The photo that inspired my 'View from Duervar'

 The good news is that I am moved back into my place after 2 months of living out of a suitcase.  This means I can finally stop patching portions of audio on the show with my cellphone mic (ugh) and I can finally post the *real* picture I took from the top of Mt Fuji.  It is an unreal experience to see the sunrise from a vantage above the clouds.  Not many people get to see this.  You have to climb a mountain and get lucky with the weather.  On a related note, one of my good friends from the middle 2000s, when I lived in Japan, just got in touch after 10 years.  Ohisashiburi!

Classics, clichés and hypocrisy

 I've done a couple of interviews - one recently with Iain of Roll to Save (highly recommend this show!) - in which I confess my regret over having dunked on characters named 'Grog' back in episode 0.  At the time, I didn't know there was a character on Critical Role named 'Grog' and so I wasn't trying to insult that player personally, so much as just crap on the worst fantasy name I could think of.  I might have said 'Ugg' (probably find out about some other beloved character named Ugg now... FML...).  Maybe it all amounts to the same thing.

Anyway, it got me thinking about my own lack of originality and my own hypocrisy.  To explain: I'm against boring prefab character archetypes like the 'stupid barbarian' or the 'bard who seduces everything that moves' but at the same time I am completely in love with the tropes of basic fantasy, like green slime, sadistic goblins, magic fountains, mystical elves, stoic dwarves ... you get the idea.  So where does my 'classic' and and someone else's 'cliché' begin?  There's no clear boundary, right?

Not really sure I am going to come to any meaningful conclusion here, I just thought it was interesting to discover how specific my tastes run.  To me, all things Tolkien and B/X DnD are wonderful, and intrusions into those (very similar) worlds are to be repelled with force.  Oddly, even recognizing my biases, I have no intention of changing anything (well, every now and then I think about editing episode 0...).  I actually treasure my biases.  How strange...

Manti-Christmas to all, and to all, there will be much pain in the days ahead

 

Shownotes from Ep 22-24

 Very happy to be able to finally post these belated shownotes.  Sorry for the delay, but 'better late than never'!

Ep 22

Theme                                     Evan King - Enchiridion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8NkG3bhIxU

Welcome                                  148 Barovian Castle https://tabletopaudio.com/

Previously On                          Scott Buckley - Legionnaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwW0vFUCzEM

Part 1                                       'It's In The Fog' by Darren Curtis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oF5lS0sajs

Part 2                                       ‘Labyrinth of Lost Dreams’ by Darren Curtis

                                                 https://soundcloud.com/desperate-measurez/labyrinth-of-lost-dreams-free

Part 3                                       Tense Cinematic Instrumental Ambient Music by Argsound  

                                                 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTz6Qp7QE_c

Ep 23

Theme                                     Evan King - Enchiridion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8NkG3bhIxU

Welcome                                  148 Barovian Castle https://tabletopaudio.com/

Previously On                          Scott Buckley - Legionnaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwW0vFUCzEM

Part 1                                       Odin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XddzQIaRIU

Post combat                             Sad and Depressing Music for Videos (No Copyright)

 

 

 

Ep 24

Theme                                     Evan King - Enchiridion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8NkG3bhIxU

Welcome                                  148 Barovian Castle https://tabletopaudio.com/

Previously On                          Scott Buckley - Legionnaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwW0vFUCzEM

Part 1                                       ‘Chaosity’ by Darren Curtis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJObHZ0Hck8

                                                & ‘Labyrinth of Lost Dreams’ by Darren Curtis

The Gifts of Duervar

 

Roll reaction check and apply the following bonuses and penalties:

Adjust for charisma score

+1 to Gyrios for returning Soli’s ring to Molgi

+1 to Aradine for directly saving Molgi

 

	Low score 2-4	Medium score 5-8	High score 9-12
Umura	Necklace with 100gp gem	Necklace with 500gp gem	Necklace with magic gem that glows on a command word (light source)
Aradine	Bracers AC8	Bracers AC7	Bracers AC6
Gyrios	A light steel shield with family emblem	A silver shield with family emblem	A +1 shield with family emblem

 

Milestone reached: 10K Downloads

Podbean occasionally sends out these milestone awards and I have to admit, I do crave the adrenaline hit.  Like any other high, as soon as it's over, you're really just thinking about the next, bigger one.  I have really been thinking lately about whether or not to share these 'celebrations' on social media.  I think here, on this blog, it's appropriate, but I am not too sure about Twitter and Insta (I did post this on Insta, but I felt kinda funny about doing it). 

There's psych experiment about unequal pay that explains my hesitation.  Here's the summary: 2 monkeys are paid the same pay for a little task.  Cucumber slices for passing stones through cage bars to experimenters.  Monkeys like cucumbers and both are observably happy with this arrangement.

Next, one monkey is paid cucumber slices and the other is paid grapes for the same task.  Monkeys like cucumber slices but they LOVE grapes.  Here's what happens.  The grape monkey is over the moon happy.  The cucumber monkey observes this and suddenly, where he was happy before, he is furious and miserable.  He throws his cucumber at the researcher.

This experiment gives a lot of insight into happiness in general - forget unequal pay.  It's a huge eye opener.  It also explains why I am not so sure about publishing numbers too often.  If other people see it, will they suddenly feel bad about their show if it is not doing as well as mine?  I recently saw a podcaster post that they got 55K downloads in a year.  55K!!!  Holy cucumbers, that's a lot.  I'm thrilled with 10K.  If I got 20K in my first year I would be in heaven.  Knowing that this other show got 55K though... well it does make me feel kind of shit.  I think I'd rather not know.  Maybe going forward I should NOT post my results.  Podcasting is a narcissistic endeavor - that's pretty hard to argue with - so I think we all want to have a big listenership.  I dunno.  I should just say 'Thanks for listening" and stop overthinking. Comment below with your thoughts: I'd love to hear from ya.

Shownotes for Episodes 19, 20 & 21

Ep 19

Theme Evan King - Enchiridion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8NkG3bhIxU

Welcome 148 Barovian Castle https://tabletopaudio.com/

Previously On Scott Buckley - Legionnaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwW0vFUCzEM

Part 1 Odin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XddzQIaRIU

Combat RPG SOUNDS “The Boss is Here”

Some  FX: https://www.zapsplat.com

Horse charge https://freesound.org/people/giovannitp/sounds/271060/

Ep 20

Theme Evan King - Enchiridion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8NkG3bhIxU

Welcome 148 Barovian Castle https://tabletopaudio.com/

Previously On Scott Buckley - Legionnaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwW0vFUCzEM

Dramatis 148 Barovian Castle https://tabletopaudio.com/

Last segment Hiraeth - Scott Buckley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZdPxAXsd5k

Ep 21

Theme Evan King - Enchiridion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8NkG3bhIxU

Welcome 148 Barovian Castle https://tabletopaudio.com/

Previously On Scott Buckley - Legionnaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwW0vFUCzEM

Part 1 Scott Buckley – Snowfall Snowfall – Scott Buckley (No Copyright Music) - YouTube

Combat RPG SOUNDS “The Boss is Here” 

If you are looking for something new, give these guys a try.  They have a huge range of content... everything from interviews, to trailers, and their own actual play.

 

UK based Tabletop Roleplaying Game Podcast featuring D&D 5e Actual Play (where a misfit band of ‘Heroes’ take on adventures across the D&D Multiverse), Interviews and DM/Player Guides.

Well, this was unexpected... nominated for an ENWorld Award!

 Super honoured (and not a little surprised) to find out I got nominated for an ENWorld Award.  Holy shit!  That's pretty exciting.  If anyone reading this feels like supporting the show, you can vote over at www.ENWorld.org  It's easy to see where the voting happens from the main page... just look for this image: