00:00:05.05 Kurt Crenwelge Hello and welcome to a special episode for you of Sidekicks and Sidequests, the best unofficial Dungeons and Dragons podcast in my... humbly biased opinion. 00:00:15.68 Kurt Crenwelge I've got an amazing guest for you. this day today. But before we get to who my mystery contestant is, you know I have to do it. I have to leave you in suspense with the ad read. Insert here. All you folks. learning about plus one EXP. 00:00:31.51 Kurt Crenwelge and rpg zine club tony vicenda is awesome I think they just won a bunch of awards at Gen Con. You should really support them. RPGzine Club is a cool way to learn about new indie games. 00:00:44.94 Kurt Crenwelge It's a subscription service, so you're always getting cool games and you're getting a cool zine out of it. And hey, if you go to plusoneexp .com and use the code Randolph, you can save some coin on your purchase and support the podcast. 00:00:58.72 Kurt Crenwelge Act. plusoneexp .com, rpgzine .club. All right. And. ah This is a very special. ah day. This is a very special episode occasion. uh because i turned the microphone over to my guest and i asked hello mystery contestant Would you care to introduce us ah Tell us who it is that you are and what is it that you do? 00:01:22.95 Zac Hey, Kurt. Thank you. Yes. matt My name is Zachary White. I am one of two. people behind Sidequest Adventures. 00:01:32.97 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. And if I understand when this episode comes out, you are in the thick of your Kickstarter and you guys are crushing it. ah Because I can just predict the future. So yeah, tell us what it is ah that that is so special and unique about this project. 00:01:49.23 Zac Thanks man. Yeah. um Sidequest Adventures is really cool. ah for fans of D and &D and tabletop games. ah Because it makes everything. 00:02:00.87 Zac a lot simpler and and a little bit more streamlined, especially if you're a kid. to to get started playing. 00:02:06.10 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:02:06.87 Zac So we tried to just... ah Boil down the the... most raw elements of role-playing games into a a choose your own adventure book. 00:02:17.81 Kurt Crenwelge ah yes classic i know i keep thinking man you know it'd be really i know my son is five and he really wants to play some dnd and it's like okay i know i've backed adventures of enderil from uh the kids table D and D podcast and Ember glow gaming, but you know, we'll have to wait until next year for that to show up. So it's like, okay. 00:02:36.70 Kurt Crenwelge I could do something. And then I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw, ah you know, the prototype and demonstration. My son was looking, he was like. I want that. So I was like, okay, well, I guess I know who to ask to be on my podcast now. 00:02:51.96 Zac That's so awesome. they exhaust that way yeah i think it's uh it's perfect for kids what you know i played a lot of dnd and uh you know My favorite part of it is always the... the storytelling and the creative thinking. And I i think that the book does a great job of putting that at the forefront. 00:03:10.31 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, it's really interesting because it's a blend of like analog, but also like practical stuff too, because you've got like a Scrabble. but ah Dice. clicker bulb thing there that helps you roll the d6 and you've got like different buttons and card inserts that you can do so it's it's like you know a blend of the old school with the new school it seems like 00:03:32.53 Zac 100%. Yeah, it it was important for us to have those elements. Choosing a character is a big one because when I play games, I like to really imagine myself as. 00:03:43.88 Zac the character i'm playing and get into that that mode as you um but yes then the element of chance and um and creative thinking and decision making. 100%. 00:03:56.54 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And I mean, as we're in the thick of it and this episode will be coming out like right before Halloween. So like what better time to be supporting cool. up and coming projects and to get something uh you know that as as cool and unique as you know choose your own adventure just like you'd tell a spooky scary halloween story are you gonna have any adventures uh for halloween or you know like a like a scarecrow adventure or skeletons or zombies or something like that 00:04:25.47 Zac That would be... That'd be really cool one day to release. ah like a a seasonal Halloween version of an adventure or campaign i would love that because i'm a big fan of spooky skeletons. 00:04:38.72 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, spooky, scary skeletons. 00:04:41.17 Zac it 00:04:41.06 Kurt Crenwelge Jumping down, hopping down the lane. I don't know the song. I should know the song. I have a five-year-old for goodness sakes. um Yeah, but as ah as we're making our way through the questions, of course, you were alluding to it, ah but... 00:04:53.87 Kurt Crenwelge ah Do you currently or have you ever played Dungeons & Dragons before? 00:04:58.65 Zac I'm not playing with anyone right now. I would love to be. But. I played a lot. uh in the day especially in college i played quite a bit um I was a dungeon master. 00:05:11.33 Zac in college. and um Yeah, it was just a way for friends to get together, have a good time. and we We had. There was a campaign once where there were 20. 00:05:22.49 Zac different characters involved. 00:05:24.46 Kurt Crenwelge Whoa. 00:05:25.42 Zac Like we had. 00:05:25.28 Kurt Crenwelge Like playing. multiple characters for each. player. 00:05:29.92 Zac Yes, I was. a I was an English major so I had a lot of time to work on this. you know, in my free time. And we have. 00:05:36.99 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:05:37.82 Zac a big uh overworld and you know people we'd have a session with four people and we'd move around their location on on the map and and every now and then there'd be like a crossover episode it was a ton of fun 00:05:49.90 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. So that's like a West Marches style sort of a campaign. 00:05:54.44 Zac Yes. 00:05:55.59 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Neat. I haven't had an opportunity to want run one of those, but I suppose in a way because of all the... ah the the hero npcs that we have in the the random encounter section of the show i like to think it's some sort of running um you know West Marches-style campaign where all these heroes are just sort of meandering in the same world, sometimes teaming up, sometimes not. 00:06:19.21 Zac Yes, I love that idea. 00:06:22.05 Kurt Crenwelge And so I know for me, you know, I started back in 2010 and fourth edition. So is that about what you were doing or were you like. playing older editions when you were in college. 00:06:33.20 Zac ah Back then it was it was a lot of 3 .5 and sometimes Pathfinder. 00:06:38.77 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, okay. Okay. Very cool. Yeah, love we love it. We support all TTRPGs because as ah Dr. Emily Friedman likes to say, you know, a variety of games help us helps us to have a good gaming diet so we can get new inspirations and ah ideas for our games. 00:06:57.79 Zac Yeah, 3 .5 is particularly just a quirky. module because Like, there's, there's like... there's at least a hundred different rulebooks. like and add things and so you can get real wild with it 00:07:10.76 Kurt Crenwelge I was going to say, isn't the aren't the grappling rules like a page long in the book? 00:07:14.92 Zac Yeah. 00:07:16.37 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:07:16.35 Zac Yeah. There's so many like classes and and even you know an unfathomable amount of feats and spells. 00:07:23.67 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. yeah This will date me a little bit, but I think, you know, I'm staring up here at my bookshelf and I have ah currently all eight. uh books of the dungeon crawler Carl series, which I just devoured. like in a month or two. 00:07:40.98 Kurt Crenwelge uh it was unreal it was the most reading i've done and i i likened it to like oh when we were kids and it was like harry potter was coming out and everyone was into it maybe it's just because the perception of like oh i'm a 38 year old millennial and this thing has been building and building and taking the world by storm and peacock's gonna have the show um 00:08:01.25 Kurt Crenwelge and And so like, this is like the level of enthusiasm I have for it. And the idea of like 3 .5 having like a thousand classes. kind of gives me the same sort of vibes uh in matt deneman's writing when he's talking about the world. uh the the world dungeon and it's like oh i'm this random class and it's like they say it's sort of kind of like a fighter or it's sort of like a paladin sort of a thing it's So is that kind of the idea of like, oh, I'm this like random, weird, obscure class. Oh, yeah, that's under the tree branch of. 00:08:31.09 Kurt Crenwelge Cleric somewhere. 00:08:32.86 Zac Oh, yes. And you're not you're not playing 3 .5 unless you have at least... you know seven or eight classes. 00:08:39.70 Kurt Crenwelge Oh yeah, and you have to get levels in like certain classes in order to unlock other things in another class. 00:08:39.81 Zac but 00:08:45.44 Zac yes i need a level here to get this and then you end up with some weird character that does one thing like um I made a character one time that... His whole specialty was... 00:08:56.71 Zac jumping off of a horse to attack people with a lance. 00:09:01.40 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, okay. 00:09:02.76 Zac And he even had ways of jumping himself. like just jumping really high to then land on someone with a lance and That's a whole special. 00:09:13.51 Zac skill. 00:09:15.32 Kurt Crenwelge Very cool. And ah yeah, keep it along with the theme of the podcast, of course, being sidekicks and side quests. We like to focus on the other. um kind of like your choose your own uh adventure story you know we like to focus on the other the little guys so for this next question 00:09:33.23 Kurt Crenwelge Do you? Zachary happen to have a favorite NPC or sidekick character whether they be from an RPG, video game, movie, film, television, literature, etc. And why is this character your favorite sidekick or NPC? 00:09:49.24 Zac um You know, if we're if we're going pop culture... I. I'm a huge fan of Donkey 00:09:55.94 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. 00:09:55.92 Zac I'm a big Shrek guy and I just... Donkey is one of the funniest. characters ever and um If we're talking to RPGs... Uh, you know, I... 00:10:07.51 Zac I feel like Fallout. 00:10:09.18 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. 00:10:09.24 Zac is such a... Such a wellspring of NPC characters. 00:10:13.81 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:10:14.22 Zac um there and but even oblivion but uh fallout um i just i really sort of had a moment when i Got to Megaton. and fall out. three and met Lucas Sims. 00:10:25.94 Kurt Crenwelge Ah, yeah. Yeah, the sheriff of the town. 00:10:28.83 Zac Yes, the sheriff and the judge and the mayor. 00:10:32.97 Kurt Crenwelge And the executioner, depending on your moral stance. 00:10:34.14 Zac but 00:10:36.76 Zac Yes. 00:10:37.64 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:10:38.24 Zac I love that guy. 00:10:40.47 Kurt Crenwelge It was always the weird thing, though, that you technically had to break into his house in order to get like the strength bobblehead. I think it was. 00:10:49.03 Zac Yeah, you're sort of at odds with... him immediately. Um, Especially if you owe the 10 penny. route which 00:10:57.44 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, Mr. 00:10:57.78 Zac We all know about you 00:10:58.17 Kurt Crenwelge Burke and Tenpenny. And then poor Moira getting turned into a ghoul if you detonate the bomb. 00:11:06.34 Zac Tragic 00:11:07.51 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. Well, some people are like, oh gosh, I was trying to get rid of you and you're still alive sort of a thing. 00:11:08.69 Zac But I... 00:11:13.75 Zac Yes. 00:11:14.52 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:11:14.91 Zac Lucas Stims also has arguably the coolest hat you can get early on. 00:11:19.56 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:11:19.94 Zac So the the temptation to acquire that hat. can be pretty strong depending on your your alignments. 00:11:26.96 Kurt Crenwelge Yes indeed. Um, But man, good old Megaton, you know, it's a. Well, I mean, I guess it's a direct allusion sort of to Beneath the Planet of the Apes with the idea that. 00:11:38.36 Kurt Crenwelge you know they have the bomb in the middle of the town and the cult worships it and all that good stuff 00:11:43.80 Zac Yes. love I forget what the cult is called, but I... I think it's really cool. 00:11:47.82 Kurt Crenwelge The children of Atom. 00:11:49.90 Zac Yes. There we go. 00:11:51.42 Kurt Crenwelge Because then they show up in Fallout. 4. and tech Not in 76. Those are the Mothman cultists. Those are a different complete story. 00:12:02.75 Zac Yeah. Mothman, the Mothman. Chronicles could be its own entire podcast. 00:12:08.06 Kurt Crenwelge It could. And I don't I just know about Mothman when it comes to ah Fallout 76, which. Haven't played in quite a while, but... but Folks at the early episodes will know I was deep. in the 76. 00:12:22.44 Zac Oh really? 00:12:23.62 Kurt Crenwelge I was, yeah, yeah. i My wife got it cheap. uh you know after it launched and then i started playing it and then the pandemic hit and then i was just on it every day. 00:12:34.06 Kurt Crenwelge And then she got annoyed. So. 00:12:35.84 Zac okay 00:12:36.64 Kurt Crenwelge Say love you. 00:12:37.85 Zac I've heard cool things. yeah 00:12:39.19 Kurt Crenwelge oh yeah no it's great community uh like uh kenny and and the chat of fallout 76 podcast you know fallout for hope all that came out of 76 so they're a great crew a fantastic production so if you're looking for a new podcast like a audio drama sort of thing to check out I would recommend them highlight. 00:12:59.63 Zac Awesome. Very cool. 00:13:01.03 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. It's what I do on this podcast. I just give out ideas and recommendations left and right with no... sense of preservation for myself. 00:13:11.25 Kurt Crenwelge and then keeping on with the theme of the podcast uh side quests we always like to hear about. our guest's favorite. side quests or B plot elements. So for you, whether it's an RPG. 00:13:22.69 Kurt Crenwelge uh a tabletop role-playing game movie film television literature etc and why Is this side quest, this B plot element your favorite? 00:13:33.76 Zac I'm revealing my... bethesda cups here but um Oblivion. It's one of my favorite games of all time. and uh Um, Man, there's there's a... 00:13:45.26 Zac there's some great side quests in that game but i think one that i always remember vividly is The Dark Brotherhood class where you go into the murder mystery party. 00:13:56.99 Zac I think it's called Udonna. 00:13:59.08 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. I think I've heard of this. I haven't played Oblivion, so like I only jumped on the band the Bethesda bandwagon in college when like Fallout 3 was coming out. 00:14:09.25 Zac um I can spoil it for you if if if you want, unless you want to save it. 00:14:13.70 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, sure. No, that's fine. I think other guests have mentioned this side quest, if I vaguely recall. um So that it's the part of the Dark Brotherhood and you're charged with assassinating a target. 00:14:25.37 Kurt Crenwelge but it's at a dinner party and it's staged to kind of be like a murder mystery sort of a thing 00:14:31.25 Zac Yeah, pretty much. people The guests keep dying one at a time because you're... Killing them. Thanks. um you Throughout the party, everyone. 00:14:39.63 Kurt Crenwelge Classic. Yeah. 00:14:41.26 Zac Everyone thinks that someone in the house is a murderer, but you... able to evade the accusation. until the the very end. 00:14:49.15 Kurt Crenwelge hmm yeah well obviously there's probably one person left and it's like if it's not me then it's you 00:14:50.01 Zac So. 00:14:55.00 Zac Yeah, exactly 00:14:55.73 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. ah 00:14:56.34 Zac okay 00:14:57.88 Kurt Crenwelge All right, perfect. And then. ah The way that we round out the personal interview section. Zachary, what are you passionate about and why? 00:15:07.88 Zac man, uh you know i'm i'm passionate about life uh enjoying life It's like I like doing stuff. but I like to do, I like people to do that. You know, I personally, I enjoy. um I enjoy writing. 00:15:22.17 Zac I enjoy... performance art. Um, But... I think it's great. I think it's great when people are able to. Just work out what's in their mind and and bring it to life creatively. I think that's what it's all about. 00:15:36.59 Kurt Crenwelge Certainly what I try and do here. And I have to remind myself, like. you know like oh i'm just this little guy i'm not getting invited to big things but it's okay because i'm staying pure to my art you know i'm i'm keeping the focus on the other i'm focused on the little guy, the side quests, you know, the little the little less observed things and that's cool i'm happy for everybody else in the hobby that's having great soaring success i cheer them on i i am part of the crowd that is cheering them on but you know even you know 00:16:05.81 Kurt Crenwelge In a moment of self-reflection, I have to be like, oh, yeah, you know this is the spot I occupy. I want to show people that. you know this can be a hobby this can be something that you can enjoy you don't have to rush to monetize everything you can just have a cool fun idea and just share it for the sake of joy like you were saying. 00:16:22.99 Zac 100%. um I think if you... If you stay at it and you do it long enough and you and you keep those ideals and you stay pure, that then what ends up happening is the universe ends up giving something back anyway. 00:16:37.29 Kurt Crenwelge Amen to that, for sure. And you know I'm just excited ah you know how this passion has evolved to be to come into this whole Choose Your Own Adventure interactive book when... 00:16:48.21 Kurt Crenwelge you know again as a as a parent of a five-year-old whose child just started school which is just a wild thing i never thought would would happen is just like oh you're just my little guy you're like around the house i go to work i come back and you're here you're my little guy you know with his ipad and stuff like that ah to have something tangible that's fun and interactive for kids to use. And it's old school. 00:17:11.76 Kurt Crenwelge and it's you know but it's not like oh it's like a book and i'm gonna rip it or like damage it like this is like a This is like a heavy duty thing you guys have put together. 00:17:21.00 Zac Thanks man. Yeah. I'm glad we're talking about this. You know what one idea behind it was It's like there's obviously a. huge community, huge audience around the world of people that love Dungeons & Dragons and play it. 00:17:35.63 Zac But I would argue. uh an audience just as large or even larger who has heard of Dungeons and Dragons. And has maybe thought about playing at some point. And it just hasn't happened for whatever reason. 00:17:45.87 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:17:48.66 Zac And. 00:17:48.76 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:17:49.69 Zac as fans and players dungeon masters we we want to share this experience with them And ah it it can be tough. you know I've had friends that are like, man, I've heard a lot of cool stuff about this D and &D thing. Why don't we go ahead and play? 00:18:02.81 Zac and you know and then i sit down i'm like okay we're gonna start with Creating a character, that's going to take... An hour. You know, we're going to kind of build the world and give me your backstory. 00:18:10.17 Kurt Crenwelge Mm hmm. 00:18:12.93 Zac And then we're going to sit down and we're going to fill out this piece of paper. And as soon as they see all that, or or yeah as soon as you pull out, you know, ah an 80 page rule book. that Their eyes just kind of glossed over. 00:18:25.33 Zac And yeah, with that. it's not for everyone that way and it's a shame that those little barriers get in the way of those people enjoying what could be a very bonding uh fulfilling experience they might enjoy for a long time so i think that that's really what Uh... 00:18:40.39 Zac My ah one of my idea was in. making it with with jeremy it's just like how do we remove those barriers and in doing so making this game that's really accessible for kids but funnily enough though ah considering the origin of that idea. we' We've had so many people ask us now. 00:18:59.26 Zac about an adult version. Because I think they see that too. 00:19:03.46 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh! 00:19:03.22 Zac So like, i 00:19:04.17 Kurt Crenwelge A shiny dice in a bubble. 00:19:04.29 Zac What kind of war? 00:19:05.58 Kurt Crenwelge Boop, boop, boop. 00:19:06.85 Zac Yes, I think we're all kind of kids Really, in a way, you know, we get older, and you know. we have more health problems as we get older but but i think we're really just kids in in adult bodies and 00:19:18.45 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:19:18.72 Zac you know I think they want to do the same thing. So we're we're already ideating around the adult version. 00:19:24.23 Kurt Crenwelge That's awesome. That's really cool. Cause then it's like father and son can sit together and it's like, okay, I'm going to play too. And it's something you can take in the car and when you're in line, you know, to drop ah drop off a kid in the morning. 00:19:37.31 Kurt Crenwelge or you're on a trip. ah going somewhere. Yeah, this seems like the perfect thing or just around the house. And it's like, hey. You've had too much electronics time today. Here, go have a side quest adventure. 00:19:49.48 Kurt Crenwelge And then and the kids can make their own fun and their own imaginations while they're. uh, you know, and i have to compliment the art because it seems like you guys like spent a good chunk of uh of of capital on on getting some really good art and it's like i'm from a variety of artists and stuff so that looks that looks really cool top notch 00:20:08.69 Zac Thanks, man. and we're We're really proud to have worked with many many different artists, and actually from all from all over, all over the world even. um people from different countries so um Yeah, I mean, it's coming together and I think that the... 00:20:24.48 Zac The character cards are such a cool opportunity to get a lot of different... um takes on characters. Whereas, you know, some books you read it and. you know they're illustrated and it's just the one person because they you want the book to be cohesive and you know we we have that too but the the cards are is where you can get all these wildly different styles incorporated. 00:20:48.28 Kurt Crenwelge And, you know, just sitting here thinking, ah because like I said, I'm a guy who thinks ideas and tangent thoughts and just puts it. ideas out there. And as I was mentioning, our good friends of the podcast, the Kids Table D and &D, as well as Ember Glow. 00:21:04.73 Kurt Crenwelge uh gaming you know came up with this starter adventure uh um Adventures of Ender-El. you know, kind of like a learn as you. play sort of version of ah of the fifth edition rules. 00:21:17.48 Kurt Crenwelge I don't know. I was just curious. Could I throw this idea out to the universe? Cause you know, just throwing out ideas, maybe working. alongside somebody like like ember glow gaming or the kids table dd like just the idea of like you know you said like these adventures and cards and all this kind of coming together would you 00:21:35.32 Kurt Crenwelge I don't know. Is that a future plan? you know Obviously, you've got the Kickstarter going right now with what you all have come up with, and it's going to be a brilliant, smashing success. and I'm just kind of thinking ahead of the future of like, oh, when when people are clamoring. 00:21:47.99 Kurt Crenwelge for the next project when they're like, all right, I'm flush with cash. I'm ready to back the next project. And they're like, oh. oh is there like a potential team up in the future or something like that Or is that like. way down the line and my people have to talk to your people sort of talk. 00:22:05.47 Zac Oh, that's that's a great question. that I have to say, this community is is incredible. and like Even this early on, you know, put out a couple videos and posts and things like we've we've already met these these people. well black Like. 00:22:21.12 Zac we we love secrets of and Enderil. We've met the... creators of that we've we've met. Um, the the individuals behind Amber Glow Gaming. And they're all awesome, amazing people that have similar. Passions to what? 00:22:35.51 Zac what Jeremy and I have. um So... Yeah, in the future, if there was some way for us to work together, I think it would be awesome. We'll see what happens. but 00:22:45.85 Kurt Crenwelge There we go. 00:22:45.67 Zac Man, i I love that. project i mean I remember first watching the the video. on the Kickstarter, just showing how it's played with kids around the table. And I i just think it's great what they're doing. 00:22:57.46 Kurt Crenwelge yeah what they're doing and what you're doing now with the choose your own adventure so it's going to be a renaissance for kids you know the bubble for 5e you know well i mean yeah i guess the bubble the like the rise the meteoric rise of 5e and like it catching on and becoming part of the mainstream it's like okay that was great for like adults but like what are we doing for the kids to help get them pumped and excited like the kids were back in the 80s when second edition came out and stuff like that so 00:23:25.47 Kurt Crenwelge i think that could be really cool with you know groups like you kids table and all of you uh just putting your noggins together, putting out resources or cool products. and so I just want to lend my. money and support for that. 00:23:39.58 Zac Thanks, man. Yeah, I think it's great too. and you know, Something... something Jeremy and I are both passionate about too is like Screen time for kids. 00:23:49.56 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. 00:23:49.66 Zac You know? I'm... ah It's incredible the technology that we have today, but I wonder about its effect on the developing mind and the effect on attention spans and the ability to focus. and and to think creatively And I think it's so important to develop those skills early on. 00:24:09.17 Zac And. It feels like if you can come up with anything that is taking kids away from something like an iPad, then that's probably it. Great step for them and for humanity in general. 00:24:20.91 Kurt Crenwelge There we go. We're going to save the world with this Kickstarter and all the other ones. 00:24:25.36 Zac Yes. 00:24:26.22 Kurt Crenwelge ah You could put that on the tagline or something like that. 00:24:29.54 Zac Yes. 00:24:30.21 Kurt Crenwelge ah All right. Well, we've made it through the personal interview section and now I. And now it's time to head into some NPC creation. 00:24:40.73 Zac all right 00:24:45.96 Kurt Crenwelge And NPC creation is brought to you by you. the podcast audience, and our patrons from Patreon. So now is the time of the show where we give a shout out. To our comfortable patrons and above with a loud hurrah. 00:24:58.11 Kurt Crenwelge So cheers to you. That's my... That's my wi whiskey glass. We say cheers to you, good old Anson Jablinski and mom and dad. 00:25:08.32 Kurt Crenwelge thank you so much for your support Of course, these ah patrons that I named. you know they're donating two dollars or more a month in order to get a shout out on our episodes but They're all actually wealthy tier patrons. So it's means. 00:25:21.95 Kurt Crenwelge we might get to hear some of their responses that they've submitted to ah be able to throw in an element of chance to the random tables that we have in this section of the show. so If you want to learn more about all of the cool rewards and the cool community that we have going on at Patreon. 00:25:38.75 Kurt Crenwelge you should go to the show notes below. Go to the podcast website. or go directly to patreon .com forward slash Sidekicks and Sidequests to find out more about all the different... tiers of patronage and awards and whimsy and all that good stuff that is awaiting for you. Help us to grow and expand. our operations at the levitating platter. In this demiplane, and worlds beyond. 00:26:02.64 Kurt Crenwelge All right. So now is the section of the show. we talked a little bit before we started recording of like what we were going to do And ah today... Mr. Zach, you are going to kind of wing it. 00:26:15.36 Kurt Crenwelge with a character idea maybe that you're noodling around and if we come to a question you're like you know what i need to spice it up i need to randomize it then we are going to roll our dice and see what we get. 00:26:26.20 Zac awesome I'm pumped. 00:26:27.88 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. Okay, so then the first question we start with is... What is the name of the character? 00:26:35.78 Zac Mmm. 00:26:41.49 Kurt Crenwelge And if you... 00:26:41.65 Zac Zordel. Zordelius. 00:26:44.33 Kurt Crenwelge Zordelius. That's a very strong name to start with. Okay. Zordelius, which I'm... How would I spell Zordelius? 00:26:53.11 Zac That is spelled Z-O-R-D. E-L-I-U-S 00:26:59.05 Kurt Crenwelge Zordalius. Perfect. Okay. The next question we come to is, what is the ancestry of Zordelius? 00:27:06.54 Zac Human. 00:27:08.37 Kurt Crenwelge Human. Okay. good good Good starting stock. Okay. Um, What is the job or role or occupation in society that Zordelius the human has? 00:27:20.56 Zac Ordelius the human... is a A frugal shopkeep. 00:27:27.100 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, you do need shopkeepers in the world, so... Okay. Perfect. Um, all right. And then let's see, what is the age range of Zordelius? 00:27:39.33 Kurt Crenwelge the frugal shopkeeper. 00:27:41.88 Zac He is a ripe 38. 00:27:45.94 Kurt Crenwelge 38, I can relate. 00:27:49.11 Zac but 00:27:48.86 Kurt Crenwelge ah All right, and with these details in mind, when we're thinking Zordalius... a human, a shopkeeper. And, you know. the age of 38. 00:28:00.23 Kurt Crenwelge uh, when you When all these details are kept in your mind's eye, can you describe the physical appearance of Zordalius? How are we going to see? Zordalius in the game. 00:28:12.33 Zac Zordelius? Is, ah you know, he he has an athletic frame. But he he has a dad bod. You know he 00:28:20.89 Kurt Crenwelge Classic. 00:28:21.91 Zac He's not someone that's you know hitting the... Medieval equivalent of a gym. You know what? every day. um he 00:28:30.68 Kurt Crenwelge But he could be hitting his friend Jim. Maybe. 00:28:33.59 Zac Yes, and his his passions... lie outside of of physicality for the most part. 00:28:40.43 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. 00:28:41.04 Zac He's not a... Not a particularly vain or... physical character. 00:28:46.52 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. And I know we said frugal shopkeeper, but. you know What is he a shopkeeper of? Because that could because that could certainly affect his appearance. 00:28:57.47 Zac Um. the The mundane. Like like ah like groceries, essentially. 00:29:02.62 Kurt Crenwelge Grocery, groceries or general goods, or is that both? 00:29:05.73 Zac Cheers. the General Goods. 00:29:08.04 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Okay. You need general goods merchants because like, you know, yeah, adventurers always want to go to a magic shop or a blacksmith or something, but. Where are they going to go when they need rope or backpacks or ah ah Tinder or candles or chalk? 00:29:23.50 Kurt Crenwelge They go to the general goods store. 00:29:25.71 Zac Somebody's got to do it. 00:29:27.05 Kurt Crenwelge Somebody's gotta do it. I don't know if it's a dirty job, but definitely someone's gotta do it. 00:29:32.67 Zac Yes. 00:29:34.54 Kurt Crenwelge okay okay so um so as far as him being like a general goods merchant and he has this athletic yet dad bod is there anything else that's distinguishing about his physical appearance like facial hair, jewelry, hair or no hair, glasses, spectacles. 00:29:53.85 Kurt Crenwelge ah outlandish outfits. 00:29:54.01 Zac Oh, he knows? He has hair Um. And. he There's a little bit of a sense of style. He's not. Not dressing like a... 00:30:06.70 Zac Like you know like a slab or something um but It's very important and possibly the most important feature is his mustache. Which is... 00:30:15.95 Kurt Crenwelge oo 00:30:17.00 Zac It's a big mustache. and it's it's curly It's... 00:30:21.20 Kurt Crenwelge Waxed. 00:30:22.57 Zac it's a yet Yes, it's a mustache that says, I am the general good shopkeep of this town. 00:30:24.38 Kurt Crenwelge oh 00:30:28.60 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Is it a proprietary ah mustache wax that he uses? Or is it just like... Oh, something that i I picked up from the haberdashery merchant or something like that. And I resell it in my store. 00:30:42.27 Zac it In this world, I imagine that... uh zordelius is privy to certain rare for materials that come into town at as a merchant. 00:30:51.50 Kurt Crenwelge m 00:30:51.65 Zac I think that he would select... the finest wax that he could. for himself as the face of the business. So maybe maybe there's some type of... ah rare bees out there. 00:31:04.41 Zac that. Produce this honey that is made into this wax. I'm not sure 00:31:08.93 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:31:08.80 Zac Maybe. 00:31:10.29 Kurt Crenwelge that's cool well hey our our good friend tony's vicenda started off with us because he was making beard balms that had um all these different uh smells and components in them that helped you know to make your your beard nice and also smell fresh um gave you like a plus one to your strength or your charisma in real life when you put it on um so immediately in my head i'm getting like two different versions there is 00:31:10.75 Zac I'll be more than happy. 00:31:35.65 Kurt Crenwelge He's from the Mr. Toad's cartoon, but smiley. of The barman guy had like the very big stylized mustache. um and then i'm just thinking of over in germany when they do like the oktoberfest like beard style competitions where these men are growing out. 00:31:53.13 Kurt Crenwelge landishly long mustaches and beards and then stylizing them to look like the brodenberg gates or like any other sorts of uh interesting scenes. 00:32:04.57 Zac That's um I've seen Zambiba with intense... mustaches, but I've never seen them. woven into some type of Mustache. 00:32:15.49 Zac tapestry or tableau like like a like a scene being depicted that's pretty intense 00:32:17.79 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:32:20.32 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, those competitions get serious. And so I have to wonder, like with Zordalia, it's like. How hard is he going? Is he going to that length or is he just like. Like the, you know, like the big elaborate mustache that that like goes out and curls, ah you know, to show off his. ah his hair products that he has available. 00:32:40.26 Zac Yeah, I think it's it's not completely outrageous. Like it's not like a cathedral, but it it is. 00:32:46.12 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:32:46.11 Zac um It's stately enough to demand respect. 00:32:50.75 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, he's a Dapper Dan damn man. 00:32:52.73 Zac Yes. 00:32:53.64 Kurt Crenwelge ah Okay, perfect. I like it. And, ah you know, certainly if any other ah physical description notes come up, you know, feel free ah to let us know. um You know, we're getting this idea of how, you know, Zordalius appears and would carry. 00:33:08.48 Kurt Crenwelge himself ah in your game. But for role-playing purposes, I always think it helps if we can describe Zordalius. With three adjectives, what three adjectives would you use? 00:33:22.00 Zac Sordelius is... 00:33:27.44 Zac Uh... Impassioned. 00:33:32.05 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:33:34.00 Zac Vervet. And zealous. began 00:33:38.98 Kurt Crenwelge Impassioned. fervent. and zealous. 00:33:42.88 Zac Impassioned, fervent, and and zealous. Yes. 00:33:45.85 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. He really cares about his general goods store. 00:33:47.27 Zac Um, 00:33:50.45 Zac it It is of the utmost importance. It keeps the town. Running, but but he does have a secret. Passion. 00:33:58.61 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. A secret passion. 00:34:00.76 Zac Yeah, which... The general goods store. uh enables. But... Um, But I guess we'll get to that. 00:34:11.17 Kurt Crenwelge okay yeah i mean this definitely is a lead into the next question where i would say and now we get to go back to some dice rolling uh typically uh because now we come to the question of what's going to be a valuable item piece of lore secret or ideal or concept that this character cares about sometimes when people are bringing a character or they're kind of winging it on the fly um they might throw in a couple of things but certainly if you're curious if you want to truly randomize something you can roll 00:34:40.54 Kurt Crenwelge a D4 and a D6 and just kind of see what you get. But certainly you threw out this juicy bone of like, oh, he has a secret. passion. So there's there's some secret that he has, but Maybe he has something else too. 00:34:53.36 Zac Yes, yes. um I would say... Zordalius. has possession of ah of a family heirloom. Uh, left behind by his father. 00:35:07.14 Zac And this this heirloom is of significance. I'm thinking this is a low low fantasy setting here. 00:35:14.17 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:35:14.26 Zac Um, This heirloom. Praise the existence. of The Arcane. so it it is It is a thread that can be pulled. to Ultimately unraveled. secrets of the universe. 00:35:32.47 Zac and the nature of of magic. 00:35:35.57 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, wow. So it's like this artifact legendary sort of magical item, but it's just kept as like, oh, this is just a simple family heirloom sort of a thing. 00:35:44.63 Zac I'm imagining his dad was something like some Something like a magical archaeologist, like going through old ruins. and um found this piece of text that describes the nature of um the arc and current or or how magic you know takes takes root and in this world and uh It's the most valuable thing he's ever found. they They don't really know what it came from or who wrote it, but... 00:36:09.60 Zac soordelius keeps this and in his free time You know, aside from supplying the town with goods. He is. pulling out this thread. as much as possible too. 00:36:20.98 Zac ultimately continue his father's work. 00:36:24.23 Kurt Crenwelge interesting okay so i mean i'm not the world's greatest expert when it comes to the written forgotten realms lore um but having completed at least one through uh one playthrough of balder's gate three it sounds like you know if you were to slot this into that world. 00:36:41.65 Kurt Crenwelge It would be like, oh, this is like an ancient nether ease. uh magic artifact but it's like no one knows what it actually does but this thing holds all sorts of bold arcane secrets that would impact the weave in ways that people don't know on the Sword Coast or wherever else. 00:37:01.01 Zac 100%. Yeah, or if we take it back to Oblivion. 00:37:04.89 Kurt Crenwelge Mm hmm. 00:37:05.17 Zac What were the dwarves doing? You know? 00:37:08.59 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:37:09.41 Zac but Skyrim, what were the dwarves doing? We don't really know. 00:37:13.68 Kurt Crenwelge What were they doing? what What secrets were they trying to unearth? 00:37:19.68 Kurt Crenwelge All right. uh okay and then uh let's see okay now it comes to the point Um, Where? We want our NPCs to have bright gold exclamation points over their head. to let the players know, hey, I have a side quest that I can give you. So. 00:37:36.68 Kurt Crenwelge You've been winging it the whole time. You've taken no dice rolls, which is fine. That just goes to show your skills as a dungeon master for sure. But... What is going to be a side quest that... Zordelius is going to be willing to offer to a bunch of heroes or player characters to go and do on his behalf. 00:37:56.10 Zac Sordelius is having a problem. with Some some creatures some some uh entities that are coming in and raiding his supplies especially Fish. 00:38:09.61 Zac Um... Uh... He would offer this quest to adventurers to find out why this is happening and get to the bottom of it. Um, It turns out... 00:38:22.01 Zac that Mermen. And merwomen? are coming ashore. In order to raid the supply closets and steal Fish. 00:38:34.40 Zac And I think, why? Why would the merpeople be coming to steal? The food and the fish, don't they have? Well, it turns out... that the elites of this town are overfishing the lake. 00:38:47.89 Zac and their industry and 00:38:48.42 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:38:50.30 Zac Greed has... cause uh life in in the lake to be ah untenable. 00:38:56.83 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:38:58.78 Zac and And now the party must decide. 00:38:58.90 Kurt Crenwelge You don't want to make the lady of the lake mad. She's not going to give out any magic more magic swords if she can't have her fish. 00:39:05.57 Zac Exactly. And now the party has to. broker some type of agreement between the town folk and and the mer people 00:39:14.24 Kurt Crenwelge okay i like it okay all right so we've got a classic situation of investigate this you know the missing fish and missing supplies and then it turns out it leads back to the mer people of the nearby lake and then unravels the whole plot okay so as our characters go through this adventure we don't necessarily have to detail the whole side quest plot point by plot point but When we get to the end of it and we declare that the party has. 00:39:41.66 Kurt Crenwelge been successful. and the side quest. What is going to be the reward? that zardalius is going to award the party for successfully completing this mission. 00:39:53.75 Zac I think he would give the party. Hey. 10 % discount. his store. 00:40:00.58 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, 10 % discount. Okay, that's good at at ah at a general goods store. so you know, they can get their basic supplies. And. You know, it's a question because I know I'm running a game one-on-one for someone and they just turned level 18. So I'm certainly finding. 00:40:18.71 Kurt Crenwelge um the challenges with like okay how do i keep this ah you know, not only entertaining and engaging. but like giving you a proper challenge to when it comes to like social situations versus... like combat and stuff like that. So for I mean, most of the time, general goods stores tend to be like low level, low level sorts of adventures. a 10 % discount can come in handy especially 00:40:44.82 Kurt Crenwelge as you were positing that perhaps this is a low mat, assuming a low magic. sort of a world where maybe it's going to be harder to come by those magic items and so you are going to need to visit the general goods store a little more often if you don't have the magic spells to. 00:41:01.22 Kurt Crenwelge give you the same sorts of things that general goods would. would take care of. 00:41:06.69 Zac A hundred percent. and you know One of my favorite things to do in RPGs is take all the stuff that I've found and go right into town. whatever the best solution is and sell all that stuff. 00:41:18.91 Zac And. So Dice is a businessman. He knows that. You know, not only can he show gratitude with this 10 % discount, but... If he does that... Those adventurers are going to come back and sell everything they have to him. 00:41:31.30 Zac and he's gonna have some really cool 00:41:31.72 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. 00:41:33.44 Zac Inventory. 00:41:35.25 Kurt Crenwelge So over time, do you imagine that if the party is coming back to Zordelius? ah as he's accumulating more. Maybe not junk, but he's accumulating more random odds and ends that general goods sort of morphs into. 00:41:52.22 Kurt Crenwelge Eclectic. pawn shop sort of a scheme before too long. 00:41:57.92 Zac I think it's ultimately how he truly Continues as father works his way. By creating these relationships, this rapport with adventurers, he's able to naturally have a stream of magical items come into the shop that will hopefully... 00:42:12.36 Zac Complete the puzzle he's working on. 00:42:14.44 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, interesting. Okay. And then does that mean that the shop is eventually going to evolve to be able to sell actual magic items or is he using the magic items? in relation to this family heirloom that he has to try and figure out what it all means 00:42:29.97 Zac I think that... you know, He'd probably sell it back, but but every now and then there's going to be something that he... keeps and does not. Put out for sale. because it's important. 00:42:41.94 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. Okay. yeah no because certainly there's lots of debates that people can have about the assumptions of the world of dnd and it's like oh is it really realistic that you would find like a magic shop And it's like, yeah, if you had to think about it, like how we play Fallout or. 00:42:59.23 Kurt Crenwelge uh you know elder scrolls or anything like this and you find the first merchant you can because you're over encumbered and you need to sell some stuff and it's like Oh, great. Yes, I can finally sell all this orc armor that I've been holding on to. And I had to walk like, you know. 00:43:14.57 Kurt Crenwelge three days to get back to town. um suddenly I can offload all this stuff and not be over encumbered anymore. And I can fast travel once again. um Yeah, it'll be kind of interesting to see. like how the shopkeepers sort of naturally evolve as they're accumulating this stuff and Trying to find buyers. 00:43:32.21 Kurt Crenwelge um you know like oh this orc armor isn't very good no one's gonna buy this i guess i'll have to sell it to the blacksmith so he can melt it down sort of thing 00:43:40.62 Zac Yes. By the way, I've been there where. You have not. you know you're not just 20 pounds over you're you're like a thousand pounds over and you you have to slowly walk for maybe days to get to town, but it's it's worth it because you'll make so much money. 00:43:49.28 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:43:53.08 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 00:43:55.85 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 00:43:56.00 Zac Thanks. I've even... I've like looked at my compass on fallout or something and been like okay the mer those The nearest place I can sell is over there. i'm gonna pin something on my joystick and just kind of Go that way for a while and then come back. 00:44:11.80 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:44:12.74 Zac Yeah. 00:44:13.49 Kurt Crenwelge and then meanwhile hopefully i'm not triggering too many random encounters where things are trying to attack me and steal whatever i have 00:44:20.56 Zac Yeah, and and if that happens... Drop everything in your inventory instantly. And then unload on whatever that is and then resume. The pack mule. 00:44:30.15 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, the the classic pack mule. And there's only so much that your companions are willing to carry before they're like, nope, I can't carry anymore. 00:44:39.55 Zac That's a great point. Yeah, whoever's with you. um this The super mutant. Grandma character. Yeah. 00:44:45.72 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, yes. Yes. Grandma Lily from New Vegas. 00:44:48.86 Zac Grandma Lily or yeah Eddie. put put You know. A thousand pounds of power armor. 00:44:54.15 Kurt Crenwelge Or fuck. Fox. Fox from Fallout 3. 00:44:58.64 Zac Yes. Yes. 00:45:00.48 Kurt Crenwelge Because he had the Gatling laser. 00:45:03.14 Zac Oh yeah, he's the best. 00:45:05.20 Kurt Crenwelge ah Okay, perfect. All right. So we know, you know, we know the the kind of the stakes with the success and like kind of what it means for the world. um But now we have to consider the opposite. What's going to be the consequence of failure or refusing the call to the adventure? So these thefts. 00:45:22.64 Kurt Crenwelge continue to happen supplies go missing you know it's going to affect his bottom line and his ability to earn it a living and an income. so what what happens to Zordelius if... 00:45:35.34 Kurt Crenwelge the players say, no, they're not going to take up the quest or. somehow in the pursuit of trying to deal with these mermaids it turns worse they uh I don't know. It turns violent. it it You know, something happens catastrophically. None of the stuff's recovered or what and whatnot. 00:45:50.45 Kurt Crenwelge What's going to be the consequence of. either of those outcomes of failure, or refusal. 00:45:56.02 Zac I love. Details like this in storytelling where a quest changes the world state. like i think um I think Fable. the beginning of Fable 3. you know you have some choices to make that change how bowerstone is later, but Yeah, 10 % upcharge at his store. 00:46:15.49 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:46:15.60 Zac No. Bye. I think it. 00:46:17.18 Kurt Crenwelge I mean, sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that seems logical. 00:46:20.11 Zac i think it automatic I think it honestly depends on how badly... The quest is botched. Because, you know. if ah if they discover the source of the problem but fail to come to some type of diplomatic arrangement and the raids continue, you know, maybe that's one thing. 00:46:38.63 Kurt Crenwelge Mm hmm. 00:46:38.91 Zac if If the party goes scorched earth on the merpeople, I think there's a more drastic... Awesome. 00:46:46.66 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, yeah. Because I mean, you know, talking about overfishing. It's like, well, the merpeople were there trying to live and thrive. and Well, now the ecosystem is just out of balance in a completely different way because now there's like an overabundance of fish because now the merpeople aren't there to actually really keep their. 00:47:05.03 Kurt Crenwelge the fish's numbers in check sort of a thing. 00:47:08.32 Zac Yeah. or Perhaps. Perhaps the chaotic evil person decides. That. the town should go ahead and eat the merpeople. 00:47:18.87 Zac I'm not telling you. 00:47:19.08 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:47:20.56 Zac Make money by supplying. 00:47:24.22 Zac it 00:47:25.06 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. You get into questions of cannibalism and you know eating of ah sapient ah creatures, and yeah, that could get problematic. 00:47:36.21 Zac Yes. 00:47:36.10 Kurt Crenwelge depending on your game and your assumptions and rules. 00:47:39.54 Zac Yes. Very quickly. 00:47:42.04 Kurt Crenwelge Indeed. Okay. um So we have optional questions if you feel like Zordalius could be explored. further as a character or do you feel like you know. 00:47:52.41 Kurt Crenwelge Hey, Zordalius is a general store merchant. This is this is what he is. You don't need to get further than this, or this is like a good starting point. And then depending on your game. your world, your rules, your assumptions, like, okay, maybe Zordalius. 00:48:06.96 Kurt Crenwelge we'll develop interesting quirks or whatever depending on your individual games or whatnot 00:48:15.19 Zac Gotcha. And... and there but what What is the question there? 00:48:20.96 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, sure. Like we have several optional questions that if you want to explore Zordalius further, we can like explore these additional questions. Or if you feel like. I'm happy with Zordalius. Zordalius is good. then we can roll on to the next section. 00:48:35.95 Zac Let's roll on. I like Sordelius where he's at. 00:48:39.27 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. Alright, well, we've made an NPC. And what is it that you have to do with an NPC and this podcast? you have to throw them into a random encounter. 00:48:55.97 Kurt Crenwelge And insert here for final ad read for Zencaster, the platform that lets me do all these recordings and all this good stuff. We appreciate Zencaster and the tools and the platforms that they make. 00:49:08.09 Kurt Crenwelge This is a great tool. If you're looking to do your own podcast, I would recommend using Zencastr. Go to zencaster .com forward slash pricing. Use my code SideKQPodcast. 00:49:19.17 Kurt Crenwelge Get 30 % off your first month of any Zencastr paid plan. Yada, yada, yada, cha-cha, cha-cha, cha-cha. And back to the podcast. All right. And now we're in the section of the show where we do. 00:49:30.98 Kurt Crenwelge a role play a vignette a scene with the character we've made today and off the top of the dome Mr. Zachary White. portraying the role of Zordalius today, the question I have... 00:49:42.88 Kurt Crenwelge Is who am I going to be in the scene? Am I going to be one of my. podcast adventuring characters that stumbles into a shop and gets this quest? Am I going to be... uh another you know resident of the town that's coming into the store and realizing oh there's not as much stuff here as there once was or Or is it Zordalia is talking to another member of the family or I don't know, whatever. 00:50:06.07 Kurt Crenwelge sort of scene you would like to present. You let me know what interests you. today. 00:50:11.96 Zac Hmm. Um. those Those are interesting scenarios. i was almost When you said random encounter, I i was almost imagining... Zordelius is walking around somewhere and he gets... 00:50:24.71 Zac ambushed by some beast or something Has to use his merchant skills to... to to to win. 00:50:33.88 Kurt Crenwelge I mean, if that's a scene that you wanted to portray, we could certainly do that. Do you imagine that Zordalius is one to actually travel from town to town to like get supplies to bring to his store? Or does he just know that like. 00:50:47.03 Kurt Crenwelge oh, the merchants will travel to and from. And so if they make goods, then they'll bring them to my store and sell them to me. And then I'll figure out the pricing to then. sell them to other folks in the town or people traveling through the town. 00:51:00.74 Zac I think he's he's mostly going to be at the store, but every now and then. Every now and then there's an important... thing that needs personal attention or a certain shipment of something someone some contact that he must Go meet, and it he has to hit Rhodes for it. 00:51:16.85 Zac a short time. 00:51:18.59 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Well, I mean, since that inspired you, are you wanting to do that scene? Maybe perhaps where this is one of the rare instances where Zordalius is on the road and he's beset by bandits. 00:51:30.32 Zac and yes Yes, I think so. 00:51:32.60 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, all right. So then if you're going to be Zordalius, and then I will be, I guess, the... group of bandits or so that will appear in the scene. um Would you care to set the scene or shall I? Who wants to be the dungeon master of this? 00:51:45.78 Zac I'm going to focus on Zordelius. You should set the scene for us. 00:51:49.87 Kurt Crenwelge All right. 00:51:53.07 Kurt Crenwelge So we leave our home base, our hometown. This, of course, is a fine day. And Zordalius has loaded up the wagon. He's looking prim and proper. and Fancy fresh with his spruced mustache that has been. 00:52:10.41 Kurt Crenwelge uh, recently waxed. uh this morning he took He rose up early. I imagine to take care care of it and make sure that it was all. according. uh to his uh design standards if you will um So he's in the wagon. He's traveling. um you know, with his driver Um, his good neighborly uh Friend. ah colleague Jim will say because 00:52:37.16 Kurt Crenwelge of the joke earlier of him likeing liking to hit the gym. At least that's what Jim always says like when he makes like too crude of a joke or he insults his mustache or something. uh then uh zordalius will give him a smack and he's like ah you're always hitting me um So it's another one of those kinds of mornings as they're both traveling on the road. 00:52:51.66 Zac if it is 00:52:55.80 Kurt Crenwelge and uh jim will just kind of ask zordalis um yeah so we're going to the next town you know that's going to take us a couple hours to do um What is it that we're getting again? Why are we having to do this on a perfectly good morning today? 00:53:11.55 Zac There is a rare... Shipments. Of. Beeswax. In the neighboring town that I must. Secure and personally see you back to the shop 00:53:24.84 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. More of your mustache nonsense, is it? 00:53:28.13 Zac There are other things that the wax is used for but uh that is one of them and it is of the utmost importance 00:53:33.88 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:53:36.40 Kurt Crenwelge Jim rolls his eyes and will like you know ah smack the reins a little bit on the beast of burden that is that it's carrying the wagon. and he's just like yeah yeah yeah oh look at me i have a mustache i'm so fancy and then Probably Zordaly smacks me and he's like, ah, you're always doing that. 00:53:53.51 Kurt Crenwelge And so they start bickering and then they they fail the perception checks because they don't notice, you know, it's a couple hours into the journey. And suddenly there's ah like a trio of bandits that kind of like hop out of the road like highwaymen. 00:54:06.09 Kurt Crenwelge And they're just like, aha, stop, halt there. Yes, this is. Hello, this is ah the Highwaymen. We are doing our normal routine. Please hand over your goods. 00:54:18.90 Kurt Crenwelge No one has to get hurt. Let's... it's It's going to get hot today. I don't want to have to deal with the heat. Can we just make this quickly, please? 00:54:29.04 Zac Hello? Good highwaymen. 00:54:33.24 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, you are right to call me good, because I think. 00:54:33.41 Zac oh 00:54:36.55 Kurt Crenwelge uh the king's taxes are really a blight on this land and i'm merely doing a public service he tries to persuade probably not very well to the uh general goods store merchant. 00:54:50.11 Zac Do what? I know the king well. In fact, ah the the king makes a ah nightly a weekly stop by my shop in his walk around the city. Um. 00:55:01.88 Zac Yeah, I'm sure he would Be delighted to hear your feedback about the the rules and the ongoings of the issues that you have, as would I. 00:55:11.21 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. oh Would Zordalius consider this persuasion or would he consider this intimidation like soft intimidation? 00:55:19.32 Zac Maybe a little bit of intimidation. 00:55:21.75 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. So if you had to think like, you know, not necessarily rolling actual things, how well do you think that soft intimidation check went? 00:55:33.78 Zac the Um. 00:55:34.73 Kurt Crenwelge like pretty middle of the road or do you think like really good 00:55:36.40 Zac You probably missed. probably rolled like a 10. 00:55:38.89 Kurt Crenwelge probably rolled a 10 average and so maybe this bandit kind of like is like trying to size them up like Yeah, yeah, all you merchant types say you know the king. You know, oh, la-di-da-di this, la-di-da-di that. Well, blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:55:51.76 Kurt Crenwelge And so like his two associates start getting closer. They but like one of them has like a hatchet and the other one has like a short. rusty sword. And so they're getting closer on either side. 00:56:02.41 Kurt Crenwelge And they're just like, come on. ah Give us the money. Give us the goods. And then the leader is like, besides, you know, what, what kind of. silly mustachioed man. have Anyway. 00:56:14.05 Kurt Crenwelge He's like maybe trying to diss him a little bit, trying to be like, ah, you know, we'll just take your money or whatever. and Whatever. you know it's like He sees the cart. Maybe it's empty at this point, or maybe it has like some basic. trade goods. 00:56:27.42 Kurt Crenwelge um the others poking around being like oh there's like barley and there's like you know, canisters of milk and stuff. It's like, what are we going to do with that? There's nothing we can do with that to bring to our hideout. So they start bickering. so there's a There's a little moment where Jim... 00:56:42.72 Kurt Crenwelge and zordalia's kind of have to themselves and jim's like well what do we do do we just make a run for it or yeah What are we going to do? um Maybe he sees a glint of the heirloom. He's like. 00:56:54.14 Kurt Crenwelge You know, he's like. the i don't know you're always messing with that thing doesn't that thing do magic or something 00:57:00.100 Zac Amen. um Yeah, to does Zordalius know enough about the magic at this point to make something happen here that it's gonna fix? Can you do a fireball? 00:57:11.87 Zac but 00:57:12.54 Kurt Crenwelge I don't know. what yeah is If you had to think of Zordelius rolling an Arcana check, how well do you think he'd do? 00:57:19.65 Zac It's his passion. He he would do well. he would have a big bo ah He would have the maximum bonus that he could on Arcana. But that's... 00:57:25.96 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. I don't know if it's quite like sorcerer stone level where it's like a subconscious thing where he can maybe make the magic happen because oh i'm not really trained in levels of magic but Okay, so yeah, he does really well on his Arcana check. And so based on what he's thinking or feeling, he he knows he's... putting on this air that he's brave and that oh i know the king and i'm like well connected you don't want to mess with me sort of a thing 00:57:52.83 Kurt Crenwelge But, you know, there's probably the underlying panic of like, hey, there's guys with weapons that are trying to hold us up and and rob us and stuff. so The magic is starting to, you know. enter into the item the heirloom through his thoughts and his feelings and you know his innate connection uh to the magical energies of this world and of this realm so what sort of magical effect happens once he fully... allows the the arcana to happen. 00:58:21.97 Zac i imagine this force he's tapping into as being uh sort of primordial. It's... um It's sort of just a raw. current that is unrefined, um unshaped by the lexicon of magic words that you know existed that beyond his knowledge. So I think if if he was to utilize this heirloom to make some type of magic, it would probably... 00:58:47.59 Zac be some type of raw force akin to You know, maybe maybe an actual force push. but Or maybe something like The Voice in Dune. 00:58:59.30 Zac like like a forceful command. 00:59:02.26 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, like the command spell? 00:59:04.56 Zac Yes. 00:59:05.49 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so what... What what word utters from Zordalius to make them heed to your command? 00:59:14.32 Zac I think Zordelius... looks off into the edge of the forest pretends to see a party of goblins something like that and he says run And... 00:59:26.35 Zac Everyone also kind of. shares that vision or that idea and they they scatter because they don't want to be attacked by goblins thinking this is a big merchant. Caravan. protected by guards. 00:59:37.98 Zac or something like that. 00:59:39.27 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I think you... Zordalia sees it in each of these bandits eyes. They just kind of get washed over with this, you know, this haze, this cloudiness. as like the magic takes hold and you yell at them to run and so panic and basic. survival instincts kick in and they just take off into the woods clear and running away. 01:00:01.13 Kurt Crenwelge And Jim almost has that minute of panic. Like he's going to run too, but. Zordalius kind of holds on to him. And so he kind of Jim just sort of shakes his head clear. and then he looks over at zordalis and he's like oh my goodness i uh ah And then even the burst ah the beast of burden is kind of getting antsy a little bit, but he pulls Lorraine's to calm the beast down. He's like, what? 01:00:23.11 Kurt Crenwelge Ha ha. I don't know what you just did, but... Ah. Okay. Uh, uh, should, should we get going? Do we need, do we need to pick up the pace a little bit? 01:00:35.19 Zac ah Yes, yes, let's... ah Let's get on the road very quickly on to the next step. 01:00:40.16 Kurt Crenwelge Watch out! 01:00:40.02 Zac but Thank you, Jim. 01:00:41.26 Kurt Crenwelge All right. Watch out. Watch out. The reins get smacked and the beast. a burden pick up their pace as they start making their way to the town. And as this DVD chapter is about to close. What is Zordalia's thinking? What's he feeling as he... 01:00:56.66 Kurt Crenwelge Kind of has like that lingering sense of like, maybe not heartburn. um But like you know when you come off like an adrenaline high or something like that, like his body is returning to himself but he felt this magic kind of course through him in this item so What's he thinking? What's he feeling as now the wagon is. kind of picking up its pace to try and get to this next town. 01:01:19.71 Zac I think he feels relief and especially gratitude for his father's work and and the fact that he has spent so much time attempting to understand this thing that very few people understand and that it actually saved it in that scenario. 01:01:36.60 Zac it I think he would feel... resolute in in his pursuit of this. this magic, and this idea, almost like the world. confirmed for him in that moment that he's doing the right thing. 01:01:55.91 Kurt Crenwelge and seen so there we go we had a random encounter with zordelius and apparently his buddy jim that he likes to hit sometimes um but yeah what did you think it was like getting to be zordelius 01:02:07.66 Zac That was cool. um Yeah, it's been a minute since I... Especially play the character in... um in a campaign so that that was actually really fun and really cool um Yeah, I was immediately thrown into that. And it it reminds me of... 01:02:23.42 Zac It reminds me of campaigns I've played in the past where I was a character that were really, really fun. um And I love that it was sort of loose, you know, like like I would have been happy to roll. dice and pull out my character sheet and everything but like we We got through that. 01:02:41.00 Zac you know. but the end result is kind of the same probably so and the storytelling part is what is really enjoyable to me 01:02:50.86 Kurt Crenwelge I was going to say, do you think Zordalius is going to feature now in ah in a future ah story adventure? And now whichever kiddos are reading about Zordalius and his ah his magically. 01:03:03.09 Kurt Crenwelge ah mustachioed waxed ah visage and him trying to figure out why all these items are going missing in the The mermaid. ah folk of the of the lake and all this stuff 01:03:16.13 Zac Oh, man. ah Yeah, maybe maybe in the adult. version of SideQuest. Yeah, ah human humans have a complicated... Lore. in in the universe of SideQuest Adventures. 01:03:29.31 Zac um 01:03:29.40 Kurt Crenwelge oh interesting any any teases that we can get uh since the project is in the thick of it that makes us hungrier or more curious about the uh the project overall 01:03:40.87 Zac without Without checking with Jeremy to see what I can reveal here, i I'm going to go a little bit off the ledge. i'm give a hint and say Uh, Gruff? 01:03:52.05 Zac ranger gruff who is a golden retriever Ranger. 01:03:57.63 Zac He's a ranger? He's also the... He has a deep connection to... the the denizens of of the world and especially the spirits of the forest which Oh. And he has... Something of a real... 01:04:14.35 Zac connection with Maybe things that... used to be humans. in this world. 01:04:22.79 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Very cool. I like the tease. You know, you got to leave the people wanting something to be able to back the project. For sure. 01:04:31.77 Zac Yes. 01:04:32.97 Kurt Crenwelge So, yeah, we're now firmly in the place of the podcast that's called Final Thoughts. So certainly I want. uh you to be able to share your final thoughts of like how you thought your time was on the podcast and and all that good stuff. And then certainly, you know, giving you the stage, the microphone, the soap box and the platform and more to be able to. 01:04:52.16 Kurt Crenwelge Tell us where you can be found on social media, where we can back the project and any passions or causes that you need us to be made aware of. 01:05:01.03 Zac Thanks, man. Yeah, I really enjoyed. this. um uh it's fun to talk about my favorite things big rpg guy and um You know, it's not every day you get to gush about those things. That's a great time. And, yeah, putting putting me in the position of a player. in a D and &D game basically, it was also really fun. 01:05:22.97 Zac And I love the sort of improvisational nature of it. I think some of the funniest, coolest things happen. in the moment spontaneously. um Um, 01:05:35.26 Zac Uh... Yeah. um side Side quest adventures, a ah choose your own. adventure book for for kids and parents and and maybe even some adults that really love Role playing. 01:05:47.28 Zac we We have a unique cast ah of 12 plus. awesome characters and all with their own unique mechanics. The the side quests are incredibly... 01:05:58.85 Zac uh quirky and and detailed and i think I think people are going to be really. excited when they start seeing them in person. Um, yeah The best way to support the project is to... Follow us on Kickstarter. 01:06:14.76 Zac So. ah Find our Kickstarter page. you you can You can search. uh us in the kickstarter platform it'll come right up side quest adventures and follow it, create an account if you haven't already and you'll get notified as soon as the project goes live, which is in October. 01:06:32.25 Kurt Crenwelge Right. And when this episode comes out, you'll be in the thick of it and you've got. you know, 30 days that you're trying to get this project backed. 01:06:41.21 Zac Yep. Yep. Once we launch. ah I hope I'm not over committing here. right Right now we're planning on October and we'll we'll obviously let everyone know, but, but yeah, when that starts, we've got about 30 days. 01:06:52.25 Zac um 01:06:52.65 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. perfect so you know this episode is coming out we're boosting the project because we believe in it we love it we like the idea of it and so we're you know this podcast is trying to do its good community service with boosting others and boosting great ideas and just giving support to good friends on social media because You know, as this 38 year old ah millennial just, you know, in his OCD-ness thinks deep thoughts and is like, you know. 01:07:20.08 Kurt Crenwelge like i said we don't need to be monetizing quite everything but for those people that are thinking of cool ideas i want to uplift and support them and not have everything be a vanity project of mine. I want to uplift others. I want to live the ethos of this podcast. 01:07:34.69 Kurt Crenwelge uh down to the nitty-gritty as far as you know the others uh and what they're passionate about and what they think is cool so I want to be a good person in the hobby and in life and then just you know shout out cool things. because i I've built this little platform. 01:07:50.55 Kurt Crenwelge And by golly, I'm going to use it to do some good in this world. 01:07:54.52 Zac Absolutely, man. and I think that's exactly the right attitude. in it You know, at the end of the day, what what are we doing if not? you know just having fun and just connecting with with people. That's what life's all about. to me. So. And. 01:08:07.01 Zac Yeah, actually. We have some things going on right now that are sort of... Sort of what we did today is creating a character. we we ah right now actually actively right now this very moment have a community created character event going on. 01:08:21.66 Zac So. 01:08:21.82 Kurt Crenwelge oo 01:08:22.68 Zac ah We're having people choose what animal the character is, what class, what quirk. What? other things that and you can actually vote on Instagram, TikTok or Facebook for these things. 01:08:36.13 Zac And the the animal will actually be locked in tomorrow. that The leading vote right now. Leading comment that has the most likes is... Irish. Elk. 01:08:47.78 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Okay. So, I mean, this coming out in October, you'll have to go back in the past and see that, but yeah, definitely let's be following. SideQuest Adventures over on Instagram and TikTok. 01:09:00.55 Kurt Crenwelge and Facebook. and be sure to go ahead and bookmark and back this project let's let's see this thing shine And, uh, And yeah, you know, certainly again, any final thoughts, but. ah yeah you know Just thank you so much for for coming on the podcast. 01:09:17.01 Zac Thanks, man. Yeah, I had a great time. 01:09:19.83 Kurt Crenwelge Wonderful. So I can't wait to have you back on the podcast, even make. making even more interesting NPCs. 01:09:29.01 Zac Yes, and next time we'll get Jeremy. Jeremy's got some real creative ideas for NPCs.