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Jeremy Crawford Interview on FC3 Monkey Business

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Listen to “Jeremy Crawford Interview” on Spreaker.
everything geeky and since anything is
geeky if you love it enough you never
know what you’re going to get this is
your host I am si this week we will be
talking about it for the fifth edition
of Dungeons & Dragons Jeremy Crawford
after that I’m seriously after that
stick around for our upcoming events
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how are you today good yeah and it’s
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Virginia for change not playing house I
see thank you very much for that who’s
that Chris is there oh hey Chris how you
doing buddy good good morning good to
hear your voice mate good to hear your
voice all right
so jumping right into it
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beardy is this nickname but Josh I in
the Coppinger right there no no Josh
Coppinger and I have been handling the
weekend shifts I know I wouldn you’ve
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did you or know you’ve got your own
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then we are mighty monkey underscore TV
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schedule fairly soon Bernard Marvin’s
been our team captain on that he’s been
keeping us organized there was a lot of
fun I got to play Warcraft for the first
time in ages and I had a visitor cat
little fuzzy visitor the cat that we are
keeping for the next couple of months is
has claimed me as her own yes which is
which is great just great you don’t like
cats Chris I’m not a huge cat fan I can
I I don’t dislike them as much as I used
to when I was younger I can I can enjoy
them but it’s like being a grandparent I
enjoy them and know that they can I can
then walk away from them and send them
home or something along those lines the
fact that this one’s been living with me
for a couple of months now running
around the house and running around the
house when I’m trying to sleep stuff
like that it’s just taken some getting
used to I last night we went out to
dinner with my sister and her husband
and their kids I love their kids yes but
that’s exactly how I feel to my kid
thank God we have cats that’s all good
how many do you have right now right now
for right now for tomorrow no I can put
them up how are things out in your neck
of the woods Sheree and Chris oh not bad
it finally stops snowing so you have
like 12 13 feet now feels like it we
have no more room to put any snow in our
yard we really don’t in the distance is
that Chris no it’s a Yeti Yeti where’s
Lana
Lana is at Derby actually she just
finished up Derby and she’s heading out
she had to work today
wait miss Ilana we do we missed our
dancing around in the in the production
booth but your aim will get better oh
you don’t even know you don’t even know
do we have any Apple 5 star reviews
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questions we love hearing from you folks
and then edandali are over here to my
left how you guys doing what’s been up
lately we’re doing great yeah yeah doing
good having some fun finally got my car
fixed so nice yes my my cars on the
perpetual disabled list my so I
understand that pain I really do it’s no
longer a death trap oh good that’s
important I’m not as terrified even
terrified for driving underneath bridges
right now but I was talking to her this
morning she goes you know what now I’m
like afraid to drive underneath bridges
and I said take another pill I’ve never
been fond of bridges myself especially
when there was that bridge collapse many
years ago in Minneapolis st. Paul over a
major River River Gorge that did not sit
well with me the ones I don’t like it
was heading from Tampa down to like
Sarasota’s the one you’re coming over
like Tampa Bay and things like that and
you’re just over the water the entire
time it was like the problem with tunnel
I really don’t want to be locked in some
place no she likes their there being a
light at the end of the tunnel About You
Billy I was just regarding bridges I
just don’t get the card game there’s the
the Don Johnson show Nash Bridges Nash
Bridges yeah I didn’t get that either
high bridges
I’m afraid of Todd bridges – I don’t
like going under Todd bridges it’s just
[Laughter]
really when billion eight was my sense
of humor I love it one of the guys I
used to game with online actually bowled
with him oh yeah
bowled yeah Billy Bowles I think bridges
Oh what you talking about Willis hates
that no I’m sure I’m sure they actually
said that to him one time by accident
uh-huh and probably got a death stare
for it if not no he didn’t just like you
know please don’t do that
[Laughter]
really funny good who would have guessed
that he’s the one cast member still
alive from that show I know seriously he
was the one some deep-seated problems
early on but he’s handling her yes sir
he’s doing his thing mm-hmm
all right I’m so excited for this
interview I can’t even I know you’re
like the gaming geek in me is like dying
for this seriously is sure he made this
happen for me die so I got dice out I’ve
got my first edition players handbook on
the table in front of me I have the
fifth edition players Hannibal right
next to me up like the you know the
beginning I wish I could I wish I could
but all right so we’re gonna take a
quick break we’re gonna roll out and
then when we come back monkey business
is gonna be chatting with D&D lead
designer and editor jeremy crawford and
for that we’ll hear from comedian Cal
what’s Kyle sees an old school video
game oh things we’re talking about games
yeah absolutely
good deal oops hold on one second it
hopes if I do it right pushing my
buttons have to do like corporate
parties and they’re like 97
years old and they’re like talk about
World War two and crapping your pants
and I don’t have jokes about either of
those things cuz I’ve never been to
World War two but here’s the thing
I know I know I’m very funny here’s the
thing though we have stuff in common
like right off the bat who here like me
owned the original Nintendo the original
[Applause]
they try to come out with their new
systems and the new systems are like oh
look at me I’m a new system but the
original Nintendo I know that’s how it
talks but the original Nintendo was the
best system ever because it’s the only
system that if it didn’t work you could
fix it by blowing into it you try to do
it first when that didn’t work so slow
maybe it’s the cartridge which I don’t
know yeah you know the best part of
Nintendo was the codes we had codes that
got us to the end of the game
immediately why can’t we have that in
real life just once I’d love to be on a
date with a chick and when she starts
talking about her cats and she’s like in
this cat like scorned and this one eats
gravy and this one had diarrhea I can be
like up up down down left right left
right B a start
[Music]
to Dungeons and Dragons players there
are two names that we all pretty much
know it’s Gary Gygax and Jeremy Crawford
Jeremy Crawford was hired by Wizards of
the coast in 2007 as a game designer
jeremy is currently the lead designer
and managing editor of the fifth edition
of Dungeons & Dragons and is an author
of the of many of the books he also
authors the monthly sage advice
newsletter and is extremely active on
Twitter answering questions from players
all over the world Jeremy thank you for
your time sir welcome to the show and it
is great to get a chance to meet you
it’s great to be here now we were
talking about this moon when Sheri first
brought to my attention that she had
managed to land you coming to the the
show to have this interview the first
thing we talked about is you and Mike
Murrells are in essence the Gary Gygax
and Dave Arneson of this generation so
my first question is this do you guys
like roll up stats for yourselves and
have duels over who gets to be which one
Mike and I have been close collaborators
for the full decade that I’ve been at
Wizards of the coast and if it if
anything the two people we sometimes get
compared to our Captain Kirk and mr.
Spock I will go with it
yep with usually with usually Mike being
thought of as Captain Kirk and me as mr.
Spock okay so you’re more methodically
you’ve got the the more logical approach
and Mike is more hey can I sleep with
her no I’m snow that was terrible don’t
laugh at that that was bad we each take
turns okay being methodical okay we we
each take turns having sort of wild
imaginative flight but but really the
roles we play is it
it is sort of Mike’s realm to often be
thinking of wild new things mm-hmm and
it is my job to take those things and
shape them into the products that D&D
play
holding their hand okay alright that’s
okay I see that
so you’re the Mike I would be the Mike
convention right and then my friend Dan
who’s the president of our company he
would be he would be the you in this
equation because that my job is the I
come up with all the wild ideas and then
his job is try to figure out what’s
feasible and how it all fits together
right right
okay so that’s a good relationship I can
handle now how long have you been a
player because you didn’t just kind of
like stumble into this thinking oh this
sounds like it’ll be fun you you were a
player for a long time were you not yes
so I started playing D&D back in first
edition when I was in elementary school
my sister played it before I did and she
said okay you’ve got to try this
crazy game out and what’s funny is when
we first start playing it I had no idea
that there were even rules it’s one of
the other kids one of the other kids at
the school would run adventures for us
he would just describe things happening
sometimes I think he was reading from
one of the modules that was out at the
time other times he was just making
things up and we would just make up what
our characters did we would just
suddenly decide we all had magic vorpal
swords and it was only years later that
I realized oh there are rule books for
this game hey wait a second that made me
that made me actually even more
fascinated by the game okay was this
shared language for people all over the
world to play the same storytelling game
and and build worlds in a way that they
could understand together from you know
one game tub game table to the next
mm-hmm
and so that that turned into this sort
of love affair I had with DND going all
the way back to again elementary school
and continuing to this day okay and he’s
not saying what year he was in
elementary school well then that’s he’s
perfectly that’s perfectly acceptable
oh I there was 19 I was born in the 70s
yes same here me too yeah yeah
definitely young enough to play first
edition
there you go as a matter of fact my
first brush with it was I was given the
red box went in in 82 and then I didn’t
have anybody to actually play with until
I got to college in 88 and that’s when I
found first edition well was a D&D at
the time I didn’t start until 1992 well
you know late bloomers are still
acceptable to the table it’s fine as
long as you come to the table we don’t
care I know we still have it we still
have our regular games now do you get a
chance to play Jeremy did are you so
busy that you don’t get that opportunity
anymore
so I have a home D&D campaign that I run
it okay we had our most recent session
just this past weekend mm-hmm
and so I made sure to keep my DND life
going outside of work and I I’m actually
very strict about my home game never
including anything that we’re currently
working on okay it’s like we I I sort of
frame my home game so that it is much
like just a person on the street DND
game as possible and we only use
material that in our books or just stuff
that I’ve made up as a DM right as far
as rules go and then the adventures are
all home-brewed and it all takes place
in my home brew setting okay so it gives
me a chance to experience DND the way
everyone else gets to experience it okay
and I found that I’m still just as much
of a fan of the game I work on as I was
years ago
before it even occurred to me that it
was possible for a person to have a job
working on this and yeah I was gonna ask
you about that as a matter of fact how
when did when was at that moment that
you realized you could actually make a
living out of in essence playing D&D or
or working on D&D so I actually started
out working on RPGs as a freelancer many
years ago I had a different career I was
working in web design I was at
California College of the Arts and kind
of in San Francisco overseeing all of
the college’s website
but I started wanting to dive into this
creative endeavor of writing fantasy
game material and also editing fantasy
game books and so I started doing this
as a freelancer is basically working
around the clock because I would go home
from my day job and then write and edit
in the evenings and on the weekends and
so over about a five year period working
largely with the publishing house green
renamed publishing I’d worked on a
number of books including Co designing a
Blue Rose a role-playing game for them
and built up this work and realized wait
a second how about instead of doing this
on all of my evenings and weekends I try
to make this my actual job and it was
around that time that Wizards of the
coast posted an open position and
actually it wasn’t a design position it
was an editing position so when I was
first hired on that Wizards of the coast
I was hired as an editor Wow okay but
it’s important to point out that on DMD
especially back then when we say editor
we’re not talking about a copy editor
we’re actually talking about a content
editor someone who brings the game
material into its final form oh wow but
that didn’t last very long but after
getting hired at Wizards and sort of
spending the first year pinching myself
not being able to believe that this was
actually a real job getting to work on
D&D full-time my job then started to
change it went from editor to then game
developer until now then designer now
these days we’ve actually erased most of
those distinctions these days we
actually call almost all of that work
just design okay because everyone
engaged in those different roles is a
part of the design of the game end of
our books but I have I have to say now
approaching eleven years working
full-time on tnd I
still about once a week we’ll have a
moment where I like really do I get to
do this still is it it really them if
it’s kind of it the magic that never
really wears off oh that’s great that is
great now my sense of timings a little
off when you came on board was 4th
edition still a thing or was was you
starting to work towards fifth so when I
started at Wizards it was actually at
the very end of 3.5 in fact I worked on
the very last third edition book and
then moved from that to working on the
fourth edition Player’s Handbook okay
and so then I worked on all the fourth
edition and then was one of the people
who oversaw the creation of fifth
edition okay okay well I have to say for
a long time I know you’ve probably heard
this or not but fourth edition was not
it wasn’t as popular as other editions
it might kind of in the right ballpark
with the way that was received yeah so
fourth edition had a large audience
especially for a tabletop role-playing
game but for an edition of D&D it did
struggle compared to the other editions
and you know there’s been a lot of
thought about why that was but really
the simplest explanation for it and you
know I’m gonna risk oversimplifying
mm-hmm
was was that it just didn’t feel like
classic D&D enough for enough people
okay and so even though there was a lot
that people liked about fourth edition
it was it sort of was it just a bit too
far from the place of comfort that sort
of sweet spot where people feel like
yeah this is this is what Dungeons and
Dragons feels like right you know I
might like a bunch of things in this
game but it’s just a hack it’s not quite
hitting the target right and that’s what
we we we professional armchair
quarterbacks we’ve kind of talked about
amongst ourselves those who
been playing the game for quite some
time with different the earlier editions
now I will tell you the the first moment
I picked up a fifth edition Player’s
Handbook and I purchased it and I
brought it home and I opened it up to
the first pages and I started reading
those first few entries I I can be a
very sentimental person you know English
major theatre the end of the works and I
read that introduction and I read some
of the first openings and I’m like I
felt that vibe that I felt when I first
opened up the Advanced Dungeons &
Dragons Player’s Handbook I felt that
vibe that that that knit that chill
exactly it was that feeling like oh my
god it’s like coming home almost it
really and the further I went into the
book the more I were started reading
what you’ve done with the classes and
and how everything kind of meshed
together and how everything it’s the
flavor of it I was like holy Moses this
this he had it he had it right out of
the park with this stuff I was so happy
with the streamlined some of the stuff
in previous editions it makes it well
see the difference I mean because we
have a we have a Pathfinder game and I’m
not sure if that’s a dirty word in your
office or not but we have our Pathfinder
game which is great it offers depth and
complexity for veteran players but to
put a Pathfinder game players handbook
or rules book in a beginner’s hands
their loss that’s that’s like torture
this is nice but then you give them
fifth edition and everything is is easy
to figure it easy to read streamlined
it’s elegant you know if I may use that
word and it’s just it’s got pretty
pictures and we’ve got an engine I
actually I heard a rumor that there was
some artwork in the book that was
produced by some local artists from
western New York so I I don’t know if
that’s true or not or even which which
pieces would be able to point out too
but I was like okay we have a local
connection very good but I think if I
can offer that compliment is that fifth
edition really feels like the old
homestead is back you know and and you
could talk that yeah yeah I give it and
you’re in you’re sitting on on this
edition and it’s be D&D has come
mainstream it used to be we’re all like
we’ll the the table of geeks in the back
of the library you know and if you know
as soon as you identified you’re playing
this game then everybody would you know
be open for public ridicule right you
know I remember being treated like that
when I was in college many many many
many years ago
but you know now we’ve got a critical
role and all these other podcasts that
are coming up we’re planning on doing
one of our own we just started a twitch
stream recently for our company yeah and
all these people are talking about it
and and you I hear him I hear folks
talking about games that they’re
involved in while I’m at the bookstore
just idly walking down up and down yeah
and I’m gonna share this anecdote with
you
and this just happened recently there is
there’s a a game shop in town it’s very
popular that’s out by my Tanya’s house
in one of our suburbs and and I went and
did a monthly visit and I’m walking down
the D&D aisle and there’s an older
couple I literally I put them 60s or 70s
at the very least and they’re looking at
books and of course Here I am I’m making
assumptions I made an assumption that
they were probably there to buy
something for somebody like maybe get a
gift for a grandkid or whatnot but as
I’m walking past the the wife looks to
the husband it goes can I be the wizard
this time absolutely absolutely yeah I
did a double-take engine in the and the
husband’s like oh yeah absolutely I
wanted to try a rogue anyway and and I’m
just I’m listening to the two of them
and I’m getting the bass kick out of it
I’m like I’m gonna be talking to Jeremy
Crawford soon I want to tell him the
story so I just I got it well and big
kick out of that and and we are we are
finding more and more that you know
people of all ages and all walks of life
are are dipping their toes into D&D many
people thought oh that’s a game for
those other people and right and people
thankfully are starting to see no this
is really a game that everyone can enjoy
you know of course of course even back
in first edition the player base was
wonderfully diverse
mm-hm but it was but that fact was often
invisible to people outside the D&D
community so I think really what’s
happening is this awareness is growing
that this community is diverse and
there’s room for anybody who wants to
engage in this high fantasy role-playing
to to give it a try
absolutely absolutely ask a mundane
question what’s your favorite class to
play so it’s a tie
for me and this has been true going all
the way back to first edition and that
my two favorite classes to play are
wizard and cleric and I basically
alternate between them okay I mean
really the unifying theme is I I love
playing spell casters although that said
there are times especially when we’re
doing play testing that I’d love
switching over to fighter or barbarian
or rogue or more or any of the other
classes just for a change of pace and
also especially when I’m in sort of have
my game designer hat on to make sure I
have a first-hand experience with how
every class in the game functions right
when my when my game designer hat is off
and it’s just I’m a gamer and I’m
sitting down to make a character my mind
always goes first – well which which
type of wizard or cleric and my wow he
is your spirit animal something I do I
stick to casters right now you have a
druid wizard yes a long time aberration
I’ve played with us even since first
edition I kind of work mixing usually
the druid druid wizard and I called them
a geomancer this whole jet is kind of
themed to them oh great yeah yeah but
but truly I think people have a tendency
to just gravitate toward and stick with
primarily like one type of class because
then that’s the one that they enjoy
playing and things like that I know for
me it’s you like usually a spell caster
caster like a cleric or a wizard or
sorcerers or whatever but then like I
will dip my toes back into the fighter
when I just don’t want to have to think
and keep track of anything I can just go
and smash in and hit everything and not
have to worry about me and Erlang go
ahead Cherie see I’m a little more all
over the place and in my favorite
characters are robes but as wizard druid
fighters clerics say I’m a little more
all over the place other than my love
for thieves mm-hmm see I always thought
being the support guy
I love being
min/max there’s at the table more often
than not so I let them go ahead well
well we have a table of eight Jeremy and
I don’t know if that’s do you do you
find yourself in with large I mean I
always see that the the modules are set
for four to five characters but then
when you have these tables that are
eight nine people it’s it’s just it’s
Wow it can be mind-numbing sometimes
well in in my in my home game I have
seven players okay yeah yeah and I I
I often actually have larger groups also
when I DM at conventions and one one of
the things I love about DMing fifth
edition is sort of like first and second
edition it’s a little easier to have
larger groups than it was incurred and
fourth edition oh yeah so IV I’ve even
had I think nine players might be the
most stuck domed in in fifth edition but
yeah right now I have seven there was a
time I played again back in colleges
when I started learning with a D&D and
second edition was just kind of started
to trickle into the horizon but I was at
an event that we had on campus where
there were two DMS and 26 players yeah
that was it was it was an interesting it
was an interesting weekend and and of
course there was also an equal amount of
beer because you have to play it the
right way but yeah I’ve always been the
support guy because I always try to fill
those niches and make sure that the rest
of the party is not like stepping too
far across that red line and bring him
back you know so right so you and I are
both casters so there we go were twins
separated by birth or something like
that what I have a couple of just
regular questions to stuff that was put
to me by the prep crew by are my
favorite producer who’s on the phone
with us today and one of them is what do
you think is your biggest success so far
in regards to D&D so the thing that has
pleased me most is it connects to
something I was talking about earlier
and that is that so many people now feel
like there’s a place for them at the D&D
table that that probably more than
anything else when I go to convince
when I talked to people online when
people told me their stories of this is
a game I was always interested in but I
felt like you know this this is for
those other guys and not for me but now
I feel like I can try it I just love
that it it makes me feel so happy
because then it it really drives home
that in addition to this being a type of
entertainment D&D is also a wonderful
way to spark friendship it’s a way for
people to engage with their own creative
interests by telling stories and
building worlds and conjuring up gods in
these in these sometimes whole cosmos is
that they create for the games that
they’re that they’re running I love that
I’ve been able to help create this
environment where people can engage with
this with these sort of friendship
making engine this creative fire mm-hmm
it’s very gratifying and and that’s and
like I saw about earlier it’s the how
it’s been going mainstream I see all
these articles talking about how gaming
has affected people’s lives how its
brought folks together as you have said
and then I see other applications where
you know they’re reaching out to
autistic children because it gives them
that opportunity to kind of come out of
their comfort zone in a safe place you
know and they can they can learn to
problem solve and and expand on social
skills it’s important to me because I
have a very dear friend of mine who’s
whose seven-year-old son is autistic and
so she has been asking me questions
about eventually getting him into gaming
and and he’s apparently he’s looking
forward to it from what I’m being told
so this you’ve got these different
little microcosms all coming together
under the umbrella of this one Player’s
Handbook it’s it’s it’s amazing to see
yeah yeah and just just a few weekends
ago I was down in the Bay Area and I had
the privilege of getting to DM for the
DMD Club at my niece’s school and at the
school they have this wonderful DD
after-school program and the teacher was
telling me that playing the game has
really helped a number of the kids you
know both socially and also
with problem solving math reading etc
and for me I just got to come in and
just have a ball being the DM for these
wildly creative kids mm-hmm that’s
phenomenal that’s it
Dali did you have a question yeah I
actually have a question as well because
we’re talking about it going mainstream
and it being in the mainstream media
mm-hmm
how did you feel about seeing it on that
the Netflix hit stranger things how did
you feel when you saw it there
totally totally delightful not only just
because I love to see our game you know
appearing places like that but in
stranger things in particular
I loved it being there because those
kids remind me of me and my friends
because that is we were about that age
when we were playing and in fact in my
current home D&D group I one of my
players my friend Andy he and I have
been playing D&D together since
basically we were those kids so it it
was almost like you know personal for me
seeing that show so I’d loved it so how
many jokes of the demo Gargan comes out
in the middle of the gaming table so you
know it’s funny the demon organ has
never actually really been a big thing
for us I’ve never encountered one in 30
years and your and your husband will
keep he has a figure you bring it out
once in a while too but we never
actually fight one mean demon Gorgon is
a big deal for us in my work you know
because we I’m even you know demon
Gorgon that appeared in out of the abyss
one of our adventures within the last
couple of years but yeah it’s funny as
it as a DM going a whole impact the
first edition I have never run a game
with demon Gorgon in it but still of
course being Dima Gorgon and stranger
things are still resonant because it it
sparks these memories of having the
first edition Monster Manual and being
de mallorca in it mm-hmm absolutely
absolutely
you got some time for some fan questions
we were talking up that we were gonna be
talking to you this weekend so we had a
lot of people saying oh yeah ask him
this ask him this absolutely all right
now the first one is is what is your
favorite character you’ve played in a
campaign you mentioned how you’re
partial to wizards and clerics but is
there one particular character who is
like your your go to this is Jeremy
Crawford’s guy yes my favorite character
is the character I’ve actually played
many times mm-hmm his name is Cornelius
and he is actually the semi divine being
who keeps forgetting who he is and being
reborn in different D&D worlds and so
this is this is the story for how I can
keep remaking him as a first-level
character nice what that’s awesome what
what’s funny is he every time he
reappears he always reappears as an old
man so even though he’s first level he
still looks like this wizened you know
wizard or cleric and his also his class
changes always either a wizard or a
cleric and he also has a a pet owl who
when he’s a wizard if that owl is his
familiar and actually often in his
rebirths he and the owl switch names oh
that’s great because this this is how
the fuddled he is is he forgets
sometimes which name is his and which
name is the owl
so the Owls name is Simeon but sometimes
the wizard is named Simeon and the owl
is Cornelius so it it goes back and
forth I love it and see that’s that’s
the kind of storytelling flavor flavor
that just that makes the game right
there for me
it’s the Doctor Who of D&D very slightly
different but it’s still kind of the
core is there that’s great what is the
best campaign you have ever played and
what made it the best
Wow so so I have to confess I don’t
actually get to play D&D much because
I’m almost always the DM okay but I
would say in in the last decade
my favorite campaign that I got to play
in was
Perkins fourth edition campaign we we
played that at the office or pretty much
the whole run fourth edition and it was
a it was a great time I mean as anyone
knows who’s seen Chris diem he’s a
marvelous dungeon master mm-hmm and it
was also that that campaign was a kind
of crazy meat grinder and I think by the
end every character had died at least
once
except for my character I was we figured
out at the end at the end of this five
year campaign I think my character was
the only person who had managed to
survive all the way from first level
yeah it was it was great it was crazily
epic and in Chris did a great job of
really leveraging the superheroism that
was a part especially a high level
fourth edition play okay yeah I’ve in
recent like the past year or two I’ve
been watching a lot of Chris on YouTube
and Matt Mercer did these two guys have
become basically my up my idols in terms
of being a dungeon master it’s good I’m
sorry what a lot of people don’t know is
that Chris is also a delightful player
because I’m actually his dungeon master
so yeah Chris yeah Chris plays in my
home D&D game and he plays he plays this
wily rogue and it is always surprising
me in good ways with the wacky stuff
that his rogue does and I think that’s
one of the great things about it is you
Gary before you and all of the editors
before you and you included I have
always made it very clear this book this
Player’s Handbook is not set in stone
this is not cement this is the
guidelines this is you know this is to
help adjudicate your imagination but let
your imagination just roll just go
suggest things and then hey look if we
have to roll dice roll roll dice and
figure it out from there
you know Tanya’s husband Randy has been
one of our main DMS I’m also a main DM
for our table but we’re both we both to
say hey they’ll you make a suggestion
role did I see what happens you know
it’s it’s the best way to look at it I
future damming again with you you have
no idea um I do it about three four
months and then my ATD kicks in I know
like okay I’m done my current campaigns
about a year old but no it’s like it’s
really hard when you DM the Wexler’s
when they go to different directions
it’s there is we have a tenth alignment
at our table there’s there’s chaotic
good chaotic neutral chaotic evil and
chaotic Wexler it’s the last name of
these this father-daughter combination
and I think and they don’t plan it but
they do it anyway it’s like cherry
trying to herd the cats that oh it’s
terrible nailing jello to a tree sherry
I’m sorry I don’t know I just like I
just don’t have like a huge grasp on all
the rules and the background and things
like that in order to stick with it and
to do all that type of stuff and I’m
like I’ve I’m not a big like creep my
home home type of stuff I primarily use
modules and things like that but it just
like let’s say it’s a collaborative
process and and when we started this
campaign that I’ve been deeming for a
year it was our first fifth edition
campaign at this table and and you know
all of us agree we’re like hey but this
is our first run with it so even if the
DM has to say give me a second you stop
for a moment you go to the book you know
like you start looking for what you owe
you find the information you need you
move on that’s it’s just everybody just
communicate that’s all we’re going to
give them a suggestion
go ahead the printing of the books can
you make the page numbers just a little
darker for us people that are old you
know it’s actually funny how often we
actually get that request beautiful and
I love that has like this old parchment
feel to it but I’m sorry I can’t read
the little numbers in the corners
especially in our dark basement my
vocals okay
be my only critique director numbers on
the page I’m gonna go back to the fan
questions now kanya that’s gonna be your
new number your new name at the table
Tania page
number okay another question when adding
things to fifth edition’ like subclasses
monsters items etc how much of the
process is looking backwards to previous
concepts in D&D to add what people know
into the mix versus just doing something
totally new Wow
wow that’s a great question I like that
one so it is it it’s a mix so we are
constantly going back to previous
additions to seeing is there something
beloved that we haven’t brought forward
yet no so we want to you know make sure
we bring forward as many of the great
things from previous editions as
possible but as you can imagine because
you know we’re designers we’re always
always you know either experimenting
with things in our own D&D games or just
letting our imaginations you know play
we also have been new things we want to
do but what’s interesting is even when
we create a new thing we still go back
to the previous editions to see alright
we have this idea has it actually been
done before but what may be called
something else and if so is there some
inspiration we can get from the previous
editions for how we implement this new
thing is there maybe some connective
tissue we can create between that old
thing and the new thing so it the new
thing actually still feels like it’s
growing out of the same soil as the
original thing because we want we want
even our new things to feel like they’re
totally at home next to something that
has maybe been in the game for 40 years
because it’s always important to us that
dandy going forward not only feel like
it’s fresh and alive it’s constantly
sprouting new things but that it also
has that wonderful feel of the game that
some of us started playing you know back
in the 70s mm-hmm Wow
I like how a lot of the the basic like
the magic items have been streamlined so
you don’t have + 5 + 6 + 29
craziness it’s plus one plus two plus
three right so you can count like if you
know for the regular MMO players out
there you’ve got your green your blue
and your Purple’s in terms of your magic
item quality and and it’s helped really
balance everything you know when I first
started opening up and looking at the
math of a fifth edition I was like wait
that doesn’t but and then it started
clicking and I’m like okay this is
really cool and it makes everything a
little bit easier to deal with and you
don’t have like I think one of the
downfalls of third edition was when
you’re in the epic epic levels you know
the paperwork involved was was amazing
and so you’re you’re oh I’m plus 53 to
hit and I’m but my armor class is only
at 22 I mean wait a minute I’m just
gonna get clobbered yes but you know
you’ve got this new kind of kind of feel
to it where everything is a little bit
more balanced right down the middle and
I enjoy that that’s that makes it easier
for me as a DM oh good good to hear and
what’s interesting there is we certainly
had a mathematical motivation for
founding the games numbers quite a bit
fifth edition but I will have to say
that math and game balance worked
actually our main motivators the main
motivation for us for what we did with
the numbers and fifth edition was
actually a storytelling motivation it
was important to us particularly when
looking at things like ability scores
that people could see a range of scores
and have a sense of what those numbers
mean in the world of dandy that there
would actually be a story associated
with those numbers here’s what I mean by
this
mmm-hmm we put a cap here’s a we put a
cap in place on ability scores of 30 and
this is just one of many examples of why
we did some of the math things that we
did by putting a cap in place by saying
the highest ability score anybody in the
entire multiverse of Dungeons & Dragons
can have as a 30 what that suddenly does
is it means that all of the numbers now
have meaning because if you can say well
the highest score that a human can have
is a 20 well then that actually then
gives you a sense of what an 18 means
that gives you a sense of what attend
means because you now suddenly are
in a bounded field whereas if the
numbers could just go on forever like I
could have a thousand strengths mm-hmm
it becomes very difficult for anyone to
imagine well who in the real world would
be somebody with an 18 intelligence when
there are also people in the world with
a 500 intelligence yeah but but if
suddenly the highest intelligence in
normal humans can have is twenty you
suddenly can imagine what a person in
the real world would be like who has an
intelligence of eighteen so it’s giving
those parameters to give you that
relatability exactly possibility so that
which then makes it easier for a dungeon
master to roleplay mm-hmm on stirs and
NPCs it makes it easier for players to
get a sense of sort of where they are on
the spectrum in terms of how strong they
are how charismatic they are it it it
also means that you can move on once
you’ve maxed something out because the
normal maximum of an ability score is 20
mm-hmm you will if you play all the way
to level 20 you’re going to often hit
that maximum especially in your main
ability score pretty early on in your
career at least in the midpoint of your
career which then means your character
can diversify because we also wanted
characters to be a little more
well-rounded to encourage more
role-playing to be actually a bit more
like full-fledged people in our in our
experience in our world where we all
have various interests you know no it’s
actually rare to meet somebody who is
good at only one thing yeah you know we
all have we all have a variety of things
we’re interested in that we toy around
with and so again we wanted to encourage
characters also that are a little more
well-rounded which is another outcome of
us capping the numbers mm-hmm and that
fits into my personal play style I mean
I’ve sat at tables where they were just
pure tactics all right roll initiative
kill the monster grab the grab the loot
get the XP move on kill the monster
rinse and repeat rinse and repeat I
loved a story teller I have a game world
that I’ve been working on myself that
whenever i DM I put my players into I’ve
been at it for
almost 25 26 years myself and I know
where all the good stories are so I want
to lead the the players to where those
ours so that they can go ahead and
experience these things and then I make
this big sandbox
yeah I make update and then they go off
in an entirely different direction which
is fine cuz I’m ready for that I really
sometimes you know so it and that’s just
I don’t mix that that’s it accessibility
factor oh you know that’s that whole
thing they’re cool okay another question
here’s another nice little brass tacks
kind of mechanical question what school
of magic is a ring of spell storing when
it’s empty
oh so the magic item wouldn’t then have
a school of magic okay well I thought
too but I figured you know just in case
he had something up his sleeve I wanted
to know about it
all right I thought so hey you know we
compiled whatever was asked of us and no
another one which class and archetype is
the closest to the world of warcraft of
shaman so the one that I would say
especially now with the release of Zanna
thar’s guide to everything that would be
closest to death no no actually it’s
funny I started answering this question
and you said shaman and I was actually
thinking of the fourth edition of shaman
okay I was about to say oh there’s the
circle of the Shepherd and Emma SARS
guide to everything which is a which is
actually related to the fourth edition
shaman gotcha
now let me reorient my mind World of
Warcraft I haven’t thought about the
World of Warcraft Shaam in a long long
time so an elementalist
mm-hmm so I would say a1 one great way
to emulate the World of Warcraft shaman
would be with a circle of the moon druid
who eventually gains the ability to turn
into elementals and also druids have on
their spell list the ability to summon
elemental mm-hmm so that would be that
would be one way you could try to
recreate that Wow class in D&D
recall that one of your questions no I
don’t all these questions mine’s coming
last but so I wanted to get the fans out
first because they’re my peoples I get
it
14 years I’ve been playing that damn
game alright here’s another one do you
conserve momentum through a
teleportation spell for example could
you save yourself from falling by
casting dimensioned or oh okay I love
this question this question actually
comes up at least a couple of times a
year so the rules are silent on this
issue I I is a DM have a general
philosophy of being very generous toward
creative play and I have had players
before who have done this you know
they’re falling hundreds and hundreds of
feet and at the last minute you know
they teleport over to a legend and poof
they’re safe
yeah and so the way I tend to DM it is
that that momentum is is basically
erased by the teleportation but that’s
just but that’s just Mike whole and the
dungeon master mhm
the rules the rules are silent and so
really if a person if a person was very
strict with themselves about running the
game you know by the letter of the law
rather than by the spirit of the law I
would have to say because because the
teleportation spells don’t say they
stopped the momentum right then by sort
of the letter of the law they don’t and
the person would splat on the other side
but but but again I as a DM m have
always been and you know not just
because I’m the lead rules designer now
I’ve always been a sort of spirit of the
law kind of Dungeon Master and and again
in spirit for me is is reward reward the
person who comes up with a clever way to
use one of their abilities I’m good with
that B and I’ll tell you my anecdote for
that is the very first time this ever
became an issue was
soon after the very first Star Trek
reboot movie came out and there’s that
scene where Kirk and Sulu are there
falling and Chekhov is trying to rescue
them and with the transporter and they
slamming in a transporter pad and then
they get up there like hey let’s not do
that so I used that as my reference
because it finally came up about like 6
or 7 months after that movie came out
where somebody tried to save themselves
with the teleport and I’m like well they
didn’t splat at terminal velocity into
the transporter pads so I’m going to use
right that that frame of reference from
another story to to basis my decision so
I you know respect the spirit of the
laws as you were saying go ahead ask a
question what was the deciding factor to
pull back on the haste spell all I knew
you were gonna ask him about haste haste
is broken it is a pretty powerful spell
to begin with in munitions and I can
understand the logistics around it but
when we when we were working on not only
haste but actually a number of
traditionally very powerful spells we
had we had a double goal and that was
make sure that these things are still
really saucy and spellcasters are going
to be happening to cast them but also
rein them in in any case where a spell
in previous editions had gotten to the
point where it was basically so powerful
it was upstaging everyone else at the
game table or was grinding play to a
halt as everyone got to watch the spell
caster for 10 minutes do whatever it was
they were doing with their spell and
also we wanted to rein those spells in
that were either so powerful or so
complex they were just slowing the whole
game down and making it kind of a slog
for everybody at the table so haste got
reined in because it it was sort of a
grandstanding spell where it said now
we’re all going to
watch the spellcaster have fun for a
while and or whoever was the beneficiary
of haste and so that that something that
affected again a number of spells in the
game where it was important to us for
the spelt again still be exciting but
not so exciting
that was was stealing the spotlight from
everything else in the game yeah and
also another concern of ours is sort of
than a third concern is we wanted to
make it so that you never felt like you
had to pick as a spellcaster certain
spells that like the you know spell X is
so good I would be a fool for not
picking it yeah we wanted to make it so
that there was always an array of
choices where you had multiple good
options and to create that array of good
choices that meant we needed to we
needed to pull back on the power of a
few classic spells yeah I think I should
have just read see for me and but I did
use it actually yeah regards to Sean’s
character but I’m like okay now mental
note
read all the spells before you put two
more in your spell book there you go I
took dispel magic and win well see there
you go now wait way back in the day in
first edition I remember when the party
wizard would cast Chain Lightning we
would all get up and you know go make a
sandwich and he’s gonna be rolling okay
now you gonna be rolling negative really
together
I could be rolling again alright so
while he’s doing that oh yeah we’re like
24th 25th level yeah he’s gonna be
rolling 25 times we’ll be over here
making a sandwich and ordering pizza
okay so yeah so ever if there’s ever
spells that need to be nerfed that was
that was definitely that and one gotten
nicely yeah shame lately got gotten
pretty good and that was it was
necessary thank you for I’ve got one
other fan
question them in one of my own but the
first one the fan question what happens
if you eat a bag of beans it’s not it’s
not your average taco night Tanya yeah
no and I I am always amazed and
delighted at how often I get questions
about consuming things yes I’m sure I
also get a lot of questions about what
happens when like the druid turns into a
mouse and the orc eats the mouse and
then the druid returns back to his
regular form yeah you know just there’s
a lot of strange eating going on a new
campaign I’ve seen it so the bag of
beans themselves have obviously don’t
tell us what happened so this is going
to happen in in many ways I have to punt
on this question because it’s so this is
entirely up to the DM what insanity is
going to happen when you eat one of
these magic maybe they turn into one of
the bright pink toads
I don’t know but yeah that’s there was
always time where we need to basically
arm the DM with go ahead have fun that’s
the best that’s another thing I you know
they had him in first edition and then
that those rules disappeared or I just
didn’t find it but the misc ability of
mixing and matching potions and whatnot
I when I found those rules in fifth
edition I was like oh god they’re back
yay cuz cuz they’re I had people who
would do that they would drink these
five or six potions before a fight
thinking okay everything’s gonna be fine
they’re not realizing they’re just
putting a time bomb in their stomach or
Randy is the dams like are you inviting
it like right after the other one wish
good so well well while you two were
were just not talking about misc
abilities hi I actually I grabbed my
Dungeon Master’s guide which
this is what I always do I always reach
for the books and looked up bag of beans
I was like oh wait this is right the way
we wrote it we actually hedged out the
possibility of this craziness happening
in your stomach
because because we specifically say the
beans only take effect if you plant them
okay and and in dirt and water them so
the DM of course could still as I said
before decide something crazy happens in
your belly but the way the way the magic
item is written these these wonderful
effects only occur if you actually plant
the the beans read the blah blah blah
says if you dump the bags contents out
on the ground they explode yeah that’s
how you get the explode right the
explosion but then to get the other
effects you have to plant them okay so
so the person’s safe because it hasn’t
been planted there you go yes it’s like
an earth elemental or that you’re
feeding it to yeah well you know they
get a DM DM gets to interpret and have
some fun with that at this point but we
have this catch phrase it good I’m sorry
I have to say I absolutely love the fact
that you grabbed your book as soon he
said I just grabbed my DMS guide I
thrust both arms in the air I’m like yes
we have we are a catch phrase at our
table Jeremy its read the blah blah
blahs because we have people who will
read just enough information on an entry
to get what they want out of it not
realizing that if they had read just a
couple more sentences that that would
have answered further questions or have
denied them the way they wanted to twist
something yeah the description the
punctuation is just as important yes so
you know and and then we have our our
buddy who who originated the alignment
of chaotic Wexler his first name is Evan
yeah Evan tar rules benders his
character named no matter what he’s
playing or what he chooses that’s what
we named him well I I constantly reach
for my books mm-hmm especially actually
if we were talking about something that
I wrote myself my my hand would be
twitching even more than normal too
reach for the books because I often will
work on so many different versions of
something I can’t trust that what I’m
remembering is what we published or it
might have been version 1 version 2
version 3 version 4 saw straps have to
go to the book to make sure what’s in my
head matches what you’re actually seeing
in in your DND books and I think that’s
also like from the players standpoint
we’re like well I’m gonna do blah blah
blah you should do this like well go
back and read that spell and I’m like oh
crap that was a third edition spell yeah
or 3/5 go back and look especially like
the protection from energy and it’s now
resistance to it which is I think only 5
off whereas like in previous is
resistance 5 Pointz offer half of the
damage exactly that’s good stuff knowing
that whereas in previous editions and
was 10 times your character level less
damage that was taken off so it’s like
reading that particular aspect to as a
player so now we’ve got the core books
you have Monster Manual of dm’s guide
Player’s Handbook
now it’s Zanna thar’s guide to
everything has joined the the clutch
then you have your adventure books
morgan Kanaan’s toma foes is that what
the one that’s on the horizon now yeah
I’m so looking forward to that one
Zanna thar’s has been I has been a riot
to read not only does it have a lot of
great information to it but I love the
little the little blurbs that santa thar
himself puts in these little
observations from the mind of a beholder
and they’re just I laugh I open the book
just yeah I will him with his goldfish
silic are just the little add-ins that
he throws in for every little class
every little you know every couple of
pages you see a drop in from Zanna thar
I’m just laughing my butt off reading
those so that that book is so brilliant
those little quotes are delight and
those were those were written by a
writer on our staff his name is Matt’s
ernet and his his regular job is to be
our Laura
he makes sure that when we say something
about a place in the Forgotten Realms
that we actually know what we are what
we’re talking about nice but he’s also
real he’s also really good at sort of
getting into the head of one of these
prominent NPCs and writing quotes for
them so he wrote he wrote almost all of
the Zanna thar’s quotes in Zanna Thor’s
guide to everything and he also wrote
most of the Morgan Kanaan’s quotes in
Morgan Kanaan’s tumble close I’m looking
forward to that looking toward to that
very much are we able to use this book
in your campaign Morgan Keenan
yeah yeah I’m comfortable enough with
fifth edition now that you guys can
start bringing some other source
material you need to borrow that yes you
want me to bring it to your house
sometime yes okay all right the last fan
question is going to be come from me
directly Jeremy as I’ve mentioned before
in my earlier conversation there’s
always this this one character class
that I’ve kind of mixed and matched to
to create a vibe and I’ve called it the
geomancer over the years it’s part droid
part wizard in certain rule sets it’s
been a little easier than others like
with third edition you know when you
gave us the mystic surge it just kind of
blended the whole thing together very
easily mm-hmm I’m noticing in fifth
edition it’s a little harder to kind of
fit together the way I’ve always wanted
it to so my thought was and have a buddy
of mine who’s who’s one of the min/max
errs but he’s good at kind of figuring
out good math and whatnot yeah is to
create kind of an archetype of druid
that’s a little bit more involved in
spell casting than then circle of the
land so my question just off the cuff do
you have any insight for me is kind of
really a good way to blend druid and
wizard his whole theory on the way of
looking at things is that everything is
connected the nature and arcane and all
it all blends together the universe’s I
just at his disposal kind of thing so
and it lofty kind of a thing but would
you have a suggestion of how to best
kind of gonna put that together in a
convincing format I think circle of the
land is a great starting point because
when when designing the
circled the land actually the whole
concept of it basically was it’s the
druid wizard right and and so I think
you know that’s that’s a great
foundation for you to build on it’s
going to give you a lot of spell casting
flexibility you get a little bit of wild
shape in the mix now one simple tweak
you could make in your home game and so
this this involves going outside the
rules and you don’t want to have to rely
on multi classing to realize this
character concept you could just add
some spells that are missing from the
druid spell list to that list and then
and just beat and go on your way now if
you want to do it through the rules you
can certainly take a level or two in
wizard mm-hmm
you could also if there’s just just a
handful of spells you want well not a
whole handful but maybe you know just
one or two you want you can also take
the magic initiate feat which is a way
for you to pluck some spells from other
classes so that’s another another thing
you can use for your tinkering okay and
then I would also when you go looking
when you go look at the wizard if you do
decide to go the multi-class route look
carefully at the different subclasses in
the wizard I think I think often people
making an an elemental II sort of
flavored spell caster would be inclined
to go evoker
because you know you’re gonna you’re
throwing fireballs and whatnot but I
just favorite think it might actually
you but but for the the scene you’re
going for you might also consider
something like the diviner where you’re
getting this sort of mystical aspect
where you not only are in tune with the
elements but you’re seeing some of the
future you know you can then sort of
push more into sort of the shamanic
archetype so there again a number of
ways you could do this so I’m going to
suggest also one other thing you you
consider not just awesome if you’re
going to go the multi classing route
mmm-hmm you might
also consider instead of wizard and
druid you might consider cleric and
druid okay and and if you do cleric then
you could go down the route of taking
something like the light cleric because
if let’s say really what you’re fishing
for is our spells like fireball well the
light cleric is going to give you that
light cleric has various fire themed
spell and then you’re going to gain
access to the divine mystical abilities
that clerics have so you actually have a
variety of ways you could build this my
god it’s it’s like going to the fountain
of wisdom and being able to dip to write
that’s amazing thank you I appreciate
that a lot is it these characters always
I think I’ve only had a PC version of
this particular character on three or
four occasions over the past twenty five
years but I’ve always had him lingering
in the background of my game world so to
be able to define them to keep them
fresh and current is very important to
me so that was that was really that was
awesome and I appreciate that what do
you suggest for a beginning person
someone just coming in into the game
that’s not really played yet to get them
started the easiest way to start is with
a pre generated character so that
basically you don’t take a new person
and say before we even play we’re gonna
have to teach you how to make a
character I think often it’s great to
have a one shot with a newbie to say
okay here’s just what the enemies feel
would like and it doesn’t even need to
be you know a whole four hours session
you can do you know a 90 90 minute to
two hour session which I’ve run before
at conventions you know just a little
mini dungeon crawl or some other little
wilderness adventure to give somebody
that initial taste and when I’m teaching
a new player I tell them very few rules
because one of the beauties of DND
unlike say a board game where you do
need to teach somebody all the rules in
advance so they can make informed
decisions throughout the game with DMD
you don’t really need to do that the DND
because it’s run by a person all you
need to make sure is that the per
understands what a d20 is and would so
when you ask them to roll a d20 they
know which of those strange-looking dice
to pick up and roll they need to know
sort of where to find things on their
character sheet but even that you can
actually point them to while you’re
playing and then otherwise the main rule
I tell them is when it’s your turn
particularly in combat just describe to
me what it is you want your character to
do and I’ll tell you how you do that
using the rules yeah and so I’ve gotten
brand-new players up and running in ten
minutes no more playing Dungeons and
Dragons they really don’t need to know
that many rules beforehand now when they
get to making their first character we
have specifically designed a few
subclasses in the game for beginner
players and also even for veteran
players who are in the mood for kind of
more rules light experience and so the
four main examples of these sort of
beginner friendly options are the
champion subclass in the fighter the the
thief’s subclass in the rogue the school
of II vocation and the wizard and the
life domain in the cleric we designed
those to sort of give you a really
classic D&D experience without too much
rules fuss and we find often though once
people get their taste for D&D and they
rise I love this and I want to make you
know characters of all sorts they can
usually figure out even more complex
subclasses pretty quickly mm-hmm okay
my mind is properly blown this is good
stuff I’m this has been great
do can we can we call on you again
sometime is that would that be cool you
can check with me yeah we have time I I
love talking about D&D and so do I as
you can tell because this has been one
of our longer podcasts is that’s because
I can keep going but you’re here you
have you have sage advice
you are on Twitter and and you’re like
your loyalty or Twitter I see that all
the time you’re always talking with
folks back and forth you’re very
accessible I do the best I can
there are definitely times where it’s
hard for me to keep up but I love I love
talking with the community and honestly
and honestly it’s a form of research for
me I am always keeping an eye on what’s
confusing people what’s delighting
people what do people want more it’s a
way for me to to stay engage with the
community and see you know where where
might we need to go next not not only in
our next book but you know one year from
now two years from now five years from
now ten years from now so it’s it
I view it as a very helpful so
reciprocal relationship with the
community fantastic and it shows and
that and I love how people respond to
you they know that you’ve got their
interests at heart you know it’s it’s
not just people generating a game and
hoping for the best and sending it out
in the world and saying okay good no
you’re invested into that community and
and we appreciate it from our from our
end of the community we really do
appreciate that interaction there and
there’s so much more that I wanted to
ask you about – I mean I know you you
met you know the man himself Gary and
and I wanted to ask you anecdotes about
that but I don’t want to take up your
entire afternoon as much as I would
delight to dive in it if you’d like I
can if you’d like I can close with just
a short version of my meeting with Greek
with Gary oh that would be great it and
and also actually I should say I also
met Dave Arneson okay it it it is funny
it is funny that I grew up in San Luis
Obispo California which is you know
relatively small university town yet
there there in that town I had the
opportunity to meet both of the entities
main creators mm-hmm so I’ll actually
start with Dave I met Dave at the little
game convention that was held at Cal
Poly which is the University there
became Convention was called polycon
mm-hmm
and growing up I went to that convention
many times it was my first experience of
what a game convention could
and one year Dave Arneson was the
special guest and I went to a panel that
he did and and even nervously stood up
and asked him the question and I think
it was actually about building dandy
groups and I remember to this day that
the advice Dave gave me was always try
to sort of have this open door to make
it so that you know people feel welcome
to try D&D out so it’s funny that that
is something to this day I attempt to do
with the game brilliant and then and
then Gary I got to spend an entire day
with Gary Gygax was invited to come to
the game store in San Luis Obispo that I
worked at the game store was called
games people play our game people play
and it the store was run by the owner
and me it was just the two of us
and Gary agreed to come for the day to
sign autographs and chat with people and
my my wonderful job was to simply stay
next to Gary and make sure he was happy
and so what that meant is it’s the you
know the teenage version of me gonna be
there next to Gary for an entire day Wow
listening to him talk to other people
and then whenever other people were
talking with him I got to chat with him
you know I got to talk with him about
the original Temple of Elemental Evil
and you know what it meant to play D&D
and he was he was this warm sort of
grand fatherly figure to me the entire
day and that that has stuck with me ever
since that that that that warrant that
he shared with me and that accessibility
had this creator of this not only a game
but really of this cultural phenomenon
and he was willing to just chitchat with
this excited nervous kid for for a whole
day and so that it sort of I tried to
pay it forward by now being accessible
to two people who are loving D&D to
I gotta imagine that he’s getting an
absolute kick out of that right now if
he’s ABS the opportunity to do he would
see that that kid that he was with is
now that steward who’s very
conscientious of how he handled the
games that’s that’s that’s a baton you
just you can’t pass up handing that off
that’s awesome okay well I’m not and and
I don’t I don’t think either he or he or
hike would have imagined you on that day
on that yeah I would go on to be one of
the game stewards it’s not one of those
things you ever you could have predicted
at the moment no that’s phenomenal
anybody else cuz I’ve been hoarding this
conversation Tanya’s jumped in but and I
know dolly had a question didn’t it did
I miss anybody
Chris sherry okay yeah I just wanted to
say how really appreciative I am of
where you’re taking the game and how
much care you have for it I haven’t
played in about twenty years and we just
started playing fifth edition with Chris
and I am beyond thrilled just at home
thrillin derful wonderful so needless to
say we’re thank you the things hearing
the stories and how much you care about
it I’m over here tearing up we are a
sentiment a lot over here very emotional
Jeremy thank you I appreciate your time
I’m gonna go ahead and wrap this up at
this point and I don’t want take any
more your afternoon I am grateful that
you had the ability to hang out with us
we are definitely going to be a big
follower of your work and and we’re
looking forward to Morgan Caymans
in May and and this has been Jeremy
Crawford and if he wants to actually
become a player you will be more than
happy to do him and I just her buddies
got to come to us yes I I would be
stuttering the entire time but I would
definitely be happy to if we could ever
get you to Rochester you know it we’re a
bit tight for our 2018 show coming up in
June but we would love to have you at
the flour City Comic Con come up and
just you know do a talk and we can play
games and have a good old good ol
afternoon good ol weekend but let me
know for a future one I might be able to
make it that would be phenomenal
be absolutely I mean you’d see me turn
into a that’s part of my charms
forty-seven going on 14 on a regular
basis April 27th and 28th for 2019 oh
okay so hopefully we can see in April of
next year maybe we’ll have a talk to see
if we can work that out absolutely and
and thank you I will not be able to say
thank you enough for your time today and
I’m looking great
it has been great talking with you and
and we wish you the best and I’ve always
wanted to I have to say this roll
initiative with my luck I’ll get a one
that’s my job my job have a great rest
of the weekend Jeremy thank you take
care so much thank you
okay bye okay that happened interview
with Jeremy we’re gonna be taking a
quick break and coming back with our
events we got some stuff to wrap up this
particular podcast for the day yeah I’m
gonna go pre than a paper bag for a few
moments Tillich is a silly but he really
illustrates the great array of monsters
all over the place not just in Japan but
across the planet
an A to Z gauge one panel example please
name our land please
oh geez easy peasy Mesa amazed seeing
that you contend you can meet Elka Dale
and believes they believe in him they’re
not afraid to say so Scotland Ness is
living up in a lock how about Poland
scary scarecrow name of butters
I don’t think my heart rate has gone
down 100 that was great it was great
that was awesome what a freaking class
act can we just I want to Jeremy
Crawford probably wrote breathing
breathing with a paper bag oh my god
find my Center we do fc3 board game
night coming up April 4th at 7 o’clock
at the NOx event just basically getting
together and hanging out with each other
I mean bring my pH and dmg and see if I
can strike up a game because I don’t DM
enough games right now no I just the
smaller portion of tails man oh yeah
we’re gonna be in the corner with tail I
could do tells me
our patreon James wants to play I mean
he’s played a different version of it
but he wants he’s hasn’t played the
second edition I’m not bringing all the
expansion so that will be April 4th 7
the NOx event room again Village Gate
mall the FC 3 board game come hang out
with us
on April 14th and 15th is toric on at
RIT we will be there we’ll have a table
there so we’ll be able to talk up the
show and hang out with all y’all you
toric on folks looking forward to that
there’ll be our first time at Oricon and
now we have some everyday heroes in past
episodes of monkey business we have
highlighted nurses EMTs and firefighters
that have been nominated as personal
heroes this week we are expanding that
list to include teachers the woman who
was nominated this week by several
people is an amazing special educator
education teacher who truly cares about
her students this week’s everyday heroes
shoutout goes to our very own my co-host
and one of my best friends Tanya Metris
Thank You Tanya for being our hero my
hero and remember not all heroes wear
capes she has to put up with us and I
second did it I did yay I love Sheree
socks today Sheree has otter socks today
love you like no otter yay thank you
that is so stinking cute all right and
our question of the week Billy yes sir
what cartoon or animated character from
your childhood is the most memorable to
you and why during that whole packet
what makes me happy this week what makes
me that’s not the question
[Laughter]
cartoon character underdog underdog that
just shows I’m old well when you taste
to when you said that that was the first
character I thought of was underdog
although no in Bret no Bugs Bunny and
all the Looney Tunes characters I know I
grew up watching all those
when you say cartoon character underdog
was the first woman so there goes the
dynamite right now how about you Tanya
oh my god there’s so many to pick from
I’m like kind of looking back to first
one that pops in your head of the
eighties you know how about you dolly no
you know the first thing that popped up
here were the Smurfs and you know what
that’s one of the ones I did like but it
was Jim in the Holograms that was nice
wasn’t your child there you go there it
is Edwin wanted to be a fun Justice
League and Justice League see that the
Superfriends that was that was because I
I played a great like Billy did the
first thing that popped into my head as
soon as I read the question the Super
Friends popped into my head
Thundercats although I remember when it
comes to Super Friends I mean everybody
thinks about the Wonder Twins but I
still remember Marvin Wendy and what are
your done
yeah those are my guys Sheri how about
you you crafted the question so were you
thinking of something when you did no
but the first thing that I thought of
when I just got to think about it was
this is much older than the eighties I
was a huge Chilly Willy the penguin very
cool Walter Lantz there was just
something very sweet and very gentle and
that was the one that everybody
associated me with if I’ve got to choose
what cartoon we were watching it was
chilly willie there you go how about you
Chris well it was Super Friends as well
but specifically Green Lantern there you
go because of his imagination and the
power he can wield by his imagination
mm-hmm I was just watching the Ryan
Reynolds version of Green Lantern as
people think it’s not real but it was
definitely not as bad as it’s been pants
to me
I was yeah it got the job done to give
you
to give you a little background Green
Lantern was one of my dad’s favorites
mm-hmm okay and and I have a green
lantern figurine above my desk at work
on my density of birthday cake right
okay so there’s a connection there and
that’s that’s an emotional connection I
like that that works very much Muppet
Babies all right last but not least mr.
Edwin me being an anime fan but I would
have to say that mine would have to be
the GI Joes okay real American heroes
and it was kind of funny because me and
dolly were actually talking about like
you know what Toy Story movie we liked
mm-hmm and she said does she like the
first one and I said that I like the
third one especially like close to their
hands spoilers by the way mm-hmm when he
gives his toys to the little girl and
that kind of connected with me when I
gave my GI Joes my transformers to my
little nephew okay that part right there
it’s emotional connections we have with
these characters that’s amazing
see for me my favorite animated
character is from Avatar The Last
Airbender and his crew um Katara and
Sokka or her brother and whatnot so that
when I think of my favorite animated
characters I think of that particular
group but from my childhood yeah it’s
gotta be the Super Friends
[Music]
oh speaking of Airbender you know
they’re actually coming out with a new
season now a new season mm-hmm is that
every making it into a comic book aren’t
they already have it into okay a manga
oh okay but Dan but it’s not gonna be an
animated actual like television show
kind of a thing oh yeah they had it on
TV for a while and then they stopped it
for I think was like I remember now a
couple years and now they’re gonna
bring it back again oh that’s my
attention
what’s that chair is it Cora that’s
coming back no Adventures of Aang
yeah like that it won’t go into details
they just said they’re bringing back the
Airbender oh it could be that’s has my
attention
that’s exciting
okay can I quickly bring up one thing
yes you may fc3 mighty monkey monkey
business related yeah and I don’t think
we’ve mentioned it but if you regularly
buy things on Amazon you can go to
Amazon smile.com
and from there you can pick a charity or
an organization where a small percentage
of your purchase will go to that that
charity or organization and mighty
monkey is one of those anymore if you
have another favorite charity sure but I
set mine to mighty monkey and this is
what was gonna make me happy this week
is that I want a copy of justice league
on blu-ray oh and I have mine set the
mighty monkey and because until the end
of March normally get ahead triple
triple instead of half of one percent of
the purchase price you get one point
five percent Wow as a purchase price so
by now with one click and Justice League
I’m not sure how much I made a
difference I think something like 37
that’s phenomenal
you’re my everyday hero yes sir i’m
interviews that i just had no idea what
I was doing half the time that’s amazing
so thank you for that this interview
made me happy that’s it we’re gonna do
that that was that was amazing
I was just amazing so I’m going to I’m
gonna go breathe in a paper bag for a
little while and and then get ready for
this yeah and and so wish everybody well
that has this has been that’s a wrap for
the day this has been great so as soon
as you’re ready Billy I’ll start talking
over it there it is and this has been
monkey business a product of the mighty
monkey corporation purveyors and
producers of the flower city comic-con
come
you june 9th and 10th of 2018 at the
Rochester Riverside Convention Center
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