I'd like to introduce my friend Chris Straub, filling in on our duties today.
You may know him better as Cathris Draub, emerging as though from a mist shroud, like who's this now, right?
That's right. Are you, can you deliver that sensual voice that this evil pollen has granted you?
It's gotten, it's gotten better.
or it's like it's it by this afternoon it'll be in that perfect sweet spot yeah it has to age basically yeah the vocal cord has to mellow throat aged i like it so but what's you bring medicine too oh yeah are you gonna are you gonna be popping up here look i i took one of these just before it's a tell fast uh do you vouch for this product so okay so fexofenadine right I Googled right before I took it.
Fexofenadine? Yeah, and one of the first autocompletes is fexofenadine high.
So... All right. Oh, dude, this is exactly what we want.
So we're going to be going to an incredible realm here graphically.
Let me take you. I'll take you there.
That's awesome. Well, here, we have lots of cues, many of which will no doubt refer to Mike Krahulik and try to get his ideas on things.
I guess I'll try to simulate those as best I can.
You have to run him through your emulator.
Yeah, exactly. Favorite Australian colloquialism, Ben in Curry Curry?
Is that about right?
It might be Curry Curry.
That might be my favorite one.
No, my favorite one, and I get a lot of use out of it, is...
God, no, hold on. what did somebody so I told somebody yesterday to break a leg and they told me something oh god I'm trying to remember it was just like go fuck yourself I love that it was like reaching into a bag of Scrabble tiles and just reading them as they came up in your hand it was like chookas is that right okay I don't know I was going to say I don't know what it means but it means break a leg but I don't know why it means that yeah my favorite is uh Arvo because I don't know where that how you would condense afternoon into that word where is that what is that yeah what mathematical
transform is responsible for that no my favorite is asking people and it's it as I suggested before it's easier after the first day is asking people if they pulled up dusty because they are always surprised to hear a person who is not Australian say it.
So there's always that moment like they don't quite know how to how to parse that or process it.
They don't know if I'm like a skin walker or something like that.
They don't know if I've taken over an Australian.
Tycho has lectured Gabe on the import of the Warhammer old world and the state of the the Warhammer 40k real politic.
I'm assuming that Jerry is at least interested in the settings and Mike likely has some level of exposure.
Have you considered either running Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2E naturally or one of the 40k roleplaying games on a stream in the manner of your D &D sessions?
This is from Alpharius in Nova Cadia.
I am a huge fan of those settings and I think that Mike is also a huge fan of those settings.
He just doesn't know it because people rip off Games Workshop 24 -7.
They have all kinds of really amazing sci -fi and fantasy ideas that are so amazing that people just assume that they're ambient in the air, that anyone can just grab them.
But they're actually original ideas, and they're executed really, really well, I think.
I like the fiction better than I like playing the game, to be perfectly frank.
I would love to do a Horace Heresy -type game for 40k on the stream.
But the truth is, did anybody catch Acquisitions Incorporated last night?
Thank you very much. It's been a long time coming.
I've been telling you on the stage, I think for four solid years, that I would get it out here eventually, and I have done so.
But now, I feel like Acquisitions Incorporated as a concept just works there.
I don't know how well that works in 40k.
I feel like there would be some challenges just thematically.
There's not a lot of humor.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war is the tagline.
And so there's not a lot of room in there for humorous interpretation.
Like gallows humor, it's the safest. It's different from the idea of gallows humor as being like an inoculation from darkness.
This is literally jokes about being hung.
Right. Right, it's a very, very...
It's just gallows. It's just the gallows.
I would love to do that, but like I say, after seeing how it worked in Star Wars, I don't know.
I feel like Act Inc.
is probably a bigger idea than we've expressed with it so far.
Ryan Hartman, our director of events for PAX.
Oh yeah, right? He's a good guy.
Oh I guess he's also Denar Blitzen.
Dragonborn narcissist. There we go, now you know.
He and I have been putting together a season of a wrestling role -playing game called Worldwide Wrestling.
And I'd like to do Worldwide Wrestling on the channel, just like we do the C -Team, and basically do it so that every time you tune in, it's like one of the pay -per -views.
So that it's like We'll have people create wrestlers and they'll compete literally on the show.
But the system is really, really weird because the person who wins is determined by the Dungeon Master, right?
So we're just like real wrestling.
So people wrestle and they wrestle really, really hard and they do everything they can and then you can just find out who wins because it happens at a different level.
But I think that would let us make some really cool seasons of a show.
What is the most embarrassing time you have forgotten someone's name?
PSA for non -locals.
An Aussie trick is to deploy the honorific mate in these situations.
If it's too formal or there's someone too close for you to use this method, instead use old mate.
mate. No Australian event is too formal for a confidently delivered old mate.
There is a North Queensland variation, but all situations south of Cairns or north of TI are inherently too formal for it.
Far north Queenslanders will often use it anyway.
Mate, far south South Queensland.
Gosh. I'm trying to think.
Because typically speaking, I remember what I talked about with a person in a lot more detail than I remember the name.
I'm trying to think of the most embarrassing time.
But I can usually use a variation on this system.
What I used to do is, generally speaking, if I talked to a person and we were getting on well, I would ask them to tell me a word that I did not yet know.
Which, as a game, became more difficult as time progressed.
But I met a guy named Evan, and I still this is probably 10, 12 years ago, and I still remember his name because in my mind he's Evan Macroptoros, which I think is just a great name.
It means large and winged.
Yeah, you just remove your own name.
Yeah, exactly. to adopt that yeah exactly but um no i can usually i can usually either we also weasel my way out of that or actually remember it uh good day fellas are there any aussie flora and or fauna you'd want to take back to the states with you i don't think so i think it's a i think it's illegal no i yeah in fact they make you fill out a specific form uh that says don't do that shit it at all.
So I heard a story.
You tell me if this is true.
I was talking to my friend Tegan Higginbottom yesterday, and she told me that you have thunder pollen.
Are these murmurs of acquiescence?
That's a real thing?
Well, here's what she told me.
Here's what she told me.
Get a load of this.
You guys already know.
I'm just going to talk to Chris about this for a second.
Yeah. So apparently the thunderstorm comes in and and electrically charges the fucking pollen.
Right? Are you okay?
That's not funny. Then this charged pollen, this is like some Pokemon shit.
This charged pollen gets down into your lungs and kills you.
How does it kill you?
Because of the, like, it's like a Boltzmann brain.
It has sentience. No, no, no, it's not hostile.
It isn't like that.
I think that it's just, it gets in there and then that's where it fucking lives.
So like the pollen is charged.
Yeah. And it just stays in like equidistant positions in the lungs.
Yeah, in super positions.
It can never be swept out.
No, no, it makes like this toxic lattice structure inside your whole zone.
Yeah, and then you become the pollen mother.
And then you just give it off.
Yeah. Just in spores.
Anyway, it sounds like a real shit show.
And I had mentioned it before, but I mean, that's what happened here.
I mean, are we allergic to it because we don't have this tree?
Or does it suck for everybody?
You guys don't like it either?
I assumed it was like Iocane powder or something.
Like, you guys were just dialed in on this shit now.
That's terrible. So every year it's just like this?
Oh, man. And are these trees, like, federally protected?
Or is there a reason why this keeps happening?
Can we bring an axe next time and we can have a special PAX event?
It's going to be called Axe Oz and we're just going to go out and we're going to fucking fix this problem.
This is from Krizo Skaza Wazadite.
Jezza, what was the go...
is this some Aussie shit?
Okay. What was the go with you buying Nintendo Switches for loads of other people before yourself?
Was this part of a penance or geesh that you were under?
I wanted to work somewhere somewhere where the person who owned and operated the company did something like that.
And, so I did it. The end.
Oh, man. How much time passed before the recording of the first and second halves of the very first Ac Inc.
adventure. if I'm not mistaken it was a couple weeks I don't think it was I don't think it was instantaneous and if I recall correctly that was James Wyatt like the very first adventures that we did didn't have Chris Perkins yet but there was a little bit of a break before that kind of sites but I can remember everything about that moment because I spent most of the first acquisitions incorporated adventure literally just trying to keep Mike at the table if you go back and listen to those first episodes you will hear an audibly frustrated and angry mike um talking about how it's dumb and there's
and why would anyone do it and this is a bad way to spend one's time that's right because he hadn't played it yeah no it made no sense and then everything changed when we got to the dungeon and then he was looking down the stairs and he's like well can i use one of my powers to try to attract the creatures down there or communicate you know some kind of a sound down there, and then as soon as that happened, right?
I mean, this is why when we're playing the C team, I constantly remind you that we're playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Right. Right? And the reason I do that, it's not like nobody's changing hands.
Although I should talk to them about that.
But what I'm trying to get out there is that there's a lot of that space in that game that is not authored at all, right?
It's emergent. And that's what I liked about that fucking Star Wars system.
Like, there's a lot about the Star Wars system that basically puts five DMs at the table.
Yeah. Right? Everyone is collaborating on it.
I was talking to Keek.
Are you here, Keek?
No. I was talking to Keek about it at breakfast. And he was like, yeah, I love Acquisitions Incorporated.
But, you know, sometimes it's hard to follow it moment to moment.
And part of the reason is because, like, attack is kind of abstract.
Like there are things about Dungeons & Dragons that are necessarily abstract and I think a lot of it has to do with its origins as a war game, right?
This is not a war game.
This is designed to play role -playing games as they are generally played by people.
That's the basic assumption of the system.
I love Dungeons & Dragons, I'm going to play it my entire life, it's not even about that.
But at the same time, when we come in, you can fail well and you can succeed poorly.
poorly, and that means that we are always, everything is always happening moment to moment.
It isn't like a turn or a round.
I do something that is a scene in the story, and so when you're watching or listening to it, my suspicion, you can tell me if I'm incorrect, but my suspicion is that you just follow it like a movie, and then also you can fail for a long time and it's still kind of funny like well you'll have a she'll have a shoot out in this in this hallway where no one is working but it's like if you think back to Star Wars that's literally what the movies are about yeah like how many like how many blaster shots are expended in this movie that actually don't connect with anything a lot a lot think about it it's
it's almost as though that part is not not as important as story.
Yeah, exactly. That would be how you would interpret that, right?
My fiancé and I got into Dungeons & Dragons by watching Acquisitions Incorporated, and we have started playing with some friends we've met through the Penny Arcade community.
Excellent. Thank you for creating the environment for this to happen, and thank you for bringing ACK Inc.
down under. Could you please help our level 7 paladin choose a deity?
Bob needs a god. God.
This is from Astro Boy in Melbourne.
He has spelled it in such a way as to make it easy for the American to pronounce.
Yeah, so Bob needs a God.
It's just not enough information, man.
You're talking to someone who takes this sort of thing very seriously.
In our campaign, like with Denar Blitzen, who is the paladin in our thing, nobody actually knows who his God is.
is. Like we've only just out like named him but he's not in the main book.
And if you really are new players I would say that I would say that you can go you could go a different way with it.
I mean you could choose somebody from the pantheon but a martial order or a virtue that you could directly serve and get the rest of these powers.
I would try to key it off of the oath that he's sworn.
It may not be something where you have to choose somebody from the book because that can be be really intimidating, especially for new players.
It's like, okay, I need a god.
Okay, well, here's 30.
Right? It's like, as a UI thing, 30 buttons, you know, it's intimidating.
This is a drop -down.
Yeah, exactly. You're like, what?
How are these? They're not even alphabetical.
Let's see. Mr. Krahulik, I listen to the DLC podcast every week.
It's one of my favorite things about Penny Arcade, but now I must know, what gift did you end up giving your new neighbor.
You said he had gifted your family with a scarf and were at a loss about what to give in return.
I was looking to hear more about that awkward interaction, but you never mentioned it again.
This is from Lindsey in New Jersey.
I'll try to make him answer that on the podcast proper, but his new neighbors are from China, and so they invited Mike and Kara and the kids over for dinner, but they don't speak English at all.
And so they had basically the people that have been helping them get settled here also at the dinner to fully translate every part of the conversations.
And I want you to try to imagine Mike Krahulik in that scenario.
I mean, it was sophisticated.
Like, honestly, I was impressed with him that he did that.
Not the kind of thing you'd have fun with.
No. No, no, no. That's tough for him.
If you founded a country planet, okay, that's pretty broad, but okay, how would you rule it, and by what means would you regulate trade?
I would set it up so that you have to create an account on an app, and we can vote by swiping left and right.
If you see a law that you like, maybe want to know more about, you know what to do.
Say you encounter a genie who only grants wishes that affect you personally, and only you, what would you wish for?
Is there another type of Genie Steven from Brisbane?
That's the only type I know about.
Let's see. Oh, maybe I can just make cool choices.
Help me, C .R .A .S .P.
That's a broad remit.
Yeah. Can you parse this?
I feel like there's a fallacy that would suggest that you are completely isolated.
I don't think it works that way.
Is that your first wish?
I mean, also, this is how genies fuck you, too.
Yeah, well, exactly.
That's their whole deal.
Understand that the wish I grant will only affect you personally.
and links you say all right well i want uh you know a million dollars you get it you're just like put into space like you're buried in an asteroid and only the money you can't breathe that money you're entombed in money yeah but genies are always trying to do shit like this am i right um yeah i don't know i feel like that's a trick i feel like this was written to us by a genie that's the lamp you know what i mean because you can it's flammable it's a light source don't rub This is lamp 2017.
If acquisitions incorporated employees were assigned company cars, would they have green flames on the side?
Only omens, others would have lesser flames.
When will we see an acquisitions incorporated players dungeon master's guide published?
That is a big project.
project. So, if you would please join me for a moment in congratulating Elissa Grant on her very first solo Acquisitions Incorporated production here on stage.
She was like an electron, like behind stage.
She was just... It was incredible, but it came up without a hitch. But one of the projects, so she and I work on a lot of different stuff stuff together.
She is also the producer for the C Team and the next big project that she and I have been working on is one, a set of basically like yearlong basically adventure path like adventure campaign for Acquisitions Incorporated that could be released.
This is just the plan right now.
I'm probably saying too much but basically it would be released over the course of a year.
So, you could sort of have these adventures throughout and they they would be revealed to you, but the second big project that we have, we've actually brought on some other people that we really like to work with, and next year we hope to offer up something like an Acquisitions Incorporated guide that includes real mechanical rules for how the corporation works, how the different corporation roles work, how they level up, what it means, like how much things actually cost in game terms, when you actually found a base what kinds of additions can you make to it like all the crunchy stuff and then
at the end will include a campaign so imagine that those first parts of the ingredients then we have a recipe at the end that will let you you know get if get a franchise found it and have an adventure that takes place using all of the rules so that's something that we're hoping to kick out for 2018 and work on it has already begun To them.
Oh, Jesus. No, I was pleased last night before Mike left. Oh, Jesus Christ. Before Mike left, we showed him this script and he was pleased with it, which felt good.
I feel bad for him.
I feel bad. And he feels really bad.
He was dealing with, functionally speaking, speaking intolerable levels of shame and anxiety.
And then he also felt guilty.
Right. Right? Then he felt guilty on top of it.
Yeah, you don't deserve that.
You know what I mean?
No. Yeah, I told him that he didn't need to do that.
I said, Chris and I have this.
We can handle it. It's okay.
Just get on the plane and play Super Mario Odyssey for 16 hours.
You were on a blind date and you get there first. At last, she walks in.
Sorry, I'm late, she says breathlessly.
Honestly. I was swamped at work.
She is an alligator.
You are a secretary bird. What do you do?
Oh, yeah. This is from positronic in Ararat.
Is that one of your places?
Okay. Thank you. Is this a common scenario?
For them, yeah. See, I never know when Aussies are taking the piss, because so many of the cultural references don't exist in my realm.
Well, we have them, but they don't work in offices.
And we rarely date them.
As birds. As birds.
I mean, typically speaking, the dating pool for a bird and an alligator, it's not like a Venn diagram.
You know what I mean?
No. No, it's usually going to be birds if you're a bird. Right, ideally.
Yeah, that's the optimal scenario.
I, I think that I would, I think this would be one of those times where you like go to the bathroom, but then you like, don't go to the bathroom and you go home instead.
Well, yeah, I mean, I don't know that type of bird, but is it the bird that is that the one that climbs in there and cleans the alligators teeth?
Or is that a larger bird?
Larger bird? Okay, You know what I was going to say?
Because now you're getting into the erotic subtext.
Yeah. What do I got to do?
Yeah, exactly. I feel like there's a lot going on here, and I haven't parsed it 100%.
Have you enjoyed your meal?
Now it's my turn. Okay.
So five years ago, or four years ago, three years ago, that's when we came up with all this bat porn.
Yeah. Yeah. Right on stage, I'm saying, if we wrapped it says Vesperatica, oh, what was it?
Did you see the post?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, exactly. There's a sexicon for Vesperatica called Vesperanto.
Tell me you were pleased.
It's amazing. See, Mike would not appreciate this.
You know what I mean?
It's just words. I just like words.
Now, but I'm saying that maybe after the strip is done, we can investigate this crocodile bird porn.
Because there's some there.
Yeah. So draw fast. Oh.
So what do you do with the leftover set pieces from Ack, Inc., i .e., where do you keep the giant boulders when they're not in use?
This is Koala Sam in Walhalla.
Walhalla? Victoria?
Victoria? Why -Yala?
It is not real. There's a great ...
I feel like there's a great why opportunity in this word. I would put one right in the middle.
You let me know. So, the reality is that a lot of those end up as decorations in the office.
So Chris Perkins' Tiamat Throne is literally in the foyer.
and you can sit in it anytime you want.
It has the individual light -up eyes.
You can just sit on a TMA throne anytime you want.
Great lumbar support.
Oh, incredible. And those claws, those magic claws working on the B -zone.
Let's see. Mike, how would you describe your favorite color to someone who is blind?
Now this is your job, Chris.
Favorite color to someone who is blind.
Well, now, you can just get them those glasses, depending on the type of colorblindness, and then they can see that color.
Oh, no. This is not colorblindness.
This is just like the regular kind.
Oh, fully blind. Yeah, they don't make glasses for that.
Well, they do, but the lenses are just dark.
Right. They don't enhance the experience.
No. Well, I've heard it said that you would describe it in terms of...
Temperatures? Yeah, or, like, flavors or, you know, things that you would associate.
You'd borrow another sense?
Yeah, you would borrow another sense to do it.
And then there would also be an understanding that that color is more present, say, like a warm color for autumn or, you know, the spices you would associate with that.
So even though they still don't know what the color is, they would know when it occurs.
They get all the rest of the metadata.
Yeah. Let's see. Jerry using only gestures.
Please recite your favorite poem.
It's like charades.
Yeah, it's poem charades.
It's like upmarket charades.
Oh man, I don't even know how you would...
Okay. Oh, yes, it's a very high concept.
What is it? What is your favorite poem?
Is that what we have to guess?
No, no, it's Since Feeling is First. I don't know that one.
Are you familiar with that one?
No. Let me tell it to you.
All right. I guess I don't understand poetry.
Have you ever begun to lose interest in things that used to make you excited?
excited? How did you regain that interest or did you move on to something new?
That is an interesting question.
Generally speaking, I mean, if you have to play games sort of as part of your life practice, I think it would be very easy to start to get frustrated with them.
Just because it's like a—I mean in some ways, I get it, right?
It's like a a book but it's like you have to do all these gesticulations to turn the page you know what i mean yeah yeah you have to do a lot of crazy shit to turn one page um so there's a there's a toil aspect so i can understand being frustrated with the medium in some of those types of ways but generally speaking you know if i start to get frustrated with something i tend to look to myself first i tend to think that i'm doing something wrong and generally speaking that's been correct correct?
If I find that I'm getting frustrated with gaming as a medium, generally speaking I have some assumptions that I actually need to consider and work on.
I need to think about it in a different way.
I need to approach it in a different way.
I think approaching them as works of art as opposed to consumer products gives you a broader set of tools.
Obviously, I want to be entertained.
That's also true. But at the same time there's a a lot more to think about there.
A lot of times when I'm playing a game, I'm trying to sort of reverse engineer the person that made it.
Right. It's like, what am I being asked to feel?
Exactly. And it's things that they may not even have intentionally asked.
Right? Oh! Category code red.
With a few more years gone by, Mike, are you ready to talk to us about the girl that came over because she wanted you to draw her This is from another Jerry in Sydney.
He's not here, but I'd be happy to tell you.
Wait, set me up, because I don't remember.
Oh. I don't know this tale.
Brother, fear not. So as young people, you may be surprised to learn that Mike did not have a tremendous depth of experience in the courting scenario it was not a part of his praxis and as a result he he lacked experience in this context so if a girl asks to come over to your house you try to say yes but don't have a hundred percent capability to enunciate it but it's understood that it's probably okay and so then when she comes over and then you try to draw her you physically can't do it because your hand is shaking too much yeah can you imagine it's rough yeah yeah was that was that exactly
what happened yes yuck when I'll tell a story of my youth uh no I wasn't even that youthful no I was I was 40 I like I that's coming I was uh I just started dating uh Marlo my wife yes and I know currently So it worked.
No, this one was a setback.
It didn't work. But she knew that I drew, but she didn't know how I drew.
And I'm good at drawing like cartoon figures, but I'm not good at drawing like life model type drawing.
So she said, so she said, would you draw me?
And I was like, yeah, because I don't, I'll try with the understanding that, and I'm proud proud enough to not go, okay, but it could be bad.
So I said, yeah, I'll try.
And it just was terrible.
There's a rule, there's a rule, let me describe to you the way in which it was terrible.
It's like what you did was offensive.
Yeah, cruel. Yeah. Like on top of an already bad day, didn't turn the day around.
There's a rule, like you'll see this in like old Wonder Woman drawings where you want to reduce the number of lines especially like a female character's face because more lines, it implies wrinkles rather than - Oh, I see.
It's just how it's interpreted.
Yeah, and they don't do that as much now.
But way back when, that was just the style.
But Wonder Woman specifically, they'll only draw nostrils.
It's the implication of a fair and unlined face, right?
oh no so i tried to do that but you basically drew her as a pig she was a pig lady i i drew a pig lady i drew a pig lady did you just leave i should have oh i just i won't apologize no on behalf of art and artists Tycho, you recently posted on Twitter that your son has discovered Penny Arcade.
Have any difficult conversations arisen from your less family -friendly comics?
Also, did you both learn from the experience...
Sorry. Did you both grow?
I was thinking about my son.
And develop plans for introducing your other spawn to your works.
I don't think that Ronja is going to be into Penny Arcade.
That's just my guess.
It's really, really weird. The conversations in a Penny Arcade strip have a very odd cadence.
I mean, is my cadence?
Yeah. I mean, I'm used to it.
And, of course, Elliot's used to it as well because this is how his father speaks and has since his earliest. There was never any baby talk.
I spoke to him at zero the same way that I speak to him now at 12.
It's exactly the same way.
And then if he has a question about a word, I'll just tell him what the word is.
But one of my favorite memories of Elliot, and I'll get to this question in a sec, but when he was, gosh, one and a half, what he wanted to do was just sit in the middle of the room and then he would just start pointing at objects and he would say that and I'd be like that's a bed that that's a painting he had to like calibrate himself he was like an alien probe he was just trying to absorb as much as he could and he didn't want to go around and walk around all this stuff there's too many things to catalog this was the easiest way for him to absorb it it.
So he only has the first several, he has like maybe up to Birds Are Weird, like the fourth book.
So he hasn't gotten anything that's too crazy.
I mean, I guess he's got I guess just some language, but the reality is that the YouTubers that he watches are a thousand times worse than his dad.
So I mean, I'm quaint in comparison to some of this material.
Like as a child, too, like I didn't have a strong interest in like things I'm not supposed to be getting into.
Yeah. So I think that, like, I would have parsed that stuff as, that's not for me.
Like, I know my dad does adult things or, like, prurient things.
That's not for children, and I will abide by that.
I shan't look, Father.
Like, that's the kind of kid that I was.
No, there hasn't been any difficult conversations because, I mean, Elliot and I talk about difficult topics regularly when it comes to like naughty words like I mean we understand that there's a context for these things there are scenarios under which they can be used for example they can't be used with his mom that's not a good time and then also daddy's incredible punchlines are not not appropriate for the kitchen.
They're not appropriate.
They're not appropriate ever.
They're only appropriate in very specific circumstances where only I can hear it.
And then, obviously, we can discuss them at length.
But he likes to, but much like me, when he finds something that he likes, he just repeats it over and over.
Like, I have not gotten rid of this habit.
Like, this is still how it works.
And so, like, if you're making dinner, her, and then the rest of the family's in there and then he's dropping in these literally like 18 year old Penny Arcade punchlines.
And I just look over at Brenna and she looks at me and it's not a good look.
dear jiggly hooper and mike chemical romance has the world always been approximately this effed the age we live in allows for unprecedented volumes of bad news dropped on your doorstep on a minute by minute basis such that the empath in me can't help but wonder, what is one to do in this nightmare mire that seems to be our world?
Don't get me wrong, there is infinite harmony and beautiful intricacy to the nature of things, which is why it's so puzzling for our race to be fatalistically set on owning things, being right and being important.
However, are we to turn a blind eye to the facetious news cycle and false alarmists, or should one, as the hero of time many of us want, take arms against a sea Sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.
Where is the point of balance on these scales?
Weird Joy, your fan, Shazmo.
Shazmo, Seattle, Washington.
So let's see, where do we start with this?
Yes. It's a thinker.
Yeah, I think that it's always been approximately this F'd.
But I think that it's been this F'd all over.
and I think that the difference is that now we know how F'd it is everywhere at once.
And I'm not 100 % sure that just as a physical creature, as an animal, I'm not sure that we necessarily have the tools to manage it.
And it's also one of the ways that you make money in this society is by saying these things over and over, which is a pretty grim mechanical cycle that, near as I can tell, creates misery.
And now we surveil ourselves 24 -7 with social media, and we annihilated privacy and killed God.
So I think we're in a pretty bad spot, yeah.
Ask your doctor. Yeah, ask your doctor.
Take two. Mike, has the acquisitions incorporated game improved your arithmetic skills?
I may be imagining this but it seems like you're adding up dice faster than when you first started.
Are there skills for either of you that this game has unexpectedly honed?
Yeah, so obviously he's not here, but it has definitely improved his math.
Sometimes, I think during the C team game, didn't he have you guys add the numbers once?
Yeah. Yeah. So sometimes he'll do that.
but I think that this is one of the reasons he likes Star Wars yeah you just have to just the numbers never go past six yeah and also he hasn't he has an app that counts all the numbers and also there's no numbers on any of the dice yeah so it's the ultimate Mike system yeah he he has definitely improved but I think that once you get to like six dice he runs out quick I think that I think that as Jim has leveled up and his dice pools especially for damage have gotten bigger it has it has gotten progressively less fun for him to do that it's like you think it'd be fun to roll 10d6 for a fireball but who knows
in ten words or less explain why you'd make a terrible wife for Chris Perkins Is that question 10 words or less?
Because that's done.
Just positing it is a bad idea.
No. No. I think they Chris and I, I think they were too similar.
That's the main thing.
I think there has to be some...
There has to be two poles to this battery.
And between us, I think that we have, like, three hairs.
So this is something else to consider.
I think that somebody should have some hair.
It doesn't matter who.
What is your wish list of celebrities to play AI with?
Bort Sampson in Perth.
Is he taking the piss, or is Bort a real name?
I don't know. ever know.
You've heard it? I don't know.
Oh, thank you. He's taking the piss.
I suspected as much. I get a lot of this from Perth.
So what is your wish list of celebrities?
People often tell me what their wish list is for celebrities to come on this show, and And I'm happy just to ride along with them.
Vin Diesel is, you know, we keep going back to that.
He's doing a lot, though.
And he's incredibly wealthy and busy.
So it might be difficult.
When I saw Felicia Day at PAX a couple years ago, when I was doing a signing, I tried to see if she'd be down for coming out for a game.
I think that she would be.
I think scheduling is difficult, but I think that the interest is there, which is really the main thing.
Honestly, I'd love to get AFL back at the table, so I'd just like to reintroduce Wil Wheaton back into the game.
Who else would be rad?
Who else would be a thriller?
There are so many more celebrities that are like, oh, yeah, I play.
Oh, yeah, exactly, like, oh, yeah, I'm a huge nerd. Yeah, there was that New York Times, or no, that New Yorker article.
Yeah, it was in the New Yorker.
Yeah. Okay, I mean, that's all you need to know.
The times they are a -changing.
Oh, yeah, I mean, I guess in terms of celebrities, we should definitely get Matt Mercer either at the table or behind the screen.
That's a, to my mind, that's a super easy call.
And I'd be remiss, and I need to serve, obviously, Amy Falcone, a .k .a.
Walnut Dawngrass, by saying that we need to get at least one McElroy brother at some point on the show.
Are you replicants?
Jonathan Hobart. They have a test. Yeah, they have a test. No, it can be determined.
What is the name of that test?
Void Conf. Okay, thank you very much. I wanted more Void Conf in 2049.
Honestly, the fact of the matter is is that I could watch a movie that was two hours of just the Voight -Kampff test. Like, I want the boring Blade Runner.
I want the boring Blade Runner that goes around giving people the Voight -Kampff test to humans.
You know what I mean?
It's like, no, you sure?
No, I mean, really think about this turtle.
No, I'm a person. I'm a dude.
All right, well, nice talking to you anyway.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, how deep do they go?
Like, maybe they're all turtle questions.
That's just one thing.
This keeps going back to that turtle well.
Let's see. Mike and Jerry, Dungeons and Dragons has clearly had an incredible influence on your lives both as players and dungeon masters.
What is your most moving D &D or D &D -connected memory or story?
I have a couple... Level 2 Bard with Warloot Scars in Redlarch. Let's see.
Do you have one, Chris?
You have a D &D... A positive D &D scenario?
Well, like... Yeah.
Just a story. Like, what would give a good memory about D &D.
I have a couple but...
I think... I mean, it was definitely at our table at the C -Team.
but um the the the moment that i realized that it would be it's so much more important that my role play be like sturdy as opposed to my stats yes right at my table certainly yeah but um there are some but there are some moments where uh cathrus was you know encountering the his god or what he thought was his God for the first time.
And having that dialogue and being able to give yourself over to that character.
I think that there is emotion there.
There are things being explored there.
Yeah, when we enact these things, you can't help but feel the things that these characters are feeling.
It's not imaginary.
Like at that point, that's the tipping point there where it's like it's not really – if I'm feeling it, what is the term imaginary for?
Like what does it really describe?
Because the feelings that I have are the same feelings.
They're mapping onto my regular emotions.
Yeah, this is why people consume media.
Yes, so that they can feel things.
So they can feel, yeah.
Let's see. What is your most moving D &D or D &D connected memory or story?
There's a couple. When my son was very young, we spoke to a variety of well -meaning professionals who told us in various ways and with various polysyllabic slabs of terminology that he would never have friends.
friends, and we have a Sunday game where we where he plays Dungeons and Dragons with four of his friends.
So the gulf between no friends ever and literally a table surrounded by friends that love him and support him while we all tell a story together is a pretty big fucking difference.
and also once I played like a mute Ranger when I was a teenager in a game and my character sort of fell in love with another character in the game and she also fell in love with me in -game and then it was a read then we were really in love, immediately after the game, it's a very interesting night.
Like really interesting.
She was a witch. Like an actual witch. Not like a bad kind.
Like a cool witch. What's the strangest dream you've had recently?
Let's see. Lindsey in Rochester you remember your dreams better than me I think I I made a habit of it but they started to go away like and I don't you used to write them down I mean you used to have a dream journal um like website right yeah yeah because I really liked exploring like being able to remember them recently I don't think I have any they don't have like there's no detail you know yeah what I've done older they've changed my problem is that I only I remember them really well after I wake up and then I'll literally like 15 minutes later try to remember because I was thinking about it
actively all the things and then it's just like comes apart yeah like it just melts away like you're watching I'm forgetting it like I'm literally forgetting it while I'm remembering it yeah I don't I don't know if that it has to do with my advanced advanced age?" Or what?
It's not fun. Yeah, what game franchise would you most love to see a VR installment from?
That's a good question.
Yeah, VR got kind of blown out for Mike.
He never really uses VR stuff except for Bridge Crew, for Star Trek Bridge Crew, which is surprisingly that game is surprisingly fun.
Have you a chance to play it yet?
it it's fucking for you man this is this is your this is what you want get me in there dude this is what you want did you did you see any of the streams that we did no i did not i could have done it that one weekend it was out of fucking control it was me in the captain's chair and then our actual engineer mike bueland in engineering right Right?
And then it was Mike Krahulik and Ryan Hartman, which is not a functional combo.
They are not good officers.
Yeah, work doesn't get done.
No, I had to... They kept supporting each other in their nonsense, and they kept blaming the engineer who had performed flawlessly end -to -end.
And also, they were seated too close to each other on the couch, so occasionally when they were working their consoles, they would brush up against each other.
And so they came to believe that the ship was haunted?
No. No, because what will happen is it'll be haunted, and all of a sudden I would look over at Mike, and then his hands would be up off the console like this.
And he's looking around, he's turning his chair to look back at me.
So, I mean, obviously I did what any captain would do.
I had the engineer scan for ghosts.
No ghosts were detected.
I thought that was going to be the fucking end of it.
No. But what's amazing, like, there are stories, and you basically play through, like, miniature episodes and scenarios.
That's awesome. But on top of that, there's so many of these sub -stories, like, in the same way that in a role -playing game, like, you can take it as seriously as you want.
That's the weird thing about it is that we would connect to online games of Star Trek bridge crew and then people were taking it like it's such a crapshoot when you go online and interact with people like you never know if people are going to be doing what they should or interacting in a way that honors other human beings at all except if you go in here i mean we have like an 80 success rate of people saying i sir oh yeah people saying engage right because because the behavior, the correct behavior, is modeled so well.
Like we all know how to play this, right?
It isn't like Dungeons & Dragons where you kind of have to learn some stuff.
You just use your hands and push on the beep boops.
That part's fine, but the social substrate that's underneath that is surprisingly well rendered because we have years and years of training, right?
Yeah. Dear Jerry and Mike, thank you of course for coming to Australia over the last few years.
We certainly are privileged.
On that note, based on your experiences here, what do you feel is the most frustrating aspect of Australian culture?
This is from Andrew in Canberra, the bush capital.
And then he says, no, not like that.
And I think I get it.
I can never be certain.
I think I get it, but I don't wanna say what I think it is, Because I'm right?
Okay. All right. We're going to leave that there.
The most frustrating, God, I only, you know, when I come here, I come here for a week or so each year, and I meet the kindest people who are happy that I'm here at all.
So I haven't seen that.
And most of the places that I go, I just, I haven't, I can't think of a single negative interpersonal experience I have had with an Australian person, either when they come to the United States or when I interact with them here.
There must be something, you must be bad in some way.
I agree. There's got to be something filthy about you.
I just haven't found it yet.
Let's find it. Yeah, let's find it tonight.
You know what, it's the trees.
Yeah, it's the trees.
As I spoke, it reminded me of the issue.
The most frustrating aspect of Australian culture.
It's not frustrating to me, but it is interesting.
There's a level of gratitude that barely parses as an American.
We don't have this gear of affection and enthusiasm.
enthusiasm yeah and so at first I'm always like is this real is it can a person actually can they appreciate it this much but it's clear I mean now I have now I have so many samples I have so many data points to point to um people are just they're really happy that the show is out here and then every year they want to know if we're going to come back or they want to thank me for having brought the show but I have been so honored to come out here every year and I have been made to feel incredibly welcome every time.
It seems that since PAX Aus started in 2013, less game developers have attended.
Do you think there's any way to get more devs to make the long journey to PAX Aus for future years?
Yeah, it's something we're always thinking about.
Typically speaking, when we go to places for the other shows, we hard pitch Oz and one of the main things that we pitch Oz with is Australians.
Like the pitch is pretty easy.
It's like, do you want to go someplace where people really appreciate you a hundred percent of the time.
Do you want to go to a convention where you emerge energized and ready to accomplish your life's greatest greatest toils.
Come get energy from Australia.
But generally speaking, yeah, whenever we're pitching places or whenever places are coming to us to go to our other shows, we direct them to PAX Oz.
Like, we try to make sure they know that this is a place that they should be coming, and I think it's just a matter of training them.
It's definitely far away.
I mean, I know that, but you should not, what we say is that you should not let that keep you out, because we think we we can make a pretty good case for the value of coming out.
Let's see. Mike, you've told us in the past that you know Jerry's shatter point.
If it's possible to answer without revealing enough to decompose him into a husk of his former self forevermore, has the shatter point changed over time or does it remain the same as when you first divined it?
I think I know what he thinks my shatter point is.
But it's not my shatter point.
What is it? Right? I think that he thinks my shatterpoint is that I am a ride -along on his success.
Is that too real? Yeah.
I think that, and he doesn't believe that.
Understand that the shatterpoint isn't about something being true.
True. It's about what will destroy a person.
Right? It isn't like a truth.
Yeah because they don't know the term.
Shatterpoint is from the Mace Windu expanded universe novel in Star Horse .
Okay. Okay. It's the Mace Windu novel.
Basically Basically, he has his ability in the forces to know the weakest point in something.
And then he shatters it, I guess.
I guess so. Yeah. But that's not actually what it is.
I know I'm honored to work with him.
He's a genius. I'm surrounded by a lot of geniuses that make me look really smart in retrospect.
It doesn't bother me at all.
And let's say it were true.
Let's say that I was just sort of affixed to him like a kind of caboose.
Right? That's a pretty good setup.
That's not even a complaint.
He's stupid. He could be making twice as much money.
He's the stupid one.
If you were brothers, who would be king of the Lego bin?
That would be me. I still, as a, as a, as a, what do you call it if you've been married for a long, you've been married and then like your wedding day comes around again?
Anniversary. I like that you have not forgotten your anniversary.
You have forgotten anniversary.
No, no, that's the meta.
I mean, I approach it from the highest peak.
No, Brenna got me the Ninjago City set of Legos.
It's like 4 ,000 pieces.
And that's because she loves me and knows me well.
I don't honestly like my my choice like what Mike's want to do what Mike wants to do is be you know that time enough at last that Twilight is on episode yeah where's like in the vault and like before he breaks his glasses everything sweet right he's got the food right it's great times it's like that's Mike's fantasy like that's what he wants like my fantasy would be into in a place like that but just with Legos yeah I'm obsessed with Legos I'd never it never never stopped.
Are either of you training your kids to one day take over the comic strip, or is there a doomsday protocol in place a la Tim Allen's classic The Santa Clause?
This is from Jelly Legs Robert, from The Billybong.
which for us is a shirt but i i derive that it's a place sometimes is it a is it a shirt or a place both okay it's a shirt it's a shirt place it's a store um i think that they could do the thing about the thing about our first sons is that we sort of figured it we sort of figured it would would be Gabe and Elliot, but Noah is actually the artist. It's not Gabe.
Noah is actually the one that can draw well.
The reality is, I think, that in our minds, it was always going to be Gabe and Elliot that would be the first ones, but that's just because they were the ones that we had then.
In truth, Ronya and Noah would be much, much better at making Penny Arcade, I think, and Elliot makes his own comic.
It's called Hashtag Weirdo, which I think is very timely.
I could not be more pleased with the young man.
Oh. Mike, we previously heard from Jerry that his skull once had a run in with a baseball bat after which he floated in and out of consciousness.
Do you have any similar harrowing tales of gruesome bodily injury?
This is from Thedrin in the Shadow Glen.
I don't think that's a place in Australia, but I could be educated.
So he's not here to relate this tale, but there was a period of time, I think it was a month and a half or two months, where he drank no water and only had Sprite with every meal, and any time he would drink something, it was Sprite.
And then the doctor was mad at him.
The doctor told him that he couldn't drink Sprite anymore and that he had quite possibly destroyed his body with Sprite.
That's tough news to hear.
Yeah, exactly. For anybody.
Because I remember...
I hate giving the news to those families.
But it's like, he was coming to me.
and it's like you know you go to your friends for support in your time of need and I was not able to offer it because what he had done was ridiculous and and ridiculous on the face of it in a way that was offensive and so he's like yeah doctor said I can't drink Sprite anymore and I was like right yes I agree I am on See, I'm on his team.
I agree with him. What makes a man?
About $100 in chemicals.
Jesa, where do you get your inspiration for those bars you so beautifully drop every Ak ink?
This is from Nair in Darebin.
I listen so the main thing that I want to do is make poems and songs like that's somehow like that's I do a lot of other stuff as well and I enjoy it and I especially like working with people to make cool stuff but writing poems and songs is what I actually like to do the most like that's what I would do alone right and there's not a lot of opportunity to do that so a big part of the Iyerwood stuff is poems, like information that gets boiled down, like poems as information mediums, not just art forms, but like codifications, and so I'm always trying to tuck stuff like that into our other projects,
even if it doesn't necessarily fit correctly, and one of the weird things about Ack, Inc.
is that you'll have this really powerful emotional emotional experience for like two and a half three hours and then you just like get up and walk away and it's it's it feels really weird like I never quite know about it I you you did something like you took it as a medium and did something really funny with the walk where you sort of like scuttled off oh yeah it was amazing like you you found something cool to do with that thing but I always feel so weird just standing up and leaving it feels like we have like we've manufactured a kind of like ritual space where we've all agreed to sort of imagine
the same thing, which is a pretty powerful, that's a pretty powerful thing.
And I wanted to recognize like the cool thing that had happened in a way that, in a way that also let me exercise my fetish.
It's the best of both.
Yeah. Yeah. Is the plan for PAX to take over every continent?
And if so, are you hiring henchmen to assist you on your quest for world domination?
Absolutely. Out in the foyer, in the lobby, you can apply to be one of our PAX troopers.
I think you'll love the uniform and the truncheon.
um collector's truncheons available uh no uh i feel like five is good so you guys got one you know what i mean like we put one down here jerry how is it possible that you still haven't been able to reason your cohort out of his absurd religious beliefs.
Mike, is it not your duty to make sure your best friend finds faith and thus evades an eternity in the ever roast?
Have you no care for his immortal soul?
This is from a Coltron in Helsinki, Finland.
That's an awesome question.
The reality is that over the years we have sort of found the middle ground where we're both less less strident, and we can both recognize...we can both recognize, like, the, the value of each of these different positions.
But it took, I mean, functionally speaking, we had to become old men in order to do it.
Please describe how you would like to die.
Um, okay. This is from Portentia in Farin.
So that's, that's a...there's a hint there.
There is a way to leverage the brand in your death threat.
Very tasteful. Honestly, I would prefer not to.
If that is an option, if that's on the menu, let's go with the no death.
Generally speaking, I would like to know as little about it as possible.
I would like to spend a lot of time not thinking about that.
that. Let's go with the sleep or the caramel overdose.
Something in that continuum.
Dear sirs, if you had to leave the Earth, but couldn't both stay on the same planet, where would each of you go?
Wendle in Nillumbik.
Nillumbik. Nillumbik.
Yeah, thank you. Here.
Here, so where are the options?
Like, what year is this hypothetical scenario taking place?
Yeah, like, wouldn't it be easy to get on the same ship?
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of problems. There's a lot of problems with this hypothetical scenario.
I don't endorse it.
The entire thing is ridiculous.
I would be down with one of those badass, like, the colony ship type thing.
Oh, yeah, you just stay on the ship.
I would be overjoyed with that.
Yeah. Like, the big one that has the artificial gravity, you know what I mean?
And, like, the hydroponic bays and stuff.
Yeah, I'm sick of planets.
Yeah. I'm just done with them.
I'm over it. Well, yeah, exactly.
Every planet you get to, I mean, there's a sell -by date.
You know what I mean?
Like, we need to get rid of planets altogether.
What is Penny Arcade the Megacorp's character alignment?
alignment." That's interesting.
That's interesting.
I think we are probably neutral good.
That's my guess, if I had to say.
Where's the fruit fucker?
I missed the fruit fucker.
This is from Naughty Frenchman in Beechworth.
So the fruit fucker is one of of the things that comes up a lot at home now that Elliot has, now that Elliot has come in, and he has a lot of questions about the fruit fucker.
Like a lot, like too many, like more questions than I want to answer.
You know what I mean?
He's like, well, he, the fruit fucker talks in the first comic, but then he never says, he never talks again.
And then I was like, yes, that's very interesting.
And then he said, I think that's because the first comic takes place in the context of an advertisement.
So the fruit fucker's not really saying anything.
What's actually happening is this is advertising copy.
And I was like, you're too smart, son.
You're too smart. You're only 12.
What the fuck am I going to do with you when you're 18?
What's one thing that everyone could do for themselves or one other person that would make this a better world?
This is from Ophira in Port Ferry.
Is Port Ferry in Australia?
that's great It's not as cool as it sounds is it?
It's uh... yeah nah uh...
one thing let's see um...
I think that I think that if you stopped posting on the internet I think just like one time like make one less post a day uh...
give yourself like a five second window before you hit post of calm of calm find your center um i feel like that would help a lot i feel like that i feel like that abstraction is starting to cause some real harm um complete this sentence real men i don't i don't i don't even believe in the concept um real men don't exist no it's like a uh it's like a mathematical proof yeah exactly it's like for the set now your voice is even more fucked it's gone it's getting it's getting croaky if you had a pet parrot what would you want it to say um when i was four i taught our parrot to say shit so we already
know i mean we already know And if you look at those ads on the Internet, it's like one trick that dentists hate.
That is one trick that moms hate.
They don't like it when you teach birds to curse.
What do we need to do to start the process of detoxifying gamer culture?
Is it even possible?
I think that there are many gamer cultures.
I think it's one of the main things that you have to consider when you think about detoxifying gamer culture.
I think there's lots and lots of subcultures, and I don't think that each of these cultures has the same values.
So I think it would be very difficult to get just like it's difficult to get any group of sufficient size to agree on something.
Like, my gamer culture is not based around competition.
The gamer culture that I espouse is exemplified more or less by what's going on here, where you sit there and I tell you things.
That's not the part I'm talking about.
But communicating with each other is a big part of it.
But in contexts where people compete and really invest themselves in competition, I can't really thrive in a space like that.
I mean I haven't I haven't been in open chat in Xbox Live or PSN for probably 10 years.
Like whatever it is about people competing with each other whatever that brings out I can't be there, my choice in that is to avoid it.
There are people who thrive in that environment and I can't do it.
So I think the idea that we're ever going to get to a single set of norms I think that we could be less shitty generally speaking but I'm not sure we can get to a single set of norms when each of our cultures has different values.
I think it's a a weird question.
What would you rather eat?
Something bland but filling or something spicy and flavorful yet insubstantial?
This is from Xavier also in Port Ferry.
I had to check this place out.
This is a very philosophical realm.
Bland but filling. I mean, could I put something spicy yet flavorful onto the blend but filling thing?
I mean to my mind that's a win -win.
I'm afraid to open my mouth because I don't know what sound will come out.
No but like, I've had, I tried Soylent.
I tried to do that because I I just want to get done with the task of being sustained.
Exactly, and then what happened?
Chris Straub tried Soylent for a week.
Here's what happened.
I feel like it must have come up somewhere else recently, but one of my favorite things about Soylent is that on the website, it's like you can flavor it however you want.
Check out our forums where they're coming up with new recipes all the time.
You go to that, it just goes to a live forum thread that says, who says, guys, how do we get rid of this horrible taste?
There's been, I'm on, you know, 2 .8 right now.
I got this coppery taste.
I'm sweating blood.
It's like people talking about their fucking GPU drivers.
Like, I have been to this same thread.
And it's like, they're trying to hack their food.
It's like, no, I don't want to think about it at all.
Like, if I have to go think about it, and if I talk to a bunch of people who don't like it either, and are trying desperately to escape the taste of it, it.
There is an easy solution.
It involves food and the eating of it.
No, they would say, but then you starve to death.
There's no solution.
No, you eat the food that we've always had, that we've always had.
You just eat the regular food.
No, that can't be it.
Inconceivable. Jesus Christ. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Huh. That's intriguing.
What city is that from?
Yeah, exactly. Port Ferry?
Yeah, Port Ferry. What the fuck is going on there, you guys?
No, this is from Uvada in Utah.
So, I mean, that also could explain it.
Lofton. let's see, so the lowest depth of misery so I mean I can get sad but there's definitely hard limits on it because I think of myself generally speaking in terms of pretty broad abstractions, if you were to catch me in an unguarded moment I would probably tell you that I don't exist I don't recommend talking to me for any length of time it's not a good policy for you but the lowest depth of of Misery, I think more or less I've seen it the last few days with Mike.
He came to believe that he was trapped, that there were no good plays, and that his, you know, his life was inescapable in certain ways.
And I think that that must have been...
I think that that must be something like this where you where you or do you don't get to author you have no authorship over yourself anymore and you're just sort of existing sort of like casting around in the surf so talking and talking about it the way he did with his post and then acting on it I think was a pretty a pretty big step to getting away from that with the announcement of an acquisitions incorporated game set in in FFG's Edge of the Empire.
So if you liked the ackink game and you thought that system was fun, that book is just called Star Wars Edge of the Empire.
And it'll give you all the basic stuff.
It doesn't cover any force type shit, like that comes in a later book.
But it's a very, very good setting.
I think eventually they're gonna release that, just the engine, because you could do any type of game with that very well, I think.
I'm interested to know if any other systems are under consideration for future non -D &D ackink games.
You will be pleased to note that we were considering Star Wars or Star Trek.
Right? Think about that.
Like Star Wars, like the ragtag, the smuggler and then the airship is not an airship but a spaceship, right?
Imagine ACK, Inc, but with, like, away teams. like we're getting to a place we got this big fight and then you know we're beaming down because it's always the most important people on the ship that beams how it still works yeah but imagine Star Trek as a context for humor I mean that's good times right yeah this is what you want so we can see because there's a really interesting new Star Trek system that works very well too but we were also yesterday we were talking about Deadlands so I think I think ack Inc set in the like in a Weird West like a mystical horror west type setting yeah would be
very good yeah the omen drawn as sort of the Sawbones frontier pharmacist sounds like a pretty good hook I've been following following you guys for well over ten years now and I'm impressed with the volume and quality of the offerings you put out.
The comic is still awesome and the stuff on Twitch is a constant entertainment.
I've really been enjoying that, too.
You're actually the reason I got into DND recently.
My question is when you started your empire all those years ago, Is this what you thought success would look like?
Or was it something different?
Yeah, so I don't think that you get to choose.
I didn't have a chance to catch all of Bernie's stuff, but I think that he would agree.
You don't get to choose how you succeed.
Right? Like I said, what I like to do most is write poems and songs.
And now the process is me trying to tuck those things into other things that have worked.
Like I need to find that successful carrier wave that actually connected with someone.
so that I can engage my fetish, as I described before.
So no, it looks very, very different.
I never in a million years...
So what percentage of these questions are about AI?
Maybe 65, 70? I never in a million years would have imagined...
I was so overjoyed to be able to make comics with my friend as a job, but I didn't grow up reading comics.
That's Mike's fantasy, right?
I never in a million years would have thought that I'd be able to play D &D as a part of my job and as a part of my life, let alone invite my friends into it.
That would have been inconceivable to the person who founded this.
What I want to do most is help people succeed with their goals.
That's the thing that I find most exciting.
I have my poem thing, but the thing that I really like to do is try to be the difference, Try to be the difference in a project.
Try to look at somebody's project from another perspective.
Right? That's a huge part of our relationship.
I harangue you constantly about stuff.
You would – I mean, in Starslip, did I like Starslip more than you?
Yeah. Yeah. Right? No, I think it's true.
But, like, forget it.
You tried. Yeah. I mean, I think that I liked Starslip Crisis more than you.
or Star Shift Crisis or whatever it was.
you know, and so I basically wanted to write fan fiction and then some of my fan fiction ended up in the actual strip, right?
Give us your definition of what a drongo and or a bludger is.
Shit. These have real definitions, don't they?
Is a drongo Bongo, like a bellend, is pretty good, right?
Okay, bludger, I mean, y 'all got Quidditch down here?
Like, I'm assuming a bludger is not a truncheon.
Oh, it's a type of person?
A bludger is like a stupid, lazy person?
Okay, you say yes all at the same time in a very, very unsettling way.
I have every faith that there is more than two or three people out there, but I can't guarantee it.
All right, so I did pretty good, fifty percent, and now I can use Bludger in my nomenclature down here.
here. Other than Melbourne in its entirety, what are your favorite things about Australia and specifically about Melbourne?
This is from Adrian, not Sydney.
Yeah, I mean, I spent some time in Sydney, but I haven't spent as much time there.
So there's things that I don't know if it's necessarily better or if I just have more experience with it.
I love, like the downtown, right across the water, I am endlessly, I am endlessly fascinated by the restaurant offerings here.
Like, I don't know if it's especially good, but from my perspective, like, I'm not lying to you, I have had as many as three three dinners.
Like, I will go to a place to have dinner, and I will stop someplace before and eat a dinner there, and then I will eat dinner at the place I had intended to go, and then on my way home, I will have dinner.
Like, it's impossible.
I had pho, and then I went to dinner at a ramen place.
And then I had a banh mi.
like it doesn't the density and quality and the fucking range of of Melbourne snacking is solid and also I feel like the game shops here are on point there is some really really hot shit Kiko and I have been to NecoCards twice in two days if you have a chance to check out if you go to the Necocards booth, get a demo of Dragoborn if you have a chance.
If you like CCGs, get a demo of Dragoborn.
Just trust me. I'm doing you a favor.
Jerry Cteam continues to kick ass.
Thank you. The show seems like it could go on for years and both the cast and viewers would be 100 % okay with that.
Yes, definitely. Even so, do you ever dream of possibly running running a similar streamed campaign in another role playing universe like Shadow Runner Vampire?
Which universe would turn your crank the hardest?
And what gifts would you buy Chris Perkins to make him forgive you?
Chris Perkins and I have a very good relationship.
In fact, at the East game, if you watch the East game, there's two things that happen at the East game that set up the C team.
Because Thristraub was there.
And then with the Sisters, because my Sisters had died in the previous game, the events there inside the temple with the Sisters are tied into the entire C -team game.
So he and I talked at length about how to sort of merge the two campaigns.
And then if you look at the PAX Unplugged game, the A game has Rosie B.
Stinger in it. So the idea that they're parallel campaigns, but they're going to start merging more and more often, which is something I'm super excited about.
I would love to continue to use our channel as a way to put out content like this.
I honestly don't know how much you can sustain, though.
If I put out 12 hours of content a week, I assume that that's not...
There's a point at which you can't...
It's like lotion absorption, right?
Eventually, you're just putting lotion on lotion.
And it's not being absorbed into the skin.
I'm not a lotion expert, but that metaphor might not be great.
But what I'm saying is there has to be some upper bound on what I can provide.
Or it could be that each of these shows will have a slightly different audience.
The wrestling show that we want to do will be pretty interesting, I think.
We want to do that next year, I think, after South.
But those episodes are specifically only going to be an hour, hour and a half.
They're not going to be the same type of time investment for the viewer.
But, no. I'm hooked on it.
And what I'd like to do is I'd like to get Mike back behind the screen with more regularity because I just think he's brilliant.
Like he's like my friend but I'm like a fan of my friend.
Thanks for taking the time to envelop my rock hard Q with your supple A.
Okay. I can never make the time to read, but I have begun listening to audiobooks at work, which has infinitely multiplied my book throughput.
Yes, definitely. As such, I have strong opinions on narration.
I know you often recommend books, but are are there any well -read audiobooks you've found particularly delightful?
The best audiobook that I have ever heard is all the Jim Dale stuff for Harry Potter.
Like, that is, I don't think it, I'm not sure that it can be superior.
Like, he has completely, it's great because Ronya listens to that when she's going to bed now.
So I always get a chance, I get a chance to listen to a little bit of it each day when I'm putting her down, which means putting to bed.
I think this is the last one.
With the coming arrival of PAX Unplugged, paving the way for sub -PAX shows beyond the main four.
That's very clever, Adam.
Is there now an increased possibility of a show in the UK, Europe?
I can't really speak to anything like that.
Once we get PAX Unplugged underway and try to make sure that that's something that we can do in a reliable way that honors the attendee, we can try to figure out what a sub -packs show means until then I can't say too much about that now crass our time is up do you want to show the people what we've crafted I believe that it is done master can you give me some like Gollum type shit yeah I don't know Here, that was tight.
Okay, here we go. Oh, spoiler.
Spoiler, spoiler. All right, is that legible?
Can humans read it?
Get your shit off there.
Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. It has been our great pleasure.
