please delete this account

Oh, an El train must have passed over me when the helm disappeared, or my GPS was talking to me. That happens a lot.

One of these days, Houg is going to remember he has a dang Helm of Teleportation. I always stick up for the show, I still think it's a fun listen and worth checking out, Dan and Ken especially crack me up AND role-play really well. It was looking up for a while since things bottomed out on three months of fighting skeletons, but yeah, I'll admit it, they really need a change, or at least some sort of goal. I like that Blaine took away the carpet rather than just letting them fly wherever they wanted, but like i've said before, he should just let them be captured and start building an escape story where they actually interact with SOMEBODY. Dan tried so hard when he went out to talk to the yellow giant, but aside from that, it's been kill on sight with zero interaction for months and months. There should be a D&D Bechdel-style test: Give the NPCs some names, and speaking parts, and some sort of reason to exist besides killing the party. ; ) Love you guys though, keep it up. Bb.

YEAH! I really don't think they've had a conversation with an NPC since Blaine took over, aside from the one giant traveller on the hill. Derry probably don't speak common and now's maybe not the time, but there has to be someone/something on this continent that's not homicidal. Dan's trying, I know. That said the storytelling and variety's been much better lately since the weeks and weeks of fighting skeletons and blue giants. at least they're indiscriminately slaughtering DIFFERENT things. Like you suggested, Shampoodler, i'd love to see Blaine rigging it so they get trapped and have to actually interact with NPCs. It's like a weird murder spree on steroids on acid.

Red Giants are better than skeletons. And now there are blue giants, too. Blaine is def. getting better, last few episodes feel like it's moving towards something more interesting. If Blaine's listening, I'd just say there's no shame in playing God, if you have a good twist, just force them into it. If it's getting slow, just let them be captured and then put them on the boat. Or let them die, the odds are stacked way against them with these opponents, and you can always bring new characters into the story. If winter dies, maybe he's replaced by a yellow giant that helps them or something, then they have an ally that fits in and that would make things easier for everyone to keep things moving.

And super happy about Dan and Steve, thanks, guys, glad to see you're on full-time now!

Don't forget Amazulu! And did they say Madness? And Dexys Midnight Runners! And Blaine said "Squeeze" but I think that was actually Ken Bishop's Nice Twelve, which, IIRC had some Squeeze members and maybe Stewart Copeland from the Police?

+1 on making Dan permanent, or at least filling in until Gerry is back. Love his humor and his role playing.

Yeah, the best part was Sarah complaining about the argument, then everytime it stopped, Sarah would bring it up again, and make it ten times worse.

Thanks for chiming in, Sark! I know most podcasts are a labor of love, but I always figured maybe Scott Aukerman was independently wealthy and/or devised this empire to at least spread the little bit of Squarespace advertising money (don't even tell me they get that much ad time just for trade for hosting the shows!?) around (can Ken get paid "scale?" har) and share resources and make it a bit more 'professional,' and "regular" which it does. Blown away that you guys have put in (at a minimum) 2 or 3 hours every other week to do this without anything to show for it but a bunch of rather awesome drawings. I actually have a dumb gift for all of you guys but I'm saving it for Brian's Chicago show coming up, maybe I'll throw in some cash too, or at least buy a bunch of mersh. Does Brian bring NP mersh on tour? Does Aukerman hoard all that cash, too? BASTARD! . You guys have been one of the most anticipated highlights of my week for a couple years now, I think if more people realized you don't get paid at all, they'd be happy to send money. And for Bahamut's sake, don't feel bad about taking a week off, screw the complainers, you don't owe us anything!

I was just being silly, sorry, nuance doesn't play on the internetz. I'm sure they get SOME cash, it's a hell of a commitment without at least a bit of a handout, and Brian's name/beautiful face is what arguably brings all the boys to the yard, (though even a casual listener knows the show suffers when *anyone* is missing) but yes, I think we all know there's nothing about the Earwolf empire that seems particularly lucrative.

A little weird that they're letting Damien get away with stuff like that, but let's not forget that it's Damien's name and face on the square .jpg and Damien's signing their paychecks. Surprised they didn't ask the King for more recon info on G-more to find out what they're up against and prevent another Necromancer ritual slaughter. I can't wait to see them literally imprisoned by clones in Glinishmore and the "You're never stuck in Glinishmore" coming back to bite Sir Richard in the ass. Let's also give props for Sark's awesome NPC roleplaying, and (non-bruce-willis) dwarf voices. He's killing it.

I'm thinking this whole thing is a time-honored dwarf trick where they realized 1000 years ago that it's easier (and attracts less attention) to get some naive travelers drunk, invite them deep into the bowels of a mountain under the pretense of friendship, and put them to work in the crystal mines than it is to just ride into town and take slaves by force. Argument against: MIldred is a dwarf. Argument against argument against: Mildred is a dwarf from another tribe/planet/universe* so sew buttons. Maybe they'll make her a supervisor. Weird that the dwarfish language (and common and other languages) apparently transcends galactic boundaries, which is probably just a D&D thing I should get over. Unless you want to argue that the whole D&Dniverse was populated from one source, not too many generations ago. Which, thanks to the Necromancer, it might be.

I was reading that as he's made a public commitment to evil, so he's pinging evil, but he's really just a sad poseur looking for attention. In other words, a typical goth. At some point his brother will show up… "Todd, c'mon, it's time to take grandma to Olive Garden!"

I was reading that as he's made a public commitment to evil, so he's pinging evil, but he's really just a sad poseur looking for attention. In other words, a typical goth. At some point his brother will show up… "Todd, c'mon, it's time to take grandma to Olive Garden!"

Yeah, and Ken had a few of those, too. When they were talking about "Registering Evil" he said, "at Bad Bath and Beyond" in the background and there was another one I can't think of right now, where I almost peed myself laughing. Ken's a mumbler, like me.

And it's a Squarespace site! Podcast advertising works! Please do, it's great! Bb.

Oh, and I'm hoping the first melee they have on G-more is with a dude that's exactly Brian's size who happens to be wearing a full-on Tom of Finland leatherboy outfit. And I want Brian's magic powers to be colored-bandana-based.

I actually priced out "You're Never Stuck In Glinishmore" license plate frames, is it worth $25 to probably never get honked at by another Nerd Poker Nerd? I still feel like it should be spelled "Glenishmoor", like it's a moor that's kind of full of itself and is trying to sell itself as a glen. Bb.

Aaaand… I just realized I've been carrying my weed around in a dice bag so long I forgot it was a dice bag and thought it was a weed bag. But I guess I need a new one for my dice.

Also, I've just noticed something… as we all know, they record two episodes at a time. When Sark puts a cliffhanger at the end of a session (the second show of the night) Brian whines like a baby, but if one falls at the midpoint of a session (end of the first episode of the night), Brian's the first one to shout "let's wrap it" because he loves the idea of a cliffhanger for the audience, so long as he doesn't have to wait, ha.

I heard it as "MALvania, like MAL=evil" but I like your interpretation way better. I hope he is well rewarded by King Buzzo for eventually helping (or not) to defeat "The Auld Asshole."

So at the end of this episode, Brian said there was a storewide sale and the D20 shirts were 25% off, and you could use the code "STARGOYLE" to get another 25% off. By my math, that makes shirts $10 (plus shipping) (or a still-great $12.25 if the second 25% is off the discounted price of $15) so I got all excited and checked (a couple times now), and they're still listed at $20 (I didn't try the coupon). I know $20's really not so much to ask, but don't tease me like that. : ) I guess what I'm saying, is can someone confirm if there's a price drop coming, because I'll be bummed if I break down and buy one with just the coupon then they go on sale, too. Love the show, keep it up, don't change a thing.

Ha, speaking of Chicago, I'm still catching up on episodes and only halfway through, so I just heard Brian's "Wesley Willis Headbutt" At-Will action. I'm totally going to roll up a Wesley Willis character. Rock over London, Rock On Chicago, Burger King, for when you need diarrhea at the airport, that's Burger King!

I used to play the original AD&D in the 80s in junior HS, but this stupid podcast (and a vacation with nothing to do) inspired me to pick it up again. I poked around and found there are people out there still playing 1, 2, 3.5, and 4, so deciding on a version is tough. And 5 is allegedly coming in a year or two. So I'd find people to play with and make a version decision before buying anything. I just went with 4e because its current and the people I roped into playing with me were all starting from scratch, too. First I bought the 'red box' and it was pretty pointless aside from giving you a rough 'choose your own adventure' style idea of the mechanics, but you can't even roll up a complete character with the info there. I'd say your best bet (especially if you're joining people who know what they're doing) is a set of dice and a 4e Players Handbook first (Like Sark said in his thread, buy "1," dont get PH2 or 3, you can just fudge numbers for weird races/classes) and some dice first, If you're starting from scratch with all new players, you'll need the DM guide (again, the basic one for your edition). There's an OK starter adventure in there too. The Monster Manual is the most fun book, but not really necessary until you're making up your own adventures, since monster stats seem to be universally included with adventures. I've just been grabbing the free adventures on the Wizards site and other sites. I like 4e alright (only comparing it to what I remember of original AD&D), but (like they've always been) the books are confusing at first until you have 40 post-it-notes sticking out and notes in the margins. Info you need to play a basic game is spread out all over and there are too many details cluttering up the basic concepts. Aside from that I think 4e is pretty decent, I'm not a huge fan of the battle maps/figures and I certainly am not going to spend money on that, so I've just been printing out 1" graph paper and using Lego blocks or slips of paper or coins for markers. What I really liked about Sark's story in the podcast is that it's not all pseudo-medieval/LOTR stereotypical D&D with an dwarf and an elf and a wizard going into a dungeon with torches and fighting room after roomful of orcs, but I've been disappointed with the Wizards-published adventures. We're doing one called "Rescue at Rivenroar" which is pretty decent but I'd love to see some fresh ideas in 'dungeons,' especially shorter campaigns for just a couple low-level players that can be completed in a couple sittings. I have no intention of completing a three-year-long campaign and getting into paragon paths and all that, I just like the role-playing aspect of it and goofing around with a story and having fun. Anyone have any suggestions there? I've only been playing for a few weeks, I still have no idea what i'm doing and I've been DMing so I'd love to actually play myself. Anyone in Chicagoland that'd be into getting together to play with the same balance of reverence and sillyness of Nerd Poker? I'm playing with a couple friends and our kids and it's fun but it's hard to get more than 3-4 of us together at a time and we've all got toddlers running around too so we can't blast SunnO))) and drink booze and curse while we play.