Alright, welcome to link time chat episode 13 we are starting year two of the podcast. And david's here to I promise just very silently look.
it's a rabbit.
It is a rabbit.
And it looks better from the side, it looks better from this side.
It looks better if we're not on a podcast.
Well that's that's gonna be tough because today's topic is shadow puppets and it was going to be highly visual.
I only know one.
let's see it.
Lets see it show everybody everybody wants to see. I just I just did a would you call that a bird or butterfly.
yeah it's a bird that's that's the bird second appearance appearance on this podcast as we will recall.
Yes, it is except I think last time it appeared, it also made some noises because it was your bird and pretty sure you put in some car noises. Okay. It should have turned out oh. not ready for that.
that's mine let's hear yours.
No that's good, I think that is the ultimate bird sound. So.
Reciprocity come on.
I never guaranteed that. Okay, so today, David is taking over the topic and I have no idea what we're talking about other than bird calls and shadow puppets, so I am excited to find out what the topic is.
Well, I thought, today, we could so first another little plug for our patrons that aren't there yet, we have a patreon discord now. which you can be a part of if you're a patron do you do you know, like how many patrons like it's really active, but I don't know how many patrons are actually on the discord view.
I can definitely check if you want to keep talking. And we do.
Know i'm already checking.
Eight 912 1328. We have 28.
We have 28 people on the discord but only but, but we have 47 patrons so means some of you are not joining in the fun.
And that's fine for you. But we not have discord.
We will be loving fines and sanctions so.
Okay outright lie, I just want to point that out. You don't have to join.
Okay.
All right, but you should, if you have discord if you don't, then I totally get it.
yeah you just need it, I mean you don't even have to have it, you just need to hit your your monthly minimum for the number of discord posts in order to qualify for credit right.
and David is keeping track of all of it.
Right same way I keep track of everything just in my. head.
And we know how well that goes from week to week and live streams.
extremely well. Just just want to warn everybody it wasn't full screen, but it is now. My my my zoom full screen.
Oh OK cuz you know that doesn't affect their view.
Just you know, no, no, just me just me.
Okay, so you were just excited about full screen mode gotcha.
Now now i'm bigger and I don't like it.
I mean that's what happens when you go full screen.
yeah it does yeah last night I. I was up until 630 in the morning cortina new font.
Yes, I hear the adventures of curling are in the details.
yeah I, and I discovered at the very end, right after I produced the font version 1.0 of the font that one of the characters that was in there was like oh now this looks terrible, it has to change immediately. And furthermore, that character had its own current in class So when I am when I changed it it pulled it into another current in class, which meant that that just added needless minutes. Current that class that I ended up deleting with you.
and If nobody knows what carding is, you should look it up K er in Ai engine because. It is very, very interesting in terms of getting. Through that shapes. to fit together now I just realized, it was a very up few whatever we're on a podcast they're listening to us, they don't need to know about our camera angles.
I think they do. I mean I I met at nine right now now. At 7.5 no idiot idiot on add.
What are you at even I don't even know i'd have to like turn my laptop sideways to truly see. How much of an angle, I have, and that seems like a lot of work, so instead i'm going to let you take over the topic.
Now So yes, following on our patrons suggestion I thought it would be fun to talk about board games and role playing games today, and you know our history with them and as they interweave with language, since I think that's what we're supposed to be talking about right language or something.
I mean, really, that is the focus of what we do at length time studio So yes, that would be good. yeah.
I think, though, to start us off i'll just i'll just monologue for. 45 minutes, so you.
Know i'ma go take a nap.
that's that's fine. that's fine I am periodically, though, you will hear.
i'll be sure to just you know turn off the sound.
When I make sure that you're listening. But you know I did want to mention, so I know that i've talked about it on the stream before, but you know the entire thing that we're doing with Lang time studio right is we're creating languages for a board game that I have planned. which, of course, you know Jesse has never played. To do it, you know not existing also it's kind of difficult no I should tell you this.
I don't know why I didn't mention this before actually did mock up of version not like you know with graphics or anything but i've mocked up a version of playable version in table top. shoot simulator. I think it's tabletop simulator it's on steam and there's two big ones right and it's the one that's less where the the icon is less pretty I guess.
I think it's tabletop simulator but anyway, you can use tabletop simulator and if two people have steam and tabletop simulator you can actually you know play board games.
over the Internet. that's super cool i'd never heard of that.
yeah it's it's very. I don't want to say low tech but it's almost like it's a physics engine so, for example, like you, actually, you can make the dice right, which I did, and you can put whatever you want on them. But it's like you just have these little disembodied hands and so to roll the dice it's not like there's a roll the dice button you actually have to go and pick it up and pick it up like this and drop it.
That that would throw me off. Okay.
But there's also they also add this fantastic button, which is a flip the table button. You know now anger. So you. throw everything all. necessary for any board game. yeah anyway so going back to going back to the days of my youth. I had a you know I had a Nintendo and a super Nintendo growing up in a gameboy like I was just a all Nintendo am like Jesse of course grew up with all the systems, the moment that they came out. She was very you know tech savvy and fashion forward.
That sounds that sounds exactly like my childhood.
yeah you're kind of a you're kind of a trend setter for rural Missouri.
yeah me to qualify for rural Missouri. In case people don't know. If this is your first month experiencing. lag time, maybe we should point out here how sarcastic David is being not about his own background with technology, but about my childhood and how. I did not have any. Technology outside of TV that you know, for a long time didn't even have a remote will turn dial.
I know you really have you really had an incredible or childhood for somebody whose father was a professional baseball player. Because I don't think everybody knows.
What they do now, no, but he That was a very short lived he played very briefly with the cardinals very briefly. So that was not it's not like I grew up the enchanted child of. I don't know.
It was the St Louis cardinals though I mean it's. it's it's usually if you say my dad was a pro baseball player it's you know he played for the Montgomery biscuits you know.
Which which is awesome.
Which is a real team. By the way, look up that logo you'll be pleased. I.
will definitely look that up. I would hope so, otherwise. They are misnamed. yeah.
we're going to need to do something with the other side of my hair like this side went well this I did not go as well. So I didn't mean to derail.
You talking about nintendo's and. gaming systems right. except to point out. If you don't know was yet that's something to know.
Right okay so and I wouldn't say it was sarcasm, because of course sarcasm comes from the Greek and it means to cut you know I wasn't I wasn't trying to hurt I was, I was trying to just lie. So that. To trick people but not you, I mean because he lived it yeah I can't trick you right. yeah Oh, by the way, real quick before we move forward and get me your social security number, I need to I need to register this podcast. Yes, I have, I have mine. I have my. Just yours.
Well, mine is the same as yours you didn't know that.
Oh isn't that Nice cycled around. lot a. lot of births between January and May of 1981. I guess that everybody was just a little town as they were. anxiously you know breathlessly waiting what was going to happen with the Iran contra scandal.
Going back. yeah.
Thank you, my friend blaine had a he had a he had a turbo graphics 16 but he also had a genesis. And one of the games on the genesis is called shining force that there was shining force one and two. And it's one of the most amazing video games, I have ever seen it's often been replicated in terms of its style in my mind somewhat less successfully better than what it essentially is it's a turn based. Strategy combat game, so I think i've got that right.
So for those who are familiar with more modern games X COM is similar and. Fire emblem that's it I played fire emblem for a bit I couldn't get into it, I don't know why anyway, but. shiny force has like it, you know, one of the. I want to say, like one of the worst world building aspects i've ever seen it like really poor graphics even for the time. At least with the overhead map but it's the system that it's just so amazing you play a bunch of different characters and a little army.
And they're just a whole bunch of different battles that's a little game is there some rpg stuff in the middle, but mainly it's for the battles. And you you play one character, at a time, and you move your characters across the map and the bad guys move there across the map and you fight each other, you attempt to to beat the bad guys it's really interesting they had like.
embedded in this like even though i'm sure nobody ever wrote this down, but their world buildings really strange like they had centers and all the centaurs were always nights and then they were like just a random. Like yeah there's one person looks like a horse girl and they're they're elves nails are always archers in there bird people at the whack people with swords.
There was a wolf guy and one of the Games actually I think both of the Games there, there was a wolf guy in both of the Games, but the turtle man. All kinds of stuff like this and there was like also randomly a ninja and then also a samurai it just took from everywhere and just throw it all in there. and on a flying jellyfish you could do really good magic and I always called him either Mr box lower Mr Doc slow, because you can name the characters.
It feels like you're describing eight different games right now. I hope that they're all the same game it's really amazing anyway so.
It was really fun and i've found ways to play it over the years, again and again originally on me later on a computer, then they had one version that you can download for the phone and then that one got out mode and then they got a new one, and so I have that. I don't know and it's just than they had one for the gameboy advance that came out, it was even better, even though I didn't have a gameboy advance, I had the emulator.
I was very cheap in college so, but it was just it was that aspect of turn based combat that I found so much fun. And so I thought it would do very well as a board game, and it was partially inspired by a game that my friend ash had called hero quest that was somewhat similar but much more rpg based and essentially now we have the grown ups version of that in gloom haven. But I wanted to. tear.
Do we need to not ignore. That.
No, no, no, I mean. yeah boy. Now alright so. Okay, so yeah so I want to create a game like that right and and I found a way to crack the. computerized aspect of it or the you know the. I don't know what the word is for this, the part where their computer does it, you know.
Oh, like. like an automated opponent kind of thing.
Yes, the audit the automated thing okay so. The thing that the computer does that, so you know that that makes it so fun is that every single one of your characters is a speed Stat and so essentially. The computer it goes and rounds, but it decides who tax because it just looks at whoever has the next highest speed. Of course it's a board game that can be incredibly tedious right.
Right, because you can just imagine every single round is like okay who's next to let me look because, like, especially if you have like five to 10 characters each you know, but I think I found a way to crack that I got two ways one one idea was given to me haven, but. But essentially you just build a deck which is, which is what computers used to be right right. Right system of cards. Right and so, then you just.
You just you know pull from the deck and then whatever comes up you just you know, and you don't in you know shuffle into anything right and it just builds and builds anyway. Think i'm just talking here.
you're telling us about. The game that inspired.
The entire.
thing that we're doing right so.
Yes, with our rabbits and are. You have read Internet now you have yellow Internet could get with our with our rabbits and our possums and our in our dogs and cats in mice and then you know more more animals in the future, but those are right now. Anyway, so but I was really delighted to learn that you know you also enjoyed board games. We, I think. We only played one together just sushi go.
Oh, and I totally forgot that we played that together yeah. seriously i'm sorry.
I think about that, like every 4.5 days you know.
Obviously. Is that considered a board game cuz it's a card game it's a card passing game.
yeah.
Would you call it a board game.
Well, nowadays, what they call it is tabletop gaming.
Oh okay sure sure I would agree with the tabletop because it is most conveniently played with a table.
yeah yeah so so yeah we played sushi go, but you have you've also got some other good stuff you got photosynthesis which is cool I really enjoy that one. yeah I was playing it wrong for several times because I. I played it wrong a lot, because I thought you just moved to the sun in four corners, not in a hexagon.
Oh, so you missed a bunch of growth cycles.
Yes, I did. yeah.
You gotta read the directions me.
yeah I mean I do read them, but then you also have to remember them. Which is the thing you know.
Is if you're going to you know play by the rules yeah that's. that's the thing.
yeah that's a tough one. Forget rules until I need them and then I remember them. it's it's not cool I know.
Oh, my gosh that's why you always got to be playing with somebody who's like no it's not in the rulebook. yeah.
Definitely okay so so first tell me about you and board games.
I like that how you like skip over the obvious, there will be no electronic games. board or tabletop. And as far as like history of me and games or. yeah. No, we always played a lot of games. When I was a kid family games and things like that so. Some of our favorite ones, and I don't know if they were a favorite or if we just didn't have that many games to choose from, and they were the only ones we have. I honestly don't know.
But we played a lot of yahtzee because my dad really liked that one. monopoly which I have to this day, never been really a fan of and when the game goes on too long, I start just trying to get rid of all my money to see if I can just either lose or I ended up winning so big that it is quickly. Because at some point it's like well i'm just done. Life was the old school life.
Now it's all weird because it's like you were all your cards, and you can.
Be you know it's not just like you go this path and you get this career there's all these weird card drawing and I don't know I don't like the new LIFE your life clue is another big one that I really, really, really enjoyed.
That one. clue for a minute, but i'm going to pause you right here because we both obviously grew up playing the game life, did you also enjoy the cereal life. Yes. me too I. love it one of my favorites.
it's really good I don't do they even still have it, I haven't bought.
Car oh absolutely well, I mean you know it's. it's not the type of thing it's like I get cereal because I want cereal that day, and then I eat three bowls and then I really regret it. And then you're done and I to me, and then I take a few months off cereal. You know it's just how it goes so with clue I wanted to mention well first that yeah I grew up playing clue blaine and I played clue loved it loved it. But at a certain point, like I would try to just start guessing after turn to.
write it all out.
And I something I wonder about. Do you, you took the G around the same time yeah and so you had the old third section right which is the logic section apparently that released what I was told that ucsd That was really the only section they paid attention to.
Which is very good for me.
and Catholic they didn't care what you did in math.
math was very good for me to it was the the verbal section I bought. Yes, I will you know you know I like math right so Matthew.
reticent to throw down your skills there.
I would like to point out, David just use reticent to me reluctant. Something I have recently been. pointed out, is not technically right.
But.
But i'm glad that you tried it out once.
yeah so right oh yeah yeah I tried it out, I really didn't like it. SUP dirty but yeah I forget who I was talking to over my might have been much of the landscape, but I forget the jury came up, and this is, like all we don't pay attention to anything that the only section, we pay attention to is the launching section, but of course they got rid of it. Right replaced it with an essay did you do the same, because they were testing it with us.
Yes, yes, I did take the essay as a yeah it was like the they called it optional, but it totally wasn't because she stayed in the room till you did it, but like it wasn't. Your score yeah.
yeah yeah and it was so dumb was it, it was like something like you know tell us what you think about nuclear powers something.
I feel like mine was on something like privacy and government spying or something like it, but it was like the same kind of thing where it's like no. don't do.
It was, I feel like I wrote.
two paragraphs to try to show like good faith, effort and then I was out.
yeah yeah. But but yeah I guess she said, the reason that they pay attention to, that is, it was a good predictor of how. How good you are at linguistics.
Yes.
And so, going back, we noticed several of us loved doing those logic games growing up where you know, Mary is twice as tall as beth Sally is the middle, you know middle height, and so I.
Have. I have Apps downloaded so I can keep playing them.
yeah and here we both really enjoyed clue growing up.
Because it's a logic game and it's basically the same type of game right.
it's very similar I wonder if there are more linguists who enjoy a clue that was it.
Because there's also you know the strategy and clue. Really relies on you picking out which card of your own you're going to test, because you always need to throw in your own cards so you know that, like if somebody can prove you wrong. you're trying to get them to have to call out their cards and it's like you know what you have in your hand and as soon as someone can't prove that one thing wrong then you know that that's one of the answers so it's like.
You just got to know which cards are smart place so they can't figure out which one is yours.
yeah and I also just do so much blessing I love it. Every.
Now so yeah. clue was always great fun. But again, though, only the old school the newer board, I am not a fan of it's got to be the old one.
You mean you don't enjoy clue master detective because that was the one that came out in the early 90s.
mastered it i'd have to look up which form you're talking about i'm fairly certain my clue game that I grew up playing came out in the 1960s, because. The result, it was super old looking. And that's what I enjoyed.
Oh yeah and that was a good one, but there was one that came out in the early 90s that added a few new characters.
One, no, no. No i'm already out.
New characters you don't remember sergeant grey.
No, no, I don't. sergeant great. Is because I like.
old school.
No, no, I just.
know I I like to be miss speech because she was she was the hot one.
that's a scarlet see it's supposed to be miss Carla who's was miss scarlet until miss beach came out. I am sorry, but no just no. Miss scarlett deserves to maintain her title. And this is why no don't even bother sending me a picture or anything because i'm still going to say that I.
refuse.
To call it. I refuse to call it a version of clicks it's you know it's not the real one. he's serious pixelated. wilkerson related game from the early 90s, a picture of it. Well you're looking. you're looking at a chart easy.
check this out.
She looks like she belongs on matlock.
she's gonna be charged with murder she wrote. So yeah parties yeah so.
that's another good one another one that it's hard to find the original forms. This is my problem I fell in love with games, the way they were when I was a kid and now so many game companies are trying to do things to make them. more exciting or something I don't know i'm just not happy about that.
You can find them now and I also want to recommend board game geeks. Which is a website right that has a whole bunch of rankings for board games, but in the Member forums, people do trades that's how I got hero quest because that's a game it's not available anymore, and if you find it online it'll be for something like you know $500. Just because it's rare.
But yeah I got that from from somebody fairly inexpensive and you know, he was just hoping that somebody would want it, you know, so I got it yeah i'm still waiting to get battle masters that's a fun one huge map you layout. was a fun one but. So so yeah you will or they can upgrade part cheesy that came is ancient.
Ancient. Yes, um, but there are some that, like the Board is different or there's like fewer spots, or something like it's just some of them don't quite feel the same.
yeah so uh by my grandfather as a psychologist so I grew up with very strange games like the game you familiar with the game, the. game. On game.
that's what I said.
came out in the 1970s yeah. It came in the 1970s, and it was designed by a psychologist so i'm pretty sure. And it's a it's a game where you know it doesn't it has a beginning, but it doesn't have it end or a point you just move your characters around the spaces and pick up cards and talk about your feelings that's literally what you do.
The, the only way to you know lose quote unquote you don't really lose, but you like lose a turn and have to sit out for a little bit is, if you are unwilling to share so like you know you you go and you come up to a space you pick up a card and it says something like you know. describe a time that you were afraid. You know. Nothing. And if you don't like you go to some place it was called like you know, like. The mire of denial or something like that, like something you know.
Where you just sit for a turn.
wow.
it's a nice effort.
never heard of it and. Definitely obviously never played it.
it's word luck.
yeah so beyond those were all sort of board and dice games right, but then we also played a lot of card games like Jen romy and pinnacle I actually learned that game from a fairly young age. And so we would always play we had four people, and so it was like a built in pinnacle game. In our family and. So yeah I played a lot of those kinds of games and I honestly, those are the only big ones that I remember playing.
Now I have a problem with collecting too many games, because I love them all and there's a shelf in a closet that is so weighted down by board games that i'm pretty sure it's going to fall at some point.
yeah same, I mean same over here same over here. it's got another bookshelf to hold the bulk of them. But i'm fine with that. In terms of card games growing up, I learned a lot of solitaire variants. So you know.
I only know to, I think.
Well there's the the standard where you could play, of course, you know Vegas style or three at a time style, but I mean beyond that also learned 13 solitaire clock solitaire.
clock is the other one that I now so that's. That one.
And then. A unique type of solitaire that essentially you could just do it to shuffle the deck I don't even know what it's called but you just you can play it like in the car. Because all you do is you take the deck of cards you pull up four cards and then you look at the first and fourth card if they are the same suit. You pull out the middle to. The same number you pull out all four.
Okay, and if they're neither you just pull another card and then you're getting your you're comparing the card you just pulled up to one that's more before and you keep going and the end you win essentially it's like you tie if you have two cards at the end. Like halfway is, if you have one card at the end, and then a full wind is, if you have not. so bad. But it's like you can you can get runs where it's like you know you pull it up nope nope nope nope and so you have this huge hand.
But it's like it's kind of just a way to pass time and shuffle the deck just by yourself it's cool.
Interesting yeah never heard of that one.
And then the what is fun, though, a lot of fun is double solitaire you ever played double solitaire.
And no not unless I called it something else.
Okay, so double solitaire the way that works is you just play solitaire normally and another person play solitaire normally but you share your aces.
Oh that's interesting. No, but that's also not solitaire I would.
point out that's why it's a simple solitaire.
Do tear.
it's double solitaire.
But how can it be devil solitaire solitaire means alone.
Well, how can baseball be a team sport when it's clearly not.
But it is Oh, I still need to call my dad and ask them about the pickle. yeah find out. If that's a if that's a regional thing Oh, and if you're not on discord, then you don't know about this. Because I only know the tournament baseball rundown where it's you know, like a runner is caught between two bases trying to advance, but then the ball gets thrown there so he's just running back and forth trying not to get tagged out to me that's a rundown.
But David said it's a pickle and while it is indeed a pickle because I use pickle to me like oh that's a situation. it's like apparently a specific term in baseball for that situation, but maybe not everywhere, because a lot of other people were like no i've never heard it use that way, either, so I need to find out.
That they're not baseball fans though look, this is, to me, this is kind of like let's say you know, a linguist comes to you and say hey you ever heard of anybody calling closest closest stops.
And i'd be.
Like a regional thing.
he's saying that we don't that's what that's why i'm going to be asking my dad who does know.
yeah and I think that his reaction would be like wait you don't know that.
No he's his reaction is gonna be he's gonna answer me.
And then it'll just hang up the phone and have no response. will be all like you know.
He is always happy to talk baseball.
be like you know hey dad do you know, like a rundown at baseball can it be called a pickle and he says yes hang up. No reaction.
that's exactly what happens yes.
it's interesting that I know previously that jesse's Father only response to her with either yes or no that's it. doesn't say anything else.
Again, again with you and the lies, now that I know I can't call it anything but what it is and it's alive.
we'll talk we'll talk to everybody else, but just to you, you only get.
Yes or no. that's it.
yeah. Okay, so I want to tell everybody about something that really surprised me, maybe it shouldn't have but something that really surprised really shocked me was when. I can't remember what we were chatting about sometime last year, but you just kind of casually mentioned your you know your nightly D amp D game.
it's not nightly no well.
In that it happens at night but.
night time.
I was absolutely shocked floored. level. That. A you knew about D amp D be you approved of it and see participated in it, I was absolutely shocked for a number.
I don't know whether it's whether D amp D should feel judged right now, or I should feel judged.
If you. Like.
Okay, you.
know you know the world that we grew up in you know the reputation that D amp D, had I just naturally assumed that if you knew about it, you'd be against it.
Against again. know and apparently I need to tell you more childhood stories, so you. Have a better of what I was like I don't know. But.
No, I was snakes sorry.
I was never against D amp D.
and At what point in time, did you decide accepted into your life.
Honestly, I never even thought much about it because, like none of my friends played it, you know, like when I was in middle or high school. or even college I just I just didn't have the the group around me so it never like I knew people played it and I knew it was a game and it sounded cool but like I just didn't have the people around me who also thought it sounded like it would be a fun time.
And so it wasn't until we moved to Texas, that I found people who were familiar with the end and were patient enough to be willing to play with somebody who like legit had no idea what they were doing and so. Will and I bought a D amp D starter kit so that way, we would have you know, like some basic directions and things like that. And yeah we had friends come over and basically like participate and one of them DM for us, so that way, we could get the experience.
And then, once we started that we joined in with some other friends who are looking for new Members to start a new campaign and yeah we started playing now. Rather, unfortunately we've kind of fallen off it, because as good as. It can be on discord or zoom or whatever it's just not the same if you're not at the same table and honestly, like all of us were kind of like.
yeah.
So we haven't played like we tried it a few times had some fun, but it just wasn't the same so I honestly haven't played my own character and D amp D for. Almost a year now.
and your character is.
spells pebble Jim.
what's.
Her name. she's a known.
Can you say the first name again.
The first name is Els bells.
As in hells bells without the age. uh huh.
and pebble Jim is her last name.
yeah and. didn't bother with a con my name.
Oh no, no, because that that would be separate from what other people would know her as. Her name is else bells. just go with it. Did I just again destroy your.
Dear listeners I am trying my best, I am trying my best to segue into language here it's just not working.
um I did create a language for gnomes we can talk. But you.
talked about their create a language. For gnomes. And then you had the opportunity to. play a known character of your own design. And you named it hells bells.
Yes, because it matched her spirit and it's really fun to introduce yourself, because you can like hells bells and everybody's like oh shit it's good it's good stuff.
And there is nothing in the ignominy language that that you felt adequately.
hmm now also also I do want to say that my new home language is for garden gnomes and the gnomes of D amp D or not garden gnomes. there's the word known gets overused and over applied to many different things and I just want to point out that i'm aware and sensitive to nome culture yeah. I mean they don't I don't want to use the garden gnome language, for you know. The end now.
We all know it's something that you take very seriously.
Indeed, and she's a wizard so that's that's good.
wow you just you just went and made a wizard now.
Oh yeah.
that's one of the difficult ones.
home but it's so much fun and again matches her character, because they learn from books and her character is very book smart but very not life smart. And it works well for. can't imagine what.
No go ahead.
No, it just it works very well to for people who don't fully know all the D amp D things because you end up doing really stupid things that if you were a better player you wouldn't do but it's like I know the spells. But you know beyond that you're stuck with whatever I think of and that's when I get into situations like, for instance, in a recent campaign and by recent I mean the last one I played in like a year ago.
I had the skill to build a bomb, and so I did because it sounded like a good idea at the time, and then I blew up an entire in and almost died. Because I didn't have the dexterity. I rolled in at one, while I was building a bomb. Oh, my yeah it was bad, but on the on the knowledge Parts I was rolling that 20th all the way through, so it was like I was doing great and then. And then. It almost killed my entire party.
You know, I was, I was about to say I couldn't imagine playing anything other than a bard because what I what I mainly want to do is convince people to do what I want them to do and play music and make sure. Everybody has a good time.
i'm there for the adventure.
Rome, and I want you to carefully consider what you're thinking about doing Roman. Roman How dare you how dare you. Get yourself down.
Just so everybody else knows, I have no idea what Roman just did it was off camera but it almost got David to stand up, he. knows no.
Absolute little fiend you come here come here and accept your punishment you're going to scratch your belly.
And this is the part of the podcast where David forgets that we're recording sound only and is just talking to his cat.
didn't forget. What do you think i'm not gonna. that's a good boy Roman see that's a good choice that's a positive choice. There you go my boy now stay right there in don't do the naughty thing that you're thinking of.
Right.
yeah so i'm just going to keep talking but i'm going to keep looking at him because that's, the only way I can make sure that he behaves all right. i'm thinking about you Roman. Okay, so. Oh yeah I did want to mention so disappointed. I did a one shot with a friend of mine that she where I brought my Bart my my dragon born bard and it was. And it was this one shot, where there is a society of cats that lives amongst the humans unbeknownst to everybody.
And there there's a little adventure that you go with for the cats and yeah once we started doing this, I knew that there was a reason why she would save it it's fun for me. And and there's this cat that's helping you because. You know, he wants you to help get something back and it turns out, of course.
He is betraying you at the end, and he is he is really the bad guy and so, but at the end when he was going to you know because we successfully did it everything it was narrow, but we did it and so he was going to be, you know jailed for his punishment. I made an urgent plea to this cat I said. We could do this, but I can get us out of here and we to we can go off, and you can be my cat and we can be happy forever, and this is with my bard who has like an 18 and charisma.
And so I went to roll persuasion, which he had a plus five to.
own now.
And I rolled over one.
sad day.
You broke my little heart and so he went off to prison.
You tried you tried, I did I did you failed, but you try.
So an interesting thing to note is that. As we kind of get back to our main topic of language but. So last semester you debuted a really, really unique class which was. Examining language us in D amp D specifically. Yes. And so, tell us about like your idea in delving into that, because of course it wasn't like con land use and D amp D, specifically, but it was more languages and deity.
Right yeah so we were looking at issues of language and identity and showing how especially people who really get into the role playing aspect. How people use language markers differently to match who their character is in terms of who they are in the game with relation to all the other characters. And then further how you can actually analyze the language differences between when.
A person is you know, being a player versus a character so like in player mode, you may stop and ask the DM like hey can I roll for initiative versus you know you like your character wouldn't ask the DM extra characters in the story. And so just looking at the the ways that language, can be used differently and. Of course it's like not everybody is going to have access to some really solid players who can differentiate very well between character and player.
We use a lot of critical role videos so that way they could watch, you know professionals playing. d&d and looking at how you can actually look for very specific language features, to show differences, not only in how the messages are composed, and how they are. spoken but also like if you start really thinking about content and what they're saying versus what they're not saying, because I think a lot of times.
We forget like how much you know about your own character, but how much nobody else at the table is supposed to know that. And you may end up talking about it as players outside of the game, but in the world, the other characters have to pretend like they don't know. Something your player, you know your character has gone through and so it's just it's really interesting when you start really looking at how do they ask questions or how do they interact with each other.
To create this world within a world within a game.
Yes, reminds me of the weirdest thing. Were you a seinfeld watcher.
Yes, but like one of the seinfeld watchers who would always just see it as reruns and so. it's like i'm pretty sure i've seen every episode, but I. yeah in Moses.
No i'm roughly the same boat okay Do you remember the quick. His phone number gotten mixed up with moviefone.
No Oh, maybe it. is one of those things where like if I started watching the episode i'd probably be like oh yeah I knew this one, but off the top of my head no but that sounds like a great episode.
Well, for younger folk back before the Internet or even in the early days of your Internet you.
explain this.
yeah if you didn't in order to find out what movies were playing you either had to go to your local theater or if that was inconvenient look at the newspaper. But later, you know say you didn't get a newspaper, or you you couldn't find it you could actually call into a free phone number.
And, and it was called movie phone and by punching things in you could find out what movies were playing at many different cinemas in your area, and there was a guy who's like happens movie for invoice it was very specific hello, welcome to movie phone. If you would like to, and then you know you could.
You could punch in either a specific movie or specific theater and they would tell you the showtimes anyway, so in this episode he changed his number, and this number is, I guess, like one off from movie phone it was like you know. One 800 like you know new film or something as opposed to new film and so he's just started to pretend to be the movie guy.
and But the thing is he was doing it pretty successfully and so like at one point, it was like you know he's like go ahead and type in the first three letters of the movie you'd like to see, and then you hear him listening on the phone and you just hear boo boo boo. He doesn't know what to do. That he's like in character he's like why don't you tell me the movie that you'd like.
Oh, my gosh.
Anyway, so somehow being in character and like pretending that you don't know things that reminded me of that. Because there have been a number of situations where especially this is the best one where the there's two characters A and B. And B knows something, but its character doesn't let's say. Right and then a neither he nor his character knows it. Right. And it's like he's the person sitting here going to like you know it's it's where it's like. Why don't you know.
Did you did you get any book, you know from the attention that you just search no. Are you sure you don't remember picking up a. book that might have some sort of a particular colored cover no yes like sitting there going oh my God, how can you not remember the fact that you picked up this book, but the purple cover and we need it right now and it's like, but he came. Oh man anyway, those are the best so um.
I I was curious what you know you so ultimately what happened is that I ran some one shots for class.
Yes.
And then other members of the class reviewed the videos of them right and I was always curious, but never curious enough to actually do in the work to go and read stuff what was the result like did they find interesting stuff.
They did, and a lot of them like a lot of the comments that were made there, and some of them were sent to me directly. But a lot of the comments were really based around how different the one shot turned out for like so many different reasons. But specifically thinking about especially like the first moves, because when they walk into a room because, like the beginning of the the.
The one shot is really the same for all four groups because they're all given the exact same scenario and set up to the point. In David made sure he gave them the same scenario, all the way up to the point where like they get to interact with somebody. And the way that it went from there, there were still some similar aspects for many of the groups, but what they really noticed was the differences between like when people chose to interact with these specific things.
Like there were some animals in the middle of a room and some groups immediately went to try to save these animals that looked like they were you know caged and maybe not so happy. Other groups completely ignored them and did like perimeter checks and like so. It was just really interesting how that made such a difference for where they went from there, including how they asked questions, how they interacted with the other people, the non you know the npc and on playing characters.
And even how they interacted as groups were very different like how they actually some groups didn't quite work together one group straight up like split in half, and they. kill the other half of the group. I think, by accident but i'm still not totally sure. But just the dynamics of how they interacted and and got to the end and the ending it was really four different endings because you know one group totally survived and did awesome. We had a group completely die.
Like 100%, and so it was just it was that was, I think the biggest focus that they that they worked on, especially with that very opening there was an opening conversation with like the four of them were guards were like they're hired to be bodyguards or whatever. And they go up and they meet somebody guarding the door, and they have to get entry and like just that very opening conversation, a lot of people focused on.
Just how different it was depending on what kind of character was speaking and what kind of mannerisms they took on and yeah so that was really where they focused and it was very interesting, so I sat through all four of those one shot. very interesting to compare.
I was, I was really surprised by when when characters would diss obey orders, they were given and when they wouldn't. break none of them tried to get into their kitchen.
No, no um so not only were a lot of the characters. More rule followers intense in terms of like a lot of them were kind of like aligning themselves on the D amp D alignment chart in terms of you know, like neutral good or whatever. or lawful good good neutral and good would be.
chaotic neutral in the streets lawful good in the sheets, we know it.
Sir, my students even. So, like one character in particular. He knew he was basically going to be killing himself to try to save another character. And as a player commented on that it was like oh gosh, this is not going to end well for me, but this is my character and so, then you know went back into character mode and. When I forget if there was a fire or just arrows everywhere, what was happening, but like he literally knew that essentially he his character was going to die, but he couldn't.
go against what he thought his character, would do in that situation, and so you do get like interesting moments like that, where you get Meta commentary from the player. And then it's like, but here I go anyway, and also very interesting, is how well people use pronoun switches.
When it's like as a character, they really get into it and say Oh, I do this or I you know i'm talking to so and so versus Oh well, my character walks up to so, and so, and so, those are some layer Differences too, because some people really stayed third person, the whole time and didn't really get into it and other people like some people were even playing with accents and everything so that was also some differences in players.
That would actually be an interesting study. You know just in the have to be a huge one, but you what you do is you try to see how long does it take somebody to switch from my character to I some will start that way others won't How long does it take them to switch and. commonalities.
it's also very interesting. In terms of looking at the reference for when you get the I me because, especially when you get into games like watching critical role do their videos. They when they're in just player mode chit chatting among themselves, like whether it's a break or they're all just teasing each other or whatever. One player will say to another like can you believe what I just did meaning my carrot, you know, meaning the character did it.
And so it's just like it's really interesting the different reference that you have to keep track of in a role playing game to really be able to follow who's who and what's going on it's also interesting when you get situations. Where one player identifies as one gender, but then plays a character, who identifies as another gender. Specifically, because in this happens in critical role, all the time, if you watch their second campaign.
Because Sam plays not, who is a female goblin and he identifies male and so anytime the players are talking to him as a player they use he but sometimes they'll accidentally use he for his character and. In his character's voice will always stop and go like I know i'm not pretty i'm a goblin, but I am a girl so it's just really funny because it's it's just trying to figure out what. pronoun forms to use whether you're in player character mode can be. Really intense.
So anyway yeah that's a good start okay.
yeah okay so. Last name which.
Because I have never used a coddling and D amp D I just never have.
i've also never liked one enter.
i've never dmd or anything.
Why, why do you not want to share your legs with your other D amp D.
i'm quite frankly I don't think any. let's do the work to figure it out.
You don't need to do work you just you just you just use it.
start talking and a con line.
Now, no but I mean know your your character's name and the names of things that your character finds things like know.
If if I knew the story ahead of time and knew what words I would need in my language, for what my character would find. Then it wouldn't really be a D D campaign would it.
Do it in between sessions.
Like wait let's go back to last week remember when I found that thing. I know what to call it now.
yeah Jane go hopper.
that's a perfect name.
yeah well you know the guy that did that voice was on an episode of murder she wrote.
I did not know that I don't think it will take much for most people to know that you know way more about murder she wrote than I ever did, even though i've seen. pretty much all of the episodes and may have even seen them before you started watching them I don't know, but you know much more than I do. yeah.
I do Okay, I pay a lot of attention.
Nice.
can't wait for next month's podcast, which is about murder she wrote.
Murder, she spoke.
I would love to see you know JESSICA fletcher engage with somebody who's creating their own language.
would be something.
you're telling me you create a job pronouns boats things like that.
Oh, my gosh. i'm.
going to start i'm going to do to start writing some episodes of mercy grabbing.
Some fanfic.
No, I want them to be produced a stage plays.
But wouldn't that still be considered fanfic as a start.
um. It depends, where you draw that line. Okay. You know. The lumbers of course you're going to say, well, everything is fanfic you know kind of like the the cotton langurs that say that it's impossible to create an opera Oregon like.
Because it comes from some piece of a language that has been used somewhere along the way.
yeah i'd be in because we all speak a language, and so we can't know what it's like to create language, without having a language.
That is sure yeah.
yeah I guess.
that's that's one person.
I find the attitude, a bit churlish myself.
I find it a little bit too theoretical to give a shit. yeah. i'm just like yeah call it what you want here's. here's what i'm going to call it, and that's good.
I will, I will I will close on this note the show that i've liked working on the least or one of the leaves definitely is my favorite show that i've ever worked on penny dreadful.
Really.
I think it's the highest quality thing i've ever worked on. In terms of writing and acting I think it's wonderful. And I really, really enjoyed it. But it was awful to work on. And, but they came out with a version of clue that was penny dreadful thing. And I bought it and it's still in the plastic i've never played it because you know I don't have anybody to play with you know what I just pull out a clue penny dreadful and play with people have never seen the show like what's the point right.
Right yeah so i'm waiting one day.
someday someday is it. No that's not the same one. Is paint now Neil Patrick Harris, he was in something. That was totally different. Thank you, I was like. I was introduced to both of them around the same time, so, for some reason I always get their names mixed up.
They couldn't be more different.
And yet it's the names that i'm except i'm not saying mix the shows up.
Just the names. very similar you know well, actually, I guess you're right horrible and dreadful I take it back, I was gonna make I was going to poke a little fun.
The fun poking are you reticent to to do that. And now, he stopped. That was me being reticent.
unwilling to speak. Okay. Anyway, I, by the way, I assume you haven't seen penny dreadful.
No, not yet.
it's a, it is a high recommend it is, but you know you know what it's more or less about right.
off the top of my head now.
19th century classic like monsters and supernatural stuff but all living at the same time in London. Okay, so they're vampires Frankenstein dorian grades in it. Alan quarter main or an Allen quarter main like guy. Where will. Okay. But then very, very seriously. Consider is you know blood and Gore.
which you know how I am with that so.
I know.
gentle soul.
All right, so. I, I think that at this point, we are going to close the podcast and the way we usually do, which is, I say some things and then Jesse struggles for last words right.
That sounds about right that sounds exactly like every other podcasts we've ever done. When really the only words, you need to remember what do you want me to just close it out with the only thing you need to even remember to say.
Go for it.
Okay, so you have no last words. Alright, so that's step one. is on the spot.
I actually I actually I actually do I actually do, and this is this is, this is my recommendation for those patrons that are on discord. Keep throwing us keep throwing us those podcast ideas. This wasn't what you were expecting when you suggested this then be more in depth.
Give us a script. Okay, so that's that's good. that's a good last word Okay, so the next stage, once we put you on the spot the next thing is to say. Stay grammar. And the very final thing talk to you next time. bye everyone.