The Glass Cannon Podcast - Cannon Fodder 9/4/24

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

This week, it's a very special edition of the Fod as Joe welcomes on the entire cast of Blood of the Wild! Submit your questions for Listener Mail at https://forms.gle/v5huj25dkVSmkbLEA Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/zV9IQoprTYo For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com and for hundreds of hours of exclusive shows and benefits, make your membership official and join Glass Cannon Nation today by becoming a subscriber at jointhenaish.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to Cannon Fodder, a behind the scenes look at the Glass Cannon Network. Yo, what is going on everybody? Welcome back to Cannon Fodder. It is Wednesday Wednesday September 4th 2024 I'm your good buddy Joe O'Brien and I am sans Troila Valley today Do we both say who needs them It's the first time we're discovering this but we're in sync I think It's the first time we're discovering this, but we're in sync, I think. Not the first time it's ever happened. Ladies and gentlemen, the voices you are hearing are my special guests this week on a very

special canon fodder. We felt like it had been far too long since the Blood of the Wild players got together and talked a little Blood of the Wild, especially with recent events. And so this week's fod is going to be a little different. We're going to have a few segments in different orders and we're going to deep dive into Blood of the Wild. But we will be spoiler free for a little bit and we'll get that spoiler warning up for you when the time is right. But for now, I'd like to welcome to the show Paula Deming, Mary Lou and my good buddy Skidmar, the players from the Blood of the Wild podcast. Hey guys.

Hello. How are you? the players from the Blood of the Wild podcast. Hey guys. Hello. Hello. How are ya? I am so, I am fantastic, Mary Lou, thank you for asking. I am very excited that you are here and able to join me for a FOD, a little talk behind the scenes of Blood of the Wild. I think this is my first time on the FOD.

Me too. What? Have I done this before? I don't think so. Oh yes, you've absolutely. I don't think I've been on the FOD. Get out of here. No, you don't know what I'm talking about on the show. I've been on a pod. Oh yes, you've absolutely, get out of here. No, you don't know what I'm talking about on the show. You've been in a town hall, yeah, no, you hate us.

You really talk about your like important show. Paula Deming has absolutely been on a cannon fodder, but it's been like probably a couple of years, but you definitely have been on cannon fodder. We've talked board games and stuff back in the day. Oh yes, you're right. You're absolutely correct. I apologize to everyone. Now I said that this was a-

Now apologize to me because I've never been on the FOD. On behalf of Jeff. Yeah, I apologize to you, Marilee. Thank you. Apology accepted. You have never been on the FOD. We have had a bit of a change in the FOD, a programmatic change that happened, it's almost two full years ago now, where as we led up to the start of GCP Campaign 2, we stopped doing rotating guest fodder and really just focused on Troy and I each week talking about the buildup to that campaign and everything that was going into getting the studio set up and all the

behind the scenes of how we built that project and everything. That was week to week. But so yeah, that traditional FOD had gone out the window and so it's great to be back with some fresh blood on the FOD. And now I started this off as a players only FOD for Blood of the Wild, but that was a bit of a tease and a bit of a misdirect because the surprise is we've got the entire cast of Blood of the Wild here today. A little twist.

We did have a little bit of a technical issue, so I'm excited to welcome Jared in right now, but there will be the briefest of brief weird audio edits, so watch this little jump in frame, but in a moment I'm bringing in Jared. Jared Logan, good buddy. Hey. Whoa. I'm here in Jared. Jared Logan, good buddy. Hey, whoa, I'm here. Was that awkward? Yeah, it just suddenly, it was like. Wow.

We thought for a moment we wouldn't be able to have Jared, and now I'm very, very excited that you're here, buddy, because we have got a lot to talk about. Obviously, if you are a listener to Blood of the Wild, you know that it has been an epic few weeks, an epic month in the world of Blood of the Wild. And we're going to get all into it, get into the behind the scenes stuff. But first, we're going to do that last so that we, anybody who, you know, doesn't want to hear any spoilers or wants to check out Blood of the Wild later, you can, you don't have to get spoiled on any of this stuff. We're going to start off with

a little listener mail, do it in reverse this week, and then a couple bits of news, and then we'll get into the chunky chunk of Blood of the Wild. Let me kick it off with Little Listener Mail. By the way, Nick Lowe sings this in on this. Some of you will be able to hear this. Sing us in, Nick. Good buddy. Hey go Nick, Paula, I needed you to spontaneously harmonize with that. I was really expecting it to happen.

I almost did and then I thought, don't, don't do that. Just like, you don't have to sing every time a song pops into your head. Sometimes you can just listen. This is a singy crew. This crew likes to sing. This is a singy crew. Very singy crew.

All right, this one from Arita in Charlotte, North Carolina. I'm from there. You're from, yeah, that's right. I'm from Charlotte. Neighbors. Arita from Charlotte says, hey guys, I hope you, no, blah, blah, blah. I had a simple question. I was wondering how likely is it for there to be irregular special FOD episodes with guests?

The focus on Gatewalkers makes sense, but sometimes something happens in a show so crazy that personally I would love to hear behind the scenes from the people involved. Like I don't know, maybe Jared or Paula? No particular reason. Arita, great question. And yes, here we are today. We have gotten this together and we're going to talk all about Blood of the Wild in a minute. But I want to throw out a question to you.

There's a listener mail question. We've never done this before. It's a listener mail question that we answered several weeks, if not a few months ago. But I want to bring it up with now Mary Lou Paula and Jared here, because I'd be curious on your input and let listeners who might not know you that well, because they haven't listened to Blood of the Wild yet, get to know you a little bit better. Suburbanite, a frequent Twitch viewer of ours from Burlington, Vermont, writes in with and says, Troy once referred to Bleak Prospect, which is a Call of Cthulhu adventure, the our new game, who dis Call of Cthulhu scenario as his favorite scenario he's ever read in any RPG. Now that a

few more years have passed, do Detroit and or Joe have any updated thoughts on their favorite adventure scenarios, regardless of RPG system. So I'm curious, Paula, Jared or Mary Lou, if you guys have ever read, played in, run a scenario that you just think is phenomenal regardless of its D and D or, or Pathfinder or call of Cthulhu or anything. Blades. I don't know. I have an answer. I have an answer.

You do. Okay. Yes. Um, I ran the old school D and D adventure written by Gary Gygax, keep on the borderlands. Keep on the borderlands is awesome. You know, it's a, it's a sandbox, meaning, you know, you start out in this keep, but there's stuff all over this landscape

that you can kind of bump into and explore. And then there's this major adventure area called the Caves of Chaos. Paula was in it. Paula, you did some of that with us. We found a unicorn, I think. I was like, can we go into those woods and see if we roll on the random encounter table

and get the unicorn? Everyone was like, oh, fine into those woods and see if we roll on the random encounter table and get the unicorn? And everyone was like, oh, fine. Yeah. A unicorn actually kicked Brian Baldinger's character in the face during that playthrough. That's amazing. I somehow managed to survive three sessions of that game as well, which was crazy. I loved running that and I loved kind of, it's beautiful, it's just beautiful. Yeah. Which was crazy. I loved that. I loved Running Man and I loved-

Briarc. It's beautiful. It's just beautiful. Yeah. What did you say? Three arc? Yeah, what goblins yell. Yeah, Briarc, yeah.

Briarc, yeah, yeah, yeah. The keep on the Borderlands. Mary Lou, I know you're, I mean, not really new anymore because it's been, what, four years, but relatively new to tabletop role playing. Have you played in or read a scenario that jumped out to you or do you do a lot of homebrew? I do a lot of homebrew because I play so much with Jared and it's really with y'all that I've been doing a lot of pre-written adventure path stuff. But I can tell you all about one Homebrew.

So this is something that maybe nobody else will get to play ever, maybe, unless, unless. But this was in the Homebrew D&D 5e campaign that I do, DM'd by Ross Bryant that I play with Clint Trucks and Zach Reno and Sarah Rose Kaplan. And it took place in an underground of alien life form that required a memory for us to pass through it and survive this experience with this alien. It was called the first sword because it was on a piece of metal that crashed into the earth. And so it was this like long twisted piece of silver metal that contains this like alien presence. And we gave it a memory and it erased it from our memory and it had to be something that was cherished to us. Wow, that's cool.

Also, there was a ball of hands. There was a ball of hands. It was just like a giant ball made of hands and it traveled by like, you could hear the hands pushing it across and then it was the scariest thing that's ever happened. That one stands out to me mostly because of the ball of hands. I like that. That first sword, that's a really cool concept and a cool name. Yeah. Paula, any come to mind? This is hard.

I have a hard time picking favorites in general. It's just not a thing I'm good at doing. I feel like my imposter syndrome is kicking in. I'm like, I don't know anything good enough. I don't have any good answers. No, please. Please. Just say it. one of your top ten. You know what was really fun? What was really fun, and maybe this came to mind because we

just played it, but the Pathfinder Society scenario that we played as part of the pre-Gentong stuff that you ran for us, Joe, was really cool because it was like- The Hyde March heist. Yeah, you were like solving a crime. So there was like investigating and there was mystery and there was a chase and then there was a fight and the story was really, like I felt really like emotionally like pulled into it really quickly. Like it- That's a great answer. that was a great scenario. That was a great scenario. And it's very new. It was written in 2024, I believe, and published

in 2024. So very new. But yeah, it's called the Hyde March Heist. If anybody wants to do a one-off with their 2E group one night. I mean, it's chunky. It would take you four to six hours to do it in a night. But it is a great one-shot scenario. So highly recommend. That's a great answer. Hyde March High. I had totally forgotten about how good that was as like Yeah, it was really standalone scenario. It's really great. So anyway, good, good. Great answers. Let's do a couple bits of news before we get into blood of the wild. Real quick. I want to remind everybody tonight. This is huge. Skid tonight. Wait, is it tonight? Yeah, tonight is the premiere of Ember. Ember is premiering tonight on our YouTube channel.

So get ready, 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Be there to see it live. The first looks at a pre-alpha version of this online tabletop role-playing game that meshes true TTRPGs with your friends with a multiplayer digital video game RPG experience into one that is seamless and incredibly fun. Skid and I have played in it and it's just been an absolute blast. It's really cool. It's genuinely very, very cool. It's genuinely very cool. When you see some of the elements of character creation tonight, you will see it's, it is like you are starting a Skyrim game, but you're building your character for a TTRPG and you're building your own token from the top down, like a top

down token with like a million options and clothes and like facial hair, but it's all the top down token for the tabletop. It's really, really cool. That would take me six hours. Just in the character creation screen. How many hairstyles are there? There's a lot of hairstyles. Oh, thank God.

I love hairstyles. And like facial scars I can add and tattoo options. Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Oh boy. Oh boy. It's really incredible. So, I'm going to go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead

and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and And like facial scars I can add and tattoo options. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh yeah. Oh boy, oh boy.

It's really incredible. So check that out. That premieres tonight and it's gonna be every Wednesday night in September. We're doing four straight weeks of playing Ember. Ember September. Ember September. Ember September.

That's right. You guys been calling it that? You forgot to call it that? How did I not think of this? Ember, Ember, September. Or you could go, Sept-Ember. There's so many choices. That's what we've been calling it. We have been calling it September for months. Okay. Do you play Ember?

The month is September. Do you play Ember? Do you play Ember? Very singing group. What are my people? We are a singing group. That is great. Also, when I say September, I mean, I'm not saying September.

I'm saying September. I'm saying September. I'm saying September. I'm saying September. I'm saying September. I'm saying September. I'm saying September. I'm saying September. I'm saying September. I'm saying September. I'm saying September. I lay in bed. Very singing group. What's in my high school? Ba-da, ba-da-da.

That's great. We are a singing group. That is great. Also want to take this opportunity to announce a new stream, new video game stream that I'm going to be playing this Friday at 3 o'clock Eastern time, 12 noon Pacific. I'm going to be starting, at least see how long this goes,

I'm going to be starting a Remnant see how long this goes, I'm going to be starting a Remnant 2 co-op stream with McDermott and Rob Kurkovich. Oh my gosh. Which should be really, really fun. So for those that don't know, Remnant 2 epic souls-like shooter that is built for co-op, three-player co-op. It's supposed to be really, really fun. McDermott and I played Remnant 1 during COVID. We have not yet played Remnant 2 and I hear very good things.

So excited to see that. Tune in three o'clock Eastern on our Twitch channel, twitch.tv slash TheGlassCanon to watch that. All right, getting all that out of the way. If you have not listened to any Blood of the Wild, I would highly recommend that you call it a day on fodder and move on. Cause this is gonna be loaded with spoilers. If you are caught up on Blood of the Wild, I would highly recommend that you call it a day on fodder and move on. Because this is going to be loaded with spoilers.

If you are caught up on Blood of the Wild, oh baby, you know what we're going to talk about here. So let's get into it. Jared, I'm going to start with you because you alone, I think unquestionably knew what was coming down the road before any of us saw it coming. It's not like you had days or weeks, even hours to see this coming. This was very quickly how it developed because the days pass so quickly when you're doing exploration and you're doing these daily roles one after another. And suddenly you realize what is happening here.

Talk to us about what's going through your head as a GM in the seconds, as these roles are happening and you're describing what's happening. Yeah. So, I mean, I, I, I'll be honest, I was as blindsided as anybody else that this is how a character went down. Yeah. And, um, I think that's one of the great things about RPGs is that the person that's running it can be really surprised and kind of shocked and everything along with the players.

Yeah. In terms of like when it was happening, well, you know, when you're keeping track of a lot of things you see in the book, oh, this stuff is poisoned and it could create this affliction and you jot down a note about it and you move on. You don't even think about it. So it was really only to when we started rolling that I started thinking to myself, oh shit. Oh wow. Okay. So, so I feel like, I feel like there was a moment

that happened somewhere in there where you, and this is not an attack at all, it may come across the way, but it truly isn't, where you could have said, like, guys, if you don't address this, he'll die if you don't fix this tomorrow. That's what it seems like. And it seemed like you might've thought of this

and decided to not do it, which I think is a great decision. I'm curious if that did happen. If you were like, should I be even more clear or have I been clear enough about what is happening here? Joe, it's not an attack because I was extraordinarily clear. No. I take each witness.

I did literally everything except saying, Olog is about to die. You need to use cure wounds. I disagree, but you know what? I know that some listeners have been like, oh, Jared did a great job of warning. I agree, especially in re-listening. In the moment, I did not process it. I just didn't. I want to say, I think Jared, I do think you've made it as absolutely clear as possible without

saying the words, he will die if you don't do this. You should stop and do this. But I can't tell the listeners enough. It didn't even cross my mind. In that moment? Like, I had no idea it would be that bad. It definitely, it definitely crossed my mind because just from a meta, I know, I don't know this disease in particular, but I know they generally have four stages and some of them, a small percentage, 20, 30% of them,

that four stage is just death, and that's all it says. And so I was like, this could be that. But I sort of felt like if you were at stage three, you'd be basically incapacitated but alive. And then you would slowly die over the course of a day. Not like you'd be walking and then die. La la la la la la. Yeah.

Right. And so I let the narrative sort of take over a little bit, take me out of the meta, which by the way, I'm happy about. I'm glad that I didn't just like go with what the meta might've told me. And I felt like, and now I want to kick it to you, Skid, I felt like, Skid, I'm curious to know if you felt like that was really possible and said to yourself, Olog would not stop, even if you as a player knew this was very possible. I don't, I can't remember like whether I was thinking of that front of mind or not, but

I did, that was a character choice though, was to, it's like Olog wouldn't stop, like it's, he's not he would have to be he would have had to have been forced to stop. Yeah. And that's that was just it. But I can't remember if I actually was really thinking about oh I could actually die but I don't I don't know. Yeah I think you were just so focused on playing in character being in the moment picturing

us like pushing through the woods on a forced march to get back as soon as we could. And then the episode ends with this, with a natural one, which is brutal, right? And then Jared's sort of describing you collapsing. We run over to you and Jared, you say, we feel no, we don't feel pulse. And then you end the episode. So I'm curious if there was any degree to which you were, were you leaving outs on the table?

Like, were you thinking in that moment, he's permanently dead? Or were you thinking, I'm gonna talk to Skid about this and say, I'm just curious, like your GM approach, because you did not say he's dead in that episode. When we came to the next episode, we didn't know. We didn't know if he was going to be dead or not. Because just saying he has no pulse, he could be resuscitated, right?

Maybe there's something we could do. We didn't know for sure. Were you leaving yourself openings in the narrative to not kill him or was it just a misunderstanding on my part? No, definitely leaving an opening that maybe... Well, what I always say, you know, I have a preference and then I have what I have to do in the game. So first of all, what I have to do in the game is have a conversation with the player,

really all the players kind of, and kind of see where they're at on this, especially for a game that's meant for audience consumption. I think that we're all a team. We're kind of all writing it together, writing it, end quote. So we have to kind of all agree on what the best direction is. And if Skid, after we had stopped recording it, said, I think we really got to keep Olog somehow, well, we're in a magical world of fairies and talking trees so we can figure out. We can figure it out. Now I have

a preference and my preference in these situations is to go with death. I think that, um, that's the, listen to the story that the dice tell. Oh my God. Can you believe that came out in that episode, that that was randomly in that episode? The irony does not, yeah, it is not lost on me. I love that song and now I hate that song. Just kidding, I love that song still. The fastest roller coaster being like, I love this to, I hate this so much.

How's the character? Dice are telling a story. Listen to the story that the dice tell. It's such a good jingle. It's a good song. It's an instant classic. Instant classic. I have to say something, because I know that people are like, why did y'all not stop?

Why did you keep going? Because you were worried about a stupid NPC, that doesn't matter. And so I just will quickly say, and then I'll shut up for a while because it's not about me. Oh, Paula, we're getting to you. Gosh, oh gosh, it's so embarrassing.

Um, but I really thought the important thing is saving this NPC. That is important. And if we can get to Daphelia quickly enough, she's gonna help us. She will fix Olav. We just have to get there with Bargat as soon as we can. And as a boon, we're saving her brother, she'll save our brother.

Like you're racing with Frodo to get to the other. Because ostensibly, bargot has the same disease as Olog. That's kind of what we were thinking, yeah. In my mind, I think we were on the same page. Bargot has the same disease as Olog and bargot is nonverbal, unconscious, right? And Olog is walking around. And so I at least am thinking, you know, if anybody's gonna die, it's not Olog. If Bargat's still alive, then it can't be that bad. And I see now, you know, knowing, I just didn't know about afflictions, right? That's like my new player.

I should have just known about the four stages of afflictions. It's a hard, it's a hard lesson, right? Like, you learned it the hard way. It was a perfect lesson to learn. And now you'll never forget. You know what I'm never gonna fucking forget? Sorry, language, but you know what I'm never gonna forget

is the cleanse affliction spell. Like I didn't even know about that spell. And then now I'm never, I'm never going to forget cleanse affliction now because my best friend died. I could have saved him. Right. No, a hundred percent. I, um, I, I, in response to that, I will say that in, in that moment in my head, I truly, uh, didn't care about the NPC at all. I believed that no matter what we did, he would be fine. And partially in a meta sense.

It was like, he's gonna be fine. Olog we have to deal with, because this is, you know, this disease that came down. I don't think you fought for that enough. As soon as Skid, the second he was like, no, like he was pushing on, I was like, that is so Olog, and I'm not gonna sit here fighting against it because I think it's mechanically dangerous. He could also, by the way, pass the next save. Like, he totally could have.

Easily. Easily. It's not like I knew he was going to die. Actually, way more likely that he was going to pass the next save. Way more likely. It was way, way more likely that I would have survived and died. Way, way more likely. Right, exactly. And so, like, I just thought that that was a would have survived and died. Way, way more likely. Right, exactly. And so like, I just thought that that was a great choice and I was like, all right,

let's push forward. And I think it was a great story choice. For anybody who was like, why do they care about this NBC? More than Olock. I didn't, but I was, because I did think that they were different, right? Olock was poisoned by something we ate. This creature has this lingering corruption that is happening to all the region, whatever. So I felt like he wouldn't die.

I wouldn't say I cared about Bargat more than Olog. I just thought it was all the same thing. If we can get Bargat where he needed to be, that would also help Olog. And then at the same thing. If we could get Bargat where he needed to be, that would also help a log. Then at the same time, I think there's something like we are here to serve. The tip of the spear is here to serve our following and this valley. I think at least in my mind is Yelka. Sometimes she's selfish and sometimes she's like,

well, it doesn't matter if we're hurting. We're supposed to be putting ourselves on the line to save this situation. Are we doing our job if we're stopping and potentially letting this person we went out to save die because we are a little worried about what might be going on with one of us? I had just no concept of how that it was.

It could be like a quest failure, right? Yeah. Yeah. So the answer really is, it's complicated. And in the moment when you're playing, obviously it's complicated. And the answer as always is, hindsight is 2020. Yeah. Oh, gross. In the moment, it didn't seem quite the same. It really just didn't seem that deadly, that desperate. Let me move on chronologically to the moments between episode 32 and episode 32. It really just didn't seem that deadly, that desperate. Let me move on chronologically to the moments between episode 32 and episode 33. I want to know what went down.

Was there an email? Was there a conversation? Did Jared reach out to Skid? Did Skid reach out to Jared? Can you give us some behind the scenes? Yeah, because we don't know this either. I don't know what you guys talked about. Yeah, I don't know this either. I don't know what you guys talked about Yeah, I don't know there were we we emailed each other

I don't know who initiated the email and then we we just decided and I think actually skid you took a couple days to decide Yeah You slept on it. I did Just wanted to think about it. I think but for me, I really want to try to listen to the story that the dice tell. Yeah. Just sort of ethically. Yeah.

And it also, the story of it that the dice ended up telling was interesting to me because Olog was this like gigantic sort of juggernaut of a character and the thought of him being felled by this poisoner was really... It reminded me of, remind me a couple things, reminded me of It reminded me of war of the worlds and something that happens in the first book of Game of Thrones. I don't want to spoil it for anyone but it's something very sort of cool kind of way to establish that really no one is safe and this is a real world that we're trying to paint and this is the kind of threat that can still

take someone out even if they seem like super heroic in some aspects. Yeah, that's great. I had never, I mean, I guess I think we might have set it on air at some point, maybe in 33. But I hadn't quite put that together that one of the things that heightened that as a storytelling element and the development of all of our characters is that Olog was and seemed the strongest. So to have him go down meant so much more than if any of us went down, you know, based on combat mechanics. It would have been like, oh, I mean, it's not like it wouldn't have been sad,

but it would have been like, yeah, they weren't quite as tough as Olag. But when Olag goes down now, everyone is at risk, which is which is cool. I also think, you know, it's the type of storytelling that is extremely unique to TTRPGs that something like this would happen. I think if someone was writing a TV show or a movie, they wouldn't have made this happen. It still works as a story in an interesting way.

You know, actually it's even more interesting because you wouldn't see it in other types of entertainment. Yeah, yeah. Because we wouldn't have chosen this. If we could choose, if we could write the perfect story for Olag, would it be dying because of a poison salad? No, he would go out in like a crazy glorious battle, you know? And so this is such a fascinating story because where else would you get this besides real

life? Because real life is the only thing that's not written, you know, and. Yeah. And think about how the timing of it is also so heartbreaking because it comes, and this is not pre-planned, it comes right on the heels of Olag first beginning to get in touch with his orc self.

Yes. You know what I mean? So it's coming. If that is how it would be written. Just as he started to learn this stuff is just really, really cool. And then to have it cut so short is just devastating. Paula, let's go to you for a minute

because you were the star of episode 33 of Blood of the Wild. No, it should have been about Olag and how Skid felt about it. No, he was dead. He has no feelings anymore. So this hit you really hard. What were your thoughts going into the episode where you, me, and Mary Lou were completely in the dark?

I feel like you brought tissues to the session, but did you still maintain a certain— So I always have tissues in my booth because I have to go— You cry a lot? I have a runny nose a lot, so I like to be able to deal with it if I need to. It's just there. So I always have tissues in there. So they luckily were just there. I really didn't want. I was on the side of, Olog shouldn't die. And not in a way that feels cheap, but in a way that there are stakes and there are still roles we could do and there are things that we could do to try to bring him back. What I was reacting to was this, I felt really helpless and we messed up

and I didn't realize and if only I had just known. But of course, that's how it works in real life, right? People are always like, wow, if I knew that was the last time I was going to talk to that person, I would have said something different. So I was like, no, I went very quickly from denial. I think when it first happened, we stopped recording and I think I literally like, no, I want, I went very quickly from denial. I think when it first happened, we stopped recording. I think I literally said, I do not accept this. This is not what's happening. You did.

This is not what's happening. So we're gonna roll it back now. And then I went into bargaining very quickly. We could do some dice rolls. We could do a whole thing and we could save him, obviously. And then I was angry, pretty angry about it. I don't know why. It wasn't my character.

I didn't realize until Olag died how invested I was from a roleplay aspect in Yelka and Olog's relationship. That to me is one of the beautiful things about when I play a TTRPG is I will find myself having an emotional reaction to something that surprises me, which is great because as an actor, I'm often trying to, you're like, you know, this is where I'm kind of supposed to cry, so how do I get myself there? And so when it just happens and you're like, oh, I'm just crying because of this thing now, it's a really beautiful moment as a performer and it happens to me more in TTRPGs than anywhere else. So happens to me more in TTRPGs than anywhere else. So I just, yeah, I just felt, I felt like Yelka, I think.

I legit, and I have a little brother, maybe that was part of it. I felt like my actual little brother had died. I really did. Like I grieved it like that. It just, yeah, I don't know how to explain it other than I guess I'm invested. I'm more invested than I even realized.

I mean, as a GM, nothing could be more pleasing than to have someone that is that invested. In your tears. Well, I mean, it does seem like schadenfreude, but it's not. It's not. No. I'm just teasing. I'm just teasing. Thank Paula again for being so invested and for just allowing herself to go there

because somebody else might go, yeah, I don't think so. I'm just going to suck these tears back in. But yeah, I mean, it's just- It's such a gift to play with someone who is people who are that invested. It's just like you couldn't ask for anything more. Yeah. I loved it. Oh, I'm going to get emotional again.

It's really nice. Mission accomplished. We're all invested. What's nice about this group in particular is I feel like we all know when to joke around and when to take it seriously. No one, I don't think there's ever been a scenario in my interpretation of this game where I feel like someone has undercut or bailed out of a dramatic moment with a joke. Like, if a joke happens in a dramatic moment,

it's because it's been done really deftly in a way that like releases the tension and was needed, right? Not as a way to like bail out of the drama. And so that creates such a safe space for when we're silly and when we're dramatic. And that's nice. It's nice as a player and a performer to have the permission to like go there if I feel like it, and to know that as a little bit embarrassing as it is, because there comes a point where you're like, I would like to stop this now. I want to be able to talk.

I want to be able to not be sniffing into my microphone. You can't. You just can't. Get me off this ride. I also want to take an opportunity to point out here, this is truly one of the things I like about, I'm gonna, this is gonna sound really self-congratulatory, but I just want to say, the glass cannon style to me

is the best style of actual play, because you don't edit out all the, like, players kind of interacting with each other, and, each other and being together as just normal people who are playing a game. I feel like, and no Aspersians cast on any other actual plays, but I feel like it's different because a lot of the others, they edit all of that out. And here, I think you get more emotion. I think you get more emotion. I think you get more connection between

Players I think and I think it leads to more connection between characters when you have that so All right, that's it. No well said the well said and I just want to jump on something As well I want to jump on to something Paula said because I was you know pointing out what was going through my head it you know as as Olag was getting sicker and sicker. And going into episode 33, Paula, I was exactly where you were. And like, I sit here and I talk about how great the story is and how in hindsight, this is a great choice and all that kind of stuff. Going into 33, I really felt like we had to have some agency in this and we had to have some die rolls and our characters needed to have some effect on what was happening. Now, it's easy to say now that

yeah, you had that chance the two other days that Jared told you he was descending and you were supposed to do disease cure disease or treat disease checks, but whatever, it didn't happen. But now please give me a chance to roll some die. And treat disease checks, but whatever, it didn't happen. But now, please give me a chance to roll some die. And if they fail, they fail and he dies, that's fine. But give me a chance. And I really did feel, and you said it perfectly, Paula, helpless. And that is, it's a great word to describe something that's horrible and horrifying. There is a horror element to helplessness where you are seeing something unfold and no matter how much you want to affect it, you can do nothing. That is a terrible position to be in as a player. So it did feel real, real shitty at the start of that episode. And you know,

I loved the episode though. Obviously you going there, Paula was amazing. Raga, you did a great job, I think. I called you Raga. Mary Lou, as Raga, you did a great job. How Raga in character was in denial. And that was really well done. And that's because Mary Lou was in denial. That, I was fully in denial. I had not yet gotten to the anger or bargaining stage. This is my first character death in a long-term campaign. I've died a thousand times in shorter campaigns. I've never experienced a character death in a long-term campaign before. I think in the back of my mind, I was just like, there's no way.

I mean, this was your, I hadn't thought of it this way before, before you said that, but this was your 84th episode with Olag. Yeah, wow. With where this happened. 84 sessions with Olag. And so we just kept talking about it. We just kept talking about it and Yelka's getting upset

and AWOL is getting upset. And I think both Raga and Mary Lou were like, what are you guys getting upset about? Yeah. They're obviously not gonna let this keep, there's no way, right? And then, so it slowly dawned on Mary Lou. But by then I just like it, I think, I mean, Raga is so similar to me in so many ways that

I compartmentalize my emotions and so does Raga. Bad feelings, those aren't real. So I'm not doing that. Turn it off. I'll deal with those later. Yeah. I tamped that down. I put it elsewhere and we'll figure it out and it'll be with those later. So I'm not doing that. Yeah, I tamped that down. I put it elsewhere.

And we'll figure it out and it'll be fine and Olog will be fine. And then eventually, you know, when we burned his body, we had to go back. We'll not be raising him back. The train had left the station. But for several episodes after we had decided Olog is dead, there was still a loud voice in my head that was like, okay, but when is he coming back though? When is he really coming back? I loved that.

That was a turn that episode 33 took that I was not expecting where Raga was like, oh, so we'll restore the balance and then we'll come back here and pick up Olog. It was basically like, you know how you Thought that was a brilliant angle and it really made for a fun way to think about you know What Raga may think it lies in our future, you know, it's like once we return balance to this region We we resurrect olog. That's That's what happens. It's really a fascinating take and I was really happy with that. All right, I'm going to come back to you in a second, Mary Lou, because I really loved

what you did in 34. I want to talk about in between 33, 34 with the development of a new character. So, Skip, talk to me about was this back up in your mind at all before Olog went down? Had you kicked around this idea before? No. I did have sort of a vague idea that I think as some of us did, that if we did have something happen to our characters, that the backup would be someone from the Crusades. Yeah. Like someone from the outsider.

Yeah. A Mendevian Crusader. I talked about that after you revealed him. I was like, that's exactly who I would played if I had died, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, no, I just like the idea of just, we've done this before, but the idea of someone who has fallen from a professional height that mechanically have been like a much

higher level at one point. At one point, yeah. You know, have through age or neglect or self-doubt have allowed themselves to kind of disintegrate down to something commensurate with the level of the party. And then watching them sort of like rebuild like who they were, like rediscover who they were like through the course of play is just really cool. So yeah, that was really awesome. So that concept, yes, we have seen that some ideas like that before. It was there any other particular inspiration for Herod? I mean, I know we've just met Herod,

so there really is a lot to unravel here and I don't want to go too deep, but is there anything you could point to as inspiration for this character? No, I really just like physically, I just always love the idea of Alan Moore, like someone like I was just thinking of like the way Alan Moore, you know, has looked at his life with this, just with the wild hair, the druid kind of look like Just using that as like a starting point. But in a suit of armor. Oh wow.

Yeah, to someone who's been living in the woods for a long time, you know, and it's just like with that the voice and everything It's just like I just always so I just kind of started from that and I hope you guys can sue me. That's great. Jared, let me go to you. started from that and hope it's going to consume me. That's great. Jared, let me go to you. Did Skid give you any details about this character? Did he give you a class and an ancestry or anything like that before the session?

Or did Skid just say, I have an idea? And you said, all right, well, we'll just, I'll find out on air. You know, I think it's really cool that I don't need to worry about that stuff too much, because Skid's such an experienced Pathfinder player. So I just was sure whatever came through would be interesting. So no, we didn't do, there was not a lot of negotiating of that. There didn't need to be.

And I will say just two quick things in addition, which is that I, when I found out what the character was, I thought how cool to have like a veteran, like an older guy with these teenagers. Teen. After it had been four teens for 84 episodes. And being teens has really colored the choices we've made and the story that we've created. Being a teen has been integral to that. And now, we're not a teen.

But now it changes direction, which is really, really cool. You don't want to keep telling the same story over and over every week, right? Yeah. Oh, that's actually, that is one other inspiration that I did have, sorry, was Powers Booth's character in Red Dawn. That was actually like front of mind when I was coming up, the crash fighter pilot. Yes. That's great. That was that was the other. Yeah. I thought a little bit of

John C. Riley's character in the we did the show for my god. Oh, Kong Skull Island. Skull Island. Yeah, yeah. He's obviously a little bit on the crazy rack here and he's not the old. Oh, my God. Oh, Kong Skull Island? Skull Island, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like, he's obviously a little bit on the crazier, wackier end. He's not the old, but he does have a lot of experience about the island. He knows the culture of the people that are there.

He's trying to, like, help them acclimate a little bit. It's very, very cool. But I think we have that in reverse and going both ways with Herod, which is cool. It's a two-way street. We're relying so much on him for his experience with demons or whatever, and he is relying on us with our experience with the natural world, this region, the flora and fauna and the berries and what to eat and what's whatever. I think that that's a really cool combo. Which is like the same thing that happens in Red Dawn with Powers Booth because he's this like, you know, adults, like he's a colonel, he's a veteran, he's a military veteran.

But like these kids have been fighting the Soviets like in the mountains in their home region for months and months at that point. And so it's like, but they both bring their separate areas of expertise to the situation, which is just really interesting. That's really cool. Jared, how did you consider adding this new character in? How did you come up with the area where it would happen or how the PCs would find out

about it? Did you have a strategy or approach to that? You know, I mean, again, the great thing about RPGs is that you're improvising. So it was really all a shot in the dark, you know? I don't even remember if I knew what Skid's new character was before Daphelia told them there's someone who could help them deal with demons. You did say it was a demon expert or somebody who is well versed in fighting. That was a brilliant way.

I think you guys talked. Yeah. Who was a demon expert or somebody who is well versed in fighting. It was a brilliant way to get Paula and Yelka on board with bringing on someone new because this is literally a thing I've been wanting as that character. What if Skid had created a character that wasn't good at fighting demons and we found him and he was like, I can help you with that. We were like, bye. Maybe we did talk. Maybe we did talk or I knew a little something, or maybe I did know, I don't know.

But I think it just speaks to how effortless the collaboration is on this game, where it's just kind of like, it just sorta happened naturally. Yeah, that's really cool. Going back for one second, I will say, I think one of the best decisions we made around this event was to not tell you, Paula and Mary Lou,

what we were going to do and just kind of let it develop in the game and everybody react to it. And I might not have done that. I might've come in and said, look, you know, Olog's gonna die, there's gonna be this new guy, he's gonna be like, he's gonna be a X class. He's gonna do this. But I think we made the right decision by keeping it like you're experiencing it as it happens. Again, that's one of the great things that RPGs have that nothing

else has. TVs, movies, they don't have that. So yeah, all the other characters are reading the same script, right? They know what other characters thinking and doing at all times. And I think that that is another hallmark of the GCN is our love of surprising each other. Like we go to great lengths to keep secrets from each other that we can reveal on air to get those live natural reactions, which is a really fun. It's like the chest busterster scene in the original Aliens. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes.

Yes. We're doing that kind of thing all the time through this media. Yeah. It's awesome. Skid, you were brilliant in the way that you introduced Harold to us. But I really think, Mary Lou, you defined that first scene with how you talked about approaching him like an animal, which we had seen you do so well for so long. And there was just a beautiful scene, you helping him with the soup, you trying to make

him feel comfortable, you being like, I'm not looking at him, I'm not making eye contact. How does this, how did this all come to you? I mean, do you have experience working with animals or skittish people? It just felt so natural and well done. Yeah, thank you. I do. I, so I watch a lot of TikToks of like animal rescues, like a lot of people. I do have experience. It's on TikTok. I watch the videos. That's in addition to. But then growing up, my mom was a dog sitter. And so we had lots of dogs in and out of the house at all times, which was awesome because I love dogs. And as soon as they got annoying, they would leave and go home.

It was great. But like all of these super cute dogs and when you meet one for the got annoying, they would leave and go home. It was great. But all of these super cute dogs, and when you meet one for the first time, they're in an unfamiliar place, there's all these other dogs, and you have to learn how to make them feel at ease. A lot of the ways that you make a person feel at ease are the opposite of what you would do with an animal. And a lot of the things that would be really comforting to a person are really threatening to an animal. And so since he had been living in the forest

for so long, I think Raga saw him as like part of the forest, as like just another animal in the forest. Another animal she needed to animal in the forest. Another animal she needed to have join the following. I know. Yeah. How many times have we done that? A thousand. How many times will we do it in the future? Hopefully, a thousand more. What animals need? They need food and they need to know that they're safe. Sitting next to him, not looking at him, but looking at the same same thing, talking so he can hear my voice, but not really talking about anything too important so he doesn't have to think and respond. Things that are rote and muscle memory, like

stirring, like chopping. It's a way of accessing that lizard brain. I think if I remember at one point you told him, you were like, add more of that in the stew. And then just kept doing something else. You're like, Herod, add that to the stew. I think what I said was go get some water or something. Do you have water? And Herod's just like, uh.

Go get water. He gave him a disc. Yeah. It was awesome. It was awesome. And then there was this moment too where it was so perfect. Where like, tensions were kind of rising about something else.

Maybe something, maybe it was the locket or something we found or had touched. And just as like tensions were just about to maybe tip over, you just like, were like, soup's ready. And like, it was like, it deflated the whole thing. It was so perfect. It was genius. You know how Paula felt like her brother had died? I felt like I had had soup.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. We really felt that soup. Yeah, it was really, it was really fantastic. And I'm gonna, one final question, final statement before we get out of here, which is Skid, your, your decision, which once you built this character, it sort of felt like he was out of your hands already in terms of joining us. was out of your hands already in terms of joining us. It felt like you build a story and you were like, oh shit, this guy would never go with these kids. And you stayed true to that, which was really

cool. And you stayed with it longer than I expected. We had slept, Raga had done her thing. And in the morning you were like, I can't help you. Good luck. And you went on your way. Tell me about that moment. Were you thinking like, I hope they come and get me, or were you just kind of not thinking a minute ahead? And before you say anything, I want to point, I want to say to the audience, I think I read somewhere someone being like, oh, maybe Skid had been like, hey, I'm gonna play hard to get, you guys come get me. That did not happen. Like Skid did not warn us like, hey, I'm gonna play hard to get, you guys come get me. That did not happen. Like Skid did not warn us like, hey, I'm gonna say no.

That we didn't have any. I was pissed when it happened. Let me clarify why I asked this question. I thought Skid put out that story moment. I thought it was really well done. I thought Raga addressed it perfectly and solved the problem. Yeah.

And in the morning when he did it again, in my head in the meta, I was like, Skid, what the fuck, man? Skid. We gotta get on with the show. So I do wanna know, like, you know, what were you thinking? You think that we just hadn't done quite enough yet,

or you felt like there was one more moment that was needed, or were you not thinking ahead and you were just being in the moment? Or did you make a role? No, no, I just really, it felt so important to make that decision when it finally inevitably had to happen to have it feel earned as earned as possible.

And I personally just didn't feel like it was quite there yet. So I said, like, you know, this still just feels like what he would do in the circumstance and so I went with that thinking that like, well, maybe someone will have an idea and will be able to overcome this or if not, if they do just leave, which I was prepared for too, I was thinking again, seven samurai when Kikujo is like, they sort of reject him and then he sort of like follows them. He ends up, so I would have like ended up following him.

Oh, that's cool. You keep an eye on those guys and then we'd get into a fight and you'd come in and help and then that would have been really good too. Yeah. But I couldn't let you walk away. That was sort of my backup sort of plan for that. Yeah, Yelka was too mad. But I wasn't, I didn't't know. I was just going to-

Thank God. Then we got that speech from Yelka that I thought was so cool. Yeah. That was my final statement is to once again, it was to bring it back to Paula and end it with applause to you. I don't really have a question for you here because it's pretty clear. That was a great final moment in the transition out of Olag in the story and into Herod in the story. And I think it's great that you were the one to do it because you fought. I mean, as AWOL, I remember being like AWOL would be like, oh, well, we did our best. You know what I mean? And you were just like, Yelka wouldn't accept it. And the way that you stood to him and you were like, you said this a little bit earlier,

but you kept reinforcing like, look, just because we're young doesn't mean we're children. And I am not going anywhere without a demon hunter. This is all I've been looking for. And you're coming with us and that's the end of it. And there is just like, it just starts walking our way. You know what I mean? Like, didn't need to say anything. Great moment. Well done. And the transition was complete and it took two full episodes. And I thought that that was a really good pace. You know, from the time that Olag hit the ground at the end of episode

32, it takes to the end of episode 34 before we're really moving on with somebody else. And I felt like that was good, proper time. Oh, and also we had the, you know, kind of funeral for Olag itself, which was great. And that was awesome. It felt nice, yeah. So it really felt like we got closure and we opened a new chapter and the story moved on.

Yeah, Paula. I know you want to wrap us up, but I have a quick question for Skid and that is just, how did it feel watching us have a funeral for your character, right? How does that feel? Because you didn't do much in that episode other than that beautiful scene where we're in the fireplace. The three fires. Yeah, and we got to take it by and stuff, but what is that like? Is it like an out of body experience almost? It was weird.

Yeah, I felt like the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn watching their own funeral. Yeah, it was very strange. Yeah, very, very weird. Yeah, I can imagine. And just, you know, all of us just pouring out so much love. And I also loved Paula, damn it, you opened up a whole new Pandora's box.

We gotta get out of here. But I did really love Skid, the, your portrayal of Olag at the Three Fires. Seemed older, seemed a little different, seemed a little bit detached, not very emotional. It was great, it was emotional. It was great. It was great. He felt different. It finally made me Mary Lou except Olog's death. I had not accepted it. I kept thinking about how

we were going to get out of it. Hearing Olog speak about like, no, this is where I want to be. Now that I'm here, I see things, I feel things that you don't, this is where I'm supposed to be. That actually got me as a person to finally accept his death. Yeah, it was beautiful. It was not what I expected at all. I did not expect that. And it was beautiful. I actually feel like I'm getting even more closure just talking about it now. Like I'm feeling better and better. It's not what we haven't done this.

We actually haven't done this. We haven't done this. No. That's why I thought it would make a great fodder. We haven't actually sat and talked about it. We prerecorded this, so it's been a couple months since this happened to us, but these things just aired and this is a good time to readdress it after some time has passed for us

and we can kind of look back and get it all out there. So a huge thank you to all of you for taking the time out to be on the FOD and talk about this stuff. I thought it was fantastic. I really appreciate it. I think this moment from 32 through to 34 was a pivotal part in our whole campaign. It will never, we're never going to forget it.

It's really, really incredible. Uh, it's a Testament to all of you as, as players and particularly to our fearless leader, Jared, as a GM, you, you GM a great campaign, Jared. It's really great. Yeah. And, uh, no, all I do is set a, set it up, set up the scene and you guys run with it. Uh, and tell me no. Yeah, that is something else you do. I mean, ludicrous suggestions need to be batted down.

You gave me the band to talk to the crow. You gave her the band to talk to Raven. All right, that's going to do it, everybody. We're not getting into the crow debate tonight. Can I use performance to sneak into this? Oh, I didn't suggest that. All right, that's your music cue. Drop it.

No, this was awesome. Thank you guys so much. It was a fantastic FOD. Like we said, Ember tonight, we got Gatewalkers tomorrow night. We got Joe Kurkovich and McDStream on Friday. And then of course more FOD and more fun stuff next week. So thanks everybody.

We'll see you next time. Have a fantastic week and weekend. Bye. Thank you. Bye. It's time to make your membership official. Become an official member of the Naish today at JoinTheNaish.com. That's JoinTheNaish.com, where you'll get access to exclusive podcasts and live streams

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