Cottman,Crawford and the Jersey guy.
Two Brooklyn born gen X guys and a Jersey millennial shooting the shit. Talking about everything and anything. Ready to hear topic suggestions for future podcasts and feedback on those we have recorded. Follow and Like us on FaceBook & Instagram. Email: CCandNJGuy@Gmail.com
Cottman,Crawford and the Jersey guy.
Knights of the Dice: Exploring D&D Culture
Dungeons & Dragons has leveled up—from a niche basement game to a full-blown creative movement.
In this episode, we sit down with our friend Justin—a passionate Dungeon Master—to explore how D&D became the go-to outlet for storytelling, improv, friendship, and fantasy.
Justin breaks down what it’s like to run a campaign in 5th Edition, from plotting 20-session arcs and improvising on the fly, to building 3D maps with Tailspire and giving life to dozens of characters through unique voices.
“It’s like cooking a meal for your friends—but the meal is a shared experience you create together.”
In this episode, we explore:
• Why scheduling is the hardest boss in D&D
• How Tailspire and Discord bring virtual campaigns to life
• The evolution of D&D rules: from grid paper and math headaches to streamlined 5E
• Why “session zero” is often the most exciting part
• How pop culture—Stranger Things, Critical Role, Honor Among Thieves—boosted the game’s popularity
• Making your own worlds: GI Joe, Star Wars, or anything your party can imagine
Whether you’re a seasoned player or just curious what your friends are doing for five hours every weekend, this episode offers a real look behind the DM screen—and might just inspire you to roll for initiative.
Hosted by: Cottman, Crawford & The Jersey Guy
Contact us: CCandNJGuy@gmail.com
Links & socials: https://linktr.ee/ccandnjguy
Hey and welcome to Coming from it and the Jersey Guy podcast. How are you people doing?
Speaker 2:What's up Doing? Great yeah.
Speaker 1:Cool. Yes, we got Justin back.
Speaker 3:Welcome, justin. Hello guys, thank you for covering when I wasn't here Appreciate it?
Speaker 1:Yes, of course. Yes, yes, I had a good time doing that. Yes, that was a good one. That was very fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm telling you man. Welcome Justin. Hello guys, thank you for covering while I wasn't here. Appreciate it. Yes, of course. Yes, we had a good time doing that. Yes, that was a good one.
Speaker 4:That was very fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm telling you, man, you could be our guest. Just keep coming back and forth, you'd be our special guest. That was like a very natural yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, it flow.
Speaker 3:Topics too. Yeah, topics are sweet, but that's the idea, that's the kind of flow we want to have. Yeah, you know what I mean. So that's why it's like yeah, come in, talk about it, laugh, joke, have a good time. Yes, continue to offer that, that's it.
Speaker 4:That's it, you're our special guest.
Speaker 3:Yes, man. So tonight's topic is D&D, holla, g&d. Yes, so we're gonna ask. We'll pick Justin's brain, cause he's the D&D, like, I guess, savant. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Connoisseur acquaintance we'll do.
Speaker 3:We'll do Connoisseur yeah he's playing it.
Speaker 4:I am, I am playing, I am playing. I am currently a dungeon master for a group of five of my friends okay five of my friends. Uh, I've done it one other time for another group of six and I'm also in one of my friends campaigns as a player now.
Speaker 3:Are you playing like is online? Are you playing with the actual board?
Speaker 4:every game that I have played so far has been online. Okay, yeah, are you?
Speaker 1:using a board when you're online, or how do you?
Speaker 4:I do. I use, uh, tailspire, which is a 3d uh digital board where you are able to create your boards, okay, through it. Um, super cinematic and thematic looks really cool. Yeah, it looks like the best version of in person when it's done at its peak, right, where you know people go crazy. Right, making small castles and whatnot. Uh, all mimicked in digital form. And then, uh, just a discord chat nice to get everyone connected and videos and all that okay, all right.
Speaker 3:So now, when you play with your friends, are you playing online like you would do other um?
Speaker 4:games. So you know, yeah, yeah, I mean it's pretty, it's like almost doing the exact same thing. Okay, same thing. Yeah, this is just. It just looks better. Four hours of the same gaming that I do with my friends, but super scheduled yeah, which is always, of course, the hardest part. So there's like a whole.
Speaker 2:D and D community, basically at this point Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 4:There's like a whole there's like a whole corner of every social media for it. Like there's a whole corner of YouTube that's D and D content and people talking about it, and there's a whole dnd community on twitter and tiktok and yeah, there's these patreon channels that run dnd games and whatnot, and twitch streamers that's insane? Yeah, no, it's. It's an incredibly large community. At this point, it's like I feel like almost one in five people that I have met recently within the last few years have at least either played it or consumed some of the new media surrounding it.
Speaker 4:Oh no, kidding, you know. Yeah, whether it's the movie or or any of these streams, these large scale streams that have come out.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:A lot of people love it. Well have you gone to um comic-con? Uh, I've never been to a comic-con, so a comic-con?
Speaker 3:the handful of years that I went and it's a couple of years back that I went they have a whole section at the javits center and they just have all the tables set up and just I'm telling you there has to be at least 300 people that are. Just that were just down. I don't know what it's been the last two or three years, but just man, insane. And they're all at the tables, they're all set up and on your. The bad part is that on your way there they have all the um little uh shops set up. Well, you know, like the uh kiosks and people are just like buying more stuff, getting different dyes. You know they're actually buying the gear they're wearing the outfits while they're sitting there playing and stuff, you know what?
Speaker 2:we should all go to Comic Con.
Speaker 3:I'm just saying, dude, yeah, I think, I don't know, we have to check to see if we can sign up now. I don't know. I mean, we might have to wait until next year. I'm a yeah, it's not until october to go right, but yeah that would be a great idea changed a lot since. What oh?
Speaker 1:yeah, 1974 was when it first came out.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely right um, now, are you familiar with how they used to play? I've seen, and this is again that corner of youtube that, like some of its dnd history, yeah so sometimes I watch videos on things I have never seen in my life or things that are, you know, two decades old or more.
Speaker 3:Well now, what do you find more interesting? The things that you've seen, that you know can make it. I guess you say I don't want to say that it made it harder, but where you were actually having to make your board, build your board yeah, so like they used to do combat in ways that were mathematically oh, like super, super different, right?
Speaker 4:um, in some of the older versions, I think third, third edition is the most famous for like having the worst math system in it for combat, which is like the main thing that most people are worried about and the thing that takes up most of the session is the combat Right Third edition had some kind of like someone out there will know exactly what it is. You had to do like reverse math. You had to do like some type of either reverse division just to figure out if something's such a thing, reverse division, whatever it was.
Speaker 1:It was like something like that. It was smart enough you.
Speaker 4:They were doing pemdas to figure out if someone hit because of the armor class versus the hit okay, it was crazy, it was it was when they first started playing. That was third edition, third, where they really tried to mix it up and it didn't go right as great clearly you know what, we kind of jumped in.
Speaker 3:While I jumped in, I went ahead a little bit, because I know only that much about it. Yeah, what's the basics of the game? Like what do I need to be the starter? Like what do I have to do to to get in?
Speaker 4:there's a there's a very fun video of this exact same question happening recently on a podcast with john berndahl nice uh, what's her name from true blood?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah redhead.
Speaker 4:He asks the exact same question you did and she said we could actually just play it right now.
Speaker 3:I saw that. I know you're talking about right.
Speaker 4:We could play the game right now. You don't actually need anything except a sheet that tells you numbers. Okay, when you build these characters, you have your main stats. There's, I think, think, six or seven. You have constitution, dexterity, strength, intelligence, charisma, wisdom, six, six attributes. You get to use a point by system to add to those attributes. The higher the levels are on those things, the larger bonus you get to your roles. So you're going to be naturally better at certain things, right? So let's say you guys are a group of elf scouts that all decide to be very dexterous and really good with bows and you're out on a patrol. You see, one of you has really high perception because you statted into having really high perception and that person ends up having a passive perception. That's high enough to see a trail of blood and leaves that are moved improperly right to lead you guys to an owl bear, which is a huge mystical bear owl.
Speaker 3:That's it.
Speaker 4:It's as simple as that, but it's been spread out so beautifully thematically and people have added so much more of the role-playing aspect to it now that it is a lot more than just simple combat and very simple tasks. Right, the whole storyline. Your imagination, absolutely, yeah. But so for for me, building my stories, uh, I have to plot out probably 20 sessions at a time in my mind as what could happen, as I kind of try and branch off with what choices they're going to end up making and also what the dice decide is going to happen. Got it before I'm comfortable actually playing. Got it. I have to have a 20 session plan in my head before. So detailed, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I write out basically strings of timelines based on what might happen.
Speaker 2:That's like more complicated than chess. Yeah, in chess, you have to think like ahead.
Speaker 1:If I make this move yeah like that.
Speaker 4:So it's like the same. That's also mathematical, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and some of that stuff I actually like I don't decide exactly how it's gonna happen. Some of it I write down as like you will roll to see if this thing happens, if they make this choice and then go from there. So some of it is improv, right, like a lot of it is actually improvisational, just naturally. If you want to add to it, improv is the way to do it. Um, so it's not like I don't know exactly what's going to happen all the time.
Speaker 4:They're not playing my little version of a movie. It's, we're making a movie together, right, um? Or at least that's how I try and set it up, right. But then they. Well, you obviously did a good job because you said you're on what your master of five. You said uh, yes so hello yeah, dungeon master five right now they enjoy it. Yeah, a whole whole lot Yep Good, or?
Speaker 2:at least that's what I think. What does it take to get to that?
Speaker 4:The key thing scheduling. Maybe Scheduling is actually and this is like the D&D meme at this point, scheduling is the biggest boss in D&D.
Speaker 2:Just getting everyone together. What's like your story arc, like how did you start into dnd? What got you into dnd?
Speaker 4:right. So, um, stranger things came out when I was in high school and I think that that was the I know that was they that they were big into that. Yeah yeah, it was like the first time I had, like, discovered dnd existence. I didn't know about it all of growing up, found an interest in that part of the show and then watched it slowly dissipate from the show as like a key part, and then I started to try and seek it out on my own online through, like YouTube and whatnot try and seek it out on my own online through like youtube and whatnot, right?
Speaker 4:um, critical role is the largest streamer of this and it's a bunch of uh, voice actors that are super famous. You guys definitely know some of these voices. Oh, really, it's a group of them and they stream them playing dungeons and dragons are into this yeah, yeah, I'm trying to think. That's pretty cool, yeah, I can only think of so many things. It'd be funny if it was like Clancy Brown.
Speaker 2:He does like Mr Krabs yeah.
Speaker 4:Just for reference, one of the people that's in Critical Role is Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie's mom In the Last of Us. Because, Ashley Johnson is the Original voice for Ellie. Oh, she's just one of the people that's In that group of six or seven that streams online. They run incredible campaigns. It's a 200 episode show.
Speaker 2:So do they like Do voice? Do they do voice for like specific characters and every?
Speaker 4:scene. So the the DM is Matt Mercer, who is incredibly good at like switching his voice. Um, makes all kinds of fun noises, and then almost all of them play someone with a very specific accent.
Speaker 2:Wow, every but whether it's like that's cool and they get a very specific accent Wow, every. But whether it's like an old, that's cool.
Speaker 4:And they get like super specific with it too. It's like old posh English or like right, like you could do Southern accent and then you can do like an Atlanta accent in a.
Speaker 2:D and D care or do like a Louisiana. Yeah, they get super super specific.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they all play some super, super fun characters and they all these super fun voices for their characters. Um, that's actually one of like the really fun parts of uh that. Like every dm has their sort of seasoning, like their secret sauce. Some people is like, oh, they do a bunch of voices and they're really good at it, so like that's where I get my immersion from. Or there's some people are like really descriptive during combat, so that it's envisioned better and like more fun. Right, there's all these little aspects of like how people make the game more fun for their table. Right, I try my best to be a jack of all trades. Right, I'm not the greatest voice actor known to man. I try and do as many accents and voices as possible for them. Uh, and I have it while you're playing the game, while I play the game as depending on the characters that I'm playing because you had to remember.
Speaker 4:They're all playing one guy. I'm playing everyone around, right, um? So yeah, I try and do as many voices as I can. I try and do accents that I can, in different octaves, right, so that they can differentiate who's talking without me having to say you look to your left and now this person says right, they can just hear me say a conversation and know that they're watching it happen yeah yeah um that's insane, dude.
Speaker 4:That's like, and that's just like basic, like how to make it obvious what's going on, and easier. It takes a while to get it, though, I would think for sure. But am I the best at that? No. Am I the best at describing combat? No, but I do take the time to make sure that, like, there's a cinematic for every single dice roll. Got it Right, it playing in their mind to the best of my ability. And then the other thing is the, the material side of it. So, like, some people make incredible maps Right, so that when it's finally time for combat, it's like this huge display of like, look what I fucking made for you guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude, that's so crazy yeah.
Speaker 4:And I and I do get to have that. It's not as soulful as handmade, obviously to have that. It's not as soulful as handmade, obviously. But I do get to have that with my tailspire maps, because I will spend hours searching for either other people's boards and slabs or using bits and pieces and trying to create my own from it. Whole weekends have been devoted to making a map for something that might happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4:And it's happened to me too. There was one time between this campaign and the last with my current group that I spent probably the most time I had spent on a map, just for them to take the peaceful route for once. And I was like this is so sick guys. And then they were like super confused when the the normally four hour session was only like three hours yeah and I had no idea what to do.
Speaker 4:Uh, and sometimes that happens, yeah, sometimes the dice decide what direction that story is going, and that's why I love it is it regular dice, or is there a special kind of die that you guys?
Speaker 4:use. So your d20, your 20-sided die, is your most universal die. It's probably the one that you're going to use the most. Every aspect and attribute that's on that character's stat sheet is typically rolled with a d20 right. So every stat that's on there modifies usually the d20, whether it's the actual core stats, dex, strength, whatever it may be, or the skills that are attached to those core stats. So something like let's, I think wisdom boosts your nature skill checks, your survival skill checks and your animal handling skill checks. Wow, the skill checks get super specific, right? We're talking about all kinds of different things. There's a difference between perception and investigation. Okay.
Speaker 3:Those are separate skills.
Speaker 4:Right. Wow, yeah, it gets super, super specific with the skills and they're all modified by how you decide to build the character. Um, and all of those things are rolled with the d20. So let's say I'm a sharpshooter and I have a plus 10 to perception. I roll that d20, I hit my 15. That's an all right roll. My 15 is actually a 25. That's a super good roll, right. And that's how the that's an all right role. My 15 is actually a 25. That's a super good role, right. And that's how people build the characters up, yeah. And then obviously, the classes all operate differently in combat and then some of them operate differently with a bunch of skills that they can do outside of combat.
Speaker 4:You know, like sometimes it's really really helpful when someone actually has a flying speed Right so that they can do flight. For sure, some teams will have that problem in the earlier game because they won't have like spells that can give them flight or anything, or we'll just have a harder time figuring out how to get a flight speed, or you just have a druid turn into a bird.
Speaker 4:Yeah, now we have someone that can fly there you go, uh, and that's where, like, the team building stuff comes in and, uh, session zero is probably actually my favorite session because it's where I get to establish the story and they all get to talk about their people for the first time to each other. That is cool. Yeah, that session zero is probably my favorite part, honestly, because it's when everyone's the most excited, because they know that they're about to start, yeah, and they know that they're about to tell everybody about their character and like their whole spiel and they're also finding out, like my and I do at least a one page synopsis of what the whole campaign is about to be about, got it?
Speaker 2:Super fun. I did not know that all that went into yeah, like I had so dope, I love it.
Speaker 4:That is so awesome, it's it has evolved from being that thing that you did in the confines of your basement like with like three other
Speaker 4:of your nerd friends shamedly to like the equivalent of cooking all of your friends a meal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. Like I'm gonna spend a bunch of time to do this thing for you guys and it's gonna be an experience for all of us and that's what it feels like it's grown into that now, because people have added so much of that like sauce to it with all those extra things that they do, and also just how many additions it's been through.
Speaker 1:So what is the 5E mean?
Speaker 4:Fifth edition is the most recent edition. It's the one that I use and I'm the most familiar with. It's probably the most accessible it's ever been. It's the mathematically easiest it's ever been. It's the mathematically easiest it's ever been and it has the most content that's usable with that system Wow, okay, out of all of them. And then 1D&D is a thing that they're doing now. It's technically the start of a new edition, but it's at its core it's basically just fifth edition still. They've just rewritten how some stuff works. It's almost like a patch note for fifth edition Got it, where they change some core skills and core mechanics for each of the classes and also some monsters, like amendments Like amendments.
Speaker 1:That's a really good way of putting it.
Speaker 4:One D&D is the first amendment.
Speaker 3:That is insane. Okay, because I really thought that D&D and for me.
Speaker 1:I knew it was a board game in a sense, but I didn't know it was that Right. I thought it had grown to this.
Speaker 3:I thought that the board game from when we were kids, kind of thing. I thought it was more of like flipping cards like Yu-Gi-Oh or some shit, you know what.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 3:Right. Flipping cards and then roll a die and I'm like, ah, and you bought the board. I didn't know that people were actually making the board.
Speaker 1:Even back then they were doing it. They were doing it on paper. Yeah, I didn't know it was that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's the grid paper, Right yeah, that was how it was done for a really long time. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:I didn't even know that. I thought it was literally I Pokemon, yu-gi-oh, like I thought that that was there.
Speaker 1:I was caught up with you in a sense, oh shit Magic.
Speaker 2:I knew it was detailed.
Speaker 1:I knew a lot. You know a lot of people did it. I was into it even back then, right, but it's not something I ever got into. I used to play the video game, though I do remember the video game, yeah, that was cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I ever got even past maybe the second round and that was when I'm lucky If I got past that, but it was super. First time it was ahead of its time, for sure, oh, definitely. Well, did you ever play like that, tom D&D? I never played it, not at all, none of it.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I never it just never came across my horizon. I don't know.
Speaker 4:I feel like for you guys, it was one of those Things that like, not only did you have to know about it, but you had to have four friends who also knew about it and wanted to do it.
Speaker 2:It's pretty hard to be like a clique, like totally nerds, especially for that time.
Speaker 4:You're asking five people for like four whole hours where that's all they're doing Consistent.
Speaker 3:You're asking for four whole hours where that's all they're doing, you know, consistent, yeah, yeah, you're asking for four whole hours of their life and now do you play?
Speaker 4:they're like turning their phones off you know, dude, that's exactly now.
Speaker 3:But then how often do you play with each one of your, your different teams or your?
Speaker 4:so, uh, because of scheduling, it's been a nightmare right um, which is supernatural and it happens. Uh, we were playing once a week. At one point, then we were playing, I think, once a month. Oh right, uh, now it's been whenever we can get everybody together to do it, it's uh yeah, there's been schedule changes for some of the guys and it's uh, we like just cannot line up yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:See what happens that's adulting for you yeah, it happens, I.
Speaker 4:I whip up my own little thing of like hey, open this when it's time to go again. Yeah, uh, so that I can even remember everything down to the nitty-gritty detail. Yeah, right, because I can write like they're going to get the dragon right. But there's also like they're going to get the dragon. They also talked to that ambassador and pissed her off. Really bad, right, right. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:Like there's other stuff that happened, all of those other little things right because it might take a really long time for us to play again, and I will be expected to remember that because one of them does, you know what. I mean One of them is going to be like whatever happened to that ambassador.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So you just put something out of your ass, not?
Speaker 4:with my all right With my current friends that I'm playing with. They're like some of my best best friends. They wouldn't do that. The last group that I'm playing with, they're like some of my best best friends. They wouldn't do that. The last group that I was playing with was good friends, but they, you know, yeah, they would have done it. Oh, they would have done it.
Speaker 1:Somebody would have done it. I think it's cool that the game has grown like that. It had a beginning and had a start, because it didn't have the technology that we have now Right.
Speaker 3:that's why I'm bugging out with that.
Speaker 1:How would we always say Imagine if we had the technology?
Speaker 3:Oh dude, oh my gosh, right, right, right. But you know I'm glad we didn't, because you know we would have got caught.
Speaker 1:But think about it though, we would be like and then our kids would be even more off the wall bananas.
Speaker 4:I mean, yeah, you guys were getting what?
Speaker 1:dozens of people to be out all night and, yeah, the sun was, yeah, right, yeah, if you could get that same community fully connected online, right?
Speaker 3:that whole time? Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, well now. So do you find that people playing different games? Um so like with my son? Um, he's a pc head and I forgot what game he's playing right now, but he's in it and they'll do like you said they'll have campaigns all night long. You know, it's not a, it's not um, uh, it's not a call of duty, right, I forgot what game it was that he's playing, but anyways, he does that. So, like then, is it depending on the game that then more people are into it?
Speaker 4:yeah, well, I mean, the biggest thing is is the game cross platform? Right, right, if, if it's a game that's made to be multiplayer and cooperative and it is cross platform, so like everyone can play with each other regardless of what they're on, it's probably going to end up it's like destined to be one of the more popular games. Got it Just immediately. That's like the new stat, it's the new gold standard. Okay, you know what I mean? Yeah, which is actually, at this point, starting to become the bare minimum, right, like, if you don't have cross-platform, what are we doing?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, because then it's like oh sorry, I can't play it on my iphone right, I can't right, right it's gonna.
Speaker 4:And then the other thing too is right for like or like.
Speaker 2:Oh, I gotta play the android version with right, right, right. The other thing too is right for like or like. Oh, I got to play the Android version. Right, right, right.
Speaker 4:The other thing, too, is the game's population. You've now like segregated yeah, completely, so they're only going to have maybe 2000 people to play with on this console, and then there's 20,000 people that get to play on this console and they have a great time but there's 5 000 that play on this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, like hard to find a match, depending on the time of day online you're gonna have it's gonna be huge, yeah, no, yeah.
Speaker 3:A lot of people are gonna be on there, just yeah, yeah. And is there any such thing as a pickup game for?
Speaker 4:dnd. Yeah, yeah. So there's um. You could Google search D&D one shot right now and they would probably give you several pages of just really good one shot campaigns where it's just like we're going to play D&D today for five hours and that's it. That's crazy. Just a single episode Like those ones really do feel like right.
Speaker 4:So like normal, d&d feels like a really long tv show, right, right like star trek, but a one shot feels like a movie okay it feels like a like a super short movie you pack it full of action, you try and pack it full of uh, like a very catchy story and you give it like a climatic conclusion towards the back end of usually four to five hours. How did?
Speaker 3:you like the movie. Yeah, no, you gotta be honest, justin bro, you can't, because, see, I don't play the game and I thought the movie was pretty groovy. That fantasy like, oh okay, that's cool.
Speaker 4:No, that's fine. Which movie?
Speaker 1:are we talking about the Dungeons and Dragons movie?
Speaker 4:Honor Among Thieves. Yes, I do remember that one. The Dungeons and Dragons movie Right Was probably one of my favorite action adventure movies in a decade. Okay, it was so good they captured the whimsy of table.
Speaker 4:I'm going to have to watch this they captured the whimsiness of table play without ever showing you the table. Okay, right, like, it's just the actual story that someone would play Right Done beautifully in world in the traditional D and D setting, which is the forgotten realms. Right, they mentioned all kinds of fun stuff for people like me who play, like all the other places in forgotten realms. Realms, yeah, um, baldur's gate. Baldur's gate is the big one, right, they drop. They named drop Baldur's gate in it, which is the, the video game that exists for it. That's huge. Um, yeah, the. The movie is so, so good and I desperately hope that it gets a sequel. Yeah, because right now they there's like no talks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, chris pine was uh-huh, he plays. He plays captain kirk in star trek yeah, yeah, yeah yeah that guy?
Speaker 4:yeah, chris pine plays the. Uh, he's a. I did see all they did release all their stat sheets, oh did they yeah, oh yeah, oh see, that's cool. They did stat sheets for every single character. He was, I think, a bard yes, he was a multi-class. He was a bard and a rogue yeah, he was like four levels of bard.
Speaker 2:Okay, which?
Speaker 4:means what? Two levels of rogue, that's your classes. The bard is a very charisma heavy class that has basic spellcasting and it's usually illusions okay, um, yeah, that was his character, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, he did, he did, he did.
Speaker 4:No, he was charismatic yeah, he was like very persuasive. He was very funny. Yeah, he did basic little magic right and he was also kind of stealthy. Yeah, that was like his thing.
Speaker 3:Um, so you think that all the characters fit oh, absolutely yeah, they nailed it.
Speaker 4:That was a good, every single representation of the game then absolutely, especially the uh, the guy that was clearly higher level than them, right? Yeah the paladin guy uh-huh, paladins traditionally like no intelligence, no kidding no intelligence whatsoever.
Speaker 4:But in this it was different no, no, no in the movie there is a paladin, but he is like he's like prince charming, where there's like there's not a thought behind those eyes. Oh my god yeah, but he looks great. You know he's a pretty boy whatever, and he's a pretty boy about yeah to look at him and shit, it's a good movie, it's a good I like, I said I like it but see now the funny.
Speaker 3:Like not changing the side, we go together but it's, I can get into the dnd and watch that with no problem. But then I have a hard time watching the dc movies.
Speaker 4:You know what I'm saying because, even though I know it's a little bit like, I'm like ah right, I know it's a different thing, but yeah they said dungeon and dragons movie was pretty daggons 50 bro it was so good I was in it and they could do so so much more with it, because they're in like yeah right, they did it in the, the setting that has the most content, which is the forgotten realms right? It's like there's years and years and years of stuff for them to use. Now do you?
Speaker 3:think it would be a worthwhile with that same crew. Would there be a worth? Could they?
Speaker 4:yeah, like well yeah, they could definitely return those characters there's. They all have like another 10 or 12 levels worth of stuff that they could they could be much stronger, all of them um, so they could come back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the sequel could be them stronger. Yeah, like they could come back. Like you know, after some time, one piece right, right, right right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it could be much. It could be much much later thing. Yeah, um, and that is kind of the fun part too is like the level changing thing yeah, right, yeah like leveling up feels like a real progression of time for every single character and some people. All right, very few people use the experience points, which is like if you kill this, you get this many points and then we have to do fucking math to figure out, to figure out when you're gonna level up.
Speaker 4:Some people do that. I don't because it's silly, right? Um, I do the milestone method, which is just like if I feel that they've hit a milestone, got it, or like something that's genuinely impressive, they level up now, is it impressive because of how they're playing or impressive because of the story that you've written?
Speaker 4:it can be a combination of both, right? So let's say, I think it's just time for them to level up, because it's about to get a lot harder. Okay, um, I can try and implement, uh, something thematically that would make that possible. Like, maybe they receive a blessing, okay, or a boon from a god, um, or they have this interaction with a demigod, or something okay that offers them that blessing or boon, um, and it just equates to they level up. That's pretty huge.
Speaker 1:You know, that's something really cool. You could pretty much do almost anything.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, there's the. The mechanics allow the improv to flow Right.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean, right.
Speaker 4:There is a mechanic that I can rely on or backstep to when I need it to make the story go the way it needs to go, which is really just forward you know, whatever direction they decide to go, fine, I just I can do things always mechanically to make it go forward. Um, not always easy. Sometimes it does brick wall, uh, yeah, you can break wall bad. Brick wall, uh yeah, you can brick wall bad, uh, and and nine times out of ten.
Speaker 1:The brick wall actually is just a tpk, a total party kill. You say four hours, so four hours is exactly that's the length of the game, or you can come back and still continue.
Speaker 4:Oh, I continue from where we left, oh every single time um, I get yeah ever end at some point I mean I have an idea of what it looks like with them ending. Yeah, sometimes I envision like all right, what does it look like if this story and these characters hit level 15 and that's the end? 15 is pretty high. From 15 to 20 it gets crazy.
Speaker 4:Okay, combat takes like longer than four hours at those levels because people are pulling apart the fucking fabrics of reality right you're right, the level 20 sorcerer is gonna like make it, so there's no ground under you yeah, right stuff like that and I me personally I don't think that that that's like where it starts to get not fun, right yeah, it's like now, it's like you, just yeah, it's like dragon ball, you know just right, everybody's just dragging yeah exactly.
Speaker 3:We're cratering the earth and all that other stupid right which is fun in some, in some aspects.
Speaker 4:Not for that game, not for right not for something that we're going to invest months into doing. It's just not as fun. It'd be really cool for a one-shot Right. Yeah right, right, I would love to run a level 21 shot, just to see how bad it gets. Yeah, yeah yeah. That's something I should do.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, you got your crews already, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4:They would be so happy to do that.
Speaker 3:To get to play a level 20 character is a privilege and we'll have you back and you can tell us how it was. We'll have like a whole other video game yeah, because that's insane. That would be so freaking cool. Yeah, I mean again, only because I see like you're just loving the hell out of it. Yeah, I, I absolutely love this and I've seen other people that love it.
Speaker 4:So then to know that that would be something like yeah, there's people who are probably nuts about this yeah, I mean it's it's if, if paintings or visual art and poems and literature are thoughtful art. Right, and music is audio, art and movies are a combination of those things. Yep. What is it when I also add improvising with my friends too? Yeah, because that's what I'm doing Improvising. I'm making a movie, improvising it with my friends in real time. Right, that's like as artistic as it can get you know what.
Speaker 4:I mean, when you actually think about it, and for me it's like, as someone who was, who was always, I think, a creative, but never found their way to you know, like the tangibleness of being a creative. Yes, dnd was absolutely that for me. Okay, uh, yeah, it's. Yeah, I think it makes you more social.
Speaker 3:I think it makes you more creative do you have your past stories, like in other, the games that you've played before? Because then I'm thinking right now you write this down, you know maybe almost copyrighted or whatever you know I'm saying, and then, just so, it's a movie studio.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean and I could easily make a book out of the last campaign I did or the one that's currently happening, and it would be pretty close to high fantasy, like Lord of the Rings. But I don't keep it as archaic as Lord of the Rings. You know what I mean, because most of Lord of the Rings world is pretty brutal and archaic and pretty simple, you know what I mean. And magic is not as prominent in it. Obviously I keep it a little closer to high fantasy, though, right, there's a little bit more of that Harry Potter whimsiness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, it's cool.
Speaker 4:Magic.
Speaker 1:Dude, you should totally do it.
Speaker 3:I'm going to have to check the movie out. Yeah Well, you should totally do it. I'm going to have to check the movie out. Yeah, Well you got to see the movie. But now I'm hooked on you saying your stories are like that. I would love to read your stories. Or, like I said, even if somebody could animate his story like you said, send them to the comic book almost yeah. Oh, make it a comic. Yeah, that would be a really groovy graphic novel.
Speaker 4:It's awesome. You know that it's good because of the reactions of the players.
Speaker 2:I've had people cry. I've had people laugh.
Speaker 4:I've had my headset almost exploding off my head because they're all screaming. If I can make a story that conveys just this group of people, that are part of it, to feel that way about it yeah, this must be a good story at that point. Hell, yeah, yeah, as long as you're getting the appropriate reactions at your table or at least close to what heard. Play like you know somebody like a cop you know your friends are, you know, just regular nerds.
Speaker 3:you know, like what is it? Like? The character of people, the kind of people?
Speaker 4:Right, right, right yeah. No, I mean it's still nerdy at its core. It's still nerdy at its core for sure. But I think theater, really Theater kids.
Speaker 2:No kidding, because they, but I, I think theater, really theater, kids. No kidding, because I get to act, right, right, it's improv, that's all improv.
Speaker 4:It's basically free stage time with friends yeah um, yeah, theater kids is is your biggest dynamic, that it's like clearly prominent in um. And then I think, just your, your gamers, that are in it for a story, okay, so, like your last of us, god of war enjoyers, people that are in it for, like, campaign games right, balder's gate just came out, what two years ago? The game that they worked on for apparently a decade. It's still one of the most played games for the fantasy category, right, like, and it's two or three years old now. Okay, yeah, it's incredibly good.
Speaker 4:I think a lot of people, right, we had, we had stranger things, we had critical role the twitch series that became super super popular. You have brendan lee mulligan's dimension 20 series another streaming one that became super, super popular. Um, then you have balder's gate. So now everyone that somehow hasn't seen stranger things right, and or is a gamer huge population now knows about D&D Because they're playing Baldur's Gate and then they're saying you know what, I can make a story. Yeah, I could just make this game for my friends.
Speaker 1:Have you read any stories that kind of like you know blew you away or you were impressed with?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So there's like a whole section of Reddit where people talk about their D and D campaigns. They're like this is what's fucking going on with my people right now. Wow, Okay, I've seen. Yeah, there's been some, some crazy, crazy ones. I've heard of stuff like like an in-game and real life proposal at the same time. No way game and real life proposal at the same time? No way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's insane, yeah people get crazy, yeah people people will die for this shit, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying, dude. I mean, and I guess, if there was an easier way to, um, I mean, I'm just into anime. I like the cartoons to just, you know, take your stories and animate them and whatnot. To me that would be insane, like that would be uh, this happened.
Speaker 4:Critical role, uh, made a series with Amazon, an animated series. No shit, yeah, the uh, the first campaign of critical role is being animated right now. There's already two seasons out. I didn't even know that. Yeah, yeah, it's an Amazon show. It's called critical role. It's called yeah, it's called critical role.
Speaker 3:I think no kidding yeah, it's called critical role and they're animating their second campaign, right?
Speaker 4:no shit, all right, I'm gonna look that up. It's awesome. The artist for it is the guy that was the the art the animator for it is the DC cartoon animator from Teen Titans to Justice League movie Shut up.
Speaker 3:That guy. So that's the animator for this show. That shit is fire. Critical role. Gonna go watch it now. Critical role. Definitely gonna go watch it. It's really good stuff. I can't wait, I gotta, I gotta, I love. Like I said, I'd rather watch it than play it. I'm gonna go roll, definitely gonna go watch it. It's really good stuff. That is shit, man. I can't wait. It's really good stuff. I gotta, I gotta, I love.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I'd rather watch it than play it. I know it sounds stupid, but not stupid, but I'm just like, well, you know what it is, I think you have to have.
Speaker 4:that would have is my thing I can do this kind of thing. I mean, you know well hearing how justin is talking about it bro, yeah, I just don't know very intricate, you know intricate, yeah, I just don't have the time for anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah I mean time again, scheduling is the biggest boss of legends and dragons. Yeah, live life.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I live by the seat of my pants but, yeah, man, it's it is so, so important to find the time to go out and play. Yeah, uh, and dnd is like such a nice, easy, formal way, right to really feel like I'm in the treehouse again okay, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, um, I get it yeah, it's cool's just incredible.
Speaker 2:That is way groovy, that is awesome. Yeah, listen bro.
Speaker 3:I'm definitely going to look for that.
Speaker 1:That's a lot yeah. It's just amazing what you can do. I feel like I just blasted that you guys?
Speaker 3:I didn't know, I didn't know. Yeah because I knew it was there.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I've been to a handful of Comic-Cons, but I just know the like board game.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, right, right, right and that's what I thought it was, bro. I thought it was a board game that you know. People just started to build castles on and, like you know, look at these guys, they're freaking doofuses. I wouldn't sit there this fucking long.
Speaker 2:It's so cool because you could make your own characters right, so you could be like we're going to do GI Joe theme.
Speaker 3:We're going to do GI Joe versus. Cobra, cobra commander is one of your characters.
Speaker 4:You can make it compatible to whatever you need it to, be okay, like if we wanted to run it as a star wars, one shot right. You could do it with everything that exists in the game yeah, easily right, that's sweet yeah that is so sick. That's the modular bit of it. Yeah, it's like. I love it. It can get super fun.
Speaker 3:I love that yeah make it however you want. Well, with that, bro, I appreciate you being here. Thank you Of course.
Speaker 1:I had fun with that one, I think. Yeah, you do, just make sure People follow us On Instagram oh.
Speaker 3:Instagram.
Speaker 2:Facebook. And again we are On YouTube, on our YouTube. Uh huh, alright, so yes, full video Hell yeah, come in yeah youtube.
Speaker 3:All right. So yes, full video. Oh yeah, come in. Yeah, because I appreciate everybody, everybody been, they've been watching, people have been watching so appreciate it. Thank you much because uh I love you guys. Without you, we wouldn't be here. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Thank you.
Speaker 4:Thank you for being here, bro, thank you for saying yeah, because you could have been like yeah, no, I'm. Uh, you know what? No, I, I will never pass up talking about D&D.
Speaker 3:You got to come here and talk about everything.
Speaker 1:Unless it's for to play.
Speaker 2:D&D.
Speaker 4:Correct.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I turn into a different beast as soon as I hear D&D, Nice Well, again, thank you for being here. So until next time, everybody, thank you for being here. Love, peace and hair grease. Live long and prosper Go vegan Holla.
