1.00 Worldbuilding, Part 1

Meet GM Mischa & players Bex, Lyn, Ian & Mayanna! Hang out with us, get to know us a little. We’ll pick some of our favorite vibes, we’ll decide what kind of story we want to tell, and we’ll start sketching the outlines of our world. 

-- 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 —

[Theme Music]

Mischa: Hello and welcome to The Wandering Path.

All: Hi!

Mischa: Thank you so much for joining us for our first story and for these inaugural world building episodes. We are so excited to create something for you. I'm Mischa Stanton. I'm gonna be running our first game.

Mayanna: Yay!

Bex: Woo!

Mischa: I have podcasted for a long time and run games for a long time and only done them together now.

So, we'll see how it goes.

Bex: It's been a long time coming.

Lyn: Truly.

Mischa: I think so. That's probably true. [Laughter]. Can we go around and just do a quick intro?

Mayanna: Yes. Hi. I am Mayanna Berrin. I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons since college and I–

Mischa: Hold for sirens.

Mayanna: Yeah. Alright.

Ian: Hold please.

Mischa: We made the apartment sounds so good, but living next to a fire station, nothing we can do about it.

Mayanna: That's brutal. That's brutal.

Mischa: It's cool. Go ahead.

Mayanna: I do live plays. I do, I'm doing Vampire and, and I, and I like dogs.

Ian: Nice.

Mayanna: That's me.

Mischa: Excellent.

Lyn: Solid.

Mischa: Good to know.

[Laughter].

Bex: Hi, I'm Bex. I am an actor and a menace. I've been doing some actual play stuff. I played a little bit of Vampire stuff, but mostly I just do it with my friends. And now I'm excited to do it with my friends and record it!

[Cheers].

Lyn: I'm Lyn Rafil. I am not an actor in the slightest.

Mischa: You are now!

Lyn: But I am now!

Bex: Yeah baby!

Ian: One of us!

[Chanting]. One of us!

Lyn: I have, been surrounding myself with actors and podcasters for many years, though. So it was also a long time coming. I've been playing tabletop games for... oh, a long time now. I did not, I was like, "since college" and then I was like, "oh, I don't wanna do the math on when college now."

Mayanna: Yeah no. You don’t have to. I wouldn’t.

Mischa: Danger.

Bex: I didn't go to college.

Mayanna: Oh, cool.

Mischa: Nice!

[Cheers].

Lyn: I love games. I love storytelling. I love friends and I mean, I invested in this microphone, so I guess I have to use it now.

[Laughter].

Ian: Truer words were never said.

[Laughter].

Bex: Leans into his mic.

Ian: Hi, my name is Ian McQuown. I'm an actor. You may know me if you know Mischa's work from StarTripper–

Mischa: Woo!

Ian: –AKA Feston Pyxis. I've played tabletop games and Magic since I was like 10 at my local hobby shop with people who were 40 and chain smoking cigarettes outside and allowed a 10 year old to hang out with them. So that was wild. but I had actually never played D&D until the pandemic, where Mischa was my D&D Sherpa. Or, not D&D, live play.

Mischa: That was D&D.

Ian: D&D.

Mischa: Yeah, it was.

Ian: I don't know if we can say, can we say, is D&D gonna come after us–

Mischa: No.

Ian: –and try to take our podcast?

Mischa: No, that's part of the license. No, so we are gonna be playing Dungeons & Dragons for this first game.

Ian: Oh, great.

Mischa: Just to make sure everyone who happens to find this podcast knows part of the rules before they sit down. That we figured there was a pretty good chance of that. That said, I am a huge fan of hacking D&D, of putting other games in this game, of using third party modules, and even homebrewing some stuff, subclasses, spells, what have you, all of which is in service of the world. So let's talk about the world.

Mayanna: Yay!

Mischa: We're going to create a world live here on mic, and then we're going to populate it with characters and plot, and hopefully some moments that'll make you feel some things too. To start us off, I have a few questions here. I'm gonna read all of the questions first, and then we'll talk about it.

Ian: Kay.

Mischa: Question one. What's the tone? What are you hoping to see? I've asked you all to bring some vibes. To the table, ideas, statements, feelings, genres, or media properties, what vibes do you want to play and can we find a hook for our world?

Mischa: Question two, what do we not want to see? What are we tired and bored of, disinterested in, or unexcited about? What are some boundaries we have around some of the tones and vibes? What do we not like about the things we like?

Mischa: Question three, what is the scope of our game? Do we want to travel a continent, explore a cosmos, or focus in on one town or city?

Mischa: Question four, how populated is this world? Why do people band together? Why do people fight?

Mischa: Question five, what resources are scarce here? What resources are abundant? What economy exists to spread resources around, if any?

Mischa: Question six, what role does magic play in this world, if any? Technology. Religion. Government. I imagine since we're playing Dungeons & Dragons, magic will have some kind of presence in this world. Because Dungeons & Dragons is a ruleset that has magic in it. [Laughter]. That said, I've seen games that are like, yeah, we're a high tech environment and all of our little devices cause spells to occur. So we can play around with it.

Mischa: And question seven is, what are some unique challenges the society faces? How do people generally deal with them day to day? For example, I've played games where like it's an airship society, but, the ground is hella dangerous and there's horrible monsters down there.

Mayanna: Floor is lava?

Mischa: Yeah. So that could be a unique challenge.

Lyn: Oops, all lava.

Mischa: So yeah, does anybody have a place to start with that? Does anybody want to start with some vibes?

Ian: Oh, so we can pick any question on the list?

Mischa: You can pick any, any of these questions and we'll just talk about them. I just want to keep these questions in mind while we discuss the world. These are the focal points.

Mayanna: Have any of y'all played Tales of Symphonia?

Lyn: No, but I've seen some people play it.

Mayanna: There's two things I really like in Tales of Symphonia. It's a great game. It was on the GameCube. the first thing is that people are normal, but if they have special abilities, they have them because they have this thing called an Exsphere. It's a tiny little orb that you have to attach safely to your body. So it requires like a crest of some kind.

All: Ooh.

Mayanna: And you find out midway through the game, spoiler alert, that every Exsphere is a person's soul that has been harvested from a factory.

Bex: Whoa.

Mayanna: So every person who has a special ability or an Exsphere is carrying around the soul of someone that they may or may not know.

Mischa: Okay.

Mayanna: The second thing about the world is you start out in this continent called, or like a planet called Sylverant that is like waning in magic. And your job is to help like escort this religious person around to these temples to try and bring the magic back slowly. And what you discover is that there's actually a parallel planet that, is abundant with magic. And basically every cycle, one chosen has to pull the magic back to their world. They die. And then another chosen happens in the other world. And so they just keep going on these pilgrimages, constantly pulling and pushing magic. Yeah.

Lyn: Cool.

Mischa: That's like the most controversial part of the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime.

Mayanna: Oh, really?

Mischa: Where the energy for alchemy comes from deaths in a parallel world, which happens to be our world in the midst of like between World War I and World War II.

Mayanna: That is so funny. I love it.

Mischa: No one likes that ending except for me.

Mayanna: That sounds awesome.

Ian: I think that's an amazing ending.

Lyn: That sounds really cool. It actually perfectly sidelines into something that I really like, is the like, as far as magic and the role, I love stories where magic comes with a price.

Mayanna: Yes.

Lyn: It doesn't necessarily need to be something so grim, but just or even negative, but the idea that, magic isn't necessarily a finite resource, but is something that is a consequence of something else. I love stories in which magic has like a tangible essence to it that makes it a resource that you have to replenish or manufacture. Even if it's just like, oh, there's a realm in which magic is abundant. We like have to channel that realm.

Mayanna: Yeah!

Lyn: Either through like a sacrifice of our own body or by like Paying homage to that realm like with like fairy rules or something like that kind of stuff. I'm like if it's going to be a system where magic is a resource, which is what Dungeons & Dragons does, and by design D&D was supposed to be a magic scarce world and like the people who can utilize magic are very special for that reason. I also, I'm like, I don't need that kind of high fantasy where magic is that rare, but it should have like a consequence aspect to it.

Mischa: Well, I think that there's a way to make a world where like, convenience is abundant, where like, technology has sort of met the things that magic lacks, and so that like, nobody is really like, suffering for lack of magic, but that magic remains rare.

Lyn: Yeah.

Mischa: So like, people who don't have magic have other ways to get what they need.

Lyn: Like Legend of Korra.

Mischa: Yeah.

Mayanna: Yes. Yes.

Lyn: In my list of vibes, there's a lot of Avatar references.

Ian: I just also love that you said Legend of Korra and then everyone in their own little moment's like, “Oh, huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Korra, right.”

Bex: I mean, Legend of Korra is one of the vibes that I think I had down for this.

Mischa: Strong vibe. So, like, like magic technology. Like, like what's the level of technology? Is it cyberpunk far future? Or is it like we have, cars but not cell phones. One of my favorite period defining words that my friend Amanda McLoughlin from the podcast Join the Party came up with recently was setting something between 2002 and 2007, calling it PIPNE, which stands for " Pre-iPhone, Post 9-11."

[Overlapping sounds of recognition].

Ian: (Yelling) Oh my fucking God!

Lyn: I mean, that's,

Ian: (Yelling) Oh my God!

Mischa: It's such a specific time period though.

Mayanna: It really was. It really, really was.

Bex: I'm not even good with time and I can pinpoint that.

Lyn: So, I mean.

Mayanna: There were a lot of America pride songs. A lot of freedom fries.

Lyn: Yeah, this is very specific to, like, American capitalism in that era.

Mischa: Yeah. Well, we don't have to do that.

Lyn: But I'm just, I'm just really intrigued by that.

Mayanna: I do...

Lyn: I'm like, I'm about to write another paper.

Mayanna: ... weirdly like the idea, though, of a society that, like, just overcame something and they're like, weirdly, like emboldened now. They're like, "nothing's gonna stop us now. The worst thing that could happen has happened and now we're indestructible."

[Laughter]

Lyn: (Sarcastic) Nothing can go wrong!

Mayanna: (Sarcastic) Buddy. Right on.

Lyn: (Sarcastic) What could go wrong?

Mayanna: (Sarcastic) That was a one and done.

Lyn: (Sarcastic) Yeah.

Mayanna: (Sarcastic) This isn't a sign of things to come.

Lyn: (Sarcastic) No.

Bex: And that sort of leads right into what we were talking earlier about, of like wanting to trust each other, but not being able to.

Lyn: Yeah. It would be interesting if that, like, that trust is a thin veneer of things. Like, everyone actually is trusting, but it does, it's only surface level of like.

Mayanna: Cause everyone's really scared.

Lyn: Yeah.

Mayanna: Yeah. But it's like, if you invoke the fear, it's, it's like toxic positivity where it's like, shhhh the bad part's over. The bad part happened!

Lyn: It's very cold war.

Ian: Yeah. That's what, that's what I was just thinking. It's like, what's that event that's in the past? Is it that we just won a big war?

Mayanna: Yeah.

Ian: And so it's like a new, a new nation or a new society is just like, it's kind of set, but also kind of not really.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Mischa: Okay.

Mayanna: Yeah. A little too excited.

Lyn: Very, like, Gilded Age.

Ian: Well, yeah, some people are really excited, right? Some people are like, "We did it!" And other people are like, "This feels strange."

Lyn: It's just like, “Are we not going to talk about that? I guess.”

Mayanna: "Nah, that's the past."

Bex: "It's over. We're done."

Mayanna: Yeah.

Lyn: Similar to Legend of Korra.

[Laughter].

Ian: Also just to go back to what you were talking about right at the beginning, just in terms of like where we're at in terms of a cell phones versus other technologies, there's something appealing to me about what you were talking about, Mayanna. Those, you know, like that not necessarily, not steampunk, but sort of elegant metal and glass. Right? Glass orbs?

Mayanna: Yes.

Ian: I was thinking kind of like, I've been watching– Escaflowne came into my YouTube algorithm.

Lyn: [Recognition].

Mischa: [Giggles]

Ian: I'm just watching that, that kind of like design. So it's like technology, but it's not American modern capitalist technology.

Mayanna: Yes, it's like magical and like, yeah, graceful and elegant.

Lyn: I'm thinking like Art Deco slash, like Art Nouveau.

Mayanna: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ian: Yeah, I was picturing, instead of orbs, like, picturing, you know, the people that you can buy magic spells from, but all the spells are in their own little art deco, you know.

Mayanna: Like a little accessory or like a pin or something.

Ian: Right, exactly.

Lyn: Like a charm.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Ian: Wait what'd you say?

Lyn: Like charms.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Bex: Collecting on your charm bracelet.

Mayanna: Yeah, there's a, there's a manga that I really love called Sugar Sugar Rune about witches. And they have their base wand. And if you want to learn a new spell, you have to buy like a diamond and put it on your wand. So like the people who have the most spells have like a bazillion diamonds on this like gorgeous wand. Yeah.

Lyn: Wow. I love the idea of like things being, like, bedazzled or blinged out actually having, like, a real substantial right?

Mayanna: You'd be like, "oh shit!"

Bex: My brain immediately went to all those crystal shop wands and being like, those would be powerful.

Mayanna: Yes. Exactly. Exactly.

Mischa: Yeah. So, I mean, so it sounds like in this world, like, technology is made to fuel magic, that magic is a commodity that can be traded, that, like, you can go to a shop and buy new spells and put it in your bracelet and now you know that spell.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Bex: Yeah. I think, like–

Ian: And also, and also, like, acquire those things in your journey, sort of like, what is it? Gym badges?

All: [Overlapping]. Yeah, gym badges.

Mayanna: And maybe there's some spells that there's only like a one of one. And those are really hard to come by because only one was made.

Lyn: Oh, spells as a coll- as like collector's items also. It's like, oh, like everyone can have.

Mayanna: It's like (mocking) “you have dancing lights? Buh huh, everybody has dancing lights.”

Bex: “Yeah, but mine is shiny and holographic. How about yours?”

Mayanna: “Get a grip! Get a grip!”

[Laughter]

Ian: I'm back in third grade again. I really do actually love the reality of that though. Like, “Hey, yeah, my uncle's got three of them in the closet in a shoebox.”

Mayanna: “Like collecting dust. You want one?”

Bex: “I've got a few vintage ones back here that might be like even cooler.”

Lyn: I think that's such an interesting take on like spell levels too. Like that cantrips are like the one out of like 5,000 and there's like so many iterations of it. Like how many freaking versions of the Pikachu cards are there? But there are some that are like specifically, aged.

Mischa: Well, the first thing I thought of was, what happens if you get a misprinted candle?

[Excitement].

Mayanna: But it's like, it's dented.

Mischa: And you're like, the crystal is dented or something.

Mayanna: It's damaged!

Bex: There's also those, like, one word difference, like, can change anything. That whole, like, the joke on the socials all the time of, like, change one word, change one letter.

Mayanna: Greek flame blade.

[Laughter].

Ian: It reminds me of Ron's broken wand, right? It's like it just doesn't quite cast right.

Mischa: Exactly.

Bex: I love that.

Lyn: Well, that could be like the flavor for like sorcerers or, like wild magic surges. Or that some people might just have wild magic surge, but it's not related to like the sorcerer class or something.

Mischa: Yeah.

Lyn: Like this would be a really interesting take on how to take the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons, but it's commodified.

Bex: How would this, how would sorcerers work?

Lyn: Nepo babies.

Bex: Oh!

Ian: [Laughter]

Mischa: Well, here's my first thought, is that sorcerers are about their power coming from their bloodline.

Bex: Nepo baby.

Mischa: Yeah. If some kind of war happened and now we have magic commodities in factories, like–

Mayanna: Test tube baby!

Mischa: Or some chemicals from the magic factory leached into the water–[overlapping sounds of recognition]--and then there were birth defects, which like, those would be, that would be a one in a million thing.

Lyn: Wizards would essentially be like engineers.

Mischa: Yeah.

Lyn: Which would track.

Ian: Oh yeah.

Bex: That would be really cool.

Lyn: That tracks.

Mischa: Well, and we'll throw this on tape just real quick. I've also, I'm obsessed with the book of Valda's Spire of Secrets by Mage Hand Press, which has between 10 and 12 new classes, like base classes. And so like, you know, a craftsman, just someone who tinkers in their workshop and makes new devices that work with these crystals or whatever. It sounds like they're crystals or orbs or something.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: I think crystals or orbs.

Bex: I like crystals.

Mayanna: Crystals are gorgeous. Yeah.

Ian: The thing too is if, if there was just a war that's over, there's an excess of a certain type of common piece of it.

Lyn: Yeah.

Mayanna: It's like what happened after World War II where there was just like all of this stuff and they're like, “Toilets, toasters, refrigerators, get them while they're hot!”

Ian: Right.

Lyn: They finally created the technology for all those things.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Mischa: I just wrote down new tech as propaganda.

Lyn: I mean, that was the big thing. And, but they're also.

Bex: Legend of Korra.

Lyn: (Agreeing) Yeah. But really, they did a lot right in that.

Ian: Let's just do Legend of Korra. Guys, let's just do Legend of Korra.

[Laughter] .

Lyn: But, I have two things along that. One, like post war stuff. One, it could be war. It could be like, I don't know. We fought off Eldrazi. I don't know. [Mischa laughing]. Thank you. But like that some big thing happens that we needed all this equipment for, but like that stuff gets dispersed asymmetrically, I guess, like I think of like the Philippines, for example, like we got like a lot of canned goods out of that and not much else. Like I ate Vienna sausage again recently. I only kind of like it now, just like straight out of the can. I was like this. I could see why I really liked it as a kid. But like, yeah. You know, Spam, processed sugar, et cetera, that things became like weird cultural artifacts in the Philippines that like were not from the Philippines and also like wasn't any of the actual like good shit coming out of the war. Like it wasn't air conditioning. Air conditioning came very late.

Ian: It was the leftovers that were mass produced.

Lyn: Yeah. I was like, it was leftovers. And there's a difference between like the people who get to benefit from the progression of technology, where that technology was developed versus–

Bex: The dredges.

Lyn: Like, well, the occupied lands that had all the, that had all the trash left there.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Mischa: It also sounds a little bit like, so there was some event. I don't know if it was like a human versus human war or like a person versus person war. It sounds like it was something a little larger, more natural, more dire, more, like, sort of overwhelming.

Lyn: Like, I think what might be interesting was like, it was the world against a thing.

[Agreement].

Bex: For one time, unification.

Mayanna: We were unified.

Bex: And now here we are on the other side of it, fractured again.

Mayanna: Yes.

Mischa: It's a little bit, it's a little bit like the USSR in that like, there's a central authority that was doing a good thing for everyone initially, but now that the big threat is over, they think that they're entitled to the central benefits of it. And the people in the outlying lands are like, “but what–you know, we were with you when you were protecting our lands, but now we don't need protection. We need what you have.”

Mayanna: Need the resources.

[Agreement].

Lyn: That's what like that thin veneer of trust kind of makes sense for is like, we're going to be cordial with each other.

Mischa: Because we used to trust each other, and now the trust is breaking.

Lyn: Yeah.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Lyn: Or there's no reason to trust each other anymore.

Mischa: Right.

Mayanna: There's no reason.

Mischa: There was.

Bex: And we're in the middle of the trust breaking.

[Agreement].

Lyn: Cool cool.

Mayanna: And also like some people decided all of a sudden that like, “great, thank you so much, we're going to take our toys and go home.”

[Agreement].

Mischa: Exactly.

Bex: So we're like really at that turning point.

Mayanna: Very cool.

Bex: We're really at this precipice moment. I like that.

Ian: Yeah. When you said “Nepo babies” earlier. [Laughter]. No, really, it made me think there could be that type of person that has actually been affected and it is coming out of them. But then there's the other piece of it, which are the people who are in power in this new society who just have access to all the things, right? Like, let's say it was coats that have a badge or a thing on them. Like these military people walking around in these giant coats that just have spells all the way from shoulders down.

Mayanna: Oh, it's Kill la Kill.

Lyn: Ohh.

Ian: Oh that's what it is!

[Agreement].

Mischa: Or even. There's a version of, I believe it's a version of craftsman in Valda’s that is all about mutatious grafts, where you can graft stuff into your body.

[Overlapping excitement].

Lyn: I think that's the cyberpunk aspect of it.

Mayanna: Wearable tech.

Mischa: Or, I mean, yeah, but also Fullmetal Alchemist had automail, which is like dieselpunk.

[Agreement].

Bex: I would love to be able to like pull in some body modification, like human–you're hacking your own system.

Ian: This is not me saying I don't want to do this. I want to do this. I just want everyone to know for their own enjoyment. Like surgery, body stuff makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Mischa: Okay.

Ian: But! We should still do it. It'll be fun for everyone to listen to me squirm.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: It's hitting there. The other thing too, is just the idea of like, so then if it's more closer to like wearable tech, you can have like fashion designers.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: Or like, lines, you know. Like this is the Yves Saint Laurent green-flame blade line.

Lyn: Oh, that would be really cool for a lot of the, like, magic class. Bard and wizard are the two that I'm thinking of where, like, there is a lineage for certain magic that's like, oh, these houses, either they're like, colleges in the way that we know them today, or they're like fashion houses.

Mayanna: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lyn: Which would be really interesting.

Mayanna: House of eloquence.

Lyn: Yeah.

Mischa: Yeah.

Bex: It would be really interesting because then, like, a lot of martial classes could have access to magic in a–

Lyn: Different way.

Bex: –in a really different way.

Mayanna: Like belts.

Mischa: Well, or, like, I mean, for the really martial classes, for like your paladins, your fighters, your wardens–another class from Valda's–like, it means you want a bespoke weapon so that you have enough slots for all of the magic you want to pump into it. [Agreement]. And so it, like, it might lead to a place where, like, everybody names their signature weapon. [Agreement]. Could be cool.

Lyn: Oh, I love a signature move! You know that!

Bex: I like that.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Bex: Especially if they're able to modify their weapons. Like if there's body modification, we have to be able to modify our weapons.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: There's, in Final Fantasy VII, you're, you get better swords with, which have more materia slots.

Mischa: Exactly.

Mayanna: Cause yeah, you start out with a base sword.

Mischa: That was what I was thinking.

[Overlapping agreement and laughter].

Mayanna: And then you get like, your glove with like five materia slots and then you can do way more stuff.

Lyn: Yeah. I think something like that would make a lot of sense. And it would give a really interesting flavor to clerics and warlocks in particular because those are ones where–

Mischa: I was going to start asking about gods and stuff next.

Lyn: Like. I think that there's certainly a lot of room for religion here, but also in the sense of like, if this is post war, like a lot of those values and ideals are– I'm thinking like American Gods, like the new gods.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Mischa: I love an old gods versus new gods conflict. [Agreement]. Listen, you're going to have to stop me from, from making an old gods versus new gods conflict.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: (Joking) Mischa stop, you're doing it again!

Mischa: (Joking) Ah dang it!

Bex: I'm not mad at an old god versus new god conflict. [Agreement]. I love that.

Ian: And I think the new gods. would be the people who are in power now. [Overlapping agreement]. Like the people in the military who's created the–

Lyn: Or even, like, the ideal of, like, of freedom, for example. Like, that's why I like American Gods, is like, there would probably be a god of, like, technology. [Agreement]. In progression, that would be, like, have a strenuous relationship with, like, the god of the forge, for instance. [Agreement]. Like, they're very intertwined, but would have very different roles.

Mayanna: Opinions

Lyn: and domains in society now.

Bex: And, and, like, you're right. Opinions. That one would be stuck in the past, and one would be all about moving forward.

[Agreement].

Mischa: And, you know, whatever conflict there was, like, there was probably a god who liked that it was happening.

[Overlapping agreement and recognition].

Bex: A god of chaos?

Ian: Profited.

Mischa: And that the people won.

Mayanna: Kind of bummed him out. [Agreement]. And also, if there's like, you know, still the traditional religions, it's like, “stop buying all this shit. You can have magic the old fashioned way, if you just come to this church and pray.”

[Laughter].

Mischa: “Grind up this powder for an hour, people will wait for something good.”

Mayanna: “That seems too far fetched. That seems too slow and boring.” It's like, “nah, it's great. It's pure. It's great.”

[Laughter].

Mischa: Yeah. So, so this does sound honestly, but it sounds like we're creating like more of a secular world where like devout followers of a religion are sort of the minority.

Mayanna: Old fashioned and like. Yeah, it's like that kid that's, that's got a weird haircut and holds a book in a weird way. And you're like, “are your parents okay?”

Bex: Almost like the worshipers of the new gods are just way more chill.

Mayanna: They're cool and chill. Yeah.

Lyn: I'm just thinking youth pastor energy.

Mayanna: Very much. Yeah. Sitting in the backwards chair, playing guitar.

Lyn: I literally, I went to– when I was in high school, I went to my other friend's youth group once, which was at a very new agey, like, quasi-megachurch, [laughter], and I was like, “I can't be here.” [Laughter]. It was when the youth pastor compared Jesus to both Goku and the Terminator.

(Overlapping yells and laughter) Oh no!

Lyn: And then I was like, “I need to leave.”

Mayanna:No. That’s too cool.

Mischa: Goku died for your sins, but you can bring him back with all seven Dragon Balls.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: He was hip!

Lyn: Yeah, and it's like

Mayanna: Too current.

Lyn: He was, he, it literally was like a, a weirder holy trinity of like Goku, the Terminator, and Jesus. And the commonality was, “I'll be back.”

Ian: I would go to that church. I'm just saying, right now.

Mischa: I wouldn't! Goku's a horrible dad!

[Laughter].

Mayanna: (Mocking) I'll be back.

[Laughter].

Lyn: Yeah, that, that was the throughline.

Mayanna: (Incredulous) That's crazy. Anyway, that's. Holy shit. That's. That's bananas.

[Laughter].

Ian: No, but seriously, what's the number that you've crashed on? [Laughter].

Lyn: I just want to talk.

Mayanna: I want to buy what you're selling!

Ian: If my Bible had Goku on it, I wouldn’t hold that [overlapping laughter].

Mayanna: I would have been really into Bible!

[Laughter].

Bex: Yeah. I do love conflicting gods.I love conflicting gods.

Mayanna: Yeah. I love that too.

Mischa: Gods with a point of view. Gods that are not omni.

[Agreement].

Lyn: yeah, I think that one that still holds true, it's like, D&D as a system, that like, domains are still very important. And that there could be some interesting flavor of like, oh, like, a patron could be a literal, still a human, patron, but is the representative of some ideal. [Agreement]. And that could be like, corporate, could be military, it could be any other ideal. But it could still be a represent, like represented by like a mortal being that is the stand in for.

Mayanna: The Apple logo shakes violently.

[Laughter].

Bex: Okay, but think about it. If you had told someone that you were going to have a giant conglomerate that controls everything and their logo is literally an apple with a bite taken out of it, you'd think that no one would buy that.

Lyn: Yeah, that'd be heavy handed.

Mischa: I've also, I've also been watching Loki and, Miss Minutes is that it's, it's just like, like she starts out very much as like a little computer helper and a friend. And then it turns out she's crazy. [Laughter]. And like really has a perspective of her own that like influences events.

Mayanna: Yeah. That's very interesting.

Lyn: And I think there's a lot of room for that to play in that. And it could be like a piece of technology is representative of something [agreement] or like a chain of franchises could be representative of something.

Ian: Yeah, I'm so, I'm so intrigued by the idea–and it could go either way–of whether the old gods are in opposition to all this new technology and this way of doing magic, [agreement], or if it's how they are getting their influence into the world.

Bex: Maybe. Maybe it's both.

Mischa: I think it could be both. I think it doesn't necessarily. I think putting old gods versus new gods creates such a black and white conflict. I think that some old gods can have good opinions about new gods. [Agreement]. And they can try to–

Bes: Like some of them get along.

Mayanna: They're not threatened by them.

Mischa: I think each one has a personal relationship with the people around them.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: It's like having a baby sister where you're like, “I see what you're going for. I don't know– if I don't know if it's a great idea.”

Lyn: It's like, “I'll be here to help you.”

Mayanna: Yeah, it's like, “come to me if you have questions, I guess.”

Bex: Like, “when that, when that fails, I can help. But until then.”

Mayanna: “Call, call your big sis. We'll figure it out.”

Bex: “You're doing great.”

Mayanna: It's like, “I crashed the car.” You're like, “Okay. All right. Okay.”

[Laughter].

Bex: “I'll be there in a minute. Give me a second.”

Mischa: So I'm going to come back to our world setting questions a little bit.

Mayanna: That's fine.

Mischa: So what scope do we, in our game, want to focus on? Are we all in like the capital city and we're working on that?

Mayanna: I think so.

Mischa: Or are we traveling?

Mayanna: I like the capital city.

Lyn: Capital would probably be a good.

Mischa: Okay, cool.

Bex: I feel like if we need to travel within that story, that can happen down the line, but like, we can start for sure in the capital.

Mayanna: Or if there's like an under city or like a neighboring manufacturing city.

[Agreement].

Bex: I want flying city.

Ian: Under city is so cool.

Bex: I want like, I want some above city.

Mayanna: I love that. A sky city and then it's like, oh–

Mischa: Like Battle Angel Alita, where there's like the hovering rich people [agreement and excitement] part and then there's poor people on the ground.

Mayanna: (Excited) Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lyn: Or–

Bex: I was actually thinking

Lyn: –League of Legends, like Piltover.

[Agreement]

Mayanna: Piltover. Zaun.

Lyn: Yeah, yeah. Piltover, Zaun.

Mischa: I don't know League of Legends, but I do know Arcane.

[Laughter].

Lyn: That's enough.

Mayanna: I unfortunately know both.

[Laughter]

Mischa: (Joking) Nerd!

Mayanna: (Joking) Oh my god.

Bex: Well, I was also thinking of the new Zelda.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: Where there's the sky, the depths, and the land.

Bex: Yeah, all three.

Mayanna: I like that. I like that.

Mischa: So, so my question about this scope is that, like, anywhere we set it, it's gonna have sub layers. [Agreement]. So, like, if we're in a city, there are different neighborhoods. [Agreement]. If we're in a country, there are different city states and towns. If we're in a galaxy, there are different star systems. [Agreement]. That's gonna be our next segment, so I don't wanna get too ahead of me. But like, yes, we can set it anywhere and then subdivide within that as we like.

Mayanna: I like a capital city, [agreement], because I think like it can keep the scope like we can go to all these different neighborhoods. I just I like it because I think it'll keep the story more contained to I'm sure there's going to be many nefarious forces that you can have within a ZIP code.

Mischa: Yeah.

[Laughter].

Lyn: I like how all of us, like, side-eyed our environment while we did that. We were just like (groan).

Mischa: I think, I think doing one city, you know, sort of creates a, a jelly-like boundary where like it binds us in as much as we want, but it's still permeable enough that you can go outside of it.

Bex: And I love when a location is a character.

Mayanna: Absolutely. Like Sex in the City. That city really is the fifth character.

[Laughter].

Lyn: So true!

Ian: Jesus.

Lyn: So true. I was thinking Gossip Girl.

Mayanna: It creates obstacles. But it also creates stories.

Ian: Oh my God.

Mayanna: You never know who you're going to run into.

[Laughter].

Ian: Wait, wait, wait. Sorry. Let's just do a Sex in the City.

[Cheers].

Mischa: So Ian, you're Carrie.

Ian: I'm Carrie!

Mayanna: I'm the Samantha!

[Laughter].

Mischa: Amazing. I want to throw– I want to do one more thing from these questions and I think we're about ready to move on. This is cool. This is a cool place.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: This is very cool.

Mischa: I want to throw back to, what are some unique challenges the society previously faces? Now we've talked about the challenges that the society previously faced.

Bex: That is a unique challenge.

Mischa: Yes. But I want one thing that sort of everyone knows about, that like, is there and they have to deal with.

Mayanna: The upcoming election.

Mischa: Well, it could be the upcoming election. It could, it could be like- It depends on how real world we want it. It could be the rise of a new political party. [Sounds of fear]. It could be, it could be that like, whatever had to be done to end the travails of the past, like, left the dimensional borders a little permeable and the government's like, “no, we solved it”. But like occasionally a spirit will come through and have to deal with it.

[Agreement].

Bex: I like that.

Mayanna: Yeah. Like that, that it's like, “Everything's chill. We're cool. We're past it.” And it's like, “I don't know. What if it comes back?”

Bex: “We won at a cost.”

Mayanna: Yeah. It's like-

Bex: “And I’m not discussing that cost.”

Mayanna: “Well, there's no way it'll come back.” Yeah, exactly. You're like, “It could come back. It came once.

[Agreement].

Bex: And obviously it got through once.

Mayanna: Yeah, how'd it get through?

Bex: We're not talking about how it got through.

Lyn: (Excited) Oh-

Mayanna: How did it show up here?

Lyn: Pacific Rim!

Mayanna: Oh yeah. Yeah! Yeah. How did it get here in the first place?

Lyn: And it's like, okay, we, we have the band-aid solution, but like the actual problem might not have actually been solved. I think that that might be interesting.

Mischa: So is it then-

Bex: I wanted to bring Pacific Rim as a vibe, but I second guessed myself.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Don't second guess yourself!

Lyn: Oh, we’re drift compatible.

[Laughter].

Mischa: So the, the barriers are thin. Is it that the barriers themselves are thin and that's what people are dealing with? It's that monsters are attacking the city and the government doesn't want to deal with it. Like, what is, what is actually the day-to-day challenge?

Bex: Could it be that, like, the, the, the line has been thinned enough that there are smaller threats still coming in. Actively.

Mayanna: And they're like, “Oh, this is fine. We'll just have exterminators. We'll pay people to kill it. It's fine.”

Bex: Rather than, like, band aids.

[Agreement].

Mischa: That's also great, because one of the things we did have to figure out is, like, D&D is a war game. It's, we're going to have to have combat if we're running this system. So, like, that's a good way to generate random encounters. Yes.

Bex: And that can also be good, because then it's like, the monsters are starting smaller, and then, like, bigger ones start seeping in.

[Agreement].

Mayanna: Exactly. Or it's like, oh, when a bigger one seeps in, maybe it's like, “Hey, we gotta, we gotta sweep this under the rug. Like nobody can know that this bigger one came through.”

[Excitement and agreement].

Lyn: And there are also forces that could be taking advantage of like the lighter chaos or people's needs not being met. That's like, “Hey.” This is environmental racism. That's what I'm going for. Some people are probably going to be more affected by, like, the, the lack of infrastructure.

[Agreement].

Bex: Especially if we have these levels of this world, we can really, like, differentiate them in terms of environment

Lyn: But like, in, in the same way that, like Zaun in League of Legends, it's like–

Mayanna: It’s all polluted.

Lyn: It's all polluted. It's disgusting. It's causing more trouble. And like, that people are going to respond. They're going to take care of themselves in the way that they feel is necessary.

Mayanna: They'll adapt, but it, they'll adapt in a way that's maladaptive.

Bex: The way, what I'm sort of thinking of right now is like the upper city. The, whatever is propulsion to keep them up is beating down on the people on the surface. And whatever the people on the surface have to keep themselves functioning is polluting the people beneath.

Mischa: Yeah. Well, you know what, if we're powering magic via crystals and orbs, what if the underside of it has giant crystals that are constantly shining light and the light pollution is driving people a little mad?

[Excited agreement].

Lyn: Yes. I love that. I think that's really interesting in terms of like. This is more like flipping tropes on its head a little bit might be a little granular, but like. The city that's always light is actually the one that is suffering the most. [Agreement].It's, it's the light pollution from the city above that still has weather the way that weather normally happens, but because people are living underneath it.

Mayanna: Like directly underneath it. Yeah, they don't get rain.

Bex: The circadian rhythms are fucked.

Mischa: That's the big one for me. There's too much light. People don't get enough sleep. People like are constantly more stressed out.

Mayanna:

Mischa: They're beaten down. Meanwhile, people in the upper city have access to an open sky, which like allows for like larger dreams and schemes

Mayanna: And not to be political, but that's fucked up!

[Laughter].

Ian: Fucked up yo! We got to do something about that.

Mischa: You know what? You're right. And you should say it.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: I'm glad I said something.

[Laughter].

Ian: We were talking about monsters coming in. Backtrack just a hair, it could be interdimensional or like they're coming in. It could also be falling down from debris, right? Like it's like, also, if it's a flying city, that makes me think that the conflict was probably above it possibly. [Agreement]. Right. And so there could just be, it's like the war's over, but there's still, I don't know what it is, fragments of ships or fragments of stuff that come down to earth every once in a while, and there's still some stuff that's alive.

Mischa: I love that. I have a secret GM idea about that that I'm not going to tell you guys.

[Excitement].

[Music. Ad break.]

Mischa: Hey there, it's Mischa. This is the Rest Stop. Come take a break beside the path with me. Just until we catch our breath. Thank you for hopping on for our inaugural Worldbuilding episodes. It's a joy and an honor to have you with us as we embark on this new project. I think we're cooking up something special here, and I'm excited and eager to share it with the world.

Mischa: So I hope you're having fun getting to know us and the world we're making a little bit and that they get you jazzed to dive in. Join us, please.

Mischa: If you like what you're hearing and you want to help us out, please spread the word about us. We want as many people as possible to hear what we're making, and word of mouth is honestly the only tried and true method of growing a new show.

Mischa: 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 that we have a pretty solid basis for the kinds of world we want to tell our story in, let's move on to our next segment where we're going to play a little world building game, which I have titled, I'm Sorry, Did You Say World Building? A Straight Up Hack of Several Games, But Mostly Street Magic by Caro Asercion.

[Cheering].

Ian: Mischa, will you put in some game show music right there after you do that?

[Goofy singing].

Ian: No, I mean–

[Overlapping goofy singing].

Ian: Yeah, that too.

Bex: Okay, that has to be the base of whatever you put in there.

Lyn: You can sound design over that, right?

[Laughter].

Mischa: So, here's how this is gonna work. We're gonna take turns around the table here and start defining locations and details within our city.

Mischa: We'll start with some adjectives to start with, and we'll lay in some regions of our city, and then in later rounds, we can also lay in some landmarks and some residents. I'll also start introducing events, which change something about the details y'all are laying in, but that's a little later on. For round one, I would love if, based on our discussion and this city slash world that we've made, if everybody would throw down one adjective that they want to describe this city with.

Ian: I just wanted, for the record, that I thought you were going to say everyone throw down a die.

Mischa: No, we're not rolling dice today.

Ian: I know.

Mayanna: I didn’t bring any!

Mischa: I said you weren't rolling dice.

Ian: Because I brought my dice.

Mischa: Do you want some? I have a giant cabinet full of fucking dice.

Mayanna: Oh! Thats– I will, I will peruse the offerings.

[Laughter].

Ian: No, it's fine.

Lyn: We could roll initiative?

Ian: No, no, no, no.

Mischa: you want to roll initiative for the adjectives?

Bex: I do! I really do!

Mischa: Okay, hold on. I have to go get Mayanna a die. I do.

Ian: I knew if I squeaky wheeled it, I would get some dice.

Mischa: Well, so we're all going to roll initiative to see who lays down an adjective first.

Ian: The power of asking.

[Dice rolling].

Bex: I've got my-

Mayanna: (Excitement) Ohh!

[Cheering].

Mischa: Did you just nat 20?

Lyn: Nat 20?!

Ian: You nat 20'd the big die.

Mayanna: (cheering) Yeah!

Mischa: First roll of the show, nat 20.

Lyn: 10. Solid, mid.

Bex: 15!

Mayanna: Nice!

Lyn: Wait, we're doing five. OK, you got to roll a five.

Mischa: Ian, pressure's on.

Ian: I know. Well, so, Mayanna, nat 20, the big die. So I'm now–

Mayanna: Tiny dice!

Ian: Switching die. I'm pulling out my tiny die. Here we go. It's either going to 20 or a nat 1.

Mischa: Let's go.

Mayanna: Here we go. For a 13.

[Cheering].

Bex: These are good numbers.

Ian: Oh wait, I lied. It's an 18. Fuck yeah!

Mischa: Okay. Mayanna, you're first.

Mayanna: Gay. Just kidding.

[Laughter].

Mischa: It's gonna, okay. It's gonna, let's just throw this. It's gonna be gay.

Mayanna: I know. I know. That's why we, I didn't even mean to say it.

Ian: If you're gonna say that, you have to say it a la NSYNC.

All: (singing) It's gonna be gay!

[Laughter].

Mayanna: My adjective is vibrant.

[Excited Oohs]

Mischa: Ian, you're up next.

Ian: My adjective is towering.

[Excited Oohs]

Bex: My adjective is breathing.

Mayanna and Mischa: Breathing?!

Ian: (sings suspensefully) Dun dun dun! That's the last time I'm gonna do that, I promise.

Lyn: I think. Musical.

[Contemplative Oohs]

Mayanna:I love musical.

Ian: Curveball.

Mischa: These are great. This is very cool. So, that's round one. We're gonna move on to round two, where everybody is going to make a region of the city.

Mischa: Each region has a name, some vibes or snapshots to get us started. And a reputation from both inside and outside. What people who live there think about it, and what people who don't live there think about it. [Understanding]. You can feel free to collaborate with everyone at the table, take ideas, but whoever's turn it is to place the region has final say on what it is.

Ian: So are we each doing a full region is what you're telling me?

Mischa: You're each going to do a full region.

Ian: Copy that.

Mischa: So, yeah, does anyone have Any strong ideas to start?

Ian: Feels like we should roll for initiative.

Mischa: We already rolled.

Ian: (Murmuring) I’m just saying.

Mischa: The initiative order remains the same. Have you played Dungeons & Dragons? It doesn't change every round.

Ian: Not a ton.

Mayanna: I would love the like, the fun, not casino district, but the like, you know, entertainment district. I'm thinking like Akihabara, where it's like games, pachinko, fast food, lights on, colors, people in gothic lolita costumes, like, the fun, goofy part where-

Lyn: Just like nightlife in general.

Mayanna: Yeah, the nightlife where people go and hang and play arcade games.

Bex: My brain went to like an open air night market.

Mayanna: Yeah, yeah, yeah, an open air night market vibe. And that's where the karaoke bars are. That's where, like, people go to chill and eat giant sundaes that are as big as their head and take pictures of them. And yeah. Okay.

Mischa: So what do people who- Do people live there?

Mayanna: People do live there, unfortunately.

Mischa: What is the reputation from the inhabitants themselves?

Mayanna: Oh, it's, I think it's like Anaheim, California, where they just want to like chill. but that's also where I guess maybe like some of the more affordable housing is. And the trade off is, you know, It's awful and loud and people are- People come to visit and they come to have fun, but they, the people who live there deal with like the trash leftover every night and the like screaming drunk college kids who are there like having fun and like they just finished finals.

Ian: I love that.

Lyn: Or it's like the residents don't get to benefit from the farm.

Mischa: But that sort of also, like, belies the reputation from Without, which is like, “what a great place to party.”

Mayanna: “Oh my god, so much fun!” Yeah, so I guess the people who live there are probably the employees of the establishments that people go to frequent there.

Mischa: Or anybody who needs cheap housing.

Mayanna: Exactly. Yeah, so it's the cheap housing and then the people who have to be waitresses and cleaners and whatever for these establishments. Yeah. Exactly.

Lyn: Yeah. I love the idea of, like, college students, like, bro, college students who live there, people are like, “oh my god, you live in that district?”

Mayanna: “That's so cool.”

Lyn: And they're like, “it's hell.”

[Laughter].

Mayanna: “I hate it there.”

Lyn: “Hell.”

Mayanna: “Yeah, I can't afford to move.”

Ian: “I live in a shoebox.”

Bex: “I live in a shoebox. I can't get any sleep.”

Mayanna: “On the plus, I don't have to buy a lamp because it's lit all night!”

Lyn: “All the time.”

Ian: Oh lord.

Bex: “I can study whenever I need, which is always.”

Mischa: That's great.

Ian: “And the food is great.”

Mayanna: The food's great. Yeah. You can, and like at the end of the night, there's always like extra food. Yeah.

Lyn: There's probably, you know, the route to get the free food.

Mayanna: Exactly. Yeah. You frequent.

Lyn: That's all the leftovers. Yeah.

Bex: Really good for the people who live there.

Ian: Oh yeah, you got the spots.

Mayanna: Exactly. Exactly.

Ian: You know, the people to let you in the cool, like the- not the cool cool spots. But like, the local spot.

Mayanna: I remember when I worked at a coffee shop, we had the day old pastries and whatever was left over we got to eat for free. (Agreement). So it was always like I was banking on a day old pastry so I didn't have to pay for breakfast.

Lyn: Exactly.

Ian: I remember when I used to work at Jamba Juice, I used to steal extra pastries because they'd only give you one free smoothie a day.

Mischa: I had a roommate who was a manager at Panera. We ate so good. So I imagine that this is in the lower city then.

Mayanna: Yeah, probably. Yeah.

Lyn: Like anyone from the upper city would go for funsies.

Mayanna: Absolutely.

Lyn: And then trash the place.

Bex: New Orleans.

Lyn: And then they go home.

Mayanna: They go home.

Lyn: It is like New Orleans, yeah.

Bex: French Quarter.

Mayanna: When I went to college, there was like a little student shuttle that would take you exclusively to like Señor Frogs. I went to Miami. And and then take you home. And I can't imagine what, they're like, “look at the little kiddie bus dropping off the little kids to drink underage and then going, time to go home, back to your dorm.”

Bex: Imagine the flying shuttles required.

[Laughter and voiced sound effects].

Mayanna: And they have like balloons and shit.

[Laughter].

Mischa: Amazing. that's great. Yeah, that's what we're looking for. Regions.

Ian: Wait, wait. Sorry. Everyone just close your eyes for a second, and I want you to all imagine to yourself what the CEO of Señor Frogs looks like. [Laughter]. Now we can move forward. I just wanted everyone to see that. That's a person.

Lyn: That better be a character.

Ian: That's a person.

Mayanna: It's a man! It's definitely a man.

Mischa: No-

Ian: 100 percent it's a man.

Mischa: Big man-

Bex: It's a frog!

Mischa: -dark pinstripe suit, purple tie, double chin, and when he gets really mad, it does bulge out.

Bex: The frogs from Kipo.

Lyn: I was going to say the frogs from Kipo, but also the frogs in Flushed Away.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Yeah, Flushed Away! I love Flushed Away.

Mischa: There's a vibe we're putting into the game.

Bex: Meet the Robinsons frogs.

Mayanna: Oh, yeah.

[Recognition and laughter].

Mayanna: The jazz singing frogs!

Mischa: Frankie!

Mayanna: Frankie! And then they put people in trunks. [Laughter]. I forgot to name my region, so I'm gonna pitch the Bara District. Oh, nice. And from what I remember, because I named an OC after this, it's the Japanese word for rose. But every rose has its thorn.

Ian: No! Boo!

[Laughter].

Mayanna: I know. But I'll double check to make sure I'm not mis-educating-

Mischa: That's fair.

Mischa: -the people in this room.

Mischa: Thanks. Okay, who's next to name a region?

Ian: I think it's me.

Mischa: Okay, Ian, hit us.

Ian: The engineering core. I don't know where this, you know, like, whether it's high, low, what it is, but I think there's something powering the city, and I, it's, in my mind, I think it's underground or deep in the center.

Mischa: Yeah.

Ian: Vibe? I think it's like. Very cavernous, very rocky cave surrounding, like, big machinery or giant crystalline structures.

Mischa: Yeah. So do people, do people live there? Do, like, the workers live there?

Ian: I don't know if they live there.

Mischa: So it's more like, so it's more like a warehouse district of a city.

Ian: Or more like the, or more like-

Lyn: , Is this like a nuclear power plant vibe?

Ian: Yeah, like the bowels of the Titanic, or, you know what I mean? Like inside the, the factory.

Mischa: Yes, so-

Ian: Maybe people work there so much that they basically live there?

Mischa: So here's my question. We're, we're starting with regions. The further we go in this game, you're going to be able to name landmarks and, and, residents of regions.

Bex: Cool.

Mischa: So I'm asking, is this a landmark? Is this a building that exists within a region of the city or is it a region of the city?

Ian: No, it's a region. It's massive. I think it's absolutely massive.

Mischa: Okay. So, so if it's so big, I do imagine that they might have company housing.

Lyn: Bunkers.

Mayanna: Yeah, company housing.

Bex: Military barracks.

[Agreement].

Ian: Or at the very least, like, the on call room, right, where you can just go sleep in between shifts.

Mischa: Oh, it's like the hot racks.

Ian: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Mayanna: Yeah, it's like, you know, like Arrival where they're, they're living there, or like Oppenheimer where they built a city around the thing.

Ian: Yes, exactly.

Lyn: What Bex just said, like military barracks, it could be repurposed barracks.

Mischa: Yes!

Mayanna: The war!

Lyn: Like, it, like, if this city that's floating was built for whatever threat was happening, then, yeah, it would be similar to that. That they would have built all of the technology to make the city float. That would have essentially been military barracks as well, and now, like, now that the military esque thing is no longer there, they still need people to maintain it. So it's, like, all repurposed barracks, and it might be way bigger than it needs to be, so it's a little bit scarier and more labyrinthine.

Ian: Yeah, you just made me realize the thing. The thing that I'm pulling from, which is Silo,

[Recognition].

Mischa: Very cool. How do people who spend the majority of their time there feel about it?

Ian: Yeah. I think it's a, it's a tough place. They, they feel like it's a tough place. It's a dirty place. Like everyone, you don't shower a lot down there because that's not what's important.

Mayanna: Oh, it's like the coal mines almost.

Ian: Right, exactly.and, and how do they, are they happy to be there, I wonder?

Lyn: Or do they feel like it's like valor?

Ian: Right. It’s like a calling.

Mischa: Oh, yeah. It's a calling.

Mischa: So they, they feel pride that they spend, like they feel proud that this is their home.

Ian: Yeah, it's like, and we are the people who do this difficult thing.

Mischa: What do people outside of this district think of it?

Ian: I don't think they go there. I think normal people don't go to the inside of the district.

Lyn: Like, avoid at all costs.

Mischa: So the reputation is that it's inhospitable, would you say?

Ian: Yeah, and also that it's a place of, like, work.

Bex: Why would you go there if you don't have to?

Mischa: Not for people.

Mayanna: I have a thought too, off of the Valor thing where it's like, “what's the matter? You, you're not tough enough to handle going to the silo with the boys.”

Ian: Yeah, exactly.

Bex: It's like the Marines, that toxicity.

Mayanna: “I don’t think you candle it.”

Ian: Right. And, but so then now that we're saying that assuredly, there are like teens who are like, “Oh, we're going to sneak down to that. Right. Like I found a, like a valve entrance. We can get into the inner core.”

Lyn: It really is just like old coal mines.

Mayanna: “What's the matter? Are you scared?”

Lyn: Where most people are like, why- One. It's like the neutral is like, “why would you go there? I have no reason to be there.” People who are like, “I'm going to be responsible. Like that place is dangerous and important and you don't want to mess with it.”

Bex: Then there are adventure junkies.

Ian: Well, and also I don't think you can.

Lyn: I think it’s restricted.

Ian: Like, if it's the thing that's powering the city, it's super restricted.

Mayanna: You shouldn't be able to sneak in, but people try. And it's like a badge of honor if you can, right?

Mischa: Sure. I love that.

Bex: Hell yeah.

Mischa: Okay.

Bex: Oh my god, maybe there's, cause we were talking about badges you can make with magic, maybe there's like an actual thing.

Mischa: A security spell.

Mayanna: (Excited) Oh!

Lyn: Security.

Mischa: Where like, it just, it, you make a crystal and there's a ward across the thing and if you have the right crystal it lets you through the ward.

[Excitement].

Mayanna: And then you can steal one.

[Laughter].

Mischa: Like for a heist or something? Like for some kind of arc in our game or something?

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Like some kind of cool thing? That we do maybe? Could you imagine a world?

Lyn: Where we steal?

[Laughter].

Bex: Lyn!

Ian: That's never happened in D&D.

Lyn: Never, never.

Mayanna: Picture a world where things happen.

[Laughter].

Lyn: It's not as if there's an entire D&D class that is designed for infiltration.

Mischa: Submitted for your approval. Stuff happening.

Mayanna: Stuff! Happening!

Ian: Oh my god, name for the podcast.

Mayanna: Stuff happening.

[Laughter].

Bex: I love it.

Ian: And then for season 2 it'll be stuff happening 2, the stuff happening-ing.

Mischa: 2 stuff, 2 happening.

Mayanna: Stuff happened, and the happening is happened.

Bex: Stuff happened with a three as the E.

Lyn: Stuff happened back in the habit.

[Laughter].

Mischa: Print it, ship it, sell it to kids. Bex or Lyn, do you have a region?

Bex: I do. I want to pitch the Constellation. That is its name. [Excitement]. The reputation for, from, from those outside of it is it's lavish and unattainable.

Mischa: Oh, so this is definitely in the upper city.

Bex: Yeah, this is the upper city. Like the reason it's called the Constellation is because it looks like stars from underneath.

Mischa: Okay. Yeah. I love that.

Ian: Oh, right. Because of all the things under the, wow.

Bex: And they get to see the stars, but they are the stars for the people beneath them.

Mischa: For other people.

Ian: Clever, clever Bex.

Lyn: That? Chills.

Bex: You see them and they are your stars now.

Lyn: That’s really cool. Instead of a sky rise, it goes like. Into the sky and below the plane of the upper city. So like its basement is still visible from the ground.

Mayanna: I like it.

Bex: Yeah. So like the, the whole thing.

Ian: So if every, just, just a thought experiment. If everyone in this world is now on this thing, what is on the ground below?

Mayanna: Yeah. I think like that's where as many people as they could get off the ground.

Ian: They did.

Mayanna: They did. So now they're in the sky. So it's like, what else is on the ground? Yeah, like debris from the war. And presumably civilians who didn't make the cut. Or didn't get on the, it's like the axiom in WALL E, right? Where it's like, “We think we got everybody.”

Mischa: I mean, you have to imagine, like, the purpose of this thing. If there's the engineering core was what was powering it during the war, and now it's doing some, now it's being repurposed for some new task. Then I, like, there's a chance that this was, like, the battle fortress by which they ran the war. And now, and now, like, because it was made for the king and the king's advisors and the heads of the military to live in perpetually until the war is done. That's why it's so luxurious.

Mayanna: Luxurious, yeah.

Mischa: And so, like, people who could afford be like, “Oh, well, now ordinary people can live there. Well, I have enough money to live there. I'm going to go live there.” don't, just don't get to go.

Mayanna: Yeah. They don't get to go and they stay on, you know, Oh, and they make little towns and-

Bex: Yeah, it used to be a necessity for the wealthy and now it's just luxury for the wealthy.

Mayanna: Or the middle class.

Mischa: Yeah. So to come back to Bex's round here, then the reputation from within it is like, “this is the place to be.” And from without it, there's, I feel like there's two versions of it. There's one that's like,” I'm going to live my entire life for a hope of getting there” or sour grapes, which is like-

Mayanna: “It's probably not that great.”

Mischa: It's probably not that great. Yeah.

Mayanna: Yeah. It's probably overblown. Oh my God. And also it's like, well, you know, “stars are technically dead. So it's like, if it's a constellation, it's probably not even that great.”

Bex: And I feel like they still have to come down to the surface level for, for things. So it's like, it's inconvenient.

Mischa: Because it's, it's fully, like, I don't think you can farm up there.

Mayanna: No, you can't farm. It's just, yeah, it's all like.

Bex: You have to come down for everything.

Mischa: I guess you can have vertical farms.

Mayanna: You can have vertical farms.

Ian: And that's the question of how, powerful this sort of like magic technology is. I was, cause when we were thinking about scarce resources, I was wondering if, if they had a bunch of technology, but not a bunch of food, for example, but then again, maybe, you know, those little things you can go, you can pop them and then there's like a meal, right?

Mischa: Well, yeah, I mean, create food and water is a spell.

Lyn: Goodberry.

Mayanna: But it’s like how- how good could it be versus.

Mischa: And do you have, and relying exclusively on that versus natural processes.

Mayanna: Soylent green.

Bex: And how that can cause such a problem for like the wealthy people who are like, “Oh, we can just buy the spells to have whatever food we need.” And that runs out.

Lyn: If that is a finite resource.

Mayanna: Or it's like, well, it's the food that you can imagine, but it's like, if you are there for long enough, you, you can't, you can only conceive of your conception of an ideal food. And so you're, you're just like, Square. And you're like, yeah, I guess that's food.

Bex: Nutritionally.

Mayanna: And it's like, “have you had an apple?”

Ian: No.

Bex: No.

Mayanna: “Try an apple.”

Bex: “But I've had a nutritional square.”

Mayanna: Yeah, “I have my cube. It gives me all the nutrients I need.”

Ian: It sounds like such a more interesting, watchable version of Elysium.

[Agreement].

Bex: That's exactly what I was thinking. That was, that was my, my initial thought was Elysium. And I was like, that's too on the nose. Let's go with Constellation.

Mischa: I love that though. That's really cool. That's great. Lyn?

Lyn: This one's, I don't know if this can be defined as a region, so we can hold on this, but kind of because we mentioned college students earlier, like, like collegiate leagues. Like is there, like, the Ivy League, like, I'm just thinking like the college system as a whole, where like, Maybe it's multiple. There's like the equivalent of Ivy versus like public.

Mayanna: Boston where there's just this weird collection of the best schools, some random middle schools.

Bex: Ivy Leagues, Little Ivies.

Mayanna: Yeah, exactly.

Mischa: I remember the tiny art school that's across from Harvard that nobody has ever heard of.

Mayanna: Or like, my partner went to Brown and there's RISD which is the art school–which is where the Avatar guys went.

Lyn: Just bring that back.

Mayanna: Winky dink.

Bex: Yeah. Well, there's also like Bard colleges and everything. Like, we could get really into this.

Lyn: I think that I want specifically a ground surface college town.

Mayanna: Like an academic, like the academic region.

Lyn: Yeah, but it could also be like, it could be sports. It could be whatever. But like, I want the college town.

Mayanna: The college town.

Lyn: That's all on the surface.

Mischa: Okay, here's, here's a pitch actually. During the war, there had to be people drafted. And that became entrenched in the society as a coming of age ritual, like being drafted. And the society still sort of realizes that there's a need for young people to come into their own. So there's a district of the city called The Come Up.

[Excitement].

Lyn: I like that.

Mischa: Where there's dormitory housing and like it's where people who move out of their parents house live and there are a bunch of schools.

Bex: Halfway district!

Mischa: Yeah, like a halfway district.

Mayanna: Oh my god. That's great.

Lyn: I think that's super interesting I also think that like they still need, like capable people on the ground. But the people in in the floating city are like, “those people aren't actually that important,” whereas the people down on the earth are like “No, this is It's extremely important.”

Bex: Essential workers.

Lyn: Yeah, like, not just essential workers, but like, still engineers. It's like the differences between like-

Mischa: It's like not nearly enough people are going to trade school.

Lyn: Exactly. It's, it's, it's similar to that level where it's like, oh, like, you know, all the STEM education, but no one's actually like wanting to be the person that–

Bex: Everybody wants to be an engineer. No one wants to be a plumber.

Mischa: Well, and that's, you know, everybody in the Constellation is like, yeah, “obviously you want to go to school and have the best job,” but they're so removed that they don't see how the lack of tradespeople is affecting them.

Lyn: That's what I think that the inside point of view is, is that there's kind of a split difference between the population. There are people who are like, “I'm on the come up, I'm going up.” And it's like, “I'm on the come up, I'm staying here.” And like, that the place itself has room for both of those intentions, but that there can be, no matter what, there's a sense of pride in what you're doing. It's actually like, weirdly, really competitive within it.

Mischa: I also think that there's like, if their training facilities are there, and the point is to get people into jobs, like, union halls also probably live here?

Ian: There feels something, yeah, there's something so, stratified about it to me, you know, it's like people who, you're at that school or in that union and everyone's wearing the same blue coat. [Agreement]. And if it's a, if it's a college town, if it's like all these buildings are around every, they're, all the groups are very identifiable. But they're all around each other.

Mischa: And, and it's a gateway to stuff, but it's also a bottleneck to stuff.

Mayanna: Absolutely. And also it's like this weird uniformity with the promise eventually of individualism on the Constellation, if you get there. But in the meantime, you're just like one of many who could potentially get there.

Ian: Because again, we're coming out of a war, right? I mean, like, that stuff gets–

Lyn: Like, everyone's so hopeful.

Ian: And that stuff gets very, factory-fied to create, you know, it's like, “you're gonna go to this school and learn this trade so you can (murmurs).”

[Agreement].

Lyn: Like, I think that people can still choose their trade. That's part of the idealism of, like, everyone was unified for this thing. We all get to, like, make the decisions to find where we're best suited for the greater good. Yeah. You can choose your track, everything like that, but, like, I think there is a really big expectation of, like, “if you choose this, you're dedicated to it.”

Mayanna: You're committing your life to it, and it's, like. The thought that I'm having is like, instead of for the “greater” good, it's for like the “greatest” good. It's like, whatever that idea is. And it's like that, that's not a thing. That doesn't exist.

Mischa: Well, and I, I love this too. Cause Lyn, we talked before the recording about like, sort of like, devotion to the people who sent you there. And like, what do you owe to the people who like, enabled your life?

Lyn: Like, what is the difference between devotion and obligation?

Mayanna: Absolutely.

Lyn: I think like, both of these areas would have very like, would have very different ideas of what devotion and obligation look like and mean.

Mischa: But this, but they're both centered on this and sort of like people crossing in opposite directions about it, but the cross is where this.

Mayanna: And it's like the collectivism versus individualism debate of like, yeah, are you, are you contributing to the bigger system of value? And it's like, what if I don't care about that? Like that doesn't make me a bad person.

Ian: No but you probably are a little bit of an outcast.

Mayanna: Yeah, absolutely.

Lyn: And I think that is also what makes the outside threat really interesting because it, it's so clearly a threat to both of those ideals.

Mayanna: Yes, and collectivism saved us. Like, you don't get it. Like, we had to all stand together. Because if you're not with us, like, you're, you could die. We could die.

Lyn: And an interesting inside-out perspective. Yeah. I'm so into this. Is that like, is that like, there are people who are like, “no, that collectivism was fake.” Like, it was a strenuous collectivism. It was not actually based on, like, a real valuing of, like, people, ideals, culture, society, et cetera, it was like, no, it wasn't collectivism. It was–

Mayanna: Fear. Kind of.

Lyn: Fear. But it was, what's the word that I'm thinking of?

Mayanna: Homogeny?

Lyn: Yes! It was homogeny.

Ian: Yeah. Which is exactly what I'm thinking about. If most people in this world only hang out with people who are wearing their same color coat for, a bad bad metaphor. That's could be what's interesting about like our group, right? Is it's like we're not necessarily all-

Mayanna: From the same-

[Agreement].

Mischa: Yeah, that's what we're going to talk about in the next episode. After we build some more of the city, we'll be figuring out who you guys are and what the party is. But this is all just to sort of create places where you guys could be coming from. That's dope. That's fresh as hell.

Ian: You're dope. You’re fresh as hell.

Mischa: Thanks. Thanks.

Mayanna: Show name: fresh as hell.

[Laughter].

Mischa: Thanks. Cool. So that was, round two of this little game. For the remaining rounds, so we'll do one more round in this episode, and then continue into the next episode, I think. Here's how it's gonna work. I'm going to set a compass for the round, which is just like a word or idea or concept that we're all going to focus ideas through.

Ian: Sure.

Mischa: We're going to go around. Everybody can make either a new region of the city. You can make a landmark within a region, but it has to be within a specific region.

Ian: Got it.

Mischa: Or you can make a resident, residents are associated with a specific landmark. For example, if a landmark is like the corner store, in the, engineering district where, like, people get their, their parts and supplies, there's a resident who's, like, the guy who works in the back that's kind of curmudgeony.

Lyn: Oh, I was thinking bodega cat.

Mischa: You know what I mean? Does that make sense?

Ian: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see.

Bex: Bodega cat.

Mischa: Yeah, exactly.

Ian: Bodega cat?!

Bex: That was Lyn, not me.

Mischa: The one I was thinking of is definitely, Teo from the Spider-Man video game.

Bex: Yes. And Spider-Man the cat.

Mischa: Yes. And Spider-Man the cat. See? A resident. Spider-Man the cat associated with the corner store. So that's how this is going to work. For our compass for this first round, I think I want to try towering, which was one of our adjectives from round one. So we're going to create new parts of the city through the lens of towering.

Mayanna: Oh my god.

Ian: feels like we should roll more dice to see who goes first.

Mayanna: I love that.

Mischa: Ian, you can roll as many dice as you want. It might not mean anything.

Bex: Eleven.

Mayanna: Fifteen.

Lyn: Nat twenty.

[Cheering].

Ian: Ten.

Mischa: So, when we, when you said, “let's roll dice about it,” did you want to go last, or?

Ian: You know, it wasn't what was in my head, but it's what the dice have showed me.

All: (In unison) The dice tell a story.

Mischa: Okay, Lyn, you're up first.

Bex: Pay tribute to the dice, or pay the price.

Lyn: Towering. I'd like a landmark. Yeah. Which would be similar to an elevator. Like, that that is both symbolic of the Come Up. I think that there's a difference between the elevator, maybe part of it is that there are elevator passes, there's the one way ticket, which is mean, which means you made it. And then there's the commuter badge. Which different people have different points of pride around it. It's obviously not a literal elevator because that would be hell for physics, even in a magical world. But I think it is like some kind of like floating platform beam thing that like is a light, like a beam of light that like shows the tether between the surface and the floating city.

Mischa: It's like a hard light monorail.

Lyn: Yes, yeah, exactly.

Ian: A specific spell, perhaps?

Lyn: Yeah, but it's like, but that they're like floating carriages or whatever that will take people to and from. There's like probably a personal badge that shows like one way versus commuter. And then, or like, you know, other things that are like, I work on both. And because I'm very important and I have to see both sides, or what have you, or I have like a one way ticket for a job thing.

Mischa: Well, maybe, like a commuter badge requires a sponsor. And rich people, no problem finding a sponsor, they can get them easily. But if you're on the ground, you really need, like, an employer that specifically provides that.

Mayanna: Oh, that's brutal. Cause it's also, it's like you couldn't, it's probably really difficult to communicate with the upper city unless you have a go-between who presumably is in the pocket of the upper city.

Bex: Or you have access to the magic that can-

Lyn: And I, and I think that it's hyper visible. I think that it literally looks like a beam of ascension that like, for some people, it's a beacon of hope, and for some people, it's like a beacon of like, “I will never get there.”

Bex: I'm sure the language around it from people really reflects how they feel about it. Some people call it what it's called, and other people have nicknames for it.

Lyn: Have different names for it. And I think that, yeah, like, it is a towering presence because it's, from the ground, it is the tallest thing that you can see before you hit the upper city. It's like, that's the fucking beam of light. That, there it is. You can always see it from every angle in the city.

Bex: That's the rapture.

Lyn: Yep, that's, that's the rapture.

Bex: Sorry.

[Laughter].

Mischa: Come on, you're the other Jew on this podcast.

Bex: I know.

Mayanna: I'm Jewish!

Mischa: Are you Jewish too?

Mayanna: Yeah, I'm Jewish!

Mischa: Hell yeah! Majority Jew!

Bex: There’s three of us!

Ian: I'm Jewish!

Mischa: No, you're not.

Ian: No I’m not. [Laughter and cheering]. I just want to be a part of this bit.

Bex: We have majority.

Mischa: Incredible.

Lyn: Wow!

Mischa: A quorum, let's go.

[Laughter].

Lyn: But yeah, I think that that is, that is the towering landmark.

Mischa: Cool. Very cool. I love that. Yeah, that's a landmark. Who's next? Mayanna?

Mayanna: I rolled 15.

Mischa: Yeah, 15's next.

Mayanna: I want a statue of a goddess that represents the, the Bara party region. And, not that, like. It's a beautiful woman, and it's, it's, it's, it's a garishly large statue. And it's like the first thing you see when you go to the region. It's like the, I guess, like the protector of the party region.

Bex: Her toes are hella shiny because people love them for luck.

Mischa: Is she a party goddess?

Mayanna: I think so. I think she's the goddess of partying. And she, everyone loves her. She's super fun.

Mischa: Hell yeah. But. Party's gotta end sometime.

Mischa: True. It's very true.

Mayanna: And then, yeah, you get a hangover and that's, and that's punishment.

Lyn: I think it's the, the mantra of you, “you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here” is like a very specific-

Mischa: And truly, I love the, the image of that girl outside the bathroom at the club being a goddess.

[Agreement].

Lyn: Because it's true!

Mayanna: She's a goddess. It's, yeah, and so like the people who do live there, they get to see the statue in like the day and it's, it's just this, it's a far less-

Lyn: Glamorous.

Mayanna: Glamorous sight. Like, they see the cracks. They see the like, sunken eyes.

Bex: The mascara running.

Lyn: They don't have the like- you know how, like, fountains and statues at night. I'm really thinking of Vegas.

Mayanna: They're lit.

Lyn: They have the spotlight on it.

Mayanna: Yes, they're lit beautifully.

Lyn: Beautifully. And then in day, they don't need that. They're just like, fine.

Mayanna: They're just like, yeah, it's chill.

Mischa: It’s like up lights from the ground versus down lights from the sun.

Mayanna: Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. I love the idea that people rub her toes for luck.

Mischa: I wrote that down too.

Lyn: It's so funny.

Mischa: It's like whenever there's like a statue, like a black statue of a dog.

Mayanna: And it's like the nose is gold. It's so great.

Bex: That's exactly what I was thinking.

Ian: That's what they do in England. The politicians rub Winston Churchill's toes for luck.

Mayanna? Really?

Mischa: That's a weird person’s thing.

Ian: That's a real fact.

[Laughter].

Mischa: Any other statue, honestly.

Mayanna: That’s wild.

Ian: It's Winston.

Mayanna: It’s Winston!

Ian: It's W. W. Chur.

Mayanna: W. Chur!

Bex: W Chur?!

[Laughter].

Ian: Side fact.

Mischa: I love that. That's a great fact.

Mischa: People that know him call him The Chill.

Mayanna: The Chill!

Ian: (Screaming) No!

(Screaming and laughter).

Mayanna: (Yelling) The Big Chill!

Lyn: Alright. I'm out. I gotta leave.

Ian: This podcast was really fun. But now it’s the end.

[Laughter].

Mischa: Bex, I believe you're next. I also want to throw this out. You can make a landmark in the, in the district that you didn't make.

Ian: Oh, I'm going to.

Bex: I want to make a resident in the engineering core.

Mischa: So there's gotta be a landmark to put a resident in.We're going to do multiple rounds. This is one where we're going to do it multiple times.

Ian: Thanks. Thank you for teaching us all that.

Bex: I'm glad I can make mistakes for everyone else to learn from. (Laughter). Then I want to put the landmark as the, the Hub. The Hub of the engineering core. Like the, the, the zone that is, was used to make things work that is no longer used for that, but is like specifically the area that has the machines that were utilized.

Lyn:Like the old heart?

Mischa: So why–

Bex: It used to be beating and now it's not.

Mischa: And now it's not. I would love to come up with a specific thing it did during the war that no longer needs to be done now, that it was about. And I think having that place be a landmark and have it be a meeting place for all these people is great, but I do kind of want to know why this part didn't get repurposed when the rest of the engineering core is.

Mayanna: Was it like the medical ward? It was like the wide, like the mass, the mass medical ward.

Mischa: Maybe

Ian: Or like this, the spell factory, right? And like making all the little glass.

Bex: I think they could still use.

Mischa: They still have that.

Ian: They may have a bunch of them, but they might not be making more. Right?

Mischa: I think they are.

Mayanna: I think they are.

Mischa: That's just me personally as a storyteller. I think they are.

Bex: I like sort of. The hospital or something else that was like dedicated for this war effort that can only be used for the war effort of like mass casualty mass wounded.

Mayanna: The scale, the scale of it is like far too much for it to be like a functioning regular medical thing, but, and there's like offices. There's meeting places, there's cafeterias.

Bex: There's like a WeWork in there now.

[Laughter].

Mischa: So, so could we, could we maybe call it–

Lyn: Not a hospital turned WeWork!

[Laughter].

Ian: Oh, I wonder, wait, actually weird pitch also. What if it's the old church?

Mischa: Yeah, I like that. The Hub is a little bit of a generic name for this thing.

Lyn:But the heart would make sense.

Mayanna: The heart.

Bex: I like the heart.

Mayanna: The heart is great.

Lyn: Because if it would be like, they would use it as the, they call it the heart now because that was the signage for a medical ward. Yeah. Instead of like the red cross that we have here. It's just a heart.

Bex: Which is modeled after a butt.

Mayanna: And also the HP. Oh, the HP Symbol.

Mischa: The Heart Pavilion. The HP.

Mayanna: Heart Pavilion. The HP.

[Overlapping chanting] The HP. The HP.

Mischa: That's putting your D&D into your story.

[Cheering].

Bex: There we go. The Heart Pavilion.

Mischa: Excellent. I love that. Thank you. cool. Who goes next? Ian?

Ian: I’m last.

Mischa: Ian, you're last.

Ian: Oh, but is it me?

Mayanna: It's your turn.

Ian: Oh, sick!

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Finally! My time!

Ian: (singsong) Da da da.

Mischa: (exaggerated) My move!

Ian: I think I'm gonna make, no, I'm gonna make a landmark. And it's gonna be in the, the college town. And I think that's the magistrate's office. Right? So if everything is separated out into like what school you're at, I think there's one central office where you go to maybe like sign up for your school or also the people that send you to them.

Mischa: That coordinates with all the different schools.

Ian: Right, and runs them and keeps them in line for the greater needs of the society and-

Lyn: Ugh, working in student affairs was awful.

Ian: It's that! It's student affairs but through like a, you know, a more USSR-ian kind of dictatorship.

Mayanna: The Magical Guidance Counselor.

[Laughter].

Mischa: I mean the Administrator is Cindy.

Mayanna: She casts guidance.

Ian: Exactly.

Lyn: That's so funny.

Ian: What'd you say, what?

Mayanna: She casts guidance.

Lyn: That's the funniest thing. [Laughter]. The Guidance Counselor is just casting guidance.

Mayanna: And she goes, welcome. Guidance. All right, what did you want to talk about? Changing your major or whatever? Blah.

Lyn: Guidance.

Mayanna: The paperwork.Guidance.

[Laughter].

Bex: You know, I hate how much I love this.

Lyn: Yeah, that's very funny. I really like that actually. It's so funny.

Mischa: That's really good. Okay, to close out this round, at the end of each round, the GM will cause an event. Something happens and the world is changed in some way. Each player will focus on–so I'm gonna say what happens. And each of you are going to focus on a region or landmark, but not a specific resident. This is about how these events affect neighborhoods as a whole. That's good because we don't have any residents yet. Perfect. and after I say the event, you will do one of three things. You can ask an unanswered question, which we will not answer. You can state a biased opinion or reaction to the event. Or you can show a consequence of the event.

Ian: And, and sorry, will you just explain the mechanics of unanswered question?

Mischa: Sure. I'm going to say something happens. Yes. You can say–

Mayanna: Who's behind this?

Mischa: Yeah. Like who's, who's really behind it? And we're not going to answer the question today.

Ian: Yeah. Got it. Cool. Yeah. That's sweet.

Mischa: It's something for me for later.

Ian: That's kind of sexy.

Mischa: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. That's, that's straight out of Did you- I'm sorry, did you say Street Magic?

Ian: I'm glad that, cause I thought you were about to say that's straight out of Digimon and I was like, no, it's not. I watched that show.

Mischa: What?!

[Laughter].

Mischa: I'm sorry. Hold on. Derail. Why would it have been Digimon?

Ian: You said, because you, you stopped mid, “did you say Street Magic?” So Digi?

Mischa: Got it.Digi.

Lyn: Fair.

Mischa: I think, for the compass of towering, I think that a major portion of the constellation falls.

Mayanna: Oh, shit.

Ian:Why'd you gotta, we just built it. I know. We literally just made it.

Bex: It has to fall.

Mischa: Welcome to events.

Ian: What the fuck?

Bex: It has to.

Mayanna: It does. It's floating.

Ian: Well, it was.

Mayanna: What comes up-

Lyn: Or part of it-

[In unison] Must come down

Bex: And like the way I was thinking of it is like the, you know.

Mischa: Yeah, I think it's purely structural. I don't think anybody was in it when it fell. Maybe it's part of the suspension apparatus, like crumbled and just sort of like a piece of it fell off. But it landed below.

Ian: Yikes. Big old yikes there.

Mischa: I believe Lyn was first in this round?

Lyn: I'm really inspired by what goes up must come down.

Ian: I just want to say, my dice rolling contributions has really added to the mechanics of this, and I'm really enjoying it, just so we know.

Mischa: You know, and it's, I'm so glad that you thought to use dice in a game.No one's ever really done that before, and that's really innovative of you.

Mayanna: Groundbreaking.

Ian: Okay, so nice to meet everyone. I think I'm gonna get out of here.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Oh, was that the time? I have to go?

Lyn: Oh yeah, your hard out.

Ian: Oh, I asked to get out. Hey, thanks for my time.

Mayanna: Mom, they’re being mean. Can you pick me up?

[Laughter]/

Lyn: I used the excuse, my mom's calling for so long with friends who also use it as a bit. But when I moved to LA, I started using it and everyone was like, “Oh, is your mom actually calling?” I was like, no, she only calls me once every two months.

Mayanna: It's a healthy boundary.

Lyn: We're just all neurodivergent and like very independent. It's fine. It's no hard feelings for either of us. Anyway.

Mischa: Sp you're going to pick one of our regions or one of our landmarks that is affected. You're going to ask a question about it, you're going to state a biased opinion, or you're going to show a consequence.

Lyn: Yeah, I think my unanswered question is how long until it all comes down?

[Agreement].

Ian: Damn, that was fucking hardcore. That was hardcore.

Lyn: And I think that's the, that I'm doing that as the question that's unanswered for a lot of people like from their point of view is like, (questioning groan).

Mayanna: Yeah, what's going to happen?

Mischa: Well, and I mean, I think that there's even a question of like, insecurity from the people who live there. Is it going to crash?

Lyn: Yeah, I think it's literally everyone, and no one really wants to say it because it has really bad consequences for literally everyone.

Bex: Well, I want to, I want to put a region in where it's like, they could have gone up to the, the constellation, but they're afraid of it falling.

Mayanna: So they move away.

Bex: They have their own district.

Mischa: So, so your, your things in future rounds can be about the events that happened in previous rounds. That's the game of it. This is, I know it seems like we're just discussing things for our story podcast, but this is a game with mechanics.

Mayanna: Yeah, mechanics!

Ian:And engineers. Ba dum tss.

[Groans].

Mischa: But, I know this is a podcast, so I can't put an eye roll into the show, but.

Mayanna: Eye roll!

[Laughter].

Mischa: Mayanna, I think you're next.

Mayanna: Okay. Yes. I think the biased opinion from the constellation is like, “we probably didn't need that. That's chill. We probably didn't need that part. You know, I bet it was just, I bet you, I bet you it was just all rusty and bad.And, and if it wanted to stick around, it would have.” [Laughter]. “You know, it's really about, it's really about willpower. And you gotta want it. And if you don't want it, you're gonna fall.” So, yeah.

Ian: This feels like a quote from one of the Nepo people on the constellation who has not gone to school.

Mayanna: Exactly.

Ian: But is still in a position of power.

Mischa: The way you stay elevated is you just, you pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Mayanna: Yeah, you toss what's not working. If it doesn't have a job!

Bex: Buzzwords, buzzwords.

Mischa: You gotta just disrupt it.

Mayanna: Get a job, part of building!

[Laughter].

Ian: No! That was worse than engineers. Bye.

Lyn: Wow.

Mischa: Bex, your turn.

Lyn: Oh no. I'm in pain.

Mischa: This is great. This is gonna be a good show, you guys.

Bex: Roll for psychic damage. I'm gonna go with a consequence. The piece that fell, shattered the Heart Pavilion.

Mayanna: Oh, fuck.

Mischa: I'm sorry, was the Heart the Heart Pavilion was on the Constellation? Is it not?

Mayanna: It's on the ground.

Mischa: Oh, it's on the ground. Okay, I understand.

Ian: This all has to do with where the engineering core ends up being.

Mischa: Yeah, I thought I had thought that the engineering section was in the constellation. I think that doesn't preclude it. I think that like if something felt like maybe there was like a sinkhole.

Lyn: There could be a surface version and a floating version in theory because.

Bex:Two pavilions.

Ian: There's also a version which each shattered another cracked right? If it like if it- Half of the heart pavilion is still up there, and it like, split.

Bex: Broken heart.

Mayanna: Broken heart.

[Excitement].

Mischa: Oh, that's it. I'm writing that down. Broken heart.

Mayanna: The broken heart!

Ian: I just got chills.

Lyn: Brutal.

Mischa: Ian.

Ian: Okay. Consequence, unanswered question, or what was the third one?

Mischa: A biased opinion.

Ian: A biased opinion.

Mischa: And by biased opinion, I mean from the bias of one of the communities we've made.

Ian: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the biased opinion would be. The flip side of the biased opinion of it not mattering is that it's a conspiracy.

[Gasps].

Mayanna: That someone wants to make us afraid.

Ian: Yeah. Or that the, the, we know whatever the

Bex: Something was important there and they got rid of it.

Ian: Yeah. Yeah. I love that.

Lyn: Or they're trying to stoke fear. They're trying to make us think we're going to fall. We'll never fall.

Mayanna: Yeah. We'll never fall.

Ian: Or, or also that the, whatever the thing was that we were fighting, like secretly had power and did it.

Mayanna: Pinning it on the invisible people.

Ian: Those–

Mayanna: The threat.

Ian: The, the Glorfinflorkens did it.

Mayanna: The Glorfinflorkens!

Bex: Okay, but that actually has to be what they are now.

Mischa: It's absolutely 100 percent not, because I don't have confidence that I can say that over and over on the podcast.

Mayanna:That's fair.

Mischa: It's really gotta be sayable.

Lyn: We all said it separately.

Ian: Unique new Glorfinflorkens.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: You've been doing StarTripper too long.

Ian: Yeah.

Mischa: Yeah. I love this. This game is going to be really cool.

Bex: Oh my god, we're doing so great.

Mischa: We're really podcasting, you guys.

Mayanna: Yeah, it's great.

[Music].

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 Rafill, 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 wherever the path leads. 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!