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
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
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
where you can
toss us some money but money's
not the only thing that you
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