End Notes, Episode 4

ANNOUNCER (ELI)

The End of Time and Other Bothers: End Notes. Episode 4.

SEAN

So welcome to the End Notes, everyone, and let’s go with any questions.

MIKE

I have actually written down “What the F?” with a question mark.

MIKE

Um. And as much fun as it was to relive my teenage years, I… I feel like there was some metaphors going on that maybe I wasn’t too clear about. So I guess my actual question circles back to: “What the F?”

SEAN

So basically I saw it as a Disney version –

MIKE

It was very Alice in Wonderland-y.

SEAN

Yeah! It was Alice — you literally go down into a fae stone, that has a one-inch or two-inch gap in it, yeah, so you went down. And you had quite a crazy experience.

So the whole point of today’s session was to start a process — and we’re not going to do it every time — but where we can give some context to how you guys learn abilities. So one of the problems for me in D&D and Dungeon World is, you’re like,

(nerdy, nasal voice)

“Oh, I got this many Experience Points, so now I go up a level” — and suddenly you have all these new powers. So it’s like, “Oh, I can do Fireballs now!” So the idea is, because you guys were starting with no abilities really, aside from the few innate ones, the idea was to have a way in the Academy how do they teach? So how do you learn in the Academy?

(laughs)

So Eggerton’s learning — I’ll get there.

MARISA

He will get there.

SEAN

I’ll get there. So yeah, so basically in the assessment, a couple of you had choices. I think you know what those were. Did you know what the choices were in the assessment?

MARISA

No, I actually didn’t.

SEAN

OK.

MARISA

A choice to plummet to my death? Was that one of the choices?

SEAN

(laughs)

No, the assessment was in the last episode… you know when you had to choose the two books?

MARISA

Ohhh, yes, yes, I do remember that.

SEAN

So you all went into your books, was the last thing that happened. So this is what happened inside the books.

MARISA

Yeah, I get that. Right.

SEAN

So you had a choice between Fighter and –

MARISA

And the holy symbol.

SEAN

And you had — same.

CARTER

Fighter and the Demon.

SEAN

Demon, right. And…

MIKE

And I just had a book with a plant on it.

MARISA

It should have had cakes on it.

MIKE

Which actually I think was some kind of cool leaf from the southern reaches of Farloria where they just party all the time.

MARISA

(laughs)

SEAN

I think it was. Clearly. I think it was that leaf.

MIKE

Because everybody else had teachers.

MIKE

I had a mixing bowl that sounded like he was high, and then I thought “apple” and just decided the apples were going to be weird, and then I had to say “carrot” because Marisa’s wearing orangey pink right now…

SEAN

Can I have your sheet?

MIKE

Can you have my whole sheet?

SEAN

Just let me see it…

MARISA

Maybe they were spirit guides.

CARTER

The fact that the cake jumped in your mouth I thought was very forward.

MIKE

(laughs)

That… I actually genuinely thought of like three jokes and went, “I can’t say any of those.”

CARTER

Hmmm.

MARISA

Yeah, you can’t say those. But you should talk to a guidance counsellor at the school after that.

MIKE

(laughs)

SEAN

OK. So here’s, in a crazy way, what — so Eggerton is now a Level 1… basically Eggerton went up a level.

MIKE

Obviously.

SEAN

So Eggerton is a Level 1 Flightless Fairy Druid, which is a — again, we’re using Dungeon World and this is a homegrown, like we created a custom player sheet that you’re using. So I think what Eggerton was learning today was some of your starting moves, that you’ve never had, necessarily. Right? So you were learning Sustained By Nature…

MIKE

Mmm hmm.

SEAN

You can go into any situation and find a party? I don’t know.

MIKE

(laughs)

Sustained By Nature is, you don’t have to eat or drink anything.

SEAN

Yeah. So you now have access to all the food ingredients at any time. Your fae magical powers — you can access Fairy Cakes and all the things.

MIKE

I need to do some reading on the Fae.

SEAN

The Fae is weird. So that’s other thing about Fae. I wanted to play Fae as more — like, we didn’t go scary, I just went went crazy. But Fae can get really weird.

MIKE

Yeah, they can.

SEAN

So it was just trying to give you the ability that you can now call back to. If you wanted to justify a Sustained By Nature, you can do it from that blackout time period.

MIKE

Oh, OK.

SEAN

If you say you want to… “The grunts, barks, chirps and calls of the creatures of the wild…”

MIKE

Yeah.

SEAN

Or… the creatures of the bakery.

MIKE

OK. I had that thought, and then I went, “No, he’s not going to make sugar sentient. That would be weird.”

SEAN

Yeah, it was weird.

No, I did not know going in — one of you can ask what I knew going in — I guess I said it, so I’ll do it.

So basically, yeah. I was just giving you a way, a fun way to call back to some of these innate abilities.

MIKE

All right.

SEAN

Um, I had no idea going in that I was going to do that with you.

MIKE

(laughs)

SEAN

I had some — I had very limited ideas. We had already set up Blat.

MIKE

Yeah. That was a fun follow-through.

MARISA

Yes.

SEAN

With Darcy, I just knew the location. I was going to do the spire temple, but I had no idea what your challenge would be.

MARISA

Nether did I.

(laughs)

Obviously.

SEAN

So one of the things I’ve done with characters is the characters have a want, a must-have and a quirk, just a shorthand to make them different, and so as we’re roleplaying I’m just trying to — or improvving — I’m just trying to see what they’re driven by and what they would want.

(laughs)

So I don’t know if that explains… yours was very fun and bizarre, so thank you for going with me.

And Blat, yours was pretty straightf — well, I assume. I just wanted to play — I had to make the demon Reginald, tea-drinking…

CARTER

Sure. Yes.

MIKE

That was fun.

MARISA

Of course.

CARTER

It was that old Warner Brothers cartoon.

SEAN

Which one?

CARTER

Where the coyote and the sheepdog are constantly at odds…

SEAN

Yes!

MIKE

Yeah.

SEAN

And the bell goes off…

CARTER

And the bell goes off, and their day’s over and it’s like, “Well, see you tomorrow, Fred.”

MARISA

“Bye, Sam.”

CARTER

Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought of.

But, uh, have I screwed up this game now, by choosing bazooka?

SEAN

(laughing)

I… I don’t know if it’s going to be on it, but I was literally, I had a moment where I was like, “…you mother-effer.”

SEAN

I was like, “Never give…” I mean, that’s the thing with improv, right?

CARTER

Yeah! Yeah.

SEAN

You used it, you called it… and when you said “Bazooka” I was literally saying — in my head I was going, “You’re not gonna get a bazooka, you’re not gonna get a bazooka…” and then you were like…

MARISA

You should have given him a piece of chewing gum. That would have been great.

SEAN

Bazooka Joe.

MIKE

Well, yeah. Because I was thinking “claymore”, like a claymore mine…

MARISA

Oh yeah, yeah.

MIKE

…is also a type of sword. Bazooka Joe gum, that’s the same idea.

SEAN

Yeah.

CARTER

Well, too bad we didn’t think of that, and now I can…

MARISA

(laughs)

It’s canon.

SEAN

I have a bazooka.

CARTER

I can, yeah… I have a bazooka all the time.

MARISA

Oh no, that’s not going to be your weapon, is it?

SEAN

Yeah.

CARTER

It’s a bit of overkill..

MARISA

Oh, come on!

(laughs)

How are we not going to destroy everything?

CARTER

Well, first… in close quarters I can’t use it. If someone’s right in front of me I shouldn’t use it…

MARISA

(growls)

Carter Siddall!

CARTER

It’s a distance weapon.

MIKE

That’s also — you could play the Green Lantern power ring? Because –

CARTER

“Oh no! Yellow?!”

CARTER

“I’m helpless now!”

MIKE

No, not like that!

CARTER

“Oh no! Wood?! I can’t fight wood!”

What do you mean, you can’t fight wood?

SEAN

“You’re wearing yellow! Oh no!”

MIKE

I’m trying to have a very serious conversation about power rings here, Carter, and you’re not helping.

CARTER

I read the same DC comics that you did, and I find it weird that an alien race bestows unlimited power to one Earthling, but for some reason, wood and yellow are things that he can’t — you could throw a pencil at Hal Jordan and he’d be helpless.

MIKE

Yeah.

SEAN

A yellow pencil, uh-oh.

MIKE

Everybody needs a flaw. That’s what makes him believable.

CARTER

All right… it’s not quite the same level as Kryptonite, but OK.

MIKE

So anyway, the actual thought there was…

(laughs)

…it’s all based on what he can do in the moment with willpower.

CARTER

I see.

MIKE

So there’s maybe a built-in flaw that, you can’t just immediately go, “There’s an ant! Bazooka!”

CARTER

(laughs)

SEAN

No, I think he can! He has a bazooka.

MIKE

(laughs)

SEAN

So I had to give it to you.

MARISA

You couldn’t say “Scimitar.”

SEAN

I know. I had to give it to him.

MARISA

Or “Quarterstaff.” Or “Bow and arrow.”

CARTER

I was frightened; Reginald was very scary; I thought of the biggest weapon that I could. And it’s not my fault — I’m from a future time and have knowledge of such weaponry.

SEAN

Now the hard part is, you’re going to have to come up with a justification — which will be fun — for why your line of family has a link to bazookas.

CARTER

(laughs)

SEAN

But no, I had to — it was good. it was great. It was in character. I couldn’t say no.

CARTER

That’s the lesson, kids: if it’s in character, you can do whatever you want.

MIKE

(laughs)

SEAN

That was awesome. I was like, “Aw, son of a bitch, he has a bazooka.”

Darcy… so this is cool, because in the previous ones we’ve recorded, Darcy has this strength to her

MARISA

Mm hmm.

SEAN

And what I thought was interesting about the roleplay we were doing, and the improv was, Darcy doesn’t really know that about herself.

MARISA

Mm hmm.

SEAN

Right? Like, that really came through for me, but… She’s not giving up. And it’s somehow tied to her relationship to this god, but she doesn’t even know — you know what I mean? She doesn’t know the god, she doesn’t know she has this trait.

MARISA

Yeah, no. Darcy just believes she has a fatal flaw.

SEAN

So I thought that was cool. So what I was doing with you — we didn’t really go into it a lot, but basically, when you do that meditation, you’re basically going to be given your first — so we can roleplay that another time, or that can just happen in the past, but when you finally get around to saying, “I think I’m gonna try that” — and maybe you don’t for a while. But when you finally do that, that’s Commune [emphasis on the wrong syllable]. ComMUNE. “COMmune” — that’s, you join a commune.

MARISA

I join a commune to commune.

SEAN

(laughing)

I think you’ve already joined a — what was it, you guys? Wasn’t that the line? What was it, Carter, you said? “Is this a…”

CARTER

“Is this a cult?”

MARISA

Yup.

SEAN

So basically I was setting up that the first time you now do Commune, the goddess will answer and grant you your spells, and your — and you could also do it…

MARISA

My rote.

SEAN

So we’ve decided to house-rule Rote. In Dungeon World the spells are a little different, so we’ve decided to let the rotes, which are like cantrips in D&D, just be always available. So you’ll be picking one of those and then your spells the first time you do Commune.

MIKE

One of my notes is “Apron”…

SEAN

Oh, God.

MIKE

And I don’t know how much of this is actually going to make it into the episode, but Sean, being the dedicated GM he is, was working — he’s an excellent professional photographer, and he was working until 6 AM — got home and slept for what we were told was four hours initially, and as the day has gone on, we have noticed certain flaws in Sean’s, uh…

MARISA

Reasoning?

CARTER

Just gaps in thinking.

SEAN

(laughing)

Little gaps.

MIKE

I was going to say intelligence, but I guess those are also polite ways of saying it.

MARISA

Why do you think you were talking to sugar and carrots?

MIKE

(laughs)

CARTER

It all makes sense now!

SEAN

I don’t know where that came from.

SEAN

And Eli, did you have any End Notes?

Oh, we also learned that Sean can’t say… “Moira”.

MIKE

Moira.

CARTER

Moira.

ELI

“Moira”, “chrysanthemum”…

MARISA

Yeah, chrysanthe — you went with it. That’s canon.

SEAN

“You see some chrysanthees.” That’s canon now.

CARTER

That’s just a flower in this world.

SEAN

Yeah.

ELI

So I was just curious, why Level 0? Why are they starting there?

SEAN

OK. That’s a good question.

(laughs)

It’s funny we’re doing it now, after Episode 3. Let’s explain!

Uh… why Level 0. So we were starting everyone in the future, where there’s no magic, so that put an instant constraint on what’s available, so partly to justify that, partly because I wanted to play a game where you could get used to some core moves, and then I wanted to justify the levelling-up.

So now you’re Level 1! Yay!

CARTER

And now the show really starts.

SEAN

Yeah. And now I think we’ll all be together. So we’ve been doing a lot as separates just to get the party together, though you’ve had little sessions together, and now hopefully we’ll spend more time together.

MIKE

Sean’s making a disturbing hand motion.

SEAN

Unless one of you just runs for it. But you know.

MARISA

Well, if he keeps talking to baking supplies… we might.

MIKE

(laughs)

You know, that’s the fun part about doing this kind of a thing, where it’s a combination of roleplay and improv, is, I have to continue — like, I can’t say, “That’s not happening, you’re insane.”

SEAN

Right.

MIKE

So it’s, “Oh yeah. That’s just happening.”

MARISA

(laughs)

Exactly.

MIKE

And how would I manage this, as the character? I have no idea! Because I don’t know how to manage you pretending that this is a thing, let alone how my character would manage this as a real thing…

SEAN

(laughs)

Are you Eggerton right now or Michael? Because…

MIKE

It’s a little bit of both. Little bit of both.

MARISA

And what our listeners can’t see is, during that whole section Michael had a WTF look on his face the whole time.

SEAN

He did.

ELI

He’s not the only one!

MIKE

I’m sitting with — I’m actually going to post a picture of this, because I find it quite funny. Eli’s behind me, running the sound, and everyone keeps looking over my shoulder at him. And I can’t turn around, because the chair will creak and I’ll fall over. So during that kind of stuff, I’m sort of,

(weakly)

“Ha ha ha, the sugar’s talking to me! That’s fun!” And I see everyone kind of laughing and then look over my shoulder, and I hear Eli kind of giggling off in the distance. It gets very confusing.

MARISA

And I also enjoyed — in fact, I could see we were all interested in the storyline Carter was going to come up with for the theatrical…

MIKE

Yes, that was amazing.

MARISA

…spectacle that he’d watched.

CARTER

It sounds like a very touching story and I would like to see it.

MARISA

I’d like to know the title of that, yeah.

MIKE

That actually sounds like something we could go see tonight though. Like, at a community theatre.

MARISA

Absolutely.

SEAN

That was awesome. That story you came up with — that was awesome.

MARISA

We’ll be performing that a month from now…

MIKE

And thank you for supporting community theatre, everyone.

ELI

Oh, for sure.

And that — I probably shouldn’t say too much, but that complicates some of the bigger arc.

SEAN

Yeah.

MARISA

Oh great. We don’t know what that is…

MIKE

Uh-oh.

CARTER

What, the existence of theatre?!

MARISA

No, the existence of the bazooka.

CARTER

Oh.

ELI

All of the above, but yes.

SEAN

All of the above, yeah.

MIKE

So Carter just ruined the story.

CARTER

Don’t hate the playa, hate the game!

SEAN

(laughs)

MIKE

Carter made a gang sign while doing that.

SEAN

So today, um…

Bleah, I can’t talk. I — how many minutes now? I had seven minutes of sleep.

CARTER

…minutes of sleep, yeah. Plus whatever micro-nap you just took while we were talking.

SEAN

So today we re-recorded the opening to Episode 2. And part of that was because Sean couldn’t do an accent, to be honest… well, two, there were two voices that I was messing up.

CARTER

(sing-song, Borat-like accent)

“I am from the southern United States…”

CARTER

(his own accent)

“What? I’m sorry?”

(Southern accent)

“That’s right, I’m Southern!”

(his own accent)

“Well, you sound Southern now…”

(cartoon Italian accent)

“A‑good, now follow me…”

(his own accent)

“No, that’s — you lost it again.”

SEAN

(laughing)

That was totally the episode. And then I changed a voice. So… we also wanted to be faster, because the second half of Episode 2 was so long. So when we redid Episode 2 — when we originally ran it, I had created this briefing sheet. And that was a really bad decision, because… it was like an episode of SG‑1, it was just –

MIKE

I don’t know why you hate.

MIKE

It was a wonderful science fiction show — made in Canada — and the wonderful ones where every alien world they went to kinda looked like right outside of Vancouver.

SEAN

So basically the idea in the original Episode 2, we had a lot of great improv, and then we get to this scene and it’s just me doing exposition and trying to explain the world, it was pretty boring, in the — what did you call it? The Sean Female Voice? The Standard Sean Female Voice.

MARISA

Yeah. Standard Female.

SEAN

And it wasn’t that funny. And when we were re-recording this, I was like, we should just make it an improv game. And so I enjoyed that so much better, with you guys just coming up with title ideas…

MARISA

For the slides.

SEAN

That was great. I thought that was great. I have no idea what material we covered, but it was so much fun.

MIKE

It was interesting because it’s sort of, “It’s a fun game, but I feel like we’re not actually getting to some of the important info” — and then you just sort of, you did a pivot. And it was interesting to watch, I was sort of like, “improv fun, improv, improv fun — PLOT. Improv fun, improv…” So it gets worked in nicely.

MARISA

So it was a stark difference between that and the complete lack of information you had in your talking sugar and talking carrots…

MIKE

I… I’m actually… that’s going to haunt me.

MIKE

Because — and it was the voices, and you started doing voices, and Carter did a voice, and then you were singing…

MARISA

It just sounded like so much fun! I wanted that to be my experience.

ELI

Anthropomorphized food is just freaky. Like… why.

MIKE

I don’t think it’s — is it anthro… is it “agropomorphized” if it’s food?

MARISA

(laughs)

It’s like those popcorns at the movie theatre…

CARTER

(sings the old cinema jingle)

“Let’s go out to the lobby…”

SEAN

With the helmets?

MARISA

Yes! And I’m always so depressed, because people are eating the popcorn! It’s so sad.

SEAN

It is sad.

CARTER

They seemed happy about it…

MARISA

That’s what they want you to believe!

ELI

Yeah!

SEAN

All right, so that’s been an End Note. I’m Sean the GM…

MARISA

I’m Marisa, I’m Darcy…

CARTER

I’m Carter, I’m Blat…

MIKE

I’m Mike, I’m Eggerton.

SEAN

Thank you guys so much for listening.

SEAN

(laughing)

No, I don’t remember anything…

MARISA

Seven minutes of sleep.

SEAN

Yep.

MIKE

Six. I think we’re around six.

CARTER

Six minutes of sleep. Who are you again?

SEAN

“Mora.”