The Glass Cannon Podcast - Gatewalkers Session 0 – Zero to Heroes

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

After a 16-month hiatus, The Glass Cannon Podcast is set to return with Campaign Two on Thursday, September 14th, 2023, featuring the Pathinder 2E Gatewalkers Adventure Path. Gamemaster Troy Lavallee gathers fellow founders Joe O'Brien, Skid Maher and Matthew Capodicasa along with fan favorites Sydney Amanuel and Kate Stamas for a thorough Session Zero, where they discuss the upcoming campaign and build characters in real time on Demiplane's Pathfinder Nexus. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/QeYthykdhbg This episode was sponsored by Demiplane, Foundry VTT and Norse Foundry. Check out Demiplane's Pathfinder Nexus and character creation tools at https://bit.ly/GCNOfficialTools See why tabletop gamers everywhere have made the switch to Foundry Virtual Tabletop at https://foundryvtt.com/gcp 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. Good evening, everyone. You know, there are some days in a little Troy's life where you just know you're going to remember them forever. The birth of my three children. Every Christmas ever. And tonight. Okay, okay, there it is. Session zero of the new Glass Cannon podcast.

You know what's crazy? We never had a session zero for the first one. It was just emails. It was like, ah, we'll figure it out. It's so amazing when you think back, the way that all of our shows go now the way that everything is done now to go back to episode one and listen to it to the first i mean within the first 30 seconds it's just like uh joe why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and who your character is and i'm just like character name whole background his whole like personality vibe and stuff like that and uh and all these details about whole background his whole like personality vibe and stuff like

that and uh and all these details about the character right away like and we never did that again it was the rest of the guys were hearing you say that for the first time they had no idea who you were as they were hearing it live right but also like these days like every character is like kind of introduced through role play and extensive cinematic stuff and you don't know their name you don't know their name. You don't really know what class they are for a while. It's like trying to pick it apart and everything. It's just funny how we've changed the way we play.

Yeah. And, you know, one thing that we've had on our side is time. Lots of time before we launch the new show. And we just want to do it as full out as we can. Let's have a session zero where we literally create characters together, but also talk about what we're about to get into. And so that's what we're going to do tonight. But first, I want to check in with my good buddy. He's the king of all nerds, and his name is Skidmar.

Skid! Hey! Hi, Skid! I'm great. How are you doing? What? Skid, do you like a session zero? When you were a uh playing dnd i don't remember doing session zeros i feel like we just were constantly rolling up characters no yeah we never really when i was a kid playing we never put the amount of thought into character and story

that i do now i wish we had i'm glad glad we eventually discovered that particular joy. But no, we never would do anything like that. Yeah, I can't even remember. I think we really just started doing about halfway through the Glass Cannon Network. We didn't even do it for a lot of our first shows, but it's important. Kate, do you like a session zero or do you prefer to like not spend time with us outside of work? That's a tough question. Oh, God. Is this my first? No. I mean, when we did New Game Who Dis, we would sort of do session zeros.

And I always liked those. Yeah. So I think I like them. Yeah, they can be fun. I always liken them to a fantasy football draft. They certainly can be. They can be fun. But it's like a fantasy football draft. They certainly can be. They can be fun. But it's like a fantasy football draft.

Sometimes the draft is the best part of the season. And you're like, I wish we could just draft every week. It's the same thing with character creation and starting a new adventure. It's like, this is so much fun until they become real characters that you're like, come on, you can't hit me from there. And you get really fired up. Like now it's just the bliss before it all begins. Speaking of dead characters, Matthew, you have a ton of them. Are you excited to build one that I will probably just kill?

Probably kill. Much to the annoyance and consternation of everyone listening. Yeah, they do. They love your characters because you're a writer. You just know how to make them jump right off the page into our mouths. Why are we hitting you? Why are your headphones in your mouth? That is not... I'm going to give you guys such joy to choke on. It's not even going to be...

I'm going to pack your sweet little mouths with so many characters you don't know what to watch. I'm so uncomfortable. You won't be able to stop the flow of characters. Oh, my goodness. Quick change of pace, Sydney. Are you excited to dig into this? Because I think you haven't really thought about this until about five minutes before we went live. What?

No. You were too busy getting haircuts. I know. I was getting my hair cut. And for a person who has longer hair when they go to the salon, I'll have you know, Troy, I knew this recording date. I was well prepared for tonight. I went to the salon. My appointment was at 345.

And I got home at 815. And the salon is a six minute walk from me. Is that how long it takes? Well, your hair was pretty long. And they have to cut it one by one. Oh, right, right, right, right. I didn't know you went to one of those barbers where they cut the hairs one by one. Is this a joke?

Well, it's very Brooklyn. I was going to say I'm in Brooklyn. So, yeah. A bespoke haircut. A bespoke white glove haircut. No, I'm really excited for tonight. I love Session Zeros. I think character creation is, like you said, it's even in video games and stuff.

It's one of my favorite parts. It's just like a sandbox world. And there's so much possibility. And I also get really inspired in a group setting when everybody else is talking about their character and like, you know, they're so excited. And then I'm like, oh, shit, that sounds really cool. And it like makes me want to do more with my character. So yeah, and you know, to give the audience a little peek behind the curtain, we've always been thinking about these characters and talking about these characters and

sharing some of the elements of these characters with each other now for a couple months. But everything's on the table here. Even though people have kind of narrowed into their classes and their ancestries, if you watch the character introduction videos,

things change. We had artwork done recently. Some people started seeing the artwork and were like, I want to change my character based on this artwork. So it's going to be interesting to see how things fall. Sydney and I talked last night. We were both like, that session zero is tomorrow night. And we've changed multiple things since the character video. So many things.

And since we've only like emailed with each other too. And it's sort of been like, I think I'm going to do this. Like if I do this, what do you guys think? Like trying to get a read on everybody. But also kept it super vague like i don't know what sure i really don't know what any of you are doing i have no idea i don't either yeah i've seen some pretty significant stuff from my character video too one huge thing i'm actually i'm announcing it right now i'm pre-announcing a contest surrounding what something about my character i don't want to spoil anything now.

Just a little taste. There's going to be a contest. Wait, when's the contest? Like later tonight or during the show? You know what? Actually, I'll announce it during my character. At some point during my character creation process, I will announce the contest. Are there prizes?

Can I enter the contest? Yes. Okay. Employees of the Glass Cannon Network And their spouses are also eligible I want to know So generous Oh, see, this is part of the Just get ready

Because this is going to be the contest of your life Now, my wife and I live in Canada So can international couples be considered? International respondees also eligible. Wow. This is the best contest we've ever had. I don't think the prizes are going to be good, Matthew. I don't think the prizes are going to be good anymore. I think the prizes are going to be bad.

You're not going to believe what you're going to hear coming out of my sweet little mouth. The more we can say sweet little mouth. My little wet mouth My goodness My goodness We're really only eight minutes in

Well that's exciting You know we have an opportunity to do things With this show that you know We can do whatever the fuck we want So like we have the opportunity To really interact with the audience To take suggestions if that's something you want to do things with this show that, you know, we can do whatever the fuck we want. So, like, we have the opportunity to really interact with the audience, to take suggestions. If that's something you want to do, I don't want to do that. But if you guys want to do it, you totally should. I think it's fun. It makes the nation feel like they're more a part of what we're doing. This is

going to be a very, very unique experience from top to bottom. And it starts, you know, tonight. And so, before we get into, like, the actual nuts and bolts of character creation, I just want to talk about Session Zero in general. Just like go over some like Session Zero stuff because we never even do that either. Like the sort of limits of what we do is just like, are you going to take athletics? All right, cool. Then I'll take acrobatics. I want to talk about what kind of game you guys are interested in playing. I want to talk about what kind of game you guys are interested in playing. This is a very broad question, but I've never asked it to you guys. I probably could infer just from playing with you, but what do you enjoy most about playing these games? Do you like combat? Do you like puzzles? Do you like to role play? Do you like to do funny voices? What is it that you really, really love about doing this?

You should usually pick someone to – yeah. I'm going to leave it out there for a sexy fan who's like – but I'm going to start with Skid because I'm really interested because I think Skid, you have a good idea of what you like. I like role-playing. i like doing the funny voices uh that's very fun i love character stuff i just love like a kind of exploring character moments and i'm not i'm not i'm not a big puzzle solving guy just because i'm bad i feel like it's solving puzzles so i'm not huge on that but i love combat and i in your defense that's because all puzzles are impossible yeah i think joe joe's on we're on the same page here they're all by definition yeah so i don't not not huge on that but i also love combat and what i love and i mentioned this on legacy recently i love combat with big meaty opponents that bleed

a lot that's my favorite thing yeah you like to mash that is really your your favorite he likes he likes a uh he likes a heavyweight boxing match like from rocky like rocky one rocky two where they land like every punch on each other just constantly over and over and over and over just like meat slapping bones crunching over and over and over again blood and viscera flying everywhere that's my these are a few of my favorite things yeah i've only ever seen you play one barbarian i know i know because uh i i haven't gotten a chance to do it that much but i that was my favorite character that i ever played and it's one of my new favorite characters that i am playing on the blood of the wild but but yeah that's great yeah you're missing out on skid's um barbarian in Blood of the Wild. He's an amazing, amazing

character. Sydney, what about you? What is it about these games that you, did you like your favorite part of playing? I definitely gravitate to the same as Skid. I love the role playing. I love doing voices. I love going on

role play tangents. Feeling like you go off the rails and you're creating a sort of second story within the story. I think that's a lot of fun. Combat I like. Depends. Sometimes combat, it just, it can feel long and it can feel like I'm trapped, you know, in what I'm able to do in certain combats, which is frustrating for me. But I think I do like puzzles for like the opposite reason of the combat. Like I like a logic puzzle.

If you set us up on a piece of land and we had to cross a river and there was a boat with like a wolf and a chicken and chicken feed, I would be like, okay, here we go. Like, let's figure it out. Sydney's time to shine. But yeah, I don't know. I love the role play aspect. I think that's definitely, I gravitate towards that in most role playing games. You like the role playing. You know, another thing to think about as you're answering this, like, if there's things you don't like.

It's like, you know what I don't like? Blah, blah, blah. Like, I hate role playing. I just like to do the math. Matthew, what about you? I hate role playing. I just like to do the math. That's why I kicked it to you.

No, unsurprisingly, I too am a fan of the role play. But I also, I enjoy the-playing. I just like to do the math. That's why I kicked it to you. No, unsurprisingly, I too am a fan of the role-play. But I also – I enjoy the whole thing. I enjoy the whole package because you don't want to just do role-play. I also like a good combat. I don't love a meat grinder, but I like a good mix. It's a good – like if combats were like the fruit in a fruitcake, you don't want them to all be concentrated at the bottom. Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry would be very upset about that. You want them interspersed. What is it about a meat grinder you don't like? It's just the lack of variety, really. Yeah. And the limited opportunities to role play. Yeah, yeah. No, I feel

that. It can get repetitive after a while. Kate, what do you like? I mean, I feel like I'm just going to say what everyone else is saying. I like role-playing. I like the idea of voices, but I don't think I'm very good at it.

But I like to be like, here we go. Not with that attitude. Kate, don't tell them that. Kate, have you ever heard a little show called Time for Chaos? I was going to say, that show, I do a really, really, really great accent in that show. Yes, you do.

Everyone in the chat always is like, she must have lived in Germany. She must have spent significant time in Germany. It's amazing how many times people say that in chat. People around her at all times. Anyway. But that's the thing. It's like, you doesn't have to be parents diplomats.

It doesn't have to be perfect. It's like, it's just, if you're having fun doing it and everyone has been having fun listening to it, that's all that matters. But I like that. I like puzzles when I'm playing a game by myself, but I feel like in this setting, I just like don't see them at all. If they're like in front of me, I'm like, I don't know. I'm playing a game by myself, but I feel like in this setting, I just don't see them at all. If they're in front of me, I'm like, I don't know.

I'm going to talk to the guy instead of look at the thing in front of me that's obviously a puzzle. And then I like combat when everyone's working together and we're like, setting up the volley. Oh, spike. Stuff like that. That's when it's exciting. Yeah. Teamwork combat. Yeah.

That synergy is important and very important. I. Teamwork combat. Yeah. Yeah. That synergy is important and very important. I feel like I'm interviewing for a job. I love teamwork and I love team players. Keep talking to others. I guess you could say I work too hard. Yeah. It's my biggest flaw.

My weakness. Too much of a perfectionist. I love all of it. I care too much about the work. I'm such of a perfectionist. I love all of it. I care too much about the work. You know, the synergies are obviously very important, especially as we learn more about 2E. Like, the best combats are the ones where you guys are really working together.

What about you, Joe? I love combat. I love combat. That's your favorite. I always have. I mean, that's what I gravitated toward when I was a kid. And I love tactical combat. I mean, I always have. I mean, that's what I gravitated toward when I was a kid. And I, I love tactical combat and I love, uh, playing with people that, uh, love parsing that apart. You know, Matthew's, uh, like that, you know, when you're looking at the grid and you're

kind of figuring out, you know, how to move the pieces. I love, I love chess, you know what I mean? And I love the chess aspect of it. So that, that always is entertaining to me. But I agree that it can get repetitive. And when a combat is grinding, you know, the other thing is like, it's different when you're doing a show. Like, I don't mind grindy, repetitive combats when it's just like, when it's not a show. But I get very self-conscious about a show. Like, I'm always like, I can hear the slowness of it. You know what I mean?

And I'm like, oh my God, please make this combat end. It's so boring to listen to. So that makes combats kind of drop down a little bit. Like when you're doing a show, I like role play more. But yeah, I love combats. And I love comedy in general. Like the other thing that drew me to this game and brought me back to it as an adult was I just remember laughing my ass off with my friends. I don't know what it is about the style of games and how they lend themselves to amazing levels of silliness and creative silliness. But I just I love that aspect. And then I just I, I like what we do in our game. One of my favorite things is a good flashback. Like, I love when you're deep into the story and you use a moment in the story to inspire a flashback for a character.

And you kind of see why they reacted that way in that situation or why, you know. And when your friends do it and it can create those, like, oh, wow moments, you know, where you're like, oh, I know that makes perfect sense. You know, like those aha moments in character flashbacks. It's like TV shows that do that. I loved when TV shows would do that and give you an insight into a character you had known for a while, but kind of at a surface level. And then you get their backstory episode, not even a whole episode, but just the scene and you get a deeper affection for

them. So I love that. I feel like backstories are a great way to get, you know, deeper affection for characters. Oh, absolutely. And I, you know, we, we, we started out just kind of playing around with it long before we had a podcast, you know, when we were playing Jade Region together, and then like, it's kind of took on a life of its own as we got deeper into the podcast. You know, I wasn't going to answer this this but the more i was listening to you guys i thought about the things that i really like um not that anybody asked is that uh when i was a kid thanks kid for asking when i was a kid i looked forward to playing dungeons and dragons when i when i sunk my teeth into it like more than anything those like two summers when I sunk my teeth into it, like more than anything, those like two summers when I was like so into it. I can remember like when Saturday hit and I was going to go over my buddy's

house and he was going to run. The sheer excitement of like sitting down, because I didn't own the books. I couldn't afford the books. Like to hold the one player's guide that we owned between us to look at that and build the character, that excitement. And then when Joe brought me back in 10, 11 years ago, however long it was. And that's where I met skid. I found that,

that, that piece of me that I had forgot about. Cause I would look forward to those Sunday sessions all week, bar time. Like I cannot wait to go there. And then I'd come and I was dating my wife at the time. She's like, what do you guys do when you're there for six hours? I'm like, well, we drink a lot. But we also, I'm like, we just laugh. I can't, somebody's talking about you laugh. Like we just laugh for like six hours straight. It is so fun. And that's the real

key that I want to kind of impress upon this. Like the things I enjoy are like evoking strong emotions. I love making people laugh, but I also love making people, oh my God. I love that as well. That's just something I enjoy out of life. But what's going to make this show work better than anything is if we're having fun. If you come with that same excitement, I want to come with that same excitement I had when I was a kid,

when I started playing with Joe and Skid 10, 11 years ago, when we were like first starting the network and playing a million different games, that excitement, that joy, if we feel that, it doesn't matter if the rules are right, it doesn't matter if the story

has continuity issues, if we're having fun, this will be the best in the biz agreed also i'd like to uh clarify uh on my end uh really i i'm sorry i just have to say i don't want to whittle it down to just combat i think the better definition is combat was your answer i think the better definition is i love a dungeon crawl i love a dungeon crawl because i like combat but i also love sneaking through hallways i also love like coming up on enemies that haven't seen you yet listening to conversations getting the jump on somebody like i just i freak it whenever you get

to that part in an adventure where you're like and you're standing outside the abandoned mansion like and opening the front door and now you know for the next several hours you're going to just be in horror and fights and sneaking i just get so giddy i love it it's my favorite that's my favorite yeah a lot of people don't share that love oh 100 people like different things yeah but um well let's just talk a little nuts and bolts here about what we're going to do. Obviously, we're playing the Pathfinder 2nd Edition Gatewalkers Adventure Path. It's a three-book adventure path. I have no idea.

I couldn't even guess how long it's going to take us to do this. But we're really, really excited. Why don't we put in guesses? We should take bets. Yeah, take some bets. Yes. A new game. Skid, this is the second game of the evening.

The second contest. Okay. Okay. Write them down. I have an idea, so I'll go last. I need some background information before we place bets. Yes. In comparison to the Pathfinder 1E books, are they of similar length or are they-

Almost exact. I would say, let's just say exact. Yeah. Exactly the same length. Three books. Take you like from what, first to 10th level or something, first to 12th, I can't remember. Episodes are going to be about an hour 15, hour 10.

Some will go long, but that's the plan. So you get your band and you get your ep. I'm going to start with you, Kate. How many episodes to finish Gatewater? Oh, how many episodes? Oh, shit. I was thinking about time, like length of time. Oh, no, no.

We only think of number of episodes. So, for example, Giant Slayer. There's no real difference between the two questions. Yes, there is. I don't think of the numbers. If you're like, oh, it happened in 2017, I don't think about that anymore. I'm like, oh, yeah, that was back in the old time. If there's one a week. Give you an example about that anymore. I'm like, oh yeah, that was back in... Let me do some math. If there's one a week... Give you an example.

Giant Slayer ran 326 episodes. Now, several of those episodes were multi-parters, or really, like I think episode 100, 200, 250, 300, and 326 all had multiple parts. So, all told, around 335

to do six books. 182. Wow. That do six books. 182. Wow. That's the high. That's on the high end. 182. Okay. Hope someone's writing this down.

Sydney is very theatrically writing it down. Sydney's doing a lot of math here. Matthew, I think you have a number. With her pen and paper, like in the end or thought. Well, let's define the terms of the bet. Are we getting closest without going over or just closest? Closest. In this case, it's not close without going

over. It's just closest. Not price is right rules. Okay. 156. 156. A respectable. A gentleman's 156. Sidney is still working feverishly on the math. Joe, where are you at? I will

go 162. 162. Well, actually, no. I'm going to go 160. End of sentence. 162. Because I'm also going to place into my bet a little bit of how Troy is psychotic about nice even numbers. So if he can make it land on an even number, he will. GCP was 326.

That's all I'm saying. Oh, okay. Never mind. We're doing published episode numbers, not the actual number of episodes. Published episode numbers. Yeah, we should define that. Like 326, not the number we actually did because there was like 100 part one, 100 part two, 100 part three.

No, right. It was like 335 or something. Yeah, yeah. That's cheating. Sydney, have you arrived at a number? Okay, Skid, where are you at? I think you guys are a little high, considering it is three books. I'm going to say three episodes.

Because I think one episode per book, I think. Maybe it's a little optimistic, but I think we can do it. Okay. Well, that would definitely have a really good shot in the closest without going over rules. Yes. You just $1'd us if we were doing Price is Right rules. Three episodes. So we have one for three episodes.

Sid, are you going four? Or are you going higher than four? I know math is your strong suit. I'm going to. I have been doing long division this entire time. It's long. It's like the whole page quite long. So that's a lot of math.

I'm going to be a jerk and I'm going to say 161. Oh, that is so filthy, disgusting. That is a gross, gross. Wow. Why are you so mad? Because I'm going to win? I'm just disappointed in you as a person If you wanted that number you should have picked it

I wouldn't say I'm mad I tricked you all I was just pretending to do math So I could wait for all of your answers So I could pick the best answer I never expected this from you Let me just say If this is a peek into how you're going to behave.

This is how you're going to behave. During our game. Yeah, I dyed my hair blonde and changed my entire personality. This is the new me. This is the new me. All the warning signs were there. She tried to tell us. Alright, I will say

the Giant Slayer did three books in about 132 episodes. Yeah. Okay? Oops. So I am saying – but a lot has changed. The second half. Yeah.

Parts of it went slow. Parts of it went fast. Parts of it went fast. And we've got five players this time. We've got a lot more that is going to be changing and whatnot. And 2E is a different game. So I'm going to sit comfortably at 145 episodes.

Wow. I was debating somewhere in the 140 to 160 range, and I was like, I think I agree. More players, more actions per round. You know. Yeah, that extra player, I honestly think, is like 30 more episodes.

That's why I'm going to win. That would be 162. Because it's not just combat all being longer. It's also all the role play, all the flashbacks, all the extra conversational scenes. It adds up. Extra banter. All of us just said our favorite part was role play, except for Joe. Yeah.

Role play is stupid and sucks. We should just be getting together and doing math together. Stupid. Now, you know, I'm here to ask the big question, so I'm just going to put it out there. Who's tracking treasure? Oh. You know what? I know who's not tracking treasure.

This was my thought also, because- I can track. Sydney. What were you going to say, Kate? Let Kate finish, Sydney. What were you gonna say Kate let Kate finish I was concerned about that and I think about it a lot and I'm also a Virgo

but I also have a chaotic side where I don't want the responsibility but I don't know I would volunteer to do it except I've been burned on this because Joe deleted my spreadsheet last time halfway through Giant through giant slayer. Joe just deleted it.

He just put that out there. I did. So Joe's not allowed to touch it. Matthew said something about Canadians and it upset me. And I took it out of the, I took it out of the, I didn't know how else to hurt him. You see the present spreadsheet?

It's gone! And I ripped up the paper and he was like, that's just the paper, idiot. It's on the internet. And I was like, no, it's not. And then he looked, and I had deleted it. It wasn't there anymore. Yeah, the printout I took was a ceremonial thing.

Maybe we should have like a job opening, and then we apply. And who's hiring, Troy? And then we're all hiring. So like, we'll interview apply. And who's hiring? Troy? And then we're all hiring. So, like, we'll interview you. All right, quick. Give me your elevator. Give me your elevator.

Me? Yeah, you go first. So, what do you think would make you a good treasure tracker for this adventure? Well. What are your strengths as a treasure tracker? I see on your resume you were a treasure tracker for Time for Chaos. I see on your resume you were a treasure tracker for Time for Chaos. Well, if you saw my notes, personal notes for Time for Chaos and all of the databases that I have for the characters and everything that happened, I think that you would be pretty comfortable with me keeping track of the treasure.

Well said. Well said. Pretty good interview. Now, Gail, is your name Gail? I also love math. Sydney, sorry, I misread it. We pretty much settled on who's tracking, but you were still waiting in the lobby, so we wanted to ask you,

what would make you a good treasure tracker for this job that's no longer available? Me? Me? Is this thing on? There's no microphone in this office I brought my own um let me just say

let me just say am I good at math? no. do I keep all of my notes in emails that are drafted in my google Gmail account? Yes. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

And do I just highlight? Matthew's horrified by this. Do I just highlight things and use different fonts in those emails to remember what happened in previous episodes? Yes, I do. But does that make me no worse or better a treasure tracker than anyone else in this room? I rest my case.

Yes, it does. It definitively makes you worse. We had two strong candidates. It's going to be a real tough call. Relational databases or email? Honesty. Excuse me. Keeps her notes as drafted emails.

Oh, my God. I'm not going to lose them and I'm not going to delete them. So that goes two for me, zero for you, Joe. Google can train their AI on it because you're using their products. Oh, Google's going to come out with the new best online TTRPG platform. Calling it now. I'm going to say this, Sydney. At least you're a treasure.

And I mean that. But you won't be tracking treasure for this adventure. Yes, sir. But let's talk about variant rules. Wait, wait, wait, wait. So Kate's hired, right? She got the job, yeah. She was the only right choice for this.

Congratulations. Hey, Kate, I just wanted to say congratulations. When do I start and what's the pay? The compensation? The compensation is 10% of the treasure. Yes, you get it. Whenever there's an extra coin, you get it. Oh, that's good. You get coin, you get it. Wow.

You get to all the rounding. Instead of dividing down to the coppers. Health insurance for your character. 401k. Cool. Yeah, we should get a 401k for fantasy characters. I put a lot of time into this character. I should get something.

Give him $74. You'll kill them too fast. Variant rules. I'm not really using anybody. I know a lot of people wanted a free archetype. I'm just, I don't think it's right for this adventure with five players. I think I'm going to be working with a lot of balance issues that I want to make as simple as possible. And Free Archetype just, it adds a layer of extra work on my part and your part that I just don't think we need for this adventure. If it was four players, maybe.

It also adds an extra layer of, what's the word? Don't say it. He's going to say it. Fun. Yeah, there it is. That's what it is, fun. Yeah, it just takes too much policing.

Free Archetype, in my opinion, all players love it. I've yet to meet a GM that's like, fucking Free Archetype's the best. Not going to use it. However, I am interested in doing away with alignments, if that's something out in the fall. That's one of the changes they're making to further distance themselves from the whatchamacallit can't think of the word

the OGL. Thank you. And so we could just kind of preempt that if we want. It feels like it doesn't it's not really necessary and when it comes to a thing like what kind of damage am i doing here is it good holy i feel like we could figure it out um and we can kind

of make up our own system for it so whoever is like doing that type of damage or or doing that type of healing or whatnot we can come up with that system that to me is just more interesting than like trying to adhere to a an archaic system of alignment. Joe, what do you think about that? You got a face that I might love it or hate it. I just find it ironic that you chose this moment to change that role when like it's going to matter immensely to my character for the first time ever. Well, I think it's fine to change it,

but Troy, you have to stay honest then about, you know, if an enemy is evil or a fiend or- Please don't raise your voice. You could tell that she was like going after him. I know. I felt like it was- We might cut this out. Yeah, I felt like-

The way you raised your voice at me. It felt like the judge was like, the judge should have been like, counselor, please stop badgering the witness. Never talk to me like that in front of the children. Well, but dude, if anything No, no, no If anything, this gives you more freedom As a whole, I agree with getting rid of alignments But yeah, no, I mean, it was just You'll see, as we get into character creation

I was kind of really drilling into an alignment And a reason for that And it doesn't have to be named what it is You know, I love it, it's great, I alignments have bothered me for a long time. I've actually asked multiple times in our games to be offered house rule exceptions, specifically around alignments. And multiple GMs on this call have agreed to it, you know, in the past of my request. So yeah, I hate the restrictions imposed by the rules of alignment. And that's what I want to get rid of most of all. I don't mind

the alignment sort of archaic, whatever. I mean, I have a certain nostalgia for it. But I but getting rid of it, I don't think lessens the game at all. And in fact, I think it can even heighten its possibilities. Yeah, I mean, it was a useful tool, but it was so restrictive because I feel like as human beings are all of those alignments at one point or another, right? So it's just so that said, I would like to like ceremony. I would like to, if I may offer a, an idea to send this idea out ceremoniously. Like a Viking funeral for it. Yeah. Viking funeral for alignment. Could we pick alignments for each of us as people? Yes. I have an idea for each one.

That's fair. All I was going to say is that no matter what alignment people choose, everyone plays their character chaotic neutrals. That's another reason to just fucking get rid of it. And I love the idea and this is something I really want to do with this is like, let's kind of figure out what our game is going to be.

One of the next things I was going to say before we do this Viking funeral is like, I'm not starting with any house rules because we're still, we've spent a lot of time with the system. We're about to spend a lot more time with it. I want to develop those house rules over time beyond like how we're going to do hero points and bottle caps, which I'll talk about. So there are no house rules and also no lemon law because retraining is built into the system.

So when you pick something, that's what you're going to get. If a couple episodes later, you're like, fuck, I don't want this feat. Okay, let's work through the system of retraining because there will be moments for downtime where you can do that. So no lemon law. Yeah, that's the main thing. You can't just gloss over that because you as a GM don't respect downtime. How dare you?

You keep adventures moving. You're like, you gotta do this. This has to happen. I feel like you're yelling right now. You're right, I am yelling. I'm sorry. Lower your voice. Remember, when it comes to retraining, you're talking like weeks, weeks of time.

Not like a couple days. So you gotta make sure that you can build that into your adventure you normally don't. Great time to sort of pull the niche too if you're like, I'm leaning towards this feat.

Maybe I want to do this feat. What do you guys think? Then you've at least done your homework. Matthew, the funeral, if you will. How do we want to do this? I have an idea for each of you, but maybe we'll just go

one by one. We can discuss and workshop. Read me. Read me, Matthew. All I know is it's going to be mean to me. I don't think it's going to be mean. Actually, I think you're probably one of the people who has described yourself in terms of alignment before. At least your GM style, but I feel like that bleeds into your – I think you're neutral evil. Neutral evil. I feel like I'm lawful evil. Yeah. Yeah. I like aful evil. Yeah. Yeah.

I like a good rule. Yeah. But I also hate authority. Right. It could be your own internal rules. It doesn't have to be. Yeah, rules of thumb. They don't have to be.

You know what I will say fits right into your lawful evil alignment is your belief in the smothering and crushing of the weak by the strong which like you i know believe in life that's how it should be that seems really horrible that was meaner than matthew calling him truly well it's just such a terrible thing to say About someone and I love it

I'll tell you I like lawful Or neutrally evil over chaotic neutral Yeah Make a choice I would have been insulted by a chaotic neutral That seems very self-centered But evil Evil's tough

I feel bad when I see a hurt animal That doesn't mean you're not evil You literally But evil, evil's tough. I feel bad when I see a hurt animal. But that doesn't mean you're not evil. You literally, I don't want to cross too many shows here, but didn't you pee on a deer on your lawn that was injured? I said you don't do that. It seemed like you were talking from experience. No, I think you were saying you really wanted to do it, but you didn't, which to me reads as chaotic. You're neutral evil. I'm saying if you were to do that, that means you own the deer, and I can't. I have three

children. I don't have time to raise a deer. Lawful evil. It don't make sense, but they're there. I think that does make sense. Lawful evil. What is Sydney? Sydney I have as chaotic neutral. Yes. The Google drafts.

Can I make a case? Yeah, sure. I think I'm chaotic good. That's what I thought you were. I could go that way, but I think you love the chaos more than you like the good or the evil. I think I try to do good, but I may do it in a way that is chaotic. I'm going to lean toward Sydney. I think chaotic good. I think she's a good person.

I pegged her as chaotic good. Thank you, Joe. You know me so well. Skid I have as true neutral because I feel like Skid at his purest form just likes to sit back and just watch the forces kind of interplay.

It just gets a true kick out of that. I'm going to have to disagree with you. I think that that's funny. But I'm going to have to go neutral good with Skid. I think Skid has such intense emotions about anyone being hurt or – hurt is the best word I can come up with on so many different levels. If someone else's feelings are hurt around him, he's like hurt. You know what I mean? Unless they're a real piece of shit.

So I don't know. I bet he wants him dead. What about lawful good? I feel like I have heard Skid many a time talk about like the fairness of things or like the morality of things. I feel like he's like, it's not right. You know, like it's not fair, but I feel like that's a very, but what about rules?

So how do you feel about it? You would respect any president, right? No matter who it was and their laws. Okay. All right. Yeah. I,

I think it go either way. I think Matthew nailed it though. True neutral. Cause I think it's given the opportunity sk, Skid would murder a few people. If there's anyone on this call that is true neutral, I feel like it's Skid. What about Joe? Chaotic stupid? That's a classic Joe.

I think I've seen that T-shirt. I'm with chaotic stupid. I think maybe – I'm going to say say tell me if you're on the same page i think joe's neutral good i see i have joe as lawful neutral or lawful or somewhere between lawful neutral and lawful good agree joe is very rules oriented agree yes yes he is yeah lawful is right why do you look mad joe i'm not i i i'm trying to decide between lawful neutral and lawful good. I think probably lawful neutral if you count, you know,

the fact that, like, I appreciate evil. He hangs out with me. Exactly. You enjoy Troy. I spoke at the man's wedding. I mean, I can't really... You can't be a paladin and speak at Troy's wedding.

It was on the invitation. Paladins need not You can't be a paladin and speak at Troy's wedding. It's true. It was on the invitation. Paladins need not apply. Paladins need not. Leave your paladins at home. Yeah. Well, I never thought of – I always thought of lawful good. And it is largely because of the lawful part. I fear and respect authority and I always follow the rules for the most part.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which makes me very boring person. But it's like, I don't have a choice. You're kind of like who you are. I don't know how else to describe it. Like I was so disciplined and drilled down through from my parents and through all those years of Catholic school. And some people go the opposite way with, you know, 12 years of Catholic school.

16 years! I went to Catholic school for 16 years. Like, some people go the other way. They push against it so hard that they end up chaotic, you know, but I just, I didn't. I kind of bought in. I was like, this is the way that I have to be at all times. And it just, it sunk in. Yeah.

I'm going to say chaotic good. Or lawful good. Lawful good. Lawful good. All right. And then Kate's obvious. And then finally Kate. Matthew, where are you going with this?

I've got Kate. What is it? Why is it so obvious? I have chaotic neutral for Kate. Yeah. I have chaotic evil for Kate. Chaotic evil. I mean, look.

She's not evil, but she's definitely not. This is what I'm saying about my lawful neutral. I appreciate evil. Evil doesn't always mean you just go on a murdering spree at any moment you get a chance. Like, evil just means sometimes you don't mind fucking people over. On occasion.

I don't think that's... That's what you think of Kate? That's not a default setting. No. No. It's not my default, but sometimes when things are just like really just not... I'm not doing that. I'm not going to do it. No. It's not my default, but sometimes when things are just like really just not, I'm not doing that, I'm not going to do it. Yeah. I think Kate has a strong, not like a strong moral compass, maybe a strong moral compass within yourself.

Like you know yourself well and you know when you're like, fuck that. Like just absolutely know I'm not doing this. And it doesn't make you evil, but I think it can come across to people as like, she's really putting her foot down yeah i that yep i bet you yeah but it's a good thing she's evil i'd be like no it's often i often find myself not surprised but like i'm not i wouldn't have i wouldn't have guessed when those moments happen you know what i mean yeah and i should say i don't know kate well enough yet but like it it is also one of the things that I love about getting rid of alignment is that I've read this in terms of like, you know, advice for GMing, all that kind of stuff is is like the best villains, you know, are played the best when they don't like think of themselves as evil, you know, when they think of themselves as, you know, doing what they think is the thing that must be done for whatever reason.

And it, you know, rubs paladins the wrong way. They call it evil, but it's all about perspective. And that's why I think, you know, getting rid of the alignment is so subjective,

right? It's just like, who thinks who is what is, you know, paladins going to think this person's evil while somebody else can be like, oh, they're neutral. So yeah, anyway? It's just like who thinks who is what is you know, Paladin's going to think this person's evil while somebody else can be like, oh, they're neutral. So, yeah, anyway, that's why I... I'm forgetting who it was, but there was some like character actor who

played a lot of villains in Western, in like classic Westerns. I'm really forgetting who it is. But anyway, they asked him, what do you, he was asked, what do you prefer playing? Villains or, good guys or villains? And he said, doesn't matter, they're all righteous. Ah. Well, wait, then what are you? I don't know, what am I? I wait then what are you I don't know what am I I mean I have what I think but what

it's lawful no I don't think Matthew's lawful no neutral good neutral good I think Matthew's by the book uh he never bought a book in his life yeah when I think of lawful I generally

think of people of people that like accept the tenets of a system almost no matter what because it's the system. And I think Matthew often has problems with the system that he always points out and stuff like that. So I feel like that makes the lawful part really shaky for me. I say neutral good too. I think you're right, Joe. Kate, your thoughts on Matthew and his moral compass. I'm so bad at this. I thought I was like a neutral lawful myself until you called me chaotic evil and explain it. And I was like, yeah, maybe you're right. I don't fucking know.

I like, I think I'm good at reading people, but I'm really not. I'm going to say lawful neutral for Matthew. That's just my take. But I've never fully understood alignment. So maybe I'm wrong. Maybe that's why we're getting rid of it. Matthew, well done. I liked the send off.

That was a good send off. Light it on fire and push it over a waterfall. We're getting so much done with this episode zero, let me tell you. I tell you, we're getting a lot closer. You know what is a terrifying alignment? What? A terrifying alignment, in my opinion, is lawful neutral. It is a very, very scary alignment.

Isn't that what we called you? Yeah. No. It is. Yes. But I mean, if you come across a proper villain who is properly lawful neutral, it's almost scary because they're like kind of blind adherence to law with no compass on good or evil is just as scary as either one of the others. So, I don't know. I feel like the classic like fictional character that's held up for lawful neutral is Captain Picard.

Oh. Right. Or Judge Dredd. Judge Dredd. Well, Judge Dredd too. But I like Captain Picard because there's the famous episode where he's – where there's the trial – I can't remember the name of the episode. The trial. And they're like, are you – we're just surprised to know, Captain Picard, that you have violated the prime directive nine times.

And it's like any – even someone who's trying to like fairly not interfere and stick to the law is gonna break the law like it's like of course he has to break the rules to accomplish you know yeah but there are many times and i think it's a really interesting thing about his character there are many times when you are struggling with him because he is following starfleet's letter of the law and he's doing something that is not good, that you know to be like morally not the right ethical choice, right, in a situation. It could be frustrating. Yeah, he's like following the letter of the law because he's military and he answers to his superiors or whatever. And that's a character flaw a lot of times, his lawfulness.

So I just think it's a great character. It's interesting because he's not always one thing. Yeah. Guys, can we stop talking about alignment? It no longer exists on the Glass Kid podcast. We've fired a flaming arrow into its corpse. We've killed it in half of a murder-suicide pact. of a murder-suicide pact.

This isn't a variant rule, but I, not surprisingly, am pretty much decided I want to include massive damage in the game. If you take double your hit points, you die. Great. Oh, my God.

It's straight out of the book. You die instantly if you ever take damage equal to or greater than double your maximum hit points in one blow. I think that'll be fun. You know, we'll see. It's still way more forgiving than the old 1E maximum

damage rule. Oh yeah. It's way harder to achieve that in 2E than in 1e. For sure. For sure. And, you know, I joked about it on some social media content a while back about how we're going to do, you know, our bottle cap system. Because obviously Pathfinder 2e has hero points.

It's never been something I've been a huge fan of, but I understand how they're important for the balance of the game. We are not going to use hero points the way that they suggest to use them in the book. We're going to use our bottle cap system, and they can be traded in just like you use Hero Points. But you're not going to get them automatically every session or every four sessions. It's just the onus is going to be on me to make sure I give them away for truly heroic deeds or great puns. I love a good pun or a well-placed magic missile. But you know –

But you know that your bottle cap delivery rate is like one per 50 episodes. It needs to be higher. It needs to be higher. Or people are going to die. Okay. All right. we'll see let's just see what happens I'm just saying you saying you understand

their relevance in the balance of the game sounds like a lie with this like what you should actually say is I'm unbalancing the game in favor of killing PCs because I think it makes a better show just say what it is Straight out of the creator's

mouth, Jason Bowman, one of the creators of it, is like, if you like a grittier, you know, more dangerous game, don't use them. We are going to use them. I'm not eliminating them completely. I know some games do do that. They are going to be in there, but they're going to be less frequent. They're going to be more precious.

Imprecious. And we're going to have caps. We have them already in studio, physical caps. And I'm telling you right now, you start episode one with a cap. Thank you, Troy. And that's the last one I'll ever get. Could I offer a possible amendment

to the bottle cap rule? A codicil? A codicil, if you will. In service of a mission of boosting the bottle cap economy, if not the number of bottle caps in circulation, could there be some sort of automatic disbursement method if there are no bottle caps issued after a certain period of time? I will take it into consideration. Like a bottle cap bot. It's a social safety net for bottle caps. Please don't call them here at points.

That's all I ask. No. Okay. It's just hard because if you are, say, an incredible, talented role player, like everyone on this call but me, your opportunities for getting bottle caps are instantly way higher than somebody that doesn't just make you laugh.

You know what I mean? You sell yourself short and you probably earned more bottle caps than anybody. I think that's true. More than Skid? Come on. I think Skid has lull than Skid? Maybe. Come on. I lost count. I think Skid has lulled Troy into a sense of submission.

Troy expects Skid's role play to be excellent universally. I know everyone has a different bar for like, oh, Kate did her best. Yes. We're all graded on a curve, I think. I love it. But no, Joe is a way better role player than anything that he gives himself credit for. Than Joe believes. Than Joe believes, yes.

So yeah, obviously we're going to change the system up, but I think it's going to be exciting. It's going to be fun. It's going to be a grittier game. A grittier game. No coin weight. Don't worry about adding coin weight to your characters. Oh, thank God. Thank you.

For God's sakes. Wow. And the last thing I'll say is that when it comes to rules, you know, we've been spending a lot of time on this. I think we're getting a lot better, but it's not perfect. And the rules are never going to be our number one focus. Our number one focus is having a good time. Number one. Number two. Close number two.

Telling a great fucking original collaborative story. And number three is the rules. So to keep things moving, I'm going to make calls on the fly all the time. Let's just keep it going and then we'll look between sessions. However, when it comes to life and death, let's slow down.

The rest of the time, let's just keep things moving and learn as we go. Folks, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we are going into Demiplane to build these characters in front of your eyes. Go get a soda, Jax. Oh, baby, we are done talking.

Finally, they're done chatting. Now we can get down to business. The business of building characters. And we are going to be using Demiplane's Pathfinder Nexus, which is as beautiful as it sounds cool. I mean, there's a million ways we can go about this. It does sound cool. He did a good job with the naming. Are you ready to enter the Nexus?

This is absolutely beautiful. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, please check out dummyplane.com. We are jumping right into it. There's a million ways we can go about this. Obviously, if you've seen the character videos, you've got a little bit of the nuts and bolts of what we're

dealing with, but some things may have changed. Here's what I don't want to do. I don't want to talk backstory too much. I want that to come out and play.. Now if there's a little thing like I chose this feat because I think my character used to be in the circus. Yeah, that's fine. But like getting into the nitty gritty backstory, let's avoid

that for now and don't say the name of the character. I want the name to come out when it comes out, but not tonight. So let's fucking go. Who wants to start? Here's what we're going to do. We're going to do a round robin.

We're going to show screens as people are adding these in for just ancestry, background. We're going to be using the Gatewalkers backgrounds and class. Who's feeling, who's the eager beaver student? I'll jump in. I'll jump in. I'll jump in. I'll jump in as the eeg beave just because I don't I ancestry wise, I think

rather uninteresting. You know, it was an interesting conversation. I'm going to bring this up here. I'm going to try this. This is why we did this on here so that we could actually share screens. Let's see if this works. Ah, here we go.

Joe's character! Exclamation point. On Pathfinder Nexus. Gorgeous way to start making a character. I am going human for Ancestry. Ah. And I... You're only human.

We talked about this like briefly in the video, I think. But yeah, anyway, human. There you go. There you are. You're only human. We talked about this briefly in the video i think but yeah anyway human there you go there you are a human uh we talked about this briefly in the video but essentially you were like uh that's

so joe right like it's just so uh not interesting and you're half joking however when we thought about it like i didn't play a lot of humans like i kind of thought i did and then if you think back it's like half orc you know halfling uh i play a rat folk uh i played you know like in our main in our main pathfinder shows what's that have you played any humans i think i might not have which is four bears a human uh yeah four yes four bears was human yes so good call on call on that. That was so brief, though. Wait, and AWOL's human? Yes. This is kind of a new thing.

AWOL is human. Skid's going... AWOL is human, but with an interesting ancestry. Sydney's talking about... I'm sorry, interesting heritage. Sydney is talking about our whatchamacallit Blood of the Wild campaign. Anyway, I have

selected human. So you're going human. I'm going human. Who wants to go next? How about I'll pick? I'll kick it to Sydney. Hold on, hold on. We're just going Ancestries around the Horn and then Backgrounds and then backgrounds and then classes?

That's what you're thinking? Okay. Because Kate was ready to go and you jumped in. Also, Troy did say what the rules were when we first started. Oh, did he say we had to say all three at once? Well, that's why she's the treasure tracker, because she listens. But that's fine.

You've chosen to go AWOL, as it were. That's not right. You went rogue. Are you going rogue? Let's go to Kate. Kate, what ancestry are you playing? Woo-woo. Let me begin.

So I wanted to play a half-elf, which I guess maybe I select human or elf first, and then I can select the half. Yeah, human first. Oh, so check this out. This is another thing. I was looking at my list here. You can have non-human half-elves and half-orcs. This is another thing. I, I was looking at my list here. Uh, you can have, uh,

non-human half elves and half orcs. Um, this is another, I guess you would call it a variant rule, but like, it's, it's just a straight up, like you could be a half hobgoblin elf.

You don't have to be half human and elf, but I don't know how that works within Demiplane. Uh, just, we should say that Demi, the we're using Demiplane cause it looks amazing and it's a new product out there, but it's also in beta. So, like, there are some things that probably will be coming and stuff like that. But right now we're trying it out because it's highly functional as it is right now.

Oh, cool. There it is. Done. Half-elf. Nice. Yeah, half-elf. If you want to decide later, like, you know what? Maybe I wasn't half-human.

Maybe I was half something else. That's awesome. I didn't realize that. That's really great. Could you imagine a half-orc, half-elf If you want to decide later, like, you know what? Maybe I wasn't half human. Maybe I was half something else. That's awesome. I didn't realize that. That's really great. Could you imagine a half orc, half elf? That'd be cool. Yeah. That's interesting.

Like 10 feet tall. That's really cool, too, because then below it, right after you click it, it also just immediately tells you, like, you can choose your ancestry feats and your ability boosts based on your ancestry, like, right there. Oh. Which is helpful for me because a lot of the times i don't know what to do next on a character sheet because there's just so much going on yeah it's uh and you'll see once we choose class later it immediately gives you a checklist of the

stuff that you need to do but sydney getting ahead of yourself what, are you playing Sydney? Me? Yeah. Okay. So excited. Sydney's cool new character. My cool new character. Just wait till you see. Okay, so I am choosing something that I've never gotten to play. I'm very excited. I love watching you do this. I'm like, I'll be at your one seat. You guys don't know, right? You don't know whatever

I do know the answer. Okay, I talked to some of you about it. I'm choosing a cat is? No. I do know the answer. I know. Okay. I talked to some people about it. I'm choosing a cat folk. Oh, I did know that. That's right. Yes. I've never played a cat folk. I'm really excited.

They have some like cool, just cool feats. And like, I don't know, just like Troy was saying, the character art, we had gotten some character art and I was like enamored with my cat folk character art. I can't wait for people to see it. But I just like oh yeah oh yeah that's my character like absolutely i can't wait to hear the voice of this character uh me too the famous cat folk cat folk voice story i'm glad we're gonna i played a cat folk briefly in a home game that was never recorded this was pre-gcp and it was like a society character we weren't playing uh like by the book society during gcp too you played this character like when we were just messing around yeah it was

early days of gcp anyway i rolled up a cat folk and i had and i was like i'm doing a cat folk and I had, and I was like, I'm doing a cat folk voice. And I brought out my voice in the session and like it, I did it for, you know, like a minute or whatever it was. And then it's like, the room was just kind of quiet. And I, I think that it was Troy.

It was like, it was Drew. It was Drew. Was it Drew? What did he say? He was like, are you going to do that fucking voice the whole time? He said,

are you going to do that fucking voice the whole time? He said are you going to do that fucking voice The whole time and like everybody Lost their shit laughing at me and I Felt really bad inside Now Joe I wasn't there for this session Could you give me a small taste We need to hear it

Oh man It was I think it was something like this It's like everything I said was kind of like that i something along those lines i love it it was very essie i like that you were like i'm doing a cat folk voice and in my head i was like well does what the fuck does that sound like is that exists i don't even talked like a cat and it like it like lingered stuff like that and our buddy drew who is land keith some of you

may know him as land keith uh from raiders uh yeah he was just like are you gonna do that fucking voice all night damn maybe i have to change my voice now what was her name was that in the ballpark of a knock yeah nessa of the silent knocks nessa of the silent knock yeah when i was first thinking cat folk i was uh immediately, I thought of the race from Skyrim. What are they? Khajiits? Khajiit. Yeah.

And like, I thought of their voices, which are kind of like that. They're sort of like this like, sort of softer, like spoken voice. That's like very mysterious. And I thought about it for two seconds. And I was like, oh, I can't do that. I can't upkeep that for like multiple episodes. Years? Years. For years. So, good on

you, Joe. You really put yourself out there. I won't be doing that. I did. I did. Like among close friends and they just shredded me. They shredded me. Oh, that's me. Look, there I am. Thanks, kid. There you go. There you go. Meow. Matthew, Ancestry, buddy.

All right. I am... I thought about this, and I talked about it a little bit in the character creation video, and I am going to go human. Oh! With a funky funk heritage?

I don't know. Matthew's lying to us. He's being weird. He's being weird. He is being weird. And it says at the top of the screen, secret, secret, Matthew's character. This is a farce. You see, I didn't want to share all these details either, but I was told I was contractually

obligated in this episode to share details. You shouldn't have signed that. I did. I signed it. I didn't have my lawyer look at it. Matthew has a lawyer look at every single thing we send him. So Matthew's a human. Interesting.

As far as anyone knows. Then let's round out the table here with Skid. Skid, what is yours? Does everybody know what Skid's going to be? No. Okay. Yeah, I don't think I discussed this with anybody. I am going to be a goblin.

Oh, no way. Oh, no. am going to be a goblin oh no stop it like not evil at all into you really like no they can't yeah they changed well ever since they became playable a character option they kind of did away with a little bit of the kind of uh genetic imperatives of goblins. So yeah, they don't have to be evil. We don't have the alignment anyway. But no, no, they can be whatever. Nice. You're going to be so cute.

You're going to be so cute. Wait till you see the art. Wait till you see the fucking art. I'm so excited. At the very first live show we did, at the Geekery in Astoria, the game shop in Astoria, Geekery HQ, Paizo sent us a bunch of goblin plushies to give away. the very first live show we did at the geekery at in astoria the game shop in astoria hq we uh

paizo sent us a bunch of goblin plushies to give away and one ended up with me and has since passed to my daughter and she now carries around that goblin oh it's like a cabbage patch kid that's awesome and like in another one and then the goblin who i've named alec uh and uh she like treats it like a baby it's amazing that's really that's that's amazing i still have mine too i still have my like i've got like four of them oh my gosh so there you have it we have uh two humans or one and a half humans maybe two humans a cat folk a half elf and a goblin uh party. I'll bring you back to mine real quick and just go down the line on ancestry options.

So I'm going to do versatile heritage, which is going to give me an extra feat. And under my ancestry, I'm sorry, versatile heritage, yeah, is that going to give me an extra feat? Is that what it does? I don't really remember. You select a general feat of really remember uh you select the

general feat of your choice you meet the prereqs yeah uh and so uh and then under the ancestry feat natural ambition to get yet another class feat uh which is something that we'll get into a little bit later who uh who are you what have you done with Joe, you power gamer? Yeah, well, you know, it's less about power gaming. It is kind of about power gaming. It's more about, like, the build that I needed. Man, you're so feat-starved for what I want to be that, like, I just had to find every way I could sneak every feat I could get. So, yeah, man, those human feats are so good. They're so good.

It's hard to turn down. Does anybody else have any decisions to make within Ancestry that they want to share? Yeah, like, Skid, what's your goblin heritage? Like, I'm so interested in that. I can't really decide. I want to pick Unbreakable Goblin just because of the hit point bonus that it gives you. But then Tree Dweller Goblin lines up better with his backstory. That's tough.

Yeah. Man, when you are put to that decision between mechanical stuff that's so valuable and legitimately valuable to keeping you alive versus things that fit your backstory, I'm always torn by those decisions. It is tough. And unbreakable goblin is justifiable as well. But like tree dweller is just more perfectly kind of lined up with it. So not sure.

All right. Well, you got some time. Kate, was there something with your ancestry that we, you have to make decisions. I'm doing the same thing as Joe. I really wanted the extra class feat, too, for reasons.

Maybe we'll see. But I also chose natural ambition for my ancestry skill. And then do you know what ability boosts you're going to do? This could give us actually a little sneak peek into what your character is going to be. What's your ability? I know that I want to boost Dex and strength. Whoa. So we're talking Marshall.

Marshall, Marshall, Marshall. Marshall, Marshall, Marshall. Everyone has ancestry feats, right? Yeah. So does anybody have anything exciting to share? I could do mine. Yeah, let's go check out Sydney.

Yeah, it's cool. Again, I've never played a catfolk, so this is fun for me to look through all the specific catfolk ones. But I chose sharp-eared catfolk. What does that do? It says I get a plus two circumstance bonus to locate undetected creature that I can hear within 30 feet with a seek action. Yo, that's awesome. That's great. Which is huge.

So I really hope that comes in handy. Oh, yeah. Then my ancestry feat, cat's luck. These were all kind of interesting. It's hard to choose. Oh, that's great. But basically, I can re-roll a saving throw and use a better result. A reflex saving throw, which is perfect for a cat folk.

Oh, yeah, a reflex. Right, exactly. Cat-like reflexes. It's like my dexterity. And then the ability boosts, I chose a classic for a cat, dexterity, and then also strength. Oh, shh. Oh.

Kate and Sid going with martial stuff. All right. What the fuck? What's happening? Well, I should probably then take that opportunity to bring up Joe's character and say that I am going with dexterity and wisdom. Interesting. I am wise. Matthew, can you share yours?

Yep. Okay. Well, I'm not going to tell you about the heritage. Sure. For reasons. You're so sneaky. Sneaky son of a gun. I want you all to enjoy playing.

He is so chaotic neutral. But I can tell you about my ability boosts. I'm going to go with intelligence. Ah. And dexterity. Wow, we are. So far, we're a pretty damn dexterous party. That's a good thing.

Skid, what's your boosts? What are your boosts? My boosts are, I guess, the default are dexterity, charisma, and a wisdom flaw. So I am taking the boost to charisma. And a wisdom flaw. So I am taking the boost to charisma. Hmm. And then.

And then my other. You get dexterity and charisma. And you get a third one for free. Oh, right, right, right. Okay, yeah. I'm taking my additional boost. I'm taking charisma. Interesting. Sweet.

Anyway, never mind. You can't. You can't. You'll have to put it somewhere else I'm focusing on charisma okay got it we don't have anybody else that seems like that's focused on charisma so that's cool okay so we got I started doing some wisdom

Matthew started doing some intelligence Skid started doing some charisma so that's good and then Sydney and Kate both in Dex and Strength so far alright I'm tempted to just pass by backgrounds we had talked about that's good. And then Sydney and Kate both in Dex and Strength so far. Alright. I'm tempted to just pass by backgrounds. We had talked about it beforehand and I was like, let's do it. And now I think

there's a lot left to talk about. The backgrounds are going to come out and play. So everyone's using backgrounds from the Gatewalkers Player's Guide. It's going to tie everybody to the story. It's kind of a no-brainer to use those. Let's figure that out when we get to the show. And let's just mean potatoes what class is everybody playing joe you started so we're going right back to you i will say that uh well you're gonna see my background i don't know

how else to not do it but um you can remove it for now uh yeah but it i i do want to put in the ability scores because i need to do that right. You can put it in. We just have to talk about it. Yeah, and all you'll see is just the name of it. So don't read into it if you don't want the story a little bit spoiled. But all right, here we go. Adding it to the screen. We're going to go

class. It is time to select a class and I am going to go because we always need one and never actually do it. I'm going cler go, because we always need one, and never actually do it. Wow. I'm going Cleric. There it is.

I want to dig into the 2E Cleric. Cleric. Wow. The Cleric. Yep. So you're going to have one. You're going to have a Cleric in the party. There you go.

Are you happy, Shedday? No, I'm thrilled, because just wait until Troy kills off your cleric, and then you'll know how I felt. It is a serious issue that I believe, I do think this is the other thing we should do in

Session Zero. Let's take a poll for first character to die. I guess we could do it after the build, but I'm gonna vote on me, and not because of bad luck, but because clerics are tough to keep safe they are really really hard mechanically did you know that clerics have no armor proficiency huh really they're soft if you take a war priest um uh doctrine i think it is if you take a war priest doctrine you can get some armor but then like you lose a whole bunch

of that casting ability and stuff and you're just a martial character so they're really pushing them towards the caster as opposed to like the classic cleric who's like a caster would also like exactly like if you choose caster as a cleric you truly are like you have you don't even have light armor proficiency you have no armor wow proficiency it's wild i've been reading some stuff about it it's very interesting but i a lot of like skid a lot of the things that i read were like they just kind of felt like very much against my image of the character to like take those feats in order to help my ac the ac in 2e is so much more important than it was in 1e if your ac is just one or two points too low you instantly increase your critical against you threshold so like when you get crit against

it it'll kill you it'll just kill you because you'll also then go to dying too so yeah it's it's risky and really what it is the onus is on you to stay out of danger. So that's part of the tactics. You've got to run away. You've got to hide. You've got to get in cover. You have to get behind your tough allies. Which is why I like seeing a lot of decks and strength points getting put in so far. A couple frontliners? Do we have any frontliners?

Well, we've got a cleric, so that's going to be wisdom focus. That's your key ability. Let's go back to Kate. Kate, you put some points in strength and dex. What class are you building? I did. I'm playing the class that I wanted to play way back when you first reached out to me to play a test game. And I was like, I want to play this class.

And it's the monk. Oh, a monk! But that's not all. What class feat am I going to take? Do you ask? I didn't. I do. I'm asking.

How do I choose that here? Monk feat. Monk feat? Monk feat. Here we go. What is she doing? I'm taking monastic archer stance. Oh!

So it's not a frontliner. I mean, I guess I could be if I wanted to still. I have the weapons of my fists still. But the cool thing about monastic archer is that when you're level one monk. Sorry, can you open it up? Can you drop it down so we can read it? So the cool thing about monastic archer is when you're a level one monk, you get your theory of blows.

You can essentially use that with your bow and arrow. That's so rad. of blows, you can essentially use that with your bow and arrow. That's so rad. And this is why I wanted to take the Ancestry feat that I wanted to take. I'm also going to take Key Rush

so that I get Key Strike as my class feat. Every time you hear a song by Rush? I'm not taking Key Rush, sorry. You get a Key Point every time you hear a song by Rush. I'm taking Key Strike as, sorry. You get a key point every time you hear a song, but rush. I'm taking key strike as my next class feat because you use it when

you use an unarmed strike or flurry of blows, and you get an extra status bonus and attack dice to your damage or whatever, and I can use that with my bow and arrow because I'm using an unarmed strike technically, because that's how it arrow because I'm using a strike, an unarmed strike

technically because that's how it counts. I'm doing a really great job at explaining this but it's going to be sick. You can use your monk feats in the bow and arrow. You can use any other monk feats. That's very cool. Yeah, that's sweet. Like Skid and Hit the Nail on Ed's, like the Zen Archer, which was that a prestige class in first edition?

No, I don't believe so. It was a archetype. Yeah. It was a archetype. Yeah. Yeah. It was an archetype that was a chain of name because it's actually, this is an actual like religious term in the real world. And they probably wanted to remove that. Yeah, it is a, it was a beloved class in one E that I never did.

A beloved archetype, I should say, in one E that I, that I never did. It sounds really interesting. I have, I'm doing this in Blood of the Wild. I have a ranger, and you can see some of the similarities of how you can go a melee route or you can go a ranged route, and those abilities,

like you have Flurry of Blows and a ranger just has Flurry. And it doesn't matter. You can use it ranged. You can also use it in melee. It's it's it's really uh flexible and i love that about the cool thing about monks in 2e2 is that like another monk can come along like in our story if someone dies or if i die i can just make a new monk and it can be completely different based on like if you're taking more key stuff or like just different feats different stances and everything yeah that's really cool

yeah i just i just built a monk and it's 100% different. Yeah. Yeah, there's a ton of variety within the monk class, possible variety within the monk, maybe more than almost any other class. It's crazy. Does the strength bonus give you bonus to damage or you just wanted to have high strength

because you're still going to be using karate? I think I'd have to look into that because i still plan on like not only keeping myself far away like if i got in hand-to-hand combat i don't think i would turn away from it but like generally um i want to be an archer yeah yeah that's cool awesome uh let's go to the kitty. Kitty, what are you? What's she going to pick? What's she going to pick? It's like the Price is Right wheel. You're a showman.

All right. I'm choosing fighter. Oh, cat folk fighter. Cat folk fighter. Wow. So we got a monk and a fighter. A ranged monk, though. Ranged monk.

I talked about it in my character video a little bit when Troy and I were talking. And I've always, when I first started playing tabletop games, I always chose casters. Because I just thought it was the most fun thing to choose at the time. I was like, I want to be an elf. And I want to be a caster. it was the most fun thing to choose at the time. I was like, I want to be an elf and I want to be a caster. And I've kind of done a whole 180, one by playing more modules in different games, but also playing Casino in Legacy

with Skid and Matthew and Joe and Nick. And it's just like playing a barbarian has totally changed my mind about melee fighters. I used to think it was boring. I used to think it was like, you used to think it was like you got railroaded into what you could do. Wrong, completely wrong. So I'm doing fighter.

And should I do my next stuff with it? Should I like? Yeah, keep going. Yeah, give us a little cheese on that sauce. Yeah, I think that I pulled you off a little too fast there. Go ahead. Let's see. Well, okay, I'll skip the... My key ability is Strength.

Nice, okay, so Frontliner. Frontliner. And Kate, your key ability is Dex? Yeah. Yeah, okay, sweet. Let's go to my Fighter feat, because I feel like that's the more important one. I had a hard time choosing,

and I might still change it, but I'm pretty sure that starting off level one, what I'm going to do is double slice. Thank you. Because. That's Matthews. That's right in Matthews' wheelhouse.

Oh, you're going to be a two melee weapon fighter? Yeah. I just like the idea. I have this image of her with these two commas. I know I'll probably use two different weapons, but I have her with these two commas, and she's just so badass. She's this front line fighter. She's so dexterous. She's so fast, but she's strong.

I picture her more with an ellipsis. That's somewhat what you've described so far. Maybe she'll hold one comma and one apostrophe. Where's my bottle cap? Give him a creation bottle cap.

Give him a bottle cap. So yeah, I don't know. I am definitely having the overwhelmingness of starting at level one and trying to map my character out like, oh, and then I'll do this at level two and then I'll do this at level two. And then I'll do this at level three. So I can maximize,

uh, my choices, but I like double slice. I love Matthew doing it. And I like, you know, I hear him every time he's like double slice. And I'm just like,

damn, that sounds so cool. Um, so yeah, that's what I'm, so I'm starting with double the slice, double the fun. Uh,

Matthew, are you allowed to tell us about your your class and of course i am why would not why would i lie why would this regular human have any problem why would this regular human i am going investigator oh yeah yeah you are okay cool you mean the greatest class in the history of role-playing games is the iconic investigator a rat folk well i in the greatest class in the history of role-playing games? Is the iconic investigator a ratfolk? Well, in the Advanced Player's Guide, he appears to be a human. I can't remember his name, but he's definitely a ratfolk guy. Let's see.

I'll show you. His name is Mr. Nibbles. That's Detective Nibbles to you. That's Detective Nibbles. 25 years on the force. Advanced Player's Guide is this fellow. Oh, yeah. But yeah, I love the rat fuck up.

So then I'm going to go keybillies for obviously intelligence, and then I get some ability boosts. Are we doing these? I'm going to do them real fast. Yeah, sure. Boost away, bro. So obviously I'll boost intelligence.

I'll boost dex again i'll boost uh charisma oh man boost uh wisdom wisdom wow you didn't hesitate um well do you want to know my should i kind of do methodology yeah so oh this is cool i hit a similar snag that skid hit where it's like there's one that makes sense background-wise, backstory-wise, but then there's only really one that feels useful mechanics-wise. So I'm going to go with forensic medicine. Oh, that's cool. So you get a few elixirs and that kind of thing. Yeah, and then my investigator feet,

I will tell you, I'm sorry. It's not forensic medicine. I chose the wrong one. Uh, let me go back. Oh, remove that one.

And it's our chemical sciences that gives you the, ah, Oh yes. I don't think you chose it. Oh, sorry. Uh, I'll get you off screen.

I'll go back and fix that later. And then my, oh no. There we go. I'm going to go with known weakness, which is very cool. I'll drop it down here so you can see it. So that key fun ability of the investigator in combat is devise a stratagem. And basically you can roll a d20. And you can then opt to use that result which uses your intelligence modifier uh rather than your strength of your decks uh as your attack roll so you're like so you're like all right you're gonna like suss out all right and like if i strike them there and then you can so

you can basically pre-roll your attack and if you think you'll hit then you can actually go attack later um and then yeah and if you think you miss you can use that action for something else exactly you know it's amazing and so known weakness allows you to do an automatic recall knowledge as part of your devise a stratagem so oh cool so it's just a free a free recall knowledge on an enemy yeah and a plus one circ bone if you crit. Yeah. I'm not going to crit. Each ally gets a plus one to their next attack roll against the subject if you crit. What do you mean you're not going to crit? You could crit all the time

on it. That's all. Yeah, critting's a lot more. It happens a lot more. That's fucking cool. You really shape enough. Joe, do you still have hard feelings about the fact that he went investigator and took it from you? Yes. Okay.

I'm very angry. I also wanted investigator, and Matthew and I had to talk about it as well. It's only because it's the best class ever designed in tabletop gaming. The devise, the strategy, and mobility alone is the most fun and interesting way to ever play a character. Joe, don't worry. Matthew's going to do a great job, and we're not mad. No, of course. I always... I just have really enjoyed...

You're mad? You know, the main thing is I just want to make sure it's in the party, because having a high-intelligence character, not having one, is so painful on playing a game and just the story in general, because you never know anything which like sucks so having a high intelligence character with a lot of skills in the party

is awesome and so i'm so glad uh we have one i do it in in um strange aeons uh though skid does it as well we both have high intelligence characters with a lot of knowledge skills and it just makes us learn so much about the story and the plot and all that kind of stuff so i'm definitely glad that we have yeah it's great to gm for characters like that having one of those and the guys who could get all that stuff out yeah an outlet for all that back backstory and stuff yeah this might be a yeah good this might be a good time to transition back to me for more details. Is that cool, Troy, or did you have something else? No. I was just going to say.

I don't want to go to Skid. Oh, yeah, we haven't gone to Skid. You're right. I'm sorry. That's why it's not cool. Skid, do you have anything interesting to contribute to this discussion? The goblin. What's the goblin going to be?

What is the goblin going to be? I'm so curious. I do. I do. I do. I have a suspicion. You do? Of course. I'm not going to say it. I want you to say it. Don't say it. Don't say it. Pay no attention to the character portrait there. That's a placeholder.

That's Gil Gerard. It really is. Buck Rogers. But I have been wanting to do this for a quite a while now since last august as a matter of fact uh since last gen con i'm going to be a psychic yeah yes goblin psychic goblin psychic that's genius skit that's genius i was shocked when he said because i knew he wanted psychic but it was a goblin psychic yeah where do you see the art uh very very cool what was it about this class that really uh got your teeth wet i think there was the sort of i've i've always been fascinated even like going back to original dungeons and dragons the psionics kind of tree and that alternate form of power is kind of cool and it was just such a blast playing a

psychic at gen con that i was just like i have to do this someday and then i had an idea that for a character concept that was so perfect for psychic that it was like, this is a match made in heaven for me. So I'm, I'm super excited. That's awesome. That's great, man. Anything, uh, like as we start going down the tree here, key ability is charisma. Yep. Okay.

Uh, any feats jumping out at you? Uh, the feats. Um, yeah? The feats? Yeah, I... Wait, what is the subconscious mind? Is that something you've picked? Or conscious mind? I'm not sure if this will all work because this is part of the system that's in beta is psychic. So I'm not sure if this will all work. But I think I was going to do the – so the conscious mind and the subconscious mind are the two sort of yin and yang of the kind of power that you have. Oh, this is so cool. I didn't know about this.

It's really, really cool. So I think that for my conscious mind, I'm going to take the oscillating wave, which allows me to manipulate energy. Oh, wow. And for my subconscious mind, I'm going to take the oscillating wave which allows me to manipulate energy oh wow and for my subconscious mind i'm going to use emotional acceptance this is like a whole different game yeah yeah this is going to be really cool so wait so do these translate into like spells skid or is it they're sort of spell like abilities i don't know if that's actually the actual term. Can you scroll down a little bit to restore the mind? What is that?

Yeah, restore the mind. Okay, this is an action that it gives you. Your unleashed psyche gives you closer connections to the emotions of your allies, letting you project reassurance and strength that replenishes their mind and body. Choose one of two benefits that grant one ally within 30 feet that You can see that ally is

then temporarily immune for 10 minutes. So you can give ally a plus one status bonus to saving throws against mental effects until my psyche ends. That's cool. Or regain hit points equal to two plus double my level. That's enormous. What if someone's dying?

Like they're immediately, they lose the dying condition. I believe so, yeah. And it's only one action. And it's enormous. What if someone's dying? Like they're immediately, they lose the dying condition, right? I believe so, yeah. And it's only one action. Yeah. Wow. And it's ranged. 30 feet, yeah. Yeah.

Wow. And this is something that the psychic that I was playing had in the game that we did. So it's just like, that's really cool. So yeah, I definitely want to use that. That's really, really cool. That is really, really cool, man. And conceptually, again, it kind of fits in with my character ideas.

Heck yeah. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Awesome. Alright, so this is amazing. So we've got a goblin psychic, a catfolk fighter, a human investigator, a human cleric, and a half elf, zen archer

monk, ranged monk. Joe, let's go back to you. Let's fill out kind of some of the things here you haven't done. yeah. So what I was saying before, what I was saying before is, um,

I love playing intelligence characters. I do it a lot and I love, this is pouring into the concept of this character, which is, I also wanted to, I was kind of committed to finding a deity that we had not had on shows before. So that was kind of an important thing for me as well.

Uh, and I found two. And so it was kind of hard to decide, but guess what? Like so many things in Pathfinder, especially Tui, there's a feat for that. So,

uh, we'll get to that in a second, but a primary deity, uh, is going to be Gruhastha. Tell us. Gruhastha. Check out this cat. Look at this handsome son of a bitch.

I'm into this deity, too. Sign me up. I think I'm religious. He is an incredibly handsome. I've become religious. I've become religious now. He's an incredibly handsome winged Voudrani man with dope ass pants, no shirt, and he's reading a book. Sydney is like going nuts right now. She's having a hard time keeping it together. Give that guy a mustache and she's in love.

He's not wrong, folks. Give that guy a Brooklyn stash and a couple tattoos unfortunately that is my boyfriend that's just to xavier that is xavier is divine oh my gosh matthew of course he's very nice um all right so this deity is uh known Keeper, which I think my character will refer to him as often. Won't use the name Gruhastha as much as referring to the Keeper. The Keeper, bless you. He is all about enlightenment and the Voodrani holy book. This character is all about knowledge, all about gathering knowledge and believes that the proper gathering of knowledge and that being spread

across the world and there is no right knowledge or wrong knowledge it's sort of neutral in that way uh but the the appropriate gathering of knowledge of all cultures all people all history all science everything all divine all at once if everybody could learn the right amount the basis of the belief is that all of living beings on uh galarian could like ascend to like a kind of uh uh i'm blanking on the word what's what's the heaven uh like the the uh like buddhist heaven kind of oh at least nirvana nirvana yeah it's kind of like it's that kind of uh idea but you work toward collective transcendence uh root out malicious lies challenge oppression through education protect knowledge seek truth when i read this i felt like that is perfect for an

adventure what did that you don't know what you're going to get into all those things so um yeah i really i really like this deity i am uh so i'm going to select gruhasta uh and then divine font will be um divine font healing font times new roman because of the the deed i picked that was automatically selected and then doctrines the next big one he will be a he will he will be a cloistered cleric and those are only two options like and you have to choose a doctrine you have to choose a doctrine so yeah you either kind of go the path of the traditional priest so to speak which is what my idea was from the start so that fits exactly uh in fact this cloistered cleric is well we'll get to that a little bit later if we talk about it uh but yeah, I did not want to play a war priest. I wanted to play a cloistered cleric. Yeah, no, this definitely is right.

Very cool. Yeah. And then what's your... All right, we'll get to the rest of that. Let's go back to Kate here. Oh, these are filling out. We're wrapping up soon. Kate, any feats or anything else you didn't share with us

or abilities that are really, really cool? I see powerful fists there. Is that like the 2-e stunning fist? Let's see. So this comes automatically. Yeah. But yeah, basically, like, usually with your fists, I think you can't kill with them. When you're fighting, like, any other character kind of can't, but, like, I can as a monk.

But a couple of my other feats that I get come from our backgrounds. Ah. Oh, interesting. So I should say this isn't like Stunning Fist. It just allows you to make them lethal and do more damage. Yeah, that's really cool.

Yep. But yeah, without the background selected, basically I chose the Monastic Arer and then I chose key strike. Now, do you have a key pool? I do. So when I choose that, I do get like a key pool. Key strike is technically a spell that you cast. It's verbal.

So that starts up with that.. If I want to dip into a little bit more key, I have the option. I'm leaving myself open with options, basically. Yeah, I like this. All right. You're a badass. What about Sydney's cat? Anything we didn't share here?

Fighter. Is it similar to the 1E fighter in that you kind of have to decide early on which route you want to go you're going two handed you're not going to have a shield you're not going to be dexterous I did go with the double slice I mean you do kind of have to choose similar to like

the monk like there's a lot of options I could go point blank shot you know like if I'm ranged but going with the double slice I think I'm definitely I'm going to look through this again after this too because I'm like what if I'm ranged, but going with the double slice, I think I'm definitely, I'm going to look through this again after this too. Cause I'm like, Oh man, what if I do something else?

I always have such decision paralysis, but, uh, I'll throw something else out there just to consider if you end up going like one handed instead of two handed, uh, skin. I talked about this the other night as we were like,

long story, but browsing this stuff, I think exacting strike is so good i was just looking at that you make a controlled attack fully accounting for your momentum make a strike the strike gains the following failure effect this attack does not count towards your multiple attack penalty so if you miss your second attack does not take a penalty yeah ethel took this and there was a there was a mechanical reason why it did not sync with double slice.

No, I was saying this would be instead of double slice. This would be a different build of the character. I mean, I can only choose one right now. So, I mean, that's a good point though, Matthew. If I choose double slice, probably not going to take that one. Yeah, you could go power attack exacting strike or something.

Yeah, double slice would synergize with different feats. Just got to decide before we finalize the artwork. But that being said. That's true. That's true. Two commas in your. That being said, I sort of chose unsurprising. Like I have an 18 strength with all of my ability scores added up.

18 strength, 14 dex, 14 con. And then I dumped intelligence, wisdom, 10, 10. And then my charisma is a 12. But I did train in thievery and in deception. So that kind of. Oh, that's great. More with my character build rather than the fighter build. But yeah, so I'm keeping it also open-ended,

but definitely going to be melee, definitely going to be frontline, definitely going to be beefy. And I'm trying, I added more to constitution because I'm trying to be a tank, trying to be a tank for you guys, for you weak, weak little flesh bodies. So big cat.

Joe. Andres Galarraga. Joe always has something to say. What's jeff i don't know this i would if i were you i would read more about it online because i don't know for sure but my gut tells me that like if your goal is to tank then i think double slice is not what you want to do because i think that that will reduce your ac because you won't have a shield and you won't be protected as protected in the front line it's more of a damage dealing not as defensive choice but no that's a good point okay maybe tank is the wrong word because i like well you'd probably suffer the same fate that ethel is uh suffering in strange aeons. You see how he just goes down all the time right away? And Ethel is the only one that can really stand and bang,

and it seems like this is going to be the case again here. I think we'll have more damage support in this instance. That's true. Kate will offer targeted range support. I'll be able to offer a little melee damage. Yeah, Matthew, you've played a lot of fighters. Do you have any input on my fighter build? Because I'm new to fighter.

I've never played a fighter. I resist shields. The AC bonus is obviously important, and it does make a difference in critical threshold. But at a certain point, and this is maybe more of a Pathfinder 1E mindset, but I find it hard to shake. It's like at a certain point, the monsters,

and especially when Troy is playing them, are going to hit. So, I'm always like, alright, we'll keep... But keeping them from critting you is like... You're not wrong, but the crit difference in 2-y is a really big difference. It's true. Yeah, that's so big. It's also, I think it's nice, I've never done this, but it'd be nice to have something

reliable to do with that third action when you don't know what to do. And that third action is reshield. I mean, I get shield block automatically shield block automatically so right and you would not be in the plus one ac bonus category most likely because it's trained you'll be trained with really good shields so you're talking plus two ac every time you do that and i don't know if that then adds on like at later fighter levels you might get better profesh proficiency with shields, which might increase that even more. I'm not a hundred percent sure,

but, um, I thought it, I thought I had it all figured out. I mean, that's what session zero is about. It's all about like getting different things, but you don't have to decide tonight.

All of that's fair. I just think I, like my, I was like with a fighter, I'd be like with any class, right? In a combat, it's maximized the amount of damage you're doing in the shortest amount of time. So I was like, that's how I look at it too. And you, and with, with a fighter, I'd be like, with any class, right? In a combat, it's maximize the amount of damage you're doing in the shortest amount of time.

So I was like. That's how I look at it, too. And in 2E, you actually do less. Even as a fighter with a strength of 18, you do less damage than you think you would. So having the extra weapon. But, you know, that's just my way of thinking about it. Well, that's because you're not the damage dealer. That's not your responsibility.

If you are an exacting strike shield build fighter, your job is not dealing out damage. Your job is keeping other people alive, like Kate, who deals damage. And I don't know. Like, yeah, we actually don't right now have a lot of damage. What's the psychic like, Skid? Is it a support class? Is it a damage dealing class? Well, it depends on what your conscious and subconscious mind choices are.

But mine is more of a damage dealer. Okay. That's good. But do you consider yourself to be a little weak? Isn't the right term. A little. Squishy? Squishy.

That's the word. Thank you, Kate. No. I don't think so. Oh, cool. It depends. I think I'll have No, I don't think so. Oh, cool. Uh, it depends. I think I,

I'll, I'll have to like run through all the possibilities again, but I think that there is with my, I'm not sure with this particular bill, but there, there is a way for me to be able to also like stand up and sort of tank a little bit in combat too. So cool.

That's cool. That's cool. Uh, well, you know, the other thing is that this is the way you picture the character, Sydney. That's a huge driving force for how you build it. And retraining is a thing.

You know what I mean? Like, if you find you're just miserable because, like, how often does Ethel not hit on the double flies? Often. I don't think it's ever happened. I don't think it's ever happened. Have you ever hit both? Yeah.

Right? He has. But then once I do hit, I have that reliable third action, which is the flints. Do you guys feel like you lock yourselves in after you've imagined your character? Because that is how I feel now. I mean, it's like this slender cat folk person with these two weapons. They're very dexterous. And I never pictured them with a shield.

And now I'm like. It takes a certain level of maturity to change this late in the game. Yeah. Wow. I have changed some things. If you find a cool shield, then you could change.

But like you could also. Maybe I'll find a really cool shield. I've changed some things about my image of the character because of mechanical things that just like didn't really end up working. And I wanted to be a little bit more impactful. And in what you know, the role that I had, and in the change, I actually liked the character better, because then I back defined

it role playing wise. And I ended up liking I thought there was more interesting story there than even my original concept. So it's possible to totally change from your gut instinct but yeah it's food for thought i'm definitely going to think about the the shield now it was a couple months ago but you guys talked about skills and sort of covering like making sure that like you weren't all one thing or the other you guys pretty much stayed to what we talked about so that there's good balance among the skills yeah i think that we did i know from my part one of the things that i'm kind of building into the backstory of my character is that my uh cloistered cleric is going to have responsibility within the party for survival so i think that that's an interesting thing we we did a session zero a

long time ago that was very much just mechanical. And I was marked for doing survival because it's also a wisdom-based skill. So you're going to get the highest benefit if you have a high wisdom. And so then I back explained that in their life. You know what I mean? Like why they're good at survival. So I think that that's fun. I think that's the only really interesting thing I have to add on skills because otherwise I don't have a lot of skill points, I don't have a lot of

intelligence. So I'll mainly be religion, survival, I think a little nature, and then diplomacy. And that is because of the, the background of my character. Well, I know we're gonna have plenty of diplomacy in this party, but I just, it just fits too well with the background of my character. I know we're going to have plenty of diplomacy in this party, but I just, it just fits too well with the story of the character. And I'm going to have a decent charisma as a cleric. Well, this is more than we've talked about, sort of allocating skill points than we've ever talked about on any of our shows. So I feel pretty confident you guys will be well balanced.

I couldn't be more excited to see this party hit the road and it is happening. Can I announce my contest before we go? Oh, the contest! I forgot. I'm also not finished. I don't know if I know. I've always got something else. You have more to say? We need to hear more from Joe, I think.

You know what? If there was one thing this episode was missing, it was more Joe. I love Session Z Joe. I love session zeros. I talk a lot in session zeros. It's my favorite thing. Can we hear skits contest before we hear about your third spell? Let's hear skits contest, and I'm not going to say anything else because I feel hurt.

No, actually, it's because, you know what? Let's leave some surprises for the show. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. The contest is, now I talked a little bit about some of my literary and other sort of creative inspirations

for my character in our character creation video. One of them has changed. I changed something pretty major about my character concept in the interim. And if anyone out there, and I drew especially from one major source that is a big favorite of mine if anyone out there can guess what this source is the first

person to tell me will get this one dollar bill i will mail it to them no matter where they are in the world you can feel free to spend it frame frame it, whatever. If you want me to sign it, I'll sign it. If you think that'll make it harder to spend, it'll be pristine. But that'll be the prize to anyone who guesses, the first person who guesses what this biggest inspiration is for this character after you hear the backstory. After we hear the backstory, so we'll have to wait. We'll have to hear the backstory to really be able to get the context. Okay, okay, okay. Well, there it is.

Joe, did you want to tell us about your cantrips? Dude, that is not nice. Get his ass, Troy. That is not nice. Oh, I did skip a major skill, and you guys should know this. My character is going to be a trained medic and is going to be good at medicine. And we're going to have proper treat wounds and the respective feats that go along with it. I hope to make healing a regular function of combat, which is why I'm not going to deal a lot of damage at all.

And so maybe we'll have a little lot of damage at all and so maybe we'll have a little bit of damage issues but let's say you go double slice sydney i think that there's there's more of a chance that like i would be able to keep you up in combat magically during a fight you know which is which is a fun i think we're gonna have a thing that we don't have a lot more sort of different options for healing too with this party with – because I think that Matthew's investigator, I think you'll – with your alchemical stuff, like you might be able to have some. Yeah. I'm also trained in medicine. Wow.

I'm not going to be – I have a lot of skill points to distribute. So I won't – I won't be as good as Joe, but I will be able to heal. Yeah, it's a wisdom-based skill. but I will be able to heal. Yeah, it's a wisdom-based skill. So I'd probably end up with a higher bonus, but it's much better to have multiple people with medicine in a party than just one. So, yeah, that's good.

Folks, I couldn't be more excited than I am right now. I'm at peak excitement because it feels so real. Now numbers are getting input. Ability boosts are getting thrown around left and right. One dollar contest. Folks, stay glued to social media. Stay glued to Cannon Fodder everywhere that we put out news so you can be the first one to know when episode one is premiering. The show is going to premiere on Thursday nights on YouTube, and the podcast

will be available later that night. It's going to be available Thursday at midnight Eastern into Friday. You're going to be able to get that every single week, right back in your veins like the old days! And this is the crew. This is the team. Big shout out to Demi Plain. This is

going to change the game for us in terms of... How gorgeous is that That's why we had to put it on stream It looks so beautiful What does this ability do Hover over it and it tells you We'll still find a way to fuck it up But anyways it's going to be great

I hope you'll join us Thank you for joining us tonight And we will see you very soon For episode 1 of the new Glass Cannon Podcast The new The NGCP you very soon for episode one of the new Glass Cannon podcast! The new, the NGCP! GCP! Come on, everybody! Bless America!

Lamb of my love! I do have my throat.