Dadless Podcast Group
Discussions - and debates, about all things nerdy! Together, we cover topics such as anime, gaming, TV, movies, and so much more! Rate, review, subscribe; tell a friend, tune in and last, but not least; stay weird!
Dadless Podcast Group
Dadless Podcast Group Ep. 38 - Discovering Dungeons! w/ The Elder & HD
Join The Elder and HD as they delve into their new-found passion for Dungeons & Dragons. Brimming with curiosity, the hosts explore D&D's rich history, from its 1970s inception to its enthralling impact on contemporary pop culture.
This discussion shines a light on D&D's profound influence on popular media, with a particular focus on shows like Critical Role that have propelled the game into the mainstream. The hosts discuss the art of narrative creation as a Dungeon Master and the enchantment of dice rolls that shape the unpredictable tales of every session. In conclusion, the hosts pay homage to the shared adventure that D&D offers, where the true victory lies not in winning or losing but in the camaraderie and stories woven along the way.
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should we roll to see who talks first? Well, that'd be a perception, charisma maybe, I don't know. Oh, thank you, cheers, we're back. We're back, kids, with that being said welcome back.
Speaker 2:This is the dallas podcast group. I am the elder, he is hd. This is a triumphant return. After a couple months, it has been almost a year. It it's 11 months, but either way, welcome back Together, myself, along with HD. Jose the Dad, the Daddy, dungeon, master the Nomad. We talk about everything that is encompassed under the umbrella, under the niche of nerd culture, whether it be video games, anime movies, tv Comics. We talk about nerdy stuff.
Speaker 1:We're nerdy guys. With that being said, for being on a hiatus for a good amount of time, I think this is as good as it gets for a return, because there's nothing. There is, there are things, but I feel like there's nothing that represents being a nerd more than what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 2:And I might be wrong, but I feel like I'm not we are making moves in pursuit of something that we've talked about a lot. Since I've known you, I feel it's something that has just been copiously discussed, but it's never come to fruition, just like the argument of whether a hot dog is a sandwich. The debate has never happened.
Speaker 3:Is a hot dog a sandwich? Some people would say it is. I don't think so. Is a hot dog a sandwich? There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:There's no need to debate when there's a essay that nobody's countered me on.
Speaker 2:Anyway, we are currently pursuing D&D. What is D&D? Dungeons and Dragons Cue some sort of medieval jaunt here.
Speaker 3:So back in the 1970s this guy named Gary Gygax created a tabletop game called Chainmail. It was kind of like a medieval version of Risk. But pretty quickly he and his buddy Dave Arneson started messing with the rules and it turned into something completely different. It turned into a role-playing game and we call it Dungeons and Dragons.
Speaker 2:But we're pursuing Dungeons and Dragons into a role-playing game and we call it Dungeons Dragons. But we're pursuing Dungeons Dragons. Currently, our guild, our Vox Machina of sorts, is an eclectic group, familiar faces it is HD the Nomad, the Nomad's spouse, myself, jose Sergio as well. He was on the first episode, danny the Dungeon Master. Not only is he a daddy, but he is the fucking dungeon master. Without him I don't know what we'd be doing but we're starting a dnd camping.
Speaker 1:I I think this is the most enamored I've been with something this rapidly, like you were saying. You know we've talked about it for what seems like forever, but the fact that it just came out like like it just I don't know. We were having a random conversation about Among Us, I think, and then somebody was like why don't we play D&D finally? And it just, I don't know, like it just lit a spark that we finally caught on and now we're here. This is all I've been doing for the last week and a half, two weeks since we started.
Speaker 2:It was that proverbial like.
Speaker 1:I think we should start with what it is right, Because I think one of the biggest things that I had always thought about D&D when I first started talking about it was this is intimidating.
Speaker 2:It's very intimidating because it's essentially nothing and anything all at the same time the most intimidating part to me, especially since we've been in pursuit of, like, all of these books yeah, especially the like the player handbooks, what what rules set to use, whether we're playing what is it? I think it's like fifth edition, now officially with the 2024 release. Is that fifth edition? I believe so or if we're playing legacy rules, which sounds fucking crazy. It seems like a very daunting task.
Speaker 2:Originally, when dnd was created, gary gygax, when he initially began creating dungeons and dragons, the creation actually stems from old military role-playing games. So think prior to the predecessor, or the template that Gary Gygax used for Dungeons and Dragons was military style gaming in which it was very tactical. There was a lot of strategy. A lot of those influences carry over to Dungeons and Dragons, except you have to think, within that time, that's what was going on, and so people are using quote unquote, modern or you know at the time, present day battle tactics to you know, play these games. Yeah, and he said you know what would be fucking cool, high fantasy role playing.
Speaker 1:And I mean role playing wasn't even a thing right Like it's make believe. That's all it is, it's just make-believe. And that's where I think Dungeons and Dragons has inspired so many titles since, because the whole point of D&D is to tell a great story.
Speaker 2:And the influences are across the board. You look at titles like Baldur's Gate. Baldur's Gate, the essential function within the game itself is all D&D yeah, something that I had mentioned in our group chat. The creator of berserk there's a lot of, like you know, dnd crossover, a lot of dnd influence. You look at games like dark souls it's everywhere. And then you look at the players that actively play dungeons and dragons or that, you know, use the influence from dungeons and dragons across other media. Matthew lillard, who was the voice of shaggy rogers in the live action scooby-Doo's and the animated. He has a company himself with his partners that, I believe, kickstart and produce other tabletop games, and so you can see him appear on other campaigns on YouTube. A lot of these campaigns and channels that I've been watching, a lot of them include people like Matthew Lillard, jack Black, vin Diesel Vin Diesel Vin Diesel, which was crazy to me, like Joe Manganiello, who's just a beautiful man, yeah, but is an avid, fucking D&D player. Michelle Rodriguez from the Fast and the Furious.
Speaker 1:I think something that is just cool about it is the fact that the story takes you as far as your imagination goes. So you could have pre-established campaigns. You can make your own campaign, or not pre-established campaigns, but pre-established stories that you could kind of make your own. But then you can make your own story and still be playing Dungeons Dragons, and I think that's the cool part is that it seems like it's never ending.
Speaker 2:The gameplay itself, the universe in which this material exists. It's like you are only limited by the amount of imagination or by the amount of creativity that goes into your story. I've been watching campaigns that are meant to be funny, that are holiday based. I just stumbled across a campaign that did a whole a horror like a folk horror side story that they've made into like an expansion for the actual like resource when you buy the game itself. Um, which is currently in kickstarter, I believe at the time of the video that I watched it was in kickstarter was uh, for night of the moon, and it is a folk horror expansion from legends of adventress. Obviously I'm a horror fan and, uh, I've been listening to that.
Speaker 1:You were saying horror that entire time. Yeah, folk horror. I was just letting you ride with it. I thought you were saying folk horror. Oh, yeah, folk horror.
Speaker 2:I talk kind of weird. No, no, no, I think I have an impediment of sorts. Yeah, folk horror you think of, like the Wicker man, Midsommar, anything that has to do with, like deities and occults?
Speaker 1:Long Legs, Yo, Long Legs. I didn't watch it so I don't know, but I figured Long Legs not a horror movie.
Speaker 2:I will tell you that right now. Definitely not a horror movie, more of a crime thriller. Obviously there are certain aspects of it that make it that have. The supernatural aspects of the story Definitely play a part, our canon within that universe in that movie. So take that as you will, but I don't see it as a horror movie. I think it is definitely like a crime movie. It's cops, it's the who's who like why. You know why, what, when, where and we have to solve the case. But also we have an agent that's clairvoyant and some other supernatural things. But I think it's like a strong seven, an eight. I've seen people give it a fucking ten. It's hard to give things a ten.
Speaker 2:It's hard to give things a ten, unless you're like a real snooty bastard and you like Criterion movies, right, and you're like watch this. You know, watch the subtle change in. Look as Humphrey Bogart smokes a cigarette. He's like, hey, I'm smoking, I don't know, it's a long leg zone. I do recommend it.
Speaker 3:Are you there? She is the almost birthday girl, oh, but it seems I wore my long legs today.
Speaker 2:What happens if I Character creation within Dungeons and Dragons. If you were ever the kind of person that take like a Tony Hawk Pro Skater, create a character. Wwe game create a character, create a move set, create an entrance. There's so fucking much to that and a big aspect of the game is character creation, subspecies, classes. It's a lot Character building. To touch on one of the conversations that we were having earlier in our group, chat'm doing a lot of rethinking now because you know the nomad brought up to to danny. Hey, how crazy can we get with using different species subclasses?
Speaker 2:yeah because, uh, I don't know. I had, I had an idea and I didn't know if it was an actual class, and it's definitely a class. I don't know how it would work out. I would obviously have to create a story for it to work. Yeah, but I've seen it used, and so the species or the class is called warforged.
Speaker 2:They're robots and I myself am a big fan of mech-related media, whether it be comics, movies, anime I want you to think, like Gundam, obviously Movies like Pacific Rim, gurren Lagann Gurren Lagann, which is fucking amazing Zoids. I am a big fan of mech-related things. You look at, like Tokusatsu, I'm a big fan of Godzilla. Godzilla fights Mech-Godzilla, mech-godzilla. He fights and then partners with Jet Jaguar, who is probably my favorite fucking property within that universe. It's just a thing. I really like robots and I like giant monsters and I like mechanized things, these characters, these ideas, and so this is happenstance that we're playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Speaker 2:I have notes of this fucking character, fred Black, because of my normal like nine to to five, which is really like a 7, 30 to whenever I finish, but as I was driving around making my fucking, you know, doing my, doing, my dougie I was daydreaming and fantasizing and constantly, constantly, constantly just thinking of stupid shit. And I was thinking of what is fred black? Who is fred black? Well, fred black is a field reconnaissance evisceration droid prototype. Model Black he is one of one. And Fred Black, because he is field reconnaissance, he takes data, he takes his environment and he utilizes that to integrate himself and through that he builds what one would say is a sort of sentient nature. I mean, he is sentient. His main objective, his function, why he was created, is because Fred Black was made to hunt. He is eviscerating something. We don't know what it is Humans, species, monsters, enemies, who the fuck knows? I didn't get that far in the story, but in this case Fred Black is the main protagonist of the story and he has to meet character B who says you know, you're not as scary as you look. In fact, I think you're really helpful. They I don't know if it's a, he, it might be a girl, I lean a lot towards female, but there is like an adolescence or an innocence there, depending on what that character is, and they provide Fred with a lot of this growth, fred with a lot of this growth. And so, as opposed to introducing himself as you know, I am F-R-E-D, you know, prototype Black field reconnaissance, having to say this whole fucking spiel. And at some point character B says your name is Fred, fred Black. It's nice to meet you, fred Black Looks like you got your character and prior to this it was going to be either Guts fucking berserk someone's just supposed to be guts.
Speaker 2:I didn't have a name. It could have been hawks, it could have been fucking rock, it could have been danny o'toole, I don't know, but it would have just been fucking guts from berserk. It would have been um this other, this tiefling fucking warlock, who was basically just wilbur whitely from the hp lovecraft mythos, which at this point I don't even know if he's a fucking tiefling warlock, because I did an ai rendering of him, like you, and I don't even think he's a fucking tiefling anymore. I think he's just a warlock. He might be a high elf, he might be a dark elf, I don't know I did some rendering for your character now I'll show you.
Speaker 1:But I think that whole fred black thing sounds pretty cool and I think that's a good point. To talk about is like so yeah, we're talking about a character, fred black, but a character falls into certain categories, right. First you have to pick a class. So in this case, you know your class would be warforged. There's other classes. Some of the more traditional ones are like barbarian fighters, cleric, cleric, wizards, sorcerers, your typical high fantasy-esque characters. Within those characters, each one has their strengths, their weaknesses, different abilities, spell casting. You could shapeshift into animals, different things, and additionally, with your class, you pick a race. This race could be an elf, be a human, it it could be a dragon born, which is this draconic like creature. But yeah, the point is to make a character and give them life right, just like you would in any role playing game. That's a video game. Think like cyberpunk, think Geralt from the Witcher series, think of Skyrim, think of Skyrim. Shout out to my boy, eli, he loves Skyrim. You know.
Speaker 2:are you a rogue? How do you operate within the game, especially using Skyrim as the contact? Are you straight-laced? Are you very honorable in your actions? Do you follow your direct storyline? Do you stray off the path? Are you chaotic, neutral? Are you evil? Again, the limit of creation is limited to the creator, is limited to the individual who is portraying these characters.
Speaker 1:And I think the default that people automatically go to, like I know, when I was younger and I was playing like NBA, like 2K games, right, I would make my own player and I would name him after myself. So at this point my jersey should be hung up in the rafters for all the times that I've named an NBA player after myself over the past 10 years. But that's so, I guess, commonplace, right? You want to do something a little bit different. Maybe you want to explore someone or something that you've always wanted to be but never had the opportunity to. Now this is your chance, and so I think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:As of right now, I'm stuck on this half-elf paladin who is struck by chaos and, I guess, evil doings, who has faced great amount of loss and now wants vengeance. I will save my backstory for Saturday, but that's kind of where I'm at and so, like that, I'll never actually get to play in real life, but I get to play it out here, and so that's kind of the aspect where it is completely customizable to your own liking.
Speaker 2:I think, from what I've seen, there is like so much open world building within the rules, within what you are allowed to do, and really that's all limited to yourself and also the DM, which at the moment, danny, is our DM.
Speaker 2:He's our first DM. It's not like any of us have played outside of those who have the experience with the closest thing being like Baldur's Gate. And so, just like you touched on, I think my earliest introduction to dungeons and dragons would have been something as simple as like the cartoon, because I watched the cartoon, my dad watched the cartoon, he told me about it and then I saw it, however, like on saturday morning cartoons, but that was my introduction, dungeons and dragons, and that's how I knew about it. And then you know, to bring it into, you know, within the context of like nerd culture again, like I've said before, dungeons and dragons, much like game of thrones, it's just one of those things that if you know, you know yeah, or a must, like it's a, it's a must. Real nerds fuck with this shit, right, and if you don't fuck with it, you must not fucking be about about it you gotta be about it, go, you're about it, I'm about it.
Speaker 3:If you about it, about it.
Speaker 2:We'll say you about it I guess I'm not and now having the opportunity to like really jump into it, it's pretty exciting because I would like to, in head, I'd like to fancy myself like sort of a creative yeah, I don't know that I am Really, you know.
Speaker 1:We're making a podcast.
Speaker 2:As creative as yeah, but that's. Everybody fucking has a podcast, you know, I feel like now Hawk tour.
Speaker 3:Get on that thing, you get me.
Speaker 2:Yo, she got an agent, she got an agent and they just they ran. She got an agent, she got an agent and they just they ran with it. I think even her podcast is called like the like talk tour. Is that what it's called? Talk to? It's a catchy name, it is, it's catchy. I'm sure she has a whole, a great fucking team behind her dude.
Speaker 2:But the one thing that I have noticed, and I think it's sort of like across the board I don't I don't want to be that broad about it, but from what I've seen, especially like wanting to be in the know and wanting to learn and and grow within this game a lot of channels, a lot of teams. It's like once you are like at the forefront of this niche, especially like being dungeons and dragons, being a role playing games like that's when you make it. Yeah, yeah, I've seen, you know, obviously, critical Role has the Vox Machina campaign. That is now a show. Yeah, you have like Legends of Adventress, which they have a lot of their cast, their voice cast. A lot of them do crazy shit Like a lot of them are like known voice actors and have roles and do a lot of like amazing things Well, even the main guy from Critical Role.
Speaker 1:I think he's the voice for what's his name? Leon Kennedy and for Vincent Valentine. Oh yeah, final Fantasy.
Speaker 2:Okay, and also the voice for Cole Cassidy in Overwatch and I play Overwatch all the fucking time, so like that's pretty crazy to think about, it's like really cool to see where they start and not to say that they weren't, like they already didn't have like a presence, but it's like to see them sort of like streamline into other media and become, you know, popular like I've seen. I've seen these same channels like I've watched their live like theater performances of them doing you know short campaigns in front of audiences. That's fucking crazy. The same thing I mean, you know, to relate it to like podcasting, I've seen people do live podcasts in front of you know audiences. I don't know, it's just I I noticed that all of these teams they're all like within like really well-known notoriety because of this. It's just, it's cool to see it is.
Speaker 1:It's very cool and, and just to think of I think I looked this up and reportedly I don't know how they got this information but around 50 million players, or 50 million people, play this game worldwide, and so it's not or a RPG game, it is the RPG game, the first and probably the most popular RPG game of all time game. The first and probably the most popular RPG game of all time and RPG I know we've been saying it, but I'm pretty sure we did. We mention it what RPG stands for it stands for role playing game.
Speaker 1:And so with the characters that you create, you know, going back to the whole character creation, what you do with them essentially is completely up to your choice, and you participate in three things exploring, socializing and combat. So those are the three pillars of, I guess, the the essential of what you're completing within the story that you're participating in and the adventure that you are foregoing so I was watching this campaign last night.
Speaker 2:It's called the lost odys. It was from Geek and Sundry, you know. In relation to what Hector is talking about, the scenario that was played out is that a group of ragtag miscreants, individuals from different walks of the realm, came together and were asked to accomplish a task. Hey, this book that I have is sacred. It has mystical powers. I myself know how to advent this sort of crisis that will happen if we don't settle what's going on within this book. I need you to do it as the acting party, but I myself can't just like advent the crisis. I need someone else to do it, because of whatever.
Speaker 2:Macguffin, like he once famously said. That's how I learned the word MacGuffin. I've never heard that. You never heard the word MacGuffin, like he once famously said that's how I learned the word MacGuffin. I've never heard that. You never heard the word MacGuffin, never in my fucking life.
Speaker 2:That being said, the party is sucked into the book. They wake up and they're sort of in a daze. They don't know where they are, but they find themselves aboard a ship, and aboard the ship are different people, animals, other living beings, but something's off. It's murky. The party is trying to figure out what's going on and they now have to react.
Speaker 2:You know, do we interact, do we combat what is going on within the scenario? Because there is, you know, a lot that you can do. You yourself, as a player. You're the, you are setting the pace for the story along with the DM. And what they did was they, in essence, they fucked with the sacred timeline, fucked with the, the npcs of this realm that they were in when they should not have, and it caused a conflict. You know, because of the way that the gameplay is going on, this realm that they're in this book is completely murderizing them, and that ties in with the use of dice and with, you know, a lot of them were rolling low scores, with the addition of modifiers, with the addition of like abilities and such Advantages, disadvantages, all of that.
Speaker 2:It was just not working out in their favor. But one could say that the DM had to play an even keel story to react with the actions of the party Right Because of the actions that they took within this scenario and I think a lot of that is really telltale of, again, the creation aspect of this game and what you yourself do, along with the, the knowledge of the dm. When you have a lot of creative people it's, it's interesting, it's to watch how progressively, like creative, they can get with one another. You know what I mean. Like the interaction within this uh game. It's interesting to watch how progressively, like creative they can get with one another. You know what I mean. Like the interaction within this uh game. It's infectious. It's very cool to see and that's what I'm curious like to see how our game goes.
Speaker 2:Obviously the the very first interactions where it's like an introductory thing I think we've all agreed upon already. Yeah, because we're all learning it, like learning the physical game. Again, I don't have balder's gate I of Duty. If you want to play Call of Duty, we can play Call of Duty.
Speaker 1:But even then, like I think I've played Baldur's Gate right as someone that's experienced the story. It's one thing to be in that game and I think there's like a thousand plus ways to end that story. However, it is still limited, right. There's still a limited amount of things that you can do, and it's a world where, if I go replay it again, I know exactly where I'm going to start and I know exactly more or less where I'm going to end. This is just on the spot. This is like battle rapping People. Just you just kind of go with the flow and if you have it, you have it, and if you don't, you don't. But it's on the spot and it tests the limits of of your imagination, like you talked about. That we haven't really touched on is the dice, is the dungeon master and what those two things are. So I think maybe let's talk about the dungeon master and kind of what their role in dungeons and dragons is the dungeon master or the dm controls the pace of the story, the narrators if you will.
Speaker 2:The narrator. They are setting the pace, the tone, the action for the reaction. They are moving the story along from point A to point B to see where and if we are able to accomplish our set goal within the story, which also, in in some cases, even if the set goal is met, maybe we come to the end of the story and one of us is able to fail whatever obstacles in the way and we go to grab for the ring of chaos which could alter time and space. And the dm says hey, I need a check of some sort to see what the outcome of you grabbing the ring is. You know what action do you take?
Speaker 2:Well, I rolled a 14. I grabbed for the ring and I take it for myself. My goal is to escape this realm with the ring and to utilize the ring in my own time to change whatever is going on. Well, you only rolled a 14. So you know it doesn't quite play out the way you think it will. Ultimately, the DM has to utilize that mid-range score. It might even add on to that. It may not just be as clear cut as like well, you didn't quite do what you were going to do, unless you're rolling low and you're like oh well, I rolled a five.
Speaker 1:Your hand got chopped off as you were going to reach for the ring.
Speaker 2:You touched the ring, but guess what? The ring is just too strong. Your hands are eviscerated instantly.
Speaker 1:The ring touched you back no way. That was not pleasant. Full ditty.
Speaker 2:Or you roll an 18. You grab the ring and you are sent spiraling through time and space and you land within your realm after pleading please just send me back to my time. But you do, you wake up. You sit up and you're caught. Your wife that you beat every day, maybe not. It's medieval times. Okay, your squire is there waiting for you. Say you were asleep this whole time. Oh God, the ogres are coming, but you have the ring of chaos that you took from this realm.
Speaker 1:You don called. The ogres are coming, but you have the ring of chaos that you took from this realm. You don't know how you came back, but you're back. And and that is the role of the dungeon master the dungeon master narrates and reacts to your actions within the story. And and how do we get the reactions and the actions to take place? Well, we roll dice.
Speaker 3:Who's gonna roll a nat 20? A nat 22. One at a time, die number one Die. Number one Ten that's half of a nat 20. All the way up to a nat 20.
Speaker 1:And oh, are they not beautiful things.
Speaker 2:I had to go back and get two more sets today because I could not stop thinking about it. They're really so addictive, it's so funny. I could correlate it with whatever you fancy Think of podcasting. I had a small like portable recorder first, and then I said I think I'm ready to move up to something better, which is the current recorder. Right, I had a remedial mic at first not remedial, it's fucking this one right here, the one that you're, the one that hd is using right now no, but we bought like.
Speaker 1:I think when we first thought about this, we bought like 15, 20 mics and I think that's what we're using.
Speaker 2:I still have that I said, hey, it's time to fucking, it's time to duel. But it's like going to disneyland. You buy a pin one time, you want to buy more fucking pins yeah we bought one set of dice you want to buy I don't want to buy some more dice and so dice are an integral part of the game.
Speaker 1:dice are essentially what I guess trigger or don't trigger what you want to go ahead and do what actions you want to take within the game. Dice are essentially what I guess trigger or don't trigger what you want to go ahead and do what actions you want to take within the game, whether that's actions in combat, actions in trying to persuade another NPC into doing your bidding, casting a spell on someone, casting a spell on someone or simply trying to squeeze into a small hole in the side of a cave to get in. This determines whether or not you're able to do that.
Speaker 2:So officially per the 2014 handbook which Hector has in front of him, which I am using a PDF because my book has not come in. Game dice Officially, the game uses polyhedral dice with different numbers of the size. You can find dice like these in game stores and in many bookstores. In these rules, the different dice are referred to by the letter D. That must be a one-piece reference, followed by the number of sides d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20. For instance, a d6 is a six-sided die. Think of dice, think of craps.
Speaker 2:You go to a casino think of your regular die that's a d6, that is a d6 percentile dice, or a d100, work a little differently. You generate a number between 1 and 100 by rolling two different 10-sided dice numbered 0 to 9. One die, designated before you roll, gives you the 10s digit and the other one gives you the 1s digit. It's a lot of dice, but you utilize the dice to calculate percentages for effects for spells. Obviously the D20 that everybody, I think, is familiar with. That, I believe, is like the dice that you use the most.
Speaker 1:The d20 is the dice that you use the most. That's typically what's going to guide most of your actions. I think, aside from the d20, the next one that's probably used the most would be the d8, but I could be wrong. I think the d8 is used for like hit points and all that stuff, but I think the D20 is to see whether or not you're successful in your actions. That may or may not have a positive outcome.
Speaker 2:And it's all again. It is all dependent, like Danny so eloquently put it. It is the rule of cool, which is a real thing Perhaps. Oh no, it definitely is. Especially like I'm telling you, I'm watching these fucking campaigns, I'm watching how these people do it.
Speaker 2:It may not just be as straightforward as hey, I rolled a d20. I killed the Zubat that's in front of me. It's like well, you rolled a d20. How do you want to do that? I take up my sword, I let out a victorious roar and I rush towards the Zubat In its efforts. It's astonished. It doesn't know what to do because it sees me pursuing it with fervor Hands above my head, sword in hand. I come slicing down on the Zubat, Its body split in half. Blood is everywhere, everywhere, and my sword slices through the body. It crashes into the earth. I let out one last primal scream I Am victorious, or you rolled a d1, there's. So, per the rules, and again to paraphrase, regardless of d20 and d1 there, and there's nothing you can fucking do for a d1, if you roll a d1, that's it, you're done.
Speaker 1:You've got regardless by the regardless of ability.
Speaker 2:Ability, I believe, like modifier, I think it's just you roll a d1, it's just, it's null and void, it's, or, uh, you know, it's just matter of fact. You roll the d1, same thing, you roll the d20, whereas if you roll a mid roll again we encounter a bear. I rolled an 11.
Speaker 1:Well, no, that's still kind of a fuck in that case, maybe with a modifier, so that's another thing. Right is yes, there's a. There's numbers, kind of a fuck In that case. Well, maybe with a modifier, so that's another thing. Right Is yes, there's numbers, there's a statistical percentage that you could probably get on what you're doing. But going back to creating a character, the characters that you create are good at some things, potentially even great, but very poor at other things. And so say you know, you create, create a barbarian. A barbarian is your typical. Hoorah, I'm gonna get in your face and I'm gonna knock you out with the frying pan type of character.
Speaker 1:Dave the barbarian, dave the barbarian, the jabbers conan there you go but as great as they are at fucking people up in a brute way, they're probably not as smart as your typical wizard would be. So say you have to meet as a barbarian. A wisdom check, right.
Speaker 2:Your wisdom may be zero. You may have no modifiers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your wisdom level might be an eight, which puts it at a zero. I think that's an eight score for an ability is a zero. So that means that whatever you roll, you roll but say you get a strength check and you're trying to move a boulder out of the way because it's getting in the way of the party's ability to move forward within the map, and you roll a 10, but you have a 17 strength modifier, which is a plus, or ability score, which is a plus three. So now, not only did you roll that 10, but you rolled a plus three. So maybe you weren't able to lift the boulder completely, but you lifted it just enough for your party to squeeze through underneath the boulder.
Speaker 1:Oh come on, come on run by and and your barbarian happens to be arnold, I have zero wisdom. Roll is great, that's awesome. And you see, like if you go on TikTok or if you go on YouTube or whatever and you look up reactions to dice, die rolls. Well then you see all of these either like real somber moments or real joyful moments of people being like super excited for what just happened because they rolled a 14.
Speaker 2:To put that into perspective. I've seen campaigns that are like to counter this effect. I need you to roll, let's say, higher than a 14, which is really hard to do, and I've seen reactions where they get higher than a 14 or, or you know, a natural 14, um, something fucking crazy. And people it absolutely because of how invested you are. You know how invested you become, how creative the story is, how emotionally like driven you are within it. These roles, these reactions, fucking a garner like such a like people go crazy. I've seen them like mid-campaign, they take out their phones they roll the fucking 14.
Speaker 2:Ah, it's like, it's really cool to fucking see. I've seen boss battles where they're in, um, maybe final dungeons, but they're in like a mid-boss battle and part of the party is done or they're injured, they can't battle, maybe they're affected by a spell, they're frozen, poisoned, what have you. Whatever the case may be, and there's maybe one player left and they're like, okay, vecna is right in front of you, you need an 18 or higher to be able to make a critical attack, you know, or whatever, whatever. Uh, mcguffin, and I've seen people roll the fucking d20 and it's just like the reactions themselves.
Speaker 2:Because of the plot, you know, because of all these things that we just discussed, the, the investment of the story, it's crazy to see like it's. It's, it's really cool, yeah, but again, like hector said, it is it is a matter of the dice. Your outcome is based on the dice. That is your lifeline and, granted, again, there are dice that are specifically meant for the individual to use, or that primarily we use as the individuals, as the players, but like some of the more statistical and like percentile dice, I believe, like the dm uses more, yeah, more so than we would if any, and I think most people that play dnd aside aside from the, the literature, aside from the books the die is the main thing that they collect and their keepsake to show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I play this shit and and they're super cool, like I. I think I went back to utopia today. Shout out to utopia and modesto and simply unlucky for a very specific reason. But shout out to utopia and modesto, they're, uh, they're, uh, they're like a game store, a collectible store, would you say collectible.
Speaker 2:So they, they had trading cards, they had video games, vintage video games, yeah, consoles, warhammer, they have tabletop stuff, tabletop stuff, they had, you know, dice they had.
Speaker 1:They had video games Vintage video games yeah, consoles, warhammer, tabletop stuff, tabletop stuff.
Speaker 2:They had, you know, dice, they had mats.
Speaker 1:I think the only thing I didn't see in there that I was like, oh, that would be cool if they had it was Digimon stuff, nothing related to Digimon that I saw Maybe like a video game, but not anything else.
Speaker 2:I didn't notice what the more trading card games had. I definitely saw Magic Mainly Magic and Pokemon and Pokemon. Yeah For sure, but I wasn't looking specifically at trading cards because we were like so focused on D&D Shout out the store next door because we got there five minutes early and the daily deals they were all right. Hey, if you needed an air purifier 100 bucks, 100 bucks, a hundred bucks, no problem, come and get it. Open box, no refunds.
Speaker 1:But no, I went back today and we went what? Saturday? Saturday, we went Saturday, and so now, at the time of this recording, it's Tuesday, but I went back this morning just because I didn't think that I had enough die and I do like I do for what we need it for, but I just wanted more and I went back. I just spent maybe 15 to 20 minutes solely looking at the die and trying to pick out which one I wanted. I ended up walking away with two extras. But it's just. It's cool because a lot, since a lot of the game is being played out in your imagination. It's nice to have this connecting link between reality and the campaign, and I think that's that's what a lot of people maybe that play the game resonate with.
Speaker 2:so I think it's it's super fucking cool I think for me, the biggest thing that I take away from having the opportunity to play now like a big one, for me, like the, the majority of it, is the aspect of community, like I couldn't tell you enough how much like community being around people that like your friends, your in this case it's like a weird, like amalgamation of like friends, family, framily.
Speaker 1:Framily, it is family based. Let's say that.
Speaker 2:Like where I don't know dude, we're family, but we're not, we're both looking up with people from the family.
Speaker 1:Make sure to put that in. I want people to hear that.
Speaker 2:Oh no, that's in, that's in. I have kids.
Speaker 1:I don't, but it's still there.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of kids here. Pick one, take one home. But the sense of community, another thing that is really fulfilling to me is creativity within this game again. I've always been drawn to the creative aspects of what one can do, whether it be art, although I can't draw to save my fucking life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was a mediocre graffiti artist I guarantee you draw better than me or create better than me when it comes to like physical stuff I think the most creative thing I do is is making these recordings and editing and stuff but community community the community.
Speaker 2:Creativity the creativity, the aspect of being able to do that all together, is like the, probably the most fulfilling aspect about it. And then the storytelling I personally I love the fucking story aspect of it and I love what people do with those stories and like the, the varying like emotional spectrums of like what they do with them, um, whether it's uh, I've seen comedy campaigns. I've seen again like the, the horror, because hector said that I, I talk fucking dumb um, but the horror stories I've seen, uh, you know, and varying on emotional, or you know, like I've seen like very action based or just, and I shoot my arrow and it strikes the ogre, uh, and here comes the rogue and he stabs the ogre. It's, it's just, you can do so much with it. Yeah, I think, girl, it's, it's just, you can do so much with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think those are like the main things that I I look forward to, right aside from like if we start getting really into it and we do voices and shit. Not yet I had a voice ready for the warlock because he's based in like the hp lovecraft mythos, like if you, if you, if you look into that, the, the way that they portray these characters it's always via like 1930s, 40s-esque, like radio, like now, this time I'm going to go down to the store and oh, there's a great outer.
Speaker 2:God, oh, fuck, like very old timey, like baseball announcers back in the 40s, where it's like and here comes Babe Ruth, he's pointing to the outfield, he's going to strike and go home and beat his wife. Hey, it's like that, like that's, you know, not like that. Did Babe Ruth beat his wife? He beat some bitches. I guarantee you he did, dude. I think my dude drank like whiskey all day. He ate, ate like 10 pounds of fucking red meat. He fight, dude. He beat some bitches. The fuck up, dude. Those farts, man, I guarantee you he did. My boy ate like fucking 36 eggs, hitting balls and hitting bitches.
Speaker 1:The babe ruth story I don't think that's how it went, man he would point.
Speaker 2:He would point at the fucking corner of the house when he was at home and he just fucking hit his wife stop us, dude.
Speaker 4:And she would fly to that corner and he'd just run.
Speaker 2:He'd throw the remote control, he'd fucking test and just point and everybody else, but if he he broke the controller over his knee. That shit's so tight dude, god damn D&D, d&d. I just wrote a story.
Speaker 1:No, but I'm genuinely very excited about this Because it's not something that I thought would come into fruition. I think it was one of those things where we would just always talk about it but not not be about it, you know. And well, it goes back to that very first conversation we had at the very beginning of this, before the dnd right, it's like we could talk about it all you want, but actually doing the action, that's that's 100 different and that's what I guess gets you results.
Speaker 2:And, and here we are, it's now planned for this weekend and it's like a very fateful sort of day, like there's a lot of events. There's the shout out, lodi comic-con is coming up on the 28th, I believe. There is a renaissance fair date in uh hollister. That's going on. Some other things were happening too that I was just saving the dates, but I was like, wow, the 28th, dude, and that's the day that we're gonna, that we're gonna play dnd hey, uh, low dice.
Speaker 1:Comic con is on saturday on the 28th.
Speaker 2:It is let's go. You want to go? Let's go.
Speaker 1:Thought about taking the kids yeah, well, we're not doing the campaign till, like fucking till 7, 8 o'clock I know we were talking about it because, uh, it was coming up.
Speaker 2:I thought about taking my kids my daughter's gone. But um, I've taken my daughter, my daughter's gone and she's actively again participated. I listened to that episode feeling uncomfortable with Hector. Yeah, the 28th Lodi Comic Con. I am a big fan. There's going to be quite a few people of notoriety. Shelton Benjamin is one. He's going to be there. Mvp, some anime voice actors are going to be there and obviously, a lot of these actors have recurring roles within other anime.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, like last year, we met the voice of oh, I forget their fucking names in demon slayer who was it? A hashira was it was a hashira, the sister of the hashira, kocho, her sister. So with the side pony, canal, yes, canal, we met canal nice, there was someone else there. The english, the english dub, yeah, well, obviously they're not flying actors in from fucking japan, you don't?
Speaker 2:know, that I think that's only at the bigger venues, honestly at the bigger shows. Not to say that lodak isn't big, it's actually quite big, I think. If anything, I would say a shout out ohana comic-con. They hold really good family oriented cons that are small, very enjoyable, very affordable, very affordable. Take your kids to those. If you want to take a step up, go out to Lodi.
Speaker 2:Stockton Con is then the next tier up and then think of SacAnime as the big go-to event, well within the area right Within the area, because then, if we're moving even bigger, galaxy Con takes place in the Bay Area in San Jose and they have big fucking actors that come without having to go all the way down to la or fucking san diego. Yeah, you know what I mean, but I would say that that is the tier system with locally within the central valley of california. That's where we're located. If you're wondering, I'll give you our addresses. Yeah, and shout out to utopia man hey, babe, ruth, beating bitches in heaven. Before we wind down, do you have any additional notes?
Speaker 1:I think if you are on the fence of playing D&D, just try it, because I think it's a really good confidence booster. Not that I've played, but just thinking of how uncomfortable I'm going to be being someone that's not myself. I think it would boost a lot of my own self-esteem. So I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 2:I'm a very uncomfortable person, sure, and I don't like expressing things to people because it makes me feel vulnerable, but I felt very uncomfortable just telling you Fred Black, because Fred Black is this thing that I created while I was at work, driving around.
Speaker 1:And see, that's the thing is like. Just that in itself is so fucking cool and we barely touched on it.
Speaker 2:Within that context, fred Black, that story, it's not even meant for D&D. The Warforged is meant for D&D. Fred Black is the name that I have currently. Something has to be fitted for the source material that we're using. This is a totally different Fred Black, but Fred Black the idea, the template that I have will somehow have to fit into this timeline, this story, this campaign that we're going to start. But that was Fred Black, that is Fred, that is Fred Black. That being said, yeah, I, I'm excited, I'm very excited.
Speaker 1:Shout out to the team man, we'll see how it goes out. It will keep you guys updated. Keep you guys updated. I felt there should be a recurring like how's the campaign going? You know, dude, we all died. We all died saturday at 7 30 danny said roll the, roll the d20.
Speaker 2:All that. None of us knew what dice to use. One of us rolled a fucking d1. One of us rolled the dice but it rolled under like fucking drawer. Here a black widow bit us. Somebody didn't bring dice, we all did we. So one of us got too fucking overwhelmed, we passed out. If you were, if you've been around toretta, he's coming to play d&D. He heard family. So if you've been around for a while, if you've listened to the show from its infancy, you would know that it started with myself. That was the introductory arc, and then there was the Nomad arc. From there, with the addition of the new equipment, came the Jose the Dad arc and then, within that timeline, we had some newer touch and goes from the Nomad before he took his permanent Hiatus, having found a relationship, and he said fuck you nerds and he left. He's like I'm going to go.
Speaker 3:Get married and just like that I left everything. See ya.
Speaker 2:And then it's now the HD arc. And the HD arc is like the most current fucking berserk an arc that we're rewriting the whole story and it seems like we move in seasons, which I'm like should the show be seasons? Because it seems like from September through like the colder season, like that's when we operate, because it's functional, because in the heat, let's fucking forget it.
Speaker 1:Nobody likes the heat.
Speaker 2:We're in a garage, we're in the Central Valley, we're in the heart of it. Hey, I said it, dude, if we get to 100 episodes, we're riding to the fucking sunset. But you know who's keeping us alive? Fucking Deutschland is keeping us alive. Yeah, auf Wiedersehen, fucking guys. I hope you guys are playing D&D Whatever that fucking translates to German.
Speaker 1:I was looking at, like the languages in the player's handbook, because I've been reading the player's handbook and I was looking at the languages and it said, as a half half elf, you have proficiency in three lang, three languages elf, elvish, one of your choosing, and then common. And I was like what the hell is common? Common is english here, here it is true, true, true, but wherever you're located, that would be common, that that language, that dialect would be common yeah, true, fucking dnd.
Speaker 2:It's everywhere, man, everywhere, per tradition, per usual. What is trending with you? What are you watching, reading, playing, viewing, reading Everything right now is D&D, everything is D&D.
Speaker 1:I'm reading the hell out of this player's handbook. I was this close, this close to buying all of the other books and materials today, but I had to limit myself because they're expensive.
Speaker 1:It's crazy how expensive this shit is To be fair for a game where you need imagination, a group of friends and a pair of dice. I guess everything else is kind of secondary, but that's besides the point. I've been reading the Player's Handbook religiously for the past 20. I got it yesterday 24 hours. But Anissa and I just watched Demon Slayer fully, all the way through. She's never watched anime, Never, never, never, okay, like I think she watched, like Inuasha, growing up like in spurts, but this is the first time she's watched an anime from the beginning to the end. Did she cry, completely enamored with it, cried so much. Shout out to my boy, rengoku.
Speaker 1:When I tell you the impact that Rengoku's death had on my household Brother, but she was in shambles Shout out to her for watching this all the way through. I greatly appreciated that. I watched Gurren Lagann recently. I hate mech stuff. Unlike you who loves it, I can Gurren Lagann recently. I hate mech stuff. Unlike you who loves it, I can't stand it. But Gurren Lagann, in 27 episodes, did something to me that few other animes have done in a lot more. Watching One Piece. I just started Watching One Piece. We'll see how it goes. I appreciate the offer Because I just learned about Luffy's devil fruit. But, spoiler alert I learned that the devil fruit's powers is not him being made out of rubber, it's imagination, and I thought that was the coolest thing. You know, speaking about D&D like I thought that was the coolest thing ever, and so now that's where I'm at. I wanted to watch because of that. That's where I've been at for the last week or so.
Speaker 2:It's consumed us. I feel like right now we're all consumed.
Speaker 1:You know, this group chat goes off like at 2 in the morning, 2 am, and it's mostly Daniel Ordering dice that I've ordered. What about you?
Speaker 2:I've watched quite a bit long legs again, I give it a 7 or an 8. It's a. It's a crime thriller, a mind bender with supernatural aspects. I do recommend it. It's not a horror movie, though sorry, because people want to be like dude it's the best. It's the best horror movie. I'm all for a horror movie, I get it, but it's not a horror movie. It's not that. It definitely is not that. I'm not that guy pal. It's not that guy pal. I saw and I'm sort of late to the game, but I saw a quiet, quiet Place day one. Oh my Lord, don't spoil it. Good fucking movie. Personally, the personal feels that this movie triggered, yeah. So, yes, yes, yes, yes, it is more than a movie, it is an allegory. It is an allegory for acceptance, for, uh, overcoming, overcoming, uh, certain adversities, sure, uh. So, aside from, like the, the sci-fi aspects and aliens and shit, don't oh, fucking, oh god, oh.
Speaker 2:No, they're there and don't step on a crack, because you're breaking your mom's back um, it is, uh, the, the message of the, the overall allegory and the message of the movie. It's like it meant so much more to me. Um, it was really, really good. Um, it just made me depressed. It wasn't even like, oh, it was a good movie. Um, so that long legs, uh, fast 10 was I felt like the, the kid that rage quits and puts the remote in his ass. That video you haven't seen that video the kid that rage quits.
Speaker 1:And puts the remote in his ass. That video I didn't watch it. You haven't seen that video?
Speaker 2:I didn't watch it the kid. He rage, quits playing like Halo or something and he sticks the fucking Xbox controller in his ass. I felt like that dude watching that movie Every like. If I could roll the eyes out of my fucking head, I would. If I could roll the D20 with my eyes, it would have just been rolling fucking ones snake eyes. You lose um beetlejuice. Uh, beetlejuice two. I'm calling it beetlejuice two. I'm not calling it beetlejuice beetlejuice. You just did. If you watch the movie, I say one more time and he might come out. My god, I give it like a seven if you ask me. That's as good as long legs.
Speaker 2:It's a different it's a different type of movie though it's a different.
Speaker 2:Seven it's a different type of movie. It's, uh, it's a family movie and then, uh, I've been keeping up with one piece. Obviously it's just like episode, episode. But all of these campaigns, legends of adventurists, a lot of like the side games that they play, they've done like warcraft style, like inspired stories and, uh, like critical role learning about the game, like its rules, the different aspects of it, mostly like watching a lot of the campaigns, is fucking really cool, like I really can't get enough of that shit.
Speaker 1:If you haven't watched a campaign and kind of want to know what D&D is, I'd recommend you know. Looking up Critical Role.
Speaker 2:Matthew Lillard, the voice of Shaggy Rogers, him and his company. They started a show. It's called like um faster purple worm, kill, kill. The basis of it is that you're on the campaign but you're fighting something that you won't beat, so it's building towards the, the creativity of how you lose. Huh, it's fucking. It's really cool. It's really really cool. But it's like it's just so funny that the aspect of the game is you're gonna lose, but how?
Speaker 1:do you?
Speaker 2:lose. But it's like how do you lose? And like how does that, how do you build up to that loss? And like how do you make that loss like either really funny or like really epic?
Speaker 2:yeah and it's like, yeah, you rolled the fucking d20 but you're only doing 10 slashing damage. And you have like a modifier and it only makes it like 13 and you go to strike for the sphinx. But the sphinx is just too strong with his archaic magic and it shoots a beam of light that picks you up from the ground and as you levitate 20 feet from the ground, you're party watching you, incapacitated, and it asks you one last riddle that you're just not able to answer. And then it just, you know summons demons that you know they rip the flesh from your bones slowly. No one can fucking help you. As you fucking scream, your body goes into shock and the sphinx fucking consumes you, shits you out Like it's just, it's fucking. It's really funny. I really enjoyed it because of that aspect that it's like you're not going to win and they say maybe these guys will win, but they don't. They just don't win. No one wins. Thank you, hd, for bringing me out of my funk. I greatly appreciate it.
Speaker 2:This is the Dallas Podcast Group. He's HD. I'm the Elder. We'll see you guys later.
Speaker 4:The point of this game is not winning and it's not killing, it's having the adventure. Each player wins by having fun. So if you can have a good time, you win. You can have fun even if your character gets killed, and if that happens, don't worry, you can always make up another one.