1191 – Pollywogs and Frogs | Journey Into The World of Friends Ep3

Episode 1191 – Pollywogs and Frogs | Journey Into the World of Friends Ep3

 

[START OF RECORDING]

 

SCOOTER: Friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, whatever alignment you…whether you’re in alignment or…I’ve been out of alignment my whole life. I was thinking of alignment in roleplaying games. But you say, well, I’m…yeah, I’m roleplaying a person that doesn’t understand when they talk about alignment, when they talk about my vehicle, even though I kind of understand it any…I say, well, it’s…that’s fine. I’m used to my steering wheel being…I know the car will go straight if my steering wheel’s at a thirty…whatever, 2:00 PM. Then I say, what if they say I’m out of alignment? You’re out of alignment. This whole roleplay’s out of alignment. Anyway…I mean, it makes me think of stars, too, but I say, yeah, my…that’s what that’s…they say when I go to talk to somebody.

 

They say, you’re out of alignment. I say, I know. I guess that confirms it. Thanks. Do you charge…? They say, no, it’s a flat fee. I say, okay, well, then I might as well stick around. Why don’t you tell me some other stuff? I don't know. Anyway…oh, if you’re confused…and why is there all these empty…? Those pauses were actually empty pauses. They weren’t even pregnant pauses. But you say, what are all these empty pauses doing here and this confusing banter? Well, welcome to Sleep With Me, the podcast that’s here to keep you company and take your mind off of stuff while you fall asleep. I’m so happy to be here to help and to keep you company so you could get a good night’s sleep, because you deserve a good night’s sleep. I’ve been there and a lot of other people listening have been there, too.

 

Now, this show is very different. It does take a couple times listening to it to get used to, 'cause then you realize, oh, I…it takes…just takes a while to realize, oh, you’re…I’m only kinda barely supposed to…I’m not supposed to do anything, but I could just barely listen to you, but I don't need to. So, I’m really glad you’re here. What we got coming up is support — that’s how the show comes out free twice a week — then a long, meandering intro that’s meant to ease you into bedtime, and then we’ll have our new series, Journey Into the World of Friends, about friends making a roleplaying game about a journey into the World of Friends. I think that’s it, I mean, as far as I can remember. So, I’m so glad you’re here. I work really hard…oh no, this is…that was…welcome to Sleep With Me, the podcast that’s here to put you to sleep, and thanks for making it possible, my patron peeps.

 

INTRO: [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing? Trouble getting to sleep? Trouble staying asleep? Well, welcome. This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep. We do it with a bedtime story. Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press Play. I’m gonna do the rest. What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake. It could be thoughts on your mind, thoughts you’re thinking about, thinking thoughts, thoughts about the past, the present, the future. So, thoughts on your mind that…coming up over and over again or that are just there.

 

So, thoughts, feelings, anything you’re feeling emotionally that’s coming up for you related to the thoughts or feelings that are just there, feelings that are remaining from the day or are anticipating something or they’re just baffling. Could be physical sensations, changes in time, temperature, routine. Whatever it is that’s keeping you up…the reason I go through some of it…I could go…sometimes I go through more, sometimes I go through less, but the reason I go through it is because I want you to know you’re not alone in the deep, dark night. It may feel lonely. I don't know if this podcast…I mean, it just tries to create this spirit where…it might feel lonely, but it doesn’t have to feel so lonely, because I’m here to take your mind off of stuff.

 

But there’s also tons of other people listening right now, and the reason I make the show and the reason a lot of people listening — and they’re leaning in right now — is because they know how it feels, and I might not know exactly what you’re going through. I may have never been through it before, but I can probably relate to how it feels, and if I can’t, I bet you there’s someone out there who can. We just know it’s not easy, right? It’s tough. It’s a tough thing, mind racing, trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep. So, I know how it feels, and it’s not easy. But it’s also…the fact of the matter is that you deserve a good night’s sleep. You deserve a place you could get some rest, that you don’t have to stress about bedtime or dread it, where bedtime could kinda feel…you could feel neutral about it or even look forward to it.

 

That’s important for me too, because if your life’s more manageable, it means you’re gonna have more…if you…oh, if you get the rest you need, your life’s gonna be more manageable, and then you’re gonna have an opportunity to do stuff, and that means our world’s a better place. If you’re out there doing stuff and being you…and not the best you; holy cow, is that…that’s the kinda pressure I don't particularly go for, for myself. So, I’m not worried. I say, if you’re just…you say, well, I’m gonna do a pretty okay version of myself today, that’s pretty great. Beyond great, in my opinion. I’d say, best life ever or whatever…be my best self? Well, that’s…I don't know. I don't know if I could do that because if I’m trying to be my best self, then it’s like…that takes me out of being my pretty good self. So performative.

 

I get that…I say, well, then I gotta…oh boy, am I being the best. Oh boy, today I’m being the best person…I’m the best at pretending I’m being my best today, so let’s just leave it at that. Best performative day performing as the best day ever at best…I’m best at that, but I’m not really best at it. It’s just covering over a vague sense of that I better be. So, I don't know. Oh, what was I saying? Oh, I know how it feels in the deep, dark night, and you deserve a good night’s sleep. That’s why I make the show. That’s some of the stuff that goes through my…between my ears, right? What I’m gonna do here is I’m gonna send my voice across the deep, dark night.

 

I’m gonna use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, pointless meanders, and superfluous tangents, all to keep you company and take your mind off of stuff so that you could fall asleep, to be your friend in the deep, dark night, a kind of distraction, a low-stakes distraction that’s outside of yourself so whatever’s keeping you awake…you say, well, I could listen to this person. He’s obviously…has some…he’s got some quality imperfection going on, a high-quality imperfection. Highest-quality imperfections sold at this store within me. We’ve talked about this before where you can buy the clothes…regular clothing? He’s got…I think I’ve said that; I’ve got a regular…I’m a regular clothing in sizes on the inside, too. I actually am happy about that. But oh, so, how is that…?

 

So, that’s kinda where creaky, dulcet tones and pointless meanders come from, too. My voice is not traditionally soothing. I don't really get to the point. I’m kinda drifting around, and that’s the other things…when you’re new, everybody really that’s listening is so glad you’re here. Right, my regular listeners? Everybody’s fishes and pets, they’re so happy because you’re welcomed in here. Really, we’re glad to see you. People are patting spaces that are within their vicinity but at a distance where you could feel comfortable. They say, hey, go ahead; take up one of those spaces if you want or just look at it from afar, because we’ve been there, too.

 

So, a couple things that take you some getting used to, though…like I said, one, you’re probably doubtful, skeptical, frustrated if you found your way to this podcast, because you’ve probably tried a bunch of different stuff, you’ve probably paid for a bunch of different stuff, you’ve probably gotten advice, and maybe that’s…you searched or you found this show or you heard about it, and you say, what is this thing I’m listening to? And that’s an understandable…that’s how most people…what most people think when they listen. So, the show does take some getting used to. It takes two or three tries. That’s just what most listeners say before you realize, oh, one, this is a podcast I just barely listen to. I can kinda just nod along or vague…I have a vague sense that you’re talking, but I don't know what you’re talking about.

 

I have a confidence that you’re gonna be here talking, but I’m not sure I’m confident in the content of…you’d say, you’re probably one of those people that…someone that says, I like the cut of your jib. They don’t say that to you. I say, no, 'cause I have an…if I had a jib, it would be irregular. The Boy With the Irregular Jib; that’s what they’d say about me, but…they’d say, is that Jif? Is your jib covered in Jif peanut butter? I’d say, yeah, I was hoping…I realized after I started doing it that it was not gonna help with the…it’s funny; it makes dogs lick their mouth more. It’s sticky. Also not great for…I thought…I just started doing it. I knew, yes, that…oh, yes, that is peanut butter on my jib. Or that…most…they’d say, I don't like the cut of that jib, son. Also, it’s covered in…usually they’d say…first they’d say, how’d…?

 

Wait a second, is that peanut butter on your jib…covering your jib? It’d have to be a lot for someone to notice. So, maybe that’s what this podcast tries to do, is to turn that around and say, wow, is that peanut butter on your jib? Holy mackerel. That must have taken a lot of…how’d you do that? You say, well, one spoonful or knife-full at a…actually, I used a silicone…whatever those things are called to get…when you try to get cake out of a bowl…cake batter out of a bowl. I used that. Wow, that’s a great idea. What about one of those things you spackle stuff with? I thought about that, but it wouldn’t fit in the peanut butter jar. Wow, that’s impress…a jib covered in peanut butter. Holy…wow, never seen it before. Smells great right now.

 

That’s what this podcast…that’s the spiritual version of this podcast, or the spiritual…you know what I mean? That’s what I’m looking to do here, is set up so that could happen to you with your own self-talk at some point. Or the way you talk to somebody else…you said, when I told you to, whatever, tighten up that jib, I didn’t think you’d tighten it up with peanut butter, but obviously you had some kind of vision. Not the same vision as I have, but it’s impressive without a doubt. Luckily that wasn’t a regular jib, so…it was a practice jib, so that’s…it’s fine. This is actually…whatever. It’s a jib on a art installation landlocked area. So, no wrong ideas. That’s kinda what this episode, hopefully, will be about. Not content-wise, but that the characters believe.

 

Okay, so, whatever I said…I don't even…oh, you don’t really listen to me. Then I went on a tangent about…that’s why you don’t really…you say, okay, I have no…does he even know…is that a saying, I like the cut of your jib? I don't know, is there more than one way to cut a jib? I think it’s how tight you have it…whatever. It’s not…'cause you trim a sail, right? Huh, interesting; you trim a sail but you cut a jib. Do you slice a spinnaker? This is my yachting-based…sailing-based puns. I’m out of them already. What are they called? Do you call…? You do call from a crow’s nest, I would believe, or you caw from a crow’s nest, and…don’t gather in the…don’t dally in the galley. There you go. That’s it. That’s peak…Sleep With Me has finally peaked. The golden age is over. That was it, an accidental pun.

 

I’m hungry; please don’t dally in the galley. Okay, so now that’s…this is when…there’s rare moments where I feel really…you could probably even sense that there is some sort of smug satisfaction, even though it was an accidental pun that came out of nowhere. Whatever part of my brain came up with that said, wow, that’s pretty…that’s decent. I don't know if that’s a pun, but it rhymes and it’s amusing. Okay, so don’t really listen to me, though, 'cause that stuff happens once every thousand episodes, maybe, best case. So, there…it won't be happen…it’ll be a while. Next time I’ll say, don’t dawdle in the galley. No, don’t waste time…are you perpetually in the galley? No, that doesn’t work. Are you…let’s…should we rally…? No, that doesn’t work. Galleys are too small for a rally. Sally in the galley?

 

That just rhymes. It’s not actually…it doesn’t fit. Okay, so this is a podcast you don’t listen to. Believe it or not, it doesn’t put you to sleep, either. You believe that? There’s no pressure to fall asleep. The reason the shows are designed to be over an hour is so that there’s no pressure to fall asleep. There’s people who are listening who can’t sleep or who need a break during the day, and I’m here to the very end whether you’re awake or asleep, and that’s what ends up kinda working, is like, oh, I don’t need to listen, I don’t need to worry about falling asleep; then I can fall asleep. I don't understand it, either. I’ve just been doing it for a long time. So, no pressure to listen, no pressure to fall asleep.

 

I’m here to be your bore-friend, your bore-bae, your bore-sib, your bore-bud, your bore-bestie, your neigh-bore, just to take your mind off of stuff while you fall asleep, to be your Borebie, your Borebie with the peanut butter jib. So, those are two things. Other things that can throw people off other than most people don’t like me…oh, if you loathe me, it might be a little late. You don’t have to let me know. You could just go to sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou. There’s tons of other sleep podcasts and sleepy stuff on there you could use, 'cause I still think you deserve a good night’s sleep whether you like me or not. There’s a lot of people who don’t like me that listen to the show on a regular basis, so it could work for you, but if it definitely isn’t, try one of those other shows. There’s a lot of great stuff out there.

 

Structure of the show also throws people off, but there’s an…it’s a reason there’s…the show is structured in the way it is. Show starts off with a greeting; friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, so you feel seen and welcomed in. You say, oh, okay, I might check that out. Then there’s a intro…oh no, then there’s support so the show could be free, then there’s a long, meandering intro that some people miss out on 'cause they don’t like the support, and then they try to fast-forward through the intro and they think the intro is part of the support, but the intro is a show within a show. It’s about fifteen to twenty minutes long, and it’s what the most people listen to because…for some listeners, they skip it. For some listeners, they fall asleep. But for most listeners, it’s what eases them into bedtime.

 

It’s what buffers them having their daytime and going to sleep…eases you into bedtime like a slow landing or something, because that’s what’s been shown to work. So, you could listen to the intro while you’re getting ready for bed, while you’re doing some sort of other chill activity, doodling…I wouldn’t recommend peanut-buttering a jib anywhere near bedtime. No peanut butter in bed; I think that’s…or jibs. I mean, unless you’re with someone named Jib, whether a human partner or some sort of pet companion. I mean, that’s a good name for a pet. Most pets could be named Jib. You say…this would be a typical life in a Sleep With Me fan. They’d say, what’s the name of your cat, dog, fish, other type pet? Oh, it’s Jib. Oh, Jib; are you into sailing?

 

No. Then you start giggling as you try to figure out…no, I listen to a sleep podcast and he was talking about peanut-buttering an irregular jib once. Then he was trying to finish up the intro and then he went on another tangent about naming pets Jibs. Not Jibs, but if you had a bunch of pets named Jib, you’d say I’m surrounded by a bunch of Jibs. But yeah, so that’s why my pet here is named Jib. Is it a capital J? No, actually it’s…I like to do a lower-case j, too, just to make it even more confusing. Wait a second, did you say this person knew about irregular…did they get a discount when they bought the irregular jib? Is that why they peanut-buttered it? I don't know. I fell asleep, to be honest. I have no…alls I know is I think that’s what he was talking about, but he could have been talking about something else. Okay, interesting.

 

Nice to meet you and nice to meet you, Jib. Then the…Jib would look…I mean, I think that…I’m not kidding; I’d say that’s a pretty decent pet name. If you were gonna…oh, for pet…for dating, some part of my brain said. Well, Jibby-poo I think would be good. So, yeah, I guess you could use that. Okay, so, what was I saying? Oh, the intro goes on and on and on to ease you into bedtime, but it’s also different every time because I truly believe, even if this makes me the Don Quixote of jibs, that…which pretty much in this situation, they…my jib of jibs mis-align, but that’s…I think that’s how we got on this subject. Can you believe all these tangents came out of talking about alignment?

 

Holy mackerel. Oh, to ease you into bedtime…oh, it’s different every time because it’s my belief that whatever part of us keeps us awake, it’s kinda craving our attention and it adjusts. So, if the intro is the same every time, it just wouldn’t work. That’s my belief. That’s why I put so much work into the show, because I believe in it and I believe in the goals of the show, to make you feel at home and put you to sleep. I put my heart and my soul into this podcast. I do take it extremely seriously, but I have a lot of fun with it, too. So, that’s why the intro goes on and on and on.

 

Then there will be support, again, so the podcast could be free or paying for it is optional, and then there will be a bedtime story. Tonight will be our episodically modular series, World…Journey Into the World of Friends, and then there’s some thank-yous at the end. So, that’s the structure of the show. That’s why I make the show. I’m so glad you’re here, especially tonight, all these regular listeners and new listeners. That was fun in a fairly sleepy way, peanut-buttering up those jibs. So, I’m glad you’re here. I appreciate your time. I work really hard. I yearn and I strive, and I hope I can help you fall asleep. So, one more time, thanks again for coming by, and here’s a couple ways we’re able to do it for you for free twice a week. 

 

Alright everybody, welcome to our ongoing episodically modular series, Journey Into the World of Friends, which is a episodically modular series, which means you can kinda listen to it in any order. The characters are gonna kind of catch…do the place-setting and set everything up for us. So, yeah, you could listen to the first two episodes. This is Episode 3, I believe, when I’m recording this, of Journey Into the World of Friends. Yeah, so, I’m glad you’re here. What else do you need to know? Yeah, I mean, just listen to…even if you listen to this as a one-off episode, particularly this style, it’s just gonna be friends sitting around a table discussing a game and making a game and kind of playing the game.

 

So, yeah, it’ll be fun and…yeah, let’s just see how it goes. Now, to set everything up, our Hollywood announcer, Mr. Antonio Banderas. The friends beyond the binary, the ladies, the gentlemen, boys and girls, it’s time to be in a world of friendship. Hippee-hooray. Yeah. Wow. I feel like I’m under…I’m with…I feel like I’m a sphere…I don't know. I thought I was gonna say something about a moon orbiting your planet of friendship joyously, but…yeah. Welcome to Journey Into the World of Friends, everybody. Thanks, and goodnight.

 

Okay, hey, this is me, Emwatta, a wizard and a friend, and I’m just gonna run through my notes. I’m glad…everybody looks great. Glad everybody’s here. Oh, I’m sorry; I forgot. Eleanor, you’re gonna take over, so go ahead. I know we’ve done a lot of work that is coming together. Go ahead, Eleanor. Yeah, hello. I’m Eleanor and I’m a nurse, healer of the Free…Three Florences, and I’m here as…in an interesting position as we both discover a world that we…I don't know. We’re trying to put these pieces together, and I feel like I’m in-world putting these pieces together. We could be anywhere in that world but we’re together as a party now. We had some tasks that I wanted to run through and then we’ll kinda pass it around the table, and in a more informal style I’d like to try just as an experiment.

 

This isn’t the best; it’s just, I feel like we have a lot of material to go through and even more supplemental material that we may not even get to. But so, we left off…we had each been kinda doing different tasks. Let me just run through…the tasks from last week was…Zell had been working on the world; I was working on the villain, which were kinda complementary. Lord von Chill and Grenada of Darmok were working on the towns and rumors and party motivations, and Emwatta kinda was working on more of the campaign specifics and the first encounter. It’s interesting; where we left off last week, according to my notes in this week, is we needed to make sure there’s credible challenge or T-H-R-E-A-Ts, and that there’s a villain or opposition creating that situation.

 

We started off the week…and my notes find it progressed through the week…looking at kinda getting the party to choose a side, which has kind of developed, but where we left it when we left off the beginning of our work was that maybe there would be three sides. The park itself was gonna become a force, which…and again, fits in with what interests us about this park and as adventurers. The Baron of the Boil could be one choice the party may align themselves with or be motivated by, and then lastly we had the idea of a other leader, magic council…we weren’t sure. Then we asked, again, how is this character we’ve been working on, this opposition leader to the Baron of the Boil an opposing force? Zell, do you want to take it now or later? Okay, I’ll keep going.

 

Okay, so, we thought that there is…they were maybe a magic-user or maybe they’re some sort of…which I learned later is called a artificer or artifacer, but we were thinking some sort of mechanical person, someone that could have power over machines. That kinda…to be honest, that idea kinda fell by the wayside, though we did do more supplemental research that I don't know if we’ll get to this week…thinking about that. Then we kinda went into…again, these were just our basic discussions as the week grew on. Don’t worry, everybody; we will get to the no-bad-idea section — which was kind of led by Watta, Grenada, and Lord von Chill — that is not supplemental material. We may not…don't worry; we will get to that. I see you moving in your seats.

 

But first we got to the point of like, okay, so what do the players want? What does the opposing force want and the representative of the opposing force? If this…also, the idea…and again, I was the one that had…if someone not of our group is playing this campaign, when it’s finished, obviously, could they choose their own motivations? Are we building out characters with a specific backstory on a rail? I think we had kinda all decided, also in the vein of no bad ideas, that player choice would be interesting, but again, that the DM…this would create a situation for a DM to either improvise or prepare once they know who their party is. Because at first, we were like, okay, it could be adventure, fame and fortune or fame or fortune, loyalty to the Baron of the Boil, loyalty to the park, maybe some other opposing force.

 

Then we got back to the town, and who wants to take it from here? Grenada, Lord von Chill? Yes, this is Grenada of Darmok. So, we thought about…at first what we did earlier in the week, if we’re progressing, is using the oracle for the DM to…and I don't think we returned to this, actually, so this is great that we’re discussing it…is the oracle…and I don't remember what we talked about last week, but that the oracle would be…or the oracle figure…we’re using it as a oracle; it was Sultana, which was some sort of mechanical thing which is imbued with magic, and I think it’s important to know that the DM would be able to choose what kind of magic that was. So, there is some flexibility in there. Is it powered by the park? Is it a representative of the park or is it a representative of some other magic?

 

But at first, the DM could also use the…Sultana to determine what does the party want, but later in the week we kinda decided…and I kinda forget, so we’ll return to that. But that’s what we started out like. Maybe they even talked to the…Sultana. What do you most desire? We also came back to this idea with Leader X; is Sultana warning them about Leader X…not to be trusted? Also, is Leader X listening in to these conferences with Sultana? Is Leader X influencing Sultana? Has Leader X just been sending people on pointless things? So, yeah, what do we got? Okay, then the idea also came…and I guess we were somewhat undecided on this because…but again, it’s good to have it as a optional thing, again, for lower-level party members, or maybe the parties want to level up from 3 to 4 or 5.

 

But what started at the beginning of our research and idea-pitching is a mechanical…some sort of a childlike being that had left the World of Friends and was visiting only certain times the water side. We kinda played around with it. We were a little bit unsure in how that would play into the party motivations and, again, how do we do this…or how would the DM do this in a efficient way? Because we’re…as our party is already kind of projecting itself into this…first and second encounters without it detracting from the game too much, right? But also, it’s really cool. It’s cool ideas, so we like it, and we’ll return to it later in our discussion. But that’s it for my report currently. Okay, Zell, why don’t you come in? Because this is about the world and the opposing force.

 

Okay, this is Zell…okay, so we definitely were like, okay…I don't know where we left off, but that basically whatever’s happening in the park…well, I’ll just go with what we have, right? And then it develops from there. Okay, so, we knew that this force that’s not the Baron of the Boil…former partner of the Baron of the Boil was where I think we left it off…who had helped stop this soft…this velvet…made it seem like a battle of more velvet but brought the Baron of the Boil into power…was this central water exchange area which was probably powered in a way and built in a way that it could last without very much maintenance but was very well-protected and where all the water passes from the north into the southern regions.

 

Now, I don't know if this is where we were last week, but that this whole thing is just a distraction, in a sense, or a perk of what is actually happening. It was the idea that this opposing character would be a magic-user and, to go back to the actual lore of the park and what we experienced as adventurers, that there is this well or portal to another magical realm underneath the park that has leaked out and brought parts of…to the park to sentience. So, it’s a world that is not our own or a power that is beyond our understanding, and so, that actually what is happening is because so much of this…well, that there’s a large amount of water in the way.

 

So, this whole thing of controlling the water is also because this character needed to remove water so they could get to what was underneath one of these lakes or canals or something, or drain…well, I guess later Watta came up with the idea of draining some of these natural swamps. Yeah, it says here to open up some secret passageway. Otherwise, this leader would have kinda helped quietly kept the peace, but now they want to drain certain areas to get to this…so, I don't…we don’t have a total way…a connection to that. Well, I guess we kinda have a motivation, but not a connection. Now, the downside…the generalized downside of that is if they do do that, not only will they think they’ll achieve a power, they’ll also awake in a powerful source of non-goodness beyond the imagination of our world.

 

Okay, then we had a note of like, is this something we have to witness as a part of the party motivation that also makes this idea of a credible threat, right? Again, and then it became the timing of this, but the idea of a high tower where they could see one of the swamps or a southern lake or a canal. Then again, then we came up with this idea of the Baron of the Boil, which kinda ties nicely together. I don't know, do we lead right into that? Let me see the next notes. Okay, actually, it led us into kind of getting to know this…who this wizard was, of how they would have this power, which we’ll talk about in a minute.

 

So, this also kind of goes…ties back into the park as one of the choices of who to work for, and maybe each member of the party decides separately, because the park…in the history…in the real lore…in the real…we…a lot of us believe…and even in our own game that the park somehow has a mostly nurturing…whatever power is giving sentience to the park, it is…it’s not powerful but it is kinda nurturing, for the most part, or in need of kind and nurturing behavior. But it’s also a kind of power that needs assistance by human means. It needs adventurers to help it and empower it, versus, again, this outside force both in our world, represented by this character we’re working on and some sort of external entity, which may or may not ever…this is just us as the storyteller’s talking about it; does that entity, in this particular adventure, have to be acknowledged in a concrete way?

 

Also, the kind of world…as I want to…I like to get into the…some of it is like…that, yeah, maybe the good…the park itself is like a cork and…those corks that we learn about in basic archaeology classes from the old, old world was that the corks were porous. We see it in trees and stuff like that. But so, that some goodness could leak out, but the cork was corking something much more…much different, but somehow the goodness is what’s leaking out mostly into the park and bringing life to the park in, again, a way that is…I mean, that kind of aligns with everything. Yeah, no, it doesn’t quite make sense. We don’t understand it all. Even the most powerful wizards in our world would say they don’t understand. But yeah, what else?

 

The park is real and alive, surrounded by living things…oh, and to go back to this opposing force, they want to blow the cork off, and whatever’s at the bottom of the jar also wants the cork blown off. I think that’s it for me for now. Who wants to kinda take…? Lord von Chill? Yes, Lord von Chill here. So, with all that in mind, we arrived at the idea of us as backup, right? I thought we were gonna get to the notes. Oh, it’s coming up. Oh, also, I get to go through this part. Very cool, very cool. Okay, so…but overall we came up with the idea that switching from…this is a new idea, right? That we are backups, so one of the things the Baron of the Boil assigned us was backup as…to go in to find the Baron of the Boil’s son, who the Baron of the Boil assumes is either somewhere in the World of Friends trying to get to this character, or being held by this character.

 

But the Baron of the Boil has sent in three or four ships full of transports full of the Baron of the Boil’s troops, right? We’re just backup in case that doesn’t work out. Now, we have our own motivations, obviously, and our own reasons to adventure. They all care. We’re trying to control…trying…okay, I don't recognize any of this stuff. But okay, so, then we came up with this idea that makes sense of starting to look at who is this that’s doing all this? What are they up to? The idea of them being a dragon-born but not maybe knowing it…which again gets into kind of the uniqueness of our campaign and our world, so, not breaking any rules but bending them.

 

Maybe this dragon-born…this is where everything sprung out of, right, is these other things, that they’re being told tale by some maybe false dragon or a real dragon that is uncorked in this other world, and that the park and the water is what’s holding them back, and then the idea that the water itself is one of the corks. I think that’s an Emwatta thing. Okay, so, this would be the person that’s…considers themselves a anthropomorphized izard being, right? And that they’ve always…so, then we started to get into backdoor…okay, this is somebody that’s always played by the rules. They’ve always excelled and they’ve tried to follow customs and beliefs, but…so, they’ve developed a very self-righteous and sanctimonious personality, but that’s just sitting on top of this deep fear that they never fit in because one, lizard being…izard beings aren’t treated kindly, or they’re looked upon as different.

 

They’re dragon-born, which isn’t really a thing that’s well-known about because there…the dragons are just the stuff of legends, right, in our world. So, the idea that you could be a dragon…part-dragon is not something…but that that would be a motivator for the character of like, disconnection from our world and dissatisfaction, but that by covering it up, by being…excelling at most things, playing by the rules but then being self-righteous and sanctimonious when other people don’t follow the rules…but then they’re developing that kind of attitude. That’s when the idea came as a group…it was a really good idea of like, wait a second, okay, so this…why would this person partner with the Baron of the Boil?

 

Again, with the Baron of the Boil’s son being a part of this is that they were…the Baron of the Boil has been there…they’ve been the Baron of the Boil’s foundling, in a sense, and…or their sponsor or something. So, the Baron of the Boil was a parent-like figure for them or a patron, but not in a…not on either side of the nurturing side; more of like, on the middle side. So, they didn’t give them this nurturing, but they did give them…they sent them to the best schools, then sent them to the best wizard school or whatever, World of Sorcery, and invested in them and their potential and their skills. So, the Baron of the Boil believed in them greatly, and maybe the Baron of the Boil was misguided, not knowing they needed a little bit more loving and tenderness and understanding…or maybe nothing could be done, but that that also creates a tension with this character who’s name is Vedul, right?

 

Vedul of the Boil. But then we changed it to Vedul the Green, and that there’s this tension between Vedul and the Baron of the Boil’s son, because the Baron of the Boil’s son was not a wizard and lived at home, was schooled at home and stuff like that, so spent a lot of time with the Baron, which is…also creates this interesting thing of…in a hurry to get away, where Vedul became nearly a equal partner with the Baron back in…when they were running the underworld, right? Then as they came up with this plan, I would assume that Vedul was a part of this plan to create the peace, but also at some point, unaware to the Baron of the Boil, was…this other plan had developed. Okay, now we switch tone. Watta, why don’t you take over? Okay, this was…we were kinda jumping around.

 

This is kind of…we’re just…this was a basic brainstorm on farm…or who…what party motivations there could be for…at least for our party, the Lord von Chill…that when this happens, Lord von Chill owns a lot of farmland and will be very impacted by the lack of water. Also, maybe loyal to the Baron of the Boil because of some sort of deal made. Grenada of Darmok is a part of this guild or underworld, so has a connection…so is loyal to the Baron of the Boil in that sense, or maybe even has some promise. We thought about Zell as being…of the people that transport everything by boat through these canals, supporting those workers, and people that work on the farms, Watta of the curiosity of water and magic at play and the natural flow of water versus the current flow of water versus the need for water, and Eleanor kind of…the idea of the balance of the Florences and ensuring the balance of Florences.

 

Okay, so then, again, we go back to Vedul. This is a little bit repetitive, but yeah, the dragon-born or izard person…but there’s no dragons in our world, and this big reveal will be some sort of mist dragon spell that we’ve never seen in our world. Yeah, I think this is all…best schools…saw the rules…the rules were for those in power. But Vedul is smarter but also well…very rich, or the Baron of the Boil is, but they could never fit in. Originally, maybe even the Baron tried to deny them and say, make your way, don’t make your way as part of the underworld, but they wanted it and proved their way. They definitely feel superior to people, rules, and customs. They feel left out, maybe inferior, a little bit angry and pointless. I’m just…who am I? These are deep-down questions. Maybe even this belief I am…there are dragons.

 

Again, this could be proven to be real and false, or maybe…is this a real dragon talking to them or a false dragon? Whole thing about family and stuff like that. Okay, now we get into the next encounter, which I guess I’ll keep going on. So, the polliwogs…'cause this kinda goes into this idea. So, we knew that polliwogs had a deal with Vedul to watch their territory for anybody coming in. It’s a simple deal; you could have this territory outside of the ride and the loading area. It doesn’t have any importance to Vedul. If anybody comes there, you capture them and you give them to me. So, then the idea of our first encounter…one of the ways it could play out or most of the way it could play out is that we’re captured or we make peace, because it did seem very unlikely you’d have to…the giant toad and the two giant frogs…even if a party was to get through that, then they would have the polliwogs who have a setup on the inside.

 

So, it’s like, will it be a peaceful negotiation? Depending on the party’s skills, they could choose to keep battling all the way through or to rest. I don't know, there’s a lot of ways it could play out, but the one way…and again, we could adjust the story, but as far as the story goes, I think them being captured…'cause again, if someone wants to blast through this whole attraction, they could do that. I don't know how successful they would be. But the idea, at least, of setting this up, of like…okay, so then we’re captured. Then we spend the night and there’s other polliwogs either in the room with us or in adjoining rooms where the polliwogs are keeping us. But they’re different…they’re dressed differently than the polliwogs that have us.

 

If we could establish a magical or actual way to communicate with these other polliwogs, they would tell us, hey, we’re trying to warn these other polliwogs, but they’re so…we’re so territorial. That’s why we’re here. Polliwogs are hyper-local, right? So, these polliwogs want to tell the other polliwogs that this…the izard cannot be trusted and that their swamp has been…is being drained, and that’s why they’re here. They came to warn them that it was gonna happen to them next and that they can’t trust the izard. That’s where they escaped from, and…but then they were captured by these…and also, they can’t communicate…'cause they’re hyper-local, they communicate in different ways.

 

So, it’s just one opportunity to…and again, depending on the DM, they could really make this a over-the-top trial or whatever, or you could do…sneak out and use them, or you could negotiate and say, hey, by the way, we’re able to communicate with these polliwogs and you, and this is what we know. Are you gonna keep trusting this Vedul or not? We really don’t have something where they get caught, and right now they’re being held for an indeterminable amount of time, and I think that can help, 'cause it doesn’t make sense for the campaign…for them to get brought to Vedul at this point. So, again, we could just keep doing it. I don't know. That’s a little bit of area where it’s like…we would be forcing the players’ hands somehow. Okay, so, who wants to take…? Zell, why don’t you take this?

 

This is all when we had our…this is tons of stuff for the next few encounters and stuff like that, of no bad ideas. Concepts, ideas, rooms. No bad ideas. Because Zell, you had one unique idea. Yeah, I mean, I thought it would be fun to do one-off campaigns or rooms. I know it’s not time for that, but…oh, so they put…I put pumpkin character, and then maybe a holiday character. But so, that was one idea. Then…so, you want me to just keep going? Okay. So then, what if there’s another…some sort of other character, like an anarchy type, that wants to just…? Oh, I’m just going through this…okay, so…that wants to get rid of the whole attraction. Maybe there’s a cat-person who settles disputes, or do we have to settle disputes? Some sort of mechanic, a positive mechanic who needs parts.

 

So, these are other possible quests within the…or rooms, or a room full of all-broken characters, Baby Beary-Poo…oh, so maybe there’s…who wants to rally the ride to stop Vedul? Maybe there’s some humans that are in the ride, former workers somehow…oh, characters who think they’re people from the…have taken on the personality of the people that built the park or the mythology behind the park. Toymaker? Question mark. Chaos character…oh, there’s that Mad Hatter pirate…oh, this was a funny idea, I think; dancers that are in our group that is exclusive in something, and they have a leader, like…we heard about some of those…that was…was that a belief system they had in the before time that dancers were…danced…? There was dance-offs, right? Dance duels.

 

Giant walrus who’s grouchy and not nice but could be useful, a voice of reason, knower of all the ride’s secrets, twins who repair and break rides, prankster, pacifist, ethereal beings, a leader who no one can find…I don't know what that says. Then, oh, we find a cache of old security items; laser beams or stuff like that. Knights, hidden rooms…oh, a laboratory…oh, or a wizard…place where they’re trying to…maybe something from the before time, or the wizards have something set up. Oh, like that other one…they had this…it was Desmond, was it? There was some sort of place hidden where this person Desmond lived who changed a clock or something? Third party…oh, maybe some sort of other thing reprogramming the rides or maybe that’s just happening or it’s a malfunction. Humans…okay, so we had that.

 

Tesla coil, acid, flame, foam…oh, security, lost archives, oh, different things that people have made to catch people, hidden messages, hidden map, noise…oh, goal…some sort of key or security pass, something that seems like it’s good, whether it be a weapon or a treasure that’s not…oh, some sort of robotic combination of…like a suit or some sort of being that’s a combination of beings, hidden vaults, control room, a secondary control room, organic beings that have been changed by maybe the non-positive part of the park or some sort of power source…oh, robotic guards, reprogrammed dolls or ones that have been taken over by ethereal beings, some other smaller villain that has control of tech or other beings. Oh, then we switch back, so does somebody want to take it from here? Eleanor?

 

Okay, yeah, this is…okay, this was in the middle of the…no bad ideas. This was an important idea that came up; polliwogs…we’re not keeping people out of…so, there’s one entrance…so, they have the secret door where they leave the people they captured for Vedul. But it’s like, the rest of the ride is blocked off, right, and impassable, but they…obviously there has to be one secret way in, which we’re thinking is actually the normal entrance to the ride. But when we finally negotiate however it is with the polliwogs, we’re gonna have to get this information or discover it, which will be really hard. They say, oh, no, no, we’re not keeping people out; we’re keeping them in. Okay, someone control magic…tricksters…we’ve kinda covered this, C-L-O-W-Ns…oh, animated objects.

 

Yeah, again, ones that are…been taken out of our control or some sort of self-replicating code, animatronics from other parts of the park that have come here…different characters, the child boy, and then…oh yeah…oh, do we have…? Is there any things that involve puzzle-solving, stealth, getting away? Is this the one part of the ride or the part of the adventure where we’re trying to sneak out? Negotiations is always a popular thing between two groups, trying to make them work together…is there some sort of way we could use something within the attraction or one of the rooms to sabotage Vedul? Obviously we have to find and…one of our main tasks…we’re not even really tasked with stopping Vedul, right…is getting the Baron of the Boil’s son.

 

So, I guess that could be part of the getaway one. Parts needed; find parts or pets or lost item…missing parts, repair something or some sort of resource. I think it would be nice, too…I mean, again, in the spirit of our belief systems indirectly of like, what if one of the things is that we’re allowing them to live in peace within this world? Because we do know…and again, it’s part of our discussions; these characters can’t really exist outside of their territory, either. They have to live within their attraction, for the most part, so that they could live happy and free. What else do we got? Post ago…truth, secrets…oh, secrets from past long ago. Okay, maybe we build towards some big thing between Vedul and the characters of the ride, stop the war, save the ride, find a lost toy, factions of characters…what else do we got?

 

A lot of this…okay, so then, Grenada, do you want to take it? Okay, so, we do want the…so, again, we go back to this…polliwogs. If we work…a negotiation with the polliwogs is successful or whatever…we do want to get into the ride, obviously, 'cause we learn that, yeah, that’s the way to get to where we’re going. Again, I think we didn’t establish that Vedul is using characters from the rides. The characters won't know this yet, or will they? ‘Cause if we go up on that tower…is that in the notes? I just want to make sure that we see…maybe do we see? But somehow…or with the child type thing that we learn that the parts of the rides are being built to do work for Vedul, because this is…whatever, draining the swamp takes a lot of effort.

 

Okay, but they also tell us, yeah…oh, the polliwogs, they don’t want to leave the load area. They just want to leave…live there. The toys can’t really…or the, whatever, the ride characters can’t really leave the ride, but we don’t want…we don’t need to go in there. We’re happy where we are, and they don’t really want to come out. But if they do, we tend to…we’ve had conflict, so…also, maybe the idea that the toys can’t really swim. I don't know, that idea came up. Okay, so then we’re back up. Okay, so show of strength fails. Does Leader X also turn on the characters? Forces them to make a move. So, that was basically…should we…I’ll leave that to you, Watta.

 

Okay, so what if mechanical child…so, now we’re going back to these motivations in the town…is the mechanical child gives us…okay, so this is the oracle versus the mechanical child. Do we need both? We haven’t decided that, but this is still in the kinda…this is in…this is where the no bad ideas becomes let’s focus on the ideas. So, then it’s like, oh, does the oracle give them emotional quests and the child gives them specific quests? So, if the…and then we started to think about…we did a lot of research on famous dragons and what if one of them…some…one of them could be a archetype for Vedul. So, does the oracle give them a goal aligned with their emotional needs of each member or the party as a whole?

 

Maybe prints out magical cards of a person…so this…I think this was a good idea that we should keep, is…again, to kinda jump back to earlier, is like, oh, so if Lord von Chill sees farmland withering, he’s gonna be more motivated…and sees a sad person at the marketplace with nothing to sell that has to pay a tithe to Lord von Chill and how that affects someone that I might associate with, because then they have nothing to negotiate. So, we see a farmer, a soldier, a boat captain, a mother, child, a group, a town feeling the impacts of this water shortage. Maybe there’s even a subtext. You say, well, I don't know if a water shortage would be that bad of what we’re seeing on the card, but that…oh, because there’s also this other force that’s being released.

 

Then the idea that the mechanical child is not a toy…not actually…it’s a projection and it appears outside the gates…full moon…this is the idea we kinda basically came up with. It disappears if you approach it, according to the troops and people in the town, but it’s talking to itself. So, maybe the characters have to use stealth or magic to approach and listen in. Then maybe going through our no-bad-ideas list, maybe the child or this character — whatever, that’s what we’re calling it, the child — kinda tells them the plight of some of the toys or the treasures or the secrets, the fact that they are working. So, maybe there’s some sort of exchange of information but motivating information. But I guess this doesn’t make sense because the toys are actually working for Vedul, so they’re leaving the ride to do that.

 

So, that is a hole in our logic that we didn’t see earlier. So, yeah, this is a projection of some toy. Oh, this was another idea and this is not even in no bad ideas; this is that what if one of the characters in the ride has somehow learned a basic level of magic or found a magic staff or magic scrolls, so that’s how they’re doing the projecting? But basically, it’s helping give quests based on the characters wants. So, the oracle would be based on the needs of the characters if we’re getting that deep. Watta, why don’t you wrap everything up with the big, dramatic reveal, and then we can get to working on stuff for next week? Okay, so, yeah, I think this is good. So…well, let’s go through the assignments for next week…is figuring out that thing with the characters, finalizing and locking in Vedul…what’s Vedul doing?

 

What’s the specifics that are happening? Yeah, I mean, that shouldn’t take too long. I think we’re there and it doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to just kinda be locked for now. Then the rest of us start working on the first room and what’s gonna happen there, and kinda picking some of the ideas but also thinking about the overall story, because we’re gonna be needing to gather where’s the son, where’s Vedul, how do we get there, what are the obstacles in our way? So, there has to be…also impasses or challenges or things we need to gather, otherwise why would we not just kind of blast our way through? I think that’s it. I think we’re really into gameplay now. I also kinda promise to get a better idea of how this is gonna end.

 

So, where we’re going, but also to kinda keep that somewhat under the sleeve, you know? But basically, I think what we’re saying is do we need to see the ride characters working for Vedul or not? I don't think so, 'cause maybe that’s happening in a subterranean way, but I do think seeing this example of power…so, maybe there is a tower or very tall trees that we’re guided to or that maybe there was just a tower that they use to watch the canals, and the troops are like, okay, today is the day at dawn when the Baron is gonna send in the four ships with cannons or whatever, I don't know, or magic users to kinda tell Vedul, hey, just…let’s…again, a show of force to establish peace. Maybe Vedul’s even made a idea that…but that’s why we’re the backup.

 

But then when we see something that is mind-boggling…which I think it does…I agree for the story; I think this is a necessary component. There has to be some sort of mist dragon. We did try to find those spells. We haven’t found something that fits. The meteor spell was the closest thing. That’s a ninth-level spell. So, I don't know. We still have to kinda get a idea of if that’s…because again, then we’ll…later we’ll face Vedul. Would fifth-level characters be able to…? So, we have to kinda figure that gap in. But basically there’s two or three or four ships and they’re sitting outside of this pumping station, right, in these locks, and they’ve come from the south or the north. I guess it doesn’t matter. But they’re sitting there and maybe they’re even spread out, and then this mist dragon comes and just wipes them all out.

 

It’s kind of unbelievable, but it’s also…the Baron kinda knew…suspected something. So, again, that’s it. We have to go. So, it creates…it is…I don't know, I think it is a story event that has to happen because…I mean, does…right? I guess it doesn’t necessarily need to happen, but it would be cool and it would also let us know what we’re dealing with. Then maybe in that sense, because it is so powerful, maybe it’s more powerful than Vedul’s level? Or maybe it makes the characters more cautious and realizes they’re gonna need a team larger than…they’ll need NPCs whether they’re from the ride or not. So, I don't know, I guess they’re open to figuring that out, too. So, I think that’s a concrete thing we need to research, is what level is Vedul? ‘Cause we didn’t talk about that. How powerful is Vedul and how is this achieved?

 

Obviously it’s some sort of otherworldly power. I guess it would be that whatever this mist…that’s infiltrating and giving Vedul advice finds…Vedul finds some sort of artifact. But I think it’d also help if…really dialing in what level is Vedul. But either way, I think it should motivate the party to be creative and not just rush in, even though we’re trying to prepare for people that want to play that way. So, okay, I think we’re good. Thanks, everybody. I know this is a very character-only thing, but it’s good to be with all my characters. Hopefully we’ll have a meal…no, nobody want…so, we’re not gonna eat together as a team. Okay, well, how about next week we do? While we discuss it or after? Okay, afterwards. Could we have a snack before we go over things as a team? Everybody will think about it. Okay, well, everybody get some rest now and we’ll go from there. Goodnight, everybody.

 

[END OF RECORDING]

(Transcribed by Leah Hervoly)

Journey Into the World of Friends

 

Cut of Your Jib

https://linguaholic.com/linguablog/i-like-the-cut-of-your-jib/

https://disappearingidioms.com/three-sheets-to-the-wind-cut-of-your-jib/

https://literarydevices.net/cut-of-your-ib/

 

DnD Alignment

https://scrollforinitiative.com/2022/03/27/alignment-love-it-or-hate-it/

https://www.wnyc.org/story/the-chart-that-explains-everyone-character-alignment/

https://www.dicebreaker.com/games/dungeons-and-dragons-5e/opinion/dnd-alignments-flawed-powerful-tool-dm

 

Zoltar

https://www.alittlebithuman.com/the-story-behind-zoltar-your-favorite-fortune-telling-robot/

https://lasvegassun.com/news/2009/feb/06/birthplace-animatronic-zoltar-boulder-city/

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/07/wits-end-americans-on-the-edge/

 

DM Storytelling Tips

https://nerdist.com/article/tips-for-the-novice-dungeon-master-story-edition/

https://www.critacademy.com/post/5-collaborative-storytelling-tips-for-dampd-dms

https://thedailydungeonmaster.com/2021/09/03/how-dm-better-shared-storytelling-and-5-tips-letting-dd-players-lead/

 

DOWN TO BUSINESS

Whether you’re in alignment or not

 

Deep Dark Night United

Laura (Helix Sleep)

 

PLUGS

WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike Support; Orlando Park Stop / Trevor Project; Patreon; SleepPhones; Emily Tat Artwork; NAPAWF; Anti-Racism Resources; Ukraine Relief; Crisis Textline; The Midnight Mission

 

SPONSORS

Odoo; Polysleep Helix Sleep; Progressive; Zoc Doc

 

INTRO

Feelings that are remaining from the day

Sometimes I list more, sometimes less

It doesn’t have to feel so lonely

I’m gonna do a pretty ok version of myself today

Being my best self takes me out of my pretty good self

Highest Quality Imperfections sold here

You’ve probably tried a lot of stuff before finding this show

Oh, you don’t have to pay attention to me

If I had a jib, it’d be irregular

Is your jib covered in Jiff?

Changing the paradigm about Jiff-Covered Jibs (JCJs)

I work hard to cover this jib with Jiff

I can’t fault you for tightening up that jib with jiff

Practice Jib

No wrong ideas, hopefully

Is there more than one way to cut a jib?

Please don’t dally in the galley

The Golden Age is Over, SWM has finally peaked

Now I’m trying to replicate that magic and it’s just failing

I’m just trying to be your Borebie with the peanut butter jib

No peanut butter in bed is a given

Almost most pets could be named Jib

The life of a SWM listener

The Don Quixote of Jibs

 

STORY

Episode 3

Antonio Banderas

Hippee Hooray

A moon orbiting your planet of friendship

Em Watta runs through their notes

Or Eleanor will go first

Running through tasks in a more informal style

A lot of material to go through

Delegating Tasks

Zel – world

Eleanor – villain

LVC, Grenada – the town

Watta – the campaign

We need real T-H-R-E-A-T-S

The party needs to choose a side

Maybe there could be 3 sides: Park, Baron of the Boil, Another Leader

How is this other leader an opposing force?

A magic user / artificer

We will get to the No Bad Idea Section

A more concrete backstory will help us in general

Back to the town – LVC and Grenada

Sultana, the Oracle Figure

The DM could choose the magic that Sultana has

What is the relationship between Sultana and Leader X?

A childlike being that had left the world of friends

Zel talks more about the world

A former partner of the BB

This central Water Exchange area that can last on its own

A portal to another magical realm underneath the park

A portal has brought certain parts of the park into sentience

This leader now wants to drain the swamps to get to the portal

Motivation, but not Connection

If they open the portal, they’ll open up a Powerful Source of Non-Goodness

That park is in need of kind, nurturing behavior

Adventurers need to empower the park

Maybe the park is like a cork

Porous Corks

The park is leaking goodness

Opposing forces want to blow the cork off and unleash the energy

LVC takes over

These adventurers are backups

BB has already sent in several ships of troops

LVC doesn’t understand his notes

What if the other leader is a Dragonborn but doesn’t know it

Maybe a dragon is being captured in the other portal world

Anthropomorphized Lizard Being

They’ve tried to follow their beliefs

Self-righteous, but just desperate to be accepted

But why would they partner with BB?

They’ve been BB’s foundling. A ward.

BB was a parent-like figure

The dragonborn is called Vidul

Vidul the Green

Vidul and BB’s son were kind of rivals

Watta, take over

Who / What Party Motivations

LVC owns a lot of farmland and would be impacted by the lack of water

Grenada and LVC might be loyal to BB

Zel is a boat transporter

Watta is a water magic being, so would be aligned with the water

Eleanor wants to maintain the balance of the Florences

Back to Vidul

No dragons in this world

A magical Mist dragon spell

Vidul has some self-esteem issues

Is it a real dragon talking to Vidul or a false dragon?

Talking about the Pollywogs

The Pollywogs monitored the area for Vidul

You have to fight through the frogs, then the pollywogs

Or it could be peaceful negotiations

You could try to blast through but it’d be tough

Spending the night in captivity

Different polliwogs are also captured

Hyperlocal Polliwogs

You can’t trust the Izzard – swamps are being drained!

Let’s talk concepts and rooms

No Bad Ideas

One-off campaigns / rooms could be fun

Pumpkin / Holiday Character

Anarchic Guy who wants to get rid of the whole attraction

A positive mechanic who needs parts

A room of all broken characters

Former workers who still live in the ride

People who assume the identities of park creators

Dancers in a group who do Dance Duels

Giant Grouchy Walrus

Knower of all Ride Secrets

Twins who repair broken rides

A leader who no one can find

A cache of security items

Wizards trying to bring back past things

Desmond, who hid and changed a clock

Reprogramming the rides

Tesla Coil

Acid, Flame, Foam

Lost archives

Hidden messages / map

A golden key or security pass

A seemingly good thing that’s actually not good

A being that’s a combination of beings

Organic beings that have been changed by the magic

Reprogrammed dolls

Eleanor speaks

Back to the Polliwogs

There has to be one secret way in

Polliwogs are actually keeping something in

Free brainstorm 

Animated objects

A self-replicating code

Living animatronics

Negotiations between 2 groups

An attraction we could use to sabotage Vidul

Get back BB’s son

Find parts or pets or lost items

These characters can’t exist outside of their own territory

Grenada takes over

Vidul is using characters from the rides

The characters won’t know this info, but we, the creators, do

The polliwogs just want to stay where they are

Ride characters can’t leave the ride

Toys can’t really swim

A Show of Strength fails

Back to town motivations

Oracle vs Mechanical Child – are they the same or different?

Now let’s dive into these ideas

Research on Famous Dragons

Does the Oracle give emotionally charged missions?

Impacts of a Water Shortage

We did just discover a hole in our logic

What if a ride character has learned magic?

Oracle missions are based on character needs

The Child gives missions based on wants

Watta, give us the big reveal

Assignments for next week

Finalizing what is up with Vidul

Everyone else focuses on the first room

Where’s the son? Where’s Vidul? What obstacles are there?

Watta has a better sense of how this could end now?

We don’t need to see how characters are working for Vidul

An example of power

A tower for watching the canals

What if we saw something really mind-boggling

A mist dragon with a high level spell

The Meteor Spell is 9th level

What would 5th level characters be able to do with Vidul

There are 2 or 3 shifts that work the canals

A Mist Dragon comes and wipes them all out, spectacularly

That’s a necessary story event

It means they’ll need to assemble a NPC team

How powerful is Vidul? What’s their level?

Perhaps the Mist has led Vidul to an artifact

How can we make sure the party doesn’t just rush in all the time?

This is good work

Next week, let’s eat a meal after our session

 

PATREON THANKS

Paul, Jason, Jennifer, Helen, Marianne, Jeanie, John, Em, Gino, Samuel, Christy, Deborah, Emily, Hester, Kelly, Jill, Christopher, Katherine, Betty, Camille

 

SUMMARY:

Episode: 1,191

Title: Pollywogs and Frogs | Journey Into the World of Friends Ep3

Deep Dark Night United: Laura (Helix Sleep)

Plugs: WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike Support; Orlando Park Stop / Trevor Project; Patreon; SleepPhones; Emily Tat Artwork; NAPAWF; Anti-Racism Resources; Ukraine Relief; Crisis Textline; The Midnight Mission

Sponsors: Odoo; Polysleep Helix Sleep; Progressive; Zoc Doc

Patreon Thanks: Paul, Jason, Jennifer, Helen, Marianne, Jeanie, John, Em, Gino, Samuel, Christy, Deborah, Emily, Hester, Kelly, Jill, Christopher, Katherine, Betty, Camille

Notable Language:

• Alignment
• Pretty OK Version of Myself
• Highest Quality Imperfections
• The Cut of Your Jib
• Jiff-Covered Jibs (JCJs)
• Practice Jib
• Don’t Dally in the Galley
• The Don Quixote of Jibs
• T-H-R-E-A-T-S
• Artificer
• No Bad Idea Section
• Powerful Source of Non-Goodness
• Anthropomorphized Lizard Being
• Parent-Like Figure
• Hyperlocal Polliwogs
• C-L-O-W-N-S

 

Notable Culture:

• Dungeons & Dragons
• Disney
• “It’s a Small World”
• Jiff Peanut Butter
• Barbie
• Don Quixote
• Antonio Banderas
• Nikola Tesla

 

Notable Talking Points:

• Feelings that are remaining from the day
• Sometimes I list more, sometimes less
• It doesn’t have to feel so lonely
• I’m gonna do a pretty ok version of myself today
• Being my best self takes me out of my pretty good self
• Highest Quality Imperfections sold here
• You’ve probably tried a lot of stuff before finding this show
• Oh, you don’t have to pay attention to me
• If I had a jib, it’d be irregular
• Is your jib covered in Jiff?
• Changing the paradigm about Jiff-Covered Jibs (JCJs)
• I work hard to cover this jib with Jiff
• I can’t fault you for tightening up that jib with jiff
• Practice Jib
• No wrong ideas, hopefully
• Is there more than one way to cut a jib?
• Please don’t dally in the galley
• The Golden Age is Over, SWM has finally peaked
• Now I’m trying to replicate that magic and it’s just failing
• I’m just trying to be your Borebie with the peanut butter jib
• No peanut butter in bed is a given
• Almost most pets could be named Jib
• The life of a SWM listener
• The Don Quixote of Jibs
• Episode 3
• Antonio Banderas
• Hippee Hooray
• A moon orbiting your planet of friendship
• Em Watta runs through their notes
• Or Eleanor will go first
• Running through tasks in a more informal style
• A lot of material to go through
• Delegating Tasks
• Zel – world
• Eleanor – villain
• LVC, Grenada – the town
• Watta – the campaign
• We need real T-H-R-E-A-T-S
• The party needs to choose a side
• Maybe there could be 3 sides: Park, Baron of the Boil, Another Leader
• How is this other leader an opposing force?
• A magic user / artificer
• We will get to the No Bad Idea Section
• A more concrete backstory will help us in general
• Back to the town – LVC and Grenada
• Sultana, the Oracle Figure
• The DM could choose the magic that Sultana has
• What is the relationship between Sultana and Leader X?
• A childlike being that had left the world of friends
• Zel talks more about the world
• A former partner of the BB
• This central Water Exchange area that can last on its own
• A portal to another magical realm underneath the park
• A portal has brought certain parts of the park into sentience
• This leader now wants to drain the swamps to get to the portal
• Motivation, but not Connection
• If they open the portal, they’ll open up a Powerful Source of Non-Goodness
• That park is in need of kind, nurturing behavior
• Adventurers need to empower the park
• Maybe the park is like a cork
• Porous Corks
• The park is leaking goodness
• Opposing forces want to blow the cork off and unleash the energy
• LVC takes over
• These adventurers are backups
• BB has already sent in several ships of troops
• LVC doesn’t understand his notes
• What if the other leader is a Dragonborn but doesn’t know it
• Maybe a dragon is being captured in the other portal world
• Anthropomorphized Lizard Being
• They’ve tried to follow their beliefs
• Self-righteous, but just desperate to be accepted
• But why would they partner with BB?
• They’ve been BB’s foundling. A ward.
• BB was a parent-like figure
• The dragonborn is called Vidul
• Vidul the Green
• Vidul and BB’s son were kind of rivals
• Watta, take over
• Who / What Party Motivations
• LVC owns a lot of farmland and would be impacted by the lack of water
• Grenada and LVC might be loyal to BB
• Zel is a boat transporter
• Watta is a water magic being, so would be aligned with the water
• Eleanor wants to maintain the balance of the Florences
• Back to Vidul
• No dragons in this world
• A magical Mist dragon spell
• Vidul has some self-esteem issues
• Is it a real dragon talking to Vidul or a false dragon?
• Talking about the Pollywogs
• The Pollywogs monitored the area for Vidul
• You have to fight through the frogs, then the pollywogs
• Or it could be peaceful negotiations
• You could try to blast through but it’d be tough
• Spending the night in captivity
• Different polliwogs are also captured
• Hyperlocal Polliwogs
• You can’t trust the Izzard – swamps are being drained!
• Let’s talk concepts and rooms
• No Bad Ideas
• One-off campaigns / rooms could be fun
• Pumpkin / Holiday Character
• Anarchic Guy who wants to get rid of the whole attraction
• A positive mechanic who needs parts
• A room of all broken characters
• Former workers who still live in the ride
• People who assume the identities of park creators
• Dancers in a group who do Dance Duels
• Giant Grouchy Walrus
• Knower of all Ride Secrets
• Twins who repair broken rides
• A leader who no one can find
• A cache of security items
• Wizards trying to bring back past things
• Desmond, who hid and changed a clock
• Reprogramming the rides
• Tesla Coil
• Acid, Flame, Foam
• Lost archives
• Hidden messages / map
• A golden key or security pass
• A seemingly good thing that’s actually not good
• A being that’s a combination of beings
• Organic beings that have been changed by the magic
• Reprogrammed dolls
• Eleanor speaks
• Back to the Polliwogs
• There has to be one secret way in
• Polliwogs are actually keeping something in
• Free brainstorm 
• Animated objects
• A self-replicating code
• Living animatronics
• Negotiations between 2 groups
• An attraction we could use to sabotage Vidul
• Get back BB’s son
• Find parts or pets or lost items
• These characters can’t exist outside of their own territory
• Grenada takes over
• Vidul is using characters from the rides
• The characters won’t know this info, but we, the creators, do
• The polliwogs just want to stay where they are
• Ride characters can’t leave the ride
• Toys can’t really swim
• A Show of Strength fails
• Back to town motivations
• Oracle vs Mechanical Child – are they the same or different?
• Now let’s dive into these ideas
• Research on Famous Dragons
• Does the Oracle give emotionally charged missions?
• Impacts of a Water Shortage
• We did just discover a hole in our logic
• What if a ride character has learned magic?
• Oracle missions are based on character needs
• The Child gives missions based on wants
• Watta, give us the big reveal
• Assignments for next week
• Finalizing what is up with Vidul
• Everyone else focuses on the first room
• Where’s the son? Where’s Vidul? What obstacles are there?
• Watta has a better sense of how this could end now?
• We don’t need to see how characters are working for Vidul
• An example of power
• A tower for watching the canals
• What if we saw something really mind-boggling
• A mist dragon with a high level spell
• The Meteor Spell is 9th level
• What would 5th level characters be able to do with Vidul
• There are 2 or 3 shifts that work the canals
• A Mist Dragon comes and wipes them all out, spectacularly
• That’s a necessary story event
• It means they’ll need to assemble a NPC team
• How powerful is Vidul? What’s their level?
• Perhaps the Mist has led Vidul to an artifact
• How can we make sure the party doesn’t just rush in all the time?
• This is good work
• Next week, let’s eat a meal after our session