Games and Feelings Live at PAX East with Jenna Stoeber and Merritt K
We’re live and in person at PAX East in Boston, MA! It turns out past and future guests Jenna Stoeber and Merritt K are real people because Eric saw them in real life! In front of a live audience, we talk about the games at PAX East that are giving us feelings and answer real questions from real people in real life. So grab your Master Chief plushie and get comfy as you enjoy this LIVE EPISODE!
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Find Us Online
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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 and welcome to Games and Feelings, an advice show about playing games, being human, and dealing with the fact that those games will involve other humans. We are live here at PAX East!
[cheer]
ERIC: See, you can hear we're at PAX East, we're definitely not doing this in my basement and I'm not lying to impress my mom. I am your host and question keeper Eric Silver, and the video game impression I want to make on this microphone right now is a very loud Kirby. So please give me a second. Pooyoo! That was pretty good.
JENNA: Yeah, it's pretty cute. Pretty cute.
ERIC: Pooyoo! It's hard— It's hard doing it loud and emoting as well. Well, we have next to me on my right, is independent content creator and marketing director for Necrosoft Games, it's Jenna Stoeber.
JENNA: Ohhh. Everybody, hey, hello, that's me.
ERIC: Jenna, what's the video game impression you want to make on this microphone right now?
JENNA: I want to do it for the first time live. Here's my debut, and it's so hard doing it through a mask because it's a very soft impression.
ERIC: Oh, sure.
JENNA: On like–
ERIC: Get really far, get it right up on there.
JENNA: This was a triumph, and making a note here, huge success. That's just—that's the vibe I want for the—the recording, so.
ERIC: It's so haunting. I’m haunted.
JENNA: Hauntingly accurate.
ERIC: Hauntingly accurate. And on my left is writer and podcaster, the infamous, Merritt Tang.
MERRITT: The infamous? That would be an editorial.
JENNA: Wow. Yeah.
ERIC: Yeah.
JENNA: Editorializing, bios, bios.
ERIC: Yeah. Meritt told me to—oh my god.
JENNA: I did not know such thing.
ERIC: No, no, I did. Meritt, what is the video game impression you want to make on this microphone right now?
MERRITT: Okay, I'm gonna pull this one out because somebody did Snake Eater karaoke last night. So roadwork ahead. I sure hope it does.
JENNA: You're really good, you're really good.
ERIC: You've single-handedly saved Fine, congratulations.
MERRITT: Thank you, thank you.
ERIC: Oh, this is incredible. I am so happy to have the both of you here. I'm so happy that we get to do this in Boston. I'm going to make some sports references on behalf of both of you just to get it started. Larry Bird.
[cheers]
JENNA: Well that worked.
ERIC: It is so tem—it is so tempting. Marcus Smart. Are we ha—are we like him still? No, they don't like Marcus Smart. Tom Brady? No, we're not about Tom Brady, no. Yeah, screw that guy. He has just didn't as weird uggs that's why I don't like him. Well, how can you hate Nightshade so much that you're just like, you know what, I want to live forever? If I had to live forever, I would not be able to do it without tomatoes. And I don't want that. Do you know— do either of you know what I'm talking about?
MERRITT: Sorry, what?
JENNA: No, no.
ERIC: Okay, here's so see. Here's the thing about Games and Feelings, it's about all types of games, including sports. Okay, so Tom Brady, do you two know who he is, right?
JENNA: Is this like—
MERRITT: I'm familiar.
JENNA: —where we're supposed to cut you off at some point?
ERIC: No!
JENNA: Okay, okay. I just wanted to check.
MERRITT: He's the star of 80 for Brady, I believe.
ERIC: He's the star of 80 fo Brady.
MERRITT: That’s how I know him.
JENNA: Okay.
ERIC: And I'm a quarterback. So his whole thing is about like he has constructed his diet so that he can pretty much live forever. And like be a football player forever. And one of which is—so people in the audience are groaning and I hate this. One of which is that he doesn't eat Nightshade because he like told himself that like eating tomatoes is ruining his body and the entire Nightshade class. Again, I cannot name another Nightshade, I di—
JENNA: Eggplant.
ERIC: Eggplants, he won't eat eggplants either.
JENNA: Yeah.
ERIC: Because he thinks it's poisoning his body and he wants to live forever, and I don't want to live forever if I can't have heirloom tomatoes.
JENNA: Wow. Specifically heirloom?
ERIC: I think they're good, they're very good.
JENNA: Okay, now it's there. No—
ERIC: Yeah.
JENNA: —that was not meant to be— that was not shade night or otherwise against tomatoes. biases.
ERIC: Right.
JENNA: So—
ERIC: Listen, you can leave the terrible tomatoes that tastes like absolutely nothing. I need the really good tomatoes and that's just sports. We did sport. Alright so as we do every time that we're here on Games and Feelings, we always do a segment called games that are giving us feelings, and this is our PAX East edition. So each of us are going to talk about one thing that we saw, one game we saw, and what adjective we would use to describe our feelings like it's a Live Journal post. You have to tell people the–what the at—what the feeling you're having is and we can't use quixotic because we already use that and no one really knows what that means. Do either of you have something a game that is giving you feelings?
JENNA: I don't know any games.
MERRITT: What's a game, yeah. I played a game yesterday with my friend Lotus called Slay the Princess.
JENNA: Oohhh.
[cheers]
MERRITT: Yeah that's the fans in the audience apparently. Slay the Princess got shaders. It's a visual novel where you, the— podcast man tells you to kill a princess. He's very British. I think he's—
ERIC: What podcast man?
MERRITT: She's from a podcast.
JENNA: The most evil scientist from a podcast.
MERRITT: He's— I think he's from the Magnus archives.
ERIC: Okay.
MERRITT: So he's like—
JENNA: Oh, okay.
MERRITT: —there is a princess and a cabin at the end of the road, you must kill her or it will be the end of the world. And so you can sort of argue with him and be like, oh, I don't want to do that. Or just like, be like, alright, yeah, bet. And we did the latter, and just got her and got—got an ending that had been drawn by the programmer, though. This is like good end, you did it. It's like, I don't think we actually— it wasn't a good end, but it's like a time loop kind of thing where like this princess like evil, and there's different princesses, it's like a whole thing. It's very cool, so you should all go see it. And I guess what is the feeling that I'm feeling about that? I'm curious about it, that it se— seems like a very deep game that there's like a lot of like, stuff going on there, not just stabbing people.
ERIC: For sure. Whenever I see something that's like using multiverses, I feel like I always need to compare it to like, oh, am I just doing this so that Marvel can continue to make movies forever? Or like am I doing it because I'm very interested in multiverse theory in the way that they tell stories on a scale of like, no Marvel movie never ends to like everything—Best Picture winner, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once? Where do we— where you feel this—this sense?
MERRITT: It feels—It feels like a considered choice to do this. And I think the studio also does a lot of like a lot of stuff in their visual novels. So you're like, like, there's like a narrator, but then a hero, but then you're talking to both of them kind of, so there's a lot of fun stuff they're playing with the form. So it seems you know I wouldn't associate it with the works of Kevin Feige.
ERIC: Is it actually Feige? Oh, I've been saying it wrong?
MERRITT: Feige?
ERIC: It is Fei—
MERRITT: Feige?
ERIC: Uh—man, I don't know.
MERRITT: Feige the unstoppable or whatever.
ERIC: He pulls out his gauntlet.
MERRITT: Yeah.
ERIC: Be like I am unstoppable. Look at all the– all the content stones he has in his glove. Alright, I’m envisioning the content glove, and that's making me stressed out. Alright. Jenna, what's a game that you've been playing?
JENNA: I've been trying to get out and play some games at PAX East, but I've been awfully bad at it, so I've only gotten to play two games. But I wanted to say one of the ones that I really liked was Rift of the NecroDancer.
ERIC: Yeah.
JENNA: Yeah, because they're kind of like splitting off and I know they have another like mainstream Crypt of the NecroDancer.
ERIC: Is that the—the Legend of Zelda one or like the regular one?
JENNA: That too, but they've got two, they've got nec— two Necrodancer games.
ERIC: Oh, okay. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about this.
JENNA: At—at PAX. And I only got to play one. And I think it was Rift but it might have been the other one. But it was really fun, but I think the—the thing I feel about it is ambition because I did terrible at the gameplay segment that I had. Because it's sort of—its Crypt of the NecroDancer but like, by way of Guitar Hero.
ERIC: Ohh.
JENNA: But with like some interesting really fun mechanics mixed into it. If you haven't— if y'all in the audience haven't gotten a chance to play it yet, I do recommend it. It was fun and I was bad at it.
ERIC: Is this the feeling bad at it?
JENNA: No, the feelings ambition, because I know I can get better. And I just—If I go back, if I have more time, I can do it. I just—and I yeah, that's how I feel. I can do it. I can do it, Eric.
ERIC: So in one side we have Kevin Feige. On my side we have Kevin Feige with his content glove, and the other is Jenna as one of those cats like holding yourself up. Like I can do it.
JENNA: Yeah, the famous tagline to those posters, I can do it.
ERIC: A Powerade commercial where's Jenna tried to play Rift of the NecroDancer. Do like blue— weird blue neon sweat everywhere.
JENNA: Yeah, that's just anxiety sweats though, they come out. Bright neon green.
ERIC: Bright green. Someone who tastes you it's a— it's lemon-lime.
JENNA: Do not taste me. Thank you, thank you, Eric. Do not.
ERIC: Sorry, that's on me. I should not have encouraged someone to taste you. That's I'm—I'm really sorry. There are so many games I've—have been able to play down on the expo floor. But the one that I played the most honestly, over PAX East is Super Smash Brothers Melee.
JENNA: Oh, come on, Eric. Come on, it's 2023.
ERIC: I know and it's still alive. So over at the Multitude table, we've been trying to figure out a way to get people to come over, because we are kind of like Band Land, where we are, is very much like over in the corner of the lobby. So the way that we've been doing it, is that people are challenging me, the Game Master who's very good at games, obviously all the time, to play a GameCube Classic. And we brought like, Toadstool Tour, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, we brought Crazy Taxi, we got SSX Tricky, which I thought everyone loved. Everyone loves cool and extreme snowboarding.
JENNA: Again, it is 2023.
ERIC: Are you saying EA doesn’t exist anymore? That's a new one, that's another impression that I want to do. EA Play! Every single person wants to play Super Smash Brothers Melee. I don't know if this is true, but some guys came over to us on Friday. We're like, “Oh, you have Super Smash Brothers Melee? That's shadow banned at PAX.” And I'm like, “What?” And they're like, “Yeah, you can’t play it in the console room because then too many people crowd around so they don't let you play it anymore. So you're kind of breaking the rules.” And I'm like, “Do you want to listen to a podcast instead?” So that was just absolutely wild. Honestly, the thing that I'm feeling is really accomplished, because my mains are Luigi and Donkey Kong, which if anyone cares about the meta is like in Melee, is so bad.
JENNA: Yeah, yeah.
ERIC: Merritt, do you want to comment on my meta?
MERRITT: I mean, I will say Luigi is pretty good, is it a weird judgment though?
ERIC: Yeah.
MERRITT: So—
ERIC: I love Luigi—
MERRITT: —That's that.
ERIC: Yeah. And I know DK and the—the heavy characters, I love playing on ultimate. I love playing heavy characters, but it's just not viable in Melee. So on the fly, I learned how to play Link and I started rushing on the— my—my record today was 50 and 23, which I think is pretty okay. Because people also ran up on me and took out their GameCube controllers that like they had modded with their face on it.
MERRITT: Locked and loaded in a speedholster.
JENNA: Incredible.
ERIC: They both spun it yeah, like they were McCree.
JENNA: Oh my god. Yeah, you got—you got Yugi-Oh, duel, and that's what happened.
ERIC: I got sent to the Shadow Realm. And it's so—so long to get back. But—and so I honestly did really well, and I feel really great that I learned a new character because I love the game. I love Melee. It's— I have my original GameCube from when I got it in like, I think 2000 or 2001 on Christmas when I— my grandparent—or like the Christmas rush when my grandparents picked it up for me in Erie, Pennsylvania. And I got the black one because purple is for girls, obviously.
JENNA: Yeah.
ERIC: And I still have like my original controllers and it's just really— I—it's been really fun to play with. So I feel accomplished, I really did.
JENNA: Okay.
MERRITT: I wish I still had my original GameCube but—
ERIC: What color was yours?
MERRITT: I think it was purple.
ERIC: Hell yeah.
MERRITT: Maybe silver, I forget. But um, but one fateful day in my senior year of high school, I took my GameCube and all of my games and also my Dreamcast and all my games to like a rickety little game store in the mall. And it was like 1x Xbox and Halo 2, please.
ERIC: Ohhh.
JENNA: Ohhh.
MERRITT: Here's all of it. I did have a really fun summer with my friends, but in re— retrospect, this like, why?
ERIC: That's like the real-life—
MERRITT: I sold Mario and Sonic in all my friends. I still hang out with the Master Chief.
ERIC: I think, as the Master Chief is not that good of a friend.
MERRITT: No.
ERIC: He's barely human in there.
MERRITT: I know.
ERIC: I love it that's the equivalent of you like selling all of your belongings just like party and like Ibiza for a summer. But you did that [laughs]
MERRITT: I did. I did it and it was true.
ERIC: Yeah [laughs] that's—that's incredible. There was already a panel about how the GameCube is the best console out of all of them here at PAX and I agree, and it was great. And everyone should be really proud of me that I have my GameCube. I think—
JENNA: You should be proud of you.
MERRITT: Hey, great talk.
JENNA: I'm really proud of you.
MERRITT: Good talk.
JENNA: Okay, now you have to feed into to that.
ERIC: Yes we do, yes we do.
JENNA: You’re sweet audience. You’re sweet some audience.
ERIC: It's incredible. I appreciate the support from you, Merritt, and I don't appreciate the not support from you, Jenna.
JENNA: Aye!
ERIC: But I actually have some questions here. Do we want to do some questions?
JENNA: Yes.
ERIC: Hell yeah. Alright, these are real questions from real gamers, and we are touching on—and we are touching an all types of games, whether we're talking about video games, board games, tabletop RPGs, sports, and more. Because you can't have games without feelings. So we're trying to figure out the middle of that. I also sometimes people write in with them, but sometimes I come up with like fun advice names for these this people. So if you two think of better advice names, also you can like add them on top of them if you want.
JENNA: Okay, okay.
ERIC: Yeah, like for example, this one is from Cool Merch Art. There are a lots of cute plushies here at PAX, and I have two very cute nibbling things, who would love some more stuffed animals? But my sister is not a gamer, so I feel weird bringing a presents like, oh, this is Cerberus from Hades, the hit Rogue like of 2020 and 2021.
JENNA: It's kind of a weird example to give because that's a real thing. Slightly predates–
MERRITT: Yeah, it existed for real in Ancient Greece.
ERIC: Good luck.
MERRITT: They have three headed dogs.
ERIC: That's true. It's like, no, this is from Fangamer it's a website, and it's merch from video games. It's– you don’t have to understand. Should I be worried that about whether or not this will pass their mom's sniff test? Or is the little guy just a little guy? So do you think it's—are they okay, bringing whatever plushies from PAX and giving it to their nibblings?
MERRITT: I have a question.
ERIC: Sure.
MERRITT: What's a nibbling? Because it sounds like a fantastical creature. Sounds like a little Star Wars guy that's like running around and like–
ERIC: Yeah, do you want to do impression of what a nibbling is? I’m a nibbling wah! wah! J.J Abrams, J.J Abrams
MERRITT: It's just curiously taking notes.
ERIC: I'm gonna put it in like content talk. A nibbling is like for both a nephew and a niece.
MERRITT: Ohh.
ERIC: Non-child.
MERRITT: Like a sibling?
ERIC: Yes, like a sibling. So my—I assume that from this, there's like both a niece and a nephew.
MERRITT: Sure.
ERIC: So it's not like along gender lines.
MERRITT: Right, right.
ERIC: Yeah. So what do we think? Yes plushie—yes, whatever plushies? No, you should have some tact.
JENNA: A little guy's a little guy. I always say that a little guy's a little guy. I think if it's—
MERRITT: It's your catchphrase, yeah.
JENNA: It really is, find me online, and I'm saying that all the time on the internet. I think a little guy is just a little guy if it's a cute little guy. That I don't think it matters where it came from. I feel the same way about all of us, you know. I'm a cute little guy, doesn't matter where I came from. Still worry about it.
MERRITT: What is—
JENNA: That's true for every single one of you.
MERRITT: What is the concern here? That like their— their mother is going to be like, that's a gamer toy. I won't have that filth in my house.
ERIC: Because—
MERRITT: I got— I mean, maybe I'm fit.
ERIC: You know, we're in the town that doesn't allow you to game or dance. My—
MERRITT: The band's been banned here since 1952.
ERIC: I still remember what we were allowed to give, but now we haven't done it in so long.
MERRITT: It's a town ordinance yeah until one bad boy comes into town one day and changes everything.
ERIC: Yes. And he has a Nintendo GameCube, like who would have thought?
MERRITT: GameCube. Like Super Smash Melee with that controller ready to go.
ERIC: It's still Kevin Bacon. Um, my understanding for this, is this person, as many people who write into Games and Feelings are anxious that they're stepping on the toes of their sister. By bringing something in they're like, this is weird, or starting making a problem. And you know, these plushies are well priced because people make them and it's important to pay artists, but also not inexpensive. With they're gonna go out on the floor and buy them.
JENNA: I think they should double down. I think they should double down and get them most video game—video game character that they can find. And I think that would be a plush Master Chief, if they can find that on the merch floor, I think that is the one.
MERRITT: It just kind of explained the character's backstory too.
JENNA: Yeah.
MERRITT: So you have to understand, this is your new friend, Master Chief, and he was ripped from his family at a young age.
JENNA: Yeah.
MERRITT: And subjected to a government process, where he was genetically enhanced. And also the suit does maybe do some stuff with this whole situation.
JENNA: Don't worry, we clarified the lore, and we know that a suit doesn't jerk him off.
MERRITT: Okay.
JENNA: You don't have to worry about exposing your children to that kind of ideal.
MERRITT: It is proven.
JENNA: Or—
MERRITT: Nope, got on that one. And they're like, no.
ERIC: I would like to introduce—I have something called a joken here, which is a coin that has a joke honor that we use on Join the Party. And I'm just gonna slide—I wanna slide a joken to each of you for this riff, it's very good. I think it does go to Merritt because you did jo—you did riff last. And we can spill share the joken as the show goes on.
MERRITT: Okay.
ERIC: You currently have the joken. Umm—
MERRITT: Well, that's because I'm the Joker.
ERIC: That's true.
MERRITT: So—
ERIC: Yeah, you can't see but Merritt has painted her face white–
MERRITT: I have this huge scar but this mask covers it, so yeah.
ERIC: Merritt, how did you get those scars?
MERRITT: I was playing Super Smash Brothers Metroid or Melee one day. Super Smash there's Mestroid, it just been a long weekend.
ERIC: That one sounds great. Okay. What would the best Masterchief plushy be of his body? Like is it just shoulders up? Is it just head?
JENNA: What? What? What are you talking about?
MERRITT: It's a—a plushy—
JENNA: A bust of a plushy bust?
MERRITT: Like a Greek statue plushy?
JENNA: Nooo.
ERIC: Yes, guys.
JENNA: That's not a thing, Eric.
ERIC: And then you sleeping open and there's a button and opens a library.
MERRITT: Oh, and then going to the Batcave. Right
JENNA: Okay.
ERIC: Yeah, and they go to the–
JENNA: Okay, okay. Yeah, like the—the plush mounted Mooseheads that you see sometimes by i—is Masterchief.
ERIC: Yes. I just—
MERRITT: You just killed, hunted, and killed Masterchief?
JENNA: Yes.
MERRITT: Yeah, I think that would be less appropriate.
JENNA: That’s not a plushie, have you seen a plushie before?
ERIC: It does. That's what the covenant wanted, right? They wanted them down.
MERRITT: That's true.
ERIC: Right? Oh, god.
MERRITT: Ohh, [laughs] ohhh!
JENNA: The suit doesn't do that.
MERRITT: Are we still do praising or—
ERIC: The suit doesn't do that. I think yeah, I think the compromise is that we—you give them the Masterchief plushie, and then you give them like five books and the TV show to watch as well. Homework.
MERRITT: There you go. Yeah.
JENNA: Yeah.
ERIC: Turn the plushie into homework.
MERRITT: That's—
JENNA: Oh, no.
ERIC: No, the audience hates that. No, no the hate that. Okay, you're right, you're right. So question asker is just overthinking this, right?
JENNA: Yeah, probably.
MERRITT: Yeah, I think it's fine.
ERIC: Yes.
JENNA: Can we just say that to all the questions, because that will make this a lot faster? That feels like cheap.
MERRITT: That's like the worst advice column just like, “Hey, get over it, stop.”
JENNA: Hey, chillax.
MERRITT: Hey, hey stop it.
JENNA: Hey, cool it.
MERRITT: Why are you so anxious, stop.
JENNA: It'll be okay.
ERIC: Stop it, just stop. Don't be anxious anymore.
MERRITT: Would you like being anxious? So stop. It seems— Don't do it.
ERIC: That is like the intellectual advice of have you tried getting good? You just get good.
MERRITT: Yeah, I did, that's the gamer advice column.
ERIC: Yeah.
JENNA: Well, but—
MERRITT: Skill issue.
JENNA: But have you thought?
ERIC: I don't know why you're nervous, it's a skill issue.
[theme]
ERIC: Hey, it's Eric, and I picked up some snacks for Games and Feelings. I got you a chicken sandwich that you need to shove in your mouth as fast as possible, so you can get back out on the convention floor. I had so much fun at PAX East. I got to play a ton of Super Smash Bros. I got to see a bunch of new games. I got to meet a bunch of people who I hadn't seen in person. Hi to Andy and Luke, and Jenna and Merritt, it's wonderful. And uh—listen, going to PAX and going to conventions takes money. We get some stuff for free because we–you know, perform there and do stuff but. So we gotta get there and we have to get housing and everything. But the only way we're able to do that is with your direct support that you can give us at patreon.com/gamesandfeelings. A lot of you are supporting us, we're still strong, but I would love it if we kept growing. But shout-out to new patron Lana Bartova. Tell more friends, tell more people you know, like we were still shooting for a hundred, so I can go to the UK and bother Jasper, but we got to make sure that this show can like stand up on its own. And everyone is enjoying the wonderful Patreon content that we get from the replay. We're like at a bunch of episodes at this point. I just want your support at patreon.com. Thinking about doing ad-free episodes as well, If that's something you want, and might make you join up, please let me know. And shout-out to producer-level patrons. Polly Burrage, Kelsey Duffy, and Megan Moon, who will hold your spot in line if you have to go to the bathroom, and there's really long line for you to play like Mario Kart 12, wahoo it's so fast. You know that Games and Feelings is a part of the Multitude Podcast Collective. But Multitude is not just a place for a bunch of podcasters can hang out no, no. We also provide education, which you might like with the Multitude Podcast Extension School. Now people might say that podcasting is easy, but no one actually describes how to get going and avoid the complicated pitfalls they might stall the project. That's why Multitude offers classes for podcasters by podcasters. Over the course of four weeks, you'll learn from weekly instruction, hands-on homework and lots of valuable feedback from your instructors and classmates in our online classroom. Can't commit to a whole class, the Multitude extended school now is offering comprehensive one-day seminars. If you'd like to learn, if you want to learn more about podcasting, go check out the dates, curriculum, and technical details or just sign up. Give us your money and sign up, by going to multitude.productions/classes. That's multitude.productions/classes or check out the various social media posts we'll be making about this over on the Multitude Instagram and Twitter. We are sponsored today by Shaker & Spoon. Games and Feelings, Shaker & Spoon. Games and Feelings, Shaker & Spoon. Games and Feelings, Shaker and Spoon. Shaker & Spoon is a subscription cocktail service that helps you learn how to make handcrafted cocktails right at home. Every box comes with enough ingredients to make three different cocktail recipes developed by world-class mixologists. All you got to do is buy one bottle of that month's spirit, and you have everything you need to make 12 whole drinks at home. At just 40 to $50 a month, plus the cost of the cocktail that is so cost-effective to make interesting cocktails at home. And at any time you can skip or cancel, so you can like only do the ones with brown liquor in them. That— I mean that's what I would do if I was you do using Shaker & Spoon. In fact I have. Shaker & Spoon is right from Brooklyn and I've used a ton of their boxes. I learned what Applejack was thanks for Shaker & Spoon. So invite some friends over or just be the most interesting houseguest of all time with your Shaker & Spoon box. Get $20 off your first box at shakerandspoon.com/gamesandfeelings. $20 off your first box shakerandspoon.com/gamesandfeelings. And now back to the live games show.
[theme]
ERIC: Alright, let's go to another one that I think I know the answer to because both of you are in— Well Merritt explicitly is infamous on the internet, but um—
MERRITT: Infamous? Eric, where is this coming from?
ERIC: I'm just kidding, I don't mean this. This is the first time—
MERRITT: You invite me your show and then the infamous thing, kind of thing just— and then you just keep doing.
ERIC: This is the first time I met Merritt in person and I'm really leaning into this joke. So I got pull it up a bit. “How do I approach a content creator or person I know from the internet here in the real world?” This is from Starstruck in Meatspace.
JENNA: Oh, I—this is a great question. My— step one I would say is please do say hello because sometimes I see people in public and they make a face at me. And I don't know why. And—and it's hard to be like, ah, because I got weird haircut, and because I got tattoos or something, or is it because they know about the tweets that I do?
ERIC: What is—can you explain the face?
JENNA: I'm wearing mobile pop filter? So I can't— I can't— I can't make the face.
ERIC: So can you explain the face?
JENNA: Yeah, yeah. Traditionally an easy thing to do to use words to explain a facial expression.
ERIC: Okay, I'm moving on. Alright, I'm moving on.
JENNA: No, no, no, it's— it's— it's different every time, but it—it sort of a, like a squint, like a—do I know your face? What— do I kn—do I know you, it's that kind of vibe, but as a facial expression. Did that help?
ERIC: No it does. It feels like, oh, you shouldn't be in this town. This is the town where we don't dance or game.
JENNA: Yeah. How did you get off my phone and into the meat world? So— so in my— in my experience, I would prefer if somebody was just like, hello. That being said, preferably not in the bathroom, that's private time. That's and nobody, is anybody in the bathroom, we're all just people. That's just in general flat recommendation. Yeah, I don't know, Merritt.
MERRITT: Yeah, I know. I don't just go up to him, tell him your whole life story. Just be like, hey, can I—can I get a hug? Just like ask them to like sign parts of your body. These are all like, just the good things you want to do with someone you don't know. You know, just really get intimate with the force, this kind of intimacy on them. Yeah, no, I don't know. People— I think anyone who does this stuff like likes being recognized.
ERIC: Yeah.
MERRITT: And yeah, as long as you're like, considerate, and—
JENNA: Yes.
MERRITT: —are you know, say hi and are willing to sort of step away as soon as the interaction is I think that is what—
ERIC: That's it, yeah.
MERRITT: —That is the thing, the lingering when people and like because I've been in that situation too, like on the end of like, hey, and then just kind of like okay, so. Okay, but like—
ERIC: Yeah.
MERRITT: It's like it's tough. It can be tough for both parties, but I think just having an exit strategy of like, oh, it's nice to meet you. Okay, well have a good rest of your show. and I'll see you later.
JENNA: An exit strategy.
MERRITT: An exit strategy or a sign-off line.
JENNA: Yeah.
MERRITT: Yeah, very helpful.
JENNA: Stay cool, have a good summer. And then that's how we know,
MERRITT: Yeah. [laughs]
JENNA: You say that, that's how I know. Okay. Interactionally—
MERRITT: Yeah.
JENNA: Thank you.
ERIC: They write hags on whatever you’re writing.
JENNA: Yeah, they just say asshole list to me and then they leave. I'm just like wait. And that was a deep–your book cut was not—not a familiar. You never yet had that in your yearbook?
ERIC: No, what’s that?
JENNA: It's the—when you're like the last person to sign a yearbook, you would put asshole list sign below. And then everybody who signed the yearbook before you is retroactively on the asshole list.
MERRITT: Wow, incredible friends.
JENNA: I found a new fun St. Louis regional thing from high school.
ERIC: Yeah, Games and Feelings is now a prank show you got to do. Safe pranks to do at the end of the school year. It was a success. Yeah, I think that keep going up to people and telling them that their stuff means stuff to you is really important. Do—never think that someone doesn't want to hear that. I think no matter what, especially in the creative fields, cause the—you don't hear that, all you get is like YouTube comments that are filled with slurs like I said. So—and I think they're just hearing it. And like even the nice ones, I was talking to someone who works in like a pretty prominent content company, and like, they still need to moderate their own YouTube comments. And like, first of all, it's wild that they still have a job in content at all right now. But like they still have to do the lowest jobs possible, and it means seeing all the worst things about you. When especially like if your face is on it. So like you—you really just tune out the good things and you have to concentrate on the bad things. So saying something nice in— in the real world is like the only thing to I think to mitigate like bad internet stuff. It has to be combated with real-world nice stuff. Like nice stuff on the internet, I think sometimes just can't cut it, when you're really seeing all of it. Oh my god, hey, it's so nice to hang out with, you guys are so cool. Can I just linger and have you on a live show, is that okay? You—can I just kind link right here and we could just do this together?
MERRITT: Yeah, what's linger, like a cranberry is?
ERIC: Nice. Yeah. Yeah, just let it linger like the cranberries. Hell yeah. That's was Merritts's joke. Merritts keeping the joken. Merritt has it. Incredible. Alright, we have some questions here from the audience that I really want to share. "What is the best way to convince someone who doesn't want a GM, that they should GM? This is really, really good. And I think it's a wonderful question because I think everyone is really scared of being a GM because they think it's like, super hard, and it's not. That's it. You get good. God, get good points. I think— I just want to say that like, it's not hard, I do this professionally, and like, I throw myself into it. And then we work really hard at it. But the actual fact of it, once you're doing it is like, you're like running a game show, like you—or you're leading a class, or you're doing a presentation, it's not that different from that, and you've probably done it in your life.
JENNA: So here's what you want to do. This is—this is—here's what I would recommend. So you should first of all GM for them. So have them come over to your place, maybe a couple other people come with you. They have their characters are all built up, and you'r—you're there to set a good example. So you sit them down, and you say, okay, you go to the local tavern. And there's a person there and that person comes up to your group and says, help me, I need help. I need one of you to become a GM for me. And then—and then, once they—once they conceive of it as a quest that they have to do in the game, and also they've already blocked out that night to play, they're kind of on the hook for it.
[crowd cheer]
MERRITT: Nice.
JENNA: Everything that's there, right?
MERRITT: Trapping people in webs–
JENNA: Yes.
MERRITT: A fantasy.
ERIC: Yeah, that's the way to do it.
MERRITT: That's pain.
ERIC: Not only do you have to do it, you have to do it in character as the character–
MERRITT: The character is your main. Yeah, exactly.
JENNA: I need help, my family is trapped in a dungeon, but at some metaphorical dungeon to this dungeon.
ERIC: It's like oh, sorry, Gorgof no good at voices.
JENNA: I'll give you five gold coin to GM for me. Yeah.
ERIC: That's good.
JENNA: Yeah, that's instead.
ERIC: Yeah.
MERRITT: Now I—it's like, I've um—because the question could go two ways, right? It could be oh, I think this person will be really good at this, but like, they're anxious or worried. Or it could just be like, I want my friend to GM for me, but like, they're being a real dick about it. They don't want to step up, and like if it's the latter then I don't know, That is, I guess an issue sometimes right? No one wants to do that, and like, I think you gotta like, buy pizza or something for like, or like, if you're—if you're a player, you know it, bring food if you're going somewhere, like think this person who is like putting all this time. His players like you know, you show up and you're just gonna oh, yeah, I stabbed the Barkley haha. Like GM, like the GM wrote, like, a painstaking backstory for that character and they're just dead now. So like, please thank them for that. But also, yeah, I think it's one of those things where like, no one is going to be as hard on you as you are in yourself. Like I GM the game for the first time in like, years last summer, and I was just like, oh my god, this sucks, this is so bad. And by the end of it, like every night my players like, that was so much fun. And I was like, I am made up off of that on the spot.
ERIC: Sure.
MERRITT: And there's like, oh, you don't know. And it's like, yeah, like you're—you're seeing behind the curtain, but other people aren't.
JENNA: Yeah.
MERRITT: So—
JENNA: Yeah, and like helping out, I think if this is their first time GMing maybe offering to co-GM with them. And then I mean, because it's intimidating. You Have to look at so many numbers and that can be really overwhelming because it's hard to know if you've never DMed, it's hard to know what you need to plan, or what like to what extent you need to build out your world or build out your characters, or how to play to your strengths as somebody who wants to tell a story. And so I think that's really intimidating. So I think like sitting down and being like, okay, what kind of story would you like to tell, I can help you run this, I can be like your characters. And then on the day that you do it, just do a really bad job. So that—so that they are like, actually, actually, I'll do this on my own, thank you. Actually, I don't need your help. So—so thank you so much, but no.
ERIC: Just like I do at home when I say oh, I don't know how to unload the dishwasher, I'm so bad at it, you've asked me to do.
MERRITT: Boo!
ERIC: And then my wife is like, “Eric”, and I'm like, “I know”. Is that it?
JENNA: That is kind of that. Unfortunately, it is also—
MERRITT: Like she– do you live in Family Guy?
ERIC: And then I'm like, “Lois”.
JENNA: That was essentially my first experiencing Gming, is that I had a friend who was like, I'll help you GM. And then just like, was really horrible to work with.
ERIC: Oh no.
MERRITT: Wow.
JENNA: Um, he just railroaded me and he never let me talk, and I didn't feel like at the end of it, I had actually done any GMing of my own. And so I was like, whatever, I don't need him. I'm just gonna do it on my own. And it works, and here I am.
[crowd claps]
JENNA: Check them. Next.
ERIC: Yes.
MERRITT: It is a social engineering podcast.
ERIC: I think that's what—that's cranks inherently goes to social experience. The greatest hack of all time is just social engineering, everyone knows this. Amanda literally says this to me on a constant basis. Like she says this to me, it's like we're going on an airplane, and she's like looking on her—on her phone to see if there's like any open seats. And then immediately like, once the door closes, then we immediately hop to an open row that has like all the seats open, no matter what our tickets are. And she turns to me, and she says hacked it. Stalling someone in a hurry is the greatest act of all.
MERRITT: Wow, I haven't met Nick over here.
ERIC: And I don't say anything because I sit in a better row on the airplane, and I'm really bad— and I've already convinced her that I'm bad at taking out the dishes from the dishwasher.
JENNA: I'm just so bad at hacking airplane seats.
ERIC: If only someone would help me, Lois. Do you think from people who spend time— I can't believe you made me do Family Guy twice up front.
MERRITT: Made you is a very strong way of describing.
ERIC: Good point.
MERRITT: Your like you're just ready to go with that.
ERIC: I know, what do I get to do this? I bring in my Instagram feeds, I really blame that. Do you think that there's something about the fact— I mean, we— all of us work in content creation, that like the—the— the GMs where out there on the videos, and the podcasts are elevated to such status—
MERRITT: Oh yeah.
ERIC: That they can never—
MERRITT: Yeah.
ERIC: No one can ever think that they're as good as this. I know that we talk about like this is a trite example at this point. But like when people say the Matt Mercer effect, which is for those you don't know, he is the DM of Critical Role, which has taken over everything at this point. And like the— the effect is like people, your players have a worse time if they've watched Critical Role because they think all games are Critical Role, and I wonder if that also is intimidating to GM. They're like, oh, I gotta be like this person who I have seen on the internet, and like they don't really talk about—even if they have like a series where like, oh, here's what I talked about, how I DM, here's all my notes. Like, the thing that they consume, it's because it's a slick video or video production or podcast, it really all the creases get smoothed over, and it's like, oh, I'm perfect, and you have to be like this. Or this, the assumption that someone makes, even though actual play is the way that so many people get into it now. There's these wild expectations that like games have to be beautifully produced and edited, et cetera, or feel like they're.
JENNA: Was there a question there?
ERIC: Just like, do you—
MERRITT: Yeah.
ERIC: —have you thought about this at all? Because like, I don't really know, this is just like something I've been noodling on, which is the biggest like thing standing in the way, like you said the thing about knowing notes, right? Like or having only all the numbers like they don't know all the numbers, they look that shit up and then they cut it out.
JENNA: And then yeah, they edit that out, yeah.
ERIC: Yeah, they can just Google it.
JENNA: Yeah.
ERIC: So like, I don't know, like, do you think that like the way that people are—people have a wrong misconception of how games actually work because of the magic of editing and content creation?
MERRITT: Yeah.
JENNA: It's a fair question. I mean, anecdotally, I have not had that experience. But I also— I feel like most of the people I—I play role-playing games with uh— I've been playing role-playing games with him for like a decade. So like, our groups have long, long preceded any of those actual play podcasts, so I don't feel like I have good context on that, but also, I don't know. I mean, there were probably some people who are like, why don't you do all the voices like Matt Mercer professional voice actor does? I think that— that probably exists, but like, I think— I think most people know that like, the fast food chicken sandwich you see on the television is not the fast food chicken sandwich you will get when you order the double-down. Like it's— I don't think. I think— I think people more or less understand that This is a produced experience, I hope.
ERIC: I hope. No, I hope too. I'm throwing it out there because I don't know. And if you tell me, no, Eric, stop it, then that's fine.
JENNA: I'm not gonna say that, I don't know.
ERIC: Okay, fine.
JENNA: It's— it's gonna be okay, though.
ERIC: Okay, thank you, thank you.
JENNA: Yeah.
ERIC: True. Merritt, as someone who doesn't do this, like recorded, do you feel this way, or like your friends in—who are getting into this? I know, you played Vampire the Masquerade, like, there are really big shows that play that system. Do you feel like you kind of left in there?
MERRITT: I think there's one?
ERIC: Yeah, you can go.
MERRITT: I haven't—I don't watch any of that stuff. Because I started playing like when I was a tiny baby. And so like, the idea that this is like, like, stuff that people watch, people do now. I think I feel the same way about as older people are like, why would you watch someone play a video game? Like, why would you watch someone else play? I mean, I kind of get it I've seen— I really like not seen, I've listened to most of the first season of the Adventure Zone, and so like, you know, when I was listening to that, I was like, oh, geez, wow, this is really cool, like, there's music and stuff and like. But yeah, I mean, it's not—again, I think players are typically just grateful. If they're good players, they'll be grateful that someone is GMing at all.
JENNA: Yeah.
MERRITT: And if they're expecting that kind of stuff and check them, there she like—
ERIC: Bro.
MERRITT: Don't be like, yeah you do it. Like you want mu—you want music, you want like all this like elaborate stuff and like then— then you do it or help play a collaborative system for, you can do that. But yeah, I don't know. I think probably most people realize that that's not really realistic. Like, that's like God that's like the–the porn of roleplaying.
JENNA: Yeah.
ERIC: True, yeah. I know, for sure.
JENNA and MERRITT: Yeah.
JENNA: It's the double down.
MERRITT: It is though. It's creating–
JENNA: Yeah, we’re saying the same thing.
MERRITT: —unrealistic standards. People think—people get educated that's like the, you know, we don't have good role-playing education in this country. So, People—people see Matt Mercer doing his thing, and they're like that's what it's supposed to be like. And then they do it and they're like, wow, and then people, they have to cope with their—this bit is sort of [42:42] to me.
ERIC: No I like it. No, when I was in middle school, my gym teacher went on the front of the room and said, if you will— if you play Dungeons and Dragons, you will die.
MERRITT: You will die in a steam tunnel.
ERIC: Yeah.
JENNA: The way down—
MERRITT: On the way to university.
JENNA: Okay, but it didn't say because of the D&D because I— bad news it's true, we're all gonna die.
ERIC: That's true. We're all going to Christian Hell after this, yeah.
JENNA: If it's not arguing a causality, you can't say he's wrong.
MERRITT: Yeah. Everyone who's played D&D has died or will die.
JENNA: Yeah, we will die, yeah.
ERIC: Yeah, that's true. That’s a good point. Well, I'm gonna see you all in Christian Hell after PAX East, we're do that after this.
JENNA: Yay!
ERIC: It's gonna be great. Well, to that point, this is actually a really good question. What is the wind speed of a velo—
MERRITT: Okay.
ERIC: What is the wing speed of velocity of an unladen swallow? Or—or what fun piece of pop culture do you always try to bring into your games? I have a really bad habit of putting Billy Joel into everything.
MERRITT: Oh my god, me too.
JENNA: Oh man.
ERIC: Right?
MERRITT: I've ju—I'm writing a script where I was working on a script and we put several Billy Joel references in there.
ERIC: Yeah.
MERRITT: There's a character opens up a pizza place called A Matter of Crust.
ERIC: That's incredible.
MERRITT: TM, TM, TM, TM.
ERIC: That's very good. I also didn't realize that like Billy Joel was, like sprung out of like, Long Island. and of course, I knew that right? but like, then it didn't reach different parts of the United States. because like, the way like radio worked in the 70s and 80s like obviously, duh. But it's like weird how like, I make all these Billy Joel references and someone can look at me and be like, who are you talking about? Is that the Piano Man guy? I'm like yes, guest Piano Man guy. How do you not think he's hilarious? So yeah, I know, it's like it feels regional, almost making Billy Joel references, but I truly cannot. Immediately we're currently playing a campaign that has set in a world of plant and bug people, and the first thing I did was make a tavern and the piano player was Billy Joel, but he was a blueberry. I couldn't stop myself. I truly couldn't stop myself.
JENNA: Unfortunately, my answer is really similar because—for a lot of the people I play games with, all love David Bowie. And so a lot of David Bowie characters appear in our games. I remember very long-running a game of Exalted, anybody play Exalted?
ERIC: No, what's that?
MERRITT: Oh no. Oh no.
ERIC: No one did anything. Everyone looks to mouth the gape behind their masks.
MERRITT: It's a werewolf-like gods thing, right? Your gods something.
JENNA: Yeah, it's so fun. Anyway, it's not important. Like our—our running main adversary in that game was the Thin White Duke, obviously.
ERIC: Ohh, that's cool.
JENNA: Yeah. And it was a lot of Zodiac-based stuff. So the character I was playing, had a beautiful glass bow called the Glass Fighter of Mars, which is a twofer. If you're a big David Bowie fan. These are two deeper cuts to be getting much of a reaction. We just love David Bowie.
ERIC: You can do an impression of the Spiders from Mars on this microphone as per the beginning of the podcast.
JENNA: Oh, I—like right now?
ERIC: If you want to.
JENNA: [Spiders from Mars] I played and left hand, but took it too fun.
[crowd cheers]
JENNA: And that's it, that's it.
ERIC: That's good.
JENNA: Can no long— I don't know the rest of it, sorry.
ERIC: No, it's good. To see the difference between our references is that like, Bowie is very cool, and Billy Joel is a big idiot.
JENNA: Yeah.
MERRITT: Hey, hey.
ERIC: I love—I love hi—
MERRITT: He regularly crashes his boat in people's houses, but then pays them because he's a class act.
ERIC: Yeah.
MERRITT: I would not just probably excited, you would be if you lived on Long Island and Billy Joel crashes boat in the back of your house. You'd be like—
ERIC: Yes.
MERRITT: —it would be like the best day of your life.
ERIC: It would be. He's like— he's like the Tom Bombadil of Long Island.
JENNA: I can't believe there's Billy Joe lore.
ERIC: Yes. Oh, so much. He didn't have like a whole—in like a town in Long Island, he has like a whole building where he just like keeps his cars and motorcycles, and you can just go see them like it's a show floor.
JENNA: Ohh, ohh.
ERIC: There's a lot of lores.
JENNA: Ohhh, that's pretty cool.
ERIC: Yeah. Listen, if you heard of a guy who showed up at Madison Square Garden and just like hung out for a while and then disappeared, you would get some lore. That's a cryptid, almost.
JENNA: True.
ERIC: Incredible. So like I just feel like I'm just making jokes about it, but that actually all that Bowie references sound tight as hell.
JENNA: Yeah.
ERIC: Yeah.
JENNA: It's good. Exalted a good game, check it out.
ERIC: It's good, yeah. Merritt, what about you? Do you have pop culture, other stuff that you put in?
MERRITT: Ah, I'll sneak Canadian references in there and no one gets it, so I can get away with. I mean eventually, there'll be someone will call me I'm like, is this some Canadian bullshit that you're getting in here? This robotic talking TV named Snip and like, no, I made that up, it's definitely not from the zone on YTV in 1993.
ERIC: That's awesome. Do you ever find yourself just like taking full plots from Degrassi and just shoving it–
MERRITT: Yeah, yeah. One of my characters just got shot and it's in a wheelchair. And then like he sort of like left the game and started like a rap career. It was like a whole thing. He does like deep house now. Yeah.
ERIC: Hell yeah, nice, nice, nice. I'm trying to think of another person for Degrassi, and it's just Drake, it's just in my mind, nothing else.
JENNA: Was that not enough?
ERIC: I wish—I wish I could tell. I loved Degrassi’s drafts, they're incredible. Okay, here's another question. What game mechanics have you seen that really encourages emotional exploration? I think that this game can be tabletop RPG, it can be video games, any particular game. What do you two are thinking of that if—unless do either of you have something right off the bat? Because if you don't, I've been thinking about this a lot. I've been thinking about this a lot, both in terms of the actual play stuff that I actually think about it a lot. Because it's mostly the thing that I do. Is like, I think about how much people care about the actual mechanics that go into the game when they're recording the thing. If they're so many people right now are so attached to the stories which is great, because honestly, the game mechanics are its engine to get tell a story be so— because you're not just doing long-form improv on a podcast, which sounds terrible. You're playing this game, ostensibly, but then a story comes out of it. And like I don't know if there's any mechanics that encouraged the emotional exploration, or the emotional beats. It just— just so happens while you're doing the thing at the same time. And it's really hard for me to reckon with because I'm someone who loves mechanics. I love making people have fun doing games, while also a story is happening. And I don't know if like I'm caring about something that no one else really cares about. And the story, the reason why people like the show that I do, is just like has nothing to do with the thing that I'm actually putting a lot of time and effort into it. So like I don't even know if mechanics are the thing that unleashes emotion, especially in something that like, I mean, for playing Dungeons and Dragons, I know there are plenty of TableTop RPGs that's like use a token and then tell some trauma that happened to this life. So I—so I don't know. I'm not sure in like the mainstream stuff, I'm not really even sure how to do this. Because like, the only thing in major video games is like, do you know being a dad changes things? That's the only thing that exists. So like, I don't even know if mechanics the thing that brings you there, either for video games or for tabletop RPGs. I don't know.
JENNA: Well, let me undercut that immediately by saying—
ERIC: Please.
JENNA: A thought of mine from another obscurity TRPG. Is anybody here familiar with Burning Wheel?
ERIC: Yes.
JENNA: And my dudes, okay. So Burning Wheel is a very complicated in certain ways. Simple in other ways, but it's sort of a medievalist setting. And it has really, really, really intricate this—what I'm gonna say sounds like homework, but it's fun. It has really intricate guidelines for how to do like conversational battles. And so if you have a character that like, has a lot of points in oratory, you can commit battles, and basically, you will sit in silence, and write out— write out your argument for a certain—a certain thing. And you have different things like you can do like taking the attack, or you could do like a valley, or you can lie or obfuscate. And so you have all these different, like, tactics that you can take in conversation. But in practice, when you're playing it, it's really fun. Because you have to think about, okay, what would my character say to convince you, and what would I say to convince you? And what would your character be convinced by, And what would you be convinced by? And so it's a fun way of sort of parsing through and thinking about all these layers about yourself, and your character, and your friend who's playing against you and their character. And sort of, it's an interesting, like, mental and emotional prompt of thinking about how to communicate and convince, and then you roll dice to bully them anyway, because it's still a game, because it's still a game and the dice still win. But like you— you can, you can ad—get bonuses basically, for if you make a really good argument, or a really cogent argument, or a really mean insult or something like that. And so I think that's a way for a mechanic to sort of prompt introspection.
ERIC: Is that how you trap your friends into play, into GMing?
JENNA: That is a—
ERIC: It's like I have written— I have spent 20 minutes writing an argument and now you have to do it.
JENNA: That's how I get trapped. That's how you trap me in a game.
ERIC: Alright.
JENNA: We'll talk about our feelings in writing for a while.
ERIC: Alright, we're gonna pause this live show for 20 minutes while I write down a response for Jenna. Merritt, what do you think?
MERRITT: I will in the Ghost Dog tabletop role-playing game, based on the film starring Forrest Whitaker, which is a real game. I'm not—this is not a joke. I'm just—and I don't—it is no mechanics from this, they just, when I ever gonna get to mention that this exists.
ERIC: Fair. Good.
MERRITT: But it's real, and it's spectacular. No, um, God, I mean, there are like, there's some interesting ones in like, you know, everyone knows about the Powered by the Apocalypse games these days. They're like, strings are interesting, the idea of like, someone has a penalty because you have something on them, and until they fulfill that obligation, they're penalized.
JENNA: Hm.
MERRITT: When I played Vampire the Masquerade for the first time, and like really, ever because I think I tried to play it when I was like 13 and uh—
JENNA: That is primetime which one plays.
MERRITT: And it was—it was great, let me tell you. But I played that recently, there's the hunger mechanic, where there's like, always a chance that you're just gonna flip out and like—and go beast mode on people.
ERIC: Same.
JENNA: Yeah, IRL, IRL for real, yeah.
MERRITT: And then there is the game where there is this whole mechanic—
JENNA: The hunger mechanic.
MERRITT: But that's interesting, too, because you're sort of grappling with like, this, like, oh, I got to talk to this person and get information from them. But like, if I bought this role, I'm gonna have to deal with the consequences of my actions of like, ripping their head off or something. So it has some fun stuff and it balances those sort of like dynamics.
ERIC: That's cool though. Sorry, I kept thinking about Ghost Dog.
MERRITT: Look it up, it's real, but it's very expensive on eBay, but I would love to. I've never even seen the movie, I just need a copy of this book. It's huged, it's hard covered.
ERIC: I have been thinking about the Avatar The Last Airbender role-playing game recently. It's not— this guy loves it, I was very annoyed by it because it felt like the whole book was like trying to justify how you can tell a story in a cartoon that's already done. So like—
MERRITT: Yeah, there's a lot of lies.
ERIC: So like the bows are already tied on it, so how are you going to like shove your stuff into like a sealed present already?
MERRITT: I own the Tenshi Muyo role-playing game when I was a kid. And it also—I never seen the show. It also had summaries of the episodes, and I was like, well, how does this exist? And it was the first place that I ever saw an anime breast, so it was very exciting.
ERIC: Congratulations. Mazel Tov.
JENNA: And that gave you feelings?
MERRITT: Well, I was just like what is this? Is this allowed? It’s a cartoon!
ERIC: I was gonna finish the thing, but I've laughing about anime breast. So the point is, I'm wondering how much of the Ghost Dog RPG is just summary of Ghost Dog.
MERRITT: I think it's the same company, so like a considerable amount.
ERIC: Yeah, yeah. Alright, we are running out of time here at Games and Feelings live here at PAX East. We are loving the questions that you've all asked. And we're very excited to get more of them. And if I'm definitely going to be outside as well, if you want to ask more questions, and Jenna and Merritt can come if they want to. I don't want to put them on that at all. But before we end, do you ever— you just like general good advice to share with people just about how to run their games, just a vital thing for people to end off on?
JENNA: Well, mine comes from a game I'm playing pretty regularly right now called Fallout 76, Thank you for not judging me. Is some graffiti in one of the Wild West areas where you can do a quest? And it says—and I really take this to heart, “Be rootin, be tootin', but most of all, be kind.” And I think that's something we can all take to heart.
ERIC: It was really good.
MERRITT: I mean, this isn't really funny, it's just like, yeah, actually, advice for the first time that I've given it on the show.
ERIC: Oh, Ghost dog was good enough advice?
MERRITT: It was, it was good advice. But just embrace like the weird, like spur-of-the-moment things because those are always the most memorable. Like, in the vampire game that I did, I was like write up backstory for all these characters and stuff, and then, you know, at some point, the characters just need to talk to some guy on the street. And I was like, okay, his name is Doug the vampire, and his whole thing is that he's like, against the vampire-like establishment and he's really into Lin Manuel Miranda. And Doug the vampire, like immediately became a recurring character. Everyone's like I need to know everything about it. So yeah, I just like being open to just the kind of random little happy accidents that happen. You know, we don't make mistakes in role-playing. We have happy little accidents, right?
ERIC: I love that. I would love to quote the thing you see on the Wii, which tells you to go outside every once in a while. Thank you so much for coming to Games and Feelings live.
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ERIC: If you don't know the show, and you're just coming to this for fun, please check us out on wherever you get your podcasts. We are Games and feelings. That's also where you'll find all of us on the internet. I am El_ Silvero. Jenna is @thejenna, and Merritt is @merrittk, cause infamous on the internet. Um, but yeah, I hope you have a good day and remember, there's nothing in the instruction manual about feelings. Get out of here.
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