A Ferry Special Episode

While discussing character journeys, Ally goes on an actual journey through NYC.

### Overall

3
1
20

### Runtime

1:01:43

TRANSCRIPT

## Episode Guide

### Next

The Buccaneer
Buddies Reunite
Bon Mots and Bánh Mìs

> "*I've just got one thing to say: manifest destiny?*"
> ― Lou Wilson
>
>

**A Ferry Special Episode** is the first episode of season 3 of Adventuring Party, which features the main cast. They answer mod questions following the first episode of The Unsleeping City: Chapter II.

## Guests

### Cast

* Brennan Lee Mulligan
* Lou Wilson
* Zac Oyama
* Ally Beardsley

## Highlights

Note: As this episode was recorded prior to the release of the first episode, all questions asked were from the Dropout Discord mods, who screen episodes early in order to focus on moderating during the premiere.

During the course of the episode, Ally Beardsley is seen purchasing a ferry ticket from Bridgepoint to Williamsburg, boarding and riding the ferry, and walking home to their AirBnB. You can't write this shit.

**From Drew: I think the question on everyone's mind—How's your day been, fam?**

* Brennan: So excited to be heading back into the Unsleeping City, and nothing can be more New York than Ally recording between other appointments.
* Zac: Feeling great. On a little bit of an upswing [the episode was recorded as the American election results were still being counted], let's keep the momentum going!

**From Morgan E. Lavandowska: What has it been like stepping back into the world of the Unsleeping City? Anything feel especially different or lovingly familiar?**

* Brennan: Shout out to Morgan for cutting it up in the phone banks!
* Zac: They recorded in what felt like the thick of the pandemic [the beginning of August] when they hadn't seen anyone for months, so it felt very fun to play with everyone again.
* Ally: It was great to see the pre-writing work that Ally, Lou, and Zac [and Emily] had put into their returning characters before starting the second season, and seeing version 2.0.
* Lou: It really is a chapter two in being able to see where a new beginning would begin, and what kind of new problems Kingston would be facing.
* Ally: The three of them really took the central characteristic for their character—being a drug addict, being a firefighter, being a single guy—and blew it up to create almost new characters.
* Zac: It was very fun to find that those things were not necessarily core to their being.
* Brennan: He really wants to shout out to Lou, Ally, and Zac for being able to bring back their beloved characters in such a creative way, even though the first season of the Unsleeping City had such a clear ending. It's very easy, when returning to a setting, to just backslide and repeat the same story over again, but that's not what our players did. It was so cool to see each player make the choice *independently* not to do that and keep the character growth they earned. On the flip side, kudos to the three of them as improvisers for "jumping out of the plane" when presented with a skydiving scene—beginning improvisors will usually do anything not to. He was a big fan of them being so accepting to see what the next challenge was, even though they didn't know what it was.

**From Colby: It seems like both Kingston and Ricky are each living a version of their dream lives. Both seem to be very happy with their significant others and have a healthy work-home balance. Was that fun to play out? Also at this point in the season, were you worried that Brennan would just start throwing all manner of wrenches and spanners into their lives?**

* Zac: In talking about the starting steps for the season, he didn't expect Brennan to just immediately upend everything they'd talked about. It's a very privileged position to come into the season with their character already having what they want, so it was an interesting challenge to figure that out.
* Lou: He agrees, that it made it more interesting and exciting when their status quo was challenged. There's not a lot he can say now, but there are a lot of exciting things this season because of how ideal their status quo was at the beginning.
* Brennan: We all know he loves the Unsleeping City (\*he gets emotional looking at Ally's background\*), and with Ricky and Kingston, we do see some sadness. New York has a very complex emotional palette, but there's no way to get the real vibe without talking a little bit about melancholy. Those moments that we see with Ricky and Kingston when they think back on how things were different, even in the midst of celebrating how good things are now, sets the characters up to have these moments when they have to deal with things and be human.

**From Morgan E. Lavandowska: Ally—Pete has made a huge change over the course of the past three years within world. Has it been satisfying seeing him move from dealing drugs to kids, to being able to help teach them the fluidity of gender and identity?**

* Ally: (\*camera freezes momentarily as their phone is on low battery\*) It is extremely satisfying, especially with their new sobriety mechanic. The crew did a lot of leg work ahead of time to make Pete's (and Sofia's) recovery realistic, and Ally is incredibly proud of Pete and themselves for not taking the easy way out and saying "He succeeds! Sobriety is easy!"
* Brennan: Shoutout to their addiction sensitivity consultants! They went with a game system instead of trying to cover it narratively because even when doing it responsibly, making relapse seem like a choice through a narrative decision is not responsible. Especially in a game where dice are used to resolve struggles of violence and injury and magical effects, they should be used to resolve struggles of sobriety as well.
* Ally: They think they did a really good job of showing how, with addiction, your history can eclipse you in a really scary way. You can put in the work and incrementally bump up your dice, and that's all you can really do, maybe you're not even aware of it. They just really love the system they came up with.
* Brennan: He also wants to point out that although Pete has really come into his power as a Vox and is pretty successful working at the bookstore, he only has a 60-day sobriety chip, unlike Sofia who was established to be sober for longer than that. It's been three years since season one, so just doing math we can tell Pete's been having some real struggles. But it was still such a beautiful moment in the bookstore for Pete to have this connection with a young student over both gender identity and seeing the magic of the Unsleeping City.

**From Ian Adams: Obviously there are drawbacks to recording remotely, not the least of which is missing out on Rick Perry sets! We love you Rick Perry! What are some of the positives of this style of play and recording?**

* Brennan: Slight correction—Rick Perry did work on this season! He was still production designer and designed the battle maps, in collaboration with Eightfold Paper, the digital artist for the season. Shout out to character artist Kendra Wells (who is probably within 3/4 mile of Ally at this exact moment!).
	+ *Zac: Rick also designed us costumes. (\*holds up a piece of paper to the camera which has a small shirt drawn on it\*). He made us tiny costumes.*
	+ *Brennan: Shout out to our entire crew-- (\*Zac holds up the paper again with "Ricky" written on it but crossed out, and below "ykciR" written backwards). Hey Zac, did you wanna say something?*
	+ *Zac: Yeah, you know how it flips it around? So I wrote it wrong the first time and I had to write it backwards.*
	+ *Lou: You got it right the first time.*
	+ *Brennan: The first time was right for us, so right now it's only right for you.*
	+ *Zac: Goddamn it.*
	+ *Ally: (\*pointing to an incoming ferry\*) My ride's here!*
	+ *Lou: We're just gonna have to get you to crazier and crazier places.*
* Brennan: One of the big upsides to this style of play is that they're able to do it at all during the pandemic! Roll20 is also an incredible system that was fun to play around with, virtual dice-- (\*Ally gets on the ferry and says thank you to the attendant\*) It's good to say thank you!
* Lou: Just fully on a boat. Just straight up on a boat.
* Brennan: Another positive is a great commute.
* Zac: It was so nice to start recording an episode by going into another room instead of needing to get to West Hollywood through traffic. Roll20 was very fun.

**From Dr. Rainsolo: One of my favorite things in TUC is the animal companions, and in episode one, we finally get to meet Bruce! What was it like meeting this perfect creature, and what is is about magical New York that leads to animal companionship?** **Note: literally every character has an animal companion this season and/or Bazathrax.**

* Brennan: He had never realized that! Ox, Bruce, Luna, La Gran Gata, Misiek, and Bazathrax. Bruce is the only one who is not a class feature!
* Lou: Bruce just stays home. Animal companion is a strong word for Bruce.
* Zac: So pets can't be animal companions?
* Brennan: Bruce is an animal and a companion. Technically none of them are capital-A-C Animal Companions by game definitions!

**From Morgan E. Lavandowska: In the first season, both Kingston and Ricky had very satisfying character arcs. Was there anything in particular that you looked forward to touching on this season?**

* Zac: As they had talked about before, it was fun to see what it would lead to now that this firefighter wasn't a firefighter anymore.
* Brennan: The interesting thing about Ricky is how much he's compared to Superman, the hero of all heroes. He even played the Superman theme in Ricky's first introduction! Lots of people who have written for Superman have expressed the struggle of writing a character that has no inner demons. That was something they talked about for season one, but Zac was down for the challenge of finding an arc for a dude who just wants to help.

* Zac: Ricky's arc in the first season felt, in the spectrum of arcs, simpler, and so this season he wanted to try and find more to that, even though being straightforward isn't necessarily bad. It was a similar but different challenge.
* Brennan: Even in episode one, we see Ricky have a moment they never even got close to having in season one. He misses the Questing Blade. Regret might be too strong of a word for it, but we do see him have a little twinge of sorrow and recognition of what a decision cost him.
* Zac: None of them really have a need for a magical axe right now, but they still really want it!
* Lou: He thinks Zac really nailed it on the head. He did have a sort of expected trajectory for Kingston, that he wanted to keep adventuring but Liz disapproved, but that's what season one was. They don't do that, they find something else and chase it and it's exciting.
* Brennan: Kingston and Pete have a very special relationship in that they're both mythic figures and voices for these two energies typically thought of to be in opposition. But right away, Pete trusts Kingston, and in season one we do see how their differences almost separate them, and in the end they so beautifully and powerfully reunite. Their reunion hug scene in episode one is in the trailer, it's a relationship that's so deeply important to fans of the show.
* Lou: Even on just a base level, describing a hug in-game when you can't have an out-of-game hug was very easy to lean into. In a meta-game sense, it's good to see Pete again, and to play Kingston again, and it really felt like the beginning of whatever their next adventure would be.
* Ally: They wholeheartedly agree. Kingston just became Pete's number one confidant because he was wholly available, so now what happens now that he's got a new life they they'd all wished for him to have, and that he wished for himself to have?
	+ *Zac: Are you off the boat?*
	+ *Ally: I'm free baby!*
	+ *Brennan: This Adventuring Party has such an arc. We watched you buy your ticket, wait for, board, and complete a ferry trip.*
	+ *Ally: And I've been on 2% battery the whole time!*
* Brennan: As a DM one of the exciting things about running a modern setting is that downtime and the rest of peoples' lives factor in in a big way. It's not like Lord of the Rings, where the groups is hiking in the wilderness and camping together every night, they all live in their own neighborhoods and have jobs. Pete and Kingston do have a very close relationship, but Kingston is in a romantic relationship now, and Pete can't keep living in their spare room, he's got his own things to do, and his own life to make for himself. The love and support is there, but it's also adult and human.
* Ally: They remember the vibe of Kingston and Pete meeting up again for the first time of "Thanks for meeting with me!", like how you have friends you're really close with, but they just don't have the time for you right now. Long hugs, savoring every moment.
* Lou: There's a lot of space between those hugs.
* Brennan: They've talked a lot about Kingston and Ricky's success, but it's very fun to see Pete too, since season one was essentially his first month on the job. And after all his struggles with sobriety and relationships, he's a very competent sorcerer and Vox Phantasma.
* Ally: It's a very fun progression from "Magic is completely out of control, life is completely out of control".

**From Colby: Ally, does Pete have a sponsor? Are they inducted into the Unsleeping City? If no to both, what kind of magical New York person of creature do you think would be a good fit to be a sponsor for folks like Pete and Sofia?**

* Ally: Yes! The best sponsor you could imagine!
	+ *Lou: Hold it in your mind-- who is the single best sponsor Pete could have?*
	+ *Ally: Who did you meet in the show and thought, "Wow, they really get along, what a cool guy." (\*Ally points knowingly at the screen\*)*
	+ *Brennan: (\*in an accent\*) Dr. Lugash Primjitzski!*
* (\*Ally's screen freezes as they arrive home\*)
* Brennan: That first scene with him and Pete in season one is great, but we do get to see a little more of him in this season as well.

**From Dr. Rainsolo: How has it been moving away from the one RP one combat formula? Does it feel more like your home games?**

* Lou: It was jarring. He was very thrown off.
* Zac: Ricky kills Kingston at the beginning of episode two because he didn't know what to do.
* Lou. They freaked out! They had to make the combat if Brennan wasn't going to give it to them.
* (\*Ally rejoins the call inside their AirBnB\*)
	+ *Zac: Are you on you're computer now?*
	+ *Ally: I am plugged in, honey! Whenever I book a nice place on AirBnB and I think, "This is someone's extra house", I wanna kill someone. You've got a record player in your extra house? (\*mimes scissors\*) Snip snip.*
	+ *Lou: Of the things you could've shown me, a record player is pretty low on the list.*
	+ *Ally: Wait wait wait. Ok I can't show it because what if the person finds out-- You know what? Fuck it. (\*They turn to showcase a neon sign hanging above the front door\*) There is a neon sign of the words "Manifest Destiny".*
	+ *Lou: Was it lit before you walked in?*
	+ *Ally: I turned it off. That's a no from me. There's a question mark at the end of it, but I don't care about art.*
	+ *Zac: Are you in your ex's place from season one?*
	+ *Ally: Yes, I'm in Priya's house!*
* Brennan: As a DM, it's way nicer to not have to stick to the formula. It's a little bit more organic. They took their sweet time in episode one, having reunions, introducing new characters, and part of him didn't want to rush into the first combat.
* Ally: That was a fun thing about this season.

**From Colby: Hey Brennan, what's up with Bazathrax? Also, why? The art is great, but I need to know what and why here. Real question, what inspired his design? It's so unique!**

* Zac: We haven't seen the art!
* Lou: It's hard to imagine why Colby's asking why when they haven't seen it. He imagined it like the devil from Cow and Chicken, more stout and straight.
* Brennan: (\*holds up his phone to show the cast Bazathrax's art\*) Kendra drew him exactly as I described him! Bazathrax is in that great vein of medieval glossaries, and compared to angels, demons are pretty tame. They're just a bunch of weird animals mashed together.
	+ *Zac: Nice deflection. That thing's fucked up.*
	+ *Brennan: I made a fucked up little guy, you got me. I'm not sorry.*
* Brennan: For fans of Bazathrax, stay tuned for the next episode, he's got some great scenes coming up!

**From Anonymous (*the hacker collective?*): Ally, was Cody as Pete's new roommate a surprise to you? Is Cody this season's Pete in so much as someone being inducted into the Unsleeping City, who now Pete has to watch over and mentor?**

* Ally: It was 100% a surprise, but in that same way it makes sense. Like when you start to get comfortable in the friend group, and then someone new comes in just as haphazardly as you did. They also think there was something gender euphoric about Cody's toxic masculinity. In season one, Pete did try to glom onto some of Ricky's healthy masculinity and working out, but Cody showing up and being into swords presented a much different side of masculinity for him to get into.
* Brennan: In season one, it was very heartwarming that Pete, who was plot significantly *the* hot mess, was also very much an older brother figure to Nod. We see that again in season two with Pete taking this really toxically masculine dude under his wing, which very much echoes Pete's initial trust in Kingston. Cody immediately tells Pete about Bazathrax. It makes a wonderful story spiral of coming back to the same place in a different iteration of the story.
* Zac: He'll never get over how funny it is to have Murph be the biggest shithead in the group by far. Such a role reversal., and it's so funny to watch him clock what a normal person should do, and then just make the Cody choice.
* Brennan: Shout out to Murph for such a great character this season. This is their fifth full season playing together and knowing his style as Riz and Kugrash and Theo as a grizzled old guy who gets down to brass tacks, and honestly keeping them all on track sometimes, for him to play someone who is such a deep fuckup is just so wonderfully against type.
* Ally: They love that he brings in his Jersey background too, you can really feel that Murph has met this kind of guy.
	+ *Zac: Murph is this guy.*
	+ *Lou: This is the true Murph this season*
	+ *Brennan: DnD can be a way to explore your darker impulses and play out the versions of ourselves that we don't give to light. So I think maybe there is version of Murph who drinks a few more Monsters and Rockstars--*
	+ *Lou: -- Has a lot more swords.*
* Brennan: It is fun to have this kind of character coming into the Unsleeping City for the first time, especially since Siobhan's new character is unique in that she's been a part of it for a while, but stayed away from it for her own reasons.

**From Brennan: Any parting thoughts? Anything to get people psyched for the next episode?**

* + *Lou: The only thing I've got to say-- manifest destiny?*
	+ *Zac: I just can't believe in the course of this recording, Ally got back to their AirBnB. For everyone to get to see that? That's insane.*
	+ *Brennan: If we had asked our producers to make this happen, they would have been rightfully upset at the largeness of this ask.*
	+ *Lou: Did your phone die just as you were walking into the apartment?*
	+ *Ally: She lived, baby!*
* Ally: They were curious if this season the group would be able to connect in the same way, but there were just genuine moments of feeling like they were in the same room. Maybe they were just starved for connection because of COVID, it just really felt like they were hanging out.
* Brennan: It came at a time when he really needed it. He was also curious if it would be the same, but there are some upcoming scenes that will blow the audience away in terms of intimacy and vulnerability and performance capability.