The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 5/29/24

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

On a very special Cannon Fodder...Troy and Joe discuss a very special episode of the GCP: Missing Moments! How did the ep come together from top to bottom? And was it just a bit too much drama for one episode? The guys break it all down before grappling with the reality of how close the team came to a TPK in Episode 35 and what would have happened to the Gatewalkers story if that reality came to pass. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/OdiAyOQL_MY 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

So let's be clear, when it comes to shipping internationally, can I provide trade documents electronically? Mm-hmm. The answer is FedEx. Okay, but what about estimating duties and taxes on my shipments? How do I find all the... Also FedEx. Impressive. Is there a regulatory specialist I can ask about? FedEx. Oh, but let's say that... FedEx.

What? FedEx. Thanks. No more questions. Always your answer for international shipping. Fed-ex. Where now meets next. You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network. The premier source for role-playing game entertainment.

Welcome... to Cannon Fodder, a behind the scenes look at the Glass Cannon Network. Yeah! What is going on everybody? Welcome back to the FOD. It is Wednesday, May 29th, 2024, and I'm your old pal, Joe O'Brien. I thought you were just saying pal and that was it. I'm your old pal. I'm Troy Tor Hangover Lavallee. Tor Hangover Lavallee, which tends to be multiple days for you.

Oh man, it's not an alcohol hangover. Oh actually pretty no You don't drink on tour. No, I'm completely sober now no, I It's not a alcohol hangover It's just like a five flights to shows in five days in three time zones in three time zones And throw in a dash of Memorial Day and I just, I feel crazy. So we're recording this on Tuesday. This comes out tomorrow and yesterday was just kind of a hot dog and beer type of day

and I did a little bit of work in the morning but I said, you know what? I hate the day after tour and I'm always like dive right back into work and I'm like, fuck this. I'm going to spend time with my family and I'll worry about everything tomorrow. Then today it's Tuesday. I'm like, ah. We already come back to all this nonsense. Yeah. Tor is a strange mix of work, hard work, hard fun, and no work getting done at all in terms of the business. You come back and you just have a shit ton of emails and a bunch of tasks that you have to get to

because you were busy being out on the road. It's just like, gah! It's so stressful. But it was fun. I had a great time in Vancouver and St. Paul. Holy shit, it was awesome. I mean, we could not have gotten better weather. The weather was amazing. I got back here and it was just like that just

balls hot, awful, humid. I was like, God, it was so nice in Vancouver and St. Paul. At both places, the day we left, it just like rained. It was crappy and cold. But the days we were there were gorgeous. It was awesome. We were really blessed with the weather and blessed with two great shows full of awesome fans. Yeah. Fans were great. It's our third time coming to Minnesota, first sellout.

They're so wonderful there. You joked I think on stage, it's like every year we do Boston, Philly and St. Paul. It's like why? I think we have to keep it going. Yeah. There's just such a... It's a pocket of fandom. There's a concentration of fans in that area

that are just very loyal and very fun and they know how to have a good time the niche way. I mean, like I'm up there on stage looking out, through these lights, trying to see people and you're just constantly seeing people like respectfully getting up and sneaking back to the bar for another round. And every one of them is walking back with like eight drinks.

It's like trying to like fit in. It's really a drinking crowd. Yeah. Because they're like passing it out to their friends. I mean, it's just, it's like being at a bar, just doing a show and hanging out. So fun. Yeah. I love that venue.

And speaking of cool venues, the Vancouver venue was way better than I expected. You know, I look at – our manager will send us things and I very meanly will respond with my thoughts like certain venues and he's just like so sick of me. But this one came up and we didn't have a ton of options but I had my heart set on Vancouver and I was like, it's so hard to tell from the photos and Google reviews and the website. I'm like, I think it's cool but but like the video screen's a little different and the this and the that.

They don't have this thing that we need. All right, let's just fucking do it. And it was – it exceeded all expectations. It was like this old – it was called the Hollywood theater, but it was like this old Hollywood vibe in there with two bars on either side where the VIP was being held like kind of everything lit in like red and yellow. Yeah, it had that like plush red sort of old school Hollywood vibe.

It's like the strip house in New York, that steakhouse, you know, had that like velvety vibe. And then just, I mean, wonderful Canadian crowd once again. It's really making the 2025 tour plan difficult for me. I fucking gotta go back to Canada. Yeah, in the weeks leading up to Toronto, I was like, well, it's good to know that we have checked this off our list and we will never go back to Canada because the amount of stress with them, with the venues and the promoters collecting all of our identification information

and getting all these letters and shit they have to send to customs and then warning us about being stopped at the border and what we have to say and all that stuff. And trying to get the merch over and across and paying all these exorbitant taxes. It was just like, well, we're never going back to Canada. They just make it too difficult. And like both shows could not have been easier. Now it did cost us a lot in taxes. They charge a lot, which is understandable.

I always get that. I'm like, you can come in our country and get money from our people. Like get the hell out of here. You don't get to do that for free. I get it. But like the customs, there was nothing. Nothing. Like it was so easy.

Both shows in and out, back, no problems. And I was just like, maybe we should go back to Canada. Yeah. Well, we'll crunch the numbers, but I mean, it just feels like a no brainer. I think if Vancouver was on a Saturday, we would have sold those last 15 or 20 tickets. But Toronto was a super quick sellout over 300 people. Yeah, Toronto was a beast. And another great venue.

It was an awesome venue. And look at how much we've grown just in the past year in terms of like attendance and views. There's a lot more people discovering the Glass Cannon Network. So I think a year from now, we'd sell those out even quicker or maybe we can move to larger venues. I don't know. Maybe next year, Montreal and Calgary just to mix it up a little bit. Calgary. Talk about – there's a country or a city that I literally never thought I would visit in my life. I'll never be in Calgary.

Calgary is pretty cool, man. I hear good things. Banff is way better. I just don't think we could do Banff. It's like a three-hour drive from Calgary and I feel like I'd have to take my whole family because I can't just go to the most beautiful place on earth without them. Anyway, Scott, we're getting caught up in our – we haven't even like had a debrief talk about the tour. So that's why you're hearing all this from us. But yeah, it was a great time, great shows too.

Loved those Epsa strain jaons. St. Paul was a banger. So ridiculous. So ridiculous. Anyway, you guys will hear it and see it all eventually. But yeah, big FOD today. We have lots to discuss, including an epic, one for the books episode of the GCP. We got obviously a couple of news items for shows that are coming up and then we'll talk listener

mail. No, we are stupid this week for obvious reasons, which we'll get to later. But let's talk about some upcoming shows that we have going on. This week is a big week as you start to really dive in to finalize your prep for Kong Skull Island as we play Kong this Friday night, May 31st at Stand Up New York. We're doing a little same thing we did with Rambo back in March, doing a little comedy club hang with Khalees Hawkins and Natalie Cuomo and going to... Me and you and Skid.

Me, you and Skid, we're going to play some Kong, which I'm very much looking forward to. Doors at 8, show at 8.30. If you're in the New York area anywhere, grab tickets to this thing. I think there's only a few left. It's going to be a small venue, really fun, comedy club right in the middle of Times Square. It's going to be awesome. There's an afterparty. We're hanging out after. There's an afterparty that's being advertised. Standupny.com. You can buy tickets and I think all of the information on the afterparty is there. So we're going to hang out. The after party is free.

I told Francis to come out. It's going to be a good time, man. I really don't know what to expect but in terms of like the show because I didn't know what to expect for Rambo other than knowing it's going to be a great time that you're going to want to see in person. So if you're in this New York area, we're never going to do a Glass Cannon Live in New York again. So you might as well come see Cogsco as well You might as well come see cogs call island

Looking a little bit further out. We've talked about Gen Con a few I'm sorry This let me go go chronologically a little bit further out before Gen Con We're gonna do another show a show that we did last year a Little little event small one. It's a tiny event Out on the West Coast. It's called San Diego Comic Con. I'm not sure if people have heard of it. It's very indie, sort of under the radar kind of thing.

But holy shit. And up and comer. We're going back, baby. Marvel is uniting forces once again with the Glass Cannon Network to put on a banger of a show out in San Diego. Yeah. Last year, we had been talking about it with them for a long time and nothing really got locked in until the last minute.

I think we probably talked about it on Cannon Fodder for a week, maybe two before it happened. Now there's still a lot up in the air about who's going to be involved and whatnot, but it's May 29th, so you've got all of June and pretty much all of July to make plans to come to Comic-Con. If you haven't or if you're already planning on coming to San Diego Comic-Con, we will be doing a show at the Con. They're trying to get it on Friday this year. Last year was on Saturday afternoon at a building outside the Con or something.

This is going to be hopefully at the con at a prime time on Friday. Stay tuned for more details. The good enoughs in some form will be there. Dude, they made a variant cover of us. I don't want to like say too much, but there's a new adventure that they're going to release that I already have. I've got draft versions and I just got the latest draft and they made a variant cover for the adventure as well. And it has all of us dressed as Deadpool. That's amazing. It's a Deadpool adventure.

So that's what I'm gonna be running at Comic Con, which will be nice to like run something pre-written. That's awesome. Deadpool adventure. I gotta brush up on my Deadpool. That's fantastic. Yeah. All right got to brush up on my Deadpool. That's fantastic. All right.

So we don't have any more details than that. We don't know a date and time yet. Still working that out with the con, but we'll get back to you when we know more. But just wanted to give you the FOD audience, the early heads up that we are planning. I call it the FOD-ians. The FOD-ians that we're heading back. The Jucians that we're headed back to San Diego Comic Con Also just after that

Literally like the next week. Oh, yeah We go to Gen Con And you have been talking about gauntlets and shows. Let's get a quick update on that before we get into All right, so looking now at the Gen Con events It looks like 14 out of the 22 gauntlets sold out. Get in the Trunk Live is sold out. The Call of Cthulhu live show, it's a 700 seater.

So that one's going to be tricky to sell out. But once I announce that cast, I don't think it will be a problem. When are you announcing the cast and why isn't it right now? I'm waiting on one e-mail. I couldn't... I can't actually announce that one. I'm waiting on one e-mail from one person and it's the last little piece of my puzzle and all the cast will be done. By honestly –

Is it Paul Rudd? You're waiting on an e-mail from Paul Rudd? I'm waiting on an e-mail from Paul Rudd. No, I'm waiting on a call from Paul Rudd. My friend Paul. But it is possible during this call I'll get the e-mail and then I can announce all the cast. But I have all the cast.

But I have all the cast for Blades in the Dark live, Get in the Trunk live, Call of Cthulhu live, both the Atheneum show and the one happening at the con. Blades in the Dark, I said Blades in the Dark, Starfighter 2e, Playtest live. I have all those cast ready pretty soon. But for the gauntlets, the only ones that are left are a couple of Jareds and a couple of Matthews. Me, you, Skid, sold out. Some of those have like one seat left.

Some of them maybe there's the whole tables left. I'm thinking about maybe juicing those up. You might want to grab those before I announce how I'm going to juice those up. I talked about maybe adding Ross to a couple of Jared tables, maybe adding Sydney or Kate to a couple Matthew tables just to like throw a little extra value in there. Matthew is just a tough draw. No, I'm kidding. He's great. But he's throwing a little Sydney, a little Kate, a little Ross Bryant to a Jared table.

I just want to make sure we sell out the rest of those. Can you please just add a Ross Bryant to my table? One of my tables? No, make it easier on us. God, that would be fun. Nothing set in stone, so I don't want to make any promises that I can't keep, but this is just something I've been kicking around because I want to make sure we sell all of these out and we're so close.

We've got plenty of time, two months, but I'd feel a lot better knowing those are sold out, but we're talking to like terrain partners. This will be fucking terrain at Gen Con and little miniature – all sorts of cool stuff. We really want to make – this is an expensive experience. We want to make people feel like they're getting a lot of value and I've been working on the encounters. It should be a fun time. I don't know if I would rather – I'd love to GM a gauntlet that has Ross Bryant

in it. I don't know that I would love to play next to Ross Bryant. That's a high bar. But certain people would. Yeah, but you know what? It's also a gauntlet. It's not like it's like extended role playing, right? It's just going to be like little blips of really fun role play, which yeah. Yeah, people will be like, quiet down, Bryant. We're trying to fight. Stop doing another poem, Bryant. We're in the middle of a fight.

You know what? I can announce the cast for the Athenaeum show, Call of Cthulhu Live at the Athenaeum Friday night and the reason I'm announcing this is because it's almost fucking sold out. Last year we knew we wouldn't sell out. We were just like, let's just sell as many tickets as we can. It's a lower price show. This year the tickets are $20. $20.

We sold out of all the premium seating. There's no VIP, but the cast is going to be me running you, Matthew Skid. Let me make sure I get this right. The cast of Time for Chaos, Rob, Ross Bryant, Nora Ibrahim, and Kate Stamos. Oh, wow. It's the founders and the cast of Time for Chaos in a modern Call of Cthulhu romp. So there it is. Grab the rest of those tickets.

It is going to be insanity. Wow. So seven players. Yeah, seven players. I don't give a shit, man. Once you die, you can leave. You can hit the bar. That's great.

I'm just going to go and do an early death and just mix the music for the rest of it. I've got I think around six or seven for the one at the con too because I'm like it's a 700 seat theater. I really want to try and sell this out. I've added some really exciting people to that show to help sell out and they're also just people that I want to play with. But taking it a step further, I reached out to Scott Dorwood who wrote Bleak Prospect and he did a lot of work on the new tree. Your favorite.

It's your favorite Call of Cthulhu module you've read. As I said to him, I said I've been a big fan. I think Bleak Prospect, which is the thing I ran on the original Call of Cthulhu New Game New Disks. I said that was my gateway into Call of Cthulhu. I was like, would you be interested in collaborating? So he's writing a custom scenario for us for the Call of Cthulhu Live at the con. I was reading – you're not in that show, so I was reading to you the sort of pitch.

It's pretty wild. I'm like, how does someone come up with this? It's like off the top of their head. It's amazing. It's amazing. Speaking of time for chaos, it's finale week. Finale week. It's finale week.

Big show Friday night. Bring your sleeping bag. Friday night. Now while we're live on stage at Stand Up New York, your face is going to be live on a premiere on YouTube for the finale of Time for Chaos. Yeah, man. Let's talk about it next week. I feel like a weight has been lifted. Yeah, yeah.

It's in the can, yeah. Episode 19 was over three hours long and episode 20 is a long one, but it's wonderful, man. It's in the can. Episode 19 was over three hours long and episode 20 is a long one but it's wonderful, man. It's crazy and the cast, I'm still getting texts about it. They can't stop thinking about it. That's always a good sign. Even if I'm in my head and I'm like, I hope that was good, the cast is really fired up about it. I'm excited for people to see it.

That's great. All right. Let's get into a little GCP and then- Sure, why not? Then we'll do some listener mail. Yeah, big up of the GCP this week that- Sure, why not? Then we'll do some listener mail. Yeah, big up of the GCP this week that we'll go into in detail.

But I just, I have to mention before we do that, you know, this was a kind of relatively frequent occurrence, especially in Giants, I recall, like being at the studio and, you know, going to use the restroom or coming back from lunch or something like that. I remember walking in the room and everybody's sitting around and you and Matthew kind of like talking and going to use the restroom or coming back from lunch or something like that. I remember walking in the room and everybody's sitting around and you and Matthew kind of like talking

and laughing to each other in hushed tones. And then I'd come in the room and you'd like quickly like quiet up and both of you would look at me and I'd be like, what? And then you'd look at each other and kind of laugh and look at me and kind of shake your head. What? And then it would just be,

they're killing you on the boards, dude. They're killing you on the boards. I. They're killing you on the boards. I'd be like, what did I do now? And often, you know, that was just getting raked over the coals in Giant Slayer for, you know, being who I am as a person. So I take no small amount of pleasure this week in saying, Troy, they're killing you on the boards this week in saying Troy, they're killing you on the boards this week. Tasting my own juice?

Little taste of your own medicine. Yeah, I mean after Fado last week I suspected, you know, like words came out of your mouth and I was like, that is going to start an enormous firestorm of hatred. And sure enough, it delivered. Now I haven't read any of this stuff because it makes me sad inside because I don't like seeing my friend get beat on but I heard about it. I heard it's not great out there. So what do you have to say for yourself?

Hot out there in the nation. God. Let me see how I can make this worse. I know. That's why I like – Just by being myself. I don't even want to talk about it. I'm like he's just going to make it worse by trying to make it better.

I don't even want to talk about it. I'm like, he's just going to make it worse by trying to make it better. I don't know. It's impossible to be honest and authentic and not rub some people the wrong way. But like from the early days, you and the others would discourage me from engaging or looking at any of this stuff on the online forums. I just continued to do it. I did it not to like pump myself up or certainly not to make myself feel bad. But I want to feel bad today. Let me go read that. For me, it was just an important way of seeing how our growing audience was engaging with

our product, what they thought about it, and also to see like what type of audience we were attracting when we were still small. But things changed. We became bigger and the vibe started to change where it became – it was no longer really healthy for us to look at that. For anyone, I would discourage – I'd have people coming into the studio, I'd be like, what's wrong?

I'm like, somebody wrote something. I'm like, please stop reading that. It's just – it's going to make you just feel bad. Look at the way you feel. Stop engaging with that. I myself have really tried to stop and move away from all of it. While I appreciate all of that engagement, whether it's positive or constructive, what I was trying to say last week was like I think that's between the fans and the fans.

We're too large of a company at this point for it to be a constant two-way street. Anyway, I'm sure I could have chosen my words more carefully last week. Anyone who's watched our programming for the past almost 10 years and can then decide to take what I'm saying to mean that I don't care for the community either hasn't been listening to me at all for the past 10 years or they just hear what they want to hear whenever I talk. I see that. I'm constantly misinterpreted and misrepresented just because of my personality and how I tend

to present my thoughts. I'll take some of the blame there. After years of toxic vitriol directed at me and my personality and my friends and how I run my business, how I play my pretend games, I've had to create this sort of Teflon-like exterior for my own mental health where all of that is just noise. Unfortunately, a lot of the good stuff gets drowned out by the bad. Anybody – I see this sometimes back in my reading days where people are like, oh, it's

kind of a – it's a pretty positive place here. I mean, you've got your head so far up your own ass to think that. They're not. You have no real understanding of what it's like to be in our position to consume this because the negative is louder than the positive and so I just I Pulled out of it and I think there are plenty of great people on on on all of these forms

Plenty of great mostly great but there's others that have nothing better to do than just try and- But wait, you're saying the... I mean, that's on my experience at all. You're talking about a specific platform, not the overall overarching response to the content that's more negative than positive. I'm talking whether it's a YouTube comment, whether it's a subreddit comment, whether it's a Discord, whether it's a iTunes review. I'd say that there is a solid mix, but the loud negative ones are the

ones that tend to drown out the rest. And that could be perception-based, right? If you're looking at it. Yeah, I certainly disagree with that, particularly on YouTube. As I've strived to include that more in Cannon Fodder as a fun way to engage more directly with the audience, I'm overwhelmed by how wonderful and positive the comments are on YouTube and when they're negative they're constructive. I really appreciate those. Now maybe that's partially because McDermott is just deleting the really mean-spirited ones.

I don't know. They are curated. Yeah, that is very possible because we don't talk about that. Maybe I'm not seeing those. But anyway, YouTube audience, you're crushing it. Maybe I'm not seeing those. Anyway, YouTube audience, you're crushing it. Keep doing what you're doing. Yeah. You're reading a very curated list. Now, we don't just delete negative comments for the sense of sake of negative comments.

No. Certainly not. I've got one ready for you today. Yeah. We leave that up there. But when people are actively campaigning against us or threatening us, I mean, dude, you know there have been some things written on YouTube that would make your pubic hair stand on end. Like direct – I don't want to get into it. But the point is like it's another reason why – I really encourage everybody not to look at this stuff, which doesn't mean we're not aware of it. It's just – it's not healthy to engage in that at the position that we are.

But dude, I have been mocked, ridiculed, laughed at, you know, made fun of my entire life because of the way that I do things. You guys make fun of me all the time. It's because when you spend your entire existence focused on your ambitions, the work that it takes to maintain that mindset every single day is exhausting, not only for me, but for everyone around me. It was exhausting when I was poor and homeless and still believing with every fiber of my being that I was going to make it someday.

It's just as exhausting now that I've got this tiny little piece of the pie. I have big aspirations and that leads to a sort of large ego and a large personality because I'm not interested in just like making a couple million dollars over the next decade. I'm interested in changing the world. I want to create generational wealth for myself so that I can make lasting change in the world. Ever since I knew that it was possible for like one person to do something that could like jiggle the earth in some way, I was like, that's what I want to do. I want to do something like that. That takes a mental state and an ego that is very off-putting to most people. It's a very solitary existence because I spend most of my time just plotting when I'm

not like with family or friends. It's a very solitary existence because I spend most of my time just plotting when I'm not with family or friends. No, I can't run a business by listening to a bunch of people on the internet complaining about how we do things. That's insanity. It's also one of the problems with parasocial relationships. There are one-way street and a lot of people have a hard time grasping that. Another problem is that this armor that I've built up over the years has also grown

barbs, right? My defensiveness and my fervor comes from this place. You've heard me say this before. We're like, if anyone tries to stand in the way of our livelihood, I'll just fucking destroy you because I have been to the bottom and I don't ever want to go back there. I've tried so many things and failed. The fact that this thing worked, like if anyone tries—I'm just fiercely protective of what

we've built and I'm unapologetic about that. So I get fired up and I speak out of my ass sometimes. Not because I'm thin skinned, because I'm just a fucking freight train and I will run anyone over that tries to get in the way of what we built. I don't give a shit. What I'm trying to do with this part of Cannon Fodder where we share our behind the scenes part of the business, I'm trying to demystify the road to success.

I talked about this before because it's something that I wish that I had coming up. I wish that I knew the ins and outs of how people made it. Now that I've achieved this small level of success, I want to share that road with the community. The difficulty is I'm also a personality on the network. I mean the network is based around my personality in many ways. I'm also the CEO. One of my jobs as the CEO is to scale this company to infinity. There are a lot of people that don't want that. They want us to remain small and they want us to play their game the way that they think

it should be played. Well, we don't want that. I certainly fucking don't. Part of this process is being obsessive about numbers and engagement and P&L statements because those are quantifiable metrics. People who comment online aren't, right? That's a niche. That's a byproduct and it's great that people want to talk about what we do.

It just has nothing to do with what we're doing. Praise, I tell you, you know, this happened in Time for Chaos a couple of times where people were like, oh man, I just, we got to, I saw somebody online complaining about my role so I'm going to do this instead. I'm like, please stop reading that. But I also said like, ignore the praise too. I think you should ignore both praise and negativity because they're both, they just

cloud your judgment. And so one of my main focuses this year is how can I be a better CEO? How can I be a better leader to the team, to the group, to our fan base? Now that's the part. I guess I'm saving that one for the end because I'm working on the other part and kind of the rest is falling apart. And so I'm just reading obsessively. I think it's arguably the single most important thing I should be doing is learning from others

who have done it and not from armchair quarterbacks. But the problem is, and I'll shut up soon. I think I'm getting to the end of my thought here, is that trying to share that side of the business and my obsession with it isn't really entertaining to a lot of the audience of this show. I mean, that seems abundantly clear. My number one goal when I get on camera is to try and be entertaining and inspiring.

Unfortunately the nitty-gritty of what I'm doing in my just overall view of things, it's not fulfilling that goal of entertainment. So I just have to really rethink how I approach this desire to want to help potential entrepreneurs with this overly sensitive cross-section of our audience that doesn't want to help potential entrepreneurs with this overly sensitive cross section of our audience that doesn't want to feel like they're just a number, which of course they're not. I mean, my God, you come to a VIP meet and greet, you talk with me for two seconds, you know that's not the case.

Now, not everybody can do that, but it's just a little disheartening that any goodwill that I've built up over the years, it doesn't matter. My words are just taken out of context, twisted over and over again. It's exhausting. I also have three children and a wife. I don't have time to fucking read comments and respond and do all that stuff. Like I just – I can't do it. I've spent too much time over the past 10 years making glass cannon in my life and I

don't want glass cannon to be my life anymore. I want my life to be my life and my work to be my work. That's been really a really hard transition for me. I don't have time to just read mean insulting comments on the internet no matter what armor I built up. It gets old. Clearly you do. You're clearly making time to do it. I don't I've stopped but like I know that I'm inciting in this week because you were like, oh I said some shit Well, they're gonna come at me on advice of counsel some time. I was like, alright, I'll take a peek And then I was like, whoa, where's my fucking parachute? I don't want to get involved with this

You know, the worst thing is it like proves my point in a way which, you know, I don't want that to happen because I know that I spoke in a piss poor way or I didn't explain what I was trying to say right but at the same time it's like, be me and read some of this fucking nonsense like you would drown it out as well, you know. Dude, it's like mental health awareness month. The irony is like all these people would be marching in a fucking parade for mental health awareness yet don't take a second to look inward and see how their words can affect someone.

I have to do the same too because I understand that my words carry weight. I get that. Yeah, affect a lot more people. Affect a lot more people. But like my words are not personal attacks. All I'm saying is that, yeah, I've got an ego and yeah, I'm a narcissist. It's because I want to do what 99% of the people in the world don't have the courage or interest or desire to do.

An ego or ability. An ego and a belief in yourself is like the price of admission in my sort of dream world that I live in. But I've also spent 10 years just trying to make people laugh. If you can't see past that to that, I don't think I can really help you. I was very fortunate to speak to a bunch of awesome people in – where did we go this week? Vancouver and St. Paul this weekend. It's like they get it.

There's a lot of people that get it. And so I understand. And for the people that don't, I feel bad. These are people that flock to us at one point. And at a certain point we're like, you know what? Fuck Troy. And I take the blame for a lot of that. But I also think you have to,

you don't have to do anything. It would be nice if you saw beyond that and just saw that like, this is drive, this is determination, this is grit, and sometimes it's ugly. Yeah, but people don't appreciate that. And that is within their right. For sure.

I have never been impressed the way you are by driven, egotistical, narcissistic people becoming massively successful and gaining generational wealth. Like that is not something I personally have ever held up as an idol or something that I would like to achieve. And a lot of people are like that, but you're not. Like you like that path. And there are lots of people, lots of listeners, I'm sure,

that would greatly appreciate details of your path so that they too can affect change. I agree with you that to affect change, you have to be ambitious and you have to be gritty and you have to have a drive and a focus and a determination and you can't so easily be beaten down by it, blah, blah, blah. But you also cannot be surprised at all when there's a lot of people that don't like that and don't appreciate that. And by the way, understand what's happening, but don't like it.

It's not a misinterpretation to think that somebody that is trying to drive aggressively toward success while just mowing people down, get out of my way and see that as a massive negative thing. A lot of people think that. But I don't think, and I don't think you think either, that I'm trying to mow people down. I'm mowing, I'll mow haters down any day I fucking wait.

That's literally what you said. I don't think you're trying to mow down innocent people. But you said if you get in my way, you get in my way, you become a hurdle or a stumbling block to my success and I will annihilate you. You know what I mean? I mean, if you stand in the way of what I'm trying to do and your, your sort of goals aren't pure, yeah, I'll fucking run you over.

But there are plenty of people who may stand in the way of what you do that have important things to say. You know, you and I butt heads all the time and I don't – sometimes I don't listen to your counsel. Other times I'm very appreciative of what you have to say. And you know, I think that's why – I think that's kind of where I land in general on the comments. Now, I don't really read them much because I do think, like, as an overall, mental, just sort of, I think overall, it's very safe to say, for your own mental

health, anyone that is in any sort of public light, like, stay away from the comments. Like, I think that that's, that is simple and a basic, like basic truth to our current internet age, because anybody that has anonymous ability to post and not be identified has the ability to do extreme damage with their words and don't give them that power. I totally agree with that. However, I do also think that it is part of your ego, meaning you, the plural, like our ego, our intellect, part of our ability has to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, right? Like you have to be able to look at a comment,

whether it's positive or negative, and determine for yourself if it has merit, and based on its merit or lack of merit, have it affect you or take action in one way or another. I don't think complete ignoring of an audience is ever a smart thing to do as an entertainer. However, and also just taking all the praise is not so good either.

Yeah. So yeah, I am saying- That wasn't what I was trying to say when I said what I said last week. No, I know. I'm saying the way I approach it. I'm not saying it's entirely different from yours. I'm just saying the way that I think about it is, and you'll see it today when we talk about GCP, there is a negative comment that I want to highlight because I appreciate discourse

and debate and a critical opinion that is well stated. You know what I mean? Like I just appreciate that and I think that that's as important as anything else. Yeah. You know, listening to it. We're not, there are people on our team who have their finger on the pulse of what people think and they are smart enough to know what to ignore and what to take to heart. And I hear what's important and then I make decisions based on that. I just think that-

Well, I mean, I think that this retreat is a really good example. As you're building the first ever retreat, the first thing that you did was talk to the customers. You just went to them and said like, I have some ideas. What do you guys think about this? What do you guys think about that? And based directly on that feedback,

you are shaping this event. As opposed to being like, I have my idea of the perfect experience for a customer. I'm going to do it without polling or asking anyone what they want. Like, that's not how you're approaching this. I went directly to that. I mean, I learned this from The Lean Startup, another great book that I read this year.

It's like a lot of people come with their idea and then they try to get the customer to want- Shove that idea through. Here's the idea instead of listening to them and then changing the idea. From the outset, I was just like, what do you want? What does this retreat want? I think it's going to be a wonderful time. In terms of like – I just take a – I know that this wasn't your intention but like

the word narcissism and ego, it's been bandied about a lot and it's just that I don't want people to think – well, I mean people are going to think what they want to think – I mean people are going to think what they want to think. It's not a – I only care about myself and I only want what's best for me so get out of my way type of thing. I think it's – that's not – when I say narcissism, it's not like I love myself and I'm never wrong. Watch me take over the world and if I have to stomp on Joe and his family, so be it. I think there's this epidemic, might be too strong of a word, but I do think there is this sort of undercurrent in America and the world where ambition and ego have become vilified

or at least misunderstood where people people don't understand like it takes a lot to try and make earth shattering change and you have to have a belief in yourself that is not rational. So people will try to vilify that because then it makes them feel better about themselves for either not having that or not wanting to do that. There's another great book that I read earlier this year. Right, but that's also a valid opinion is what I'm saying. I'm not saying it's not a valid opinion.

I'm just like, well, no, I don't think it's a valid opinion. I'm sorry. Right, but like if everyone- It's not a valid opinion to not to dislike someone because they have drive and ambition. I think that happens a lot. Oh, see, and that's where I disagree. I think it's like hustle culture is like people aren't supposed to be, oh, you're not supposed to hustle anymore.

You know, just go start a GoFundMe. Now that's being super pejorative. But like I think that someone having drive and ambition, it doesn't need to be lauded, but you shouldn't like I think a lot of people that hate on that is because they don't have it in themselves. Or maybe they don't want it. So like it makes them feel better to like hate on somebody with drive and ambition. And I'm not saying that's even what's happening here, but I don't think that's a valid opinion

in my opinion. Well, yeah, that's I guess where I disagree with you. People are different. People are very different. Yeah, no, I get that. And so they're going to have these negative opinions and you just have to, like you said, you listen to what is going to, in your opinion, make it, you know, going to make you a better person, a better performer, a better entertainer, a better CEO.

Listen to the ones that are going to do that. Don't listen to the ones that aren't, in your opinion. However, I do certainly see where that comes from. All I'm saying is, I don't think it comes from a misunderstanding. I think it comes from a clear, pretty clear understanding and a dislike of somebody that does things the way you do things, which is fine. I think there is a misunderstanding though. Maybe not all the time. I see what you're saying. When you're talking absolutes, you're never going to get to the real answer. I think there is a misunderstanding in the sense that that person is trying to do it for themself. You know what I mean? That ego is self.

Sure. Yeah, yeah. It's hard. For many, many years, we've been friends and we've had this business together. You also have this outsized persona as the GM of these shows that's very adversarial on everything, apparently, but Time for Chaos. That has created an easy route to people when you say things like you said last week to drive into an opinion that it's all just kind of for you. Whereas those of us behind the scenes who have talked you through many, many issues over the years, not only personally, but personally within our group personally within other people in the company Personally with our a fan or two or another business partner or something and you know, I can say firsthand how

incredibly Thoughtful you are about other people's feelings and opinions and they're, you know, not wanting to hurt people and wanting, you know what I mean? Like you're very much so like that. It just, it never comes out in shows because that's not funny. You know what I mean? Like that's, but that's definitely like the way that you are in the background. You're extreme. Sometimes, sometimes way more so than me. Like I'll be like, fuck that guy. Like we need to blah, blah, blah, blah. And you're like, oh, come on. You got to think about this. You got to think about this.

I'm like, all right, fine. We'll be nice. Don't get this turned around. There are times when Troy is definitely the one that is making things harder on us so that we are kinder to someone. That definitely happens. It's just a matter of getting that all out there is hard for people to know all of that. You know, so they get a little surface.

Being alive is hard enough. Being alive in this current world is difficult. Having any sort of like notoriety and being in a world where like people comment on not only your creative endeavors but you as a person. It's a lot and so it's kind of even at your best to try and like divorce yourself from that. It's hard. It gets through sometimes. Now, what I don't want to do is change, you know, based on others' comments, you know.

It's just, you know, I try to take a very tick-not-hon approach to things. It's like when people are angry, you know, you got to be aware of what you may have done to contribute to that but at the same time, like those people are suffering. It's suffering from things that may have nothing to do with you. And so you've just got to – it's very, very difficult. You know, I mentioned to you when we started becoming aware of the shit storm that – this other book I read early in the year called Rework by the founders of Basecamp, they say it's important to draw

a line in the sand. They're like, just become clear on like, this is who I am. This is who we are. They say if you're not upsetting people, then you're not pushing hard enough and you may lose some customers along the way, but you never really had them to begin with. Now I told you this the other day and I probably didn't articulate it well enough but you sort of dismissed it as fortune cookie wisdom and I get that. But I also think there's some truth in there. I'm not a politician.

I'm not – I think I could if I wanted to manipulate people with PR speech but I want to be ugly and vulnerable and authentic and I want to make mistakes in public. I like to see how far I can take things, whether it be a joke or a personality trait and then course correct along the way. Because of that, I have to suffer the slings and arrows for that and I get that. For those of you that are inspired by my insanity and see me for me, I think that a day is going to come when I'm going to strike out on my own with side projects for

that audience. To the rest of you, I think I'm just going to kind of reorient myself here on cannon fodder because it's no longer entertaining to a subsection of this audience. I'll do something different in the future where people will come and we'll enjoy that. What was that? Did you just announce a solo tour? What is that? A solo album?

Stay tuned, man. You'll be one of the first to know or the last. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. Well that – okay, that's a little hot drop for everybody to comment on as Troy leaves the Glass Cannon Network officially. Well, just one of the reasons we haven't done a bandcast, right? Because you and I have talked about the bandcast forever and one of the main reasons I haven't

done it is because I don't want to go on the bandcast under the Glass Cannon Network and have to tiptoe around how we see life. I would rather to just be how we are off camera on a microphone even if we say stuff that people aren't going to like, within reason. That's why I haven't done a bandcast because I don't want to read comments about ourselves. You know what I mean? So we'll do that.

We'll do it a different way. Hmm. Interesting. All right. Well, that's all the time we have today. I know we used it all up. I do actually have to cut listener mail, unfortunately. I'm sorry guys, but there we'll get to it next week.

There's just so many good things I want to talk about in this episode, particularly, you know, an episode that, you know, I thought was very much needed. I think a lot of people felt that way for a lot of different reasons. As at finger drop put it on YouTube, and I just heard it in the perfect voice, a very special episode of the Glass Cannon podcast. It's like, you could just hear it coming. And we we've had this happen once before. I mean, it's so funny thinking about episode 30. So that was episode 35, right? Yeah, that was or 36. 35.

36, I think maybe. So 36. It was 36. Oh my God. YouTube has gotten very weird with how they lay it out now, and I can't even see the title. Anyway, so yeah, coming off of, yeah, it was 36. So coming off of 35, we talked about how episode 35 had, you could draw so many parallels to episode 50.

And then we come in here with episode 36, and to me, it is the parallel of another Giant Slayer episode. This is another quiz. Yeah. Come on. What's the parallel? Changed the course of the whole campaign. Misconnections? Misconnections.

Episode 61. Now, I went and pulled an old comment, speaking of Reddit, Kaiser Grizzly, I believe, started the Reddit, started the subreddit. I don't think Kaiser Grizzly is even a part of it anymore. I'm not sure. But Kaiser Grizzly was the original starter of the subreddit. And I pulled a comment from eight years ago. It was the only comment on that episode. So back then, no one was coming. Joe, it's not going to be the comment. Yeah, exactly.

Eight years ago, this comment from Kaiser Grizzly on Miss Connections, this was a fantastic episode. Heavy role play with fantastic character development. It's like, you see any parallels there? Could that be a comment on this episode? I think a lot of people were saying a similar thing. After episode 35, you saw our faces at the end of that episode. It was just everybody was so defeated and so sad.

You must have felt like you wanted to approach this episode in a different way because this is an entirely different episode unlike anything we've done so far in Gatewalkers. What happened in your mind as a GM after 35 that you thought about going into 36? Yeah. I don't know if we mentioned it on air or off air. I feel like it was off air. A few months ago, we were talking about the entryway into this adventure, how you kind of start. I would say in medias res, but it's really beyond in medias res. Like the inciting event happens off screen. It's like months later and you're trying to suss this out. And so I think Matthew

made a comment like, oh, it was our idea. I was like, I thought to myself later when I was watching the episode, I was like, actually I'm the one that said that like I originally thought that maybe I would start this with all of you guys at Riddleson's Manor. Manor. Yeah, and I was just like, I don't really want – that's not how I wanted to do it but you know, maybe we'll do it someday. So I kind of had that idea in my head but I was also like I didn't want to force it and I also didn't want to – I didn't want to really start digging into that work because that's what it is.

It's a lot of work, yeah. It was like if it's going to happen, I'll know the right moment. Well, right when Talitha died and we're going off camera – where the camera is cut, I'm thinking to myself like, it would be cool if we could see a Talitha lucky scene. So in that moment, I was like, Talitha Lucky scene. So you thought of the Talitha Lucky scene the second we stopped recording the previous episode. We were like caught, we were doing pickups and I was like, just, you know, the beginnings

of an idea, Talitha Lucky scene. And then I just kind of filed that away. And then I don't think I mentioned this on the show but I think at the time we recorded this I was reading this book called Start With Why by Simon Sinek. And it's funny because somebody I met in St. Paul was like, have you ever read any Simon Sinek? I was like, no, I just finished Start With Why. Phenomenal book. One of the top five I've read all year. In this book, he's talking about like the sort of golden circle of how businesses are

built and whatnot. There's the what and the how and the why. As you grow, a lot of people lose sight of the why. You know what you do, you know how you do it, but you kind of forget the why. As you get bigger and bigger- Find your why. If you don't have that why as the backbone, you kind of lose it. He talks about how like when Bill Gates left Microsoft to go focus on the Bill and Melinda

Gates Foundation, even though he was only gone for a couple of months, like they shudder because the company was defined by Bill Gates' presence. Same thing happened when Jobes left Apple and you see it time and time again when the founder of Walmart died. Job's? Job's. I've been reading a lot of the Bible. Yeah, the same thing happened when the founder of Walmart died.

Anyway, so I've really been thinking about this. I was like, oh, when people – when a split happens, it's because you lose your why. We went through that split. We saw a boom when COVID hit and then we just started producing so much stuff. We definitely lost sight of why we were doing it and it became a job for us, a job that we just kind of didn't like often because we couldn't control the growth. We couldn't manage the growth and we didn't really – we lost sight of why we're doing this. So I started this episode very pointedly like asking everyone why they play role playing

games because I wanted to get back to the heart of that. I also knew there was a lot of negativity out there from bottle caps, hero points and whatnot. I want to get back to the why we're doing this to kind of remind everyone at the table and everyone watching why we do this and why we love it so much. And then it was for me like let's really focus on the why of these characters because that's something that has not translated through these first 35 episodes. You just – you haven't seen it.

And so I called the episode Missing Moments as sort of a pun because we're like – we get to see everyone's – talk about everyone's missing moment but I think these were also like missing moments from the show thus far. Like you really – we really needed to see this. And just the campaign. You know what I mean? Like we're always drawing parallels and I hope to be genuine with how I discuss the difference between playing an actual game versus playing a game for a show. But like, if this game was not recorded for a show, it would also have some of the problems

that it had. You know, we didn't have those, like you said, the whys for the characters, why they're risking their lives for this stuff. That's always been so important to me in these adventures. Even as a GM, I've always kind of drove that home with players. I'd be like, why would your character go out and get riddled with arrows and get fire spells cast on them, get down to their dead, get raised by a cleric and go out and do it again the next day? Why on earth would they do that? You have to have a damn good reason and finding that is huge for a character.

It drives every decision that you make. And it is really fun when you know that. It makes decisions easier. Even if they're bad, they're fun because you know what your character would do. It's when you don't know and you're in kind of a limbo that it's not even fun to play. Yeah. And one thing that I did differently with this episode than I've done in the past is I texted Matthew and Sydney on the drive in. I was like, hey, I think I'm going to open up today's show with Talitha and Lucky back when they first met. And that's all I said. I didn't tell you anything I didn't tell Kate or skit. Yeah, like we had a whole scene and like I didn't know what's coming at all

It was totally improv and that's what I wanted to do I didn't want you guys to think to pre think about it too much I didn't want you to write anything you mean so that it would be good It might be excellent and so well, yeah, you excellent. By the way, I thought Lucky and Talitha were fantastic and I thought scripted. That's incredible because that was so good. I felt like when I was doing Ramias, I was like, where are we getting to here? What am I going for here? I don't really know. I did feel a little lost. But you know, when you think that, you end up finding it, right?

Because I think you found it. I certainly think you found it. Yeah, I certainly got out a lot. I wanted to get out a lot about him. It was great. It was great. And that's why, dude, the more I can get away from pre-planning and scripting, the better. Even when I have a script, I try to ignore it because I don't want to be weighed down

by that and lose something in the moment. And so that was a big part of this as well. It's like just throw you out there because if you know you've got this scene, you're going to have to find what is most important in that moment without overthinking it. So everything you've thought about this character so far, it's got to come out. And I think we saw that in a bunch of different ways and then you got a little bit of lightness with Buggles and Zephyr but also really interesting from Kate. Wait, did that happen? I guess that happened later seeing like Zephyr's journey from before to like now thinking she might

be cursed and can't shoot arrows anymore. Then you juxtapose all of those conversations with this conversation by the campfire and a new person. Yeah, it's just I loved it. I thought it was fantastic. I mean, Sydney dropping right back into Lucky was awesome. I mean, she just like boom, it was like a transformation happened. It was great.

At I am veneer on YouTube said, I freaking love Sydney. She is a treasure. And I think that that was partially because of how well she played Lucky, but mostly because how she reacted to the trench coat, which is one of the funniest things we have ever seen naturally come out on the GCP is her mistaking a shady salesman for a pedophile. Mixing up those two concepts. Like a pedophile? Oh, God, it was just so good. It was just so good.

I want you to do me a favor. We're talking about comments. We're talking about how you don't want to engage anymore and you hate everyone in the audience is what I took away from that. That's what they'll clip by the way. I want you to do. You know what's so sad? It's like people are going to walk away from this. That's what they'll clip by the way. You just hate them. I want you to do- You know what's so sad?

It's like people are going to walk away from this. Still like they'll just fucking pine little things. I'm sure it to like hate on it. It's just- Oh dude. They don't have to go far to find it. They have their opinions and their opinions aren't going to change. It's fine.

I know. We really care. You know what I mean? Like- Yeah. You definitely care. The people who know, know we care. Too much. If there's one negative we have, it's that we care too much.

We work too hard. I want you to do me a favor. Now, this will probably be a bad look on you at this current time and this current climate, but I think it's comedy gold. If you could go to episode 36 on YouTube, there is a comment from at Donovan Lynch. You want me to go there? I want you to go there. I want to sign in as you, not as the glass cannon.

Though you could I guess sign in as glass cannon. It just wouldn't be quite as funny. There's a comment by at Donovan link or Lynch. And the comment is, is Joe going to get a bottle cap for his heartfelt acting? And I would love it. you just responded, no. Like from your account. I just said, no. Like when I saw their comment,

I just laughed out loud in my head imagining like one reply and it's like open the reply and it's just Troy LaValley. No, it would just be comedy gold. But anyway, thank you for the comment. And I, Troy, if you do that, everybody on fodder will know it was an inside joke. But on it. Awesome. All right, one more comment before we get to the negative one, which I want to discuss. I was going to say, wasn't there a real mean one? Yeah, no, it's not a mean one. This is a great one that I, well, these last two are ones that I connected with

really, really well. At KZN 5907 nailed it for me. Absolutely nailed it. Fucking Hubert has gotta be the funniest character that I absolutely cannot wait to see killed off. I was like, you're speaking directly to me. You're in my mind. That was amazing.

And then this is the critical one I really like. So at Mithor VIII, I want to bring this up because I also thought this, was concerned about this during the episode. Mithor VIII said, I'm probably in the minority here. Whenever that starts, whenever a comment starts with that, you know it's going to be bad. I'm probably in the minority here, and I'm a huge fan. But this is a little too deep role play heavy for me, all in one go. I honestly prefer more fun and silly off the cuff role play moments from GCP,

like meeting random shopkeepers with odd backstories, rather than the heavy drama, which is why I stopped listening to critical role. Very interesting. Now, I'm not that familiar with the length and breadth of all critical roles campaigns in terms of how much drama they do exactly. But I thought, so did you ever think like we should split these up? Because it was a lot in one go. It's like, all right, so we're going to get more about Lucky, we're going to get more about Talitha, we're going to get more about Brother Ramius, Buggles and Zephyr, then we're gonna add in a, and this was by the way, not you,

this was Asta sort of brought this out, was like, we should say something about ourselves. All right, now we're gonna do brother Ramius's whole gate moment reveal for the first time. Then we're gonna reveal that Zephyr has all these doubts and doesn't want to be there and blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. And not move anywhere from the initial campsite after the death of the character in that whole episode. Did that concern you at all? I mean, obviously, I think we both look back and love the episode. However, I thought the comment had merit was kindly stated, and it was something I was thinking at the time. I was like, maybe we should just split these out over two episodes and have a little

exploration in between. I don't know. Your thoughts? Yeah. No, I think that there was a world where I would have loved if the entire episode was a flashback and we don't even get to the campfire until next week. If I had enough sort of meat on the bones there in my head, I would have, but I just wanted to keep it to like three interactions because the pacing felt right. How long those took, you know, I didn't know. Like we took our first break after Talitha and Lucky. So like we were already 45 minutes into the episode with only one of those vignettes. But the one between Riddleson and Ramius and then the one between the Major Domo, Zephyr

and Buggles, those ones moved a lot more quickly. So when we got to the campfire, I was like, all right, great. Looking at the time here, I'm like, let's let this breathe a little bit. I did give pause when Asta was like, let's go around the table because I'm like, all right, we don't need all of this. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. But I dove in because I was like— It's like a metronome in my head. I can feel like we don't need this. But that's the beauty of having an NPC in there because I was like, all right, wait, just waiting for it.

And then Hubert comes in with his joke. With the cloaca. And now we don't need to keep going. Comedy gold. And then we don't need to keep going. I'm not really going to tell anyone this, but now we've moved on, we've inserted some humor there, and then we don't need to keep going around the table.

Yeah, I don't know. I think people sensed it. It's so funny because I sensed it. I was like, we don't need this all in one episode. Also, it makes the episode kind of feel to me on the downside a little bit like, like almost like apologizing for not having all this in there earlier, right? Like, oh, we need to go back and do all this stuff. It was very organic in that, in the moment I was like, you know, I could, I could push this off further. Or as brother Ramius, I can kind of be like, you know what, let me get this weight off my back, right? This elephant off my back. Like I've been hiding

this thing for so long. No one's really pressed me on it. And who cares? Like, let me just get it out for the audience at least so they kind of know why he's risking his life day in and day out. And by the time I was finished, I was like, God, that was long. It's because for months and months and months and months and months, I've thought about this story and And I've kind of added to it and tweaked it and changed it and adapted it and whatever. I've never written anything down. But it's always just been knocking around in my head. So then when it did come out, it was not extremely efficient. And when I finished it, you know, I thought Sydney did a great job

of sensing it too. I mean, Sydney was sensing it when she was like, I thought we would say like what our favorite food was or something. I can't remember what she said. But she was like, that was a lot. And it turned into a good comedy bit. And I'm glad that it wasn't like everybody then go into great detail about your gate moment. So yeah, I think it ended up panning out well at the end. But I did think that Mithra ate, I appreciate that comment. And that's a good example of like, hey, just stating your opinion on this. I do think it was a lot in one moment, but that is also, it was really the exception rather than the rule in this campaign.

We kind of needed that. And you'll see as we move on, we're not going into in depth heavy role play again and again and again in the next episodes, which we've recorded. So yeah, these stories shall continue. And I'm not going to say anything about Matthew, Matthew's character. We will save that. We'll save that for the FOD next week.

You know what else I think we'll save for the FOD next week is listener mail. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'd love it. I've got some great messages here, but we'll get to them next week. They're not going anywhere.

And we just went too long today. You got a short one? I could chat. I don't want to go do work. A short one? Yeah, I mean, god, we're running really long today. You got a short one? I can chat. I don't want to go do work. A short one? Yeah, I mean, God, we're running really long here. Let me see if I have a short one. Shorties, talking shorties? Yeah, I'll grab one here.

This one is kind of, we've sort of loosely answered this before, but coming off of the situation with Talitha, I'd love your thoughts. You've kind of joked or hinted, but I really want you to really, really think about it here in this international dish question. Oh, wait a minute. Let me play Nick. Let's let Nick play us in at least. You got to give Nick a little love.

That's right. He's got one. All right, so International Edition, we got Joshua from Wollongong, Australia. Never heard of Wollongong, Australia before. What's up, Joshua? Thanks for writing in. I've heard a lot of talk on a certain forum about the Gatewalkers AP just not being that good. Also, I've said it on Cannonfire.

Given recent encounters, if there was a TPK, would you continue Gatewalkers, or would you change the campaign and start a new one? This is something you kind of have alluded to. I don't know. I think we've asked before, if you have a TPK, what do you do in the show? What do you do in your game? Do the adventures keep the story going,

or do you just end the story? We've asked this question a bunch of times a bunch of different ways. The way that I want to present this one is Gatewalkers specific. If there was a TPK in this game right now, if it happened with the snail, would you wash your hands of Gatewalkers and start something new? It's interesting.

I feel, I never, and you and I always talked about this, I never liked when someone said that AP is bad. I'm sure some are objectively bad, but like Jade Regent, panned across the board. We had so much fun with it. So I feel like a campaign is only as bad as its group. And so if people think this AP is bad, then I blame us for not entertaining them, not the strength of the AP. And so that's where I'm at when I hear that. I'm like, oh, I guess we're not doing a good job for them. Whereas other people love it. It's not because the AP is good. It's because they're enjoying our performance of it.

We certainly know it has proven stellar veteran writers that are part of this project. That's what drew me to it initially. Yeah. Is it us? I guess it's us. It has to be us. You can only blame the craftsman. You can't blame the AP.

The tool. But your actual question, would I – the first time I've considered it, like in the past, I'd be like, no, no. If you would TPK a giant slayer, no way I wasn't going to finish that story. But there's something bothersome to me about the sort of remaster nonsense. You know what I mean? That's another factor that is not being considered here. It's not purely the story. There's also this other layer that's causing complications.

I don't think it's like that's what's creating a schism between good and bad, but it's enough of like a little niggling thing that makes me like, you know what, it'd be a lot easier to just do a remastered AP at this point. Even though, I don't know, maybe that's just an excuse. But had everyone been killed by the snail, I don't know. I also think like, who the fuck does that? Nobody's really done that. That would be cool to be like, you guys TPK'd.

Here's a cut scene to describe the destruction of the world at the hands of the big bads that you don't even know exist. Here's what happened when you walk through the gates and just narrate it in a final episode. Give everybody epilogues if they want and then be like, next week we're starting a new AP. That'd be amazing. Pretty fucking cool. It'd be pretty fucking cool.

Don't rule it. For real. That's the least we get to third level for Christ's sake. We still feel so vulnerable. But maybe Matthew's new character would help with that. Actually, I would love to, well, yeah, you know, I'm not going to say anything. I know too much, so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and we'll talk more about it next week. Let's get on out of here But before we do I do want to say a big thank you to professor Eric who you know listens to our shit

Week in and week out always comes back with great notes and this time I really should have said professor Eric a thing saying he could take the week off Like you didn't have to listen to us sitting around doing flashbacks with each other for an hour and a half But he did and I appreciate that. Thank you, Eric. You're the best. We appreciate it. Dude, and we appreciate every single person who listens to this show.

Even if you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and want to just come at us. I know that, I assume that at a certain point you loved us and then went astray. Maybe I pushed you astray. Maybe something we did push you astray. I appreciate everybody that listens to our content, buys tickets to our shows, subscribes to our Johns. Hopefully we can see eye to eye as time goes on. It would be great. It would be great. You know what I just realized, what I think is so funny about this whole thing, what you're doing, is basically you consider to be not liking you

or attacking you personally a character flaw. Which I just think is awesome. Because I think a lot of people feel that way. Like, well, if you don't like me, what's wrong with me? Like, something must be wrong with you. No, I definitely get it. But, no, we appreciate all of you. We love you so much.

Keep commenting. I'm gonna keep bringing it up. I love it, I love it. And we'll talk to you soon. We love you so much. Keep commenting. I'm gonna keep bringing it up. I love it. I love it. And we'll talk to you soon. Take it easy everybody. Bye. Bye.

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