The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 5/3/23

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

It's a very busy week at the Actual Play Factory! Troy and Joe discuss exciting news about Get in the Trunk, Friends of the Pod, AND Star Wars! In lieu of We Are Stupid, the guys get philosophical about gaming, life, and the pursuit of metaphysical contentment. 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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Only this spring, only at Starbucks. Ice Lavender Cream Oat Matcha Tea Latte includes dairy. You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network, the premier source for role-playing game entertainment. Welcome to Cannon Fodder. welcome to cannon fodder a behind the scenes look at the glass cannon network yo what is going on everybody welcome back Welcome back to Cannon Fodder. It is Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023, and it's me, your good buddy, Joe O'Brien. And I'm Troy. I didn't have the Discord open, so I couldn't hear the music.

LaValle. You weren't prepared for the show open with the music in the background. You were just sitting there in silence like a weirdo? It did? I couldn't get in the zone because I couldn't hear it. And then you were just like, yeah! I'm like, oh, the music, the music. I forgot, Discord. I mean, that music is essential for me to get in the zone, to get pumped to start out another week of the FOD.

Big week this week. Lots of announcements coming in this FOD. It's going to be a juicy one. I wouldn't call them official announcements filled with things like, quote unquote, release dates or anything like that. But what you will hear is what we're working on. Lots to work on this week.

I look at my recording calendar for this week, and I'm just going cross-eyed with the amount of characters I have to play and the things I have to prepare. It is a very exciting, exciting week. And we want to let you guys in on what we're working on. Anybody who's listening to the FOD is going to know a lot more about what's going on behind the scenes here than people that skip the FOD. Well, we were saying before we went live, I was like, man, I thought I had a bad week. And I was like, oh, actually, you have a horrible week. You're recording every single day.

But it is each individual thing is awesome. It's just that when you add them all together, it's like, you kind of go cross-eyed with the amount that you have to prepare. But we're going to talk about all of it today. We're going to talk about all of it, give you guys a little bit of insight into everything that's going on, including a new podcast feed for you to check out, and we'll do an update on tickets and such for the live tour. to check out and we'll do an update on tickets and such for the live tour.

But let's kick it off with, to me, with what is to me the biggest news, the thing that's weighing on me the most, taking most of my mental energy, and I think very exciting for the niche. This week marks the beginning of the recording of the next season of Get in the Trunk. We're getting back in that old trunk. We're getting back in that old trunk. We're getting back in that old trunk. We moved Francis from Hawaii to New York. He's getting set up and he should be ready to go this week. Is he going to be recording from the studio?

He's going to be recording from his home, from his apartment. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. He will be recording from his apartment, but he's squared away and good to go. I do wonder if one day we should have him recording from the office just because the background would look amazing. It's true. But, yeah, big news there.

Obviously, we can't say too, too much, but we just want to let you know that season five is underway. For those of you that have not listened to Get in the Trunk, it is freely available. You can hear the first season, at least, on the Get in the Trunk podcast feed wherever you find your podcasts. Just search Get in the Trunk. The further seasons of the show, season two, three, and four, oh, my God, I just remembered that I owe you something. I owe you. We need to put an audio bit on Get in the Trunk to tell people where to go find the rest of it. I completely forgot about that.

I think I emailed you that at like five in the morning when I was at the airport. You did. I received it on the flight to Colorado and was like, well, I'm not recording it there. So I'll do this when I get back and then completely forgot, of course. So pretty sure I said immediately. Season one, you can get right now for free and your favorite podcast app. The following seasons are available on Patreon audio only.

If you want to listen to season four, which really is the start of this Impossible Landscapes campaign that we're continuing now, you can go watch that on YouTube,

even if you're not a Patreon subscriber. That is available on YouTube all 17 episodes? 18 episodes? 18, yeah. 18 episodes of season four where we kick off the Impossible

Landscapes campaign. And it is, in my opinion, the best season of Delta Green that we have done yet. And you can start there if you want. You don't have to have heard all the previous seasons, though. It does help. Yeah, we get back in there this Friday. So I'm very excited. Yeah. And the plan is if you know that, that free freely available feed, uh, has season one on it. By the time we start releasing season five, I'm going to put season two up on that feed as well. So, you know,

the, the, the impetus is subscribe to the patron. You can listen, you can catch up way in advance. Otherwise you're going to have to wait, uh, you know,

a year until season three is on that free feed and, and whatnot. When season six comes out. That's the plan right now, at least. We'll see. As to when it releases, shut up. Stop asking. We're not telling you. Leave me alone. Get off my lawn. We are eager, just as eager as you to release it, I assure you. Part of that is because we are, we have a production schedule that we're trying to hit this year that fits all of the shows that we want to do into a nice, consumable timeframe so that when one show ends, another show begins, and there's no gaps to this fun, additional, seasonal content.

So in order for us to stay on schedule, it has to release as soon as possible. So believe me, we are doing our best to to release as soon as possible so believe me we are doing our best to do it as fast as possible uh when we have a specific date we'll let you know but it'll it'll be in the summer sometime in the summer yeah it'll be barbecue weather i think yeah it'd be good barbecue weather maybe the kids will be getting ready for trick-or-treat you can still barbecue in october you never know you never know uh. But the point is we're getting in there and we're getting it started, which is the most important part. What else do we have this week? Okay, so today, literally the day that this is dropping, we are recording something that you and I have never played together before.

We're playing – we're doing a Friends of the Pod. We haven't done one of these in a while. We did one with Seth Skorkowski and it was wonderful when we did Modern Cthulhu we did another Friends of the Pod

with Paizo when we did the beginner box for them as sort of a hey here's an intro to the system and you can try it out

we did that with myself, Skid, Paula Deming and Mary Lou that was really fun that was just a PFS that wasn't the beginner box it was like a PFS

we were going to do the beginner box but then I had played the beginner box and we were like yeah you know what let's pivot to the PFS Inher wasn't the beginner box. It was like a PFS. Oh, that's what we were going to do, the beginner box. But then I had played the beginner box. And we were like, yeah, you know what? Let's pivot to the PFS. Inheritor's Right was the scenario. That's right.

That's right. I forgot that. So yeah. But the idea was it's a beginner look at Pathfinder. It was level one, I think. Yeah, and it was through that, during all that OSR drama. OSR? OGL.

OGL. OGL drama, yeah. So that was really fun. And now we have the next installment coming. And our friends of the pod this time around are going to be Chaosium. Chaosium themselves, one of their, I think, sales and marketing director is Brian Holland. He is going to come here to the Glass Cannon Network and run us through RuneQuest. All the way from Australia.

All the way from Australia. No, he's going to be in Australia, but he will be GMing us through a brief run, a three-episode run of RuneQuest role-playing in Glorantha. So, we'll dig a little deeper into that system. We played it during

New Game Who Dis back in 2021. Right? Yeah. Back in 2021, we played it. I ran Matthew, Nora, Tanya DePass, and Connie Chang through a three-app thing. We built characters, and then we did an introductory scenario. And, you know, there's

a lot to really like about this system. It's a very unique system. And now we've got these two new books that we're going to be focusing on, the cults of RuneQuest, the Lightbringers, and the Earth Goddesses. So I know that's what Brian was like. Start looking to the cults, because the first episode is going to be us on the cults of RuneQuest, the Lightbringers and the Earth Goddesses. So I know that's what Brian was like. Start looking for the cults because the first episode is going to be us just building characters and we want to start experimenting with these new cults.

Beautiful, beautiful books like everything they put out. It really is. I've been digging into it myself and the details on the cult pages are amazing because if you go into, say, if you're looking at 1E, it's Faiths of Galarian. If you're looking at 2E, it is the Lost Omens. What is it? Deities of the Lost Omens? I can't.

Oh, Gods and Magic. Lost Omens, Gods and Magic. Those, the details about not only the deities and their mythology, but also the churches, right? Like how they are constructed, what the priests are like, how they organize the religion, all that kind of stuff. Like those details are important to play a good cleric. Well, in these books, the detail is staggering. Each cult has like 12 to 14 freaking pages of like their organization and how widespread they are and how you rank up and how you do all this different stuff

and the different splinter factions within the cult. It's really detailed. And there's, I want to say, 19 new cults to add into the mix. It's wild. It's wild. So we're all going to pick some cults and try it out. These books release at Gen Con this year. I don't think they're out yet.

They release at Gen Con. So we're hopping in to record this now. And again, we don't have a release date. I think it's going to air in July. I think it's going to air like leading right up to Gen Con. But that's something that we're going to work with our friends of the pod, Chaosium, on to determine when we're going to drop it. Do you have a favorite cult?

Off the top of my head, I don't remember the name of it. Branch Davidians? Is that what you were going to say? Oh, you mean in real life? In real life. Yeah, real life cults. I just finished the Waco documentary on Netflix, and it was really good. Did you watch the one with Taylor Kitsch?

No. What's his name? The Dramatization. I thought it was great. A lot of people didn't like it because it seemed like it glorified David Koresh a little bit. But I think it's just because Taylor Kitsch is so – I'm probably mispronouncing his name. So charming. But it was an interesting take at the story.

I don't know how true it was. But I don't know. Branch of Infinity. This is a pretty good cult. Nixxiom. Sort of a new one. What's the one with the hail bop comet they had a cool name do you remember hail bop i do remember hail bop i don't remember uh they had a

great fucking name uh as far as cults go god i so i used to work at kim's video up near columbia and uh if you live in new york or if you spend any time here for, you know, there was an indie video chain for a while where they would have the main releases, but like you go into Blockbuster and fucking Armageddon comes out, there's 90 copies of Armageddon

on the shelf to make sure that everybody wants to get it. If you go into Kim's video, there might be two. And so you're not going there for Armageddon. And if you are, you're probably shit out of luck because there's only two copies but then you go downstairs and there's just like real crazy indie stuff that you can rent and you can

sometimes it's like on a vhs that somebody taped from something and this dude i worked with he was a real real drug addict and uh francis no this is a guy that – he was a great guy. He just had some problems. And if you work the downstairs thing, a lot of your job was just answering questions from people down there and restocking movies as they were coming back in. That was pretty much – it was a great shift because you didn't have to deal with the customers really other than answer their questions because the customers are fucking awful at video stores and everywhere. But you would put a movie on there to watch while you were down there so that was great if you didn't have a lot of work to do you could sit there and watch movies and one movie he would consistently put on late on friday nights

was this like it was the video the like recruitment video for the the sail pop comet uh cult heaven's gate heaven's gate that's right uh yeah it was like the heaven's gate recruitment video with that weird dude and they all neutered themselves all the men had to get neutered and then it was just mass suicide yeah it it is it's it is wild uh getting back to fantasy uh the i want to i want to do a rpg it's like a real cults. That's what I'm doing. Let's talk about this. It's so disturbing. Stop distracting me. Yeah, it is.

It's very scary. It's very scary. And these are not all – I think cult automatically sort of implies something like Heaven's Gate or Nixxiom, right? Yeah. Sort of this mind-controlling kind of disturbing, I don't know, group think. Brainwashing. But these books portray cults. There are some that are definitely like that, the more evil cults for sure. But then there's plenty of interesting ones that you would just consider in the same way that you would consider religions in Pathfinder, regular

faiths in Pathfinder. And they're out there and organized and very large and everything. And so anyway, a lot of interesting options. We'll get more into it as we actually play that game. What else do we have on the docket for this week? Degenerate Dungeon. We got Degenerate Dungeon live tonight, 10 o'clock Eastern time on twitch.tv slash GCN Employee Lounge. That was so much fun last week.

It was. It was really fun last week. We did two hours just talking about the NFL draft. It was really fun. We put a couple bets in, but yeah, primarily it was just talking about draft memories and the drama of the draft. Everything was really fun. And so that'll be live every Wednesday night, 10 o'clock Eastern, followed by a podcast the next day, which reminds us if you want to help us out with that, we know that the vast majority of you listening to this are not sports fans, which is totally cool. But if you want to help us out and go over to Apple Podcasts and just rate Degenerate Dungeon, give us a rating on that and help us get some traction on the pod.

That would be awesome. A little five-star John. A little five-star John without even listening to it. If you don't care about actually your word meaning anything important. You don't have to write a review, but a little five-star John helps. I feel like if you want to write the review, you should listen. And then if you're going to say something nice, write a review. If you don't want to listen, don't leave a review, but give us a five-star, John, just to help out the show.

What is the story with – yeah, that's the thing. It's like just help us out with the show because whether the rating is five stars or not – and please just try to make it five stars if you can. not and and please just try to make it five stars if you can it is the more ratings you get is what triggers the the algorithm to just dump it in more people's inboxes that like uh sports and so you know they can they can find their way our way and this is why it helps us right because like 95 of the people listening and i'm probably not even saying enough 98 of the people listening don't give a shit about this and uh that's fine. But what we're, one of the things we're trying to do with this experiment is like, see if we can trickle people in to the network through sports and vice versa, you know, build a, you build this little sports thing out. And so it really helps us to get more people to find it.

And one of the ways to do that is these reviews, because then it pops up the Apple charts. Cause you know, podcast connect is still the number one way people find things. And so, you know, it could help grow the nation. But it's also just like a fun side project. I think that there's a lot of people out there. I think most people out there probably presume that there is this huge barrier between fans of tabletop RPGs and fans of sports and that they don't really cross over and that we are a rare exception. While that may be factually true right now,

we're on a mission to stop that because it doesn't make any sense. If you play tabletop RPGs, primarily if you are thrilled at tactical combat and the random results of the die and where that turns the story in one way or another guess what that's sports that is that's called being a sports fan if you if you don't like that just watch scripted fiction you know what i mean like that's the thing there's and i love my scripted fiction but i can see such an easy crossover between these two things we have tons of niche fans that are sports fans. And I think that if we had some more sports fans learn how fun RPGs are to play, to be involved in that kind of a thrilling, dramatic story where you and no one there really knows where it's going to end up, that is what it's like for me to watch sports, which is why I love sports stories. They're

just, they're amazing. So anyway, think that it is more more likely than not uh sorry that's that's not worded right i think it's more likely than a lot of people think that we can convert some sports fans uh into tabletop rpg fans and keep growing this tabletop community beyond the kind of niche niche that it is right now and continue to make it more mainstream uh to people who had not tried it yet um yeah it's just a fun show for us to do because it's like no pressure. We just show up and hang out with our buddies and talk. So if you like Bant, it's pretty much all Bant. It's pretty much all Bant.

All right. So what else do we have? Oh, let's get a quick update on the tour because next we have St. Paul and Asheville, and we are literally down to under five VIP VIPs available for those shows right so if people want to if people want to come VIP to those shows you got it you got to order it today let me look at my ticket counter here there's one VIP ticket left in Asheville literally one there's one one left in Asheville uh now there's plenty of general admission and we keep pushing like come on out to that if you can um we're still we're over half sold which is great uh new market

you know we're not expecting a sellout but we're always hoping for it. But it's great to have those VIP sellouts. So there's one more left for VIP. And then it looks like St. Paul, there's three more VIPs left. And then that show itself, yeah, not a lot of tickets left. Not a lot of tickets. And we sold that out last time. So St. Paul, if you want us to come back in 2024, sorry, we're going to need another sellout. But we're getting close. They can make it happen. They got weeks. We got time.

We got time. Yeah. Stop waiting, though. Stop waiting. Stop waiting. We got plenty of time, and I'm excited to get out there. Also this week, tomorrow, Thursday, you and I are playing again. this week. Tomorrow, Thursday, you and I are playing again. This time we're playing the Star Wars RPG because it is May the 4th, my good buddy, and it is time to return to our Star Wars.

What I realized, I hadn't thought about it in a couple years, is the beginner box. That's what we're playing. It's the beginner adventure. And for those that don't know, I might've mentioned it last week in this context, but we're just continuing that adventure. Uh, so we're hopping right back in. I don't remember anything about my character. Like it's going to be pretty raw, but it's going to be really fun to, uh, get Matthew back on the con. As you said, when you sent the email, Matthew, you have the con, uh, to get us started on some more Star Wars. Are you looking forward to playing the game again itself? It felt like a really good idea when I said, hey, Matthew, how about for Star Wars Day? We do a fun game of Star Wars. And then this week happened.

It's just like, ah! But, you know, the good thing about Labs is it's pretty low key. That's why we're not releasing it afterwards because we're not like trying to really crush it. We're just going in there and playing and practicing with new, new chemistries and new games. And so I downloaded the old new game who dis episodes. So it was new game who does five, six,

seven, and eight. And I've started listening to them again, just to remember like how the game worked a little bit and what my character sounded like. And also a little bit of that mission, but mainly I want to make sure I knew what my character sounded like. And also a little bit of that mission. But mainly I wanted to make sure I knew what my character sounded like. He's Amon Calamari.

I still don't know what class he is. But anyways, think about that, dude. New Game Who Discs 5678, that's about less than two months into the pandemic. Yeah. It's crazy to go back and listen to that. So if you're a Patreon subscriber, it's the only way you can listen to those episodes. They only exist in audio form on the Patreon. I think you have to be a $10 subscriber to listen to that.

So if you listen to Blood of the Wild, you can go back and find 5678 and get caught up for this. And we're going to have Rob play with us, which is fun too. I just – I love playing with Rob. We get to hang out and spend so much time with him in Boulder. And Rob has now booked tickets and a hotel to Gen Con. So he's going to be hanging with us in Gen Con. He was like, so how do I get a hotel? I was like, Oh man, you got 45 minutes. Let me explain how this works. And then he finally texted me back.

He's like, well, I got a comfort in that I think is in Indiana. Oh man. Yeah, that's so great. Can't go wrong with more Rob Kirkovich. It's going to be great to play with him on Thursday. And yeah, get back into it. You know, I don't remember anything about my character. And I remember Skid's character

because his character was amazing. Oh, dude, he's killing me. He's like, he's so on as the Percolate, the former coffee machine droid turned battle droid or battle droid that was like enslaved as a coffee machine i think it's for short cl8 i mean so so funny it's like used to be cold brew that flowed through my veins i forgot there was like a maintenance droid that we think is going to attack us and he pulls out a mop and it's just like we're trying to figure he's got a restraining bolt on him and we're trying to decide

what to do and like it's actually you that convinces him to join the rebel alliance but there's this whole thing where skid tries to like free him from robot droid enslavement it's really really funny uh definitely worth a re-listen definitely worth the re-listen i'll try to do it i'll try to but dude. I'll try to. But I really don't think it's going to happen because I'll tell you, to be honest with you, I am in the thick of re-listening to season four of Get in the Trunk. Not wall to wall, but I am listening wall to wall fully to about the last five episodes of the season. Because there's so many details in there that I want to make sure that we're remembering as we roll into season five. So anyway got to talk after fodder because like you know we're going to record on friday and i asked you yesterday the month or a couple days ago in the meeting i was like are we still doing getting the trunk it's like i haven't received an email from you yet and you're like oh i've

talked to everybody else but i don't want to bother you because you're busy i'm like well if i'm not ready we can't record um i find that roger works best with the least amount of prep it's it's true right but like then i'm thinking about well i i know that there's i'm gonna have If I'm not ready, we can't record. I find that Roger works best with the least amount of prep. It's true, right? But like then I'm thinking about, well, I know that there's, I'm going to have to have to prep something or start thinking about something. And so you and I haven't talked yet. We should talk after this, even though we've got a meeting. But it came to me yesterday, an idea of what Roger's been up to. And I mean, I think it's pretty pretty not not surprisingly pretty fucking wild and very very

dark uh so we should we should chat about it all right great well then let's let's let's get cooking here we we are stupid are we is empty today empty uh episode 74 of the glass of, of, of, of, of strange aeons is, um, uh, largely puzzle based. Really? Most of the episode is trying to figure out the way into the prison using, you know,

all our abilities to kind of get in there. Are you a big puzzle guy? You were fired up. You were like, I could do this all night. Do you enjoy puzzles? Oh, are we talking about jigsaw puzzles or just all kinds of puzzles

no puzzles like problem solving puzzles you know in games it could be in video games or in tabletop rpgs but when you're faced with like there are three levers and there's a blah blah blah in the other room like how do you get into the room or how do you escape the room do you enjoy that in your tabletop rpgs so so much much. I really do. I wish there was more of it. Now, I don't like when it's just kind of like random. We have no way of knowing, like, which, do I just pull the first lever and see what happens? I like that if there's a way to try and discern it that's not readily understandable, but you can figure it out. You know, when I was playing Skyrim again, that happens pretty early on.

You have this like golden claw, you've got a stick in the wall and then turn things to match up. And you're like, huh? I don't know. So then you look at the claw and you notice there are three symbols on the claw and the, and nothing tells you that maybe if you read the script and I'm like,

Oh God, this brings me back. I love shit like that. And you don't see it a lot in RPGs. Um, but I enjoy it. I think that's why we would have loved mummy's mask because i imagine mummy's mask is just a ton of like i'm probably totally wrong but hieroglyphs and stuff that are just puzzles you gotta move blocks so like open secret wall doors yeah i like it yeah no i would i would say uh i hate it

and i'm so glad we didn't play mummy's mask you can tell from the episode that i am so Yeah, I like it. can do and i'm just like going cross-eyed i'm like can we just get into the prison please and continue the story like uh i find puzzles to be the worst but i know that people love them people love them i just i want to fight every every episode i just want to fight a combat uh unless the combat's too hard well you know the same thing happens exactly unless the combat's too hard like nice easy combat with no risk and all reward what I do, I also get really frustrated with combats that are puzzles. I'll usually look at them in retrospect and be like, that was awesome. But in the moment when you're like, you hit it, but it doesn't do any damage. You do this and it doesn't do anything. And you realize you have to open some valve to knock the boss down a chute or whatever.

Open some valve to knock the boss down a chute or whatever. Open something or shut down some machine to stop their defenses, whatever, that's in the corner of the room. People love problem solving those. And it's not that I hate it as much as I'm just so not good at it that I have no interest. Have we – let me just see. Yeah, I think it's come out. It was the show. the show that we did uh in boulder you did cone of cold on the yeah moon beast yes and he was immune to cold correct and i

saw someone say like he should have used a knowledge check first to make sure if you're going to burn a spell like that it only costs you two actions use the knowledge check as your first action is it immune to cold? So you don't waste that spell. I had to run into the room. You had to run into the room. I was on the stairwell behind the back of it. Believe me, I thought about the knowledge check. But here's what I thought. If I move in there, I pre-think of all this stuff. I am technically better than every person on this podcast except maybe matthew if i run into that room uh and then do a knowledge check by the time it comes back to my turn again which will be in 45 minutes you'll be possessed dominated asleep exactly and if not that if not that and this is

what i was really thinking most of my allies will be at or near the creature and the cone of cold will no longer be available to me because i'll be blasting my allies so it was a high high risk high reward exactly and and uh i didn't mind that much i you know i was just like i knew it was a possibility and i knew it was a risk and i i rolled the dice um and you know hey it's an expensive way to find something out but yeah we found it out it's fun and if it went the other way it could have been great hey everybody it's uh it's immune to cold. What'd you use, Ray of Frost? Shut up.

Time to start negotiating. Like, that's the point that you get to. Yeah, speaking of we are stupid, Eric wrote in and said that he didn't have anything to add for this week because, obviously, there was no combat. And all of our exploration activities were pretty much by the book. Is he calling us perfect? Did we pitch a perfect game? He's like, I guess you don't need me anymore. I guess you don't need me anymore.

He waved and started to fade away as he said that. So in lieu of filler, I think I'm going to put you on the spot the way you put me on the spot about a month ago and uh i'm just gonna say that uh word on the street is that it's a bit of a flare up on the boards uh after last week's fodder which doesn't surprise me at all uh since you were in rare form and lashing out at everyone around you uh uh trying to hurt those you love and there was uh there was a lot of uh i don't know i i hear that these things a lot of negative energy on the boards directed at you specifically personally lots of attacks personal attacks uh based on your uh rent your gm rant last week do you have i want to give you an opportunity to to respond oh man any thoughts uh i do i do and i i think that the talk about a rant i think i all i can do is rant

back because i you know i still read all this stuff it's getting less so just because i'm really busy and now with three kids i'm really busy in a new way and i'm not getting enough sleep so it's it's hard to even think straight. Um, or let alone like, let me see what people thought of episode 71 of a show I made. Um, but it's interesting, right? Cause we'll have, we'll post, we have so many great shows and we'll post, you know, there'll be a post about one of our ancillary shows goes up and you'll see like what, 12, 15 comments. And then cannon fodder has a hundred comments and five separate threads calling me a douche. So it's just like – and there's power in that, right?

But I'd like that power to be used to grow and not just to flame. You know, what it was, P.T. Barnum is like, there's no such thing as bad press. And I do believe that. But, like, also, I don't want people to get the wrong impression. press and i do believe that but like also i don't want people to get the wrong impression listen i think that the overwhelming majority of people who consume our products understand that there's there's a reality behind all of which we do that is like either painted over or couched within a performance right a mummer's farce if you will on Canaphone, even on a talkback show like this, there's this consistent element of reality and performance

kind of blurring and mingling together. And one of my favorite things about what we do, about what we've created over the past seven or eight years, I always forget how many, is that people who listen to us, either they've listened from the beginning or joined any step along the way, they're able to watch unfold in real time.

Our journey from recording a single podcast in a tiny little apartment. Actually, your apartment was pretty good size for a New York apartment, but I was really happy with that apartment. It was a good apartment and you kept it very clean. So I can't say like a shitty, dirty apartment. It was actually a very nice apartment,

but it was hot. You didn't, you didn't buy an AC. The kitchen was newly renovated. You didn't have glass cannon money to buy an AC at that time. Yeah, there was no air conditioning, but other than that. It's very hot. Skip got very angry. But they're able to watch us take this journey from recording one podcast in a tiny little apartment to our moderately successful and growing startup that we are now. And so giving our fans this gritty,

behind the scenes look at that process has always been very important to me because I know before Glass Cannon, I spent so many years, like I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but I didn't have any idea how to get there, how to get from A to B, let alone A to Z. I just couldn't fathom how people got to where they were. I would find someone who had like my job. I would research their journey. And then somewhere along the way, I just felt like there was this jump in time

where they had my dream job and I couldn't see it. There was no roadmap from like a dirt poor actor to a wildly successful auteur. Now, everyone's journey is gonna be different different everyone's road which you are now which right well now that i'm a wildly successful is the term i would just batting hbo and showtime off with a stick uh to create the next big series um but the point was everyone has a different road map and I think it's really fucking cool that we can be honest about what our journey is

at least because I think that gives people hope because we didn't have rich parents or Hollywood connections, you and I certainly didn't we're the fucking American dream you know hard work, grit determination, that's what got us there these are things that are almost looked down upon nowadays hustle culture is frowned upon and whatever. That's beside the point.

But we also live in a world, right, that just, I feel like it feeds us bullshit and lies at every turn. You know, I don't watch the news, but whether it's the news, politicians, or even like an airbrushed photo on Instagram, we're all guilty of doing that. It's all bullshit. So for me to be brutally honest with our audience, which reveals plenty of ugliness, right? Ugliness about, you know, the stresses of running this business, sometimes the shittiness of having to record stuff when it's just that should be fun all the time, right? Well, it's not. And also the ugliness about our shortcomings as people and as artists. I think a lot of people would just rather see the airbrushed version because that's what they're used to.

That's what society gives us. Well, sorry, not sorry. That's not what I want to do here. You're going to hear things that maybe you wish you didn't know because I want you to see us at our best and our worst. And while I think there's a danger in that, obviously, I truly believe the long-term value outweighs the negatives that we get over time. Now, here's the thing. This is all complicated by the fact that I, as the face of the network, am'm a psychopath. As you call me. I mean, that is something that really should be kind of asterisked on these things,

is like, you have real challenges as a person to just exist in regular life, let alone public life. You call me a sociopath, at least bi-weekly, from some of the decisions I make. Just last week, I did something, you're like, what world do you live in that you would cut the cord on that new mic stand I told you? That's right. But like-

He got a product. Let me just put it this way, okay? Just so you know who you're talking about here. He got a product in the mail from Amazon that was for production for his home studio setup. He got it. It was in awful shape from the way he discusses it. It was a piece of junk that was destroyed in transit. Apparently instead of returning it, he just angrily destroyed it more and basically put it in the trash. So like, I was like,

why didn't you just return it? He said, I don't, I don't return things that are under $5,000. Something like real, like hyperbolic like that. It's just like, what kind of person, what world do you live in? Anyway, I'm sorry, continue. Yeah, I don't return things that are less than $5,000.

I destroy them. It's such a weird thing to say. All right, so I'm a psychopath. It's such a weird thing to say. All right, so I'm a psychopath. And that's compounded by the fact that since the beginning, I've created multiple different personas or personalities that are probably just exaggerations of the real me. But really, they're just meant to get a laugh, whether it's the GM, the asshole GM, or the narcissistic Vince McMahon CEO, whatever. But then there's the real me, right? There's the husband, the father of three, the guy who worked his fucking ass off to get here.

And you don't get to see that one as often. If you listen to old GCP intros, it's there. If we get to talk at a VIP after party, you get to meet that guy. Or even watch these content videos that I'm doing. You see a little bit more of the actual me. That's the real guy. Now, I'm always blurring the lines, I think, between the character or characters and the real person because that just interests me as an artist with a platform. But whatever, the fact remains, this psychopathy,

without taking anything away from anybody else, this psychopathy is what built the network. And I'm not interested in how they do it in business school or always trying to come off super professionally and buttoned up. I want to go my own way. I've always wanted to do that and be larger than life,

you know, multidimensional, because, and this is the point I'm trying to make, even though I'm sure I'm going to keep ranting, is that I think our success is built on the fact that our characters, who we are as people, me, you, Skid, Matthew, that's as important, if not more important than the characters we portray. People listen to us for us way more than the stories we tell. And so anyways, I think this fire that comes out from time to time when I get all fired up and angry and sometimes very, very rude deserves some context. And this isn't to make excuses for coming off like an asshole. It's just really to explain why I am the way I am, whether you like me or not.

I know there are plenty of people who don't like me. That's fine. Before the GCN, I spent over 20 years clawing to survive. 95% of that time was spent literally not knowing where my next meal was going to come through, let alone if I was going to even be able to eat that night. Do you have any time? And I've mentioned this to Joe. I've mentioned other people. I don't think I've ever mentioned it on the pod because it's embarrassing. Uh, but also I think it's

inspiring, but there were times so many times, uh, that I would wander into, uh, random hotel lobbies in New York, uh, pretending like I was a guest there or whatever. And I would just sit on the lobby couch, digging in the couch for change just to see if I could fucking eat that night. I would steal food from delis. And that's not even to talk about the number of times that I didn't even know I was going to sleep that night. The point of this is, is like that desperation, it does things to a man, Joe. It does things to a man, Joe. And for me, it made me hungrier because I never stopped believing in myself or my dreams.

I never stopped betting on myself. And I lost plenty of bets along the way. But now that – this is the thing. My path has brought success to me here. I'm like a rabid fucking dog when it comes to protecting and growing the one thing that worked after more than half my life spent hustling and suffering. So if you step in the way of my pursuits, I guess one of my many character flaws is that my gut reaction is just to seek and destroy. And I know I'm not supposed to do that. I just, I know no other way because my, I feel like my life in many ways depends on the success of this business, the life of my family and the future of my family. And so many people's families at this point depends on the success of this business. So that's a lot of pressure. So whether it's spreading uninformed lies or complete misinterpretations of what I'm saying

on the internet, whatever, it's the internet. You can't control what goes on the internet. But like, there's also people that like threaten my life and the life of my family. That's happened, by the way, over a fucking RPG podcast. And yes, sometimes it's just simply getting holier than thou against my GM rulings. I just have no tolerance for it. Because from where I sit, I see a picture that no one else can possibly see. And I wish it was a picture that I could better explain even to my colleagues,

but I can't. Thankfully, people, my friends here in the network, my wife, have trusted me thus far. And I feel like the majority of my decisions have helped us grow. Now, I'm also the boss of this company, and that complicates matters too. I'd like to be a boss that everybody likes. I've never really had that boss. But like, that's not my overriding goal. I would like to be liked by everyone. Sure, by the fans, by my co workers and business partners, by my employees. But I can't put the need to be liked above the rigors and needs of my positions, my position, and my goal as an artist. and I'm fine with being sacrificed. I'm fine with sacrificing being liked in the pursuit of my goals. I don't think they need to be mutually

exclusive, but, uh, at least they have been thus far. And maybe it's just because I'm a lunatic and I'm a shark and I'm always too focused on, on my career as opposed to building strong relationships, uh, with the people around me. It's probably why I haven't retained many friendships over the years as I've moved on to the next thing because I'm always focused on the next step up. The friends that I have, I'm close with, but I could always be closer just because I'm so focused on trying to build something for myself. Anyways, I told you I was going to ramble and I'm rambling. I'll wrap this up.

If you take anything away from this, this rant, and I'm sure those people will just misinterpret it. Just know that I'm crazy because I have seen, I've seen the bottom. I've been through hell and I'm not going back. I don't think that that's like a literal, a literal threat. Like the business is going to crumble and I'm going to go back. But like that, that like hits your sympathetic nerve system, that like flight or fight or flight response where you're just like, I don't want to go back there. I feel like I earned this. I fucking earned this. We earned this. And I have things I got to work on. I'm not so myopic. Myopic? Is it myopic? Myopic. I kind of like myopic. Optical. You don't say optical. I'm not so myopic. Myopic? Is it myopic or myopic? Myopic. I kind of like myopic.

Optical. You don't say optical. I do. Optical illusion? Well, I'm not so focused on myself that I can't see that I have things that I need to work on, but that's my business. Okay. I give you this. I give you, not you, Joe, but the listeners, this real look into me and into us as a gift. And here's the thing about gifts. All you can do as the gift giver is leave it out there. Here's the gift. It's a little raw.

Maybe it should come with a warning label, right? Hey, this gift sometimes sucks. But you can't control how the receiver responds or receives the gift. So I'm not mad that people dislike me over the way I present things. I just want to make sure you have the whole story, the truth. But as I said earlier, like I don't think people always want the truth. And I don't want to bitch and moan all the time. I don't want to talk about how stressful this job is. And I really, I've tried to really cut back on just whining over there because it is a dream to get to do what we do. But I also have no intention of giving you this or not giving you an unadulterated look at our journey. Warts and all, because I think that's helpful to people and it separates us from everyone else.

That's it. That's, that's it. That's all I got. Joe, are you through? I think I am. I'm very parched now and I wish I had water. You didn't even take a sip.

I've drank a gallon of water. Well, it's just, it's just coffee dregs at this point. And that was just going to make me more parched. Oh, that doesn't help. How do you resolve this complicated issue,

which is by and large, most people, you said last week that you, the audience is the thing that you care about the most, more than your players. You care about their enjoyment the most. And you care the most about this business being successful. You want to be successful. You need that success. You're a shark for that success. And you are nothing. It sounds bad when you say it. You are nothing. It sounds bad when you say it. You are nothing without that audience. Without that audience, you have nothing they are everything and so you want to make them uh pleased but most audiences prefer to escape the shitty parts of reality with our podcast they don't want to know

all the shit and dirt and everything and when i say they i just mean most by far most don't want to know what a shitty person you are uh no that's the wrong way to put it, don't want to know what a shitty person you are. That's the wrong way to put it. They don't want to know. Maybe they don't want to see warts, right? They just want the perfect image and that's what they're buying. If somebody was telling you that in a marketing department or something like that, how do you resolve those two things when what you believe to be the right course of action, brutal honesty at all times, crashes with what you want, which is wild success at an audience that believes you to be living the dream at all times. How do you balance those two things? It's tricky, right? Because we could go the other way.

We could easily just polish that and not give you that look. just polish polish that and not give you that look um cute like the 1950s music like you know like over a black and whites of us just like walking into the studio all smiling at each other yeah the uh if you ever watched that 70s show that you would always have daydreams and it would be like that you know yeah like sitcoms. Did you do marijuana? Well, you know, I love gaming. I do. Sometimes it sounds like I don't love it, but I do. However, I'm not passionate about gaming.

I'm passionate about success, right? Obviously. I'm passionate about entrepreneurship. But most of all, I'm passionate about entertaining people. And I believe sometimes entertainment isn't just making someone laugh. It's making them feel and think and question. And I know how to do that. I feel like I do a very good job of making people feel. very good job of making people feel. Now, unfortunately, I think that I tend to,

I lash out in ways that just make people mad at me. And so I don't want to do that, right? But man, I'll take that over not caring. I posted a quote from Oscar Wilde last week, which I loved. I saw it come up and I was like, oh man, this is, this is perfect. It was like the only, I'm paraphrasing, but like the, the only thing that's worse than being talked about is not being talked about. And that's the damn truth. And that's why I started all this by saying, I think the overwhelming majority of people understand this and understand me and us. And if there's anybody

they don't like on the show, they still understand that there's a real person there and whatnot. And when you come to our VIP after parties, you get to talk to people and you see how much, what effect we've had on people. Like it really hits it home. It hits it home way more than a couple people that just like the same fucking people that write monologues on the internet that just have an ax to grind. That's fine. But I'd like everyone to just kind of understand where it comes from. I don't want anyone disliking anyone on our shows. I'm very protective of everyone. When I see them say something negative about anyone, I get angry. But yeah, I don't know. We could very

easily give that polished version. I don't think that our success is being hampered by not lying more. Because that's what it is, Joe. It would be lying. People are inspired by us and hearing the story. Dude, you know what it is.

We came from like blue collar backgrounds, dude. This is, we don't, we are, we're not the people that are supposed to be successful. You know, it's the people who had like a mom and dad that was a casting director, you know? I know. But I also feel like my opinion is the simplest that I can put it on all this is that not only have we not arrived, but like we haven't even close to arrived. And so I don't think anyone is interested in hearing me extolling how to be successful. Like, because in my mind, I'm not successful yet. I just, I have a job and I'm very lucky to have a job. But to me, success is just like hanging out on a boat, you know, like my own yacht and not having to work ever again. That is success.

For sure. You know, and so like to me, we're still grinding. We're still grinding. And like I don't I'm not interested in being like, you know, talking about like how you get to do what I do. It's not really – it's not a joy. I don't know how else to explain it. Like when you're talking about the operations of the company, getting to play games is great. But when you talk about the operations of the company, it's like any other job, you know?

So I never feel like I have to put on, you know, airs or anything like that. But I just feel like people aren't interested. I just don't think people are interested in the truth. I don't think that they want lies. I just don't think that the truth is entertaining. Yes. And I think you're right. And maybe I'm conflating interesting with entertaining in a way.

Right. But like, I agree with you that, yes, success is just chilling on a boat. You know what I mean? One of your four boats however this is what i'm saying it's like boat three you know honey let's take out boat three today on this tuesday afternoon while the plebes work also why is it always boats i don't know there's something about a boat such a sign of success to like stupid right now i don't i just don't get it there's are a lot of work.

I know, right? We've got mooring fees. Yeah. No one ever talks about the mooring fees. You get sick, you throw up over the side of the boat. Here's why. So, all right, maybe it's more interesting than entertaining, but like, this is what I'm saying is like, when I was looking at people like, all right, here's a guy, I can't

think of a good example of like someone who was like, they had a show on HBO that they wrote was the show runner directed a couple episodes and they're the lead actor. Like that's all I wanted. Right. And I couldn't see, I could look on their IMDB and I'm like, Oh, they were on law and order. And then they did this. Now they're fucking, they have their own show. Like, I just couldn't see that process so in three years from now five years from now ten years from now when we're on uh cannon fodder live from the boat every week and and we're and we we're reaching what we what we can call what we can label as like true success how cool will it be to hear this part of of the journey because now we're exposing that whole journey

to success and they're still only getting about fucking 25 of the truth if they knew some of the whole truth they'd be like oh god turn it off now um i but maybe that isn't like a great old one just the knowledge itself could destroy you but like that's the – I remember sophomore year college, like day one, professor stood back and was like, what is theater? We all sat and like, hmm. And it was – the definition that was acceptable was it was something that both teaches and pleases. And I believe – I've said that on the show before and then then Matthew in a very Matthew voice says, ah, you mean didactic slowly leans back away from his microphone. And, uh, you know, one could say the greatest, the greatest, uh, art forms that are out there, whether it's painting, sculpting, film, TV, it does both. I think it does both. It teaches and it

pleases. Now, we might be really shitty teachers, but I think there's something to learn from the journey. And that's why I expose it. I have to do better. I can be more compassionate, right? I can act with more temperance.

Sometimes I'm very tired. Well, you know, the other thing to just attack you here in a way is that like – Please. I don't believe – Take a number. Let me join the masses. Give me that torch. Todd.

I believe that you – if you're listening from my perspective, hearing what you're saying, that gap, right? How do I get from being a guest actor on Law and Order to being a showrunner on this big thing on HBO? It's like, if it's like the process you describe, all you basically say is how miserable you are all the time. You know what I mean? Like, maybe they're also miserable all the time because of how much work this is and how much stress it is to have your name on that show or whatever. And then they do their show and it's very successful. And then you know what happens? It's over. And they're not gajillionaires unless it's like, you know, Seinfeld or something like that. Like you, you go back to square one and you have to go try the next thing. And it's like,

you know, as we said last week, like you're starting from zero, you know, every time it's, it's a struggle. And I want to clarify something that I said a second ago, which is that, you know, success to me is on a boat with no work to do. That implies something that is just not true. I think that I'm sort of saying that like money, a whole lot of money, so much money I don't have to work is how I define success. And it's just not, you know, that would be nice. Of course, it would be nice. But it's also I believe strongly in the philosophy of that I read this in a book once about business, that the that the goal that defining success by material wealth by achieving money is a terrible way to define your success. Of course.

Because you will never reach it. Like there is never, by philosophical definition, enough money. Like you will always be unhappy if what you're looking for is monetary success. And so I don't mean to imply that. I mean to imply that feeling that you would get in that moment that I described of not feeling stress and anxiety, right? Like stress and anxiety rule my life right now at all times. And a large part is because of this business. A smaller part is because of my house and my family and little kids. Like they all add together to create a lot of stress and anxiety.

Success to me is getting to a place where I can dilute that stress and anxiety down to just being content. And that does not money is I'd be a fool to say that money is not part of that. But to say that money is all of that is also equally foolish. There has to be another way to get this, you know, success that I desire into a place where I'm just not always worried about deadlines and not always worried about money and not always worried about, you know, how my kids are going to go to college and all this kind of stuff like that. It's just a weight that everybody, everybody bears. But the people that kind of like can find a way to be at peace with it, like that, that's

my goal. So a lot of it, like you said, is more internal work than external work. A lot of it's more, you know, working on yourself and finding your own contentment in the, in the things that you have. Whatever you're trying to better in your life. If you start like reading about like, Oh, how I want to, I want to lose weight. I want to get a better job. I want to do this. Like they're all going to focus on mindfulness, you know, practicing mindfulness. And it's really, really easy to read and be like, I really need to do that., you know, practicing mindfulness. And it's really, really easy to read and be like, yeah, I really need to do that. Like you have to, yeah, yeah, I should, I should be more mindful. If you could find a way to master mindfulness,

everything in life becomes easier. And it's really, really fucking hard. Like I have to, when one of my 19 children does something like that just drives me crazy. Be like, I am not going to yell right now. I, I have a cold brew running through my veins. I said to Sam, I'm like,

because if they'll three throwing shit in the living room, like guys, can you throw that anywhere else that isn't near the TV I just bought? And I'm like, if they ever throw something, it hits that TV, I just want you to know, the best thing for me to do is get into a car and go check into a hotel

room until tomorrow. And she's like, I understand. Daddy will be back tomorrow. You know, there's a great blog. My wife turned me on to this and she's going to, she would never listen to this because she's been telling me about it for years and I finally followed it. It's not a, I mean, I guess it's a blog, but it's an Instagram account called big little feelings now we're uh

segwaying into like parenting which i think uh it's fucking brilliant you should check it out big little feelings because they have such huge feelings but they're just little they have no fucking idea what's going on and like you can't respond to them in a way that you respond to a rational human being. Yeah. I yell at my daughter sometimes. I just say like, that doesn't make any sense. Why would you do that? And then I have to be like, why did I think that her brain works rationally?

Yeah. It doesn't work that way yet. Yeah. Mindfulness and like perspective is so, so important. Money. Hey, listen, money. Let's not pretend money. A lot of money isn't great, but that should never be the goal. And it isn't. That's not how I picture success. I think the trappings of success are obvious, but you could be successful without any money if you're content

and you're happy with where you are. And you could be that today if you just found peace. And one of the ways I'm going to find that is having someone else read the boards. Yeah, yeah. I think that that would be a good start. Well, hey, man, this is a nice sharing FOD. A nice sharing FOD. Every once in a while, we got to do a little sharing and get healthy. Mindfulness. Mindfulness is so important. And I just want to say for the record that I am passionate about gaming. And I think that deep down you are too, because there is definitely, there was a time before the grind kind of might've gotten to you that you could not have been more addicted or intense about this hobby. So yeah, I just want people to know, like, you're not a poser who

came in and tried to like turn your acting into gaming because you saw an opportunity there. Like you, uh, were a freak about gaming the way you're a freak about everything else. Like once you zero in on it, just like you kind of drill down on it. Uh, but now, you know, you think of it more as entertainment and certainly I understand that. And that's, that's the business that we're in. We're not so much in the business of playing games as we are the business of entertainment and entertaining. But to me, I find that I do my best work, my best entertainment when I'm passionate about the game. So as long as I can keep focusing on that, I'll continue having fun and making good shit.

And dude, you can attest that I'm always trying to uphold the integrity of the game. There's plenty of shows that we go to and you guys be like, can you just tell us which room to go into? I won't do it. I want you to play the actual game. So while I may say I'm not passionate about it, I, I,

I certainly am. That's a, and that's a good segue to, uh, we need to talk about Roger Comstone, uh, because there's only so much I could tell you. I know.

You gotta be ready. Uh, all right, guys, that's going to wrap it up for FOD this week. Thank you so much for much I can tell you. I know. You've got to be ready. All right, guys. That's going to wrap it up for FOD this week. Thank you so much for hanging with us, as always. Like we said, tons, tons going on this week. You've got Degenerate Dungeon Live tonight. You've got Strange Aeons on twitch.tv slash theglasscanon tomorrow night. Yeah, more to come in a few weeks.

We'll be out there in St. Paul. So until then, have a great time, everybody. A great week, and we'll see you in a week. Later! 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 glasscannon. GlassCaddy.