This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
How's Bob Dylan doing? Is Blob Dylan still around?
Blob Dylan has passed. Has passed on. So he's been replaced. Yeah, it's gone. Got like two months of neglect and I just started over and my daughter named it Bandit for the character in Bluey. Hello and welcome to episode, episode 200 of the erasable Podcast. I am Tim Wasem on the. I feel honored to be hosting episode 200 of the show. So that's 200 episodes of listening to us talk about things that you liked hearing us talk about or didn't like hearing us talk about or wish we'd talk about more. And we're, we're excited. I, it still just blows my mind that we're at 2, 200 episodes of the podcast that was only going to last 30 episodes. I think that was kind of what was in my head and we thought
we were stretching it with 30 episodes.
Yeah, it's like, yeah, like are there
30 episodes, 30 pencils to talk about?
Yeah, the key, the key was just not talking about pencils.
Yeah.
I find all kinds of other things, turns out. But of course, I am joined live and video by my good friends Andy and Johnny. Hey guys. Hello.
It's good to see your faces. So if you, if you are listening to this podcast and you are, and you are a Patreon subscriber, log into your Patreon account and you can watch the video of this there.
So yes, and you'll hear more in a second of why that will be even more fun to see. So it's not just looking at our beautiful faces that you'll get. You'll actually get to experience kind of a new thing with video. So we are going to do some reflection today and talk about some things that we've learned. It's just some kind of like memories about the podcast. This is. As we, we hit 200 episodes, we're also going to be launching into something we've been very excited about, I think we've maybe hinted at, but we're going to be joined in the second half of this show by best selling author and dungeon Master extraordinaire, James Patterson, Monica Corwin, friend from the Erasable group, who has agreed very graciously to take us three inexperienced people into a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, a little mini campaign that we're going to be starting. So she is putting this together for us, helping us get our characters all set up. That's what we're going to be doing in the second half of the show, is working on setting up Our characters for the, the campaign, which we'll be recording soon. And the plan at this point, is this going to come out in two parts? Because it's going to be. We're going to, we're going to let it breathe. We're not going to rush it too much. So really glad to have Monica joining us today to do that.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, guys, where do we start?
Well, let's start at the beginning episode, one episode. And we'll talk. We're have a separate episode about each episode that we've done. Just provide like a commentary track. So.
Yeah, yeah, but we're gonna record them all now. Yeah. So we're just gonna. Nonstop. We're gonna record them back to back. We're just figuring marathon this thing we're gonna record. It's Sunday evening. No, what is it? Monday?
Tuesday.
It's Monday. It's Monday. So, yeah, we should be done by Saturday.
Yes. Perfect.
Johnny shipped us a bunch of coffee. Yeah.
Some Adderall mixed in. Yeah.
My own blend. Johnny Gamber blend.
We will not be going through all 200 episodes. Fear not. So I think one thing we were actually, just before we started recording, looking back over some old, like, episode titles and just kind of having fun with that. But it did, it does bring up this first kind of prompt that Johnny had thought of. But just talking about, like, what we learned about producing a podcast that we were willing to put our name behind, you know, like something that is, you know, good quality because everybody, you know, you start out and you figure things out as you go. And I think we figured a lot of stuff out as we went.
Yeah. But yeah, I, I, I have something there. Go for it. So as the kind of primary, primary, primary editor of this podcast, one of the things I've learned is that people actually really like us not editing very much. Like, you know, some podcasts, they'll really. Podcasts, they'll take out, like, awkward spaces in between or when people are talking over each other. I think about there's a podcast called the Accidental Tech Podcast, where the guy, Marco Armat, who edits that is just like, just very, just precise and gets his, like, conversation. By the way, I have ink all over my hands, which maybe we'll talk about. So that's why I'm so dirty. Haven't showered in, like six days. No. So I, I leave in a lot of the ums. I leave in when we talk over each other and say, oh, sorry, go ahead. And I've heard people say that they really like how just like it's like they're sitting in a room or watching like a live performance of this. So I was just like, you know what? I think our style is just like lazy editing, which I am. I am willing to sign off on. The less work we have to do, the better.
A lot of caffeine.
Yeah, caffeine. And I remember the difference when we went from just like recording on our little earbuds to like, professional mics. I like, you know, invest in some audio equipment. If you're starting a podcast, that is. That is one of the best kind of like, gifts you can give yourself and your audience is just like, good audio.
And I think it takes like, when you. When we got the new mics and stuff and just stepped up our equipment and our like, recording process or whatever a little bit. Yeah, it takes some of the pressure off yourself too.
Yeah.
You know, like, you just feel a little less self conscious. It's like, that's one thing that we can control. Like, I might still sound like an idiot, but do you. Do you remember. Clear as a bell when I'm sounding like an idiot.
Do you remember what we sold to raise money to buy our microphones? Do you remember the first thing?
Was it the pins or was it the T shirt? It.
Well, so the T shirts was the first big campaign, but we sold those little gray round stickers with the like, little asterisk made out of pencils, and
that bought us our first mics.
Yeah. And yeah, we got those. The snowball mics out of that.
We could.
That's awesome.
I think I have a couple. We could do a little giveaway.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, the old number.
Oh, the sticker. I thought you're talking about your microphone. I was like, that's gotta go to the Smithsonian, Johnny.
Right here.
Johnny Gamber's spoken into this. Yeah.
It smells like coffee.
Tastes like it too.
Yeah. If you, if you have one of those, like. So go join our. Go join the Patreon and. Yeah, we'll. We'll do a giveaway or something.
I think I have a handful of those around too. And those feel like I, like, get feels when I pick one up because they're still. They're like, they're so old. Like, they've been around for so long. But, like, I'll see when I'd be like, yeah, like, I haven't looked at this in a while because they're all in my, like, sticker drawer. So I usually get to the bottom and they've like, sifted their way down.
Yeah. Nine and A half sticker drawer. Oh, no. Oh, man. Right over there, I have a sticker drawer that there's about to become two. Two drawers.
And he's like, I have a sticker dresser drawer. Yeah.
So many stickers. So box.
It's six inches. Six inches deep.
Yeah.
There's your episode title.
Six inches.
Oh, I'm thinking six feet deep. And that came out way wrong.
Six. Six feet under stickers.
Another thing that I've learned of making a quality podcast is to actually record it.
Oh, yeah, that's cool.
If you guys remember our first episode with Ana Reinert Pro Tips.
I remember first take. Not the second one.
Yeah.
We.
I have to off to find what episode number this is. But we recorded. If you haven't listened to the early ones, it was when I was still living in Indiana, so it was still kind of like that first. That first early, like 25 episodes. Ana Reinert was from the well appointed Desk, was our. Was our guest. And in those days, we were like specifically having cocktails during our recording sessions. Like, we don't. We don't always drink alcohol during I am right now, but usually we don't. And yeah, we were just all having a cocktail and talking and we got about like maybe four, 40 minutes in. And I go, guys, we didn't record episode 38.
Wax on, wax off. The inner piece of colored pencils. Is that.
Oh, wow. I think it was earlier than that. Was there one about no blot pencils? That was earlier.
Oh, is that. So we had her on in 54 on rubber lubbers. Okay, so before that. I don't see that one. Episode 10.
Episode 10. That's it.
The graphites of wrath.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We were also trying to do pun titles back then.
Yes. That was a thing. We were very proud of those.
Was that about no blot or indelible pencils?
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Okay. That is.
Yeah, yeah. The episode description today, the host got a little extra gray from an additional round of cocktails.
Yeah.
After Andy didn't hit the record button. Yeah.
And I've done that since then. I've done that once or twice too.
Um, not as deep in, like, not as far into the.
So I. I'm very, very proactive now with hitting the record button.
Very memorable. Or not. You know what I mean? Yeah,
yeah.
So I have one.
If you're. Yeah.
Up for it. Solicit feedback and reflect on it. And don't assume that because people listen to your podcast that it can't be better. Um, we used to do Those cool, silly cocktails, which were really good brain exercises to come up with, but some people really didn't like it. So what are you going to do? Say, yeah, I'm sorry, you don't like this thing that we do. But, you know, go to helm.
Yeah.
You know, we've. We've made adjustments for.
Yeah.
Based on feedback.
Like, a lot.
I think a modern.
A modern example is, you know, we're not doing both Tools of the Trade and Fresh Points anymore. Because some people were saying we were just going, you know, just going too long before we got kind of the meat. The meat of it. And you're like, we get it.
Tim. You like Tom Petty.
Like, Tim.
Stop Talk.
All. All of. Every single white man in Nashville who has a. Has an album. Tim has listened to.
Tim.
Have you listened to the Richmond. North of Richmond?
And I'm familiar.
Yeah, I'm sure that guy is actually a really good voice.
I mean, incredible voice.
I mean. But yeah.
Yeah, I heard him interviewed the other day and he. About it. I don't know if you saw it. And he was like, yeah, he said the right things where he was like, all these people are grabbing onto this. And like, that's.
He.
Yeah.
And it sounds like he's been, like, kind of, you know, thinking critically about that work. I think he just mentioned, like, you know, he's. He's. Maybe some of his ire is misplaced or like, he was walking that back a little bit, which was interesting. But. Yeah.
And he did say, like, he. He voiced, like, kind of contempt for.
Yeah.
People who are trying to just, like, ride his viral video and, like, latching onto him and agreeing with him. And he's like, I wrote the song about you.
Yeah, I. Because. Because apparently I watched the GOP debate and.
Oh, they played that, didn't they?
They played that at the. The very beginning.
Like, they.
They had a whole sort of, like, intro question.
That's. That's where he talked about in the interview. He's like, so I was on the debate. That was pretty wild, but it was a little. He was just stupid because, like, I wrote this about you. Yeah. And them. Like, I wrote this about all of you. And you're talking. You're, like, making it a battle. It's like a. You know, was it Reagan deciding to play Born in the usa? It's like, you listen to that song and it's about, like, we. It's. They basically BBC, like, we mistreat our veterans. It's like, that's like what that old song is about, like.
Yeah, anyhow, sorry, that was a. Yeah, yeah.
That's like, a perfect example of why we don't do a buff anymore, because we'll go down that road. You just mentioned, you know, white Americana singers.
So things we've learned that are not important for producing a quality podcast.
I have one more thing. I have one thing for the last one.
Yeah, yeah, real quick.
Is. I was just gonna say, like, that with, like, creating the space for people to talk to each other instead of just like, let's say, like, with the Facebook group. Like, we did that really early on, and that, of course, has its own. It has its own life now. Like, yeah, there's. There's way too many people on there for all of them to be listening to this podcast. Like, 75% of them, 90% of them. I don't know. Just like.
Yeah, famously.
What is it?
What is. John. John Morris, who is a very active of that group, a very active member of that group, is like, oh, wait, there's a podcast.
He also asked, what is a podcast? Yeah, I hope was a joke.
John, if you're listening, I hope you know what a podcast is now.
Yeah, no, you're right.
And.
And all credit to you, Tim, for starting that Facebook group. I. I think I did that. Yeah, you pushed the button.
I did.
You're the original.
I don't remember that at all. So.
And it was. I feel like it was. It was like, us and, like, Les and Dade for, like, a little while and. Oh, I know. Lenore was a pretty really, really early member of that group and who has since been a guest.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I like, community is everything. Arguably, I think that's more important to sort of like, the editing than this actual podcast herself itself, which is really cool. And unfortunately, it's also kind of like bends to the whim of Facebook. And we've had, like. I know that we have a. A very languishing discord group and a couple other places where we can congregate, but, you know, that was. Community's so important. And honestly, is. Is the reason, I think, that we have done 200 episodes because we get so much content, inspiration, and, like, you know, pieces from that group.
Feedback.
Yeah, yeah. Yes.
How many. So how many people are in that group now? It's like, is it five, 6,000?
It's almost 4,000.
It's almost 4,000. Okay. Anyways, but, like, those. If we have 4,000 people in there, say, how many of those 4,000 do you think?
Yes.
Think that we used to be members of that podcast group and then create, like.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's called the Erasable Podcast Community. But, like, they probably don't even, like, realize that.
They're probably like, I wonder.
I wonder how long after they started the Facebook group did we change the title?
We've tried to, like, take podcast out of that group because it's kind of its own thing, the Erasable Pod or the Erasable Pencil Community. But people are like, no. Like, this is per the podcast. So we have 3,962 people in that group. So we just need 38 more people, and we'll be at 4,000. So tell your friends
or, you know,
create some fake accounts and come tell.
Tell the Russians to join our group.
Yeah, we lost. After we made sort of, like, that very, like, line in the sand, definitive Black Lives Matter statement. I think we lost, like, 20 some people.
So.
So we have. We have good. We have the right people in this group.
There you go.
Yeah.
Yeah. Don't get political.
Yeah, no. And that was. I mean, honestly, that was a choice that we made at one point, like, not that long ago. Like, for a while, I think we were just kind of talking around it, and at one point we're just like, yeah, yeah, let's. Let's just be political. It's fine. And I am surprised on how. How much that was accepted and how. Okay, that was with almost everybody. I think I've only gotten maybe two or three email comments just saying, like, oh, I don't agree with that. Like, don't talk about that. And I'm. I usually just respond and be like, hey, thanks for. Thanks for your feedback. Like, this is kind of authentically. Like, we. People really like how authentic we are in the show, and this is a big piece of it. So. So sorry. Yeah.
And I think we have really tone it down, like, big time on the show.
Yeah.
I have some very mean things to say that I never say on the show.
Johnny is a man, socialist, anarchist, and is out there throwing Molotov cocktails at cop cars. And he doesn't talk about that at all.
Only limos.
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, so things we learn you should never, ever do when making a good podcast.
Right.
We kind of are easing into it there, but.
Yeah, exactly.
Don't engage with people on Twitter. Oh, that happened a couple times. Very badly. Or at least one time I can remember. And it was my fault.
That was.
That did not go well. Sorry, Topher. Yeah, I sort of pulled Topher into it. Topper.
What's great about Topper is they are willing to. I think. I think I was talking to them about this through text afterwards, and they were like, one of the things about me is I'm willing to just, like, die on any hill anytime. Which is really great when you need sort of, like, you know, a fearless defender. And. Yeah, so I. I appreciate that about them, and it shows that we have a very sort of like, loyal listening audience. And I don't know how many people, like, are just friends who I talk to on a regular basis who were kind of born out of this.
So that's really.
Besides. Besides you guys, like, you know, Topher and I text, like, you know, once every. Once every week or so. So stay in touch, which is cool.
That is a. That is a good, like, thing to point out. It is kind of, like, crazy to think about how many people I would actively call a friend. Yeah, I have, because of this podcast. 90% of which I've have never seen them before. Yeah, like, in person.
Yeah, we. We. We mentioned that, like, you know, something you. You don't want to do to make a podcast is have guests with deep voices on, because they just will not compete. They just can't compete with our own 10B, Tim. So, yeah, you. You got. You got some voiceover work out of it, didn't you, Tim?
Like, you're lit a little bit.
You did that timber twist commercial, so. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, I remember that.
Call my agent if you're looking for somebody.
Yeah, exactly.
He might be able to pencil you into his.
His name is Mitt Mesa, and his number happens to be the same as mine.
Throwback. Forgot about me. Oh, that's very good.
So I think another, like, thing to avoid, it kind of, like, goes back to what we were talking about with, like, some of those earlier episodes. And the things we wouldn't talk about, the things we would talk about is like, just avoid. This sounds like the opposite. Like, avoid not being yourself. Like, you know, like, this got so much more fun when I was just like, don't make it sound like a podcast. It doesn't have to. You don't have to sound like you're trying to play a character or something. Just. Yeah, just another place to be yourself.
I think some. One of the other things we kind of learned was, especially after we kind of, like, got into the double digits of podcast recording, is, like, it's okay to not always talk about pencils. Like, I think our first few episodes are very, very strictly about pencils and just, like, talking through some of those things. And I think people Especially after you. We started forming a little bit of an audience. Like, people are very interested in the things kind of around pencils. Right. Like, and not even just like notebooks and erasers and sharpeners, but also, like, creativity and supply chain manufacturing and like, and manufacturing stuff. And also.
Yeah, just making things.
Yeah.
Just in general. Like,
Johnny, I know one of your. I mean, one of all. Like, you brought on Ed Kemp onto the show, and I would say that an episode about zines was one of the most kind of like, pivotal pieces, like, pivotal things that has happened in this, this podcast. Right. Like, yeah, like, he, Ed Kemp definitely sort of like, changed. Changed Johnny's life, kind of changed our lives when, as far as, like, zine making goes. So we have a lot of people in the group. Didn't we, didn't the erasable group kind of make a connection there between Ed and somebody?
Yep. I don't know the details, but Tara listened to the episode and they got in touch and hung out, and now they do more than hang out. Yeah. I hope we can get. I hope that there's. If there's a big day, we'll get invited.
Yeah. I mean, I assume we're going to be the three of us officiating a wedding.
Like, yes. I'll be the flower girl.
Okay.
I am a reference in the state of New Jersey.
I am a reverend of the, Whatever online church. You know, you pay $30 and become a reverend, so.
Oh, I'm a Catholic deacon in New Jersey.
Really? Okay. I was gonna say, I just learned something. Ten years later, I learned something new about Johnny Gamber.
I think that explains a lot. He disappears.
Yeah.
But, yeah, I've, I've talked to people who said that they actually don't care what we talk about. They just like to hear us talk to each other, which I really appreciate and I don't want to take for granted to, you know, start putting out crap like, hey, we don't have an episode title. Let's. Let's literally read our grocery list and talk about what we made.
Andy's going to monologue for an hour about some UX bullshit. UX Bull stuff.
Ask him about guitars.
Yeah.
Or I'll bring it up. Yeah. Yes.
Get it.
Get out of the way.
But I, I, I appreciate that people listen to it for the hosts and not just, you know, pencils, which, like you said, we rarely talk about anymore.
Yeah,
that's true.
So, yeah, I think the.
I don't know who put this on the list, but, like, I couldn't agree with this one more. But, like, you, your guests, all you, the only kind of guest you need, it doesn't matter on, like, you know who they are, but it's just if they're enthusiastic, like, if they, like, love it, then it doesn't matter. You don't need to go for, like, famous, you know, writers or whatever you're trying to talk about. I think that's just an excellent, excellent point.
Absolutely. Yeah.
We just mentioned Ed Kemp. That was like. I mean, that was a really popular episode.
He's pretty famous.
I could. He isn't. Yeah, he is. And I could hear Johnny blushing over, like, over the headphones. He was, like, learning. Learning about podcasts or about a zines. I could just feel you getting flushed, like, oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
I didn't realize.
I must do this, but I didn't
realize how prominent he was in the zine community until after that.
Like, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's great. Extra awesome that he took the time.
Yeah. Trying to think of a few. Like, Like Henry Hulen, for example. Like, he. I mean, I. I suppose if you're in pencil manufacturing, he's kind of a legend, but, like, for the general public, like, you know, some. Some. Some dude who, like, owns a pencil factory. And he is. He was just one of the most, like, charismatic and, like, enthusiastic people about pencils. And he was such a delight to have on. So.
Yeah, we're still pen pals.
Yeah, well, pencil pals, although, I mean, with famous gu. Had on David Rees pretty early, and that was. That was pretty amazing. Just like a very early. I mean, he's. He's kind of like. I think, like, John Hodgman will call himself like, a, you know, minor television celebrity, and David Rees is maybe just a little bit more minor than that. Like. Yeah, but. But still, like, just among a certain group of people, just, like, pretty. Pretty well known. And he was. Yeah, he was a really fantastic guest. Yeah, I'm still.
Okay.
I was gonna. I was gonna say, I. I mean, I. I don't know. Twice or three times I put out a call to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to come on the show as a fountain pen lover and still have not heard from her office.
So just say it's from the pan addict.
Yeah. If anybody has any connections in Washington, we really want AOC to come on. Talk about font.
We're the Johnson City PBS affiliate.
Yes. Hey, do you want some voters in a pretty red state? Like, come on down.
Yeah, we. We had Richard Smith on the Thoreau reenactor.
Oh, yeah, that was pretty early on.
Yeah.
And among anyone who's into Thoreau, he's like a freaking rock star. And he. This is when we used to do Skype. He thought we were going to do video, so he was in costumes.
It comes through in your audio in here.
He probably does the character better. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought it was Jay Newton. That was pretty recently, but that was a really, really awesome episode and a really great example of just, you know, having the right people on. People who love, love this stuff and.
Yeah, yeah, it's super enjoyable. Jay's really great. Yeah.
Should we air the thing where we talked about five worst guests?
No,
no.
We always had fun with, well, Brad Dowdy, number two.
Brad Dowdy.
Yeah. Number three.
All.
All Brad Dowdy.
The April Fool's stuff we used to do was really fun.
Yeah. And I'll occasionally. Occasionally get people who are asking, like, oh, why aren't you doing that anymore? And it's like, it's. It's really fun, but it's just a lot of effort, and I think that we've. We could continue just getting, like, new voices to do an episode, and. And we totally should, like, eventually. Let's get back into it. But, man, it takes. It takes a lot to just, like, make that happen and pull that together. And all of our lives have been pretty insane in the last year, so. Yeah, a couple years.
Yeah. I forgot about April 4th. I mean, April 1st.
Yeah.
See?
And. And it's. It gets really hard because it's also so close to, like, International Pencil Day. Like, that's. That's January or March 30th. Oh, yeah. And then April Fool's Day is the one after that. So it's really hard to just sort of, like, do something for both. But like, that. That first time when we got Caroline. Was it Caroline and Caitlin and Alex. Is that who it was?
Alex, Colin and Brett.
Yeah. And was on.
And they did a Colin thing.
Yeah, they. They had, like, a. Yeah. Interview. And that was. That was just a really good episode. And honestly, if you remember, it kind of bore some fruit, like when Les and Lenore and Day did it. They started a podcast of their own after that, so RSVP was born out of that. That was really cool. Yeah.
So you want to talk about surprising realizations after 200 episodes?
Oh, geez. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Let's do it.
So can I go first?
Yeah.
Um, well, I guess skip the first one. We talked about it, but when the three of us were finally, you know, in the same state slash Room slash airport. Like, it was not weird. Like, hey, we've talked on the Internet for seven years, we've never met each other. It was like very natural and yeah, homey, very easy.
Hugs. Yeah, like it was, it was.
Yes, yeah, yeah. Just slipped right into that. We were just like, oh, yeah, we're gonna just like, you know, all spend three days in this two bedroom apartment in Baltimore and it's gonna go great. Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember sitting around at my dining room and we were drinking coffee. I was like, holy shit, Tim and Andy are here.
Yay.
This is crazy.
I think we have like a pile of pencils in front of us too.
Yeah, let's all just build. You know how, you know how in LA they have those like content creator houses? No, just a bunch of people who do TikTok just like go live in a house and they just all help each other with their tiktoks. Let's just make a. Let's just make a podcast house and we just, we'll just all take our families and everything and just buy a big like eight bedroom house somewhere and
get all kinds of podcasters. Come in, stay in the apartment building, knock on the wall.
Gladwell.
Shut up,
Joe Rogan.
You're out. Conan. Clean your dishes. Come on. Like, what is your.
No, I, I think we should all just go live in just like one big pot, like, like compound and we can just create all the content and we'll make it our full time jobs and just have like a little commune and it'll be fine.
It would feel supernatural. Yeah, just supernatural. Double meaning, extremely natural.
Yeah, yeah. So pencil, pencil. Content creator has. Yeah, yeah. We need to, we need to do more. We need to do that again. Get our second matching tattoo together.
There you go.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, we can show those.
Yeah. Come on, Johnny. Hey, get that up there and I'll do a screenshot.
Screenshot.
Oh, man. Johnny's is. Hold on, I'm pixelating. Get your arm back, Johnny. Here, put your face already. Just disappeared.
I cannot work technology.
That's really weird. How. Here, get it in front of your. To get in front of your face like this.
That's gotta be hard to do. Like get your whole arm, turn it sideways.
This is fascinating, man.
Behind the scenes.
Hold on, hold on.
Just gonna turn the skin. Why can't I like turn this twist? Ow.
Okay, okay, I'll get that. I got that screenshot.
I think I broke my arm.
Got your stretches in? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trying to get the inside of your forearm onto a camera. That's in front of you.
Well, I got the placement. Assuming I would be back quickly to get another tattoo. And then Covid.
Yeah.
Is that the last two? Is that the last one you got?
Yeah, I think Hunter's moved. Or he did move, but I think he moved again. So.
Did I tell you I'm getting. I'm getting a second tattoo? Did we talk about that?
No, I don't think so.
There's this guy in Santa Cruz named Nick Vargas who has really cool. He does really cool tattoos. Many of them are of cats. And I'm going to get a cat sitting at a desk using an old vintage imac.
Oh, nice. Nice. I. I was just. I. I started laughing just for the people who were watching video, because I was imagining that belly button. Have you seen those, like, belly button tattoos of cats?
What?
Oh, with the. With the cat buttholes? Yes, your belly button is the cat.
I was just imagining.
I started laughing because I was imagining you getting that tattoo.
Yeah, no, I mean, that's.
That's my third. That sounds awesome.
Yeah.
Follow on it.
I.
Dog,
I'm not going to show it.
No, no. This is a family podcast. I saw.
Oh, gosh, what was I going to say? Oh, the imac. The original imacs I had. You know, I had one of those too. And. Yeah, so I love that. But I saw some picture that somebody had posted from a museum. It was like the Museum of Technology or something. It's like, hey, millennials, do you feel old now? Had a glass case with one of those inside of it. It's like, oh, man, they were everywhere. Computer labs.
Yes. I feel old.
Yes.
Yeah. Another one. Something you learn after 200 is like, yeah, like, I. I'll just reiterate. Community is everything, right? Like, people. People still listen. People have met each other. People have met us. We have met each other out of this. And it's. I think. I think one of the things I've learned is, like, you can build that momentum. Like, your topic, like, the topic is mostly irrelevant. You will find your audience if you do this consistently and passionately enough. Right. Like, if we. Like, how many. How would. There's so many pencil people out there that we didn't even know. Right. Like, and, um, it's. It's something where, you know, we. We decided, like, to operate at a two week cadence. For the most part, we've done that. I feel like we've dropped that a little bit over the last couple years. So generally speaking, we were very consistent and passionate and we put some, like, work into It. And doesn't matter how niche your podcast is, like, you will find your people by doing that. That's. That's really important and really good. I mean, there's some stuff too. Like, we early on, we had a little bump from Brad Dowdy, had some things like that. I think that kind of gave us some of our core, but generally speaking, that accumulated and, yeah. Feel really good about that.
Yeah.
And like you guys were saying before, not playing a character, I listened to myself in the first couple episodes. I'm like, ooh, I can feel how I'm sitting like this.
Just, like, nervous. And.
Yeah.
Now I'm like, yes, I record it without pants on several occasions.
I'm not wearing pants right now. Yeah, no, totally. And authenticity is important. Kind of like, consistency is important. Passion. Yeah. So you can find your people. And honestly, like, I think. I mean, just a little bit of inside baseball. We, like, a few years ago, we kind of plateaued on the number of listeners, and I think that that's fine. Like, we've. We found, like, you know, we've. We have saturated the market. Like, I'm sure there are more people who like pencils out there, but it's pretty unlikely that we're going to grow pretty exponentially unless we start doing something different. Right. And I think the key is, is we don't want to do something different. So eventually, when we sell the rights to Stitcher Stitcher Radio, then maybe people get more, but, you know, they'll just replace us with, like, you know, Malcolm Gladwell, and he'll have a pen podcast. Yeah. Yeah, we're just going to be chatgpt just like, AI driven. Yeah. We're just going to release episodes, like, every hour, and it's all going to be chat to GPT Driven. Like, they have our voice prints. Yeah. I mean, technically, I could do that.
I've been doing it for months. Right. Yeah. This is. This is chat GPT Generated right now.
Someone really called it on us. That's why we're doing a video. No, it's really us.
I mean, surely you couldn't have made that many perfect podcast episodes.
Yes, we did.
Without AI. No, we did it.
Yes, we did. Don't call me Shirley.
So I don't know about you guys, but at this point, I don't sprinkle. Hey, I co host a podcast into conversations where you meet people or where someone's like, oh, I'm a creative. And you're like, I make podcasts because it's. It's been so long. It's Just a thing. Like.
I mean, I did sort of drop that a little bit when I. So I went to the San Francisco pen show yesterday.
Oh, you had.
On Saturday? Yeah. And I. I sat at a table, the San Francisco stationary meetup, had, like, a little workshop in one of the conference rooms, and we had tables for, like, notebooks and washi. Tape and pencils and pens. And I was, of course, at the pencil table, and there was somebody who came in who just, like, knew a bunch about Musgrave, and she just, like. She just had some, like, deep knowledge of Musgrave. And so I was like, hey, that's really cool. Have you ever listened to a podcast about pencils? You should listen to it. So, yeah. So that was surprising. And, yeah, so I. I do. I do drop it now and then, but for the most part, yeah, I usually, like, let.
Let other people ask. Like, I. I won't bring it up, but people will usually say, like, oh, he's got a podcast. And. Which is also kind of funny because it's like, even people who don't listen to it are like, hey, I got this podcast. It sounds really cool. And, like, I'll talk to him. That I always. I don't know about you guys, but I have, like, my little speech that I give every time I introduce it, and one of the things is always kind of like, what you're saying about, like, the niche thing. They're, like, about podcasts, but I'm like, yeah, my thing is. I was like, well, if you were really into sneakers, then of course there's gonna be people who are talking about sneakers. Or if you. If it's running shoes, like, there's gonna be podcasts out there that are about running shoes or, you know.
Yeah.
Being a CPAP user, like, there's probably podcasts about, like, literally, like. Or there's, like, those niches on the Internet. They're all out there. Like, you can go as deep into anything as you want to.
Yeah. Are you talking about the Sleep Apnea Stories by Emma Cookski?
It's a classic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sleep Apnea Stories is a podcast, so.
Yeah, there you go.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I usually joke and I say, like, you know, as a. As a white man, I am legally obligated to tell you about my podcast. Was that.
That amazing meme or whatever? Like, it's been a few years, but it was. I think it was just on Twitter, and it was like, someone said, my daughter asked me, like,
gosh, what is.
It's like, well, when. When a white man loves his voice very much. It was like a sex question, but they like, turned around, like, why?
And it's a. It's a collective noun. You know, you have like a murder of crows and a pride of lions and a podcast of white men, you
know, who don't feel heard. Yeah.
Yeah.
Anything else before we bring Monica on, or should we. Yeah, I mean, yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah, I was about to say, like, it's. Yeah. Thanks for. I can't believe so many people still listen, which is really awesome. And also just like, still doing it with the three of us because it's like, you know, like Johnny said, we didn't see each other for seven years and now, like, I think we are all the peop. Like in that circle of friends in our life where, like we text each other when something happens.
Oh, yeah.
Or we like. Which is. Which is a really kind of amazing thing.
Yeah. Yeah.
So this is.
This is a big milestone. And another big milestone will be in mid March of next year, which will be our 10 year anniversary, which is pretty amazing.
Oh, my God.
Amazing.
I know this is.
That would be a good opportunity to get together in person.
Sure would. Yeah.
At, I don't know, Shelbyville, Tennessee.
Henry. Henry. Nicole.
I know a guy.
Yeah, we know some people.
Yeah.
And. Yeah. And. Yeah, I mean, I. We said this before that, like, I count you guys as two of my best friends and definitely, like, I've gone through a lot in the last year or so and you're the first kind of voices, first people I've told stuff to and gotten your opinions on. So this is. This is definitely out of all of the various creative projects that I've, like, started and stopped, this is the one that has gone on the longest and has attached itself to my sort of, like, personal identities, like the hardest. So. Yeah, thank you both for being part of that.
Yeah. This has borne the best fruit in my. In my view.
Oh, so when we retire in 75 years, we'll be in the. We should get in the same retirement home and keep doing the podcast at like 105 or whatever.
Yeah, see, I'm the oldest of us. I'll be dead.
No, we'll keep you alive. We're going to download your consciousness into the cloud.
We're going to bring back the. We're going to bring back the gray sticker to sell, to raise money to
host Johnny's consciousness on the clock. It's like that episode of Black Mirror about it. Yeah. So should we jump in and.
Yeah, let's do it. So yeah. Let's bring Monica in.
Okay, light your torches.
Quick costume change from the three of us. Yeah, amazing. But we are very happy to welcome Monica Corwin, bestselling author and Dungeon Master Monica Corwin. Thanks for joining us.
I should add Dungeon Master to my. All of my social media blurbs now. I never thought about it.
Please do. When I was introducing you, like, with the beginning of the episode, I was tempted to say dungeon Master. Extraordinarily willing to teach us how to play this game.
I'm glad you didn't. Didn't go up there.
We come from different levels of familiarity, so really appreciate you being up for this. We're trying to do something special for our 200th episode and this. Just this idea popped up and it felt right. So something new.
One thing I've learned Since I started DMing is people love to tell you when you're wrong. So I'm sure there's going to be somebody out there who's played for 30 years that are going to be like you.
Well, actually, though.
Yeah. Yeah. I listen to this podcast that actually has a character named. Well, actually it's called Dungeon. The Dungeons and Daddies podcast I've talked about.
I love that one.
It's so good. They have a character name that. But. But they'll often be like, all right, and all of you out there who are going to say, we're doing this wrong, just don't email us like, we're. This is just how we're doing it.
So could you. Could you tell us a little bit about your background and just like kind of what you do and also a little bit about your kind of experience with Dungeons and Dragons.
Sure. I actually haven't been playing Dungeons Dragons very long. I started. We started. I started my first session zero with. With some other players in March of COVID year. So, yeah, that. That lasted one session and then everybody got quarantined for a long, long time. So I never got to finish that campaign. But we. But I fell deep into the critical role rabbit hole and just blasted through critical role like crazy.
What's critical role?
It is a Dungeons and Dragons sort of conglomerate is all I can call it right now. They have a web show they do on YouTube and Twitch. Well, it's on Twitch, but they do it on. They cross post to YouTube, but they have, like, merch now and they have a whole thing. And they also did. Amazon did a animation of their first campaign, stuff like that. So it's. Yeah, it's huge now, but it's basically just A live play. And they do like a weekly live play.
Got it.
It's pretty fun.
Yeah.
Background wise, I'm a writer I've been writing for since I was young, but I didn't start publishing till 2012, so a little while from there. Um, I write romance novels mostly. Some A devil in some fantasy and paranormal stuff. Just when I feel like it. Um, I do work a day job. I'm an analyst. I started an intelligence analysis about a billion years ago. Um, and that's kind of my career wise. Um. What's your favorite pencil, Ohio? My favorite pencil would be the Palomino Golden Bear.
Yay. I already knew the answer to that one.
So.
Yes.
Trying to get it on recording.
I'm.
Yeah.
I think secondly would be the. Oh, it's the black wing. It was the all black one they did for an author that had the, like. It was the extra fine.
24.
24 24, yeah. That's my favorite.
It's a good one.
Good choice. Very cool.
Well, how do we. How do we want to get started? I'm sorry. Go on, Tim.
Yeah, I was. That's what I was going to say. So. So we are creating characters today. So Monica's helping us out with that, kind of getting our characters set for the campaign. So.
And this will be the way. This will be a couple. A few episodes of this, right? Like, we're gonna, like maybe episode 201, maybe 202, are gonna be part of this campaign right before we slide into regular programming. That's kind of the idea, Tim.
Oh, yes. Sorry, I thought you were saying, like, the creation. Yeah, yeah. We're gonna create our characters, and then the. The episodes of playing the campaign will. Well, we might record it together, but it'll be spread out over two episodes because it might be a little long.
Okay, cool. The best place would be to start. Usually session zero, you start with House Rules, the dm. Usually, I don't have a lot of house rules. I'm still relatively new to DMing. I run the local adventure league at my local game store, which is sort of like. It's like a regular campaign, except for it's sort of in sessions. People can drag and drop whenever they can, and they'll take their character to other places that do Adventure League. And the only rule is you have to fit in within the tier level wise, so that people aren't like, super overpowered when they come into a game. So. Yeah, I don't. I don't have many house rules. The one I do have is related to critical hits. So when you roll D20, which is this guy here with the 20 sides, a natural 20 is called a critical hit. And it means you deal more damage with those. With those dice. So instead of what you do is you double the dice. Some people will double the. So roll the one damage dice and double the number. I do it where you roll two of that damage dice. Once you have all your character stats and you have your spells and stuff, you'll see it'll list what, what dice you'll roll for those. And then I'll prompt you when, when it's time.
Okay.
Other than that, we should just start with what characters you guys have chosen. Like what, what class you've chosen. And if you've looked at races, then we can start there.
So I started. I decided to put together a bard, a character based on the bard. For race, I just, I went with human. I. I kind of used. Yeah, Monica, you. You recommended the. The D and D Beyond app. And so I just used that to kind of like for mine, just the last couple days just to generate some stuff about the character. It did ask me and I was gonna ask you. It asked me to pick a background. So what does a background mean? So my background I ended up choosing was Sage because it like walked me through the options. But like, how does that affect your character?
Yeah, so it'll give you. So it'll give you like little buffs on certain things. So sometimes backgrounds will give you proficiency in certain tools. It'll give you little buffs on some of your stats, depending on your background. And it can also give you like a special feat. And feats are like, they're just like little bonuses you can take as you level up and. Or if at the DM's discretion, like if you do something real cool and you get a feat, um, they're just like little extras. So it'll. It can give you like a higher constitution or a higher stat score related to whatever you feel like, or give you more hit points. Just depends on the actual one. And there are tons of both backgrounds and feats. So that is something we wanted to. I wanted to discuss with you guys today. Either we can go through backgrounds, you guys can pick one that fits your classes, or I was thinking because we're doing such a unique sort of setting, I can come up with a custom background that you all share. Oh yeah, And I can make it some kind of pencil related background. That's what I was thinking.
Sure. Yeah, that sounds great.
Got to look up the feats to Sort of figure out which ones will fit best. But you also get proficiency in certain tools. So obviously related to pencils, there are. They don't really have a pencil type tool, but they do have a calligrapher supplies. So that's gonna have to go in there.
That'll work.
But I will look at the rest of them and I will let you guys know which ones. And then to add them. It's easy to add them in D and D Beyond. Or you could just write them down if you guys are doing pencil and paper on like a physical sheet.
Okay.
Is there a binders all for Johnny? He's like. He's like, I got a. He's like, I got a table full
of them behind me.
I've got some really nice vintage one. I was scary.
Oh, nice. Totally use that as a weapon.
So is that. Oh, and I also. I named my character. I can mention that now.
What did you mean?
So I wanted to be in the Bard. I wanted to, like, pull something from songwriting. And I'm a big fan of a guy named John Prine I've talked about on here before. But he has a really famous song called Sam Stone. And so I made a character called Samik Stoneback. So it's like Samstone, but, like, turned into, like, sort of a fantasy name.
Not Mitt Mesa.
No, no, that's. That's the. That's the Oz figure behind. Yeah. Yeah. So that's my. That's my character so far. I don't know if there's any other info you. You'd want right now, but I'll need
your stats once we do that. But I figure we'll just go around, get everybody's class and race first and then we can do that. Do you guys. Have you. Have you guys seen the Sealed Nodes? D and D books? They have a set. Yeah.
I need to buy some. I do not have one.
Yeah, I meant to pick one up before we did this, and I didn't get around to it. I might order one before we do the next.
So I heard a rumor that the company is going to start making their own. So those could be numbered. Other days could be numbered. I heard it say somebody whose opinion I listened to.
Cool. Johnny, you want to go next?
Sure.
So way back when Tim was like, in kindergarten, I used to play Dungeons and Dragons. And I liked being rogues because why not? I grew up in a city. It seems like a, like, sneaky little F word. So I don't know if that's still what they call it because it was a whole different game back then, and
we're still pretty sneaky. Yeah.
I always like elven rogues because why not? I have little ears, so I imagine it would be fun to have bigger ears.
Nice rogue. Cool. Did you come up with a name or. Still thinking on that.
Ralph.
Nice Ralph.
Ralph the Rogue.
I like it.
Rogue route.
Quit thinking.
All right. I. I was reading all the different classes, and the one that really interested me was the warlock. Just because it sounds like you. It's like a. A human on a. On a quest or somebody on a quest for knowledge, and you make a deal with. With a demon or something to understand sort of the powers of the universe.
Right.
Like, and that's. That's just. Sounds really interesting and compelling to me, and I do feel like I'm. I'm constantly just wanting more context or wanting to understand things more. So I. I might personally be somebody who, like, if offered the chance, sell my soul to a demon in order to understand the universe better.
Did you pick your patron?
No, I didn't. I did not know. Give me some options, maybe for a patron. What's that?
Let me. Let me pull some up. There are a ton of different options. They range from demons to gods to archfey for warlocks. And there's also something called Oathbreaker, where you make a deal, but you don't go through with your end, and that does something different.
Okay, I don't know if I'm ready for that.
Yeah. So there's lots of troops. You've got lots of different options. Yeah, undead versions. So arch phase are more, like, tricky.
Yeah.
Give you, like, tricky stuff, tricky powers. There's like a Cthulhu thing called the Great One. There's a genie.
Ooh. I get some wishes from a genie,
which is like a devil.
Yeah.
You would get elemental stuff with the genie.
Okay. I think I would understand just sort of the nature of, like, you know, creativity and art and things like that. And I guess I should have done this beforehand, so I apologize.
I found a patron called Patron of the Arts.
Ooh, just like an old rich guy.
Is this as you're like a Pride and Prejudice characters?
Yeah, like a. Just the ghost of the ghost of a bedichi.
Let me see what book this is from. Oh, it might be homebrew. That's the problem. Sometimes people are, like, too good at graphics, and they'll do a homebrew and it'll look exactly like dnd content. And you're like, oh, that looks neat. Oh, wait, that. Someone made that up. That into the, to the system.
I'll say. I think I'd speak for all of us just like, just since we're playing such, like, a limited game. And if you have any recommendations for any of this stuff that, like, sort of streamline stuff, like, feel free to do that at any point.
Yeah, I'll take any of your recommendations.
All right, so I'm going to make a note. We need to find you a patron.
Okay.
You should be able to peruse your
assets, do a little research.
Yeah. And then I will make a campaign on D and D beyond. That'll be the easiest if you have a phone, a tablet computer, a laptop, anything you can use, or just put all your stats in and print the page out however you like to do your thing.
Cool. Got it.
And that'll probably be the easiest way, so.
And I don't know, I was trying to figure out what my kind of race would be, and I think just a human is probably good for me. Just some guy, you know?
Did you think of a name or you want to.
That's a good question. I am just taking suggestions. Any. Any suggestions from the, from the crowd here?
I mean, Golden Bear would make a good last name. Just put them together.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Something like, I think go pencil themed with mine. Kind of regret that, but I might work it in there. He might get a legal name change before the first episode or something.
How about.
How about.
How about Andrew Golden Bear? I like it.
You could use me saw, too, if you want to, Andy. I'll loan it to you.
It's not as good a name as Ralph.
It's beautiful in simplicity.
Oh, yeah. Ralph.
Ralph Wolpexen. Forgot about Johnny's plural of. Of wopex.
I don't think I came up with that. I'm not gonna take credit, but it's perfect.
It is.
Andy, do you think you would prefer to go to, like, the light or the dark? As far as. I don't know.
That's a good question. Can you get complicated? Can you. Can I, like, want to go to the light, but turns out it is actually toward the dark.
We could. We could give it a shot.
Yeah, I'm just kind of like. I, I, I, I was, I was sort of drawn. Drawn by the powers of good, but actually there's a dark underbelly that I didn't even realize.
I like it.
Yeah. Unlock the elemental power of graphite. Graphite's an element, right?
It's carbon, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's. It's a molecule.
Yeah. Oh, crap.
But it's carbon and some other stuff.
All right, so we went over sort of characters. We'll need to pick patron for Andrea. Andy.
I'll do that.
We've got everybody's backgrounds. I'm going to make a special background. I wrote a note down. Pencil related background. Yeah. So we would just need to do stats, but stats are influenced by background stuff. So let me see if I can do this without using my super clicky clacky keyboard.
What kind of keyboard? Tim and I are keyboard notes. What kind of keyboard are you rocking?
It's a Red Dragon. Ooh, I can't remember what kind of.
I don't even know what that looks like.
It does though. It's very. It's a. Like a gaming keyboard.
Oh, lovely.
Cool.
Yeah, yeah. Love those lights.
Which is hilarious because I don't use a game on my Mac. It's connected to my, my Mac and I use a, like a Dell laptop for my gaming. So it's like.
Yeah. Tim says graphite is a mineral composed exclusively of the element carbon. Graphite has the same chemical composition as a diamond, which is also pure carbon. But the molecular structure of graphite and diamond is entirely different. Just causes almost opposite characteristics and their physical properties.
That was straight from my memory, by the way. Just from my knowledge of chemistry.
I figured.
I just, I didn't. I didn't Google that. No, of course not.
I didn't tell you for a second.
I. Yeah, I, that's. I still was holding onto that from my C minus in chemistry in high school. It was my worst class in high school.
All right, so custom background, pretty easy. I just need to pick a feat that looks good for pencil related stuff and kind of what we've got planned. And then you'll get buffs and two skills and then two proficiencies and tools. Um, there are so many different tools, but some, some are more important than others. Like you'll like lock picking tools, stuff like that to help you find traps and open doors. Those things are a little bit more important to have proficiency in than some of the other ones. There's like blacksmith tools and as I said, calligrapher supplies. Lots of, lots of options.
So are those things that you'll pick for us or do we go through picking that?
Okay, I'll pick them up.
But sometimes your, your race or your class will have a proficiency in a tool. Depending on like rogues, I think automatically have proficiency in the name of what the tool set is.
I went through with D and D Beyond. It was like, I remember There was one point where it like brought up tools or something and there were like some pre made packages or something you could pick from. I think I saw those, but I didn't. I didn't. I was just like, sure, I'll take those. But it might have just. That might even not have been tools. It might have just been the stuff that comes with my class or whatever.
Thieves. Tools are the big one for rogues. I think you guys are going to get a forgery kit. So if you write that down so you have it. So that'll be one thing you're going to get for your custom background.
You said calligraphers tools. Is that what the other.
I feel like that's going to have to be the other one, just because that's the closest to sort of pencil type stuff. There's cartographer's tools as well.
And will we all have the same ones or can like one of us have cartographer, one of us have one, one of the other? Like what's.
We could totally give you guys different ones. Yeah, could totally do that. So forgery kits. I think everybody will have that one. Then we can give each of you one of like the different types that. So we can give Andy the painter supplies and then we can give Johnny the cartographer's tools. And then Tim, you can take the calligraphy supplies and then the skills will be related to your class because that just makes the most sense. It gives you boosts in certain things and it's best to do that with stats. You already need that.
You need boosted my stat. She says that my character went to bard college. Oh, college too, right?
Yeah. You got to pick a college. So you have to go in and see what your options are.
Okay.
There's a lot of pressure as far as rogue building. I don't think there is a ton to do there except for just dispersing stats. And then warlock. We still just gotta pick a patron.
Yeah, I'm gonna use. Let's do a. Yeah, let's do some sort of a demon demon.
Okay. So I feel like the best way to go would be in the trickster domain for that.
Yeah, a good call. Yeah. Just like a. Loki tricked me into giving. Giving him my soul or something.
Loki is an option. It seems if you want a little trickery in there, Archfey is the way to go.
Okay, got it.
And it'll be a lot easier to have an archfey pretending to be something else. A lot of them change shape.
Mine.
Mine is pretty like basic that I have right now, but I had read something about, with bards that, like, one of the options was them for, like, that they had been a part of some sort of group. And so I had the idea, like, so this. This character was part of a sort of, like, trio of traveling that traveled together, performing and just, like, traveling around the world. And then at one point, one of them died, one of them disappeared. And the sort of story of, like, how that happened has never been, like, he's never, like, fully talked about it, but one. The other, the one who is alive, he has no idea where he is. And then sort of since then, he's never been able to, like, hold a real job or, like, function because he just, like, is always on the move. So I think it had me, like, choose his, like, how well off he was. And it was definitely, like, way in the middle, like, he can feed himself. And that's basically. Basically it just most of the time. So. So kind of like a. Just like a wanderer sort of character. Like. So I don't know if that would make sense for, like, how our characters meet as far as just kind of, like, wandering into something or. Or if we can use that as kind of a starting point.
I had thought about. So the typical sort of joke for D and D is you meet in a tavern, which is typically how most campaigns start. But I was thinking we could have. Have you guys all meet in a. Like, a stationary shop.
Yeah.
Figure that'd be pretty cool.
That makes sense.
And now you all have supplies that will have some sort of. Some sort of stationary element. So it makes sense you would all be there restocking your supply kits.
Yeah, that sounds good. I like that.
I think my. My character is extremely wealthy and is a scientist and has decided that he wants to unlock the secret to creating good art. Right. Like, and he doesn't have a lot of artistic talent himself, but he just, like, really, really wants to. And it's just like, I have all this, like, wealth and scientific knowledge, so I should be able to just, like, understand how this works, which is kind of why he. But he just couldn't figure it out.
Right.
Cause it's not. Not science. Right. It's art. So.
So he's trying to crack the code of art.
Trying to crack the code of art.
And.
And is probably one of the reasons why, you know, he's gonna follow Tim around to. Sorry, Sam. What is it? Sam. Sam Wake.
So let's call him Sam. I said Sam was the name, but, like, Sam or Sammy or whatever you like. Sam. Sam.
He Just constantly wants to sort of experiment on you. I don't understand how.
Yeah,
so.
So my, my character is a. I
just keep hitting you up for money. Yeah. Like can I have five bucks? I just like, yeah, get a pine
character just trying to steal from me.
Right.
We're both leeching off Andy. Somehow.
Johnny, did you think of a backstory? Sort of.
Or at least like I am motivation. So I was thinking like not a greedy thief, sort of like a stick it to the man kind of thief.
The Robin Hood type.
Anarchist.
I mean, but a lone wolf version.
Yeah.
Like maybe sort of like an anarchist or just messes with people. Like maybe he doesn't even do anything with steel.
Since there's an old ground.
We could set it up with the other two party members being human. Maybe you were wronged by humans in some way at some point. And then these two, you meet these two and they are. Either they wrong you and you stick with them to, to get back at them later or either they were or they're like the first humans you encountered who were nice and so you kind of stick with them that way.
That's probably closer to reality, the reality of our relationship.
Just constantly asking yourself, like, I can't believe I'm still going around with these guys.
Like it's been almost 10 years.
I got older to 11,
I think. I think my wealth is like family money.
If you haven't thought about it, where your sort of obsession with understanding the nature of art, like you will need a catalyst for that. So you could think about. There's tons of options. You could have siblings that were all super artistic and you're just like the not artistic one.
Yeah, you.
Your parents could be super artistic. They were expecting you to be like a prodigy. But then you definitely weren't that sort of thing.
Yeah, I definitely think it was my parents who were just like. One was a painter and one was
just like a writer.
And they're just like power couple and they had a kid and all this pressure and expectations are placed on me, but I'd like to do science. And they were so disappointed. So I inherited all this money. But you know, none of the books.
I'm.
I'm just trying to. I'm just trying to get through my life just pleasing my, pleasing my parents.
And then also make a note, Andy, you can also have an alchemy kit with the science stuff.
Okay.
And then I will give Johnny. We'll give you the thieves tools. So you have those. Something for Tim. Did you pick an instrument, Tim?
I. I Think I just put loot. I put loot. It let me pick three. It was a. I did bird pipes, bagpipes, and a loot. I thought pipes would be so just funny, like, just like black type. I think it's those things where you're like, you know, like a. There's like a little kind of like a pan flute. It looks like a pan flute. Yeah. You like that? For those audio listeners, the thing that goes.
Yeah.
No. Yeah. So those are the three that I picked. There are just a bunch that I didn't like, recognize. And so I googled some of them, but, yeah, that's where I landed.
We'll give you also. We'll give you the tinkers tools. So everybody has a cordry kit. You each have the individual one's. The calligrapher. The. I can't remember. I didn't write them down.
Supply and alchemy kit.
Yeah, Painters and alchemy. Oh, cartographer. So you also have cartographers tools and then painter tools.
Oh, can we have a pet? Is that just. Does that like, change things? If so, if one person does, like, does it give, like, advantage or anything?
Nope, not usually. There are some. Some classes that have certain things where you can find a familiar, and those are like spectral pets that do things for you. There's also, like, where. There's some classes where you can call an animal companion and they'll do things for you, and they'll also have a role in sort of fighting. Like they'll have their own order and everything.
Okay. But just as far as like a character thing, like you can. I'll have to think about it, but that'd be fun. I feel like I'd have the kind of character that would have some sort of like. Like a pet rat that's like in my pocket or something.
It lives in your loot.
Yeah, he lives in gross. He's a nasty.
He's controlling your loot. Like some sort of a brat tattoo kind of thing.
I don't even know how to play it. He's just like, on your hands. He's plucking the strings from the inside. Like, I only know how to do the left hand. The rat takes care of the rest.
Yeah, Johnny, I think good, good Baltimore reference. I think you need like a raven on your shoulder.
And it's my favorite animal, and I have a raven on my hair.
There you go.
Oh, maybe it's a tattoo that. It's a. It's a. It's a familiar. So it's like a. A spectral pet. And it comes to life and leaps out of your arm and guides the way.
Is there a point where we. Where our characters realize that we all have matching tattoos?
It's like, what does it mean?
What does it mean?
We all have the same tattoo, bro, with that thing on your arm.
They're all the same, but slightly missed, slightly different.
So I will give everybody the lucky feet. So write that down. I will tell you exactly what it does. It lets you reroll stuff, which would be good since everybody's mostly new and you'll be at fifth level. So I will find a way to work that in our. When we start so that. To give you guys that. So you get three luck points per day. Whenever you make an attack roll, an ability check or a saving throw, you can spend one luck point to roll an additional D20. Then you use that, and then you could choose which of the D20. So if you roll, say you roll like an 18 and a 7, you would obviously you would want to use the 18. You would use that one. It just helps. It just helps. Helps sort of game the system a little bit to give you a little bit of advantage when you need it as opposed to when it's awarded.
How.
That brings up a question. How are days measured? Like, how do we. Like as far as, like actual gameplay time? Like what. What would count as a day?
Sure. It's usually sort of structured. Sort, I guess, sort at my whim. So usually how it'll lick it out and then the day will end when you sort of decide, but also me as well. So there are two kinds of rests. There's a short rest and a long rest. A short rest will do certain things to give you back, like ability things. Some things are limited to short rest time. Some are limited to long rest time. You can only use it like once per day or twice per short rest, that sort of thing. Short rest is an hour. It means you can't do anything during that hour. You might be sitting around talking, sitting around a campfire. And then you can just basically reset those things that reset. A short rest and then a long rest is sort of the end of the day. Everybody's going to sleep. And it lasts for eight hours, which can shift. You need six hours of at least. Six hours of at least rest time to be able to reset the long rest. I think elves actually have a shorter long rest time. I'll look it up.
It just means they just like Johnny. Johnny used an elf.
That's true. Johnny. Four hours of sleep a night
last night.
Three.
So Elves takes four hour trance to regain their long rest stats.
So make another Johnny so perfect. I just imagine Johnny doing that. He's like, takes drinks, a cup of coffee and then he just stands in the corner for four hours and then like. And then he's back.
All right, so I was gonna. I was planning on doing like a just a little short combat, but we won't be able to do combat till we get everybody's stats set up. And we've got to get the rest of the background set before we can do the stats. So I think what a better use. Maybe we'll do that at the start of the next episode. Just to just a brief what it looks like. I can build it into how we set it up and that's actually perfect. If we all start in the stationary store, I'll have a sort of an encounter built into the stationary store for you guys. Otherwise, a good way to sort of cap things off here is I can give you just a brief rundown of sort of stats and skills so you sort of know what you're looking at. So there are six main stats in D and D. There are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. And then all of those determine the sort of breakout stats. And there are several of those. And they depend. Those stat scores depend on your level. And then mostly I think just your level, what you add for those. And then your. Your ability scores.
You say Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, Charisma, Constitution, and what else?
Strength, Intelligence, Intelligence.
It's like depending on the kind of attack that comes our way, will have different strengths in those six which will like affect how it.
Right. So your hits or whatever. So your class will determine which of those stats you're better at. So like a barbarian who's big and beefy would have a higher constitution and a higher strength. A wizard who has more intelligence would have a higher intelligence but low strength, that sort of thing. So depending on your. Your class, those things will be better or worse. So it's good to know what your party stats are. So that sort of like a rogue, he's going to have high perception because he needs to find traps and stuff like that. So you know, it's good to know everybody else's sort of strengths and weaknesses. In order to use everybody efficiently in your party. There are also a couple of extra stats that are sort of passive and that will also be determined by your race and your class. And these are just how well you perceive the environment around you that has no direct. It's like if you Notice the person walking down the hallway. If you can hear it, you have a higher passive perception than someone else, if that makes sense.
Sounds like my adhd.
The, the stats, I'll give you just a little bit of explanation of them. Strength is going to be how strong you are, how much you can carry, what you can pick up. It also depends on like the weapons you can use and how hard you'll hit with those weapons. Dexterity is how sort of nimble you are. Um, I get out of the way of like crashing boulders or you know, sneak through a trapdoor. Constitution is how hardy you are, like how hard you can get hit and still stay standing. Intelligence is like book smarts, wisdom is like street smarts. And then charisma is how charming and, you know, sort of persuasive you are. Any questions about any of those?
No, I don't think so. You guys, I think I'm good.
I'll be interested to see how they like, you know, how they, they show up in gameplay. That'll be really interesting.
And so it. Oh, go ahead. Good.
I can give you just a, just a short example. So let's say your party is standing in a hallway and there are three doors around you guys. You guys are trying to decide which door is the best door to take. In that case, someone might ask to look at the door to determine, you know, the door in front of you say, I would say roll a perception check, in which case the person making that check would roll their D20 again, which is the 20 sided dude here. And then you would add your skill modifiers, which are on your character sheet, which we will, we'll break out before you guys actually start playing. And then depending on that role, there's going to be what's called a dc, which is the sort of level the check needs to meet to do it successfully. And that's something I determine based on what the door looks like, what's behind the door, if there's locks, you know, et cetera. So, and then you roll it, you match it to the dc. If it goes over, you succeed. If it goes under, you don't succeed. There's also something called, we talked about critical hits. There's also critical failures, which is the natural one on the dice. And that can also have effects too, if you roll a natural one during a skill check or during combat.
So if you said like if to perceive a door or whatever you have to get a 15, do we know that beforehand or do we roll first or is that just kind of like however you Want to do it?
It just depends. Sometimes I'll share it. I'll say, okay, this might be really tricky. You need to get a 17 to get through this door. Like, let's say you're doing a strength check. You know, I would. I'll share it. Sometimes I won't, depending on the scenario. And you know, how mysterious I'm keeping the circumstances.
And so, like, if my stat for strength checker, like you just said, is negative one and I. I need a 17 and I roll a 17, it drops down to 16. And I. I roll a 17.
Yeah. And you have a negative one modifier. Yep. Then it would definitely go down to 16.
Or if it was a 16, I had a plus two. Yeah. Okay.
Exactly. Stats are pretty straightforward. We could talk about. So one of the main components. So there are several, Several ways people like to play D and D. Some people like to go full hard into combat, and they just like to beat up monsters and fight other. Other characters. Combat is. There's fighting options, but there are other options in combat. But I think that. I think a lot of people forget about. There are help actions. You can help someone else do something in combat. You can hide, you can dodge, you can do different things besides fight. And I'll go, I'll send you guys a list of specifically of everything you can do when you're. When you're in combat. You. You get an action, you get a bonus action, and you get movement. An action can be either you're going to hit it with your weapon, you're going to put one weapon away and take another weapon out, you're going to help a friend, you're going to dodge an attack that you think is coming your way. That sort of thing. Bonus actions are determined by your class and any features you have, and that'll be listed on your character sheet once we break those out. And then movement. Most. Most creatures in D d have 30ft of movement. Yeah. One of the actions you can do for combat also is dashing, which gives you double movement. These are just like little finicky things, though, since you guys are new. When we do our. When we do our first combat and even into our. Probably our second, I'll prompt you, give you options, you know, suggest what you could do that way. Nobody just like, I don't, you know, instantly kill the whole party. Like the first comment.
Well, that was fun, guys.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, so I just have my sheet that was. And I know this is all changed, but like, for a bard, my bonus action is called Bardic Inspiration and so it says that, like, if one of you guys is within 60ft of me, I can give you inspiration, which is that, like, it's just like an extra roll. Is that essentially what it is?
Yep. So, yeah, you would just reroll anything. You can reroll an attack or re roll a save, whatever. Just anything with a D20 you want to re roll it. You can re roll it.
Okay.
Yeah. Bardic inspiration is pretty awesome.
And we.
And we break out into song in front of that.
You would definitely like Tim. The first season of Critical Role there is a bard. His name is Ganlon Shortholt. He does the best little mashup music things because when he gives bardic inspiration, he actually sings a little song. And they're just like. They're just like modern songs that he sings, and they're pretty great. He's in the box. Machina. Amazon show, too.
Okay, cool. Yeah, I'm gonna check that out.
He's. It's pretty. He's pretty fun. So. Another thing that will affect everyone except Johnny will be spell slots. So basically, if you're a caster, which would. That would be a warlock and a bard, both casters. You have a certain number of spells at certain levels you can cast per day, and those will be listed on your character sheets. And you can just mark them off as you use them. And it's basically. And then there's, like, levels for the spells from cantrips, which you can cast at any time. There's no limit to cantrips. They're like mini spells. And then there's a first level up through. I think you'll get through third or fourth. At fifth level, I have to look it up. And then. So the higher the level, the stronger the spell, if that makes sense. And the less of those spells you have. And then you'll. You'll get all your spell slots back either at the end of the day or if you do something that gives you. Gives you spell slots that warlocks, I think, have certain things that they can do to manipulate their spell slots. I'll have to look it up. Things like that. But spell slots are important for the casters. The rogue, he just needs to worry about weapons. Have you thought about what weapons like to have?
Hammer.
Nice, right?
And whatever is the closest thing to an Aw.
I like it.
Like a stiletto knife.
Yeah. And these are fancy. These have replaceable points. So if someone has a bloodborne illness, I can get rid of that one.
Ooh, maybe they're like throwing stars. You just, like, throw in. You Throw an all, and it's like, right in the neck.
You have, like, three between your fingers. You throw all three at the same time.
Like, oh, I have more than three.
Maybe you're like, you only have five fingers, though. I guess you could do both hands.
There you go. You're like an all Wolverine. Yeah. You just like.
Well, I do have some embedded in my feet.
We will just say you're going to use the all and I'll just give it the dagger stats.
Yeah.
Something I can do.
So, Monica, is there, like, any other things, like, you recommend us doing? Like, sort of any other things, like, as far as preparing between now and then? I know you said you're going to share the stat sheet that we can like, sort of study, but is there any. Any other stuff that you recommend we prep before gameplay?
I don't think so. What I'm going to do is set up a campaign on D and D beyond. There's a place to put inventory. There's a place to put proficiency. All those tools that you guys have, you can add those to your inventories, stuff like that. And then they're also. Let me pull up a character sheet so I can tell you. The front page of it is just basically, people can't see it that are listening, but it's basically just a straight sheet. Very easy to kind of see everything. If you want, you can also roll. So if you click one of the things, it'll roll for you and just add it for you. So that's. If you don't feel like doing math, these are your, like, your skill check stuff. It'll go through and list all of your skill stuff, all of your. Your modifiers so you'll know exactly what you need to add. And then it also. There's one whole section on actions. So it'll give you all of your weapons, plus your stuff that you add to those, your modifiers for those, and then it'll give you bonus actions that'll list everything out for you, which is very. It's very easy to. To use.
Wow.
So I'll set that up, guys. I already made a note for it.
I'm so excited.
Yeah. Thank you so much leading us down this path.
You're welcome. And I'm sorry. Gonna be obsessed with it.
Oh, I am. I am ready. So, yeah, I thank. Thanks for your. I mean, your time, the time you're putting into this. Like, we really, really appreciate this. Making a really special 200, you know, like, getting into the 200s of our episodes. So this is. This is really special and we appreciate you.
I've been. I've been a part of for years, so, yeah, it's cool to be so.
And you're. You've been a patron too, so thank you so much for all too.
Yeah, I wanted to get access the ink episodes you guys do because. Oh, yeah, pens more than I use pencils, sadly.
But, hey, this is a safe space.
Well, Monica, we'll see you in the next episode. Yeah, yeah.
And you want to tell before we. Well, yeah, we'll close things up. But tell people where they can find, like, your books and, like, follow you and anything you want to share.
Sure, yeah, go ahead. Everyone can find me on my website, monicacorwin.com most of my books are available on Amazon. You can also order paperbacks via my website, too. I'm on social media. I'm not going to mention the X, but Facebook and Instagram, best places probably to actually interact with me. And of course, I'm in the erasables group to talk pencils and pens and notebooks all the time.
Cool.
Yay.
Well, thank you so much, Monica. We're excited to launch into this thing very soon.
Thank you for having me.
All right, so we're back. We got out of our character outfits that we were in for that last portion with Monica. Yeah. But thank you so much to Monica Corwin for doing this with us. This is going to be a really exciting thing and a kind of fun new thing, and I'm really excited to try. So thank you for listening. This has been episode 200, 200 of the erasable Podcast. So, as always, you can find us on Facebook, Facebook.comgroups/erasable podcast. Erasable podcast. Sorry, Erasable Podcast. Just in the search bar on any site that you're at. Just. Just type in Erasable Podcast. You'll probably find us go to Facebook. You can find us Twitter, Instagram. We'll be back in the next episode to play some D and D. And special thanks to our Patreon supporters at the producer level. If you support us on Patreon, you get some perks. We send out some free stuff. We give you some additional content like our pin podcast Indelible that we've been doing. And also things now like the live stream of this, of this episode you're listening to right now, so you can see it in video if you support us on Patreon.
By the way, Tim, if you, if you Google erasable, just the word erasable, first result is Cambridge dictionary definition. Second result is Vocabulary.com definition. Third result, the erasable podcast.
Dolph, that's awesome.
We're taking down those crappy erasable paper mate pens.
Yeah.
No, remember those from school?
Shove those down to paper.
Yeah. So thank you again to our producer level Patreon, Patreon supporters. We couldn't do any of this without you, so thank you for your support. Nathan Rabeck, Dana Morris, Liz Rotundo, Melissa Miller, Angie Aaron Bollinger, Ivan Hirntez, Tara Whittle, Ida Umphers, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Donnie Pierce, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, John Cappellouti, Stephen Franscale, Aaron Willard, Millie Blackwell, Michael Diallosa, Tana Felice, Anne Seipe, Joe Crace, Michael Hagan, Mary Collis, Kathleen Rogers, Hans Noodleman and John Wood. Thank you all so much. Thank you for your support and we'll see you all soon.
See you in episode 201. Yeah. Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you don't like our podcast, David will turn it off.