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In this engaging podcast, a dad and his two sons explore their personal interests while rating a variety of alcoholic beverages. They dive into discussions about nerd and geek culture, travel experiences, and an array of intriguing topics that pique their curiosity. Join them for a fun and lighthearted conversation filled with laughter, insights, and, of course, plenty of drink reviews!
Hey team. Welcome back to another episode of the three hamster boys podcast. I'm your host Alexander, and joining me on my right is my brother Nick. Hello. And on my left is our father Jeff.
Nick:Our father. Yes. Collectively.
Alexander:I don't know why I went super YouTube intro for this one, but I wanted to do something a little different.
Jeff:Maybe it's because it's it's an exciting episode.
Alexander:Yeah. It's it's a exciting and different episode. Yeah.
Nick:It's a dramatic episode. Dramatic might
Jeff:not be the right word for that. I think the closest thing we've had to this before was your submarine episode. Yeah.
Alexander:You talked about submarines and we just grilled you about questions about submarines.
Nick:So now we're
Jeff:flipping the script.
Nick:Yeah. We're flipping the script. I'm gonna be the one with no knowledge. The curiosity. Yeah.
Nick:It's and and by far this was kind of my idea because I just It's one of those things I'm really curious about.
Jeff:Yeah. Well, are we talking about?
Alexander:So today, we are gonna be talking about Dungeons and Dragons, but more kind of like a broad scope of TTRPGs as a whole. If you're unfamiliar with that term, that is tabletop role playing games. We'll we'll go in a little bit more about that. I'm sure that was one of your questions. It is.
Nick:But, so so when we came up with it, when I came up with this talk topic because I thought it was interesting to learn more details about it. I said, we have to have
Jeff:Oh, this isn't my transition. We're having mead, of course.
Nick:And here's the curious thing about it. I said, well, let me find a local distillery. Yeah. A local brewery. And I'm looking I'm looking all of a sudden I go, there's one that's a mile away from our house.
Jeff:Yeah. That's like eight minutes away. It was Really close.
Nick:Was crazy. I mean, you it's a mile as the crow flies because it's across the river. You just can't go over the river at that spot. Yeah. So, it's it's we I don't think we any of us knew that was there.
Alexander:Right? No. No.
Nick:And it and we initially we couldn't find it but
Alexander:Yeah. We got
Nick:there. We got there eventually.
Jeff:We're talking about as everyone's stealing my thunder. This is Thistle Rock Mead Company.
Alexander:Mhmm.
Jeff:And we are this whole episode is mead and honey wine as a just collection. And we are starting it off with the acacia monoflower, which is stated to be a more traditional mead with notes of a crisp apple.
Alexander:Yeah. And I think I I think it's a mead slash honey wine. We were kinda talking about that before the show started. I think this will be a little like drier, kind of closer to what we'd expect with a a normal wine with like the sweet notes of mead that kind of comes with fermented honey.
Nick:Well, and then the other part of this is that I've only before we went to Thistle Yeah. Because we went there to pick it up and do some tasting.
Jeff:Yeah.
Nick:I I had always had a very bad impression of mead.
Alexander:It's crazy.
Nick:And you guys have enjoyed mead. We've we've had some really fun
Alexander:and good mead. I've been to several rent fairs where I've drank in several glasses or tankards of mead. And I
Nick:I just I think I've I haven't been to a lot of rent fairs.
Alexander:Right.
Nick:And then when I
Alexander:Oh, we gotta fix that.
Nick:Well, we do have to fix that. But when I have tasted mead, it probably was more, it's gonna sound bad, the Budweiser of mead. Yeah. You know, where it's it's not that good
Alexander:Right.
Nick:You know. And so, I'm when we started tasting this, we we tasted some crazy ones like the coffee mead was just incredible.
Jeff:Yeah.
Nick:I was surprised by that. And the cherry one that I got was pretty darn awesome too. Yeah. So anyways, let's taste this one. Yeah.
Nick:Rather than talking about
Jeff:We're dwelling on the past. Yeah. Let's start drinking.
Alexander:Yes. To dwell on the past for one more time, I'm just really happy that they took me along with them this time.
Jeff:It's a rarity every time. I know.
Alexander:This is almost exactly what I what I'd expect it to taste like. Yeah. It smells like a wine when you smell it. I think it has those kind of like dry notes like a wine does, and then at the end there, you're like, oh, it's you know, it's it's mead though.
Nick:It's a sweetness.
Jeff:It finishes off with like a full body mead taste for a moment.
Nick:Mhmm. Yeah, it does. That's I would say that that's a really good drinkable wine for like a dinner or whatever.
Jeff:Yeah.
Nick:Or cheese and crackers, know?
Jeff:It's very clean.
Alexander:Yep. Do you do you like this one? I know that in the past you've had kind of mixed feelings about mead. I think you really liked the mead that we tried. Yep.
Alexander:How does this kind of compare in
Nick:your I think the reason I like the meads that we tried were because they were very strong in flavor.
Jeff:Yeah. Right.
Nick:This is much milder.
Alexander:Yes.
Nick:Now, I like dry wine. Mhmm. So that it So you know, it adds a plus to
Alexander:it. Yeah.
Nick:Yeah. But I think that the meat taste lingers on my tongue Mhmm. And it's not I would say that this would be considered for me an average tasting meat. Yeah. Or average tasting wine.
Nick:So I like it. It's probably not as good as the two that I really like that we tasted before. Right. But I I still think this is really good, and I I mean, I think it's if this is the the simplest and most straightforward one Yeah. I'm excited for the next two.
Jeff:I agree. I think it is. I I think you're right. Like this is like should be the average. Yeah.
Jeff:Right? Like this is a very clean
Nick:Mhmm.
Jeff:Tasty, sippable drink. But it's not like knocking my socks off
Nick:or anything. Right.
Jeff:Right.
Alexander:But I think that that's kind of what we try to do with a lot of the drinks, especially when you're making cocktails, is try to have that first drink be the base level. Yeah. And then we go from there. I also am just really curious about your opinion, because I feel like this is one of the few times where I feel like you've got age experience on this when it comes to alcohol. Yeah.
Alexander:And this is like the first time where I can kinda explore your experience of mead where I feel like I've probably had a little bit more mead Yeah. Enjoyed little bit more mead.
Nick:I definitely think that that's the case. I I have never sought out or been said, hey, that's a lot of I wanna drink some mead here.
Jeff:Right. Yeah. I
Nick:mean, I've but I mean, honestly, I've drunk some really horrible things
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:And lots of
Alexander:it like Yeah.
Nick:Know. You know, if you say, did you ever drink Pabst Blue Ribbon? I'm like, yeah, drinking Pabst Ribbon. PBR. Yeah.
Nick:So anyways, alright.
Alexander:Well, yeah. Oh my god. I didn't even recognize that that's what that was.
Nick:That's PBR. Yes, sir.
Alexander:Yes, sir. I just, you know, the blue ribbon, the logo is like very in my mind. Yep. But I, for a second there it was like Disassociating. Yeah, that's different from PBR.
Nick:Oh yeah. You mean the Professional Bullriding
Jeff:Association? Right. And you got some natty lights.
Nick:Yeah. Natty lights. Or or Meister Brow.
Alexander:Oh yeah. Was just talking with a friend. This will be really quick. Was just talking with a friend. He was at a and they were having PBR versus Heineken night and you had to choose a team.
Jeff:How is that even hard?
Alexander:Apparently, my friends in our D and D group do not like Heineken. And it's not even close.
Nick:Wait. Mom does not like Heineken or doesn't doesn't like See the Heineken or Lowenbrow she doesn't like.
Alexander:I was drinking Heineken when I was in Amsterdam and I thought that was fine.
Jeff:I feel like Heineken is like very like simple. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. We digress.
Nick:It's the Budweiser of European beer.
Jeff:I guess so. I guess so. But like But PBR Trump's PBR. PBR does not compare to either of those. Alright.
Jeff:We're getting into an alcohol talk.
Alexander:Okay. So we've kind of introduced the episode, but where did this kind of come from? Why did you wanna talk about
Nick:this? Yeah. So I think I think when we started talking about this, one of the reasons why I thought this might be interesting is because when I was in high school, Dungeons and Dragons was kind of that, you know, edge group of kids that played it. Right?
Jeff:Yeah.
Nick:Know, now my my brother did other ones. He was into tabletop sports games. My my brothers and I have been into these very extravagant tabletop games, board games that were a lot of pieces and whatever. Right. And then there was a group that played Dungeons and Dragons and it got a lot of bad notoriety in the eighties just because it was not mainstream.
Nick:I think a lot of it was due to people not understanding what the game was or or how you play it. Nowadays, though, it's always it was remarkable to me that not only do you guys play it in person, you play it on phone calls online. Yeah. You you guys play two person games, you play eight person games and you have this very social aspect to the role playing game, which I think is incredible. It was social before, but it was social for anti socials.
Nick:It it was it was a particular group of people including your mother. Oh, yeah. Who played this. Yeah. Which who who I didn't know when she was in high school but it it was it's a very different vibe now than it was.
Nick:And so I I think the reason I thought this might be interesting is to to get an understanding of what is an RPG for you? How do you guys play it? And then what does this mean socially for you guys?
Alexander:Yeah. I think a lot of what you're talking about is like very very true in the in kind of a similar way that like, anime was like the kind of weird kid The outcast.
Jeff:Yeah. Like, it was shunned on.
Alexander:Yeah. And now, it's really kind of hit into mainstream. Think, like big shows like Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer have kind of helped propel it forward. And I think in a similar way, games like Dungeons and Dragons releasing more simplified versions like five e, which is a lot, like the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons is a lot more manageable for newer players to get into, versus some of those older editions that were very like rules heavy, and you'd need to do a lot of like research and reading now.
Jeff:And honestly like a lot of math as Yeah,
Alexander:and a lot of
Jeff:math as Like there were formulas that people had to learn for third and 3.5.
Alexander:I'm not gonna lie, it is nerdy. Like there there's no way to go about it. It is nerdy. But I think five e, Nick and I were talking about this, you don't even need to read the book to play five e. No.
Alexander:But yeah, so I guess how we got into Dungeons and Dragons is kind of a good starting point here. Nick and I have always been like theater kids. Yeah. Yeah. And one of my friends who I did like theater and stuff was like, hey, this game seems interesting.
Alexander:We should try to play this. And then I remember it was like our dining room table downstairs was a bunch of like my high school friends. Never played Dungeons and Dragons before, and like we were just learning how to play the game with like 12 people in the dining room.
Jeff:My first was I was in seventh grade, and a group of my friends were like, hey, fifth edition is like a thing. You should join in on this. I was like, this is I'm a nerd, but what are you talking about?
Alexander:What are you saying
Jeff:to me? And they were like, we got the science teacher to lend to his classroom for the morning before school starts. We're gonna meet there. Nice. And then, that was my intro to it.
Alexander:Dude, I totally forgot it. Like, that that was your intro, your start into it.
Jeff:Yeah. So, I I mean, crazy. But, I you know, I've been playing ever ever since then.
Nick:Yeah.
Jeff:Like, we we met like pretty regularly.
Alexander:Yeah. And I would say, like, Nick plays more than I do. Is Yeah. I'd definitely say that. Really?
Alexander:Yeah. I think I think Nick plays way more than me. I I think also like TTRPGs as well. I've I've really delved into like Dungeons and Dragons, and I'm familiar with other titles, but for the most part, I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Nick:So from a big picture perspective. So each of you plays a character.
Jeff:Yeah. Let's let's talk about a TTRPG. Yeah. So tabletop role playing game. That's what TTRPG stands for.
Alexander:There's so many there's so many words, so many letters.
Jeff:What does that mean? Table top. You know, we'll walk through it. Table top is it's the first part of it. Think of think of chess.
Jeff:Think of monopoly. Think of sorry. Those are table top games. You'd play on a tabletop with your friends or family in a comfortable environment usually.
Nick:So is I know you can go on YouTube and watch these very extravagant setups with, you know. Yeah. Buildings and characters and all this stuff. But then on the other hand, you can also see
Jeff:Nothing.
Nick:Nothing. No characters. Just sheets out.
Jeff:We'll we'll just we'll we'll you're getting ahead of us. We're getting I'm trying to describe Okay. Okay. Our role playing game. The second part of tabletop RPG.
Jeff:Role playing game. Which is just as as stated, it is you play a role in a game. So role playing games aren't exclusive to what we're talking about. Yeah. It's just what's referred to.
Jeff:Because like you could say Clue is a role playing game.
Nick:I was thinking about the murder mystery dinners that we used to have. You
Alexander:are you are definitely role playing in that moment. Yeah. And it it very similar, although I would consider the dinners closer to like a LARP.
Nick:Right.
Alexander:Which is a live action role play.
Jeff:Yes. We're gonna say a lot
Alexander:of things.
Jeff:We're gonna say a lot of things.
Alexander:Too many acronyms.
Nick:Wasn't LARP one of the born people in that way?
Alexander:But I think it's important to bring up LARP because I think a lot of times people confuse Dungeons and Dragons or like tabletop RPGs with LARP. Yeah. We're not. And there is like a difference.
Jeff:There is a difference. When typically when you play Dungeons and Dragons, you're just showing up in whatever you were wearing that day and you're just chilling on the couch maybe drinking a beer. Yeah. Right? Got some Cheetos.
Jeff:Yeah, exactly.
Nick:It's it's audio focused. It's it's not physical.
Jeff:Yeah. You know, with the clientele that's expected, it's not physical. I No no two ways about it. Right? It's not a physical thing.
Jeff:But with LARP, live action role playing, you're dressing up. You're going to locations. Right? You're not doing it in a You're you're going to a forest. You're going to a field.
Jeff:You're going to special like locations that you've plotted out to reenact or walk through like a a narrative experience. Right. That's a tabletop RPG. But in specific to the ones that we're talking about, there's a format or layout that most of these follow, basically to a t, on like the widest view. Which is, there is something called a game master, is usually like the most general term.
Jeff:Yep. And then there are the players. There is usually one game master, any number of players the game master is comfortable with.
Alexander:It could be one player and one game master, or one game master and 12 players Yeah. Or I think typically a lot of these are built around like a four person
Jeff:group. Four to six. Yeah. I think is
Alexander:like the golden range. But again, it it it really depends on the game master. And like, if you're like, oh man, there's I have a group of seven friends. I think they'd really be interested in this. I feel like you you can run something
Jeff:You could do it.
Nick:But yeah. Yeah. The other thing we were talking about was, and and I think we're gonna talk about this in the third segment, but the the the tabletop RPG is not particular to a particular genre or topic or theme. Right? It could be pretty much anything.
Jeff:Correct. Yeah. It can be any setting that you are interested in. Yes. With the ones that we're using as an example for, Dungeons and Dragons, high fantasy for those listening.
Nick:Right.
Jeff:Which is, if you're not familiar with the terminology high fantasy, just think of Lord of the Rings, or King Arthur era, where it's medieval, fairly like rudimentary technology, but there's magic and other Right. Supernatural influences.
Alexander:And always, there's some sort of like magical races and beings, so you don't necessarily need to be a human, you could be an elf, or a dwarf, or a half orc.
Nick:Or a ballerina.
Jeff:Or a ballerina. Sure.
Alexander:But yes, the the genres are kind of expansive, and the IPs are also expansive. If you love Star Wars, there is a Star Wars TTRPG out there.
Nick:I think I've actually played one when I was in high school.
Alexander:Oh, I believe that.
Nick:Yeah. Because we we were we were doing something and we it was we were traveling along and it it kind of followed the theme of an episode where Yeah. You go somewhere, you find something, you resolve it and then. Yeah. A red a red guy gets killed, and then we're all set.
Jeff:Perfect. Wait.
Nick:It's like, hey, hold on. Are you that's
Jeff:a Star Trek reference.
Nick:Star Trek.
Alexander:Yeah. Okay.
Jeff:That leads us into the next sort of example of what you do, right, in these games. Right? Because like I've said, there's a game master and there are players. Yeah. What's the And
Alexander:you said it's not physical, so what's left?
Jeff:So what do you do? Honestly, the bare minimum that you need, like pen and paper is what it's also called. Pen and paper r b g, or pen and paper board games,
Alexander:I think. I think. Or I think, yeah.
Jeff:Might just be pen and paper. Yeah.
Alexander:Some people just shorthand it, the pen and paper.
Jeff:Yeah. That's all you need. And then, typically most of these games have your fantastical roll random number generators Yes. In the form of resin dice. Which range from a variety of shapes.
Jeff:Every single system uses their dice differently or uniquely. The most notable and popular dice, especially in the Dungeon and Dragons space, which is the d 20 or 20 sided die Mhmm. Has sort of made a made a name for itself in the space.
Nick:And we can talk about this later, but because this is a die set used for skill and Yeah. Level setting.
Alexander:Right? Basically everything. Almost everything. Yeah. But if that's kind of daunting to you, like you can raid your Yahtzee set, your Monopoly set Yeah.
Alexander:And the square dice, those are d
Nick:six Sixes.
Alexander:Is is your your normal dice. Most games also use those in some form. And some of them use like the d sixes as their primary kind of role mechanic.
Jeff:It's true.
Alexander:We'll talk about that. Yeah. But
Jeff:I I do wanna, you know, as we're still talking about the intro of tabletop RPGs, I wanna still clarify, what do you do? Yeah. And why it's compelling. I think that's what I wanna really Yeah. Push in on Get home.
Jeff:Hit home on this first part. You are working together with the game master and the players to create a story that is uniquely yours. And that is the most enticing part about it. With all of these board games, or video games, or movies, or TV shows, there is a set script narrative that has been decided before you even look at it. While you are playing Dungeons and Dragons, or any of these TTRPGs, it is the player's freedom and enjoyment to not follow that script.
Jeff:The game master can have an idea of what he wants to accomplish. That's his input on the story. But the players paint the picture. And that is the most compelling part of it. You work together, everyone, to create a story, a narrative that is uniquely yours, with ups and downs based on the dice, your interactions, or just shenanigannery Yeah.
Jeff:That didn't happen every time you meet up. And that is truly what pulled me in. Yeah. Because you would go, as a player, you have as a player of video games, you go, okay. Option a or b, should I, you know, choose that or that?
Jeff:When you play Dungeons and Dragons, you go, what does the barrel taste like?
Nick:Yeah. And then
Jeff:you get a description and you're like, can I eat it? And you're like, yeah. You don't get that sort of freedom to just experience choice like that Right.
Nick:In any other medium. Yeah. Because there's a script, there's a structure to it that just can't give you that freedom.
Jeff:Exactly.
Nick:Yeah. I think the the the part that I always love is that whenever you guys are talking to him or you're online playing these games, there's so much laughter, so much yelling and screaming.
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:I just it seems like such an immersive social kind of encounter that you're having with them, even if you're not sitting next to them. It's true.
Alexander:Yeah. I will say I do prefer like Dungeons and Dragons in person. I feel like I can emote more like there's a little bit of that theater kid coming out where Yeah. Like you can emote more, you can get really into it
Jeff:and see. You can read people's facials. Yeah. Yeah. You know like you you have partner like seeing partners right in front of you.
Jeff:Yeah. You know, doing crazy faces.
Alexander:And online can be good. You can have like your webcams on, but it's just not the same. But still it's good to connect people from all over the place. Like my current Dungeons and Dragons group, I have people in like Georgia, in Texas, in South Dakota, we're just all over the place playing together and coming together in probably a way that we never really would ever. But yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Alexander:And like you said, I think the the draw for it is you go, hey GM, can I do this? And the GM's like, yes, roll your dice.
Jeff:Let's see how well you do that thing you're asking me to do. And yeah, to slightly go into that, these dice that you roll, it it has a factor that you get a result out of based on like how well your character is at it. Yep. Typically, you're, I'm going to climb a building. And if you are a weak scrawny mage, you might not even be able to get your feet off the ground.
Jeff:You know, sort of sort of thing. But if you are a dexterous, very agile person, you could quickly scale the building. Right? And then your your dice applies to it, and everyone cheers in the air if you succeed, and everyone cheers in the air if you fail, because they like watching someone fall.
Alexander:And the chaos is beautiful.
Jeff:The chaos. Yeah. It leads to fantastical moments where, oh I'm going to walk across a tightrope over a guard. Oh no, rolled a one and I face planted right in front of the guard. Yeah.
Jeff:And now everyone is just awkwardly looking at me. So yeah, it's
Nick:I I love the social aspect of it. I just think that that that would be the best part of it.
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:Cause I think that playing video games even though you may have, you know, Discord Discord running in the background and you're talking to people. It's still somewhat of a solo activity that you're doing. There's some there's some games where you can play together with people, but I I still think that playing on a computer game is a a fairly lonely thing to do in a lot of things. I mean, I think it's entertaining, but I like the interaction with people.
Jeff:Mhmm.
Nick:You know, I I I'm not sure online Dungeons and Dragons would be appealing to me. Mhmm. You know, I think that getting together because your mom and I used to do mystery dinner theaters Yeah. Every couple of months when before we had children, BC. Yeah.
Nick:And then, and we loved that we would all dress up, we would all be in there, we'd all have characters. And it just that interaction was just always what I
Jeff:liked. Exactly.
Alexander:You guys should go to LARP.
Nick:We do we like I said, yeah, that would probably be and it here's what's funny is, I know we're coming to the end of this episode. Oh my gosh.
Jeff:We're trying to end
Alexander:it for End
Nick:of the segment, but
Jeff:We're out of here.
Nick:But your mother came alive doing those things.
Jeff:I believe her.
Nick:It's so she is just so much into it, so.
Alexander:Yeah. Well, my glass is empty. Yep. I'd like Yeah. Yours is not quite.
Alexander:But yeah, we can continue this discussion and talk maybe a little bit more about our experiences and role playing games. But for now, let's get the second drink going. We'll see you in a second here. Hello. Welcome back.
Alexander:We have got new glasses in front of us, a new mead in front of us. And I think the first thing I noticed, it's it it it is a different color, so it's a little bit lighter. But Nick, what do we got here?
Jeff:We have the lavender fields mead. And, let me tell you, it smells like lavender
Nick:right now. Yeah. It smells like your grandmother's bathroom.
Alexander:Yeah. That kind of worries me because our grandmother used a lot of lavender, and I have a little bit of a negative connotation with the smell of lavender.
Jeff:I agree. I agree. That was exactly what I was thinking. So Oh, no. So, this might not be our favorite, but this is a very floral.
Jeff:This will be a very floral episode. Yeah. Even our last one is is a floral one.
Alexander:So, light mead. Alright, let's find out. That smell is interesting. Woah.
Jeff:It's odd. It's really odd. It's not how I imagine me to taste.
Nick:It doesn't taste like it smells though.
Jeff:What did you drink? Yeah. What did you just drink? Because I'm letting you know, I'm getting a lot of lavender right now.
Nick:I am getting a lot of lavender. I guess it is a soapy taste.
Alexander:It it is a soapy taste. Yeah. I'm not gonna I I will be a % with you guys. This one is not my favorite.
Jeff:It's lingering on the taste Yeah. Is. Pretty good as well.
Alexander:I'm gonna finish this because I don't believe in wasting mead, but this one is not my favorite. No.
Nick:Once again, I go back to the two that I really like that we had before. Yeah. The coffee one and that cherry one. Sure. This is not like that at all.
Jeff:It's not like a lot of things.
Alexander:Yes. It it has a bit of a a very lavender forward taste. I almost wanna say there's like a little bit of like a tart kind of middle that's a bit weird.
Jeff:Yeah. There's something in there.
Alexander:Yeah. And then, again, I feel like the the mead the like mead taste happens at the end, but it's a lot more mild of a a quote unquote mead taste, like that kind of sweet flavor at the end is a lot more mild. And I don't know if that's because it's toned down from the very aggressive, very forward lavender in the beginning.
Jeff:I feel like it is. Yeah. I feel like that lavender flavor just carries on through.
Nick:It just it coats your mouth.
Alexander:I I think we may have familial trauma involving lavender.
Jeff:Just like a experience. But I
Alexander:think if you like the smell of lavender, and you want the smell of lavender on your taste buds, this isn't a terrible drink.
Nick:No, no. I mean, we had lavender tea. I've had lavender tea before. Right. Not my thing.
Alexander:I didn't even think tea was your thing too.
Nick:I could drink tea occasionally, but lavender tea is definitely not my thing, but I know that it's very popular. Lavender in a lot of things. Yeah. People have asked us for lavender cakes too.
Alexander:Yeah. Yep.
Nick:Just not And once again, it may be that, you know, we're scarred by Maybe a little bit.
Jeff:By the overuse in our environment. Anyways.
Alexander:You know, actually the more that I'm drinking this, because I just had a second and a third sip. The more I drink this, the less oppressive it feels. I think the flavor and the taste really catches you off guard at first. And perhaps truly lavender fields, but I didn't think it was a good thing at first.
Jeff:I think the more you sip it, the more your taste buds get used to it. Yeah.
Nick:Yeah, because there's that that middle flavor comes out a little bit more.
Jeff:Whatever that middle flavor is. Whatever whatever it is. It's it's trying it's trying to do a lot. Yeah. And I appreciate it's work.
Nick:I'm trying to figure out what you would eat with this.
Alexander:I'm thinking of pork roast.
Jeff:Yeah. Something with like rosemary.
Alexander:Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's exactly what I was thinking.
Jeff:Like a like a garlic rosemary bread. Oh, that could work too. Or yeah, like a garlic rosemary roast beef.
Alexander:Oh yeah, roast beef. I feel like could do one. I think a roast would go.
Nick:I don't know why. Not my thing.
Jeff:I was gonna say.
Alexander:Thought roasted
Jeff:squash could do maybe like It was
Nick:like paper or potatoes?
Jeff:Well I was gonna say like a rockfish or like a tilapia. Oh okay. A catfish.
Nick:No, not a catfish. I think it would have to be more So there's a lot of times when you get delicate fish, they'll be lavender in the sauce. I'm drinking
Jeff:Heineken with my catfish. Yeah. But I feel like this the meat itself, I can't match with a lighter fish. Yeah.
Nick:Well, mean, was thinking like a medium one like a cod or a rockfish or something
Jeff:like I think a rockfish is getting closer.
Nick:Yeah. Anyways.
Alexander:I feel like we need to have rockfish now. I We've had salmon the most recent times. I feel like we should get a little
Nick:Yeah. I mean, rockfish is good because it's it's like, it's got the it's got the taste of a delicate fish, but it has the substance of like lobster.
Jeff:Yeah. Something denser. Yeah.
Alexander:Anyways. Alright. We're we're talking about TTRPGs and kind of more specifically Dungeons and Dragons, but I I don't think we're married to that. We're kind of talking about a little bit of
Jeff:everything. We'll probably reference other things have other points of views and references.
Nick:So, this section for me was, okay, I decide I'm gonna play Dungeons and Dragons.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah.
Nick:Woo. What do I need to do?
Jeff:Step one. What are you gonna play? Yeah. Because I for everyone listening, if it is your first time getting into Dungeons and Dragons, do not try to be a game master. Yeah.
Jeff:Unless you are That's rough. Unless you are with a group of other people who have no idea what's happening. Then it's just absurd fun, but you will put in a lot of work to try and make it good.
Nick:So I think that I would think you would wanna be a character first Yep. Just to understand the mechanics of it.
Jeff:Highly recommend it. You have your you only have to worry about you. Right. Yeah. A as a as a dungeon master, you have to worry about all your players and the whole world.
Nick:The environment and all that stuff. And the and the the quest and all of that.
Alexander:As a quick aside, when we say game master, dungeon master, they're interchangeable. Yeah. Dungeon master is just typically more kind of exclusive or more specific to a game like Dungeons and Dragons.
Jeff:Yeah.
Alexander:But they're interchangeable. People will say DM GM, Game Master Dungeon Master, interchangeable.
Jeff:And it it also just flips based on whatever module, because every game wants to have their own unique version of whatever it is. Yeah. Basically. It's like I'm I'm the observer Yeah. The story teller.
Alexander:I'm the mastermind. Yeah.
Jeff:Quick side note. We said what a game master was very briefly. Yeah. But we we just mentioned exactly what the role is. But like, let's like specifically spell it out.
Jeff:You have your players, they have their one character, and they create a story. The game master creates the world, the cities, the towns, every person that isn't a player. The shops, the story, the weather, the smell in the air. They are the entire painter to create a landscape for your players to start taking steps in.
Nick:And the game master determines the size, extent, and complexity of the environment.
Alexander:Everything. Everything. Yeah. Everything.
Nick:Because I mean, so me thinking this, if if I'm doing it for the first time
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:I'm doing an escape room, you know, because I only have one room, one environment to figure out.
Alexander:Yeah. I mean, and you can absolutely do that. Think, what I will say is like, being a dungeon master, being a game master, can be very rewarding, but is also incredibly like, time consuming Yeah. Draining. Like when I was GM ing, I would like finish the session and be like, okay, I need a nap now.
Jeff:Yeah. When you finish like, when I when I got back from school, and I like, I hadn't played D and D for years. And I I started like, getting my my friend group back together to play. Yeah. I would do nine hour sessions with them.
Jeff:Yep. But after that, I would walk upstairs and just hit the bed. Yeah. And just drop. I would feel so drained.
Alexander:Yeah. Well, it's because you are everyone and everything in the world. And so, if you two are my players, and I'm the dungeon master, right, you could be, I wanna go talk to the shopkeeper to buy some items. And I'll say, okay, cool. And then Nick might go, okay, I would like to explore that creepy dark alleyway that looks like there's a hooded figure down there.
Alexander:And I'd go, okay, great.
Jeff:And boom, your attention is out. Ripped in half. And you have done the cardinal sin of splitting the party immediately.
Alexander:But then I'm like, okay, alright Jeff, you wanna go talk to the to the shopkeeper? And I'm like, okay, either I've written down a bunch of like characters that could be shopkeepers or I have an idea, and so I'm like, okay. You walk into this potion shop at the counter is an old lady who says, hello, deary, welcome. And we have a whole dialogue and interaction. You're staying in your character.
Alexander:I'm in this character of this old lady.
Nick:So so that's that's probably one of the the biggest questions I have is, when you have an expansive world or you're playing for nine hours, how much do you pre set up these characters?
Jeff:So much. Okay. Okay. Well, okay. Alright.
Jeff:Okay. Can never prep enough Enough. Is what I learned.
Nick:That's what I say. I'm thinking there's no way that I could know the I mean, I'm I'm thinking that I want these to be just like mechanical
Alexander:Yeah. Well, so so that this is kind of the fun part and also the scary part of Dungeons and Dragons. Back to this example, if I'm the GM and you both are my players, I am have been hinting with other characters that there's a a burglar or a robber in the town that I I want you to to stop, to to capture. And Nick goes, I'm not really interested in that. That doesn't really fit my character.
Jeff:I don't My character wouldn't care about this. Leaves.
Alexander:And Nick's character's like, you know what? Tavern over there, that seems like I can cause trouble in there. And so I've planned this session where I think you're gonna go after this burglar and instead you guys are causing a ruckus at the tavern.
Nick:Yeah. I gotta
Jeff:do a one eighty.
Alexander:Yeah. Or even even more so. You don't wanna stay in the town that I thought you guys would and you wanna go somewhere else. And all of a sudden that prep work that I've done for this town, I'll I'll just put that in a different folder.
Jeff:Whenever they come back. Yeah. Whenever they come back we'll we'll reopen that. So I for your actual question, how much prep? What do you do?
Jeff:It is whatever the GM has prepped. Yeah. Mhmm. Is the answer. And then otherwise, it is on the GM to fix it on the spot, basically.
Nick:So a lot of improv.
Jeff:A lot of Well, to some degree. Right. I How I do it, which is I don't think rare. Which is I have a list of cities, and then within each city I have a list of taverns, shops, buildings, notable individuals in it. But sometimes my players end up in a town that I didn't think existed until they showed up there.
Jeff:And then I have another document and other files that's just shops, names, characters floating in an abyss whenever I need to be called upon and pulled. And then I immediately, oh, boom, new town. Oh, let me just there, a list of like stuff. This is now the town. I've immediately like, you know, put put stuff into it.
Alexander:I will say, when we talk about a game like Dungeons and Dragons or a tabletop role playing game, as building a narrative with your players, that is literally what you Like Nick could probably write a novel with his world. Like, you are building everything.
Nick:Is there is there ultimately a goal? Is there ultimately a winning? Because I mean you've been playing with this one group for how many years now?
Alexander:I think we've been playing in this campaign for about three years now. Maybe a little longer.
Nick:So is there a point when you go, we won, we're done.
Alexander:Well, yes and no. In in our campaign, yes. In fact, I think we're going to end the next time that we meet. Which is a very emotional time for some of our players and for our DM as well, because we are at the the big bad. In in this campaign that we're playing, we are killing gods.
Alexander:We're killing the gods of the world, and some of us are replacing them by absorbing their powers. Mhmm. And there is a a god Alithid that has been lurking in the shadows, has been draining things, and we're we're kind of like gearing up for this final fight against this big bad. And after that fight, I think there will be some sort of epilogue, but our story for our characters, the thing that we've been working for for the last three years, we'll have kind of concluded. Like that's what we've Everything has been leading to this moment, this kind of climax, And once this point ends, our DM wants to take a break because he's been writing for three years straight.
Alexander:And someone else in our group is gonna step up and run a campaign for a little bit.
Jeff:On the flip side of that Yeah. On how I've been running my campaign for the last
Alexander:three Probably three years. Three years.
Nick:It's episodic. Okay. So each episode has a goal.
Alexander:He's doing like, what is it? Like monster of the week kind of style
Jeff:where Yeah. Where it's, oh, we have this quest. Oh, let's go check it out. And, as a person, I am not as good as writing an overarching story for my characters, my players to non stop, like, press forward. So I do I give my players a challenge, and give each of them a specific character objective Mhmm.
Jeff:That they should always have in their mind. And I'll be helping them achieve that as they're going through my world. Mhmm. Like, and and my my campaign, I don't expect characters to last terribly long.
Alexander:And and there Again, there's so many different ways to play this, but like, in my campaign that I'm playing in, our characters are meant to last for a while. Like, if one of us died for real in this game, it would throw everything off. So either we die together or you know this character's not gonna die.
Jeff:Where we're we're in the the two ends of it. Where I think I think two character two characters ago, one of my characters was like, yeah so I think I'm gonna get married and retire my character. And like he did that. Yeah. And then like another one was like, yeah, I'm just gonna walk off to a mist and and go on to a new character.
Jeff:And like, they they my players have the freedom to decide, because I have a very casual and friendly and relaxed, like that's why I can do such long campaigns with them. Yeah. Because it is it's not strenuous on me, like in the moment. It's not like I'm doing like really crazy Right. Stuff.
Jeff:Like I'll have moments of like heightened. But for the most part, it's like my players are figuring out their characters, being able to walk around, enjoy, and like really pursue specific story lines for themselves. And then as soon as they decide, I think that's that's good for my character, they get to do that again with a brand new one. Yeah.
Nick:So, one of the things that that I always see you do is you go, I'm gonna make a character sheet.
Jeff:Oh my god. We totally deviated. Step one, you said that you wanted to get into TTRPG. Welcome back. This is how it goes.
Jeff:Step one, you would like to create a character. Incredible. Thank you for joining us. What you would like What we will What you will be handed in any TTRPG is a core rule book, or a player's handbook, book or other fancy schmancy name.
Nick:Okay. So to to This is something that was very funny to me. They were talking about They use the fifth edition.
Jeff:We use the fifth edition.
Nick:Fifth edition of it. But there are as you go back in versions, there's a little bit more structure
Jeff:Yes.
Nick:And rules around this.
Jeff:Yeah.
Nick:And they were talking about a friend of theirs that only does 3.5 edition. Right?
Alexander:Right. Or if they run a different kind of edition, like if they run five e, they have like their own DMs handbook for it.
Nick:And you were saying that the the one person you know has a hundred page.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. But they again, this is like, this game can be so many different things. In in that kind of way, they want a lot of the interactions to be less up to chance, or less up up to improv or a roll of the dice and more of like, you as the player to know whether or not you can do certain things.
Nick:Like it like if if you're a bard, you can tell a story.
Alexander:Right. Exactly.
Jeff:So You don't
Nick:have to roll a dice because you're a bard. You know how to tell tell a story.
Alexander:I think in five e for Dungeons and Dragons, they made it so that it is easy to get into or easier than some I won't say it's super easy, but easier to get into than some of the other additions or some of the other games out there. But by doing that, it has simplified down a lot of those core rules, so that the barrier to entry is lower.
Nick:So it's more to chance.
Alexander:Yeah. But Yeah. But some people don't like the lessening of structure, and sometimes it's nice to know for certain whether or not you can do something, instead of having to be like, hey hey DM, can I do this? I'll try this. Yeah.
Alexander:And the DM being like, oh my god, how do I even like run this encounter? Like I My player just said he wants to eat a barrel. What do I do? Yeah. What do I make him roll?
Jeff:The DM squints his eye and goes, you what?
Nick:Okay. So you get a character sheet.
Jeff:Get a character sheet. You get a little rule book. You are told, you don't have to read it. Please do though. So obviously, as a good attentive player, you will not even read what you're gonna play.
Jeff:No. So, creating a character. It starts with a basis. What would you like to do? So you Most of these games have a class, species system, or occupation species system, where you get to choose what you are to begin.
Jeff:Right? Like, I'm a dwarf. I'm a dragonborn. I'm I'm a, you know, I'm a human.
Alexander:I am a human. Yeah. You know, like,
Jeff:and then you're like, oh, what do you what do you do? And you're like, oh, I I don't know. What can I do? And you're like, I like to cast spells. Oh, wizard.
Jeff:There you go. High five. Right?
Alexander:Until it gets complicated and it's actually there are several different spell casting sub classes that you could be playing, and now you need to determine what kind you are.
Jeff:But not to get into that. You basically are just, what would you like to play? What would you like your character to do? And then probably, you put your own special flavor on that character. You get to choose its name.
Jeff:You get to choose morals. You get to choose ethical points of views. You get to choose if they're religious. You get to choose just any variety, what they look like.
Nick:So in the skill set that you have from the starting point, I know that you've rolled dice before to Yeah. To determine what level of skill, or is it like an allocation? So I've seen some games where you allocate points.
Alexander:It's a It's both. It can be either. So yes, some some games have a point allocation system. Other games have you roll for your stats, which can be interesting. I think rolling dice is always fun, but sometimes the point allocation system is really good if you are like, I'm a wizard, I wanna be really smart.
Alexander:And, you don't need to worry about, oh, I hope I roll a
Jeff:high enough number. Oh, I guess 13 is my highest I'm
Nick:a dumb wizard. Yeah. I
Alexander:love playing those kind of classes as well. Yeah. But if you're starting out and you're like, I wanna be really good at classes.
Jeff:I just wanna be good at what I can do. Yeah.
Alexander:Then sometimes that point allocation system is is there. And Dungeons and Dragons is mainly a role, but it has a like It's set up for that. Yeah. It has a variant option for you to just like point select essentially.
Nick:Alright. So now I've got my care. So we've talked about some. So species, class, or occupation. Right?
Jeff:Yeah.
Nick:Yeah. A bard or a magician or something like that. Absolutely. You could be a lizard class. Right?
Jeff:Yeah. You can be a lizard person. Absolutely. After that, or before that, depending on your dungeon master. They will most likely do an introduction thing, or they'll at least like give you a rough idea of the world that you're going to be existing in.
Nick:You get you also get introduced to all the characters?
Jeff:No. So? Yeah. No. That is that's a case by case, I
Alexander:would say.
Jeff:Yeah. You know, you can you'll most likely know the people you're playing with. So, if you're just talking to them, be hey, what are you doing? Well, you go, you know. It's like
Nick:But it's not formalized where each person says, this is what my character is or
Alexander:Yeah. So oftentimes before you sit down at the table, and I think some of like my favorite DMs have done this. Before we even sit down at the table, they will send me a summary of their world. And this is literally into like the fantasy writing. Like they are writing out a an introduction to their world, and perhaps a purpose as to why my character is where they are.
Jeff:Yeah. It could include like a call to action. Yes. Or like an inciting incident to immediately place your character where the like beginning of the
Nick:So you know you were where you're starting in the story. Yeah.
Jeff:Exactly. And then you can also be like, oh, they mentioned that there was a like a a town that was almost massacred. Well, I'd like my character to be from there. And then you can insert your character. Because that's the other really important thing is, you need to make sure that your character has lived in this world.
Jeff:Yeah. Right. Right? Like, there are some campaigns where the dungeon master wants you to be ignorant of the world. Whether it's due to amnesia, or you've been transported into a new plane.
Jeff:Right? Yeah. But for the most part, you wanna have some idea of the world that you have lived in. Like, you were born in this world. You should know
Nick:where The connection. Right. Yeah.
Jeff:You you have established bonds and connections.
Alexander:And this is where like before we have even sat down to play the game, the DM and the players are already working in collaboration to build the story. Yeah. Because if I I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but like the worst feeling is to show up at a table with a player who's like, okay, I actually am from this town and my brother lives here. And you're like, oh, that wasn't in what I had planned. Yeah.
Alexander:I didn't know that.
Jeff:I would say, for the most important thing with all of these things we're giving you, and like all these like notes on like, how to begin, where to start, dah dah dah dah. What what should you do? Communication is the most important thing. Yeah. There are house rules, which we'll discuss like very briefly.
Jeff:And it's basically just rules that are exclusive to the group that you're with. Yeah. Which means you talk about boundaries. Things that you don't want to see in your game. Because because it's so open ended, you want to make sure that there's limitations.
Jeff:Right? Like, you don't want your players to just be like, oh yeah, we're just gonna start beheading kids.
Alexander:Yeah.
Jeff:Right? Yeah. Right? That's a Or murdering each other. Yeah.
Jeff:Or murdering each other. Yeah, exactly. Like there needs to be, with such an open ended and free experience, the group has to agree where the line is drawn before you get there. Right? Because the last thing you want is being like, you finish a game and you're like, I never want to play with this group again.
Jeff:That was was awesome. Right? And at the same time, you also a lot of games have something called a session zero. Yeah. Which means, it's not session one.
Jeff:It's not like when your characters are meeting or dah dah dah. It's like a session where all of you are meeting up, you have all your character sheets, you're not actually going to be propelling the story, but you're just figuring out all of the dynamics or world just to make sure that everything is smooth for when you actually start playing.
Alexander:Because like as you can as you can hear, a lot of the times these sessions either take several hours or they are like long standing campaigns that happen over like many years, weeks.
Nick:We were we were talking about the one YouTube thing where one episode will be building up to an encounter, and then the next episode will be three hours of fighting.
Alexander:Yeah. We were talking about Dimension 20 Dropouts, Dungeons and Dragons series, and how they kind of lay it out in the fact that one episode is typically like very RP, like very role playing, very talk and clues heavy, and then the next episode will be entirely based on fighting. Because fighting in games like Dungeons and Dragons is time consuming. It is a slog.
Jeff:To say it generously. Yeah.
Nick:You would much rather just be going to taverns and meeting people.
Jeff:Yes. That's my I think Nick and
Alexander:I are in the same boat where the role playing part of the game is Is the most fun. So much fun.
Jeff:You can be fast, quippy, you can explore around, you can do all this stuff. As soon as combat begins, you're like, okay, I'm going to roll my dice. Okay, I miss. That's my turn. Yeah.
Jeff:You know, and then it just goes on.
Alexander:Or or it comes down to because really quickly, you mentioned like, some of these things like Dimension 20 having like boards and like big mats and stuff. And sometimes, you don't have any of that, and you're just kinda sitting at a table, and he's like, okay, there are two enemies in front of you. And you have to be like, okay, with my movement speed, can I make it up to them?
Jeff:Like how close are they together? How close are they together? Are they near any of my friends?
Alexander:Yeah. Can I use a spell to bounce Are they near a cart? Yeah. So
Nick:anyways, alright. So let's continue this with the third drink
Jeff:Yes.
Nick:Because our glasses are empty.
Alexander:Once again. And then we'll Somehow.
Nick:Be the next one.
Alexander:Alright. See you in a second. And we are back with our third and final drink. This one is even lighter than before. I guess with these green bottles it's hard to tell.
Alexander:But I didn't realize we would have like a gradient going on.
Jeff:Yeah. It's really really light. Still need This is the Piedmont Wildflower. To note the region of Virginia that we live in. That we live in.
Jeff:I mean, based on what we're looking at Yeah. And just the name. We're probably This might just be close to a white wine. Just really light and delicate.
Nick:It might be, but it doesn't smell that way.
Alexander:This is important to note that our father did pour the drink, so he does know what it smells like.
Jeff:Yep. We shall see. Think. Think, bros.
Alexander:I feel like my nose might be broken. Was kind of smelling the lavender still.
Nick:It's odd. It is odd. It's a It's hard to describe, but it's like a flat taste on my tongue.
Jeff:It's like an earthy bouquet.
Alexander:Yeah. Yes. Mhmm. That's a good way of putting it.
Jeff:I
Nick:The the Then the flavor just stops.
Alexander:I don't know. I'm still tasting it on my tongue. Yeah.
Nick:I don't know. It just It it hit me. The earthiness hit me, and then it
Alexander:I think you're right. I don't think it lingers as long as some of the other ones, especially the last one really lingered. I I was about to say, I think I really like this one comparatively to the last Right.
Jeff:It's hard to be like fresh slate right after that one. Yeah.
Nick:It also may be that we're not the best delicate drinkers as
Jeff:it None of us are florists botanically inclined. Yeah.
Alexander:We're not gonna give you the sommelier experience where we're like, oh,
Jeff:notes of
Nick:Now you say that, but I also know, so I like coffee straight up.
Alexander:Yes.
Nick:So so I like a very very strong flavor. I like whiskeys and scotch. Yeah. I like champagne because it's really dry and is a stronger flavor. You guys drink a lot of different teas.
Alexander:Yes.
Nick:With a wide profile of flavors.
Jeff:Mhmm.
Nick:And you know you understand and know the subtleties of green tea, black tea, white tea. So I think that you guys are more a keen to the more floral flavors. However
Jeff:Yeah. However combining it with alcohol. Yeah. Yeah. Really throws in an obvious wrench into the the the flavor.
Jeff:I think
Nick:I don't know how you guys are watching this, but the last episode where we had that herbal tequila, that threw a wrench into it also.
Alexander:I agree. That that was like really different
Jeff:Yeah. Than what I was expecting. So dramatic with with each of them Yeah. It was still a prominent whatever whatever that note was.
Nick:And it was not tequila note.
Jeff:No. Was not the typical agave
Nick:Right.
Jeff:Like that you typically get. It was an additional
Nick:But it was it was a strong prominent flavor.
Jeff:Yes. Mhmm.
Nick:This is more such a it's a prominent flavor, but it's a floral flavor that's not typical that
Jeff:you It's not typical, and it's a flavor that I would love to play around with. Because I don't hate it. I think I'm just at a point where I'm like, oh, what is this? It's more of like a weird like, what is what's going on?
Alexander:What's going on right now? Yeah.
Nick:So so we've been trying to think how to what this would eat with, but I was also thinking what we could drink with it. I was thinking if you had a tea with this.
Jeff:Oh. Pour it into the tea or just like drink it side by side?
Nick:With it. Kind of the the Jaeger tea, but not as
Alexander:I I was I was thinking the same thing because like with tea, it's not uncommon to put honey in your tea. So I honestly don't know why you would put something like Jaeger when you could put something like mead, which I feel like would complement the tea a little bit
Jeff:more. Better. Yeah. I will also say, we are drinking all three of these bottles chilled.
Alexander:Yes.
Jeff:Which is I think the typical recommended. Hot meat is a thing.
Alexander:You're right. Yes. Hot meat is also a thing.
Jeff:And I think this warm might just trick our minds enough to think it is a tea because of this herbal floral aspect. Oh, wait. That's actually
Nick:such a So what was
Jeff:mead hot without anything else That's actually a great idea. Might just be closer to a tea. Yeah.
Nick:That's why I was thinking about adding it to a tea, I think that if you add that kind of grassy of notes on the bottom from tea, and it's warmed, it would give you a different impression of it.
Jeff:I agree.
Alexander:Yeah. Alright. Back
Nick:to the episode.
Jeff:Back to our scheduled program. Yeah. So,
Nick:we've got our character built.
Jeff:Yes.
Nick:Now, we've we've talked about a little bit, you talked about scenario zero, Or you talked about
Alexander:Session zero.
Nick:Session zero or you talked about getting an understanding of the world. Yeah. So you're sitting at the table, you've done your session zero.
Alexander:Yep. We're on session one now.
Nick:You're on session one. The DM says, this is where we are, or how does it start?
Alexander:Yeah. Typically, the stereotypical way to start, and I don't think it's wrong, but the stereotypical way to start, and I think it's an easy way to start, which is why it's stereotypical, is the three of you, the four of you are all sitting around a table in a boisterous tavern. Yeah. You know? It's the DM describes what is happening.
Alexander:He might describe a tavern, the bartender is pouring drinks, there's a group in the corner that's being a little bit too loud, they've got a little too many tankards kinda stacked up on the table. There's a shady hooded fig figure in the other corner. There is some some people arm wrestling a couple tables over, and typically this is where the call to action is introduced as well. Or
Jeff:Or. The characters introducing themselves.
Alexander:Oh yeah.
Nick:That's what saying.
Jeff:That's what probably happens first.
Nick:So That's what Yeah.
Jeff:That's what If you're all sitting around at a table, like the I will I was also saying, the DM introducing this in this moment is the last moment of freedom or of control. You're letting it go. This intro is probably scripted to like a t for the DM.
Alexander:I I have literally just written out like introductions.
Jeff:As soon as they end, boom. They they have no longer any control. Yeah. Right? It is their last moment of control.
Jeff:So they either prolong it or they put their foot in it. They really put their foot in They they really try and like capture it. And then and then they usually go, you are looking at each other, blank, please describe yourself or please introduce yourself. And then it's an obligation for the players to go around as themselves in that moment to describe their character, reveal any fun fact if they would like. It's an ice breaker for the group.
Jeff:Say maybe their species, maybe their occupation, maybe give little hints if they are describing their appearance, and then you just go around in a circle.
Nick:Does the DM have to or do they normally explain why this group of people are together?
Jeff:No. There's no rule.
Alexander:Yeah. So I think typically in like your session zero or in that kind of introductory thing, it might say something like, the town has been infested with zombies, and the mayor has put a bounty on these zombies, and therefore your adventuring group has come together.
Jeff:Or a really easy one. There's been a rumor of disappearances happening. Yeah. That is the classic. Yeah.
Jeff:Some villagers or caravans have been missing on the road. You've met at a tavern to convene and talk.
Alexander:Yeah. And so a lot of times, there's a call to action built into it, but not always. Because again, there's literally no rule
Nick:for it.
Alexander:Right. But like for convenience sake, there's a call to action built into it, and oftentimes, you're under the impression that you and the other players have never met before, like your characters have never met unless you've worked with the DM like, we're actually long lost brothers or we're best friends.
Jeff:We're like, we're two We were in an old adventuring party and we're looking for
Alexander:a new one. Now we're here. And so this is that opportunity for you to make a first impression with your other players, with your other characters.
Nick:And you explain kind of species and class, right?
Alexander:Yeah. You could say like, I'm playing Grom or I am Grom. Grom is a six foot seven half orc with tusks kinda sticking out. He's got this sickly green hue to his skin. He's wearing a wolf pelt that looks kind of disheveled, like he doesn't really take good care of himself.
Alexander:His hair is matted from side to side and he's got several scars on his face and he carries a big battle axe by his side.
Nick:So, sorry. I'm I'm trying to move on because all these questions Yeah.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah.
Nick:So, does the DM try to manage who the characters are? No. No. So, he doesn't say Okay.
Jeff:Probably shouldn't. No, but to an extent.
Nick:Yeah. Because like, I would think, okay, I need a thief, I need a warrior, I need a magician.
Jeff:That is, it's the player's discretion.
Alexander:Yeah. The player's discretion. Most of the time, it's not a conversation that I've had with the DM, it's more of a conversation with like
Jeff:Other players.
Alexander:What are you playing? Okay. You're playing a like spell caster. What are you playing? You're playing a an assassin.
Alexander:Okay. I'll play like a a frontline. And when that doesn't happen, I have a
Jeff:session that happened with his group, where I was like, I'm ready to DM. I'm so excited. What is everyone playing? And then I got a list of four half orc barbarians.
Nick:And I went guess it's a war party.
Jeff:Every enemy I had just disintegrated, but they were the dumbest group of people.
Nick:So okay. So so the composition is not so important then.
Jeff:No. Not really. Not really. I think it's just basically what tools you want to have.
Alexander:I think it's important if you're running more of a hardcore session, but most of the sessions that we play in are more social based.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah.
Alexander:And so it's less important of like I'm
Jeff:not really gonna care what you're playing.
Alexander:Yeah. It's less important about like making sure you have a perfect class balance.
Nick:I also think that I would think that it would be different if you're running a Nick game where monster of the week and characters change out rather than yours, which is a long term game. You need certain characters to to make that long lasting
Jeff:It's true.
Alexander:Yeah. What what I will say is for ours, a lot of We were all very intentional about not stepping on each other's toes, in the fact that we have a cleric, a barbarian, a ranger, and a paladin. Like, we all are like very different in what we So
Nick:you complement each other.
Alexander:Yeah. Well, we
Jeff:try to. Yeah, and I think I think at this point I've had two Rangers together, I've had two Rogues together, I've had two warriors together. Like very, To clarify, my d and d campaign that I've been running is just two other players. Yeah. Which is, it's very intimate, and I can really focus on each of their stories.
Jeff:It's like what I really enjoy. Like, I can ask these two guys to really like work with them, and I've spent hours with each of them, every time they're pitching a new character to me. Yeah. Right? Because like, I'd I'd like it's already established like, hey, your character's, you know you know how the song and dance goes.
Jeff:Your character's going to disappear, finish up, be satisfied, not unsatisfied, whatever whatever. You gotta have a character or two in the backlog.
Nick:Right.
Jeff:And in order to lock that in, from my point of view, I give them like a full like, actors like characterization. Like I I frustrate them a little bit, but I push them to really figure out what they want their character to be. And I really really And I have the ability with just two people. I wouldn't be able to put that time and energy if I had six people focusing on each of their story lines. Right.
Jeff:But if I had two people, that I'm like, okay cool. You guys, I've spent, I don't know, seven hours with for each of these new characters that you've just thrown in. Here's how they meet. Boom. They already, they are not actors.
Jeff:But they can buy in enough to be like, I've worked with Nick enough to really flush out my character. I know how they act. I know how how they're gonna see things. I know how they're gonna agree or disagree with other people, and then they can just run with that.
Nick:So this is So I'm gonna make a really weird comparison to this. But this is like poker night. This is where friends get together, they they play this game.
Jeff:Yeah. Yep. They do a
Nick:little bit drinking, and Oh
Jeff:yeah. If if I'm not driving, I'm probably drinking.
Nick:Yeah. So, I I think it's such a great new reality of social night. I
Jeff:agree. Yeah. It's just an additional thing and it's it's a lot of pressure unfortunately for one person to manage and deal with. But it's so convenient for the others because they don't have to bring anything. You don't have to prepare anything.
Jeff:You're
Nick:Just bring a bottle of alcohol.
Jeff:I know my character. I already have this like on my phone or whatever. Yeah. And they're just Or they just leave it at, you know, wherever we're meeting. Boom.
Jeff:There you go.
Nick:Now, one of the things that I think is interesting is that you have one of your sessions with a very good friend Mhmm. And it's just you too. Yeah. How does that work? How how is how how different is that?
Alexander:Okay. Okay. So what I will say is as context for this, I was a part of a campaign with my friends, and we were all playing in person, and then I left for college, and he was like, I still want you to be a part of like when I'm doing D and D stuff, but it's not gonna work if half of them, or most of them are in person, and then you're just online, it's not really gonna work. And so, in a weird kind of turn of events, I was playing his big bad.
Nick:Mhmm.
Alexander:And so
Jeff:The main villain.
Alexander:The the main villain.
Jeff:Big bad is such a Yeah. It's kind of like a very soft term Mhmm. But it means a lot in the D and D space. Like, I'm the what's BBEG, like big bag evil genius or
Nick:something like that.
Jeff:Big bag evil genius.
Nick:Is that
Jeff:what it's? Yeah. Okay. Mhmm. But like it is it is the ultimate evil.
Alexander:Yeah. And in his world, there were moon elves called the Aladrin that had taken over the world, and I was the king or the leader, the imperator of the Aladrin. And it was my job to, when we had our one on one sessions, was less about, I would like to do this. It's more of like, okay, you are the Imperator of the Eladrin.
Jeff:What sort of policies do you wanna introduce?
Alexander:Exactly. It's very political in that regard. And then he'd be
Jeff:like,
Alexander:Imperator, sir, I've brought you this news that's happened. Apparently, one of your advisers has gone missing and reports are that an adventuring party has something to do with it. And you're like, oh, really? An adventuring party you say? And so it's it's really fun because I got to get I don't really When I play characters, I play like very good characters.
Alexander:I play clerics, I play paladins. I don't really play things that are kind of evil aligning. And so it's really fun. It was really fun for me to play this imperator, this big bad, the evil guy Mhmm. To be like, oh I'm sorry, there's a settlement on the outskirts that was slandering Aladrin, execute them and their families, we can't have that.
Nick:Which I which I think is unique and different, also shows such a great amount of flexibility in how you can play this.
Jeff:Absolutely. I'll add to that. I have also been a part of a one on one D and D session as a player. And I started out as a level one. The world, it was like a villain campaign, but it was The world has Is 99% like, good.
Jeff:There is no evil in the world. And I'm playing like a little henchman, trying to figure out my place in the world. And that was really fun, because I was basically interacting with like, you know, tucked away dungeon bosses are just hiding from it. And like, I'm just like wandering around being like, what's going on? You know, and like, that was my experience.
Jeff:But the one on one made it so isolated feeling. Mhmm. Which I thought added such an interesting aspect. It kind of
Alexander:going off of that, obviously you know that you're the villain. You know that the party is probably gonna win out in the end, and I I really wanna give props to my friend here. When he was running the session, that feeling of being alone really started to creep in near the end of our time together, because as the imperator, I was watching my kingdom crumble not only from this random stupid adventuring party that honestly didn't even know what they were doing half the time, but also from the inside these internal policies that the DM was running where, oh, I thought it was all good in in in my kingdom, but my my one of my governors has been plotting against me this whole time, and now everything is crumbling. It was a very political campaign. It was so good, and unfortunately I think I got more out of it than the adventuring party, because know he would give me reports on them and they're like, oh they accidentally killed one of your paladins, but they didn't mean to.
Nick:Yeah, I just I I think it's it's I think it's a remarkable thing. This is why I wanted to talk about this, because I I just think it's so, there's nothing that I can say that I grew up with that's similar to it.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. There's not a lot of things that are similar.
Jeff:Unless you're in that space. Like, I I think that's why we are still so in love with it. Yeah. Because you cannot find a replacement at this point. Like, there's nothing to really compare to.
Jeff:To.
Nick:Now you say that, but we we also wanted to talk about that there are other RPGs out there that you can play.
Jeff:Yeah. Absolutely. Now
Nick:we talk You talked about one that was based on going to five e, which was with Pathfinder.
Jeff:Yeah. Oh yeah. Pathfinder. So quick history. When fourth edition, Dungeons and Dragons came out, I think it was fourth.
Alexander:I think it was fourth.
Jeff:A group of D and D players went, no, this is not what we'd like, And they split. They deviated. And it was a huge number of people. And then they took it upon themselves to basically recreate and rebuild a brand new system in the essence of 3.53. But with their whole new sort of identity, whether it's due to legal issues or da da da da, they made it their own to really be a flushed out system.
Jeff:And is now the biggest, I would say the biggest competitor
Alexander:Competitor, yeah.
Jeff:Within that setting of D and D. Yeah.
Nick:And It's high fantasy also.
Jeff:High fantasy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alexander:It it it is like literally, I think you just You can't really talk about Dungeons and Dragons without talking about Pathfinder because they are kind of like It's like a brotherhood. Yeah. It's it's like Roman and Greek Orthodox. Mhmm. Like they're just kind of running parallel.
Jeff:Yeah. But if everything we're talking about is just snooze fest, and really not interesting, and you're like, I don't care about this medieval stuff, or I don't care about elves, that's for Santa. You know, you can There are a lot of systems. So many. If you are, like, basically if any setting calls out to you, oh my god there are so many systems.
Jeff:We just mentioned Greek. There is a tabletop barbecue called Aegon, which is all about getting the Greek gods boons and doing a campaign in ancient Greece, and fighting monsters, and dealing with like the gods. There is, if you like Scooby Doo in eighties period, you have kids on bikes, which is like a stranger things things vibe, or like like, I don't know, adolescent investigation into like supernatural.
Nick:Yeah. You you were talking about is that I really love like World War two movies and stuff
Alexander:like that.
Jeff:Yeah.
Nick:And so we were talking about, well, maybe there's an RPG out there that's World War two based.
Jeff:And we found like six of them. One of
Alexander:them had a really weird name. Yeah. I wanna say it was like Glorp or something, but not that
Jeff:Yeah, Glorp.
Alexander:Oh yeah.
Jeff:They're behind enemy lines or behind the lines or something like So if you're interested in World War II or World War I. If you're interested more in the future, we obviously said that, I mean obviously it happened in long time ago in a far far Far far away. Yeah. But there is a Star Wars module. Yep.
Jeff:But there's Star Trek ones. There's also, if you want to maintain on Earth, there's Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is the staple of the future, dystopian, neon, you know, neo everything.
Alexander:I'm pretty sure your favorite IP has it. I think there's a Dune tabletop RPG as well.
Jeff:There's a Dune one. Basically, they're the ones that have established as TTRPGs. Vampire the Masquerade. The Masquerade. If you love that sort of aesthetic of either Victorian or modern day vampires with like heavy supernatural elements that fits in.
Jeff:If you like eldritch horrors and Cthulhu and all of that stuff, Call of Cthulhu is the biggest TTRPG, I would say. Like next to D and D, Call of Cthulhu is massive. Yeah. And then, any niche or environment that you're like, they would never make a role playing game out of this. No.
Jeff:They have Tales of Equestria, which is a My Little Pony tabletop RPG.
Alexander:There's a Rick and Morty module out there.
Jeff:Yeah. And it's it Whatever setting that really draws you in, it's there.
Nick:Yeah. I mean, think the I think the interesting part for this one is that, when you get a group of people together, you're always looking for what's that activity you're gonna do together. Now, we are big board games.
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:Yeah. Or card games.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah.
Nick:Or improv games also, you know. And I just think that this is this is something to consider if you're in a group of people together that you can get one of these like short scenario session kind of games. Yep. And do that if it's a like a common theme that you have.
Alexander:And what I will also say is a lot of these TTRPGs, if you find like a setting, a theme that you really like, a lot of them have what we call modules or like pre built sessions. So that if you're like, oh my god, I really love the Eldritch horror, I don't wanna build the whole world about it. They will have like a short booklet or a couple pages that are basically like, this is the call to action, this is what you're gonna tell your players, this is a character, these are like the characters that are there in the town that they're in, this is what they'll say, this is the information that they like wanna give the players if the players ask the right questions. And then it's like a very skeleton base for you to work off of that.
Jeff:Yeah. There there's a lot of those There are. In everything. And I D and D, I think does it the best out of all of them, just because there's so much support. And I think no matter what, D and D has really really good writers.
Nick:Plus they've been doing it for decades.
Jeff:They've been doing it for a long time.
Alexander:And I'm And the other thing is, it's not even just necessarily Wizards of the Coast Dungeons and Dragons writers, but like there's so much third party just like Third party support.
Jeff:Stuff. Yeah.
Alexander:Well, yeah. Maybe not necessarily, you know. It's not above board. Prioritized, yeah, by Wizards of the Coast, but still there's like people love these games and they want to add their own things. Yeah.
Jeff:Yeah. So if you do not feel like you can cultivate or craft this like perfect environment, look around. You don't have to. You don't have to. There are so many tools to help and support you in your game and your players, or if you are a player.
Jeff:There are so many different aspects for you to have fun. We have just described the basically two ends of a long running campaign. Yep. And we have both thoroughly enjoyed our experiences because I think in the end it's really not about the story. It's really not about, oh, I hit the biggest number.
Jeff:Is literally about cultivating a story with players and characters, and just having a laugh. Because I think the best moments isn't like, oh my gosh, remember when I crit that guy and cut off his head? The the moments are like, dude, you remember that really funny moment, where I rolled an awful number, and I just like, dropped my pants in front of the villain?
Alexander:Although, was kind of really nice of me to hit over a hundred points of damage on the God of Death. Okay.
Jeff:She did not know what was going on. Alright. Well, my bad. My bad. Sometimes sometimes you get
Alexander:those points. Yeah. But I think the the biggest takeaways are communication is super important. Have fun, and just like play your way. You can play a super hardcore game, or you can just have fun and laughs and play monster of the week.
Alexander:Either way, it's super fun. I highly recommend checking out some TTRPGs. Your local game stores will probably have nights where they're running things that you can join a table, or convince your friends, force your friends to play a game with you. Yeah. Quickly.
Alexander:But yeah, quickly. What is your favorite drink of the night? Dad, we'll start with you.
Nick:I would say that none of them are my favorite. I think in the end though, I think the third one kind of hit hit the right spot.
Jeff:The wildflower. Piedmont wildflower.
Nick:It was different.
Jeff:Yeah yeah I agree.
Nick:The first the yeah. The first one was I think it was good. Yep. But it was like we said it was kind of mid. Yeah.
Nick:But this one was different enough where it wasn't overwhelming like the lavender. So I would say this one.
Alexander:Alright. Nick, what's your favorite?
Jeff:I'm going with the first one. I feel like it was average consistent, but also just really solid.
Alexander:I love the first one as well. I love this this one was nice, but I I like mead. I like the taste of mead. So the first one really embodied.
Jeff:The first one actually had the For me. Taste of mead. The really apparent flavor of mead.
Alexander:Alright. Alright. Well, that's it for this episode. We will catch you next time. See you on
Nick:the flip side.
Jeff:Thank you. Thank you. Bye.