DM Tony's Heartwarming Story [RPG Wholesome Stories]

0:00 Sometimes talking with friends feels like role playing. Sometimes it feels like combat. Join us at the round table and roll an ish too. This is Curmudgeons and Dragons. Hello adventurers, Welcome to Curmudgeons and Dragons. I m j Supportizo. I'm joining once again in person before he gets to stop me, and once again. Uh, you've already lost your funky flow. Yeah. Yeah, I interrupted myself and threw myself off. That's that's the kind of game we're playing today. Jim Crocker is here, Yeah, in person, once again, live at the Keep in Brick, New Jersey. Yeah.

0:49 The fact that you messed yourself up means my work here is done. Yeastic job. Just keep doing nothing and we'll just a mere six feet away from me, because usually Josie that derails me without doing anything. Yeah, I'm being on my best behavior. It might be all the code's doing great. Uh uh. Live via riverside is Joe Daz Hello, and in person with us is Tony and Gracia. Hello. Man, I'm doing great, doing great. Thanks for having me absolutely, thanks for coming by, Thanks for actually for physically coming by. I met Tony a couple weeks ago. He was a player in my one shot that I ran right here with the keep um, and we got to chatting about about DMI and UH in gaming in general, and UM found out he's got his own podcast. UM, so tell us about tell us about D and D four or four. Yeah, So, UM, I have my own podcast called D and D four four.

1:41 I'm actually one of four people. Um. The other three members are the players. I am the dm UM. So a little slogan is join us for three first time players at one very patient dm UM. This is the first time that they ever played, best me when I run games here? Yeah the podcast yeah, also true? Yeah yeah, so it's the three um. The three players have never played Dungeons and Dragons, but that's awesome. One of them is very heavy on board games and the other one just likes role playing games and the other one's just a game roll around. We were all aspiring twitch streamers at one point, uh, so we kind of had like you know, fate like camera to the face and you know, uh playing online and you know, playing games in front of people.

2:23 So we were kind of already in that world. So we decided to start our podcast over the pandemic and they wanted to give D and d a shot also, so it is an actual play show it is. Yes, it is a homebrew world. It is a homebrew world. I see. Yes, SIS takes place in the world of Humbrea, but a homebrew story that I made. Uh you want to tellus about the world a little bit? Or or should we just is that just? Uh yeah? So that sounds specially like the word homebrew, so uh yeah. So Humbrea is a world that I've made. And one of the first lessons I've learned when is doing the show is that I created a world that was physically too big for my players to ever fully explore, and especially in one campaign. So it's made up of four continents and after trial and everor it's just like focused on one of the continents right now, which is South trillis Um. And if you look at the map where they actually traveled to, how big the world is.

3:16 They've only traveled like four points of interest. So the last as we recorded um sixty episodes so far, a little over sixty episodes, but an impressive number. Like yeah we um we. One of our key points that we try to stick to the most is consistency, So we record on a regular basis and where we're not recording. We actually have like weekly meetings to find out when we're recording next and what we expected our cap no headphones off. Yeah that sounds nice. So how long is an episode? Do you split your sessions up between multiple episodes or is it just you know, one A full session of play is a single episode. We used to record and then um cut a good stopping points until around episode thirty and they were like, no, we gotta we gotta like come up with a timer, like stick to it because editing is an absolute nightmare and I do not railroad my players any which, so we do two hour recordings and sometimes it goes over if it's like a pivotal moment, like I know, I want to rush them. Yeah, so any by the time it hits uh you know, the airwaves, it's about about solid eighteen to ninety minutes to listen to, sometimes a little bit shorter. Sometimes they're a little bit longer depending on the content. But the players are free roam, they're any they can turn left at any moment, so sometimes session preaps goes right out the window. Um, but yeah, so try to keep it to two hours and that's cool.

4:43 Because people hear sixty sessions, they might think that that's sixty like full length four hour sessions. But like if we were playing at a table and doing a typical three to four hour game, it's probably about half the number of episodes you guys have done. Yeah, be going into a campaign has been great for a few actual play shows I've listened to. That ninety minute point is just so perfect for now. Grant that I have a forty five minute commute to work, so back is one episode. It's just so good. So from a business perspective, we actually thought of that, like we need to um, not cater, but like we want to keep the commuter in mind. It's got to be accessible exactly, and like this is one of the original pitches for this What ended up being this show now was that we were going to do an actual play full of one shots, because there is you know, extremely popular actual play shows that are four hours per episode.

5:34 Yeah, and I just I couldn't get through one. I just didn't have the patience so commitment. Yeah, although the cartoon is fantastic, So I do enjoy whichever one I'm talking about. I do enjoy those shows. But I'm right there with you. It's just like I don't like listening personally. Now just not dinging anybody, but um, I don't like listening to all right, here's plan A, B and C, D, E F and they decided on plan G and you have to listen to It's like it's kind of redundant. I kind of lost focus, especially in an audible adventure. It's also the beauty of podcasts is that when you're going through and editing, you can take out all of the bits that do not make for a good storytell Yeah. Yeah, so that's exactly what we do, and we do upload that like on our Patreon or sometimes we'll just you know, put it down a while the raw stuff. Yeah, it was like this is where you heard for Patreon. It's perfect becase you're gonna be people who are actually already invested and they want that little gritty shit. M One of my favorites is I thought that Dad pod a lot on the show and they're finished product. They remove all the die rolling and all the math and stuff like that, but then when they do their live shows, they just put out the live show as it was, so you get them like trying to like count up all their dice and everything, and it's like it takes them a little time. Yeah, well, but that's actual gaming. That's what an actual game sounds like. Yeah. I've never understood why you call something that's curated that you take all of the actual play out of an actual play.

7:02 Yeah, I get it. We do our best to keep the number crunching in there. Our main goal is to make it sound like we're actually in the same room when we're not good um, because we're we're spread all over the country. Got one guy in California and one guy in Nebraska, and then the other guys in Connecticut. I'm here in New Jersey. That's very that is very evenly spread. It is. So we start recording in nine pm at night. Once the California guy gets home from work. Okay, so shout out ali. Um. So he comes to the door and he throws his headphones on and then we stopped playing. So Yeah, the U having having three different time zones, that's gotta be interesting. We've got we've got two granted hours are slightly more extreme than yours. Yeah, you got three, Josie across the Pond, you got three hours. You got minus three hours on yours. We got plus five hours on ours, so like, yeah, but then when you can record in like a nice afternoon time and I'm out of work already, listen, we do we do, we do for the show that we love. We're ilpe you hope you will love as much as I meet you too. You're really inconvenient if you were still listening and didn't love your show. So, so I's D and D four or four available on every pretty much every podcast platform, and I found it on the three that ill four it on. I used one, used one on my on my phone, it's a different one that's my iPad, so so I found it on a few different ones. So links to that as well as their Instagram and everything that you can find all their stuff on.

8:26 All of that will be in the show notes. Um, but you're here today to tell us I asked you for a horror story and you're like, I don't know if I have any, but no, I've been blessed with some great adventures all around. I never had anything that was crazy. Um, I've been playing since I was thirteen, but like that group has been pretty consistent. So I played like a lot when I was in middle school, and a little bit into high school and then Spriade games throughout college, which just close friends. So I never had like a falling out with anybody. I don't think a campaign everone went that long to have a falling out. Um, and I think I was too young for anything. I'm sure maybe I have horror stories of me because I'm a thirteen year old that was a third year old at the time whose like favorite hero is Link and he wanted a cool sword. Any story of me being thirteen gaming or not gaming is a horror story. I was not a good person. I was like, how do I be a town hero who rises to great power, you know and saves the world? And then like, you're not a mean character.

9:18 I'm like, but can I be? Like? That was me at thirteen? You know? But if I was my original my original, uh, DM gave me an ice sword, which I believe at the time it was called ice Razor. Between second and third edition, we like mixed the rules back there, and uh that was like the highlight of my D and D career when I was thirteen. I loved that story. And when my character died, I lost the sword, and I think I cried that night I was so upset. Reasonable that checks out? Yeah for sure. Yeah, I'll never forget Ice Raizor. You told me you had wholesome stories. I do. So we got we got two super rarities on the show. We got first of all, we got that that fresh um, get that original content just for us, and a wholesome story at that. So this is this is like, this is the Unicorn episode. So, um, what are you got? So keep in mind these are the first wholesome story has already passed, So if you've listened to the show, you would have heard this already. And the second one is something that hasn't aired yet.

10:20 We're getting ready for the fifth r of our story, and so we already had recorded that. Maybe by the time this episode airs it may be out. Um, but if not, you got a little inside scoop. But if not, that exclusive content may or may not be spoilers for the so minors. Spoilers ahead for those who have not caught up on t n D four or four. So, the first wholesome story happens relatively early on in the first arc, and now our group consists of a thief and warlock, a mini tour ranger. He's a so I did love the idea of a mini tour. It was it was awesome. So mechanically he's a minuteur with halfling stats. That's what we did. So he has like the luck fee and all that. Yeah, and um, like super blind and does not catch up on social cues very well. He's like the outcast of his tribe.

11:09 And then we have a goliathe fighter. Um. So they have not listened to any podcasts before starting this one. So although like a tief and warlock maybe kind of common. Uh, he never he didn't know anybody sure had this before, so it's kind of funny. Actually he land on the same spot. Yeah, um so almost. Um. He didn't know what to do with his backstory, so he gave himself amnesia and kind of gave me the reins of his backstory. So he started out um in the middle of a ritual that was failing, and he summoned the demon that eradicated everyone who helped him with this rituals. Yeah, so right, so then he he everything flashes and that's when he gets amnesia, and when everyone he comes through, he's the only one that's and there is this demonic demon Bunny in the room in a pot of blood named Reginald, and that unfold says he wants to go. He wanted to have a patron that was adorable bunny, that was crave violence and wants the human flesh. Yeah, playing with that.

12:13 Yeah, So now keep that mindset. Let's move forward a little bit. So so far as great. This is level one And now they've been on a road for a little bit, and the three people are heading into trying to pass through the Riverwood Forest, which is like a major forest in the world, kind of placed in the middle of the map to be really inconvenient from what passes by. The Riverwood Forest has three Cootoa tribes in there. I don't know if you get I'm sure you guys are familiar with cootoas. Okay, So the three of them are all have these different personalities and beliefs, and you all believe in the Blittle Bloop, which is an actual god in D and D in five V at least, but they all have owned the Blittle Bloop. There might be any form of that. Yeah.

12:58 In the dunder Masses died on the Monster's Manual, it says they all worship a god called the Blude Bloop, which is the form that they believe it to be UM, so it could be anything. So the three of these factions are waging war because they all believe in their own version of the Blue Bloup and they can't come to an agreement. So yeah, it's a classic D and D thing that goes back when when I talked about Vault to the Draught, Um, that's a thing from from that, from that descent into the depths, the classic D and D adventure And of course because this was like a you know, an early eight is classic D and D adventure. Uh. The original drawing of it is hot chick tits out with the head of a lobster and lobster clause that was what she looked like in this and the D module. So yeah, I think the description he gave is a little more PC yes in the M five, but essentially yes, Yeah, there's a silhouetted This is eighties fantasy, okay, very guy Gaxion. Yeah.

14:05 So the heroes are trying to bypass the forest and he get ambushed. Now, this is one of the moments where they don't realize they needs to run and they charge into the forest blind, not knowing how many there are, this is only one of the tribes. So they get captured and they wake up at a camp and this is when Drell just turned level three. He was a fighter and this is like a cool moment for him to get his subclass. So I made it like he raged out, he saved his he saved armost in menace you. Actually, I'm gonna pause just for a moment, so for the benefit of any of our listeners who do not know what Coutoa are. They're basically like Lovecraft deep ones. They're like fish people. Yeah, yeah, they're They're amazing that. Yeah, they're I think second or third edition of their art is my favorite. They're just like for anyone plays World Wark, like early adaptations of Murlocks. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, big big bug eyed fish dudes. Yeah. So they got um ambushed by the murd or a tribe and they got caught and then Drill the fighter saved them, and that's when he became level three.

15:03 He got his cool subclass powers. This is a cool level up moment, like the Piranhakuatoa. Yeah something like that. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, So fast forward a bit. So now they've been getting attacked by all this cowetas, so it's on site. So fast forward one session. They are now traveling through the forest. They meet a couple of NBC's and now they see another Coatoa tribe at a pond and it looks like they're resting, and with a couple of perception checks, they notice that they're wearing different tribal outfits, so these are different cowtas, and so rather than just blowing them up, they went over to them and as they started talking to him, they noticed that they had like a key a don't quote, a blood shard, which is what the whole campaign's about. We won't get into that, but they're looking for these blood shards essentially, and it's on a young shaman boys staff. And while they find out out, a shambling mound comes up and swipes the whole tribe up. It's a huge like mini boss battles.

15:56 So now the heroes are battling the shambling mound. They're eating these cowetas, so Natalie decide to run and realize they can't fight everything, and the big one takes the little shammon boy who has the bloodshot on his staff, and they try to save him and are actually trying to save these people and uh the ut and he's looking for his mom and then when they turn around, his mom got swallowed up by the shambling mound. So up killing the shambling mound. And now here's where the wholesome moment comes in. You got the murderous warlock with a demon bunny and at while they're resting, the Ghibli is very sad. He's like, have you seen my mother? I'm looking for my mother, and then he break it to him that his mother got eaten by the shambling mound. So the warlock, who's just wanted to burn everything for the last fifteen sessions, decides to use a spell called illusion every script if we got tree familiar um. So my Homebrew rule that we decide is that you can flavor anything however you want, as long as it's not game breaking or mechanic breaking. So we he flavored illusionary scud rather than writing a letter. You can touch an item um and you can like imbue a memory on it. So he took like a piece of cloth and he imbued a memory of his mother, of the Coetoa's mother for this little Cootoa child, and gave it to him and we like joked around as him playing baseball with the other cohetoa kids and it was like the home run. He looked

17:26 at his mom and um, I just yeah, and we didn't. We never Um I didn't. I didn't expect that to come from him, from the murderous, greedy, uh you know, teve Ling Warlock, because he hasn't done anything like that. He's just like he felt for the first time he felt said he was like in the story, he's like, I don't want to kill this guy. Now we'll take it his blood shark, but I'm not going to kill him, you know. So we're like wow, And then he some episodes later, we found out that if he used that spell again, it wipes away the first so we're like, no, no, no, that's in the game this forever. It's not gonna wipe the can't having a blank and just have it, just give this discompany and thing for that kid, that's imagine. It goes like to listen to it again, it's just nothing. It's just a blank It goes to show it to his friends, like, guys, check this out. It was just a blanket. Now it's just like that's cool, Okay, heads about it last like five seconds. That was that's a sweet story. Well, I mean that's what. It's a wholesome story until you cast that spell again. Yeah.

18:29 Yeah, so it's very touching and the hot Yeah, he's a sweet memanto of your mother. Oh man, it's gone right. Do you love it? Do you love it? Okay, I'm gonna take it away now on on my screen. Every time you said the word homebrew, it looks to me like Jim gets very skeptical. No, hombre's humber is fine, just humbrew is uh if you if you do it properly. So you know what. It's the fact that Homebrew can mean a lot of things depending on how you're applying it. Sure, I think you're taking like the Role twenty definition of homebrew, which is all broken magic items. Yeah yeah, it just means out of the book, did our own campaign. So yeah, yeah, I'm actually not that big of a fan of homebrew as like a DM. I'm actually more of a running for rules is written. Um.

19:23 But when it comes to like flavoring, and you know, if you want to play like something really specific and then it's okay, tweak flavoring is great. Brom pro skinning like that's uh, that's that's that's an important part of character creation until dn D catches up the Pathfinder with that with customization. But um, but no, that's that's a very sweet story. Anytime you can just like just get the NPC's really involved like that and like and doing something for doing something nice for an NPC, it's like the ultimate like selfless act, because that's not a real person, like like like at the table. It's not that you're not doing that for somebody, it's it's literally just a character in your game that you're you're going out of your way to be nice for. Yeah, that's a player character that got moved enough by a character in the story that they felt the need to to be sympathetic. And I don't think as a DM you can really ask for more than your players getting that involved. I'll even say that that's also a player being moved enough by the story to make their character. Yeah, why he did that? This is my I was like Hidden Devils Man's that's great. Um I did to you a little bit. I was like, wow, you can hear Tony cry on that episode of du that's you said Prett pretty early into first arc right, Yeah, I want to say like episode maybe fifteen sixteen. Yeah, yeah, you can get there in a couple of work days. Oh yeah, what I'm saying. Um, very cool story. I listened to the show. It sounds fantastic. Thank you, and as a as a pro podcast out there, it really does sound great. So this should be nice and easy to listen to. So go go check out D and D four of four links to all that would be in the show notes. Um,

20:56 Tony, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, we'll put an nsf W warning on that classic picture of Bill, Bill Sure, Jim joining me I r l oh yeah, Josie joining us through riverside, uh and uh and a big shout out to to the team over at the keep in Bricknew Jersey, So my friendly local game store. This is a place. I guess some guessing games coming up here check them out at the Keypoppy dot com and uh yeah and just you know, just seventam and thank them for letting us set up for the day. Um, we got a few more episodes that are becoming alive from here. So uhgain Tony and GROSSI as our guests, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, Thank you Adventures, Thank you for listening to con Mudgeons and Jackons. Please share this with your favorite adventures, leave a review on Apple, and follow us on social media. All links to be found at con Mudgeons and Dragons dot com.

21:52 Practice safe adventuring, my friends,