Is There a Crab in This Game? With Jasper Cartwright
Whether you call this a hat trick, a turkey, or a triple kill, this is three straight episodes with new permanent guest Jasper Cartwright! Eric & Jasper dive into the questions and advise you on worldbuilding in a oneshot, teaching ancient boardgames at a medieval recreation, and how to best determine if a game has a crab in it.
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Credits
- Host, Producer, & Question Keeper: Eric Silver
- Permanent Guest: Jasper Cartwright
- 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! Welcome to Games and Feelings, an advice show about playing games, being human and dealing with the fact that those games involve other humans. I'm your host and question keeper Eric silver. And if I had to make an escape room, it would be set in a secret library. This would either be like a posh leather bound book, like it's a library in a secret mansion, and we're all locked in murder mystery style, or it would be like a lost library like in Avatar with the big owl. You know what I’m talking about?
Jasper: Ohhh! I know which one you mean. Yeah, yeah yeah.
Eric: Not Big Jim's Avatar where there's probably a big owl, but in Avatar The Last Airbender. Where the big owl-
Jasper: [laughs] Hey don’t get me talking about Big Jim's avatar, okay? I'm extremely vexed about this subject right now, but!
Eric: We're not doing it again. We did it in the last episode!
Jasper: We can’t do that again!
Eric: Alright, Jasper Cartwright,
Jasper: Hello!
Eric: Eternal guest, if you had to design an escape room, where would it be set?
Jasper: Where would it be set? It would be set up, I did a really cool like horror one once. So I think I'd want to stick with that. And I'd maybe go with like a Elden Ring Bloodbornes like type house setting.
Eric: Oh hell yeah.
Jasper: So like, but like do some funky stuff. I'm, like imagining using like projections like LED screens to like make it appear like this huge thing’s like in the room with you. Stuff like that, I think could be really, really cool. So that's what I'm gonna go with.
Eric: I like a dark fantasy that's not like dark fairytale.
Jasper: Yeah.
Eric: You know, like, you know, there's plenty of that. Alice in Wonderland, stabbing someone in the eye.
Jasper: Grim tales, yeah.
Eric: Yeah, well I like the idea that it's Elden ring, and the narrative makes absolutely no sense. Just like, yeah, this God died and there's a bunch of fingers and you just need to finish within 60 minutes!
Jasper: Perfect! That's absolutely perfect. Like, you just go in there and you just have to wiggle the fingers in a certain order. And that unlocks the ribcage of the god and then you get through the ribcage and you get into like the head of the god and then you have to look through their eyes and you see the world in a different way. And it absolutely none of it is connected other than by the bones of this god. That's the that's the connective tissue of this, this escape room.
Eric: At the end, it actually ends 10 minutes early, they stop and be like, Alright, here's a basic comprehension quiz about the narrative and backstory of this world. You have to complete it order to win,
Jasper: In order to get out and you only have 10 minutes left. So good luck!
Eric: Yeah, there's only two questions, so you should be able to do it.
Jasper: But we will be requiring an essay for each question.
Eric: You didn't pull any of the books off the wall, or you didn't pick up the item? And there was a big description under it??
Jasper: You didn't read that?
Eric: You didn’t check that?
Jasper: Like come on. Come on.
Eric: Oh, sorry, you were trying to pair the LEDs with Morse code. Sorry, that took too much time. I'm sorry.
Jasper: Yeah, okay apologies.
Eric: The soul blinking out of the God's eyes was Morse code. So it took you a long time.
Jasper: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Got to know Morse code as well teach yourself Morse code in the room.
Eric: I Jasper, you're joking. But if everyone knew Morse code, escape room artists would have a lot more problems.
Jasper: Yeah, it would be tough. I think, like, especially I felt like if everyone knew Morse code, the just the way that your brain has to critically work out Morse code. I feel like essentially would make most puzzles in the escape room pretty easy.
Eric: Yeah.
Jasper: Cuz like your brain would be fine tuned to picking up on like rhythms and patterns, and things like that, which like most people aren't, which is why Escape Rooms take people like a while, I think. But like, if you're actually trained in that stuff, I think you breeze through most escape room.
Eric: Well the thing is, is that the point of the Morse code section is that you need to read the document that teaches you Morse code in the room. And then you got to find the thing. It's like, yeah, it is like, oh, it's inserted in the middle of any game. It's like or any escape room. Like you jump into a video game. It's like, Alright, here's the auto scroller section, where you need to go forward while the water is rising. It's fine. Is the guy that will amuse you for 10 minutes. I feel like escape room artists are like Alright, here's the Morse Code Section. Skip forward 10 minutes in my schedule.
Jasper: Yeah, yeah. And then they're sitting there watching the video feed like oh, they know Morse code already. Uh oh, okay, this is gonna be this is gonna take well this is gonna take them about 10 minutes. No, no, we'll just maybe I'll try and make it harder from the outside. Let's see if I can do that.
Eric: I can't believe Captain Planet and the Escape Artists are reading this so well.
Jasper: I uh, me and Jade actually came second on like the fastest time to get out of an escape room. To the only thing that we'd gotten above us was like a professional like escape room team of four people, and they were only quicker than us by like two minutes.
Eric: Jasper. I'm raising my hand.
Jasper: Yeah,
Eric: I know this is an audio medium. I'm raising my hand.
Jasper: Oh, sorry, uh, Eric.
Eric: Oh, Hi, Eric Silver from the Games and feeling Gazette.
Jasper: Yes.
Eric What the fuck is a professional escape room team?
Jasper: Okay, Eric, really good question from you really really good question. Love that question. Love that energy. I asked the same fucking question. [both laugh] I was like, the guy was like, oh, no, they're like a professional team. And I was like, Whaaat?, basically, people who go round. They were from Germany. Honestly, that explains it. Mostly. Like, they just go round to like doing escape rooms and doing them in like record times. And I don't know for sure. In my mind, the way I think this works is that the the Escape Room Company, probably like hires them to come in and like, try and make their games better.
Eric: Sure, yeah.
Jasper: That how I imagine this goes down. I don't know that to be a fact. That's the only logical reason that I can imagine for this thing to exist. Other than maybe there's like a escape room competition annually. You may be in a training for that. Maybe that that makes like, you can't really go to the same places like eventually you're going to do all of them in like a pretty you know, there's not a lot like of Escape Rooms in per square mile or whatever. You know what I mean?
Eric : Jasper, I have so many jokes going out in my head. I feel like the multiverse right now. I'm looking into all these different ones. Then first of all, that doesn't make them professional that makes them competitive.
Jasper: No. Sure.
Eric: Like are they sponsored by like Haribo? They have like Haribo shirts?
Jasper: No they’re the Red Bull escape room team. That's what it is. [both laugh] RB Escape Rooms. That's what their official title is.
Eric: Yeah they're the bunch in Haribo Gummy Bears. Oh my god. I'm. Jasper, I'm looking for other German companies that aren't affiliated with Nazis. That's the only one I could get to. So I’m gonna keep going to that one.
Jasper: Yeah, yep sure. Good rates, it's a good reach. Stick with that one.
Eric: I also love that they're like white hat hackers for escape rooms, as opposed to like the nefarious Blackhat hackers that like bust your shit and do it in 15 minutes and they call you would asshole like reveal all the bad business deals you've ever done. Anonymous. Imagine you want to do an escape room and everyone was wearing an anonymous mask like a Guy Fawkes mask.
Jasper: I think that'd be a bit much. I think I'd be a bit freaked out like hmm hmm I don't know if I want this. I want to get out now.
Eric: It's V for Vendetta against escape rooms.
Jasper: I mean, he probably would do pretty well at escape rooms,
Eric: Oh sure,
Jasper: to be honest.
Eric: I mean he had that plot, but it didn't go well. So I don't know. It’s about teamwork. It's it's actually an allegory about teamwork. How everyone shouldn’t have flipped on Guy Fawkes.
Jasper: Yeah, exactly. That's all it's about.
Eric: Remember, remember that you need to know Morse code before you go into an escape room.
Jasper: Yeah, Morse Code, that's the thing we want you to take away from this episode of Games and Feelings, is know Morse code. Learn Morse code before you go to escape room.
Eric: [trying not ot laugh] That’s a good idea.
Jasper: Don't go in underprepared. Gotta know it. You've got to know your code.
Eric: It's important, it's important. Oh man Jasper, we've recorded three of these already. This is the third I mean. You all know listeners. This is the third episode that Eric and Jasper have done in the rebooted weekly 2023 Games and Feelings. And I love the bants, I'm enjoying this a lot buddy.
Jasper: I hope other people are and it's not them just being like okay, here's the 10 minutes of Eric and Jasper going on a tangent and then and then we get into the like actual advice bit like I hope that they're enjoying it as much as we are. If they are man this is a great 10 minutes this isn't a great opening section for each show. But if they're not I mean Oh boy I'm really sorry we'll, we'll do some advice now.
Eric: If you like it just @ Games N Feelings again within an N, if you don't like it @ JW Cartwright.
Jasper: Yeah you can @JW Cartwright, that's absolutely fine. That's absolutely fine because my that my handle is JW underscore Cartwright so at JW Cartwright, that's fine. Just don't worry about it, the leave the underscore out. That's that's a okay by me.
Eric: JW Cartwright writes like pulpy murder mystery novels.
Jasper: I mean, I'd be I actually be quite like happy to write pulpy murder mystery novels, that'd be great.
Eric: JW is living the dream he's doing exactly what he wants.
Jasper: JW is living the dream. Um, do we have to do the thing with games and the feelings?
Eric: Yes, let's do the let's do the first section. Now after all the bants. Games that are giving us feelings. This isn't gonna be a game coming out. This doesn't have to be anything a video game at all. It can be anything under the games and feelings umbrella. Jasper, do you have a game that has given you feelings and it gives me an adjective like Live Journal to describe the feeling that it is giving you
Jasper: This game is giving me… elation!
Eric: Yeah, dude.
Jasper: I know pretty bold word because over Christmas my, on on Christmas Day we do all the food and everything and everyone was feeling a little we, were on the next bit where everyone's just like “Murrrr we ate food and now I'm tired”. So we decided to do I was like hey guys, why don't we play like a kind of like a little bit of a role playing game. Now this this point the whole family was like, Oh, here we go his Jasper's bit his thing. This is what he does for a living on his podcast or whatever.
Eric: Can I acknowledge that Jade, that your family or your fiance's family knowing that you do this professionally is like three steps up from what the majority of people think about people who do this professionally. They’re like ‘Oh you work in a radio station, right?’
Jasper: That is absolutely hilariously accurate. Yeah, yeah. Now I like they are very supportive. This is actually my fiance's family. I think my family would have less of an idea. My fiance's family has genuinely showed an interest and in fact, my fiance's mum is a huge fan of three black halflings and is one of our patrons!
Eric: Let’s go!
Jasper: Oh, she was the fourth ever patron and it's still a patron to this day. So yeah, huge shout out to Jeanette, if you're listening. It's very possible that she is. So basically I was like, shall we play his game? And we played Werewolf!
Eric: Oh hell yeah!
Jasper: And let me tell you, Eric, we had a blast people got into it, there was grandma's throwing shots at people, there was there was riffs forming between sisters, I mean, it was incredible and like had such a good time. And for like some of the people this was like their first time doing any kind of role playing. It was just it was absolute blast. And I think that I may have just indoctrinated an entire family into TTRPG. It's like, I think they're ready to like take steps into more complex games, like more complex roleplay games, it was so much fun. And also just just absolutely hilarious to watch family dynamics play out as fictional tomato sellers because that's what they all were in this village. It all didn't know each other. They just kind of were villages. They just decided they were all this this village was renowned for setting tomatoes. So they will adding layers upon layers. It was incredible.
Eric: I was gonna ask you if they were just like playing themselves, but they already got into it.
Jasper: No, they took this, no, no, no, they fully came up with we were in Googlesburg was the name of the first village. Like it like they were all tomato sellers. And it was it was honestly it was impeccable. It was absolute impeccable. Everyone bought such A-game. And it was hilarious. As well as like you quickly got to understood like who in the family just generally, they think is potentially shifty. Because like, they got killed off straight away in every game, despite the fact they were never the werewolf or doing anything remotely suspicious. They were just like, Yeah, we just fundamentally don't trust you that much. Like if anyone in this room was going to kill us, it would be you so we're gonna kill you. It was very fun.
Eric: That's awesome.
Jasper: So I highly recommend, if you have family all together and you want to do something that's like fun, full of energy, a game of Werewolf is very, very, very simple. So it's very easy to get. And it's just like a nice little entryway to help, you know, get people into by having a bit of a roleplay. And it was so much fun.
Eric: You know, we get so many questions on like, how to get your friends into your very specific hobby. And I'm very happy to hear that, like, Werewolf is the thing that does it. And then you have real life experience with it.
Jasper: Yeah! Yeah, like we even, like I was like, oh, we'll play like two games. We ended up playing like six games or something of this. Like they were like that into it. And I was like by like the fifth and sixth game. I was like, Oh, I'll change up the format a bit. I introduced new rules.
Eric: Yeah, you give them, Did you use roles and stuff?
Jasper: We, I introduced a vampire who halfway through the game could pick someone to convert into a vampire. So like halfway through a game one person that you may think is absolutely a civilian might have just flipped to be a vampire and no one knew. We changed the setting. So we're in like a gothic like seedy, like noir setting as opposed to like a little kind of village in the middle of random Scandinavian town. You know, so it was very, very, very fun. So definitely fulfilled the thing of like, Ah, I'm getting people into my hobbies. Yes, come with me. And then I opened the door and they were like, Whoa, there's so much in here and it's like yes, there is.
Eric: Look at my leather bound books that I have in my closet.
Jasper: Literally thinking like, oh God, here's my dice, hauls in in like a huge sack full of dice like, Here, look.
Eric: So I have a little modification to this Werewolf game, all of you are going to have your own powers and you roll this dice to establish the power.
Jasper: [laughs] Yes, and someone might be a werewolf, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Because that werewolf will get to choose to do what ever they want to do. Whoa!
Eric: The goal no longer is to figure out who the werewolf is. We’re just tellin a story!
Jasper: We’re just gonna tell a story to you, which might involve a werewolf and it might not, you know, could all be tomato sellers if you want to, it's fine.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, everyone's still tomato sellers. And then we'll go from there. Yeah, the game the game has given me feelings is the game Sports Story that came out recently for the Switch.
Jasper: Okay, okay!
Eric: And the feeling that I have is, I feel conflicted. The little emoji of me is really making the hard thinking face. There's a question mark in the thought bubble above me. So for those of you don't know, Sport Story is actually the sequel to this game called Golf Story that came out on the Switch. It was put out by the video game developers Sidebar Games. They're an indie studio out of Australia. And something I've noticed about Australian tech companies in general, is that like, they're pretty chill. They don't, I'm not saying that they're not like, Australia is just as capitalist as any English speaking country there is, what whatever. But like, they're, the tech grind I don't think it's gotten to Australia. They're honestly pretty pretty okay, about some things and Australian listeners, you can say that, but that's just what I've gotten from some of these video games people and Canva and a lot of other Australian folks, they're a little more chill about their capitalism.
Jasper: I will go ahead and say I have Australian family. That's that's definitely a vibe in Australia. Like, did they have a they have a healthier work life balance on the whole? And they definitely, you know, they have the beach and glorious weather, like all the time, and you know, yeah, absolutely. They're just kinda chill. That's great.
Eric: Yeah they want to go to Bondi Beach and rip it up. Absolutely.
Jasper: Exactly. Absolutely. They got surfing to do.
Eric: Okay, so this game came out in 2017 Golf Story, I really loved it. It was based on the old Mario Golf RPGs for the Gameboy Color that used to come out. It was basically like really an RPG. It was like a Pokemon-esque but also there's some golf involved, too. There was like quests you could go on, there was a full story, and this game really kind of added on to it. And I really love the arcade golf games. I love Mario Golf. Of all stripes, I played Toadstool Torre on GameCube quite a lot. And it's one of my favorite games.
Jasper: Whoa, okay that’s a deep cut. But let's go.
Eric: Listen, my GameCube was my prized possession it at a very nice spot in my apartment. So this game, people have been waiting for Sports Story for years. It was basically going to advance it was a sequel. But also it wasn't just golf. It was like cricket, and baseball and tennis and all this other stuff. And there's a lot of wacky stuff that happens in golf story. Like there's fishing. I can't even explain how wacky it gets with the golf in this game. But it's not just golf. It's all of these different types of sports. So this game was supposed to come out in 2020. It was delayed multiple years. No one knew when that was coming out. If you look on Sidebar Games’ Twitter, their last tweet before announcing this, that this game was coming out was Christmas 2021.
Jasper: Whoa, okay, so we took a took a little holiday.
Eric: Yeah. And then after that in January 20 of 2020. They shared a d&d, homebrew golf like golf club that someone had made, but they just they just retweeted that.
Jasper: Just to illustrate the bare minimum was being done on this Twitter feed.
Eric: Yeah, they retweeted someone else coming up with a homebrew d&d mechanic for them, based on their game. And then this year, on November 9, they tweeted out that the game was gonna come out right before Christmas.
Jasper: Whoa!
Eric: And we're like, Oh, my God. Okay.
Jasper: Plot twist.
Eric: So then the game came out. December 23.
Jasper: Okay.
Eric: I bought it immediately because it was incredible. And I really, I was so so excited. Immediately, people started playing and this game was a mess. It had glitches, it had bugs. It was not ready to go out. But I feel like they pushed it to come, make it come out before Christmas. And people have been waiting for it for so long. It felt like they they made it might have felt pressure to put it out. Right?
Jasper: Mm hmm.
Eric: So I kind of pushed through a lot of the bugs. There was a lot of like, there wasn't a lot of direction in it. It was a lot like hey, go see this person to go find it. And then of course, there's like no arrow. We don't know where the person is. You just gotta like we'd run around the world and figure it out.
Jasper: Just keep going up to every NPC clicking on them to see what their name is, like?
Eric: Yes, yes.
Jasper: Oh, boy.
Eric: Yeah, like the worlds are not small. They're not, they're not small at all. So you got to run around, you got to find this person to figure out where they are. I got to a point in this game, where I cannot progress. Oh, I Okay, I'm in this like scrubs lands area, and I got some golf balls that explode. And I need to explode some boxes, to grab some old TVs and harvest them for parts. And I have to throw them into a recycling bin. Jasper, this is a great game. It's a great game!
Jasper: [laughing] This sounds, this is the most Australians thing I think I've ever heard of in my life.
Eric: It's really wacky, their their sense of humor is incredibly wacky. I really like it. But like it's, so that's the premise. I'm doing this, you got to pick up like six TVs, right?
Jasper: Do you have six TVs? Obviously you need six TVs!
Eric : And that’s why there’s six TVs in this recycling bin. Every time I tried to put one of the TVs in there. It doesn't register. Like it glitches out. And it didn't go like if you do something wrong, or you run into an object while you're carrying the TV, it basically it resets to its original point, right. But every time I tried to throw the TV into the recycling bin, it doesn't go. And then and then it goes back there and it glitches out. And then if you leave the screen, like if you walk over to the right, or you go back to where you were, if you're you know, you hit the exploding ball pretty far away from the TVs themselves. If you go back, then the TV is gone. And you cannot progress in the game.
Jasper: Oh no!
Eric: So I'm pretty far in the game. I put a lot of hours into it right around Christmas. And listen, we're recording this pretty, a few weeks early from when you're listening to it. I hope that there's a patch to the game. They said on December 24 of they're working on a patch. But it hasn't come out yet, because it's December 29. Obviously that no one's they're not going to work over Christmas. And also Nintendo is notoriously slow about approving patches because of the black box that is The Nintendo Corporation.
Jasper: Oh…yeah.
Eric: So it's like people I don't I haven't not seen anyone else run into this bug. I have frequently been on the subreddit that has popped up about this. But people keep complaining about game breaking bugs that exist. And like I'm conflicted. Because I'm excited about this game. I want these people to succeed. I know that they're talented, and I love everything that they're doing. But it wasn't ready. And but they might have felt pressured to put it out. And it's not like this was Scarlet and Violet Pokemon, which was a garbage mess, and they have all the money in a world. I know. They're an indie team. But it's like, I always want people to put things out when they're ready. But at the same time, I was tired of waiting for the game. So I understand why they felt the way that they did to put it out as right now right before Christmas, when people are sitting on their hands.
Jasper : And if they're an indie like team and stuff, it's quite possible that they were under like pressure financially to like actually get some revenue coming in. And all of that kind of stuff. Like if they've been working on this just relentlessly and there's no, you know, if the studio is like, hey, there's no more money coming in, like either you release it, or you're gonna have to shut up trouble something like it's rough. I think it's kind of rough. Man, I feel sad. I think that you're right. Like, I can absolutely get past pretty much every bug. But if I can't get further in the game, are you enjoying the game? Like, is the game well made outside of these bugs? Like, is it fulfilling everything you wanted it to be outside of the bugs? Or is it still stuff to be desired there as well.
Eric : I think that they made this game, they really wanted to blow out Golf Story. They wanted it to feel huge and big. And it definitely feels bigger. But like it feels like too wet. While they were doing that. They didn't concentrate as much about shining it to make sure it feels good. For example, in a golf game, you know, you're saying it's all about timing, right? You hit the view you the little square sort of goes to the left, and then it comes back to the right. And you got to hit it in both places, right? Yeah. But like, there's some glitching there where it doesn't feel super precise. So it doesn't feel good. And there are some times with like loading and other things where it doesn't, you know, when you're playing a video game, and you're like, I don't like this, something about this doesn't feel good.
Jasper: I feel icky! Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean.
Eric: That's what, that's what I'm getting from them. So it's like, I like the game and they definitely blow it out. I really love the writing. But like there's some grammatical mistakes in the video game too. Like there's a lot of stuff like this, and I just don't know how to feel. I really hope by the time this episode comes out, a patch is gone. And maybe I'll finish the game. And if that is the case, I'll hop back in here and give an update. But for now, I mean, yeah, I totally get it Jasper. The game golf story came out in September 2017. It's been five years since they had a new product come out and And Golf Story’s currently like $9 on the Nintendo Switch store.
Jasper: Yeah, yeah yeah.
Eric: So I get it, they need to put it out. But you know, I, it's the balance between the reality breathing down your neck and now all of these people who were so excited for your game to come out are like, wow, look at all these bugs.
Jasper: Well, do you know what? I hope that I hope this game gets No Man’s Sky’d. But sooner than No Man's Sky got No Man's Sky’d, you know what I mean?
Eric: Yes.
Jasper: Cuz that took ages for it to get good. But boy, is it good now. So I hope, I hope and I pray that there is improvements coming because yeah, it's sad. It is reason, and I understand why you're conflicted. I can totally understand why because I want to tell you that your feelings are justified, Eric.
Eric: Hey, Games that are on Games and Feelings is really about us, so I really appreciate you making it about us!
Jasper: It's About Us! It’s about us counseling each other through difficult times such as this.
Eric: Just like all advice columns are actually about the advice giver when you think about it.
Jasper: Oh, yeah. Actually, that's probably more accurate than it should be. That statement is definitely more accurate than it should be.
Eric: All right, Jasper, do you want to do some questions?
Jasper: Uh, yes, please.
Eric: Okay, let's see some questions. As always submit your questions at games and feelings.com/questions. We read them on the show. You can give whatever name you'd like. But we are also probably going to come up with a Sleepless in Seattle style advice columnist name for you as well. I was really interested in this one, because it ties together. It's a question we talk about quite a lot. But there's a fun twist on it, for this one. This is from Scotty they/them. I do medieval recreation. And we'll be teaching a class on ancient board games at an upcoming events.
Jasper: Whoa, starting strong!
Eric: Incredible. My question is, do you have any advice for teaching a group of people to play a new game they have likely never heard before. The games are simple. But I will be introducing and teaching four to six new games in an hour with an extra hour for people to just hang out and play. I will have written rules as well as walk through the games visually. But I want to make sure I can cater to all learning types.
Jasper: Whoa, okay, first of all, huge props. Five to six games in an hour? Impressive.
Eric: I think it makes more sense if like, there are a bunch of people like wander over to your hut. And it's like, oh, I'm the games master in the village. Like, yeah, you gotta teach them the either I- in my head I'm hoping this game is as simple as like, mancala where it’s somethin about moving beads around beads. I'm hoping that that's what this is. So it might be pretty simple, hopefully to give the rules across in so many ways.
Jasper: Yes. Okay. So I think it probably like for me, I felt like a hands on approach might be good here. Because I think that like a lot of the time, whenever you're learning a new board game, or a kind of a game with like, even a simplistic rules, the best way to figure out the fundamentals of like, what does and doesn't work in the game like, and what why rules, certain rules are there and it's etc, is to like, make the mistake yourself. So like, if you can, there's a way that you can have these games like set up on tables in front of people, so they can kind of be like, as you're talking about it be like in a pair like having a go, do you know what I mean? And being like, oh, okay, that doesn't go in that bit. Because it just doesn't work or whatever. Like, for me, if you have that as an option, I feel like you're probably going to cover most of the like, learning and like types. You know what I mean? I think that because if you're a visual, you can just watch the you know, if it's oral, you can just listen, if it's if you're more tactile, like me, then I can kind of have my hand on the thing and be and kind of have a get a sense of the game under my fingertips. I think that will probably be quite good. And then then I think generally just try not to be like too nerdy with it. Because I've definitely done this before where I'll be like, Oh, and did I get really excited and start teaching you about the history of this ancient game, and go on for like five minutes, by which point, people have completely lost the thread of the thing that I was trying to teach them about in that moment. So like, try and be super concise, because I know what we nerds are like, and we get very hyped about stuff. Get hyped about that in the second hour. Like in a second hour when everyone's just chilling out hanging out playing some games. Then you can go around the table and being like, Oh, by the way in the 1800s the King of France played this game and lost and that's actually why the revolution started whatever it is, you know what I mean? That's actually a fact by the way, don't check it. No need to google it just that.
Eric: Louis the 16th, notorious bad, bad loser, yeah.
Jasper: Really, really bad loser and he said Viva la revolution as soon as he lost the game because he-
Eric: Yeah Why did they think they called him the Sun King, because everyone was always sunning him because he was such bad, he was so bad at games.
Jasper: Hilarious.
Eric: That's a history joke. Look, you guys go on Wikipedia, look that up and then come back and tell me that's funny. That's pretty good. No, I 100% agree with you. I think that's a really good thing if that's really because this is medieval recreation, and you could be throwing history facts at people.Do it after they're already invested, I think is a really interesting thing. Here's my idea here.
Jasper: Uh oh.
Eric: That I think, do you watch any of the various Gordon Ramsay cooking competition shows?
Jasper: Of course, he's a national icon.
Eric: National icon. So whether we're talking about Hell's Kitchen, or Master Chef or any of the derivatives of Master Chef afterwards, Gordon Ramsay is really good at this, in that he teaches people, especially for Master Chef, where they're with amateur chefs, right? An episode comes up where Gordon Ramsay is like, [British accent] Alright, I'm gonna teach you how to filet a fish. [Back to normal voice] And people are like, Oh, no, I don't know how to do that. And then he goes up, and there's a giant, whopping fish.
Jasper: So, so big, like, truly, the fish is huge.
Eric: The largest tuna you've seen in your entire life. And then he methodically takes it apart. He's like, everyone has pen and paper and writes down like and follows along as he shows the steps of how to filet the fish. And then at the end, there are all these parts of the filited fish, and then he's like, Alright, your challenge. And just imagine I'm doing a great Gordon Ramsay, right now.
Jasper: Yeah, yeah, yeah I am.
Eric: Your challenge is to now filet a fish, and then make some sort of fish, two fish dishes out of the fish you just filet in all the parts, right. And like, there's no excuse, because he very much went through all this stuff. So now he can hold you to a high standard
Jasper: Sure.
Eric: And if your standard here is them having fun, then that is a pretty high standard for them to get it. So my recommendation would be trying to stage the game in front of them, like have one up at the front that everyone watches you play against yourself, or against maybe an assistant that is like set up for, not for winning but for you to do all of the parts of the of the game.
Jasper: All the different moves, or whatever it is like.
Eric: Right, all the moves. So that's visual, and then they can go and they'll have their own games in the other places with like laminated how to play the game in bullets next to it as well.
Jasper: Yeah.
Eric: And then you can go around and they can ask you questions, if they don't understand. That's how I that's how I would do it. I think pair you're trying to pair as many learning styles as possible. I also want to say, hey, if people don't get the game, don't worry about it.
Jasper: It's fine. Yeah, 100%. And that's fine. Like, if I was you, I'd be aiming for people to understand one out of the six games. Like if I can get every person in that room to understand and have fun playing one out of those six games, I'd be pretty happy. Like that's about like, I think like, it'd be a good goal for you. Because like, I think if you if you go in with the thing of like, every single person in this room has to understand and enjoy playing all six games. I feel like you're probably setting yourself up for failure because that's a hard task. That is a hard task to do.
Eric: I wasn't gonna say it but yeah, the success rate for me would be like 50%. I love you, Jasper that you did one out of six.
Jasper: I mean, I mean, one out of six, but 100% of the people play a game and enjoy a game. You know what I mean?
Eric: Yes, every single person likes at least one game is good.
Jasper: Yes. Yeah, they’d probably understand more than one game I'm saying. But if you can, like get them to not only understand it, but to enjoy playing it, then I think that's a success.
Eric: Right.
Jasper: Yeah.
Eric: If at the end, everyone, you ask everyone what their favorite game was. And everyone enthusiastically has a favorite you did a good job.
Jasper: Yes, yes, absolutely. And if everyone enthusiastically says one or two of the games, then you've probably save yourself a bunch of the time, a bunch of time next time you do this thing. Because you'll realize that like three of them just aren't hitting, right.
Eric: Yeah it's like, oh, this game was when there was no entertainment stimulation at all. So people thought this was-
Jasper: Yeah this was during the Dark Ages, this game was made. Like it was just throwing, like pebbles at a wall or something. And like, that's all we did.
Eric: You know what this game doesn't really hit as much unless you use a human skull. So I think that we I'm just not getting getting the simulacra of what the game is just isn’t coming together.
Jasper: It’s not the full experience that I was looking for. But I understand what it's going for. Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's just that the lack of human head really doesn't sell it for me.
Eric: Jasper. I think that's why Americans can't get into soccer, is because they didn't have the the tradition of playing it with a head to start with.
Jasper: Yeah, that's absolutely, that's absolutely fair enough. You only got to play with a pig's bladder, an inflated pig's bladder so I can understand why that's less enjoyable than the head of one of your enemies. That's completely fair.
Eric: Another true fact.
Jasper: Yeah!
Eric: Go look that up on Wikipedia and everyone else, you can think what we're saying is funny again.
Jasper: Awful, truly awful.
Eric: [laughs] Jasper, I've also come up with a advice column name for this person.
Jasper: Oh yeah? Okay. Good, good, good.
Eric: Yeah. I've gone with 10,000 BC, but BC stands for Before Candy Crush.
Jasper: Ohhh! Nice. Very good. That's I like it. That's really really good.
Eric: Is that good?
Jasper: Yeah, that was fantastic. Well done. We're done now, we completed Games and Feelings.
Eric: All right. 10,000 BC. Thank you for the question.
Eric: Hey, it's Eric and I picked up some snacks for Games and Feelings. I got Detroit style pizza. You can tell it's from Detroit because it's square. Yeah, it's also very delicious. I really like Detroit style. You get this amount of crust you want. It's like brownie but pizza is the best way for me to describe it. I mean that appreciatively I think all of you should be a part of the Patreon at patreon.com/games and feelings. Just like our newest patrons Briana Harping and Becca Tizard. And Meghan Moon has upgraded to the highest tier so she is a producer level patron just like Polly Berge and Kelsey Duffy, who intentionally put language into their open gaming license so it can never be revoked. Going weekly is a big deal bringing Jasper on as a big deal. So I'm so appreciative to all of you who are a part of the Patreon and giving money directly to creators. Jasper is also sharing in the money that he the episodes that he's on. So you are supporting multiple creators here, not just me. Maybe I should set like a big goal to, once we get like 100 patrons or something. Okay, if we get 100 patrons, I will go to the United Kingdom, and I will bother Jasper at his house, and I will film it something just for patrons. How's that sound? If you want that to happen, I need 100 of you to become patrons at patreon.com/games and feelings. You should check out the other shows that are part of the multitude podcast collective, just like The Queer Movie podcast, which is a queer movie watch party hosted by Rowan Ellis and Jazza John, join them as they research and rate their way through the Queer Film canon. One genre at a time from, romcoms to slashers. Contemporary arthouse cinema to black and white classics, queer movie podcast is a celebration of all things gaaaaay, there's five A's on the copy, I want to make sure I get that the silver screen, they actually recently just did knives out because of the I guess it's not like fanon or headcanon if Rian Johnson says it, and Daniel Craig believes it. But since Benoit Blanc is gay, and Hugh Grant is his probably his husband, if not his butler slash husband, it still counts and they just did an episode on it, which is great. I think there's a peach related game movie that's coming out if I know their socials correctly. New episodes out every other Thursday, go check it out. We are sponsored today by Brilliant if you really want to own your friends by explaining the logic of dice rolls, probability and statistics you got to do go to brilliant.org. Brilliant is the best way to learn math, science and computer science interactively. They have 1000s of lessons with new ones added every single month. Brilliant visual interactive approach is incredibly engaging, and make STEM concepts actually stick. So if I were you, and you really want to own your friends, I would check out random variables and distribution, which is in their data science career learning path. Randomness and variables are the most important part of how games function alongside all those like dumb human feelings. And understanding the theory and math behind a dice roll is a fascinating way to level up your game knowledge. So to get started for free, go check out brilliant.org/games and feelings or click on the link in the episode description. The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription brilliant.org/games and feelings. Finally, this show is sponsored by Better Help. When you are at your best you can do great things. But sometimes life gets you bogged down and you may feel overwhelmed or like you're not showing up in the way that you want to. Oh, I don't know maybe you feel that way and then you're looking for games to try to like sooth that but then you're having more human interaction you're not having a good time and you don't really know how to deal with that. Baby, there's somewhere you can turn and that is the place you can turn is therapy and BetterHelp is a convenient, flexible, affordable, entirely online way for you to get your hands on some therapy. If finding therapy near you is a hassle. Give BetterHelp a try. If you want to live a more empowered life therapy can get you there. Visit betterhelp.com/games and feelings today to get 10% off your first month. That's better help.com/games and fields. And now back to the games.
Eric: Alright, Jasper. Here's another question. This one is about world building in a one shot.
Jasper: [gasps] Oooh!
Eric: We're going over to tabletop RPGs. Going this way. Hey! Hello.
Jasper: Whoa! Hi! Geeze, so enthusiastic the way what you wrote that hey down. I mean Eric had no choice but to give it the beans.
Eric: I am a teenager who's trying to plan a relatively easy d&d one shot for my birthday party in December slash January. Oops. Hopefully this helps anyway. That was me. I said, Oops.. I'll be DMing for four or five of my friends, I've DM before but the last time we played descended into chaos very quickly, because the way I was DMing was boring? Question mark? I was trying to set the scene but I think I took too long and my friends got bored and started fighting each other, two of them or siblings lol.
Jasper: Oh, wow.
Eric: Anyway, the premise of the One Shot is a modern high slash superhero thing, possibly turning into a longer ongoing campaign. Any tips on successfully world building but not being boring? And then they say some nice stuff about me. It's fine. This is from Magbert, they/them.
Jasper: Okay. Okay, Magbert they/them, I understand your conundrums here. This is, okay, so first of all, I'm gonna say it's not boring. You are a unique soul and person and therefore you will make something inherently that is not boring. It is unique and individual only to you.
Eric: Also, maybe only invite one of the siblings.
Jasper: Yes, okay, so first tip, one sibling max at the table. You can invite your younger sibling to play at a table, I think that should be fine though. That's the only sibling combo you can have a table where one of those the oldest sibling is the DM because the older sibling can just like hit the younger sibling if they're stepping out a line, just you know what I mean? Like shut the hell up. I'm playing we're playing a game. But I would say that the delivery, it can sometimes be where the issue may lie. And I think a lot of the time, it will just be understanding, they have no context for what you're talking about. So you need to make sure that you hit them with something early to get that, get the hook in. So like, like very simply, it's the reason why every single like movie ever starts with like 10,000 years ago, this happened. And it meant this very simple, like three parts of a sentence. And you're immediately kind of like hooked into some narrative that's happening. If you open it by being like, there's a field, and on the field, there is grass. And on the grass, there is cows, like we're kind of like with three sentences in and there's nothing really to hook your attention. So like I would say that like, just immediately start with something that's going to draw them in, and potentially raise the stakes as well. Like if you if that's what you if you're going for like a, you know, anything that's kind of remotely epic, or even if it's like the town's in danger, just set that up right at the top be like the town is potentially going to be overrun by demons tonight! Then you can go into description about the fields and the cows and how under the field and the cows, there's a fiery pit where all these demons are going to come out or something, right. So you can kind of do the long description after that. So start with the hook. And then one of the big things that I have started doing with one shots, and I cannot express to you how life changing this has been for me. Let's say you have like a four hour time slot roughly, to play your one shot. spend one hour of that four hours, world building and creating characters with, as a team as like a group discussion so that you kind of like have the opportunity to be like, Okay, who's your character? What do they think of that character? Try and say something positive about one of the other characters at the table, do stuff like that. Ask them what sort of stuff do you want to see in the world? What sort of stuff do you like seeing what sort of, you know, because then basically, what's going to happen is, they're going to give you a bunch of material that they find interesting, and they're really excited about and you can just scribble it down on a piece of paper. And then I can guarantee you there'll be a perfect moment at some point during the one shot where you'll look down and go oh, they really like air ships and we're in the space. It'd be perfect for an airship to show up right now. And boom, you can drop an airship in. Like it's made so much difference for my ability to run interesting and exciting one shots, I'll just basically invite them to world build with me and world build as a group, it means they all jump in on board together as like a, a team, you know, like give them, ask them to come up with some shared backstory, you know, like, like, okay, each of you go round and describe the way you felled this dragon like, what did you do? What did you contribute to the team as you felled this dragon, this beast, this whatever it is, you know, I mean, like you already then have in jokes and all kinds of stuff like that. I found that to be a pretty foolproof one shot thing to just get everyone in the mood ready to go on your side. And then you just with like an absolute ton of material, which you can then pull from as you go through the adventure that you've planned out. You know, I'm not saying you have to suddenly change your adventure. but like, literally, I've had it before. I've had a venture planned out and someone's like, Oh, I haven't like, you know, I'm estranged from my family. My dad was like a powerful wizard or whatever. The bad guy in my campaign that planned out powerful wizard. I was like, boom, it's your dad now. [Eric laughs] All I have to do is literally change the name. Do you know what I mean? Like change the name of a character and suddenly my player has like maximum investment in a one shot like so so simple. Super fun for everyone involved.
Eric: Yeah. It's kind of like a magic trick almost-
Jasper: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Where like you ask them to you get them to say one thing, and then like, oh, it's been this the whole time?
Jasper: Yes, exactly that!
Eric: We. That's such a good idea, Jasper. I want to just double down on the two things that you said first about the hook. I want to particularly lean on action movies like you did. Particularly because this is about a heist. You might know the, do you know the movie? The Town?
Jasper: Oh, yeah, with Ben Afflack?
Eric: Starring Ben Afflack- Yes
Jasper: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: So for if you don't know, it's an incredible heist movie and crime movie. And it's all set in like South East Boston, with like the working class area of Boston. And the title card comes up and says the highest number per capita of bank robbers comes from like six square blocks in Charleston, Boston.
Jasper: Yep.
Eric: And then the story is all about these people. So like holy shit, regardless of whether or not this fact is true, I have no idea, but what a good introduction. Yeah, tabletop RPG is a really interesting in that they're trying to evoke some thing that you get from a different medium, but you're playing.
Jasper: Mmm, yes.
Eric: I think if you identify what that is, then you can use the elements of of that media to help you. Dungeons & Dragons. Usually you should use action movies and fantasy movies. Like what, what about Lord of The Lord of the Rings movies do you feel pulled by? And then you can use those tricks but you describe it in words instead of visually, right? So definitely lean on action movies, especially if you're doing a heist here. I think it's a really good idea. Explain. I think if you're worried about your world building, getting too expensive and boring, quote, unquote, which it's not because two siblings were fighting, it's not, just get concise, tell them what they need to know.
Jasper: And then make them work for the rest, like leave the rest in a chest somewhere and let them discover it like let them uncover the little nuggets. And you can do you can even do the DM face. I do this I do this all the time, where like, like they'll roll a nat 20 to get a piece of information out of someone. And I'll do the DM face, which I'll do for Eric now, but I'll describe what I'm doing. It's effectively where I look all kinds of like, ah man, you got me kind of face. And it makes the players think yes, like we did it! We caught him! He didn’t expect this! I knew that you were going to do this. [Eric laughs] I had this information teed up, but it makes you feel empowered, and like you're winning the game. So like don't give them all the information. Leave it like breadcrumbs. It doesn't matter what order they find out in. You don't have to be JRR Tolkien…don't be JRR Tolkien be you be awesome. And then like they will discover little little breadcrumbs of story and they'll love it. They will lap up all of the story whereas if you give them an all in like a you know big monologue at the beginning people absolutely will probably zone out.
Eric: Yeah, just don't do too much. Just do a little bit I also want to recommend in Furious Seven from the Fast and Furious movies. The if this is a heist thing or its superhero-y, you could pull this it's it's superhero-y there's also like some shadowy organization, Kurt Russell played Mr. Nobody who was like a deep state CIA guy who gave all the exposition and he was also Kurt Russell and fun and interesting and wearing a suit so like make a fun NPC but just get them out of the way very quickly.
Jasper: Yeah.
Eric: And just dump all the like shadow you got to steal something from a shadowy organization. Give someone who defected who need these people to get stolen blah, blah, blah. You're in. Yeah, you got to have the hook the hook is important.
Jasper: Yes. 100%.
Eric: What was the second thing you said, I just want to remember I wanted to double down on it.
Jasper: It was just about having basically taking the first hour of whatever time you have to effectively world build and party build together, have like a little questionnaire of like, what have you never seen before? What have you never done before in d&d? What does your character want? That's a big one I get like a lot is like-
Eric: That’s a good one.
Jasper: What is your like, your character wants one thing in the whole world, because then again, the simplest carrot you'll ever dangle in front of a character. I also tend to get them to do this one in secret. Because what I'll say is like, say, you then come up to me, Eric, and you're like, Oh, I really want to be, I want to own this, like one diamond. It's like the biggest diamond in the world. Right? Halfway through this mission. We're doing this heist together. We've got the mission in front of us. It's all going well. And then I've described Oh, yeah, to your left, you see this huge diamond through a door, every other players like okay, fine, huge diamond, whatever. And that character then is like, I have a moral conundrum now, like, I'm actually invested. And I'm like, where do I go? What do I do? It's so much fun.
Eric: That might be interesting to say publicly. Now, I think secrets are for more advanced players.
Jasper: Sure.
Eric: Saying that publicly so everyone knows, I think is helpful. So everyone gets what they want. The questionnaire is really interesting, especially like some people do this, so that everyone remembers each other's names, like takes a note card and folds it over. And like write your name on it and your class so that people can talk to each other in that name. But also, I think having pieces of paper where everyone goes around and answers a survey, which is like, Hi, this is my character name. This is my class, or like, even if you want it to be even more basic, this is what I'm good at. Or this is my superhero power. Like, these are the themes that I'm getting that I'm getting at here. And then you say, what do I want the most? And then I always like coming up with a table of questions. So it's like, alright, the player a turn to the player to your left role on this table and answer this question. And then that's how you two are tied together.
Jasper: Yes.
Eric: And it's usually like you two have met before on a previous heist. Did it go well, or did it not go well?
Jasper: Exactly.
Eric: Or then another question and be like, You two know each other. Do you to know each other outside of superheroing? Do you know each other's secret identity, what happened? And then like, but that ties character B and C together. And then C and D and then D and A. So your there are at least two bonds there going forward, which I think always helps. Yeah, you want to make sure that your players are invested in their characters in your world. And again, it's a magic trick. It's this is no different than teaching. It takes a lot of, or parenting. Yes takes a lot of work to make someone think that they're they, they came up with it in their imagination, but you can do it because they don't know what you know.
Jasper: Yes. And like I just say that the number one stumbling block with D, I find when I see DMS running one shots, or when I hear stories about people like running one shots is that they treat it like a main campaign session.
Eric: Yeah.
Jasper: Where players have been playing for like, I don't know, like 60 hours, you know, as this character. So yeah, they're hella invested emotionally in this character by that point, because they've spent so long with them. With a one shot, they don't have that you don't have that luxury. And so unless they're like experienced TTRPG players, they're unlikely to be that invested straightaway. So this is just a surefire way of getting them invested early on. Because you don't have that much time to, you know, get them invested in them to spend with their characters. So you can give them by giving them this backstory. And the shared backstory is a really simple, like Eric, said magic trick, basically, because they will then be like, oh, man, yeah, we've got so much history we’ve done so much stuff together. And like, now, when we get into it, I don't want to fight you. I want to make sure that we're doing the right thing, going in the right direction, find the right bad guys, whatever it may be, you know?
Eric: Yes, exactly. That they they're on their own thing. It's not like they're doing your one shot. Oh, that's always the issue. Yep. Because again, if you dump too much exposition, they'll think like, Oh, I gotta listen to my friend, say all this stuff. If you have, you know, I know they're your friends. But everyone feels that way a little bit. Like, you know, like, I'm gonna sit here and have someone read me their novel, I guess, you know?
Jasper: Yeah, that's probably not the best. I have a potentially have a name though. For this.
Eric: Oh, please.
Jasper: How about the lord of lore? Something like this some reference to them having a lot of lore. Something like that, what do you think?
Eric: Overloaded with lore?
Jasper: Overloaded with lore. There we go. That's good. There we go. Okay, that's good.
Eric: Usually, it's like they always have a little bit of a problem because they're writing into an advice collum.
Jasper: Sure, sure.
Eric: But I like that a lot.
Jasper: That makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. overloaded with lore. That's good.
Eric: All right. Thank you overloaded with lore. I hope that that was helpful. Jasper, I have a little game I would like to play with you if uh I don't remember what this segment used to be called, but it just called I have a little game I want to play with Jasper.
Jasper: Haha, yes! That's the best title for a game I've ever heard.
Eric: Alright, Jasper, this game is called Is there a crab in this game? There is a Twitter account of that name. [Jasper laughs] That if that tells you whether or not there's a crab in a game, and I'm gonna ask you whether or not there is a crab in this game, but I might also have some follow up questions.
Jasper: Okay, okay, okay.
Eric: Jasper, is there a crab in Overwatch? The very famous shooter that had a lot of characters in it and people wrote fanfiction about it and then Overwatch Two came out and it was the same as Overwatch. Is there a crab in Overwatch slash Overwatch Two?
Jasper: Can I ask a follow up question or do I? Is it just straight up? Yes or no? Okay. Does like mechanical crab like things count? Or are we talking like straight up organic crab?
Eric: No, crab like things, yeah.
Jasper: I'm gonna say yes.
Eric: Yes, there is a crab in Overwatch.
Jasper: Yes! Get it.
Eric: There is a skin for the character Wrecking Ball who’s a hamster in a ball. Follow up question; what occasion was this skin released for?
Jasper: A crab skin?
Eric: It was a crab skin. Why would, what was the reason-
Jasper: What occasion?
Eric: That he gave it and what was the reason that they gave it out?
Jasper: [laughs] Uh like, like spring break, like summer holidays?
Eric: Good question. No, it was Christmas of this year.
Jasper: [laughs] What? Why a crab?
Eric: Grant, Jasper, you get 1 point.
Jasper: That’s Hilarious. Why? That makes no sense.
Eric: Jasper, is there a crab in Stardew Valley? Stardew Valley the game where you do a lot of farming and there's a lot a lot a lot of stuff in that game.
Jasper: Surely then. Yes.
Eric: Jasper. There is a crab in Stardew Valley correct,
Jasper: Come on! Two and O.
Eric: But follow up question. Does Stardew Valley have forest spirits that have taken up residence in a broken down community center?
Jasper: Yes? That's way too obscure.
Eric: Yep and they’re called Juminos, there's a lot of shit in this game. Jasper you get two points. You're up to three points.
Jasper: Okay. Come on. I’m feeling good, I’m feeling good. Let's go. Let's go.
Eric: Here we go. Jasper, is there a crab in Mario Paints? The 1992 SNES game where you just paint stuff?
Jasper: Like does a painting of a crab count?
Eric: Yeah!
Jasper: Then fuck yeah there is definitely a crab in there.
Eric: Yep, there's a crab! There's an under the sea thing you can paint that has a crab in it. Yeah, follow up question. Jasper, do you consider Mario Paint to be a game?
Jasper: Uh no, it's an experience. It's just you're just painting it like you're literally doing the exact it's just you are painting. That's it.
Eric: Interesting. Jasper does not think that Mario Paint is a game thank you for telling me your thoughts. You get two points. You're up to five points.
Jasper: Yes! Come on.
Eric: Jasper, does Fall Guys have a crab in it? Fall Guys the series of mini games where you're a little bean and you run around? Is there a crab and fall guys?
Jasper: What? I’m going to say no.
Eric: Jasper, there is a crab and fall guys.
Jasper: NO!!
Eric: Yes. You there actually two crabs and fall guys. One you can have a little crab friend. But there is a costume of a crab that you can wear. From what theme or IP does this costume come from?
Jasper: Overwatch.
Eric: No, it’s not Overwatch. Jasper, there was a SpongeBob SquarePants pack where you can be Mr. Krabs.
Jasper: Oh. My. God. [Imitates Mr. Krabs laugh]
Eric: No points. [Imitates Mr. Krabs laugh] No points for Jasper.
Jasper: No points.
Eric: But you still have five points. All right. Jasper, is there a crab in Multiverses? Multiverses is the game where they put all of the Warner Brothers IP and smoosh it into a fighting game, is there a crab in Multiverses?
Jasper: Okay, okay. There is a crab in there alright. That's a crab in there.
Eric : Jasper. There's no crab in Multiverses.
Jasper: Fuck! No my powers are waining [grunts]. I started moving. I think it's a problem as I started moving forwards to backwards. That's the problem. I think to think laterally here.
Eric: You have to go side to side! Now, Jasper, is there a crab in the in the 1994 SNES platformer, Lester the Unlikely?
Jasper: No.
Eric: Jasper, there is a crab in Lester the Unlikely.
Jasper: Fuck, no! This is terrible.
Eric: Here's a follow up question, is the plot of Lester the Unlikely about the smallest crab on the beach who has to defeat a sea witch who has captured all of his friends?
Jasper: [laughing] I really hope not. Because otherwise the people who heard my first answer to this question are gonna be really disappointed with me.
Eric: No, this is non the plot. Do you want to hear the plot of Lester the Unlikely?
Jasper: Oh my god. What's the plot?
Eric: A teenage boy named Lester who is quote kind of geeky and quote kind of sleepy, bought an issue of a comic book. He was reading it while walking on a dock and then he fell asleep next to a Cargo Crate lying next to his ship. He and the Cargo Crate were loaded onto the ship. But the ship then got hijacked by pirates who scuttled it. Lester luckily found a life jacket and swam towards the nearest Island. Lester must then find his way home by exploring the island and avoiding enemies, one of which is a crab.
Jasper: Whoa.
Eric: You play as a nerdy sleepy teenager.
Jasper: That's just, just like on an island having to survive? I'm kind of here for it.
Eric: Yeah you play as just a 15 year old, nerdy white kid.
Jasper: I think I just need to go play that game right now.
Eric: All right, we're back from three days where Jasper beat Lester the Unlikely, we’re back to playing is there a crab in this game.
Jasper: Whoo! Wild ride guys, it is given me feelings. Let me tell you.
Eric: All right, Jasper, we are nearing the end here.
Jasper: Okay.
Eric: Let's talk about Sonic Frontiers the new 3d Sonic game. Is there a crab in Sonic forces?
Jasper: Yes.
Eric: Yes! You're correct. There is a crab in the fishing minigame where Big the Cat is just hanging out. Follow up question What the fuck do you feel about Big the Cat?
Jasper: [laughs] Uncomfortable.
Eric: Good answer. Good answer, you get another point. Big the Cat, just a big purple cat whose best friend is a frog.
Jasper: Just a big
Eric: Weird
Jasper: It’s really like, the ears make me feel like it's not a cat. It's a rabbit but it's not it's a cat, I don't know. I just don't know how to feel about it. It…we're confused, conflicted, Weird.
Eric: It really feels like someone's anime OC was put into Sonic because he's just like Hi I’m Big the Cat and my name’s Froggy. And that's it.
Jasper: That's it! That’s the whole bit. That’s the whole bit.
Eric: Like they didn’t have to justify putting a fishing minigame in Sonic. We could have just done it.
Jasper: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. All right, Jasper. This is your final question of is there a crab in this game? Did you notice how many of the questions I asked had a crab in it?
Jasper: How many questions did you ask?
Eric: I asked seven questions. Did you notice how many of these the answer was yes there is a crab?
Jasper: Five.
Eric: It was six out of seven. But you never noticed the pattern.
Jasper: Ah, dammit!
Eric: The answer for all were all yes except for Multiverses
Jasper: Right. Yeah. Yeah, that's correct. That's correct.
Eric: So you only. Oh, I didn't give you points for the last one. I think they'll put you up to seven or nine.
Jasper: Let's go with nine. Nine. Let's go with nine. Yeah.
Eric: Yeah it’s nine! Yeah, it was. Incredible. Well, Jasper, thanks for coming along to this wonderful journey with me and
Jasper: What a journey it was. I want to brush up on my crab Crab stats. Because I feel like I need to.
Eric: Hashtag crab stats. While you're brushing up on your crab stats and Lester the Unlikely, do you want to tell people where they can find you?
Jasper: Yeah, please at me with your crab stats at JW underscore Cartwright on all of social medias. You can also @ my one of my other shows which is sort of like cufflinks. That's the number three black halflings we have a very cool and spicy one shots coming up. It's Black Panther themed coming out in January so may even be out and this is who knows. But definitely something to go check out on the YouTubes for because it'd be full video we've got an epic guests as well. So look out for that.
Eric: Hell yeah dude.
Jasper: It will be in January at some point. That's that's what I know. Sometimes. When I have time to edit this thing. I wait it will be out.
Eric: Well, if you want to tell me about your crab stats, or that we’re really funny, and we're good at history. Please tweet at me at L underscore Silvero on Twitter. That's E L underscore S I L V E R O, my name if I was a Lucha libre wrestler, or you can find the show at games N feelings that's with an N like linens N things. Um, the best place to submit questions is go to our website, games and feelings.com/questions and you can support the show at patreon.com/games and feelings. The next episode on this feed is going to be main feed replay, which is what we do on the Patreon where Eric and, me Eric, and Amanda my wife answer questions from advice Collins about games, because Dear Abby didn't know anything about games that we do much better answers than that. You're gonna get off main feed episode next week. But we've been doing that on Patreon forever, so you should go check out the Patreon and for only $5 You get access to a whole other podcast. Go check out the links in the episode description.
Jasper: Ohhh baby. Love it.
Eric: Yeah, dude. Use your $5 You're all you don't have to spend money on Christmas on Christmas prezzies anymore to send it to us
Jasper: to double businesses and get extra episodes.
Eric: Thank you, Jasper for being on three episodes of games and feelings in a row. You're the best.
Jasper: Thank you for having me on three episodes. As I said before, I hope you are okay with the sound of my voice and not too bored of it yet. If you are remember to @ Jay W Cartwright. Just leave the underscore out. Just at all of your complaints about how much you just like the sound of my voice after listening to three episodes back to back.
Eric: No, absolutely not Jasper, you’re wonderful and incredible and that would never have that would never happen, our listeners are too kind and too fun. Absolutely.
Jasper: Ahhh no! You guys are the best.
Eric: Yeah. And remember the instruction manual doesn't have anything about feelings. Get outta here.
Jasper : Get outta here, yeah!
Eric: Yeah get outta here!!
Jasper: Get outta here!
Eric: Games and feelings produced by Eric Silver and edited and mixed by Misha Stan. The theme music is Returned 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, games and feelings.com. Until next time, press X to enjoy the podcast.