Games Advice LIVE at PAX Unplugged With Jeremy Cobb and Amanda Silberling
If you somehow got the chance to play a 15-letter word in Scrabble, quizzifications would be your highest-earning option. This episode is high-earning, too: injecting pure serotonin into my brain from performing live in front of people for the FIRST TIME on Games and Feelings. Enjoy advice from Jeremy Cobb and Amanda Silberling, live from the Crab God Theatre at PAX Unplugged 2022!
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Credits
- Host, Producer, & Question Keeper: Eric Silver
- Editor & Mixer: Mischa Stanton
- Music by: Jeff Brice
- Art by: Jessica Boyd
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Games and Feelings is an advice podcast about being human and loving all types of games: video games, tabletop games, party games, laser tag, escape rooms, game streams, and anything else that we play for fun. Join Question Keeper Eric Silver and a revolving cast of guests as they answer your questions at the intersection of fun and humanity, since, you know, you gotta play games with other people. Whether you need a game recommendation, need to sort out a dispute at the table, or decide whether an activity is good for a date, we’re your instruction manual. New episodes drop every other Friday.
Transcript
Eric: Hello gamers, this is Eric in the studio. I'm very excited to introduce our first live show that we recorded last week at PAX Unplugged in Philly. It was absolutely incredible. I am still so tired. And my head is spinning with all the people that we met, all the people we had fun with. And just - it was an incredible time. All of these questions came from people who were actually at the con, which was absolutely incredible. And I'm so happy to have answered those questions that people would need and especially having wonderful guests like Amanda Silberling and Jeremy Cobb in person. We did do the entire show masked, to follow their their masking guidelines. So if it sounds a little bit muffled, Mischa did their absolute best making this sound as good as possible. But that's just something I wanted you to know. We are very excited to do more live shows in 2023, more cons. I'm looking at you PAX East, let me in, let me in, let me in! And just doing live shows all across the country and hopefully other countries as well. So just stay tuned. I hope you really like this episode. The feeling of doing a podcast in front of a live audience and with live guests was just incredible. So I really want to do it again. All right. This is Games and Feelings live at PAX Unplugged.
[Theme Music]
[Crowd Cheering]
Eric: Helloooooooo Gamers! [Crowd Cheering] This is Games and Feelings live here at PAX Unplugged 2022. Games and Feelings is an advice show about playing games, being human and dealing with the fact that those games will involve other humans. I'm your host and question keeper Eric Silver. And the board game that I played the most as a kid that no one else knows about is a game called 'Race to the Roof' where you went to the top of a roof. And that's it. [Crowd Cheering] It was the only game in my grandma's house and we played it so much. I don't remember how to play, I literally think it was like roll a die and then like go through rooms like you're in the kitchen. I'm like I'm in the kitchen right now. Thanks, Grandma. We have some wonderful guests here because he can't play a game alone my first guest, reporter from TechCrunch and all-around Pokemon Raltz. Please give it up for Amanda Silberling. [Crowd Cheering]
Eric: Amanda Silberling, what is the board game you played as a kid that no one else believes existed?
Amanda: Passover Chutes and Ladders. [Crowd Cheers]
Eric: Yes!
Amanda: It's real! I am very upset that my parents don't have it still. But that just existed in my childhood home and I didn't question it. And now if you Google it, you get all these like retro eBay images, and highly recommend. There's a Dayenu spot! [Crowd laughs] You can land on Dayenu.
Eric: Yeah, that's when your friend stands up and said "Oh, the sixes, it should have been enough!"
Amanda: It should have - Dayenu wasn't enough.
Eric: [Laughs] Dayenu. That's incredible. I'm so happy you gave me that answer. But don't worry. We have another person to play because like, I don't know, we can't play Hive or Seven Wonders Duel. Or... I'm trying to name another two player game, I can't think of - War, just War.
Amanda: Go fish.
Eric: Go fish! We need another player. You might know him from being in a castle and playing Dungeons and Dragons, but you also might know him on the internet from Three Black Halflings, give it up for Jeremy Cobb! [Crowd cheers and claps] Incredible. Jeremy, did you play a game as a kid that no one believed exists?
Jeremy: Oh, man. No, the thing that no one believes exists that I did as a kid is that my mom used to send me with, to, to school with squished up bread. [Eric laughs] It was my favorite kind of bread. It was literally just a piece of bread. That would be squished up, she'd take the crust off and squish it up. And somehow that made it taste better. [Crowd laughs] I almost got in trouble one time because she would she stopped sending them pre squished so I would then have to squish them and this was at kindergarten and the teachers were like "why are you - this is disgusting. Stop doing it."
Eric: Again, another thing I did not know what I was gonna get from this. [Jeremy laughs]
Amanda: I met you 10 minutes ago and I feel like I know you so well.
Eric: Oh yes. Squished up bread, yeah, Jeremy, lifelong thot. Yeah, incredible. Wonderful. Well, if you don't know, Games and Feelings, we're gonna be talking a lot about games and feelings. But this is a special Unplugged edition. We're going to do our best to only talk about the games that we love to discuss here at PAX Unplugged. Ordinarily Games and Feelings we talk about video games, we talk about fantasy football. Any other thing that involves electricity, playing sports under the lights, Kirbo -
Jeremy: Drilling?
Eric: Yeah, Blaseball. We love, we love sports, it's good. Go Igles, so... [Loud 'Woo' from crowd]
Jeremy: I just heard you say 'Igles,' not even Eagles.
Eric: No, yeah, that's how you pronounce it. Go Igles.
Jeremy: Philadelphia Igles? Go Igles! [Crowd cheers]
Amanda: Jalen Hurts, am I right? [Eric and Crowd laugh]
Eric: Incredible. Gritty. [Crowd cheers and claps] Incredible. If we have time at the end we can talk about when Eagles fans threw snowballs with rocks in them at Santa Claus. The high point sportsmanship, perfect.
Amanda: A game that did give me a lot of feelings was when the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018.
Eric: That's - [Laughs]
Amanda: Was anybody at the sports riot? No? Not Philadelphians - [Indistinct answer from crowd] Sorry, okay, now, now tabletop.
Eric: See this - but this is this is what games and feelings is about, is that now the city of Philadelphia greases the telephone poles. And like that's just what brings us all together here.
Member of Crowd: It still doesn't work, people are still climbing.
Eric: Philly people keep climbing poles?
Member of Crowd: Yes!
Eric: This is incredible. Love, love does find a way. Anyway, the point is, we're gonna try to keep this Unplugged. But first we're gonna do the segment that we always do, 'A game that is giving us feelings,' where we talk about a game that is giving us feelings. It doesn't have to be a new game. It doesn't have to be a game you've played recently. It's just something maybe you've thought about again, we're trying to keep it Unplugged. My guests, do either of you have a game that has been giving you feelings.
Jeremy: So my favorite game is Dungeons and Dragons. [Crowd cheers]
Eric: I've heard of it.
Jeremy: Yes, you may be familiar. I believe that, it's a relatively small company. But I believe they do have a booth somewhere here. [Crowd laughs] And I recently actually played a session that was different for me because normally, when I DM I tend towards comedy or at least comedic stuff. But the flavor that I was playing with in this particular case was like a one-on-one session.
Eric: Oh, wow.
Jeremy: Yeah, it was like one-on-one, there was no combat, it was just all RP and rolls. And it was the, the player created like a really dramatic scenario. So while there were like a couple like hee-hees and ho-hos, here and there. Overall, it was like super serious and so tense. And when it got to the end, I was like filled with the magic of creation. And I got the creative zoomies, it was great. [Crowd cheers]
Eric: It was a problem. You were running around the room for the next 20 minutes and then fell asleep.
Jeremy: But only creatively! My body was completely stationary. But my imagination was running wild.
Eric: Hell yeah. I love that. What is it like DMing for someone one-on-one? I've never done that before. And the only time I've seen it was like Stephen Colbert trapped Matt Mercer in a room. [Crowd laughs] And, like, made him do it.
Jeremy: And he's playing a bee. [Crowd laughs]
Eric: Yeah, exactly.
Jeremy: It's, it's really, really cool. If you have like a good connection with the person that you're playing with. It creates kind of like, I would say, an intimacy and focus, because there's no potential for crosstalk. It's just you and this person focusing on this world the whole time. And so some of the best sessions I've ever run, I would say have been one-on-one. It can be really, really great.
Eric: Hell yeah. I like that. That's wonderful. Amanda, I see, I call you Raltz all the time. So I'm trying to decide if I want to do that continually. Raltz, do you have a game that's giving you feelings?
Amanda: Oh, I'm going to throw a curveball and say chess.
Jeremy: Whoa!
Eric: Tell me about this game. It came out recently?
Amanda: Oh, yeah. I mean, it's similar to D&D, it's like a very small game, but like they have -
Jeremy: Do they have like an expo? Do they have something at the expo? Can we try it out?
Amanda: Um, they, no, so -
Eric: I heard the Queen's really OP.
Jeremy: They do have mahjong up there, though! They have a mahjong booth!
Amanda: They did have mahjong. At, like they had it around here yesterday.
Jeremy: Yeah!
Amanda: I literally don't know how to play chess. But I've been very invested in following the chess cheating scandal.
Eric: Oh, yes!
Jeremy: I'm right there with you.
Amanda: Like I just love like very niche communities having very nice drama that has no impact on me. And I do need to learn to play chess because I think that's a thing I should know.
Eric: Yes. I actually, it's very important that you're here because I have a few questions about this. As a tech reporter, you wade deep into the internet and you know, various internet things. It's like you're almost as good as someone who hangs out on Tumblr for a little while.
Amanda: I spent a lot of time on Tumblr. I put in my time.
Jeremy: [Laughs] "I got my purple heart!"
Amanda: I was on Tumblr when you could still edit reblogs, we know how that ended. [Crowd laughs]
Eric: Wonderful, you - or the day that John Green died. Absolutely. So my question, is the thing that everyone is so interested in, is there like someone suggested that someone was - uuuuh, thirteen plus, put something in their butt to cheat, right?
Jeremy: Yeah.
Eric: That was just someone trolling, right, that's not, that didn't actually happen?
Jeremy: No, but no, this is the thing, I've been, I like chess. I don't play it, but I like to follow it. Magnus Carlsen, the guy who lost this game -
Eric: Right.
Jeremy: - is arguably the greatest chess player ever. That's not like, that's not hyperbole, there's, there's a strong case to be made that he either is or is about to be.
Amanda: [Quietly] The Simon Bile of chess. [Eric laughs]
Jeremy: And this teenager destroyed him, like annihilated him. And he's, he does not lose like that. And so peop - and that kid had a history of cheating when there was all these suspicions. And they were like, Well, how could he have cheated? And one of the methods was... unrepeatable. [Crowd laughs]
Eric: Right, but the thing that I'm trying to say was, is that like, you're right, but - [Jeremy and crowd laughs] the reason why, the reason why - Oh, cause it was in his butt. [Jeremy cackles] Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. I missed live shows. Incredible.
Jeremy: You said 'but' and then it took a beat for you to get it.
Eric: It was good, it was good. But I thought that someone just said on like chess reddit to troll, be like, "oh, he had something in his butt." Because like having something in your butt is a funny joke to say on the internet with your friends.
Amanda: No, but the thing is, what I think you're getting at is that this is genuinely how misinformation spreads on the internet.
Eric: Right, Yes, yes.
Amanda: Like I'm dealing with - but like, It's fun when it's somebody starting a rumor about what we're talking about. But in my day to day life, I have to deal with this with like Elon Musk. And that's no fun. I can't believe I said the first word -
Jeremy: Do he cheat with the same method? [Crowd laughs]
Eric: We don't need to spread anymore rumors, terrible enough already. So here's my follow up question for you, Raltz. Do you - does it bother you? When people say that people like Elon Musk are playing 4D Chess? When you're like, "that's hard. I'm just good at 2D Chess."
Amanda: So my hot take as someone who professionally has to pay attention to Elon Musk - he's playing 1D chess. This man simply just tweets. And then I get a push notification because I - this is like my life is that I get push notifications when Elon Musk tweets. Because that's my job. And this is why I have to *unplug.*
Eric: Yeah!
Jeremy: Yay!
Eric: Go Eagles.
Amanda: Go Eagles. I love when I play D&D with my friends. And then I put my phone away and don't text because I don't want to make my DM feel bad.
Eric: Wonderful. You're a good person. Absolutely. All right. The game that has given me feelings is Scrabble. Recently we are this is like the first weekend of December and [Borat voice my wife and I were going -
Amanda: Wooo!
Eric: I know that was fun to say. My wife and I went and visited my mom for Thanksgiving. We're always there for like a week, right? And my mom is an English major. She passed like my love her love of reading onto me. We like make jokes about The Great Gatsby like normal people all the time. [Crowd laughs]
Jeremy: Of course. "You really got the green light there!"
Eric: Oooh, there it is. Oh, wonderful. [Jeremy laughs] We're not even gonna, we're not even gonna end this podcast. This is gonna bear ceaselessly into the past continuously.
Jeremy: Heyyyy.
Amanda: Hey, Eric, can you write a Gatsby TTRPG?
Eric: Yeah, probably. I'll do that right after this. Absolutely. So my mom has done that. But like Amanda, my wife also is a very scholarly and book centric person. And when we play Scrabble, I feel like my mom's insecurities about like us knowing more than her comes out. Because every so often my mom, when we're just talking like the three of us, my mom was like, "Ooh, Amanda, you use such a big word." And I'm like, it was like, I can't even think of the word right now. It's like, like, yeah, Nadir or something? Right, which is the opposite of apex. Anyway, the point is, it's like when it comes out, especially when we play Scrabble, it's like my mom really wants to win. But like, I play games professionally. And Amanda knows a lot of big words from playing like the various games she plays on her phones that are word games. So like, it did come out a little bit Thanksgiving. We didn't do it, but we've done it before. So I think about scrabble as a microcosm of just like family dynamics, and then that's why the show exists. [Crowd laughs] I still also keep trying to teach my mom like understand Dungeons and Dragons or tabletop RPGs like why people do it. I even took her to like an Adventure Zone live show years ago. It was in Nashville. So it was the one with like, it was like, It's like canon in the fandom now. It's like one of the best live show episodes that my mom was like, "what's that Taako?" Which was fine and that she and I think she enjoyed it but she still just can't get our head around it a little bit. So we just still are playing these games and it's just like, I don't know it's wild and it's giving me feelings. Do you all have feelings with your family? [Crowd cheers] I'm sure and I'm games contribute to that. Of course. Wonderful. Alright, we're getting to the meat of the, we're getting to the meat of the podcast here. We, do you all want to answer some advice questions? Yeah. Audience, do you want to hear answers today's questions? {Cheers] Incredible. I'm gonna look at the time - wonderful. We made plenty of jokes and we're on time. Folks have been coming to the Multitude booth for the last two days for those of you who have, thank you. I've written down a bunch of questions here. And a few of you have written questions down here. I really want to get through all of these. So we're not going to have like a Q&A at the end. But we will be hanging out if you have like, more feelings you want to tell me. I'm not going to stop you from that.
Amanda: I love giving people unsolicited advice, even though I need the advice as much as anybody because you know, that's just what we're doing here.
Eric: Yeah. You mean having an advice podcast?
Amanda: Yeah. Okay, the thing like I lost my voice last week, and I was like, oh, no, this is me being punished for having a podcast.
Jeremy: I feel like by definition, questions that are submitted to an advice podcast, though, are like are asked, are soliciting the advice? At that point.
Eric: So in the Patreon version of Games and Feelings, which if you like, if you sign up for that, Amanda and I will do the replay, where we answer questions from actual advice columns, about games, like - Dear Prudence doesn't know what a massive multiplayer RPG is, which is extra funny. So like, the whole point of when we're reading it written down, it's a lot of like, text based adventures. It's like looking at like, well, what are people trying to mean when they're saying one thing? Or not? Like, who is the kind of person exactly what you said, Jeremy, who's submitting a question to be read aloud? And like, what are they telling us about what they're saying? So yeah, I'm kind of English major, you motherfuckers. [Crowd cheers] I'm very excited though. I also think the microphones we're using are like very skinny and thin and go up from like, a bass suit, just for the people at home listening. So it really does look like we're about to give a press conference. Like we're, we're going to announce the breakup of our pop band.
Amanda: Hello, it's me, Nick Jonas.
Eric: "And you're watching Disney Channel, bam, bam, bam."
Jeremy: In 60 years, Peter Jackson directs, like an eight hour documentary about the, the disolution of our podcasts.
Amanda: It all happens in the Crab God Theatre, the actual name of this theater that we are in. Which I just think everybody listening at home needs to know we are literally like, this is not a bit like. Like I was like telling my friends like, hey, 7pm Crab God Theatre, and it's just been so much fun.
Eric: Absolutely. All right, let's do our first question. "As a Dungeon and Dragons GM, some premade dungeons are covered in monsters. How do I remove some and make the dungeon go quicker, without making its seem small or empty?" That's from Peaceful PAX Person. So I think it's it's interesting, because I wonder if this person again, I'm reading between the lines immediately. But it seems like this person, if they're using pre made stuff is either made more in more of an amateur or needs help. Like, I never want to be like you're a newbie, that's why you use it. But like, we all have jobs, when I'm going to sit down and think of like a new original cool thing for you. Now sometimes you need it, and you want to add to it. So it's funny. You can't just like throw a book at a person. That's English class.
Amanda: Evidently what we're doing here today.
Eric: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. So how do you remove the stuff take out the things that I think might work better for this person's table? Which is less combat? Yeah, while still keeping maybe the vibe of the person who made it a professional tabletop RPG writer who made it so it must be good or good enough at least, to buy and use?
Jeremy: Yes.
Amanda: Well, can I turn this back on you please. How do you make initiative go quicker?
Eric: That's a good question.
Jeremy: I will usually pre roll all monster initiatives, if I know that there's going to be an encounter. So then I only have to add the players into it. I also know that there is a Dungeons and Dragons game that I think has been going on for 40 years. And the guy who runs it has developed a system whereby you have a very limited amount of time to say what you're doing in the combat. And I've watched a little bit of a combat and like the whole room. Everybody just stood up it'd be like "I do this bah bah, bah, bah, bah, blah blah." And they sit down and apparently they love it because people will be flying in from other countries to play this game. So that's one way maybe to make it go quicker
Eric: Right, fixing initiative a little bit. Yeah, what - I agree with you, I really don't like initiative. I think it grinds everything to a halt. It's the Dungeons and Dragons - again, like, Listen, I don't know if you've heard of this little game called D&D, building off of the great joke that Jeremy made earlier, but like it does have roots in like strategy games where you move like a little cannon two bloops forward and like yeah, that was a battle. So like, it doesn't always have to be that especially for the types of games that you want to play in 2022, 2023, and beyond. So like, I don't like running initiative. I like doing other things, like I love doing puzzles and contests. Or if you're going to have a fight, it's like kind of a montage it, it like, so it's more of like a video game fight, you know, like it has different stages, like one, let's say you are fighting like a giant, like a giant boulder was running towards you, right? Like the first thing would be like you running out of the temple. The second thing would be like you running through the forest. And the third thing would be like trying to stop the giant boulder before it hit the town. Right? And that's more of a montage again. But I don't want to say that for this person. Because they bought the thing that I said first, was that this person bought a premade thingy, and might not have the time to do this or doesn't want to or doesn't have the experience of doing it. So I'm worried about saying, “yeah, just like be a game designer.”
Jeremy: I have a suggestion. I have two suggestions. Suggestion number one. So replace the monsters with descriptions. If you describe the place and you describe evidence of activity that has been taking place there that will help to drive up the tension and still make things feel focused and intense, even if there isn't necessarily a monster in the room. And sometimes if there isn't a monster in the room, there's even a question like, why isn't there a monster in the room? Where there's like these, you know, players start to get paranoid. So that's option number one. Option number two, and both of these can be used. Replace the monsters with potentially friendly or neutral NPCs.
Eric: Hell yes. Yes. I love that. Yeah.
Jeremy: So it's just talking. And then maybe they join you or they give you some piece of information. Maybe the monsters took somebody prisoner and the person is like, [Old Man Voice] “Oh, I'm hanging up by my wrists. Please let me down. And I'll tell you the secret of the dungeon.”
Eric: Professional games person Jeremy Cobb, everybody.
Jeremy: Thank you. Thank you.
Eric: That is - there was not an old man who just ran out. No, that was Jeremy Cobb.
Jeremy: [Old Man Voice] “Please. My name is Warts. Take me down. I'll tell you all about myself.”
Eric: Wart, you're in the Leviathan theater. Get out of here.
Jeremy: [Old Man Voice] “Aaaah!” Pulls the manacles free and just runs out of the room nude. [Crowd laughs]
Eric: No, I love that a lot. I think to your point about the silly voice you just made. There's something about doing a silly voice for a monster which is perfect. Especially if this person is fighting with like, it seems like, oh, there's a level 11, CR 11 vampire in here. That person can still be CR 11. But like, doesn't want to eat you immediately. Which like, the assumption of a dungeon crawl, I think of this premade thing is like, “Oh, I'm gonna go in here. And everyone hates me and wants to hit me with their sword.” And I think that making it fun is like, make a funny voice. Have them give - because it's all supposed to be means to an end, right?
Jeremy: It's like, have the vampire be a therapist who's actually an emotional vampire. Yes. feeding off of all the information that you give them.
Eric: Yes. Raltz, as a relatively new player. What is it, do you like it? Like, I'm just gonna gauge this, like, Is this fun for you?
Amanda: I think just like, when the DM is having fun. I figure it makes the players have fun too. And how can you not have fun when you're doing the voice that Jeremy just did? And I do -
Jeremy: [Old Man Voice] I came back! Ah!
Eric: Wart, get out of here!
Jeremy: [Old Man Voice] Oh, sorry. I had to pick up my loincloth! [Crowd laughs]
Amanda: Yeah, the vampire therapist. Great idea, free NPC for you.
Jeremy: Yeah, there we go.
Eric: 100%. I think there's you're touching on something, Jeremy that I really like, which is like, a fight is just conflict, you can do conflict in so many different ways in a tabletop RPG. That's why you have all those stats that are next to the fighting thing on the side. Use intimidation as a - think of it like a quicktime event in video games. Like you need to get certain roles and do stuff to move the thing forward and like navigate the conversation or navigate the puzzle or you're trying to get something like the emotional vampire wants to eat you but also and eat on your feelings. But also, you can also do like has a key on them as well that you can do or the key is somewhere in their office. It's like behind their diploma from Cambridge Vampire University. You know, like there I think that there's a lot of layers here. And I think you can just change a room in there and use the monster and do something else like give it a personality, make it a character or an NPC instead of a straight up enemy.
Amanda: So kind of you to mention my alma mater the Cambridge School of Vampires.
Eric: “Go Fighting Vlads!” [Crowd laughs] Incredible. Alright. Do you any of you have any final thoughts about this question before I move on to another one?
Amanda: No. I think the point about like having conflict that is not just fighting makes games a lot more fun right now I'm playing a warlock and as much as I love to simply eldritch blast everything. I also know charm person that's fun. I want to charm the people. So I have so much more to offer.
Eric: I love how you said I want to charm the people when when charm person is notoriously “Ugh I want people to like me, and I'm using magic.”
Amanda: Ok, we established this, I'm a podcaster. I want people to like me.
Eric: Yes, it's true. We did start with that in the show. Absolutely. I love that. All right, let's do another question. We actually got a bunch of questions about feeling bad when you lose at games. I think there's something like, maybe video games, you can just like kind of rage quit, or like smash a controller. So like, or Mario Party is the devil. So maybe that's more accepted. [Crowd cheers] Someone's like, “Yeah, fuck Waluigi! That bowl game sucks.” So I, but I think it might feel a little more visceral for folks. When it's like, you're just all you have in front of you very few meeples and a board and you just lost. So I want to hit something. This one specifically. By, [Singing Beck song] ‘I'm a loser, baby.’
Amanda: [Signing] So why don’t you kill meee.
Eric: Oh, no, don’t do that. Okay, “what do you do when your usual gaming partner always wins? And in parentheses, ‘And crows about it?’” [Audience oooohs] Yeah, the audience knows.
Jeremy: Yeah, I think like the answer is play with somebody else. Yes.
Eric: Yeah, for sure. Looking into this, I mean, you know, we've all been stuck inside a lot. And we only have like one or two or three people we've been able to play games with. So like, I wish we could just go and do it. But there was like, some weird stuff happening in 2020 that we just couldn't deal with. So I was like, it seems like this person really wants to keep playing with this one person. Do we have like, here, this is the feelings part. I feel like we address the feelings part first and then get to the games. Like, what do we do about the person who the winner always crows about it?
Jeremy: Mmm. Surely you should just talk to the friend. Like if you're playing with this person, and you're like, hey, good for you. It's good that you won. Congratulations, you did defeat me in this game. However, when you act like that, it makes it feel personal to me. And not like you just defeated me in a game but like you defeated me as a person. I am less Dow which is not a great feeling. I like to play games to have fun.
Eric: Yes, yeah. That's the thing that we're getting at here is like, you know, this is, any of the various advice podcasts out there are like, my stepmom doesn't think I'm good enough for my wife, for the person I'm dating. Like, that's gonna be the problem. But ultimately, we're still talking about games, it needs to be fun. So if someone's not having fun, what are we even doing here? Raltz, what do you think?
Amanda: I'm going to be a chaos demon and say that what you do is think about whatever is the game that you personally are best at? Like, I know. No one's beating me at Bananagrams. So - [Audience Interjection] Oh, yeah, we can have a Bananagrams challenge after this. But -
Jeremy: Rivalry ignited!
Amanda: - your friends, like, instead of the good advice that Jeremy gave to like, talk to your friends, you just say, hey, let's play Bananagrams or whatever game you're really good at. And then you just like, do very well. And then kind of, I don't know, do you crow about it to like, show them how it feels? Or do you then try to be the bigger person and be like, what a fun game we had together, friend.
Eric: Wonderful. I wonder if the person who grows all the time will then know you're doing it back? Or even be aware. It might be like, what if you're setting it up? This feels like a sitcom setup, right? And then the thing that you learn at the end is like, Oh, that wasn't satisfying at all. I hated that. Like they're trying to dunk on my loved one or my roommate who I live with. I just don't like that.
Jeremy: Or they're like, “Yeah, I don't really want to play with you. You're really sore. You're a bad winner.” [Audience laughs]
Eric: Yeah, that's a wonderful end in a sitcom. Where they just walk over like, “Alright, that's the end, everybody. I hope you enjoyed Step By Step.” [Jeremy laughs] That's very funny. I actually honestly, I like that idea, Raltz, as like, the thing you do after you deal with this, because I think question asker also, need - deserves a W. Like they deserve to - and no one's good at every game. There's not like, this isn't like the newspaper or one of you is the bad person. One of you is the good one. This isn’t like Goofus and Gallant. Right? So like, there has to be a game you're good at and you deserve a W. After you have the conversation that Jeremy suggested. Unfortunately, you're all going to realize that the answer is “talk to each other.” But we have a podcast to make. [Audience laughs]
Amanda: So the real answer is just be really annoying when you win.
Jeremy: Yeah, escalate. [Audience laughs]
Amanda: Yeah, exactly. Create more conflict so that then we get more questions. And then that's just the cycle of the advice industry.
Eric: Yes, exactly. Yes. And then it was like, “Oh, I would really want to play this WWE video game and my friend is coming over. It's John Cenaaaa! [John Cena theme] And then John Cena is there and then it's escalating.
Jeremy: Spend all of your money to hire John Cena.
Amanda: Right now. John Cena. Speaking of things that are happening on Twitter that aren’t depressing. John Cena has been following back a lot of people, so this is your chance, you can be mutual's with John Cena. Whoa, see, just getting him to come to your game. And then when your friend crows about it then John Cena could be like, “hey chill.”
Eric: The DM - DM John Cena ask him this exact same question DMs and then hope Twitter doesn't die before he can respond.
Amanda: Yes, slide into John Cena is DMS.
Member of Crowd: He actually just followed me! [Crowd cheers]
Amanda: See? See I'm right I know about the internet.
Eric: I can't believe we have someone who John Cena follows on Twitter here in the audience. Everything's, everything's different now.
Jeremy: Truly, they are the crap God
Eric: John Cena is here right now. He's in the space.
Amanda: You could presumably slide into his DMs.
Eric: It’s true. I'm doing a cold reading here. I'm getting a feeling is someone connected to John Cena? Is there jorts on the left side? Incredible. Does anyone have any final thoughts about, uh, for I'm a loser, for about their person who's crowing and feeling bad about it?
Jeremy: Yes. Join a - start training in MMA. [Crowd laughs] Spend a few years and next time they do that. If it doesn't elevate to fisticuffs, you're doing something wrong. Yeah. And then you can really crow once you beat them.
Eric: And then Kevin James is there and then it's Kevin James and John Cena.
Jeremy: They hire Kevin James to come try and beat you up.
Eric: Yeah, it's called Here Comes the Boom, the hit movie. [Indistinct Audience Response] I don't believe you that Here Comes the Boom is a good movie. I do not believe you.
[Chiptune Transition Music]
Eric: Hey, it's Eric and I picked up some snacks for the mid roll here at Games and Feelings. I got clementines, they’re Cuties, actually, which is the one, which is the cutest name for a brand name. If you're going to come up with a brand name. I thought that clementines were - like it was a cutie Clementine for a while. Like, that's what someone would grow that you take out a seed and it'd say Cuties Clementines on it. You know if like Xerox or Kleenex were called ‘adorable face tissue.’ Like maybe I would like them more. I don't know. Who wants one? Here. [Imitates throwing out tissue boxes] Ho, huh, hoh.
I think you should be a part of the Patreon at patreon.com/gamesandfeelings. Just like our newest patrons. Bisbee, Catherine Fraser, PA, and Dylan. It's also Dylan's birthday. And your wife Sarah gave you this gift, which is so adorable. And I'm so happy for both of you. Remember, if you want a whole other podcast that a lot of you do, the Patreon has been growing. All of you come on board, you can join the Patreon for The Replay, where we replay and reply to advice columnists advice about games. All you got to do is sign up for $5 a month. And special shout out to producer level patron Polly Burridge and new producer Kelsey Duffy, who are both sharp and lovable hustlers at two-on-two basketball down at the courts on the beach. That is a reference to a movie, I promise. Patreon.com/games and feelings.
I have something very, very excited to tell you that's coming from Multitude. We are offering podcasting classes! People may say that podcasting is easy, but no one describes exactly how to get one going, how to grow and how to avoid the complicated pitfalls that might stall the project. That's why for the first time, Multitude is offering classes for podcasters by actual working podcasters. You'll learn from weekly instruction, hands on homework and a lot of valuable feedback from your instructors and classmates in our online classroom. We are starting with three classes here in this first round, sustainable podcasting or finding structure and workflow so your show works for you. That's from me, podcasting mixing and mastering for non engineers by Brandon, and how to make a living as a digital creator by Amanda McLoughlin. This is a great gift for aspiring podcasters or a way to kick off 2023 by working on a new project. Learn more about the dates starting in early January. The curriculum and the technical details, or just registered today by going to multitude.productions/classes or check out the posts on the multitude social media feeds. I'm so excited about this teaching is a passion of mine. I was a high school English teacher before I started doing this and I care about these classes deeply. I think you're really going to enjoy it. multitude.productions/classes.
We are sponsored this week by D & Tea. At PAX-U I met the D & Tea guy, he was wonderful. It was so great to talk to him and to talk about teas and about Dungeons and Dragons and all that playing so I really want you to support this small business. D & Tea has immersive teas for your RPG session. You can have forest frolic are Pallas elixir, which is green tea, as well as under dark and chill elven bazaar and tavern brawl for black teas, even Shadowfell slumber for an all berry infusion that's naturally caffeine free. All the teas are gluten free and ethically sourced. So you know, you're getting the best deal. It's December is this is the perfect gift for someone in your life for your DM for your player to someone who really, really likes tea orders are three or more tea's come in a really cute gift box that also includes a dungeon map on the inside to help save the box from the garbage for a little bit longer. If this sounds like something you would love, which I know is probably the case, sign up for a subscription and get 15% off at DandTea.com. And use promo code ‘gamesandfeelings’ that is dandtea.com, promo code ‘gamesandfeelings.’
We are also sponsored by Inked Gaming, the most notorious top notch, one stop shop that supplies you with all the best gaming gear. With a full selection of play mats, mouse pads, and more, Inked Gaming gives you a wide selection of high quality gear that can be customized and personalized just for you. So you value your favorite art or design or pattern or personal logo, or you found a photo from Wikipedia Commons that you want to put on there. You can put it on your game stuff. Inked Gaming can make that happen. They also have a growing community of gifted indie artists who provide pre designed art for their products. And these artists get a commission every time that's sold, so you're doing something good for you and for them. Having Inked Gaming as a sponsor means we have a special access to certain perks that our audience can take advantage of. So head on over to inkedgaming.com/gamesandfeelings. And if you see something you like use the promo code gamesandfeelings at checkout to get 10% off your order.
And now, back to the games.
[Chiptune Chirp]
Eric: Incredible Alright, I'm going to use one of these analog questions that we got here from the audience.
Amanda: Very unplugged.
Eric: What? Ooh, unplugged who? It's like I'm playing an acoustic guitar and no one hates me.
Amanda: Anyway, here's Wonderwall.
Eric: [Laughs] “What's your favorite way to get friends introduced to the kinds of games you really love? Have you had success getting them, getting them to appreciate the odd ones that you're into?” I think this would also extend to video games. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna raise that thing because I -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeremy: You’re going to plug in?
Eric: Yeah, you can plug in if you want to.
Amanda: I have the answer to this.
Eric: Please!
Amanda: Oh, okay. This only works. If you're really good at cooking. If you're not really good at cooking. Then just like, follow a celebrity chef on Twitter, see if they follow you back slide into the DMS. However-
Eric: That can’t be your answer for everything wrong!
Amanda: No! So, what you do is you make, like, very good food and then be like, “Hey, friends, I'm having, like, a potluck” or no, no, not not a potluck. Like you're making the food. So then they come and then they feel guilty if they didn't bring anything, and then they feel guilted into playing the game with you. And then along the way, they realize they liked the game.
Jeremy: Mmmm.
Eric: Yeah, no, that's actually really good.
Jeremy: Yeah.
[Audience Claps]
Amanda: Thank you, thank you.
Eric: An absolute hero.
Jeremy: I have a piggy back idea that might even remove the need for food. What if it's your birthday?
Amanda and Eric: Ohh!
Jeremy: And you tell them, “We’ve got to play this game.” Now they’ve got to play the game!
Amanda: Oh, that's a better idea. Because then people bring you presents, and they have to play your favorite game with you.
Jeremy: Exactly.
Eric: And later, you can go to Cold Stone Creamery and they'll sing the song!
Amanda: Wow, we’re so good at this.
Eric: Yeah, and then John Cena’s there.
[Audience laughs]
Eric: I wonder if your game, okay, I think we're talking about genres here, also, with this wonderful question. He's like, he doesn't have to be the game that you love the most. But I think that giving people like an entry point to this thing. Like, if you like walking simulators, for example, if video games, which is like nothing happens, you're just kind of vibing in some 4k Woods for a little while.
[One Audience member says “Woooo!”]
Eric: Like there are games that lead you in there that are very popular that I think people would really like to understand something that's like less action set action centric. For example, if you were playing a board game, that's like Twilight Imperium right. Notorious eight hour game about colonizing space and being a space Tiger. They're like, you can introduce long, a long-ish, game with something that's no longer than like one hour, let's say, that people are interested and be like, oh, man, I could have done this all day and then you go, “WELL,”
[Audience laughs]
Eric: But you gotta like, dip their toe in first if you're gonna prank them by making them addicted to eight hour games, right?
Amanda: Well, this is where the food comes in. Because when I think about doing something for eight hours, I'm like, when's the meal break? Like?
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, scheduling that is important. For sure. Sure. I wonder what they mean by ‘odd ones’ like, what are you, what would you two consider odd games that you love and like what makes them weird?
Jeremy: Look, I don't even like squished up bread like I really, I don't know like what is a weird game to be into?
Amanda: I don’t know…
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: I mean this is just on my mind but, um, maybe Goat Crashers.
Eric: Yes!
Amanda: We were talking about that earlier, and that's kind of like a weird concept to be like, “We're all going to pretend to be a goat and we're crashing a party.”
Eric: Yes.
Amanda: But-
Eric: I was gonna, I was actually going to say, Grant, how it's one pagers are always really fucking weird. For those of you who don't know, you might know Goat Crashers, you might know Honey Heist, which is kind of his most popular one where you play a bear at a con trying to eat honey and steal it. And like it's all, they're all very similar. It's definitely weird, but not like hard to play. I think that would be a good one. It's about time, right? Or, like, even people use that as introductions to tabletop RPGs. I think that like if you think it's weird, but fun, do it anyway. But I think weird/odd might symbolize like, hard to get someone to sit down and play especially if someone isn't like a big gamer like you.
Jeremy: Like disco Elysium. That's like my favorite game.
Eric: Yes, exactly.
Jeremy: That game is super weird if you haven't played something like that. Even if you have it's extremely weird. But yeah, that, that one I can imagine like if you don't want to sit through a million words of text.
Eric: Right.
Jeremy: Uh, but it's the most fulfilling experience you'll ever have in your life.
Eric: 100% I think it's really starting to creep up like best top 10 games of all time now.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Eric: Especially now that it came out on PC, like people are, lots of people are playing it. I think people are mourning it. We could have a whole conversation of the worker deal that's happening at the company-
Jeremy: A sequel Poscast!
Eric: Yes, truly.
Jeremy: Just Feelings No Games.
[Audience laughs]
Eric: Games and Feelings and Workers Rights, but we're gonna do that later.
[Audience Cheers]
Jeremy: Yeah!
Eric: Yeah absolutely. So I think that this question is great. I think that that don't feel bad about being odd. It's more about like jumping in. They even said about Disco Elysium, like, if you have a friend who likes d&d they will then like this game. It's like a theme but also like having things talk to you is interesting. I think if like if someone's read the book Fight Club and like took the right thing from it.
[Amanda and Jeremy laugh]
Eric: They also might like it ‘cuz there's like a lot of you know, there's themes in it, you want to make sure that you're pairing something as a jumping off point to go in there and whether-
Jeremy: Murder mysteries,
Eric: Yes, exactly.
Jeremy: Cop stories, noir, all that stuff.
Eric: Or pointing, even point and click adventures honestly.
Jeremy: Yeah!
Eric: Yeah, like if someone likes Monkey Island they will definitely like Disco Elysium as well.
Jeremy: Absolutely.
Eric: Oh no, we said too many video games! PAX U, the enforcers are coming for us!
Amanda: They're gonna unplug our mics!
Jeremy: Wirt runs in, just tackles them. “No, no you can't go in, they don’t let us in.”
Eric: No, Wirt we were about to, we're about t to play Honey Heist, come back. I’m Gort his brother! I'm also naked, but I don't feel bad about it.
Jeremy: You should be ashamed of your nudity, brother.
Eric: I'm not ashamed. I just want to play some games. I got lost and now I'm in the Crab God room. Amanda, do you want to do a voice?
Amanda: Um, [in the Crab God Voice] “Hello, it is me, The Crab God.” I’m, well, we did decide that Kirby is The Crab Gods, that's also Kirby's voice. For those of you listening at home, we have a Kirby sitting with us on the stage.
Eric: Hold on. Let me see if Kirby has something to say. [As Kirby] “Poyo!” All right, Thank you Kirby. Wonderful.
Amanda: [in The Crab God voice] “Poyo.”
[Audience laughs]
Eric: Crab God, no!
Amanda: [in the Crab God Voice]: “Squirtle!!”
Eric: Oh here, [laughs].
Amanda: I didn’t know I had this in me!
Eric: That's good! Here's the thing. This is a bonus, this is a bonus answer. I've been watching a lot of Bill Hader interviews.
Jeremy: Yes.
Eric: Because I'm very fascinated by people who can do impressions.
Amanda: Like me.
Eric: Yeah, just like you. And while doing impressions is kind of like another thing you have to do as a GM, as someone who does voices for characters. And like some people get by, by doing three voices for every single character, right? And that's not a bad thing, right? Like, you don't have to do voices to be a good GM. But I was watching Bill Hader things and he's like, Yeah, but just like, I would watch true crime shows, and I would watch old movies, and I liked that. And then I would just like do the voice and like, put that somewhere else. And people thought it was funny. It's like, it's just a joke with a voice. So like, anyone can do voices and take voices from other things you like and put them in your characters. Like, I don't want to say like people have been gatekeeping impressions. That's insane. [Everyone laughs] But it does like, um, like, oh, I can just do voices like I can do like a weird Eric Cartman voice for one of my NPCs and that's just very funny. Oh, yes, exactly. I've done that for sure. Yeah, for sure. So like, if you, if you can do any sort of funny voice just do it. Whatever, right? It's all just making funny voices. Like you didn't know you had a Squirtle, but like, here you go.
Amanda: All this is because I'm still recovering from losing my voice because I have a podcast and then I got cursed by The Podcast Gods, and it turns out that when you lost your voice a week ago, you can be Squirtle!
Jeremy: Hey!!! Can you do Bulbasaur too?
Amanda: Bulba!
Jeremy: Yes!!
Eric: Pika!!
Amanda: My ego has never been higher than it is right now.
Eric: Alright, here's another one, here's a really good question someone in the audience said so I'm really excited about this one. ‘Are there any games you weren't expecting to feel things about that took you by surprise? Why, what were they?’ I want us to give this a specific games, not like experiences like games. So Jeremy, your answer about playing d&d one on one is stupid and bad. I'm just kidding. So let's talk about it. It was wonderful. And I appreciate it over here. I've known Jeremy on the internet for like three years now. And it's the first time I met him in person. This is wonderful.
Jeremy: It’s true.
Amanda: Yay!
Jeremy: What a wonderful time.
Eric: So stupid and bad, your answer. So what like, what about the game itself engendered these feelings you weren't excited? Like what is something that happened because the game said it?
Jeremy: I liked Wonder Home, I think that would.
Eric: Oh that’s a good one.
Jeremy: Yeah, I think the thing that got me really, really interested is in the lore, there are all these like vague references to some sort of terrible event that has happened that the land is recovering from, and especially when you get to the veteran one, because the veteran is the only one that has the option to just straight up kill someone and uh-
Eric: Can you explain what, I feel like this gives more context, can you explain what Wonder Home is a little bit more?
Jeremy: Okay, so imagine the most wholesome thing you've ever seen. And it's all little animals. It's essentially a it's a tabletop role playing game. That is diceless it can be GM-less. It is essentially a group of friends getting together creating these adorably wholesome animal characters from a series of like preset, like animal options and jobs. You can I think one time I was a bumblebee herder, like a bumblebee shepherd. I heard it Bumbles.
Eric: Hell Yeah.
Jeremy: Uh and you get to pick like, oh, there's like a bumble bee with a, with a tiny wing kind of flies lopsided do you do like give specific Bumble personalities, all sorts of stuff. And then you and your friends will describe different environments. And then you will describe together and play out the adventure of what happens in all these places. And it's just like a cooperative storytelling thing. But in the lore of the game, and even talking about like some of the specific landscapes that you may be encountering, there are vague references to possibly like a war or disaster that happened. And one of the archetypes that you can play is a veteran. And again, all of this stuff is super wholesome. But the veteran has the option to straight up murder somebody. And it says like, if you actually use this action, that you can never play this character again, like they've killed someone and they just go away. But there's like this element of like, we're, we're building something precious together, out of the ashes of something terrible and trying to move forward is really, which I found really interesting, and kind of moving on some level.
Eric: Absolutely. That's awesome. I really like that. Putting something explicit like that in the book. That's a game thing that you can never play that character again, because the thing by choosing to do violence is so bad. And in this game, you can't do it anymore. Like I love having a game thing that triggers that, which is wonderful. Hell yeah, that's wonderful. Raltz, do you have one?
Amanda: Um, I guess I played Werewolf recently. And I thought that was fun because I normally don't like hidden roll games. But werewolf is so quick that it kind of goes to the past question about you got to dip in your toes slowly. Because something like blood on the clock tower is just, it takes like 12 hours. It takes like two hours.
Eric: What is blood on the clock tower?
Amanda: It's. I haven't played it because I saw people play it and it took so long and it intimidated me. But people were playing it here. I saw it on the schedule.
Eric: Oh, is it like a hidden role like thing?
Amanda: Yeah, but I think like, I get so stressed out, and I want that stress to be confined to like 10 minutes.
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: So I guess I was surprised I liked Werewolf, because it was shorter.
Eric: Is, especially again, we’ll just go to you as our senior internet correspondent, Amanda Silber Leigh, is there something about playing that tactile, playing Werewolf instead of Amoongus, that that is easier for you to deal with or less stressful or relieve stress better?
Amanda: I guess I think just as somebody whose job is looking at screens all day, I relish the opportunity to not look at screens. And the difficult part about that is that, then when you play d&d, I have like DNZ and Beyond up and I'm not that good. I'm not good enough to be like, I can have a paper or whatever.
Eric: You don't have to memorize stuff, just memorizing things that you should look up and like the fact that you get to google it that doesn't make you bad. It just makes you someone who didn't memorize all these things, and it's in your brain.
Amanda: Well when I Google I have to look at a screen.
Eric: Oh, okay.
Amanda: I can’t just be like, hey Siri, what's the type of damage on this spell?
[Eric and audience laughs]
Jeremy: Well, they actually sell spell cards. If you if you have like a specific class, you can buy the spell cards, and it’ll have all the spells that that class can learn.
Amanda: This is an advertisement for Wizards of the Coast.
Jeremy: And also like, you also can have some of the physical books there. If you own those, that way, there's no screens involved.
Amanda: But then I have to give them money.
Eric: There are a lot of beautiful indie folk, they make really beautiful things with like very heavy cardstock and would make like detailed ones. And they're very easy to read from a long distance, like very large font, so you can give that to an indie creator as well.
Amanda: Cool. I love supporting independent creators. This is a plug.
Eric: This was Games and Feelings and Workers Rights, once again. I want to give a special shout out to Doikayt actually, it's in my bag. I don't know if one of y'all can see it. Doikayt is an anthology of tabletop RPGs made by Jews about Jewish ideas and themes. I have it right here if y'all want to see it, and I can send you links to it as well. And I also want to make sure I shout out the collectors, this was all organized by JR Goldberg and Riley Rethal who also has a game with the Wonder Home folk so.
Jeremy: Oh, nice!
Eric: And the thing- I was gonna buy this regardless, right? I was very excited to see this anthology and be like, Oh, I'm gonna see a bunch of Jewish stuff. I'm a Jewish person I talk about all the time. So the thing that I was, I wasn't anticipating being so moved by seeing the various types of games in here that people can do under the theme of, quote unquote, Jewish game. Like there's one where you are doing pro wrestling against God. There's another one that's like very lyrical game where you're building a Golem, like literally creating it together. And then the final one is a short like, few page RPG about being a character at a deli. Like, it's a slice of life game about playing a character at a deli. So it's like, oh, they're all these things? And also, yeah, it's a slice of beef. And also, there's some wonderful essays in here about like, well, there's one on playing these games, if you're not Jewish, on on medieval or historical things in Jewish life that you can use as jumping off points for your games. You know how like all fantasy is like medieval Europe from the Christian side and it's like church bad, king also bad, everyone die. There's like other things you can pull from that. Or more specifically, it's also in here. So like reading these essays, I'm like, damn, I wanted this and I needed this, but I would have supported it anyway. But I got something that I really loved.
Amanda: Hey Eric, what do you think about the analog Jewish game of finding the Afikoman.
Eric: Oh, that's really good. For those who don't know, finding, you find the Afikoman on Passover, where after dinner, the dessert, quote, unquote, as you break a piece of matzah in half, and you hide it throughout the house, and the children need to find it and whoever finds it gets a prize. Afikoman-
Amanda: It’s usually $1
Eric: It's usually like $1 or your desert, right when
Amanda: but you're like six, it’s so exciting
Eric: Can I say, Afikoman slaps.
Amanda: Yeah! Okay, I hid the Afikoman for the first time last year. And I've never felt more, actually, no, the only other time I felt more powerful is when I did my Squritle impression and people laughed.
[Audience cheers]
Amanda: So that’s a Jewish game that should be in the anthology.
Eric: I know, there should be something around the Afikoman. And yeah, there's a lot of stuff in here. You can find this online, I got a printed version, because I just really like holding it in my hand. But uh that's a really good idea. I didn't realize how moved I was going to be by the essays just as much as I was about the games, and there's some really good stuff in here. I can show it to y'all. And I'll send you the links if you want to find it after because we're in the meet space that I can show you things.
Amanda: A dreidel is like a D4.
Eric: A dreidel! I have seen, I have seen some D4 dreidels, they're fucking awesome. And we should be, we should be singing when rolling D4s instead of stepping on them. That's like my thing. Alright, uh, does anyone else have feeling, the feelings they get from specific games? Or are you all feelings out?
Jeremy: I, uh, I’ve, I'm basted in fields right now.
Eric: Wonderful.
Amanda: I have so many feelings.
Eric: Alright, I have another question. We have a few more minutes here. So I want to ask one more question. And then we can just all give unsolicited advice for anyone about games, we can do that here. Alright, this is a final question because it kind of pairs really nicely with the other one that we said of having a friend or your partner who crows about winning. ‘What games would you recommend for sore losers?’ This is from Winners Never Prosper. So I think that this person, Winners never prosper, wants to do what is asking about themselves. Like they know they're a sore loser and they want some games that would keep them from being a sore loser and bumming people out. They also say Co Op is recommended so if there's any Co Op games that we have suggestions for that would work.
Jeremy: Wander Home. Just saying, nobody loses in Wander Home.
Eric: Unless you kill someone. Much uh, much like in life. Yeah, just like in life. Yeah.
Amanda: I think you can recommend more specific games than I can. But I think just like any sort of role playing game where I feel like you can't like win in certain role playing games.
Eric: Yes, absolutely.
Amanda: The dice have an effect- actually, Monster of the Week. Which that is a game where when you fail, you get experience points, and then you level up. So failing is good.
Jeremey: Kids on bikes.
Amanda: See, I know about games.
Eric: Yes you do.
Amanda: I, I am sometimes not on the internet.
Eric: There you go.
Jeremy: The Kid on Bikes and all the adjacent like Teens in Space. And Kids on Brooms. When you fail a role in those you get adversity tokens, like it helps you. And again, the goal of the game is just to have fun and tell a story with your friends. There's no really lose condition except not having fun.
Eric: I was really hoping we were going in this direction. I would love to touch on very quickly how you can't win or lose in a tabletop RPG. I think it's something that like you got to process once you understand it, like your, you just kind of let go like a massage. Once you're okay with someone touching your back, and then you're like, Oh, I needed this. Thank you so much. So it's like, you're telling a story. And like if the day, if you fail badly, you, mechanically maybe something good will happen. But also like something cool happens, regardless of what you do. Like if you have a good person who's running the game, or if it is GM-less, that all of you decide that like something cool happens even when I fail a role it’s not like I do a strength check and I can't pick up the boulder and then the boulder falls on my head and I die. It's like you can't pick up the boulder and then some some guy who was in the who is off off memeing like, ha it sucks. You can't pick something up. So like now you've introduced an npc and you can now we have a conflict which is someone made fun of you. Someone made fun of your character. You had to do something else.
Jeremy: Disco Elysium that one if, some of the funniest parts of playing that game or when you die. Yes. Yeah, for sure. There are multiple lose conditions. I know a guy who who had to stop playing the game because he couldn't get past the opening where you need to take your tie off of a, off of a fan. Yes, it is literally possible to die from trying to remove your tie from a fan. Later it's possible to die from sitting in an uncomfortable chair. Yes, and it's it is amazing. It's so funny.
Amanda: Well apparently we are plugging in since you said Disco Elysium. So what about Hades? Well, literally, you cannot play the game without dying. You constantly are dying. And then even when well, this is I should I shouldn't say, spoiler but there's a lot of death. Now it's like funny death.
Eric: Now I have a question for both of you about the roguelikes that, the roguelike that you've suggested, Raltz and the like, text based adventure.
Jeremy: Yes, JRPG essentially.
Eric: Yeah, exactly. Like, are we trying to shock this person out of being a sore loser by finding nirvana? Like, that's what? That's what a roguelike is like to me.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Amanda: I mean, I like personally identify as a sore loser. Like I'm studying like growing up playing sports. I was always like, the kid on like the tee ball field crying. So like, even as an adult, I think I just have to like, take a beat and be like, it's just a game. You can be competitive, and then be disappointed that you lost and then be like, alright, that didn't matter. It was just a game.
Eric: Hell Yeah.
Amanda: That's my, that's my only actual real advice.
Eric: That's good advice!
Amanda: I ended on a sincere note.
[Audience cheers]
Eric: Yeah, good job. Don't clap for that! You can clap for Squirtle, not for sincerity.
Jeremy: Or if there's a game that you're not good at. Go live on a mountain for several years, doing nothing but studying that game return and crush your enemies.
Eric: sit under a waterfall. Sharpen your blade and play the game
Jeremy: playing nothing but Mario Party.
Eric: There is something about just to tie a bunch of these questions together like playing a game. That's the pure distillation of it to get better at all other games, like for Mario Party is good because the mini games are so many different types of things. Like if you're playing a card based game, you’ve got to play Slay the Spire continuously, which is like injecting card base roguelikes into your veins, right? So it's like I want there's always games that can get you better that are like the core skills, what I think is the is the not funny version of the thing you said Jeremy. Wonderful. Alright, do we have any more things about sore losers?
Jeremy: Get good, scrub.
Eric: You're right, good. Good. Yeah, everyone get good. Whatever we that's at PAX East. We don't do that at PAX-U.
Eric: All right. Finally, we are on our final segment here at Games and Feelings because we're doing this live. I think this is an opportunity because we have microphones and you don't, yeah. Does anyone have any like unsolicited games advice they'd like to give the audience both here and also in podcast land.
Amanda: I think oh, oh, wait, we were saying? Yeah,
Eric: No, not not you. What about us having microphones don’t you understand?
Amanda: Yeah, make a podcast, nerds. I think don't be afraid to not know things like, yeah, I don't like I've played d&d for like six months. And it's fine to ask questions here. I have the microphone we're on. We're on a TTRPG conference. And I'm like, I barely know how to play d&d. So fake it till you make it. And then you're sitting on a stage with Kirby and then you do Pokemon voices. And here we are. Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, absolutely. Jeremy, what about you?
Jeremy: I would say, if you are GMing a game, talk to your players about what they would like to see and what they're comfortable with. And then listen to what they say. Go out of your way, because really, the way to win as a GM is to make sure that everybody has fun, including you.
Amanda: The only way to win in TTRPG is having fun. It's the friends you make along the way.
Eric: Yay!
Jeremy: Yay!
Eric: We did it. We said the thing that you always say.
Amanada: Talk to your friends.
Eric: Yeah, honestly, I think the thing that I want to say unsolicited is like there's something that's really nice with meeting people in person, if you can, I know. Obviously, there's risk here the pandemic isn't over. And we're all here masked and we're doing it, but this is really nice meeting people in person, but also doing things just talk interact with others, like getting on Discord, playing a bunch of games, just having like someone in your ear is truly wonderful. And I think that like it's you can't play a game just on your own. Like there's something about even when you're playing a one like a campaign style game, or like Elden ring, for example. And like there's a whole community around it, like look for people on the internet, hit up people on Discord, but also see them in person as much as you can safely. I think that would be wonderful. Yeah, this is the end of Games and Feeling.
[Audience Cheers]
Eric: Thank you so much. First, I would love to give all of you a chance to plug yourselves and if people want to see you on the internet after the con Raltz, we'll start with you. What do you do on the internet?
Amanda: I am a senior culture reporter at TechCrunch, you can read my stuff there. I am very online on Twitter at ASilbewrites. And I have a podcast While of True about why internet culture matters in our real human lives.
Eric: Hell yeah. Very good podcast. Jeremy, what about you?
Jeremy: I'm 1/3 of Three Black Halflings, we’re a Dungeons Dragons slash TTRPG slash nerd podcast. Part variety show, interviews. We've had Eric on, we've had Matt Mercer Bradley Mulligan if you've heard of them there's a good chance they've been on our show.
Eric: Now which of them is the best GM, it's only up to you to decide.
Amanda: I've been told to say Eric Silver.
Eric: Hey oh wow I never said that. Wow oh my god, thank you.
Jeremy: And we also do actual play all sorts of stuff and I also do professional GMing and such to do d&d in a castle and next year but I also if you wanted me to do GM a game for you let me know you can hire me and pay me to run games, it’s a lot of fun. Have a good time.
Eric: Where can people find you to hit you up look for that.
Jeremy: You can find me on Twitter at Jeremy Cobb one that’s Cobb with two B's and the number one and you can if you want to email me directly it's on my Twitter bio but also Cobb dot Jeremy at outlook.com
Eric: I love that you still have an outlook, that’s awesome.
Jeremy: Oh, that's updated from the Hotmail.
[Audience laughs]
Eric: Oh my god. You can find me at Eric silver at geo cities.
Jeremy: Jeremy Cobb at compuserve.com
Amanda: They can find you on Twitter at L underscore Silveira which is your name if you were a lucha libre wrestler.
Eric: That's me. Yes, please do that. Find me at L underscore Silveira on Twitter. And you can find the shell game at games n’ feelings, as an n like linens n’ things because it was bad even before Elon Musk bought it. You can also go to the website games and feelings.com and you can submit questions if you just add a slash questions at the end. And you can support the show at patreon.com/games and feelings where we do that show with Amanda and I that where we answer the-
Amanda: Other Amanda
Eric: Yes, other Amanda, where we-
Amanda: Amanda McLoughlin, CEO of Multitude.
Eric: And [Borat voice] my wife! My wife, where we answer when we do the replay and answer the questions from the advice columnist that I was telling you all about. And there's links in the episode description. I'll show you all in person because we're on the meetspace thank you to Amanda Silberling and Jeremy Cobb.
[Audience applauds]
Eric: Once again, I am Eric Silver and remember there is nothing in the instruction manual about feelings. Thank you all.
[Audience Cheers]
[End Theme Music]
Eric: Games and Feelings is produced by Eric Silver and edited and mixed by Mischa Stanton. The theme music is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Bryce, and the art was created by Jessica Boyd. Find transcripts for this episode, and all episodes at our website, gamesandfeelings.com. Until next time, press X to enjoy the podcast.