i i'm like that's not there's a little blood's okay there's there's way too much blood so now we're two and a half weeks early and, uh, there's blood everywhere.

So she calls the doctor like, Oh, the doctor will call you right back. I'm like, I'm calling nine one one. And she's like, great idea. So I call nine one one, the cops show up and like, there's no, there's no light. There's no street lights. It's like a crime scene in Westchester. Would you try to beat it out of them? It's like, pull the gun on me. Show me the woman. It looks like a crime scene in our house. So they flash lights on the house because there's no street lights in Westchester.

So they have to light up the whole fucking neighborhood. The cops come in and we're asking the cops, like, is this normal? And the lady's like, I don't have kids. I'm just a cop. I thought you were the fucking EMT. Who are you? Get out of my house. I pulled a gun on her. It got crazy. Like you said, every pregnancy is so different. You never expect to pull a gun on her. It got crazy. Anyways, like you said,

every pregnancy is so different. You never expect to pull a gun on a cop during a pregnancy, but here we were at 4 45 AM, uh, like a scene out of reservoir dogs. Finally, the EMT came in and cooler heads prevailed. Her and I sheathed our weapons and,

uh, and the EMT, he was really cool. He's like, all right, well, let's go have a baby. He like great bedside manner. He was like, come on, uh, let's go have a baby. Like, great bedside manner.

He was like, come on, where are you going? Oh, that hospital that's half an hour away? Cool, I'll drive you there. And so she takes off. And at this point, it's 4.30. I'm like, because initially I'm like, I can't drive you. Do I wake up the boys and we all drive together and then I just drop you off? Like, good luck with the baby.

And I drive the boys back. Or I can't drag the children into the emergency room. So I'm like, is she going to drive for something? No, 911, they take her. So then she calls me and she's like, can you go like knock on the neighbor's door and see if they'll come sit with the boys? Because they just said that they're going to take the baby out right away. And I was like, no, I can't. I can't do that. We don't know any of the neighbors well enough to me to be like, hello, 430. What do you want?

Just let me go back to London. You know, like we don't know anybody. We just don't know anybody. And I'm like, well, can you call your friend? I'm just picturing you knocking on your next door neighbor's door, asking them to come over, then being like, sure. Then like you go to the hospital have the baby come back like four hours later kids gone every possession in your house gone like the entire

thing cleaned out and the next door neighbor's house completely cleaned out gone with a for sale sign yeah they just flashed away in the night what happened you look up who these people were like, no one's lived in that house for 50 years. Oh God. There's just cobwebs inside. And so like, so did you drive the boys to the hospital? Did you wake them up and take them to the hospital? So one of Sam's friends,

her closest friend actually just bought a house out here, but a half an hour away. So I said, why don't you call so-and-so and have her come? And then when she comes, I'll call my parents and say, start driving from Massachusetts. I'll call my elderly parents to start coming up here. And then they'll take over and then I'll come and hopefully I can make it for the birth. I don't even know what's going on at this point. She's not at the hospital.

All I know is like something weird is happening. So she's like, okay, good idea. My wife is just so amazing. She's so unbelievable and like so calm and clear headed. And like I'm doing that thing where like I'm in panic mode, but I'm trying to like rise above it to be calm for her while my inside is just like screaming in fear. It's a horrible feeling. I mean, it was, it was the emergency C-section all over again, except the only benefit of that is there was no time to think. It went from, hmm, that heart rate seems to be dipping to, oh my God, 10 doctors in the room,

pulling my wife away, me throwing on that outfit. Like I didn't even have time. And then baby. way me throwing on that outfit like i didn't even have time and then baby so anyways her friend is on her way so i call my parents wake them up from a sound sleep i'm like hey uh her water broke they're taking to the hospital we need you to come and my parents like uh all right uh you know and and so it's going to take them about six hours to get here because they hadn't packed they they're each on like 50 medications they gotta find it's such a fucking ordeal so uh sam's best friend shows up and i i had like their break the boy's breakfast all made and i'm like with i wrote some instructions i'm like here's what you got to do i'm like have you ever changed a diaper and she's like no she's never been around a child for longer than like 30 minutes and never unsupervised but she's you know she's great

i'm like okay well um today's your lucky. Cause I guarantee you dash is going to have the largest shit in the world, uh, with the way our luck is going today. Um, but, uh, I said, aren't you super easy? Just, uh, you know, if you need anything, you call me or text me and I'll be around. I left her with as much stuff as I could. And then I went and I woke up Archer, um, just to let him know like, Hey, daddy's going to go, uh, we're going to have the baby today. And, uh, I was like, just dash might freak out because you're not his mom, but good luck. And I left and, uh, I just drove. I mean, I, it's a 22 minute drive from our house to the hospital. And I think I did it in six minutes. I mean, I was driving over forests to get there.

And I get in there and then I go upstairs to the maternity ward. And at this point, Sam texted me and she said, I'm here. They've got me hooked up. The baby's heartbeat is great. I'm next in line to have the baby. If you're here soon, I think you're going to make it in. So I get there and it just – it all went down. And, you know, we had the baby, you know, she was.

So you were in there when the baby got taken out. Yeah, I was in there. I was with her in the, in the like prep room and everything. We had at least an hour together. So did you wear a mask or were you like, I don't need to wear a mask. Oh, now we're all going to wear masks. God, this is America. And then I pulled a gun on the surgeon.

Again, it was just that you never expect it. And it was just wild, man. But, you know, if you've ever been in an OR for a C-section, this is now my third. First was emergency. The second, I was like, oh, this will be easy. I've done this. At least now we're knowing it's happening. And it's still terrifying because they're cutting your wife open taking all of her

organs and just putting them on a a dish towel uh and she's just slowly dying before your eyes and they're just pumping her full of stuff to keep her alive that's the way i narrate it in my head i'm like honey honey honey you with me and uh this time i was like oh god it's gonna be that all over again but i was just so worried about the baby. And I'm worried about Sam too, obviously. And she came out and, you know, she was obviously she was a little bit early. So she had to spend some time in the NICU. We had never had any experiences with the NICU. And God, they're amazing there. But she was in and out of the NICU, because a lot her her lungs weren't ready. A lot of babies when they're born early – and she wasn't early.

Like she's full term. At 37 and a half weeks, you're considered full term. It's not like she was premature. But a lot of babies at 37 weeks, 37 and a half weeks, their lungs can't transition. They don't know how to use their lungs right away. So they were given her oxygen in the thing. And I'm like, everything all right over there? And they're not answering me.

I'm like, everything all right? I see them slapping the baby's feet. Yeah, you know what looks super, super normal? A newborn at 37 weeks hooked up to oxygen. Like, that doesn't scare you at all. It's such a horrifying thing to see. Horrible. And they're like slapping their feet.

I'm like, everything all right? No one's answering me. I'm like, oh. And I want to go over there. Because usually they let the dad go over there. And I mean, it was just a wild, wild ride that I'm still coming down from. And then the whole weekend was like, once I knew the baby was okay, obviously the NICU was its own thing. But I trusted them.

They were so amazing. And they said, this is totally normal at 37 weeks. You got to put them on the CPAP. And then eventually they'll start to be able to regulate their oxygen like we do. And sure enough, they did. And she was out of the NICU. But in the meantime, I'm driving back and forth from the hospital to be with the boys, because it was so important to I'm a very involved parent, as you know, and like, it was just so important to me. I didn't want this to disrupt the boys weekend. You know what I mean? Like I didn't want them to feel like it's hard enough bringing a new baby into the house. It's extra hard. Like

if their routine is screwed up and they think like, Oh, what's going on? You know? So I wanted to make sure I was there for lunch. I wanted to make sure I was there to give a bath at the end of the night to, to breathe them their stories, to put them to bed. And then I'd rush back to the hospital and then I'd come back in the, in the morning to be there when they woke up. And, you know, because the baby still wasn't in the room. And then the night that she stayed overnight, I was back and forth from the hospital like four or five times a day, coming back at 10 o'clock at night to be there with Sam and the baby. And, I mean, it's just, it was a wild, wild weekend.

But we came home yesterday, which was Monday. I know this show comes out tomorrow on Wednesday. And it's just now it's our new life. It's fucking wild, dude. It's wild, man. Wild. Yeah, it's my bravo. Congratulations. Give my congratulations to Sam. And congrats to her for doing all the real work. She's so amazing, dude.

I know. I mean, that's not surprising to me. She's so calm. Like whenever I'm at your house, you're like raving about how awful something is. Could be an object in the house, a person that lives around the corner. And she's always just looking at me and just slowly shaking her head. Like it's so sad, isn't it, to see him, how upset he is all the time. Like she's just just looking at me and just slowly shaking her head like it's so sad isn't it to see him how upset he is all the time like she's just so level-headed uh and calm and

a calm presence uh so yeah that's that's amazing and congratulations thank you buddy thank you yeah we you know it's very nice we had the two boys we were hoping it would be a girl and uh you know just to mix it up but obviously you just want healthy baby um but the boys are so excited well not just to mix it up i mean it's it's the best that's what i wrote you in the email it's just like it's the best i'd feel very sad for you if you missed out on having a girl oh yeah yeah i mean it's just it's funny archer put it best he was like uh i wanted to be a girl and if it's a boy, we're going to throw it away. I said, well, are you going to throw away Dash? He's like, no.

When we had Dash, I wanted a boy. But now I want a girl. Well, I understand that. You are being very clear. And I appreciate that. And I'm glad that this is an audio-only show. Because I look like I just fought Mike Tyson. Like I was Mike Tyson's sparring partner, but I wasn't allowed to throw a punch.

It was the first thing I said to you when you got on the call. I said, looking good, buddy. Man. I really look like I got a black eye, and I don't know if that's like, if somebody hit me, or if it's like stress eczema,

or what the fuck. It's lack of sleep. Yeah, it's lack of sleep. That's what the dark eyes look like that's what the dark eyes will get. Anyway, we should probably do a fodder at some point. We should update everybody on the news. That's the news. That's the news.

Yeah, that's the big news. There are a couple things that we'll chat about in a little bit from episode 64, but it's an all role-playing episode. There's really no rules to talk about. But I'll tell you what. I'll give you a parting gift, Troy, before we say goodbye on this call today. And I'll tell you about a fun fact rule of Pathfinder 2E that I bet you don't know. Oh, I thought it was going to be cash. And I bet you'd assume it was wrong.

Oh? But, yeah, you'll see what it is in a minute. Excited. I'm going to give you a parting gift. Cash. Oh, can I just tell you about my weekend? Yeah. I'm going to give you a parting gift. Cash. Oh, can I just tell you about my weekend? It's way less hectic. Way less hectic.

I thought you were going to be like, if you thought your weekend was crazy. Yeah. Okay. Now we'll get to the crazy weekend. I went to a trivia night in my neighborhood. It was kind of, it's like a big fundraiser thing for the town uh it was at the local vfw oh boy like you know bud and bud lights on tap sure a hall filled with people that are just all trying to get away from their children for a night like that's that's

pretty much what the vibe was and uh you you do tables of 10 and we sat at a table with some neighbors of ours that we barely know one of the guy who i know well who was like you got to do trivia i was like all right we're in he was at another table so like i just got put with people we didn't know my wife is stressing about it the entire time like i'm so awkward i don't want to meet any new people this is going to be terrible i'm like i, ah, we'll have a good time. And you hate trivia. And I'm terrible at trivia. And they all thought I was going to be good at trivia because they know I have some nerd

job. Like, that's what they know I do. You must be smart. Yeah, they're like, he must be a genius with trivia. Though I did nail, what is the third book in the Song of ice and fire series which got complete i'm telling you dude blank stares from every table around me right they're like game of thrones book three yeah nobody knew no they said what's the song of ice and fire and i was like it's a series that game of thrones is based on oh i don't know the title of those books uh so that was my one shiny

moment but anyway i just bring it up to say that people are so different. They're so wildly different from us. Like this was a group of all people in my neighborhood, all with kids, all of a similar age who were drinking beers and having a good time. And I just like our style of talking, our references and our humor just completely fell flat the entire time. Every joke I made, I got these questionable looks. It was funny. You made me think of it when you said, here's cash. Like the one dude was like, I'll get a picture.

And I was like, I haven't paid you anything. He was like, don't worry about it. And I just pulled out my wallet and like opened it up and did like the Dave Woody thing where I was just like, just take whatever you want from my wallet. Just take whatever you want from my wallet. And you had nothing. And he just looked at me like, what are you talking about? I said I get it. And I was just like, and I just slowly folded my wallet and put it back in my pocket.

Dude, this is how I feel like when I try to make jokes around people from L.A. Yeah. Like no one laughs. Yeah. I agree. I don't understand why they don't think we're hilarious i don't know uh it's just i think that we've just been in this echo chamber for too long and it's not just us that play on the glass cannon podcast it's also like all of our new york friends you

know what i mean like we've all just hung out with each other for 15 years now all the time and our sense of humor is so tight and like we make each other laugh all the time but then when i take it outside the circle i just get these looks like i don't get it it's that east coast edge too you know what i mean like we just have a different way of doing it i was talking to mona about it he's like you know it's a lot of people out here that don't may not appreciate you guys because they just don't understand like that sort of east coast like oh you guys are a lot um you know he understands it you know like i had a tweet that kind of blew up a few weeks ago and it was just me being like you know a typical asshole but like other people started finding it in the gaming community who don't know me and my style and

just thought i was the worst thing that ever happened to tabletop gaming. I was like, man, just watch our shit. It's like, I got a caveat, everything. I'm just a jokester. I'm a joke maker. Tell him, Jerry. I'm a joke maker. I'm a joke maker. It is.

It gets exhausting just to kind of have to constantly tell people like, I'm kidding. Like to have to say that it's just so annoying um biggest news uh for us business wise is the studio update we're gonna have studio updates for you week in and week out on the phone because it's really just updating our path to the gate walkers release and we made a huge jump this week since the last episode of fodder where i had mentioned we were moving forward with the space and everything. Well, it's all said and done since the last episode. I have signed

on the dotted line. I went to, I found a goddamn notary and I got everything taken care of and we are, we're squared away and signed and the money has been exchanged. Oh. Signed, delivered, junior's house. You got the keys, motherfuckers, baby.

Wow, that's a lot of keys oh let me ask you is there a bathroom key oh that's a lot of keys that's two full key chains there's uh outer door inner door multiple copies fobs uh there's stair a oh boy so this is the key you need to save yourself in a fire. And yes, there is. Man bathroom. Literally says man bathroom. Man bathroom. Man bathroom key. And woman bathroom key.

So yeah, we got the bathroom keys. We got to find that tenant that didn't want to let you in and give her a little of that. Right. keys we gotta find that tenant that didn't want to let you in and give her a little of the or just linger outside the bathroom waiting for her to come up and be like oh hi neighbor just using our bathroom that we share I'm going to take a shit and then walk into the woman bathroom

I'm going to take a shit that face you just made was so funny so yeah we're good we are the process has begun I'm actually going to the studio again tomorrow to the HVAC guy is coming to do final measurements before we move forward with that job

among other things there's a lot to discuss but we'll do most of that boring stuff off air. There are spreadsheets of shit to do and the order in which we have to do it. But I just want to let you know, I got the keys yesterday. So that's exciting. I was catching up today while looking at Asana

and some G chats. I'm like, oh, I went to the studio yesterday. It's a rough time. I had everything planned out for like, I just need two more weeks. I'm going to wrap up a bunch of things that we have in the fire. And then I'm going to go have a baby. And instead, the baby came. And we're in the middle of several deals that need some negotiating and my input.

And I'm like, I can't think straight. Yeah, it's rough times. That's why I was happy we got a FOD at all. I was like, I don't know if we're going to get Troy. And so I'm glad you took the time out to tell us that amazing story. Got to be here for the FOD at all. I was like, I don't know if we're going to get Troy. And so I'm glad you took the time out to tell us that amazing story. Got to be here for the FOD, man. So the other thing that I'm working on in the background is Alien RPG. For those that did not see the promo, the teaser promo that dropped in Strange Aeons last week during the live stream, we're going to do Alien on Labs. That's going to be our next labs, uh, which I'm really, really excited about looking forward to. Uh, it's going to be another original alien adventure, uh, combo McD and I putting together

this story. And we were just talking about it today for a while. Um, it's, it's fantastic. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna mention, I think I'm not going to mention the cast, right? I'm not going to mention the cast. Yeah. I mean, obviously I'm not going to be on it, which is a bummer. But I'm really excited about this cast.

Let's wait until – I think it will come out on this week's Strange Aeons maybe. That's right. So you got to watch Strange Aeons live on Twitch Thursday night during that break, during the whatever, the commercial break. In the middle of the show, you're going to see the cast announcement. We're making it. It's going to be awesome. So keep an eye out for that. What a cast.

What a cast. It's a killer cast. And we'll go more in-depth about it next week on Fodder, which will be the day before the show. That's pretty much it. I'm just going to fire you a couple questions about Glass Cannon 64, and then I'll talk about this one little fun rule thing that I want to bring up. Because there is no real we are stupid because there was no real rules being used. It was an all role play episode as we returned from the dreamlands and prepare for the return to the caravanserai. And to me, one of the thing that really stood out is Atticus's magic show. That might seem selfish, but I felt like that

was a really cool moment that came out of nowhere. I mean, I just sort of like thought of it as a morale booster. And as part of this magic show, Atticus has a vision. Do you remember this? Yeah. You hear about this? I do. It's one of my favorite things that we've done in a while.

I was amazing. It's a vision of a creature of cosmic horror who calls Atticus James again and says to him, quote, time to come home or something of that nature. I got chills. It was so freaky. Talk to me about this for a second because I just want the audience to know this is completely unplanned. You and I did not talk anything about this. And the idea for me to do an illusionist show was totally off the cuff. And the way you weaved that in, tell me how that came into your mind. Or was that something you were holding in the chamber for a while?

How did that develop? No. You know, honestly, I think it's from season one of Call of Cthulhu. Playing all that Cthulhu and just having to like, you know, you prep, you prep, you prep, but you want to be, you want to be alive in the moment and be able to come up with, my goal sort of when I, when I do Cthulhu is like, how do I come up with narrative moments that are, are trying to be as brilliant as what's been pre-written? And, and a lot of that comes from just listening to the players and, and, the players and trying to offer something that you think

is like what you'd want to see on TV, like a really cool moment. In the past, like whether it be Good Morning Glip Glorp or the Halloween party, it was like things that you guys prodded me, like, hey, let's go do this. And it's like not in the adventure, but I'm like, okay, let me think about it. And then I go off and I prep it and we do it.

What I'm trying to do is just like get rid of the prep part and just have these moments happen organically. And so when you said I want to do a magic show, first thing that popped in my head is like, okay, how do I take this magic show and tie it into the story? And so as you were doing it, I was just thinking of ideas and that just came out of the improv, you know? And it's just – So yeah, you're letting me go off and do my thing. But the first thing that you're thinking is like, all right, now how can I connect this back to the story so that we let the player take this departure they want to take but

we don't let it be a full departure. We make sure that it comes back around to the story. Yeah. I mean, the episode in – I think it was episode 15 of season one of Time for Chaos. I think it was 15. It's my favorite episode of any show we've ever recorded, I said to you off air. And it was Ross's character went to go do something that was totally separate from what the main party was doing. And what came out of this was

just this beautiful episode that I feel like was scripted. And it wasn't. It was just playing with someone as brilliant as Ross and having something beautiful come out of it, which tied in somehow to the main story. And so I just I it's such good practice to do this now in preparation for getting back on tour and for the new show, because I think when we started to do too many shows, we're putting out too much. Not too much content. We're putting out so much content. Our eyes were bleeding. We kind of got away from our roots a little bit because it was just like, we just got to, we got to get this out. Let's do the best we can. And we were, we were doing the best we can, but like we lost out on a lot of these moments. And so whenever we have an opportunity to do it, it's, it's something I want to jump

on. And so I was so glad you were like, I'm going to do a magic show. And I was glad you didn't say like, all right, so he does a little magic and everybody claps. Like you went with it. And I said, all right, I'm going to do a magic show. And I was glad you didn't say like, all right, so he does a little magic and everybody claps. Like you went with it. And I said, all right, I'm going to go with it too. And then we created something really beautiful, which was. Yeah, it really stood out to me. I think that it stood out.

Another reason is the horror of it. I think played so well. It's very Cthulian in that it takes place. Like I'm even getting chills just thinking about it, like in a theater, right? Like during a show. Yeah. And the performers see something they're not supposed to see and they are not in control of the show anymore. And it's a classic story that is so – it's just awesome to be a part of, to think about how frightened you are and how you have to look like you're not frightened.

You know what I mean? And keep it together. Just a really interesting concept to put into one of our games. And it's so funny you mentioned the combination of episode 15 of Time for Chaos, Ross, and this idea of us getting away from some of the stuff that we were doing. The problem with the amount of content that we were all putting out at the same time without having it all pre-recorded well in advance is that we were spreading ourselves too thin. And I had a cannon fodder with is that we were spreading ourselves too thin. And I had a kind of fodder with Ross where we were digging into improv.

I was asking him about improv. And he talked about an improv lesson that's as old as he could remember in terms of thinking about how you approach improv. And he was saying that when it comes to this character stuff, you need to – you don't dig wide. you dig deep. And so, you know, you don't keep adding on things to your character. You don't keep adding neuroses or obsessions or objects or desires or goals. You take the one goal and you keep digging deeper into it and deeper into it and deeper into it.

And that is what I think we got away from a little bit with some of our shows. It was like there wasn't enough time to dig deeper into those shows to have those kind of scenes. And I'm very grateful that we have it now. And that's what – I mean, Suki's scene was amazing. And that's another thing that we talked about that on Fodder. Just it's elevating the game for me and i think that um even eris is more is getting more and more fleshed out you know not to no pun intended but it's getting uh more interesting to me as she delves deeper into like her crush on ethel you know what i mean it's like this fun little undertone that makes her feel more much more real. And the way that she like showgirls the like trying to get into the show and trying to be the magic assistant for the show. She's like smiling and leaning in close, like, you know, trying to be noticed, which is such a great little character trait that's interesting and unique and makes her a little bit more special.

So, yeah, I don't know. I'm just I'm loving the game right now. And it's, it's, it's those episodes that really remind you why we do it, you know? Yeah. And we were on the zone, like right from the banter, I could tell like, okay, we're, let's go have some fun. And are you referring to the bow cave dicks? Murder of crows.

Like when the band's hot, I'm like, all right, we're going to have, we're going to have some fun. And it didn't have like a combat to it, to weigh it down. I don't know. like when the band's hot I'm like alright we're going to have some fun and it didn't have like a combat to weigh it down I don't know what I liked though is that we didn't plan it there's nothing wrong with planning it I mean so much of Giant's Sayer there was conversations beforehand

a lot of it there wasn't but there were at least conversations we kind of knew what we were going to do it's fun to like we're honing our craft now to the point where we can just start playing with each other and amazing things come out of it. It's the beauty of what we do is to be able to elevate sort of gaming into, dare I say, without sounding pretentious, an art form. Yeah, an art form. Nope, I completely agree with you so uh what's the other thing oh i just wanted to walk away with one thought and this is this is just me asking you i'm curious

normally i would ask this kind of thing off air but i'm just curious the the ritual um it seems to me like you are you bypassing the die rolls on the ritual now? Or are you using those die that we sent a long time ago? Are they still actually there? Or are you just getting rid of it to just advance the show? Are you leaving any possibility for critical fails on the ritual out there? This is one mechanical question that's coming to my mind. What's your decision as a GM here?

Yeah, so really all that interests me right now is the time that it takes to get the ritual done. At a certain point, I didn't think the result of the critical failure was an interesting addition to the show that we're making. If it was an off-air game, I'd probably have it happen once. But I just didn't think it was that interesting enough of an addition for it to matter. What I am interested in is like how long it takes. And so I did roll a bunch of dice rolls for all of you very early on to see like how long it would take you to do each one, assuming you went in a certain order. And I've kind of stuck to that.

But at a certain point, I just didn't think it was very, very interesting. And we learned that in Nashville when you guys failed like three times in a row it's like i got on stage right i gotta either secret roll these or uh shoo it because it just doesn't it doesn't really matter i didn't think that the like the penalty was interesting enough yeah i agree and i agree that like i think the ritual is. But like, when you're on your eighth time, your ninth time, your 14th time, it loses its luster a little bit. So this is, it's funny, you bring that up, because without spoiling anything, gatewalkers has, it's, there's a lot of is this investigation, you know, your, your paranormal investigators. So there's, there's, there's a big investigation part of it. And it starts to go into some um some systems that are uh like what do you call them like side games like remember the uh skier guard had the uh you know you were the alert system yeah the camp morale yeah so you have sort of like these little mini mini games I call them, where you're doing investigation. I'm like, I don't want to not do them. But if we are going to do, I want to make sure it's interesting. I don't want it to just be like, you have now reached eight investigation points. So you get this information. So I don't know how I'm going to do it. But I don't think I'm going to do it straight by the book because I feel like it's boring. It's borderline the same system as Strange Aeons, and I just – I don't know. So we'll see.

We'll see what happens when we get there. It might be there's a way to do it where like you don't even know you're doing that little gaming system. You're just uncovering these clues in other ways while secretly I know you're accruing these points. I'll have to see. Yeah, most adventure paths have these in one form or another and it's it's fun it's interesting if you want to do it you don't always have to do it um i remember uh slight spoilers for council of thieves for any anyone that wants to play that but there's there's a there's a fame mechanic in that and i got a little bit tired of tracking it it can be

uh onerous to track it when it's something that really you don't need to, you don't need mechanics to let you know how famous, you know, your heroes are in a town. Like you can kind of figure that out through role play and stuff like that. But it is a necessary mechanic to telling the story because it goes to show, you know, how the more well-liked you are, the more support and help you can get from the people in an urban adventure. And I thought that that was an important concept, but how you display it as a GM doesn't necessarily always have to be mechanically by the book. You can feel it in the way that the game is being played and the interactions people have with NPCs.

So, yeah, every AP is a little bit different, but I can certainly respect both using the mechanic and not using it. Yeah, you can adapt it like we did with the caravan mechanic in Jade Region. I think there's fun ways to adapt it and our stuff will be adapted in a different way considering how our media is consumed. Yeah. There is no

We Are Stupid this week because it was all and we're brilliant. Professor Eric wrote in and said hey uh thanks for making me listen to you and your friends improv act together uh but i he pointed out that there were only two things that possibly could have brought up a rules question which was the casting of oneric meyer and how those saves worked and the aid action both which came up and he was like and you did them both. So there were no notes in terms of we are stupid, but I did want to bring up one rules thing before we go.

Cause I'd always like to throw something at you. I was doing a deep dive into two way for some stuff that I'm working on. And I found something rather interesting that I was like, holy shit. Did you know Pathfinder to a fun fact, Did you know, Pathfinder 2E fun fact, you do not have to have a free hand to cast a somatic component of a spell. Did you know that? I feel like I knew that.

Or maybe I'm just carrying over something I was thinking from 1E that you could use a sword hand to cast the spell. Maybe. I just thought you couldn't. I thought that if you had a shield in your hand, you couldn't cast a spell with that hand. Do the finger splay correctly. Yeah. I don't – maybe I was overthinking it, but I always thought that casting a spell required at least a free hand.

And in 2E, it is very explicit that you do not. A somatic component is a specific hand movement or gesture that generates a magical nexus. The spell gains the manipulate trait and requires you to make gestures. You can use this component while holding something in your hand, but not if you are restrained or otherwise unable to gesture freely. This even counts for touch spells. Spells that require you to touch a target require a somatic component. And you can do so while holding something in your hand as long as part of your hand is able to touch the target. So if you're wielding a sword, you can still – if you're a paladin, you can still cast lay on hands.

Like you can still if you're a paladin you can still cast lay on hands like you can just touch somebody you don't have to have a free hand to lay on them which i think would be you know an an over-exaggerated maybe way to look at the rule but i i always like to hold myself to that more difficult standard and um i was happy to look into the rule book and see that it was you're good to go son of a bitch bitch. We learned something. Son of a bitch. We learned something. Fun facts. You have got to get back to your family. You have a lot of work to do and I appreciate you taking the time out to hang on the FOD

for a little bit. So thanks. Thanks for doing it. Yeah. Well, hey, I, you know, I met, did I ever tell you I met Jerry Seinfeld years ago when I was working for Getty Images? No. So I mostly, I don't think I've Images. No. Yes, you did.

Yeah. I mostly – I don't think I've told this story in the show, but I mostly did freelance video editing for Getty Images. But my buddy was the guy that booked – our buddy, a friend of ours, Pomponio, was the guy that booked a lot of the events. It mostly was red carpet events. But there was this one thing where Jerry Seinfeld and his wife were doing this sort of gala for his wife's foundation was like, which was about fathers, basically, it was something to do with fathers, and, you know, kind of helping kids who maybe don't have

fathers and whatnot. So he was like, he got me a gig as the producer. So I was the one asking the questions on the red carpet. And there was some celebrities there. But obviously, big one I want to do is talk to Jerry. And so I had my list of questions and at the end I was like, you know, everyone considers you like one of the hardest working men in show business. How do you reconcile, you know, being a great dad with also like all the hours that it takes to be the best in your um at your craft the best in your uh profession and and and his answer always stuck with me he's like well that's a great question i was like thank you i came up with it on the fly here uh and he was like i always

think that by working hard you're you your, your children, like the importance of that. So like, even though you're not, you may not be there a hundred percent of the time, you're, um, you're showing them like the importance of hard work. And, uh, and so that's why it's like, I do fodder today. Daddy's got to go work real quick. Yeah. Yeah. I, my, it it definitely bumps my kids out sometimes too. But, you know, I think that they're getting more and more of a sense of it, of the obligation. You know, we talk about the obligations that you have to other people and the promises that you make, and then you have to keep those promises by, you know, sometimes doing things

you don't want to do at the minute you want to do it. You know what I mean? But like, you just got to get in there and you got to do it. And I think it sets a good example. I mean, that's the way that my parents were. You know, that's the way my dad was. Like, he was working all the time, working doubles all the time, overtime all the time. And, like, do I wish that he was around more?

Sure. But, like, I left being like, man, I really respect my dad. You know what I mean? And it's a good feeling. So, again, congratulations on behalf of the nation, all the other guys. We will miss you for these four months that you have to take off network we're excited to have you

back soon and dude gatewalkers I think we might record get some gatewalkers this month let's go we might we got a studio we're ready to rock I couldn't be more

excited all right thanks everybody have a fantastic week and we'll see you in a week take it easy. Bye. Thanks for listening to the Glass Cannon Network. For more podcasts and live streams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com.

And for exclusive shows and content you can't find anywhere else, subscribe today at patreon.com slash glass cannon. you