Detour 6-8: The Devil’s Avocado
Welcome back to the Detour! We’re reacting to the slow forward rumble of revealed information, we’re welcoming guest stars to the path as well as Paz & BG to the party, and we’re discussing narrative justification of game mechanics and what “coming of age” really means, to our characters and the world around them. We’ll also get a quick Party Points update, and have a collective gush about the romance between JJ & Samira.
-- 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
Transcript assistance: Darby Summers
Music: Independent Music Licensing Collective
Production & House Manager: Erin Bark
-- about --
The Wandering Path is an actual-play podcast putting complex characters, resonant themes and engaging new mechanics at the heart of immersive adventures. We’re making the stories we want to see in the world, one game session at a time! Join us for our first season, as we dive to the heart of the City of New Prosper: a techno-magical metropolis on the rise, where those who seek to craft themselves a new future will first have to settle the debts they owe the past. New episodes every other Monday.
— Transcript —
[SFX: Theme music plays].
Mayanna: It's detour time, baby!
Bex: That's how it starts!
[Cheers and overlapping chatter].
Lyn: That's how it starts!
Ian: Welcome back to–
Bex: To the detour!
Ian: –The Wandering Pa–oh
Mischa: Just step over here real quick. It's a detour. Yeah, detour everybody. Come over here.
All overlapping: Hey, psst, psst, psst. Hey guys, come here. Come over here. You're going that way, but just come this way for like, just for a little bit.
Ian: (whispers) We've got candy.
Mischa: Nope.
[Laughter].
Bex: Nope.
Ian: I'm so sorry. I thought it was a different game.
Mischa: Welcome to the Detour where we step off of the path and talk about the game a little bit.
[Cheers].
Mischa: gosh. Since we did, since the last time we did one of these, I feel like it's just been like full, story forward, like, laying track, mysteries, learning about stuff.
Mayanna: Yes.
Mischa: You guys have, like, just had, like, the mysterious world having been revealed to you. It's just, like, you know, I think I was trying to set up a choice between, like, do you sort of still clock into mundane things and sort of brush it under, sweep it under the rug? Or do you just, like, nope, this is my life now. We're examining the mysteries. And I feel like other than Gordon, who has chosen, like a manic crazy person, to do both at all times and also raise a new dog.
Ian: Dog life.
Mischa: I feel like you guys have chosen mystery path.
Bex: Yes,
Mayanna: Yes, we have.
Bex: I think most of our characters realized that the mundane was not something that we wanted to follow anyway. And this was just a beautiful excuse.
Mischa: Mm... I did too good a job making the mundane world seem terrible.
[Laughter].
Bex: I mean, but also like we are still beholden to our mundane world.
Mayanna: Yes, absolutely. Which I think is the most interesting part that like, we can't just fully commit to adventure things because we have, like, jobs and stuff. And like, then now the adventure is our job, but there's other, there's other responsibilities like Gordon’s route and the government stuff and yeah.
Lyn: Yeah, I'm, I'm, it's one of those things where like, as a player,
Mischa: And school,
Lyn: Ugh, yeah.
Bex: I still haven't gone back to see my family.
Lyn: Oh my god. Yeah, or like my family.
Bex: Right?
Lyn: Like, I think that there's, I'm waiting, like as a player it's like the other shoe's about to drop.
Mayanna: Yes.
Lyn: Like, we have chosen adventure, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we get to abscond from our mundane lives.
Bex: We chose adventure, but at what cost?
Mayanna: Yeah.
Lyn: Yeah. and I, I'm, I'm really already feeling the tension of that. And like, you said that like, oh, like as characters, like we have chosen the adventure. I'm like, JJ is not, did not want to do that.
Bex: Yeah. The adventure chose JJ.
Lyn: Yeah, unfortunately.
Ian: Are you guys supposed to be doing, so it's like you've been given a new title as the ICB, but are you still also supposed to be doing your other jobs too, or no?
Mayanna: Oh yeah. Cause you're still working for the magistrate's office in a different capacity, right? So are you doing, are you working two jobs? Are you a single mom who works two jobs?
Lyn: (Laughing) I'm a single mom who works two jobs.
Mischa: The way I've been kind of looking at it is that whatever Gwen asks you to do fulfills your responsibilities to the hours you need to put in at Gwen's office that are registered with your, your school’ns. But also that like, yeah. I mean, it's been a few days, but like it's been a while since either of you went to a class.
Lyn:
Mischa: Yeah. and you know, of course, like JJ, Gwen is kind of setting you up to not have to do that anymore.
Lyn: Mhmm.
Mischa: She's given you these forms and you've signed them and like all it, all it takes is like you could just hand those in and not have to do that anymore.
Lyn: Mhmm.
Mischa: Ibra. You just kind of have not been going to class. (Laughs)
Bex: Yeah, I've been skipping for, for, for a little bit.
Lyn: Even previous to the adventure.
Bex: Yeah, I think Ibra's–
Mischa: So at least it's in line, I guess.
Bex: Yeah, Ibra's kind of been looking for this sort of excuse to not go to class, because they're not on the track that they want to be on, and they're still not exactly sure what that track is, but this sort of new adventure feels closest to whatever track they, they're seeking, even if they don't know what it is yet.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Ian: I was re-listening to the pilot, and it struck me how bored and annoyed Ibra is, you know, for like that scene with the doctor, like, “Yeah, I ate a bunch of bolts.”
Mayanna: That was a really funny scene. I love that scene. Oh, it’s so good.
Mischa: Yeah. And, well, that's the other thing, like, I don't know if I intended this when we started the story, but, like, time in this story is moving kind of slowly.
Mayanna: It's been, like, three days.
Mischa: It's been, like, three days.
Mayanna: I love that.
Mischa: And we’re like, at episode eight?
Mayanna: I love it. It's been an eventful three days.
Mischa: It's been an eventful three days. So, but, like, we haven't even come around to your next Doctor's appointment, Ibra, or, like, Cecilia coming back from her weeklong trip of whatever she's doing.
Ian: Oh, wow, right.
Mischa: so, like, you're all still in the, like, exploring the new avenues without the– yeah. Yeah.
Lyn: We haven't even reached downtime stuff for, like, Fran’s mechanics even. Everything ramped so quickly.
Mayanna: Oh, it did.
Bex: We just got to like Fran’s mechanic being revealed. And like, it's a good thing.
Mayanna: I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bex: I think the trajectory, like tracks where we're going absolutely works.
Mischa: That's kind of what I want to say. Like these, these three episodes, episodes six through eight that we're talking about today, is like, they did have sort of like a slow rumbling trajectory where like. You guys were seeking sources of information, finding them, finding them inadequate, finding new ones, like trying to maneuver your way like slowly towards the center of like, you know, like it's, it started with like, you guys meeting up in a diner and like exhausted and the first thing you do is like, “let's go to libraries” and then the libraries didn't have it for you.
Mayanna: I love the library scenes so much.
Mischa: Or like–yeah?
Bex: They were so much fun.
Mayanna: Oh my gosh, just how quiet you had to be was so funny.
Bex: The way Samira bursts in!
Mayanna: It was so funny.
Ian: There was a piece of me, there was a portion of me that wished we had done that bit for like an hour.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: I, too–And I wasn't even in that scene, I, too, could have watched you do that for like an hour.
Bex: Genuinely.
Mayanna: It made me so happy, oh my god.
Ian: Okay, quick sidebar, sorry, went to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire yesterday and–
[Cheers].
Mischa: Shout out to the Ren Faire!
Ian: Shout out to the Ren Faire! But today I am only dust. [Laughter]. So I'm going to be blowing my nose periodically.
Mayanna: That is so fair.
Bex: And to dust he returns.
Ian: (blows nose) Cute, so cute.
Lyn: That could’ve been much grosser.
Mayanna: See, in the detour, in the detour we let our hair down. [Laughter]. That's true.
Bex: And our snot.
Ian: No, it's not snot, it's just dust. I'm literally just, like, trying to–
Mischa: The LA Pleasure Faire is in, like, kind of the middle of a desert.
Mayanna: It's crazy.
Mischa: Yeah.
Lyn: It's so dusty.
Mayanna: I mean, it's huge. You need, like, a lot of land for it, but it's dusty.
Ian: Yeah, it's dusty.
Mayanna: Imagine if we live in California.
Ian: Los Angeles? Los Angeles. Hollywood, to be specific. The place where dreams are crushed slowly.
Mischa: With the greatest respect for you, my friends and colleagues: oof.
[Laughter].
Lyn: But yeah, the time dilation, I feel like, kind of feels real to what's happening.
Bex: Very.
Mayanna: I think so, yeah.
Mischa: But I also, I like, again, with that rumbling sort of and you guys have been like, are learning things. You know, you're gaining these pieces of information that, like, give context to the stuff that you don't know.
Mayanna: 100%.
Mischa: As opposed to finding out new things, really, so far as I've seen it. I don't know. Maybe you guys know stuff. I also have a really hard time remembering, like, I made this world. I know a lot of things about it.
Mayanna: There's lots of things to keep track. I mean, it's like, for you as the storyteller and also just tracking, like, us as players, like, that's a lot of things to balance and manage.
Mischa: Yeah.
Lyn: And being our editor.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Lyn: You're living in a multiplicity of timelines in this universe that we could not comprehend.
Mayanna: Could you be the anomaly?
Bex: Ooooh!
Mischa: Possibly.
Mayanna: Are you the secret?
Bex: You're trying to usher us through the story, but you're also trying to usher the audience through the story.
Mayanna: Mmhm. Absolutely.
Mischa: Yeah. And I'm also playing 5D multiversal time travel chess with the audience as well.
Lyn: Yeah.
Ian: And you're a member of our party, too. Don't forget, right?
Mayanna: Yes, you are now!
Mischa: Right, cause Paz joined the party. [overlapping chatter] I’m what they call a GMPC now.
Mayanna: Is that what that's called?
Mischa: Yeah.
Mayanna: Ooohhh.
Bex: That's great.
Mischa: GMPCs are fun. I recall a campaign where we started the adventure and there was like, clearly like, like a nepo baby who was born to an epic quest and had this gorgeous armor, but was just a huge douchenozzle the entire first quest. And like, we ditched him the moment we could.
Mayanna: Yeah!
Mischa: But then like, like that was the impetus for like his family to come after us. It was like a whole story thing.
Bex: Brilliant.
Mayanna: I love that.
Mischa: So yeah, but like Paz is not That. Paz is more fun.
Mayanna: Paz is delightful, absolutely. That reminds me of a character that's happening in my home Strixhaven game right now where one of our characters got kidnapped and so we had to play a replacement character for like five weeks, and the character is like a nepo rich kid named [overly affected voice] Qrouton.
[Laughter].
Lyn: Can you say that again?
Mayanna: Qrouton.
Ian: One more time.
Bex: Coo-tod.
Mayanna: Qrouton.
Ian: There it is.
Mayanna: (with an accent) Q-R-O-U-T-O-N
[Laughter].
Mischa: I mean, you guys chose adventure, how was it to hear that like, Paz, who, let's be honest, in that first fight was like, kind of more of like a protect-a-person quest than an active force. Like, how does it feel like, That, that person also wants to fully dive into whatever you're doing.
Mayanna: Great. I feel great about it. I feel great about it.
Bex: So badass.
Mayanna: And she's like, got, and, and, and, cause I remember when you did the reveal at the end of last episode, that, that, that was because of what happened in the first fight.
Lyn: Yeah.
Mayanna: She got powers.
Lyn: We also screamed for about nine hours.
Mayanna: Yeah, we did. We screamed.
Mischa: We're going to get to that. First I want to talk about, because before she knew those, she had those powers, she made the same choice as you guys, and, but like, I don't know, like, I was trying to confront you guys with what that looks like from the outside a little bit, even though you guys aren't really outside, but like, I don't know, this half of the room really liked that. Does this half of the room have any dissenting opinions?
Mayanna: Oohh.
Lyn: As both a person who has played many tabletop games and GM-ed, whenever there is an end to NPC that, like, we cannot fully protect, I always get so scared.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Lyn: Where it's like, oh, like, like, even as, like, characters, like, oh, this is, like, a person that we love and care about that at least most of the party doesn't know about the connection, like, only, you know, like, Like, I think if I remember, Paz only told Ibra about the dream that she had. So all of us are like, “Oh, we can, we know that we know collectively that this is like a big deal. And then there's like a really big thing happening and we're just scratching the surface, but we know that there's a lot more under the surface.” We're not aware that Paz has a glimpse of that too. And so it's like, one of the things of like, “I want to give you like the agency of your own decisions because you are like, you're like smart, you're capable, like. Like, you're an adult, like, you can make your own choices,” and at the same time it's like, the fear of like, “should we take any responsibility should anything happen to you? Like, are we responsible for you?” Not in the sense of like, “Oh, like I'm your boss.” But like in a sense of like, “you're my friend, and I care about you.” Like, like, what role do I play in like, keeping you safe?
Mayanna: I think that's a conversation we can have with her, though. Like, I, like, I think that that's a great thing to bring up, because I imagine she, you know, Especially because she has a disability has probably had like that conversation before with people.
Lyn: Yeah, exactly.
Mayanna: And I'm sure she is fully capable of protecting herself, especially now that she has these abilities. So I wonder how she– I wonder how she would deal with that conversation.
Ian: I have the idea of this century.
Mischa: Whoa!
Ian: Well, you don't have to do it.
Mischa: You heard it here first.
Ian: But I'm just telling you, we need to, maybe it's a mini game and it's a Paz training montage.
[Gasps and cheers].
Mayanna: Which could take us back to your house.
Bex: Yes!
Ian: I told you, I fucking told you.
Bex: Ibra hasn’t even gone to training in–
Mayanna: It’s Big Hero 6 time, baby, yea!
[Laughter and cheers].
Mischa: Alright, alright.
Bex: All the references.
Mischa: That's great, and that's really good to know. Y'all want to talk about Paz's powers?
All: Yes.
Mayanna: We gotta! It just happened!
Bex: I'm so excited.
Mischa: So as soon as she got touched by the Wraith in the first combat, I was like, oh yeah, something, something unlocked here. That was like the electric current behind her eyes as she was in the ambulance.
Ian: Ohhh yeah.
Mischa: I made a whole character sheet for Paz,
Mayanna: Amazing.
Lyn: Yeaaaa.
Mischa: she's fully in the combat, she's in there. I want to shout out on mic, I don't know if I did this before, I want to shout out Valda’s Spyre of Secrets for including a lower limb disability feat that I've added to Paz's character sheet.
Bex: Yes!
Ian: Hell yeah.
Mischa: It has both advantages and drawbacks, I'll– I'm excited to explain them as we continue that combat that we left off in the middle of.
Mayanna: Oh my god, that's right.
Mischa: Yeah, so, but like, I'm, I feel really good about, like, her stuff. I think it's interesting that, you know, she's not the only one who's been touched by one of those ghosts, but she's the only one who got electric powers from it.
Mayanna: Oooh.
Ian: That’s true. Dun-dun!
Mayanna: As a storyteller, when that moment happened, cause like you didn't anticipate necessarily that Paz would get attacked, or like, you could probably glean it, like, you're like, “they're in the combat, like they probably are gonna get hit.”
Mischa: I put a protection side quest in the combat for that purpose, yeah.
Mayanna: But like when she got electrocuted, like, do you as the storyteller kind of go back and look at that and then decide like, “okay, what do I want to do now that that is a thing that's in play?”
Lyn: Hmm.
Mischa: I don't know. I was really excited for that moment, and like, as a storyteller, not that, like, I love Paz and I don't want anything bad to happen to her,
Mayanna: 100%.
Mischa: But also, as a storyteller, yeah, I was really excited when, like, she's the one who of you guys, like–and you guys have HP, you have armor, you have, like, mechanics to mitigate this–and at that point, Paz did not.
Mayanna: No.
Mischa: And so I was really excited for, like, she's really the only one who took major damage, and, like, that's, that's a juicy story nugget that can have consequences.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Lyn: Mm.
Mischa: Yeah, that's like a big theme thing that I can pull on and be like, “okay. What does that mean now?”
Mayanna: Yeah. Oh.
Mischa: I've been working on it. We're still so early in the story. I don't want to reveal spoilers.
Mayanna: Don't do it!
Ian: I just want to say: Paz training montage, Paz shopping spree, gotta go buy armor, gotta go buy all the stuff.
Mayanna: Paz shopping spree! Yes.
Lyn: I think we all kind of need some of that. Just a thought...
[Laughter].
Ian: We probably do.
Mayanna: We need a little bit,
Ian: Oh, my, my leather apron isn't enough?
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Your apron you use to make food? No.
Bex: I think that Ibra is eventually gonna have to go back to training. And is going to not want to do it alone–
Mayanna: Yeah.
Lyn: Yeah.
Bex: –And is gonna want the excuse to not be alone in going back to training. 'cause it no longer feels right.
Lyn: Wait, does that mean we're going to Upper Prosper?
Mayanna: Bracha-Shinmar.
Lyn: House Bracha-Shinmar.
Bex: Probably. I think we might have to at some point.
Mayanna: Ooh.
Ian: We do have to at some point. Well, the question is are we going up or down?
Mayanna: Ah.
Ian: You know what I mean?
Mayanna: Yeah. Wait, cause you live in the Constellation, your family does?
Bex: My family lives in the Constellation, I live in the Come-Up.
Mayanna: That's insane.
Ian: Could we, could we go up to the Constellation and get a whole bunch of really sweet gear before we, I don't know when, when we're gonna get there, but at some point.
Mayanna: Mmhm.
Lyn: Possibly.
Mischa: Sure, how much money you got?
Mayanna: Oh, that too.
Ian: I think I have 16 gold on me or something like that.
Mischa: Yeah, welcome to the campaign where we're tracking gold and money.
Ian: Yeah, it's rough.
Mayanna: Remember like in Pokemon when you go to like the really fancy stores and–
Mischa: Yeah, like the Celadon Mall.
Lyn: Yeah.
Mayanna: And it's insultingly expensive.
Bex: Yeah.
Mayanna: And it’s like, that's the one dress I want.
Ian: Oh, right, like the $400 Pokeball or whatever?
Mayanna: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or, like, just, like, cosmetics that are just like, that's gonna be...
Lyn: It's like, oh, like the stickers back when Pokeballs had stickers.
Mayanna: Yep.
Lyn: Those are sick. I miss those.
Mayanna: It hurt my feelings personally. I took that personally.
Ian: What version of Pokemon are you guys–
Mayanna: We’re talking about XY. There's like, that was like the first 3D handheld one and they had these, like, cosmetics you could do for your trainer. And I, I love a costume on a player character in a way that I will make irrational decisions just to facilitate getting a cool outfit.
Lyn: No, you’re right for that.
Ian: Fortnite lives on you.
Mayanna: Yeah, yeah.
Mischa: Having made the character Fran Weaver, who's constantly looking at–
[Laughter].
Mayanna: And I had this realization that I think Fran is the most me I've ever put into a character.
Ian: Hell yea.
Bex: Aww!!
Mayanna: And I don't know if that's bad or good.
[Laughter].
Bex: We love Fran.
Mischa: Well, regardless, you've given me this gift, and I'm sorry in advance for what I do with it.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee. but yeah, like Tales of Symphonia, I was like, well, “let me see those skins, guys. Let me see those titles. I got to get the fancy dinner party title.” I played through Tales of Symphonia four times because you can only take three people to the fancy dinner party at a time. And so I played through Tales of Symphonia four times so that everybody could get their fancy dinner party outfit for the final event.
Ian: Oh, that's for real.
Lyn: I love that.
Ian: Un-fucking-believable.
Bex: Phenomenal.
Mayanna: And they all looked so pretty.
[Laughter].
Lyn: Yeah! No regrets, no regrets. It was so worth it.
Mayanna: No ragerts. I went through that waterfall puzzle dungeon, I went through the shadow puzzle dungeon, and for those of you who've played Tales of Symphonia, those hurt.
Lyn: Yeah.
Mischa: Oh sure, you can do puzzles in other people's dungeons.
[Raucous laughter].
Mayanna: Hey, I have the strategy guide. I have the strategy guide. [Laughter]. You think I did that shit alone? I have the strategy guide. I held that thing so close to my face, I think I went cross eyed because of it.
Ian: Just to be clear, that was a party point.
[Laughter].
Mischa: Thank you!
Mayanna: I never, I didn't use a single brain cell. Not a single one. I only had two to spare! So I had to save ‘em. For the costume titles!
[Laughter].
Mischa: Great, got it.
Bex: That's the other thing, canonically, Ibra has like, the lowest intelligence and wisdom of the entire party.
Mayanna: Yeah, but me as a person! [Laughter]. You can't beat not knowing what to do.
Lyn: I, for us as players, want to go to an escape room.
Bex: So badly!
Ian: No, fuck no.
Mayanna: I will, I will, I honestly, yes. It will be very entertaining. You– it will disturb you how stupid I actually am.
[Laughter].
Lyn: Oh no.
Mayanna: The trick is don't do things you're not good at. And no one will ever know that you don't know what the cardinal directions are, like, pressed, you know?
Mischa: Yeah, for sure.
Ian: P. S. Lyn and I at the Ren Faire, under the influence of many ales,
Mayanna: Slay.
Lyn: Yeah.
Ian: Were discussing, you know, Floating, pitching the idea of a Wandering Path: After Dark episode at some point.
[Gasps].
Mayanna: Oh no!
Ian: Just saying.
Bex: What?
Mayanna: I love it.
Mischa: It could be yours if you donate to us on Patreon.
Mayanna: I'm down. I'm down to do it.
Ian: Just saying.
Lyn: When we reach X amount of Patrons.
Mischa: Yeah. I mean, you say that, but like, We're a real show with real Patreons now.
Lyn: I'm not joking! I just–
Mayanna: Can you give me the logline of what an After Dark episode would, in your mind, what it would entail?
Lyn: Schwasted.
Mayanna: Schwasted, great.
Ian: And then I'll add, and then I'll add, and puzzles.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: It's gonna be bad, but it'll be very funny.
Lyn: It's gonna be me running Dread. While drunk.
Mayanna: Oh boy.
Mischa: That's great because as Mayanna is to puzzles, I am to dexterity challenges.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Amazing. I know I had this fun idea that I wanted to do, which was if I'm GMing something with a god in it, you have to arm wrestle the DM.
[Laughter].
Lyn: Wow.
Mayanna: Cause that's what fighting a god would feel like.
Mischa: Do you know that Bex has famously won armwrestling competitions on air?
Mayanna: I know! It wouldn't be, it wouldn't be Bex.
Bex: Yeah I’m not allowed to be the DM here.
Ian: What are you talking about? Mischa's choosing Bex as their champion.
Mischa: As my champion!
[Laughter].
Mayanna: “I will be your knight!”
Ian: Didn't you see, Dune? Come on!
Mayanna: Wait, what?
Ian: Nah, Dune 2 reference.
Mischa: “May thy arm chip and shatter.”
Ian: There we go.
[Laughter].
Ian: So good, another point for Misch!
[Cheers].
Mischa: Okay, all right, we're 20 minutes into the episode. Ian, is it time for the party points update?
[Cheers and beeping like calculating]
Mayanna: Party points update, yes, please! Oh, I love these.
Ian: The only– The board does not look dramatically different. The only real thing, which we discussed in the episode, if it made it in, is that I lost all of my party points for a terrible pun that I said off mic about nickels and Nickelback.
Mischa: Yep.
Ian: And I lost all my points.
Mayanna: Cause here's the thing, party points can happen at any time.
Ian: Yeah.
Mayanna: Like, we are all playing the game all the time. The party points game.
Mischa: Yeah. I like to say that the party points don't matter, but it turns out, party points are the only thing that matter.
Mayanna: I think they're the most important thing. It's like, your objective as a human being, [Laughter] which will always matter to you.
Lyn: Yeah. Like when my soul gets weighed in the afterlife, it would be for party points.
Mayanna: Exactly. Against the feather in the ancient Egypt scale situation.
Lyn: Exactly.
[Laughter].
Bex: I’m so mad at how much I liked that.
Ian: You get on the scale and all your points appear over your head.
Mayanna: It's bonus stars at the end of Mario Party.
Lyn: Yeah!
Ian: I mean, I will say–
Bex: I always hate the bonus stars for being the worst.
Mayanna: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but hey, they gave you something, right?
Bex: They did. Cause I needed it.
Ian: BG, BG has a section of party points on the board.
Mischa: BG has– Wait, BG's not a player.
Bex: Max is.
Ian: Doesn't matter.
Mayanna: He's BG!
Ian: BG's gonna get a, BG's, BG might do some wild shit. BG's gonna get some party points.
Bex: Does BG get a party point for when his head turned into a square?
Ian: He didn't, but that's a great– that's a perfect example.
Mayanna: That is so funny.
Mischa: Yeah, sure.
Mayanna: I have played back that, that moment where you hit an octave that I, that, when we were like, “big guy,” and it was like, I can't even do it.
Ian: Wait, what happened?
Mayanna: Like, when, when we're, we're like spitballing the names of the dog and it's like, “BG, big guy,” and you go, “(high pitched squeal).”
[Laughter].
Mayanna: It makes me laugh every time. I love it so much. It's so, it's so good. It's like operatic. I was like, wow.
Bex: That episode title is one of my favorites, honestly.
Mischa: Listen, if you think you like this podcast, it cannot compare to how much we the people making it like this podcast.
[Laughter].
Ian: And to be real, everyone, I feel actually terrible for saying this, but you guys are all talking about how worried about Paz you are. I'm worried about BG. That's what I'm worried about.
Mayanna: Me too.
[Agreement].
Lyn: Yeah.
Bex: Yeah, I’m worried about BG, Actually yes.
Mischa: Okay.
Mayanna: Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it.
Mischa: Yeah, let's talk about BG.
Mayanna: Let's talk about BG.
Ian: I just… If you do something to that dog, I will, I will seek revenge.
Bex: Gordon’s villain origin story.
Mayanna: Yeah, oh yeah.
Mischa: Yeah, it's so dangerous, the power you've given me that like– So, so, so yeah, so now is now in the detour is the time to talk about it.
Mayanna: Let’s do it.
Mischa: I made for your last Gordon's Delivery Service, which was,
[Laughter].
Mayanna: In episode 7?
[Laughter].
Ian: Oh my god, If we, if we officially call it. We have, but I just have never really heard it until this moment.
Mischa: Yeah, it’s Gordon’s Delivery Service!
Mayanna: Yeah, You have a movie.
Bex: Gone full Kiki.
[Laughter].
Mischa: So in episode seven, we did Gordon's Delivery Service episode two. Yes. and, I made, like, a complications table where I had eight things that could happen while you were on your delivery, and you rolled a D8 about it, and one of them was that a dog was gonna, like, an angry street dog was gonna growl at you while you're on your deliveries, and you're gonna have to do something to do that, and you just, you rolled so high on all of, on every single one of those checks–
Mayanna: It was so good.
Mischa: –that I had to be, like, You have a dog now, but Ian, what you don't know, as the newest D&D player among us–
Lyn: Mhmm.
Ian: Hello.
Mischa: – is that any time a player character has a pet, you have handed the GM a future heartbreak.
Mayanna: Yeah–Potentially!
Bex: No, every time.
Mayanna: Potentially.
Ian: Potentially.
Mayanna: Allegedly.
Mischa: Right.
Bex: I've seen Mischa do this to a dog in a campaign before.
Lyn: Yeah…
Mayanna: Allegedly!
Mischa: Bex and Lyn and I played a previous campaign where we also had someone who had a dog, and the dog died mid-combat just from the pure mechanics of D&D, and then I tried to bring the ghost of the dog back, and then the ghost got kidnapped by a shrimp witch!
Lyn: Krillda!
[Laughter].
Mayanna: It won't happen. I won't let it happen.
Bex: We will avenge dog.
Ian: I agree. I won't let it happen either.
Mayanna: Yeah, well, we will die before BG dies.
Ian: That's exactly what I was about to say.
Mayanna: No like, truly, I will die before BG dies.
[Laughter].
Bex: This is a gift we continue to give–
Lyn: Mayanna Berrin will die.
Mayanna: I will, Mayanna will die. I will jump over this table and die before BG dies.
[Laughter].
Ian: You run out of the balcony, and you're just threatening your own life.
[Laughter].
Bex: “I'll do it, I'll do it!”
Mayanna: Yeah I’ll be Peach Girl, I'll be Peach Girl, I'll be Momo, I'll throw up–
[Chaotic laughter and objection].
Mayanna: I'll sit in the hospital window telling the boy to please believe me, before that dog dies, it won't [Laughter]. I'll be the Momo in the hospital! I will be an anime from 2007 about it, I promise you. [Laughter]. My skin will be glossy, my eyes will be too big. My hair will be too shiny, I will do that about this.
Ian: Okay, you guys, a new thing has occurred in party points.
Bex: Yeah, Mayanna got 10.
Ian: Mayanna did not get 10, because, because I can't count how many party points Mayanna was supposed to get. I think, I think we have just seen the creation of the party crown. [Laughter]. Which is when you hit a homer that hard, you have the party crown, until such a moment that the party crown gets passed to another player. And so, I can tell you with absolute certainty, based on the past 45 seconds, that Mayanna now has the party crown.
[Claps].
Mayanna: Thank you so much. It's an honor. This was so unexpected.
Bex: My abs hurt.
Mayanna: Good, I'm glad.
Lyn: I'm actively crying.
Mayanna: That is the gift I give to you.
Bex: Thank you so much.
Mischa: No, dude, I am happy to give you a dog. Like, honestly, like, what little fans we have so far will kill me if I do anything to this dog in at least the next few episodes. Like, I got the dog, you know what I mean?
Ian & Mayanna: 100%.
Mischa: So talk to me as the person who's played the least amount of D&D, how you feel about having a pet in Dungeons & Dragons.
Ian: I’m really excited to– I'm really excited to see how having a dog affects the, the minor stuff, right? Like, how it affects how much gold I have, right?
Mischa: Yeah.
Ian: Which hasn't really mattered so far because for me, Fran has so graciously, like, built us a bunch of stuff.
Mischa: Yeah, well, I mean, that's one of the benefits of having a craftsman in your party.
Lyn: Mhmm.
Ian: And weirdly, since I work with food, it seems like I can get around that, so actually it might not really have an effect, but I'm curious to see what all that stuff will be.
Mayanna: We're co-parenting this dog.
Ian: Yeah, we are.
Bex: It also might have an effect with the guild, if you're using Guild services and Guild content.
Mischa: Well, there, I, I, in my mind I know which mechanics that's affecting. It hasn't come up yet, so we haven't really talked about it.
Ian: Yeah.
Mischa: But, when it does come up, it, it will be in a scenario in which you did not want it to happen.
Bex: Oh no.
Ian: I'm so excited. Yeah, so I think that's gonna be really fun. I'm also just really excited. I'm, this is, I probably shouldn't be for everything we just talked about. But I'm excited to see BG in combat. See how that happens.
Mayanna: Oh me too.
Ian: There's been a lot of discussions.
Mischa: And thank goodness you did say on, on mic, on camera, like, in canon, that, like, he's a big guy.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Ian: He's a big guy.
Mischa: Because, like, imagine if you picked a little dog.
Mayanna: Oh!
Mischa: Mewf! Mewf! Mewf! Mewf! CONK.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Cause who–Noah had a dog in Final Fantasy VIII? Right? She had like that black and white dog?
Mischa: Oh god, yeah! Do you know how many years it’s been since I played Final Fantasy VIII?
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Too many, clearly!
Bex: I'm so glad that we're still in Final Fantasy.
Mischa: Yeah. We are, so yeah, that's the, that's another thing that I have kind of learned as we've gone on is that like, we only mentioned it briefly in our world building episodes, but this game is actually so Final Fantasy.
Mayanna: Which I love. As a Final Fantasy girly, so happy about it.
Mischa: Good.
Bex: I never, I never got introduced to Final Fantasy. This is my introduction to Final Fantasy and now I want to play it.
Ian: Same.
Mischa: Wild.
Mayanna: Can I prescribe to you the perfect introduction to Final Fantasy?
Bex: Yes.
Mayanna: Because it's mine and I'm biased.
Bex: Yes.
Mischa: Excellent.
Mayanna: Final Fantasy X-2. Specifically–
Mischa: Wow.
Bex: Ooh.
Mayanna:Because it's the– You play as Yuna, who is a totally different vibe in Final Fantasy X.
Mischa: Might as well have been a different character, honestly.
Mayanna: She's Hot Girl Summering it, it's Charlie's Angels, you're on a big airship, you're going around solving problems, there's great music in it, and they have In my opinion, the best mechanic, which is the dressphere system, which is you find these little spheres of light, and they have different job classes. So you switch classes on the fly, and every class has a magical girl transformation sequence. [Laughter]. And a custom cinematic specifically for that outfit.
Bex: Oh, this is so you.
Lyn: Oh shit.
Mayanna: Yes. Yeah.
Bex: Okay, perfect.
Mayanna: And it's really fun and I really like the game and it's very campy and silly.
Bex: I wanna play.
Mayanna: and then play any of the other ones you want. But Final Fantasy X-2. And here's the thing, a lot of people think Final Fantasy X-2 is the worst final fantasy game. And that's because you're homophobic.
Lyn: Oop.
Mischa: You heard it here first.
Ian: Oh shit.
B2: You’re right, and you should say it.
Ian: Shots fired.
Mayanna: You hate people who are queer. I'll tell you that right now. So if you are walking around here talking about how you don't think Final Fantasy X-2 is a good game, you're homophobic.
Mischa: And also because you never played Final Fantasy V.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: There you go. Oh yeah, I named a different character Faris after Final Fantasy V.
Mischa: I named Faris Park after Final Fantasy V.
Mayanna: Yes!
Ian: I thought you guys were going to say ferret.
Mayanna: Oh, that's so funny.
Mischa: No Faris, the–
Mayanna: Trans icon.
Mischa: –the park where JJ and Samira had like a beautiful moment in their childhood.
Lyn: Mmhm, yea, wow.
Ian: Wow.
Bex: Gay.
Mayanna: She starts out, you think she's a man, and then you find out she's a princess, and you're like, “Oh yeah. Oh yeah.”
Lyn: That would do something to me.
Mayanna: “This is the best day ever.” Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's awesome.
[SFX: Midroll theme music plays then fades out].
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. First off, as always, and as usual, our biggest shout out to our patrons at patreon.com/wanderingpathpod. To our newest patron, Eleanor G, and of course, a huge shout out to our Voyager level patron, JWX, who is rad and cool and keeps us alive with the fires of passion burning in their heart.
We actually have seven levels on our Patreon, and they all have great Path-wandering specific names that I think are very cute! Well, almost all of them do. We do have one Patreon tier at $69 a month that's just called “Nice.” But at any level, you will get a shout out in this section of the podcast, and I love doing the shout outs. So if you want those, or ad free episodes, or blooper reels, or any of that fun stuff, Or, if you simply want to bring us life, sustain us, and bring us to new seasons, head on over to patreon.com/wanderingpathpod and pledge your support, we truly appreciate it.
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Whenever you open a new tab in your browser, like if you want to know more about Final Fantasy X-2's dressphere system, or you have no idea who Peach Girl is and you want to look it up, Tab for a Cause will show you a beautiful photo and a small ad, and part of that ad money goes towards a charity of your choice. And there's a ton of charities and causes to choose from, like reproductive health, bail funds, Action Against Hunger, Human Rights Watch, climate change action groups, and more. And they just launched Tab for Democracy, which raises funds to get out the youth vote. And best of all, you get to choose how much of your contribution goes where. The power is in your hands.
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That's it for now. Let's get back on the path and back to the show.
[SFX: Midroll theme music plays then fades out].
Ian: Okay, so Misch, for you as the GM, what have been the most interesting moments for you in the past three episodes?
Mayanna: That's such a good question.
Mischa: Great question. I think the questions that JJ and Gordon asked in the library were really interesting ones. Again, I kind of loved answering those questions in a way that gave you context for the stuff you don't know about what you're trying to solve, but that, I mean, hopefully, like, propelled you further down that rabbit hole a little bit, was a lot of fun for me. You know, like, one of the hardest things in GMing, I think, is, like, trying to give answers to failed roles, or even worse, middling roles on, like, information-gathering checks. Julian Mundy, actually, who was our first guest on the show, which we'll talk about in a little bit.
Mayanna: Yes! Oh my god, do you want to talk about that?
Bex: That was so good.
Mischa: Yeah, we'll talk about that in a second. Yes, he actually gave me a great piece of advice recently, which is, like, when that happens, to answer the question stupid.
Mayanna: Oh!
Mischa: Like, answer the question, but do it in a stupid way, which I'm really excited to incorporate into my life going forward. But yeah, finding the ways to, like, not quite give you what you're looking for while still keeping the momentum going is an interesting challenge.
Lyn: It’s not like hitting a wall.
Mayanna: Why would you always give the perfect answer? Like people don't give the perfect answer in their real lives. Even the things they do know the answer to.
Mischa: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So that was interesting. I got to go into like a little bit of the history before the city, which, you know, I, I have some big brush strokes, but not a lot of the finer detail doing that, that one kind of like account of the person who was assaulted by like a circle of Balvarox was really cool. Cause that's the first glimpse we've gotten of anything in this world before the city existed. Very cool to me. And honestly, like having that scene in the workshop with Fran and Fuller. Was so compelling, mostly because like, I did give Julian prompts, but I only gave him a few things. I gave him like, this is what you want out of the scene. This is like what you have to give Fran. This is what is standing in her way of you giving it to her.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Mischa: And like just kind of let him go. And thank goodness, like Julian's an incredible GM and it's a hard thing to ask someone to come in and be an NPC.
Lyn: Yeah.
Mischa: But like. He did, I think he did a fantastic job, he made it compelling.
Bex: And you two worked together so magically.
Mischa: Yeah, that's because he's my oldest friend.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: He was wonderful, he was a wonderful addition, just a great, a great player, a great person to have in the room while we record, just like, lovely.
Mischa: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, audience out there listening to this podcast, you have to tell us, but I think it went super well. I think it really bodes well for us having future guests on the show.
Mayanna: Absolutely.
Bex: Yeah.
Mischa: I think, you know, I especially love that dynamic where like, yeah, we did his scene first and it was kind of long and so we did it and got it out of the way to make sure it was good. And then like, much like you guys, Julian was just around to comment on the rest of it afterwards.
Mayanna: Hangin’ out. Oh, it was so great. It was delightful.
Mischa: Julian has his own count on the party points board.
Bex: Yeah!
Mayanna: He does.
Ian: Oh, that was the other new thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mayanna: Guest star party points.
Ian: Also, just to say it for anyone who hasn't heard, myself, Mischa, and Julian make a science fiction podcast called StarTripper!!.
Mayanna: Yes.
Ian: It's out there if you ever want to give it a listen.
Bex: It’s so good.
Mischa: Yeah, it's really good. It also features music by the people who contribute music to this show.
Mayanna: Heck yeah.
Mischa: So if you, if you like the show, you will probably like StarTripper!!.
Mayanna: Cause when you work with people you like, you keep doing it.
Lyn: Wahoo!
Mischa: So, but the scene with Fuller was so cool to me, like describing the workshop. Like, you know, we as a group have sort of talked about being interested in narratively justifying these, like, class, subclass leveling up mechanics. And so as soon as we were like, “oh yeah, like, Fran gets to join like a, like a guild of magical item people.” I was like, “well, what does that look like? Who runs that? And what's it about? How does it interact with the magical systems that we already know exist in the world?” And then, you know, I was looking through it and I was like, “oh, yeah, you make spell tags.” There are tags in anime, there are tags in video games where you just apply paper tags to things.
Mayanna: Yeah it’s so good. It’s also very Sheena from Tales of Symphonia.
Mischa: Yeah, I'm pulling from specifically, Dennou Coil,
Mayanna: Oh I don’t know that.
Mischa: Which is, yeah, a very little watched anime, which is about, like, the first city in Japan where AR glasses are, like, widespread, and so there's sort of, like, an AR layer over the whole city, and the protagonist's grandmother is, like, a lead hacker in the city. It's very funny.
Mayanna: Incredible.
Mischa: And she makes these, they're, like, digital, but when the characters interact with them, they're paper tags, and they apply them to stuff, and it manipulates the code of the AR layer in the digital space. And I was like, “yeah, we could do that with this.” That's what tags can be.
Mayanna: I love that, that’s so cool
Bex: Sick.
Mischa: So like, yeah, finding a way because they're called tags in the book, but like putting that in the story was very cool.
Mayanna: I loved that. I also, I just loved you, you giving narrative justification for mechanical things. Because I feel like sometimes you play with enough people that you just run into this thing where it's like, “yeah, that just happens.” Like mechanically, like you have this thing, and it's not connected to your character in any meaningful way. And it's like, you, you, you went the extra mile and really incorporated it into the story.
Lyn: Like being able to re-introduce, like, the roleplay part of it.
Mayanna: Yeah, absolutely.
Lyn: It's like the story–you get to embody that a little bit with the story and within the character and how you play the character. Where it's like, yeah, like of course, we're playing a system that provides you mechanics, but how do you make those mechanics yours and make them make sense in a world?
Mayanna: Mmhm.
Lyn: Like, that scene was so cool because I could, like, see the tension, both on, like, Mayanna's face, which I wish that the listeners could have seen, but, like, the stress, like, you were so stoked, but at the same time, you were like, “emotional memories, oh, and then they're removed from you,” and, like, Fran is like, so, like, clearly present and so eager and so determined that, like, for me in the moment being, like, an audience member and that was like,
oh, but the tension between, like, that being Fran, like, the stuff that makes Fran Fran,
Mayanna: Yup.
Lyn: But like that and what Fran wants to accomplish both in, like, not just the shifting dream of, like, being a fashion designer, but now that shifting to, like, wanting to help and protect people,
Mayanna: Mmhm.
Lyn: Like, when we were talking in the world building of the things that we wanted to do is having these aspects of, like, responsibility and sacrifice. I could really see that, and it kept going in that scene! Like it kept building and building and I was like, (deep breathing, stressed scream).
Mayanna: It's–I think in my journey as a TTRPG player, like I think I had this instinct to just not give up things. And that's just like holding on to like, “no, I don't want things to change. I don't want things to be different. I don't want things to be hard,
but like you, you have to do those things. Like, otherwise, it's like, what do you, what are you protecting? Like a made up? It's not, it's, it's very real, but it's also not real. And it's like, am I sacrificing a more interesting part of a story that we're all telling together to hold on to, like, who my character was in the first episode?
Lyn: Yeah.
Mayanna: Like, that's not fair to the story.
Lyn: Because also,
Bex: Character development is important.
Lyn: Absolutely. It's cool for the character development, too, of, like, really reacting to, like, the world as it unfolds in front of you.
Mayanna: Yeah. And that, yeah, in times of struggle, like, you can't hold on to everything.
Lyn: Yeah.
Mayanna: You can’t.
Mischa: I was hoping that that would make its way in when you were making your character Fran and Ibra, even, like the two of you were like, “yeah, and we work in Boggins and that's how we know each other. We all hang out there.” And I was like, “Great, I'm gonna rip that place up and it's gonna be closed.”
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Oh dang!
Ian: Bye Boggins!
Mayanna: I haven't in my GM journey. I haven't gotten to that place yet where I'm like, I'm gonna take that from you.
[Laughter].
Mischa: Well, this is, I mean, this is. That's the thing about this story. It's like, it is a world full of hard choices. Like, we talked about the themes of this being, you know, how do you make those hard choices? And so, not that you want me to take away every precious thing, looks over at BG worryingly.
Ian: No, fuck you, I'll kill you. I'll murder you.
Mayanna: I'm opening the window. It’s happening.
Lyn: We know where you live.
Mischa: But like, like, there is some freedom from a GM standpoint of you guys, like, wanting to play a story where those choices come up that like, allows me to make them harder.
Mayanna: Absolutely. Yeah.
Lyn: Yeah. One of the things, while I was, you know, writing our media kit.
Mischa: Woo! Look at us, Mom, we're a real podcast!
[Laughter].
Lyn: While I'm, like, developing the media kit, I was, like, oh, like, writing things like what listeners could, like, “pair as well with listeners who like immersive audio fiction, techno magical settings, nostalgic anime,” and, and then I was, like, trying to find the last thing I was, like, And I was like, “oh, and coming of age stories.”
Mayanna: Yes
[Agreement]
Lyn: We're like, all of our characters are kind of at this crux, not like, I think now when you say coming of age story, at least in this current media landscape, it's usually like teens.
Mayanna: Yeah, you think like 17 to 18, or high school to college.
Lyn: But like, for like, young adults, emphasis on the adults rather than the young, like, we're all playing characters in like, essentially the early 20s of like–
Mayanna: Which is the new 17.
Lyn: Which is the new 17, where it's like the formation of a new identity.
Mayanna: Mm-Hmm.
Lyn: But not in the sense of like, “I'm learning what I like”, but in the, “oh, I have a place in this world.”
Mayanna: Mm-Hmm. you have things you can contribute to. Yeah.
Lyn: Yeah. And trying to figure that out and what that means to you Was the thing that I ended up landing on where like all of the things that formed our characters’ identities and purpose as of episode one has completely changed.
Mayanna: Mhmm. Oh yeah.
Lyn: And we're all reacting to it.
Mayanna: We all had very. You know, normal, regular dreams of, like, doing well in school or, like, figuring, figuring your stuff out, doing well at bread, [Laughter], making an outfit, and now it's, it's so much bigger than that.
Bex: Well, I think there's also, like… This world– you've done such a great job of having there be so much cost, and penalty, and consequence, and that can be…
Mischa: Thanks, it was one of our basic themes.
Bex: Yeah, but the thing is, it can be a good consequence or a bad consequence, and it's really up to us as the collaborative storytellers to figure out what it's gonna be.
Mayanna: Yes, absolutely.
Mischa: I, well, I feel a little bad that, like, Just because we keep, I keep finding such juicy moments in all these other scenes that, again, the time dilation, things are moving so slowly that I do feel like, you know, where, where Fran has moved on to her new purpose, and JJ has moved on to their new purpose, and, Gordon, really just having two purposes out there.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Ian: We'll talk about more of that in a second.
Mischa: Okay.
Mayanna: Oooh.
Mischa: But like, Ibra, I still feel like, is looking at that, like, especially with that panic attack of like, “Oh no, things have to change and I'm not ready.”
Bex: And “things have to change, I'm not ready, I have to change, what am I?”
Mayanna: You don’t know yourself.
Bex: Like, there was that, I was re-listening and what Fuller said about the application of the magic being dangerous is what really gave Ibra that panic attack.
Mayanna: Yes.
Bex: It was like, “I'm the application of this magic, I'm dangerous.”
Mayanna: And you didn't choose that.
Bex: Not at all.
Lyn: Mmhm.
Mayanna: No, it's, it's scary. It's very scary.
Mischa: Yeah, so we've had those moments with us. I feel like that moment like we're very close to it with Ibra, like it's coming in the next episode or so.
Bex: I'm excited. I feel like that the next scene, this combat is going to be catalytic for Ibra.
Mayanna: (Gasps).
Lyn: Yeah, absolutely
Mischa: Yeah, yeah, I hope so. So maybe by next detour we'll have a chance to talk about it.
Mayanna: Yes.
Mischa: Ian, did you have something to say?
Ian: Two words.
Mischa: Yeah.
Ian: Inspector Gordon.
All: [Cheers] Yes!
Mischa: Okay, what?
[Laughter].
Ian: Gonna lean into the detective hard. Talking about the character changing from where you thought it was day one, the uncovering of the mystery and the facility that Gordon is having with doing it. I want to lean in more and go get a book.
Lyn: Yeah, well, like, JJ fully recognizes that both Fran and Gordon are way smarter than her. And like, so being able to accompany Gordon to the library and like kind of see that shit happen. It's like no, you have a lot of like, like you have a lot of intuition. Like, you are a learned person and, like, a skilled person, and you are just, like, not in an environment that, like, gives you, like, books of this kind, like, but you're, like, you are a researcher, like, your little notebook,
Mayanna: Yeah, oh my god, yes!
Lyn: and, like, this is maybe Lyn projecting some stuff onto there, but, like, the reason why maybe you, like, fuck up four pallets of bread, episode one, is actually, like, you're experimenting, like, you're doing, like, all this trial and error and, like, you ultimately, like, also mechanically, like, you are a scientist.
Ian: Right.
Lyn: And so, like, JJ sees this in Gordon a lot, that's like, “hey, I think, like, you might belong here more than I do.” And not in, like, a self disparaging way, but it's like, I”'m so excited that you can finally get this. Because I think you'll do really, really well and make something out of it.” Not, like, that you should, you know, like, stop being a baker, stop doing anything, but it's like, “keep investigating. I will rely on you to do that because you're good at it.”
Mischa: That's so interesting. I like that. I don't even know if that occurred to me, but like, yeah, we made you a scientist character with the highest intelligence and then put you in a guild that's mostly about doing one thing the same way every day.
Ian: Mmmm.
Mayanna: But you do experiment though.
Mischa: But that's the thing.
Lyn: Yeah, yeah.
Mayanna: You try different stuff.
Bex: The garlic knots, the sausage rolls.
Mischa: That's the tension.
Ian: Right.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Ian: And, and what's funny is you say to keep baking, which is possible in one iteration of the game, but based on what we're talking about, making hard choices, having to, you're right. It's like, that's such an interesting story too, of getting to the point where all of a sudden you don't want to be a baker anymore, but that's what you've done your whole life. And you live in this world where, well, once you say you are, you are.
Mischa: Yeah.
Mayanna: And also like in, with, with JJ, like JJ has the magistrate who's like, “what do you really want to be doing?” Or like, “Hey, You might say you want to do this, but your actions are indicating to me that you actually are more interested in this.” And like, if Gordon doesn't have that person in his life, like maybe it's Cecilia, maybe it's somebody else, but like, who can go, “dude, get out of here, man.”
Lyn: Yeah.
Mayanna: Like, like that person who can kind of redirect you and be like, “are you, are you really gonna stay in Indiana?”
[Laughter].
Lyn: Shoutout to my therapist at age 16.
Ian: Right. My question to you is, in this world, can you move? Are you legally, like, allowed to move once you, you know what I mean?
Bex: I mean, we work for the office that moves jobs, so if anyone's allowed it's us.
Ian: Oh, sick.
Mischa: Yeah, fortunately. Truly, you do work for the lady who moves the people around.
Mayanna: But it's not easy, I imagine. Like, most people don't have that access.
Bex: It's not easy, it's not common.
Ian: Doesn't feel culturally normal.
Lyn: Yeah, I think that it's the culture side of it. It's like, when we talk about stuff, it's like, oh, your family is Like, your work is your family, is your life is your work, is your family, is your life.
Ian: It's my surname, it's literally my surname.
Mayanna: Yes!
Mischa: Yeah, and that's the thing I've been playing, right? Is that, like, well, especially with JJ, like, that's, that's the conflict so far. And so, like, we're, we're still in the beginning, but we're ready to move into that phase where, like, okay, you guys have made the choices, but you're right, it's the culture. It's about, you know, especially with JJ, like, yes, you can do this, and you want to do this, and your mentor says it's okay, and then she encourages you to do this, but what do your parents think?
Lyn: Exactly.
Mischa: And Ibra, you know, you're ditching classes, and you're whatever, what do your parents think? You know, Gordon, I like, I think that's a great tension to look at, especially as Cecilia returns from her trip and like, you know, you're not slacking on her deliveries, but …
Mayanna: You're trying stuff out, you're shaking shit up,
Mischa: You're changing shit up, you change stuff up at the church with those garlic rolls, like she's going to hear about that.
Ian: Right.
Mischa: You know, like, It's still to be seen what she thinks of all this when she comes back and what advice she has for you moving forward. I also think it's interesting that, like, Fuller laid a tag on the gun that your mom gave you, Fran.
Mayanna: Yup, oh yeah.
Mischa: That, like, there's something there, too. We're really about to start looking at, like, you guys have made this choice, but what does that mean?
Lyn: Yeah,
Mayanna: Absolutely. Sorry, the cat in this room has chosen me and I'm very happy about it.
Mischa: Mayanna?
Mayanna: Huh?
Mischa: That's Gaz!
Mayanna: Gaz!
Mischa: Gaz! From the Bursar's Office, that's the guy!
Mayanna: Hi Gaz! Gaz! I'm so happy!
Mischa: When we, when we, this is Gaz, my partner Erin’s 18 year old cat, we moved him across the country from Pennsylvania. He always has drippy eyes, so when we do voices for him, like we do for all our pets.
Mayanna: Oh that’s so funny
Mischa: (A nasal and slightly garbled Gaz voice) He kinda huffs out like this.
Mayanna: Yeah!
Mischa: And he's also very, just like, an old cat, seeded in his ways, so he, like, gets what he wants, and wants a thing, he expects it. So that's where that character came from!
Mayanna: We see each other.
Mischa (as Gaz): Like, You probably just forgot to do it for me.
Mayanna: Yeah, (mimicking voice) we see each other, Gaz.
[Laughter].
Ian: I just, quick, quick, side sauce, side flavor.
Mischa: Yeah.
Ian: I just met this person whose cat lived to the age of, give me a guess.
Bex: 32.
Ian: 30!
Mischa: Yeah.
Mayanna: (in awe) 30.
Mischa: You want some extra sauce on that?
Ian: Yeah, I do.
Mayanna: Yes please.
Ian: Sauce on my sauce.
Mischa: Most old cats tend to die of renal failure. Their kidneys give out. There was a study that I read from Japan a few months ago where they cured the most common causes of renal failure in cats, such that like, if this becomes a widespread medication, most cats could live to 30 now.
Ian & Mayanna: Oh my god.
Bex: Amazing!
Mischa: That's not, that has nothing to do with this podcast, but just a little bit of fun fact.
Mayanna: It has everything to do with this podcast. Because there's a cat here.
Mischa: Because there’s a cat here while we’re recording this podcast.
Ian: Okay, I have another, I have another word for everybody, and you don't have to answer this. We can leave it open ended, but it is a word with a question mark on it.
Mischa: Okay.
Mayanna: Ooh.
Ian: And that word is: “Dungeon”?
Mayanna: (gasps)
Bex: Yes. Dragon.
Lyn: Oh my gosh. When you had all, we haven't even gone into the side quest yet, but we–
Mischa: Oh yeah.
Lyn: When we retouched on some of like additional leads during Gordon's dog training game.
Mischa: Yes. That's one. Another big like rumble of information coming in is that like you have leads to follow up on for side quests
Mayanna: We found Astra.
Lyn: Yeah. And we found a speck of Astro where I'm like, we are. Like, I know places where JJ wants to go, and also that Lyn wants to go, and Lyn wants to go everywhere.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Oh and the restricted thing with the skating team.
Lyn: Yeah, the teens, and then like, the, the–
Bex: Factory,
Lyn: Yeah, the teens at the factory, and then in the mines, and then at that house.
Ian: Not in the mines yet.
Lyn: Yeah, we cannot, we know that there's a restricted level, like, for levels 12 through 15.
Mayanna: No way.
[Laughter].
Ian: But I'm definitely ready to get into a place, you know, where we can't just have a conflict and disengage. I'm ready to start dealing with some shit.
Lyn: We also, for the level 3 level up, most of y'all hit your subclasses, and we're gonna see some of that with Fran and Ibra,
Mayanna: Yeah oh my god, so hype.
Lyn: But between Gordon and JJ, there's like, new stuff that we have. Well, my stuff isn't that new, it's just third level spell slots.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: But good! We need those.
Bex: Yeah, we do.
Mayanna: Hey, “just third level spell slots,” how dare you.
[Laughter].
Lyn: Just–Whatever
Mayanna: That’s my best friend you're talking about.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Third level spell slots. My god.
Mischa: I've known that guy since kindergarten. Me and third level spell.
Mayanna: Me and third level spell slaads, we fucked it up!
Bex: I'm about to play a one third caster, so shut up.
[Laughter].
Lyn: You're never gonna get there.
Bex: Never. I never get third level.
Lyn: But like, yeah, dungeon question mark. I answer with dungeon exclamation point.
Mayanna: Good! Dungeon? dungeon!
Lyn: Dungeon, dungeon, dungeon!
Mayanna: Dungeon, dungeon.
[Laughter].
Bex: I am excited for like, since we're talking about subclasses and classes, I'm excited for the fact that we can either continue on our trajectories or multiclass in this because I started thinking about that when Inspector Gordon came up. I'm like, there's a Valda’s inspector class.
Mischa: Yes, the investigator class.
Bex: The investigator.
Mischa: And, and it's, it's very much like you're looking for clues. You pick, you know, you also pick like, I think you pick a favored enemy.
Mayanna: Ohh Wow. Favorite enemy.
Lyn: I, was reading again, because I was working on the media kit, I was reading so many different source book bits all at the same time. I'm like, now I don't know what anything is anymore.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Where it ends and where it begins.
Lyn: I don't know.
Mischa: Hold on, shout out to Mage Hand Press, they've been so nice to us, they sent us a physical copy of Valda’s.
Lyn: They did.
All: Thank you so much Mage Hand!
Lyn: For making it.
Mayanna: It’s glorious!
Mischa: I wanna make sure we get it right. Let me just look it up real quick. Mage Hand Press. Yeah, so the short description of the investigator class in Valda’s is “supernatural researchers and monster hunters, investigators use a few silver tipped crossbow bolts and a tome brimming with rituals to banish monsters that stalk the night.”
Ian: Fuck yeah
Mischa: “Play an investigator if you want access to boundless utility options and the ability to go toe to toe with a vampire, werewolf, or electric jelly ghost.”
Mayanna: Woahhh!!
Ian: That's where we're going, right there! Inspector Goddamn! Gordon!
Mayanna: Gordon! Yes!
Mischa: Yeah, that's pretty sick.
Lyn: Yeah I know there's some multi class things that I kind of am thinking about, JJ, but it depends on what happens in the story.
Mischa: Yeah, like, I am slightly sorry for the time dilation, I hope it's not, like, too much of a slow burn.
Mayanna: Please don't apologize.
Mischa: But we are right on the precipice of, like, really digging in and doing some stuff.
Mayanna: Truly don't apologize, we've had so much fun.
Lyn: You’re doing really really well.
Mayanna: And we wanted to dig into things minute by minute, so.
Lyn: Yeah. I think, like, part of what's working really well, these first episodes, when, like, time is moving a little slower, is, like, still, like, oh, kind of about the characters as individuals, like, in their individual contexts, but then, like, the next part is, like, oh, yeah, these characters out in the world, and responding to the world at large now that they've made their, like, their self-centric choices.
Mischa: Well, now that you've accepted the call to adventure and are crossing the first threshold.
Lyn: Exactly.
Mayanna: The Hero’s Journey
Lyn: It's almost as if story arcs are real.
Mayanna: Wow. No way.
Mischa: Thanks, Joe Campbell.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Wow.
Mischa: Shoutouts to my pal, Joe.
Mayanna: Yeah, I mean, y'all, first name basis, me and I, me and I, my boy, Joe. [Laughter]. There is one thing we haven't talked about yet.
Lyn: Oh?
Mayanna: Samira.
Lyn: Oh.
Bex: Yes! Oooo!
M!: Oooh!
Bex & Ian: Gay gay gay gay gay!
Lyn: My favorite thing was Mayanna not. [Laughter].
Mayanna: I had no clue.
Lyn: You were so.
Bex: The angry face.
Mayanna: I had no idea.
Mischa: And what's so funny about that is in my scene breakdown for the episode, I did just write, “Flashback with Samira, Flirt Roll for JJ?”
Mayanna: Yeah.
Mischa: And that's all I had written down.
Lyn: Yeah.
Bex: I'm so excited about how much romance there is in this campaign.
Mayanna: I love romance.
Bex: I'm deciding that Ibra is aroace.
Mischa: Yeah.
Mayanna: Oh!
Bex: The one without, for this whole campaign. And I, that's, that's my decision. And I'm, after listening all the way through again, I'm like, “yeah, no, I think I accidentally set that up.”
Mayanna: Interesting.
Mischa: I, you know. I have not done a lot of games with a lot of romance in the past.
Mayanna: Are you kidding me?
Mischa: I really, like, wanted to take this opportunity where we're taking the story really seriously because we're making a podcast and, like, take that opportunity to examine romance.
Bex: Yeah.
Mayanna: Romance is my favorite part of anything.
Mischa: Yeah. Well, thank you, Ian and Lyn for, like, being my little guinea pigs in that. I'm really excited to see where it goes.
Lyn: I can continue to grow and evolve and devolve.
Mischa: All of like the, the, the, like, you know, looks across the ballroom between Paz and Gordon, like, in the middle of combat–
Mayanna: My favorite thing.
Mischa: Like, because she's in the party now, like, yeah, I'm so excited!
Bex: Combo moves between everyone?
Ian: Oh, wow.
Mayanna: Synergy.
Ian: Yeah. I do feel like Paz and Gordon, though, are, you know, still on sort of like the young track of, of the flirting.
Mischa: No yeah, I'm not pushing anything, we're still gonna abide by dice rolls.
Ian: No, that's not what I mean.
Mischa: We're gonna play to find out, but like, I want it so bad, I want it so bad!
Ian: Yeah, no, what I mean is the sort of like, the hot and cold of like, “well now she's in the party, so now she's really close, so like, how does that change things?”
Mayanna: Mmm
Mischa: Oh yeah, interesting.
Ian: That's what I'm talking about. You know what I mean?
Bex: And now you got that text from Fran being like, “I think Ibra's moving in.”
[Laughter].
Ian: Right!
Lyn: I love that! Especially with you being like, yeah, no, Ibra's definitely aroace and completely misreading the situation.
Mayanna: Like, cause like, why would you be that close to someone if you didn't like them? So like, my dumb brain is like, “oh, okay. I didn't know. I have no idea it was getting like this. My bad. Sorry, guys.”
Lyn: Just like, so much happening. I love you stirring the pot.
Mayanna: I didn't mean to. Like, mechanically I was like, “I'm going to say something that truly is misinterpreted.” Very Atonement. [Laughter]. But, but Fran was like, “I think this might be happening.”
Lyn: No, I... Please continue. [Laughter]. I will now also participate.
Mischa: Let's, but let's also come back to JJ and Samira.
[Laughter].
Lyn: Yeah, whatever.
Mayanna: Yes! JJ and Samira.
Bex: I'm obsessed.
Ian: That feels like the strongest relationship piece of the show to me so far. Like it feels like there's a lot of weight there.
Mayanna: It’s so good. Yeah. Unrequited.
Bex: I don't know if it's unrequited.
Mayanna: Or deeply repressed.
Bex: That’s it.
Lyn: Yeah, so, um… When I was developing the character, like, after the, we did our world building stuff, some of the questions that Mischa was asking was like, oh, like, relationships, like, family, or, like, classmates or coworkers, like, who do you have bonds to, who do you trust, who do you not trust, like, how, are they, a catalyst in how you have belief, or have lost belief. And so, my favorite thing with creating characters is like fleshing out their family. In this one, in this game, I think is pretty important.
Mischa: You came back with a full like family tree almost.
Lyn: Yeah. I came up with like a family tree with some like bullet points for each person and–
Mayanna: Hmm.
Lyn: They are actively so fucking Filipino, y'all don't even know. and 'cause I was like, oh, like. The idea of, yeah, like, work is family, is life is work, is family, is life, and, like, those kind of three things really coalescing. And so, when I came up with Samira, I wanted Samira to, like, be a really close childhood friend that could also, at least initially, serve as a foil to JJ. Of, like, someone who is very sure of herself, who was, like, willing to, like, follow her own determination.
Mayanna: Mmm.
Lyn: Like, no matter the cost. Like, that kind of stuff. And like, JJ being the opposite of that. and then while I was writing this, I was like, “and they're gay! “And then I was like, that, I mean, I'm gay. So I think that my own, my own queerness possessed me when I wrote that.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: It took over.
Lyn: It really took over.
Ian: “Stop, hand! No, stop writing. No!“
Mischa: “Keep writing, yes!”
Mayanna: That's the gay goblin inside.
Lyn: That is just me. That's what Lyn is short for.
Bex: Gay Goblin.
Lyn: Yes.
[Laughter].
Ian: Gay Goblin? Oh my god! What? Ugh!
Mischa: Sounds like a party for Lyn.
Ian: That's definitely a party for Lyn.
Lyn: Yay! But yeah, like, as I was writing that, I was like, and I think what will make that extra juicy would be like, if JJ has been in love with Samira this whole time.
Mischa: Yeah.
Lyn: And, whether or not they will ever act on that remains to be seen.
Mischa: That has got to be the closest flirt role I've ever played in a game. It's never been that close before. It's so good.
Bex: The heavy breathing you did!
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Yes!
Lyn: Yeah and it's like, yeah, like at that point in time, you really came in with that flashback so heavy. Like the only thing that when we were thinking of potential things to do I like talked to Ian and we were like dog training! I was like at a park like it's in Minetown JJ used to hang out in Minetown Maybe like it's one that Samira and JJ would go to! And then you came in with a fucking steel chair [Laughter]. I was like so flustered–
Mayanna: Much like Aerith in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
[Laughter].
Ian: Leave. Get out.
Mayanna: No.
Bex: Fucking nerd.
Ian: You get out.
Lyn: But yeah, you came in with a steel chair. I was so flustered. [Laughter]. throughout that whole thing. Like, I, the spirit of JJ did possess me in that moment. I was like, I am now like, Actively imagining myself, like, as a 13 year old, like, in love with, like, one of my best friends at the time. And I was out the whole time, so, like, some of my best friends I ended up dating, but, like, one in particular I was really thinking about was, like, if–and for this person, whose name I will not name,
Mayanna: Good for you.
Mischa: Shoutout! Shoutout nameless person! Donate $5 to us on Patreon!
Mayanna: You know you are!
Bex: Anybody without a name, give us $5!
[Laughter].
Lyn: If you think I was in love with you when I was 13, donate to our podcast.
[Laughter].
Ian: Correct
Lyn: Anyway, and, and like, this was before she was out as queer. like we were again, like 13. So like kind of just like on the cusp of anything being figured out. And we were in suburban Illinois.
Ian: Oof.
Mayanna: I’m so sorry.
Lyn: Like there's a lot of stuff like layer onto that. where in that moment I like really put myself back. Like, I remember a moment at a playground, blah, and I was like, “(stressed breathing) you are great and cool and awesome, and I think you are the best person ever. And I mean that in a way that totally makes sense and is normal.”
Mayanna: Dang.
Lyn: Cool.
Mischa: Well, and I loved, like, for a character that was designed from the jump to be so sure of everything she does in every moment, to have one moment of uncertainty. Like, that's storytelling gold, baby.
Lyn: Yeah.
Mayanna: And all the joking and laughing and teasing, like, has so much richer flavor now.
Bex: That slide tackle.
Mischa: Any excuse to physically touch each other.
Bex: Yeah, slide tackle is so queer teenagers.
Mayanna: Oh my god. So gay.
Lyn: It's like, “I don't know, I just need to make contact with you all the time, and I guess, it'll be slightly violent?”
Mayanna: I live for these moments.
Lyn: “I don't know why.” The rituals, they're intricate.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: That's what it's all about. This is what life's about. Is those moments.
Mischa: Yep. That's so true. Ah. All right, y'all, I'm very excited to introduce a new section to the detour, which is Question Corner. [Cheers]. We asked for listener questions, and finally, we have some.
Mayanna: Yay! You listened and you wondered!
[Laughter].
Ian: See, that's a party point.
[Laughter].
Mischa: Okay, I want to answer some listener questions specifically from our patrons at patreon.com/wanderingpathpod.
[Cheers].
Mayanna: Thank you.
Mischa: Thanks so much for giving us money, we'll answer your questions first.
Bex: We love you.
Mischa: From Sydney.
Ian: My girlfriend?
Lyn: No?
Mischa: No, different Sydney.
Mayanna: Ooh! Sydney is now canon.
Ian: I thought for a second that Sydney was listening to the podcast without telling me.
Mischa: Hey all Sydneys out there, Ian'll be your boyfriend if you donate to us on Patreon! [Laughter].
Bex: This Sydney is gay and will punch you in the balls.
Ian: Whoa! That took a turn.
Mayanna: Also, hot!
Mischa: Sydney asks, what are the mechanics that were used to cast a spell without spell slots left? So, back in the mech fight when JJ had no more spell slots left, and Lyn asked to overcharge.
Lyn: Yep.
[Laughter].
Mischa: And this is not in in vanilla Dungeons & Dragons, this is one of the things I made up, and the reason is, we thought it'd be cool.
Lyn: Yeah.
Bex: And it is.
Lyn: The mechanic is...
Mayanna: Please.
Lyn: Yeah. Yeah.
Mischa: Without giving too much away, basically, someone whose astral crystal is depleted can get one, can juice one last spell out of it with a 75 percent chance of breaking the crystal when you do it.
Lyn: Mmhm.
Mischa: And this comes from like, anime and Final Fantasy.
Lyn: Every video game ever.
Mischa: You know, like, using, like, the power inside you to, like, go beyond your limits,. “Plus ultra.”
Mayanna: Yeah, “limit break.“
Mischa: Yeah, limit break, exactly. That's exactly what it is. So, and I thought it'd be cool because a lot of that stuff was on our vibes list, so I was leaning into those tropes, and I think, you know, we've only seen it once. It's also, like, potential fodder for something cool to happen later, you know.
Mayanna: Yes!
Mischa: Like if I let you know early that overcharge is a thing, then later when you're in a dire moment, maybe you'll try to overcharge and something dramatic will happen.
Mayanna: Yes, please.
Lyn: That's one of my favorite things about like other systems too, that I'm immediately blanking on all of them, but a bunch of ones like have like some kind of last stand or, like limit break capacity that you can do a really cool thing, but it could cause, like, come with a really severe cost.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Bex: And that's one thing that I love about, like, in our world building, we talked about how magic comes with a cost, and this is the ultimate form of that. It's like, there's a 75 percent chance of the ultimate cost here.
Lyn: Yeah.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Mischa: Yeah.
Lyn: I wouldn’t call that the ultimate cost.
Bex: Okay, fine.
Mayanna: But I think it would be like in terms of damage.
Lyn: But it was a 50 gold cost.
Bex: For some of y'all, that's the ultimate.
Mayanna: One of the systems that I'm aware of that has something like that is called Shadow Dark, which is a, like, a solo.
Mischa: I don't know that one.
Mayanna: It's fairly new, it won a bunch of awards at Gen Con this year,
Lyn: Oh yeah.
Mischa: Oh nice.
Bex: Sweet.
Mayanna: but they have a death thing, and it's like Blaze of Glory, which is you auto crit, but you die. There's Risk It All, which is you roll, and if you roll anything above a 10, you come back with full HP,
[Laughter].
Ian: What?!
Mayanna: But if you don't, you die.
Mischa: Yeah.
Bex: That makes me think of that one that got Mollymauk dead.
Mayanna: Oh! Wait, what was that one?
Bex: I can't remember the exact mechanics, but in Critical Role there, Mollymauk had like, I do this, and if I fail, I die.
Mayanna: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bex: And they failed. And they died.
Mayanna: Awww.
Mischa: Well, ours are not that dark. I mean, unless running out of crystal means you go on a longer thing and then maybe you die later.
Ian: Right, or if we're in a dungeon and all of a sudden you're dead.
Mischa: Exactly, exactly. That's why I wanted to include something like that.
Mayanna: Yeah, I'm trying to think of what the most high stakes ramification would be, like, had you not succeeded. One, it's just that you were, you were down, Ibra was down.
Lyn: And under a mech.
Mayanna: And under a mech, which would, yeah, would have been very dangerous. Yeah, honestly, like, the risk less than So for you, JJ, and more so for Ibra in that situation, but I wonder if there's also something mechanically where like it can, you can take damage–
Lyn: Yeah.
Mayanna: If you don't succeed.
Lyn: Well, I mean, if we're talking about overcharging electrical capacitors that are attached to your body somehow.
Bex: Yeah. I feel that's what a natural one would be is like,
Mayanna: Yeah, you're in pain now and you–
Mischa: Well, and you guys didn't know this at the time when. When the overcharge happened, but now that you know that there's this other slightly different, maybe more powerful version of Astra out there, like, what happens if you try to overcharge them?
Mayanna: Yes!
Mischa: Six feet higher.
Mayanna: Oh no, I guess we'll just have to do that.
Bex: I think we should try it with the tiny, tiny, tiny.
Mischa: The little, the little, the little grain of sand. Just overcharge this one. I get the super cantrip.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: You get two Mage Hands.
Mischa: Wow. Two hands?
Mayanna: Two hands!
Mischa: Okay, next question, from our patron, Hannah.Thank you, Hannah.
Bex: Woohoo!
Mischa: Can you tell us about my sound design process? How do I decide what moments should have effects? How do I choose effects and music? How long on average does it take you to edit and design an episode?
Bex: So I want to answer this one.
Mayanna: I’m gonna just sit back and relax. Yeah, learn all this.
Mischa: I would say sound design is a lot about timing. It's having a lot of pieces in my bin, which I have a giant hard drive full of sound effects that I've garnered over a sound design career, and like just having all the pieces available to me and then editing it together in sequence with the music and the sound effects placed like with correct timing that just makes it sound rad as hell. And that's my process is– I try to like. Set a background for y'all to live in, you know, like, downtown has a different sound than the Edge, has a different sound than the Dustpan has a different sound from, like, Gwen's office. I try to do those, like, background paintings. And then, in the moment, I try to do what would sound cool, or what would sound funny, especially when y'all make jokes. I love sound designing to your jokes.
[Laughter].
Ian: I don't know what you're talking about.
Mischa: Y'all are very funny...
Ian: We don't make jokes on this podcast.
Mischa: Nope.
Lyn: So serious all the time.
Mischa: So serious.
Bex: Never heard a single one.
Mischa: It’s a very dramatic podcast. But so like, If you guys say something funny, I want to play. I want to be there in a world where we're trying to make something like JJ when you like tripped over the chair in the library. Like, I didn't know you were gonna do that, but then I listened to it later. I was like, “It'd be funny if you could hear them trip over the chair.”
Bex: And it was.
Mischa: Like, that's the kind of thing I do, yeah. So, in combat especially, like, I'm trying to, we've only had a couple of combats so far, but I'm trying to, like, develop what each of your spells sound like, what each of your moves sound like. I have, like, what Ibra's Warden's Mark is. I have, like, whenever Gordon injects a muffin with fluid that makes it do bomb stuff.
Mayanna: Yeah, whenever I try to shoot something and it doesn't work.
Mischa: I do, I will.
Bex: It’s true though.
Mischa: And also, like, when you went to Fuller's place and, like, he upgraded your gun and Julian was there in the moment and improv’d, like, a cool sound upgrade. Now, like, then I want to do that. And I'm sitting there later I'm like, it'd be cool if that was correct and you could hear it as he was describing it. It would be dope.
Ian: Well, so here's my question for you though. I Wonder if what's implicit in her question is like, do you just have such a good understanding of all of the sounds that are in the bin so that you go. “Oh, okay. I'm at this moment. Ooh, I kind of have a gun sound that I kind of know and let me go find it” or are you like, “we in the library and you go like, there needs to be a sound effect here,” search bar, chair, and then you just like go through.
Mischa: Oh, it’s absolutely the second one. Usually I'm, usually I'll start, I'll start, and Ian, you know this from working with me in the past, but sometimes I like, I'll always start with the literal thing.
Ian: Yeah.
Mischa: I'll always start with, what I think the, the real object that's being described, would sound like.
Ian: Yeah.
Mischa: And then what often happens is other people who aren't me listen to it and they go, “that's not satisfying.” I'm like, “that's what it sounds like.” And people will be like, “real life's not satisfying. You have to do something else.”
Mayanna: Oooh.
Ian: Yeah. Damn right you do.
Mischa: So I've been trying to lean into like the nature of you guys narrating and supporting what that is, so like, not always being so literal. You guys are just, like, a lot of stuff is magic, a lot of stuff is like, not real, and support, like, not trying to crowd out your description of the magic is important to me.
Ian: Yeah.
Mischa: So trying to balance that. I also, coming back to the question about music, I also use music in this show a lot to convey tone. I think I spend the most time making these episodes just picking and editing the music. I have a lot of fun with it. There's a lot of music on that website that we use. Shout out to the Independent Music Licensing Collective.
[Cheers].
Mischa: They're good friends of the show and, we love them very much. I think they make the show sound rad and is a really good shortcut to make you feel stuff quickly.
Lyn: Mmhm.
Bex: Yes.
Ian: How long about does it? Oh, I’m so sorry.
Bex: No, I just wanted to compliment Mischa for a quick question saying that I don't want you to like sell yourself short on being like, “yeah, I just look it up and then change it if it doesn't sound satisfying.”
Mayanna: No, That's a lot.
Bex: You also, you can make it sound like sunlight.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Bex: And I could never explain that. I could never explain how you do that. And I don't even know if you could explain it to me. You just, instinctively, intrinsically know how to make that feeling happen in the human brain from sound.
Mischa: So, great question. Thank you for asking. [Laughter]. I went to school for theater sound design.
Mayanna: Wow.
Mischa: And what I learned in my four years of college for theatrical sound design–
Ian: Was how to wrap cable.
Mischa: Huh?
Ian: Was how to wrap cable.
Mayanna: Gotta wrap cable!
[Laughter].
Mischa: That is… a large portion of what I learned.
Mayanna: The cable knows the way it wants to be wrapped. You just have to allow it to do it.
Mischa: So true. and a lot of what I learned is that a lot of art and a lot of design is picking what you think is good and then justifying it with philosophical concepts later.
Mayanna: Oh!
Mischa: Like, you just have to make a choice and commit to it for a reason, and then that says something. That's art.
Mayanna: I feel like that's the same way too with lighting because like– I remember I lit a show for a black box theater in college and people were like, “I've never seen something lit that way.” And I was like, “well, it was like heaven. So I just kind of like did a bunch of lights that felt like heaven.”
[Laughter].
Bex: Yes!
Mayanna: Yeah. But like, yeah, it's just like an in, in, like it's instinctive, I think. Because you're an artist, obviously. So it's like you can tap into that ethereal thing.
Bex: Yeah
Mischa: Sure. And that also comes in with like, you know, understanding the culture in which you live and like what tropes lead to your listeners thinking, the things you want them to think. And you know, that just takes study. And I've just been like doing it a lot. Thanks for the complos?
Mayanna: I have a baby follow up question.
Mischa: Yes.
Mayanna: What's your favorite sound?
Mischa: Oh.
Ian: wow. What a question
Lyn: In general or used on the show?
Mayanna: No, just in general.
Bex: Also the one used on the show,
Mischa: Okay. In the show, I love doing the tuk-tuk, honestly.
[Laughter].
Ian: Damn right. You do.
Mayanna: Yes.
Mischa: It's so satisfying. I use like a little, little library of like like dirt bike sounds.
Bex: (puttering bike noises).
Mischa: It's just like so cute and very Studio Ghibli in my head. I'm always imagining like Ponyo's mom's car when I do it.
Mayanna: Oh, yeah!
Ian: What color is the tuk-tuk in your mind?
Mischa: In my mind, it's like white and grimy.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Ian: Oh, fascinating.
Mischa: It's like covered in city dirt.
Ian: Yeah, okay.
Mayanna: I thought it was like white with a red stripe down the middle.
Ian: Got it. What color?
Bex: I thought it would look like a postal truck.
Ian: Yeah, okay.
Lyn: Mine was also white.
Ian: Wow! That's, in my mind, it's like either like a light, light, light brown or it's like seafoam.
Mayanna: Oh, Seafoam's fun.
Mischa: I do like seafoam.
Lyn: Seafoam’s nice.
Mischa: Seafoam's the Studio Ghibli choice.
Ian: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bex: Can it be a seafoam postal truck?
Ian: Yeah.
Mischa: Yeah, absolutely. My favorite sound in general is one I made in high school where I was doing a– We had a play festival, a short play festival at my high school.
Mayanna: Pop off.
Lyn: Yeah.
Mischa: And I designed a show that was written by a guy who would later go on to found the website Clickhole. [Laughter]. And it was a show, it was a show– He went to my high school, it's called Eggsicles.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Oh my god, he's been the same man!
Mischa: Yeah, he has. He also made a short film while also when we were in high school that makes me laugh every time I hear Beethoven's “Moonlight Sonata.” I cannot hear that song without laughing.
Lyn: Oh my god.
Mayanna: God, I need to meet this person so badly. I want to understand his mind.
Mischa: So, It was like a show where like CIA spies in the 50s were interrogating a Russian spy–
Mayanna: Incredible.
Mischa: –about like a really nefarious plan and they kept bringing people from throughout time to like come and interrogate this guy.
Mayanna: I love it.
Bex: Perfect. Spectacular.
Mischa: And early in the play, the plays were only supposed to be like 10 minutes long and this one was fully 40 minutes.
Mayanna: This man is an auteur.
Mischa: Yes.
Mayanna: You cannot hold him down.
Mischa: Correct.
Lyn: Absolutely.
Mischa: So early in the show they say that the place where they're interrogating the suspect is like underneath an animal testing–It's supposed to be an animal testing lab, but I'm pretty sure when we did the show, the actor said “animal torture lab.”
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Oh no! It's a lab for the torture of animals.
Mischa: So I had to make a background loop of animals being tortured. I didn't like that.
Bex: No.
Mischa: Eventually over the 40 minute show, the sound fades out and at the end, somebody goes, “what happened to that animal torture facility?” And they go, “oh, didn't you hear it got replaced by a tank of whales falling on a landmine.” And then I had to make the sound of a tank of whales falling on a landmine–
Bex: Oh my god.
Mischa: And then blackout. End of play.
[Laughter].
Ian: This is chaos.
Mischa: And I still have that sound effect. [Laughter]. And I submitted it to a sound design contest once, and I won. And I got to see it–
[Cheers and laughter and overlapping enthusiastic chatter].
Bex: Yes!
Mayanna: You have to put it in the end of this detour. You have to put it in the end of this detour!
Ian: Yeah
Lyn: Please!
Mayanna: I am begging you
Mischa: and then. Because I won that contest, I got to see American Idiot on Broadway for free.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Oh my god!
Ian: And now for your moment of zen, a tank of whales falling on the landmine.
[SFX: Whale call, explosion].
Ian: Last piece of that question, how long does it take you to make an episode?
Mayanna: Yeah.
Mischa: Good question. I would say maybe like 10 hours to edit and another 12 hours to, let's be real, mostly just put the music in.
Mayanna: So 22 hours per episode?
Mischa: Yeah, about. Plus the two to three hours we record for.
Mayanna: So 25 hours per episode.
Mischa: Yeah!
Bex: And that's not including the notes that we give, mostly because the notes that we give aren't really that extensive anymore because Mischa's really good at the job.
Ian: Yeah.
Lyn: I know you nailed things pretty quickly in the process.
Mayanna: Wow.
Mischa: Thanks.
Mayanna: That's amazing.
Mischa: We have a category in our doc that's like for notes that are just like, “nice!”
Lyn: Yeah.
Mayanna: Yeah, “funny!”
Bex: They're mostly just “nice” now.
Ian: And Patreon subscribers, if you're curious, Mischa's doing 22 hours of work without a boss.
Mayanna: Without a boss, just, just out of the, just out of the drive and the ambition and the heart's fire.
Mischa: Yeah. Yeah. I'm putting, I'm like, I put in like an hour or two a night, you know, like it all comes together.
Mayanna: I feel you though.
Ian: Don't downplay it. We're making it intense for the Patrons.
Mischa: It is a lot of work. If you think it's worth something to you, you should donate to our Patreon, patreon.com/wonderingpathpod.
Mayanna: Thank you.
Bex: Woo!
Ian: Okay. Next question.
Mischa: Okay. last question today. We have a question from Maddie in Kansas. Thank you, Maddie.
Ian: Kansas!
Mischa: Question is world function question, we've gotten glimpses into how the government of New Prosper works, can we get a specific outline? Is there a mayor or a council, and if so, do they live up on the constellation or down in the city proper? How do people feel about this governing body? And why isn't Gwen running everything? She seems so competent.
Lyn: So true.
Mayanna: Because she's a woman and she's competent. That's why.
Mischa: Fantasy fulfillment right there: a competent government official.
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Imagine a woman who cared!
Mischa: Good question. So how does government work in New Prosper? We haven't really gotten there yet? They are up on the Constellation. I do think like the seat of? government is up there because it was up there during the war and they wouldn't, I don't know if they would have moved it onto the ground.
Lyn: That feels like a big hassle.
Mischa: In the first 60 years, you know, maybe in like another hundred years or so, they'll like, one governor or other will be like, “I'm meeting the people down there” or something. Or maybe not. We'll find out.
Bex: But in the meantime, it's definitely kept separate.
Mischa: Yes, they're definitely up there. That really plays into like our themes. There's a governor that I imagine is like a president who is elected. It's– I think we covered this, that it's been the same governor for like the past three or four terms.
Bex: Governor Mellus Asinko.
Mischa: Yeah. And then I think that each district of New Prosper had, like, comes together in a city council, which is kind of like the legislature. So, like, there's, like, East Minetown, West Minetown, Hillside has a rep, The Edge has a rep. I think there are, like, a couple of reps from the Constellation, even though it seems like maybe it would only be one district. Consolidated power. And then they come together in kind of like a citywide congress.
Lyn: Yeah.
Mischa: And then I don't know if there's, like, a third branch? I honestly– I kind of imagine New Prosper like, the legislature makes laws, and then the governor says, “yes, those are good laws, you can have those.”
[Laughter].
Lyn: Yeah.
Mayanna: That’s exactly how that conversation went down, too.
Ian: Where does Gwen fit into that power structure?
Bex: I was just gonna say, I think that the reason that Gwen doesn't have more power is because Gwen intentionally chooses to be on the lower level.
Ian: Got it.
Bex: And they refuse to give too much power to anybody on the lower level.
Ian: But she's not a rep. She's like a city manager.
Mischa: She's like an independent office that is part of like the–I watch a lot of West Wing–She's like an independent office that's part of the executive, kind of like a cabinet position.
Ian: Sure.
Mischa: She runs things mostly autonomously, but she's technically under the authority of the governor. Indirectly, I think.
Lyn: Cause like. Even in the system we have, like, the heads of the guilds, which are also…
Mischa: Yes.
Lyn: Part of the government to some capacity, but more as lobbyists? Question mark?
Ian: Yeah, probably.
Mischa: Actually, maybe each of the guilds also sends a rep to the city council.
Lyn: Yeah.
Bex: That would make sense.
Ian: Like Cecilia, right, Probably?
Mischa: Yeah, or maybe there's like a specific–
Lyn: Cecilia's not even the full head of the guild, though.
Mischa: No, that's true. She's up there as a rep for–Yeah, I'm not–See, that's the fun part about an improvised storytelling podcast. I'm not exactly sure. I'm gonna have to nail it down eventually.
Mayanna: Yeah, you got this though.
Bex: We're still figuring it out.
Mayanna: And we haven't encountered it yet, so…
Mischa: Interesting. Thanks, Maddie.
Ian: Sidebar, I was re-listening to the world building episode, and I caught that we said that Cecilia was my older sister.
Lyn: Yeah, that's what I remember. In the first episode, we asked you to clarify that I asked you and you said, “no, she's not.” And “we're like, okay!”
Ian: Okay, good. I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Bex: Because remember we said your guild is your family?
Ian: Yes.
Mayanna: Right!
Bex: So she's your oldest guild sister.
Ian: Ohhh yeah.
Lyn: So that was our world building. But in the canon of the actual recorded episode, you said “No, it's more of a sister-like figure as opposed to her being my actual sister.”
Mayanna: Yeah, that makes sense.
Mischa: And if you check the record, you will see that I did not perjure myself.
[Laughter].
Bex: Yes.
Ian: That's a party point for Mischa. [Laughter]. You guys had to see the hand movement that went along with it, it was great. So like, I was re-listening to episodes when we were recording to know what was happening, but I hadn't re-listened to the world building episodes. And I went back and listened to them two days ago, and my mind was blown by how much stuff we talked about in the world building episodes that I can now, that you can now see in the show, that when it was happening, I wasn't like, “Oh, I remember talking about that.” and like how it's come to. Like the, like the body mod section where I was like, “Oh my God, it's going to be so fun to like watch me squirm.” Cause like that stuff makes me really uncomfortable, but like we should still do it. And then I thought we just didn't do it.
Mischa: No. And then Ibra's tooth was there.
Ian: It's been there the whole fucking time! And I was like, “Oh my god!” So that's been a really, really fun experience to see how The core concepts are getting teased out and changed and moved around. That's really fun for me.
Mischa: We're, we're getting to time, so I'm gonna move into this.
Ian: No!
Mischa: I know, I'm so sorry.
Ian: No!
Lyn: Let’s talk forever!
Mayanna: But we're having so much fun.
Mischa: I know, that's the worst part about it is that we have so much fun making it.
Ian: Okay, take us where you want to take us.
Mischa: Thank you so much for listening to the show.
Mayanna: Thank you,
Bex: (Blows kiss) Mwah!
Lyn: Truly, thank you
Mayanna: Genuinely. Thank you.
Bex: It means the world. We're, like, putting our hearts and souls into this and it means a lot that you guys are seeing it and appreciating it.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Ian: Eh, you're welcome.
[Laughter].
Lyn: Thanks, Ian.
Ian: Straight man to the rescue
Mayanna: So honestly, honestly, I think that's a party point.
[Laughter].
Ian: Fuck yes!
Mayanna: I think that's a party point.
Ian: Let's go.
Mayanna: The confidence. Yes, yes. Honesty, yes.
Lyn: Very good.
Bex: I mean, this is my favorite job of all time, ever. I want to do this only for the rest of my life.
Mayanna: Awww. And what's interesting too for me is like, I worked in YouTube for a long time and like I'm just used to like a comments section of things and I'll usually just like check it as I'm like, I want to get a gut check of like what people feel about the things that I make. And it's interesting to have something where there is no comment section.
Mischa: Yeah.
Mayanna: And just to be like. “Yeah, I don't know.” I guess it's out there and people are listening to it and feeling a way about it.
Mischa: People are definitely listening to it. Again, thank you so much.
Mayanna: Thank you.
Mischa: Please, if you're listening to it and you like it, drop us a line, write us a review on wherever you're listening. Like, people used to say like leave reviews on Apple podcast and algorithmically helps—it doesn't. But like–
Bex: It’s nice for us.
Mischa: We do like reading them.
Mayanna: It’s nice to know what people are liking and not like.
Mischa: Absolutely and we want to be answering listener questions and story questions more even if it's just like You know, like what's every character's favorite color.Like, obviously for Fran it's purple. We know that.
Mayanna: Yes, yes we do.
Bex: Oh, speaking of favorite colors, I feel like this is really indicative of the fact that we're accidentally playing Scooby Doo now. [Laughter]. We got a dog.
[Laughter].
Ian: Were you not in the room when we figured this out.
Lyn: No, Mayanna was not in the room when we figured this out. We became Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated.
Mayanna: No way!
Bex: Fran is Daphne. Everything's purple.
Mayanna: Oh!
Bex: Ibra is Fred.
Mayanna: Ah!
Bex: I like traps.
Mayanna: Gordon's Fred, or no, you're Fred, oh my god.
Ian: Yea so Gordon is Shaggy
Mayanna: You’re Shaggy!
Ian: With a dog.
Mayanna: And you're Vel–ah! And Velma's–AH!
Lyn: Yup!
Bex: This broke us the other week.
Mayanna: Oh my god.
Lyn: I gave myself goggles, hello?
Mayanna: Oh my god.
Mischa: So if you out there–
Bex: I can't see without my goggles!
Mayanna: Oh my god.
Mischa: So if you out there in the listening sphere have other, like, five man bands you want to compare us to,
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Oh my god yes!
Mischa: Please write in
Mayanna: Jabberjaw.
Bex: (Cackles).
Ian: Wandering path mailbag coming soon.
Mayanna: Yeah! Give us questions. Yeah, let's answer that.
Mischa: Yeah. We have a contact form or website, wanderingpathpod.com. We're at WanderingPathpodcast@gmail.com. Tweet us, Instagram us. we do have. We're on YouTube, so you can leave comments there if you want to.
Bex: Comment on our YouTube!
Mischa: But also, yeah, like, get in touch with us. We really want to hear from you. It would be so exciting to make this more of a dialogue, especially in these detours.
Bex: We want to bring you along.
Mischa: We want to bring you along.
Mayanna: On the detour.
Lyn: Yeah, and the whole path.
Mayanna: And the path.
Lyn: Let us wander together.
Ian: Yeah, you can come if you want.
[Laughter].
Mischa: Ian's like, “whatever, I've starred in a podcast, I'm good.”
Mayanna: “No worries, if not.”
Bex: I love this confidence coming from this corner.
Mayanna: I do too, I live.
Ian: I'm just playing the devil's advocate motherfucker.
[Laughter].
Lyn: Oh yeah, white man in the room?
Ian: There it is.
Mayanna: A devil's avocado.
[Laughter].
Ian: The devil's avocado?
Mayanna: The devil's avocado.
Bex: Okay, French is so weird because “the lawyer” and “avocado”–
Lyn: Avocat.
Bex: –Are like so similar so that there's this guy, there's this lawyer in Louisiana whose billboards are “l'avocat” and it's his face on a pit.
[Laughter].
Ian: Him and Sweet James the lawyer–the attorney needs to get together. L'avocat and Sweet James.
Mayanna: I live for this.
Mischa: It, it sure does sound like we've, come to the end of–
Ian: I guess it's over.
Lyn: Oh yeah, there's the detour. We passed the Sweet James billboard, so I think we’re good.
Mayanna: Yeah, we found our way back to the path.
Mischa: Yeah, thank you so much for listening again, and we'll catch you in a couple weeks.
All: Bye!
Mayanna: Thanks guys!
[Theme music fades in].
Mischa: The Wandering Path was created by me, Mischa Stanton, and produced by Bex Taylor-Klaus, Lyn Rafil, and me. This story was game mastered and sound designed by me, Mischa Stanton, and was played and performed by Bex Taylor-Klaus, Lyn Rafil, Ian McQuown, and Mayanna Berrin. Cover art by Lyn Rafil, transcript assistance by Darby Summers, 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!
[Theme music fades out].