Episode 049 - Intermission

## Intro

**Episode description:**
This week we take a step back and talk a bit about our season 2 characters, as well as answer some listener questions.

**Opening Quote:**
*"You know what, I've had a really bad day and I just hate the fucking Eagles."* - Stephanie

**Player introduction:**
Sean, *"Hello and welcome to season two of The Tabletop Champions podcast. I'm Sean your dungeon master and with me tonight we have:"*

Kyle, *"Uh yeah, hi, hello. I play a robot, spoiler alert."*

Ben, *"Greetings."*

Scott, *"Mae govannen mellon nin."* (Elvish: Well met, my friend.)

Matt, *"Lightning does strike twice."*

Stephanie, *"Ahoy-hoy!"*

## Episode Summary

Intermission is the 49th episode of the Tabletop Champions podcast. It takes place between the first and second seasons proper. It is unlike the other episodes in that the cast does not play D&D, but instead takes the time to discuss their characters for the upcoming season. It is also the episode when Stephanie joins the show.

### Major changes to Irulan Lore

In season two, major changes are made to the lore of Irulan:

* 2000 years lie between season one and two.
* About 1500 years before the start of season two, the known deities are starting to grow more and more silent and seem to retreat from the fate of the realm. As a consequence, Irulan is experiencing by a large crisis of faith.
	+ The priests of Corellon and Vecna seem to have lost all divine power.
	+ The other deities no longer directly interfere with the realm.
	+ Many people have lost faith.
	+ The remaining believers have started to warp and change the tenets of religion to something more extreme and fanatical.
	+ Irulan is teeming with religious sects and cults.
	+ Infighting is plaguing religious hierarchies, cults, sects, and believers. The faiths are at odds with one another.
	+ It is hinted that Nedylene is indeed a deity.
* Dwarves are now the stuff of legend.
	+ Dwarves are only know as *'the Children of Moradin'* from fairytales.
	+ They are said to live in the mountains and underground.
	+ Parents tell children stories of *the Children of Moradin* to scare them into behaving well.
	+ Relics of the Dwarves remain, yet people believe they are ancient architecture.
* Cheawood is no longer on the map of Irulan, having been replaced by the city of Rivervale, a port city with a seedy element to it.

## Listener Questions

The following questions and answers were abbreviated and paraphrased.

### Q: What was everyone's favorite scene or memory from season one?

**Sean:** The fish dungeon011. I planned it quite a bit and was really pleased with how it turned out, and it took multiple episodes. They didn't actually go into any of my traps, and these would have been deadly. Also Jizzy Ribbits was there, which was like the best moment. However my most hated moment was when Silaqui took you guys captive and you couldn't have a fucking real conversation with her024!

**Scott:** My favorite scene is the two episodes that ended with Torrin killing a kid in manslaughter039. That was my favorite episode to record. I had so much fun with all the Nedylene stuff; and to bring back Paeris and fuck with Kyle; and then to end it all with Blackwood useless to her040; that was just the best two episodes. Also when Lord Duke Paeris got New Weedale.

**Kyle:** I think that was my favorite: Nedylene never really joined the party, as much as wouldn't leave014. I loved that. Also when Sean was setting up this gigantic champion combat to reclaim New Weedale and Torrin killed them without ever getting hit once, in like one round007.

**Stephanie:** The times that I laughed the hardest was when you called Ben *Clippy*, I lost it for days, I'm not even joking.

**Matt:** I think mine would also have to be when Torrin was about to have his arm chopped off and Paeris came back, and the egg was revealed to have a goblin inside040.

**Ben:** Stark's speech when he became the King of Irulan009, and the last speech I gave at the endepisode?. I had been waiting to give that speech from the moment I became king.

### Q: From your entire history of playing D&D, what is the best death you've ever witnessed?

**Kyle:** One time I was playing and *Die Hard* was on in the background and when *Hans* fell off the building, that was a pretty cool death that happened during a D&D game.

**Sean:** When I DM real life table games I go all out with handouts, props and costumes, and this one time I was DMing for a group who were all very excited except for this one guy, and all he did was making side conversation. And I killed his characters over and over again because he wasn't paying attention to puzzles and all he did was re-naming his character when they came back in. I killed so many *Power Rangers* that night.

**Scott:** My favorite character death was in a campaign when the party wizard got *baleful polymorphed* into a parrot and talked the druid into killing him so the druid could cast a ressurection spell on him. This was a secret conversation so during camp one night, the druid snapped the parrot's neck and brought him back as a troglodyte. None of us knew what was going on so we killed the troglodyte, which was the end of that character.

**Ben:** I was playing *Pathfinder* and one player just rejoined us after not being able to play for a long time, and in the very first session his character died outright to a banshee's wail. So the DM felt bad and ruled that they where only incapacitated and we revived them. Then we completed the dungeon, found another banshee, who also killed him.

**Matt:** I got two, one as a player and one as a DM. First one was when I was playing 2nd edition as a sorcerer/cleric and I was working with another wizard on a combination spell thing. So I cast *Grease* and the DM decided to be funny and have a giant slip on the grease and fall on me, and get crushed to death. The other one was more like the death of one of my character's companions. He was a ranger with a mastiff and the party got ambushed by a Bulette, which targeted the mastiff. And I rolled a crit and maxed out all the damage dice on that one mastiff. So by the end of it the Bulette basically just had a smear on its hoof.

### Q: If Dragonborn reproduce asexually, why does Torrin have a great great grandfather named *Tchochkie*, who has a wife named *Shenanigans*?

**Kyle:** Cause it was forced on him. Reproduction and pairing are not necessarily tied together in Dragonborn culture, so if they reproduce asexually that doesn't mean that they are completely solo creatures, they can still appreciate companionship and maybe even marry. But the real answer is the reason those two exist is because Sean made them exist004.

### Q: Did Torrin ever meet anybody or did he remain solo?

**Kyle:** I see him as the old, salty bartender at Tchochkie's who never really married.

### Q: Sean, do you create your own monsters for the group to fight? Also do the players have their character sheets uplaoded somewhere so we can see their abilities and stats?

**Sean:** For my fights, a lot of the monsters are from the *Dungeon Masters Guide*, but I also go to other sources. I reskin things, especially for flavor; if something fits the Challenge Rating, I'll make it fit the scenario. There's also a guy on reddit called u/ItsADnDMonsterNow, and he turns random quips from reddit into D&D mosnters, and I've used those stats also.

### Q: Where there any huge missed opportunities from season one?

**Sean:** One thing that I would have like you guys to do, when Silaqui took you captive and you guys went through the dungeon, and the door basically ate the lockpicks, the door would basically eat anything but food. And the next week I spaced out and let the door open when you fed it cheesy tots026. And behind that door was Silaqui's old phylactory. The party would have been able to realize that Elizabet was being used as her new phylactory, and I screwed that up.
There were also some missed opprtunities with the storyline. You guys never researched anything, you never did checks on that, which would have really helped you.

### Q: Where there any plotlines or quests you wished you'd have taken an interest in?

**Sean:** I wished you guys would have researched more about what happened during the previous–. The ending would have made more sense that way.

**Kyle:** If only we had someone to do research in the party. I do appreciate that the one time Matt tried doing research, his character had been drugged by Scott035. He did genuinely try, but oops.

**Matt:** Haw, haw, haw. Yeah, Nedylene screwed it up for everybody.

### Q: Whatever happened to Paeris' sister?

**Sean:** She got shingles and died. Honestly, if you're looking at plotholes and want them to be resolved, I'm doing my best here. She's probably still in THE Mage College, but resolving that didn't really fit in any more and would have been unnessecary to the story.

**Ben:** She kindof hated us after Paeris died013, anyway.

### Q: How do you like 5th edition compared to other editions of *D&D* you've played?

**Kyle:** I've only played 4th and 5th edition, and 5th is way better. I liked 4th edition, but it has a very different goal in mind, it is a tactical strategy combat game. Which can be fun, but I had a 4E group and we had a large combat that took us three weeks to get through, and most of that was me sitting in a recliner, trying not to take a nap in between turns. I think fifth edition takes focus away from combat and more on fun sessions and gameplay. I also like the fact that they reduced the importance of magic for all classes. Magic would have not really made any sense for a character like Torrin, who basically hit things with an axe.

**Sean:** I've only played 4th edition and a little bit of *Pathfinder* before 5th edition, but I listen to a lot of roleplaying podcasts. I love 5th edition more than any other system because, it's still in its infancy. If you want to play *Pathfinder* or 3.5, there is just so much out there, almost too much. 4th edition is just all combat. 5th edition is great for new players, while still giving experienced players ways to min-max. It may not be super-balanced, but from a freeform DM standpoint it's probably the best system I've played. It also gives you better chances at roleplay. I also like the in-depth character creation in *Burning Wheel*.

**Ben:** I've basically had the same experience with *D&D* as Sean. I still enjoy playing 4th edition and *Pathfinder*, but 5th edition I feel is a lot more streamlined, especially in combat.

**Matt:** I've played 2nd edition, 3.5, *Pathfinder*, 4th edition and now fifth. I feel charachter customization is now a lot quicker and more fun. I've had the most fun just making characters in fifth edition. I love the whole background thing for how it gives me ideas about my character.

**Stephanie:** I like *D&D* over *Burning Wheel* character creation because it's not quite as much. But once I made all those decisions in *Burning Wheel*, I literally am that person. I like the quickness of *D&D*, but the depth in *Burning Wheel*.

### Q: What kind of equipment, mics and computers is everyone using to record the show?

**Sean:** I actually use decent equipment, but I'm in a shitty room. Now I'm using a Sure 14A because it's not dynamic. My audio should be a lot better than it is. I also have an XLR2 USB.

**Kyle:** We all know that Matt actually gets a *"Looses the Internet"* award here. Ben and Matt use an Audio Technica ATR 2100-USB, very cheap, sound good. Scott uses my old microphone, which is a Samsung CO1U. I'm now using a bunch of really good knock-off Sure SM58A, but they are fantastic.
In terms of recording everybody uses audacity because it's free, but I use audio hijack on my mac because I also record our skype call as a backup.
I edit our show in its entirety directly from my iPad. We get all the recordings together in Google Drive and I edit in an application called Fairight recording studio from the iOs app store.

### What is your favorite Sean-fucking-up-moment in this podcast that the listeners never heard?

**Kyle:** First of all, congratulations, Sean's lovely wife is pregnant. I'm fairly confident that one night we had a little bit of a pause when somebody had to use the restroom and it took an awfully long time for him to come back; and I'm fairly confident we were playing D&D: the conception night.

**Scott:** I thought you were gonna say my favorite thing that was cut out, which was the time Sean pooped himself in a Ninja Turtle onesie.

**Stephanie:** That was twitch.tv dude, that was live.

**Sean:** That shit really happened. There was also the time that I bashed my head into a bird feeder because I was running to my car for the *Monster Manual* and I cut my head open.

**Ben:** And afterwards there were a couple times when you just weren't responding after you bashed your head and we were just like *"Aaah-?"*

## Memorable Quotes

**Sean,** *"Mica also agreed to draw me naked on a chaiselongue, drinking a goblet of you guys' tears."*

**Scott,** *"My character and Matt's character are pretty intertwined in our backstories."*
**Kyle,** *"Yeah. They're both weak to grass and water types."*

**Kyle,** *"My Torrin hat is just me with three beers in."*

**Sean,** *"I'm the Guy Fiery of D&D."*

## Trivia

* Sean describes Rivervale as the city for the start of season two, but in the following episode the party starts in Caer Cane instead.
* Sean explains that the seedy port town of Rivervale has canonically replaced Cheawood on the map of Irulan. The actual impact of Rivervale on the fate of the realm is unknown, since season two changed a lot once the campaign started to unfold.
* Some details about the initial meeting of the five player characters are imagined differently in this episode from what they were played out to be in the following episode.
* Sean hints that he and Scott are working on the second and third podcast the crew is planning to release soon. These projects ultimately came to a halt and the TTC Irulan campaign became the single flagship.