1.00 Worldbuilding, Part 2

We continue to play our world-building game, and flesh out some of the people, places & things we want to include in our first tale. Then, the players start forming ideas about their characters!

-- links --
Website: wanderingpathpod.com
Support our show: patreon.com/wanderingpathpod

-- cast & crew --
Created by Mischa Stanton
Produced by Bex Taylor-Klaus, Lyn Rafil, & Mischa Stanton

Gamemaster: Mischa Stanton
Ibra: Bex Taylor-Klaus
JJ: Lyn Rafil
Gordon: Ian McQuown
Fran: Mayanna Berrin

Sound design: Mischa Stanton
Cover art: Lyn Rafil
Music: Independent Music Licensing Collective
Production & House Manager: Erin Bark

-- about --
The Wandering Path is an actual-play podcast putting complex characters, resonant themes and engaging new mechanics at the heart of immersive adventures. We’re making the stories we want to see in the world, one game session at a time! Join us for our first season, as we dive to the heart of the City of New Prosper: a techno-magical metropolis on the rise, where those who seek to craft themselves a new future will first have to settle the debts they owe the past. New episodes every other Monday.

— Transcript —

[SFX: Opening theme music]

Mischa: Hello, and welcome back to The Wandering Path. Thank you so much for being here. If you're just joining us, we're creating a world from scratch, in which we'll tell our tale here in our first campaign. And we're in the middle of a modified version of the world building game titled I'm Sorry, Did You Say Street Magic? by Caro Asercion.

Mischa: We played a few rounds in the previous episode, so if you're listening, you're going to want to start there. We've made a few regions of the city so far, so I'll just give a quick recap of what we have, we have the Barra, which is the flashy entertainment district, we have the Engineering Core, which, I, it sounds like it's on the ground, but that doesn't make sense to me.

Ian: Well, half of it's on the ground now because of the fall.

Mischa: Sure. But mostly was in the upper, was like the, the least hospitable part of the upper city. [Agreement]. We had the Constellation, which is the very livable part of the upper city. And we had the Come-Up, which is the sort of young coming of age school and union devoted district.

Mischa: So, round four. I gotta set a new compass.

Mischa: I want to set a compass of “outside.” What is like- We've come up with this city. It has a bunch of districts. Keep your regions within the city, but I want them to relate in some way to something that's outside. Ian, do you want to roll initiative about it?

Ian: I fucking do!

[Cheers].

Bex: A natural 20!

Lyn: Wow.

Mayanna: Nice!

Lyn: All right. And the next one, you have to roll a natural 20. Ian?

Ian: Crit fail.

[Laughter].

Bex: Finally.

Mayanna: 9!

Mischa: 9.

Ian: Jesus Christ.

Mischa: So Bex, we're going to start with you.

Bex: Oh no.

Mischa: Name a region, a landmark, or a resident.

Mayanna: Based on “outside?”

Mischa: It's on “outside.” Which can mean, you know, these are one word prompts. They can mean whatever you want.

Mayanna: Based on outside.

Mischa: So the only person you can't pick is Bo Burnham, I guess.

[Groans].

Mayanna: That's so funny. So funny.

Bex: You can't see this, but I just sunk.

Mischa: Thank you. Thank you. That was my bad joke for the podcast. That was really good.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Fantastic!

Bex: I want to make another landmark.

Mischa: Okay.

Bex: I want it to be the sort of perimeter, the outskirts.

Mischa: Okay.

Bex: It is the last known piece of the city before you get to the outside. This is the edge of the city.

Lyn: This might be a region more than a landmark.

Mischa: This might be a region, but I'm into it. I'm very into it.

Bex: Okay.

Mischa: I'm very into that.

Bex: The outskirts. The Edge.

Ian: The Edge.

Mayanna: It's like, where Barbie goes. [Agreement]. That weird desert.

[Agreement].

Mischa: The part where the travel montage happens. Where does that happen in physical space?

Mayanna: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, right.

Bex: If it either– whether it's a landmark or if it's a region, it's called “the Edge.”

Mischa: Yeah.

Lyn: It's the edge of the upper city, like the floating one? Or are–

[Overlapping confusion].

Bex: I was thinking the ground.

Mischa: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. So it's a region. So we're gonna– Give me some vibes. Like, what is it like there?

Bex: It's spread out. It's way more– While the rest of this, the college town can be more like condensed and on top of each other, the edge is spread out. It's more like farmlands, more like–

Lyn: Rural or suburban?

Bex: Yeah.

Mischa: Yeah.

Bex: And it's slow and happy out there.

Mayanna: Oh, that's nice.

Ian: Oh, so there are people out there?

Bex: Mhmm.

Ian: Oh.

Mayanna: Yeah, probably not a lot.

Bex: Not a lot. It's sparsely populated. It's– your neighbors are a couple miles away.

Mayanna: Yeah. It's like those towns when you're on the way to California.

[Agreement].

Ian: And so is it– so it's not particularly like woodsy. Would you say it's more plain-like or like?

Bex: I was thinking plains, but I like patches of woods.

Lyn: I'm truly just thinking of the Midwest.

Bex: That's exactly what I was thinking.

[Agreement].

Lyn: I'm from there, so...

Ian: Some flats and forests. Some flats and forests.

Bex: Some great plains with a little bit of forest.

Lyn: I think that also makes sense for a floating city too, like you wouldn't want to build a floating city over– Or like maybe that's why it was a floating city to begin with is because there's no protection via terrain. [Agreement]. On the planes.

Mischa: There's no mountain barriers or anything to keep whatever out.

[Agreement].

Lyn: And from the sky you can see everything.

Mischa: What's the reputation from within and without?

Bex: The reputation from without is “slow.” “Boring.”

Mayanna: Yeah. “Why would anybody want to live there?”

Bex: Almost backwards. And the reputation on the inside is “wholesome”, just “happy”. It's sort of like the way that the people in the Upper think that they're living freely. These also feel so free.

Mischa: Yeah, it really feels like, to really put it in like George Orwell 1984 terms, that we've like made an upper class on the floating thing, a middle class below in the lower city, and like the proles are on the edge.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: Yeah. And it's kind of like, “how could anybody live like that?” And it's like, they're saying it to who?

[Agreement].

Mischa: Hell, yeah. I love that. That's very, very cool. Who next?

Mayanna: I rolled a 9.

Lyn: I rolled a 13.

Mayanna: You.

Mischa: Gonna be you, Lyn.

Lyn: Okay. I think I'd like to make a resident. And I think it is– I could go either way. This could either be in the Constellation or honestly in the Come Up. But–

Mischa: So we don't have any landmarks in the Constellation.

Lyn: Oh, right. That's true. I think this would make sense as a resident in the Magistrate's Office. But essentially, like, the external coordinator with– Not just the person who's like, in charge of like, admissions and stuff, and like, in charge of–this is more the person who actually can– Cause this is like, we're in the capital city of our region. [Agreement]. This is the person who is actually– who gets communication from like, outside the city of like, “what do we need for the rest of the people?” [Excitement]. That is in charge of setting the quotas and the curriculum for the schools. Like

Mischa: That's like the head of the Department of Labor.

Lyn: Yeah, essentially.

Mayanna: Placements.

[Agreement].

Ian: (whispering) Name them, Lyn. Name them.

Mischa: So we haven't had a resident yet. Residents have names or titles and pronouns. So like head of Department of Labor is valid. They have a “high concept,” which is a snappy one liner describing their whole thing. And they have one perfect scene, which is I want you to narrate a scene. It doesn't have to, like– nothing has to happen, I just want a snapshot of it, of like, them in their element, their iconic– Like, what they're doing.

Lyn: I'm imagining Gwendoline Christie as my fan cast.

Mischa: Okay.

Bex: Yes!

Lyn: For this person.

Mayanna: Love that.

Bex: Gorgeous.

Lyn: Like also someone who is–who has like a towering physique, absolutely gorgeous. Like, this is also like, someone who even the Upper City like really respects, where it's like, “if you're going to be on the ground, this is the position to be in.” [Hums]. Like, the tagline for this person would be, “I see as far as the eye can see.” [Ooh]. Cause this is a person who knows everything on–like, who knows everything about the region and is sending people, like, is in charge of everything.

Bex: You see farther than the eye can see.

Lyn: Maybe, yeah, it's farther than the eyes can see.

Ian: Ooh, there it is.

Mayanna: Because she's looking ahead.

Lyn: She's looking ahead at the future as well.

Mayanna: Yeah, she's predicting what we'll need in five years, ten years, fifteen years.

[Agreement].

Lyn: Like, and is in charge of leading whatever the people will be after.

Mayanna: The other thing, too, is like when people speculate about like the declining birth rates. It's like, “you don't get it. If we don't have this amount of babies, we're not going to have this many people in the workforce in 18 years and all that stuff, too.”

Lyn: Yeah. This is like someone who's like really into economics.

[Agreement].

Ian: Someone intimidating, I would assume.

Lyn: Yeah, very intimidating.

Mischa: You don't cast Gwendoline Christie without being at least a little bit intimidated by her.

Ian: Damn right, you don’t.

Mischa: So then for a perfect scene, I kind of imagine like–and we haven't really established if we have phones. Do we have phones? Do we have cell phones?

Bex: I think we should have some–

Mayanna: We probably should.

Bex: means of communication, I think, that’s like technology-based.

Lyn: I think like flip phone type phones, not smart phone.

[Agreement].

Mischa: I like that. Everybody has a Motorola Razr

[Agreement].

Mayanna: Yeah, a convenient way to communicate.

Lyn: Or even like a pager system because there could be like landlines, but not necessarily–like that are more like, you know–

[Overlapping comments].

Mayanna: Private lines.

Mischa: I love a landline slash pager. Like you can send–you can text people one thing. You can't have a text conversation, but you can text one thing. Or if you're at a physical location, you can dial people.

Lyn: Landlines, pay phones even.

Bex: Oh payphone booths, phone booths! We can brick back phone booths!

[Agreement].

Mischa: I’m into that!

Bex: I love the idea–Also, cause then we can keep going with like the messenger, the magic of it.

Lyn: I like the idea of my perfect scene being this person in like a boardroom meeting but is clearly in charge of it. Yeah. Alot of suits, a lot of whatever. But like this, and–in theory–is being told what to do. B at the end of the day, like, all of these people are still trying to win her favor.

Mayanna: Yeah, people send her like, nice pears and like, fancy baskets and like, whatever they think.

Bex: They can tell her what to do till they're blue in the face, but she gets to decide it either way.

[Agreement].

Lyn: Yeah, exactly. Like, she's ultimately very, like–I like the idea that she's actually very pragmatic. Like, she's not actually bribable. She's like, “thank you.”

Mayanna: “That was very nice. Yeah, that's very nice.”

Ian: That's exactly what I was thinking.

Mayanna: The pears were delicious.”

Ian: Like they give her the–she gets the gift basket and then immediately drops it in her office garbage,

Lyn: Not even like–

Mayanna: With all the other gift baskets.

Lyn: Like, I do like the idea that she's intimidating, but not because she's mean. But she's pragmatic. So it's like, she would, she, she receives a gift basket and everyone else in the office.

Lyn: She's like, “hello, everyone. Like the, the kind neighboring, like tri state area has given us these things. Please. It's in the break room.”

Mayanna: She gives you nothing. She’s just–you're like, “what could she be feeling?” “We're not sure.” [Agreement]. She's so professional.

Lyn: Yeah, extremely professional. Everyone's just like, “(unsure grunt).”

Mayanna: She never goes to drinks after work.

Lyn: No. Very cool.

Mayanna: God, I would work for her.

Bex: Yeah, so pragmatic.

Lyn: I'll come up with a name shortly.

Mischa: Sure, no worries. Give it time

Bex: She’s so sexy.

[Laughter].

Lyn: Mostly I'm just thinking “Gwendoline Christie,” and I–

Mayanna: Gwen?

Bex: I was saying, can we call her Gwen?

Mayanna: Gwen.

Lyn: Gwen.

Mischa: Yeah, we can call her Gwen. Absolutely.

Ian: Gwen's such a great name.

Mayanna: Gwen's a great name.

Mischa: Shout out to all the Gwens listening out there.

Mayanna: Thanks, Gwens.

Lyn: Thanks, Gwens.

Bex: Gwen!

Mischa: Give us $5 on Patreon. Okay!

Lyn: The Gwen tier.

Ian: Y'all weren't expecting that, were you, Gwens?

[Laughter].

Bex: You're in it now.

Mischa: Who's next?

Mayanna: I think I'm next.

Mischa: Okay.

Ian: Man, my crit one really fucked me on this quarter.

Mischa: You're the one who wanted Dice to determine the winner.

Ian: I know!

Lyn: Oh, I really want Gwen to be short for Guinevere.

Mayanna: Guinevere.

Bex: Yes!

Mayanna: That's great. I think I also want to make a resident. Oh, but I guess I have to, I'll, all right, I'll make a landmark for the constellation.

Mischa: Okay.

Mayanna: I think the landmark for the constellation is the like, financial district. That's where all the high powered, young, hungry hedge fund people go to make their name.

Mischa: I think financial district sounds like a region. Can we make it like, The stock exchange, like the building.

Mayanna: The stock exchange! Yeah. The, like the crystal exchange or whatever it is. I guess like what, like we want to buy magic. What is the preferred currency? Is it gold, do we think?

Mischa: (Sighs). Yeah. See, that’s interesting.

Mayanna: The credit system?

Mischa: Do we want credits? We could do credits.

Mayanna: I think credits.

Lyn: Credits.

Mayanna: I think credits. So the credits. Yeah.

Bex: Then debt can be like, “ooh, what a thing.”

Mayanna: Yeah. The credit system. So this is where you evaluate the value of different companies, and how many credits you think they're worth. This would be where like any new magic manufacturers would be like, “Oh man, we're going to go public. This is so exciting. Green Flame Blade is going to blow up the credit market.”

[Laughter].

Bex: The GFB. Yeah.

Mischa: We're going to make one serialized Meteor Storm and then Post Malone is going to buy it for $2.6 million.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Oh, that's so funny. That's great.

[Laughter].

Lyn: That was–

Mayanna: That was a crazy day. That was a crazy day. I'm trying to think of like, what it's like, I don't want to call it the stock exchange.Just trying to think of like a cool–

Ian: The interchange?

Mayanna: The interchange. The, like the line go up?

[Laughter].

Ian: That's the one!

Mischa: Here's something we haven't done. We have a lot of, like, “the district,” “the thing.” I would love to, like, name it after someone. Like a memorial thing. Maybe someone who died in the war?

Mayanna: Yeah. (Thoughtfully) Ooh.

Mischa: And it could be, like, the Memorial Value Exchange.

Mayanna: Yes, yes, yes. The, let me think. I want it to say, like, Benjamin. Something Benjamin.

Mischa: Benjamin Thrabisher.

Mayanna: Benjamin Thrabisher Memorial Credit Exchange. Benjamin Thrabisher Memorial Credit Exchange. So it's B T–

Mischa: T M C E.

Mayanna:T M C E.

Mischa: Thrabisher Memorial Credit Exchange.

Mayanna: T M C E. I like that. Yeah, that's where all the tech bros and the finance bros, that's where they go to make their fortune and be scrappy. And so yeah, that's where people go. Yeah, they're big on all the freaking points and the ups and the downs and hedging their bets and all that stuff.

Mischa: Hell yeah.

Mayanna: And it's a very intense, predominantly masculine environment.

Mischa: But I also feel like, if you live on the ground, if you don't live in a constellation, right? Like, that just looks like–

Mayanna: We're money.

Mischa: –people, well, it looks like people betting on a cockfight. [Excitement and agreement]. Well, “those people are betting on our lives.”

Mayanna: (Excitedly) Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah! But it's like in nice outfits.

[Agreement].

Bex: Dark.

Mayanna: Woof.

Bex: I like it.

Mischa: Thats stock exchanges.

Mayanna: Yowza!

Ian: (Sarcastically) What are you talking about? I live in a world that's only lovely and good.

Lyn: I wonder if there's something similar, like that other people would call it. Like how we call our stock exchange, like the rat race, for example. There's probably something similar that other people–

Mayanna: The brat pack.

Lyn: –have a connotation. That's like, some people say it with pride because they're in it, but most people are like, it's not. We don’t love that.

Mischa: Okay, I love that. Yeah, the first thing I came up with is the meat market.

Mayanna: The meat market.

Lyn: Meat market. Yikes. Yeah, the meat market.

Mischa: Yeah. You're just, you're just–

Bex: That’s really good.

Mischa: You’re just cutting people up and sell them off to profit.

Mayanna: But the proud people are like, “We're fucking butchers, man. We go in there. We cut it up, we sell it for parts.

[Excitement].

Lyn: The butchers!

Mischa: Amazing! That's really good. I love the meat market. That's really good. Who's next?

Mayanna: Yeah, it's Ian.

Lyn: It’s Ian.

Ian: Okay. So how many landmarks do we have?

Mischa: We have one in every region except The Edge now.

Ian: Okay. I'm going to make a resident. Okay. He's a resident of the Barra. So he lives, he lives right across the street from the statue.

Mischa: Great. I love it.

Ian: He is the former head maker of whatever this spell technology is during the war.

Mayanna: Oh, he was like, yeah, the big man.

Ian: Yeah, led a division, like a massive division making the things.

Mischa: Okay.

Ian: Right. He's now out of work because that specific division of it isn't happening anymore.Maybe it’s elsewhere.

Lyn: Or it got bought up.

Ian: Or it got bought up, or he aged out. Cause I think he's older. He's like an older guy. He's on the back end.

Mayanna: He kind of ran out. Like people were like, “you're kind of out of ideas.”

Ian: Yes.

Mayanna: Like, “let the young ones take it over. Like you're good. You're chilling.”

Lyn: So you might've been forced into a retirement.

Ian: Right. Forced retirement.

Mayanna: I think that's exactly what it was. They're like, we're doing you a favor. You don't want any of this. You don't want any part of this.

Ian: Right. Exactly. So he's doing that thing, which is–because he's got nothing to do, and it probably wasn't a good exit–he's taken all of his money that he's received for that separation and basically lives in like the gambling district. [Recognition]. And so he just spends his time waddling around the casinos, winning, but mostly losing money.

Mayanna: Oh, brutal. It's like the pachinko parlors.

[Agrement].

Ian: Exactly.

Lyn: Where it's like just a slow bleed. Where it's like, “I have enough money to like, to subsist.”

Mayanna: It's like self harm almost. [Agreement]. A little every night.

Ian: And he also has just a massive excess of whatever this spell technology is, right? These ampules orthese little–I keep thinking about them–is a mix of what we're talking about, Like little glass, like, like I'm thinking like there's a love potion one, right? And so it's a little glass heart with like a gold rim that's like this big. And in order to activate you, like you break it, maybe like break it on your hand.

[Excitement].

Bex: That’s cute.

Mischa: Maybe it's this was the spell tech. And then like, a rival of his invented, like, the solid version–

Mayanna: The sustainable version.

Mischa: –and no one wanted the liquid with the breaking of the glass anymore.

Ian: The one-use ones.

[Excitement].

Bex: I love that.

Lyn: I feel like this might be something akin to, like, a healing potion or something, too.

Ian: I like it too, because, like, because you can have boxes and boxes of all these, like, multi colored little–there's these little shapes that are glass and metal and color. And he's got just a fuck ton of them collecting dust.

Lyn: Too many.

Bex: They can't sell, can't do anything with it.

Lyn: Yeah. because who needs a healing potion now that the war is over?

Ian: Right!

Mayanna: And yeah, and also like, who needs a single-use healing potion?

Mischa: Yeah. If you, if you have like the crystal for Cure Wounds, what do you need a one-use? But for the party, you guys can go visit him and get one-off combat items.

[Excitement].

Bex: He's gonna be like our favorite guy.

Lyn: I think that's something so interesting too, like, in the mechanics of D&D, of like, oh, if there are healers who know healing spells that are pretty much like good to go. Or if we now have a school of healers, that now that we've been able to harness the magical technology for it, then like, yeah. All the more prototypical items, that would be a reason why certain magic items are really rare.

Mischa: Yeah. Yeah. I think your guy is kind of like the Nikola Tesla to whoever's running the world.

[Excitement].

Bex: Can we call him Nikola?

Mayanna: Nikolai. Or Nikola?

Ian: Also, I was going to say he should be like sort of an outsider. Because we've got a Guinevere and we've got a Benjamin. So I wonder if his name's like Thorgunn, you know? He's like a, like a Swedish guy, you know what I mean? [Agreement]. From a different place.

Mayanna: Yeah. I like that.

Mischa: Thorgunn with two N's.

Ian: Thorgunn Boomslank.

Mischa: Yeah.

Lyn: Boomslank?

Ian: What was the–no, that's like the Boomslaang is what it is the–

Mischa: I wrote it down.

Bex: I like Boomslaang.

Ian: Boomslaang.

Mischa: With two A's and one of them has an umlaut over it. [Cheers]. Amazing. So that was the last one for this round. So we're going to have another event.

Mayanna: Woohoo! Oh no. Fuck.

Mischa: Well, that's the thing about events. They can be bad, or they can be good. I think someone goes beyond the edge. And outside the city–after the city is established, after these things already exist–finds a new building resource. You know like, what's that technique that they have in Japan where they kind of like grow straight shoots out of the trunk of a tree and it's like completely sustainable wood forever?

[Intrigue].

Mayanna: Oh, I did not know that.

Mischa: This is the thing where there's like some technique where you can kind of manipulate the growth of a tree, like cut it off at a certain point and then they grow like just straight shoots. Wow. Like bamboo on top of a tree trunk.

Lyn: It's called like pollarding or something. But part of it is that you have to cut off every branch of it in order to make it go, and some people don't love that. It makes really weird tree trunks.

Mischa: Yeah. So I think that the event is the discovery of a new building material on the ground.

Lyn: Is it someone from the city who went out, or is it just someone who made a discovery, just like, not in city?

Mischa: I don't want to get that specific. I think that there is a new building material available.

Lyn: From outside.

Mischa: It's–yeah, it's cheap and like, easy to get, but not as durable.

Ian: Is it of this world or whatever world we were in battle with?

Bex: That's the unanswered question.

Mischa: That could be an unanswered question.

[Agreement].

Bex: Where does it come from?

Lyn: Is it of this world?

Mischa: I'm gonna write that down. Do you want to write it down?

Ian: Yeah, write it down!

Mischa: Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Who nat 20’d? Bex?

Bex: Yes!

Mischa: 20’d this round? Sorry, Ian kind of jumped ahead with it.

Mayanna: It was a good question.

Bex: I like it. He deserved it.

Ian: Thank you.

Bex: I think a biased opinion is that it is not durable. “It is not to be trusted. Why would you want to deal with this when you have what we have? This is a stupid idea to bring it in.”

[Agreement].

Lyn: If it ain't broke, why fix it? Yeah.

Mayanna: Yeah. (Whispering) But it’s breaking.

Lyn: (Whispering) But it’s breaking.

Bex: (Whispering) It’s breaking.

Ian: (Whispering) A big piece of it just broke.

Lyn: (Whispering) A very sizeable chunk broke. (Speaking normally) I think this is a biased opinion in response to that opinion, which is, “they're afraid that we'll have what they have.” [Hums]. Like, like, “oh, we have this new–we have this new commodity. It's from the surface. We can get it. We can build our shit up. We're gonna prosper. They're trying to keep us down. We can't trust them because they just want to profit and keep themselves elevated. But like, we'll build it better here.”

Mayanna: Whew.

Bex: One of the biases from my side is “it's not safe.” [Agreement]. And theirs is like, “why wouldn't it be safe? It's the surface.”

Mischa: Legit.

Lyn: I think like the main underlying thing is like, “we'll build it better here, and they're afraid of it.”

Bex: I like that.

Mayanna: I guess mine is–I guess it's a question is like, what were the–what possessed–what was the purpose of the expedition? What are the mechanics or the like, the motivations for why this was discovery was made at all?

Lyn: Like, how was this found?

Mayanna: Yeah, like who, yeah–what you just randomly decided to just go explore? Like what? Who's behind–who's behind this?

Bex: What prompted this?

Mayanna: Yeah, what motivated this, this need to discover a new resource?

Mischa: And also corollary. What were you really looking for–

Mayanna: Exactly!

Mischa: –if you just found this?

Mayanna: Exactly, yeah.

Bex: What were you trying to find?

Mayanna: It's giving survivor immunity idols. (Laughter). “Why were you out there, huh? What were you looking for?”

Bex: “What exactly were you trying to find? Because I don't trust you”.

[Agreement].

Mischa: Hell yeah. That's great! I love it.

Ian: Can I provide a consequence even though, secret, went first?

Mischa: Fucking fine, I guess.

Mayanna: (Gasps) A consequence?

Ian: Maybe a consequence is that There is a–there is a mysterious group past The Edge that is starting to–that has a head start on utilizing this resource.

Mayanna: Ooh. What if–

Ian: Look at that Mischa, look at that smile.

Mayanna: What if they found like farms?

Ian: What’s up?

Mayanna: They found farms for this resource. Or like, they found evidence that it had been harvested previously, which is how they knew they could harvest it.

Ian: People are–yeah, yeah. People were using it, so then they started.

Mayanna: It's giving Columbus.

[Laughter and agreement].

Mischa: It is giving Columbus.

Ian: Just powerful secret groups.

Mischa: Very cool. So let's move on to round–I think we have enough time for a round five of this. Let's do one more round of Regions, Landmarks, and Residents. Let's roll one more time.

[Dice rolling].

Lyn: I got a Nat 20.

Ian: Fuck.

[Laughter].

Lyn: You were supposed to get it this time!

Ian: I know.

Lyn: We all rolled one! You can have this one.

Ian: Thank you. No, I got a nine–

Lyn: No, you can do it.

Ian: No, I went first anyway.

Lyn: I don’t care, just do it. I I Okay. You just do it. That's your time.

Ian: Okay. I got a Nat–I got a Nat 20, and Lyn got a–a Nat 9.

Lyn: Great.

[Laughter].

Bex: 13

Mayanna: 19.

Mischa: Whoa! Okay. Ian with “your” Nat 20. [Laughter]. You’re first.

Lyn: Oh, do you have a new compass for this round?

Mischa: Oh, right. I forgot to name the compass. Thank you so much, Lyn. The compass for this round. Ooh, great question. (Inhales deeply) We've done a lot of the city and the social infrastructure. I think, I think what interested me so much about that last bit is the natural resource built into it. So I think “natura”l is going to be our compass for this round.

Ian: Love it

Mayanna: Natural.

Mischa: Yeah. Like let's incorporate the city into the world it lives in a little more maybe. But–but–but still creating things that are within the city.

Ian: I love that.

Mischa: Okay.

Ian: Great.

Mischa: Is that a lie? Are you–

Ian: No, no, no. I'm just stalling for time.

Mischa: Got it.

Ian: No, I'm trying to decide if that means that you–we want to do something in the city or if we can go down to the ground. I know that means we can go anywhere we want.

Mischa: I think this is still a region of our city.

Ian: Great.

Mischa: So like a neighborhood of the city, but maybe it's a processing plant. Maybe it's a–

Ian: No, that's totally fine. No, that answers my question. Okay. Let's– so I'm going to make a landmark in the Edge and the landmark is a huge grain farm to make grain and bread for everyone around.

Mischa: Cool. And it's the central grain facility for the whole city? This is where the grain comes from.

Ian: Yes. Except I even hesitate to use the word “facility,” because it feels like it feels more rural older because out in the edge. So it's like–

Mischa: So I think–I mean, that's fair. But like, you know, rural towns have sawmills, you know, it can be a–even a complex of things.

Ian: That's a good point. That's a fair point. I think I'm also thinking that it makes food actually just for people on the ground. It's like more of a local thing than a massive everyone thing.

Lyn: It's still a regular farm and mill?

Mayanna: It's like a farm to table situation?

Ian: Yeah. It's like a family.

Mischa: Maybe it's–maybe it's–Okay. Maybe it's a part of the city that when they were establishing the city after the war, after the–the hovering thing picked a spot and said, “here's where the city is going to be.” And they–cause that means they planned the lower city, right? They built it for everyone or found it and spruced it up. But like, there was some planning involved in that. And here is the part where all of the farmland is, and we will allot it to people of the city. And so it's like kind of co-op-y, vegetable garden-y, but like it's massive. It's fields and fields and fields.

Ian: Yeah, exactly. And I think this specific landmark is this–it's like a stone farmhouse building that's like, run by a family and they make bread for like, I don't know, let's say they make bread for–

Mischa: Okay, so there's, so there's a family. That institutionally is like, they're the ones that make the best bread.

Lyn: It's the bakers.

Mischa: They're the–yeah.

Mayanna: With their tray. Like sometimes.

Ian: There it is. It's like–maybe it's where you go–maybe it's where you go–if you come out of like the baker's guild school. Right? It's like–

Lyn: Baker as a family name, but like as a guild name instead.

Mischa: Okay. I'm gonna write that down.

Ian: Got Mischa to write one down.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: I'm gonna make a resident, Cecilia Baker. She's the eldest daughter of the family that owns the mill or who runs the mill. And she, somehow, got a commuter pass. So she brings bread to the Meat Market. She has a little stand. She makes a killing. Everybody tries to hit on her. She's not about it. [Laughter]. And she brings the money back. But she's like one of the few Edge civilians who consistently goes to the Constellation. And she seems very out of place when she's there.

Lyn: She's the breadwinner.

Mayanna: She's the breadwinner.

Mischa: That's the high concept, baby.

Mayanna: She's the breadwinner, absolutely. So yeah, her little scene would be– yeah, she just every day she goes up with her offerings. She has a little stand in what I guess is effectively like the Times Square of the Meat Market. And there's other stands that do similar stuff. But you know, it's breads and rolls and all this stuff. And she's very sweet. And she's very friendly. But she's also very like, worldly. And she's she's been doing this for a long time. [Gasp]. Yeah?

Bex: She's as sweet as her sticky buns.

[Cheering].

Mayanna: Yeah. But she is not–but she's not no spring chicken.

Lyn: Not to be trifled with.

Mayanna: She's not to be trifled with.

Mischa: It's like funny, cause she–that makes her worldlier–

Bex: I want a roll.

Mischa: –than her– [Laughter]. Jesus.She–she's worldlier than her neighbors in the Edge and also worldlier than anybody she'll meet in the Constellation. [Agreement]. Everywhere she goes, she's like

Mayanna: A little–

Mischa: A little weary.

Mayanna: A little too wise.

Mischa: Yeah.

Mayanna: A little too sus.

Lyn: I love that.

Mayanna: She's like, “I don't know about all this.”

Mischa: Yeah, that's really good.

Lyn: I'll also do a landmark.

Mischa:

Lyn: And I think–I think I want this in the Constellation, but a distillery. Okay. I'm thinking, you know, post-Cold War, or Gilded Age, or whatever, like, “it's a raucous party. Where's the party coming from?” I think that the distillery is not in the entertainment district, because that'd be weird.

Mischa: But it's, it's like an exclusive members club.

Lyn: Yeah, it's like–it's very like, they need to know your name at the door. No walk ins allowed.

Mischa: The kind of place that the noir detective always has to get past the bouncer to get the clue from.

Mayanna: It's like a champagne lounge almost.

Lyn: I'm thinking of this one speakeasy I went into Berlin that was an underpass, but inside was the nicest place in the world. And I was very underdressed. I did not know we were going there. But it, yeah, it's–it's discreet. It's exclusive. But they also make their own shit. And when I say distillery, sure, alcohol, but probably also some other natural substance that has become bespoke? Especially in the upper city area.

Mayanna: Snuff?

Mischa: I love snuff as like a storytelling device.

Mayanna: Yeah, cause it's like–

Mischa: People have those fancy boxes.

Mayanna: It's got fancy boxes. Everybody's got a weird character tick they do when they do it.

Lyn: Yeah, it's something akin to that. That's like–

Mayanna: Dust.

Lyn: And it's all–and it's all– And because this is the source, it's the cleanest shit, kind of thing. Like this is the source of it.

Bex: I got a resident for your brewery. Your distillery? It’s the brewer. [Agreement]. He's a little bit unhinged. He's really in stark contrast to the–his surroundings. The distillery itself is so posh. And he's so not that. He doesn't spend a lot of time in the front of the house.

Lyn: I like the idea that this is a Jekyll and Hyde situation, but the Jekyll is the establishment and he's the Hyde.

[Agreement].

Mischa: If the people who were in charge of this place could find someone else to do it, they absolutely would. [Agreement]. Because this guy is not it.

Mayanna: He's brilliant, but he's not suitable for front of house.

Lyn: No.

Bex: He’s brilliant and broken.

Mayanna: And it's like, he almost wants to craft like, the beautiful world he can't be a part of. [Excitement]. (Whispers) Phantom of the Opera.

Lyn: Yeah, that, and “Brilliant But Broken,” I think are good themes for probably multiple systems and people throughout this world in particular.

Mayanna: Damn.

Bex: I think everyone calls him Brewer. Nobody knows his name.

[Agreement].

Mischa: Okay. Yeah. I love that. That's really great. And they just call him the Brewer? He/him pronouns?

Bex: Not even “the.” Just Brewer.

Mayanna: Brewer.

Lyn: Brewer. Like a name.

Bex: Like a name.

Mayanna: Like Brewster!

Bex: Brewer!

Mayanna: I love it.

Bex: Not his name, but no one knows that.

Mischa: Right. Well then–then there's a–there's like, different branding to different parts of the town where like, in the Constellation, it's like, “look at this, the thing that really is like the culmination of your ultimate desire.” And in the lower versions, like “have a version of what they have upstairs come to your door.” [Agreement]. Like, bringing–bringing you a little bit of the luxury that you couldn't find elsewhere. [Agreement]. Spicy.

Lyn: I think what's interesting with like the guild system and like even with this naming, I think that there's probably a similar naming convention now of like, “Oh, your job title is your family as much as your bloodlines are your family,” and I think that will tie in really interestingly to the, like, obligation and devotion stuff of like, “oh, which name do you use? Your surname or your guild name?”

Mayanna: You are what you do.

Mischa: Maybe peop– Is it like, there's like a maiden name and then job title?

Mayanna: (Gasps) You're married to your job. What if there's like a marriage-style ceremony–

Lyn: (Whispers) A ceremony!

Mayanna: –where you commit yourself to your trade?

Bex: You can get the Ceremony spell.

Mischa: II was trying to come up with some pun that was like “bar mitzvah,” but with tools, and I couldn't think of something fast enough. Or here–here's another thing. What if like you're generally known by your occupation, but your blood family has a secret name that you only tell to like very close friends?

Mayanna: Oh, I love it.

Lyn: That's very intimate.

Mayanna: That's like, yeah, in like the Japanese society where you like refer to everybody by their last name. And then if you–it's like very intimate if you refer to somebody their first name.

Mischa: Right. So–so the first name is like, the common name. The–the general last name is what you do and what your family has done. If there's casp–I don't know.

Mayanna: I have a comp for your “bar mitzvah, but with tools” thing.

Mischa: Okay.

Mayanna: Which is in the Tinkerbell direct-to-DVD animated movie. [Laughter] You get born, you're like, “boom, welcome to the world, fairy, here's your wings.” And then a bunch of floating objects surround you and whichever one you grab, that's your job forever. So she grabs a hammer–

Bex: Horrifying.

Mayanna: –and they're like, “you're a tinker fairy and you can't be anything else. Have fun with all the Tinker Fairies in Tinker part of the world.” And that's why her name is–

Mischa: And that’s why her name is Tinkerbell!

Mayanna: Tinkerbell.

Bex: Oh my, that's so sad.

Mischa: The lore involved.

Mayanna: Absolutely. And the–and the real disparity is that there's some fairies who have like, like weather powers, like fall, like spring and all these things. And they get to go to the mainland in the humanworld, and they get to like move the seasons along.But the Tinker Fairies and the other working class fairies don't get to go to the mainland because they have no purpose in going there.

Lyn: Wow. So true.

Mischa: Heartbreaking.

Mayanna: That's so funny.

Lyn: Well, that's, that's a thing in a lot of Asian cultures. You have like money, a pen, like a paintbrush, et cetera. Like you just, there are like collections of things where it's like, “what will you be suited towards?” Like what draws you in as a baby is going to be what will draw you in life.

Mayanna: In life.

Bex: That's actually all over my TikToks is people with their babies and like reaching towards things.

Mayanna: It’s like Pokemon starters on my Tik Tok feed. It's like the three Pokemon toys.

Bex: Mine is parents with like a whole thing. And then there's a little slip that says OnlyFans and the baby goes to that.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: I bet you there's a parent like, dangling something just beyond the camera as a bit.

Bex: 100 percent. [Laughter]. It’s just for the bit.

Mayanna: Nothing is real.

Mischa: Amazing. Was that the whole round? Is it event time?

Ian: I think so.

Mayanna: Yeah, it's event time.

Mischa: Time for something to happen.

Lyn: I don't actually know

Mischa: I definitely want to know about the time that–there has to have been one time when people living in the Lower City like, stormed the elevators. [Gasps]. There was like a, there was like a protest or a riot–

Mayanna: Or an occupation-type situation.

Mischa: Where they are–yes. The Occupy Elevators movement. It probably involved a lot of people from the come up. Probably intelligence from people who came down, who already had commuter passes or like handed them off to people and there was coordination there. There was people from various districts reacting in various ways. Let's go around and find out.

Mayanna: Are we using the same roll from this round?

Mischa: Yes.

Mayanna: Okay, cool.

Mischa: So Ian, you had the Nat 20. It was gifted to you.

Ian: It was gifted to me, a gift of a Nat 20.

Mayanna: It’s a special gift.

Ian: It really is. [Laughter]. So when it happened. A lot of–there needed to be a lot of soldiers to go down and deal with the people trying to get in the elevator, right?

Mischa: Probably, yeah.

Ian: But, but there was less soldiers because it was post war, so it pulled all of like the street constables and stuff off of their positions? Right? And so while they were off defending the elevator or dealing with the riot, the rest of the upper city was completely unpoliced for like a large portion of time.

Mayanna: Hours.

Ian: Yeah. And potentially some nefarious dealings happened in that time.

Lyn:Oh, consequence, like upper city crime has a window.

Ian: Yeah. And additionally, maybe. You know, some of those people got hurt or killed in defending. So post–the consequences, there's less constables around.There's less like the–the city's a little bit scarce–

Mayanna: For constables.

Ian: Yeah.

Mayanna: Which means Gwen's got her work cut out for her.

Lyn: Whether she likes it or not.

Mayanna: Yeah. And it's like, no one wants to be a constable, especially because a bunch of constables just died.

Mischa: Yeah. Very good. Mayanna.

Mayanna: The consequence as well. It was a group of students who led the uprising. And the students who like–the schools that those students represented now have like a reputation for being like, bad, or like, bad influences. Yeah. So it's, so people have been less keen to be sorted or selected or placed in those schools or those roles.

Bex: All constables are bastards.

[Laughter].

Lyn: True. So true.

Mischa: Good to–good to say it up front on this show.

Bex: Well, aside from that being a biased opinion, all constables are bastards.

Lyn: No, that's an objective opinion.

Bex: It is. [Laughter]. That's why I can't use it as my bias, because it's objective. Biased opinion from the boots on the ground is, “they're okay with us dying. They want us to die. They'd rather us die than give us our place in the stars.”

Mayanna: Dang.

Mischa: I'm writing–I am quiet because I'm writing that exact phrase down. Mostly I've been writing notes. I'm writing this exact phrase down.

Mayanna: That’s great!

Bex: Oh, thanks.

Mayanna: Damn, dude.

Ian: Damn, Daniel.

Mayanna: (In British accent)Damn, Daniel. Back at it again with the sick words. [Laughter].

Mischa: Lyn.

Lyn: I think this will tie into that, which is an unanswered question from both sides is, “will everyone go up or will everyone come down?”

[Agreement].

Bex: What goes up must come down.

Mischa: Bex.

Bex: A question!

Mischa: Yes.

Bex: The-the-the-the unanswered question!

Mischa: Okay.

Bex: “When will it all come down?”

Lyn: Again.

Bex: Again. Part two.

Mischa: We had that one. Yeah. How long until it all comes down?

Bex: But 2.0.

Lyn: I think like that phrase has like–has so many layered meanings.

Mischa:That phrase is graffitied on walls and places. [Agreement]. What a world full of complex layers and ideologies.

[Midroll music]

Mischa: Hey there, it's Mischa. This is the rest stop. Come take a break beside a path with me, just until we catch our breath. Thank you for hanging with us as we built out this world. It's a thrill to have you with us as we get ready to play our first game and tell our first story. We actually recorded these episodes a while ago, and we've already been playing around in this world for a little bit now. And I might be biased, but I think there's some people out there that are really gonna like it. I don't know for sure, but that's just the feeling I get.

If you like what you're hearing and you want to help us grow and reach more folks, please spread the word. A new podcast needs all the help it can get to let people know we're here doing a cool thing. You can find us most places you find podcasts, and we also have links at our website, wanderingpathpod.com. Okay. That's it for now. Let's get back on the path and back to the show.

[Music]

Mischa: So now let's pivot in our final section here into coming up with characters. Yes. So once again, I have a list of seven questions with sub questions.

Ian: Okay.

Mischa: I'm going to read them all out and we can, and then we can talk about it. And just as a focus, you know, obviously we're playing D&D, have a thought to what mechanical builds you want, but this is the part where we're coming up with narrative.

Lyn: Yeah, more characters. I mean, people based as opposed to mechanics.

Mischa: We can kind of figure out what the mechanics of it are that fit later.

Lyn: Cool.

Mischa: That said, you know, if you have cool builds, pure mechanics that you like and you want to include, we'll figure that out too. So here are my questions for the characters round.

Mischa: Number one. Who are you? Where do you come from? What do you want more than anything in the world? Perhaps consider if you were one of our residents from the previous segment, what would your high concept be? For example, Cecilia Baker was the bread winner.

Mischa: Question two. What do you believe in? What was your first experience with belief? What first made you doubt? What now makes you hope and strive even despite doubt?

Mischa: Question three. What's your greatest strength? What happens when it gets taken too far?

Mischa: Question four. How did you get involved with the group? What's your role?

Mischa: Question five. Who do you trust the most, either in the party or outside of it? Who do you trust the least?

Mischa: Question six. What do you hope others think about you? What do you fear others think about you?

Mischa: And question seven is, do you owe any debts? And if so, to who?

Ian: So much, Mischa.

Mischa: But they're good questions.

Bex: They're great questions.

Mischa: They’re so good.

Ian: Yeah, they're great.

Lyn: I feel like I should answer this about myself.

Bex: Yeah.

Ian: Let's sit down with some coffee.

Lyn: Some chamomile tea.

Bex: I've got this soft spot for a character that I want to play that's like, raised to be the queen bee, but wants to be a drone. [Hums]. Wants to be the worker.

Mischa: That–that for me immediately makes me think that that's someone from the Constellation who found a new life in the come up.

[Hums].

Bex: Yeah, that's exactly what I'm thinking. I'm from the Constellation. I am in the Come-up, and that is where I want to remain. I want to work for the greater good. I want to work for other people. I want to be part of something. Not the leader of something.

Mischa: That's cool. That's great. That's such a wide array of Dungeons and Dragons class options for that. So many classes want to be part of something.

Ian: I've been watching so much–I can't even say I've been watching anime. I've just been watching clips of anime on YouTube.

Mayanna: I love that.

Ian: YouTube is taking over my life.

Mayanna: I love YouTube.

Ian: If the people who run YouTube are listening–

Lyn: Oh, I can tell somebody.

Ian: I appreciate you, but also, fuck you.

Mayanna: Tell them, “what up”

Lyn: Cool.

Mayanna: You're the platform I watch more than any other streaming service combined.

Ian: A hundred percent.

Lyn: Every night. And that's on record.

Mayanna: And that's on God!

[Laughter].

Mischa: And that's a rock fact.

Lyn: And that's a rock fact!

[Laughter].

Ian: So the reason I say that is because I just–I've been watching so much of that sort of like, positive, positively thinking, unsinkable, you know, like young guy main character.

Mayanna: Monkey D Luffy.

Ian: Yes, Luffy, Naruto, all of these–all of these people. [Agreement]. Just as a vibe, I think I'm just getting, like, young baker. [Excitement]. Young baker, who has huge dreams–

Mayanna: Aw.

Ian: –of one day making it into the Constellation. Yeah, maybe becoming like, because if you're a baker on the ground, maybe you think one day you'll get to be like, head baker of all the bakers.

Mayanna: So Cecilia is senpai?

Ian: Yeah.

Mayanna: It’s like, “Cecilia, Cecilia. Oh my god.”

Mischa: “Can I come with you this time? Oh my god, please.”

Ian: Yeah.

Mischa: “Oh my god, she noticed me.”

Ian: Exactly.

Lyn: Wow.

Bex: “Notice me, senpai.”

Ian: Yeah. Yep. Yes.

Mischa: Cool. I love that.

Bex: Call Cecilia “Cece”.

Mischa: So do you–

Mayanna: “Cece!” “Don't call me that.”

Mischa: : So do you make bread? Are you like a chef who's trying to perfect their craft? Are you a farmer with big goals? Are you like a businessman trapped in a farmer's place?

Ian: I think I'm a junior baker.

Mayanna: Aw, I love it.

Ian: The thing I think the yep, yes, yesing was I–I didn't want to set this rule, but like, let's say everyone in this world wore colored–that metaphor I keep coming back to–colored coats, depending on what they do.

Mischa: Sure.

Ian: This baker does not have a coat. This bakerhas an apron that's always covered in flour.

[Aws].

Mischa: Got it.

Mayanna: Adorable. He's got a little flour on his nose.

Ian: Yeah. Who's the other–who's the guy? The male character from Kiki's Delivery Service?

Mayanna: Oh, Tombo.

Lyn: Tombo.

Bex: Tombo.

Ian: It's very Tombo energy. I've never Tombo'd in a campaign before.

Mayanna: I love that.

Ian: Yeah.

Mischa: Sure. That sounds great.

Ian: Yeah. Tombo-ing sounds fun.

Mayanna: That's so fun.

Mischa: Continue to use that man's name as a verb. I love it so much, actually.

Mayanna: People should. Yeah. Don't, don't disrespect the name.

Bex: You should Tombo more often.

Mayanna: Put some respect on the name.

Ian: Tombo’s gonna Tombo.

Mischa: I love that. That's great.

Mayanna: I think I want to do a character who is like a waitress in the Barra district, and she has aspirations to either be like a designer of some kind. She wants to make the spell thingies. But the closest she can get is old man guy. [Laughter]. So she, after her shifts, she'll like come and check on him and make sure he's like drinking water. But then she also like asks him about his time making spells. And she'll bring little prototypes and like, things to him and get his critiques. And I think her dream is to be like one of the best spell crafters the world has ever seen.

[Oohs].

Ian: He's hanging out with old man Thorgunn,

Mayanna: Old man Torgaan. And she's just–she's wiping tables and dealing with drunk college kids, and–

Mischa: I love that.

Mayanna: –barely getting any sleep. But she–she just wants to make spells and…

Lyn: How old is she? Is she also like college age?

Mayanna: Yeah, I think she–I think she–yeah, she couldn't afford it or like, she just chose not to do it. So it's people her age who are like, “I don't see you on campus.” And she was like, “you wouldn't!” [Laughter]. “Please don't throw up again.”

Mischa: Okay.

Lyn: I love the youthful energy that's happening. It's all seemingly young that's happening.

Ian: Young, sexy teens?

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Yeah! Gossip Girl!

Lyn: Gossip Girl!

Ian: Let's just do Gossip Girl.

Mayanna: Gossip Girl!

Mischa: The Constellation's really a fifth character of the show.

Ian: We spent four hours building this world. We interact with absolutely none of it. And we just do like–

Lyn: Gossip Girl.

Ian: –an hourly Gossip Girl show–

Lyn: That would be so funny.

Ian: – in this world.

Mischa: I hate that.

[Laughter].

Ian: So much strife but we–

Mayanna: (Excitedly) We can get Penn Badgley, he does podcasts now!

[Laughter].

Lyn: So yeah, I, I, I love the youthful energy, I'll stick with that.

Mischa: Okay.

Lyn: I'm still formulating it in my head, but I think it's like–the aspiration what you're put into are not the same. So like, it's probably someone who committed to a track in the Come-Up and has realized kind of late in the game, “this is not what I want to do.”

Mayanna: Oof, brutal.

Lyn: This might be like–maybe too strong of a parallel to this actual universe that we live in, but like, someone was like, “Oh, like STEM is the way to go.”

Mayanna: Yeah, “you gotta do STEM.”

Lyn: Like–like that–”that's what you got to do. STEM. That's your way up. That's your way up. That's your way up.” And once the Heart fell was like–

Mischa: Oh, I love–please interact with the events that have happened already in the game.

Lyn: Yeah. And I think it's like the idea of like, but people are still like pushing STEM and everything's, like– the Heart fell. Like, is that a failure of these engineers? Is that the failure of STEM? But like at the end of the day, it's like, no, that's a failure of the Heart. Like people are–After the events of like the student uprising, et cetera, just like, no, people got hurt and everyone's focusing on security and no one's taking care of the people after.

Mischa: Yeah.

Lyn: That's like, oh, I put all of my energy towards like engineering and everything. That's like, the aspiration that was handed to me. That's now my obligation. Where it's like, you know, the point was to help people. And right now the help that needs happening–

Mischa: Yeah.

Lyn: That's not...language.

Mayanna: The happen happened.

Lyn: The happening happened.The happening happens. If something else bad happens, we don't have healers anymore.

Mischa: Yeah.

Mayanna: Ooh.

Lyn: And like, that's kind of like, is it all going to come down? When will it all come down? Kind of this unanswered question for my character is, when all the soldiers and the healers are gone, what happens when the next big thing happens?

Mischa: Yeah.

Lyn: I don't want to be a soldier.

Mischa: And there, there's also something to, you know, like, your parents, or like who–the forces upon you in your early days were like, “the way to get to the Constellation? There's an easy way. The Constellation always needs people in the Core, in the Engineering Core. You need to maintain their–if you were there to maintain infrastructure, they will always need you.”

Lyn: “They’ll always keep you around.”

Mischa: And then–and then, It sounds like at some point you might have had a change of heart of like, “actually the important infrastructure here is the people because the people can repair the infrastructure.”

Mayanna: Yeah. Absolutely.

Mischa: The people are the actual infrastructure of the city. And I was told wrong.

Lyn: And I think, weirdly, my character is in love with Gwendoline Christie.[Cheers]. But I think that's like–the thing is like–sees this person, and that–that can be something that can crack later on, but I think there's an opportunity there of like, “oh, I see someone who is very professional, who does care about the future, but ultimately, the future to this person is the people.”

Mischa: Yeah.

Lyn: Like, is in control of where people are placed, how they're taken care of, what they learn, what they do. That role should be the– person in charge of people and they work–

Mayanna: Do they work closely with Gwen?

Lyn: Maybe. Probably works in student affairs, like takes the part time job at the phonathon, you know? (Mumbles) I'm really maybe, talking about my own friends.

Mischa: Maybe uses that as their like work hours, even though everyone else in the STEM job are taking–

Lyn: They're doing labs.

Mayanna: They’re taking labs and you’re doing admin.

Mischa: Yeah, you're working–Wait, yeah, and–and maybe they judge you a little for that?

Lyn: Yeah, it's like admin or even like–

Mayanna: Her assistant.

[Excitement].

Mischa: We could do that.

Mayanna: Part time assistant.

Lyn: No, I think there's something there. That's like, either through like a healing track–like a healer track or something else that's like– Or maybe there's like, there's a track missing.

Mayanna: Gwen–Gwen's not an idiot. Gwen's like, “why are you doing, why are you doing this still? Like, you've long since exceeded your hours. Like, you, you're barely taking classes.”

Lyn: I think this would be a very interesting point of view to bring a cleric. [Agreement]. Where it’s like–

Mischa: Clerics can be anything.

Lyn: Yeah, it can be anything. But I think like, this would be a very interesting way of like, instead of like the god-based system, tt's like what I was talking about earlier, like, Oh, a person is representative of a value. Like, this might be how I commune with that.

[Agreement].

Bex: That's gorgeous. I kind of started thinking about warden. Of being like– being raised to be a leader, maybe it was a military leader. And not–and wanting to be like, “if I have to be part of this machine, I want to support. I want to help. I don't want to attack. I want to support.”

Mischa: Yeah. Warden is the class from Valda’s, which is very much like, tank and, you know, sentinel movement, protecting other people, standing in the way of harm.

Mayanna: Amazing.

Mischa: I–I–I don't know if you can come from a military background–

Lyn: Because there’s no military.

Mischa: But maybe a military family. And they said, “you don't have to do the military cause it doesn't exist, but we have great expectations for you.” [Agreement]. Cause people who are five star generals have great expectations of the children.

Lyn: I think thats–

Bex: Started as a Nepo baby. [Agreement]. I don't want this.

Lyn: It's probably someone who's like, “no, you're going into finance. Like that's the next route. Like we're strategic mindsets. We have power. You should have domain and dominion over other people in this world. It's finance, baby.”

Bex: Yeah. And I don't want power over people. I want to support people. Yeah.

Lyn: Right. You'll be put in the econ track.

Bex: Yeah.

Mayanna: That’s so funny.

Ian: And because it's such a stratified system, like you still–even if it's going to be fine for you when you get out of school–like, you still have to start at the bottom rung. [Agreement]. So you're–you're at this apprentice type position or something.

[Agreement].

Mischa: I think the only question left is kind of like how y'all know each other? Like, what do we want the party to be and how did–how did y'all get together? And we can–we can–

Bex: Are we all in the Come-Up?

Mayanna: Um…

Mischa: No

Mayanna: I’m in–

Bex: Oh, okay.

Mischa: Only two of you.

Mayanna: –the party district. But the party district–did we say the party district was on the ground?

Mischa: Yeah.

Mayanna: Yeah. So, okay. So that's great.

Mischa: And the–the coolest part about like, Did You Say Street Magic? is it's really– it talks about like concepts, but it doesn't tell you to make a map. So the–like, the Come-Up can be right next to the Barra.

Mayanna: Yeah! That makes sense.

Mischa: Like, there's no–they can be adjacent.

Lyn: That would make sense.

Bex: That would make so much sense.

Mayanna: I think then my–

Bex: That’d be perfect for the students.

Mischa: Yeah.

Mayanna: I think my character is friends with Cecilia. And so that's how I know you, because we're around the same age. [Agreement]. And I'm sure she knows that I'm very poor. So she probably brings me food.

[Aws].

Mischa: What kind of restaurant is it?

Mayanna: Oh, the restaurant where I work? I think it's a like–it's like a BJ's. [Laughter]. It's like, pizookies. You sing for people's birthday.

Mischa: Oh, terrible.

Mayanna: But it's like a–but it's like a–it tries to look cool. It's like a cool BJ's. [Laughter]. So people go there, they get the giant fishbowl drink. They–there's like karaoke Wednesdays.

[Laughter].

Ian: But the floor's a little sticky.

Mayanna: The floor's a little–they're always a little sticky, yeah, and like you have to be super nice. You have to be so nice.

Lyn: I'm imagining truly a Red Robin.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: Yeah, like a Red Robin. Yeah yeah. But with dimmer lights.

Mischa: I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask some questions and then I'm gonna make a pitch. How do you know Cecilia?

Mayanna: How do I know Cecilia? Ooh. I think I know Cecilia because she came in with her family one time.

Mischa: Okay.

Mayanna: And it was–it was weird. I usually don't see Edge types in our establishment, and I think maybe it was like someone's birthday and they thought it would be like a–like they were like, “let's try Vegas.”

Mischa: Yeah.

Mayanna: And it was–they were like, “we don't like Vegas.” But she–she–I could tell that she and I had like a banter. And it was one of those things where I was like–I was on break and I was just like, “do you want to hang out? Like, do you want to just like chat for a little bit?” And then, so, you know, I'll–I'll try and go out and see her sometimes whenever she's, you know, working or whatever, she'll come visit me every once in a while and bring me some extra bread.

Lyn: So like, you and her–

Mischa: So I–

Lyn: Oh sorry.

Mischa: So I want to play this.

Mayanna: Yes.

Mischa: That night, when you guys are like, hanging out, and she's like

[SFX: Soundscape in alleyway]

Mischa (Cecilia): By the way, your–your like–Sandwich? Really good. Bread? Terrible.

Mayanna (Character): Yeah, oh.

Mischa (Cecilia): My younger brother actually like, kind of needs a way to prove himself. Do you like–do you guys want to like, set up–

Mayanna (Character): A new bread purveyor?

Mischa (Cecilia): Yeah.

Mayanna (Character): Yes, I would love that. I hate the sandwiches here.

Mischa: And so–

Ian: And then as she says that, like, I literally fall out of the alleyway [SFX: crashing] like, four blocks down, being like–

Ian (Character): Hey, Cecilia! I found this like, cool place down the block!

[Laughter.]

Bex: And a puff of flour comes up.

Ian: Knocking so many metal trashcans over. [SFX: so much crashing].

Lyn: Like–like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown.

Mischa: (laughing) But with flour!

Mayanna: Yes, oh my god, that's so funny.

Ian: With my hard sole shoes click clacking on the cobblestones as I run towards you guys. [SFX: footsteps].

Ian (Character): I found this other thing over here!

Mayanna: That's so funny.

Mischa (Cecilia): Oh, cause… do you–

Ian (Character): Oh, hi!

Mayanna (Character): Hi! How's it going?

Mischa (Cecilia): They desperately need better bread.

Mayanna (Character): Yeah. Do you make bread?

Ian (Character): (Scoffs). (Sarcastically) Do I make bread?

Mayanna (Character): (Seriously) Do you?

Ian (Character): Oh, yeah, no, I make a lot of bread.

Mayanna (Character): Okay, awesome, awesome. Okay, cool, I'll introduce you to the–Well, he's–he's a–he's a little angry guy. So I'm gonna–I'm gonna go like set–I'll set the scene for him, and then you come in.

[SFX: Whoosh to restaurant interior].

Mischa (Boss): (Hoarse voice) I don't care where the bread comes from, does it cost me more money?

Mayanna (Character): No, I think it'll be about comparable.

Mischa (Boss): Fine, take care of it.

[SFX: Door close, back to exterior]

Mayanna (Character): Okay, thank you. Alright, you're hired.

Ian (Character): Thank you so much!

Mayanna (Character): You're so welcome.

Ian (Character): Whoa!

[SFX: Soundscape ends].

Mischa: Great. That's how you know each other.

Bex: Magic.

Lyn: I love the idea that you and Cecilia were on, like, your respective smoke breaks.

Mayanna: Yeah, exactly.

Lyn: Specifically, like, Cecilia is just like–

Mischa: Well, Cecilia needs smoke breaks from the rest of her family.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: “I have to take a cigarette outside because you are too loud.”

Ian: I would pitch–so is it that I'm baking bread in the BJ's or am I delivering our bread to the BJ's?

Mischa: No, I think–in my mind, it was you're baking your bread wherever you bake them.

Ian: And then bringing them.

Mayanna: At your bakery.

Mischa: Part of it, one of your clients is this restaurant.

Ian: Yes. Yeah, we are–you and I are caught up.

Lyn: You have your own route.

Ian: Yeah. Yes. Right. Right.

Mayanna: And the restaurant? Senor Frogs. No. [Laughter]. Senior Bogs!

Lyn: Bogs?

Bex: No.

[Laughter].

Mischa: There is something to Boggins.

[Overlapping repetition]

Mayanna: I like Boggins.

Bex: Toboggans.

Mayanna: Boggins.

Bex: Let's go to Boggins.

Lyn: Boggins Bistro!

Mayanna: Boggins Bistro. Boggins Bistro.

Mischa: And not–it does not deserve “Bistro.”

Mayanna: It does not – Bistro, I don't know how we–

Ian: Bistro's spelled wrong.

Mayanna: Yeah, it's spelled–

Lyn: It's Beast.

Mayanna: B-E–

Bex: A

Mayanna: –E-S-T-R-O. Bee-stro!

Mischa: Is there a mascot?

Lyn: Absolutely.

Mayanna: Yes! It's a giant bee. Boggins Bee-stro.

Mischa: And thank goodness you don't have to wear the costume anymore.

Mayanna: I–I know. I really–

Bex: Anymore!

Mayanna: I know. Anymore. I–I–I've been here long enough that now the–it's whoever's the newest has to wear the costume.

[Agreement].

Ian: That's the costume–that's the bee costume where the stinger is on a spring, so wherever you're moving, the stinger's just constantly boinging.

Mayanna: It’s like boing boing boing boing boing boing.

Bex: Can that be my new job? [Laughter].

Mischa: Do you want it?

Bex: Can that be my new job? That's how I know you.

Mayanna: Are you Boggins’ bee? You're Boggins’ bee?

Bex: I'm Boggins’ bee

Ian: Wait, on the weekends? Like when you're not–

Bex: On the weekends, I’m Boggins’ bee.

Mayanna: Oh my god.

Lyn: While I say “Boggins’ bee” in my head, I'm going “Beebo Boggins.”

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Beebo Boggins!

Bex: You be Boggins!

Ian: Why–why are you–why do you keep coming down to the surface on the weekends?

Bex: I don't. I don't come down. I live on the surface.

Mayanna: You live here.

Mischa: Oh, Bex is in the Come-Up.

Bex: I live in the come up. I moved down.

Ian: Oh. I keep thinking the come up is up there too.

Mischa: No.

Ian: So we're all down– yeah okay.

Mischa: Constellation up here. Engineering Core up here. Down below: Entertainment District, Come-Up, the Edge.

Ian: Got it.

Mayanna: The only people we know who go to the Constellation are Cecilia and your family.

Bex: And speaking of that, I don't have debts, but I have obligations to family.

Mischa: Yeah.

Bex: I'm a Nepo baby.

Mischa: Yeah.So when I was talking about debts, I do mean abstractly as well.

[Recognition].

Bex: I have debts to my family.

Ian: That was the question that I immediately–

Mayanna: You have to do the Gilmore Girls rule, which is you have dinner with them every Friday night.

Bex: Truly. It's Shabbat.

Ian: What does your family think about you being the, the bistro bee?

Bex: Oh, they hate it.

Lyn: I was going to say, do they know?

Bex: One sibling knows. Parents do not know. Extended family does not know. Only this sibling knows, and this sibling has been sworn to secrecy, and they only know because they happened to be there–

Mayanna: Yes!

Ian: To be there?

Bex: –on that weekend.

Mayanna: To bee there.

Lyn: Oh, so you're both pointing– you're both Spider Man going–

Bex: Yeah. I'll tell that you were there.

Mayanna: Yeah. Yeah, that's great.

Lyn: (Mockingly) What were you doing at the devil's sacrament?

[Laughter].

Bex: It's like, I live right next door, I go to college, and I want to be part of the community. And the best way to do that as a nepo baby is to, like, join the workforce.

Lyn: Oh, that seems really like the other NYU kids that I knew that like, got part time jobs. I'm like, “you don't need this.”

Mischa: But also–

Lyn: “Leave some for the rest of us.”

Mischa: I think there's also something to like, that's why you have no context for how shitty a job this is going to be before you take it.

Bex: None whatsoever.

Mayanna: Oh yeah, you're like, this is an acting role.

Ian: So you still hate it? It still sucks?

Bex: Yeah, I think there's–there's like a piece of me that's like, trying to be optimistic about it, but it's–it's the worst job in this terrible restaurant.

Mayanna:It's awful. It's not fun at all. I feel bad for you.

Lyn: I want everyone to know that I've been thinking of the Jollibee mascot this whole time.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: Yeah. Yeah.

Lyn: It's like that.

Bex: With the gloves.

Mayanna: People take pictures with you.

Lyn: Yeah I mostly–

Mischa: And it’s got big–because it's in the entertainment district–big anime eyes.

Mayanna: Big anime eyes.

Lyn: Yeah. But I'm also imagining all the videos I've seen of like the Jollibee mascot busting it down. Like, that's kind of like a prerequisite for people who get hired for that role.

Mayanna: Those like Elsa–those Elsa dance videos.

Bex: I think I discovered like, that side of me, like being able to put on the thing and not have anybody know who I am just unleashed an aspect to like being able to actually be a dancing bee.

Mayanna: Yes. And also it's humbling because people treat you very differently.

Lyn: Humbling and bumbling.

Mayanna: Humbling and bumbling.

Ian: Oh Jesus.

Lyn: There we go! There's mine!

[Laughter.]

Mayanna: You are so good at making honey rolls now. It's ridiculous.

Bex: Yes.

Ian: Oh, honey rolls.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Ian: I thought you meant dice rolls.

Mayanna: No. No.

Ian: And I was like, explain.

[Laughter].

Mischa: No, no, no, You're a baker.

Ian: 100 percent. Which, which leads me to this question. We were talking about classes earlier?

Mischa: Yeah.

Ian: Could–could you be a bard class, but it's not music that you're playing, it's bread and food?

Mayanna: It's bread dough?

Mischa: Okay, so yes, I–Constantly in Dungeons & Dragons games, I'm always trying to figure out how to play a chef character.

Mayanna: I love that.

Mischa: I love it.

Ian: We got one, baby.

Mischa: Really? Well, so here's the thing. I think–I think the best way to do it actually is to become–one of the things in D&D is a background which is separate from class, and you can be a guild artisan background as a cook.

Mayanna: Yes. Yes.

Ian: Okay.

Mischa: It gives you enough benefits where like, at a short rest, you can cook meals for everybody and like, you can have items in your inventory that like, you can–can buff people.

Mayanna: I love it.

Mischa: But like trying to do a chef class where you like build in crafting things as part of the class, like it gets a little complex.

Lyn: What could be interesting would be working with, what is it? Alchemist? In Valda’s?

Mayanna: Artificer?

Mischa: Oh, alchemist!

Lyn: And by like–I mean, baking is chemistry.

Mayanna: Yeah. You make bread in the shape of a shield and it gives you like Mage Armor.

Ian: (Sputters).

Lyn: Oh, that's so cute.

Mischa: That's pretty good.

Lyn: That's cute as hell.

Mayanna: Like the little–little–little rolls are shaped in whatever thing they do.

Mischa: Yeah. Which means you definitely have. Like, a materia sphere in, like, your KitchenAid.

[Cheers].

Ian: Oh, for sure.

Mayanna: Oh, I love that.

Ian: 100 percent.

Bex: That's sick.

Mayanna: That's so fun.

Lyn: That's so cute. I like the idea of your backpack as being like, a miniature oven.

Mayanna: Oh, cute! Yeah, so you can cook on the go!

Ian: Yeah, and the reason I was thinking about it was–I think what y'all talking about is much more mechanically sound. The reason I was thinking about it in terms of bard stuff is instead of playing music, it would be like you pull the thing out and you make a quick meal or something.

Mayanna: Yes.

Mischa: Yes, absolutely.

Ian: Do you know what I mean?

Mayanna: And the clanking–

Ian: The pots and pans.

Mayanna: –of the–the metals and yeah.

Mischa: Yeah. There is a–there is a College of Creation bard, but it doesn't do a great job if you're trying to do food out of it. Like it doesn't quite mesh as well.

Mayanna: I think Alchemist makes sense.

Mischa: I'm looking at the Alchemist subclasses real quick.

Ian: I'm going to trust the group on this one.

Bex: Does Valda’s have an alchemist subclass?

Lyn: That’s what–

Mischa: Yeah, well–it has a full alchemist class. And the subclasses are–they're, , Love Potion Guy, Apothecary, Dynamo Engineer–

Lyn: Is that bombs?

Mischa: –which kind of just sounds like the whole world. There's a Bomber. There's a Mutagenist, which you inject mutagens. It's like BioShock.

Mayanna: Oh my god.

Ian: That's how I do all my cooking.

Mayanna: That’s so funny.

Mischa: Yeah. So you like splice people. There–you can be an Ooze Rancher alchemist.

Mayanna: Oh, that's hilarious.

Ian: Also how I do my cooking.

Mischa: There's a poisons guy. And then there's–yeah, the Xeno alchemist, which is monster surgery. [Whoas.] I think–

Lyn: Ooze rancher, but the ooze is dough?

Mischa: I think he could be an apothecary alchemist and like–

Ian: Yeah. Let’s experiment with that.

Mischa: Yeah, you can give that a shot. That'd be fun.

Ian: Yeah. That's cool too. Cause I'm always afraid of playing a bard. Cause I just feel like I'm going to get absolutely rocked in every immediate conflict.

Mischa: Well, yeah. And the best part about the alchemist is like, yes, you specialize, but the base alchemist thing is you make bombs.

Ian: Yeah yeah yeah/

Mayanna: Your bread can explode.

Ian: Bread bombs?

Bex: Bread bombs!

Ian: Bombs–bombs for your insides. Bombs for the outside.

Bex: It's bomb. In many different ways

[Cheers].

Ian: I knew there was something there.

Lyn:There it is.

Mischa: No pressure, but do you have any thoughts about your class?

Mayanna: I was, I was thinking craftsman.

Mischa: Yeah. That makes sense, because you wanted to be a designer.

Mayanna: Yeah. I want to be a designer. I want to make magic–the magic crystal thingies. I don't know about subclass though. Any thoughts there? Any recommendations?

Mischa: Well, you're not making a mech.

Mayanna: No.

[Laughter].

Ian: Could though.

Mischa: So not that one.

Ian: I’m just saying. If we're following the–the escalating rules of anime by the end–

Mayanna: Then we will have a mech made out of bread.

Mayanna: Listen, this is a new podcast and we are swinging to D&D for our first one, so we can reach a broad audience. But like, if you think I'm not considering how to make a mech anime for season two? [Recognition]. Like I played all of 13 Sentinels very fast.

Mayanna: I love that. Ooh, very fun.

Mischa: Let's see. What are the–what are the craftsman subclasses?

Mayanna: Let me see, I have the book.

Mischa: Turning items into magic items seems fairly basic enough. Armorsmiths, Weaponsmiths. Gunsmiths. There's a subclass that you carry a portable forge with you, which means you can add flame–fire damage to your stuff.

Mayanna: Oh, fun!

Mischa: So like, you have like, and you–a portable forge that you bring with you.

Mayanna: I think Armorsmith. But can it be like fashion designers?

Mischa: Absolutely.

[Excitement].

Bex: That would be so sick!

Mayanna: Oh, thank you!

Lyn: I mean that–I mean, a bunch of the history in our world of military craftsmen did start most of our fashion houses.

Mayanna: Yeah, exactly. So I think she wants to be in like, House of Yves or whatever it is. Like, she's so bad.

Bex: Saint Laurent.

Mayanna: Donatella Bear-sace (rhymes with Versace), and she's a bear.

[Laughter].

Mischa: (Laughing) Oh my god.

Bex: Bear sace (rhymes with mace).

Mischa: That's so good.

Mayanna: She's like–all she wants is to just be in one of these big houses, and she makes these designs, and she brings them to this old man, cause–and he's like,”eh? Is this anything?” And he's like, “I don't know. I don't know. I'm out of the game.” You're like, “okay.”

[SFX: soundscape in a game parlor]

Mischa (Thorgunn): What's with all the frou frou bits on the edge?

Mayanna (Character): It's–it's for style. It's–it's, you know, it's for movement.

Mischa (Thorgunn) It's gonna get caught on your sleeves.

Mayanna (Character): These are the sleeves.

Mischa (Thorgunn): These are the sleeves?

Mayanna (Character): These are the sleeves!

Mischa (Thorgunn): So drafty!

Mayanna (Character): It flows when you walk! It gives you like an intimidation factor.

Bex: Plus two to intimidation.

Lyn: The silhouette!

[Laughter].

Mischa (Thorgunn) I'll give you something to intimidate about.

Mayanna (Character): Oh my god. Eat your food!

[Laughter]. [SFX: Soundscape ends].

Lyn: You're also bringing him day-olds.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Mischa: Have you ever played a craftsman before?

Mayanna: (negative) Uh-uh.

Mischa: Okay, it's a little complicated.

Mayanna: Okay, okay.

Mischa: Mechanically.

Mayanna: Okay.

Mischa: Is that cool?

Mayanna: Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. We'll talk about it. I'll do some reading.

Mischa: I'm here to help.

Mayanna: Okay, great.

Mischa: Okay, amazing. It–it gets into like systems of like crafting custom items with a tag system.

Mayanna: Whoa, what's that?

Mischa: Where you add like “durable” or “overheating” to like items. And then that has mechanical benefit.

Lyn: “Burst,” et cetera.

Mayanna: Oh, cool. Okay. That sounds fun.

Mischa: Yeah.

Mayanna: Hell yeah.

Bex: It also sounds fun with the world we've built to be able to just– crystals on crystals on crystals.

Mayanna: Yeah, yeah, yeah. For combat-wise, would that be–that probably would not be a good combat character?

Mischa: It's a martial class.

Mayanna: Okay. Okay, cool.

Mischa: It tends to be like. On your off time, you're making the thing, and then in combat, you use the thing.

Mayanna: Use the thing you made. Okay, sick! I love that. That's great.

Mischa: Neato.

Mayanna: Yay!

Bex: So we've got some heavy martial here and magic.

Mischa: Yeah, there's martial.

Mayanna: And cleric.

Mischa: There's a good–there's a decent spread. [Agreement]. I really like it. Have we answered all these questions? I believe we have. I also, you know–

Ian: How do we know–

Lyn: Oh, me. Oh, yeah. Well, I go to school with you.

Bex: Yep.

Mayanna: Nice.

Bex: I trust you.

Lyn: I'm from the surface, I'm not from the Constellation. So I, unfortunately, probably have been to Boggins’ Bistro a couple times.

Mayanna: Boggins’ Bistro. And I give you guys the discount at this point, because you work there, so you get the discount, you get the discount, you get the discount.

Lyn: And I'm there because I'm actually broke. [Laughter]. I'm like, the portions here are unreal.

Mayanna: Yeah, it's a Cheesecake Factory, basically.

Lyn: Oh, it's like a Cheesecake Factory!

Mischa: Are you the person who got Bex's character the job? Because you were a regular?

Bex: Yes.

Mischa: They said they wanted to serve. They're like, “they always need a bee at the bistro.”

Bex (Character): Yeah, I can do that on weekends.

Mayanna: People quit constantly.

Lyn: Yeah, turnover is pretty wild.

Mayanna: I think it is the–

Bex: I wonder why?

Mayanna: –it is the aesthetics of a Cheesecake Factory. So it's opulence, but like.

Bex: With those eyes of Sauron on the wall.

Mayanna: Yeah! [Laughter]. It's like–it's opulence, but it's like so ridiculous. It's like what we think the Constellation looks like.

Mischa: Yes!

Lyn: I am imagining a weird combination of Cheesecake Factory and Dave and Buster's.

Mayanna: Yes, exactly. [Laughter]. There are arcade games. There is karaoke.

Bex: I love this.

Mayanna: There–yeah. It's like three floors of spiraling tables. t's comical. It's exhausting.

Lyn: Honestly, it's a Hard Rock Cafe.

Mayanna: It's a Hard Rock Cafe! [Laughter]. I–if I could work anywhere else, I would.

[Agreement].

Lyn: No, it is actually a Hard Rock Cafe.

Mayanna: It’s a Hard Rock Cafe.

Lyn: That’s literally what this is now. I was like, Hard Rock Cafes is the combination Cheesecake Factory and Dave and Busters.

Mayanna: Yes exactly.

Lyn: Oh my god.

Mayanna: Absolutely.

Mischa: What were you gonna say?

Ian: Two things. One, is it a busy restaurant or not?

Mayanna: I think it's a very busy restaurant.

Ian: Horrifying.

Mayanna: I think it's–I think it's, a Cheesecake–it's like the Cheesecake Factory at the Americana. It's like–

[Disgust].

Bex: (Horrified) Oh god.

[Laughter].

Bex: Visceral reactions from everyone at the table.

Ian: And then–

Mayanna: Oh man, yeah?

Ian: And then two, so we all basically work at that place in some capacity except for Lyn. And Lyn's a regular. [Agreement]. So it's–is the Bistro like, literally where we hang out most of the time?

Lyn: Is it our headquarters?

Mayanna: Oh yeah, that's our HQ for sure.

Bex: Bistro is base.

Mischa: Well, certainly in episode one.

Mayanna: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where we all hang out. Yeah, it's like you come see me. I give you like, the discount on top of the discount. When we're all on break, we chill. You're bringing the bread, and you just hang. You–and–and you're like studying the experts, and you're–you're like, testing out the menu and whatever. I'm like, “you've tried everything on the menu. Like there's nothing more you can learn here.”

Lyn: I feel like the reason why you like me is one time I went to study for some reason and you're like, “what are you doing here?” And I'm like,

[SFX: soundscape of restaurant interior]

Lyn (Character): This is one of the few places open late that sells coffee.

Mayanna (Character): That's so fair. That's so fair. It is so loud.

Lyn (Character): Yeah.

Mayanna (Character): Can I do anything about that for you?

Lyn (Character): I dont–

Mayanna (Character): I made these ear muffs. Do you want them?

Lyn (Character): (Stammers) I love that. Sure. (Laughing).

Ian (Character): Guys, I've been experimenting with bread muffs.

Mayanna (Character): Oh, that's… That's great. I'll take those. I'll–I'll–Thank you so much.

Ian (Character): Here you go.

Mayanna (Character): Ooh, they sound…warm.

Ian (Character): Right? Just out of the oven.

Bex (Character): (Distantly) Guys, my bee head's all backwards. I can’t see anything!

Mayanna (Character): Oh my god. I gotta go. I gotta go fix the bee's head. (Under breath) God damn it.

[SFX: End soundscape]

Mischa: And as Dungeons & Dragons is a game about epic heroes, these are the four.. Fuckers who are gonna save the world.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Oh my god.

Lyn: Gotta start at a low level!

Ian: (Muffled, while chewing) Alright, what were you saying? I’m just eating a muffin over here. (Swallows).

[Laughter].

Mischa: Wow, we did it. [Cheers]. We made a world. We made some characters. I'm gonna send y'all home with homework to fill out your mechanics, and I'm here to help, but I think that's what it's gonna be.

[SFX: Start ending music cues]

Mayanna: I love that.

Mischa: And I’m excited to throw you guys into it.

[Cheers].

Mischa: Thanks so much, everyone. This is gonna be such a cool show, you guys.

[Cheers].

Mayanna: So excited!

[SFX: Ending theme music]

Mischa: The Wandering Path was created by me, Mischa Stanton, and produced by Bex Taylor-Klaus, Lyn Rafil, and me. This story was game mastered and sound designed by me, Mischa Stanton, and was played and performed by Bex Taylor-Klaus, Lyn Rafil, Ian McQuown, and Mayanna Berrin. Cover art by Lyn Rafil, and music courtesy of the Independent Music Licensing Collective. Our production and house manager is Erin Bark. If you like what you're listening to, please tell your friends and let them know where to find us. Our website is wanderingpathpod.com, where you'll find links to subscribe and follow us on Twitter. We're also on Patreon: patreon.com/wanderingpathpod. We're so grateful for anything you can do to help us keep making this show. Thanks for wandering with us. Till next time!