1 Year Anniversary Q&A!

Today we are celebrating the 1 year anniversary of The RPG Goblin! 

A year ago I release the first ever episode of this podcast and man has it been an amazing journey! I want to thank everyone who has listened to this show so far especially anyone who has been around since the beginning! I appreciate it with all of my heart!

I talk about why I started the show, the types of characters I wish to play, some of my favorite TTRPGs, how I got into TTRPGs, and SO MUCH MORE! 

Enjoy this Q&A which was a live event I hosted in The RPG Goblin Discord! 
https://discord.gg/fGYzqQvrUa

Transcript

0:00

Welcome everyone to the RPG Goblin, a t t RPG exploration podcast. Today, we are gonna be doing something a little bit different as this is going to be a Q and A episode, which I am actually recording live in my Discord. This is really exciting because when you are listening to this episode, it is going to be the 1st anniversary of the RPG Goblin, which means that I've been in the show and, like, posting episodes for a year now, which is absolutely insane. I still can't quite wrap my head around it, but Thank you so much for everyone who's been listening along and following along with this whole project because I've been having a blast, and I can't wait to do it for even longer. And, for this, we are doing a q and a. And, I have a bunch of questions and stuff that people have submitted before we started, plus, people are going to be hanging out in the chat here as we're recording this, asking questions along, as we record and all of that fun stuff. So, yeah, I I'm very excited about this, and I guess I kinda want to, reflect a bit because I don't think I've actually ly set it I mean, I may have said it in a recent episode, but I don't think I've actually formally said kind of how the RPG Goblin has started, so I think that's kind of a good starting off point here before we dive into all of these questions. And so, If you don't know, the RPG Goblin actually started, in it was January of 2023. I actually got the idea to do it, I think in the summer of 2022, when I was actually coming home from visiting family up in Ohio. And I was super into, I was running a D and D campaign at the time, and I was starting to actually get into more of the t t r p g space and, like, all the different books and games that were out there. And so I wouldn't stop talking about them and I was just really really obsessed and so when we were coming back from this trip, I just kept like, oh my god, I just thought about this idea for my campaign or I just found this really cool book, specifically at the time it was Land of Eem, which I love that game so much, and I wouldn't stop talking about that. And my mom is insanely supportive but, she told me during that trip that she loves me but I need to start a podcast or something because she can't keep listening to me talking about TTRPG so much and that's actually why I started the RPG Goblin because I'm like wait that's actually a really good idea why don't I start a podcast where I can, you know, actually talk about these games and not annoy my parents or, I guess, my entire family. Luckily, my my siblings are into TTRPGs too, and they actually are the ones who play in my home game so shout out to you guys because you guys are awesome and all of that but I always like telling that story because I think a lot of people can relate to, like, their family not caring about the games that they're playing which is, like, understandable, but at the same time I feel like it's so nice to have an outlet to just talk about this, like, hobby that you're obsessed with, and for me the RPG Goblin was exactly that. At first it was just like I want to talk to people about TTRPGs I didn't really have a full direction and so there's actually some, there is a recording or maybe some even episodes, I think several episodes potentially that it could be split up into that have never been released of, like, kind of the first draft of recording for the RPG Goblin, with one of my friends, Jay, who runs Magpie Dice. Jay's absolutely fantastic. I love them. They were on for the quiet here in wander home episodes, which was great. And so we kinda, like, test recorded some stuff to see if this worked. And then, after that, I decided to bring on Emily, to talk about monster of the week because I was that was, like, the big game in my head that I'm just obsessed with. I was, like, gearing up to start a campaign more around that time, and so we recorded that. And I found that I really, really loved talking to people about these games and, like, actually, like, learning about them along the way too because, yeah, I wanna talk, but I also I I feel like I'm a fun, and I really like to just absorb all the information. A lot of the times, I will just I will listen to conversations instead of actually, like, contributing to them because I just wanna, sucking all of the knowledge, and so that's why I really like the format of bringing people on to talk about games they really liked and or or topics or things like that and talk about their experiences and and why they love these games and all of that because it it just, like, feeds that need for me to just consume all this information plus I get to have fun conversations about games, so I think that's really awesome. I mean that's kind of the story of why this show got started and I think it's pretty cool in in my opinion, and it's it's been a really fun project. And it's funny because it took me actually it took me a few months to even release the 1st episode of the RPG Goblin 2 because I was so nervous about, like, actually releasing it to the public and like what people were going to think and even if it was going to be something that worked so I think I had like that Monster of the Week episode recorded sometime in October and it didn't actually release until January but yeah no I that's kind of the, I guess, journey of starting the RPG Goblin, which I'm still just again, amazed that we've come this far already, but I think we should probably actually maybe get to the point of this whole thing, which is a q and a. First question, though, is from Jeff from Big Campaign Pod, which Jeff is a great guy. I've had him on for, Pathfinder 1st edition episode which was really really fun and

he asked: 6:05

What's the 1 game you haven't gotten to talk about that you want to? It's it's it's simple but at the same time it's incredibly hard to just name 1 game because I could probably name at least there's 3 that go off at the top of my head immediately then I could probably name a 1000000 more because I like way too many of these games but here I'll give top 3 and then I'll narrow it down to 1 and why. So I think that kind of the top 3 games that I've been really dying to talk about on the show and find somebody to talk about it with on the show is, Basin, Apocalypses Keys and Land of Eem. The only one I'll give Land of Eem is that it's not officially out yet it's still, like, releasing and printing its books from, the crowdfunding campaign so that's at least understandable of why I haven't found anyone quite yet, but, the other 2 have actually been out for a while, and I've been dying to, cover those games. I'll give a little bit of an overview of what these games our and why I like them. First of all, Vaesen is a game from Free League. It's all about, like, Scandinavian or Nordic horror as you're, like, hunting as you're hunting these, vason which are these, like, folklore kind of monsters it's, like, a beautiful game it's really gritty and really dangerous too. It's very easy to die. I just love the setting of it and it's also one of my favorite books to flip through and read because the art is absolutely perfect. I love the way that the system works and all of that, then we have Apokolips Keys, which is a game that I think went on Kickstarter last year, and that's all about plain as these omen class, like, really powerful monsters, who are hired by this company called Division to basically prevent the apocalypse from happening, except the fact that as these monsters, if you can't control your powers, you can actually become a harbinger of the apocalypse and accelerate it and start it, which I just find really, really interesting. It's actually, like, kind of based off of powered by the apocalypse in Brindlewood Bay. And it's all about, like, these mysteries of trying to figure out who these harbingers and where these doors are that will actually, you you know, lead up to the apocalypse, and it's just a beautifully, like, emotionally tragic game. I I love it. Than Land of Eem, which like I already mentioned before it's not officially out yet but it's a game that is basically Lord of the Rings meets the Muppets, which is my absolute favorite thing in existence. I love that concept and it probably doesn't help by help the fact that my family actually calls me a muppet. So I choose to believe that helps my connection with the game, basically that game is like a super whimsical fantasy going on quests in this, like, industrial dungeoneering era of this world, and it's so delightfully goofy and, I mean, whimsical. And so that Those those are the top 3, I would say, that I really want to cover on the show, and I haven't yet. Though I may actually be doing an episode of Vason soon, so a little bit of a sneak peek there, which I'm really excited about. So I think I'll cut that one from like the top one and I may I may say APOCALYPSE KEYS may be the top game, like, the 1 game that I've been dying to talk about on the show and haven't. Like, it's been out for a while. I've read through it. I'm in love with the concept tucked in the art and all of these details surrounding it and I feel like I just haven't found people who are playing it yet. That's kind of been the big reason why I haven't talked about it is I haven't found anyone who's played the game and so I'm just dying to see, like, maybe an actual play or or or someone who has done something with it because I just love that game so much that I I I want it to be on the show so bad. So if anyone's listening and, you've played Apocalyps Keys let me know because I would love to talk about it on the show. Also, Land A Beam is in that boat too. Basin, I think I have covered already. But, yeah, APOCALYPSE CASE, I think, is the one game that I've been really wanting to have on the show and haven't been able to cover yet. So thank you, Jeff, for that question that I may have overcomplicated a little bit because I can't just pick 1 TTRPG there's too many that I like, and I could still even think about more that I've been dying to cover, but We're gonna move on from that because I could probably do a whole thing about all the games that I wanna cover on this show, which that could be fun of, like, here's here's a bunch of games that I wanna cover on the show I haven't and maybe some rundowns of them. But next, we have Crystal, who is a ginger gal. She actually is the writer of, divine calling, which is a game that I really love as well and that I can't wait to actually get, but she asked what is the 1 game genre that I feel is underserved? And for me I actually think that is horror, specifically like with TTRPGs horror TTRPGs I think is really underserved and I think a big reason for that is that they can be really tricky to pull off. You know, there's some big ones out there, like Dread and and Ten Candles and Call of Cthulhu that I think are kind of the titans of, like, horror TTRPGs, and those are all really good games. 10 candles is still one of the ones that I wanna try really, really badly. I need to get, like, that dark cabin in the middle of the woods, but I think the horror genre for TTRPGs is pretty underserved, especially ones that don't feel super clunky to use because I was actually recently, I have a friend's birthday that just came up, and something I like doing for my group is running, like, these birthday one shots. So I've done quite a few games so far, and for this friend, they are super into horror. And and so I was trying to find, like, a good horror game to run for them. And, unfortunately unfortunately, we are online, so stuff like 10 candles and dread had to be cut immediately since Those have really important physical elements to them. So, instead, I went with, okay. Here's some other suggestions, like the zone by oh, god. What's his name? I'm real like one of the things that I'm I'm horrible at and I want to get better at is actually remembering names of designers and stuff. I am I've always been really bad with names especially when I was in school. I actually had a friend where on the 1st day I was like hey, I need you to probably say your name like several different times for it to actually stick in my head. Oh yeah, Rafael D'Amalco. But I was going through, like, all of the horror RPGs that I have on, my, like, mega Google Drive of TTRPGs, and I felt like I couldn't really find anything that really fit, especially an online, horror game that didn't have to rely on things like a Jenga tower or candles, and so I think horror RPGs are really underserved for me, ones that are simple to use and ones that don't require a physical element because that kind of eliminates the possibility of online play unless you're really creative to get around it. I know, 10 Candles has a tabletop simulator, like mod or there's not a tabletop there's a a a mod on tabletop simulator that someone made where you can play 10 candles, which is a way that I would like to try and play it if I was able to get a group together online, since that at least you can try and simulate some of those real life environments but yeah I think I think horror ttrpgs I'd like to see more of them. And so I mean, this is also an invitation if anyone would like to send me horror TTRPGs, cool games that you think work really well in the horror genre because right now I know like 10 Candles, Dread, Call of Cthulhu I think like there's a game called Bluebeard's bridal or something I think that's horror? Brindlewood Bay is also technically horror ish as well I know they have have elements of, eldritch horror in them but also you play as a bunch of cute old ladies, like, solving mysteries which I just think is really cute so it's hard to be like spooky game when when it's really cute. But maybe there's more within the indie space that I just need to check out. So I actually probably know more solo horror games, which I love those and I'll cover some of those later since I know there's a question about solo, TTRPGs here but yeah, I think horror horror and maybe I don't know I think there's there's a lot of sci fi and fantasy and modern out there, so I think that one's a big one for me. From stinkmeister, which I just have to say I love that name so much it always makes me crack up when I see it in the discord. Stinkmeister asks what the most unexpected twist or turn that you or your players have introduced to a TTRPG world catching you completely off guard. Now this one's actually kind of gotten me stuck as I've, like, tried to think about, some examples and it may just because I I haven't been playing a lot of consistent games for a while, so I I feel like my memory is not great on this for some of the games that I've been that have had, like, big twists or turns, but I think probably the one that comes immediately to mind is in my D and D, in my first D and D campaign that I was running with my friends. One of the characters was actually connected with this, like, demon lady, and she kind of was provoking and and and kind of a a jerk, but she would show up every once in a while, and she was kind of becoming the main antagonist for the game. Sadly, we ended up, we ended up killing the game before we were actually able to really get any payoff from this villain. But what I ended up doing was a game recap sort of or like kind of where my vision for the game was going and in that, I actually revealed that during this whole time, they've been trying to figure out who this lady is, and all they knew is that her name was Avidan and that she was a demon or or yeah. That she was a demon specifically. And so that was the only information that they could find and they couldn't, like, in game research they couldn't find anything and I reveal at the end as I'm doing kind of this epilogue thing that surprise, surprise. She's actually been a god the entire time. That surprised a lot of my players of, like, are you serious? And kind of the whole thing that the whole reason why she was a god, I had it planned since the beginning, is that I I'm super into I I I really love patheons that involve multiple different gods. And so when I designed my patheon for my game, I really wanted a bunch of different gods. And for me, I didn't want gods that were just good. So, specifically, Abaddon was a goddess of, like, pain and tyranny and, like, all of these different things and she just she got off on basically causing people pain, and and that's why she was connected with this character because kind of the whole story that this character was going through caused this person a lot of pain and so she kept pushing that character further and further and further to mess messed with her, like, she's basically playing a game. And so, that was, like, a huge twist at, like, the when we were wrapping up this game is that she was an actual god. And so I thought that was really, really cool and in that same I mean that especially, you know, was a huge world thing and I wish I had an answer specifically for like a player that had like a huge twist or turn within the world but I don't think I've had, like, a a really big moment yet where my players have introduced something insane to the world since we all started actually playing D and D and in public games specifically and still being really collaborative in the world is still new to our group, especially since, like, we've only played our 1st non D and D game this year, and I I always try to remind them that they can add elements to the world and and bring in their own things. But I do know one that got me is in that this one isn't world specific this is more character specific. Our paladin within that, D and D game that I was running actually changed their oath, like, midway through the game and that surprised me a lot because this wasn't something we were really planning yet and so we, you know, we sit down to play and we're starting to go through these motions and the character that's been kind of tormented by this now we know God, but at the time devil, like, revealed all this information about, you know, like, what Abaddon's been doing and all of this and went over this whole thing of how this character kinda went through a breakdown after Abaddon Abaddon kind of pushed her a little too far, and all of this was was, like, talk through. We made sure this was fine, and then later on that like, later in that day, that character ended up locking themselves in the bathroom, cutting off all their hair because, like, on top of that, they've just they had a lot of personal information come up through Abaddon and her kind of being on the opposite side of their god and or at least, you know, knowing her as a devil so far. Obviously, she was on the opposite side of their god, but then she actually was, like, the polar opposite of their god, and they ended up, like, doing this whole transformation, like, cutting off their hair and, like, physical transformation and change their oath from a paladin of glory to a paladin of vengeance to get back at this, demon lady for hurting their friend and basically being against, their god and it was like this really big thing that I thought was so freaking cool that was really awesome, but that like, technically, that wasn't, like, a huge world, like, twist or anything, but that was just a really cool moment and something I loved from from my players just bringing in their own agency of, like, this is what I'm gonna do, and I think that's super awesome. And I hope for more of my players to bring in, like, big world twists, but, yeah, let's probably move on I feel like this may go for a little longer than I'm intending, because I am really bad at, trying to keep things short when talking. I just talk a lot. So yeah. Alright. Let's continue. So from Technomancer Kyle, which, Kyle, you left so many questions and I'm so excited to get to all of them. First question you have is how has running this podcast changed you or your or your perspective? And I think this is this is a great question because for me, running this podcast has changed me a lot. Specifically it's definitely changed my social life. Before I started the podcast, I recently moved to Florida and I don't love Florida and I yeah it's not fun but, I recently moved to Florida and a lot and by doing that, I left a lot of my friends behind in Ohio, and I'm really bad at, like, kind of keeping in contact over, text with them, and so I was start I was getting pretty lonely around that time, and I reconnected with some of my older friends, and and we got, you know, some groups together. I started to play, like, that D and D game, and now we're playing, you know, monster of the week and such, but other than, like, a select, I don't know, like, 2 people. I didn't really have other people in my life to be talking about with stuff and so a big way that this podcast has changed me is, like, it's provided a huge opportunity to meet people and actually, like, make friends in this space that I really really love. Like, I get to talk to people about TTRPG's book could be better than that, like, seriously, it is, like, my favorite thing, and it's changed me because I actually have friends now and I've learned a lot as well the way that I started to, you know, running my 1st ever D and D game, which was about 2 years ago to now. I have learned so many different things about running games, about game theory, about all of these concepts that I never really considered even when I first started to get into playing TTRPGs, especially when I first started playing D and D. I had no idea anything that was going on then, but, like, I have changed so much just with my GMing, because, like especially with, like, collaborative storytelling, learning more about that and wanting to implement that more into my games, different techniques. I know that monster of the week episode that I did gave me a lot of ideas just because I was able to actually talk to someone about running a game and hear how they did it, and so that gave me ideas. Even if I didn't implement every single thing, it at least got my brain going on stuff, and I also think it's it's really helped me as a person too because, you know I used to be a dice maker before this and I loved doing that, but I was pretty to myself on stuff, and that was just because I was kind of uncomfortable putting myself fully out there. And with, you know, the RPG Goblin. The whole thing is, like, no. I'm promoting this podcast. I'm the host of it. You know, I'm the main person that's always gonna be on every single episode, and it's kind of forced me out of my comfort zone to really put myself out there and more confidently too. So it it's changed me in a lot of different ways, and it's changed my perspective on games so much because I definitely was someone who thought, like, kind of the GM controlled everything, especially, like, early days of me playing d and d two, and, I mean, that has been mythically changed as as I've learned more, by running the show. So, you know, it's it's changed a lot about the way I perceive TTRPGs and even my own personal life too. So I I'm I'm just so thankful for for the show. It's it's been it's been life changing, I mean, clearly. But second question that Kyle has. Is there any lessons you wanna share to anyone wanting to get into making podcasts? And this is gonna be very specific to, like, my journey. I recorded several different episodes before I released the RPG Goblin it was months it took me months to actually release them and it took me until I told myself to not be a coward to do it so my biggest advice is just dark. If you want to have a podcast and you want to start a podcast, the best way to do it is to ignore all of the thoughts in your head that is, like, you know, what if this fails or anything like that? Just start doing it. And if you have fun doing it, then you're gonna wanna continue, and don't worry about what other people our thinking. Just you should be doing something that you enjoy and just start doing it because it's so easy, at least for me, specifically. It's so easy to put it off and be like, you know, yeah. This this show may not really be any good. People may have different opinions and may disagree with it. Don't care about any of that. Well, I mean, I like it's hard to say that because, like, even now I still care about what people think about the show, but those thoughts are always gonna be in your head, and it's easier to just try and push past them and just start it. Just start the thing, and that's my best advice, you know, just just start the thing is is my lesson, but also, you know, learn a little bit about microphones and and stuff like that because I recently, like, listened back to the 1st episode of the RPG Goblin, aka the monster of the week 1, and I realized how bad my mic quality was. And even though I think that's still a fine episode, it it hurts a little bit because it's, like, my mic quality has definitely improved, and I think it makes for a much better listening experience. So do look into microphones and getting one that doesn't sound terrible for your 1st episode, but other than that I think for me, like, all of this has been a you know, I've been learning it along the way, and so it's hard to give, like, a bunch of lessons on, like, here's how you do it, but, yeah, I think the biggest one is just start it. I think that's the best advice and lesson that I can give. What is my favorite type of character to play? This is also from Kyle. So I personally am a forever GM in my group. I love it it's one of my favorite things to do so I don't really get to play a lot of characters. I mean I play a lot of npcs, but I haven't played too many, like, actual, you know, player characters, especially recently. But one of my favorite, like, archetypes of, like, characters to play for n p c's is, like, the soft boy. Specifically, you know, in in my D and D campaign, we had an n p c named tame, and he ended up becoming the boyfriend of 1 of the characters. And he was just he was just a really caring and and soft person, thin, and the character who is his girlfriend was actually the one getting kind of tormented by this devil, or by this demon lady, and he was, like, with her during the whole thing. And even in my monster of the week campaign now, we have a character named Raphael, and he's actually probably the party's favorite n p c as he's just, like, this really caring guy, but he's, like, super, like, upbeat and into it and he's, like, yeah, let's go out for drinks, Pidge, like, you know, we're gonna be best friends and, like, I just really love playing kind of that I guess I guess it's that supportive character and that's, like, just super, like, involved with the party too. I love playing those characters. I also really like playing bad guys in TTRPGs, especially ones that may be a little sadistic just because that's a that's an interesting archetype that I do enjoy in some media with with villains and stuff. That was definitely what that demon lady was. She was kind of sadistic. She also she's I mean, she sucked, but when it comes to, like, player characters and the types of characters that I like playing long term that one's really difficult because I just haven't had the time to really play a character long term. I think the last time I played a character for more than, like, 3 sessions was oh, I mean, technically, I actually am playing a, D and D game now still, sorry. We're on hiatus, and I kind odd about that but that game kind of started a while ago and the types of characters that I would play now are definitely very different than then. I don't know. I I like playing characters that are associated with nature a lot, so ones that are very much into the the Earth and and animals and things like that or characters that I like to play. I don't know. I'll I'll have to explore that more because I haven't thought too much about characters that I like to play. This is going to be the last one of Kyle's for a moment here, which is is there a type of character you wanna try and play at some point in the sure. Yes. Yes. There is. His name is Diddly Dardess. He is an insane scientist man that is not good at science at all. He's very bad at it. He's not very smart, but he believes in himself. And so he will go on rants and and type and things like that and I just I so desire to play this character I have for like I think about a year now because, my younger sibling was thinking about running a game and Diddly Darnedest was the was the character that I made for it, and so we've been talking about this character for like ages that game never happened and I always try and think of an excuse to play him because I just I love his name I love the idea of him just being this really stupid scientist, in the original story that we were thinking about. He was going to be, like, really into researching dragons, but he was going to basically know nothing about dragons and have an assistant that basically does all of the work but he kind of passes it off as his own, and I realized like later on that he would be like probably a really good Blades in the Dark character because he's kind of a like he's kind of a weird guy I don't know I just feel like he would work really well in a Blades game or, like, Land of Eem I thought recently would be really goofy if I just leaned into the goofy side of that character too, but yeah, Diddly Darnedest that's the character I've been really dying to play and I just have I just have very vague strokes of of, like, how I want to play him, which is mostly a stupid scientist, one day diddly we will we will enter a campaign and it and it will be beautiful, but, yeah, next question, Fofi or Fofi? I'm not sure which way to say it, but Fofi Fofi, asks what made you want to branch out and try other ttrpg systems than what everyone already knows? So this specifically for me I'm like I always try and remember kind of the exact timeline it was around Christmas I think of last year or I guess not yeah. Last year, I think it was Christmas of 2022. I asked for things that related to TTRPGs. At the time, I was I was running my my D and D game and and super into that, and I was buying a lot of the D and D books because I I I just was super into it. But my brother didn't wanna get me, like, any more D and D books sore or any, like, kind of D and D accessory type thing. So instead, he actually got me, starter sets for, call of Cthulhu and, animal adventures, which actually is a simplified D and D, and he got me those, which made me realize that there are actually other games than D and D, and that made me revisit monster of the week. Specifically, I I listened to the adventure zone's campaign of amnesty, which is when they played monster of the week. And at the time when I listened to it, which was years ago, I didn't realize that was a different game. And so when I saw that, you know, Call of Cthulhu was a completely different game than anything else, I look back into monster of the week, and I ended up buying that book. And I'm like, okay. I'm just gonna read it. I'm just gonna check it out, see see what's actually inside. I get it. I read it, and I fall in love. I am still in love with the monster of the week game and and the book in general. It's one of my favorites, which sounds like, such a, like, silly thing to say. Like, I have a favorite TTRPG book to read, but that would be monster of the week and basin. But monster of the week is one of my favorites, and that's what made me start playing other TTRPG systems than I know, or I did know at the time which was just D and D 5e, and so I mean it's been basically a slippery slope since monster of the week. I got into that. I fell in love, and then I started to look into other systems, and then, I have filled up the bookshelf behind me very quickly, and so far I've played, like, I think it's been 11 games this year outside of D and D, and this is, like, the 1st year I played a non D and D TCRPG, so I'm pretty happy with that, but it was just it was just the concept that there were other games is what really helped me branch out. So I I'm always super thankful for that. It's cool seeing the videos of the podcast on socials. Ever thought of doing a full video episode? Actually, yes. So, the videos of the podcast on socials actually are from me recording full videos, of the podcast. I haven't uploaded any of them yet, and this is me I mean, I literally gave the advice earlier of just start doing the thing or else you're going to hold yourself back. I I just haven't started it yet, but and part of the reason was I didn't have, like, all of the, episodes of the RPG Goblin on, like, YouTube yet, and so I felt weird if I just started to upload some video versions randomly. I don't have that as an excuse anymore because now they're all up on YouTube. They don't have, like, full videos since most of them were just recorded with audio. But, yes, I will be there There are full videos of at least, like, the last, I wanna say, 4 or 5 episodes or maybe more than that, and those will be actually getting uploaded to YouTube soon because I need to do that. Thank you for asking because that just reminds me that I need to actually stay on top of it. But, yes, those those are coming out. And they're they're actually really fun too because I I like being able to see the person as I'm talking, and then I and then I edit it and realize how insane I look when I talk about TTRPGs. Oh, and I'm actually recording a video version of this episode too right now. So video's all around. Hey. It's future editing Willow. Like we were talking about in the actual episode here where I had video episodes of the RPG Goblin. Those are all up on YouTube now. So if you really want to see the actual video of when we were recording these, I have it of designing 1 shots, 1 ring, shadow run, dead letter society afterglow. I think there's 1 that I'm missing, but any other episodes that are coming to the RPG Goblin in the future will also have video. But if you really wanna listen to those and you wanna watch those and see the live reactions and what actually happens while we record, go check those out on the RPG Goblin YouTube channel. We also have videos of all of the past episodes that don't have video up on the YouTube channel as well, but those are just static image, but if you prefer listening on YouTube over, you know, Spotify or anything like that, then you can check those out on YouTube as well. So yeah. Fofi also asked, what inspires you to search for a new game? Quality of build, role play potential, sandbox quality. So I think this can like, I I could have I can have an answer for both personal games and also games for the show. I think I'm gonna answer personal games first. I feel like I don't usually go and search for games most of the time. I I stumble across most of the ones that I get into. But what really inspires me to actually, like, research into it and look into it more is usually the concept. So like, my my best example is land of Eem, the concept, and, like, the the stuff they use for the promo for the game was, you know, Lord of the Rings meets the Muppets, and that just immediately sparked, like, inspiration in my mind of, like, that sounds like the most ridiculous game in the world, and I need it. So The concept is usually one of the biggest selling points for me because I'm pretty flexible in trying different systems. I usually prefer things that aren't super, super crunchy, just because, like, I I love rules and I love mechanics, but sometimes I only have so much time to learn the rules and mechanics, but it's usually the concept. If the concept sounds really cool to me, I will usually look into the game or buy it and or buy it, I guess I should say, because there have been many that I have gotten. I mean, one that, Honey Heist is a great example. Bears committing crimes. When when I actually learned what Houdini heist was I immediately had to get it because that is just an insane idea and I love it, there's another one, that I backed on, I think it was backer kits that's called Dead Air and the concept for that game is actually like a apoc It's like an apocalyptic game where you're actually playing out more so the community side of things versus, like, you know, you're fighting against, like, zombies or anything like that. It focuses on, like, more of those community stories, which that one really got to me because they they reference things like the last of us, which is one of my favorite video games. I mean, I love both the games a lot, and also, like, The Walking Walking Dead. And for me, early Walking Dead, I really like, especially when it's focused on the community and, like, the community and how it's thriving and trying to survive in the early seasons. Like, that really got me. So it's it's always it's always going to be the concept for me, for the for the show it's either a creator that I think is really cool and the game that they are plain I I've never heard of and I wanna know more about or I know a lot about the game, and I try to find a bunch of different people to try and get on for it because I just think it's really cool. But, you know, for the show, like, literally anything I mean, that's that's kind of a silly answer for it, but, like, for the show, It's really anything that's not D and D. I want to showcase all kinds of different things, so I'm not really picky on what the game is, other than, like, I want who I'm talking to, to be, like, passionate about it and and excited about it. Because for me, that's that's the real selling point is always getting to hear how other people really enjoy this game. And so then I can have an idea if it's a cool game for me. And that's why I think the show kinda works too is that you get to hear you know, this person really loves this game for this reasons, and if it matches just up with what you really enjoy from games. It's, like, easy to be like, I think I would like that one. So, yeah, I I I'm open to, like, any game on the show. I I just think it's really fun. So that's that's not a great answer because it's it's literally anything, but, I mean, that's kinda how I feel. Oh, okay. We got Riley from Friend and Fo Adventure Co. Hi, Riley. If you were to make your own TTRPG, what are some of the canx you use in it and what theme would you set it in. This was a fun fun thing for me to think about when I was, like, prepping for doing this. I actually have thought about making a TTRPG. I think for me, I don't know if there's any specific mechanics. Other like, I would want to try and play in Brindlewood Bay or Powered by the Apocalypse, I think, are 2 systems that I would like to mess around with mechanics from and try and create a game from just because those are ones that I really enjoy. I mean, Powered by the Apocalypse was really the the 1st big system, other than like, you know, a d20 system that I got into when I started playing TTRPGs or sorry to learn about TTRPGs so I think Powered by the Apocalypse with like the especially with the moves and and and like setting that up I think would be really fun. Brindlewood Bay and how their mysteries work, I would really love to play around with even if it was just writing a scenario for. But if but for what theme I would set a game in. All right, so let me tell you a little bit about an idea for a game I've had. I don't know if this is a game that would work. I don't know if this is a game that I could feasibly like figure out how to make I don't know if it will ever happen but I don't know if anyone here has, ever heard of Mike Flanagan or or watched any of his shows or movies, but he has a show called Midnight Club where it's a bunch of, terminally ill kids that actually, live in, like, a hospice care. But the whole thing around it is that they tell these ghost stories at night. And a lot of these stories come from, like, their personal experiences and kind of telling their story through them and even like what they fear and things like that. And I just think it would be really neat to have a TTRPG that is revolved around telling ghost stories. I don't know how it would work I don't know any of the details, but I just really like the idea about especially if it was, like, you know, teens to, like, young adults telling these horror stories. I mean, Midnight Club works really well since, like, a lot of these things is, like, no. A lot of the stuff is surrounding death and kind of dealing with that, especially since they know they're going to die. And so, I mean, I think the biggest challenge with that with that would be, like, trying to find exactly, you know, what the stakes would be and and and things like that, but I love the idea of a game that is centered around telling ghost stories. I just think that would be really interesting to play around with and whether or not it's like, you know, playing it through another system where then you have, like, you play through ghost stories or you create a system that is literally just about telling ghost stories. I don't know. That's an idea that I have. That that's one that's been going around in my brain a lot recently, so a little bit of insight there. I think I've only told, like, 1 or 2 other people about this and I think one of them may have been, like, my younger tumbling, so I don't know. Maybe that's gonna be something that happens in the future. I've never gone into game design, so who knows? But actually building off of those questions from Kyle. Kyle asked, would you want to work with someone in collab build something? I assume, like, a t t r p g, and, I mean, the short answer is yes. I would. I I would really like to do that. I mean, one of my favorite things about being in this TTRPG space is working with other people and being able to create these really awesome projects that involve working with creators that I find are really cool or that I just really want to work with in general and then, you also asked who would be fun to collab with on it. So specifically I I'm not going to focus on, like, the game that I I pitched because I I really don't know, like, what I would need for it. I I would have to do a lot more research on, like, who I would want to be a part of it but, man, I mean people that I would like to collab with when it comes to writing a game. I think recently I've talked to 2 designers that actually I I really connected with, Rory Monfort, who created, Dead Letter Society, is someone that I think I would really love to work with, one day, like if I if I had to pick some people to, like, collab on a

game with: 48:43

Rory, Montfort, and also Steph from Fistful of Crits, I a little bit, I guess, have some spoilers. I recently recorded an episode with purr and we ended up most of the time getting really deep into, like, game design and talking about, like, play styles and and different elements like that and so I think I would I would really like to collaborate with her on a game or something because that that would just be really cool but I mean, like, literally any creator that I follow I would love to work with either if it's with, like, just coming on the podcast or, like, coming on to their show or something like that I I'm just really open to it because I think it's really fun bunch of different experiences. I mean, actually, for November, I did some, like, interviews. I, like, went on to other people's, like, interview shows, and that was really fun, to kind of be on the other side of it since I'm so used to, like, hosting them, and so it's like, oh, wait. I I I'm actually the one talking most of the time. This is strange. Well, even though I I do talk a lot in the RPG Goblin, don't get me wrong, but, you know, I try it. I it's it's usually, the focus is on the guest. I guess I wasn't used to the focus being on me and so I was like, oh, this is interesting, but those were really fun, which I I think the Billowing Hilltop interview, the like, a short little one came out, and then I think the other ones that I was on haven't been out yet, but when those do come out, I definitely let you guys know because that was very fun. So next question from Parker from that one nerds. What's been your favorite all time character you've trade in a TTRPG. I'm going to give you one that's been from a long term game, and I'm gonna give you one that's been from a short term game because because I've played a lot of, like, one shots recently and there's a specific character there that I want to shout out as being like one that I would really like to play more of, but my probably one of my favorite characters that I portrayed in a, TTRPG was Athena. She was a circle of spores druid from one of my first ever, like, private D and D campaigns and more by that I mean just like a game that wasn't public, with a bunch of players with or I should say a bunch of play players, a bunch of strangers that I didn't know, but this was, like, an actual, like, one of my first, like, private games where it's, like, you know, we are actually we arranged this game and and want to tell the certain story, but Athena, she was my circle sports druid, and she was like a fey wanderer. She was in Eldrian? Is that what they're called? I haven't played D and D in a while. I haven't even looked at, like, the names of stuff Eldryn, like, kind of the season elves from the Feywild. She specifically was a spring elf, and she's just really adorable, but she was a fey wanderer and basically would just take notes, and she just wanted to see new things in the world. She's just a curious person, and she was so fun to play. Though the one thing I'll say is that that was pretty early on in my, like, ttrpg career so I was still kind of of still getting used to the concept of role playing, because I'll tell you what I was not good at role playing when I first started it not good at all, and so there are some things with her that I wish I could do better. But I think for like a longer term character, Athena was definitely one that I I really loved to play. She was she was just really fun to just, I don't know be be curious and and want to check things out. I realized that I have another character that also is really fun, but I'm just gonna keep it to Athena because I I just have really fond memory memory mem, memories of her. I would really like to bring her back for another game to, like, do her some more justice, but for a short term game, I would say Anthony March from the Paranormal inc episode with Game Master Monday. That was so much fun, and I think, like, my 2 moods for characters, it seems like it's either a sweet little thing or insane because Anthony was so much fun to play because he just he refused to believe in ghosts even though he had a ghost on the team and would basically try and find any way to explain it away as being a real thing. Love oh, yeah. Margo is just a goth, clearly. It's like Anthony. No. And I I I still give so much praise to, Jenny and and Grant from that episode because Anthony was was a difficult man to deal with. But, yeah, that was that was so much fun. That it was a fun episode. I I would love to do a longer game, with paranormal ink because that that was a blast to do, and and the ghost storage facility was a really good scenario as well. So I I think, like, favorite character for a short term game, Anthony March. Insane man. The skeptic. Fantastic guy. Alright. Let's move on. 2nd one from Parker from Nat 1 Nerds. If you could commit to a campaign for a system you haven't played when played yet, which one and why? Land of eem Land of Eem through and through why? Because it's Muppets mixed with Lord of the Rings. Do I have to say more? But, if I do, it is because it is just a delightful mix of goofy and and whimsical and just insanity along with, like, being a solid game too, you know, where you're going on these quests in adventures, and they have all these, like, random tables, and I just love the setting for it. I love all of the, like, character options. I love, like, the crafting in it. I love the magic items in it. I just I don't know if there's a thing in that game that I don't love. So if I had to commit to a campaign for a system I haven't played yet, like, especially a long term game, it would be Land of EAM immediately for sure, without a doubt. I also would love to commit to a long term Apocalypse Keys game but for that I just need a very specific group 4 so that won't be the answer, because it it just wouldn't work. It wouldn't work if it was if it didn't have the correct buy in. Like, I I love that game, but for me, that's, like, so difficult because It's like I need a very specific group. I need to I need to make sure that we're all ready to tell this really emotionally devastating story about, like, controlling these insane powers and also, like, what your heart wants in all of these things. So Land of Eem is the for sure answer because I feel like there's too many others that are, like, too complicated Land of Eam I just feel like would work in general, and I just think that system would also mesh really well with the kinds of games that I want to play, so yeah. So next question now that we actually got done with those ones because I miss it oops, is from Toffer from The Petticoat Tales, asks what's one skill you learned that instantly made you a better GM? Now I feel like it's hard to narrow it down to like 1 skill because there's like so many different things that I think has change the way that I've GM ed and I actually asked this question to my younger sibling to see what they would say because I was thinking through it a lot and their answer was accepting that mistakes happen, and being able to move on from them is a skill that made me a better GM. And, I mean, I have a hard time arguing against that. I think there's still times that I struggle with that now but I think I agree that that's something that has really helped me become a better GM is accepting that, you know, mistakes happen, things won't go the way that you planned because they never will. Going with the flow and I mean just not taking it I shouldn't say not taking it serious but I mean it is partially that being able to adapt and and not worry about making those mistakes has definitely really helped me become a better GM because it it's it's hard making mistakes in these games because you want it to be this this perfect experience and and this perfect game, but that's almost never going to be the reality of any game even if you think it's a perfect game, like, you could probably maybe your favorite game, the GM, there were parts that they were unhappy with, and I think that's just natural when you're creating some when you're like being creative with something especially like as the GM I think specifically because you are putting a lot of work into these games. It can get so easy to feel like any mistake can be like the end of the world and that you're a bad GM for it, but I don't think that's true because it's just all part of the learning process. And so I think learning that mistakes aren't a bad thing is definitely a skill that has helped me even not in just my my GM ing life but also like my real life too, even though I'm still getting better like I'm still learning that lesson but that's one that that has changed my GMing a bit to be for the better but man this is this is interesting this is really fun because it's it's almost like being on an interview show but, like, I don't have someone necessarily, like, directly asking me the questions in the moment and so it's kind of fun to just get all those thoughts out because sometimes on on the show I I feel like I don't say enough things about, like, kind of my background and and my thoughts in space because it is focused on the game sometimes, so this is a fun kind of way to go behind the scenes and, like, talk about some of these things. I love it. This is a great time. Also, I'm gonna take another sip of water because I'm dying slightly. Another one from

Toffer, from The Petticoat Tales is: 59:29

What have you learned about podcasting that you wish you knew when you first started? This is this is an interesting one because for me I'm pretty okay with the journey that I've gone on with podcasting. I pretty much knew nothing at the beginning I didn't really know how to edit audio I didn't know how to edit period, up until that point the biggest thing that I edited were like pictures and that's way different than, you know, editing for a podcast. I didn't know anything about distributing it, the only thing I really knew is, like, the social media side just because I had a business previously where that was, you know, important. So I don't know if there's something that I wish I knew before I started because I'm pretty you know, I I I accept that most of the stuff that I've done isn't perfect. I I know that, you know, I still have plenty of things to learn with audio editing and how to market the podcast and and, you know, finding guests and and things like that and, you know, even the structure of the show too. But I'm happy learning that along the way just because I like the experience of it. I like I like It's it's just been a really good challenge, so I I don't know if there's something that I wish I would have known beforehand. Maybe that it was it's not as scary as it seems. Like, if if I were if I was able to, like, go to the past and tell myself something about, like, podcast podcasting that I wish I knew is that it's not that scary. Like, It may seem really scary. You're putting yourself out on the Internet. You're telling your your opinions and feelings and stuff like that, and that's terrifying. But to actually, like, do it, it's it's not that scary and that I've I've got it. So I I think that would be the only thing because I'm I'm I'm happy with learning in the rest of the journey and maybe also doing backup audio, I'm realizing. Because I I just remembered that I did a really hard edit not that long ago, and I was suffering for it. So maybe backing up all audio and also that it's not that hard or or not that it's not that hard. It is hard. It's not that scary. It's gonna be really hard, and there's a lot of things I'm gonna have to learn about audio editing and and marketing it and all of that, but it will be fine. Just back up the audio because I I swear there have been maybe, like, 2 episodes so far that have had an ideal audio, conditions, and it tears me up every single time. And then on top of that, I had 2 episodes that actually got deleted. So there are 2 episodes of the RPG Goblin, and I made it very obvious just because I I I was having a really fun time with it, that are actually rerecord or that were actually rerecorded because I completely lost the audio files. It was it was back when I was actually just editing the the podcast on my laptop, and my laptop wasn't great. And I needed to, remove some files to free up some space because I was editing a new episode, and I needed to, you know, download it and stuff. And without even realizing it. I deleted, like, 2 episodes, and I spent, like, the entire day trying to get them back for it just to be moot. And oh, man. That was really hard. And, again, another reason to create a backup and also save it on more than one device, which is why now I make sure to save everything both on my hard drive and on my actual computer. It's so stressful to lose an episode like that. I'm glad that we were able to recover because I was stressing out a lot since that was, like, right before I was going to basically take a break for the entirety of July, because I I had my partner visiting, and then I was going to visit my brother up in Ohio. And I was, like, trying to get all of I was I actually edited all of the episodes for July before I even went because I'm like, I wanna keep uploading during the entire month, but I don't wanna have to worry about it while I have, like, you know, traveling happening or or people over. So I, like, I think I edited, like, 8 episodes that month because I had to do all of this prep work beforehand, and one of the episodes that had to be in July ended up getting deleted, and so, like, I had to scramble so fast of trying to get it out and, like, get it recorded so that I could actually be set for for July. Oh, man. It's it's so fun to remember these things and how and how scary it was as well to, like, lose the audio too and lose those files. Like, I'm oh, man. This is such a fun time to reflect. Also, Kyle, my favorite question is all of the questions dense because I think these are all really good. They make me happy. Hey, everyone. Welcome to today's midpoint break. I just wanna say very quick that this q and a episode is to celebrate 1 year of running the RPG Goblin, aka, the 1 year anniversary of this Joe, and, honestly, I can't really believe it. It's crazy that it's been a year already, and it doesn't quite feel that way as it's just been a real blast to do. I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for letting the RPG Goblin be around for a year, run for a year, and that People listening are still here. So, yeah, thank you so much because you were the reason why I was able to do this q and a episode. And thank you to everyone in the RPG Goblin Discord for submitting questions for this q and a, hanging out during the live recording, and all of that. It was such a blast, and I know at the beginning of this episode, I sounded a bit nervous, and I'll be honest, I was, since I haven't done a live event in a long time. And so kind of getting started was a bit nerve racking. But as we got into it, it was so much fun. So thank you so much. And if you wanna be a part of any future live events or anything like that, please make sure to join the RPG Goblin Discord. The link of that will be in the description of this episode along with being in my, Linktree. Another thing is the RPG Goblin has a Patreon now. So the Patreon is for everyone who wants to either get early episodes of the RPG Goblin, get to hear behind the scenes conversations from for or after recordings with guests, which there are a lot of them and they're always really, really good. You get to have exclusive access to the Discord server, for any kind of special event that we will do that will be only for patrons. This may be things like 1 shots in the future, exclusive Patreon events for maybe we, I don't know, have, like, a book club, things like that. Also for our highest tier. You will get your name shouted out at the end of the episode and all of that fun stuff. But the main thing is that everyone even at the lowest patron tier gets to be a part of our monthly TTRPG party. Now I hosted this 1st ever party in December, and basically, we have giveaways, guests, and we talk about games and have an absolute blast. The recording of it is actually up on YouTube if you wanna check it out. And I don't know if I'll actually host one, during the month of January as we only have 1 patron so far. So if you wanna be part of a really fun monthly event, so please go over and check out the RPG Goblin and support if you can so that we can have these monthly parties so that you can be able to win stuff and talk about TTRPGs with people who want to talk about them. But, yeah, these are these are my kind of announcements, I guess, for this midpoint. I hope that you're enjoying this episode. And if you are, please make sure through to follow the RPG Goblin wherever you listen to your podcast. Follow the RPG Goblin on social media, and leave a review if you enjoy it because those always warm my heart. So, yeah, time to get back to the episode and even more questions. No question. I just wanna say I live for your energy in your podcast or something magical. Hearing 2 people so happy talking about games. Thank you. Okay. So I okay. I love that you just said that because I've been thinking about this a lot because I am definitely a very high energy person. I am a very excited person, I guess, is the word for it. And I was, like, thinking about this recently because I was checking out another podcast. That's also kind of like a t t r p g, discussion podcast. And it it's really good, but, like, the the person hosting it is, like, a lot more, like, chill, and I'm like, oh, man. It's kind of weird to, like, hear that in contrast to how kind of insane my show, I think, can get sometimes because there is definitely a lot of, goofing off and and and getting off the rails and energy that can happen on my show and I'm just like really glad that people actually enjoy that because that's just who I am and that's just like what I like doing because if I had to be like really chill and like kind of professional with this I think I wouldn't do it because that would be so hard to force myself to do, and so I'm glad that you that you enjoy it and that you enjoy people talking about games because that's like again like this this show is like a TTRPG exploration podcast sort of like I'm trying to find a way if there's like a better way of defining it because it is that but it's also like it is it is ttrpg chats. Like, I I hate to even call it, like, discussions because, like, it feels almost too like like, too formal. Like, I I don't know. But it's it's definitely one of my favorite things about my show is it's the tangents are the best exactly they're some of my favorite parts, and it's so hard sometimes when I'm talking about a game and we get on a tangent and then I realize it's been, like, 10 minutes. I'm like, Oh, maybe we should get back on track. Like, I I it would be interesting to shift the show to just, like, tangent central, TTRPG tangents. That would be silly. But that would also be fun because those are some of my favorite moments too. Because it is fun to just go on these rants and get the thoughts out. Like, I think it's really important, especially being in a creative space, to get all of these ideas out. And, I mean, it's the same reason of why I wanted to start the podcast originally was I had all of these tangents. I had ideas in rants in all of this that I wanted to get out, but no one to really, like, nowhere to really, like, put it other than, you know, forcing my family to listen to me talk. I just think there's a place for tangents, for, like, just content that's just tangents, and I almost feel like that's kind of what the show is slowly becoming because I love these games. And then I'm bringing on other people that love these names, and it's so hard to just talk about the one. It's it's amazing. But, yeah, I I agree. It's the tangents are the best. I'm glad you enjoy them because they they are my favorite. I'm gonna move on to the next few questions here. We only have a few more left, I think, coming from Marks Shepherd, who I had on for afterwards. Marks is awesome, very sweet person. What did you think oh, what do you think of solo games? Are there any solo games that particularly interest you? This is fun! So I have actually covered a few solo games on the show so far I have actually played 1 I I want to play more but I've only played 1 so far but I love solo games I think they are a fantastic style of play and they actually they're one of my favorites like alternate style of play, you know, where you can like play GM list where it's like, you know, fully cooperative, you can play duet games or solo games stuff like that. I think solo is, like, my favorite style, specifically just because I love the fact that you can play a full game you can play a game just by yourself and, you know, I know some of the biggest appeals of TTRPGs is being able to, like, play with the group and I love doing that but also I don't always have time to play games with a full group and and it's it's not always possible to arrange games with a full group! So I love solo games to be able to, you know, feed that ttrpg urge that I have in a way where I don't have to rely on having a whole group of people to do it. In some of my favorites. I mean, I love all the ones that we've covered on the show so far. So it's been it's been Castle of Memories, over the mountain and oh, wait. Have it only been 2 shows so far or 2 solo games so far? Yeah. Okay. Those are the only 2 solo games. That's crazy. We definitely need to do more of those, but I love those 2. I've only played over the mountain so far. I started playthrough, actually, not too long after we, recorded that episode, and I've had a big blast with it. I haven't played a lot of it, but I've gone through, I think, the 1st full day, and then I'm I am, like, halfway through the 2nd day. So, again, it's not a lot, but I've had a blast, going through it so far and, like, rolling for the prompts and seeing what kind of story is slowly starting to bold, which it's kind of crazy so far because there's, like, someone who knows, like, the seek like, at least a secret of my character or some information about my character. And so there's, like, some tension going on there, and, my character ended up, like, breaking into this, like, old into this, like, abandoned house that was, like, really garish and, like, brightly colored and stuff and decided to live there only to find out that, like the person that used to live there recently passed away, and now haunts it. And their, like, granddaughter came in and, like, scared them and, like, threatened to basically call the police because my characters was like, I bought the house, and they're like, I know this wasn't sold. And it's like, oh, no. So there's there's some really silly stuff going on in that game, but I love solo games. I think they're fantastic. They're a great way again, creative exercises even, telling the story. It it's really good. And some other ones that I really love, there's a game called 7 murders till sorry, let me resay that because sometimes my brain doesn't say the words correctly, 7 murders till midnight. It is a solo game about playing as a detective going after a serial killer, and it's kind of, you know, spooky, slightly like horror and and stuff, and I am just obsessed with the whole idea. I've I've flipped through the book. I haven't read it because I don't wanna accidentally foil myself on some of these prompts, but I love the concept, and that's that's one I've been really wanting, to play. So that one particularly interests interests me. There's also, I mean, I still really want to try out castle of memories. Rune oh, Rune's a solo one. Okay. We've covered 3 solo games on the on the show. Rune from Guerrilla RPG is another one I've really wanted to play. That one's more of kind of, like, gamified where you you know, you're you're getting into these combat, and it's like dark souls, and you're, like, finding out lore and stuff. That one's really cute. I mean, it's not cute. It's kind of like dark fantasy, but it's it's really cool. I like the way that it plays out. And then, I mean, like, I could look at, like, my Google Drive folder right now and probably list off a few more solo games that I would really like to try, which okay. I I wanna know. I I know that I've talked to a few other people who more like, yeah. I have just a monster TTRPG library in my Google Drive. Does anyone else have that too? Like, I I it's at least been, like, ttrpg content type creators I know for sure have these types of things, and I am no exception. I and right now, like, my my folder is very disorganized as I actually have gotten quite a few, like, pdf games and I've just dropped thumb straight in the folder and haven't organized them. And so, like, I have all of these categories, and then I have, like, probably over a 100 PDFs just sitting uncategorized, and it's like, oh, no. I have to actually go through and do that soon. That's so fair. I swear my hobby is actually collecting TTRPG PDFs. Same industrial punk. Same. It's it's that in actual physical books. It's just PDFs tend to be slightly cheaper to get in mass. Plus, like, itch bundles do not help at all. I love itch bundles, and they just feed feed my desire. Oh, another solo game that I'm really excited. Coriko, from, Mousehole Press, I believe, or, Jack Harrison. It's, yeah mouse hole press yeah, Coriko so that one's actually like being a young witch and like you're leaving home and you're going on, like, a, like, a magical journey to, like, find yourself and stuff. It's really really cute. I've been really wanting to play that one. I think the actual, like, Kickstarter of it should be shipping soon, so that's exciting except for the fact that my brother is getting all my ttrpg mail because We're still in the limbo of trying to sell our house, but it hasn't happened yet. And so I'm like, I but we don't know when it's gonna happen, so so I just have everything going to him just to make sure it's safe, and right now he actually has my copy of the zone RPG, hostage, and he will be bringing it for Christmas because I I I'm so sad that, like, I can't have it immediately. Also, industrial punk, you asked, will the dice maker ever come out of retirement for the for the d1000 maybe one day that would be fun! I would like to I might like look into like an idea for that because that would be a really fun thing especially for like everyone who's around for that time like having having basically a little memento to remember the November goal would be amazing because my god you guys are awesome as hell because I like I was hoping that we would hit it and I just didn't think like, I was hoping and and, you know, the numbers seemed on track, but, like, it still surprises me that we actually did it and then we, like, even went beyond that. And so, like, I mean, this Q and A is actually, like, a special thing for, you know, making it over, like, a100 a hundred over the goal, so, like, thanks thanks to you guys, we can actually do this Q and A. I mean, I think it was probably getting around time to do one soon because, you know, it's we we need to talk about, I don't know, questions and stuff. Alternative. My hobby is just thinking about t t rpgs I don't play and run enough. Same. I only, like, I wish I could play so many more and it's actually gonna there's actually a question that kind of covers this, but actually it's one from Industrial Tongue, so actually we can get into that, because I do have a goal that I would like to start running more games for myself because I I do have the time for it I don't have a ton of time for it, so it probably can't be like, you know, several games a week, but I really wanna start running more games because I love thinking about them, but I also need to get more experience too because I'm only, like, 2 years into GMing. I've been technically playing for, like, 7, but I've kinda had gaps in between with, like, COVID and stuff like that. So, like I love thinking about them. I just wanna play more. So, kind of segueing into this next question from Industrialpunk. As a game player, did you have any special goals for the new year? Get into a long campaign, do 1 shots, GM more, GM less, etcetera. Well, I already kinda answered it. I would love to run more games. Specifically, I would love to run more, 1 shots and short campaigns. That is, like, my big goal, personally, because for me because I love just thinking about the TTRPGs and getting into them. I like having the flexibility to not I I like not committing to a long campaign because that gives me flexibility to play more games. It gives me flexibility to experiment with more systems and stuff like that. So it's definitely going to be GM ing more, plain 1 shot slash, like, shorter term games, probably nothing over, like, 10 sessions at least for a while. Like, I I'd like to run something longer again. Like, currently, right now, my monster of the week game is a longer term campaign, but we're only, like, maybe 17 sessions in, and we're already close to a little over the halfway point, but, yeah, it's definitely going to be running running more things and running shorter games so that I can start experimenting more. And, actually, role play rejects, would you consider a long campaign? Fantastic question. I think it is all up to personal preference because I don't think I've been able to find anyone who necessarily agrees with the same thing. For me. Probably a long term campaign is, like, 20 sessions or longer for me since that's a that's a longer time commitment. If you play weekly, of course, that's gonna be 20 weeks, or if you play biweekly, that's gonna be even longer. So for me. I I consider, like, 20 sessions or longer to be a long term game, and then, like, I mean, a 1 shot to 1 game and then kinda I I've had the term mini arc in my head too about, kind of describing a length of game that is, like, from 2 to 5 sessions, and then, like, a short term campaign for me is, like, 5 to 10. I that's kind of, like, what I have time frame wise. Dang, I think, like, a years long weekly game is a long campaign, personally. Yeah. I mean, that is a long campaign that and that's where it's just, like, different different interpretations of what a long campaign means. For me, if it lasts a year that's definitely a long term campaign anything that lasts longer than that is clearly a long term campaign, but, like, when it gets to, like, 20 sessions I guess it's like almost half a year ish, you know you're starting to get to a pretty long frame of time. I mean, that's kind of a mid campaign, I guess. I don't know. I haven't played, like, campaigns that last, like, over such a long time frame of, like, years years. The closest would have been my first camp my 1st d and d campaign that I ran which lasted for almost 2 ish years maybe, I think, but I don't know if I have the patience to go for longer than that. I shouldn't say I don't have the patience. I I have way too much fun jumping around with different games that again being stuck to something that is, like, a year long is going to be hard for me because then that means I play, I don't know, monster of the week for the year, which I'm fine with, but I also wanna really try glitter hearts and kids on brooms and en route and morphorg and into the odd and all of these, so I I kind of like having shorter game so that I can try out a bunch of different stuff because that's that's just where I really have fun, especially right now since, like, I'm still so new to the, like, t t r p g things. I'm learning about new games every day. I want the opportunities to play them. And if I have a long term game going, I I I can't fill that space with trying out different games since I already have it going. So like, when we even started our monster of the week game, I told everyone I'm, like, I don't think we're going longer than a year on this because I want to try a bunch of different things. Ironically, I don't think about how long a game is except for story arcs and such. Honestly, that's fair too. Like for me like I'm still learning kind of like ways to set expectations for games so for me early on I thought about, like, you know, length of time, like, how long is it happening over, you know, months or a year or something. But I'm liking the approach to story arcs because that's kind of more so what I'm doing with my Monster of the Week game so far. We're like 3 ARCs in and I'm expect I'm expecting this to maybe be about 6 so and we're going to start our new one soon here which is exciting I can't wait for that but yeah no Arcs is a good way of thinking about it because then you can, you know, you finish this arc, you move on to the next one. I feel that the main reason for us starting the podcast was to break away from the long term so we can actually try those different games exactly which I think that is a fantastic reason to start a guest especially like you guys have done so many cool games so far too which is awesome and and that's kind of what I've been wanting to do except I don't know if I like the group that I have right now has the time to run then or to play in a whole separate other campaign. Also hey, Danny, but this time my brother, Danny. Hello. Hey, Dan. Do you wanna do you wanna play in several long term games at the same time several sessions a week. Yeah? Okay. I mean, Dan the goof man is my brother. Say hello, everyone. He is he is a cool guy, but okay. I mean, like, I mean, if you're down to run more, I mean, I've been I've been wanting to again run more 1 shots, especially in some shorter term stuff, so I am going to do that soon. So, yeah, if you're if you're always down, you can just join the ones that you can, and we'll we'll see what happens. Yeah. We should get this going. We need to play more games. This is great. So you put him on the spot in in the actual chat. He has to say yes to play more. Yes. The answer is always more games. Family is the best party. Exactly. I love playing with my siblings a lot. You do always say yes but sometimes you don't have the time, Dani, sometimes you don't have the time but yeah but now you're saying yes so so we're good now yeah no family I love playing with by family. I mean, the whole reason I got to even play in D and D was because Danny was playing in, in a public game of D and D at, like, a local game shop, and so we just went from there. And so he's kind of the gateway drug of what or D and D's gateway drug, but he's, like, the person who introduced me to it. Yeah, you were the dealer, exactly! But, no, I I I love it! I can't wait to actually okay, now that you gave me the confirmation I already know I want to start running some more games, so now it's just got to happen because I really I am gonna be running a 1 shot soon of actually a game called, somebody dies in this elevator or someone dies in this elevator. And then I already know that I wanna run another one shot soon of a game called numbskulls where you play as a bunch of skeleton to serve a necromancer in a world where necromancy is illegal, and you basically have to disguise as people and shenanigans ensue, which is like my exact type of game and plus the character sheet has a little skeleton on it that you can dress up it's so cute I love it. But yeah. Alright. Let's move on because I think we have 2 more questions here. So we'll finish those up then, yeah, we can, you know, chat and stuff because again this is really fun. Thank you everyone for coming in, and thank you everyone who has also come in and come out too because I know that it's late for some people early here. Man, I got here late. Yes. You did. Dani, it started at 6. It's already been an hour an hour and 40 minutes. We we are getting business done. So from void shift c, what would your ideal set of dice be made of could include fictional materials, so especially if someone who's been a dice maker. I know I I've seen a lot of dice and all of that fun stuff. I know a lot of people have wishes for like bone dice and and things like that, but I think I'm pretty basic in like my ideal set of dice. I just want blue, like, like, gold stone. I think it's gold stone, it's called. I just wanna set a blue gold stone dice because it's like the dark midnight blue, and it's got the really pretty sparkles, and it looks like a night sky, and it's absolutely gorgeous. And those have always been a set of dice I've really, really, really wanted and I just haven't gotten. I would say, another one that I really wanted too, but actually do have a set of these, is dice that have mushrooms in them, but I actually did get some that have these, mushrooms and that are actually inspired by the last of us, and even the shot called, like, a brain hemorrhage because it just reminded me kind of of a little bit of that Last of Us style with how the, how the fungus grows and stuff, and these are, like, really, really cool dice. I I love them. They're from Poison Dice on Instagram who I I love her. She she makes fantastic sets, and I have a few from her that are just gorgeous. But those mushroom ones were custom, and I'm just in love with them. And the last question at least here in our, chats, we or not the chat, but the pre question chat, I guess, or the pre live chat. I don't know. However you would call it. Is from Kyle. Kyle asked. You completely forgot, but your friends are coming over slash jumping into a Discord call in 30 minutes and are expecting you to run something. What are you running? I love this so much because, like, that is such a stress streamed to me. It's like I was expected to run something, and then I wasn't prepared to run it. Like, that even even as someone who usually does mostly improv for my sessions, that still, like, stresses me out that I'm gonna forget about a game or, like, forget that we were gonna play something and I have to last minute repair. I may have had this happen to me once or twice in my life as a GM. No. Well, I I'm curious of what you ran. I would love to know what you ran, but my answer would probably be definitely wizards, Honey Heist, or numbskulls. Like, those those I mean, numbskulls has been just on the brain for a little bit now, just because I've been thinking about running it as a one shot. But those 3, I think, would be, like, my top contenders just because they I mean, Honey Heist is goofy bear criminals. Definitely wizards is just pretending to be a wizard. And I I've already I've run Honey Heist and definitely wizards before, and I absolutely loved doing it. It was so much fun and so insanely goofy, which, again, just kinda fits the style that I really like. And numbskulls, I haven't run, but I know I'm gonna like it. And then they're all really simple and all have, like, stuff that you can on the fly create some scenarios for, which makes my life slightly easier, and I can improv from there anyway. So those with the 3 those are the 3. I I would do one of those 3. Any of them would be a fantastic option because, I mean, they're just going to be really fun unless they're expecting me to run something, like, really serious then I don't know why they expect me to run something serious short notice, but short notice is probably my fault in this scenario if I forgot about them, but I would if I had to run something like a bit more serious I would maybe run The Zone RPG, especially if it was online. They have, like, an online version of it that's, like, super easy to just, like, get in and play for, and you don't have to do any prep. So I would kind of cheat maybe run something collaborative too. I don't know. It's it's any of the shortcuts there, something that's easy, 1 page, collaborative, like, those those are gonna be fun and will not stress me out. Oh yeah collaborative all the way I mean that's I mean I was, for this friend's birthday who's coming up, when I I basically pitched, like 4 different games. I'm like, we could play any of these 4 for your birthday. You tell me which one you want. Numbskulls was one of them. The zone RPG was another one. Brindlewood Bay and a game called Somebody Dies in This Elevator. 2 of them were collaborative games because I want to play more collaborative games, and somebody dies in this elevator or someone dies in this elevator is the one is one of them that is collaborative and one, so I'm very excited for that, which means I don't have to prep anything, and we get to all have shenanigans of trying to die in an elevator, and it's gonna be awesome. So I'm really excited about that, though. I'm curious, Kyle, of what you've run, especially you know, I know that you've played a lot of Pathfinder and stuff too, and I would hope that they wouldn't expect you to run the last minute Pathfinder game because that would be terrifying at least for for me. You love doing off the cuff Pathfinder? Not even sarcasm. I'm sure I'm sure you I'm sure if you are comfortable with the game I'm sure that it is very fun. As someone who's not comfortable with the game because I haven't played it yet. It sounds like a stress dream to me. I mean, like, playing anything off the cuff I think it's always going to be really fun just because, like, you don't get in your head about all the prep that you have to do and like all of the little details where it's just like okay, we're just gonna do this and see what happens which I don't know if I've run proper like off off the cuff game maybe our Honey Heist game that I did because like I literally Didn't get a lot of sleep that day. We, like, were out the entire day. I was exhausted, and all I had written down was a where that the bears are gonna be stealing a prized honey ham from a bodega. It always seems straight from adventures anyway, and I just riff off the other players' back. Honestly, that's so fair. Yeah. Just, like, take from the back stories and and just make something work. So I think that's also really fun because, again, you don't have, like, all of the overthinking brain that can happen in between. And so you can get something that's just that works and and that is kind of more improv there, which I like. Why do you think I don't ever prep for monster of the week? Honestly, fair why don't you think that I don't prep for monster of the week other than, like, the arc preps that I do, like, every so often when we start a new one. Like, I think it's so fun to go to do more improv. Those are still semi prepped because I did, you know, have to set up the story beforehand, but I would love to do, like, a maybe a monster of the week one shot where it's like, okay. We're gonna play monster of the week and then just figuring it out as we play. And Honey Heist was madness. I once had a whole adventure planned for the Fallout RPG, but one of the players had a backstory about wanting a Fallout. So motorcycle. I just trashed the entire adventure went for that concept. Okay that's really good though like that's a Fallout style motorcycle because that's fun too like just a goofy idea, like, trash everything else. That's the winner. Which have you done, like, long term, like, games like that where you've you've played for, like, over maybe a 1 shot. Because for me, I feel like those ideas really work for 1 shots, specially since it's like, you know, we're just doing this for a session, but have you actually run ones that are longer than that? There are multiple times in my life and honestly depends. When I was less of a focused dev. I did lots of random generic ttrpg system games and said, hey, let's pick a known world and fuck around in it to come and leave with the system with Cortex Prime. Oh, yeah, that's fun. Actually, how is Cortex Prime? Because that's been one that I've been wanting to look into and I think I did for a little bit when I was still learning about TTRPGs. I got that one and and Cypher confused a lot just because they all had to, they both start with a c. Wesley and I have done a duet where I had nothing planned because I wanna test my skills not to prep. Pretty good at it. Okay. You are good at it, though, because you didn't, like, prep anything for the cottages and services game, and that was so much fun. I still talk about Wendy to this day our freaking satyr our satyr frat boys. They're beautiful. It's a base system. It's pretty hackable, which is great for not planning. Perfect. Exactly. I still have nightmares about the Mycelium Network! Yeah I don't because I I successfully took over the world I got what I wanted. That was so fun though because I literally I'm, like, I just wanted something with mushrooms and because I named mycelium mycelium, like, okay, something with mycelium. I'm just gonna, have a network where I can be able to tell where things are and see things through a through a reflection pool and that was just really fun. I love the Mycelium Network. It was great. Literally every single person, like, had such a cool idea for that game. Like, I love what you did with the world and setting up, you know, the setting of it. I thought that was fantastic. I love what all the rejects did as well. Like, every everyone's characters were on point and I still love that we all were like we want to play mushroom guys like we like we didn't even talk to each other really alright. We're all mushrooms, and I mean I still love the idea that, like, that, my Celia Verna and and, puffball could all just turn could turn the other 2 into mushrooms, and and no one would ever know. Could be a whole mushroom gang. I would love to play that game. Same. I I'm really excited for Cottages and Services that, like, fully release. I I made sure to back it because especially after playing, with Damien. I'm just like that that game's like, again, I knew it was gonna be good, but, like, it blew me out of the water or didn't blow me out of what it it blew my mind of how good it was. I I know what I'm trying to say. Turn a teleporting nerd rock into a exactly. It would be great, like, we could do little costumes, like, I could imagine we could just we could spray paint the rock to look like a puffball and and give it little eyes and arms like like puffball and that could be puffball's child like, that says easy. Like, it's it's that simple. And then we could all be mushrooms and and take over the world through the Mycelium Network! So good what a silly game that was that was so fantastic! I can't I can't wait to to play it. Like, I know that we're probably not gonna pick that game up again specifically, but, like, I I need to play at least the system again because I just love the character options in it. Willow, why are you always a war criminal? What are you talking about? Anthony March from Paranormal Inc wasn't a war criminal I think a buddy of mine got the rock added as a pet oh that's so good! That's actually fantastic if The Rock actually got added as a pet. No, I'm so excited for that. No. That's that's really good. Man, I can't wait for that game to actually release. Like, there's so many games that, like, I've backed on Kickstarter that it's just like, I can't wait for it to actually come out and, like, get into my hands so I can look through it. And especially with, like, cottages and services, like that one feels extra special too since, like, I covered it on the show, then I played with you guys, and that's just been a whole process in itself. I love it. But now I I just have to say thank you guys for, like, coming to this. This this was awesome. I I definitely planned on doing one of these again because even just to I mean, I hopefully, even the party will kind of be the same thing of where we can just kinda chat and talk about games and and war crimes and all of that fun stuff. You know, normal things that that nerds talk about. Think we'll probably end the actual q and a here. So for those of who that are listening to it. Thank you everyone who came on and, like, actually hang out hung out during the live bit of it. This was super fun and a blast to do, and I'm so excited to do another one of these. So, yeah, this was awesome. Let me know what you think, and I always feel weird trying to end an episode, especially one where I'm just the one talking. So I guess bye.