NT 030 - Dungeons and Dragons

we're doing another car

recording who knows if we'll

use any of this or not but

what a week what a week chihuah

ua what chihuahua chihuahua

maybe yes

yes that looked like a chihuah

ua so the last time we were

together i i did a long screed

about

packing up and moving and as of

the recording today literally

today the move is ending the

last

of the stuff is in the car as i

am speaking i have turned in

the keys i have turned in my

parking pass

and i spent i have to tell you

sir i spent probably around 36

hours of cleaning in that

apartment

and it was awful all right kit

so that's all i got right now

how about you what what you

want to talk

about and what's going on in

the life of kit um work and and

and games game that's it that's

it work

you got a job no oh oh school

work and work for other stuff

like mods and art mods and art

okay

nice so one of the things that

's coming up for us that i'm i'm

always excited about to be

perfectly

honest is we have our annual

vacation coming up me this is

our third annual vacation my

two best

friends in the world that i've

known since my first job at a

grocery store well one of them

pays to rent out a place in

north carolina and this will be

our third year doing this

and we all get together and we

have a great time so it's my

two friends josh and tom and

their families

and then kit and i we get

together we watch movies we

play games we have a lot of fun

but one of the things that we

last year had been talked about

and this year has been talked

about

is the idea of doing some type

of tabletop campaign some sort

of dnd-esque type of thing

and as of today i've actually

ordered the 2024 edition of the

full three book set of dnd now

i do not

need the dm book and the beast

book but but kit actually has

played dnd so he already knows

how to

play so i'm gonna keep the

player book and i'm giving him

the two dm related guides

my question to you sir is what

thoughts first of all what

thoughts do you have about

tabletop gaming in

general and what do you find

appealing about it i i like the

character stuff and doodling

them okay so

you liked the doodle like you

like getting to draw what your

character looked like yeah

do you feel like anything kind

of draws you into the game at

all like if you had to choose

something

that kind of are there any

specific moments you remember

where it was like oh my gosh

this is like

getting real i like making

other people feel it's funny

okay example uh i mean

currently the character

that i'm playing had his entire

hometown burnt to the ground

and a bunch of his people mass

acred and

i'm playing the game at all

right so for you it's almost

about telling the story me

which makes you an ideal

dungeon master candidate as

long as you're not making it

all about you you're making it

all about the

the story i also sense that you

like correct me if i'm wrong

you like making moments

or writing things for your

character or doing things that

are designed to drive a

reaction from others yeah

i i also just tend to do i i

don't always do the thing that

would be most efficient i just

do

thing that would be cool and

make sense for character so

rather than necessarily doing

the most

expedient or logical thing you

prefer to think to yourself

okay what would put like an exc

lamation point

on this moment or is that

really what my character do

would my character do the most

like logical thing or

would my character do something

different yeah and that's

actually a good mark of a

storyteller

except except for when i have

like barely any help then i'm

then i then i just kind of have

to heal

i kind of have to heal wait i

have five hit points left or

health points left i mean i got

down to one at

one point do you know what i'm

gonna do recklessly run forward

recklessly charge in

i i think that's a really

unique take though because and

what i mean by it it shows

storytelling but

character the fact that you're

involved with your character

that you're trying to be as in

tune with your

character as possible but also

trying to be in tune with the

group like how can i with these

people

i think you told me a story i'm

trying to remember like where

you were fighting a creature in

a

campaign and like you dove into

the creature's mouth or

something i i know you did

something crazy

yeah something along those

lines and everybody thought you

were nuts

so i think we like these types

of games for slightly different

reasons but also the same

reason in

that it boils down to character

and story i like being sucked

into the story and getting that

emotional drive out of it like

where it's like oh wow like we

're surrounded by zombies or we

're surrounded by

uh orcs or whatever versus you

're more like huh this is an

interesting situation how can i

fuck with people based on this

situation but not just that but

also you like being the storyt

eller

we're just making the stories

from the characters but that's

still an aspect of storytelling

uh so we we like it for

different reasons but similar

reasons and we both approach it

from a different

perspective we've established

our enjoyment of tabletop games

uh to a certain extent now

what type of character do you

prefer to play is there or do

you have you played multiple

like is there a

favorite species or class that

you like or i usually just pick

the animal ones like what uh

like like

dragonborn now i have only

played three characters why are

you asking i've i've only

played two characters

well i mean technically i've

played uh six characters but uh

only three of them were dnd

but so you like being like a

half human half something else

well i mean that's not

technically

what it's called but yeah i

guess yeah so like a dragonborn

is part dragon part something

else yeah yeah

you've never played morrowind

or um elder scrolls games but

the phrase khajiit has no love

for you

just uh just uh popped in my

head because the khajiit are um

cat people and we were talking

about

like what character i might

want to play if we're doing

this campaign and i figured out

there were

there were basically i have two

character archetypes that i i

want to go with but one of them

would require

much more research on my part

to be able to play it authent

ically so i'm not going to do

that one

but i think if we're going to

do a summer campaign the

character i'm thinking of is

kind of modeled after the

animated version of beauty and

the beast specifically gaston

now he won't be

called gaston he's not going to

be purely gaston i'm saying

based loosely on gaston now

this is going to be a

a more stereotypical character

because that's just how i want

to play it uh like most of the

time the stereotype for a tank

or barbarian type character is

that they ain't that bright and

they're all they're all brawn

no brain

there's a slight there's a

slight twist on that with this

character in that all brawn no

brain but is so arrogant that

they don't realize they have no

brain

and also though uh and you i

credit you for this well yeah

this this barbarian character

has been in great battles and

has defeated things but usually

it's pretty much everyone else

that did the heavy lifting and

he was actually afraid and

tried to like hide in the back

so whenever the things get

really tough he will try to we

asel his way out of it and so

like in the bar or the tavern

he'll be telling these grand

stories about like severing the

head of this dragon and whatnot

and yeah he severed the head of

the dragon after like the back

of the knees of the dragon had

already been cut and it was

like laying on the ground and

its wings had been cut off you

know like

so and there's a reason i'm

choosing to do a character like

that is it's a little bit

easier to play from a character

standpoint it's not that

complex there's not that much

going on interiorly although

there's enough where the dm

could like actually have an arc

for the character and help the

character to grow but there's

not so much depth there that i

really have to dig deep from an

an acting perspective or

character perspective because

it'll be if if this works out

for the trip it'll be my first

time playing a game like this

in a very long time and so i'd

rather go simple it makes it

easier like arrogant and let me

put it this way arrogant slash

bad guy is actually fun to play

there's a reason why actors

actually love playing

playing bad guys except my bad

guys except my bad guy is not

going to truly be a bad guy

because he's part of the party

but still is that stereotypical

arrogance and this is i i can't

reveal this you and i already

talked about this but i already

have a plan for the kind of

opening scene

which is usually now it's it's

stereotypical it's it's

stereotypical it happens at a

pub all the characters come

together i will tell you it's

not going to be at a pub it won

't be at a pub but it'll be

somewhere there has to be a

place where the characters meet

and get the job that's so it

might not be a pub will there

be alcohol at this place i mean

you'll be able to find it

around

okay well regardless point

being i have a plan in some way

shape or form of how i'm going

to introduce my character

and it has a decent twist to it

but one of my friends at least

listens to this podcast so i'm

not going to spoil it

but just truly and i can adapt

it a little bit if need be

based upon the scenario but the

other character i would love to

play and i've heard of other

people doing this but i i think

that i would love to do this

and this is where it would take

time to research because i

would really want to know this

character inside and out as

much as possible

is i want to be deadpool yeah

not not like an archetype of

deadpool not a character like

deadpool

i want the character sheet to

read wade wilson i want i want

the backstory to be that like

some marvel

alternative universe bullshit

happened and deadpool got

sucked into it in the mult

iverse and now he's he's like

fucking stuck in this medieval

fantasy world like his clothing

was changed to like fit the

time period

his healing factor has been

changed to better fit like the

the world uh and all of that

but he still is 100% deadpool

and the best part about that is

unlike most now i won't say all

there are other comic book

characters like this

but unlike most comic book

characters deadpool knows he's

a comic book character

um and he

totally

will break the fourth wall

and in most cases in dnd

the whole point is you're doing

things for the most part in

character unless you have to

ask the dm like

hey so in regards to the

mechanics of this how do we do

this or something

but for the most part

everything you're doing is in

character it's your character

doing stuff

and usually a good dm gives you

extra points for demonstrating

that you're doing things in

character

but the thing i like about dead

pool is

deadpool would know he's a

character

and so if some bullshit happens

like the dm has just done

something for quote unquote

game balance

as happens sometimes i'm just

gonna throw out this thing to

fuck with the entire team

because i can

deadpool can turn

look the dm in the eye and be

like

man

the dm's a fucking asshole aren

't they

you know like they can just

and and everyone else is like

what the hell are you talking

about

what is a dm don't worry about

it

but it it's great because it

lets you stay in character

while at the same time being

able to do things that would be

out of character

it's amazing because everyone

else just thinks you're nuts

in character i'm saying

everybody around the table

doesn't think you're nuts

but i'm saying all of the

characters think you're nuts so

it's great

i i would love to be able to do

that but like i said

lots of research because as

much as people think that dead

pool is a simple character

he's really not there's a lot

of complexity there

so anyway yeah

so that's my ideas from a

character perspective

i would say from a storytelling

perspective

now obviously don't no spoilers

in this particular campaign

you don't have to share any

ideas that you have about the

the ideas that you're

coming up with for this story

but

what sorts of things

do you like

when it comes to

the idea of

the storytelling

like what are

so i've talked about like from

a character perspective

what it is that like i i would

like to play

but

what type of dm do you want to

try to be

what do you mean

what do you mean

okay i i need more definition

for your question here

what do you mean by what do you

mean

what do you mean by what type

of dm

so

how do you want to approach

how do you want to approach

storytelling do you want to be

more hands-on and do like how

let me put it this way how do

you want your players to walk

away um feeling about you as a

storyteller and as a leader of

the campaign however they want

what that's a good answer but

it's not that's actually a

great answer i just don't know

how to react to that because i

'm like that's it there's gotta

be more he knows what i'm

referring to when i say it that

way too there's gotta be more

no that's my backstory

oh i thought you were referring

to something else oh what do

you think i was referring to i

don't know just something else

oh interesting

i feel like that's from

something but i don't know what

i i literally just told you i

know but it's probably from

other things yeah it's probably

from other things too

but so you don't have any sense

of like

do you want to be a dm that's

like more hands-on or like more

like let the players do their

own thing and kind of just jump

in when necessary like

there's there's a happy medium

somewhere and

do you do you want to be liking

what i would call like an actor

dm where like you're you're

doing different voices for

characters or do you want like

to just describe the npcs so to

speak

i mean i'll try to do acting

for the characters i'm not very

good at it well i'm not even

saying you have to

because you also don't want to

make the game all about you

either i mean yeah most of it's

just going to be

the players for the most part i

think and do you but i'm going

to be describing a lot of

location details oh geez

that'll be interesting location

location location now on a

scale of one

two ten owlbears attacking at

random where do you stand on

making the lives of your the in

-game characters a living hell

from time to time

i mean it's going to build up

mostly it's going to be a nice

little slope it's gonna okay so

in general you like having a

natural progression how do you

feel about like the twists i

mean i haven't got don't spoil

anything but i'm saying like in

general as a storyteller do you

feel like it's best to go a b c

d like in linear order or do

you like having like oh well we

thought we were gonna do

this but a surprise

motherfucker i mean i don't

know if you'd call it oh hey

look a cybershruck

oh you just cursed this this

podcast now sir no i didn't i

didn't say the two no no don't

don't say the two

numbers no no no no no no we

don't want that's something we

'll have to talk about in a

different recording so this

this has gone on for all of

some time at this point but uh

yeah dnd or um pathfinder or uh

the white wolf

games so hunter the reckoning

vampire the masquerade uh there

's another one that is for were

wolves and i can't

remember it give it a try or

there are free ones there's ris

us r-i-s-u-s you can get it for

free from drive-through rpg

it's literally three pages of

rules that's it it's it's

actually overly simple so it

can be a little bit

difficult getting going but i

definitely recommend trying it

out if you haven't there's

online groups

that you can join sometimes

there are local like we have a

local place called the portal

that is a gaming

store that also has play nights

so there's always places and

times that you can find to

learn these

types of things and it's uh

well worth it so i would

definitely do that it's also

really really good to

to bring snacks to have during

gameplay because sometimes

these can go for hours

neat and an ideal thing to make

because it's quick simple and

easy

cheese quesadillas cheese ques

adillas

so have you have you tried to

do that uh anything with path

finder or dnd uh let us know

feedback@nontopical.com

also if you like

what we're doing uh if you get

any value of it uh out of what

we do

yep so uh definitely do that we

consider ourselves value for

value head over to ko-fi.com/nontopical

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know

shows value you can show value

by sharing this with your

friends family uh leaving us

feedback or just

spreading the word we'd uh

appreciate it all right well i

think we've rambled long enough

sir

and uh we'll catch everyone

next time bye