The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 9/20/23

Episode Date: September 20, 2023

Gatewalkers is officially here and in old school Fodder style, Troy and Joe break down Episode 1! Also, more news on our GCN Subscription Service beta, and a hard-hitting question from the Naish in Listener Mail. You can now WATCH the Fod every week on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/TheGlassCannon For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com and for exclusive content and benefits, subscribe today at jointhenaish.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Yo! What is going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back to Cannon Fodder. It is Wednesday, September 20th, 2023, and I'm your old pal, Joe O'Brien. Look at you, you son of a gun! I'm Troy, back in the New York groove, LaValle. Back in the New York groove. We are back, baby. I mean, topping the headlines this week,

the return of the GCP. Lots to discuss on the show, but I guess one of the main things to discuss is how our beautiful faces have returned to the screen for the for the fart look at these handsome devils i mean this is the fodder that people miss like you don't listen for the news or the talking about you know stats and rules is to see these faces but there's one thing i know about our audience it's that they don't prefer to consume their content in audio only format they are a video first group they are a video first

group and we are here to give you what you've been asking for more joe o'brien face in in my in my youtube uh welcome back everybody we are here on youtube for those that are listening and don't know the new fad that is accompanying campaign 2 has a video component we always did this uh except previously troy just never looked quite as pretty. He would show up real bedraggled. Do I look pretty now? I guess I'm wearing glasses. I look distinguished, maybe.

And I didn't shave. I want a little silver in the beard today. Bedraggled is a good word. Is it a real word? Is that a real word? I think it is. I don't know if it is. Where's the wood man? Oh, you know what it is? I think you're trying to say bedraggled bedraggled bedraggled

you're right you're right i am bedraggled bedraggled is probably how they pronounced it the day they invented it and then someone said no no that sounds like a dummy said it's bedraggled bedraggled bedraggled someone definitely bedraggled i think bed i could be wrong but uh let me see well i mean the definition right is dirty and disheveled but it sort of implies and this is how i've always heard it in my life obviously by my pronunciation it implies like you just got out of bed and this is what you look like. You know what I mean? Bedraggled. You haven't even run a hand through your hair yet. You're all bedraggled. That's fun. Well, you learn something new every day. Maybe I'm the only one that learned something there.

Welcome back, everybody. We got a tight ship today on news. There really isn't too much new because the news of the week was really last week, the release of Glass Cannon Podcast Campaign 2. We're excited to dive back in and really spend most of this time just talking about that, talking about the show, the episode, and this exciting story that we have laid out in front of us. We're not going to, you know, there is no we are stupid this week. Professor Erica kindly listened to our two and a half hours of role play and wrote in and said, no notes. Apparently, we have figured out how to do recall knowledge. So that's good. And then, but you know what?

We will have a little listener mail. So hang in there. Little listener mail at the end. But to take it from the top. Where do we start? uh around the gcn the biggest news that i can talk about is the new subscription service we've been talking about this for a couple weeks now it is in a beta there are now hundreds uh hundreds and hundreds of folks have now tested moving over from patreon to uh our the glass cannon network subscription service and

it's getting better and better, wouldn't you say? Like in terms of little tiny bugs are just not really happening as much as they were in the first run. Yeah, we brought over another few hundred people on Monday this week because we brought in a few hundred last week. Let's bring in a few hundred more. And after last time, there was a bunch of little tiny nitpicky, oftentimes very cosmetic things or UI things that we could improve. And so they worked tirelessly to fix those.

And it was smooth sailing when these other few hundred came in a couple days ago. So I think we're getting pretty close. I feel like the next one is going to be, if not everybody, like maybe a thousand, like really get a big chunk. But I'd say certainly by the end of the month, I'd be shocked if we weren't ready to roll this out to everybody and start the full migration from Patreon to the new service. And for those that didn't listen to Fodder the last couple of weeks, we're talking about a service that we are now offering in replacement of Patreon, which is going to be a much improved user experience for how you consume the exclusive content. It is a service that is going to allow you to separate out all of your individual feeds of the shows you want to listen to that are behind the paywall in the method that you want to listen to them. So no matter what your podcast preference is in terms of platform or app,

it will cover all of those, and each individual show will have its individual feed. And I'm not just talking about Legacy of the Ancients, Blood of the Wild, Get in the Trunk. I mean, we're also talking old school. There's now a disorganized play feed and an old archived stuff feed. So there should be a lot of fun things for you guys to check out there. And in the coming weeks, everyone will have access to this. So we're just working toward that. And once it's fully rolled out, we'll go over probably here on fodder the changes because there are some changes. People can be like, hey, where's this? And it's like, well, it exists here. We didn't want to double it up or triple it up. Or like, how come this has changed and this?

Because there are some changes. But we think they've all been for the better. It's just a cleaner, better user experience. And I think it's going to help us streamline what we do and hopefully grow our subscription service, which was kind of stagnant over there at Patreon for a while. I mean, we've seen growth this past year more so than last year for the subscription service. But I think that in many ways, Patreon, what its offerings was holding us back, and now nothing is. Now nothing will hold us back. Nothing's going to stop me now.

From the future. So yeah, that's it That's the update there There are Some of you may have invites I got this note from McD Right before we went live He said hey if you're on fodder

Just let people know There are some people That have been invited To the beta And haven't responded yet So just check your email Especially your Patreon email Because you may have an invite

From McD in there To come and try out this service To make the leap over So check that out And get in there to come and try out this service to make the leap over. So check that out and get in there as soon as you can because, yeah, we want to get people over there as quickly as possible, especially you folks who signed up for the beta because we know you're going to be responsive about problems, and that's going to help us fix this faster. Yeah, and just the last note is like you can do your sleuthing and find the new subscription service online. But if you're a current Patreon user and you want to grandfather in your plans, you need to wait until we post the link. So if

you try to get in on your own now, you're welcome to it, but you're not going to get the grandfathered in prices and the options that you're going to get if you just wait until we roll it out to everybody. Good note. Good note. All right right let's get down to the business of show that's kind of podcast campaign to episode one where's the tavern uh don't we all start our campaigns in a tavern and uh this one is well actually it is an exception uh we talked last week about introductions we talked about how different APs have started over our long career, our decade or more of playing campaigns together. And while this one doesn't really have an inciting event that I would point to yet, specifically, it did begin with the introduction of several NPCs, a primary

quest giver, a secondary quest giver, some interesting starts that we haven't really had yet. And yeah, I guess I'm just the first question I have out of the gate is when you first read this, you first sat down, you read the first few pages of Gatewalkers. What were your initial prep plans or your process to turn this opening into the kind of scenes we saw in the campaign and how it was engaging. How did you work up to that? Yeah, I kind of knew early on that I wanted to go the way that we started with Androids and Aliens because I really liked how that campaign, how we started that campaign because we didn't even get into the campaign proper until episode two. And so I knew I wanted to see a little bit of the background of these characters,

and that's what I wanted the opening to be. But the difference is I knew it was going to be a longer episode, so we were going to get some of that, and then we were going to get some of the AP as well. So I was able to balance with that. And one of the reasons I really wanted to do that is I didn't think the opening of the AP was super strong as written for a podcast. I think it's a little mystery-ish, and the mystery is rolling out slowly. And I

thought, let's start with a little more action. Let's get into some moments of these characters. For some of them, it's going to be their gate moments. For others, it's just going to give us a little window into their lives. And look back at Androids and Aliens. When you think about those scenes that happened in episode one, those had reverberations that were – that didn't reach – They were in the finale. They were in the finale. Now, I don't know if that's going to happen here. But to me, I was like that – we were definitely onto something there. I want to do that again. And I just think it's a great way for you guys to think about your characters rather than just writing their history out or just doing the stats. And I think we may have talked about this a little bit on the show. It's like, get into their skin a little bit. Give me a moment of their life, whether it's like their gate moment or just something that's left an indelible mark on them that's made them who they are. And so I loved starting that way,

because now we're ready to start the adventure. And when they come up over the crest of that hill with Dr. Riddleson, we already know a little bit about them. And that, to me, was other than just like, describe yourself. Well, no, now it's just so much richer, the tapestry that we've started to build. Certainly. It gives me a lot more interest and engagement in Buggles, let's say, because if we didn't do that, up coming over the hill, you have, oh, there's a cute goblin. But if you pay attention to the background story, you realize it's Neo. He's like the chosen one, which is very, very cool. And to be able to write yourself that kind of story is just so fun. And obviously, Skid did a fantastic

job uh i mentioned it on air you did a great old goblin impression uh and it was just yeah those intros were really really fun but as we got out of those uh and by the way i should say like these are all kind of uh those scenes i don't want to delve too much into those uh because i mean as a player i could just love i would love to just start picking those apart for clues and secrets and hints of everybody's past and what's going to happen. Maybe if we have a quieter episode, we could do that on here. But overall, those are all scenes that are written by the players to introduce mystery into their characters' backstories. These are all things we're supposed to see as other players to maybe spark questions, but not answer them. You know, that's sort of the goal that we set out for. And

I think that I have so many questions about everybody's scene that I thought that that was a successful part. But sorry, go ahead. Yeah, that was like the one note that I gave is like, if you can start building secrets here that we don't, you know, know the answer for for a while, that's going to be really interesting. And also like, you write something, you send it to me, and then I'm going to adapt it based on knowledge that I have that you don't have. So there might be little changes in there that you guys may not even have picked up on that are just little nods to the journey that's coming up that's going to make things more significant, like dropping a pebble in a, you know, a water, like a little pond and seeing it go out like this. There's a a pebble in a uh you know a water like a little pond and seeing it go

out like this there's a little pebble pebble drops here and there um that i think will be fun pay attention to the pebble drops people pay attention after we come out of these scenes you get into what i will generously say i struggle with but which i think um a lot of people would say I'm just annoying about, which is seven arches and the region surrounding it. How much time do you think is necessary to spend in session on world slash setting introduction for your players slash the audience at the start of a campaign like this? You know, I mean, how much do you think you need to be talking at the beginning of a campaign of this nature? Yeah, it's tricky because I knew I was going to be talking throughout the introductions. Then it's like, let me just let me talk for another half hour here because there's a lot of exposition. And also, I want to set the scene for you.

And I think that happens a lot. I think back to your Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign that died after four sessions. The first session was just you giving a history lesson on Corvosa. Yes. Or whatever it was, on Chelliacs. Episode zero. Yeah, session zero. It felt important to me because Seven Arches is where we set our scene to begin with. And knowing a little bit about what you're going into is super important because this is a lead of Riddle Sense. He's giving you the Glenn Gary leads.

This is his big one. He's like, let me tell you why this is important. And you can't have them. And you can't have them. I want to see the other group that he did that to. They're like, here we go, let's go to Seven Arches and we'll have this thing wrapped up for you. These are the Seven Arches leads. And you can't have them. Third prize is

you're fired. Yeah, I was torn because I knew it was going to be a lot of me talking but I felt really comfortable with the material and I thought that I could get it out there in an interesting way that wasn't just like, let me give you a little history. It was like, let's get into Riddleson's voice, and now you can start interacting with Riddleson. Because there's a bit of a narrative, and then it's like, let's have the narrative come out in some natural role play.

You're a heavy preparer. You do a lot of writing. Your prep for an AP is actually longer than the AP itself when you write out the word document for it. You said you wanted to start getting away from that and lighter prepping a little bit. The introduction of – I already forget her name. Who's the other woman? Fayanara Karalestri. Fayanara. For these characters, how much pre-written material did you rewrite out to describe the setting and to introduce these people versus just reading it so much that you knew it and you let it come out in dialogue? I mean, I have a lot of it written out. It's just how much am I following what I write.

I see this a lot in live shows. Like I'll have stuff written out and then I'm reading it a little bit verbatim and then I'll watch it back and be like, ah, I needed to be looser there. Now the audience is going to notice this, but it's something I'm like, ah, because look, I was looser here. I didn't follow what I wrote to the letter and it just felt more natural. Whereas here I was a little strict. So I'm trying to find that balance. But for this, especially for an opening,

it's heavily scripted. It's just a matter of how much am I actually looking down and how much of my bebopping and scatting and, you know, little things like the, the, the elf Felwynn, you know,

that was just all made up on the spot. So like there's, there's room for, and why I want to leave because the players were asking, they were like, well, is there someone that's been there? Is that, is that sort of what generated that? Yeah. Cause, cause she says like, oh, people have gone and, and, uh, reported no problems.

And I think we said who? Yeah. I'm sure there's plenty of venture groups that are like, oh, okay. All right. Well, sounds good. Let's go. But you guys are like, well, who? And she's like, I could have been like, I don't know.

I just, it's just something I heard. Um, but i think i was even more specific as you guys called me on you were like someone in the caravan stories we would like to meet this person like i guess we're meeting this person okay and uh you know it leads us directly into where episode two is going right and that and that's the thing is like not only does it lead us into where episode two is going but for my money like that's the better interaction it's so much only does it lead us into where episode two is going, but for my money, like that's the better interaction. It's so much more interesting. It's so much funnier. And none of it is pre-written or pre-prepared.

It just goes to show you how much fun it is to improv and this stuff, even important NPCs early on, you know, just kind of have fun with it and don't overthink it. And it might even be more polished and more fun that way. And if you don't feel comfortable improv-ing because you don't know where it's going to go, because that's scary, right? Like, you get into this conversation and then people start getting wedded to this NPC you just wrote up. And like, now you're like, jeepers, do I have to make this person be super important to the rest of the plot? You can just be like, so you end up going to the Caravanserai and you speak to the elf and it seems like, yeah, they were totally fine. She gives you a totally plausible story about how her and her friends went there. And you could leave it at that. But for us, you know, it's like, well, that's not the game we play. Yeah, let's see where this goes. And I mean, that it was at that moment in the show, I was like, yeah, this is this we're heading in the right direction.

features a concept that is in some APs, is not in others. Generally speaking, I would like to say that it is not addressed in any PFS scenarios. It's sort of like left open. It's that concept that the party already knew each other, likely for some time before the events of the AP begin. How do you feel about that generally as a GM, as a player? Do you like campaigns that start with that conceit? Or do you prefer campaigns that literally you meet in the tavern or whatever place it is, and you've never seen or spoken to each other before the first moments of the campaign? I mean, I certainly like both. I think that for us, this is probably the first time we've done this on the network, right? I believe so. Like most people are kind of meeting on their way.

Even like Ruins of Aslan, you're meeting on the boat. So you're spending time together before you get to the island. In Giant Slayer, if you think about it, there was some implied like Lork knew Gormley. I mean they lived in the town together when they were younger and stuff like that. But they had been separated for many years. Galabras was new to town. Baron was new to town. Yeah, so, yeah, I guess not so much in Giant Slayer.

And certainly the AP didn't assume it at all. You could make anything. This presumes you are already part of an investigative society, right? Now, how much time have you spent together in the last three months or two months or one month since you went and made your way to Leperstadt? That's unclear. But, you know, you're certainly we've got all the that stuff out of the way. One of the most difficult things is introducing a new character. You know, when a character dies, it's really tricky to bring a

new character in. We always joke off stage and in past episodes, like, Oh, I guess this is going to be an introducing a new character episode. And it's going to be a lot of that like, Oh, do you want to come join us for the next three years?, stranger? Do you want to come with us on our murder quest? And they're like, yeah, yeah, I'll stick around. And of course, they're there until the, you know, the next character dies. But so that can be a little tricky. I kind of like that we got all of those, oh, and what's your name again? Out of the way. You know, because otherwise you have to do that. And sometimes that can be fun. But I thought for this, it was neat to do something different. I agree with you, but I do think I find it to be challenging as a player because I'm like, well, how do I get to know

these people better if I'm already supposed to know these people, you know, like, because I'm a classic overthinker. Like, I'll be like, oh, I should ask Zephyr where she's from. But I'll be like, wouldn't I know that after two months of being in this? You know what I mean? Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not. Right. Like, that's where the overthinking comes in. It's like, yeah, maybe you just never talked that much. But I do think that those introductory conversations are a nice way to begin a campaign together. So I do hope that we find some time to do that, you know, rather than just be like,

oh, we already know each other. Mission, mission, mission, mission, mission. That to me is not my favorite way to play. I like to loosen up and get to know the characters a little bit better in role play between the party. Oh yeah, I would say at most you've done, you've got all the surface stuff out of the way.

What's your name again? I'm sorry, what did you say your name was? But like now, once you get to your first like inn or spending night out under the stars together, that's where we're going to really start to get to know each other and see what the characters are interested in finding out about each other. Spoilers, Troy. So you're telling me we're sleeping outside. And there might be some stars. And there might be some stars. And there might be a starry night in your future.

In lieu of we are stupid, let me just do a quick mechanics question. This one was obviously very, very light on mechanics. I just want to check in with you in general, PF2E in general, on a concept that I feel like you've kind of changed your opinion on over time and maybe swung a little bit back and forth like a pendulum. How are you feeling right now about the concept of secret checks? I feel like you're using them a little bit more than you used to. Yeah. Initially, I wasn't a fan of it when we were doing the Pathfinder playtest years ago. And Echo Quest, too.

You were like, not into it. Yeah. And over time, I don't really use them that much in Strange Aeons. No. Rarely, if ever. But coming out of the gate here, you know, spending a lot more time with the book and really wanting to do justice to the system. I was like, this is a good opportunity to really see if there's a way that we can do these. But honestly, the reason that I'm using them is twofold.

One, for flow of the show, for what we do. Like, you know, when I was giving you guys information on seven arches, I pre-rolled those in my prep because I have all your sheets. I know what your recall knowledges are. So I know if you failed, succeeded or critically succeeded or critically failed. So rather than have you roll and know you critically failed and I give you false information, I'd just be like, oh, and you think this. And I'm like, well, that's information that's different from that person. Who got the truth? You don't know.

So that's kind of fun. It's for streamlining for the show. But also, I think it's really important, especially where we can see each other's faces on the video, to be like, oh, okay, you want to do a deception roll there? Okay, well, I'll take care of that. Yeah. You know that, I think that happened on the show. Right.

And the guy just looks at you, smiles, waves you through. What was that? Did he, did he know? Does he know? Does he know I'm an elf?

Yeah. And so that, that, when you get to see that look on Kate's face, you're like, I didn't like that. Actually, I think you react like that.

That didn't sound good. It can be fun for that. But other times it's just like, yeah, roll it. and it's not that it's a less important role it's just like sometimes it's fun to just just roll it it's okay if you know and then you can play the fiction or not if you want to yeah it's it's all very like i also like the poker-esque element of sometimes you do roll it and sometimes you say, meaning you the player, and sometimes I roll out the GM, you know, and not having a consistent reason for why that is. So like if the recall knowledge check is not going to net any important information,

or if the deception isn't really that important, you say you roll it to the player every time, they'll start to sniff that out but if there are like pivotal rolls and you're like you know what i think that you're going to fail this one so i want you to roll it or whatever uh it just heightens the fun and intensity and then other times you know to have it just be behind the screen and you you really don't know the pre-rolling thing is genius i love this idea i hadn't thought about this before because my largest struggle when i was running 2e with recall knowledge secret rolls was rolling a fumble behind the screen because I was just not sharp enough to come up with real seeming incorrect information fast enough. to be some recall knowledge is coming up. I think it's a great idea to pre-roll. And if you see a pre-roll fumble, it gives you more time to prepare a really honest and strong seeming incorrect piece

of information. Yeah. So I've got the information and I'll have it listed like, Brother Ramius, you know this. Buggles, you know this. And it's already based on what you're rolling. I'll take it a step further, what I've started to do with traps. Well, you're writing all this out. Yeah, I'm writing it all out so I know who knows what and I can tell you. Now, what I've also started to do is with traps or hazards. Oftentimes, hazards have a minimum proficiency for perception based on the stealth DC of the hazard. So I'll look through if it's like a master thing. If only two of you have master perception, I'll write down, I'll pre-roll your perception checks against the stealth DC of the hazard for the two people that happen to be masters in perception. But I won't reveal that to you unless you actively say that you're searching for a trap, because that's the

way it works. If something has a minimum proficiency, you don't reveal that and someone says, I just want to check this area out to see if it's trapped or I want to do a perception. I'll be like, okay, I'll take care of that and be like, actually, Brother Ramius, you notice that something looks off with that blah, blah, blah. So I've pre-rolled that as well. Now, I can't do this well into the adventure because your stats are eventually going to change, but I have a good sense on where we're at and I can do it pre-session. Like, oh, they might get to this hazard today. Getting that stuff out of the way, it just makes the game flow easier and also makes

the editing a lot easier. I just finished the audio edit for episode two a couple days ago. It's five cuts in the entire session. Five cuts. And I think it flows like maple syrup. So they're all Matthew, aren't they? They're all Matthew. Just jokes that weren't up to par.

A little racy for my taste. Or a little too racy. A little too racy. Matthew is always pushing that line with his humor. That boy Capitacazzo humor. But I'm always thinking in service of like the best show experience, but it kind of is doubling as a nice little keep you guys off guard. Keeping the players off guard is just always good. I like this idea. It's the first thing you've said as a GM that I've liked in a very long time. I mean, you used to do that shit

all the time where you'd like roll. I mean, this is like one of your moves, like you'd roll and it's a nothing roll, but you're like, we're rolling back there. You know, it's the same thing. It's like keeping the players off kil kilter it can backfire because then sometimes they're like let's check every step we take for the next you know you got to find a balance right right right yeah exactly you hear a rustling in the bush seeker perception roll you think that there's a real danger in there or whatever all right everybody let's cast all of our buffing spells let's blah blah blah because they rolled a natural one behind the screen i mean it's funny but it can also be very demoralizing. Like everybody can find out that it was just a lie. And certain players might not be like, oh, damn, God, I just, I didn't know.

But others might be like, this really sucked, you know? And so it is a fine line. Let me ask before we get to listener mail, just an overarching question of the entire experience top to bottom, the show itself, the edit, working the edit with Francis, finalizing every little piece of content that went into the compilation of the premiere, and then the premiere itself, showing it off to the nation. How did it go? How was it for you the last week and a half? It was very stressful. It was a lot of work. How did it go? How was it for you the last week and a half? you know, keeping people in their lanes so that we don't have to micromanage too much, which is, you know, always been a problem of mine. But it was a lot of work. And then by the time it premiered, obviously, we had the issues with the frame rate or whatever for the premiere part. But then now we've got 50,000 plus people that have watched it the way it was intended. So

I got over that pretty quickly. It was just it the way it was intended. So I got over that pretty quickly. It was just – it was like an emotional experience. But I always think about – for all our sports fans out there, there's that classic Bill Belichick quote when the Patriots got like shelled by some team and they kept asking him questions. And he was just like, we're on to Cincinnati. And they'd be like, OK, but listen, you – it seemed like you really struggled in the first half just like getting first downs. And like, was this a problem of the quarterback or was it the offensive coordinator? We're on to Cincinnati. Like no matter what question he asked, he was just like, we're on to the Bengals. So at a certain point, like once it was out there and the comments and the love and, you know, I'm sure some hate as well started coming through.

I was like, I'm on to episode two. Like, I have to just – it's out there. I've done my work. Part of me didn't even want to watch it other than to, you know, kind of check and be like, do people like it? But it seems like we had a home run, buddy. Yeah, people seem to really like it i've gotten wonderful text messages from so many people friends and family uh including some people that i'm really surprised listened to or watched the premiere uh people that maybe had not been interested in any of our content since the end

of gcp uh since the end of giant slayer who came up out of nowhere who i haven't spoken to in months and months and months and months. And I would just get, I just got a few texts, you know, and a premiere was great. Oh man. It's so excited to be back.

Like it was really cool feeling. So yeah, I think people really liked it. And I have that same feeling I had when we started giant slayer, you know what I mean? It's like people are really liking it. And that's an exciting thing for people to say about your game. Yeah.

I mean, it just so much work went into this by so many people. And like, as much as this really, really does feel like a, I mean, just so much work went into this by so many people. And like, as much as this really, really does feel like a return to form, it's not like we lost our mojo, but it feels like it's also very different. In many ways, it feels like the old days, but so much has changed. It's taking it's like distilled the essence of what was so great when we started before it, this was a network. And it's extrapolated upon all of those things in such a wonderful way that I just think we're recreating so much while we're also creating so much at the same time.

And so it's exciting to watch people get it, like people understand. And there's plenty of people who don't understand. That's fine. But like the ones that are like, oh, my God, I love understand. And there's plenty of people who don't understand, that's fine. But like the ones that are like, oh my God, I love this. I don't even know why. Like that's, there's a lot of work that went into creating that feeling. And the fact that people are texting you who haven't watched in so long, like further cements my feeling that like everything's going according to plan.

Because we're not competing with our competitors who are making a different product than us we are making a different actual play experience and i think we are attracting attracting the audience that we want which is wonderful that is wonderful uh okay nick sing us in buddy uh a little listener mail god it's back it's back baby every once in a while it just reminds me like i'm just reminded how wildly inappropriate that is i mean that's us welcome to the glass cannon network um listener mail for those of you that are interested in having your questions answered about the episodes themselves or about gming in general playing in general or just shit about, please write us a contact at glasscanadnetwork.com with the subject line listener mail.

Write your question in there and hopefully we'll feature it on the show. We've got one today from Drew. Drew. Our old buddy, Drew. Norse foundry, Drew? We know so many Drews now. We don't know this Drew, but he does say, hey, good buddies. We don't know this, Drew, but he does say, hey, good buddies, have you Johns and Johnettes played tabletop RPGs with your spouse or significant other?

Hate to disappoint you with the follow-up, which is, were there any really hilarious or tense moments at the table because of your relationship? And did your gaming sessions bleed over into real life? Thanks, Drew. Drew, man, we've been asked this question years ago on the FOD, and we let people know then. Don't ever ask. Our wives are furious at the question. Even the idea that they would stoop to playing one minute of a role-playing game. Is your wife still feeling this way? No interest?

Or is she coming around? I've never asked her. That's really rude. asked her yeah i mean i play with my kids now um you know right in front of her right in front of her and don't invite her i just she's not she hasn't listened to a second of the glass cannon you know neither is your wife right like they don't listen to this shit um you know it's just not her cup of tea. I think when the kids are probably a little bit older and all three of them are Pathfinder ready or Call of Cthulhu ready, I can imagine

on a Friday night, I'd be like, Anna, you want to roll up a little chance? And she'd be like, no, I'd rather do anything else. That's just not her bag. But honestly, dude, I have no interest in playing anymore. You know, like I'll play with my kids.

But like, I think that if my wife was down, maybe I would play. But I was taking Archer to school this morning. I was thinking about, I was like, dude, a couple more years, man, we'll be rolling you up a barbarian. And then I think like, man, I don't want to fucking play this outside of work. It's like we play so much. It's so much work. But I do look forward to doing it with the kids.

Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, no. My wife, she's not interested in any aspect really of role playing. She does like board games. She just does not want the role playing to enter into it. She likes to do – she likes the tactics. She likes the strategies. She likes the tactics.

She likes the strategies. And whenever Matthew – I always tell this old story about Matthew and his wife and my wife and I playing the Pandemic Legacy game. And Matthew and I in character being like, you got to meet me in Jakarta. The city is falling apart. And he's like, I can't get out of Paris. I'm trying to find a flight. And my wife and his wife would be like, if you you don't stop we are going to quit playing this game like stop pretending you're really these people oh that's the best god we had so much fun we had so much fun i love it

it must have been our first pax east we played that game what's it called firestorm or fire you know what i'm talking i know exactly what you're talking about uh it's like a burning we played that game. What's it called? Firestorm or fire. Do you know what I'm talking about? I know exactly what you're talking about. It's like a burning building. It's a fireman. It's a very simple, you know, it's a simple concept.

I can't, it's called like Firestorm or something. I'm thinking of Bone Storm from Simpsons, but I mean, we were playing it and we had just been partying all week. Flashpoint. Flashpoint. And it was like me, you, Skid, and a couple other people.

And my God, we were cracking. It was like a couple niche people. I think it was like a couple niche people and me and you and Skid. And we were just, I mean, I had concocted this story that like Skid's wife was left in the building. Sister was left in the building, but we're going to let her burn because she, do you remember the story? I don't remember the details of the story but i was like cheating on her i remember skid just he had me in tears laughing so hard he's like wow like screaming in the house and it's just this like little cardboard pawn square oh i love it he's like i scream and bash through the next wall uh god it was just really

great game we haven't played that i haven't played that since it is a great game i actually even own an expansion for that game that i've never opened you would say i would um sadly thanks drew but yeah thank you drew for writing in sorry it's not very interesting but uh yeah some of us just don't play with our significant others we keep it. We keep it to the workplace. Or at all, outside of decisions. Okay, one more real quick from Joe in New England. Joe, by the way, bringing the hard-hitting questions. He should be Journalist Joe in New England.

Speaking of Bill Belichick, this guy would be putting Belichick on the hot seat. Hi, Joe and Troy. Can you talk through the decision to include ads in the new show? For me, the lack of mid show ads helped separate the original GCP from the rest of the field of actual play podcasts. The uninterrupted experience I'm used to on the main feed felt damaged by the inclusion of ads i've

heard a dozen times on other podcasts do you want to take this one do you want me to take this one how do you want to start this um because this is a big decision this is a big one yeah it's a hot question to come right out of the gate on listener mail do i give the dirty capitalist answer or the political answer? You know, we were very fortunate when we started out with Giant Slayer that we all had professions that allowed us to create a show that never missed a week for many, many years. And to be able to do that continually without a hobby as a hobby, and have that blow up and turn into something else was great. And to try and keep that experience pure for as long as possible was always our goal. And then we launched a another flagship show in androids and aliens after the success of the Patreon. the patreon and you know it was like 100 or so episodes into that we just felt like we were uh spinning our wheels and not getting the growth

that we needed and we had people asking us constantly uh can we can we sell ads on your shows this is the type of money you'll make and we we didn't want to do it. We don't want to do it. And then we were like, well, we need to know, like, what is the sort of ability to earn here? Like, what are the revenue possibilities? Because we could hire more staff and then not be killing ourselves. So we could produce more content. And killing our current staff. And killing our current staff. Like, everybody's working 10 different jobs.

Our current staff works unbelievable hours. It's like, can we try it? staff. And killing our current staff. Like everybody's working 10 different jobs. Our current staff works unbelievable hours. It's like, can we try it? So we did that with Androids and Aliens and it was really, really successful. So much so that when Androids and Aliens ended and we were like, we have no plans to put anything else on that feed. The ad company we were working with begged

us. We're like, please put something on there. We've got all these people that want to do ads. And I mean, the revenue helped us bring on at least one, if not two more employees at the time. And so we were like, okay, we'll change it to Glass Cannon Network Presents and put a bunch of stuff on there. And that was great as well. But then we just found that it was difficult to listen to the content and whatnot. Flash forward to, blah, blah, blah, flash forward to a little over a year ago, we started talking with different people and they were basically letting us know

that the potential that we had here with a show that had the sort of reach that it does and as we were sort of circling the wagons on what the second campaign would be, we just thought that this was an opportunity to really see how far we can take this. And so when we signed with the United Talent Agency, and one of the first things out of the gate was pairing us with someone that could help take us to the next level. And so for us, it was just a necessary part of taking the Glass Cannon Network to the next step. And like you can call it – there's a bunch of different ways you can look at it.

It's like there's growth, right? But for us, it's about taking care of the people that we have. We pay everyone that works for us, whether it be an artist, whether it be someone that does a guest spot. Very rarely are we in a situation now where we don't just have someone come on and do stuff for free.

If we do, everybody knows that that's what the deal is. And that is not the norm in actual play. And I think we play pretty damn good competitive rates across the board. And to be able to do that for the next 10 to 10, 20 years, we need to find multiple revenue sources because the subscription service is one way. Our live tour is another way. Merch is another way. You're telling me there's an opportunity to bring in serious revenue by doing something like putting a couple ads on our podcast. I mean, in the end, it was a no-brainer. I want to make a podcast that is able to – I'm trying to word this the right way – that is able to – there are big podcasts out there that are doing amazing things because of the revenue that they earn from ads. And we're – I feel – and many times I feel like we're held back by not doing that.

So for me, that was the exciting thing. I feel like we're held back by not doing that. So for me, that was the exciting thing. It's like, let's do this. And let's see if it could really help take us to the next level. Is that sort of a long way of explaining? Yeah, I mean, certainly, I think I hope Joe in New England appreciates that you talked through the decision, because you did, in a very long winded way told the whole story behind the decision. But yeah, I mean, in a very long winded way told the whole story behind the decision. But yeah, I mean, in the end, the if we could keep the glass cannon podcast completely ad free and just have all this extra money laying around, like, yeah, of course, we would love to do that. And we but you know, we also you have to realize how much the support that these advertisers, these people that you're like,

ugh, I've heard them a million times on every other podcast. Like, I get that gut feeling. But also remember, those people, those advertisers are paying Kate to be on this show, you know, paying Sydney to be on this show. They help with all of that. Paying for that roaming camera.

Yeah, they're paying for all the production costs that are into this show and i can tell you from the behind the scenes sort of look we went into this show with really big ideas of how it would look and sound and be portrayed and it was way bigger of a production project than giant slayer was it's not even comparable remotely in terms of cost and energy that goes into making what that premiere looked like, make it look like that. In order to increase all of those costs, we went into debt. We essentially put out all of this money because we felt like the project itself was going to be wonderful and it was going to pay back over time. And to not monetize that expensive investment with ads would have financially sunk the company.

You know what I mean? So the only other option is not do a video show, not be in a studio, and not do anything that costs money. And if that's what you would rather have rather than listening to some ads in the middle or skipping them. Like I – okay, but that's not the decision we went with. And I hope you kind of understand why we went that way. And I want to say one more thing. This is also kind of like – this is behind the scenes. We talk on this show about running a business and the things that are involved in running a business. When you sign with a talent agency, no matter how wonderful they are or appear to be, their objective is to make money.

And why would they do it otherwise? There's no other reason. I mean, I believe, I truly believe that our agents love our art. I truly believe that they know that they are gamers and they are geeks. And I believe that they truly want us to grow and to reach more people. In order to do that, they need to be able to make deals for us that are not ad deals that are deals that are where our content will go well beyond just YouTube or a podcast. In order to take those steps, though, you got to feed the monkey, right? It's like they need some way to make revenue off of what we're doing now. And the ads on that podcast is a, it's a payment to get us into a Hollywood agency that has connections on in all different kinds of media

that can help us grow our community and our brand in a way that we could not do without representation. And so it's just, that's another piece of the puzzle. Wouldn't you agree that that's like, you kind of said that, but I'm just like hammering home. They wouldn't do it if we weren't paying them with ads from the glass-catted pocket. We can't do a free show and not give them anything. So that's a big part of that deal. for the network and where I wanted to be. And like that, that can only happen with, with more capital. You know, I want to bring on more personalities. I want to have more staff so that everyone isn't constantly strung out and you cannot do that without money. So any opportunity we have to monetize things,

we have to, to, to, you know, I want people, I know there's like this argument. It's like, why don't you,

you didn't need any of this. You could have just kept making a show in an apartment. Sure, but I have no interest in doing that. I have no interest in making just podcasts, which is why I'm not on Raiders and Blood of the Wild. I want to – this is what interests me, and I want to take it further and further and further, and that costs money. But what I will say is the new subscription service will give you the option to have Campaign 2 without ads. So if the ads really bother you, you will have that option once that service is rolled out to everybody. We already see people enjoying it now. Campaign 2 ad-free is available at one of the plans on the new subscription service.

And there was talk to not even offer that. But we just think that that's something we would like to do because we know a lot of people have been with us for a long time. We think that's the least that we can do in many ways, even though it arguably kind of hurts the download numbers, which earns revenue. We just think it's a small thing we's a small it's what we want to try to do for you know the niche yeah for for the niche uh so thank you joe for writing in uh i did

not read the rest of joe's uh email which was very nice and very complimentary uh about the premiere we really appreciate it uh joe new england is not a bad dude in fact joe in new england uh it's a really important question and i'm really glad that you asked because there's no doubt that there are tons of people thinking the exact same thing. And I appreciate you bringing it up, giving us a chance to talk about it because that's what we love to do here on the FOD. So if you've got a question you want to write in to us to have us answer about the game, about Campaign 2, GMing in general, playing in general, or even just the business of the network, contact at glasscanadnetwork.com. Make sure you put listener mail on the subject line. That's going to do it for this week on The FOD.

Troy, you got anything, any parting words? The music's already playing, so you got to fast words. Episode two is a lot of fun. I laughed a lot during the audio edit, and I watched the video and I laughed twice as hard. I can't wait to talk to you about it next week. We're into the adventure now, man. We're in.

And now it's every week forever. All right. Take it easy, everybody. Have a good one. We'll see you next week on the new video font. Bye. Bye.

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