00:00:04.47 Kurt Crenwelge Hello and welcome to another month's exciting episode of Sidekicks and Sidequests, the best unofficial Dungeons and Dragons podcast in my humbly biased opinion. 00:00:16.13 Kurt Crenwelge I've got an awesome guest for you this month, but before we get to my mystery contestant, you know I gotta do it. I gotta leave you in suspense with the ad read, the things that, you know, help to keep the lights on for the podcast. 00:00:28.82 Kurt Crenwelge and insert here part where I talk about plus one EXP and their brand new RPG zine club. You can subscribe, get cool zines every month and new indie TTRPGs that are being developed and played and all that good stuff. So, 00:00:46.26 Kurt Crenwelge When you're on the website, go ah for plusoneexp.com and you want a discount on a beard balm or lip balm or a beard RPG. When you get to check out, make sure you use the code Randolph, R-A-N-D-O-L-P-H, and you can save some coin on your purchase and give me a kickback. 00:01:04.66 Kurt Crenwelge And there we go. And back to the podcast. All right. And without further ado, I turn the microphone over to my app, Without further ado, I turn the microphone over to my guest and I ask, hello, mystery contestant. Would you care to introduce yourself? 00:01:21.53 Kurt Crenwelge Tell us who it is that you are and what is it that you do? 00:01:26.55 Grant Kress Hi, my name is Grant and I have a little series on Instagram and TikTok called Roll for Magic Item. It's a daily series where i roll up a brand new magic item using a set of tables that I created myself. 00:01:44.46 Grant Kress It's based off of the i series role for sandwich by the creator Adventures in Ardia as most of those role for whatever's are. 00:01:50.29 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:01:56.92 Grant Kress um 00:01:57.91 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:01:58.07 Grant Kress i was yeah, I got to give him the the credit. Definitely, definitely took most of my ideas from him, ah even down to, you know, which dice I was going to use when I started. 00:02:12.28 Kurt Crenwelge Wow, that's that's great. I am definitely a sucker for these roll for fill in the blank ah you know Instagram accounts and stuff. ah Since the hobby collectively has had this diaspora where we've all been trying to figure out uh like what social medias were going to like i know just the other day i like really took like a good look in the mirror and was like well for my mental health and for the fact that i don't really get much traction over there like i'm gonna lock down ah the podcast twitter x account and it'll be there for archival purposes but now i don't have to worry about the stress of like 00:02:51.10 Kurt Crenwelge one more social media platform that people aren't really interacting with the podcast. But on Instagram, where I'm seeing a bunch of these reels, you organically popped up in my feed, which is why I was like, this is cool. This is fun. 00:03:03.83 Kurt Crenwelge And I wanted to you know bring you on because like I said, I'm a sucker for those role for fill in the blanks. And I appreciate it 00:03:12.09 Grant Kress Yeah, I've gotten some comments as well that are like, oh, I've seen all sorts of these roll for us, but this is the first actual Dungeons and Dragons thing. Because, you know, it's it's the Dungeons Dragons dice that everyone's using, you know, it's the polyhedrals. 00:03:24.31 Kurt Crenwelge Right. Hmm. 00:03:25.70 Grant Kress But most of them are, you know, and nothing wrong with sandwiches and sodas and cookies. um ah 00:03:31.26 Kurt Crenwelge my 00:03:31.70 Grant Kress But yeah, it's the, you know, you're using the dice, should use it for something D&D related. 00:03:37.46 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, and it was only, you know, just earlier this week at time of recording that i I've launched this brand new thing that I thought inspired, likewise, you know, by accounts like yours, where it's like, well, you know, I do this podcast that's essentially like dice rolling. 00:03:55.32 Kurt Crenwelge What if I do like a condensed version? Hence the reason why quick I need an NPC has started. And hopefully, you know, when you listen to this in far in the future, I'll have a bunch of those up. 00:04:06.55 Kurt Crenwelge um But the plan is, is, you know, ah I'll do a couple of those to kind of help supplement the, you know, the monthly episode schedule that I'm keeping for the podcast. But yeah, ah you know, inspired by you roll for sandwich roll for salad roll for, you soda ah and even our good friend of the podcast Hank D and doodles doing roll for dude which I love commenting on ah his posts every day with a gif that applies to the little dude that he drew 00:04:39.26 Kurt Crenwelge So perfect. Wonderful to hear. And it sounds like, you know, you were saying like, well, obviously, you know, these are the D&D dice and I, you know, I want to be like a D&D guy that's rolling these D&D dice for these random magic items. So it it goes without saying, probably easy question to answer. But do you currently or have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons before? 00:05:00.82 Grant Kress Oh yeah, I play D&D probably too much. um 00:05:04.22 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. 00:05:05.20 Grant Kress I've stepped back a little bit, but I still have a mostly weekly game every Sundays, or each Sunday. 00:05:12.12 Kurt Crenwelge Wow. 00:05:13.29 Grant Kress um And currently I'm playing in that one, me and the current... ah the dungeon master right now we switch um who's the dm and so we we each do a like ah a leg of our campaign for a few months and then we switch and so the uh the campaign that i'm running with the sunday group is kind of uh inspired off of uh dimension 20s where it's the the high school um 00:05:23.00 Kurt Crenwelge okay 00:05:41.11 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, yeah, yeah. Fantasy High. 00:05:42.58 Grant Kress Fantasy High, yep. And so I have something similar to that a real meta world. People talk about their spell slots. And um ah the last season that I ran in that ah world, there was a the bad guy was using like first edition magic when everybody else was using fifth edition magic. 00:06:02.09 Grant Kress and 00:06:02.65 Kurt Crenwelge oh Oh, that's cool. 00:06:04.06 Grant Kress But yeah, so I've got And then, but I'm currently playing on Sundays and we're in know like a spell jammer game ah right now. 00:06:11.67 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, fun. 00:06:12.44 Grant Kress And so I'm current. 00:06:12.94 Kurt Crenwelge I love that. 00:06:13.75 Grant Kress Yeah. I'm currently playing a, a goblin artificer. So that's, that's fun. We're out on Pluto. We've gotten all the way out to the, to the outer edge and we're going to go beyond because there's some extra, extra spatial threat out there that we've got to deal with. 00:06:32.54 Kurt Crenwelge The far realm, of course. 00:06:32.76 Grant Kress Um, 00:06:33.98 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 00:06:34.26 Grant Kress Yeah. 00:06:35.29 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:06:35.35 Grant Kress um Occasionally I'll get a game, just a one-on-one with my oldest son. um We just have a little one-on-one game that we play occasionally. that's That's kind of gone by the wayside for for a little bit as a lot of one-on-ones end up doing. I've done a few one-on-one campaigns. 00:06:52.18 Grant Kress um 00:06:52.44 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 00:06:53.08 Grant Kress But then I've got this ah group on Tuesdays that I meet with very regularly. I call them my Tuesday Cruise Day. 00:07:00.57 Kurt Crenwelge oh 00:07:00.50 Grant Kress And i have been meeting with that's that same group. People have come, people have left, um but I have been playing with them for as long as I've been playing D&D, like 10, 11 years. Wednesdays, 00:07:12.95 Kurt Crenwelge wow 00:07:12.86 Grant Kress um and then ah wednesdays I used to have a really big party and then that dwindled down to the smaller. And then it continued to dwindle down until it was just me and a really good friend from college. 00:07:26.77 Grant Kress And so she and I, we still meet up on, uh, on our, uh, 00:07:27.67 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:07:33.08 Grant Kress on our video chat and sometimes we just hang out on wednesdays sometimes we uh try to get a ah game of something going but yeah and then uh uh the week continues on and so do the games of dnd i got a monthly game um with this group of guys that i've been playing with for several years as well currently i'm playing in that one and uh we're actually doing a different um 00:08:00.98 Grant Kress system not dnd but we're doing blades in the dark um would that's a pretty fun system if you've never played that it's a you you create a ah pool of d6s based on what you're trying to attempt it's uh yeah it's a pretty easy to pick up system but uh that's what we're that's what running that's what we're playing in there um 00:08:04.41 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, okay. 00:08:18.78 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:08:25.02 Grant Kress because I've been taking a break from DMing that. but And then it's Saturday. 00:08:28.08 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:08:28.70 Grant Kress you know i don't i don't have anything on Saturday. don't have anything on Thursday, really. But but the rest of my days are pretty packed with D&D. 00:08:33.95 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:08:37.30 Kurt Crenwelge Well, that sounds that sounds amazing and ah really cool to hear and special about, oh, you know, running D&D for your kiddo, which is something that ah my five-year-old ah little guy like, well, you do your D&D podcast and you started this quick I need an NPC thing. Daddy, I want to play D&D. And d I'm like, oh, OK, I got to figure that out. But he's already started trying to invent his whole campaign setting. 00:09:02.14 Kurt Crenwelge So I've already started taking notes in his character. But yeah, we'll have to sit down and and figure that out. So that's exciting to hear that, you know, you've got games with family, games with longstanding college friends and other friends that you made along the way and and and and the whole gamut. 00:09:18.87 Kurt Crenwelge So that's that's amazing. 00:09:22.20 Grant Kress Yeah, um my my oldest son, he i started he started playing when he was about five as well. But it was just, quote unquote, playing. We would have ah a game with some friends, and then we would still have the map out the next morning. 00:09:35.64 Grant Kress And so he would put some of his toys out on the map, and we would put our characters there. 00:09:35.98 Kurt Crenwelge Mm hmm. 00:09:40.76 Grant Kress And he would be like, all right, this is a dragon. and so now we have to fight the dragon. um and We're like, well, we're just level three characters and there's two green dragons out here. Well, this was fun while it lasted. 00:09:54.04 Kurt Crenwelge Right. Yeah. It's kind of like your own home version of a purple worm, faster kill, kill. 00:10:02.07 Kurt Crenwelge ah Beautiful. Well, with the name of this podcast being Sidekicks and Sidequests, we like to focus on the other and the path least explored, if you will. So for the first of these, I always like to ask who had who is your favorite NPC or sidekick character, whether they be from one of your many games of D&D, video game, movie, film, television, literature, etc. 00:10:29.27 Kurt Crenwelge And why is this character your favorite sidekick or favorite NPC? 00:10:34.10 Grant Kress um Well, when you first invited me on to here, and I was thinking about sidekicks and NPCs and things, ah the first NPC that I thought of is one that I i don't often bring into my games. 00:10:46.91 Grant Kress I cycled NPCs in through all my games. that you know if you If you play long enough with me, you'll recognize, oh, that's that's this person, or that's that other character that he used to play or whatever. 00:10:50.55 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 00:10:57.85 Grant Kress Yeah. 00:10:58.14 Kurt Crenwelge But now he has a mustache. 00:10:59.35 Grant Kress ne Yep, now he's got a mustache. But now this this character, this NPC um that that I immediately thought of ah is a a very big, warty bullywug. 00:11:13.34 Grant Kress Like a toad bullywug. And his name is Bert Gumbel. 00:11:15.45 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, OK. 00:11:17.50 Grant Kress And that is spelled B-R-R-R-T-G-M-M-B-L-L-L. 00:11:24.57 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:11:24.98 Grant Kress um And Bert Gumbel is a, ah he's a retired adventurer. 00:11:31.51 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:11:31.67 Grant Kress He's, he was from a party of seven adventurers and he runs this ah shop and he's got 18 magic items always available, but not to buy. he has these ah items available to trade. 00:11:50.36 Grant Kress Um, He also has these six ah shield guardians ah that that he's created over the years. Each one of them reminds him of one of his former adventuring party members, all of which have fallen before he did. 00:12:04.65 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:12:08.09 Grant Kress um And so he's named each of his shield guardians after his different party members and has attuned three magic items to each one of them. 00:12:08.35 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. Mm. 00:12:19.67 Grant Kress And so ah if you come in and you have ah a magic item that you haven't used in a long time, you can sit and you can decide which magic item you want to trade your old one for one of Bert's used ones. 00:12:33.46 Grant Kress And it takes... It takes a couple hours to unattune an old item and reattune the replacement one. And so while you're sitting there for a few hours with Bert, he wants to hear about your adventures and he will tell you about his adventures. 00:12:49.67 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. 00:12:50.70 Grant Kress And so it's a good opportunity for the players to role play either things that happened off screen or on screen during, during the games, things that really connected with them that I, as a DM may not have thought, wow, that, that was just kind of a throwaway scene in my mind. 00:12:59.40 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:13:09.31 Grant Kress That was really cool that it meant that much to you and hear what the the players, uh, respond to, um, ah with, uh, 00:13:09.97 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:13:19.49 Grant Kress Bert and his characters and his ah backstory, his fallen allies. 00:13:26.46 Kurt Crenwelge That's really cool. I love the idea of a Burt Gumbel. You know, you you just just started describing him. And in my head, I was thinking like, oh, this reminds me of like the times when I've whenever I've gone to like a pawn shop or something like that. But then you threw in like, oh, while you're there waiting for things to tune or unattune, it's kind of more like he's, a you know, OK, yeah, he's like a collector, um but he's someone who's like truly like a hobbyist or an enthusiast in the space. And so it's like everyone knows like Oh, if you need to get something, you go to Bert and, you know, he trades in stories and, you know, he'll take his time and, you know, you'll you'll learn something while you're while you're sitting there waiting for for something to to vibrate ah properly with your ah with your being. So then it's a tune. 00:14:15.22 Kurt Crenwelge I don't know. I always think of things, maybe it's because my world is more musical in a sense, but I always envision attuning to magic items like a like a humming or like a frequency. It has to literally resonate with your body on ah on a metaphysical level for it to feel like... 00:14:33.50 Kurt Crenwelge you feel it like comfortable in your body where you're like, okay, yeah, like this is obviously my sword. I know how my sword feels like in my hand versus like, oh, this is like a new thing I picked up and it's like vibrant, maybe not literally vibrating wildly, but you're kind of like, ooh, this, this feels weird. Like I haven't sat with this for a while. 00:14:53.77 Grant Kress That's really cool. And I never thought of that. I really like that image. And ah most of the people I play with are musical as well. So I think that they would legitimately resonate with that ah concept. 00:15:08.60 Kurt Crenwelge There you go. That's what the beauty of this podcast is, is we generate great ideas and I just give them away and I don't try and monetize them because this hobby just needs to be about people sharing good, fun, cool ideas and not always chasing the almighty dollar for it. So, uh, 00:15:25.27 Kurt Crenwelge But I'll happily take your money if you want to sponsor me on ah Patreon or something like that. But for for fun ideas, like that's a freebie. ah Perfect. I love that answer. 00:15:36.12 Kurt Crenwelge And then for the other side of the equation with the namesake of the show. What happens to be one of your favorite side quest or B plot elements? Again, when we're thinking about your many games of D&D, video games, movie, film, television, literature, etc. 00:15:52.66 Kurt Crenwelge And why is the side quest or B plot element your favorite? 00:15:58.23 Grant Kress Well, I look at that high school game that I was talking about where the characters are high schoolers, um because the majority of the those games take place not really in the classroom, but it's it's very... 00:16:06.17 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:16:15.83 Grant Kress Those those camp those ah seasons, ah I usually have them last about nine months, like how long a ah you know a year of school would last. 00:16:25.18 Kurt Crenwelge School year. 00:16:26.54 Grant Kress um And when you have ah a timed game, when you know i want i want it to end now, you kind of have to 00:16:26.81 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:16:35.90 Grant Kress playing it out a lot more than you would for a longer game. 00:16:37.96 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:16:39.66 Grant Kress And so i um i when I feel that I'm ah kind of getting it stuck in the, like, nope, the story has to go this way. 00:16:51.32 Grant Kress um And i I try not to railroad my players too much. But when you've got a ah ah specific timeline that you're trying to stick to, 00:16:56.12 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:17:00.10 Kurt Crenwelge The prom's still going to show up whether you like it or not. 00:17:03.19 Grant Kress Right, yeah. 00:17:04.12 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:17:04.98 Grant Kress So, I've got... When I'm trying to stick to this timeline, but I'm feeling too locked into it, um ah all all of the games of the the high school games, it's called Aardman Academy, is is what we call it in in my game world. um And they're... 00:17:25.56 Grant Kress ah each one that I've run somewhere in the middle of the year. ah They had a random different thing that they did for the sophomore year of, of my first ah game through Aardman Academy. 00:17:39.97 Grant Kress ah They, the sophomores got visited by five ah Phoenix pups or Phoenix cubs. 00:17:48.31 Kurt Crenwelge oh 00:17:49.62 Grant Kress And ah They had to form into their adventuring peer groups. the The faculty at the school does not want them to be called the parties because we're not here to party, we're here to learn. 00:18:01.88 Grant Kress um um And so they got into their adventuring peer groups. 00:18:02.04 Kurt Crenwelge ah Okay. ah 00:18:06.68 Grant Kress and the phoenix cubs uh went and they chose which uh adventuring peer groups they were going to be as their champions um because it was this uh adventure that i pulled out of one of those um uh it's a it's a book that's got all the tables in it i can't remember exactly which one it's from but um it's uh I think it's Jeff Ashworth has a series of these books um and um and it's the the Phoenix Cubs they are vying to to see who's going to be the next Phoenix that's overseeing the the grand timeline of of everything and um but the the phoenix cubs they can't do these challenges by themselves you know lack of opposable thumbs and all and so um there's these a couple of trials that the party has to go through um and the the adventuring peer group or the party that that finishes first gets to uh have their phoenix cub ascend to be the next phoenix that oversees the timeline 00:18:36.92 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:18:51.38 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:19:06.45 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:19:20.95 Grant Kress Um, so, uh, that one was really fun because it was, it's, it's just something different and totally new because they got brought to this realm of heroes. 00:19:21.09 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:19:32.82 Grant Kress it It was, it was taken out of the, the regular game world, got to see new things, got to throw giants in a sauna. Um, and they had to sneak through the sauna, um, ah and not disturb the giants lest they be smashed for the hammer. 00:19:42.65 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:19:48.98 Grant Kress Um, In another game of of a different Aardman game, um they the party accidentally got ah sucked into little glimpses of the Nine Hells. Not total not totally in the in the Nine Hells, but just little glimpses of them, and they had to pass through all nine of them um and reunite at the end. 00:20:10.46 Grant Kress um So just just something that is a break from the normal um is is always helpful because one, it keeps the it keeps me as the DM fresh. um if i'm If I'm feeling bogged down with, oh, I'm doing this for for so long, yeah I want to do something different after a little bit. 00:20:34.69 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:20:34.71 Grant Kress So it keeps me fresh, keeps me with my my creative juices flowing. And then also when we get back to ah the main plot, it gives it gives me an opportunity to check in with the with the players because I'm not expecting them to, you know, we just spent six to ten weeks ah doing other things. And so I'm not expecting you to remember everything that happened two months ago. 00:21:05.05 Grant Kress So let me recap the entire entire campaign up to this point, because I remember it because I ran it. 00:21:05.31 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:21:11.61 Grant Kress you guys were You guys were there. you I'm sure you remember highlights, but um it's good to recap everything, bring everything back together, and make sure that everybody is on the same page and remembering everything, because now we're jumping back into it, and I want you to remember what happened two months ago. 00:21:28.70 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. Yeah, great. And then the way that we round out the personal interview section, Grant, what are you passionate about and why? 00:21:40.79 Grant Kress Well, I love getting new people into this game because I love it. It's it's a way to express creativity, be someone different, um um and you know explore who you are ah by exploring who somebody else is. 00:21:58.59 Grant Kress Because no matter how hard you try it, when you make a character, you are going to shine through it. you know you're You're going to put something of yourself in there, whether it's, oh, I didn't even know I was afraid of heights or something like that until until your character is dangling out of a window and you're like, that is actually kind of yeah, that that is why I'm nervous about this or whatever. 00:22:04.13 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:22:20.41 Grant Kress ah That's just an example. um But and And it's um a friend of a friend of a friend. um i heard this story about um she was going through some ah cancer treatments. 00:22:36.66 Grant Kress And she enjoyed playing D&D because she was just getting um ah beaten down and losing. Felt like she was losing a lot in life. 00:22:46.98 Grant Kress And just being able to pick up a hammer and smash a monster and win. 00:22:47.48 Kurt Crenwelge Right. Yeah. 00:22:52.38 Grant Kress is just so yeah because uh i'm sure that there are mean dms out there that are against their players i want to say to any dms listening don't be mean to your players you know they're here to have fun that you're here to have fun we're and 00:22:53.46 Kurt Crenwelge right 00:23:09.94 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:23:14.20 Grant Kress Yeah. don't Don't pull your punches. you know don't Don't make your party win. Last night I was just playing a ah game and um the bad guy was a banshee. And the party, they didn't know she was a banshee. They shot they thought she was a ghost. 00:23:30.84 Grant Kress um But they knew that she was able to cast spells and the part of the ah cleric cast silence. 00:23:31.21 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:23:36.39 Grant Kress I'm like, ah, that's that cuts off the whole banshee thing. She was supposed to wail and knock everybody out. But I rolled with it. 00:23:44.54 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:23:44.50 Grant Kress i was i I didn't, you know, I'm like, I can still beat you down in other ways. I can do my corrupting touch and her horrifying visage and things like that. But um you know, i could have I could have pitched a fit. 00:23:59.05 Grant Kress I chose not to because I'm here for the players. 00:24:00.79 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:24:02.34 Grant Kress The players want to have a good time. I want to have a good time. I'm still i'm still playing. um So... 00:24:08.06 Kurt Crenwelge And celebrating the triumph of your player being smart and being like, oh I'm going to silence you. And then suddenly, ah like, they feel like, whoa, we didn't even know she was a banshee. And that was like a clutch move. 00:24:19.06 Kurt Crenwelge Good job, Dave or Betty or whoever it was that ah that cast silence. 00:24:20.95 Grant Kress Yeah. Yeah. 00:24:24.60 Grant Kress Yeah, yeah, and that and it was after the session wrapped that I was like, well, it was pretty rude of you to silence the Banshee, but whatever. And they were like, yeah, we didn't even know. 00:24:33.59 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:24:34.97 Grant Kress i thought she was just going to cast some spells because she was summoning shadows all throughout the session. But um but yeah, so I really love getting new players in to the game. 00:24:40.52 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:24:46.42 Grant Kress I have probably over my... 10 year of DMing, um, have probably gotten, you know, a dozen or two, um new players into the game. um my Wednesday party, when, when we had a really big group that, that had the same campaign for like three, three and a half years, um, 00:25:09.02 Grant Kress we i got ah introduced it to when when new players were were joining the virtual table. I do all my games virtually, by the way. i The only one that's on the table is the one-on-one with my son. 00:25:19.13 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, okay. 00:25:23.31 Grant Kress But um when a new player gets brought to the virtual table, somebody called me the godfather of the D&D group. 00:25:24.01 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:25:30.42 Grant Kress And I'm like, cool, I'll i'll be i'll be called that. And so, yeah, just um welcoming new people in and getting to getting them to know the game, know themselves, or people that haven't played in a long time, getting them reinvested in the game. 00:25:49.40 Kurt Crenwelge And you've been, and so for 10, so you've been rocking the, the 2015 or the 2014 version rather of, of, of the fifth edition of D&D then for these last 10 years. 00:26:00.90 Grant Kress Yep, i've I've only ever played 5th edition. i looked into other editions just for that one um that one year of the high school game where ah the bad guys were using it prior edition stuff. 00:26:13.98 Kurt Crenwelge First. ah 00:26:15.26 Grant Kress um But I've only ever played... fifth edition um at a at an old job i had some co-workers that they were talking about oh yeah i play dnd but i do third edition so you know use rope and stuff like that i'm like okay sounds weird but hey as long as you're playing 00:26:27.96 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:26:36.18 Kurt Crenwelge Well, that's cool. That's a great answer. I'm glad to hear that you're passionate about bringing people into the into the hobby and you know you being known as the godfather of D&D in your local area. I hope that all those players that you're bringing in are getting inspired and then they're turning into DMs and and game masters and they in turn are then going to run games for you to give you a break. 00:26:57.88 Grant Kress Yeah, that's that's always good. i like i love being able to sit back and play, I'm a forever DM, and I am fine with that. I love loved to DM. 00:27:09.27 Grant Kress I like playing as well, but I love DMing. May or may not have a little bit of a control issue, but... 00:27:14.68 Kurt Crenwelge ah Well, perfect. Well, we've made it through here, the personal interview section, and now it's time to head into some NPC creation. 00:27:31.54 Kurt Crenwelge And NPC creation is brought to you by you, the podcast audience and our patrons from Patreon. So now's the time in the show where we give a shout out and a loud hurrah to our comfortable patrons and above. So do you, Anson Jablinski and good old mom and dad. We say cheers. 00:27:48.12 Kurt Crenwelge Happened to have finally pulled out a shiner. uh, Bach pecan pie flavored beer. They're not a sponsor, but I love Shiner and, uh, good times. Good stuff. 00:27:59.00 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. So all these fine folks that I named, I said are comfortable patrons. Uh, that's just $2 a month. And, uh, you get a shout out on all our episodes. um But we have more than just that. Even for just a dollar a month, you're like helping to get your name on the wall, the metaphorical wall of the of the tavern. 00:28:17.46 Kurt Crenwelge ah And you're just helping to support the the show. But we've got all kinds of tiers of patronage waiting for you. And if you want to learn more about them, um be you know, like these folks I named are considered wealthy. 00:28:30.78 Kurt Crenwelge patrons, which means they get to introduce an element of chance for random tables, and you we might get to hear some of their answers used here today. So if you want to learn more, just go to the show notes below, go to the podcast website, or just go directly to patreon.com forward slash sidekicks and sidequests to learn more about the accommodations that we got waiting for you lots of free people hanging around in the patreon love that uh but you know if you if you want to up it hey water's fine we'd love to have you but otherwise the more the merrier and we say cheers there we go um okay so now is the part of the show where we get to make up an npc 00:29:11.48 Kurt Crenwelge And I was i had the the brilliant idea of like, oh, well, you have random tables that you use and I have random tables that we use. Why don't we just use all of our tables today and truly randomize an NPC today that's to have a really cool magic item on their person? What do you think about that? 00:29:30.98 Grant Kress I'm here for it. 00:29:32.57 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, perfect. So then I've got ah my tables here. You have your dice at the ready, virtual or otherwise. And the way we begin this show is we got to figure out the name of the character. 00:29:47.10 Kurt Crenwelge And the way to randomly generate this is with a d20 roll. 00:29:54.13 Grant Kress All right. I got a seven. 00:29:57.91 Kurt Crenwelge seven all right uh your answer provided to us to today by matt from roleplay chat the podcast tobias so t-o-b-i-a-s a second tobias on the podcast very cool um Excellent. Okay, Tobias. right Then the next thing we get to roll for is the ancestry of the character. 00:30:24.54 Kurt Crenwelge And this, we do D100 or 2D10s to figure out what's going the ancestry, the race, the species of Tobias today. 00:30:36.60 Grant Kress All right, well, that's a 17 for Tobias. 00:30:39.86 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. It's been a while since we had one of these, but ah Tobias is a Grimlock. 00:30:50.17 Grant Kress Right. And those are the Grimlock, like the the blind things from the Underdark, right? Am I thinking? 00:30:56.25 Kurt Crenwelge precisely yes they are they are the guys that live in the underdark and uh they they're the skin is growing over where their eye sockets are and so they're just uh they're in the underdark and uh they're they're i think as i said in the episode before when they were when they were used and it's just kind of stuck with me it's just the neighborhood's gone to grimlocks uh so that that's what that's what tobias is perfect 00:30:56.50 Grant Kress Yeah. 00:31:20.50 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, and then let's see what's going to be the job or role or occupation that Tobias the Grimlock is going to have this we roll a ah regular detent. 00:31:32.70 Grant Kress Regular T10 coming up, and that's a three. 00:31:36.82 Kurt Crenwelge Three, okay. This answer was provided to us from one of our audience members of one of the live ah episodes that I did at FateCon, Temp. Thank you very much, Temp. ah Thatcher, or Roof Repairman, is ah the job of Tobias the Grimlock. 00:31:55.77 Grant Kress Perfect. 00:31:57.21 Kurt Crenwelge And then the next thing we roll for is the age range of of this character. And this, we roll a D8. 00:32:08.22 Grant Kress Got an eight. 00:32:09.81 Kurt Crenwelge Immortal. 00:32:11.11 Grant Kress whoa All right. 00:32:11.83 Kurt Crenwelge So we have an immortal Grimlock named Tobias that is a Thatcher or roof repairman. And with all of these details in mind, ah we take a slight pause on the dice rolling because now with Grimlock, Tobias, Thatcher, roof repairman, and immortal, can you describe the physical appearance of this Tobias character? 00:32:35.35 Grant Kress Oh, well, I've shingled of my fair share of rubes in my day. um And I know that it's it's hard on the knees and it's hard on the back. ah Grimlocks are always are already kind of hunched over, but but Tobias is very, very hunched over. He's almost squatting at all times. 00:32:58.97 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 00:32:59.10 Grant Kress um And, you know 00:33:00.46 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. 00:33:02.23 Grant Kress back, he's at a perpetual arch, hands on his knees just to just to support himself because Griggs or Riggs or whatever it is he's getting too old for this thatching stuff. 00:33:17.91 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:33:18.55 Grant Kress ah But you know his maybe he's got like a ah motto that roofs are guaranteed his lifetime. roofs are guaranteed for his lifetime 00:33:31.90 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, maybe that's the magic item coming into play later, but I don't know. Is there any per any particular inspiration that that's ah that's hitting you as far as like, how in the world is this Grimlock immortal? 00:33:46.23 Kurt Crenwelge Or is that just the perception? Because he's he's just seemingly always there and is like, well, he doesn't seem to have aged um because every time you leave this place where he's at or this community or you know wherever he's based, he just always seems to be there. 00:34:02.10 Grant Kress Yeah, maybe it is just a perception. Maybe it's maybe it has something to do with with an item. but But yeah, I can absolutely see the... He's he's always been there. He rooved my great-grandmother's house, and he was old then. 00:34:19.06 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And are we imagining that he's, ah you know, that that Tobias here is in the underdark and these are like underdark roofs that he's working on? Or is this like above and above ground in the mundane world? And he just like comes up and does his work and then he just disappears or whatever. 00:34:39.45 Grant Kress i was I was picturing in the Underdark, but um with the the idea of maybe comes up, does some roofs, and then goes back down, um then there there could be some rumors of maybe there's more than one Tobias down there, and it's just a name, just a title that's that's getting passed down. 00:34:57.96 Grant Kress Whoever runs this thatching company, yeah, you're you're called Tobias now. 00:34:58.14 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. Mm-hmm. 00:35:00.54 Kurt Crenwelge o Yeah, because was just scanning through the Forgotten Realms wiki on it, and it does say you know they've been around since the first edition Fiendfolio, and they are clearly based on the H.G. Wells Morlocks from the Time Machine. 00:35:18.26 Kurt Crenwelge So if you're familiar with that early 2000s movie with ah Guy Pearce ah yeah where the the and Jeremy Irons was in that one too, so there's there's a throwback. 00:35:28.89 Grant Kress Yeah. Not very recognizable in that movie, but but yeah, Jeremy Irons. 00:35:34.84 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, because he's the king of the Morlocks or something in that movie. Yeah. Okay. um So any other distinguishing features of this Tobias as far as how his thatching business work goes about? 00:35:51.26 Kurt Crenwelge I know he's like permanently hunched over and stuff like that. So probably, you know, makes him very good or speedy at being able to take care of all these roofs. But is there anything else that ah that would distinguish him among ah the population of other Grimlocks in the area? Apparently. 00:36:09.46 Grant Kress I think he's probably got some type of i specialized gloves because he's blind. You know, Grimlocks, they're blind. And so how's he going to be doing, you know, making sure that everything is even, the thatching is even, all the, um you know, making sure that he's not falling off the roof. 00:36:29.10 Grant Kress Maybe he's got a ah walking stick as well that he brings up onto the roof with him at all times. 00:36:33.69 Kurt Crenwelge okay 00:36:34.41 Grant Kress Yeah. Specialized gloves so he can feel make sure that everything's even maybe there's like ah some Yeah, I'm picturing maybe like some little steps in the in the gloves so we can just Ram the thatch up to level everything out. i don't know 00:36:52.47 Kurt Crenwelge Cool. Yeah, i I like it. And then ah if if we had to describe Tobias with three adjectives, what three adjectives would you use? 00:37:04.85 Grant Kress I'm picturing him as really cranky. he He does a really great job. 00:37:08.53 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:37:11.72 Grant Kress And so he can kind of like a doctor house from house. 00:37:16.64 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:37:16.86 Grant Kress He can afford to be rude um because he's the best at what he does. So I think cranky, tired 00:37:28.69 Grant Kress and perfectionist. 00:37:34.47 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Cranky, tired, and a perfectionist. Yep. Par for the course, I would say. And now is the part where I say, and now we get to go back to some dice rolling. But of course, since I have, you know, powered by D&D here and you have all your fantastic tables for a magic item with the question here of what's going to be a valuable item, piece of lore, secret or ideal or concept that Tobias cares about. 00:38:01.94 Kurt Crenwelge I think it would be apt to switch over to your tables now. And so now we're working through the magic item creation process with you to figure out, well, what's that special something that Tobias has got on his person? Maybe it explains why he's immortal, or maybe it's something cool that just helps him with his ah roofing abilities. 00:38:21.91 Grant Kress Yeah, let's roll that. Let me get my tables out here. All right. So, as always, can start off with 1d6 for the magic item type. 00:38:35.51 Grant Kress And for that, I got a six. So what's a ring? We're talking about an immortal or seemingly immortal creature that's got a magic ring. It's already given Tolkien a little bit. 00:38:46.04 Kurt Crenwelge ah Okay. 00:38:48.73 Grant Kress so he's got a ring. Hold on, let me write write some stuff down. 00:38:55.89 Grant Kress We've got the ring and then it's we move on to 1d12 for the primary function. Which we got an 11, which is my favorite number to roll on on this table because it means that we get to roll twice. 00:39:08.04 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:39:11.72 Grant Kress We've got 4 and a 12, which means that it's going to provide abilities in certain weather, conditions, or terrain. And then a 12 means plus 1 and roll again. 00:39:23.05 Grant Kress So it's going to be a plus 1 ring that's going to provide some type of abilities in certain weather conditions or or terrain. 00:39:25.88 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:39:34.23 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:39:38.36 Grant Kress And one last D12. Hopefully one last D12. Maybe it'll be more. Let's see. For the primary function, we've got a nine. So it's going to deal extra damage or allow you to deal extra damage to or give your protection from certain creatures. 00:39:54.26 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:39:59.42 Kurt Crenwelge I'm just imagining him being like, my favorite terrain is roofs. Therefore, that's why I'm so good at all this. 00:40:05.14 Grant Kress Yeah. 00:40:08.12 Grant Kress All right. Then we go to the 1d8 for the originator. maybe Maybe Tobias made this ring himself. Maybe he found it. Maybe he purchased it. 00:40:18.07 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, in the Underdark. 00:40:18.62 Grant Kress but 00:40:19.27 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:40:19.61 Grant Kress Yeah. right. So that 1d8 for the originator. We've got a three. So that's a primordial or elemental. 00:40:27.93 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, that's cool. 00:40:29.40 Grant Kress And then I always roll a d4 to determine which plane the primordial or elemental is from. And I only go with the elemental planes. And it's a four. So alphabetically, that's air, earth, fire, water. It's from the plane of water. 00:40:44.69 Kurt Crenwelge Interesting. 00:40:53.55 Grant Kress Alright, then we've got the ah the Crunch here, which is the 2d12 for mechanics. 00:41:07.53 Kurt Crenwelge I'm in the middle of recording, buddy. 00:41:09.22 Grant Kress I've got a 3 and an 8, which means that it's going to have charges and usable by Spellcaster only. 00:41:16.21 Kurt Crenwelge and Okay. 00:41:19.73 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, okay, so then that would mean he'd have to be a spellcaster of some type. Okay. 00:41:32.92 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. white then 00:41:44.84 Grant Kress All right. ah The next couple things that I use are the um wild magic. And then the lore and plot hooks. 00:41:55.70 Grant Kress um We wanted to roll those as well, you think? 00:41:56.02 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:41:58.54 Grant Kress Or or just kind of... 00:41:59.48 Kurt Crenwelge yeah i mean if Yeah, I mean, if it helps us inform Tobias' immortality and how this ring from the plane of water came to his person. 00:42:10.61 Grant Kress Yeah. Alright, so 1d10 for Wild Magic is an 8, which means that it's going to be spectral-themed. 00:42:21.03 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, okay. 00:42:21.92 Grant Kress So it's made by a water primordial, spectral themed. 00:42:29.50 Kurt Crenwelge kind of like necromantic or something a little bit. 00:42:34.04 Grant Kress thinking in like the the Mirror of Dead Men. Again, thinking Tolkien-ish now. um o One of my little pieces of paper fell out of my box. 00:42:39.05 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:42:45.54 Grant Kress Gotta put that back in there. 00:42:47.34 Kurt Crenwelge Got to put it back in. 00:42:48.77 Grant Kress Alright. And then we got the d10 for lore or plot hooks. Which is a 10. Okay. 00:43:05.66 Grant Kress This is currently, or maybe this was prior to how he got it, um was in the possession of an evil creature that must be defeated. 00:43:16.78 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Okay. So he took it off the hands of someone who was, who is evil somewhere in the underdark and now uses it, uh, in his thatching, uh, business that he does. 00:43:30.87 Grant Kress Yeah. 00:43:33.34 Grant Kress So yeah, and then it's at this point in my videos when I turn the camera off and think about it and and, and wonder, you know, where, where do we go with this? 00:43:45.35 Grant Kress How do we put all these pieces together? 00:43:48.02 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:43:48.22 Grant Kress Um, anything come into you? 00:43:51.51 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. So let's see. So it's a plus one ah Well, maybe the the reason why it can work is, you know, it says in certain weather conditions or in certain environments. And, you know, if it comes to the plane of water, or it's made by a water primordial. 00:44:07.86 Kurt Crenwelge You know, maybe it can only work because like oh because this works because you have to be in a place where it like rains a bunch or which would then be the reason why he's like oh well i'm always thatching roofs roofs are rotting they have to get like worked on and replaced and stuff like that so maybe that maybe that's an element part of it or something like that and spectral i don't know yeah it's we On this podcast, certainly we leave it open up to interpretation. Certainly if there's any definitive law that you want to lay down with this NPC, we're certainly happy to do so. But if you just kind of want to be like, well, it's a mysterious thing that some game master is going to have to figure out how it works in their world, then that's okay too. 00:44:54.49 Grant Kress Yeah. um Something that popped into my mind when you were when you were talking, you know, rotting the the rotting wood and things like that is, and you know, it ah gives them protection from certain things. 00:45:08.93 Grant Kress ah 00:45:09.62 Kurt Crenwelge h 00:45:10.26 Grant Kress Maybe this ring is giving him protection from mold. It's, ah you know, and that's that's a hazard in the Underdark as well. 00:45:16.31 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 00:45:21.51 Grant Kress And 00:45:21.75 Kurt Crenwelge True. Yeah, all the fungal things that are down there. 00:45:22.42 Grant Kress and Yeah, and working in you know potentially old rotted wood and thatch. lots of Lots of bugs, lots of mold, lots of nastiness that's running around. So perhaps that's how he's staying young in a profession that and you know people might get like a wet lung or or something. 00:45:47.77 Grant Kress Some weird random disease from in your whatever game world you're putting this in. 00:45:55.06 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And so then, but I think one of the other elements you said was, is that he had to be like a spell caster in order for the ring to work. So I wonder if that kind of informs something. Is he more of like, like a shaman sort of a dude or like he's legitimately like, oh yeah, I'm a Grimlock, but I also happen to be like a ah ranger or a ah warlock or ah a druid or something like that. 00:46:24.41 Grant Kress Yeah, I could see this guy being a circle of spores druid. 00:46:27.76 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, okay. 00:46:28.02 Grant Kress Um, 00:46:28.96 Kurt Crenwelge And then the ring helps him with, I don't know. It's like, does the ring protect him from, as from the, from the spores and the druidness or does it like go hand in hand with it? 00:46:40.15 Grant Kress I think it would go hand in hand, like, because it's using the things that he's maybe just built up but an immunity to it. And the rings helped with that. 00:46:48.92 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:46:50.91 Grant Kress And so he's turning what could have been deadly to him into something that is his ally and he's using against others. 00:47:02.17 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so Tobias the Grimlock is a circle of Spores Druid who's a Thatcher and has this magic ring that allows him to be like the best Thatcher that he can be. 00:47:16.22 Kurt Crenwelge And I don't know, any other groovy things from the power of the ring jumping out to you as far as like how it impacts him and stuff like that? 00:47:24.86 Grant Kress Well, that plus one, it's it's a plus one ring. ah that That plus one's kind of floating around there. And so I think that that could be attributed to pretty much any tool that he puts in his hand. 00:47:38.87 Grant Kress I, as a DM, I am a sucker for tool proficiencies. 00:47:39.32 Kurt Crenwelge h 00:47:42.59 Grant Kress if a If a player says that they want proficiency in Smith's tools or Carpenter's tools, I am all for it. And I will give them every opportunity to use their tool proficiencies. 00:47:53.30 Kurt Crenwelge So he has a proficiency with thatching tools. 00:47:55.83 Grant Kress Yeah, and it gives him a plus one for any checks that he makes to thatch a roof or repair something for the ah for the party. 00:48:06.99 Kurt Crenwelge cool so then if he's a druid then um so i mean prescriptive not descriptive so it sounds like this particular grimlock you know doesn't seem like he's gonna stand out as far as like the stereotypical oh i'm neutral evil i mean unless he's a neutral evil circle of spores druid uh But kind of interesting how this local community seems to have adopted him um to be like, oh, yeah, that's Tobias. He fixes all the roofs in the area and he just like, you know, hunched, hunched over and bent and just wobbles along. But then like once he scrambles up the roof and starts working like, oh, I didn't think he could move like that. But, you know, then he's speed demon. 00:48:54.20 Grant Kress Yeah, and that could even be where he collects his spores for his circle, is from the molded roofs that he he takes the thatch out, and he gets the mold and gets the spores from there. i The ring protects him, but he gathers them together and then uses them for his druidic purposes. 00:49:16.26 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, okay, that's cool. And it is it is fun, again, the image of like, oh, this is you know a Grimlock. It's a humanoid-esque type of creature that could still be involved theoretically with like a surface world community, but he has just enough of a of a difference in him that you're like, oh, that's like the weird guy that lives on the outside of town, but like we need him because he provides this critical service to us. 00:49:43.67 Grant Kress Exactly. is Because he's necessary, we put up with him. 00:49:48.92 Kurt Crenwelge Right. Yeah, it's like a house. It's a hovel. And then, but it's really, there's like nothing in the hovel. It's just a big trap door that leads down to the underdark, which is where he actually lives or something. 00:50:00.57 Grant Kress Yeah, he's got the biggest house in town. It's just all underground. 00:50:04.22 Kurt Crenwelge There you go. Perfect. Well, it sounds like we got a pretty cool magic item on our person ah for for Tobias. And now what we would do is we would roll the last dice, which would be a D12 for us to figure out what is going to be the side quest that Tobias is going to offer up to a bunch of heroes, to a bunch of player characters. 00:50:27.09 Kurt Crenwelge Or unless you're inspired and you think you have thought of in your brain now what you think a side quest Tobias would offer to heroes. But if you want to randomly generate it, you can roll the last dice, which is a d12. 00:50:40.09 Grant Kress Well, I'm here to roll dice, so let's roll. I got 10. 00:50:44.05 Kurt Crenwelge Let's roll. 10. ten oo okay. This one was provided to us by our previous guest, Kay Laird. Find the missing bride or groom. 00:50:59.74 Kurt Crenwelge So how does that factor into Tobias's life? does Does Tobias have a like a daughter or a son or a niece or a nephew or just someone in town? Because if they're an established part of this town, they know that they know all the people in the town. And, oh, there's a big wedding planned, but all of a sudden someone's gone missing sort of a thing. 00:51:22.65 Grant Kress Yeah, that's that that second idea it was more what I was thinking, um that he was, you know, Tobias has been hired to re-thatch the church roof because there's going to be this big wedding. 00:51:35.13 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. 00:51:37.16 Grant Kress But, you know, somebody's got cold feet and they've run off and ah the bride or groom that's remaining is saying, well, we're not going to have this and we don't need the roof thatched. 00:51:37.59 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:51:50.78 Grant Kress We don't need your services if we don't find this person. And well, Tobias, he wants to get paid. 00:51:54.33 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:51:56.58 Grant Kress And so hire some adventures. You got to go find this missing bride or groom so I can get my money. 00:52:04.86 Kurt Crenwelge Interesting. ah So not even necessarily like an altruistic sort of a thing. It's like, I really want to get this job done. In order for me to get this job done, we need to find this missing person. 00:52:16.70 Grant Kress Yeah, I think there's a little still a little bit of neutral evil in him. i mean, he he's he's mostly a good guy, but at the end of the day, he's there for the money. 00:52:28.38 Kurt Crenwelge Fun. Okay. And ah yeah, kind of interesting how it's ah Tobias that's giving the side quest and not necessarily like a member of the wedding party or the families or something like that, unless it's a very small wedding and there just aren't, you know, or it's early enough in the process where they're like, oh, um you know, like, oh, we're getting the the the chapel ready. You know, this is like a week before the funeral or the funeral. 00:52:54.71 Kurt Crenwelge ah Maybe there is a funeral going on while they're getting it ready and the bride the groom has come in and it's like, I can't find my person. There's no point in fixing the roof because now this wedding can't happen. And then the guy's like, well, I can't have that happen. So that'd be fun. 00:53:09.02 Kurt Crenwelge If you if you think that sounds plausible. 00:53:11.99 Grant Kress Yeah, for sure. 00:53:14.23 Kurt Crenwelge All right. 00:53:14.20 Grant Kress Plausible in a world of magic and fey creatures, yeah. 00:53:18.74 Kurt Crenwelge Indeed. And of course, with our side quests, with the bright gold exclamation point that's over the head of Tobias, we obviously want to know what's going to be the risk and reward and and the dangers and all such on a basic level. So... 00:53:34.70 Kurt Crenwelge What's going to be the reward for the party when the when they've Tobias has given them this quest, they go off and they, whatever adventure it is, but they find the missing bride or groom and they return them to the church. 00:53:48.11 Kurt Crenwelge What's going to be the reward for the party? 00:53:52.41 Grant Kress Well, I think that Tobias is not just a Thatcher. I think he can make other things as well. um 00:53:58.84 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:53:59.70 Grant Kress and maybe he can you know put a straw hat, or i have seen these, I've seen some like documentaries of like samurai that would wear like paper or straw armor um that was like super lightweight, but also was woven in such a way that it's really super durable, and so maybe Tobias can make something like that for the party, and they're enchanted in some way, or just lightweight, but 00:54:13.96 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 00:54:24.00 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:54:28.50 Grant Kress medium or heavy armor that doesn't require any strength mushroom armor. 00:54:30.23 Kurt Crenwelge e Mushroom armor. Ooh. 00:54:33.47 Grant Kress Yeah. i've I've got a druid in my Tuesday cruise day. Who's got mushroom armor. So yeah. 00:54:39.29 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, maybe since a Circle of Spores Druid, ah maybe it's a combination of like, oh, here's some old thatching stuff with like enhanced mushroom growth. And so it's it's like a light armor category. But, you know, maybe it's on the same par as like studded leather or something like that, because you got the little mushroom caps coming off that are acting like the little studs on the armor or whatever. 00:55:02.30 Grant Kress Yeah. 00:55:03.64 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, that's cool. So he's willing to give the party a new piece of unique armor that they could wear that gives them. Does it provide any other material benefits or is it just like, oh, it's just like mushroom armor. It's like studded leather. It just has a unique aesthetic look. 00:55:22.87 Grant Kress I think it could easily just be aesthetics, um ah but but I have put um a certain type of armor in in my in a couple of my games that ah is 00:55:27.80 Kurt Crenwelge Mm hmm. 00:55:36.78 Grant Kress spore armor that it will shoot off a cloud of spores in basically makes that like what the circle of spores does instead of their um instead of their wild shape they they can shoot off that cloud of spores um and so you could do that with your with your armor or the opposite and um the the armor has pores so instead of spore armor it's pore armor um that the the pores can open up and suck would-be dangerous like toxins and clouds and stuff to prevent ah your party members from taking poison damage or getting poisoned. 00:55:41.78 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:55:52.94 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, okay. 00:56:13.66 Kurt Crenwelge okay 00:56:18.38 Kurt Crenwelge that's pretty cool so could go either way on it and uh it'd be interesting to hear how all the various versions of tobias uh crafted their versions of this armor that they give out and whether it does a thing where it shoots off spores or it prevents certain damage types from happening but I could definitely argue the oh, you have like resistance to poison. 00:56:40.70 Kurt Crenwelge Maybe you do like a cool thing where maybe like once a day, the spores will do like a fairy fire effect or something like that. That'd be kind of cool. 00:56:48.54 Grant Kress Love Fairy Fire. 00:56:48.89 Kurt Crenwelge um or you You go, you go through like ah the myconids abilities and maybe not as powerful as some of the real myconid spores that shoot out, but maybe, maybe you have a proficiency ahlthough a language perface proficiency with myconids because, 00:57:04.57 Kurt Crenwelge Like part of the armor will snake up into you a little bit and you it's like, oh, I can I can understand all the mushrooms talking. I am tapped into the fungal network of the world sort of a thing. 00:57:15.48 Grant Kress Yeah, get that rapport spores going so you can communicate telepathically with your party. Very cool. 00:57:21.82 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, that'd be cool. Yeah. Okay. But then we also have to consider the opposite. What's going to be the consequence of failure or refusing the call to the adventure? So, you know, this this cut scene happens and they they hear all this commotion in the church and Tobias is like, got to go find this person. And the party's like, no, thank you. 00:57:42.74 Kurt Crenwelge We've got better things to do or they They undertake the mission, but something catastrophic happens with like, oh, the bride or groom stays missing. They flee. They run away. They, you know, tragically lose their life, whatever it may be. 00:57:58.78 Kurt Crenwelge And then they come back and report on it. What's going to be the consequence again of failure or refusing the call to the adventure? 00:58:06.90 Grant Kress Well, um I got to think about who who this bride or groom is. ah Are they an important person to the community? Are they the mayor's son or daughter? 00:58:18.81 Grant Kress Are they just a you know ah a villager? a ah just just someone um i was immediately thinking that it's somebody really important like the mayor's son mayor's daughter um and so failure for of the party for not um not uh either not taking up that call or 00:58:34.39 Kurt Crenwelge sure 00:58:48.80 Grant Kress failing the mission and and not recovering the son or daughter bride or groom um the 00:58:54.89 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Yeah. 00:58:57.91 Grant Kress depending upon how powerful the the mayor or the the parent is um it could be as simple as refusal to seat them at the wedding table and they don't get to eat the wedding feast or you know you are banished forthwith from this village and uh price is put on your heads um because you you bring back a ah a corpse that's not good uh if you uh because then you know lots of fingers could get pointed at you he's like what did you adventurers do out in those woods 00:59:22.30 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:59:37.21 Kurt Crenwelge But now I'm thinking of Baldur's Gate three and Tobias is like, ah, don't worry. And he does like a river or he does like a resurrection or something like that. And then like they come back, but they have like more spores growing out of them and stuff like that. So they're like, you know, hello, how's it going? And it's like, oh, you got like you got a little mushroom bit right there or something, dear. 00:59:59.13 Grant Kress Yeah, it's a little odd. 01:00:02.20 Kurt Crenwelge ah And then they just transform into a Mike. 01:00:06.94 Grant Kress Yeah, it's a hazard of of being ah in a D&D world. You sometimes turn into mycanid. 01:00:16.57 Kurt Crenwelge Indeed. And then um I know we have some optional questions. If you feel like Tobias needs a little more rounding out or if you're ready to proceed, we can head on to the next section of the show. 01:00:29.81 Grant Kress I, I feel like he's fairly well-rounded. 01:00:33.34 Kurt Crenwelge All right. Well, if you're good, I'm good. And then we need to throw Tobias into a random encounter. Thanks for being quiet. 01:00:48.31 Kurt Crenwelge And insert here the last ad read part for Zencaster, the service that's helping me to produce this podcast. Thank you so much to Zencaster. And if you're looking for a podcast service of your own, might I recommend checking them out, going to Zencaster.com forward slash pricing. 01:01:07.64 Kurt Crenwelge And when you use SideKQ podcast as the code, you'll get 30% off your first month of any paid Zencaster plan. So supporting them helps to support the podcast. I thank you very much. 01:01:21.34 Kurt Crenwelge All right. So now this part of the show is the random encounter where we do a role play, a vignette, a scene with the character that we've made here today. So I think Grant's going to do a fantastic job being Tobias. 01:01:34.52 Kurt Crenwelge But the question that I have is, who am I going to be in this scene? Am I going to be um the mayor's son, furious in the church, wondering where the bride is? Am I going to be an adventuring character that's coming through town and he's hearing about this and getting the side quest or, or am I someone else, uh, from Tobias's circle of spores druids? 01:01:56.57 Kurt Crenwelge Uh, I don't know. What sort of scene are you interested in showcasing him off in today? 01:02:03.48 Grant Kress I think when he first learns that the Rider-Groom is missing and suddenly this ah promised job is thrown into jeopardy. 01:02:19.22 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so you want to take it where it's the ah it's the the important person's kid left at the altar and they're like having this argument or something in the church and then maybe Tobias is working or butting in or something like that and getting the getting the inciting incident that then leads into, okay, well, I need to go find some people to deal with this because I've got to work on that roof or whatever. 01:02:46.90 Grant Kress Yeah. 01:02:48.41 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Would you care to set the scene or shall I set the scene? 01:02:53.64 Grant Kress I'm picturing it's it's a large tall building um thatched roofs uh some places are falling apart just through general age and wear and tear bugs have eaten through some areas which lets a lot of natural light in which is nice but not great for when it rains and it's the rainy season coming up and the this uh 01:03:01.97 Kurt Crenwelge Mm hmm. 01:03:23.88 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. 01:03:29.43 Grant Kress mostly elven village is ah it anticipating a a wet rainy season coming up. And so Tobias, he's he's got his... 01:03:43.51 Grant Kress his sheaves, he's gathered them all. hes He's spent the better part of yesterday gathering all these sheaves together. um He's measured some things out. He's got his ladder. He's just put it up against the... 01:03:59.93 Grant Kress the the wall of this large church. And he's about to grab hold of the the rungs. he can He's memorized where the rungs are. This is a ladder that he's used a lot of times. So while he can't see the rungs, he knows exactly where they are. 01:04:19.22 Kurt Crenwelge And so from within the church, through some of these holes that are appearing in the in the thatched roof, um the mayor's son, Oloran, 01:04:31.06 Kurt Crenwelge is ah you know Tobias, with his enhanced hearing, ah can hear Oloran just kind of like being, ah you know, just over the top. He's like out of it. He's just like, I i just don't understand where she wins, where she wins. 01:04:46.97 Kurt Crenwelge ah ah Trislin, yeah you know, we're supposed to be married and and we have all this going on and the the you know the roof and I just don't understand. I don't think my father is going to approve. And then, you know, you'll hear an older voice of a, of a cleric sort of a figure being like, Oh, worry, not worry, not. I'm sure that Trislin will, will appear. 01:05:09.85 Kurt Crenwelge it just, you know you're both young, you know, barely out of your childhood years, you know, both spry 99 soon to be hundreds and adults, and you're ready to be married. And then, you know, and then, 01:05:23.54 Kurt Crenwelge probably the doors clang open and then you hear loud stomps and then Theron who's like the mayor of the town is like what's all this then and he starts raising a whole big stink so you so so Tobias is hearing all this arguing going on um it technically may be an elvish but we'll assume that since this is an elven community that ah you know that's a language that Tobias has picked up so and So what's Tobias thinking in his head as all this is going on? You know, there's this talk about like, where's the bride? 01:05:58.84 Kurt Crenwelge Is this wedding even worth going through? Like, you know, I don't even know why we keep this church open, all that sort of sort of talk. 01:06:07.96 Grant Kress Yeah, ah before he starts to starts his slow descent down the ladder, because as you've mentioned, he is fast on the roof, but slow on the ladder and on the ground. 01:06:21.37 Grant Kress ah He first has a little bit of rapport spores, some some mold, some fungus wafts up around his ears, and ah almost as if he's talking to himself. 01:06:33.24 Grant Kress yeah yeah, i' better go take take a peek at what's going on in there. Lend an ear, lend some elderly sage advice, heads down the ladder and with a, with his walking stick in hand, it wraps on the, on either side of the door frame. 01:06:58.94 Grant Kress um crooked he hobbles on in tapping his cane loudly on the on the cobblestone floor and i hear that there's some something going on here something with uh the trislin girl is a that that's the one 01:07:10.10 Kurt Crenwelge you 01:07:20.82 Kurt Crenwelge And then the priest speaks up. Oh, oh, Tobias. Oh, oh, I'm so sorry we're allowed. And then ah the mayor whips around and is like, oh, oh, Tobias. Oh, her and he starts grumbling. And then he maybe more focuses back on his son, Oleran. 01:07:37.53 Kurt Crenwelge um But the priest comes over and he like very assuringly like puts a hand on Tobias, like to let him know like he's next to him and then take removes his hand. It's just like, 01:07:48.15 Kurt Crenwelge oh yes um yes oh i don't know it seems that something's gone on with with this trislin and all the ran is and and therein the mayor very concerned about this and uh and and uh he's he's trying to placate and then uh you know therein's getting more mad in the background he's like well If this girl isn't going to, you know, honor the marriage agreement, then, you know, then why even spend the money in this? And then, you know, that's when the priest looks over and is like, but but Lord Mayor, surely we, the rainy season. 01:08:22.46 Grant Kress it Let's let not be too hasty now. is emio Pardon me for for speaking out of turn, Mayor Theron. I know I'm not officially a a towns member, town's person, whatever you call them here. 01:08:39.06 Grant Kress But... I feel like, a you know, I've lent my aid here for many a year. now I'm sure that this that this church is beautiful. It smells. I can smell the wood. i can smell the thatch. I can smell the upholstery even here. 01:08:58.34 Grant Kress It's a beautiful place, wouldn't you say, Mayor? Don't you think it's worth putting in a little effort here? 01:09:06.14 Kurt Crenwelge m Yes. I mean, the politician in him is hearing these words, but I think he's also just kind of spun up and worked up a little bit um that, you know, he continues on in a string of Elvish of like, you know, what he's going to do and, you know, like Oloran, I can't believe like you you fell for this Tristan girl. 01:09:25.91 Kurt Crenwelge Look at this. She proves she's not worthy of you and worthy of this marriage and all this stuff. and And then I think he's just going to storm off and he's dragging Oloran with him. So it's just at this point, it's just the priest and and and and you, Tristan, left. So the then the the priest is like, oh, my goodness. Oh, oh dear. 01:09:47.98 Kurt Crenwelge I'm so sorry you had to hear that. Oh, I'm so sorry. 01:09:51.03 Grant Kress um before tobias can hear the footsteps of uh uh mayor theron and oloran leaving um and before they get past the um the threshold and leave the leave this temple again he's just communicating with his rapport spores and you know getting getting this guidance from from this fungus that's growing on his back and under his fingernails and things and 01:10:11.22 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 01:10:20.63 Grant Kress sighs and tap taps his walking stick really hard all right if it means that much to you i'll get this i'll get this arranged we'll get We'll have a wedding. Don't you worry about that there, young boy. um Motioning to where he assumes Olorin is standing. 01:10:43.55 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 01:10:44.09 Grant Kress and And don't you worry, Mayor Thayer. I'll all do my best. Talking some sense and into her. You think that she's some flippant running off? think that this is you know you don't You don't know. You don't know what she's been through. Maybe maybe this is... 01:11:02.65 Grant Kress I don't know. I don't know what she's been through. I'll, uh, leave it to me. You worry about whatever flowers you're putting what sort of a wild game you're going to be serving, and whatever else you mayors busy yourself with. oh no I'll go find her. 01:11:23.10 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I think he I think with Tobias stopping the mayor and getting him to think of ah things a little more logically, ah you know, there and with his enhanced hearing, he can hear um the the mayor muttering under his breath. Oh, yes. Tobias always thinking of his paycheck or whatever. 01:11:40.63 Kurt Crenwelge But then like he, you know, then he thinks better of himself and then remembers like, oh, yeah, Tobias, his ears are pretty sharp, like an elf's ears. Uh, so then he'll just be like, all right, fair enough. If you are going to take this problem off my hands and lead this, uh, this expeditionary charge to find the missing girl, then, then so be it. Uh, one less problem for me to have to deal with. Oh, and, and then his son's like, well, what did I do father? And then it starts to slowly devolve into a Monty Python sketch as the two of them exit the church. 01:12:13.62 Kurt Crenwelge Uh, and, uh, with the priest just left wondering and muttering like, Oh dear, what do i do And Oh, is there anything that I can do to help you? what's the sort of last thought or moment or scene that, uh, Tobias is going to take in this church? 01:12:31.33 Grant Kress He sighs the father-son spat that's going on just outside of his ah range of hearing. hears the priest muttering, and ah you know because he's he's nervous about his church falling apart and everything like that. and Sighs. 01:12:55.66 Grant Kress You've got better eyes than me. You see any adventurers coming through town? Send them my way. I'll be up there. And he starts hobbling back towards his ladder. 01:13:14.01 Kurt Crenwelge And scene. So he did it. So what was it like getting to be Tobias, the circle of spores, Grimlock, uh, druid. 01:13:21.97 Grant Kress I think he's going to be popping up in a couple of villages for sure in a couple of different games. 01:13:28.22 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I think Tobias is pretty cool. It's a, you know, it's a way to, I think it's a good way to visualize some of these NPCs and these other species and ancestries and races that are presented in the material of like, oh, they don't just have to be in the Underdark. You could conceivably find a Grimlock on the surface. They might have a harder time, but you know, it seems like Tobias has found a way to make it work. 01:13:51.16 Kurt Crenwelge And he's endeared himself with the community and he provides a vital service. And they're all the better for him being around. 01:14:01.88 Grant Kress Absolutely, yeah. that i love love having the NPCs that are not you know just another dwarf elf human, having the the weird NPCs, especially if they're not going to last for very long. 01:14:17.53 Grant Kress I mean, not that they're going to... 01:14:18.27 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:14:18.93 Grant Kress If the if the party is just passing through a village, throw a a random weird NPC in there. 01:14:23.30 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:14:26.36 Kurt Crenwelge Exactly. It makes them stop and look twice, do a double take and then be invested in the town. Perfect. Yeah. So, you know, we're now at the part of the show where where it's final thoughts. So, ah you know, i always check in with the guest and ask them how their time was on the podcast and what they thought of the whole process of creating a whole brand new NPC that, you know, you could take into your game ah on on Saturday or Sunday or Tuesday or Thursday. 01:14:57.43 Grant Kress Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I loved loved rolling up the new character and learning about them as the as the dice rolled. I love doing that, having my players do that as well. 01:15:08.91 Grant Kress um I sometimes have players come to the table without a thought in their head, and they roll their stats down the line and just let the stats speak to them and see what type of character is this. 01:15:09.77 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 01:15:19.51 Grant Kress And so that that was a lot of fun. doing something similar for for this random Grimlock. Did not have a Grimlock in mind for when we were coming up with a... 01:15:29.66 Kurt Crenwelge right 01:15:31.83 Grant Kress I was getting ready to you know make a dwarf or a gnome or something like that. 01:15:38.23 Kurt Crenwelge Right. Yeah, but we got Grimlock and it's a cool circle of spores drew it at that, too. 01:15:39.48 Grant Kress A lot of fun. 01:15:43.72 Kurt Crenwelge So that's that's super cool. Now I'm imagining like even mushrooms growing over like where his eye sockets, you know, where the skin is over and he just has like maybe even mushroom pattern that even look like ah artificial eyes or something like that. 01:15:58.27 Kurt Crenwelge That'd be kind of cool. 01:15:59.12 Grant Kress A little body horror, sure. 01:16:01.24 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, well, yeah, hopefully not too much like The Last of Us where it's like clicker sort of a a thing. But, you know, I don't know. Could could be cool. Could be horrific. depends Depends on the tone of your game. 01:16:12.28 Grant Kress Right. 01:16:13.18 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. But but here in the final moments of the podcast, I always leave it to the guests. So ah the microphone, the soapbox, the stage, the platform is yours. So plug what you got to plug. Tell us where we can find you, how we can support, um you know, powered by D&D, you know, the magic item reels that you're doing every day and any other passions or causes we need to be made aware of. Let us know. 01:16:38.17 Grant Kress For sure. Yeah, like you said, on Instagram, my my handle is poweredbydnd. It's dnd because they didn't allow the ampersand. And then there's a dot in between there. powered.by.dnd. That's my handle there. um I'm on TikTok called, ah my name there is theworstdm. And that's just from ah ah an inside joke that I have with my players. um Because ah I don't allow any... 01:17:08.54 Grant Kress characters to get healing if they are if they're knocked down to zero hit points they have to be stabilized before they get any healing and I say because I'm the worst um and so um so you can find me there on TikTok is at the worst DM I'm thinking about putting some stuff up on YouTube figuring probably couldn't hurt um ah but um on 01:17:30.17 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. The shorts, ah the shorts, you know, community is also there on YouTube as well. So you got to game the algorithm. 01:17:35.64 Grant Kress yeah exactly right yeah on facebook as well because whenever i put something on instagram it pops up on my facebook as well um but regardless of where i am the hashtag roll for magic item is where you're gonna find me always use that hashtag and uh 01:17:38.52 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:17:56.22 Grant Kress I don't think anybody else has been using it. So I've got over 372 items. I rolled that today. uh, when this comes out, I'll be probably around 400 so. 01:18:09.93 Grant Kress Um, 01:18:10.49 Kurt Crenwelge Wow. 01:18:11.32 Grant Kress so 01:18:11.54 Kurt Crenwelge A whole year's worth. That's amazing. 01:18:13.75 Grant Kress Yeah, I just got the ah year anniversary. um ah I started February 27th, 2025. And then um i took a few days off. 01:18:26.19 Grant Kress I know, terrible, terrible me for taking the days off. 01:18:28.25 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:18:29.19 Grant Kress of but But then the 365 was less a couple weeks ago or or last week. Math is hard, um but yeah. 01:18:41.97 Kurt Crenwelge Beautiful. And ah thank you so much, Grant, for being a guest on the podcast and for making this character today. And I can't wait to have you back on the podcast, making even more interesting NPCs. 01:18:56.54 Grant Kress Thanks for having me.