Behind the Screens

## About

Behind the Screens is a live discussion show talking about playing and running Tabletop RPGS. Wednesdays 2pm PT on twitch.tv/geekspacetv

> *The funny thing about this show, and the concept for this show, is that I have literally been playing D&D longer than you've been alive.~*Pupil, to Teach.
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> *Having played D&D that long, I can still safely say you're one of, if not the best GM I have ever known. [...] I've met Matt Mercer.*~Same, to same.
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> *Feel free to put any of this up on the Wikia.*~Anna.
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## Cast

* RandomTuesday
* Anna Geeks

## Trivia and quotes

### Ep 1

It looks like there will be divine mixing spoons and a god of pastries in Anna's world, or at least a pastry cult. Lauren's *pastryon*, a sort of pantheon,didn't seem to pass muster though.

*Prestidigitation* is the most powerful spell.~Anna

*Speak to Animals* is the best spell.~Lauren

### Ep 2

*Pandas are not helping themselves*.~Lauren

*Koalas are super flammable*.~Lauren

*New Zealand won't kill you but Australia will* (Trooper). *It's the Shire*.~Anna

*Alignment isn't a thing*.~Anna

*Worst spell? Time Stop. The high-level magic user stops time, deals with all the problems, unstops time and the rest of the players are like: "Well, that was cool."*~Trooper

### Ep 3

***Don't be Batman!*** *[...] Have something to care about*.~Anna

*I don't like Batman.*~Lauren.

*Do not tempt me to cancel this show and go with that other idea*.~Anna

*How adorable is that, a roving band of little tortles* *playing instruments? That's amazing*.~Anna

*Communicate! Pretend that you are all adults at the table and actually talk about things honestly and openly*.~Anna

*How do you roll a 1 on eating a cupcake?*~Anna *I took clumsy*.~Lauren

*Would you like this cupcake of healing?~Lauren*

### Ep 4

*As long as you're not exactly 37, you're not basically dead.*~Lauren

*I'm not anticipating people lying on my cutting table. Or am I?*~Lauren

*Your work is never done*.~Lauren

The discussion about "canning" vs "jarring".

*Halflings are great, halflings are my favorite*.~Lauren

*At the end of the day, you can house rule whatever the fuck you want*.~Lauren

Tucker's Kobolds were a recurring theme in chat, and Anna addressed that.

*RPGs should be, generally, a collaborative experience. The GM isn't opposed to the players, the GM is a facilitator for the players. You're working together to build an entertaining and enjoyable narrative*.~Anna

Episode 1 will take place either during the fundraiser on May 26th or mid-June.

### Ep 5

*There is absolutely nothing wrong with using pre-made modules*.~Lauren

*Fishing is not a helpful feature in a combat encounter*.~Lauren

*I wouldn't give, like, dark and gritty shadowrunners a, like, rescue a cat from a tree mission*.~Lauren

*There is an impetus, when you're doing D&D, to put more combat in*.~Lauren

*I like success with consequences.*~Lauren

*[Markus] was not nearly as chaos muppet as the chaos muppets that I have*.~Lauren

*Claudia, I am never going to be upset about having you as one of my players, I hope you're aware of that.*~Lauren

*What would Fang do?*~Lauren

*Oh, I just need to broadcast all of Seattle*.~Anna

### Ep 6

*Spychedelic is absurd [...] It is puns and innuendo and super spies in 1965.*~Anna

*I don't have any idea what that looks like yet and historically speaking that's okay.*~Anna

*Coming in without an end is actually not as bad as you think.*~Lauren

*I played a character called Cassandra Straight. Her friends call her Cas.*~Lauren

*Cookies are great and I want more.*~Lauren

*You can be, like, allergic to your own enamel.*~Lauren

*My hair is purple, I promise you.*~Lauren

## Glossary

    **Crag(s)fall**: the city the party will be leaving at the start of ep. 0. It is a great vacation spot. It is known for being like Disney World: it's very clean, and very happy and very pleasant. It is a combination of dwarvish and gnomish. Where tourists don't go, everything is made for the shorter folk only.

**Cragslist**: a big bulletin board in Cragsfall where people go and post job listings.

**Habitats for Halflings**: *The Habitats for Halflings will make several houses and the halflings will take apart all but one of them, which they turn into a temple for Pastrius. That's right, they make it a bakery, because halflings love baked goods, but as a nomadic people, they don't really have good access to bakeries[...]*

**Mountain**: the mining village the party will be going to in ep. 0.

**Pastrius**: the Pastry Deity.

## Notes

1. ↑ *You betcha!*~Me.
2. ↑ Also featuring popcorn and sh.t sandwiches.
3. ↑ Lauren explicitly mentioned this one (Shadowrun: Corporate SINs #46) which resulted in not just one episode, but also a full subplot.
4. ↑ *NftE*: a few comments that stood out for me in this episode: Do split the party; In Corporate SINs, a character would only die if the player said the character was dead, no matter what the health boxes said; Treat your NPCs like stolen cars.
5. ↑ With special guest @TrooperSJP.
6. ↑ Title courtesy of this tweet.
7. ↑ Say, by allowing only fighters and rangers as classes.
8. ↑ Title courtesy of this tweet.
9. ↑ ... *or at least jaunt them* (Anna).
... *slowly saunter* (Lauren).
10. ↑ In chat, @pumpikin1 described various way of mapping the world: "Entire World", "Entire Known World" and "*Relevant World*".
11. ↑ Title courtesy of this tweet.
12. ↑ Such as defeatiing the *Baking Bad*.
13. ↑ Funnily enough, Bossman's Buffs happened the following Friday. But he was not an antagonist.
14. ↑ Title courtesy of this tweet. See also an alternate title here.
15. ↑ Special end-of-show guest: Claudia.
16. ↑ Quoting Iffrithiel in chat, here: *So being a Gm is about creatively sabotaging player's solutions?*
17. ↑ Sidenote from Anna: The Buffy System works very well on twitch.
18. ↑ ... or the wrong one, but using it in the right way.
19. ↑ Unless you have the benefit of having some amazing people who keep track of your wiki and the wiki has in it so much information that you can go reference as a GM. *NtfE*: thanks for the kind words, Lauren.
20. ↑ Pro tip from Lauren: *Use all your senses*.
21. ↑ See, for instance, this page about tortles.
22. ↑ Replying to @pumpikin1's question: *Are Pastry Deity's Spell Scrolls, really Pastries or Cookies or something that they eat to "cast" their spells?*
*NftE*: The Pastry Deity was also referred to as the Great Pastriess (thanks to @quasi79 for the spelling)
23. ↑ *NftE*: I am relieved. I lived through that tricky age.
24. ↑ Comment in chat by @CaptSardonic: *It's a cutting table: hopefully it can support at least half a person.*
*NftE*: #NotAKnifeGirl
25. ↑ *NftE*: I put this quote here because the story behind is so cute.
26. ↑ See Ep 4
27. ↑ See Ep 4.
28. ↑ See Ep 4
29. ↑ See Ep 4
30. ↑ See Ep 4
31. ↑ See Ep 4 but the idea of a Pastry deity was there in Ep 1 already.