00:00:05.74 sidekqpodcast Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of Sidekicks and Sidequests, the best unofficial Dungeons and Dragons podcast in my humbly biased opinion. I've got an amazing guest for you this week, but before I get to my guest, you know I have to do it, the first ad read. And now that I'm trying out transcriptions, this is the part where the ad read goes for this part, but in the meantime of the interview, ah let's let's continue, all right. 00:00:36.32 sidekqpodcast All right, so without further ado, I turn the microphone over to my guest and I ask, hello mystery contestant, would you care to introduce yourself, tell us who it is that you are and what is it that you do? 00:00:46.92 Em Friedman ah Sure. um My name is Dr. Emily Friedman. I'm an associate professor at Auburn University. And after that, it gets real complicated. I was hired as a specialist in book history and specializing in the 18th century. And somehow over the last ah five to eight years, I have become a an expert ah both as a teacher and a scholar in the study of tabletop role-playing games and specifically actual play. um I'm not the only one, but I am the oldest. 00:01:19.86 sidekqpodcast Hmm. Well, I've certainly seen, you know, your work out there, you know, with a number of ah online publications and just you're very well regarded on social media. 00:01:30.47 sidekqpodcast So in my mind, it's like, ah, the professor studying this ah is Dr. Emily. It's like, you know, you're the the critical professor. 00:01:38.02 Em Friedman ah 00:01:38.53 sidekqpodcast So it's like, it's just you're all synonymous. You're wrapped up in my head that way. 00:01:43.37 Em Friedman Well, i got i ah we we we took we took lots. we We dibbed it out. And so I got the actual play assignment, ah so to speak, ah just by virtue of the person who's been watching and listening to it longest. um But I will say, like people like my friend Aaron Trammell and Evan Torner, Aaron's got a really great book coming out on design and Dungeons and Dragons to keep an eye out on. 00:02:08.51 Em Friedman ah So yeah, there's we are Legion ah in analog game studies, and i but I'm the one that talks about the nerdy-ass voice actors and everybody else, so. 00:02:19.47 sidekqpodcast okay well i'm excited to have this conversation because i've had the opportunity to have ah from ball state university dr paul guest wiki uh you know who is a ah professor on uh on game design uh and then i had uh nola noted tolkien scholar and colleague of mine dr holly ordway on the podcast as well 00:02:29.05 Em Friedman i 00:02:39.64 sidekqpodcast Um, so now I get to add, uh, you know, Dr. 00:02:40.23 Em Friedman Hooray! 00:02:42.08 sidekqpodcast Emily Friedman, uh, to the list, which I'm, I'm very excited about. And, uh, as you were explaining what it is that you've been noted for in studying, I think it goes without saying, uh, you know, have you ever played a game of D and D to know, you know, what it is that you're studying and writing about? 00:03:00.53 sidekqpodcast Yeah. Like, you know, what's your, what's your take on it? 00:03:01.39 Em Friedman Uh, yeah! Um, yeah, so I have been playing D and D since the start of fifth edition. Um, before that, um, I grew up in the, uh, in the kind of time when D and D wasn't the most dominant of the TTRPGs. Uh, so started with good old Steve Jackson games, uh, translation of in nominee and, uh, various worlds of darkness games and all those kinds of, of good things before a little hiatus. But when I, uh, 00:03:33.53 Em Friedman came to Auburn and found myself in the group of a bunch of history professors who were talking about transitioning to the new system. And I'm like, you're talking about this at a party and you're not asking me? and like And they said, oh, we thought you were cool. We didn't think you would want to play this game, ah and which gives you a sense of where we were right just about a decade ago in terms of how people were seeing the hobby. 00:03:59.30 Em Friedman ah But yeah, so have been playing ever since um ah my home game is a bunch of historians and the led by our intrepid forever DM. And we and then I run a game for 18th century scholars, ah which um one time at our national conference was me leading a game for 17 people who had never played D and&D before. So 00:04:26.98 sidekqpodcast Wow, that's impressive. 00:04:28.53 Em Friedman i i i I don't have the decades that somebody like Matt or Brennan have under their belt, but by God, I've i've put myself through some wars. 00:04:38.38 sidekqpodcast Yeah, yeah, I mean, just this past um end of March, i I participated in the local convention fake con. And so I ran two games. 00:04:47.10 Em Friedman a 00:04:48.88 sidekqpodcast And on the second game where I was like, I was using ah the mcdm productions where evil ah lies lives ah book and to do ah to do the Shadowkeep mission. 00:04:57.34 Em Friedman oh 00:05:01.96 sidekqpodcast So it was like, you know, level 13. And I had like, eight nine people jump in so I was like oh okay all right let me let me adjust everything here so hearing that you were running a game for like 17 people at once like yeah like I guess you were just like all right you just all fight cobalt or goblins or something something easy that it's or skeletons or something where it's not gonna like overwhelm me you 00:05:22.71 Em Friedman Hmm. and No, actually, um ah No, I appeal to their nerdy sides. ah and the The group that would distill down to from this ah is the most pacifist gaming group that ever willingly played D and&D. 00:05:38.20 Em Friedman One of them actually healed a Knoll ah the first time she encountered one in combat. 00:05:41.44 sidekqpodcast Oh. 00:05:43.45 Em Friedman i Like, you're going to die, pumpkin pie. ah But no, um and i i ah on the Critical Prof YouTube channel, you can see what i how I built out ah the rule of 18th century D and&D is that your characters must be inspired by a fictional or real life 18th century figure. 00:06:03.36 Em Friedman um so and And the setting is Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill House, which is you can visit today. 00:06:03.70 sidekqpodcast Oh. 00:06:11.22 Em Friedman It's been beautifully restored. um It is a ni kind of like D and&D. It's a Gothic inspired edifice um in yeah that takes a lot of liberties. 00:06:22.36 Em Friedman And as an 18th century nerd, 00:06:22.24 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 00:06:24.89 Em Friedman The inventory of what Walpole had in the house, which is really handy for things like magic items or possible encounters, is also available thanks to Yale University. like They've digitized all the images. They've told you what rooms those things were in. um There's a map you can put a grid on. It's great. ah So no, we we did a little kind of exploration of the house um with ah the big bad evil guy was noted 18th century ah novelist and sugar plantation Nepo baby, William Beckford, who we turned into, um you know, a an incubus, a soul sucking incubus. And in fact, my 18th century party is re encountering him. 00:07:12.49 Em Friedman ah In the coming weeks, he's come back many years later ah with new sugar monsters, which are reskinned constructs. 00:07:18.05 sidekqpodcast Mm. 00:07:23.17 Em Friedman And and I think that he's going to retreat to Brighton, to the to ah the Prince Regent's pleasure palace that was built in the late 18th, early 19th century at enormous cost. 00:07:38.80 Em Friedman Uh, because how can you not? I mean, just give me a fantastical building from this period and I will turn it into a dungeon fit for, uh, some, some fun adventures. 00:07:41.95 sidekqpodcast Right. 00:07:50.57 Em Friedman It's not 17 people these days. It's about six, but, uh, 00:07:52.59 sidekqpodcast ah OK, that's six is a little bit more manageable than 70. That's for sure. um But no, this sounds this sounds fascinating. 00:07:58.85 Em Friedman yeah, but, but yeah, no, combat rounds. Yeah. Yeah. Compout rounds. When you have 17 people are everybody gets a turn to take a hit on something. Um, and you've got a lot of people who are there as, you know, like the, we talk about the watcher archetype, right? 00:08:08.33 sidekqpodcast Right. 00:08:13.32 Em Friedman The people who are just there to like, see what it's like, and they don't want to have to make the move all the time. 00:08:15.92 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:08:18.79 Em Friedman And so it was a nice little introduction for the folks who are new. It was also very funny because we were in Disney Springs, the like adult Disney area, um, because that's where this conference was. 00:08:26.77 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm 00:08:28.67 Em Friedman So we were in this like Disney hotel room, all 17 of us crammed on a sofa. Uh, so yeah, it's a cherished memory. 00:08:35.10 sidekqpodcast Right, but you're able to drink alcohol there I'm sure so that must have ah that must have helped and been nice. 00:08:40.53 Em Friedman Indeed. 00:08:41.52 sidekqpodcast Yeah 00:08:41.85 Em Friedman Indeed. Yeah, it was us and a... 00:08:43.35 sidekqpodcast Now i just have so many questions ah from this answer just swirling in my head just thinking cuz i know i've got coworkers and friends that you know really love like you know jane austin and of green gables and stuff like that so my my my instinct is to be like oh so if they go to your youtube channel will they find like You know pride and prejudice and sense and sensibility and that kind of vibe with you know And I know there is this ah indie ah indie games some of them like I know dancers and daddies did like sons and sons ability Patreon stuff so like this Regency ah Okay Right was like the co-dm 00:09:07.18 Em Friedman Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. 00:09:11.66 Em Friedman Yes. 00:09:16.61 Em Friedman Yes. Cannot recommend it. It's not my favorite, but I am excited. No, it's fine. ah The challenge was that they they had a guest star who um was but like, um I'm the Regency expert. And I'm like, everything you're saying is wrong. Why can't you just like make it silly? 00:09:37.81 Em Friedman um I'm consulting in the yeah interest of transparency for and not an actual play, but kind of actual play adjacent improvised podcast called Bitcherton, where I'm the historical consultant. 00:09:37.96 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:09:49.65 sidekqpodcast Ah. 00:09:50.76 Em Friedman And I'm just like, hey, I'm giving you guys silly stuff and you can do dumb stuff with it, like because it's a farce. 00:09:53.08 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm. 00:09:57.20 Em Friedman um The problem is is when you're like, this is realistic. 00:09:57.28 sidekqpodcast Right. 00:09:59.75 Em Friedman No, dear Colin, no. so But the best, the best, of course, that for your friends who are super into Jane Austen that you want to convince is ah D and&D might be for them is probably a Bria Iyengar's turn for a quarter fan flowers for dropouts dimension 20. 00:10:15.46 sidekqpodcast Ah. 00:10:17.41 Em Friedman because she combines fifth edition with good society rules and like does a little cool mashup. 00:10:17.32 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:10:24.10 Em Friedman And there are some like interesting like fifth edition supplements that are Jane Austen inspired. 00:10:27.15 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm. 00:10:29.52 Em Friedman The best book ah for my money, and I know this is a D and&D podcast, but hey, you you had me. um ah Regency Cthulhu, if you're trying to do some world building, 00:10:40.01 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:10:40.28 Em Friedman Um, that's the best researched, even if you're using a different system, the like first 40, 50 pages of that book are just a treasure trove of how to think about how to do Regency world building. 00:10:42.19 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm. 00:10:52.52 Em Friedman Um, and, uh, while I got a free copy from Chaosium, I stand by that even if I, because I just assigned it to my students. Um, but yeah, and, but there's a really, there's a bunch of really cool stuff that I think that like, 00:11:04.51 Em Friedman if you're trying to add Regency flavor to a D and&D campaign, there's a bunch of cool books. I would look at Teeth, um which now has gold teeth, ah is on the Kickstarter now. 00:11:10.28 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:11:16.28 Em Friedman um I'm literally looking to the side to my eighteenth playing the 18th century deck. Fiasco has a Regency expansion, someone I just found out about, and just 00:11:24.36 sidekqpodcast Ooh, I do love fiasco. Yeah. 00:11:27.86 Em Friedman Yeah, there's pride and panic. um It literally, I got into a really fascinating exchange with Jason Morningstar, all in kind of elevated 18th century style epistolary form. 00:11:41.17 Em Friedman When I was like, everyone is fired. No one told me about this before I started teaching this class. um But yeah, no, there's a lot of there's a lot of cool stuff out in the indie space to enhance your D and&D game or, you know, to to play around. 00:11:54.84 Em Friedman um I'm a big fan and my students are a big fan, too. 00:11:54.68 sidekqpodcast Mm. 00:11:57.65 Em Friedman um a Good Society is the kind of classic one. um So if you're trying to do like relationship stuff, My favorite by that same designer, Story Brewers, is their free game that you can download as a PDF on their website, which is called Harriet Wilson and Her Three Sisters, which is a game of epistolary blackmail. 00:12:15.77 Em Friedman So you're writing letters. This is it based on a real a real woman. 00:12:17.46 sidekqpodcast Ooh. 00:12:19.97 Em Friedman Harriet Wilson and her sisters were real people. They were real courtesans. And when they retired, they made money on their memoirs. And the money they made the most was writing to their former, very famous clients and saying, Well, would you like to subscribe to my memoirs? Or would you like to buy our silence? 00:12:41.82 Em Friedman Um, so the game is literally writing these like, Hey, remember this part of like our affair? And do you really want the world to hear about that? Um, it's a fun, it's a fun little way of thinking about like, what would epistolarity and what would that kind of letter writing world building look like, uh, in your role playing game? 00:12:52.09 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:13:01.84 Em Friedman But, uh, 00:13:01.70 sidekqpodcast Wow. Yeah, and then the only other question um floating in my mind, because you were mentioning 18th century, is um Matt Colville did a video about like the first adventure he ever was in, um which was the ma it was the French world ah from the French writer, and it was the mashup of the two properties. 00:13:19.14 Em Friedman oh 00:13:21.62 sidekqpodcast And so I was just like, oh, you know yeah if you're familiar with that module and kind of like that world of that French 00:13:22.37 Em Friedman a 00:13:28.37 sidekqpodcast Science fiction writer was just curious just off the hand want me to just me think of that 00:13:31.68 Em Friedman Yeah, no, I mean, I'm so curious. I'm a big fan of Covel's in that way where you're like, I'm a fan of a person who would probably not speak to me in real life. 00:13:42.73 Em Friedman um It's like the opposite of parasociality. ah But ah no, I don't think I remember that video or that module, which is so interesting because usually that would be like the very first thing to like ping my my alert. 00:13:55.14 sidekqpodcast Castle Amber. It was the Castle Amber module that he was talking about. 00:14:00.55 Em Friedman and Interesting. 00:14:01.83 sidekqpodcast Because it's ah it's a mashup of like two different two different things. 00:14:02.78 Em Friedman um 00:14:06.90 Em Friedman Oh, right, right, right. 00:14:06.78 sidekqpodcast It is what I remember from the video. 00:14:10.57 Em Friedman Yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm trying to remember what it, yeah, because it's who to do. um I'm not gonna remember ah what the mashup with the what the mashup is, but um I do remember, like I've talked about it with, this is what happens when you have an oops all historians table and they and many of them have been playing since you know ah the early editions of the game is all of a sudden the like so the cool supplements come out and you're like, wait, you still have that? 00:14:30.12 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:14:39.88 Em Friedman Or like you're the forgotten realms map you're using for your 2020 for campaign is ah older than some of the people at the table, um which is always really fun. 00:14:50.28 sidekqpodcast Ah, okay. 00:14:52.34 Em Friedman um Oh, right. it's it's ah I think it's Poe. Isn't it Poe? I think it's inspired by Edgar Allan Poe in part, but don't I don't remember. 00:15:01.42 sidekqpodcast um 00:15:04.08 Em Friedman um But yes. 00:15:06.88 sidekqpodcast yeah well i mean we recommend well I recommend the YouTube video to people to go check it out. 00:15:10.21 Em Friedman yeah 00:15:13.21 sidekqpodcast you know just you know It just made me think I have kind of like a spider web sort of a brain. ah you know You're talking about your love and passion for 18th century. uh literature and i was like i'm pretty sure that module colville explained was a mashup of like a french writer and like uh like a more modern 70s writer and so i was like oh it'd just be very interesting uh do you know do you see more of that uh come alive or be pulled into uh modern campaigns 00:15:39.68 Em Friedman Yeah, yeah yeah there's a there's like there's at least one video, possibly more, on my YouTube channel, which is mostly just like how I teach. like There are vlogs. um Do not expect high production value friends. 00:15:52.79 Em Friedman um but ah that that we I believe very strongly like that um Dungeons and Dragons can really benefit not only from the kind of the influence of other game systems and and and and thinking and for all of us to be more kind of diverse in our diet of what we're reading and maybe even what we're playing, 00:16:03.73 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 00:16:11.89 Em Friedman um But also that like the kind of, um you know, the kind of faux medievalism that the game was originally built on. um There's so many more interesting like ways to kind of bring in kind of influences of history, especially since you know, 00:16:28.64 Em Friedman Um, like I'm, I play an artificer, um, whose name is derived from the 18th century fake gold, um, pay for all. Um, and, uh, you know, because, and, and she's got a gun and it's like, and it's one of those things where it's like, Oh yeah, no, like with the, whatever the world of Dungeons and Dragons is in terms of period, it's, it's so not just medieval anymore. 00:16:54.13 Em Friedman ah if ever it was. 00:16:54.14 sidekqpodcast Right. 00:16:55.60 Em Friedman ah not Not when you've got repeating shot ah firearms. 00:16:55.86 sidekqpodcast Right. 00:17:00.52 sidekqpodcast Right. Yeah. And I know for like. 00:17:01.39 Em Friedman Say nothing of my robo-pangolin. 00:17:05.09 sidekqpodcast like Because I know for my homebrew world, yeah, it's like like Renaissance-esque, I guess, I don't know. But the the current game that I'm running is based in Spelljammer, my version of the Astral Sea. 00:17:18.41 sidekqpodcast And so you know she has like her own Mass Effect ship, but Space Frigate, and it can travel between realms. you know so she's And she's got her little JRPG party of a MCDM retainer character. 00:17:34.89 sidekqpodcast know she's able to do one-on-one D and&D with me and you know we rock it that way and and it's cool so um you know you can play games all kinds of different ways and as you said it's good for us to take in a steady diet of ah other games and other influences to help enrich our games um make them better and as a way to segue into the kind of like the meat and taters of this podcast the focus on the other the best supporting Oscars if you will we always like to figure out 00:17:41.24 Em Friedman Yeah! 00:17:54.52 Em Friedman Yay! 00:18:03.68 sidekqpodcast ah you know who happens to be your favorite sidekick or NPC character whether they're from one of the many RPGs you've played ah video game movie film television literature etc and why is this character your favorite sidekick or your favorite NPC. 00:18:04.20 Em Friedman Mmm. 00:18:20.01 Em Friedman Uh, yeah, I mean, so I'll say, um, there's, there's lots of, there's lots of good answers to this question. You know, this is the the dirty secret. I get the questions in advance and then you're still like, but no, it's complicated. Um, as, as, as a, as a DM myself, um, 00:18:37.15 Em Friedman what's been really lovely about um kind of running, you know, I am old and tired and so running modules and um you know 5e adventures is a really good way of um not of actually managing to have like a weekly or a bi-weekly like situation. 00:18:58.90 Em Friedman um right um This is really, really important. um and so And I like to kind of pick and choose, especially from the kind of more anthology adventures like Candlekeep and things like that. 00:19:03.03 sidekqpodcast Mhmm. 00:19:11.73 sidekqpodcast Mhmm. 00:19:14.38 Em Friedman um And so um I remember when they had entered Candlekeep and you kind of have this like, initial list of just like, rando researchers and and very little, you're very given very little, just enough to kind of flesh out, um you know, in terms of, you know, how to do research in the space and all of those kinds of things. 00:19:44.32 Em Friedman um And all of a sudden, there was this voice that was coming out of me with this very excited, young, dragonborn, you know, who became the stalwart friend and traveled with them. Right. ah So that's the kind of that's my own personal, you know, my own personal little. um This is ah for those of you who have Candlekeep in front of you. ah This is one of the avowed adjutants. In fact, if you roll a D8, which is what I did, 00:20:15.04 sidekqpodcast Aww. 00:20:15.31 Em Friedman um You get irony, a 15-year-old tiefling scribe, and all you're told is that they follow the rules, they never lie or steal, and they aspire to be the keep keeper of the tomes one day. And so I made them a little shiny gold tiefling with a little lisp and just like really super eager, like channeling all of the upbeat energy. And so when I think about d running D and&D, that is my favorite NPC. 00:20:45.90 sidekqpodcast Ooh, that's cool. Yeah. I mean, I know, uh, earlier this season of the podcast, I had, uh, returning guest, Brian Rosa fraternity brother of mine. Uh, and we rolled randomly and we made like a arcane archivist character, Howard, who was like a, a fear bowl, who was like a retired adventure who now worked in like the arcane library. 00:21:03.12 Em Friedman ah 00:21:05.98 sidekqpodcast It was like very chilled laid back. And I was like, Oh, I feel like Howard would be friends, uh, with irony and like, they'd be like, You know i need to be super eager and how would be like real chill and laid back like yeah you know like adventures come in here and they like add to our records and stories and you know they're the best kind of and of an attitude. 00:21:13.18 Em Friedman Yeah! 00:21:24.82 Em Friedman Yeah. Yeah. The 18th century D and&D game is like not optimized, right? Like I've already said they're kind of pacifist, they're heavy on glass cannons. 00:21:32.05 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:21:34.57 Em Friedman And so, and none of them are, I mean, we have a druid, we have a more experienced player who kind of does that, that kind of job. But I, at a certain point, I, to make things, to allow them to fight, you know, more effectively. 00:21:47.33 sidekqpodcast Sure. 00:21:48.61 Em Friedman I gave them the insurance policy of like you know this little ASMR life domain cleric who was like, I was like, this is what a DM and PC is for, is like to keep you alive, um as opposed to like the ah the ga the storyteller and PC I had when I ran Innominate when I was 15, who was basically every subreddit nightmare ever in terms of the godlike, 00:21:59.23 sidekqpodcast oh Yeah. 00:22:17.78 sidekqpodcast Which is why I'm really thankful for MCDM productions inventing, you know, the strongholds and followers and then further on with iterations of like refining and clarifying retainer rules. 00:22:18.44 Em Friedman Um, overly shiny. Hmm. 00:22:29.23 sidekqpodcast Cause as I said, like, you know, I'm running a one-on-one D and D, uh, campaign for a player. 00:22:31.94 Em Friedman Mm hmm. 00:22:34.74 sidekqpodcast It's all text-based basically. um But the way you know that we are able to facilitate her a bard character who's not really like punchy offensive it's like oh but I can help you build a JRPG party and I can throw like retainer like characters in front of you and if you collect them then it's like cool now it's like Final Fantasy esque style of like okay You go in and do your power and I do my thing and you do your power and so it makes her very dynamic. Storytelling and fights even though it's like I've got one player character. ah but I have to manage but it's like a hundred percent of my focus is like on the combat on the story and like crafting this. Amazing narrative ah together so ah totally you know. 00:23:19.29 sidekqpodcast i'm I'm not above plugging other people's stuff in the middle of my podcast so if you haven't checked it out ah really go check those out if you really need to plus up your games and not have to worry about oh the DM has to bring in their own character to save our party's butts. 00:23:34.46 sidekqpodcast Just give them retainers and then they can have like the dedicated healer or the dedicated reaver barbarian or whatever to. Crash in a battle and not have to worry about the ruffling the feathers of the wizards who are very important but also very fragile. 00:23:50.12 sidekqpodcast ah Yeah and then. 00:23:52.91 Em Friedman Yeah, I haven't Oh, go ahead. 00:23:55.28 sidekqpodcast oh No you go ahead i was just gonna leave in the next question so no you go ahead. 00:23:59.20 Em Friedman Oh, I was just gonna say I haven't taken a huge look at what I guess we're calling it D and&D 2024 has to say about duet ah play, but I know that that's something that's ah being supported more and more these days. 00:24:16.01 Em Friedman So yeah, the call is coming from inside the house too. 00:24:16.10 sidekqpodcast Ooh. Okay. 00:24:19.36 Em Friedman Well, I mean, Wizards of the Coast are no fools. They're incorporating as much from third parties as ah as as they can, which I think is is quite smart. 00:24:24.22 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm. Right. 00:24:29.32 Em Friedman So yeah. 00:24:32.05 sidekqpodcast Very cool. 00:24:32.54 Em Friedman But you had another question. 00:24:32.61 sidekqpodcast and And I haven't had my opportunity um to read the new rules yet. And I still have to, at the ah time of this recording, still work on the panel that I did on game design play and D and&D. 00:24:44.79 sidekqpodcast So you know cross my fingers and a prayer that the audio, I somehow managed to work its wonders. 00:24:47.68 Em Friedman yeah 00:24:52.69 sidekqpodcast And that'll be out soon for Patreon, certainly, but but for the general RSS feed soon, question mark. but I think that leads us brilliantly into the next question, which is what happens to be what happens to be your favorite side quest ah or B-plot element? 00:25:10.12 sidekqpodcast Again, same criteria, whether it's one of the many RPGs you've played, video game, movie, film, television, literature, et cetera. 00:25:11.78 Em Friedman Thank 00:25:17.04 sidekqpodcast And why is this your favorite side quest or your favorite ah B-plot element? 00:25:22.66 Em Friedman Oh, that's so interesting. Because like, okay, so this is when I put my 18th century hat on again, right? And say like, what's really interesting about fiction from the 18th century, I think can really inspire um folks who are thinking about the game and thinking in terms of narrative structure. 00:25:38.15 Em Friedman um And, you know, often, you'll hear advice from folks who are kind of making reference to kind of story beats and A-plots and B-plots and all of those things that have kind of come to us um and kind of also kind of ossified um in like the age of screenwriting, right? Like, um you know, ah save the cat, man. um But in the 18th century, when before people were calling what we now call novels, novels, because they were just writing stories, um ah there aren't really like A-plots and B-plots are like, 00:26:15.79 Em Friedman kind really hard to kind of pin down ah in terms of ah how they're like, you know, and I think that's actually a really useful in terms of like, when I think about D and&D, like what I love about D&D is it's so indebted to a form we call the picaresque, which by the way, there's a cool handy dandy card game card sized game. 00:26:35.62 Em Friedman the role-playing game called picaresque, which I just found out about. 00:26:37.10 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. Mmhmm. 00:26:39.29 Em Friedman ah But I digress, which is appropriate for ah the idea of the picaresque because all it is, is it's the the form for adventure. So it's episodic. 00:26:50.90 Em Friedman um You never know when it's going to end because there's no, like, rising action, falling action. it's there the They're the stories of rogues on the road, right? And they're just having adventures until the adventures stop, um which is kind of, I mean, I don't know about your D and&D campaigns, but that describes a lot of how I run the game and a lot of how I think about it. 00:27:00.78 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:27:11.74 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:27:13.65 Em Friedman So I almost want to kind of think about um the kind of digressive potential of something like, um it's an it's a novel, or we call it a novel now, without an A or B plot. 00:27:30.95 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm Wow 00:27:32.91 Em Friedman um And it's the name of it is Tristam Shandy. It's from the 1770s. thinly veiled biography. um And the conceit is this guy is trying to write his memoirs. And he can't get past ah the story of his own conception of birth because he endlessly is digressing. He's endlessly telling you interpolated story upon interpolated story from other parts of his life. um And it's all the more moving when you realize that Trisma Shanti becomes basically the lake. 00:28:06.51 Em Friedman um the corollary. the like he is like The author, Lawrence Stern, is very much associated with um with the character that he writes. And he's literally writing until the day he dies. And so the novel so people like debate about whether the the novel actually has a conclusion that Stern intended or whether there was another volume that was going to happen. 00:28:30.10 Em Friedman um But my favorite interpolated story from that is the story of that he tells of his Uncle Toby, ah who is um a survivor of war. He's injured in an unspecified way that becomes really important for the plot. Is he wounded in the groin? yeah Can he reproduce? All these kinds of things. um But he has this B-plot where um We are told the story long before Tristam is even born, so he's telling us the story that's family lore of his wooing of the widow, Wadman, and it's and the widow is ah real interested in Uncle Toby's ability to perform. um And as part of that, ah there's a digression upon a digression where the way that Tristam describes his uncle 00:29:16.76 Em Friedman is that ah is that phrase that we know really well, right? He wouldn't hurt a fly. But then the narrative voice leans into it and says, no, no, here's a story about my uncle Toby, where he sees a fly inside the house and he lifts up the window sash. And he says, surely there is enough world for both me and thee. And that's the idea of like this man of who has been marked by war, who is like doing the military reenacting thing, like that's his hobby all the time. um and And yet he is like the most gentle and peaceful of people. ah So a great but one sidekick and B plot, if you want to call it that, um in this and this very weird 18th century experimental novel. 00:30:10.16 Em Friedman that also like invented like paper marbling and all kinds of print technology stuff. 00:30:10.46 sidekqpodcast I've heard 00:30:15.11 Em Friedman ah Also something you can find me talking about on my YouTube channel. 00:30:20.20 sidekqpodcast I know I've heard of this title but I don't think I've even dared to crack the spine on this one and attempt to read it but I know I've heard my wife ah talk about Tristam Shandy of like oh I had to read it for this or that. 00:30:31.21 Em Friedman rent Yeah, there is a um there's a great movie adaptation which should not exist in the sense that like this is a this is a novel that's impossible to adapt right because it doesn't have a linear plot. 00:30:46.61 sidekqpodcast o 00:30:46.97 Em Friedman But it's beautifully adapted into a movie called a cock and bull story. um great movie. It's very meta about the impossibility. like it's It's meta in the same way that the novel is. 00:30:55.93 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:30:57.90 Em Friedman Steve Coogan is the star. 00:30:59.68 sidekqpodcast Oh, OK. 00:30:59.94 Em Friedman ah The Widow is played by Jillian Anderson. ah There's lots to recommend it. it's it's And it's ah it's a great introduction. And in fact, the DVD extras are a really good introduction to the novel. 00:31:14.25 Em Friedman So you may or may not love the novel, but if you're if you want an introduction to it, in, you know, less than two hours, cock-a-bull story is great. 00:31:24.71 sidekqpodcast Okay very cool I appreciate the recommendation I am definitely a movie guy so I will add it to the letter box list ah for me to work to look at. 00:31:32.45 Em Friedman Hooray! 00:31:34.66 sidekqpodcast ah Yeah and then the way that we round out the personal interview section of the podcast I asked the question doctor Friedman what are you passionate about and why. 00:31:46.46 Em Friedman Oh boy, what am I not passionate about? um ah Let's see. ah You know, again, you get these questions ahead of time and you're just like, but there's so many answers to that question. um So I'm just gonna go ah with um one of the ones that is part of the daily rhythms of my life, which is that I am a competitive power lifter. 00:32:10.56 sidekqpodcast Ooh! Ooh, do tell! How does that work out for ya? 00:32:13.78 Em Friedman ah ah Well, I mean, right now, actual competitions still in abeyance for various kind of health and safety reasons. But um but no, us for I don't remember how many years it might be, it's not quite a decade. um i have ah been ah training to lift heavy things and put them down again. 00:32:37.33 Em Friedman And it's really um wonderfully satisfying in ways that i I was a runner before that and running always sucked. And lifting is deeply, deeply pleasurable. 00:32:50.10 Em Friedman um And even when the numbers aren't going up, ah because, you know, you've got ebbs and flows and things like that, but no, it's great. 00:32:54.05 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. Sure. 00:32:58.33 Em Friedman And ah I am trained by undergraduate majors in like either physical therapy or kinesiology and things like that. So they're like nerd total nerds, but they're different kinds of nerds than the ones I would encounter when I'm teaching, um which is really, really lovely um and a really good like way of being ah like you know doing all the things that ah regular exercise and strength training give you, but on top top of that, like getting an insight into, I teach at a very large university. 00:33:07.89 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:33:31.21 Em Friedman um So you you you don't always get the full sense of like all the different ways that people can live a life in this very large space. 00:33:31.15 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:33:38.08 sidekqpodcast Right. 00:33:40.02 Em Friedman So it's a cool it's also a cool little glimpse into that. 00:33:40.89 sidekqpodcast I think that's amazing. 00:33:43.46 Em Friedman Yeah. 00:33:43.46 sidekqpodcast Yeah. And you get to interact with, ah you know, the whole other wing of the university that maybe they're not necessarily enrolled in your class, but they're like, ah, Dr. Friedman's coming in. 00:33:53.92 sidekqpodcast Right. Let's let's let's, you know, motivate her. We'll do some chants. We'll get her to lift up. 00:33:58.08 Em Friedman Oh, it's it's a deeply yeah it's ah it's a deeply intense space. 00:33:59.23 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 00:34:02.11 Em Friedman Well, and the other funny thing, of course, is like there's an enormous number or what feels like an enormous number of people who are super into TTRPGs, who are also super in into to different kinds of lifting. 00:34:15.01 Em Friedman right So you know obviously, people can think of like stuff like Jox Machina and you know ah people like B. 00:34:14.80 sidekqpodcast Mhmm. 00:34:22.03 Em Friedman Dave Walters or um or or or Jesse Jernak or folks like that. um But yeah, so it's like, it's another one of those like, um And then there's, you know, if you go in the like DMs Guild and stuff like that, there's like D and&D inspired like workouts and things like that, which I find hilarious. 00:34:42.49 Em Friedman um But yeah, so it's it's also interesting. it's it's been It's been interesting to see how there's like overlapping nerd dumbs. And yet no one yet has made merch that is a good lifting shirt, a good grip shirt, because lifting shirts have little grippies on the shoulders to help you 00:34:54.82 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm 00:34:58.75 Em Friedman um either grip the bar or grip the bench when you're when you're on it. um And no one has made a good D and&D version of that, and or TTRPG. 00:35:07.35 sidekqpodcast Well, that's a good market for you is all I'm saying yeah, that's an open market for you to Ooh 00:35:12.03 Em Friedman Oh no, i'm not I am so not a merch person. My credibility in this space is that I'm not selling anything, including the book I'm writing, which will be, you will be able to buy a physical copy if you want it, but we're hoping that it'll be open access for ah for everyone to read. 00:35:28.06 Em Friedman um 00:35:28.05 sidekqpodcast Well, very cool. 00:35:28.69 Em Friedman but yeah 00:35:28.74 sidekqpodcast I mean, you and the podcast audience obviously can't see. This is an audio medium only. um But I'm a very tall and skinny guy, 36 years old, that's you know beginning to understand the effects of aging and like, oh, doing something like running on the treadmill or lifting weights or something like that would be very good for someone of my size and weight and point in life. 00:35:51.08 sidekqpodcast and so 00:35:51.92 Em Friedman But yeah. 00:35:52.14 sidekqpodcast I'm just wildly impressed that you're just like, my thing I'm passionate about, we're lifting weights. And I, you know, just whole realm of degree of respect has like opened up for you. And I'm like, that's so cool. 00:36:02.92 sidekqpodcast Like, that's a cool answer. I want to, you know, I want to do better for myself ah physically. And so it seems like, Oh, like I definitely got to be following Dr. Emily now to make sure that it's like, are you drinking your protein? 00:36:15.93 sidekqpodcast Are you getting your pre-workout in? Are we ready to crush these numbers today? 00:36:18.65 Em Friedman Well, it's so interesting, right? Because it's a space where dysmorphia is more likely to be experienced by men than by women. like For me, lifting has been this really beautiful place where it's like, no, no, I have to eat. 00:36:35.07 Em Friedman I have to have enough protein. I'm not doing the pre-workout thing, but I'm not like supplementing up um a storm. But like my body has to have the fuel it needs in order to do the lifts, or there's a safety issue. 00:36:41.40 sidekqpodcast Mhmm. 00:36:45.72 Em Friedman right And form is more important. 00:36:46.17 sidekqpodcast Right. 00:36:47.91 Em Friedman right This is not bodybuilding where you're trying to make your body look a particular kind of way. It's all about moving the weight. Um, and what is been really, um, kind of, um, uh, like broken open some compassion. I mean, for me has been the kind of awareness that for my, you know, my young male trainers and the people I train around, like that it's re they're coming out of that. Like they're trying to leak their, um, 00:37:21.01 Em Friedman they're often like tied to numbers in ways that I recognize from like young women and my own self. right and it's so um And so it's it's really interesting to be in a space where it's kind of flipped, where it's like, I'm just a little i'm just a little potato. 00:37:29.02 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm Mm 00:37:38.88 Em Friedman um I am a severe in spandex, like walking across campus in my lifting stuff, because that's what you've got to wear to lift. 00:37:45.28 sidekqpodcast -hmm Mm-hmm Right 00:37:47.27 Em Friedman um And and yeah I don't really think about it a whole lot because I'm old enough to just not care. um But ah then seeing like, and being able to kind of give some mentorship to the young men around me in interesting kinds of ways. 00:38:07.30 Em Friedman um Because yeah, because lifting can indeed transform your body, but it does not necessarily. um and but it keeps But it keeps everything working in good order, which is really lovely. 00:38:12.77 sidekqpodcast Right. 00:38:18.33 Em Friedman um So yeah, it's it's an interesting. like There's more to say and think about. And I talk about this with some of my friends who are who are lifters and gamers and getting older and things like that, um all almost all of whom are men. 00:38:31.71 Em Friedman um Because I'm still recruiting, right? you know 00:38:35.28 sidekqpodcast Yeah, you may have well recruited me to finally being like, all right, I need to go to the community gym and just start lifting stuff. 00:38:36.35 Em Friedman and And women are... Yeah. 00:38:42.35 sidekqpodcast I need to do it for my sake, for my three year old, you know, for, you know, for all the good reasons. 00:38:48.03 Em Friedman Yeah, and your three-year-old can do what my niece and nephew have been doing since they could talk, which is, Ami, how many of us can you lift? Ami, how many of us can you bench? 00:38:56.78 sidekqpodcast Mm. 00:39:00.42 Em Friedman So when I could say, I can bench mommy, and they were like, oh, you can bench mommy? Oh, pretty much. 00:39:09.95 sidekqpodcast Wow. 00:39:11.49 Em Friedman And then they make me pick them up and put them down a billion, million times. So, you know. 00:39:16.47 sidekqpodcast Yep, the gradually scaling increasing weight of ah small children as they continue to age, so for sure. 00:39:22.58 Em Friedman No, super handy, because ah yeah, they they get bigger. It's it's wild. 00:39:29.95 sidekqpodcast And I think on a positive ah soaring high of ah of ah of a note of ah the climax of of clinching the the the great weight, I think it's time for us to head into some NPC creation. 00:39:35.40 Em Friedman Thank you. 00:39:48.99 sidekqpodcast and npc creation is brought to you by you podcast audience and our patrons from patreon so now is the time in the show where we lift up a you know a nice refreshing glass of water or whatever beverage you're enjoying responsibly i hope please please enjoy responsibly so we lifted our glass up to the queen of the patreon goblin katie aka katie downie As well as our other wealthy-level patrons, including Anson Jablinski and good old mom and dad, Crenwellge, we say cheers. Again, if you want to join this illustrious crowd of folk and you want to learn about ah the kinds of rewards that you can get, including the ability to introduce an element of chance to our random tables, why you should go to the show notes below, you should go to my podcast website, 00:40:37.29 sidekqpodcast website or just go directly to patreon dot.com forward slash sidekicks and side quests to learn more about all these details help us to grow and expand our operations uh in this uh demi plane and world's beyond all right well that was a first for me but um oh bishop all right come on bishop you need to get out of here 00:40:59.22 Em Friedman Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee 00:41:04.79 sidekqpodcast yes hello puppy i see to get out of here recording 00:41:10.82 sidekqpodcast now i' have locked the door Okay, all right well that'll be fun to listen to in the transcript so that was my son making an appearance along with my dog um but this will be cut out obviously for for the actual edited down thing but This is the part of the show where we get to make up an NPC ah you know the idea being that we're adding a new NPC to the the general world of 00:41:13.46 Em Friedman hee hee. Aww. 00:41:34.70 sidekqpodcast D and&D, and so anyone can take them and use them in their game. So the question we have before us, are we going to roll the dice randomly and generate a brand new NPC never made or witnessed before? Or do you have someone that you want to share with the wider world? And then we're just going to reveal who they are through the questions. 00:41:55.40 Em Friedman Um, let's go random. 00:41:58.23 sidekqpodcast Perfect. Okay. ah Well, if you have your dice at the ready, whether they are physical or virtual, um we can then begin to figure out who we're making today in NPC creation. And the way we begin NPC creation is we need to figure out the name of our character. And the way we do that is we roll a d20. 00:42:25.60 Em Friedman Okay, I am rolling, for those of you who are curious, I'm rolling with my um artificer dice that are in my dice ah bag these days, which means I am rolling with a ah brass quiddie D20 in honor of my friend Abriya Iyagar. So that's 18. 00:42:46.17 sidekqpodcast eighteen Okay, your answer was suggested by our previous guest ah Kevin Knoll Sven So we're working with Sven. 00:42:55.18 Em Friedman Oh, nice. 00:42:56.52 sidekqpodcast Yeah, so just s-v-e-n so a nice strong Nordic name ah Okay, and then the next question we have to ask ourselves is what is going to be the ancestry of our character? 00:42:59.50 Em Friedman Okay. 00:43:09.70 sidekqpodcast ah We determine this with the role of a d100 or 2d10s and 00:43:14.81 Em Friedman Oh, can do that. um Hello, friends. All right. Doo doo doo. So that is 00:43:26.94 Em Friedman Abriya, why are your handwriting so bad? 71. 00:43:30.04 sidekqpodcast 71 as I scroll down the list. Ah, okay. ah Well, um you know, we do allow for, you know, re-rolls in, you know, in case you're not feeling it. ah I only say that just because it just seems to be like certain numbers get hit more times than not. 00:43:47.99 sidekqpodcast um So this, I know this season we had a blue slot earlier and with the 71 you get slawed and that could mean any category of like blue, death, gray, green, or red. 00:43:48.64 Em Friedman Okay. 00:44:00.74 sidekqpodcast And so the only reason why I was giving you the opt is like, oh, do you feel like making a Sven Slod today? 00:44:07.09 Em Friedman Sven the slot. 00:44:07.05 sidekqpodcast Or do you want to try? Yeah, Sven the Slod, or do you want to try something else? 00:44:09.64 Em Friedman oh 00:44:12.72 Em Friedman um Let's see. Sven the slot. I mean, I do love a good alliteration. um So let's go, let's roll with it. 00:44:20.06 sidekqpodcast Sure, okay, if you want to roll with that, that's fine with me. Yeah, okay, so what kind of slot are you thinking that Sven is? Blue, death, green gray, green, or red? I know red and blue are the more like grunt ones, greens are the spellcaster, grays are the ones above that, and then finally the death slots are like the big big bad toads. 00:44:44.12 Em Friedman Right. You know, I'm feeling, I'm feeling this, this is like, I feel like this this is a green situation. 00:44:51.70 sidekqpodcast Ooh, a spellcasting slot, very cool. 00:44:54.70 Em Friedman Yeah, come on. 00:44:56.22 sidekqpodcast Yeah, okay. Okay, so Sven the green slot, and then let's see, the next question we have to ask ourselves, what is the job or role in society for Sven the green slot? 00:45:08.00 sidekqpodcast This we just roll a regular detent. 00:45:11.70 Em Friedman Okay. Hello, D10. That is six. 00:45:17.73 sidekqpodcast Okay, your answer was suggested by a previous guest, Dr. Steven Trinkle. 00:45:23.45 Em Friedman Ay! 00:45:25.98 sidekqpodcast Sven the Slod is a lecturer at a conservatory or university. 00:45:31.65 Em Friedman I love everything about this so much. 00:45:34.42 sidekqpodcast Ooh, okay. Well, it sounds like you know the dice are definitely speaking to us ah today. 00:45:40.00 Em Friedman You're telling a story today. 00:45:43.27 sidekqpodcast And then the final dice that we get to roll ah before we take a slight pause and do some more freeform styling ah questions is, ah what is the age range of this particular character? 00:45:43.70 Em Friedman All right. 00:45:55.00 sidekqpodcast Let's roll a D8 and kind of give ah ourselves like a rough idea. 00:45:59.11 Em Friedman Okay. Um, do, do, do, do, do, given some extra sauce to spend the slides roll on this one. Um, eat 00:46:11.71 sidekqpodcast Immortal. So Sven is immortal. 00:46:14.84 Em Friedman tracks. 00:46:15.77 sidekqpodcast Yeah, okay. 00:46:16.48 Em Friedman So he might be a lich. 00:46:18.88 sidekqpodcast Ooh, you think? 00:46:21.62 Em Friedman I mean, let's see. Hmm. I mean, it wouldn't be a putrid slide if he, I mean, or would he be, he would be a putrid slide, I think, if he was a lich. 00:46:32.17 Em Friedman So that's not great. But maybe he's an aspiring lich. He's like a wannabe. 00:46:35.98 sidekqpodcast Ooh, he's a wannabe lich, okay. Or maybe he exists somewhere where time has no meaning and that's how he's quote unquote immortal. 00:46:39.15 Em Friedman Yeah. he 00:46:42.72 Em Friedman also that part, you know, there's many ah ways. 00:46:46.26 sidekqpodcast OK, well, now that we have these details in mind, we know Sven is a green slot. he's ah like He's a lecturer at a conservatory or university, and he's a mortal. 00:46:57.14 sidekqpodcast So when we have all these details in mind... 00:46:59.06 Em Friedman Which makes tenure even more, ah you know, kind of ah permanent. 00:47:06.10 sidekqpodcast Yeah, so what sort of... 00:47:06.60 Em Friedman I guess because I'm assuming it's lecturer in the UK since what? 00:47:10.61 sidekqpodcast Okay, yeah, so then what what comes to mind when you're thinking when you're thinking of a physical description of the character? And I did happen to pull up the Forgotten Realms wiki just in case we need to like jog our memory of like what is a green s slide supposed to be? 00:47:28.02 Em Friedman Well, I think so. I know they're like frog adjacent or frog ah like, you know, right. 00:47:36.54 sidekqpodcast Yeah, like space toads, I think is what Colville calls them. 00:47:39.03 Em Friedman Right. 00:47:39.98 sidekqpodcast They're like interdimensional demon space toads. 00:47:40.97 Em Friedman Oh, man, this this episode is this episode is haunted by the ghost of Matt Covel, whether he likes it or not somewhere. and 00:47:50.67 sidekqpodcast He's just a big influence on me, that's for sure. 00:47:51.42 Em Friedman like, i like, somewhere, a self devised electronic music is playing. 00:47:53.07 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 00:47:57.40 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 00:47:57.65 Em Friedman um But yeah, so I would say, like, given that he's an academic, and not like a power lifting academic like me, 00:48:07.56 sidekqpodcast hey 00:48:10.86 Em Friedman that he's gonna be, I think, on the shorter side. I know i know that like the slot range is really tall, but like so he's, like I would say, like in the humanoid range as opposed to being like ah seven feet plus. 00:48:28.19 Em Friedman um so 00:48:28.21 sidekqpodcast Okay, yeah, because it does say that they're definitely physically similar to Blue Sloth Eye, standing at at least seven feet, but often sharing their height, weight, and build, albeit being more gangly. 00:48:39.65 sidekqpodcast Skin mostly a pale, mottled green, but otherwise also identical to that of the Blue Sloth's. 00:48:40.70 Em Friedman yeah 00:48:45.00 sidekqpodcast High foreheads, wide mouths, long claws, although by slotty standards, their claws were actually short, and the frog-like bipeds had the ability to take on other humanoid forms. 00:48:57.70 sidekqpodcast So another interesting question, is he masquerading around as like a different ah humanoid sort of species and hasn't revealed that he's actually a sloth? 00:49:05.95 Em Friedman Yeah. Maybe that's where we Maybe that's where we reroll the D100 roll to see what like the permanent like masquerade in the conservatory is. 00:49:13.91 sidekqpodcast Ooh. 00:49:18.23 sidekqpodcast Perfect. I love it. 00:49:19.47 Em Friedman All right, so that is, ah nice, 69. 00:49:19.27 sidekqpodcast Yeah, let's do it. 00:49:24.85 sidekqpodcast 69. 00:49:26.99 Em Friedman Yeah. 00:49:26.98 sidekqpodcast Okay. um 00:49:28.64 Em Friedman Is that weirder or less weird? 00:49:29.08 sidekqpodcast deep ah Well, because I tried to go through... 00:49:31.99 Em Friedman Or is it still the slot range? 00:49:34.98 sidekqpodcast um Well, I tried to go through the all of the the books physically that I have in my possession literally flipped through every stat block and was like, okay, can you speak a language or at least be able to speak some kind of language? 00:49:48.50 sidekqpodcast um And so a 69 is supposed to be the query. 00:49:49.39 Em Friedman o Mmm. 00:49:52.20 sidekqpodcast any kind. Now I don't actually use Quarry in my homebrew setting. I know they're supposed to be like the dream dimension people that combined with the Kalashtar to make you know humans into Kalashtar. 00:49:56.66 Em Friedman Sure, sure. 00:50:05.31 Em Friedman Right. 00:50:07.07 sidekqpodcast So I don't know. Do you you like that? Or I don't know if that even has a physical body. 00:50:10.38 Em Friedman Huh. I, I... You know, I'm like... Oh, man. 00:50:17.84 sidekqpodcast You can reroll as many D100s and we can get something that looks 00:50:18.17 Em Friedman Um, this is all, no, no, no, I want to, I want a yes and the. and Can I curse on this? 00:50:26.44 sidekqpodcast I try to keep it family-friendly. 00:50:26.95 Em Friedman I want to yes out. No, that is completely valid. I want to yes and the total snot out of this. 00:50:33.14 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:50:33.47 Em Friedman um So how do we yes and? Okay, so um we know that I also have ah the eberron wiki up ah for this purpose, um that there's like elf, predominantly human with elf and fiend ancestry. 00:50:42.17 sidekqpodcast Ah. 00:50:48.87 Em Friedman ah And then the quarry kind of like, that's where the quarry embody. So Hm. So yeah, so they don't have, like, they, like, are kind of numinous in some way, shape, or form. So how do we pull this off? um which is Which is the real identity? Hm. Can you masquerade as a quarry? 00:51:14.51 Em Friedman um 00:51:16.22 sidekqpodcast Oh yeah, let me go back and. 00:51:16.99 Em Friedman Oh, I know, no, there you go. 00:51:17.67 sidekqpodcast and 00:51:21.22 Em Friedman You just have somebody, you just have, so basically what you have is a s slide who is saying they're really a Kalashtar to just like to explain their stuff. 00:51:30.36 sidekqpodcast Oh, I see so that so the slot I appears as a clash star. 00:51:33.25 Em Friedman So it's not really, yeah, so it's not really a query, but like the the implication is like, 00:51:39.42 sidekqpodcast Oh, there we go OK so we OK so we get it forward OK so. 00:51:42.01 Em Friedman Here we go. We can make this nonsense work. Come on. 00:51:46.75 sidekqpodcast Okay, okay, so like okay, so we're about so this green slot takes the appearance of a Kalashtar, but their name is Sven. 00:51:57.42 sidekqpodcast And I know, you yeah I mean, obviously, you know, a DM can play with naming conventions. I know there's like a whole official thing with like, how Kalashtar are supposed to get their name. So it's just kind of interesting that it's like, I'm Sven. 00:52:08.16 Em Friedman m 00:52:10.75 sidekqpodcast It's like, Oh, that's a very unique Kalashtar name. It's like, yes, yes, it is, is is kind of how I am in interpreting it. 00:52:17.35 Em Friedman Exactly. 00:52:18.89 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 00:52:20.87 Em Friedman Yeah, no, I think that that yeah i think that makes sense. it's like um Or I am known as Sven. I'm keeping the name a secret so that you can... 00:52:31.01 sidekqpodcast Oh, right. there' spel Yeah, because I definitely subscribe to the idea of like true arcane practitioners want to obscure what their real name is so that way you don't have power over them. 00:52:42.50 sidekqpodcast So it was just like, yes, Sven is the name I go by. 00:52:43.99 Em Friedman Yeah, that's my... Yeah, if people have not seen the new Wizard of the Citadel that Brennan Lee Mulligan and the World's Beyond Number folks have created, which is all about the name cloak and like secret and knowing and like knowing the name of the wizard is like super intense and powerful after this name cloak ceremony, like highly recommend super cool world building on on Brennan's part. 00:53:10.94 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:53:11.91 Em Friedman worth taking a look into, because also ah the Wizards of the Citadel have all these cool secrets that they acquire at level up, which are kind of metamagic-y, kind of other kinds of empowered spellcasting, which is kind of neat. 00:53:18.35 sidekqpodcast Oh. 00:53:24.09 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:53:26.09 Em Friedman Yeah. 00:53:26.68 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:53:26.94 Em Friedman Okay, so we have, at yeah. 00:53:27.00 sidekqpodcast So as we're, so we're imagining the physical appearance then. So how does Sven as a Kalashtar appear then in this lecture in a conservatory in a university type setting? 00:53:39.85 Em Friedman Well, okay, so if if we think about like Sven as like an aggressively normie adjacent name, right? So we're talking about like, I'm thinking, I'm thinking beige, just every like, like almost uncanny the way in which all shades like the particular hazel of the eyes, the particular tone of the skin, the hair is just like all aggressively like all the settings have been turned to the middle um in this kind of warm beige situation. 00:54:15.08 sidekqpodcast e 00:54:18.86 Em Friedman um 00:54:21.79 Em Friedman And, cause yeah, I mean, and, and so ah kind of what for a clash of what for a slot is the, is tall and slim for, I mean, basically the height and, and build doesn't change between forms because 00:54:39.48 sidekqpodcast Mm. 00:54:40.11 Em Friedman It's a slightly, ta it's a, you know, clash tar, basically humanoid size, ah medium creatures. 00:54:43.58 sidekqpodcast Mm. 00:54:45.31 Em Friedman So, so yeah, so it kind of, like they're both like gangly, skinny kind of deals. so um But yeah, and. 00:54:54.14 sidekqpodcast OK. What's a Sven a lecturer of? I'm curious about that because it makes because if I want to put Sven in my game, I'm kind of very curious to know what Sven lectures about. 00:55:06.20 Em Friedman Okay, no, I'm right there. You said conservatory. 00:55:10.35 sidekqpodcast Yes, Conservatory was the first one because ah but Dr. Stephen Trinkle is my line brother ah from my fraternity. So we're both music major undergrads together. 00:55:18.51 Em Friedman Love it, love it. 00:55:20.23 sidekqpodcast So yeah. 00:55:21.12 Em Friedman Okay, so clearly some form of, I mean, it's not barred casting um in terms of music, but it is like um ah like harmonic resonance kind of specialization. 00:55:34.27 Em Friedman In other words, like practically speaking, it is the spell casting from, and this is a deep cut that you may not be old enough to remember, but maybe someone listening will, and if so, you get a gold star. 00:55:47.07 Em Friedman Loom, ah the earth which you can still play today. i encourage I encourage everybody to play the old point-and-click game Loom from LucasArts from ye olde 1990, where the player, where you are bobbin threadbare and you learn how to cast um based on notes and you're basically acquiring new musical notes as you go. 00:55:57.89 sidekqpodcast Ooh. Wow. 00:56:10.74 Em Friedman to be able to cast more and more powerful spells. 00:56:11.59 sidekqpodcast Ooh. 00:56:13.07 Em Friedman um I was talking to a friend of mine um about like gamer tattoos, um because i i I have my 18th century like plan for like um full professor tattoo of a long S, which is an S. 00:56:16.91 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:56:27.67 Em Friedman that looks like an F. um It's haunted me my entire career. 00:56:29.48 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:56:32.09 Em Friedman um And so the the the discussion became, well, that doesn't cover what you research now. like You do game stuff now. And like the only thing I can think of is like the the musical pattern for the first spell you hear in that game and the last spell you um you actually learn how to cast um in order to kind of save the day. 00:56:53.42 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:56:55.75 Em Friedman ah is ah so so i'm a i think that' I think that's absolutely like where we're headed here with a kind of ah music and Not musical, but like harmonic inspired spell casting since we know he's ah he's know he's a caster. 00:57:13.98 sidekqpodcast Ooh. 00:57:17.48 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:57:18.22 Em Friedman um For those of you who are curious, the name of that spell in Loom is Transcendence. 00:57:24.22 sidekqpodcast Ooh. 00:57:25.59 Em Friedman it's a it's It's CFGC and basically like it's all weave. It's all weave which is very appropriate for like d and the way the D and&D thinks about um the ah the weave of ah a spell casting um but it is 00:57:45.32 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 00:57:47.39 Em Friedman um The most subtle and mysterious expression of our art, transcendence dissolves the ties that bind our threads into the pattern, elevating mind and body to an undefined state of existence. Actually, this works perfectly for our sloth who kind of wants to be a quarry and is hiding as a clash star. Transcendent beings are said to assume the form of birds, constellations, or even sunspots. 00:58:12.95 Em Friedman Because corporal punishment is forbidden in our guild, transcendence is occasionally used as a means of humane banishment, but only for the most unforgivable infractions of the rules. 00:58:23.05 sidekqpodcast o 00:58:23.88 Em Friedman So yeah. 00:58:24.30 sidekqpodcast um Okay, my DM brain is definitely spinning on how I would incorporate Sven in my game. 00:58:26.20 Em Friedman So maybe that's. 00:58:31.32 sidekqpodcast ah Because I know what is it in the forgotten realms they talk about the weave, I think is how Ed Greenwood conceptualized magic. 00:58:37.24 Em Friedman Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, absolutely. 00:58:39.66 sidekqpodcast And for me, In my game world, um I take the Tolkienian approach, and so my world is very musically based. 00:58:46.36 Em Friedman Mm-hmm. 00:58:48.27 sidekqpodcast like The setting is called harmony. um so it's like Music was the creative force. The Kantikum, the song of creation, is what like brought forth ah existence and matter and essence into being. 00:59:01.04 sidekqpodcast So the idea that like He's he's talking about, ah you know, harmonics and like the Kanji goom. So he's like maybe like this ah tech sort of like super nerd when it comes to that, like, oh, certain bards and, you know, even spell casters like, you know, sorcerers and. 00:59:18.76 sidekqpodcast ah Wizards and stuff like that I imagine have to take his class because he's like he's getting into like the fundamental like theoretical physics kind of talk of like magic in the existence of. You know the spec of the game basically. 00:59:33.82 Em Friedman Right. And according to Greenwood, the weave only applies to the Forgotten Realms. so right like so he So Sven could be like a master of the space where the weave and your kind of music magical tradition kind of meet. 00:59:47.84 Em Friedman if And this kind of extra planar vibe that we get from he ah these different kind of species ah also seem to apply um in some interesting kinds of ways. 00:59:56.80 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm. 00:59:59.32 Em Friedman So yeah, like once this this seems like a character that you encounter on your way to like a high-level multi-planar kind of ah campaign. 01:00:08.04 sidekqpodcast Right. Or someone you drop in your Strixhaven campaign is like, oh yes, Sven's the weird professor, like but like if you really sit in his lectures, like I promise you don't have to take drugs when you go into his class, but like you could really learn some things. 01:00:24.23 Em Friedman Well, and it's, yeah, mean because it's like, right, like um the guy who's ranting about the second moon in Critical Role's second campaign, like they they just, the the player character just kind of blink and miss it. 01:00:35.27 Em Friedman And then only to realize in the third in the third campaign, that moon that guy who was ranting about the moon was, they if they only had listened, ah the plot, ah the two different campaigns would have gone very differently, which I always find fun, right? 01:00:44.14 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 01:00:49.84 Em Friedman Like the NPC who you encounter, 01:00:50.37 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 01:00:52.85 Em Friedman um at a time where all they can do is foreshadow unless the players like and jump on it. 01:00:59.12 sidekqpodcast Right. And and I know my thinking, you know, think, you know, they talk about like, oh, you know, they come from like the chaotic planes and stuff like that. These slide in my setting. I don't know. I don't really have a plane of chaos, um but maybe like lament to him or like the far realm I might conceptualize slide maybe possibly from. 01:01:15.22 Em Friedman Yeah. 01:01:17.27 sidekqpodcast But so for me, I'm thinking like, oh, ah you know, I'd go to obvious like, oh, Sven is like a plant. He's a spy. He's like sitting here trying to get information or he's trying to find like points of ingress for the slot army to be able to like really invade successfully. 01:01:33.96 sidekqpodcast um Is that how you're thinking Sven is? Like he's like this plant, he's this mole, he's the spy? 01:01:39.45 Em Friedman I if we can yes and that, right? like Where it's like, if he's immortal or functionally immortal, like we don't know how long he's been on this plane, right? 01:01:51.21 Em Friedman So he can have kind of assimilated... This is the difference between like what you're originally stationed for and then like 01:01:59.44 sidekqpodcast Oh. 01:02:00.17 Em Friedman But then these are the people that you're you know you're living among. And you're learning their ways. 01:02:03.94 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 01:02:04.97 Em Friedman And you know you had stereotypes about them beforehand. But now that you've met them and broken bread with them and eaten the proverbial you know pound of salt or or what have you, they have a very different kind of sense of what they're there for. 01:02:22.52 Em Friedman um and now he's so And I think that makes him potentially 01:02:22.66 sidekqpodcast Interesting. 01:02:27.73 Em Friedman um and interesting like In the spirit of chaos, you you might not have a chaotic plane involved, but like I think keeping to the like thematic idea of chaos, right like he's um he's the kind of character that um the player characters can have a meaningful like impact on. 01:02:46.59 Em Friedman They could move him one way or the other because he's this you know person between in these kinds of ways. 01:02:52.56 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 01:02:53.11 Em Friedman like He's got his orders, but those orders were a long time ago. And who knows if the people who give gave those orders are still around, right? 01:02:58.78 sidekqpodcast Okay. 01:03:00.49 Em Friedman Or still have the same agenda? 01:03:02.56 sidekqpodcast yeah i'm getting like omni man vibes i'm getting omni man vibes like you know so the viltremite who's here for all this time and only now like just gets around to executing his master plan of invasion or he's like oh actually i've had a change of heart and i've 01:03:03.16 Em Friedman Like question mark, question mark, question mark. 01:03:20.25 sidekqpodcast I'm now one of these people, and so that and I've abandoned my my my plan. So very interesting to, like again, as we as I'm staring at the Forgotten Realms notes where it's talking about, like oh, they're utterly selfish beings that thirsted for magical might and got defensive about their weaknesses. So it's like it's potentially he's moved past that point. And so he's just here and now lecturing on this stuff because he cares about it. And it's like, oh, does he listen to Command back home or not? That's a very interesting question. 01:03:49.95 Em Friedman Yeah, that kind of value system that is personal as opposed, I mean, because so many of us, right? are you know We are creatures of our context and we're the creatures of our education, but you know what do we value when we're all on our own is a very different kind of, I think an interesting kind of question. 01:04:03.10 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 01:04:10.55 Em Friedman So, yeah. 01:04:11.36 sidekqpodcast Yeah, and I think that helps to lead us in, you know, kind of now that we have an idea of like how Sven appears, it for me, I think it helps with role playing purposes. 01:04:22.00 sidekqpodcast What three adjectives would you use to describe Sven in light of all that we've discussed and and figured out about him as a character? 01:04:26.14 Em Friedman well sure um i would say um quiet like almost monosyllabic um uh but uh um 01:04:49.37 Em Friedman i I almost want to use the word harmonious like or not not music like so because not musical, but I'm reminded of something that my... 01:04:58.23 sidekqpodcast He vibes well with everyone. 01:05:00.12 Em Friedman Yeah. Yeah. um and and ah yeah like he yeah and Yeah, I love playing against type, right playing against the the biologic determinism, so the idea of of him as gentle, right like which are all things that would like I think would people might expect like a Kalashtar to kind of be like, which would explain like you know why why why has Sven chosen to appear the way that he has for all of this time, right? like 01:05:33.80 Em Friedman its ah kind of um like clash chart or like, you know, these composed, reserved, peaceful, um you know, they're not big personalities and they're not um and they're not the kinds of stereotypes that we would associate with Slaad in terms of like selfishness, you know, deceit, in like intimidation and bluster and and things and things like that. 01:05:57.55 sidekqpodcast Mmm. Mmm. 01:06:03.44 Em Friedman um And so this kind of quiet, unassuming, like you know a peaceful little dude. 01:06:14.71 sidekqpodcast Okay. Yeah. I'm just, you know, uh, I'm certainly ready for us to get more dice rolling involved, uh, with the character, but I'm that just has me thinking like, 01:06:20.80 Em Friedman Yay! 01:06:24.61 sidekqpodcast Is, I wonder what Sven's ultimate goal is with lecturing on this topic. Is it like, as you were talking about, like the last spell you learn in the loom game is transcendence. Is he trying to like, maybe not like ascend to Godhood, but he's like trying to like somehow like bodily ascend into the afterlife. 01:06:43.30 sidekqpodcast Uh, like an assumption, if you will, he's like, I'm ready to like leave mortal existence. 01:06:45.65 Em Friedman Oh, it's like a Highlander thing. It's a Highlander thing. 01:06:49.21 sidekqpodcast Ah. 01:06:50.38 Em Friedman i know ah ah but that that' you know But yeah, what does an immortal want? right ah ah Often not to be immortal anymore. 01:06:57.04 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 01:07:00.74 Em Friedman um But ah yeah, I think that, I mean, um But yeah, I like the idea that this is about like that so that all the moves are moving towards that idea of transcendence. 01:07:17.50 Em Friedman um And that that might be a kind of moving target, but like that that's a good like keyword. um like what does that What that means might change across the characters' like existence, and also depending on how they're talking to like the player characters and things like that. 01:07:22.30 sidekqpodcast Okay. 01:07:31.41 sidekqpodcast Exactly. And the way that we can kind of help introduce some variety, ah you know, to Sven is we like all of our NPCs to have something valuable on their person, whether that's going to be a physical item, a piece of lore, a secret, you know, very obvious one, but or even a care or even a ideal or concept that they might ascribe to. 01:07:51.71 sidekqpodcast So this is a combination where we roll a D four first for the category and then a D six for the particular thing. 01:07:57.31 Em Friedman Okay. 01:07:59.88 Em Friedman Okay, so d4 is 1. 01:08:02.88 sidekqpodcast Item. 01:08:04.85 Em Friedman Okay, and the d6 is 6. 01:08:08.87 sidekqpodcast Six! Okay, your answer was provided by a previous guest and sponsor of the show, Tony Visinda. Sven has a dagger with a blade that's made out of moss. 01:08:22.42 Em Friedman Oh, interesting. 01:08:24.77 sidekqpodcast Yeah, what's the story behind that? 01:08:28.14 Em Friedman You know, that seems like a thing that he would not have made, but that he acquired from relation with someone else. So maybe on the way to this like embedded assignment, like he was a former adventurer and like, this is like a parting gift from one of his former party members. 01:08:49.09 sidekqpodcast Ooh, that started him on ah the questioning of his mission, because if you're we're building on this idea, oh, I have to acclimatize to the realm that I'm in, so I'm going to be an adventurer, and I'm going to pretend to be this Kalashtar spellcaster or whatever. 01:08:53.79 Em Friedman Oh, there you go. Yeah, love it. 01:09:00.32 Em Friedman Yeah. 01:09:05.05 sidekqpodcast And then as time goes on, it makes a real friend in like the Druid character or whoever, and is like, you know, you're really kind and caring, and you really think deeply on these things you know like you know we're gonna part our ways you know i'm gonna go back to the the druids grove or whatever and i'm gonna do my thing but keep in touch and you know here's a little gift a party gift in that kinda like it's him thinking like oh do i even wanna like will be the slot army here to invade. 01:09:32.44 Em Friedman he 01:09:32.39 sidekqpodcast Like i made a friend it's like i've never allowed myself ah friendship or whatever and so maybe that was the trajectory for him being like i need to be a lecturer at a conservatory or university that's what i need to do with my life. 01:09:46.95 Em Friedman Because that's where the power of friendship really flourishes is higher education. 01:09:51.46 sidekqpodcast Yeah for sure especially when you're nerd nerds about the cool stuff right so. And then then, of course, we want all of our NPCs to be able to introduce cool side quests. 01:10:02.57 sidekqpodcast So for the final dice roll, if you want to do it, or if you're inspired, you can think of it. 01:10:06.18 Em Friedman Sure. 01:10:06.85 sidekqpodcast But you can roll a d12, and let's figure out what's a potential side quest that Sven could offer. 01:10:09.83 Em Friedman All right. 01:10:13.82 Em Friedman The best of all possible days, the T12. 01:10:16.25 sidekqpodcast Yes. I wanted to make sure the standard array was used. 01:10:20.24 Em Friedman Yeah, this is a 9. 01:10:22.50 sidekqpodcast A 9. Okay, this answer was provided by previous guest, ah Hilary Shirtliff. So Sven had this amazing jar of jam from the market and is dying to have it again, so go buy me some more jam. Does that sound like a good side quest? 01:10:39.67 Em Friedman You know I think it's like a starting like because he's like so reticent and things like that like that's the first thing like the the party is going to be able to get out of him as like you know uh you know because like yeah you make the small asks first like you don't risk the like big political earth shaking ones right off the bat 01:10:56.20 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 01:11:02.38 Em Friedman ah You ask for a small favor. and's That's that ah some interesting like spy craft maybe. Also a kind of very um like, I love the idea that this is a character that just loves sweets in some way, shape or form. 01:11:21.87 Em Friedman but That, yeah. 01:11:22.78 sidekqpodcast because he didn't have them back where he was from so he's like this is his drugs if you will yes the small pleasures in life okay all right so he just wants he needs the adventurers uh the the player characters to go get this particular jar of jam from the market so seems easy 01:11:25.93 Em Friedman ah 01:11:30.74 Em Friedman Small pleasures. 01:11:41.67 Em Friedman Yeah, there's like a there's like a yeah, I think I think we'll turn it into like a you know, the reason why like why can't Sven go get it is like, you know, it's it's a limited drop. It requires like standing in line for several um hours or days, like it's a camp out sort of situation. 01:12:00.13 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 01:12:01.99 Em Friedman You can tell I'm at a ah big football school and if I'm familiar with things like the Duke University like tents for basketball game tickets. 01:12:13.54 Em Friedman But yeah, that it's like the the really hot commodity and he simply cannot get teaching time off to sit in this, you know, ah this the He's so distraught, his favorite jam that he has loved and had as part of his weekly rotation has suddenly gone viral somehow. 01:12:34.87 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 01:12:36.27 Em Friedman However, that makes sense in your world building. It has become horrifyingly popular and thus something that people will line up for. 01:12:38.76 sidekqpodcast Right. 01:12:45.49 sidekqpodcast Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. So there's some stake behind this. The player, you know, ah because obviously we want to leave a choice to the players. So, you know, we have a reward and we have like, you know, the consequence of failure refusal. So what's going to, how is Sven going to reward the party? So they, you know, they, it's a Sisyphusian or arduous task, Herculean effort ah to go to acquire this jar of jam. How does Sven award the party when they come back with the jar of this fabled jam? 01:13:15.17 Em Friedman Well, I think that ah for a low level party, this is going to be like um a disproportionate amount of gold, right, like relative to the task. So it's going to be it's and that actually might even work for a higher level party if they're like really beat up after like if this is like an interlude sort of adventure, like this is a way of getting some some coin. um And if the party isn't amenable to that, there might be some like magic like low-level kind of common magical items or things like that that might be useful. 01:13:49.71 Em Friedman like Or he might be the NPC that you come to like if you're um looking around for some, ah you know, restock on healing potions and it's like, oh, it turns out like the only, the person who has the most of them in town is Sven. 01:14:03.08 Em Friedman um And Sven is more than happy to, Sven can make the potions again or get the, you know, acquire them by hook or by crook, but this jam, this jam, 01:14:03.17 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 01:14:12.01 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 01:14:13.07 Em Friedman thwarts all attempts at home cookery. 01:14:15.60 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 01:14:15.95 Em Friedman ah so 01:14:16.63 sidekqpodcast I definitely feel like Sven would be like the the the gate behind like some like very rare even maybe even like legendary ah stuff you know because if he's this lecture he's like just acquired stuff from his adventuring career or you know things you know students bring him like 01:14:26.08 Em Friedman For sure. 01:14:33.58 sidekqpodcast What interesting artifacts and stuff like that and you know cuz he what ah what he lectures about he's like oh this is very interesting yes we need to preserve this for history and stuff like that so it's him buying more into his like preface a real. 01:14:47.67 sidekqpodcast Task in place in life and so he you know the adventures condom it's like hey you happen to have a legendary holy avenger we could really use that and slaying a demon lord it's like. 01:14:54.79 Em Friedman Okay. 01:14:58.42 sidekqpodcast Oh, well, you know, I really would love a jar of jam, so maybe you can just get that for me. 01:15:03.17 Em Friedman No, no, no. No, what I love is the idea of a sequencing of tasks, right? It's like they come for like the initial whatever it is that they need, like either gold or like some kind of low level thing. 01:15:15.64 Em Friedman And then somebody with a good investigation or perception check clocks and with good arcana clocks what's in the room. And then that becomes a like, okay, so that's what the next, that's the next kind of task or something along those lines. 01:15:30.59 Em Friedman And then it becomes, this kind of ah You've got yourself a kind of you've got your own couple whole side quest, like a whole like little necklace of side quests that kind of can build you through to the legendary item that he's like, I don't really need it, but ah it's I'm certainly not giving it away for jam. 01:15:37.15 sidekqpodcast oh 01:15:39.90 sidekqpodcast OK. 01:15:49.78 sidekqpodcast Sure, OK, so he basically has you become his personal shopper, um you know, get all the things that he wants or needs because he's like too busy as a lecturer to be able to go and do them himself. 01:16:00.56 Em Friedman Yeah. I mean, yeah. and those things And those things start out as like wait in line for jam. And then all of a sudden it's like, I need the feather from a rock that was killed yesterday, right? 01:16:08.76 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 01:16:11.15 Em Friedman like Or something along this line. So increasing levels of difficulty, a sort of. 01:16:15.82 sidekqpodcast Okay. 01:16:17.40 Em Friedman it's So it's a shopping list, but it's an increasingly hazardous and onerous shopping list. 01:16:23.27 sidekqpodcast Okay, to unlock those higher tiers. Perfect. Okay. 01:16:25.99 Em Friedman Yeah. 01:16:26.81 sidekqpodcast But then the opposite, you know, what's going to be the consequence of failure in acquiring this jar of jam or even just refusing him outright? ah You know, what's going to be the consequence of that? 01:16:38.51 Em Friedman um You know, i i i don't I tend to, as as my as a DM, ah kind of um not set consequences in like, you have in other words, you have to do this, um the the feeling that you have to. 01:16:56.35 sidekqpodcast right 01:16:58.39 Em Friedman um Aside from the idea that like there aren't a whole lot of other options, this is a college town, um And you know you can set it so that like what I know about college towns is if the students aren't there, um you know all of a sudden the rhythms of of what's open and what's available and you know who's shuttered for three weeks, um you know he becomes the only game in town. 01:17:19.68 sidekqpodcast Right. Mmm. 01:17:25.91 Em Friedman So whatever it is you need, you might not be able to find it in this town if if you're not gonna um kind of play ball. The other way, i the way I was thinking of adding a complication um is more of like, you know, you can make yourself a little mini encounter table for like, who else is in that line? 01:17:39.29 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm Yeah 01:17:46.65 Em Friedman um Either good or bad. um You know, people that you might fight for the jam. um ah People that could also be other kinds of allies or informants about, you know, other quests you're on or things along those lines and like, 01:18:02.09 Em Friedman um as you wait, um you know ah you you know, if you really wanted to go hard mode, you could like, you know, every couple of hours, like roll a random, you know, it does a fight breakout over this jam. 01:18:14.48 sidekqpodcast Yeah. Is it going to be like Black Friday? And suddenly everyone is like stampeding each other or something. 01:18:18.02 Em Friedman Exactly. 01:18:22.27 Em Friedman Absolutely. So yeah, you can you can weave in some some challenge that way. So it's not just a fetch quest, but 01:18:28.98 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 01:18:30.21 Em Friedman something that's a little bit more um ludicrously intense because right like Uh, this may be one of those places where it's like, you want to use non-lethal damage if you're brawling here. 01:18:43.01 Em Friedman Um, either that, or if you are fine with it getting bloody, like this is a wizard school, uh, you know, college town. So like, you don't know what the folks around you are capable of doing to you. 01:18:55.68 Em Friedman If you start getting into it, um, you can kind of play it one way or the other is either like hamstring your, your players by saying like, you know, this is, this is. 01:18:56.20 sidekqpodcast Right. 01:19:03.17 sidekqpodcast 50 fireball spells go off. Yeah, that would be like the worst. 01:19:06.97 Em Friedman Right. 01:19:07.76 sidekqpodcast Yeah, yeah. 01:19:08.91 Em Friedman Right. You can either work it like these are really powerful wizards and you teach them that lesson or you do something like, you know, having the structure of something like water deep where it's like, yeah, you can try to get in a fight and there's going to be some serious consequences if you get caught. 01:19:22.37 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 01:19:22.82 Em Friedman So don't get caught. But you're in the middle of a light, in the middle of the day, in the middle of town waiting for jam. 01:19:24.42 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 01:19:28.84 Em Friedman So ah how are you going to obscure lethal vital force? 01:19:35.71 sidekqpodcast Right yeah and and kind of going back to your idea of you were saying ah you know there's other competitors or allies or you know rivals in line you know if you refuse you know you look in that line oh 01:19:37.09 Em Friedman so 01:19:50.06 Em Friedman So. 01:19:50.78 sidekqpodcast There's those jerks that have been like you know trying to do the same quest and like scalp your jobs and now suddenly. They're getting chummy with Sven and suddenly Sven is giving them more power ups and stuff like that so now it's like you know gary oak and you're like. 01:19:58.42 Em Friedman Hmm. 01:20:06.80 sidekqpodcast Gosh Gary you're so annoying and it's like no I have to prove that I'm the best I'm gonna you know one up and show it. Shove it in your face it kind of a thing so. 01:20:15.47 Em Friedman Yeah, this is um the ah the official D and&D adventure that Critical Role ah devised um for ah for for D and&D. The Call of the Netherdeep has um structures for that. like how to like they A whole rival group and like how they relate to you is and and basically like how the ticking clock progresses depending on the the the player character's choices, which I always thought was really neat. 01:20:47.34 Em Friedman right it's like it's mean When we're thinking about consequences, right like it's so fascinating. 01:20:48.35 sidekqpodcast Yeah 01:20:52.93 Em Friedman um Sometimes the consequences aren't direct. It's the, oh, no, I should have done that thing six months ago and someone else did do it and that 01:21:04.20 sidekqpodcast Right. 01:21:05.50 Em Friedman a different kind of consequence, right? like that To have a world where you know you're not the only adventurers, um you might you you're certainly not even the most powerful. 01:21:12.06 sidekqpodcast Right. 01:21:14.15 Em Friedman You might might even be the most powerful ones in the neighborhood. um So what are you going to do about that? um ah Which, yeah. 01:21:19.30 sidekqpodcast Yeah. So like yeah it's like no we're gonna go slay a hydra man like smell you later Sven and then it's like meanwhile your rivals are like no no no we'll take our time we'll sit in this line because we know the long game with Sven is gonna pay out better than like just doing all the arduous sort of like oh kill this monster raid this dungeon that sort of a thing. 01:21:34.57 Em Friedman Right. 01:21:41.25 Em Friedman Yeah, I mean, and that's of course, like as if we think about Sven as a extremely dynamic character ah who can be bent to the will of those who are like he's in relation with, right? 01:21:54.02 Em Friedman Like that other adventuring group might not be, not have the same values that the player characters do. And then all of a sudden you don't just have a lack of an ally. 01:22:04.16 Em Friedman You have, you know, a kind of mini boss or something on your hands, depending on how the conference keeps going. 01:22:09.12 sidekqpodcast Oh, he he goes to the dark side and now more slough slaughter now invading the town and now you have to save the college town from the slot invasion. 01:22:19.99 sidekqpodcast ah The 01:22:20.33 Em Friedman or or the or the right or you know whatever you've got else in your campaign that a rival group like would be interested in empowering. he's got he's got magic yeah He's a reasonably powerful magic user who can aid and assist those kinds of ah you know diabolical schemes ah with you know with people in in the same way that he can help you, he can also help people who want the opposite of what you want, which I think is very, 01:22:40.42 sidekqpodcast Mm. 01:22:50.98 Em Friedman um very interesting. 01:22:53.84 sidekqpodcast OK. So I mean, to me, it sounds like we have a pretty well fleshed out NPC. Wouldn't you agree, Dr. 01:23:01.27 Em Friedman Yeah, ah I believe so. 01:23:02.24 sidekqpodcast Friedman? Are you ready to head into a random encounter? 01:23:06.02 Em Friedman Oh boy, yeah. 01:23:07.23 sidekqpodcast All right, so yeah, without further ado, let's let's take Sven and throw him into a random encounter. 01:23:20.85 sidekqpodcast And then the final ad read thingamabob I'll put in here in the in the edited final product. But yeah, if you could support me through Zencaster and all that stuff, folks would really appreciate it. Thank you, transcript readers. 01:23:33.52 sidekqpodcast All right, so now this is the part of the show where we get to do a little bit of a roleplay of vignette, a scene with the NPC that we've made today. So while you may not be doing like an actual voice for Sven, certainly you can narrate and tell us what Sven is thinking and feeling in his heart. 01:23:51.98 sidekqpodcast ah but yeah The question becomes what sort of scene would you like to present Sven in today is it going to be Sven offering the jam a side quest to an adventuring character the podcast is it Sven having ah the final moments with like this druid who's giving him the the parting gift. 01:24:11.27 sidekqpodcast I am setting up on his quest to a higher education is it spend with is a slot overlords way back when in the past before he sets off on ah on his explorations of the world or i don't know what kind of scene are you interested in today. 01:24:28.10 Em Friedman I think I like the idea of like let's just jump into what Sven would be like as this kind of like quest giver um sort of ah potential ah adventure hook provider. 01:24:42.51 sidekqpodcast OK, so then we've got a whole Rolodex roster of of characters from the podcast that this quest could go to. So rattling them off real quick, we've got Duncan, who's the happy-go-lucky adventurer, no task too big, no feet too daring kind of a guy. ah We have Sonya, who's the warrior woman who started off as a barbarian and then multi-classed into a paladin who serves a god that wishes to redeem the undead. 01:25:11.62 sidekqpodcast We have Korak, who is the lawful evil, arcane trickster, roguish dwarf. We have k Chrisley, who is the herbalist, botanist, wood elf druid, who then multi-classed into a cleric who serves loving memory. 01:25:25.78 sidekqpodcast We have Orion, who is the astral elf illusionist wizard. I kind of play him like a Spock, sort of an individual. 01:25:32.60 Em Friedman Hmm. 01:25:33.29 sidekqpodcast We have Agape, who is the lilac-colored tiefling Sorlocke, started off as a Feywild magic sorcerer, and then made a pact with an archfey NPC made on this podcast, ah Prosperina. 01:25:48.69 sidekqpodcast So sore lock you know sorcerer warlock and then the newest character that we made is a delightful little forest gnome old man necromancer named life spell and his man servant the skeleton octavius so if any of those characters. 01:26:04.28 Em Friedman Let's go. Let's go. Let's go with our little necromancer. 01:26:06.82 sidekqpodcast Yeah. Ooh, okay, his second adventure ever. So um so Dr. Freeman, would you like to set the scene ah for our our for us today as the quote unquote DM or would you like for me to set the scene? 01:26:18.91 Em Friedman Sure. No, I'm more than happy to do so. so ah You have been told ah that ah the items necessary for the continuance of your adventure, the absolutely necessary ah components can, because of the time of year and where you are, only be found in the office of Sven. 01:26:46.15 Em Friedman ah ah a strange name, a strangely simple name in this kind of ah glossy and shiny and perfectly manicured kind of set of, you know, ah it's it's almost like you proceed as if you are 01:26:46.00 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 01:27:03.47 Em Friedman um walking um into um a series of nesting dolls of walls oh as you as you move from ah from Hordus Conclusus from a walled garden into another walled garden into another walled garden. 01:27:21.32 Em Friedman And then in the center, there are these, um you know, spindling towers. um There are other towers that have been along each of these walls, but take you have to go almost all the way to the middle. um And it's not the tallest tower. It's not the smallest tower. It's a kind of squat ah tower um in the middle of one of these clusters. 01:27:47.34 Em Friedman and you walk in and you walk up a kind of ah perimeter staircase up to a second level where you've been um kind of ah greeted by a very standard unseen servant visible only in the fact that um there's more dust than there perhaps should be, and the unseen servant moves through those dust moats as they guide you up. And you are now in a round room. 01:28:25.16 Em Friedman And ah depend and what you know the first thing that you notice is just um information overload. There's just too much to to to have your eyes fix on anything in particular. 01:28:39.24 Em Friedman um but there's a very large round table in the middle and it's covered in books and objects and an astrolabe that is kind of moving of its own accord um in in some interesting kinds of ways and you see this and as you're kind of dazzled you see this figure um you know almost completely almost as if you are looking at a creature that is excellent at camouflage. they're not They weren't invisible, you know that. It's just that there's so much parchment around and this person and leather 01:29:24.15 Em Friedman um you know tanned leather that the kind of you know beige-ness uh of both the the humanoid you see not quite elf not quite human not quite something you put your hands on ah and their and their own clothing, just ah they appear they almost seem to appear out of all of the books and papers that they are ah almost literally immersed in as as they hear your tread on the stairs. 01:29:57.18 sidekqpodcast yeah you mean me rere ram yes so as we last recall ah life spell ah had met kora ticki who is the professional yeti mourner and they you know he was kind of like a smarmy sort of ah sort of an actor ah You know that made his ah income ah by being hired as a professional mortar and they worked out a deal of like oh you help bring me more bodies you deliver this package and I'll help you like dress up your man servant to look a little more passable and not like obviously like a skeleton in a robe kind of a thing so Octavius is looking great he he he has great threads now for a change. 01:30:37.51 sidekqpodcast and I think maybe through the course that adventure as you were explaining you know life spells desperately trying to get more diamonds he needs more diamonds to be able to like raise the dead you know he needs these bones you you know his ultimate ambitions of being having his own Skelly bros his own little mini skeleton army that'll take him on a further conquest adventure so 01:30:49.26 Em Friedman Hmm. 01:31:00.99 sidekqpodcast um So yeah, he's desperately looking for these diamonds, but at least Lifespell looks even more ah presentable with his top hat, his mask, and like the very tight-fitting clothes, even though he still you know jerks about like a a skeleton. So Lifespell is muttering like, hu yes, I'm trying to look for this man. and Diamonds, yes, diamonds, diamonds, Octavius, diamonds. So there are diamonds somewhere in this. 01:31:27.63 sidekqpodcast yeah but yeah so 01:31:29.75 Em Friedman ah 01:31:29.85 sidekqpodcast Don't scare me! Ah! Europe, where did you come from? Ah! 01:31:35.58 Em Friedman This is my tower. 01:31:38.18 sidekqpodcast Oh. 01:31:38.57 Em Friedman Who are you? 01:31:40.12 sidekqpodcast Oh, well, I am life spell. Yes, life spell. And then this is my man, servant Octavius. Octavius, say hello. And he kind of very jerkily moves. He does have taps on his shoes, so he does a little bit of a ah minor tap routine. 01:31:54.29 sidekqpodcast with the flourish of the hat and puts it back on. Ah, very spiffy. Very, very good job, Octavius. Yes. Ah, im been there 01:32:04.25 Em Friedman And how can I be of use? 01:32:07.73 sidekqpodcast yeah 01:32:08.36 Em Friedman Voices vary even the unfazed by all of this. 01:32:08.19 sidekqpodcast well. 01:32:12.66 sidekqpodcast I am I need diamond diamonds are forever diamonds are well they say ladies best friend but they're my best friends as well for the plans and intents and purposes that that I need them for if you please yes I was directed to you um finished up my business and he starts rambling on and prattling on mentioning quarticky and like the mourner and um How he helped yeah he like very well, I don't know he's an old man So maybe he doesn't always do a good job But he tries to gloss over the fact of like he may have contributed to some more bodies appearing in the local funeral homes And then he's like ah Phoenix. Yes that Phoenix was a very strapping lad good bones on him for that And then he like catches himself and he's like yeah. Yes diamonds. I'm looking for diamonds. I'm told you have them. Yes. Mm-hmm 01:33:05.41 Em Friedman um and And he takes a look at you and um I would have him roll an insight check on this ah skeleton um to see if he can clock the the state of play, just to know, just to suss out. 01:33:21.95 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 01:33:26.95 sidekqpodcast Oh, sure. Yeah, I think like you get high enough on your insight, you know, he's jerking, you know, he's just kind of like idle animation in place. He's not moving like how someone who is alive would move. um So like very, yeah, very much like um Diablo four. I'm a skeleton and I'm hanging around because you're the necromancer who summoned me kind of a guy. 01:33:47.83 sidekqpodcast ah so Yeah that's what the you know but octavius is well dressed actually smells nice. um but Yeah you can definitely tell that octavius is not alive is not talking or contributing anything really to the conversation. 01:34:02.14 Em Friedman um And ah so I think that with that knowledge, he's still, ah he's like he's doing the calculation of what kind of diamonds this guy is probably going to need, says, yeah, that makes sense for a door dash, and puts forward the, ah well, one diamond sufficient for i what I think your goals are. It can be yours, but I'm going to need a little bit of a favor. 01:34:41.51 sidekqpodcast Mmm favor favor. Okay favor. Yes. I I understand a little bit. 01:34:45.29 Em Friedman but It will only cost you a little bit of gold in your time. 01:34:46.15 sidekqpodcast Yeah 01:34:50.53 Em Friedman There's a jam of my particular fondness in the market here. ah Normally, it's quite easy for me to ah access. 01:35:02.87 Em Friedman However, ah it now has a weekly drop at noon, actually in checks the calendar tomorrow. and you And it it's the the the the youth say it has gone viral, and indeed, 01:35:22.71 sidekqpodcast Viruses? oh 01:35:24.70 Em Friedman and indeed I'm not sure what they mean by that, but ah the the substance of the 01:35:28.79 sidekqpodcast It's not diseased, is it? 01:35:31.72 Em Friedman No, no, it's just enormously popular such that people are queuing up ah later tonight. 01:35:34.73 sidekqpodcast ah 01:35:39.62 Em Friedman That's when the local guards have a the local guards have said ah that folks are allowed to start queuing for this jam at at four o'clock in the morning um or the the the nine o'clock opening. 01:35:53.24 sidekqpodcast Oh. 01:35:57.71 sidekqpodcast Oh. 01:35:57.99 Em Friedman so ah So it shouldn't take you an enormous amount of your time, but it's time I need for my own arcane recovery before my, unfortunately, eight o'clock in the morning class. 01:36:11.69 sidekqpodcast Ah. 01:36:16.38 Em Friedman My schedule just simply won't allow me to queue. And I did try to send the Unseen Servant and with with minimal success. 01:36:27.51 Em Friedman you You know Unseen Servant's not so ah ah dexterous or um competent. 01:36:27.45 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 01:36:35.76 Em Friedman ah good good and good they They need very clearly delineated tasks. and ah The queue, I will say the queue does get a little rowdy from time to time. 01:36:46.78 Em Friedman So that's, that is a small hazard, you know, the youth. 01:36:47.21 sidekqpodcast Ah 01:36:53.53 Em Friedman um But 01:36:53.60 sidekqpodcast Ah, youth. Good, good bones on them. Uh, yeah. 01:36:57.25 Em Friedman there is There is also one of here's also one of my colleagues. 01:36:57.49 sidekqpodcast Strong, able. 01:37:00.87 Em Friedman um she is She got only afternoon classes. I mean, grumbles. up But she she she does wait in line. And she's been known to um start to conjure ah some hold person situations or commands if it gets too much, if she doesn't get her good place in line. 01:37:23.22 sidekqpodcast um Okay. Yeah. The life spell surprisingly is getting like more and more interested because one, he was going to be like, he was like, Oh, well, this is easy. 01:37:26.41 Em Friedman so 01:37:33.90 sidekqpodcast I go to bed super early and I wake up at three o'clock in the morning. That's the, that's the witching hour. Don't you know the best time to go to the graveyard. And then he trails off and doesn't finish that thought um and then he's just like yeah excellence and I have a very capable man servant Octavius much better than an unseen servant don't you know. 01:37:58.29 sidekqpodcast he So he feels very mighty and proud of himself despite being you know a force known so he's a very small man. What he says okay so just wait in this line start queuing it at to four o'clock in the morning and then i will just make sure to fight off any rest about send vagrants and. the Rival professors it seems yes that's that is the task you wish done. 01:38:26.40 Em Friedman Yes. And and and i just a friendly word of advice, but you'll while they won't allow you to start the queue until four, you will want to get there not long after you wake up. 01:38:32.40 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 01:38:35.38 Em Friedman Just ah people kind of mill around in the town square until the legal line is allowed. but 01:38:42.43 sidekqpodcast Ah. 01:38:42.68 Em Friedman No, I think I can see a way to get you getting you ah a diamond for such a task. Any further diamonds, I think would be require a little bit more effort on your part. 01:38:53.97 Em Friedman um But I always have some ah items I'm in need of. 01:39:00.25 sidekqpodcast I see octavius this is good good good following your intuition man and octavius doesn't do anything he just kinda like stands are idle like life spell loves to just. Kind of putter but he also likes to chat back and forth kind of like a wilson tom hank sort of situation like he's inscribed or imbedded an impart a personality with an octavius that you know octavius is a skeleton is not able to. 01:39:27.99 sidekqpodcast Reciprocate back um so he seems kind of like a insane old man in that way. He's like i Octavius this is that I'm proud of you young man for using your noggin very well professor Sven yes professor Sven yes I see that on the He looks around and sees several books or signs. 01:39:46.56 Em Friedman Just spend is fine. 01:39:48.62 sidekqpodcast Yes, I will. 01:39:49.39 Em Friedman Yes. 01:39:50.00 sidekqpodcast I will see to it. um And so then ah what's the final as as ah he he just I think like very much like an old man, he has his mission. So he's just going to putter and rather abruptly leave without really saying goodbye. 01:40:05.92 sidekqpodcast um But is there is there any final thing that's going to close out the scene as a life spell and Octavius are shuffling out the door? 01:40:06.73 Em Friedman oh 01:40:14.74 Em Friedman Sure, um as life spell ah leaves kind of very insistently, um we do a kind of Indiana Jones like pan out on the kind of massiveness of this of this space. And we ah move to a kind of um dusty high shelf outside of a gnome's eye line. 01:40:40.96 Em Friedman um so dust laden that it's black and gold binding is obscured, but a kind of or an important ah legendary item of a text about necromancy ah can be seen by the the camera's eye ah as the scene closes. 01:41:06.54 sidekqpodcast Scene so we did it. We made it through the random encounter with Sven. 01:41:09.81 Em Friedman Hooray! 01:41:11.32 sidekqpodcast So yeah What did you think it was like getting to be Sven today? 01:41:17.40 Em Friedman I love randomness. I love what Chance gives us. That's why I study actual play, right? It's like the most amazing thing about tabletop role-playing games is we we so think in these kinds of story structures that are hard and coded into us. 01:41:33.60 Em Friedman But what dice and cards and random tables and all of those kinds of things give us is the gift of breaking those things so that we can see in new ways. So would I have come in here and made Sven the Slod who looks like a Kalashtar, who has ah a whole deep backstory? 01:41:51.73 Em Friedman Probably not. um But I'm glad I met him. He seems really neat. 01:41:55.40 sidekqpodcast Yeah yeah I can't wait to you know hear maybe the misadventures of Sven ah cropping up and your reports of like I introduce Sven into my game and this is how the players encountered him in like the reactions that I've gotten so I mean unless they're listening to this podcast which I hope they are and it hopefully doesn't clue them in too much but it would be interesting to see Where sven ends up especially i don't know i mean obviously for your research and your writing you're having to consume a lot of content how many shows would you say that you actually like sit and listen to. 01:42:34.97 Em Friedman um On a regular basis, um comparatively few, especially as I'm transitioning into writing the book. um That said, I am a judge for the New Jersey Web Fest, which just had its award ceremony. um And so for that, ah that those submissions are um usually over 60 per year of actual plays are submitted. are submitted um in both podcast and video categories. um And then my students and I can have consumed hundreds more um in kind of samples. And then, of course, I have been researching this, um kind of or I've been an amateur listener before I was doing this. I so i think I started writing in 2018. 01:43:18.91 Em Friedman um about uh about actual play um but but but i've been kind of consuming since the dawn before fifth edition uh at this point so uh it's uh in the same way that i just had students ask how many game how many ttrpgs i own um which is a horrifying and uh daunting number in my teaching collection ah so too i've encountered episodes from uh 01:43:18.92 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 01:43:24.98 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 01:43:45.93 Em Friedman I would say for sure hundreds of actual plays to the tune of oh thousands if not tens of thousands of hours. 01:43:57.24 Em Friedman um 01:43:57.45 sidekqpodcast Wow. 01:43:57.92 Em Friedman which is yeah it's it's 01:44:00.25 sidekqpodcast That's amazing. 01:44:01.10 Em Friedman ah yeah it's um ah It's a very interesting form, um and it's changing rapidly right now. We're an interesting moment, which is all the more reason why it's important to remember where it came from. A lot of people, ah you know especially the Time Magazine ah profile on quote unquote live play, a phrase I do not love because none of it is live these days or very little, less is live than ever before. 01:44:27.48 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm, right 01:44:29.03 Em Friedman um and But what's interesting to me is the fact that people often think about like 10 years ago or maybe 15 years ago as the start of of actual play. 01:44:42.51 Em Friedman And really actual play has existed for even longer than that. We can trace it to the 2000s. um in terms of its online presence and of course it's tied to these offline traditions both in terms of theatrical like people playing in front of audiences at conventions and like improv groups and things like that um as well as like actual play as in play reports people like saying this is what happened in my in my home game and me and they recorded it for play testing purposes or just to remember things and stuff like that so It's super interesting. um But yeah, it's people are doing a lot of things different things with tabletop role playing games and I feel very fortunate to both get to consume a lot of stuff and these days to also kind of 01:45:27.40 Em Friedman ah be able to talk to a lot of makers about ah why they do it and how they do it and how the sausage is made everywhere from like you know sitting and looking at the box of doom in dropouts dimension 20 dome to talking to small makers who are playing online and everybody in between. 01:45:48.32 sidekqpodcast Yeah so I mean all that to say and lead up you know since you have invested so much of your time and energy into this and I hope everyone who loves you and loves what you're doing is also listening to this episode for that reason I can't wait to start hearing Sven stories pop up and then you're like It happens like people you know well one it would be amazing to me because it's like hey people are actually listening to the show and using the npc's that we're making but it would just be so cool and fascinating for you since you helped to create Sven and breathe a life and a character to him to just see how many different interpretations of Sven there are that might be you know an interesting paper in and of itself if it ever comes to fruition that way. 01:46:32.46 Em Friedman Yeah, these kinds of, I mean, the 18th century, so the 18th century is before the kinds of ways that we think about what copyright looks like now and and intellectual property. um And so characters would float around. Tristam Shandy found himself in a lot of things that Lawrence Stern didn't write ah to come back to our friend from earlier. 01:46:53.00 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 01:46:53.22 Em Friedman um And it's so interesting, you know, if we think about like memorial characters um and as well as like these kinds of characters who just kind of get around ah both canonical D and&D characters, but also these like um fun characters that we encounter in podcasts like this or in actual plays or kind of all over. It's what a weird multiverse we build together. 01:47:18.64 sidekqpodcast Yeah, yeah, indeed a multiverse for sure. ah Yeah, and so here, you know, in the final thoughts, as you know, as I asked for any feedback or critiques, obviously, as as a, you know, you know, from an esteemed individual, such as yourself, but I always like to leave it to the guests. So the platform, the soapbox, the microphone, the stage. So, you know, 01:47:40.90 sidekqpodcast ah you know any other closing remarks but certainly i wanna hear you know where you can be found on social media what projects you have to plug what things you've you got coming out and then finally any passions or causes we need to be made aware of. 01:47:56.17 Em Friedman Absolutely. So first of all, we are recording just days after Hurricane Helen has ah really ripped through the region in which I live and and live in proximity and community with, ah which is the southern part of the Appalachians. um Please look into mutual aid, especially for western the Western Carolinas, which have been really hard hit um it's ah ah ah When mountains flood, ah we all need to pay attention and and extend communities of care because ah there's nowhere safe from natural disasters as we are all all learning. 01:48:36.35 Em Friedman Um, so that's near and dear to my heart. And of course, um, please vote in a couple of weeks. I hope, I think before this recording comes out, I don't know. Um, but please like when you have the chance to vote, vote, vote down your ticket, vote in your local elections, vote your conscience of the only way anything changes in this world is if we, um, is we, if we vote and, uh, local elections are more important than ever. So even if you're kind of, 01:49:04.06 Em Friedman disenchanted by other parts of a ticket that you're looking at. um The only way we move the needle is if we vote. So please, yeah, care for our folk, are our our friends and neighbors who are suffering the ah kind of natural disasters, as well as, of course, like, um if you aren't already donating to places like PCRF, 01:49:29.56 Em Friedman um in order to relieve the plight of Palestinians and now and now Lebanese folks, um please please consider think doing it in that way as well. um You can find my work um all over the internet. My YouTube and Instagram handles are both critical profs. 01:49:51.08 Em Friedman Critical Prof is a channel I co-host with my friend and collaborator Dr. Emily Kugler we are both 18th centuryists so it's 18th century nerding through a gaming lens and I vlog all of my TTRPG classes by doing kind of short recaps of what I'm teaching and how ah they were originally intended for my students. 01:50:11.12 Em Friedman ah to catch up if they were not able to come to class. ah But really, teachers and enthusiasts of TTRPGs have really jumped on them. Look out for Bitcherton when it comes out. I was the ah historical consultant on that project, and it's a super fun one. 01:50:29.22 Em Friedman um I'm at work on a book on ah the history of actual play, a collectively written book on the first five years and 20 seasons of Dimension 20, as well as another book that's attentively titled either Friendier or The Friends We Make Along the Way. That's going to be far in the future. You can you can know. 01:50:50.05 Em Friedman what I'm doing and how I'm doing it ah by either ah joining me on my website, ecfreedman, that's friedman dot.com, or finding me for the German word for peace, F-R-I-E-D-E, um basically across most socials. These days, you can find most of my sterling thoughts on Blue Sky, ah where I just went viral for cookie recipes. And you know what? That's the kind of social media I'm here for. 01:51:16.89 Em Friedman um I will also say, if you're not already listening to Worlds Beyond Number, what are you even doing in terms of D and&D and amazingness? um And as of this week, Quinton Smith, ah formerly of Shut Up and Sit Down, now of People Make Games and Quinn's Quest, which is the best TTRPG reviewing channel on YouTube ah has just announced that he may be doing a really interesting actual play with a really interesting twist. I happen to know that twist and I think it'll if you enjoyed listening to me talk about my nerdy stuff, I think it'll be of interest to you to keep an eye on um Quinn's Quest ah socials as they move forward. 01:52:05.71 Em Friedman Um, so shameless plugs of cool stuff my friends do. Um, uh, a reminder that, uh, you know, D and&D is one part of a healthy gaming diet. And please play, uh, try out some other games. Uh, try out Alex Roberts For The Queen. It'll play in 30 minutes. Easy peasy. Try out The Quiet Year for but world building. Um, a map making game. 01:52:30.22 Em Friedman um or something like microscope or things along those lines. And then, yeah, just get weird with your games, guys, because ah I think that ah too often ah we talk about TTRP, indie TTRPGs and D and&D as if people don't play both. And so many of us, almost everyone I talk to really plays both and we're ah better for our balanced gaming diet. So. 01:52:57.57 sidekqpodcast Yeah, if we want to be able to lift. 01:52:58.44 Em Friedman Yeah, I think that was enough. I think that was another lecturing from Professor Friedman today. 01:53:02.46 sidekqpodcast Yeah, I mean, as you would say, you know if we want to lift and get those weights up, if we want to lift ah you know and and be able to crush our goals, everyone, you know we need to have that balanced diet, not just D and&D, but other games too, and and obviously spending ah time and fellowship with our friends and family. 01:53:14.80 Em Friedman Yeah. 01:53:23.28 sidekqpodcast so Yeah, let's let's let's get it. 01:53:24.68 Em Friedman yeah 01:53:25.36 sidekqpodcast Let's put on those weight belts. Let's crank up the heavy metal or whatever pumps you, whatever gives you bardic inspiration to lift heavy things. And let's do it in a safe and structured way where we're we're not going to ruin our backs, please. 01:53:38.39 Em Friedman Safety tools. 01:53:39.03 sidekqpodcast let's Yes. 01:53:39.79 Em Friedman Oh my gosh. ah TTRPG Safety Toolkit. ah Love to Keanu Shaw and Lauren Bryant Monk ah for creating that as well. 01:53:49.23 sidekqpodcast Wonderful. Well, Dr. Friedman, Dr. Emily Friedman, thank you so much for being a guest on the podcast. I can't wait to have you back on to make even more interesting NPCs. 01:54:00.61 Em Friedman My pleasure. Thank you so much.