Adventuring Academy S07E02 Getting Thrown to the Wolves with Robbie Daymond DRPO H 264

PixelMotionMedia

Transcript

00:00:05¡Suscríbete al canal!

00:00:30We hope and pray, we might say things on camera that means this cannot air, but if it airs, it

00:00:34will be in 2026, where a new season has just dropped with Robbie as Megumi Fushiguro in Jujutsu Kaisen and

00:00:41Virgil in Netflix's Devil May Cry series, the co-founder of Sassy Chap Games, where he was kind enough to

00:00:48cast me in the hit video game Date Everything.

00:00:51Oh, what a hoot I had.

00:00:53And of course, a cast member at Critical Role, known as Dorian Storm from EXU in Campaign 3, Howard Margrove

00:01:00from Canelo Obscura, and my own player in Campaign 4 as Cadigan Vale, my friend and yours, Mr. Robbie Damon.

00:01:09Oh, we're here in the neon Thunderdome. I've dreamed of this day. It's good. I thought I was the king

00:01:16of dynamic vocal modulation, and you got me cooked.

00:01:19What?

00:01:20Your voice is so beautiful and sonorous, but it bounces around like a racket. Ball, ball.

00:01:27Ping, bang.

00:01:28Boom, boom.

00:01:29It comes from, my training, my theatrical training as an actor, how to use the instrument, was from getting kids

00:01:38to pay attention to instructions as an evil wizard.

00:01:42Okay.

00:01:43So, like, picture a villain at a LARP camp being like, you fools, tonight the kingdom of Jada falls. I

00:01:51will seize your castle, and when I do, remember, don't flee out the back of the castle. The hill is

00:02:00very steep and very slippery.

00:02:03I'm just picturing this not in any official capacity. You were just at a public park, and these kids are

00:02:08like, who is this guy?

00:02:09You fools! Do you not behold my billowing cape?

00:02:14Just kicking a soccer ball, really furrowed brows.

00:02:18Yeah, someone being like, you can't do that here!

00:02:20He's back again.

00:02:21He's back again.

00:02:21He's got a cloak this time.

00:02:22Call the Rangers!

00:02:25Yeah, I know a little bit of your backstory, too.

00:02:27Yeah, yeah.

00:02:28Well, but we're not here to discuss my backstory, Robbie. We're here to discuss, speaking of backstory, our first time

00:02:36getting to play with each other really seriously

00:02:39was that one-shoddy stuff that we did in a charity game or something.

00:02:44Yeah, during the COVID era, I think we did a charity game once.

00:02:47A little zoomy something or other.

00:02:48Yeah, but that's not, I mean, listen, it matters, and the charity's good, but, like, it's not the same as

00:02:52this.

00:02:53I have been so delighted to get a chance to play with you.

00:02:57I have been so delighted, speaking of backstory, to not only get to play with Cadigan Vale, where I got

00:03:04such a delightful backstory from you for that character.

00:03:08And it was really funny, because this is coming out after the campaign has come out, where, like, Cadigan, a

00:03:14stoic, strong, silent type.

00:03:16And I think people, in the BTS we did for it, were surprised when I was like, oh, Robbie had

00:03:20a very textured, layered backstory for this character.

00:03:23Yeah.

00:03:23Because people see this silent ranger.

00:03:26And I think it was very telling about the kind of theater kids that watch actual play, where they're like,

00:03:31what do you mean a quiet person could have a complicated interior?

00:03:35Yeah, that's an interesting thing, right?

00:03:37Like, especially if you're in something for the long haul.

00:03:40I hint, I'm such a confession, I hate it.

00:03:44I'm a vague poster.

00:03:46I really do, like, I don't post a lot.

00:03:50You're a hinter.

00:03:50But, yeah, I like to hint.

00:03:52I like to seed.

00:03:53And, like, six months ago I was like, gee, it's going to be tough to play a character that's not

00:03:59immediately likable, which is a specialty of mine.

00:04:03Maybe that's typecasting, I don't know.

00:04:04But, like, I wanted someone that you could sink your teeth into that takes a little bit of time, a

00:04:08little bit of slow burn.

00:04:10We had to, we only had eight episodes to shoot EXU.

00:04:13So when we were creating these characters that we didn't know were going to transition into C3, we felt like,

00:04:20God, we've got to come out of the gates just so hot.

00:04:22And I was like, well, I've earned a little bit of trust with the CR fandom, I feel like.

00:04:28And the people that really know the way I play and the way I've talked about this role, hopefully they

00:04:33understand that there's stuff coming, that still waters run deep, you know?

00:04:37And I feel like we're getting there.

00:04:39It's really, I think that's absolutely the nail on the head.

00:04:44And I think what's really lovely is the creative choices that you make are made based on the parameters of

00:04:50the project.

00:04:50I mean, certainly that's been my experience as a GM for Campaign 4 is so much of the fun of

00:04:54it is when you have something with hard parameters where it's like, here's what we're trying to do, here's who

00:04:59we're trying to do it with, here's the format and the structure that's going to work best for us as

00:05:03a show, a cast, and a company.

00:05:04And you go, oh, rad, these parameters now actually give shape and form to the creativity.

00:05:11Sure.

00:05:11Talk to me about the, well, I want to talk about how you make characters, but I also want to

00:05:18talk about why you make characters.

00:05:19Sure.

00:05:19Take me back through your creative origins.

00:05:22Oh, yeah.

00:05:22Was TTRPG always in the cards?

00:05:25Or is that something that you discovered on your journey as a creator and a performer?

00:05:29TTRPGs were never on the cards.

00:05:30Yeah.

00:05:31It's, listen, I, it was brought to me and as an opportunity that I didn't expect.

00:05:37I know the people from CR that we work in the same, you know, field, but even though there were

00:05:44moments where it was hinted, like, oh, come and guest on the show.

00:05:46And they're kind of playing with it in the early campaigns.

00:05:49I just, I know and love nerds because I have been one for a long time and I know they

00:05:54can smell a fake from a mile away, right?

00:05:57Yeah.

00:05:57So I guess I wouldn't say it was fearful, but I was trepidatious because I would, if I went in

00:06:02there with these people that love this stuff so much, they're going to know that I'm not an OG like

00:06:07that.

00:06:07And that I'm learning to be a part of the storytelling process.

00:06:10But when the opportunity came along, when Marisha asked me to sign up the show, the timing was right and

00:06:15I felt like, well, I am a gamer.

00:06:17I do love games and I do love storytelling and I'm a theater kid through and through.

00:06:21This is the time.

00:06:22So then you learn, talk about parameters.

00:06:25You learn how to tell stories within a system and one you're unfamiliar with.

00:06:28And for me, after 15 years of doing voiceover, it really sparked something creative in me that was, that was

00:06:34new, which is really cool.

00:06:35When you're in your late thirties and you get a chance at a new creative spark, that does not happen

00:06:39all that often.

00:06:40So for me, creating characters is a joy because I've mostly only embodied them through the majority of my career

00:06:48until later on in life.

00:06:50When I started making video games, when I started doing role-playing games, it gave me that chance to do

00:06:56that in a way that I didn't imagine myself having.

00:06:59I was content as a performer for the most part.

00:07:01Yeah.

00:07:02You mean, because we also, and this is very fun, we had, I'm going to say, I'm going to give

00:07:06a superlative here.

00:07:07Oh.

00:07:07Now, best airplane companion, I think, truly.

00:07:12Honestly, yeah.

00:07:13Best, we, coming back from Gen Con, I sat next to you and your brilliant and fascinating wife and had

00:07:20the time of my fucking life.

00:07:21Us too.

00:07:22Just cutting it up and sharing stories.

00:07:24It was really delightful.

00:07:26And the, but you have a extreme, I'll say this, you have an extremely lore-rich life.

00:07:37You have a storied life.

00:07:39And it's very cool because you come armed to the teeth for storytelling.

00:07:43Yeah.

00:07:43Well, I, I have really low risk aversion.

00:07:48I've just always been like, not to say that I would ever endanger others.

00:07:53I'm a good dad.

00:07:54But as far as myself goes, I'm a very much, you know, as an improv guy, I'm a yes and

00:07:59to life.

00:08:00And I, I, I, that has opened up so many opportunities for me and pathways that I feel like if

00:08:07I had any like boon stat that was given to me, it was, I'm not overly fearful.

00:08:13And I, I think it's because I had really good parents who taught me that my internal capabilities as a

00:08:19person would always outweigh any system that I was a part of.

00:08:23Right?

00:08:23What a lesson.

00:08:24That's fucking rules.

00:08:25And then they're, they're good parents who, who also lived a rich and storied life.

00:08:29So, so like I was very fortunate to have a tumultuous childhood, but with, with a really good foundation of

00:08:36parents.

00:08:37So when it comes to storytelling, they gave me the opportunity to know that even though I had the capacity

00:08:42to do other things, I wanted to pursue the performing arts.

00:08:45Yeah.

00:08:45And I, I gotta, I gotta be real as someone who ended up teaching it at, at the university level,

00:08:50that's hard for a parent to do.

00:08:51Yeah.

00:08:51Because the likelihood of you and I being in this scenario is so low for, for anybody out there, but

00:08:58at the same time, anybody can do it.

00:09:00Yeah.

00:09:00It's, it's, it's an interesting thing.

00:09:02But, but yeah, when it comes to creating a character, I feel like I've, I've lived a life that, that

00:09:08I can thematically tell stories without necessarily having to self insert.

00:09:14I think that's one of the pitfalls of being a, a performer, but maybe a poorly trained performer from like

00:09:20a pedagogy standpoint is if you're always trying to insert your own personal experiences into a performance, that's going to

00:09:25come off of, it's just going to be derivative of you.

00:09:28Yeah.

00:09:28So, so, so, so, but if you have lived a life and you can understand what those experiences were as

00:09:33you get older, you can craft a character that, that can tell those kinds of stories without having to be

00:09:38about you.

00:09:38Right.

00:09:38I always felt that way of whenever I encountered performance styles or methodologies that tried to do an end run

00:09:46around imagination and the fact that people can just be very different from each other.

00:09:52Yeah.

00:09:52You know, like there are certain people where it's like, oh, it can all come from something that you've experienced

00:09:56and you go, not quite though, right?

00:10:00Yeah.

00:10:00No, it will, there's, there's this idea of like, how, how in the weeds are we getting here?

00:10:05By, for God's sake, into the weeds we must go.

00:10:08Sure.

00:10:08It was just a simple concept, but there's this idea of like a first and second function when it comes

00:10:12to like playing an action, right?

00:10:13Like I could say to you right now, go chase.

00:10:15And you would do, you would go chase something, right?

00:10:17And it would make sense and I would understand watching it that you were chasing.

00:10:20It's very simple kindergarten stuff.

00:10:22But then if I said, go chase the bus because you're late to your grandfather's graduation.

00:10:28Yeah.

00:10:29It's bad.

00:10:30He's been putting in so much work, man.

00:10:32He's been held back.

00:10:33He's been held back for 70 years.

00:10:35I was going to say funeral, but I felt like it was too blue.

00:10:38But you're late, whatever.

00:10:40It's going to be different.

00:10:41It's going to have a richness of emotion and all of that stuff.

00:10:43So, so I think there is a way to sort of cook those things in.

00:10:46And if you're just crying because you're thinking about something sad, you're not crying the tears of that character in

00:10:54the right way.

00:10:55And I think, I think people that are really trained actors and performers understand that those truly imaginary circumstances lead

00:11:02to a specificity in a performance that you cannot replicate by just generating an emotion.

00:11:07So it's, uh, interesting.

00:11:09You're absolutely right.

00:11:10The color and texture of that is so important and critical.

00:11:12And it's very funny because we're here to talk about TTRPGs, but there's no way to talk about TTRPGs in

00:11:17the way that we play them where they're, I feel, heavily informed by our performance background.

00:11:21Oh, sure.

00:11:21And the, for me, hearing you talk about the acting thing, I think about improv and the things I did

00:11:27in improv that I realized were created for this comedy form, but fundamentally were acting lessons.

00:11:32Like, you're talking about that, I used to say, the reason you have to find motivation and justification in a

00:11:38scene is if you don't pick it, if you don't have one, the motivation is going to bleed through from

00:11:47you, the performer, whose motivation is always, please, God, let this scene be good.

00:11:52And that will fuck everything up.

00:11:55Again, low risk aversion is very helpful.

00:11:58Yeah.

00:11:59I want my audience to have a great time, but at a certain point, like, if what you're making, if

00:12:03you don't have the artistic integrity to divorce the audience from what you're doing, you're always going to make choices

00:12:09that are going to feel like, sort of like you're, you're trying to placate the audience instead of being yourself.

00:12:15You want it to be a banger, but you've got to trust in the art, right?

00:12:17What I love about the backstory you submitted, and again, backstory gets a weird, backstory's in a moment where it

00:12:22has a rap for some reason in TRBG's, you need a fucking backstory, you need a fucking backstory, you need

00:12:28a fucking backstory.

00:12:29But the, and the reason for that is, like you're saying, you're talking about the idea of the circumstances of

00:12:34a character.

00:12:35I used to think about that in improv where a character is the most fabricated, you literally can't have written

00:12:40a backstory.

00:12:41Sure.

00:12:41I would talk about the, I think that reminds me, like you're saying, the texture added when you know you're

00:12:46catching the bus to go to a funeral, or your grandfather's graduation that he's worked so hard for, he's worked

00:12:52so hard for, I used to talk about speech versus speech actions.

00:12:56Oh, interesting.

00:12:57And I would say in improv all the time, you will get 10 times better at this when you stop

00:13:04focusing on what is being said, and start focusing on why people are saying it.

00:13:11Oh yeah, sure.

00:13:12Right?

00:13:12Just in that way, I would say all the time, where I would say, I would say it's very rare

00:13:16for an article of speech to completely map to the action behind it.

00:13:22Oh yeah.

00:13:22The examples I would give is, maybe the most honest form of speech I regularly practice is, can I get

00:13:28a bacon, egg, and cheese, and a cup of coffee?

00:13:30Because that's one-to-one with the action.

00:13:32Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:13:32Like, you know, I'm going like, I am asking for bacon, egg, and cheese with a cup of coffee because

00:13:36I want a bacon, egg, and cheese with a cup of coffee.

00:13:38Yeah.

00:13:38Right?

00:13:39But anything else, you're in an elevator, someone presses the wrong button, and you go like, oops, I guess we're

00:13:45taking the local, not the express.

00:13:46And you go, right, but what is that?

00:13:48Yeah, well, there's entire techniques built around, you know, understanding what that is.

00:13:53Because I fully believe if, you know, if I'm in a two-and-a-half-hour play and I have

00:13:56a script, everything I need is in the script, in the words that are there, but it's in the words.

00:14:03Yes.

00:14:04It's not the words, it's there.

00:14:06And understanding the motivation and intent and super objective of the characters that you're involved with under these imaginary circumstances

00:14:13and then embodying them whichever way you can.

00:14:15And I'm not one of those where you have to go into a play and you necessarily, it's all there,

00:14:20it's all there for you.

00:14:21You can write some stuff that'll make you sink into the character, but understanding that there's language and intent and

00:14:28it's all different and it's fun.

00:14:31That's, being truly connected in that moment, I feel like, is what makes us people.

00:14:35Because people, not lie, but, like, we don't always, it would be a very weird world where everything that came

00:14:40out of our mouths is exactly what we meant.

00:14:42Yeah.

00:14:43Yeah, and again, to understand that, like, when you say, it's okay to acknowledge that a lot of language is

00:14:50expressing something and therefore there's something you're trying to use language to do.

00:14:55Yeah, sure.

00:14:56If I, you know, if I go to someone and I go, like, I go, like, hey, you know, it

00:15:02was, it was rainy out there, the field was muddy, it was hard to, I'm trying to cheer you up.

00:15:07If I look at you and say, hey, can I, can I talk to you for a second?

00:15:10I'm furious, you know, like, there's things that where you, where you go, like, there are, there are these moments

00:15:16of looking at what someone is trying to say and what they're trying to do with what they're trying to

00:15:22say.

00:15:22In that, a lot of times, language is trying to accomplish something.

00:15:25But we definitely also judge each other in those ways.

00:15:27In a positive way, I'm going to say something about you that I mean from the bottom of my heart.

00:15:33I knew I instantly liked you because of the way you speak.

00:15:36I could tell immediately you're an honest and forthright man.

00:15:40And I was, I was just like, this guy is, is speaking from the heart and there's no artifice.

00:15:47So immediately, not only does that make you charismatic for good stuff like this,

00:15:51but as a person, it makes me trust you.

00:15:54And I can see through bullshit a mile away.

00:15:57And there's just, there's, you don't have a speck of it on you, my man.

00:16:00You're squeaky clean.

00:16:01I really appreciate that.

00:16:03I feel very, it's, you know, super funny that, well, man, what a kind of compliment.

00:16:07I, I fucked with you right away as well for, for a very similar reason for, well, because again, it's

00:16:12very cool.

00:16:13I think it's, it's really lovely.

00:16:16We're in a space where we make believe for a living and make believe shares a big border with lying.

00:16:23So when you find.

00:16:26So, yeah, you know what I mean?

00:16:28I know what you're saying.

00:16:29You're saying what I'm saying.

00:16:29I get it.

00:16:30We all know those people.

00:16:31But it's very nice when you find people that are like, oh, I'm using this made up bullshit to tell

00:16:35the truth.

00:16:36Yeah.

00:16:36It's very nice.

00:16:37Let it fall away.

00:16:38And if it can fall away, then, you know, you're doing the art part, right?

00:16:40Yes, that's, exactly.

00:16:44When you came to TTRPGs, it's, you're saying it's a gift.

00:16:51It's fun to find something late in life.

00:16:53It's very cool, too, because I think, like you're saying, the, the, I vibe with how you think about games.

00:17:01Because there's a, I'm trying to think how to put this.

00:17:05You unabashedly love storytelling and love performance.

00:17:09And there, there is a assumption on the uninitiated that there is a pretension to throwing yourself into something and

00:17:21taking it very seriously.

00:17:23And I think those are the opposite things, right?

00:17:26Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:17:27And what I love about your work is that it's very much like, oh, let's fucking throw our bodies into

00:17:32the grain thresher of this and fucking do it to the fullest it can be done.

00:17:37And that's, to me, the most humble, least pretentious, most like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm lucky to be able to

00:17:44do this.

00:17:44I want to put my whole heart into it.

00:17:46Yeah, I think, I think it also makes the mistakes more, more palatable, right?

00:17:52Like, it's a complicated game.

00:17:54And there, and there are ways to do it.

00:17:57And like, everything from etiquette to, to metagaming to all that stuff.

00:18:02And I don't always get all of it right.

00:18:05But when I realize that maybe I'm off or that there's a different way to do it, there's always a,

00:18:11well, listen.

00:18:12Yeah.

00:18:13You, Matt, and Abria are really my only three GMs that I've ever had for any long.

00:18:19That's a pretty good jumping off point, right?

00:18:22Like, let's be real.

00:18:25So, like, I feel like I'm in a, well, this term is a term, it's got a lot of meanings.

00:18:31But I feel like I'm in a safe space to explore and do fun stuff artistically and just play a

00:18:35game.

00:18:36And I love wondering what the boundaries of the game are.

00:18:40One of our very first combat in C3, I, like, lit a fire in the middle of the room in

00:18:46order to create, like, and I use my action and my stuff to make up.

00:18:50And it's a terrible gaming move.

00:18:52But I didn't know that because I'm new to the space.

00:18:55But it ended up being fun and it worked in a way.

00:18:58And Matt helped me make it work.

00:18:59And it's a new player trying to test the boundaries of what you can do.

00:19:02But it's there.

00:19:04Yeah.

00:19:04So, yeah, it's really fun.

00:19:06Speaking of the adventuring of it all and coming to this new game, you come to this game with performance

00:19:13experience and a philosophy around performance and around storytelling to a new medium.

00:19:19When those two meet, right?

00:19:22In other words, it's not something you discovered when you were a kid, nor is it something that is your

00:19:26whole frame of reference.

00:19:28What are the tools that you had?

00:19:30What was the equipment you had in your pack coming from here that was useful?

00:19:36And did you find anything in the dungeon of this hobby to go, oh, that's going in the pack now?

00:19:43Yeah, sure.

00:19:45Well, I am a gamer.

00:19:47Like, I like games.

00:19:49I like card.

00:19:50I grew up playing card games, board games.

00:19:51I was huge into video games.

00:19:53I ended up making them now for a living.

00:19:56So, the game aspect of it made sense to me.

00:19:59But I think being comfortable in the RP space of it, like the communal storytelling part of it, allowed me

00:20:07to learn slowly and do better.

00:20:11And also the players at the table.

00:20:12It's not just the GMs.

00:20:13Like, what an experience to be at that table.

00:20:16And you know that every pitch you throw out, someone's going to hit.

00:20:20And someone's always going to be, like, either lobbing you a softball or a foul.

00:20:23You know what I mean?

00:20:24Like, those players are the best.

00:20:26So, yeah.

00:20:27You find those players.

00:20:28You find those other people that are going to help support you.

00:20:30When you, and obviously, like you're saying, you have a facility with the RP.

00:20:33That's not unusual to you.

00:20:35But also, there's something very fascinating.

00:20:37I think there is, did you have, coming from theater and voiceover, was the improvisational part or, in fact, even,

00:20:47like, the writing part?

00:20:49Was that just like a duck to water?

00:20:52Or was there any part?

00:20:52No, I'm a reformed academic.

00:20:54So, you know, I got my master's grace to teach theater for all the undergrads, the BFA undergrads.

00:21:00And then I continued on to teach here in LA and beyond.

00:21:03And, but I've never, I never did, you know, the Second City or Groundlings or any of that.

00:21:09I never had any formal improv training.

00:21:10But it is part and parcel to what we do in that space.

00:21:16So, I've, I always get nervous around improv people and, like, I'd be able to hang.

00:21:21But then I've been around it so much where I've, not to be whatever, like, I've never not been able

00:21:26to hang.

00:21:26So, I think there are methodologies to do a thing.

00:21:29And if you understand it at a fundamental level, you're always going to be able to do it.

00:21:33But there is just something to say for, like, you know, getting thrown to the wolves, right?

00:21:37And it's fun.

00:21:38It's fun.

00:21:38I love getting thrown to the wolves.

00:21:40Low risk aversion.

00:21:42No, I feel the same way.

00:21:44I feel very grateful for my family and my parents as well that I feel like what you call low

00:21:49risk aversion, I feel like for me was a, and in terms of also, like, what you prioritize.

00:21:55My entire life has always been, like, I will accept any amount of discomfort for a better story.

00:22:01Oh, yeah.

00:22:01And just that idea.

00:22:02Oh, yeah.

00:22:03You know, which I think I look back at my life and all the times where I was, like, there's

00:22:06a party tonight.

00:22:08I'm very tired.

00:22:10I'm very, I've been working my ass off, whatever else.

00:22:12And you go, but if I stay home, I know what will happen.

00:22:15If I go to the party, I don't know what will happen.

00:22:17Oh, I love it.

00:22:18And you go, put me in situations where I don't know what's going to happen.

00:22:22And I think to that point, like, coming into this, but even you saying, like, coming from academia or coming

00:22:28from teaching theater, the cool part about TTRPG is there is no practice that leaves you prepared for it.

00:22:36Because even as an improviser, you come from improv and you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know how to make

00:22:41shit up fast, but I don't necessarily know how to feel a very genuine feeling just for the dramatic sake

00:22:48of it.

00:22:48Or even actors and improvisers going, right, so we're writing.

00:22:53We are going to be writing.

00:22:54Like, no matter what discipline you come from, it's sort of the MMA of, like, you know, like, yeah.

00:23:01Yeah, yeah, I'll say this.

00:23:02Well, the MMA is a really good reference because the specialists aren't always built for it, right?

00:23:07And not to let too much about how the sausage is made, but, like, I have played with some people

00:23:12who ended up, you know, maybe not being in the space.

00:23:14And when you're locked in like that, you go, like, oh, they're missing this thing.

00:23:20And not necessarily them as a person, but they're missing this thing about this experience that's not clicking in.

00:23:26So when we're talking about people, you know, doing a live play at a high level, it really is like

00:23:34catching lightning in a bottle.

00:23:35The chemistry between the players, the understanding of the medium, and I'm still so, I feel so new to it,

00:23:42even though I've been playing for four years.

00:23:44But I've been playing at a pretty high level.

00:23:46So it's the best.

00:23:48But I also say the same thing.

00:23:49My favorite thing is meeting someone who is just like, I love it so much, I'm playing my first home

00:23:56game.

00:23:56And I'm like, did you get your friends together to do that?

00:23:59And I was like, yeah.

00:23:59And I was like, when was the last time you all just sat down and did something together for two

00:24:03or four hours?

00:24:04And I'm like, I can't think of the last time.

00:24:05I was like, this is the magic and the beauty of the game in that.

00:24:09And you don't have to be doing it on TV to be doing it.

00:24:13That's why everybody vibes with it when they meet you.

00:24:15For the first six years of Dimension 20, I was still running my home game.

00:24:20Yeah.

00:24:20You know what I mean?

00:24:21Like, it was the best.

00:24:23I miss it.

00:24:24And to everyone in my home game, if any of you guys wants to pick up and DM, we're ready.

00:24:33He needs you to paint his minis, too.

00:24:35Yes, that I do.

00:24:39For me, I've exclusively worked with Rick Perry and now Matt Mercer and K.O. over at Critical Role who

00:24:44builds the sets.

00:24:45And I go, you're doing a really good job.

00:24:47I don't do this part.

00:24:50Folks, we're going to dive into our first segment here.

00:24:52That wasn't the first segment?

00:24:54That was the first segment.

00:24:55Oh, okay.

00:24:55Wait, but, oh, yes, but I said first segment.

00:24:58That one doesn't have a name.

00:25:00Get ready for the first segment here on the podcast.

00:25:02This is the one where we go head to head and we get spicy takes.

00:25:06And we're going to drum up some discourse.

00:25:08We're going to drive engagement.

00:25:10We're going to make people comment and prompt the algorithm to share the video.

00:25:14It's contested role.

00:25:16Disregard everything I said about liking you earlier.

00:25:18I'm so mad about this.

00:25:19I'm fucked.

00:25:28Here in Contested Role, this is the segment where we dive deep into the discourse.

00:25:32That's right.

00:25:32We find the spiciest takes.

00:25:34We add some extra capsaicin just for flavor.

00:25:37And then we get into it.

00:25:40Robby, you have a scorcher of a take.

00:25:43I am honor bound to take the opposite position from whichever position you take, whether I believe it or not,

00:25:50just so we can keep it fucking toasty hot here in the dome.

00:25:54Robby, what is your take?

00:25:56Oh, I'm so passionate about this.

00:26:00Here's what I think.

00:26:02Less group battles, more 1v1s.

00:26:06I want duels.

00:26:07I want mono and mono.

00:26:09I want a kung fu movie where everybody's in the background just waiting for their turn.

00:26:13That's what I want.

00:26:15What the fuck are you talking about?

00:26:18I don't know, man.

00:26:18I just started playing this shit.

00:26:20You told me to pick something.

00:26:21I thought it'd be spicy.

00:26:22I don't know.

00:26:23Keep it from the cake.

00:26:23Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:26:24Keep it from the cake.

00:26:26You want more 1v1 combat.

00:26:30Okay, give me the pros.

00:26:33What happens as a result of more 1v1 player versus enemy combat?

00:26:37Every round of combat is six seconds, right?

00:26:39Six seconds.

00:26:40Six seconds, right?

00:26:41If I send my rogue off on a...

00:26:44Why does he never just encounter one guy that wants to fuck him up?

00:26:49And they can fight in an alley.

00:26:51If I'm going to watch you RP the tragic loss of your favorite familiar for 15 minutes, I could watch

00:27:01a 1v1 scrap at a table.

00:27:02I feel like there's this moment that I love.

00:27:05Everybody loves it, but this is all fake and real, right?

00:27:07Okay.

00:27:08Oh, yeah.

00:27:08We're so hot and spicy.

00:27:09Sure.

00:27:09I put out this big map, and everybody's in the scrum.

00:27:12Everybody loves it.

00:27:12You've got to have a big group battle, but I think there should be more theater of the mind moments

00:27:17where this group, when they split off and encounter something, should encounter someone that is a one-on-one fight.

00:27:22Where you test your mettle against an equally ferocious foe, and you just fight.

00:27:271v1.

00:27:29You hate it.

00:27:30I'm required by law to hate this.

00:27:34Since the dawn of time has there been a compact between the game master and the players at the table.

00:27:42A moment will come where I utter an incantation.

00:27:46It will be two words.

00:27:47Roll initiative.

00:27:49Yeah.

00:27:49I will place a map upon the table, and each of you will get a little guy.

00:27:54To break that promise is to break the spell at the heart of the hobby.

00:27:58I'll be dead in the cold fucking dirt before I produce a map, and I don't let everybody there get

00:28:05a piece of the action.

00:28:06Sure.

00:28:07I'm going to have a wizard see a perfectly clustered group of enemies, and they're not in the combat.

00:28:12No.

00:28:13I'm going to see a monk see a 20-foot vertical drop for their slow fall ability, and they're not

00:28:17in the combat.

00:28:18Baby, you better fucking wake up and apologize because you are a dreamy.

00:28:22It already happens because you can only move those little guys 30 feet.

00:28:25So they're already engaged in mono-a-mono combat regularly enough.

00:28:30Why do I have to keep up with the cacophonous battle that occurs where a perfectly balanced set of enemies

00:28:35jumps directly across from my perfectly positioned group?

00:28:38Why can't I get mobbed?

00:28:41I like battles that take three hours.

00:28:45Ooh, you are so passionate about this.

00:28:48Yeah.

00:28:49I have to break the campaign because I think that fucking rules.

00:28:52I think you're totally correct.

00:28:53I like more combat.

00:28:54I like more theater of the mind combat.

00:28:56I like more combat that just goes, hey, this is you and another dude in a dark hallway.

00:29:01We don't need a battle set here.

00:29:02This is going to resolve in this hallway in two rounds, right?

00:29:05I like also, I like it, I would like it more if more combat involved low stakes.

00:29:12Meaning, I think if a map lands, it's got to be life or death.

00:29:16But can we have something where, like you're saying, in the same way that a skill check

00:29:20is sometimes trivial to make the PC feel like a badass, maybe a combat should be trivial

00:29:26to make the PC feel like a badass.

00:29:28Having your level 10 fighter walk up behind the caravan and there's two challenge-rating

00:29:33one-eighth guards, bam, bam, you're dead, you don't even get a turn.

00:29:36Yeah.

00:29:37That feels really cool.

00:29:38I love that.

00:29:40I agree.

00:29:41I win this segment.

00:29:43I win this segment.

00:29:44That was so easy.

00:29:46No, no, I mean, listen.

00:29:47So easy, almost like a one-on-one player versus enemy battle.

00:29:50One, two, three, four, I declare the fucking motherfucker.

00:29:53I fucking lose.

00:29:54I lose.

00:29:55I love this.

00:29:56I also would be a huge hypocrite if I disagree with you because one of my favorite things

00:30:00from Calamity over on Critical Role was Aabria and Marisha just stomping a dude's ass.

00:30:06The first initiative roll, four of six PCs were not present for.

00:30:10Yeah.

00:30:11It just was like, no, this is the game.

00:30:13We roll initiative.

00:30:13You're starting a combat.

00:30:14And I think it does happen sometimes, but I really like the idea of, for some reason,

00:30:19a 1v1 just as, it just spices me up.

00:30:23Like 2v1, 2v1, whatever, smaller group combat is good, but just two people going at it.

00:30:30And if you've got a really, if you, like, let's say you build a really fucking cool PC

00:30:34that you really, or NPC that you love, I would think that is a fun moment for the GM to,

00:30:41for

00:30:41a second, step into the player's shoes and say, oh, you want a PvP?

00:30:46Yeah.

00:30:46Let's fucking go and see how this cooks out.

00:30:48And I think that could be a spicy moment for a GM too.

00:30:51I fucking love that.

00:30:52In your, in your, it's very interesting.

00:30:55I wonder, I think, number one, we are very used to providing spotlight asymmetrically.

00:31:03Over a many-year campaign, not only are there going to be scenes where everybody supports

00:31:09one PC stepping into the spotlight, there are going to be entire arcs where you go, hey,

00:31:15we're killing your dad.

00:31:16We're going after, you know, like, literally, like, no, this art, like, yeah, I'm here.

00:31:21I'm having development.

00:31:22I'm having a great adventure.

00:31:23But the beautiful part of this is we have gotten to a point as a party that part of my

00:31:29character development is helping you achieve your dream.

00:31:32I want to be here.

00:31:33There will come a time where I step back into the spotlight.

00:31:36For right now, this is your solo, Shred, right?

00:31:38Yeah.

00:31:39And I fucking love that.

00:31:40I love that as a player.

00:31:41I love it as a GM.

00:31:43And all that we're saying is we already do that for RP.

00:31:46Does it make sense to do that for combat?

00:31:48I think absolutely.

00:31:49And there's an interesting question about game balance and action economy there.

00:31:54In terms of, typically speaking, monsters tend to be very high hit point totals, lower damage

00:32:04output than a PC.

00:32:06Yeah.

00:32:06And I think there's something interesting to think about how you would balance a 1v1 to

00:32:11be really exciting for a single PC versus a single monster.

00:32:19Well, let me ask you.

00:32:20When you're building your non-monster characters in a stat sheet, like, if you have an NPC that

00:32:26maybe you're going to combat, obviously you're scaling that for group combat because that feels

00:32:30better, but is there a reality where you could just build a character sheet for an NPC that's

00:32:35balanced and it would be like a PVP?

00:32:38I think so.

00:32:39Well, I think what's interesting is it comes up so rarely.

00:32:42And when it does come up, it tends to be, oh, like you're saying, rogue infiltrating the

00:32:47castle, bop, bop, you're dead, right?

00:32:50Versus something that is a little bit more like an actual to the death duel.

00:32:54Sure.

00:32:55I think I would pick my monsters very carefully for a duel, and I maybe would think a little

00:33:00bit about action economy for a duel.

00:33:03One of the biggest things that I think made, there was a huge advantage in 5th edition was

00:33:09the addition of legendary actions, which makes a single monster able to take on a party at

00:33:15all, right?

00:33:16But thinking about the action economy of you go, I go, you go, I go, you go, I go, I

00:33:22go,

00:33:23I wonder if there's a way to, maybe I would want some interesting action economy for a

00:33:28duel to help speed it along?

00:33:31There was a little moment in C3, and this is fuzzy, it's a while ago, where I think Ashton

00:33:39was in a slap fight of some kind, like a fisticuffs with an important character, and we were kind

00:33:47of all watching incapacitated, and Matt had cooked up, like, it felt like there was some

00:33:52sort of altered rules to this engagement that we were in.

00:33:55But it was, for me, it was one of my favorite moments.

00:33:57Yeah.

00:33:58But also, from a set piece standpoint, I think it kind of flew under the radar.

00:34:02So maybe it's more entertaining, the idea for a home game than, you know, the potential

00:34:09of doing it, like, at a live stream or something like that, but I don't know.

00:34:12It was fun for me.

00:34:14I really love it.

00:34:15I think I would just want to look at the stat blocks carefully and make sure if this

00:34:20guy's going to, because there are many monsters that are assumed to be part of a group.

00:34:25If I can't have every single fucking, like, zombie on here have a different set of abilities,

00:34:31but if a single opponent is supposed to be formidable on their own, not only is there

00:34:37the whole legendary action economy, but it's also thinking about, can they do a multiplicity

00:34:43of interesting things?

00:34:45Yeah.

00:34:45Right?

00:34:45That's a good point.

00:34:46Yeah.

00:34:46But I love that.

00:34:47I fully agree with this point.

00:34:49I lose.

00:34:50Robbie wins.

00:34:51That's contested role.

00:34:58Well, let's celebrate your victory with nothing less than a feast.

00:35:02What?

00:35:02Prepare for Constitution Save.

00:35:12Welcome to Constitution Save.

00:35:14There's rice, cakes, and milk on the board, and that means trouble.

00:35:17Folks, this is the segment where we...

00:35:19Where we talk about snacking at your game table.

00:35:25Robbie, you a big snacker?

00:35:26Honestly, no.

00:35:27I'm a meal guy.

00:35:28I'm not a big snacker.

00:35:30The Critical Role gang.

00:35:32It's you, Abrea, Matt.

00:35:35It's these elevated beings.

00:35:36You take umbrage at this.

00:35:38I can feel it.

00:35:39I'd be snacking.

00:35:41And I'd make no bones about it.

00:35:43Folks, this is Constitution Save.

00:35:44This season, I get surprised by the segments.

00:35:46I don't know what the fuck is happening.

00:35:48Oh, Christ.

00:35:50Dimension 20's spicing new season.

00:35:52It's time to put on our dropout development executive hats.

00:35:56Using the role table, please come up with a pitch for the next season of Dimension 20.

00:36:02Oh, yeah.

00:36:02While you do, make sure to try some Carolina Reaper popcorn.

00:36:06Oh, fuck.

00:36:07Come on.

00:36:08It helps with brainstorming.

00:36:12Okay.

00:36:13Oh, man.

00:36:14Whose idea was this?

00:36:16Robbie.

00:36:16Mm-hmm.

00:36:17Here's what's going to happen.

00:36:20We are going to randomly generate new seasons of Dimension 20.

00:36:24Okay.

00:36:25As the guest, you get to decide if I'm going to go first or if you're going to go first.

00:36:28Okay, sure.

00:36:30You will roll.

00:36:32After you roll, I will consult the table to tell you what your pitch is going to be,

00:36:37and you will eat a big old handful of Carolina Reaper popcorn.

00:36:40Okay.

00:36:41I will then ask you for the name of the season, what are some ally and enemy factions the

00:36:46PCs might meet this season, who or what is the season's big bad, can we see a scene from

00:36:50that season, what does the season's climactic final battle look like, okay?

00:36:53Okay, sure.

00:36:54Should I go first or should you go first?

00:36:56What would you prefer?

00:36:57You're the host.

00:36:58You're the guest.

00:36:59Oh, goddammit.

00:36:59I'll go first.

00:37:01Great.

00:37:01Yeah.

00:37:02Go ahead.

00:37:03Okay.

00:37:04And you're going to roll one D8.

00:37:06A D8?

00:37:07And two D4.

00:37:09Two D4.

00:37:10I've only got one, so I'll roll them back to back.

00:37:12I'll give you my D4 from the Dimension 20 set.

00:37:14Ooh.

00:37:15Available in the merch store.

00:37:16All at the same time?

00:37:17You're going to roll a D8 and two D4.

00:37:20I'm ready.

00:37:20Perfect.

00:37:20Right in here.

00:37:21Here we go.

00:37:22Bingo.

00:37:22Box of doom.

00:37:22Not great.

00:37:24There's a two and a six.

00:37:25Okay.

00:37:27Go ahead.

00:37:28Start munching.

00:37:29Just, I'm going to eat.

00:37:30Why did you make a spicy thing also the thing that can choke you?

00:37:34This seems like hell.

00:37:35This seems like a mistake.

00:37:36That's an unnatural color.

00:37:38Does this count as a handful?

00:37:39Great.

00:37:40That's a lot.

00:37:40Here we go.

00:37:41Okay, this sucks.

00:37:42Mash up for this Dimension 20 season.

00:37:44Okay, this is a classic Jackie Chan action movie meets The Flintstones.

00:37:49Start pitching now.

00:37:50What's the name of the season?

00:37:51Oh, Rumble and Bedrock.

00:37:52Uh, what are some ally and enemy factions the PCs might meet this season?

00:37:56Uh, Barney's evil twin brother.

00:37:59Well, who or what is this season's?

00:38:02Carnie, he works at a circus.

00:38:03A Carnie?

00:38:04A Carnie who works at the circus in the Jackie Chan Flintstones season?

00:38:08Don't worry about it.

00:38:08I'm going back in.

00:38:10Um, what's a scene we would see in this season?

00:38:12Um, I'm pretty sure, um, I'm pretty sure this is actually, unlike the show, satire and parody,

00:38:20it's going to be a deeply gritty reboot, Zack Schneider style.

00:38:24It's dark.

00:38:25It's heavy.

00:38:26It's dark.

00:38:26Oh, yeah.

00:38:27Yeah, Fred's alcoholic.

00:38:29Fuck.

00:38:29I think that's always been canon, actually.

00:38:32Well, man.

00:38:34That five o'clock shadow, he is not shaving regularly.

00:38:37Yeah, he doesn't.

00:38:37Look, this is actually getting better the more I have.

00:38:39Ooh, delightful.

00:38:40Okay, I'm locking in.

00:38:41And what does the season's climactic final battle look like?

00:38:43Uh, yeah, it's definitely in the back of a brontosaurus.

00:38:45Uh, um, I think as evil Barney's brother Carnie slides down the tail as Fred does when he

00:38:51go, uh, double backflip, you think it's game over, and then, um, I would, uh, it's worse.

00:39:04I thought it was better that it's worse.

00:39:06It's better.

00:39:07It's a sine wave.

00:39:08Let's do, uh, let's do, like, uh, a reverse, uh, Sephiroth, uh, and Fred pulls out a sharpened

00:39:15brontosaurus bone.

00:39:16Incredible.

00:39:16And, uh, Carnie impales himself.

00:39:18Jackie Chan Flintstone season references both Zack Snyder and Sephiroth, I love it.

00:39:22Good, good, good.

00:39:23Good, good, good.

00:39:23It's so derivative.

00:39:24Okay, your turn.

00:39:27Oh, it's not that bad.

00:39:29D8 in the first column, and then, and then 2D4 in the next.

00:39:34Here we go.

00:39:34I'm sure 2D4 in the next.

00:39:36And I'll re-roll if we get the same numbers.

00:39:37Okay.

00:39:40That's gonna be seven in the first column and two in the next column.

00:39:43I'm gonna start munching.

00:39:44Okay, it's Mary Shelley meets fast food mascots.

00:39:51Ah!

00:39:52No!

00:39:53It's not great.

00:39:54Mary Shelley meets fast food mascots.

00:39:56Quick, what's the name of the season?

00:39:58Jack in the Box Frankenstein.

00:40:02Uh, what are some-

00:40:03Hell!

00:40:05Ow!

00:40:06What are some friendly NPCs and factions they might meet in the season?

00:40:10Uh-huh.

00:40:11Jack in the Box Frankenstein.

00:40:12Mm-hmm.

00:40:13You already said that.

00:40:15Huh?

00:40:15It's the name of the season.

00:40:17It really hurts!

00:40:18Come on, give me somebody else.

00:40:19Give me another character.

00:40:21The Burger King werewolf.

00:40:24That's pretty good.

00:40:26Okay, now, who's the big bad?

00:40:27Who's the big bad?

00:40:29Dracula, Ronald, McDonald.

00:40:31Good, good, good.

00:40:33I'm going back in.

00:40:35Yeah, it gets better, right?

00:40:36And then worse.

00:40:37Now, what's the climactic final battle scene?

00:40:40Where does it take place?

00:40:42Play Palace, Transylvania.

00:40:45Good.

00:40:46Did I do it?

00:40:48You win.

00:40:49Sounds like good.

00:40:52Milk.

00:40:53Oh, that's good.

00:40:55That's good and spicy.

00:40:56Mm.

00:40:58Whew.

00:41:00Are we done?

00:41:01Are we doing more?

00:41:01I need new milk.

00:41:03You can have mine.

00:41:05Okay.

00:41:05Switch.

00:41:07This cup just looks like it says nuts.

00:41:10All right, switchies, let's go.

00:41:11Why did the, I, like.

00:41:13I'm good.

00:41:14Ooh.

00:41:15It's coming back.

00:41:16The milk only paused for a moment.

00:41:18Somehow Palpatine returned.

00:41:21Three and four.

00:41:24Okay.

00:41:25I'm going, I'm going hard on this one.

00:41:26Let's go.

00:41:26It's Jane Austen meets Spaghetti Westerns.

00:41:32Well, the, the, the, the, the, the, the pride, the bad, and the, the pride, the bad, and the seven

00:41:43samurai.

00:41:43The pride, the bad, and the seven samurai.

00:41:46What are some ally and enemy factions the, pieces might meet this season?

00:41:52I think the, the enemies are Melancholy and Miasma.

00:41:55I think the, the death of the day.

00:41:59Good.

00:41:59And I think the, the, on your team is, who else was I meeting?

00:42:03Jane Austen and who?

00:42:05Jane Austen, Spaghetti Western.

00:42:06Oh, I think your ally is going to be Clint Eastwood, but specifically 90 years and over.

00:42:14Over Clint Eastwood.

00:42:15Great.

00:42:16Not a character, the actor himself.

00:42:18He's, we break before the wall, he's in there somehow.

00:42:21Who or what is the season's big bad?

00:42:23Jane Austen meets Spaghetti Western.

00:42:24I'm going to think it's, um, cultural appropriation from Akira Kurosawa.

00:42:30You all know what the Magnet in Seven is.

00:42:32Don't lie, you stole it.

00:42:34Incredible.

00:42:34Mm-hmm.

00:42:35Can we see a scene from that season?

00:42:37Yeah, sure.

00:42:42My mustache is sweating.

00:42:44Oh my, things are so boring at the manor.

00:42:48Oh no, it's a group of bandits.

00:42:50Who's going to save us?

00:42:52Good thing it's a 90-year-old Clint Eastwood armed with a musket and racism.

00:42:59I don't know.

00:43:00Truly, he's talking to an empty chair at the Republican National Convention.

00:43:03Mm-hmm, yep.

00:43:03What does the season's climactic final battle look like?

00:43:05Oh man, he, he gets his body implanted into, he gets his brain implanted into, um, I can't

00:43:16do this anymore.

00:43:17This was a mistake.

00:43:18Okay.

00:43:19Why would you invite me on this show?

00:43:21This is impossible.

00:43:22They hurt us here.

00:43:23This is an impossible problem.

00:43:23And then, in the conclusion, our young heroine tricks.

00:43:28You're crying.

00:43:29I am.

00:43:30Tricks.

00:43:31Tricks.

00:43:31I'm crying because I have my master's degree and I can't think of what happens.

00:43:35It's Jane Austen.

00:43:37Yeah.

00:43:37It's Spaghetti Western.

00:43:38At the end of the movie, what happens?

00:43:40At the end of the movie, Clint Eastwood's brain gets implanted into, uh, I don't know.

00:43:45Are you saying Frankenstein for my prompt?

00:43:47Yes, Frankenstein.

00:43:49Then he learns how to love, finally.

00:43:52Okay, I'm gonna do one last one and then it's over.

00:43:54Okay, I'm enjoying this.

00:43:55It's a really fun idea.

00:43:56You guys are cool.

00:43:58Here we go.

00:43:58I'm gonna roll.

00:43:59Get this away from me.

00:44:01I'm gonna give this away to you.

00:44:02Mm-hmm.

00:44:03And if I roll any of the other ones, we don't do them.

00:44:06Okay.

00:44:08Oh God, help.

00:44:10Nope.

00:44:12Four, five.

00:44:13Oh, good.

00:44:14Have we done four already?

00:44:14No, I'm good.

00:44:15Four and five.

00:44:16Okay, hold on.

00:44:17That's pretty good.

00:44:19I wish I would've got this one.

00:44:20Stephen King meets 90s TGIF.

00:44:26By what you specifically do it under his pseudonym Richard Bachman.

00:44:29It's a Bachman book.

00:44:33Saved by the bell, it's it.

00:44:35An evil clown whose streets is replaced by an evil clown.

00:44:40Is that TGIF or was it different?

00:44:42No, it's not TGIF.

00:44:43TGIF, what was that?

00:44:44Family Matters?

00:44:44Family Matters.

00:44:46Urkel is Pennywise.

00:44:48Good.

00:44:49Strong start.

00:44:50Ow!

00:44:51Who are some of the NPCs and bad guys?

00:44:54Water me.

00:44:55Fucking Pennywise.

00:44:59How many other guys are in that one?

00:45:02Do, do, do, do.

00:45:03I don't know.

00:45:04Carl, the police officer dad, kills Cujo in the first episode.

00:45:09That's pretty good.

00:45:10That's a pretty strong character entrance.

00:45:12Who's Big Bad?

00:45:13Who's Big Bad?

00:45:14Stephen King meets TGIF.

00:45:15Stephen King meets Family Matters.

00:45:17Fucking Carrie.

00:45:20Fucking Carrie.

00:45:21Carrie is the Big Bad?

00:45:22Urkel pours pig's blood on Carrie and says, did I do that?

00:45:30It's a great genus of the catchphrase.

00:45:32And what is good?

00:45:33Give me a scene from it.

00:45:34Give me a scene from it.

00:45:35But Urkel cannot be Urkel.

00:45:36He has to be Stefan, his sexy alter ego.

00:45:40Stefan Urkel is in the one.

00:45:46Stefan Urkel releases the disease that does the stand.

00:45:51Yes.

00:45:51Stefan Urkel.

00:45:54You're drooling.

00:45:57And he goes, did I do that?

00:45:59Again.

00:46:00Good.

00:46:01Phytoclimactic battle.

00:46:03False apocalyptic world.

00:46:06Oh, wait.

00:46:08You have to include when the show jumped the shark and Urkel made a robot version of himself.

00:46:19Is this over yet?

00:46:20Carl Malone killed Urkel and killed Urkel robot.

00:46:24Urkel robot.

00:46:32Urkel robot said, did I do that?

00:46:35Sorry.

00:46:36I'll do it for real.

00:46:38Urkel robot goes, did I do that?

00:46:43Is that greenlit?

00:46:44TGIF.

00:46:51He needs some milk.

00:46:57Urkel robot.

00:46:58That's a pretty good show you invited me on.

00:47:07You guys want some?

00:47:10It's pretty good.

00:47:12And that's constitution safe.

00:47:18Our next segment's called reaction time.

00:47:21There's more?

00:47:30It's many minutes after the last segment ended in real life.

00:47:35We got to recuperate.

00:47:36It was nice.

00:47:37We got to recuperate.

00:47:38It was really nice.

00:47:38But we'll have no time to recuperate in this section because it's time to think fast with reaction time.

00:47:44This is the segment where I am going to propose pairs of prompts to you.

00:47:50Each of the pairs, you will have to decide which of the pair you prefer.

00:47:55Ooh.

00:47:56So you will have to do so instantaneously.

00:48:00You will have no time at all to think and you must go from the gut.

00:48:03Are you ready?

00:48:04Oh, my gut is, my gut is ready.

00:48:06Let's go.

00:48:07My gut is not.

00:48:08Nope.

00:48:09Nope.

00:48:09This is reaction time.

00:48:11Dubs or subs?

00:48:12Oh, dubs.

00:48:14Subs or panini?

00:48:15Mmm, panini.

00:48:16High fantasy or low fantasy?

00:48:18Ooh, low fantasy.

00:48:19I knew that.

00:48:20The Hanks or Johnny Splash?

00:48:22The Hanks.

00:48:23Pennywise or Cujo?

00:48:24Pennywise.

00:48:26Plastic dice or metal dice?

00:48:27Mmm, plastic dice.

00:48:29Yes, that's my answer.

00:48:31That's so metal or that's so raven?

00:48:32That is so metal.

00:48:34Breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast?

00:48:36Dinner for breakfast.

00:48:38Fox Machina or The Mighty Nein?

00:48:39Ooh, Box Machina.

00:48:40Hikari or Yuta?

00:48:41Ooh, Yuta.

00:48:42Dante or Virgil?

00:48:43Ooh, Virgil, it's me.

00:48:45Am I a man or am I a Muppet?

00:48:47You're a Muppet?

00:48:48That's correct.

00:48:49Free Willy or Free Will?

00:48:52Free Willy?

00:48:54And that's reaction time.

00:49:00Coming up next, our ultimate, our final segment.

00:49:05Oh, no.

00:49:05How sad, but a thoughtful one and one where we get to slow down,

00:49:08and take some questions from you, the audience.

00:49:10This is Insight Check.

00:49:20Welcome to Insight Check.

00:49:21This is the segment on the show where we take questions submitted by you,

00:49:24our awesome viewers, and give them to our illustrious guests.

00:49:27These questions have been submitted from Mr. Robby Damon.

00:49:30We want to thank you for doing so.

00:49:31Robby, this first question comes from Brennan Smith.

00:49:37Oh, Brennan, thank you for the question.

00:49:40Appreciate it.

00:49:40What are the differences and similarities between prepping a voice and performance for actual play versus prepping for scripted voice

00:49:49acting?

00:49:49Ooh, night and day.

00:49:51Couldn't be more different.

00:49:53Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:49:54There's not much prep you can do.

00:49:56Sometimes I go in boots on the ground voiceover stuff, and I don't even know what I'm doing until I

00:50:00get there.

00:50:00And it could be a substantial character.

00:50:03Like, there's just this certain level of being able to need to do immediate text analysis

00:50:08and understanding the world that you're in that makes it such a specialized skill.

00:50:12It took me a year and a half to write Cat again.

00:50:14Sometimes I'll walk in and do something that I'll be more well-known for that I have no background on.

00:50:20And I'll rely on the staff to let me know what we're doing.

00:50:24Yeah, it's super important.

00:50:25That is what a director is, ultimately, right?

00:50:27Correct.

00:50:28Someone who has the court vision so that you don't need to.

00:50:30It's very much a three-person team could get it done.

00:50:35An engineer, a producer, and a director to translate from the producer and the producer to give you context.

00:50:40And with that team, you can get it done.

00:50:42Usually, there's a lot more cooks in the kitchen.

00:50:45Yeah.

00:50:45So, if you know what I'm saying.

00:50:46Oh.

00:50:47You don't always need nine people in the room.

00:50:52Yeah, TTRPGs, yeah.

00:50:53I mean, it depends.

00:50:53I guess I could also just roll up to a game, too, couldn't I?

00:50:55That would be fun.

00:50:56Roll into a game and have someone hand me a character sheet?

00:50:59Has that ever happened?

00:51:00Does anybody do that for their home games?

00:51:01Do you guys do that?

00:51:02Take that.

00:51:02Fire the question right back at you.

00:51:04There was a game I played one time where there were people that were hired as entertainers at a party

00:51:09while a game.

00:51:10I was running a professional game for people.

00:51:12Some kind of eyes wide shut weirdness going on here.

00:51:14I don't know.

00:51:15Yes.

00:51:15Actually, yes.

00:51:16You kind of smelled it immediately.

00:51:18It was the way you said entertainers.

00:51:20There were entertainers.

00:51:21There were dancers.

00:51:23Sure.

00:51:23But the funny thing was, as the game started, it was this thing where it was someone with way too

00:51:28much money, and they hired me as, like, a fresh out of college.

00:51:31Actually, no, I was in college.

00:51:32It was my senior year.

00:51:33Wow.

00:51:33And I came and did this.

00:51:35It was the first time I ever got paid to Dungeon Master.

00:51:38Wow.

00:51:38And I came in and, like, did this stuff.

00:51:39But the person was just throwing money around.

00:51:41There was, like, a lavish feast.

00:51:42One of the dudes there was, like, a chef, like, a famous chef who was one of the players who

00:51:47had also, like, prepared food for it.

00:51:48And there were, like, these sort of chain mail lingerie dancers.

00:51:55But the issue was, I was like, the game takes, like, three hours to play.

00:51:59Sure, sure, sure.

00:52:00And you can't, like, you know, eventually these ladies are going to want to sit down.

00:52:04But to the credit, it was this thing where I think it was, like, eventually they just came and joined

00:52:11the game.

00:52:12Yeah.

00:52:12And the characters they ended up playing were a druid's wolf animal companion and a wizard's bat familiar.

00:52:17Oh, how fun.

00:52:18And they were kind of my favorite players.

00:52:21They were kind of my favorite characters, honestly.

00:52:23If you're watching this, Rich, guys, sorry.

00:52:25Sorry, dude.

00:52:26Sorry.

00:52:26You were.

00:52:28Okay.

00:52:29You were okay, yeah.

00:52:32I think that that's really – handing out characters as people play is really interesting.

00:52:37But there's a – the voiceover thing, do you do – here's a fascinating thing.

00:52:47The whole point of the player character and the player relationship at the table is that you must not prep.

00:52:53You must be in the moment.

00:52:54You must be ready for whatever may come.

00:52:56And yet, do you find there are any preparations that you do as a player?

00:53:00Like you said, for Cadigan, there was a year and a half of thinking about the character.

00:53:04Sure.

00:53:05Do you find yourself doing any, like, session prep as a player or no?

00:53:10Do you, like, review notes or other things like that?

00:53:13Oh, oh.

00:53:14My notes are so bad.

00:53:15Yeah, yeah.

00:53:16I really try.

00:53:17I try.

00:53:18I try so hard.

00:53:19Yeah, but we have people helping us with that.

00:53:21Yeah, I think so.

00:53:22Especially in C4.

00:53:23There's so much going on.

00:53:24You made big, big world.

00:53:25Big, big world.

00:53:26Yeah, got to know what's going on.

00:53:28Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:53:29It makes sense.

00:53:30Yeah.

00:53:32I've said this before on the show, but I really enjoy the PC note-taking.

00:53:38And we provide journals to our players here at Dimension 20, and I really like that.

00:53:42I would like to institute that over at Critical Role because we put the journals away in bins,

00:53:46and then I can sneak into the bin room and read people's journals.

00:53:49No, hold on a second.

00:53:51No, I won't hold on.

00:53:52It's an incredible system because not only are there some incredible note-taking in there,

00:53:57it also lets me know a PC note does two things.

00:54:00It's not only the review of the session.

00:54:02It's the review of what they thought was important.

00:54:04Oh, sure.

00:54:05That is worth more than gold, my friends.

00:54:09That's not just metagaming.

00:54:11That's omni-gaming.

00:54:13You are.

00:54:14I love it.

00:54:15Galaxy Brain.

00:54:15Some things are happening in my stomach and in my GI tract that I downed so much milk

00:54:23while I was in so much pain.

00:54:27I'm about to pop off this chair.

00:54:29Let me tell you that for free.

00:54:30I know.

00:54:32Hey, man, I know.

00:54:33I know.

00:54:35Signe from Sweden, thank you, Signe, writes,

00:54:38your backstory for Cadigan Vale was so deep.

00:54:42How do you balance having such a thoroughly prepared character with the desire to develop at the table?

00:54:49Oh, yeah.

00:54:51Wait, aren't we all doing that all the time?

00:54:53Right?

00:54:53Backstory is behind.

00:54:55Yeah, I think you write a backstory so you find out how capable of change your character could be.

00:55:01Right?

00:55:01And obviously, if you're there to go on an adventure, if you're signing up for an adventure, you've already got

00:55:07to be in a place where you're okay to change.

00:55:10So, yeah, I think you were talking, I don't know if we can reference that, but you've said in the

00:55:17past that there's maybe a bad rap for backstories going around in the TTRPG space.

00:55:21Well, yeah, but only if you're pigeonholed to it, only if that's what you're most certain that you want to

00:55:28get out into the world.

00:55:29I just wrote a backstory so I could live in your world honestly.

00:55:33And then when you came to us and you look like you are sweating.

00:55:37Are you good?

00:55:38You look like you're on the struggle bus, my friend.

00:55:40I have rolled a knot when I'm in a constitution set.

00:55:43I can feel it.

00:55:44But you're still locked in.

00:55:45You're such a pro.

00:55:46I'm locked in.

00:55:47There's so much milk in me.

00:55:49I know.

00:55:50And there's so much spicy popcorn.

00:55:53You made me spit.

00:55:54You are milky boy.

00:55:55It's true.

00:55:56I just, I have a runny nose.

00:56:00Me too.

00:56:00From what happened to me.

00:56:02Yeah, thank you for putting my camera for all this.

00:56:04This has been great.

00:56:05Hey, I think it's incredibly important to have a Richard Vary backstory, but don't let it chain you to choices

00:56:10that you don't want to make in the story.

00:56:12Immediately you told us we should have a relationship.

00:56:14So I went ahead and wrote another nine-page short story for me and Teor and Azne and Thimble.

00:56:21Yeah.

00:56:21So why not?

00:56:23I didn't know that was never part of my story, but you wanted to be part of ours.

00:56:26So I'm going to try to flesh it out for everybody.

00:56:28And everybody signed off and said, that sounds good for our relationship.

00:56:31So it's good.

00:56:33I've tried to parse the reaction to backstory from what it is.

00:56:39And it's sort of like, you could, like, if you go read like D&D nightmares online and stuff like

00:56:45that, are you okay?

00:56:46I've got a burp that is in there.

00:56:48It's in there.

00:56:49We just need production to make sure the bathrooms are clear.

00:56:52Go ahead.

00:56:53Tell me your story.

00:56:55Tell me your story.

00:56:56It's good.

00:56:57Storytelling is what makes us human.

00:57:00It's what makes us have to shit.

00:57:04It's what makes us.

00:57:08We're discovering what makes us human right now in this exact moment.

00:57:11I've never felt more human.

00:57:13I have never in my life felt more human.

00:57:15You're doing great.

00:57:15I am a member of the animal kingdom.

00:57:18You understand?

00:57:19What were we talking about?

00:57:21Yeah.

00:57:24Backstory is an important.

00:57:29My daughter, who's two, keeps throwing up this.

00:57:32I don't think she knows.

00:57:33But she's not.

00:57:33But she looks like she's constantly doing Hove.

00:57:35She's constantly.

00:57:38She's not in the Illuminati yet, right?

00:57:41I keep asking her and she keeps going.

00:57:43She wouldn't tell you if she was.

00:57:45No, no, no.

00:57:46Maybe she's part of some.

00:57:47Maybe she's like a Freemason or something.

00:57:48I don't know.

00:57:49The important thing is this.

00:57:53I try to look at the bad rap that Backstory gets.

00:57:55And I think that like it's one of those things where the thing that's being criticized is a thing past

00:58:00the thing being criticized.

00:58:01Oh, yeah.

00:58:02Where it's like people are talking about like, oh, like they'll describe someone who isn't listening to any other players,

00:58:10is constantly inserting their Backstory narrative into scenes that are present.

00:58:16And people look at that and they go, well, it's that Backstory that's the problem rather than.

00:58:21Conflating the symptoms in the cause, the real cause.

00:58:23It might be part of it.

00:58:24Right, exactly, where you go like, where it's like, this person keeps like railroading us into stuff having to do

00:58:32with them.

00:58:32It's because of that dang Backstory, not because they're rude as hell, right?

00:58:36Right.

00:58:36Or saying like, or being like, and the reason I never do that is because I don't know a single

00:58:43fucking thing about me, right?

00:58:45Like, I couldn't steer us in a direction if I wanted to because I'm absolutely clueless.

00:58:50Are you saying people exalt themselves to justify their laziness on occasion?

00:58:56Anyway, listen.

00:58:58Is this the spicy part of the conversation?

00:59:00I forgot it.

00:59:00No.

00:59:00That's a real hot take.

00:59:01That's a real hot take.

00:59:02Well, I do think that there's a, there's a certain absence of Backstory that I like.

00:59:13I mean, it just goes back to your metaphor of the person who's about to miss their dear grandfather's graduation.

00:59:19You know, like.

00:59:20I'm never going to live that one.

00:59:21I'm never going to live that one down.

00:59:23Grandpa's graduating today.

00:59:24We have to be there.

00:59:27I fully, I just had this strong memory of me and my dad being late to a family funeral because

00:59:34I didn't have dress socks and my dad was, and we had to go buy dress socks.

00:59:40And the only dress socks that we could have, we had were, that there was in the store.

00:59:43He's just like, you, he's like, your ankles can't be bare at a funeral.

00:59:46You have to have socks that go up the, which I think is something he may be.

00:59:49Yeah, you'd want your, you'd want your dead relative to know you're cool.

00:59:51In any case, I had, I wore leopard print socks to the funeral.

00:59:55Oh, great.

00:59:56And all my aunts pointed them out.

00:59:57The point being, without backstory, I think people make less tonally consistent choices.

01:00:11Sure.

01:00:11Like, if you don't know that you're catching the bus to go to the funeral, you're going to run different.

01:00:14Yeah.

01:00:15Right?

01:00:15And I think that backstory gets a bad rap.

01:00:18It's also like, you'll never have as much backstory as your character would actually have.

01:00:25No.

01:00:25Right?

01:00:25Like, so you're always looking for.

01:00:28That is such, yeah, that is such a good point too.

01:00:31Also, this is a thing that I would like teach my theater students, right?

01:00:36Like, because sometimes these kids will get lost in the sauce, right?

01:00:38You're like, okay, I want you to work on a backstory because that is a thing to do.

01:00:41Yeah.

01:00:41And then I would look at their backstory and it'd be 40 pages and it'd be all this stuff.

01:00:45And I'm like, great.

01:00:46Now go back through this and circle anything that is apropos to what's actually happening in this play right now.

01:00:52And you would often find it's, you know, minuscule compared to what they wrote.

01:00:57And as long as they understand their character more, that's fine.

01:01:00But like, it needs to inform what you're doing in the moment or it's useless.

01:01:06Yes.

01:01:06So as long as those two things go together, I think it's fine.

01:01:11I think it's a powerful tool.

01:01:13I really agree with that.

01:01:16Jenna E. sent in, this is a hysterical question.

01:01:20Jenna E. sent in, how do you make your characters hot without being cringe?

01:01:26How do I be hot, not cringe?

01:01:29Jenna E., free yourself from this person.

01:01:33Yeah, yeah, it's fine.

01:01:34How do you be hot without being cringe though?

01:01:36Oh man, it's such a challenge.

01:01:40That was so funny to cop that attitude and be like, I find it really hard.

01:01:48I love, I can't, I can't draw to save my life.

01:01:52I can't, I can't draw a stick figure.

01:01:54It's just, I was not, I can play music, I can perform.

01:01:57I can't do that.

01:01:57But I do have like a really, I can top level look at a design and describe it, right?

01:02:05And I really love working with artists.

01:02:07It is such a talent that I'm so envious of.

01:02:10So when we work with artists on these character designs, we talk about like what form and structure,

01:02:17like what kind of hot do you want to be?

01:02:20Yeah.

01:02:20And you don't always have to be hot, but you can be, you can be hot if you want to

01:02:24as long as it's honest hot.

01:02:25There's a 45-year-old guy hot.

01:02:27Honest hot.

01:02:28Honest hot.

01:02:29Honest hot.

01:02:29That's the alignment chart I want to see.

01:02:31Yeah?

01:02:32The honest hot to liar hot.

01:02:34Yeah.

01:02:34Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:02:36There was a moment where I got, it was the worst advice I ever got when I was trying to

01:02:42get a job bartending.

01:02:43I was working as a waiter at another restaurant, and there was a person there who was like,

01:02:47these bars will hire you on the spot if you're from Ireland.

01:02:51You do a good Irish accent.

01:02:52You should apply.

01:02:53This is like only a thing like that a 19-year-old would think is like.

01:02:56Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:02:57So I went.

01:02:57I can keep this up for my entire term of employment.

01:03:00But that's the thing is I went there and talked in an Irish accent at one of these bars,

01:03:03and I got a call back, and they're like, you're hired.

01:03:06So it worked, and then I went, am I Irish for the rest of my life now?

01:03:11So the funny thing about it was, and I didn't end up working that.

01:03:15I literally didn't call them back because I was like, oh, I'm fucked.

01:03:17I can't, I don't want to do that.

01:03:19Yeah.

01:03:19So the way that relates to this is don't do the false version of hot because you'll have to spend

01:03:27the rest of your life.

01:03:27But there is no universal attractive quality.

01:03:33There is only things that are attractive to people who find those things attractive.

01:03:37That's true.

01:03:38So in other words, it's all, it might be rooted in something real, but it might not be arbitrary, but

01:03:46it is subjective.

01:03:47Oh, yeah, 100%.

01:03:47So in that subjectivity, you will, I think that like, in terms of making those, whatever the, you know, how

01:03:55do you make your character hot without being cringe?

01:03:56Sure.

01:03:57Being afraid of cringe will kill every part of your soul, and I also think that hotness is relative, and

01:04:03being, you know.

01:04:04I think I've got it.

01:04:05Yeah.

01:04:06I think I have a real answer to this question.

01:04:07Let's hear it.

01:04:07I think a lot of times when people create a hot or like overly attractive version of whatever they're attracted

01:04:14to, I think they tend to overemphasize the things that they're attracted to.

01:04:19I really do think that's a common thing.

01:04:22There's like, oh, I love this feature.

01:04:24I'm going to make this feature the most prominent feature.

01:04:27It's like, that's not really how, that's not really how things are made.

01:04:30It's all of those things coming together that give you that subjective thing, right?

01:04:34Yeah.

01:04:35You see, it's like, it's like when you see a, you see a kid in junior high drawing a picture

01:04:40of a hot girl.

01:04:42Yeah.

01:04:43And it's like big boobies, big butt, and you're like, but that, that does go away sometimes.

01:04:48You know what I mean?

01:04:49And it's very, well, it's an embellishment on something that is like a point of focus or perseveration.

01:04:54I think what's interesting is also that Jenna E. sent us in, how you make her hot without being cringe.

01:04:58It does conjure an image, Jenna, thank you for the question, of someone, Jack Skellington, crumpled paper, nearby like, I've

01:05:07made 40 characters and none of them are hot enough.

01:05:11Why don't we, like, what's interesting is I think any quality you make in a character is for serving a

01:05:17purpose in a story.

01:05:19And the interesting, I think there's an interesting question of like, why make a character hot at all?

01:05:23We, wow, why make a character hot at all?

01:05:26I don't know.

01:05:27Maybe it's just fun to think about hot people.

01:05:29It is fun.

01:05:31I did, we did make a video game where there's 100 of them.

01:05:34And our discovery in making this dating sim was that you really can find something for everyone.

01:05:41And we're, you know, thinking about the idea of a sequel way down the road.

01:05:45And it's like, wow, what, do we have to do another 100 characters or 200 characters?

01:05:48And they're like, yeah.

01:05:50And they're all going to be hot in their own way.

01:05:52Because there's something for everybody, baby.

01:05:54That's what I think.

01:05:55Yeah.

01:05:55I agree with that.

01:05:56I think there's something.

01:05:57It's very funny because I, this, I love this question, but I am also, all I can do is attack

01:06:04the premise within it.

01:06:05How do you make your characters hot without being cringe?

01:06:07Stop worrying about being cringe.

01:06:09Why do you want to be hot?

01:06:10Good point.

01:06:11It's a good point.

01:06:13But it's very, I think there is something to the, the like, I also really loved it in Campaign 4

01:06:21specifically because we had, I've said this before,

01:06:23but I love that we had some really hot men and some truly weird women.

01:06:28It made me really happy.

01:06:29All, all of the women were like, I want to be a demon with fucking goat eyes.

01:06:33I want to be a pixie with dragonfly wings.

01:06:34I want to be an elf with scars and a metal jaw.

01:06:38It was with a veil and a censor whip.

01:06:40And all the men were like, I want to be beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy.

01:06:45Big, beautiful boy.

01:06:46And yet, and yet, the volume of fan art, of thirsty fan art for the weird people, however you want

01:06:56to say it, through the roof.

01:06:58Through the roof.

01:06:58Something for everyone.

01:06:59Something for everyone.

01:07:00Hey, there's a lot of people.

01:07:01I think that, you know, that's the thing.

01:07:04There's something for everyone.

01:07:04I don't even know what hot is on an objective level.

01:07:07I think it's just make something that expresses a vision you have in your heart of the kind of person

01:07:13you want to pretend to be.

01:07:15Wow.

01:07:16Our final question for you today.

01:07:20I'm so ready.

01:07:22Whatafruit asks, thank you, Whatafruit, as someone who integrated so naturally into Critical Role, do you have any advice for

01:07:30people?

01:07:30This is actually the first time I've ever seen this question, and it's a really practical one.

01:07:35This comes up a lot.

01:07:35Okay.

01:07:36Do you have any advice for people who are joining a pre-established group as a new player?

01:07:42Oh, wow.

01:07:43Well, I guess I can speak to that.

01:07:45Oh, shit.

01:07:47It's rough.

01:07:48It's rough, Justin.

01:07:50That's hot.

01:07:51Glad I did that on camera.

01:07:53Hey, popcorn and milk.

01:07:56Popcorn and milk?

01:07:57Oh, boy.

01:07:58It's like, all you have to do is be yourself.

01:08:01I think there are natural levels of comfort when it comes to joining a new group, whatever yours may be.

01:08:10And everybody gets caught up in this idea of, they're not going to like me.

01:08:14I'm not going to fit in here.

01:08:16I've got to be this certain way to integrate into those people.

01:08:19And the truth about life is, you can't do that.

01:08:23I think people are so connected and so perceptive to a fake in their midst that regardless of whether or

01:08:31not your intentions are good and you just want to make everyone around you comfortable, if you're doing something that's

01:08:35disingenuous, that is not you, you will not fit in.

01:08:39And that's a tough pill to swallow.

01:08:42But the cool part about it also is, it doesn't matter if you don't.

01:08:47You're going to feel way better if you're yourself and you play the way that you want to play.

01:08:52And you'll find out really quick if there's anything you do need to work on personally if you don't integrate

01:08:59with a group of people that you perceive to be good or that you want to be with.

01:09:03You have to go to, it takes a certain level of self-awareness of like, why am I not vibing

01:09:08with these people?

01:09:10And it's true.

01:09:12So it's basic, but you just have to be yourself.

01:09:14I relate to that so much.

01:09:17To Waterfruit for asking this question, I relate to this so much because I think I have tremendous, to this

01:09:24day, tremendous trepidation about making an entree to a new community.

01:09:28Oh, yeah.

01:09:28I just have the feeling of, what can I do to make it okay for me to be here?

01:09:35And I think that there's a, it never really goes away.

01:09:38No matter how comfortable you end up in other spheres of your life, there's always that weird feeling, at least

01:09:42for me.

01:09:43But what's fascinating about it is you do have to develop, there's always this assumption that comes from a really

01:09:50frightened place where you're like, well, there's a peg and there's a hole.

01:09:57And the hole is some shape and maybe I'll just squeeze myself into some other shape to be able to

01:10:02fit here.

01:10:03And it's such a fun fantasy to think of that is a fantasy because, A, I think sometimes it's like,

01:10:11well, I can't really change my shape and a lot of people can't.

01:10:14And then, B, I think there's also this thing of like, so what?

01:10:18So success looks like having an Irish accent at work forever?

01:10:22Like, what does success look like if you modify yourself for this table or you modify yourself for this experience?

01:10:28In a weird way, you're inviting people to have a certain level of bravery in that you want to discover

01:10:36if that table would reject your true self because that's important information for you.

01:10:42Yeah.

01:10:43I love that you used the word bravery.

01:10:45That's honestly one of my favorite human qualities.

01:10:49And I think if you have a little bit of that in you, whatever you feel to be that would

01:10:54make you hesitant to join a group.

01:10:56Because there are people, right?

01:10:57Let's just be real.

01:10:58There are people that are just like, bam, I'll be everywhere.

01:11:00I'll do everything.

01:11:01That's not the majority of us.

01:11:03We're comfort in the communities that we have.

01:11:07But if you're brave enough to step outside of that, anybody who's brave, you got a seat at my table,

01:11:12right?

01:11:13Yeah.

01:11:13Like that for me, if you're doing something outside of your comfort zone and you're at least trying it,

01:11:19fine.

01:11:20And I really do, I really, again, this goes back to, I don't think the stakes are that high.

01:11:26Yeah.

01:11:27They really are in almost everything in life.

01:11:30And this, go back to what we talked about at the very beginning.

01:11:32If you believe in yourself and you feel like you've got a good moral compass and you're a capable person,

01:11:38you could wipe it all out to zero tomorrow and then go on and do anything else.

01:11:43And it might be sad and it might hurt and that transitional period might be whatever.

01:11:46And maybe you don't fit at this table, but you will find another one.

01:11:49You will find your people, but only if you go and get out in the world and be brave.

01:11:54And I'm not assigning that much, you know, lofty goals to playing TTRPGs.

01:12:01But it is a lesson for life where you just got to, you got to be yourself and do it.

01:12:07And that's, ah, it's tough and scary for a lot of people, but you'll be, live a more storied and

01:12:15lore filled life should you make those choices when you can.

01:12:20The victory will be sweeter because you'll know that they accepted you for who you, if you went in as

01:12:26yourself and you were brave and you said, I'm going to this, like, as I'm joining this table, I'm, you

01:12:31know.

01:12:31And I think there's, like, looking at this, too, there's a, you know, if you're joining a pre-established group,

01:12:38they wouldn't have invited you if there wasn't something they liked about you.

01:12:41Correct.

01:12:41So, rather than getting worked up about it, just try to do your best to be yourself.

01:12:46And like you're saying, if, rather than contorting yourself, being yourself means that if you are accepted, they accepted the

01:12:53true you.

01:12:54And if they don't accept the true you, then you dodged a fucking bullet.

01:12:57Yeah.

01:12:58And it's really tough for people to accept what they think of, what they think of or perceive to be

01:13:03failure, right?

01:13:04It's really a hard thing for people to get over.

01:13:07But, but there is no such thing.

01:13:09It's not real.

01:13:10Like, like, objectively, it's real.

01:13:13When you're talking about, like, you know, small goals or whatever, like, yeah, sure, there's, you can fail at something,

01:13:18but I don't know.

01:13:19I don't know if I believe in it.

01:13:20A failure is only a failure if this is the end.

01:13:23Yeah.

01:13:23And it only is ever the end one time.

01:13:29Folks, this has been Robbie Damon.

01:13:31Thank you so much for being here, Robbie.

01:13:32I'm so glad to be here.

01:13:34This has been Adventuring Academy.

01:13:36Thank you so much, and we'll see you next time.

01:13:38Farewell.

01:13:40See you next time.

01:13:41See you next time.

01:13:49See you next time.

01:13:49Gracias.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended