Episode 130 - Marius Blackstone the Loyal Tracker

00:00:05.87 sidekqpodcast Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of Sidekicks and Sidequests the Best on official Dungeons & Dragons podcast in my humbly biased opinion. I've got an awesome guest for you this week, but before I get to my guest, you know I gotta to do it, I gotta give you the ad read. Insert here where I will do the ad read and the post-production stuff so I don't have to worry about it now. All right, and without further ado, I turn the microphone over to my guest. I ask, hello mystery contestant, would you care to introduce yourself? Tell us who it is that you are and what is it that you do? 00:00:42.75 Wes ah Hi, Kurt. I'm Wes Morrell. I ah am a video production creative. I'm in my 12th year of making video content. and Over the 12 years, that's included animation, reality TV, documentary style stuff, commercials. um But animation is my passion. 00:01:04.42 sidekqpodcast Yeah, that's super cool. I know ah you have your own YouTube channel and so I was able to kind of go through some of the oldest videos that I found and I learned like you got to work on Voltron and you made like this really cool ad campaign I guess for like a local law firm in your area that looked really spiffy and stuff. 00:01:23.35 Wes Yeah, yeah. When I was in college, I um ah got an internship with Voltron in ah in St. Louis, which is where I was living at the time. And ah they were about to launch their 2011 version of the series, of Voltron Force. And so I came on right as that was but that was happening. um So I got to kind of jump in and get a lot of the episodes back from overseas as they were being animated. um And yeah, it was awesome. was awesome is my introduction into ah professional animation. It was great. 00:02:01.52 sidekqpodcast And so not only are you passionate about animation and it, you know, us being coworkers together where we work. Um, but on your YouTube channel, you actually kind of do like what I do. You get to do like your own sort of interview, maybe, uh, well, maybe it is a podcast too. Maybe you, you do put it out on a RSS feed as well, but like you actually like interview, like pretty legit animators and composers and all sorts of cool folks. 00:02:27.63 Wes Yeah, you know, i it is sort of a podcast with a video version on YouTube. i Yeah, I didn't set out to do that. um Initially, I was just gonna create some YouTube fodder and I was just gonna reach out to an artist I had worked with on a project we had done together and just interview her for one aspect of that project. um But after the conversation, I told my wife, I was like, that was a blast. I gotta do it again. So it kind of turned into a podcast about animated filmmaking, one craft at a time. 00:02:55.05 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 00:03:02.11 Wes And I discovered that if you just ask people, they'll be nice and say, yeah. ah So a lot of the a lot of the more famous animation guests have gotten, ah have surprised me. 00:03:19.88 sidekqpodcast Yeah, no, that's the same for this hobby too. Like I've been able to speak with the former Dallas Cowboys center now turned co-founder CTO of Demiplane, which is a major player in the virtual tabletop space, which now as of the time of this recording, they just announced that Roll20, which is another big company, just bought Demiplane. So that's a deal. 00:03:39.56 Wes Holy cow. 00:03:40.54 sidekqpodcast So like everyone from like the tippy top of that just down to like, you know, some of our coworkers or like my cousin or family friends or who not ah who or whatnot. Um, so yeah, the the idea of this podcast being that, you know, it's accessible for all and that's what we want to do to help bring people into the hobby or just remind people of like, Hey, this game's for everyone. And it's a cool space to be, to create and and have fun. So I feel like, you know, that's a pretty good segue into the next question I have here. Do you currently or have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons before? 00:04:16.11 Wes I have not played Dungeons and Dragons before. um My wife's kid brother is big into Dungeons and Dragons. He's probably as close as I've gotten, apart from the two movies they've made, both of which I've watched. 00:04:29.36 sidekqpodcast Mm. 00:04:29.88 Wes But I i am aware that they don't do justice. 00:04:34.62 sidekqpodcast Well, I don't know. I would say the new one that came out, Honor Among Thieves, very much feels like sometimes how these D and&D games can go in real life. Like the the the NPC, the character named Jarnathyn, that's totally like a dungeon master caught off guard. 00:04:43.31 Wes Okay. 00:04:49.46 sidekqpodcast It's like, what's that guy's name? Jarnathyn. And then they're like, yeah, that's their name. And then, you know, all sorts of silly antics and banter and and witty comments back and forth. 00:04:55.40 Wes ah 00:05:00.30 sidekqpodcast Yeah, no. ah So I think Honor Among Thieves is ah is a pretty good, accurate representation. 00:05:02.95 Wes okay 00:05:06.29 sidekqpodcast so 00:05:06.59 Wes Is it like watching somebody's game play out or something? or has Okay. 00:05:10.31 sidekqpodcast Depending on the table. Sure And then of course if you go on youtube or twitch or some of these other streaming platforms, you know There's plenty of actual play shows that exist ah One of some of the big players out there being um critical role ah dimension 20 Acquisitions incorporated it's kind of like a really old one But you get all kinds of people, you know and running different games not just dungeons and dragons so you'll have like everything from like call of Cthulhu to Pathfinder to uh you know honey heist to like all you know indie games and like popular mainstream games so like you know this hobby is wide open uh for the taking as it were um so yeah there's you know so there's those kinds of shows and and uh movies and projects um even just recently uh like lego did a collaboration with wizards of the coast hasbro um so they did like an actual play one shot um or they played dungeons and dragons but they used like the lego piece sets 00:05:50.21 Wes Thank you. 00:06:08.86 sidekqpodcast like to make like a lego dungeon master screen and everyone had their own little minifig and they were on the adventure and it was there just play with lego pieces but they're playing the dragons so. 00:06:19.51 Wes I tell you, Lego, they've they've got something figured out. I feel like anytime they go into any other property, it's gold. 00:06:28.76 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 00:06:28.87 Wes It's brilliant. 00:06:30.14 sidekqpodcast Yes. Oh, and then speaking of animation, you know, maybe something for you to pick up on your, uh, your YouTube channel. There is a 1980s cartoon that exists of Dungeons and Dragons, of which those characters are making a comeback as, um, they may be coming back in the new books that are getting published this year, but I think Hasbro made some like action figures based on the characters from the animated cartoon. And if you watched the movie, which you did, you said you did, um, when they're at the high games, And there's the other adventuring party that's like you know there's the the the guy in the green suit, ah the the wizard, and and the and the diverse party, the the barbarian looking woman, and the animal skins and stuff like that. 00:06:59.94 Wes Yeah. 00:07:12.88 Wes Don't 00:07:12.96 sidekqpodcast That's a reference to the cartoon from back in the 1980s. And also there's like a Brazilian car commercial. 00:07:17.86 Wes worry. 00:07:20.92 sidekqpodcast that you can find on YouTube as well that they did like a live action adaptation with those characters but like grown up as adults um that like everyone really likes too so that's that's another random YouTube gem for your arsenal ah for D and&D so okay so 00:07:36.86 Wes I am now curious. Yeah, I'll have to look that up. 00:07:39.88 sidekqpodcast Yeah okay so so the ah the the familial connection but you yourself you'll you'll get a taste here tonight so maybe you'll get to see a and you've had seen the movie so we'll see maybe if we can ah convince west to join to join to become one of us. ah Perfect. Well, ah you know, this podcast is very easy going, you know, keep keeping it like conversational friendly. And the name of this show sidekicks and side quests, we like to focus on the little guy the other, you know, not the person who necessarily gets the spotlight. So this first question here, who happens to be your favorite NPC or sidekick character, whether they be from 00:08:17.66 sidekqpodcast an RPG, a role-playing game, video game, movie, film, television, etc. And why is this character your particular favorite sidekick character? you're You're not the hero in the spotlight. 00:08:32.66 Wes Interesting, yeah. ah Probably, I'd probably have to say Tails the Fox from Sonic the Hedgehog. 00:08:40.20 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:08:40.57 Wes ah I've just always liked Tails. I think because he's, well he's orange and I like orange, he's a fox and I like foxes. But he's also really cute and cuddly but he's capable. 00:08:52.01 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm. 00:08:52.22 Wes um i'm so I'm sort of annoyed when when ah a hero or a sidekick is not very capable. 00:08:55.45 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 00:08:57.18 Wes But Fox's capable, uh, Tails is capable and he can fly. Uh, so he's probably, he's, he's one of my favorite things. 00:09:01.54 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 00:09:05.76 Wes Sidekicks ever. 00:09:09.12 sidekqpodcast okay i was going to say that that now that totally brought up a whole tangent since you know you being an animator how do you think it was with your confidence seeing the very earliest iterations of the sonic movie when they first released what sonic was going to look like then the fans had a riot basically and then they were like let's go back and fix sonic and then and sonic came back looking like oh this is exactly how we want sonic to look 00:09:34.59 Wes Yeah, well, first of all, I cannot believe that the studio actually went back and changed Sonic. I mean, they they had a trailer that the movies in ah in a final stages. And I am surprised that the actually because they did the same thing. It was Ninja Turtles. Everyone flipped out and they saw the Ninja Turtles. 00:09:51.33 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm 00:09:52.76 Wes like Oh, my God, this is crazy. And the movie still came out and this the turtles still look, you know, kind of. you know, crazy. um So anyway, that surprised me. But I'm glad, I'm glad, you know, having seen the movie, the the Sonic and Hedgehog movie, I'm glad they changed the design. It's kind of one of those things where like, this day and age is maybe too serious, too grounded. um And I think that they took that approach with Sonic in the initial ah version. ah Maybe this is a little bit too grounded. um And people flipped out and and the studio heard them and said, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna do Sonic for real. And I think in the end, that was a good call. 00:10:35.03 sidekqpodcast So how happy did it make you in the very final, ah you know, beginning of the credits for that first Sonic movie when you saw tales pop up then? 00:10:43.14 Wes I, I... Tails is, I mean, he's cooler than Sonic. So. 00:10:50.18 sidekqpodcast And then of course, yeah, it tails features heavily in the second one as well. So yeah. 00:10:54.80 Wes Yeah, yeah. so 00:10:56.39 sidekqpodcast Good choice. All right. And then same thing with the side quest or the B plot element. So what happens to be your favorite side quest B plot element, whether it's from, again, same thing, RPG, video game, movie, film, television, et cetera. And why is this favorite side quest or B plot element your favorite? 00:11:17.01 Wes That's a good question. I hope what I'm about to say is in fact, side quest B plot. um But, I have to think about this. Star Wars Episode 2, Attack of the Clones. I tell people there's there's a masterpiece hiding in that movie. 00:11:30.10 sidekqpodcast Ooooh. 00:11:34.58 Wes it's They didn't quite get to. um But i I think there's gold to be mined in Obi-Wan Kenobi's quest to find this attempted assassin um who ends up being Jango Fett. I think in just kind of movies. This is such a cool side quest. I wish I got more time in the movie. I also wish Anakin's quest to find his his mother got a whole lot more screen time too. I think if you just focus on those two quests for more screen time, the movie I think would have been so much a much better movie. um So yeah, probably I think Obi-Wan in search of this is assassin and is 00:12:17.68 sidekqpodcast Mmm. Well, now I have to nerd out here because at the time of this recording, Dallas Fan Expo literally just happened and I went to the panel and I got to see Tamora Morrison and Ming Na Wen in person. So, of course, it yeah, yeah. 00:12:31.82 Wes what 00:12:33.38 sidekqpodcast So, you know, of course, right now, he's known for being Boba Fett in his newest iteration for the Book of Boba Fett and getting to like reprise himself as clone troopers as well in some of the various other Star Wars shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Mandalorian, I know it was definitely in the book of ah er the Obi-Wan Kenobi show because he he looks like a grizzled veteran that's like looking for a handout that Obi-Wan Kenobi sees. um But yeah, ah yeah, so Tamora Morrison was there as I shared pictures with our coworkers of like, Oh yeah, that blurry picture. Like that's me in the audience, like looking up and listening to the interview. And I don't know if I shared this, but at one point I was in line for trying out the demo of Warhammer 40 K space Marines two. And so I'm like really near the front of this line waiting to go and Tamora Morrison had walked 00:13:27.88 sidekqpodcast Behind like there were two people in front of me and like literally from like about like a six You know six to ten foot distance away from me because he was wearing a cowboy hat and like a nice ah orange and blue short of ah print shirt and he just walked with his handler and then I was like and then you know until he Disappeared a little ways and I told the people in front of me. Hey, it's a more and Morrison just walked behind you So there you go. That's pretty cool. 00:13:53.16 Wes Nice, yeah. 00:13:53.50 sidekqpodcast So so to see Django Fett in person this past weekend, so 00:13:56.26 Wes Yeah, he's he's a cool dude. 00:13:59.90 sidekqpodcast Yeah, I know. I want more of him. I want, you know, Book of Book of Boba Fett to and, you know, him to show up in the Mandalorian for now that they're rebuilding Mandalorian culture. It's like, of course, Boba. I don't know. Is he going to go? That's the tension, I guess, is like, is he going to go back to his home world and like connect with his roots of like what his father was, even though he's like a direct clone, or is he going to stay like this guy and Moss Espa and just, you know, be a gangster kind of a thing? 00:14:29.51 Wes Yeah, yeah. i think i I think the whole thing, honestly, Mandalorian lore and everything, and even Jango Fett is almost an apology um because I think that like When they created Boba Fett in the original so trilogy, I don't think they realized how cool he was going to be, that he was going to have any kind of following, and so i thought which is why I think Lucas just kills him and in number in Return of the Jedi, which of course now he's not dead. 00:14:49.74 sidekqpodcast Hmm. Hmm. 00:14:58.05 Wes But I think it was like, oh, you know there's this character and now he's gone. 00:14:58.02 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 00:15:02.09 Wes And I don't know, I just think they didn't realize what they had until people were like, oh, this is this guy's awesome. and ah And so I think, you know, that sort of spawned Mandalorian lore and all that. and 00:15:16.05 sidekqpodcast Yeah. Well, of course, with the Jedi, you know, they went Eastern and then it's like for the Mandalorians, they went Western. So it's like, you know, all the all the Catholicism, Christianity, you know, influences ah that are that are sparsely populated throughout there. 00:15:23.11 Wes Yeah. 00:15:30.31 sidekqpodcast So not to freak everyone out, like, although, you know, ah you know, we can we can like you and me and, you know, who we work with, we could be like, oh, yeah, the Mandalorians are like space Catholics. So they're super cool. ah But I maybe you've seen this thing go around with patent Oswald worries on he must be on the tonight show or or Conan and he's talking about like oh yeah John Favreau talk to me and remember how in parks and rec I played like a disgruntled citizen of of Pawnee and I gave the the Mandalorian 00:16:01.79 sidekqpodcast ah You know filibuster and and then he was like, oh yeah, John Favreau told me he matched it up perfectly so if you start his characters rants it like for shot matches up with like the hand comes out of the sand and starts clawing out of the sarlacc pit so yeah. 00:16:13.92 Wes oh 00:16:18.95 Wes yeah ah Just hadn't seen that. ah 00:16:23.75 sidekqpodcast Okay, well, so I'll have to make sure I send it to you later. So ah before this devolves more into Star Wars and Sonic and all these other favorite things that we love as well. 00:16:27.46 Wes Yeah. 00:16:34.55 sidekqpodcast um I always like to round out the personal interview section here at the beginning with the question, what are you passionate about and why? 00:16:44.91 Wes Well, um I'm passionate about animation, honestly. um I think it's beautiful. I think it, as a craft, is um it demands patience um and um intimacy. And i love I love that it is. and intimate craft, and at the end of the day, you come away with something charming, wonderful, mesmerizing, just something really beautiful and kind of alive. um I once told somebody, and I think it's true, that like animation, 00:17:24.98 Wes is it's like it's like doing a magic trick, being a magician and doing a magic trick and being fooled by the trick you just did. um So like even the magician gets to partake in the magic of it. 00:17:34.79 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:17:39.02 Wes So I'm i'm passionate about animation. I think there should be more good animation. 00:17:47.24 sidekqpodcast Well, i'm sure it's something that i've or seen or read some smart person, you know, smarter than me talking about like, oh, we see, you know, these ancient paleolithic, uh, you know, artists and the cave walls. And we think, oh, look how you know silly and naive they are because of like how weirdly they're done. But then someone said like, oh, but if you get like a torch or campfire. any flicker the light around that it makes it look like the horses the weird shaped horses that they painted on the wall may it looks on make some look like they're running and moving around like or the the you know the man or whatever they're painting it like it makes it mimic moving the same thing with the very early technology of the other person on the bicycle the man on the ah the horse or the person on the the ridiculous victorian bike and you 00:18:33.71 sidekqpodcast You spin it around and the trick of the light in, it looks like they're you know the the horse is galloping or the bicyclist is cycling and stuff like that. 00:18:41.97 Wes Oh, that's cool. That's cool. I hadn't heard that. Yes. 00:18:46.07 sidekqpodcast I'm just a source of all sorts of useless knowledge. 00:18:50.01 Wes Useless cavemen or animators. This is meaningful. 00:18:52.15 sidekqpodcast Yeah, you go so now you can yeah you can go back and well, I don't know. 00:18:53.12 Wes ah 00:18:56.03 sidekqpodcast Maybe it's a vacation idea. Go to these places and shine a light around. Be like, oh, animation, I see it. they've that they've We've been doing it for tens of thousands of years. 00:19:02.47 Wes behold 00:19:06.14 Wes I have wondered sometimes, like, what if I was born in another time and animation wasn't a thing? What would I do? Oh, right. 00:19:13.47 sidekqpodcast You do cave paintings and figure out light tricks, I guess. 00:19:14.95 Wes Yeah. There you go. that They would teach me, no, this is how you, like, oh. ah 00:19:22.85 sidekqpodcast That's why we got so excited by fire. Not only could it provide warmth and um a means to cook food, but it was entertainment. 00:19:31.24 Wes That's right. Yeah. You see? 00:19:34.65 sidekqpodcast Smart. All right. Well, we've made it through the personal interview section, and now it is time to head into some NPC creation. 00:19:51.69 sidekqpodcast And NPC Creation is brought to you by you, the podcast audience and our patrons for Patreon. So now is the time of the show where we give a loud hoorah, a cheers to our supporters. So to you, our queen of the Patreon, Goblin Katie, aka Katie Downey, as well as our other wealthy tier patrons, including Anson Jablinski and Mom and Dad, we say cheers. Again, if you want to join this cool club of people, Just donate $2 or more a month. That's what gets you your a shout out on every episode. All the folks I just named, they're at least wealthy tier or above, which means they get to introduce an element of chance to the random tables that we have here in this section. And we might get to hear some of their responses used today. So if you'd like to learn more about the Patreon, 00:20:39.52 sidekqpodcast which I'm sure you all do. I've got so many more listeners now. Hey, I have a Patreon. If you want to support me in the podcast and have this continue to be awesome and do better and better things, you should go to the show notes below, go to my podcast website, or just go directly to patreon.com forward slash sidekicks and side quests. Learn about our accommodations that we have awaiting for you. Help us to grow and expand our operations of the levitating platter in this demiplane and worlds beyond. OK, so I know you you know you were like, oh, I'm not a D&D player. I don't know how I'm going to do this. And I was like, don't worry. well We'll figure this out. And so in this part of the show, we like to make up a character. And so there could be a number of ways we go about this, whether it's you know you're you're taking an existing character from somewhere and you want to convert them to fit in a tabletop game. You want to roll the dice randomly and create someone, or you just kind of have like a skeleton framework of what you want to work with, and then we just 00:21:37.30 sidekqpodcast You know, we kind of spitball or we roll some dice and we figure it out along the way. So what what are we going to be doing tonight? 00:21:45.38 Wes Well, ah as I am new to this whole ah procedure, I suppose, I'd probably mine a character I created once upon a time for a children's book manuscript that I tried to publish a couple of times. 00:22:03.44 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 00:22:04.80 Wes so 00:22:06.20 sidekqpodcast Okay, well then you then this is good because you you have a pretty good idea of who this character is. They're near and dear to your heart, so this should be ah should be a cakewalk. 00:22:16.24 Wes I do, yeah, yeah. what is I chose them, I think because every now and then, and at this I don't know if this happens when you're doing D and&D, but it's like you create a character um and you discover things about them and you find you you like them more or less than you anticipated, which is always interesting. 00:22:36.22 sidekqpodcast Oh yeah, I know for sure. I think as player characters or you know the dungeon master, the game master, who has to like, you know, whether they're crafted you know well in advance for this the background story of the character, or you just have to think of them in the moment, you're right, exactly. As you spend more time with the character and you start thinking of like these, like, well, does he like butter on his toast or not? Like, what does this say about him as a character? You know something is seemingly in consequential you're extracting it back and you're just like. 00:23:07.52 sidekqpodcast Oh they have very strong opinions about things all of a sudden that i didn't realize so. Okay. 00:23:13.69 Wes Exactly. 00:23:15.01 sidekqpodcast Okay perfect well then we'll just work our way through the questions and i think we said or you know before we started rolling that if we get stuck on something or you're just like not sure. We can roll some dice or we can just get spitball some things and get us get ourselves unstuck if you will. 00:23:31.88 Wes All right. So that sounds good. That sounds good. It sounds very D and D E. 00:23:36.84 sidekqpodcast Perfect, okay. Well then first question here, what is the character's name? 00:23:42.71 Wes The character's name is Marius Blackstone. 00:23:46.59 sidekqpodcast Marius Blackstone. Okay, that's a very strong D and&D name if I ever heard one. Marius Blackstone. The mysterious Marius Blackstone. Or maybe the ordinary Marius Blackstone. 00:23:58.65 Wes Well, more mysterious than ordinary, I suppose. 00:23:58.57 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:24:01.88 sidekqpodcast Okay, and then ah what is their ancestry? Like what is their species or race or background as far as that's concerned? 00:24:13.56 Wes He is a man. 00:24:16.07 sidekqpodcast okay so a human dude okay so just hey we need human dudes in the game we have everything of like elves and dwarves and dragon men and tieflings and all these other things so it's good to just have a human npc every once in a while so okay marius blackstone human okay cool uh what is their job or role in society if we're you know the assumption of dungeons and dragons is that it's a medieval fantasy land so it's like you know okay there may be base assumptions of like it being like fantasy europe but there are plenty of other settings and in and and play settings and other games that you know don't have those assumptions and maybe it's you know somewhere else but. Anyway if we're assuming a generic fantasy land or maybe it's futuristic i don't know but what is their job or role in society. 00:25:07.07 Wes Uh, his job, he's and it's sort of twofold. Uh, he's an Archer, maybe that's a skill and he's a tracker. 00:25:12.22 sidekqpodcast okay 00:25:13.52 Wes Um, so he's who you go to. If you want to, he's like a bounty hunter, I guess. 00:25:20.32 sidekqpodcast Oh, okay. Bounty hunter. That's cool. Yeah, we can work with that because he, like he, you so his ah his art, he is a bowman. So he likes, you know, art trees is fighting style. Um, and then, you know, he's tracker. He's got to be able to, you know, find his bounties. Okay. 00:25:36.57 Wes Exactly, yeah. 00:25:36.75 sidekqpodcast That's pretty, that's pretty cool. Okay. Um, let's see. How old is Marius Blackstone? 00:25:46.63 Wes ah Probably mid-30s. 00:25:50.90 sidekqpodcast Okay, mid 30s. 00:25:51.02 Wes Yeah, mid-30s. 00:25:53.11 sidekqpodcast Okay. And now, okay, cool. So now this definitely should speak to you as an animator, as an artist. Now we come to the question, describe the physical appearance of Mary's Blackstone. Because obviously, this is mostly an audio medium, so we don't have the benefit of animation. Although, well, I'll resist the urge to be like, you should totally animate something, so then that way it goes with the episode. 00:26:09.77 Wes Right? 00:26:16.43 sidekqpodcast But no, I'll i'll resist that. 00:26:17.10 Wes but Well, uh, that's a good question. 00:26:18.37 sidekqpodcast Describe for our audience, what is the physical appearance of Mary's Blackstone, the bounty hunter? 00:26:26.22 Wes Um, he has a long brown hair, probably shoulder length, um, a fairly close cropped beard, not unlike yours. Um, he has a wide brimmed hat with a feather, uh, and a long brown coat and a gloves, I guess. 00:26:39.21 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 00:26:45.55 Wes Yeah. Gauntlets, I guess, or leather gloves. 00:26:48.05 sidekqpodcast OK, leather gloves. Does that get in the way of his archery or is it like those fingerless kind of glove situations? 00:26:57.59 Wes You know, I'm more average archery. I suppose it would get it in the way of his archery. But truthfully, I never thought about that. So no, it does not get in the way. 00:27:07.34 sidekqpodcast okay okay very cool or i was gonna so i'm just trying to think like well you know even if it doesn't officially exist a dungeon master could be like oh yeah they have magic gloves so they look like you know normal gloves but they you know give him a an arcane boost to his ability to actually you know wield a bow and arrow and stuff like that so okay 00:27:27.85 Wes Interesting, I see, I see. 00:27:30.10 sidekqpodcast So is he so as far as the rest of his physical appearance ago okay we got the beard we've got the long brown hair and you know obviously stereotypical or maybe not stereotypical but you know what I would imagine like yeah typical bounty hunter sort of look um but is there any other distinctive ah notes about his ah physical appearance and stuff like that. 00:27:51.83 Wes Yeah, I would say he's not... um 00:27:56.53 Wes I don't want to say refine because that's not the right word. um ah He's not terribly like gruff looking necessarily. um It's probably a medium build, I guess. um But in terms of any other distinctive features, ah no, not especially. 00:28:15.98 sidekqpodcast OK, cool. And then let's see if we had to describe Mary's Blackstone, the bounty hunter with three adjectives. What three adjectives would you use? 00:28:27.82 Wes Ah, I gotta think about that. I guess I would say loyal, 00:28:40.24 Wes ah introvert, and and quick. 00:28:50.40 sidekqpodcast Okay, loyal, introverted, and quick. Okay, so like very no nonsense does the job and is not especially ah chatty or anything like that with people. 00:29:01.64 Wes Not especially, not if he doesn't need to be here. 00:29:05.90 sidekqpodcast OK, and then let's see. We like our characters to have cool things on their person. So what's going to be a valuable item, piece of lore, secret or ideal or concept that Marius Blackstone would ascribe to? You know, sometimes if we're just kind of like free range, feeding, spitballing sorts of ideas, you know, people can have multiple ones unless you don't have any particular thing and you want to roll a dice and maybe see what you get. 00:29:34.57 Wes Well, because he is a does come out of a story, a manuscript that I tried to publish, ah I guess he does have a secret. It's a secret even to himself though, um but he is the kid brother of the Lord of the Dark. um So yeah, basically the, I don't want to say the Dark Lord because that's so, but that's basically, he's the kid brother of the Dark Lord. 00:29:53.08 sidekqpodcast the kid brother, the Lord of the dark. 00:30:01.90 sidekqpodcast So assuming the dark Lord is like, um, like, you know, if we had a game of fight or something like that, do you mean like, um, just like a really, like a big, bad evil guy? 00:30:02.23 Wes um 00:30:12.47 sidekqpodcast Or do you mean like, like some sort of like evil deity or something like that in the game? 00:30:19.86 Wes Yeah, so this is tricky because it's kind of, it's kind of crux with the story, I suppose. So the way it works within kind of the lore is that the Lord of the Dark, he's actually a good man who has inherited the kingdom of darkness through a series of, he's the kind of the last in a long line of wicked sorcerers. Surprise, he's not wicked. um He's good. 00:30:44.65 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:30:45.78 Wes And so that kind of creates a dilemma for him. but In any case, the kingdom of darkness does belong to him, and which is the tension of some of the story. And Marius Blackstone is his kid brother, and neither of them knows that. um And so they're friends, but brothers. 00:31:03.77 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:31:07.15 Wes So that'll be teased out in one of the chapters. 00:31:11.88 sidekqpodcast okay that's pretty cool so he is the unknown kid brother of of a royal figure of somewhere in the world you know however we have to you know if we're going to take uh marius blackstone and adapt it to our games and stuff like that so wherever the equivalent of the lord of darkness is in your world you know the idea is that marius blackstone is his unknown kid brother 00:31:27.59 Wes yeah 00:31:35.67 Wes Yes, yep. 00:31:36.72 sidekqpodcast OK, that's pretty cool. OK, and then let's see. We like all of our NPCs, our our characters, to be able to give out side quests like, you know, you're in a video game, there's a a yellow exclamation point hovering over their head when you go to interact with them because they have they have a job waiting for you. So what's going to be the particular quest that Marius Blackstone would be willing to recruit or hire player characters to go and do on his behalf? 00:32:04.70 Wes Well, ah he's a tracker, so um I suppose you don't call him unless you need somebody found. ah So he's gonna find somebody. 00:32:16.99 sidekqpodcast Okay so he needs the player characters or the heroes or the protagonist to help him with his job and in finding someone you think. Or is he not that kind of character because we said he was loyal but he said he was also introverted so is he going to go out of his way to offer this. 00:32:35.11 Wes Yeah, well, okay, so you'll have to let me help me figure out how this works into the into the world of D and&D. He's kind of a side character. And so he wouldn't go and ask anyone to help him because he's an introvert, but he would join somebody else if he were asked ah to go find someone. 00:32:48.08 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 00:32:53.84 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:32:57.55 Wes ah So I suppose, does he need to do the asking in this scenario or the job giving? 00:33:03.68 sidekqpodcast I mean, that's the typically the approach. I mean, certainly there is an angle. It sounds like you're suggesting that he could potentially just be like a hireling like an NPC that the player characters could potentially recruit. Like they'd probably have to like pay him money to like, you know, hey, come with us. We're trying to find someone. OK, cool. Pay me a couple of gold every day and I'll work with you guys to like find who it is you're looking for. um But, you know, kind of the idea of this show is like, oh, if we're going to drop mary's blackstone in our world obviously he could do that you know no no reason why he can't do that but you know maybe okay okay that's interesting point you raised about the introvertedness maybe it's something like in some of these games like dragon age or fallout or mass effect it's like a loyalty thing you said he was a loyal character you have to build up trust with him but before he feels comfortable letting you in on some problem that he has like hey 00:34:02.85 sidekqpodcast we've been working together you've been good to me we've been square i have this problem i can't deal with it you guys are capable or you the hero are capable i need your help so what is that quest then that he gives the hero to go help about this 00:34:21.06 Wes I suppose... um and That's a good question. Um, I mean, he'd need to find information. Um, maybe he can't find a particular map. Um, and so he commissioned someone to, I don't know, uh, go yonder and I don't know, uncover it, I suppose. 00:34:45.30 sidekqpodcast Okay, a map? 00:34:59.14 sidekqpodcast OK so there's a there's an elusive map that he needs is this something as part of his work or is this like you know like the beginning stepping stone if because in my head I was thinking like oh the obvious thing would be like oh I'm trying to find my family I you know there's this this hole in my knowledge of my past and I don't know like Who really my family is so are you going to help me with that because we built this trust. um Or it could just be like hey i'm really interested in this thing and i don't have a map to it if you can find that map i'll be really cool. 00:35:33.25 Wes Yeah, I think for him, um he's not terribly curious about his past, ah because he doesn't know what's missing, because he is the youngest. um It's sort of like a Luke and Leia thing. I don't know. I have a sister, so why look into it kind of a deal? 00:35:49.84 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm. I see. 00:35:53.21 Wes But I suppose his job is to track people down, track fiends down. um And so I could see him. needing clues to whatever that might be, be it a map or be it, I know, information. 00:36:13.66 sidekqpodcast OK, all right. Yeah, so OK, so in order for him to be better at his job to improve him and, you know, get him to the next level, he's missing this map or this piece of information. So he needs the player characters to go and do it. OK, fair enough. ah So when the player characters come back successful, they have the map, they have the piece of intel he needs or whatever it is. How is Mary's Blackstone going to reward the party for being successful in this endeavor in this quest? 00:36:45.43 Wes Well, it's kind of a boring answer, but i I think you would just pay them gold from his commission. 00:36:52.62 sidekqpodcast Okay, I mean easy enough to do that. I'm just, you know, again, just thinking very, very video gamey. It's like all of a sudden he's like, but here's like a super cool magic item. I don't have use for this, but maybe you do. 00:37:06.45 Wes Okay. Yeah. 00:37:08.20 sidekqpodcast Or like, you know, maybe he agrees to like help them out if they are in a pinch or something like that or, or whatever it may be. 00:37:13.91 Wes Okay. Yeah. okay yeah yeah Interesting. yeah ah interesting yeah I like the idea of him having just sort of a magic ah totem that he doesn't really have use for, that he's sort of gathered upon his ah quests and pawning that off, I guess, trading that. 00:37:34.28 sidekqpodcast OK, so like a magic totem. 00:37:36.17 Wes yeah 00:37:36.10 sidekqpodcast OK, there are there are specific like totem items. So yeah, that can be cool. So like some sort of like totem of power or or whatever it may be. So. Oh, vague enough for a dungeon master to figure out like, you know, what specific item to put in their game. OK, that's pretty cool. um But then we also have to consider the opposite. What's going to be the consequence of failure? He's tasked the party with this mission, but they come back empty handed. They refuse him outright. What's going to be the consequence of failure or saying no? 00:38:08.21 sidekqpodcast Is he the kind of person that's gonna like immediately turn on the party? Or is it just kind of like, oh, well, I was wrong to put my trust in you sort of a thing and you're incompetent in my eyes now or whatever. 00:38:21.79 Wes I don't know. That's a good question. ah Probably the latter, I guess. I suppose you just sort of, yeah, just turn his back and say, forget you. I'll go somewhere else. 00:38:36.48 sidekqpodcast OK, and so then you miss out on the cool item that he could have given you. 00:38:40.18 Wes That's true. And he has cool items. 00:38:43.53 sidekqpodcast All right, is there any way that the players could like make it up to him? Is he the kind of character that you could later approach like after some time and like work on repairing those bonds or is he the kind to just cut ties? Hey, i I don't care anymore. I'm just going to move on with my life to the next job, the next place. 00:39:04.86 Wes Yeah, I think he would give you a second chance, but after a smaller task. So if you left and came back, you'd have to approve, you meant business. And so he'd give you a smaller task first, but it would probably be something um like insignificant, something he doesn't really need. Like, okay, now you've got to go, you've got to go get a dragon's egg or something, which he doesn't even want, but he's got to know now, are you willing and interested in doing this? And if, if yes, then okay. Now you can go get the thing that I told you to get. 00:39:37.21 sidekqpodcast Oh, funny. So, yeah, like, oh, we have to go storm a dragon's lair and go, you know, we all nearly died getting you this egg. And he's like, OK, cool. All right. Can you go get back that the thing I told you to go get me originally? 00:39:50.96 Wes Yeah, right, exactly. 00:39:51.57 sidekqpodcast But after all the this, yeah. Oh, man, that'd be very funny. OK, there are optional questions I have if you want to delve and explore the character further. um Or if you think this is good for Mary's Blackstone, we can move on to the next segment. 00:40:08.90 Wes ah Either way, i it's all new to me. so ah well We'll try some of the extra, ah the optional questions. 00:40:13.14 sidekqpodcast Dealer's choice, whatever you want. 00:40:20.30 sidekqpodcast Yeah, okay. um Okay, so what are the goals and motivations of Mary's Blackstone as a character? 00:40:29.48 Wes ooh That's a good question. I probably should have thought about that more. um I suppose his, well, I think his, because he's a loyal person, and ah I don't know, I think your friendship, I think in the end, what he's really after is gaining somebody he can trust. 00:40:53.75 sidekqpodcast OK, with his current steady state, like when a party is going to meet him, ah you know, because he talks, you know, because we've talked about loyalty, um you know, being a bounty hunter, you know, depend depending on, you know, how they define that loyalty. Is he like, is he like part of a guild? Is he kind of like, a you know, oh, i'm I'm just like a lone bounty hunter. And if you you know, you have the money, then I'll do your job or or. How does he work? 00:41:22.84 Wes Yeah. He's kind of a lone bounty hunter. Um, basically goes on reputation alone. So if a King is in search of someone or something, um, they know who to call him. Um, so he's, he's usually working for like high ranking officials, Kings and, and Lords and so forth. Uh, just word of mouth and he's a lone guy. 00:41:45.56 sidekqpodcast OK. All right, so but I mean, maybe you'll find him in the local watering hole with the peasants and stuff like that, but that's just because he's between jobs and, you know, you know, he's waiting on the next monarch or regent ah to come, you know, sending a messenger after him to be like, hey, you're being summoned to court because there's some problem that the Duke needs resolving or whatever. 00:42:07.77 Wes Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And if you saw him in a tavern, you wouldn't know him um necessarily because of his, uh, not terribly distinct, I suppose. 00:42:11.84 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:42:18.32 sidekqpodcast Okay, so with these goals and motivations in mind, how do they affect Mary's Blackstone's general personality? 00:42:29.67 Wes How do his goals and motivations affect his personality? 00:42:32.24 sidekqpodcast Yeah. So like if he's someone who's like searching, you know, for loyalty and and trust and friendship and stuff like that, ultimately in the end, uh, you know, from doing what he does, how does this going to affect his general personality? Does it like butt heads against, you know, the fact that he's like this introverted, quick, uh, loyal guy, uh, or, or, or what? 00:42:57.39 Wes No, so he will not seek anyone out um in terms of like he's not going to go looking for a job. He's not going to go looking for companionship or friends. But if they find him, ah he is warm. He is friendly. um He doesn't have time for your rubbish. ah So you know like like I said, if you if you turn him away and come back, he'll kind of put you through the ringer. 00:43:24.38 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm. 00:43:24.54 Wes um So he's you know he would be warm and friendly to meet, um not terribly cold, but you would have to initiate any kind of conversation or any kind of interaction or any kind of job. ah Because in his mind, he doesn't need any of those things. You've got to prove it's worth it. Even your friendship. 00:43:47.06 sidekqpodcast Mm. 00:43:47.98 Wes You've got to prove it's worth it. um so But he's not cold. He's not he's not he iss not rude. 00:43:55.09 sidekqpodcast He's not brooding and in the corner looking mysterious and like a loner. He's just like the dude that's just hanging around is just like, I'm good, man. You know, like if you want to like, you know, hang out and like make it worth my while. Okay. But like, otherwise I'm not going to go out of my way to be your friend kind of a thing. 00:44:13.03 Wes Yeah, yeah, he's okay by himself. 00:44:17.29 sidekqpodcast Okay and uh how does mary's blackstone normally interact with people is he pretty nuanced depending on who he's talking to uh is he pretty one note across the board or like you know how how are we going when we interact with them what's he gonna be like 00:44:32.55 Wes Yeah, so he's he's pretty nuanced. He's very adaptable. So, for example, he has a friend who is um just prejudiced from the get-go. And Marius is the kind of guy who would who would try to encourage him to 00:44:50.24 Wes maybe not be so prejudiced. um You know, he does take people as they are and meet them where they are. He's kind of nimble in terms of um how do I interact with you? um So that answers your question. 00:45:05.11 sidekqpodcast Yeah, yeah, okay. um Does Marius have a particular accent or language ah that he uses? Are there any idiosyncrasies in how he acts or speaks? 00:45:16.32 Wes Oh, that's a good question. You know, he's probably he's probably just English, but I will say his his secret brother is Scottish. 00:45:31.10 sidekqpodcast Oh, tension there. 00:45:31.32 Wes So yeah, I and never thought about him, ah but he's probably just English, British. 00:45:39.36 sidekqpodcast Okay, and then let's see what impact has Marius made on the world? How has he shaved his local area? 00:45:47.34 Wes Well, he is, his impact is um significant, but anonymous isn't the right word because people kind of know how to find him. But um yeah, because he is sort of a tracker of villains, as largely I mean, he's not, he's not, I say he's a bounty hunter, but he's not and necessarily interested in just anyone. you know They've got to be sort of fiends and monsters and and and monster yeah dragons and things. 00:46:17.22 sidekqpodcast Hmm So he's more of a monster slayer not necessarily a bounty hunter is what we're saying 00:46:18.01 Wes um so 00:46:24.89 Wes Yeah, kind of. I mean, he yeah, he ah I mean, he will he will search for, you know, let's say if if your family is kidnapped, he'll search for them. um Not necessarily for the villain who took them, but he is most famous for hunting down monsters and things um for a great kings. 00:46:52.57 sidekqpodcast because Those are the ones that are always bothering the the regions because they're always plotting ah to overtake the kingdom or whatever it's like occasionally he's like oh I finally get to track like an elf or a dwarf or a human ah for once instead of like hunting down a Hydra or a dragon or you know a vampire or whatever it is. 00:47:13.87 Wes Yeah, yeah. Then I forgot your original question. 00:47:21.92 sidekqpodcast What impact has he made on the world? 00:47:22.06 Wes ah Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:47:24.20 sidekqpodcast How has he shaped the local area? 00:47:26.61 Wes Yeah, so the world, his local area is a safer place because of him. And the world at large is a safer place too. 00:47:35.64 sidekqpodcast Okay. And then the final ah optional question in the NPC creation ah section. Does Marius Blackstone have any current problems that prevent him from being an even bigger player on the stage? 00:47:53.98 Wes problem i mean it's not problem necessarily, but probably his introversion. um The fact that he keeps to himself prevents him from being a bigger player because he is skilled enough to be a major player on the scene, but he keeps to himself too much. 00:48:05.97 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 00:48:14.34 sidekqpodcast Does he have to compete against others that are doing the same thing? 00:48:14.59 Wes He doesn't 00:48:18.95 sidekqpodcast Like there's like, oh, you called Jack because like Jack is like the one that would be on the posters and like everyone knows who Jack is. Oh, Jack, the giant slayer kind of a thing like, yeah, Jack's the cool guy. But then Marius Blackstone is obviously like on par, maybe even better, but because he's introverted, he's not the one that's going to get like the brand recognition. if you will 00:48:43.59 Wes Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. I hadn't thought about that. I guess I should think about that right now. 00:48:52.06 Wes um Yeah, I don't. So I think if he had competition, he wouldn't feel threatened by it um because he knows himself and he knows his skill. And yeah, so I don't know. I think he would just assume that those who those who know his name and those who want him, ah he considers himself the best. And so they'll know where to come. 00:49:17.71 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:49:18.75 Wes And if they go anywhere else, they must not want the best. And he's still okay with that. It's probably. 00:49:24.65 sidekqpodcast i'm getting um getting a very ah I'm getting a very detailed picture in my head of the scene from The Empire Strikes Back. And Darth Vader has all the bounty hunters assembled before him. So you've got this whole mishmash of like Boskins and IG-88 and then Boba Fett and stuff like that since we were talking about it earlier. So he'd be the... Does he work for evil monarchs and regents in the area? of like If they call him up, like is he going to answer the call? Or is he like, no, I have a code of honor I'm not going to work with. to you guys. 00:49:55.57 Wes Yeah, no, he's got a code of honor, but that's interesting. Otherwise, yeah, I suppose he he would be somewhat like Boba Fett, who's the only character in the Star Wars lore to like talk back to Darth Vader and be fine. Get away with it. Boba, bro, you just negotiated with Darth Vader. What? Anyway. 00:50:16.89 sidekqpodcast Yeah yeah yeah well i mean probably be you know as we discovered which i need to watch myself but probably as we discovered in clone wars and rebels like jedi have obviously had all kinds of scrapes and wars and battles with mandalorian so like mandalorians are the only ones i can really go toe to toe ah With jedi without having to use the force all because of their training and the their you know their use of best car Which is always yeah, it's just again. It's so cool. Why haven't they made a Mandalorian video game? That's what I want to play the next you know We're we're we're chilling with Cal Kestis. You know being a Jedi in training. We're getting this outlaws thing so we get to kind of be like ah Lando Calrissian and we get to be like Han Solo I'm ready for the one where 00:51:01.41 sidekqpodcast We get steeped deep in the Mandalorian culture and we get to become like, you know, noble religious warriors. We all get to say this is the way and all this stuff. So that's what I'm waiting for. 00:51:13.05 Wes that's it that is a great idea that's a great idea I hope that happens I hope that happens soon ah no yeah somebody needs to know that's a great idea that's a great idea 00:51:17.10 sidekqpodcast Yeah, we just have to speak it into being and then eventually they'll figure out that's what people want. So. 00:51:28.95 sidekqpodcast Well, hopefully they'll listen to this podcast episode. They'll put Marius Blackstone in their game and then they'll get right on that. So, well, we did it. We made it through NPC creation ah that now it is time to take our fair hunter and put them into a random encounter. 00:51:54.26 sidekqpodcast And insert here for the final ad break, which I will do later. And this is the random encounter section of the show. This is where we get to do D and&D. This is where we do a little role play, a little vignette scene and with the character that's been presented to us. So, you know, since you birthed this character, obviously you are going to do a fantastic job of breathing a life into Mary's Blackstone, the human ah tracker, bounty hunter, monster slayer dude. But the question becomes, Who am I gonna be in this scene am I gonna be one of my podcast adventure characters that's like been traveling with Marius and you know this is where he gives you the quest of like. How I need your help to do this thing am I some regent ah calling for Marius Blackstone you know to come to me ah is it some sort of like vignette in the tavern ah like where he's just chilling and like a bunch of people are like giving them. 00:52:49.92 sidekqpodcast Guff because it's like oh look at this weirdo in the bar and they don't realize who he is or like what i don't know what kind of scene are you interested and like this is your moment to like show off. How cool marius blackstone is so how are we gonna breathe a life into it. 00:53:04.50 Wes Oh man, so now I i create a scene scenario and... 00:53:08.14 sidekqpodcast Yeah we'll get to we have we'll get to play it out so you know you're gonna be marius but then like who am i what who am i gonna be in the scene what scene are we gonna do. 00:53:10.57 Wes Oh wow. 00:53:16.68 Wes I see. You shall be... 00:53:23.04 Wes You shall be a leprechaun. 00:53:26.38 sidekqpodcast Oh, a leprechaun. 00:53:27.77 Wes Yeah, is that okay? Who has has hired me? 00:53:29.60 sidekqpodcast Yeah, sure, leprechauns. 00:53:32.89 Wes me being Marius, you have hired Marius Blackstone two to this quest for you. 00:53:41.45 sidekqpodcast Okay, so I'm a leprechaun and I've hired you specifically because, I mean, the stereotypical thing would be that someone stole my pot of gold. that Is that kind of the angle that we're going for? 00:53:52.98 Wes Yeah, let me think about that, because that would be kind of the most obvious route. Let's say that someone, hmm, 00:54:04.60 Wes Yeah, they'd stole your pot of gold. 00:54:07.49 sidekqpodcast Okay, all right. um Would you like to set the scene or would you like for me to set the scene? 00:54:14.14 Wes ah Well, this is kind of my first time, so you set the scene and I'll see how it's done. 00:54:20.90 sidekqpodcast Okay. All right, we're... Okay, now I have to okay have to get in the headspace. Okay, you know show Wes that you're a good Dungeon Master. Okay, let's let's make this work. 00:54:34.55 sidekqpodcast So we're outside of a nondescript town. ah you know It's ah you know right next to the woods, and you know this wood has kind of a boundary with the Feywild, the fairy realm, the Fey. And so occasionally, you know you'll get like all sorts of ah you know interesting Outlandish sorts of beings people creatures ah that will occasionally come through so the people the town kind of know to expect this and you know, they they try to do their best to work with those who come through and lately ah there has been a leprechaun who's coming through and you know, 00:55:14.24 sidekqpodcast He likes to show off his pot of gold, spend it on ah good company and booze and and all that sort of stuff at the tavern. and ah you know Eventually, you know he you know drinks one too many drinks, goes to sleep, knocks out, and he wakes up the next day in a panic. and He's searching around this this tavern. you know ah up and down, you know in that in all the way up in the rafters, all the way down in the basement, past all the dead rat corpses and all this. And so, ah where Marius Blackstone is going to find himself, I think, you know you tell me if this is right or not. but 00:55:57.78 sidekqpodcast You're probably in your room. You're probably waking up to the historical sounds of this wee little man that's just like, what do you mean? You can't find it. i vi it and I was spending all my money and I was doing this and doing that. And he's like yelling at the top of his lungs. ah It's early morning hours in this place. 00:56:12.07 Wes Thank you. 00:56:14.37 sidekqpodcast And he's just going on and on and on, like retelling the whole story and trying to trace his steps and all that. So how is Marius going to react to all this? Hearing the noise, this cacophony coming down ah from the downstairs. 00:56:28.28 Wes Well, I confess that Marius is not gonna be terribly interested or terribly bothered um by this mess um because it's not his mess until you ask it to be. 00:56:33.07 sidekqpodcast Silence. 00:56:42.76 Wes ah So I suppose there could be someone who knows what your problem is and who knows that you should find Marius Blackstone to help you out. 00:56:43.97 sidekqpodcast Silence. 00:56:56.86 sidekqpodcast Okay, so kind of like in a the Lord of the Rings, ah with ah like, oh, that Strider over in the corner. So like, this this nice this nice guy who's the the tavern keeper, ah you know, ah who knows that Marius likes to stay here in this particular town when he's done and a job, will be like, well, don't you know, sir, that we've got one of the finest hunters and trackers staying with us. the Mr. Marish Blackstone. I think he's up in his room and, you know, uh, perhaps in, if you, uh, promise some of this, uh, gold that you were spending, uh, then maybe he could help me find it. He's like, well, okay, I think I have a right to mine to go pave. So like these loud thunderous for a small guy thunderous footsteps that come up the stairs and just like, uh, like repeated hammering on your door. Be like, wake up now. I haven't got time to waste. Wake up, lad. 00:57:54.46 Wes Oh, well, he'll open the door. Ah, hello, welcome. And I suppose he'd ask you what your what your problem was. 00:58:03.52 sidekqpodcast Well, I was, you know, going about my crows and the ladies, the the drinking, the having a good time. and And then he looks embarrassed. He's like, I can't, yeah I can't find my pot of gold. You know they always say if you you know you you look for the rainbows but it's been a clear bright sunny day I i can't find can't find my pot of gold. Son I need your help. but The fireman at the bottom said you would help me find it. You find tracker? Is is is his word any good? 00:58:36.57 Wes I suppose Marius Blackstone would say something like, well, have you coined? No gold, have you coined? Make sure you're good for whatever it is you're about to hire him to do. Unless, of course, you assume that he'll be paid upon completion of the task. 00:58:55.11 sidekqpodcast ah So you start like doubting him and saying like, Oh, you know, can you even pay kind of a thing and maybe I don't know, the leprechaun maybe takes the insinuation of like, some sort of insult of like, you're insulting him in some way. And he's like, I won't be taking that sass with you, boy. ah You be not sassing me like that. And so he he maybe he does some like minor illusion magic you know to show you what the pot of gold looks like and he's like you see that pure pure silver and golden platinum pieces all inside me pot i've been collecting it for centuries all up and down the fair wilds and died you know and then he reaches baby into a pocket and uh... 00:59:39.55 sidekqpodcast maybe it's a pocket that lets him pull out something that would like make you curious or make you agreeable to him so like what's the thing he pulls out of his pocket that makes you take a double look of like oh this guy's serious 00:59:53.78 Wes Well, I suppose with Marius Blackstone, this would just be a formality because if you were to seem dire enough, um he'd do it. um So this would be more like, a more just making sure that you're serious. um So whatever you wanna pull out, let's say it is, um let's say it's an IOU from his pot of gold with, 01:00:15.75 sidekqpodcast Okay. 01:00:21.76 Wes maybe too much gold promised for the um quest. And Marius would say, no, no, two coins will do. But really, it's not about the money, just to see how serious you are and whether or not you'll see this thing through because the quest will be dangerous. 01:00:42.23 sidekqpodcast Mmm, and he starts chuckling and he reaches back into the pocket again and he produces an like a fully formed emerald and he holds it up to you like Does this be interesting boy? Oh Yeah asking that to Mary's Blackstone if like will this suffice is like a guarantee of like what I owe you and 01:00:59.21 Wes The Leprechaun? 01:01:07.47 Wes Interesting. Yes, yes, yes. That could be interesting because um you know if everything goes sideways or or if you skip out, this could be an interesting token for trading later. 01:01:21.80 sidekqpodcast Yeah, we'll say it's like ah it's like easily somewhere. i Well, um you know, the game has breakdowns of like what specific ah gemstones are worth, but we'll say it's like a tiny enough emerald that maybe it's worth like 10 gold pieces or something like that. 01:01:36.09 Wes Okay. 01:01:36.30 sidekqpodcast So he holds it up and he's like, is this good collateral for you be taking me quest? 01:01:41.73 Wes Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mary's to take that and probably want to gather all as much information from you as you could. Um, you know, do you have any, do you have a map of the the the land or any clues as to who's taking your gold or, or, uh, that sort of thing? 01:01:58.78 sidekqpodcast Well you know there are these three funny fellas that were wearing black cloaks and they were staring at me weird you know i don't normally swing that way but you know some of the ladies that are really that really like me and so he starts going on this whole wild tale and and talking about like the the the physical appearance of these three like ah cloaked figures that were kind of like eyeing him the whole night and he's like and come to think of it they're buying me lots of drinks it was good i thought it was really weird again that they were like wanting to get in bed with me but like not i I see it now, they were just trying to ply me with drinks so they could separate me from an old. Yeah, yeah, that's what it was. um And so yeah, he he gives you the total you know description you need ah to start beginning your hunting of like trying to find who these three guys are. And you know maybe he says, ah you know like gives you a clue about like maybe some like sort of gang or or gang affiliation that they may have had because oh there's a rumor of like there's a gang hideout somewhere along the road or um ah oh or they you know they smelled this particular way so that might give you a clue of like an area that they like to frequent or something like that. 01:03:06.77 Wes Yeah. Gosh, I don't know. What are you doing with that? I suppose, you know, I suppose he'd try to. Yeah, I don't know. I suppose he'd try to um i watch them a little bit. um Yeah, I, I'm not sure. I'm not sure what he'd do with that. um 01:03:25.99 sidekqpodcast Sure the leprechaun will say i'm like oh I've been up all up and down this tavern and I haven't seen them so I know it's those three because they're not here in this tavern they skipped out I'm sure of it so he's like pretty confident that he thinks it's these three guys and again that's from his perspective ah you know could be through your investigations you find out it was something completely different um but yes so suffice it to say he gives you the quest and then the leprechaun We'll go back downstairs and he'll go cry into a morning beer and eat a hearty breakfast. um was there But is there any last thing that well that we will leave ah the scene with with Marius doing or saying before he's going to go off and start engaging in this whole ah hunt ah to find this pot of gold? 01:04:15.02 Wes Well, it's probably counterintuitive, but I think Marius Blackstone would invite the lad to come ah along for the quest. you know I know he's kind of loner, but um the leprechaun has skin in the game, as it were, and ah could be useful in certain situations. So he he'd take it. 01:04:38.83 sidekqpodcast Okay. Well, you call him a lad. And so like as you're as you're getting to know each other and figuring out your banter back and forth, and he probably says something to the effect of like, oh, lad, you you you are the whipper staffer here. I'm a arm at least over 300 years old. like You don't know what you're talking about. You look like you you're like baby you barely out of your baby diapers aren't ya you know he's kinda like saying stuff like that to kinda go to a little bit i needle under you a little bit i'm but also like trying to figure out who you are and so as the scene of start to close out you know. 01:05:03.35 Wes yeah 01:05:12.76 sidekqpodcast The the buddy cop movie montage ah slowly to key would begin as the two of you begin to go around this town and shake down people and try figure out where the spot of gold is. 01:05:25.72 Wes Yes, very good, yes. 01:05:31.74 sidekqpodcast Scene so we did it. We made it through the random encounter So what did you think it was like getting to embody and play my race blackstone in some Dungeons and Dragons? 01:05:42.65 Wes So how is that how it works? Is that kind of how you play? And then there's board and dice and things. and 01:05:46.83 sidekqpodcast Yeah I mean sometimes it's theater of the mind sometimes it's a grid and miniatures or ah token pieces or whatever yeah you know that's basically it in a nutshell now obviously if you were playing Marius like as a player character you'd have like a player character sheet in front of you you'd have skills and equipment and and powers and abilities and stuff like that and there'd be dice rolls involved like oh hey you're gonna go investigate okay give me an investigation check and let's see how successful you are and ah oh you wanted to go talk to the bartender to figure out if he knows any information okay give me a persuasion check or 01:06:25.40 sidekqpodcast Oh you see someone like ah you know getting ornery with you okay give me an intimidation check you know so other things like that and like rolling dice for you know when combat breaks out and so various pulls out the bow and arrow and he starts legolas one shotting. And stuff like that you know so yeah there's dice there's pencils there's ah miniatures and tokens and theater of the mine so it's all in there yeah but and it's and it's most basic form judges and dragons is just simply collaborative. Storytelling with your friends. 01:06:54.21 Wes hu Interesting. ah Cool. 01:06:57.54 sidekqpodcast Yeah. So as we're beginning to be in the final thoughts section of the show, what did you think it was like, uh, getting to be on the podcast? You know, your, your first time, maybe on a D and D podcast, maybe not your first time on a podcast or interview show ever. But yeah, what'd you think of your time here on, uh, on sidekicks and sidequests? 01:07:17.97 Wes Well, I mean, I think you're a great host. I think you keep the conversation going, which is great. um Yeah, I think, my gosh, I'd have to, ah D and&D I think would keep me on my toes creatively, you know, the very kind of a quick, yeah, keep it on your toes, so which is cool. 01:07:40.20 sidekqpodcast Yeah, I mean you may have to take up your uh, your wife's kid brother's offer to like he's I i'm sure he's probably been like wes would surely play in a game if I invited him so You may have to just take him up on his offer Uh, and you know, maybe have him run a one shot for you or something like that. See how you like it Uh, and maybe dnd is not the particular flavor of a game because there's all sorts of games that exist out there everything from like 01:07:57.57 Wes you 01:08:05.14 sidekqpodcast um I want to say that there's like a cartoon RPG that exists that was probably created in the eighties or the nineties and again things like call of Cthulhu to some teenage being into turtles RPG like there's all kinds of like table top role playing games that exist and they don't all have to be D and&D but you know just something maybe to sir you know test Test the water, give you the first... Here on this podcast, I like to say I've given you the sample taste of like what it's like to play tabletop role-playing games. 01:08:35.53 sidekqpodcast So if you want another hit, okay, now you got to go find someone to like go play with. Whether it's your relatives or your friendly local game store, yeah. 01:08:42.03 Wes here 01:08:47.09 Wes Well, I hope what I do see soon is that Mandalorian game you mentioned, because that sounds cool. 01:08:54.39 sidekqpodcast this is the way 01:08:57.72 sidekqpodcast Yeah, so as we're here in final thoughts, you know, I always like to just make sure I get any other feedback or, you know, just I'm just checking in with my guests. And, you know, I always like to just make sure you had a good experience and that, ah you know, I didn't scare you away or or turn you off to D and&D or or whatever. So, um you know, any of those thoughts. 01:09:16.17 Wes Bye. 01:09:18.25 sidekqpodcast And then certainly I want to leave the stage, the microphone, the soapbox and the platform to you to let us know, like, where can you be found on social media if you want to be found, if you've got YouTube channels or projects or things you want to plug and let us know about so we can stay in touch. And then finally, any passions or causes ah that you want to make our audience aware of. 01:09:40.19 Wes Well done, first first of all. um Yeah, I think you did ah very well. um Did a great job. um But yeah, in terms of if anyone's curious to follow any of the animation that I'm up to or any of the projects that I'm up to, you can find that stuff at Murrell, M-U-R-R-E-L-L, murrellimagination.com. ah That's my animation website. And then from there you can follow this various social media platforms just by clicking a button. 01:10:12.02 sidekqpodcast And then any passions or causes you want to make us aware of? 01:10:16.16 Wes i am I am developing a ah pilot for an animated mini series, four episode mini series, shopping it around. um it's it's ah It's a Christian animated cartoon called Mothers of the Christ, ah follows the the five women mentioned in Jesus' genealogy in the book of Matthew. ah So as soon as I can get that off the ground, I hope to share more of that. 01:10:48.27 sidekqpodcast Very cool. Yeah, we will. We ah will watch your career with great interest as ah Senator Palpatine once said. 01:10:54.59 Wes ah 01:10:58.24 sidekqpodcast Well, very cool. you know Hopefully that this time was well spent in good company. And you know again, having that animator background, you know I will resist every temptation to be like, hey, man, you should like draw my characters and do cool stuff like that. um But you know I'm sure we'll we'll we'll be seeing each other very soon. So hopefully we can geek out about this more in person. And maybe by then you'll have had an opportunity to talk to your brother-in-law there. and Maybe we'll we'll get to be discussing like what character you're going to play in your very first one shot or something like that. 01:11:35.01 Wes Oh, thanks, Kurt. Thanks for inviting me on. And yeah, just ah being very hospitable and generous with your time. 01:11:44.82 sidekqpodcast Indeed. So yeah, ah can't wait to have you back on, making even more interesting NPCs.