00:00:01.53 Andrew Kolb you 00:00:05.29 Kurt Crenwelge Hello and welcome to another month's exciting episode of Sidekicks and Sidequests, the best unofficial Dungeons & Dragons podcast in my humbly biased opinion. 00:00:16.15 Kurt Crenwelge I've got ah an amazing guest for you this month, in the month of April 2026 in fact, when we're recording this in the past, but yes, a fantastic guest for you this month. But before I get to my mystery contestant, I have to do it. 00:00:30.88 Kurt Crenwelge I have to leave you in suspense with the ad read. insert here for post-production Kurt to tell you all about plus one EXP and their RPG zine club subscription service. So if you're in the neighborhood for cool indie games from up and coming designers from across the TTRPG community, 00:00:49.86 Kurt Crenwelge I'm sure even Andrew could have benefited from a service like this back in his day, don't you know? But if you want to take advantage of this cool service, you should go to the website RPGZine.club. 00:01:03.09 Kurt Crenwelge And hey, when you go to PlusOneExp.com, use that code Randolph at checkout, save some coin on your purchase, and give this podcast a kickback. Thanks for you transcription readers reading this, and back to the podcast. 00:01:17.91 Kurt Crenwelge All right, so we've left everyone in suspense long enough, and I'm quite excited to get into this interview today and figuring out who we're going to make later. But I turn the microphone over and I ask, Hello, mystery contestant. 00:01:31.53 Kurt Crenwelge Would you care to introduce yourself? Tell us who it is that you are and what is it that you do? 00:01:36.13 Andrew Kolb Andrew Kolb, Sure yeah Hello, my name is Andrew Kolb. Andrew Kolb, What do do so i'm a I don't know jack of all trades or I wear many hats and that I like I started off as a graphic designer, so I still do some of that, but not as much lately. 00:01:50.16 Andrew Kolb Andrew Kolb, That transitioned into quite a bit of illustration, and I would say, is still the majority of my. 00:01:50.92 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:01:57.16 Andrew Kolb If you think of it as a pie chart, like the majority of that pie is still illustration, um but that has also transitioned into writing or like it is complemented by writing and game design. So I think part of what has brought me here today is the illustration and design and writing of a handful of like fifth edition light setting books based on a public domain picture book or children's book settings, Neverland and then Oz and now Wonderland. 00:02:27.26 Andrew Kolb So I am the creator of those. I mean, like as much as I can say creator of like Wonderland, right? Like i I interpreted those books into a setting. 00:02:34.58 Kurt Crenwelge You went back in time, you took out the writer, you claimed the rights for yourself, you time-traveled in your DeLorean back to the future, and then you were like, mine! 00:02:36.30 Andrew Kolb Yeah. Yeah. 00:02:42.46 Andrew Kolb Yeah, exactly. 00:02:44.40 Kurt Crenwelge Ha ha ha! 00:02:44.34 Andrew Kolb And then use the Albinac to say, this is my empire now. So that's it. 00:02:49.44 Kurt Crenwelge ah classic Back to the Future shenanigans. oh No, that's cool. Yes. um 00:02:53.92 Andrew Kolb Thanks. 00:02:54.44 Kurt Crenwelge yeah your Your illustrative work is is fantastic. i i was showing it off to to co-workers today. I was like, this is who I'm going to have on my episode later tonight. They were like, wow, his portfolio is amazing. Or, oh, I recognize his work. It's it's it's great and fantastic. you have a very you know It's very cartoonish and it's whimsical. 00:03:14.53 Kurt Crenwelge And I feel like it harkens back um like even the style like i i feel like i'm getting like there's like a particular poster in the fallout 3 game that kind of had like that same sort of like style ah that you ah do like the people in sometimes uh that i've seen as of late i'm like it feels it captures like and i think maybe even you did some artwork on your instagram that you shared recently of like the fantastic four movie that came out like 00:03:26.44 Andrew Kolb ah Okay. Yeah. 00:03:29.96 Andrew Kolb yeah 00:03:43.50 Andrew Kolb Okay, yeah. 00:03:44.98 Kurt Crenwelge It feels very, your artwork, it like harkens back to the sixties. I feel like it's very like bright poppy. And it's like, it just feels like science fictional, wonderful. 00:03:55.85 Kurt Crenwelge And, and all that. 00:03:56.28 Andrew Kolb Yeah, absolutely a big influence. 00:03:56.53 Kurt Crenwelge and It, 00:03:57.48 Andrew Kolb The mid-century was a big influence but when I was going through for graphic design, definitely studying that era and kind of um its influence on design, both like print and then also kind of in like product design, just kind of in everything. 00:04:12.59 Andrew Kolb And then that carried over into my illustration influences as well. Yeah. So I appreciate you picking up on that because I'm glad at least I try to interpret that and and kind of put it into my work. So if you're seeing that too, then hopefully that means I'm successful on some level. 00:04:28.74 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, no, I think you totally are. i mean, you've gotten, you know, you were just recently published, I think, in ah and an anthology compendium book for Wizards. I was checking that out again today. I was like, oh, yeah, you've actually done stuff for Hasbro and Wizards with one of the adventurers. 00:04:45.27 Andrew Kolb Yeah, for Dragon Delves, um I, so I only did the artwork, which was still great. ah And really, because of, I don't i don't know how much I can go into it, but the the inspiration for the adventure was a lot of, like, 00:04:59.82 Andrew Kolb ah folklore and but picture books and fairy tales. So them coming with that inspiration and saying, this is what we really want to kind of capture with the the imagery ah was was perfect. 00:05:04.62 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:05:12.70 Andrew Kolb Like I was just like, oh, okay, great. I understand why you came to me. for this project because my general understanding or impression of like what fifth edition or like Wizards of the Coast D&D artwork is supposed to be is not what I do at all. 00:05:27.84 Andrew Kolb So it was really fun to kind of get to, I don't know, feel comfortable in what I'm doing, but also do it for this brand. 00:05:28.22 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:05:36.29 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. and And for sure, you know, I i you know definitely don't want to leave it out. But, um you know, the the way our i feel like I started following you is because our mutual friend, Andrew Strother, who ran the role for persuasion podcast, was so inspired by your Neverland setting book. 00:05:48.72 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:05:56.44 Kurt Crenwelge that uh you know he decided to create a whole actual play show based on it second star to the right which was which was fantastic and fun to get to listen to oh those are back in my days where i was having to commute like three hours a day um you know back and forth across the metroplex so like yeah i would i would like the beginning of the day i would start one of those start a second start of the right episodes and and by the time i got home it's like oh great i caught up on the episode and 00:05:59.95 Andrew Kolb yeah 00:06:22.83 Kurt Crenwelge You know, so it was fantastic to ah to get to listen to that show. and ah And I guess that melding into the question sort of like, you know, these three big, ah you know, IPs, if you will, or or big ah folkloric or ah whimsical and whimsy sort of settings, which obviously, you know, people know like Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz as like, 00:06:34.34 Andrew Kolb Sure. 00:06:46.31 Kurt Crenwelge you you know you know ah Disney animated or movies or live action movies or even newer Broadway musicals and then those Broadway musicals have been turned into movies but just going to the source material as you were ah alluding to earlier what was that like or the inspiration to be like you know what I'm going to sit down and I'm just going to write a whole setting and a book and get it made and get it published and now people can have ah their adventures in Neverland and and Wonderland and Oz. 00:07:16.88 Andrew Kolb Yeah, when it's when it's condensed down like that, it sounds like a very easy and just succinct like a to B to C ah path. But um to go back, like Neverland was kind of how it all started. And the the idea behind that was um or the kind of the thrust behind that project was because i needed something to get non- RPG players into D&D pretty quickly, like ah with pretty succinct buy-in and found that because there was so much going on with the rules and the like character sheet, like that, that tended to be what folks were focusing on that if I started to really kind of like start from scratch and build this whole world, they either, they weren't interested or just kind of, you could see them glaze over. 00:07:43.96 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:08:01.90 Andrew Kolb So starting with like a picture book and a story that I already kind of was really connected to. ah building out Neverland already kind of had a lot of the not tropes but definitely a lot of the kind of factions and whimsical and fantastical elements that naturally kind of lend itself to the sort of D&D game I want to run so 00:08:19.89 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:08:25.07 Andrew Kolb going with Neverland as, okay, here's what we're going to explore. Then the people who are sitting down and playing with me already kind of had some kind of familiarity with it of like, oh, okay. I like, I know pirates and I know mermaids, like these things that because they'd already read the books or seen the movies, didn't really kind of think of them as fantastical elements or things to kind of learn. 00:08:46.78 Andrew Kolb So then we could kind of get into, okay, well I want to go hang out with the lost boys, or I think they're probably lost boys up here. So let's go explore. Meanwhile, they're not really thinking about the character sheet now anymore. 00:08:57.38 Andrew Kolb So thats that was kind of my goal, was really to kind of get them to focus on just playing. 00:08:58.26 Kurt Crenwelge oh interesting. 00:09:02.46 Andrew Kolb and And that was kind of my, you know, like this like spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. That was my plan. um and And then that and and playing enough in Neverland um lent itself to me approaching my literary agent. So because I work in picture books and and kind of am... 00:09:22.20 Andrew Kolb by day, normally like a picture book illustrator or a professional illustrator, basically reached out to her and said, okay, I have this thing that I think is working well. 00:09:28.05 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:09:31.70 Andrew Kolb I think there could be a market for it. like it was It was filling a void that I couldn't find in the world at large, which was just kind of these kind of easily accessible settings or like campaign like environments. 00:09:46.91 Andrew Kolb And so she was really receptive to it, had no idea what D&D was, had very little exposure to any of this, but was like, okay, let's let's talk and figure out. So through that, then we kind of found Andrews McMeal. 00:09:58.54 Andrew Kolb They were really receptive to it. And then after that kind of was, i mean, again, I'm skipping over months, if not almost a year of work of polish and illustrating and map making and all the things that go into kind of making something complete and more than just kind of what I needed for my group. 00:10:17.08 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:10:17.01 Andrew Kolb And after that, and after it kind of came out and was well received, then basically that became the ah first in the series. So Neverland was well received. And then that became, ah what do I do next? And then because Neverland was kind of a real wild adventure, ah I really wanted to kind of flip and go what is kind of the almost exact opposite and what would help me and that is where I went into Oz and kind of really went okay I'm scared of like an urban adventure and then why and then what would I need to make that and then kind of dove into that so that's where Oz came from 00:10:53.48 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:10:54.85 Andrew Kolb and then those were all an investment into wonderland which is kind of like my my not passion project but definitely the story that i have the most connection with so i i didn't i didn't feel ready to do that right away um after neverland i was like ah this is still very new like i knew neverland because i had worked on it um and had had played it and and was like living in it uh and then oz was an adventure after that 00:10:55.08 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:11:04.31 Kurt Crenwelge Interesting. um Okay. 00:11:13.58 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:11:20.63 Andrew Kolb and And then Wonderland, after finishing Neverland in Oz, Wonderland was like, okay, i think I'm ready. And then the last thing that I was scared of was ah dungeon crawl, like a pure kind of classic, like a real old school setting. 00:11:30.88 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Yeah. Like a Greyhawk sort of a thing. 00:11:33.06 Andrew Kolb And so, yeah. And so that's where Wonderland came about was, okay, if we're falling down the rabbit hole, if we're kind of in this underground Or like, well, my idea was, that my vision was if we're falling into the rabbit hole, then it is like this underground setting that becomes the dungeon. 00:11:49.06 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 00:11:50.02 Andrew Kolb and then And then we build that out. 00:11:51.03 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, interesting. 00:11:51.61 Andrew Kolb Thanks. 00:11:52.59 Kurt Crenwelge That's a really cool way to approach it. it Like literally, oh you're going down the rabbit hole. So it's like you are falling into the mega dungeon now. 00:11:59.22 Andrew Kolb Yeah, yeah. 00:11:59.50 Kurt Crenwelge And this is the mega dungeon that is Wonderland. 00:12:02.93 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:12:03.12 Kurt Crenwelge That's really cool. 00:12:04.09 Andrew Kolb And same idea. What was it that scared me about running a dungeon? And then how do I kind of solve those problems? So the books are always kind of, at least for me, the book that I wish I had when I wanted to start running X or like fill in the blank, like for Neverland, it's a hex crawl. 00:12:21.89 Andrew Kolb For Oz, it's an urban setting, but also a point crawl. And then for Wonderland, it is ah a dungeon crawl. So that's kind of the how the trio work. 00:12:31.98 Kurt Crenwelge That's amazing. And, ah you know, as you were explaining the the impetus, the the origin story of each of these um settings, you know, ah what I'm hearing is like, ah you know, because obviously people have their opinions on the ah the established settings. 00:12:49.07 Kurt Crenwelge And, you know, it's like, oh, do you follow that, what they publish? Like, do you do Forgotten Realms? Do you do Greyhawk or... Eberron or any of these other ones and it's like oh my players you know because they've never been exposed to Dungeons and Dragons before they have no idea or basis for it but it's like oh everyone knows what Neverland is or what the Wizard of Oz is about or what uh you know Alice in Wonderland is about so it was like an easier it was your vehicle to get the verisimilitude and the buy-in from the players of like 00:12:55.73 Andrew Kolb I. 00:13:20.84 Kurt Crenwelge okay, understand of where I'm going to be, so it's easier for me to accept like, oh yeah, I'm just like a kid who showed up on Neverland and we've got to find missing star pieces in order to get home, sort of a thing. 00:13:32.24 Andrew Kolb Right. Yeah, absolutely. 00:13:33.95 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:13:34.67 Andrew Kolb And with the with these like new locations, then also making it easier for me as ah as a DM to run it too, like because I don't have the same history with the established settings, um it was a lot easier for me to go, okay, what what are the motivations for this character? 00:13:49.23 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:13:54.01 Andrew Kolb Because I'd kind of already lived with them for years as a child. Yeah. 00:13:58.42 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:13:58.50 Andrew Kolb that was that was also a benefit for me too it wasn't just for my players i'm selfish and guilty of doing it for myself as well 00:14:07.24 Kurt Crenwelge That's fair enough. Well, I mean, you've got you got the hat trick, so you've done three. 00:14:11.40 Andrew Kolb thank you those were the oh thank you 00:14:12.00 Kurt Crenwelge I'm just wondering, is there a fourth that's ah in the chamber that's being worked on that, you know, this this will come out in April. So, like, certainly, you know, you can you can spoil us with a teaser now if you need to. 00:14:23.95 Kurt Crenwelge Or or if you're like, no, no, no, i've three's my limit. 00:14:24.64 Andrew Kolb no 00:14:28.21 Kurt Crenwelge i've I'm going to ride out this high on top. 00:14:30.40 Andrew Kolb at points of At point of recording or time of recording, I am still in like the research phase. I think I always knew with Neverland, I had started with it. 00:14:40.50 Andrew Kolb With Oz, I knew that was kind of a good follow up and was always kind of working towards Wonderland. 00:14:43.95 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:14:45.32 Andrew Kolb Like those three always had in mind. um 00:14:47.74 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:14:48.65 Andrew Kolb But beyond that, it's still kind of waiting now for the point of not inspiration, but I think with each of those three, I knew what problem I was trying to solve and what I wanted to focus on. 00:14:57.37 Kurt Crenwelge h 00:14:59.76 Andrew Kolb And I don't have that yet for a fourth book. um So i promise I promise once I have or once ah once I know, oh, this is what I want to do, it is because I feel like I'm... 00:15:03.80 Kurt Crenwelge okay 00:15:11.63 Andrew Kolb Not filling a void, but definitely ah making the thing that I can't find. um So that's that's what I'm still in the research phase of, is like, what is it that I can't find yet? 00:15:22.35 Andrew Kolb And so i don't I don't have a good answer. 00:15:22.56 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:15:25.19 Andrew Kolb I don't have a good reveal for you yet, but that's the plan. 00:15:26.13 Kurt Crenwelge That's no, that's totally fine. That's a, that's a bit of, of a self-indulgent, uh, you know, just side question, I guess. 00:15:31.79 Andrew Kolb not fair 00:15:33.57 Kurt Crenwelge Um, but also follow up side question, you know, as you're in this research phase, uh, you know, because for the longest time and, you know, each of these books have been developed sort of like with a, with a fifth edition or like a pathfinder sort of, 00:15:47.16 Kurt Crenwelge frame in mind now that we've had some pretty big uh you know titles uh from third-party publishers come swinging out the gate know with like tales of the valiant we've got a dagger heart you know from critical role and we've got draw steel from mcdm production so as you're researching are those other kinds of systems in your mind or is it more important for you to just make sure that like 00:15:59.50 Andrew Kolb Right. 00:16:12.10 Kurt Crenwelge when you're in this research mode and you're you're thinking, what problem am I trying to solve? Is it more of like, what what speaks to me, keep it system agnostic? Or are you thinking like, okay, if I want to run a Daggerheart game, or if I want to do a Drawsteel game, you know, Drawsteel, which I think you, and I think both in Daggerheart, you maybe only deal with 10 levels, whereas like, something with D&D, you're in Pathfinder and Tales of the Valiant, you're probably dealing with like, 20 levels. So it's like, I don't know, is it a question of that? Or is it just like, 00:16:41.34 Kurt Crenwelge I don't know, I want to run a good zombie game. So it's like, okay, like how can I do like a good zombie game now that's somehow whimsical and fun, like a Fido movie or something like that? 00:16:50.45 Andrew Kolb Yeah, but that's a good... That's a good question because I haven't, so succinctly, it is based on the the the vibes or the theme. Like I really go oh, like what is it that I want to be the spirit of the book? 00:17:04.79 Andrew Kolb So um i do I do generally try to keep it system agnostic. 00:17:05.74 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:17:08.92 Andrew Kolb It gets harder when you get into the like characters or the stats, like that that kind of crunchy stuff. um 00:17:14.58 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, yeah. 00:17:15.17 Andrew Kolb But when I go into the settings, I think, and and have um experienced or heard from people who are running games using other settings with my with my books, which is best case scenario. That's what I want to hear. 00:17:26.96 Andrew Kolb um 00:17:27.11 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:17:27.79 Andrew Kolb But ah I recognize that also takes some work. 00:17:29.38 Kurt Crenwelge A draw-steel game in Wonderland or something like that. 00:17:32.01 Andrew Kolb Yeah. Yeah. 00:17:33.23 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:17:33.54 Andrew Kolb And that's, so I have a discord channel for the, for the three settings. And that was a recent request or a recent to kind of like question from wonderland DMs was, has anybody done this yet? 00:17:43.88 Andrew Kolb What have you found? And and what do you recommend? Because, because it is still, or at least wonderland is probably my most map ah focus because it is a dungeon crawl and you need proper, like, Oh, actually how many squares is this and between x and y 00:17:52.85 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. 00:17:58.71 Andrew Kolb ah So I think it lends itself well to a strategy-based game. 00:17:58.97 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:18:03.79 Andrew Kolb um So I hope to hear about more Wonderland-based Drawsteel adventures. 00:18:04.16 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:18:11.83 Kurt Crenwelge Well, that'll be amazing, and I hope the MCDM Discord as well is buzzing with that sort of thing. Like, hey, I picked up this Wonderland book. 00:18:17.33 Andrew Kolb I hope so, too. 00:18:19.13 Kurt Crenwelge I don't know if you know it. It's basically like a mega dungeon, so if you wanted to run a tactical, cinematic, heroic fantasy, maybe you could try it with Wonderland. Yeah. 00:18:28.72 Andrew Kolb Yeah, I would love to hear that. And when i when I did Oz, my goal was for someone to run Blades in the Dark in it because it's so city-based. 00:18:35.32 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:18:36.60 Andrew Kolb And I know i i know with all this, it takes some tinkering. um So I never have any expectations. 00:18:40.90 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:18:42.53 Andrew Kolb But at some point, there was at least a short campaign run with using Blades in the Dark, again, through my Discord channel that I heard about. So that goal or that that box was checked, which was, again, a goal of mine. 00:18:50.30 Kurt Crenwelge Pretty cool. 00:18:53.18 Andrew Kolb So yeah, it's it's really great to see people use other... ah systems my settings. with my with my settings 00:18:59.99 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Well, I think this is going to ah lead us in beautifully to the next question, but do you currently or have your have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons before? 00:19:08.35 Andrew Kolb I have. 00:19:08.65 Kurt Crenwelge Whoa. 00:19:09.36 Andrew Kolb um Currently, yes, I also i am currently playing. My group that we've been playing for, I think, close to 10 years now, um and started with other settings, and then were generous enough to become my playtesters, we still meet weekly. 00:19:18.16 Kurt Crenwelge well 00:19:26.08 Andrew Kolb ah So we're kind of bouncing back and forth between my my own settings, because we were playtesting and have really gone into it. So that's kind of what we go back and forth between. 00:19:34.20 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 00:19:35.45 Andrew Kolb that That's the D&D that I play right now. 00:19:38.89 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, i was going to say, someone's gotten in deep and is like, no, I've taken over for the Red Queen. It's like, now I control her kingdom. And it's like, don't you see? 00:19:46.35 Andrew Kolb yeah 00:19:47.09 Kurt Crenwelge And the other players are like, oh, now we've got to fight this other player because they've gone mad with power in the dungeon. 00:19:52.37 Andrew Kolb yeah and so wonderland is definitely the just based on working on the setting is the one that we're the the least into or like the least uh we haven't made as much progress in it as we have let's say neverland so what you're describing is is close to what's happening in neverland in wonderland when we go back 00:20:03.29 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, okay. 00:20:08.76 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 00:20:10.39 Andrew Kolb ah It's also a shock for them to go to much lower level characters and and realize that their threat level is much higher compared to their much more robust characters in Neverland, which are kind of at not world ending conflicts yet, but definitely at world changing levels of conflict. Yeah. 00:20:27.08 Kurt Crenwelge I see, I see. Yeah, perfect. And of course, with this podcast, you know, we're all about the sidekicks and the side quests. So the first of these, who happens to be your favorite NPC or sidekick character, whether they be from RPGs, video games, movie, film, television, literature, et etc. 00:20:46.04 Kurt Crenwelge Or even your own products. And ah why is this character your favorite sidekick or NPC? 00:20:51.27 Andrew Kolb i won't I won't pick one from my own projects. That feels that that doesn't feel... it's It's also not genuine. I think... 00:20:57.16 Kurt Crenwelge It's hard to choose your favorite child. 00:20:58.12 Andrew Kolb Yes. 00:20:58.76 Kurt Crenwelge I get it. 00:20:59.02 Andrew Kolb Yeah. So I would say one of my favorite side characters is from literature, because I i know kind of talking ahead time that it would be okay if I picked from... from something else but um the disc world series of novels if you know them um there is a there's a main city onk moorpork uh and there is a sausage on a bun vendor and his name is uh cut me own throat dibbler uh and so he's like a real uh mainstay in any of the the books set in that city um and then you find out sometimes when they go to other cities or when the books are set in other cities that there's 00:21:07.71 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:21:11.71 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:21:37.43 Andrew Kolb that city's version of Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler, who also sells whatever that city's version of Sausage on a Bun is. ah So it's just kind of like one of those archetypes that always appears. 00:21:47.75 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Mm-hmm. 00:21:48.26 Andrew Kolb And is never really pivotal to the plot, but always kind of adds that element of I verisimilitude to the the setting of like, oh, right, this is alive. Like he's got his, he's the hero of his own story that we're never going to read or see, ah but he's still alive and he's still doing his own thing. 00:22:02.93 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:22:04.99 Andrew Kolb And you always see changes as you read through the books, because again, he's having his own adventures and and has always stood out as one of my favorite side characters. There are other characters that are like main characters of the Discworld books that I love, but as ah as a true side character, he he stays, is definitely one of mine. 00:22:23.01 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, no, I'm familiar with the Terry Pratchett works, but I actually myself have not read very much of Terry Pratchett. So if I ever do get into the Discworld series, I'll be on the lookout for a sausage and bun vendor and the Nurse Joy Officer Jenny equivalents. 00:22:33.50 Andrew Kolb Oh, good. like Good. 00:22:38.85 Kurt Crenwelge Not that they're exact clones, but they're like, oh, we go to this town. 00:22:38.80 Andrew Kolb Yes. 00:22:42.46 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, he's the apple guy or oh, over here. 00:22:44.02 Andrew Kolb Yes. 00:22:45.24 Kurt Crenwelge He's the cabbage guy or whatever. 00:22:47.20 Andrew Kolb Yeah, absolutely. and And I think serves the same purpose in that makes it feel like, oh, yes, there are these kind of archetypes that kind of exist no matter where you go in the world, just because it's just the nature of a city. 00:22:59.41 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, totally. And then same thing. What happens to be a favorite side quest of yours or a B-plot element? Again, same criteria of RPG, video game, movie, film, literature, etc. 00:23:12.18 Kurt Crenwelge And ah why is this side quest or B-plot element your favorite? 00:23:15.90 Andrew Kolb Oh, okay. So ah this one was harder um because when I think of side quests, I think of the Chrono Trigger video game from Super Nintendo. 00:23:27.40 Andrew Kolb ah which was like a pivotal a pivotal game for me and really influential in a lot of my own kind of like design and art direction and character design. 00:23:27.54 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:23:35.01 Andrew Kolb um 00:23:35.36 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:23:36.10 Andrew Kolb And because, well, I don't think this is spoiling much. It's also, don't know, a 30-year-old. 00:23:40.53 Kurt Crenwelge It's a super old game by this point. 00:23:41.45 Andrew Kolb Yes. yeah So it's ah it's a game that kind of revolves around time travel. 00:23:42.63 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:23:46.15 Andrew Kolb ah So some of my favorite side quests really lean into that. ah really lean into the time travel element. So there's one, again, this is spoiling a bit of it, but at one point you recruit a robot and that becomes a party member. 00:24:01.13 Andrew Kolb And one of the side quests is to like rebuild a forest. and 00:24:05.36 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 00:24:06.60 Andrew Kolb And the the solution to it is that you leave this robot behind ah so that way they can kind of do this and spend, I don't know if it's thousands, but definitely hundreds of years replanting this forest. 00:24:19.65 Andrew Kolb And what really stuck with me was, the idea that like because you can time travel, it's for you at least a moment. like You go, oh, okay, we're leaving him behind. And then 10 seconds later, as much as the cut scene takes, you are now in the present. 00:24:33.97 Andrew Kolb And you are now in this robust or like this like fully like lush forest. And you find the robot and he's rusted and you need to repair him. and And that has its own kind of emotional weight to it. 00:24:44.63 Andrew Kolb ah 00:24:44.97 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:24:45.24 Andrew Kolb But it really, and as a kid playing it, really was maybe the first time that I... not that I dealt with mortality, but definitely dealt with like the passage of time in like an, in a, in an honest way or in like in the way an adult would see it and and going, Oh, right for him or for this robot, for them, it was years, like decades, centuries, but for you, was just the blink of an eye. 00:24:57.53 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:25:07.29 Andrew Kolb And that always kind of carried weight with me. Uh, and then just to have them back in your party almost instantly really kind of felt like oh yeah there's there's a lot that kind of happened between those moments for you that you just don't get to see so that that is one kind of one of my all-time favorite side quests from a from a game 00:25:19.82 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:25:26.32 Kurt Crenwelge That's amazing that you gave that answer because I'm pretty sure that was early on in the podcast. I think like first season, I think when I had, uh, Kevin Chouinard on, he, he described this exact same side quest as you were telling me, I was like, Oh, okay. 00:25:42.23 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. So this, this side quest has definitely had an impact with all those, uh, chrono trigger fans. And yeah. 00:25:47.45 Andrew Kolb Oh, wild. 00:25:49.02 Kurt Crenwelge and And between then and now, you know, I've had a kid since then. So like, I mean, you know, you you say that and explain that and I can't help but think about like, oh yeah, like my life, you know, ah how it's been so changed, you know, with my four and a half year old running around my running around my house of like, oh, there was one minute where, you know, I'm just a newly married guy with a wife and then like, you know, in the blink of an eye, it's like suddenly I have a four and a half year old and like, you know, all the life experience that that comes with it and, and ah you know, before all the 00:26:01.76 Andrew Kolb Oh, wild, yeah. 00:26:23.80 Kurt Crenwelge all the mental cognitive stuff happens for your kid where like, you know, if you, if you ponder back and think like you were living your life as a baby and a toddler, then suddenly it like clicked in your brain when you were like, okay, I'm consciously living like each day. 00:26:40.15 Kurt Crenwelge so like that whole kind of, I guess it's different for a robot, but like, you know, just kind of thinking of that moment of like, oh, I've always just been a kid, uh, living in my house with my parents and my family and stuff like that. 00:26:40.11 Andrew Kolb Right. Right. 00:26:51.82 Kurt Crenwelge And, you know, ah grandparents and siblings and relatives and friends have come and gone and stuff like that. You know, as a kid, but ah certainly the idea of like leaving a good friend behind, you're thinking like, oh, this is forever. 00:27:04.35 Kurt Crenwelge Like, it's a tragedy that I'm having to do this. 00:27:04.95 Andrew Kolb right 00:27:07.74 Kurt Crenwelge But then as an adult, you're like, oh, wait, it's only gonna be 10 seconds. But still that child mindset of like, oh, that poor robot who doesn't think or feel or have emotions like a person, but still like we're still going to give that robot a personification of like ah making them feel like a a person, even though they weren't. 00:27:22.83 Andrew Kolb Right. 00:27:27.63 Kurt Crenwelge um Yeah, no, that's, that's fantastic. And it's, it's thank you for allowing me to kind of like revisit that ah side quest again in, in, a in story context, since I've never played the games, but hearing it again, years later, and I'm like, 00:27:43.13 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, wow, yeah. There's like a new there a new way to look at it and understand it and and understand why it's such a favorite or it's a good side quest or a good design for a side quest. 00:27:51.89 Andrew Kolb Oh, great. I will go back and listen to that episode specifically to hear their interpretation of the quest and what it meant to them too, because I'm always curious. I'm also like on the Chrono Trigger Reddit, and I always enjoy reading through people, playing through the first time and seeing all that too. 00:28:02.91 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. 00:28:05.83 Andrew Kolb So it's a fun a fun experience. 00:28:07.86 Kurt Crenwelge All the YouTube videos of like, all right, we're doing a let's play or actual play of the video game. 00:28:11.39 Andrew Kolb Right. 00:28:13.30 Kurt Crenwelge That's the first time I've never played Chrono Trigger before the Super Nintendo controller. How do I handle this? 00:28:18.66 Andrew Kolb Right. 00:28:18.92 Kurt Crenwelge It's like you, you mocking me, ah my oldness for that. 00:28:19.86 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:28:25.76 Kurt Crenwelge That was that was a fine video game system before all these fancy virtual reality doohickeys came along. 00:28:32.81 Andrew Kolb Well, think and maybe says something to, at least for me, some of the best art is that which when you kind of revisit it, you get something different from it if you're at a different stage in your life. 00:28:43.01 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:28:44.42 Andrew Kolb And I think if I went back and played it now, I think I would have a different appreciation for different characters who are kind of at different stages in their life and compared to when I was a 16-year-old living at home with my parents. 00:28:56.93 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:28:57.96 Kurt Crenwelge oh 00:28:58.48 Andrew Kolb Yeah, yeah. I enjoy seeing people experience it for the first time and at different stages of their life as well. 00:29:03.91 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, you think it's one of those games that like, hey, you should play this at like different points in your life to like get different things out of it. Like the same sort of, I don't know, the feeling. 00:29:16.27 Kurt Crenwelge I don't know. I've thought like I remember it's probably been like 10 years since I've seen it. But the movie Boyhood, when it came out, like ah Rich Linklater wrote, you know, directed it. 00:29:22.47 Andrew Kolb Oh, yeah. Okay. 00:29:26.29 Kurt Crenwelge I think a lot of it was shot around Houston and I grew up around Houston or like that part of Texas. And so like seeing the movie, like the the idea that it was shot over years and you're watching like the technology slowly changes, the movie goes on. 00:29:42.23 Kurt Crenwelge And it's like that weird sensation of like, I'm somehow time traveling as the movie's going on, but I'm also somehow growing up and maturing at the same rate as the the characters and all the the pivotal journeys and story that they're going through. 00:29:55.35 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:29:57.42 Kurt Crenwelge So deep thoughts, deep thoughts that we can have over sidekicks and side quests here on this podcast. 00:30:04.31 Andrew Kolb Yeah, because we're reallyre we're talking about art, right? 00:30:04.87 Kurt Crenwelge And think. 00:30:06.43 Andrew Kolb like We're talking about the kind of human distillation into whatever it is that we do into these like gems or kernels of of experience. 00:30:17.19 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And I think the way to bring it all together here in the personal interview section, Andrew, what are you passionate about and why? 00:30:25.82 Andrew Kolb Good question. And in reflecting on this and obviously hearing you ask others, um I really was like, what am I passionate about? And really maybe had to think of like, what is it that I am inspired by? So, I mean, like the the broad answer is maybe storytelling, but, and and that's like from myself and also enjoying the storytelling of others. 00:30:48.66 Andrew Kolb But the I think the answer I want to give is like games. And by that, I mean, like I'm really passionate about learning new games and like learning and seeing now as I've kind of like gotten to be on the kind of design side uh getting to see others processes or also how people solve their own problems uh especially when you're talking about blending themes with mechanics like I think it it's a weird kind of marriage of like something very programmed or robotic and 00:31:16.40 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:31:20.69 Andrew Kolb And this is in video games or board games or tabletop games, like something that is so ah not quite binary, but like dice, dice are not creative inherently. 00:31:32.71 Andrew Kolb And how do you pair that with something that is so creative as like storytelling or artwork? And and how do you kind of blend those things two together together? So for me, it's, it's ah yeah, broad strokes games. Like I, so I recently got back into, not back into, I was never really into baseball. 00:31:50.53 Andrew Kolb ah but as an adult have found an appreciation for baseball ah and now learning the rules and seeing that through a different lens that I think as a kid, I wasn't interested in 00:31:54.36 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Yeah. Hmm. 00:32:02.04 Andrew Kolb ah 00:32:02.28 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:32:02.84 Andrew Kolb But as an adult feeling like, Oh, this is, this is a lot of math. And this is a lot of it feels different in a way from any other kind of like physical sport that I'm really kind of curious about. 00:32:14.89 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:32:17.25 Andrew Kolb What do you, 00:32:17.61 Kurt Crenwelge And it's the Blue Jays, right? 00:32:19.19 Andrew Kolb Yes. 00:32:19.35 Kurt Crenwelge That you root for, probably? 00:32:19.67 Andrew Kolb Yeah. Yeah. So... 00:32:21.21 Kurt Crenwelge i was to say, not too many Canadian baseball teams that I can name off the the top of my head. 00:32:24.34 Andrew Kolb No, I think I'm the only one. So now this is now where we are. The the Jays lost the World Series ages ago. 00:32:32.90 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. 00:32:33.61 Andrew Kolb um 00:32:34.35 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. 00:32:34.56 Andrew Kolb But back when they were still in it, that was really kind of what my kind of reintroduction was. And from that point going, oh, okay, what is what is going on with these pictures? how many and And now the rules have changed so much since I was a kid. 00:32:48.15 Andrew Kolb ah 00:32:48.45 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:32:49.00 Andrew Kolb But again, i seeing it and through the lens of like... not quite a game designer, but definitely from ah an appreciator of games, seeing it that way it really kind of gave me new light. 00:33:00.38 Andrew Kolb and And now I'm watching nine innings or more and enjoying it the entire time because it means so much more than what it did when I was a kid. So yeah, I'm passionate about games. 00:33:10.71 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:33:11.83 Andrew Kolb And and I know that's a very broad stroke answer, but it it really does ah act as the umbrella over everything that I'm interested in. 00:33:20.60 Kurt Crenwelge Well, fantastic answer. And well, maybe well, ah since I've alluded to Houston, I know that ah the first professional sports game that I ever went to a neighbor, a friend of mine from like my elementary school days. 00:33:37.02 Kurt Crenwelge ah took me to go see the Astros play at the Astrodome back when the Astrodome talk about 1960s architecture of a place that place was cool um yeah getting to see the Astros play at the Astrodome was a was certainly a good childhood memory and since then you know if I haven't I haven't cared so much about American football teams but it's like I'll always root for the Astros even if I don't know all the complexities of the baseball rules, it's still like the Astros are my team. 00:33:39.93 Andrew Kolb Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. 00:33:45.34 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:34:05.38 Andrew Kolb Sure. 00:34:06.73 Kurt Crenwelge And I know a lot of people will be like, hey, oh not all their championships count, but it's like, I don't know. they They won twice. So it's like, seems good to me, even though my wife likes to tease me that like ah one of those championships, maybe perhaps they didn't deserve. 00:34:20.07 Kurt Crenwelge But this podcast stands by the fact that they won twice. So I'll i'll take it. 00:34:24.30 Andrew Kolb Cool. 00:34:25.50 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Maybe with an asterisk, but they won twice. 00:34:27.99 Andrew Kolb Would you say you are ah a baseball fan or like a sports fan in any capacity? 00:34:33.77 Kurt Crenwelge I'd say I've gotten more so a little bit more into sports because my wife and her family are certain certainly sports lovers. And even where I work, I've been the last couple of years involved in the fantasy football arena. 00:34:47.34 Andrew Kolb Oh, yeah. Okay. 00:34:48.56 Kurt Crenwelge And i just came off a solid eight week winning streak. unheard of for me i've always been the bottom of the barrel but this season for whatever reason just the the stars aligned the spirit spoke to me when i was picking my team members and i kid you not i went on i was like from week the very beginning of it um up until just this last sunday at time of recording eight solid weeks of wins and i just had my first loss so i'm like at the top the top of the heap at the office ah fantasy football pool. 00:35:21.88 Kurt Crenwelge So I stand to win this year for a change. 00:35:24.80 Andrew Kolb just cruising on easy street oh 00:35:26.99 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, as still managing my teams. um But yeah, yeah. ah So doing that and and ah fun listener, well, fun fan listeners of the podcast. If they know the history, they can go back on YouTube and look for the podcast I did before this one. 00:35:45.22 Kurt Crenwelge Blank tape show with my buddy Anson, who's a proud sponsor of this podcast. One of our episodes we did, we did a fantasy football draft, but we'd had it with the twist. 00:35:55.86 Kurt Crenwelge that we were recruiting MCU and DECU characters to be in our football teams. 00:36:00.39 Andrew Kolb Oh yeah. Okay. okay 00:36:01.90 Kurt Crenwelge So we picked like regular players, but then we superimposed like, oh, this player represents like Wonder Woman or this player represents, you know, ah Daredevil. And so we had, you know, two teams each. 00:36:14.31 Kurt Crenwelge And we had a season of doing that. And fun fact, if the podcast had kept going, we were going to do another twist and be like, OK, baseball season's coming around. We're going do fantasy baseball, which I've never done before. But we do fantasy baseball and would be all villains. 00:36:29.95 Andrew Kolb Oh yeah. 00:36:30.23 Kurt Crenwelge So you'd have to pick all the villains being like baseball team players. 00:36:30.51 Andrew Kolb Okay. And map them on. Oh, that's fun too. 00:36:34.89 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. So maybe I'll have to try doing fantasy baseball one of these years and and just see how competitive it really is. 00:36:43.08 Andrew Kolb Yeah, i run I wonder, so I play in a fantasy football or like soccer league with my friends who are into soccer and i don't watch any of the games. 00:36:54.15 Andrew Kolb I only go off of numbers and do surprisingly well, like low tier, but like surprisingly well for never watching a single game. 00:36:56.81 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:37:02.44 Andrew Kolb But that has introduced me to fantasy sports. 00:37:02.76 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:37:04.36 Andrew Kolb And I think now paired with a better understanding of of baseball as a sport, I do wonder what that would be like. 00:37:11.61 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:37:11.55 Andrew Kolb I think I might get into fantasy baseball. Maybe that's, maybe this is the late breaking news that we've found on the podcast. 00:37:15.34 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, maybe this is the thing that we do together. We we just start playing ah fantasy sports together. Baseball, football, we do it all. 00:37:23.50 Andrew Kolb Yeah. I have no, I have no game related news, but I can tell you Andrew Cole was getting into fantasy baseball. That's the, that's the breaking news. Yeah. 00:37:31.54 Kurt Crenwelge That's the breaking news. All right, excellent. Well, I think we've had a fantastic ah personal interview section of the podcast, and it's now time to head into some NPC creation. 00:37:49.08 Kurt Crenwelge And NPC creation is brought to you by you, the podcast audience and our patrons from Patreon. So now's the time of the show where we give a loud hurrah to our comfortable patrons and above. 00:38:00.64 Kurt Crenwelge So hurrah to you all. I've got my whiskey sour with us at time of recording. So cheers. Yeah. So, of course, all ah these folks that I need to cheer, you know, Anson Jablinski and good old mom and dad, thank you so much for supporting the podcast. 00:38:17.49 Kurt Crenwelge All these folks that I, you know, that I just named are actually wealthy tier patrons, which means... they get to introduce an element of chance to our random tables that we have here in NPC creation. So if Andrew decides to get a little random, let the test, the dice and dice and the fates, then we might hear some of their responses used here today. 00:38:37.61 Kurt Crenwelge So if you want to learn more about the Patreon and Kofi and other ways to support the podcast, I certainly would appreciate it. It'll just continue to help us to step up our game. You can find, 00:38:49.14 Kurt Crenwelge Find out multiple ways about how to support us. Why? You can go to the ah show notes below. You can go to the podcast website or just go directly to patreon.com forward slash sidekicks and sidequests. 00:39:01.70 Kurt Crenwelge Find out more about the four tiers of accommodations that we have awaiting for you at the Levitating Platter. Help us to grow and expand our operations in this demiplane and worlds beyond. 00:39:13.99 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so now is the part of the show where we get to make up a character. You're pretty good at doodling them, and now we get to make up a character. So are you wishing to go random, roll some dice today, and generate a character? 00:39:27.40 Kurt Crenwelge Or do you have an idea for a character? We're just going to discover who they are through the course of the questions. 00:39:32.91 Andrew Kolb I do have an idea for a character. um Quick aside, i just got a note that says I've run out of free disk space to save a local backup of this data. Is there an issue with that? 00:39:45.46 Kurt Crenwelge I don't believe so. 00:39:47.07 Andrew Kolb OK. 00:39:47.22 Kurt Crenwelge ah So I should be able to amend this out of the transcript, hopefully, as well as the actual episode that will go up. So this website's pretty good about recording everything and saving it to the website. 00:39:55.63 Andrew Kolb OK. 00:40:01.20 Kurt Crenwelge So you should be good. 00:40:02.91 Andrew Kolb Okay. I just, i don't want to lose everything from here on out or whatever happens. 00:40:08.01 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, no, the this, ah you know, I pay for this. I pay for this thing, and it's pretty good about getting all the audio. 00:40:13.84 Andrew Kolb Okay. 00:40:13.96 Kurt Crenwelge So, yeah. 00:40:14.48 Andrew Kolb Okay. And you, ah so like all the audio is coming through okay so far? 00:40:18.47 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I mean, I know the the the picture quality maybe for you dropped a little bit during like the first part of it when we hit record. But otherwise, you seem fine now. 00:40:27.14 Andrew Kolb Okay. 00:40:27.49 Kurt Crenwelge Your picture quality is a little bit better. So, yeah. 00:40:29.40 Andrew Kolb Okay. I also just like, i feel like my audio lines are very small compared to yours. And I hope that that means you can still hear me. So. 00:40:36.60 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, no, I mean, I've ah yeah, I always make sure to check all my audio stuff because it'll be like, hey, I wanted to talk out of this microphone instead of this one that I have right here in front of my face. 00:40:40.19 Andrew Kolb Okay. 00:40:47.52 Andrew Kolb Gotcha. Okay. Okay. Sorry for the sidetrack. Just wanted to make sure everything's okay. So happy to get back into it. 00:40:52.18 Kurt Crenwelge That's okay. 00:40:55.65 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. So, uh, yeah. So with all that, uh, explained, are we going to be, uh, randomly generating character or we, do you have an idea for a character? And, you know, we're allowed to mix and match. So maybe you've got some ideas or some things figured out, but you just feel like randomizing a aspect of the character or spitballing. 00:41:15.14 Kurt Crenwelge We could do that too. 00:41:16.10 Andrew Kolb I do have some ideas based on us talking about the ah the side characters from Discworld. I do i would like to make a somewhat an interpretation of Cut Me On Throat Dibbler, or at least a sausage on a bun vendor. 00:41:31.89 Andrew Kolb I think that could be fun for a for an NPC. 00:41:32.66 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, OK. 00:41:36.10 Andrew Kolb So that's at least kind of like the kernel that we will hopefully build off of, but happy to roll some random stuff for it too. 00:41:40.62 Kurt Crenwelge OK. 00:41:42.99 Kurt Crenwelge Excellent. OK, so we've got our skeleton framework, so we're making like a sausage and bun vendor guy ah that maybe has like clones or iterations or similar archetypes of of characters in the different cities of your world. 00:41:49.29 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:41:59.70 Kurt Crenwelge But wherever you're first going to encounter ah this this character, this will be like the first one that you meet before you start noticing that, hey, this guy seems to be appearing in all these places. He just has a mustache and that other city. 00:42:13.24 Andrew Kolb Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I imagined that. ah So talking about the the character, I did imagine that they were like a goblin. So I know that that can also be tricky depending on your setting. 00:42:24.56 Andrew Kolb ah But I do like the idea of like a small goblin ah running ah running a cart with questionable foodstuffs inside. 00:42:25.18 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, OK. A goblin. 00:42:33.97 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. So as we work our way through the questions, do you have an idea for the character name or did you want to roll for that? 00:42:40.17 Andrew Kolb Oh, um i think we could roll. So I was i i was thinking if it's a goblin, i think in honor of the original, like the inspiration's name, I did like the idea Throat Cutter. 00:42:52.30 Andrew Kolb um But that might also, i also know my players, if you introduce someone named Throat Cutter, then they are immediately going to think that this is a murderous or a dangerous creature. So I think it might be nice to roll randomly. 00:43:02.22 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:43:04.84 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:43:05.59 Kurt Crenwelge Sure, yeah. So we've got, ah if you want to roll for a name, it will be a D20 roll. 00:43:11.64 Andrew Kolb OK. 00:43:15.71 Andrew Kolb So rolling a d20, I have gotten 9. Oh, 00:43:21.83 Kurt Crenwelge A nine. Wow, would you believe it? I was staring at my D20 chart and I was like, I wonder if it's going to be this choice. And you rolled a nine. 00:43:29.86 Andrew Kolb oh great. 00:43:30.30 Kurt Crenwelge this This answer provided by our previous guest, Michael Horsley. Zigster. 00:43:36.15 Andrew Kolb OK. Yeah, I can see there being a d20. 00:43:37.50 Kurt Crenwelge z i 00:43:39.02 Andrew Kolb Continue. 00:43:39.17 Kurt Crenwelge Z-I-G-S-T-E-R. 00:43:41.06 Andrew Kolb Okay. Yeah, I can see a Zygster in each city or in each town selling sausages. 00:43:42.28 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:43:45.72 Andrew Kolb That's great. 00:43:47.15 Kurt Crenwelge Alright, and it sounds like by the ah the description that you you had, the skeleton framework, the ancestry of the character, Goblin. Like, just straight up, like, tiny, like, small creature-sized Goblin. 00:43:59.25 Andrew Kolb Yeah, and I think if that's not appropriate for your setting, then like a halfling or like definitely a small, tough statured background would be the best fit. 00:44:08.99 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. I kind of like the... i think I think Goblin's good, you know, because maybe they're not in the major city, but maybe they go to, like, ah I don't know, they go to the Thieves Market underground, or they just... 00:44:12.96 Andrew Kolb I do too. 00:44:20.96 Kurt Crenwelge that They're randomly in the Feywild, and they just happen to cross this goblin that's running this cart, like a food cart, a food truck or something, in the middle of a glade. ah That'd be fun. 00:44:30.71 Andrew Kolb Yeah, you're walking down a ah dangerous path and you hear the squeaky wheels rolling and everyone gets off the road thinking that it's going to be something dangerous. And it's just a goblin pushing a cart and it smells good because it's got hot, fresh cooked food in it. 00:44:41.60 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:44:46.35 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. And then let's see the jobber role in the occupation, the jobber role in society ah that Zigster has is ah is a a food vendor is what we're thinking. 00:44:57.07 Andrew Kolb Yes. Yeah. 00:44:57.77 Kurt Crenwelge and 00:44:58.22 Andrew Kolb Yeah. I think, I mean, sausage on a bun is maybe what makes the most sense or a hot dog. But I guess the the core concept to being some sort of protein within a bread stuff, that's the that's the the base of it. 00:45:12.21 Andrew Kolb So whatever fits your setting, but when in doubt, as as a hot dog is always a good choice. 00:45:14.54 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:45:18.85 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, hot dog, sausage. Yeah, I mean, just think of Ren Faire. 00:45:20.35 Andrew Kolb Yeah. Yeah. 00:45:22.13 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, well, great, you could get lots of things fried. 00:45:22.26 Andrew Kolb Yes. Yeah. yeah 00:45:24.73 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, a fried sausage on a stick. 00:45:24.88 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:45:27.84 Kurt Crenwelge ah like with a like in it Like a corn dog. 00:45:27.91 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:45:30.44 Kurt Crenwelge Could be a corn dog vendor, for all you know. 00:45:31.91 Andrew Kolb Yeah. I mean, I guess a corn dog is a sandwich by the the finest or the loosest definition. 00:45:38.47 Kurt Crenwelge ha ha ha. Okay, and then let's see the next thing we need to figure out. The age range of the character. of the character So if you need to roll this randomly. 00:45:45.54 Andrew Kolb oh good question. Yeah. Let's roll that. 00:45:48.68 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so this will be a D8 roll. 00:45:50.47 Andrew Kolb Okay. Find my D8. 00:45:56.97 Andrew Kolb So ah seven. 00:46:00.45 Kurt Crenwelge Ancient. We have an ancient goblin named Zygster who is a 00:46:01.39 Andrew Kolb Oh. 00:46:06.91 Kurt Crenwelge Food vendor, ah you know, like ah protein, hot dog, sausage and bun guy, food vendor. So with all these details in mind, so we've got Zigster, we've got Goblin, food vendor, and they're ancient. 00:46:20.52 Andrew Kolb Do you think it's okay. 00:46:20.83 Kurt Crenwelge Ancient by Goblin standards, I guess. 00:46:22.92 Andrew Kolb Okay. That's what i was curious about whether or not they are like, 00:46:23.50 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Could be goblin standards, could be literally ancient, like it's been centuries, however you take it. 00:46:27.62 Andrew Kolb Okay. 00:46:30.61 Kurt Crenwelge But with these details in mind, your illustrator mind now picturing this character, can you do can you tell us there what's the physical description of this character? 00:46:40.42 Andrew Kolb um So, I mean, I think they look... ah I think they look the same way that a hot dog does in that it's like a little puffy and ah almost like they're a little too big for their casing. 00:46:55.82 Andrew Kolb um Maybe just from like being exposed to the sun for too long. ah They've probably got some grill marks on their hands from working the working the equipment. 00:47:00.54 Kurt Crenwelge oh 00:47:06.34 Andrew Kolb um But being ancient, they maybe... Yeah, I think they look like that they have or could survive a nuclear blast. Like just something about them means they are so preserved and they have so much preservatives in them that they themselves maybe aren't actually just pure goblin anymore. 00:47:25.11 Kurt Crenwelge He's eaten so much of his own products that it's like, oh, you truly are what you eat. 00:47:29.85 Andrew Kolb Right, right, exactly. Yeah. 00:47:33.16 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Yeah. 00:47:33.73 Andrew Kolb and And beyond that, as far as clothing, I think they probably like a nice... 00:47:33.96 Kurt Crenwelge i will 00:47:36.97 Andrew Kolb ah apron um and like a practical like wool shirt sleeves rolled up beyond that I don't know if he has a hat but if he does have a hat then it is also branded or embroidered with something related to his craft ah so or her craft their craft whatever whichever depending on whichever Zigster you run into they are ones for branding they know a good brand or the importance of a good Zigster dog 00:47:48.48 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:47:57.64 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:48:06.89 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Ooh. Uh, yeah. Now I'm just thinking thinking of the name. It's like, okay, what do they call it in the city? Like the, the people in the community, it's like, obviously depending on how you flavor it, if it's like, Oh, if it's more like the bustle of New York city or, or Toronto or Los Angeles or, 00:48:23.66 Kurt Crenwelge San Antonio or Portland, Oregon, you know, very different vibes in all those cities, but still fast paced and people go and it's like, Hey, I'm going to go get a Ziggy or I'm, uh, you know, I'm going to go see Zigster and go get a, you know, whatever they call It's like, do they call it a Ziggy or do they call it a Ziggy piggy? 00:48:29.62 Andrew Kolb Right. 00:48:34.26 Andrew Kolb Right. 00:48:41.92 Kurt Crenwelge Or I don't know. Like, 00:48:42.81 Andrew Kolb Yeah. And I think much like hot dogs across the USA, like there's always a different interpretation of it. Like sometimes they're completely fried in butter or sometimes the topping is a local ah delicacy or just real bare bones and it's only mustard and mayo or whatever you have on hand. 00:49:00.90 Kurt Crenwelge Mm hmm. 00:49:02.04 Andrew Kolb That's that's what makes each Zigster or each Ziggy or Ziggy Piggy unique. 00:49:07.64 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, yeah, I like Ziggy Piggy because then it's like, ah you know, like pork pork meat based. And then it's like, oh, if we get the strips of it, we can wrap it around like bacon wraps stuff. 00:49:12.79 Andrew Kolb Right. 00:49:18.36 Andrew Kolb I also like to think that Zigsters have suggested that even though there might not necessarily be any actual pork in it, it's all a branding sleight of hand to like, oh, yeah, you're getting a Ziggy Piggy. 00:49:26.40 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:49:30.37 Andrew Kolb And then no one really questions what's actually in the in the hot dog. 00:49:35.11 Kurt Crenwelge I was going to say, ah you you tell me if ah in this part of the world, it's it's true for you, but at least where I live, um there are a few places where you can go and get like Korean style corn dogs. 00:49:47.82 Andrew Kolb Oh, yeah. 00:49:48.36 Kurt Crenwelge And these are like, do you have the Korean corn dogs where you are? 00:49:48.66 Andrew Kolb Yep. 00:49:51.34 Andrew Kolb Yeah, yeah, yeah. ah 00:49:53.13 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, those are like fancy, like sugar coated. Like they get like they they plus up a corn dog. and We think of like, oh, corn dogs are like the things that I can get in the freezer aisle and I just microwave them or I go to the Texas State Fair and I can get like a super big one. But it's like Korean corn dogs kind of take it to the next level. 00:50:11.95 Andrew Kolb Yeah, I think any good food can be dressed up to the point where it is a delicacy, but also so accessible that you can pay pennies for it and get the most bare bones version of it. And technically, you're still eating the same thing and all under the same category. Yeah, absolutely. and i think that applies to a Zigster as well. 00:50:29.48 Kurt Crenwelge yeah so so they do offer like premium like super fancy versions but also if you're just like i gotta go do my shift at the factory i need a ziggy piggy while i'm eating it and working going to the factory sort of a thing 00:50:44.34 Andrew Kolb Yeah, I like to think that a Zigster knows their market. And if they are in a high-end area, then they will serve. like A Zigster is always going to do what they need to do to make their dollar and and cover the cost of whatever they're putting into the into the the bun. 00:51:02.49 Andrew Kolb So sometimes they're high-end, sometimes they're just bare bones. It just depends on where they are. 00:51:08.92 Kurt Crenwelge Interesting. Okay. All right. Yeah, no, this is helping to inform the character. And certainly, you know, for role playing purposes, you know, when we're going to deploy Zigster in our story or whichever version of Zigster they encounter, what are the three adjectives that you think best describes Zigster as a character? 00:51:28.01 Andrew Kolb Oh, okay. Okay. Uh, entrepreneurial, I think they are really, always looking for a new business venture or opportunity to, increase their profits or at least like make their business more successful. 00:51:43.94 Andrew Kolb Um, 00:51:44.37 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm. 00:51:44.81 Andrew Kolb I think they're resourceful. So I think they're ah always looking for or always able to find something that they need, ah no matter kind of, you know, like kind of like getting blood out of a stone sort of thing like they can, they always kind of have a contact that will get them or help them with what they need to do. 00:52:02.89 Andrew Kolb ah And I guess ambitious kind of feels like a blend of the other two, ah but connected. i think if we have these Zigsters across the land and they're all kind of part of the same franchise system, then i think they... 00:52:10.99 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:52:21.34 Kurt Crenwelge They all come from the same goblin clan. 00:52:23.22 Andrew Kolb Right. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. So then i think they all are kind of a good and I know kind maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but I think they are probably always a good source for either Intel or rumors elsewhere because they they have a cousin's sister who is selling Zigsters here and they heard insert rumor here. 00:52:35.79 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. 00:52:44.98 Kurt Crenwelge I was going to say, I was just reminded ah because I saw it on social media and in and I have not, to my shame, I have not actually, i don't think I've actually seen all the Naked Gun movies, like the old original ones with, older original ones with Leslie Nielsen. 00:52:55.96 Andrew Kolb Oh, okay. Yeah. yeah 00:53:00.48 Kurt Crenwelge And I knew the new the new one just came out. ah with Liam Neeson, which I have yet to see. um But I think there was a clip that went around where it was like Leslie Nielsen goes to a shoeshine guy and is just like, I need to find out information about this guy. And then the shoeshine guy's like, I don't know. 00:53:19.17 Kurt Crenwelge And then he like gives him like a dollar. and He's like, all right, well, you didn't hear it from me. And then he like tells him what he needs. And he's like, great, thanks. And he leaves. And then the gag is a doctor comes up And he's like, I, this patient is real tough. I'm trying to do this surgery and I need to know how to do this. 00:53:36.10 Kurt Crenwelge And then the guy's like, i don't know. And then the doctor like looks around, gives him a bribe. And he's like, and then, so then the guy starts going into a dialogue about like, what kind of surgery you're going? If you try this method, it's like, no, no, you can't do that. You got to try this. So that would, that's sort of the idea of Zigster is kind of like, it's like, Oh, I need to figure out like where these thieves are moving in. Uh, this thief gang in the, in the market. he's like, 00:54:00.43 Kurt Crenwelge I wish I could tell you. And you like you know you give Zigster a little money. He's like, well, you didn't hear it from me. But at this time of night, whenever the guard shift changes, that's when you could always go to Zigster for information, but because of their entrepreneurial um neutral sort of ah status that they hold, it's like, oh, they're like a good source of information that you can go to that isn't biased or anything like that. 00:54:11.89 Andrew Kolb Right. 00:54:28.45 Kurt Crenwelge It's not like 00:54:28.47 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:54:29.64 Kurt Crenwelge the thieves The thieves can't mess with Zigster because then that takes out like everyone being able to have a good meal for the day in the market or whatever. 00:54:38.21 Andrew Kolb Right. 00:54:38.41 Kurt Crenwelge like People would be in arms if Zigster wound up dead or something like that. 00:54:38.69 Andrew Kolb That's it. 00:54:42.60 Andrew Kolb As a reliable foodstuff, yes. I also like the idea of like what we're talking about with the exchange of information. If you have to buy the Zigster, like you have to buy the foods to get the... It's not just giving the 10GP or the $10 note. You have to also buy... like he the The trade is, well, you got to buy some hot dogs or you've got to buy some Zigsters to be able to get the info. like it's It's of the the tip on top that kind of goes with the... 00:55:05.53 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:55:09.35 Andrew Kolb like He's still trying to run a hot dog stand. So... That's still the top priority. 00:55:12.12 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. and And, you know, we're saying this idea of, like, you know, the brand is Zigsters, and, like, you know, you could be running across a different goblin, maybe of they're of the same clan, so is the idea that we're, and you know and Zigster is ancient, are we literally meeting Zig, like, if the you know, the, if the assumption is like, we're taking this character that we're making we're putting them in our game, are they going to meet like the original Zigster or based on the sounding of the idea of this like franchise operation, sort of a thing is like Zigster removed in like Zig, maybe Zigster's still hustling and and still selling, um, you know, Ziggy piggies just like the rest of them or Ziggy, uh, Zigster is sort of removed, uh, 00:56:01.02 Kurt Crenwelge And just is like, oh, yes, this is the I manage the clan and the operation and stuff like that. And, you know, oh, everyone just calls themselves Zigster, even if that's not their real goblin name. But that's kind of the deal with, you know, working for me and stuff like that. 00:56:15.12 Andrew Kolb Oh, I don't know. I do like the idea of any goblin that takes up a ah wagon like this becomes a Zygster. Like that just becomes your like name. Like you kind of become like a Carter sort of thing. 00:56:27.32 Andrew Kolb um But I think this ancient one is maybe just the one who's been around the longest or maybe the one who is the most experienced. 00:56:27.77 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:56:33.31 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:56:35.31 Andrew Kolb And maybe they themselves... are not the first but everyone's kind of seems to go to them like maybe it's a chip of theseus thing of like you keep replacing enough zigsters is there actually an original zigster anymore or like uh right right 00:56:42.83 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:56:49.35 Kurt Crenwelge I take a goblin part from this one. I take a goblin part from that one. We rebuild the ancient. 00:56:54.73 Andrew Kolb right 00:56:54.95 Kurt Crenwelge Is this still the original Zigster or not? Yeah. 00:56:57.20 Andrew Kolb Yeah. And maybe that's maybe that's a question. i in my writing, I also like to do this. I like having some questions unanswered. So I think i think the nature of why this Zygster is ancient is left unanswered. 00:57:05.40 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:57:12.62 Andrew Kolb I don't know if the characters or the player characters will ever actually find that out. 00:57:16.96 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. I love that. Yeah. And, ah you know, maybe even the idea of like, he's still out there, ah you know, selling these Ziggy Piggies as well, just as much as the rest of them. 00:57:28.37 Kurt Crenwelge um But he's treated as sort of like ah like ah like a regional manager or something like that. So like other cart vendors in the city are like coming to him like, hey, there's this you know They're collecting all their information together and they're like sharing their tips and tricks of like where the new spot's going or like what activity is going on in this area. Okay, can we change our recipe a little bit to cater to that a little more? so but yeah, i like your idea of like he's the trusted one. that they The ancient one is the trusted one that they go to. 00:57:58.48 Kurt Crenwelge um And you know maybe even from the further cities, they'll come in and they'll like report to 00:58:03.44 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:58:03.82 Kurt Crenwelge ancient Zigster and like you know so it really is sort of like this ah you know informal vast spy network if you will if you just play your cards right or literally you just spend all your money at their food cards they'll just give you everything that you need to know 00:58:18.52 Andrew Kolb Buying Ziggy Piggy's net. 00:58:21.71 Andrew Kolb Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, i like I like the idea of the network that is kind of informally, like or not governed by a single kind of body, like a kind of just like a collective, like it's almost like a hive mind. 00:58:35.19 Andrew Kolb Like I also think if you insult or upset one Zigster, then that will carry over into other cities. 00:58:40.63 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:58:42.14 Andrew Kolb Like if you rob one, 00:58:43.19 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, yeah. 00:58:43.62 Andrew Kolb you've robbed all of them in an almost like mafia kind of style family. 00:58:45.65 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:58:47.55 Andrew Kolb So if you wrong one, no matter where they are in the hierarchy or experience level, that that kind of just becomes a collective knowledge. 00:58:47.64 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. I love that. 00:58:55.39 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:58:55.73 Andrew Kolb So that way, yeah. 00:58:56.34 Kurt Crenwelge Kind of like the Mercanes, I think, is how they work in Spelljammer. 00:58:58.41 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 00:58:59.99 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, if you if you insult one of them, you've insulted all of them, and they will no longer deal with you sort of a thing. 00:59:03.97 Andrew Kolb Right. Yeah. And they'll all kind of respond in their own kind of negative way. Like some might be more aggressive, some might just be aloof, or you might not be able to find the Zygster in another city because they just like refuse to be found. 00:59:17.42 Andrew Kolb But once you've upset one, you need to repair that ah before you will connect with the others again. 00:59:25.02 Kurt Crenwelge Very cool. And of course, we like all of our NPCs on this podcast to have something cool on their person. It sounds like we've you know maybe come across a few, um but if we're wanting to roll for it randomly, we can. 00:59:38.59 Kurt Crenwelge But what's going to be a valuable item, piece of lore, secret, or ideal or concept that a Zigster would possess? It sounds like, obviously, this this business network, the idea that they're this informal spy network slash you know vast... 00:59:46.05 Andrew Kolb Oh, right. 00:59:54.33 Kurt Crenwelge knowledge database that you could ah the you could go to. um What is it? the They talk about um on social media of like, oh, if you want to know how things are going with the the military in the United States, it's like the the Pentagon pizza watch or whatever. 01:00:12.62 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, 01:00:12.68 Andrew Kolb oh right 01:00:13.20 Kurt Crenwelge You watch and see if how the pizza orders spike, and then you know. 01:00:15.89 Andrew Kolb Right, in the area. 01:00:16.72 Kurt Crenwelge So maybe even a thing of that of where it's like, oh, hey, the Ziggy Piggies are doing, are selling, like, people are buying them a lot. 01:00:17.09 Andrew Kolb yeah 01:00:23.64 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, something's about to go down because people are like, you know, oh, they've ramped up work at the factories. They're having to pull, like, double shifts. Or like, oh, Ziggy Piggies aren't doing as well over here. Oh, there something bad's going on over there. So if adventurers are looking for something to do they could just check, like, the Ziggy Piggie Figgy or whatever, 01:00:42.28 Andrew Kolb Right. 01:00:42.74 Kurt Crenwelge zippy name they come up for it ah to be like hey network says like good things are happening over here bad things are happening over here oh it sounds like there's a plot thread over here sort of a thing 01:00:53.14 Andrew Kolb Yeah, I think, yeah, because if you have a cart that's stationed over by the barracks, you know things are going to happen or something is going down. Yeah, that's a good idea. um so yeah, outside of information, I mean, I'm also happy to roll. 01:01:05.07 Andrew Kolb I think it's always nice for them to have just something surprising that someone has paid them in exchange for a for a hot dog. 01:01:08.43 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 01:01:13.23 Andrew Kolb So what do you do? 01:01:13.54 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. So if you want to randomize it, this is a combo roll, so you get to roll D4 for the category and then a D6 for the particular thing. 01:01:21.18 Andrew Kolb Okay, so d four this is and you You can't see this because this is an audio-only podcast, but my cat has decided to become very needy, so I'm holding them in one hand and we'll roll in another. 01:01:32.89 Kurt Crenwelge It's very adorable, audio-only audience. 01:01:34.48 Andrew Kolb Thank you. This is Bernard. 01:01:35.66 Kurt Crenwelge It's very adorable. 01:01:36.56 Andrew Kolb Thank you. 01:01:36.87 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 01:01:37.20 Andrew Kolb Okay, a one for the D4. 01:01:40.14 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so this is going be an item. 01:01:41.73 Andrew Kolb Okay, great. And then a six. 01:01:45.24 Kurt Crenwelge Correct. 01:01:46.61 Andrew Kolb Oh, sorry, I rolled a six. 01:01:48.35 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, you rolled a six. Okay. 01:01:49.21 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 01:01:49.98 Kurt Crenwelge Well, this answer was provided by our previous guest, Skyline Stars. And I think it's very apt. So Zigster has a dinner plate that fills up with whatever food they want to eat, but you need to roll a DC 12 con save in order to actually eat the food or else it turns into gray mush. 01:01:56.83 Andrew Kolb Oh, great. 01:02:09.26 Kurt Crenwelge Still edible, not tasty. 01:02:11.94 Andrew Kolb Okay, I like that. If we can modify it slightly, I feel like some of the food should be Ziggy Piggies, like either the food that they don't want to eat or no matter what, it fills up with ah the Ziggy Piggies. 01:02:20.79 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Ooh. 01:02:23.82 Andrew Kolb And then if they don't don't eat them all, then it becomes the gray mush. um I'm open to the user's interpretation. If we can modify. 01:02:31.68 Kurt Crenwelge oo 01:02:32.34 Andrew Kolb Otherwise, I also love the item ads as is. 01:02:35.25 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, well, maybe it's like, ah you know, what helps it to be interesting is like, you know, ah if it's um what is it? It may be like a like a very basic lottery of like the 50-50 lottery idea of like you either take the guaranteed thing, which is going to be like the Ziggy Piggy, or they offer this other thing, which is like. 01:02:52.66 Andrew Kolb Oh yeah, okay. 01:02:56.03 Kurt Crenwelge the plate. 01:02:56.82 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 01:02:56.98 Kurt Crenwelge You know, they're they're like, Ziggy Piggy, your plate. And it's like, they hand you one or the other, and the idea is like, oh, if you decide to take a plate, okay, when you take the plate, you think about what it is you want to eat. Okay, roll a con save, and then, like, it either is going to be mush, or it's going to be the whatever you wanted to eat. 01:03:14.07 Andrew Kolb Right. 01:03:14.15 Kurt Crenwelge And so maybe that's also another thrill of going to Zigsters, is like... I don't know. I've tried this week five times. I've tried to do the the plate option and it's always come out as mush. 01:03:24.88 Kurt Crenwelge as I'm feeling lucky today. um So that may be like a fun 50 50 idea you throw with the cart of like, oh, do you want the Ziggy Piggy or do you want the plate? 01:03:27.35 Andrew Kolb right 01:03:35.08 Andrew Kolb yeah the uh yeah the the uh ziggy piggy in the hand is worth two drumsticks in the bush sort of thing 01:03:35.23 Kurt Crenwelge And that's like the formal informal way they ask it. Yeah. 01:03:44.30 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, but some people are like have gotten lucky and they're like, oh, i you know, I wanted to eat like an ancient ah like an ancient ah gourmet ah properly prepared and not poisonous T-Rex steak. 01:04:01.47 Kurt Crenwelge And they got it on the plate like first time or something like that. And or someone else got like filet mignon or like ah Korean barbecue or, you know, orcish barbecue or whatever it was, like whatever they imagined it could be. 01:04:15.67 Kurt Crenwelge um They got it on the plate. Otherwise, it just appears as like this goblin preferential ah mush, gray mush. And maybe for goblins, they're like, great. 01:04:26.23 Kurt Crenwelge ah You know, I love the plate because they have like horrible con saves or whatever. So like all the all the other folks are like, yeah, I'll take the plate. ah but Oh, the Ziggy Piggy is too rich for me. Sort of a thing. 01:04:37.52 Andrew Kolb Yeah, they're they're happy to have a change of pace from the Ziggy Piggies that they're just going with the mush. or that's That's kind of like a nice palate cleanser for them. 01:04:46.40 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, that's cool. So it's not tasty. It says it's still edible. It's just not tasty, which is ah which is funny, which like a goblin, a kobold or some of these other races that are ancestries or species don't have like a particular. 01:04:51.91 Andrew Kolb Right. 01:05:00.55 Kurt Crenwelge They're like, I need food sustenance in my mouth to go to my stomach to fuel me for the day or just workers who are beat down or just like. I'm a coal miner. I've lost all sense of smell, and so just to even have something is is fine, sort of a thing. 01:05:16.51 Andrew Kolb Right. Just like straight sustenance, like just eating to live. That's all. 01:05:20.77 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. I love it. Okay. And then, let's see. Now... ah This Zigster that we're encountering, the ancient Zigster, has got to be able to have some sort of gold bright gold exclamation point above their head to let you know that they're a side quest giver. 01:05:37.80 Kurt Crenwelge So what is going to be the side quest that Zigster... will come to or just will offer up to a bunch of player characters to assist them with or go off and do. 01:05:49.68 Kurt Crenwelge If you want to randomize it, it's a D12. 01:05:49.62 Andrew Kolb Okay. 01:05:52.21 Kurt Crenwelge Or if all along based on what we're thinking, do you think that Zygster would offer up as a side quest? 01:05:58.62 Andrew Kolb No, I'm realizing now what I've done is also brought in one of my favorite, one of my other favorite kind of like literature ah pieces of art, um which is a comic book series called Delicious in Dungeon, um which is like, could imagine a D&D campaign, but each each chapter is a different recipe or based around eating a different monster. 01:06:10.43 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:06:18.46 Andrew Kolb um So now I'm realizing that that's also what I'm bringing into this. 01:06:18.79 Kurt Crenwelge o 01:06:21.66 Andrew Kolb So I think the quest should be that this ancient... zigster is looking for the the players to kill and then bring back a certain type of meat. So depending on the level of the player characters, like something appropriate for them. 01:06:37.04 Andrew Kolb ah But the Zigster wants to make Ziggy Piggies with a specific type of protein. ah So if they can bring back a haunch or or the the full carcass of something, ah then then he will or they will provide 01:06:49.68 Kurt Crenwelge I see. 01:06:52.42 Andrew Kolb ah the players with something good. um Yeah, because they're too busy selling what they've got to be able to go and get it themselves. So it requires like some hunting and some some a change of scenery because this is probably happening in a city. 01:07:00.26 Kurt Crenwelge i say 01:07:07.48 Andrew Kolb So this means that they have to either go down into the sewers or into... 01:07:08.04 Kurt Crenwelge right 01:07:11.69 Andrew Kolb the rooftops where something is nesting or into the woods, like they need to change environments because he or they the Zigster just can't get to that location to to get themselves. 01:07:21.79 Andrew Kolb So kill something. 01:07:23.12 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:07:23.63 Andrew Kolb I don't know what that beast is, but I think, again, I want to leave that to the the dungeon master to fill in that blank. 01:07:28.55 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. Whichever city you're in. Yeah. Depending on what's going to be the different environment from where you currently are ah to go and get the beast ah of of of the hunt. 01:07:39.68 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 01:07:39.81 Kurt Crenwelge um So shout out certainly to our previous guest eating the dungeon. um who does great YouTube videos ah on on preparing and hunting ah different D&D creatures and like what are the different ah ways that you ought to prepare. 01:07:52.33 Andrew Kolb Oh, yeah. 01:07:56.62 Kurt Crenwelge So everything from purple worm to catablipus, you know, fascinating stuff and you know he's a very big ah culinary nerd uh so he really studies this stuff and has a fantastic discord community and social media uh as well so if you're this this would go synergistically ah with eating the dungeons work and and that whole uh part of the of the hobby that are like well if we're in these dungeons and we're fighting all these monsters like we don't want to just leave all this around to just rot and go to waste. 01:08:30.41 Kurt Crenwelge Right. Like um surely someone wants to eat a dragon corpse or, you know, like, uh, or whatever corpse. 01:08:34.02 Andrew Kolb Yep. 01:08:36.96 Kurt Crenwelge Um, so it's like, yeah, let's yeah. Okay. Perfect. So level appropriate, wherever your party is, whatever location they're in, our ancient Zigster needs you to go and hunt this creature down to bring it back. Cause they want their meat. 01:08:50.98 Kurt Crenwelge Um, 01:08:50.96 Andrew Kolb yep 01:08:51.87 Kurt Crenwelge is it And is it a question and you and you said it's more of a question of like, hey, I'm looking to change things up on the menu. Or is it like, oh, I'm starting to run low on stuff. 01:09:01.94 Kurt Crenwelge I don't know when I'll be able to get like a resupply. So if you could just go get this for me, that would be like really helpful sort of thing. 01:09:08.84 Andrew Kolb Oh, I was thinking as like a, like a culinary Mount Everest and that like, I've never been able to make a Zigster with this meat. And, and therefore that's a kind of like a personal goal. 01:09:17.71 Kurt Crenwelge Ah, yeah. 01:09:20.44 Andrew Kolb um Cause I think they probably have enough access and resources to kind of get a good stream of like rats and basic ah proteins to fill ah or so things that you don't really want to ask the questions of. 01:09:34.01 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, we've turned snowpiercer. Oh, those jelly cubes you're eating are just crickets. 01:09:36.48 Andrew Kolb Right. Yeah. Right. So I think this is more like a, I've never been able to, especially because this is ah an ancient Zigster. ah They want to, like, this is their white whale is I've always wanted to see how can I make ah ah ziggypiggy from a red dragon thigh or or, a purple worm tongue or something like that. 01:09:48.93 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:09:58.04 Andrew Kolb so that's, that's my thinking. 01:10:01.20 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, very cool. So... Alright, the goal is clear in mind. Hunt the beast, get it, and bring it back. So, we have to consider what's going to be the reward. what's go to How is Zigster, our ancient Zigster, going to reward the party for successfully bringing back the quarry? 01:10:19.29 Andrew Kolb I mean, i think my gut is that it is like some very secreted ah lore. Like, I think it's information. I don't think it's like a tangible reward in that, like, now I have this item or this money. 01:10:31.99 Andrew Kolb I think it's knowledge. So, so again, I don't... This is also what I do in my writing too. i really seem to put a lot onto the the DM at that table. I think it depends on what fits best for your world, but whatever crucial piece of information the player characters are looking for or are really stuck on, the Zigster just knows. 01:10:49.40 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 01:10:50.74 Andrew Kolb They just happen to have exactly the answer that they're looking for. 01:10:54.38 Kurt Crenwelge o 01:10:54.60 Andrew Kolb I think that becomes the reward. 01:10:55.20 Kurt Crenwelge oh Okay, so whichever crucial piece of information that's needed in your campaign, if you are like, what's the plausible way that I can introduce this to the players without them just being like ah rolling their eyes. Here's the DM that's having to step in and spoon feed us because we're just s spinning our wheels and can't think of it. You're like, aha, Zigster could be the one to deliver. and it's plausible because of the world building. 01:11:23.94 Andrew Kolb Yep. And that I think that's also fun too to have them, again, already kind of know that they're looking for this information. Like even if the player characters don't think to ask, I think it's fun to say, well, if you hunt this down, I do happen to know and then fill in the blank, even if the player characters aren't specifically asking for that info. 01:11:42.59 Andrew Kolb ah Because I think that also then reinforces how knowledgeable this network is to already know that they're looking for that info and then also already have the answer. 01:11:53.14 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Cool. and then And then we have to consider the opposite. What's going to be the consequence of failure or refusing the call to the adventure? So either just you know telling Zigster, no way, no thank you, 01:12:07.77 Kurt Crenwelge you know, beat it, get lost, uh, versus just like, oh, we tried to go hunt the thing and the thing escaped the meat spoiled or, you know, whatever happened, uh, what's going to be the consequence of failure or refusing the call to the adventure. 01:12:21.41 Andrew Kolb i think I think it's kind of what we were talking about earlier in that because they are such an interconnected network, refusing it to this either cuts off all other quests from others or it's not until it cuts off the information until... 01:12:36.95 Andrew Kolb you end up kind of accepting the quest from a different zigster to do something else like basically the well of knowledge runs dry until you do something for them if they've asked you to do something so i think that's i think that's the the consequences yeah 01:12:49.78 Kurt Crenwelge o 01:12:55.85 Kurt Crenwelge I wonder if it and depending on, you know, so they go to the ancient Zigster, they can't do it. um I'm just thinking and of like a like a video game ah where it's ah it's kind of like a little bit cheeky. 01:13:09.29 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, OK, we're going to go fight the super hard boss. Oh, we got our butts handed to us. And it's like you try it again. But like with like, oh, this is the Zigster in the red hat now instead of the blue hat. And but the one in the red hats like. 01:13:21.43 Kurt Crenwelge can you go hunt a little baby animal for me? it's like, okay, you don't need to insult me like that. 01:13:27.10 Andrew Kolb um 01:13:27.31 Kurt Crenwelge Like, you know, so maybe it kind of like, uh, maybe like, uh, you know, emboldens your players or it like lights the fire under them where they're like, all right, that's it. We got to go back to that ancient Zigster. 01:13:38.76 Kurt Crenwelge I'm not, you know, this one is asking for like something like insultingly easy or like, you know, just something that's just like insulting of like, I would, you know, like, Oh, it just gets under my skin and sort of a thing. 01:13:38.69 Andrew Kolb Right. 01:13:49.99 Andrew Kolb Right. Yeah. Like each, each zigster is looking for a different meat or has their own kind of different goal, but the ancient one is the one that's looking for a very high challenge as opposed to some of the other ones and maybe the level of experience or the, the age of the goblin pushing the cart. 01:14:06.27 Andrew Kolb kind of hints at how difficult that challenge likely will be. Like if you see a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed goblin pushing the cart, you know they're going to ask for something easy because they've barely been doing this. 01:14:17.37 Andrew Kolb And then that gives you that confidence to to take on their quest. 01:14:17.82 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 01:14:22.66 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Okay. And then, ah oh, and then also, you know, because if the players are like, well, this, you know, this Zigster ah that's operating this car, if they're, you know, they sort of have like this interconnected network and this hive mind, if you will. 01:14:39.09 Kurt Crenwelge They have some goblin identity that they had before, but they are either very tight lipped about it or they literally through some magic or whatever. So I'm just Zygster. This is who I am. Like I'm the ancient one or I'm like fresh faced one. 01:14:52.40 Kurt Crenwelge um You know, maybe they try to exploit it. They're like, oh, we're we'll just go knock out all the easy ones. thinking that'll give them the same information that the Ancient One is holding on to, but it's like, ah, no, no, no, you can't game the system that way. 01:15:06.62 Kurt Crenwelge So it's a way to, like, make sure that your players aren't, like, brute-forcing their way, ah you know, around it by, like, oh, I wanted you to do the ancient one, but like, okay, I guess you can't get the information the ancient one's holding on to until you're ready. Maybe you get like little tiny nuggets or something about the information, like just hints or something like that. Maybe that's all your player characters need, but they'll always wonder and be like, well, what would the ancient one would have told us if we had been able to do the side quest for him? 01:15:36.05 Andrew Kolb Right. Like the young Zigsters are like, oh, that's not my story to tell. I know it, but that's not for me to tell. That is for for the ancient one to to share. I can tell you this information and it's a much lower stakes rumor or detail um that maybe they already know or has less kind of value to them. 01:15:55.67 Andrew Kolb So you you get out what you put Yeah. 01:15:56.32 Kurt Crenwelge we already knew that we found out about that months ago that's what set us on this course or whatever yeah 01:15:57.60 Andrew Kolb Yeah. Yeah. And they're so pleased to tell you they're like, oh, yeah, we've got this great info. And then they tell you and you're like oh that doesn't that doesn't actually mean anything. So they're disappointed as well as you. 01:16:08.02 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 01:16:10.95 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, yeah. I like it, yeah. And then I'm just thinking about the color coordination of like, okay, it's like all the easy ones. We've knocked out all the easy ones. It's like we've done all the medium ones and the hard ones we're grinding away on those. It's just that ancient one that's left. It's like, yeah we gotta knuckle up and do it. 01:16:28.33 Kurt Crenwelge like we got We gotta do it. Yeah, we want we gotta know. We gotta to know the secrets. 01:16:31.67 Andrew Kolb Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 01:16:34.14 Kurt Crenwelge And then you're just having fun. the DM's like, this is easy. All I have to do is just prepare monster hunts and stuff like that. 01:16:40.45 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 01:16:40.58 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:16:40.65 Andrew Kolb I mean, I mean, I think each Zygster, well, yeah, if they're looking for meat, then that can always be the case, but you're right. Maybe it is nice to mix it up, but in a, in a, System that generally leans towards fighting monsters, I think it's a good kind of classic way to kind of get that in without it just being, this is threatening our home or our farm or has stolen my ah children. Like it's ah it's a fun kind of like light twist to be like, oh no, I just want to eat it. So ah that changes the pace or the tone of it a bit. 01:17:12.10 Kurt Crenwelge yeah oh now i'm just imagining all the combinations like oh i've heard ah zombie meat uh is real interesting and like zombie meat what is in these ziggy piggies oh it's all great stuff don't you worry and now they start getting suspicious they're like but what are in these things and 01:17:23.95 Andrew Kolb Right. Yeah, right, right. 01:17:30.16 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, and now if you get on the, ah like you like we were alluding to earlier, oh, if they wrong one Zigster, they've wronged all of them, because they're like, you know, they're tearing through the carts trying to find out, like, what are you poisoning us with? 01:17:42.32 Kurt Crenwelge And it's like, you know, don't know, maybe through the magic of the Zigsters, like, they can take bad meat, and it become good meat. 01:17:50.15 Andrew Kolb Right. 01:17:50.50 Kurt Crenwelge And then people just don't ask questions, and they're like, well, I've never... You know, I've never ah pooped my guts out. I've never have gotten bad sick or ah sickness or plague or or become invalid or something like that. So seems good to me. are you looking at a gift horse in the mouth sort of a thing? 01:18:08.72 Andrew Kolb Yeah, it's like very Sweeney Todd in that like, oh, we like didn't have a lot of meat before and now these like really great pies are coming out. So we're going to just enjoy enjoy them and not ask any questions because it's filling a need that we we had. 01:18:23.40 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And yeah, so that takes us through all the normal questions that we have in ah NPC creation. it sounds like we've kind of started ah doing a little bit of the optional questions, but do you think Zigster is pretty well formulated or are you ready to head into the next section? 01:18:40.81 Andrew Kolb Sure. Yeah, that's everything. It feels good. I feel like the the gaps that are still remaining are are small enough for the ah the DM to fill in on their own and make each Zygster their own. 01:18:51.91 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. Well, without further ado, I think it's time to take our Zigster into... ah Random Encounter! 01:19:08.51 Kurt Crenwelge And insert here for the last ad read for Zencaster, the podcast service that I use to record all the podcast audio and and all that good stuff, so... 01:19:20.26 Kurt Crenwelge It's a great service if you're looking to do your own podcast. You can use my code, SideKQPodcast, at the checkout page on Zencaster.com forward slash pricing. 01:19:30.92 Kurt Crenwelge You'll save 30% off your first month of any Zencaster paid plan, and doing so supports the podcast. So thank you again for listening to the ad and supporting the sponsor, because it supports me. 01:19:43.52 Kurt Crenwelge And without further ado, back to the episode. All right, so now we're at the part of the show where we are in a random encounter. We do a little bit of a roleplay, a vignette, a scene with the character we've made here today. So I think Andrew's going to do a fantastic job portraying an ancient goblin meat vendor. 01:20:03.23 Kurt Crenwelge But the question becomes, who am I going to be in this scene? 01:20:03.28 Andrew Kolb Okay. 01:20:05.87 Kurt Crenwelge Am I going to be one of my... ah cavalcade of characters of the podcast, an adventure character that comes up ah to Zigster to you know get some sustenance and and be given the side quest? 01:20:19.92 Kurt Crenwelge Am I going to be a younger Zigster talking to the older Zigster and we're in a Zigster's meeting? Or i don't know, is it ah the you know this ancient Zigster? Maybe something about their own past and becoming a Zigster themself and maybe even teasing some of this hidden lore that we don't know about. So question to you. So what kind of scene are you interested in portraying Zigster in today? 01:20:46.44 Andrew Kolb I do like a classic, like like you've come up and you are interested in buying a Ziggy Piggy. 01:20:52.34 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, perfect. So we've got an adventurer character. So we've got a couple that we could use. So we have Duncan. He's the recklessly brave adventurer for hire, happy-go-lucky. 01:21:04.05 Kurt Crenwelge no feet too small, no task too daring. We've got Sonya. She's the warrior woman, started off as a barbarian, multiclassed into a paladin, ah who serves a god who wishes to redeem the undead. 01:21:16.37 Kurt Crenwelge We've got Korak, who's the lawful, evil, arcane trickster, roguish dwarf. We've got Chrisley, who's the herbalist botanist wood elf druid, ah who started ah you know as a druid and then multiclassed into a cleric who serves living memory. 01:21:32.38 Kurt Crenwelge Orion is the astral elf illusionist wizard. um We've got Agape, who's the lilac-colored tiefling sorloc, started off as a wild magic sorcerer and then multiclassed into and ah into a pact of ah the Archfey Pact warlock. 01:21:49.39 Kurt Crenwelge um We've also got ah Life Spell, the Necromancer, ah who is just a little forest gnome old man necromancer ah who's got a whole Skellybro crew ah in tow with him. 01:22:06.45 Kurt Crenwelge And then we've also got I'm looking for a name in the list. We've got the the, the, the dwarvish bard. 01:22:16.87 Kurt Crenwelge Why am I not seeing her name in the list? This is embarrassing. ah future Kurt will have to edit this out, but, um, Amblin Mithril Shaper. That's her name. Yes, Amblin Mithril Shaper, who's a dwarven bard lady. 01:22:32.83 Kurt Crenwelge ah She's only been featured in one adventure, but those are all the official characters that have been made for this section of the show. But if none of them speak to you, we can totally create a brand new character here and now. 01:22:44.26 Andrew Kolb No, I was going to say if I counted right, that sounded like eight that we could roll um if you want ah an element of randomness for your side of things as well. 01:22:54.90 Kurt Crenwelge Sure, yeah, go for it. 01:22:56.15 Andrew Kolb OK. So we'll roll a one. OK, so dun Duncan, is that right? 01:23:04.16 Kurt Crenwelge Duncan. 01:23:04.69 Andrew Kolb Great. 01:23:04.83 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, perfect. And would you like to set the scene or shall I set the scene? 01:23:09.32 Andrew Kolb ah Well, so I will describe at least that you are in town, at Cobblestone Street, and it's busy enough in that there's like lots of people moving, but one... 01:23:21.42 Andrew Kolb person and little business stands apart in that you see a goblin, wise and an elderly, ah but in contrast to the like very shiny and bright new cart that they are pushing. And you can see a big Z painted across the curtain or the canopy that drapes down and the smell of fresh cooked meat wafts from that. 01:23:44.63 Andrew Kolb He is busy behind the cart as he's rotating what looks like tubes of meat and frying or toasting buns. 01:23:50.22 Kurt Crenwelge you 01:23:52.71 Andrew Kolb And that is clearly the source of the smell. So seeing that, what do you do? 01:23:57.89 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, so with Duncan's last adventure, he's just fresh back from the Feywild because he had ah he had a whole adventure with Sarcastique Undertone, ah the Hexblood accountant of the Feywild. 01:24:12.80 Kurt Crenwelge um So there was a whole adventure he went on with that, and he know ah got in contact with the Hag and and that organization, was able to get the teleport back to the mundane world, 01:24:25.69 Kurt Crenwelge And he's just like, you know, shakes his head clear and he's like, you know, I got to get to a city. got to go back to my home base ah for now in this region. And so he goes, proceeds into sit into the city and he's already beginning to see the Q form. And he's like, oh, what? He's like, oh, oh, and and probably Duncan will roll his history check. We'll say he does really well. 01:24:46.00 Kurt Crenwelge He's like, Oh, a Ziggs. I didn't know they had one of these in this city. Ah, this is great. And so Duncan will wait in line. And I guess it seems to be the cues going pretty fast. 01:24:55.93 Andrew Kolb Yep. 01:24:56.41 Kurt Crenwelge um And and so it gets to Duncan and he he comes up. ah He comes up now. It's his turn in line. And so how does a Ziggster react to him? 01:25:06.35 Andrew Kolb So you've because you've interacted with or seen Zigsters in the past, ah you know that not that they are ah ah vendors of few words, but they are vendors of little patience. 01:25:19.05 Andrew Kolb ah So they look at you assuming that you already know what you need to order and are waiting for you to take the lead. 01:25:25.77 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, but I think ah the Zigsters would also know that ah Duncan is quite loquacious. And so and he can get off on his own tangents and stories and stuff like that. 01:25:35.57 Andrew Kolb Okay. 01:25:37.14 Kurt Crenwelge So I think seeing this may be one of the rare instances where this ancient Zigster like points to the side as if to indicate like, I know you're going to take forever, so you better let the rest of the line go ahead of you. 01:25:50.71 Kurt Crenwelge And Duncan pouts and he realizes that, like, yes, this is probably the most prudent thing to do. um So he waits and he's probably waiting for a while and he's just waiting. And then the rest of the line finally speeds through because about this time, 01:26:05.48 Kurt Crenwelge ah the the lunch rush is done and so like most everyone has gone back to work and so Duncan looks to make sure no one else is gonna come up suddenly and now this ancient Zigster like will regard Duncan and now now having no chance of ah of interruptions or something like that will now Duncan will now politely like go up to his place and he's like before the Zigster now 01:26:08.85 Andrew Kolb Right. 01:26:28.46 Andrew Kolb Okay, and then the Zigster puts like hands on hips, but one hand is clearly holding like the tongs that move the things around, and says, all right, you gonna order what? 01:26:41.13 Kurt Crenwelge of Of course I'm going to order. i've I've worked up quite an appetite today, don't you know? i you know what? I think I'm going to order both. I'm going to have a Ziggy Piggy and a plate. 01:26:51.26 Andrew Kolb and And he says, just one Ziggy Piggy? 01:26:51.73 Kurt Crenwelge think I'm going to do it. 01:26:55.30 Andrew Kolb Big strapping young man like you? 01:26:58.20 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, you flatter me so. All right. He checks his coin pouch. He's like, all right, two Ziggy Piggies and a plate. 01:27:05.54 Andrew Kolb He's like, all right, I'm just saying five would be better. 01:27:10.04 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Let's see. I don't know. ah This is like a persuasion check against Duncan. and I feel like Duncan, you know, if you get to talk into Duncan, he's chaotic good. 01:27:21.29 Kurt Crenwelge But I feel like if you like really get to smooth talk at him a little bit, flatter him a little bit. um I think Duncan can be easily persuaded, not to mention the deerskin loafers that he has makes him more susceptible to the command spell. 01:27:33.89 Kurt Crenwelge Not that this is necessarily a command spell effect. 01:27:35.31 Andrew Kolb Sure. 01:27:36.72 Kurt Crenwelge I just think in general, it makes him a little more easy to persuade. So in this instance, he'll be like, oh, dash it all. Fine. Make it five piggies and a plate. 01:27:46.67 Andrew Kolb He's like, i knew I knew you was a patron of the arts and goes and then... 01:27:51.15 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, you've seen my card. And he like pulls out a card and he goes to to hand one to the ancient Ziggy, which, you know, notates all the ah normal thing of like Duncan, adventurer for hire, no task too small, no feat too daring, proud sponsor of of ah so of a stone cast of ah of the Hexblood siblings, Katniss and Delraman, as featured in a previous episode of this podcast. 01:28:15.71 Andrew Kolb And he takes the card while deftly preparing these Ziggy Piggies. And you can see that he pockets it and says, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course I know you. ah But you get the impression that he says that to everyone. 01:28:30.29 Kurt Crenwelge ah Ah, yes. Well, have you heard this one? And he starts going off on his latest adventure that he had in the Feywild with Sarcastique under Tony, which, ah based on what we learned in that last episode, apparently is like the most trustworthy guy, but also like kind of like one of the most feared guys in the Fae Wild as far as like, you know, because he does, he's the accountant taxes ah sort of a guy in the Fae Wild who serves like the, the Fae courts IRS department sort of, but he's also sort of like an assassin too. 01:29:04.66 Andrew Kolb Oh, okay. 01:29:07.86 Kurt Crenwelge Like people use his name as like a swear to be like, I swear that this is like the truth or like, you know So he's like he starts telling you about like his latest adventure that he had with Sarcastique under Tony. 01:29:20.24 Andrew Kolb And probably two, three minutes into the story, ah then the Zigster hands you both your small kind of like pyramid of Ziggy Piggies as well as the plate. 01:29:33.79 Andrew Kolb And says, yeah, it's very good. That's very interesting. But I got customers. And so I will ask you to finish these elsewhere. 01:29:42.61 Kurt Crenwelge Well, he looks around and Duncan doesn't see anyone. and he's like, uh, what? But but wasn't lunch done? I mean, I don't you i don't know. Don't you have time to talk? You seem like you need a break. 01:29:55.90 Andrew Kolb like He's like, oh, no, I never stop. 01:29:56.06 Kurt Crenwelge Maybe. 01:29:58.19 Andrew Kolb And also, this is not my ah permanent location. i will be moving to another location now for another lunch. 01:30:05.55 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, he's like, well, I can do. I'm not doing anything. I guess it's a walk and talk. And so he just actually begins to like just sort of, you know, because he's bored, I guess. And he's not on an adventure right now. 01:30:16.91 Kurt Crenwelge and And I think Zigster can detect this. Like it's his subtle way of like itching for like, I'm looking for some work. 01:30:19.81 Andrew Kolb You sure? 01:30:24.49 Kurt Crenwelge I'm looking for an adventure. I don't have one presently. So maybe you've got something for me. ah Sort of a thing. 01:30:31.49 Andrew Kolb And so this conversation is probably happening as he's like picked up his cart and is wagoning it to the next location. ah So mid move of his ah little stall, he sets it down and he says, actually, you know what? 01:30:47.18 Andrew Kolb I could get some help. um 01:30:50.17 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:30:50.18 Andrew Kolb how How are you at hunting in griffins? 01:30:53.51 Kurt Crenwelge Hunting griffins. Why? ah Let's see, Matt. No, that was the. Oh, he starts going into the story about Jack the Sky Elf farmer. And then he's like, he starts realizing he's like, no, no, no, that was manticores. They needed me to hunt manticores. 01:31:07.35 Kurt Crenwelge I've hunted manticores up in the mountains. Surely that's enough credentialed experience to be similar to griffin's. 01:31:13.17 Andrew Kolb Yeah, he puts up a tiny little clawed hand when you can see the grill marks on his hands from when he's recently burnt himself. Despite doing this for years, still ends up forgetting himself. 01:31:23.79 Andrew Kolb And he says, I'm going to stop you right there. I just need a griffin hunted. Can you do that? Yes or no? 01:31:29.79 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, I could hunt a griffin. I could do with my eyes closed. 01:31:33.22 Andrew Kolb He says, okay, good. You get me a griffin and I'll get you something good. What do you need? 01:31:39.60 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, um, well, I don't know. ah Just, you know, whatever you've got, I guess. I mean, most of the time when I do adventures, it's like, you know, gold or an item or, you know, a piece of information or lore. It's just, you know, I'm happy to go where the adventure takes me. 01:31:59.10 Andrew Kolb And so he leans against the cart and of like one hand on hip, the other hand kind of resting and he kind of waves it off says, no, no, no, we're not talking about goods. We're talking about knowledge. What do you need to know? 01:32:09.44 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. And now that maybe, know, rare instance of like, ah you know, like in a Blazing Saddles or Pongo, you know, ah Pongo don't know. Pongo just a pawn in Game of Life. 01:32:21.91 Kurt Crenwelge It's kind of like the sort of moment that Duncan has. He kind of looks off and he realizes that he's like, Oh, existential moment. i just I just sort of go on adventure from adventure. I don't... There's no overarching plot to my story. 01:32:36.42 Kurt Crenwelge There's no greater mystery I'm trying to solve. I just go where the adventure takes me, man. Don't you get it? The the open road? Life? Adventure? Surely you know that. you You go from city to city. You sell the ziggy-piggies and the plates, and now maybe Duncan now focuses... 01:32:54.14 Kurt Crenwelge And he and rolls. I'll actually roll and see how he does. So I'm pulling up my dice roller. Ooh, okay. Showing it to the camera. 01:33:03.06 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 01:33:03.29 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, he got a 13. So he actually, so maybe he's trying to think of something. You know, maybe because they're talking of Griffins, he thinks about like Gryphon Burgers. And all of a sudden, a bunch of Gryphon Burgers pop up on his plate. He's like, aha, I did it. 01:33:17.85 Kurt Crenwelge Lucky me. ha. That's what it is, being an adventurer and being a ah a fortunate son of fate. Yes. ah And he starts now munching on these Griffin burgers. 01:33:29.84 Kurt Crenwelge He actually offers one to Zigster. He's like, well, you were talking about Griffin, Meech. Is this the sort of thing you're looking to make? 01:33:37.10 Andrew Kolb And he holds up that hand again. He's like, no, no, no. no I prefer the mush. ah But if you bring me back some real, some real Griffin, none of this magic Griffin stuff, ah then maybe can help you with your next ah path or send you down the right road for you to go down next. 01:33:55.58 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, yes. All right. Yes, Zigster, you have ah deal. And so then like he finishes quickly eating the food. He'll hold his hand out for a handshake as for the formal agreement of accepting this quest. 01:34:09.78 Andrew Kolb and And the Zigster wipes his hands on his apron and gives that grilled hand. and confirming the deal, then you have been given this quest to collect fresh griffin meat for his Ziggy Piggies. 01:34:24.43 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, and I think actually, even though Duncan has magic items that have enhanced his strength and stuff like that, I think this may be a rare instance where the age is deceptive as far as like the strength. 01:34:35.95 Andrew Kolb Yes. 01:34:36.18 Kurt Crenwelge And so Duncan even finds himself like as Duncan turns away to the ah away from Zigster to begin progressing further. Like, you know, if this were a movie, it would see Duncan sort of like wincing and shaking his hand out, being like the strength of the grip on that. 01:34:52.85 Kurt Crenwelge How does he get that strong from just wielding tongs in a cart all day long? ah But then, yeah, so Duncan walks off and he's going to go now begin his journey to go get the Griffin meat. But is there any as the camera now is resting on Zigster? 01:35:07.73 Kurt Crenwelge Is there any last thing that we would see him do or say ah before the scene would close? 01:35:13.74 Andrew Kolb ah So he takes a break and he grabs one of those own plates and he doesn't even try to will something else. It immediately produces the gray mush. ah And he kind like hops up onto kind of one of the arms of the cart as he sits and eats. 01:35:27.48 Andrew Kolb He says, I really do prefer the mush. 01:35:35.96 Kurt Crenwelge And scene. So there we go 01:35:37.94 Andrew Kolb Great. 01:35:38.42 Kurt Crenwelge How was it getting to be Zigster? 01:35:40.25 Andrew Kolb It was fun. I love but role-playing goblins. I always try to I mean, I always tend to play them as like 80s New York cab drivers. So that's my, that's my touchstone for a goblin. 01:35:51.96 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. I love it. And this reminds me also of our previous episode we did back in season four, 105 with the Goblins Guard, which was a trio of Goblins siblings who like basically took over a well and like a mega dungeon and they like set up a shop there. 01:36:11.88 Kurt Crenwelge So I wonder, you know, if if I was going to incorporate both. ah Goblin clans, I wonder if Zigster ah maybe has, ah maybe this trio was inspired because they were like, oh, we saw Zigster do it up in the cities and we're here down in the dungeon, in the mega dungeons or whatever. And so we we just we got inspired, but we decided to you know take over an old outpost and and made it into a little restaurant sort of a thing in the dungeons. 01:36:37.53 Andrew Kolb I love it. I love the franchise potential. 01:36:40.23 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. But Zixter, man, he's got it. He's got it made. And just the lore and the implications of this little of this little dude, just, you know, and and all of them wondering the the major metropolises of your world and like, what sort of secrets do they hold? 01:36:56.11 Andrew Kolb love it. 01:36:58.30 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, so this is the ah this is the final thoughts section of the show, so I always like to ask the guest and check in with them how they thought their time was on the podcast and and all that good stuff. ah Feedback, critiques, and criticisms and all. 01:37:11.55 Andrew Kolb Oh, no, I mean, it went better than I could have imagined. I mean, some of your previous guests have said a high bar, so I just wanted to try to hold my own. And I mean, rolling Zigsters, that's such a perfect name for ah goblin hot dog vendor that I don't think I could have come up with that on my own. 01:37:27.37 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:37:28.73 Andrew Kolb That that was the fates deciding that. 01:37:31.70 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, was. And ah yeah, Ziggy Piggy, it just rolls off the tongue. 01:37:34.63 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 01:37:35.89 Kurt Crenwelge and the ah And the magic item, too, with the plate, I think is pretty cool. 01:37:38.30 Andrew Kolb Yeah. 01:37:39.58 Kurt Crenwelge though like The Ziggy Piggy or the plate. And then it's like everyone knows, like, okay, which one you're going to get. And the fifty fifty of the gamble of it is is a fun idea. I think it'd be interesting, you know, especially you figure out the cost of these. 01:37:52.87 Kurt Crenwelge If someone's sitting there buying plate after plate after plate, and they keep trying and rolling con saves to see whether or not um they get the fancy food that they want, which would be fun. 01:38:02.04 Andrew Kolb yeah one of my one of my favorite things about ah tabletop role-playing or just role-playing games in general is that they are truly collaborative in a way that like video games and obviously books cannot be um and i think this highlights that tonight like i really had an idea of oh this is like the sort of npc i really like the disc world cut me on a throat the character and all that um but there are those gaps that i could not fill on my own uh and so we did it together and that is That's why it it's unlike any other sort of game that you can play. i i love it. 01:38:33.54 Andrew Kolb I'm glad we got to share that tonight. 01:38:35.86 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Are we going to be seeing any fan art of a Zigster anytime soon on the socials? 01:38:39.89 Andrew Kolb Yeah, I'm really thinking of the yeah i really think of like the branding of the wagons and what the if they are wearing a little hat, what does that look like? So yes, I'll make sure I have something ready. 01:38:50.64 Andrew Kolb um I mean, obviously by the time this drops, you will hopefully your listeners will be able to see it somewhere. um But that's, yeah, that's in the future. 01:38:56.49 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And then we hope that Zixter will take off and ah he'll be the the talk of the town in your discords and all that and people will be like, oh, I put Zixter in my my Wonderland game. So yeah, Zixters are around in Wonderland. 01:39:11.46 Andrew Kolb I would love it if someone is so committed to the bit that they include a Zygster in different campaign settings. So the new player or same players, but using new characters run into a Zygster in a different, in a completely different world, really knowing that it's like, it's an interdimensional franchise. 01:39:28.07 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Zombie apocalypse. 01:39:30.62 Andrew Kolb Sure. 01:39:30.76 Kurt Crenwelge For some reason, there's a goblin here. 01:39:31.08 Andrew Kolb But somehow they're still wheeling it around. Yeah, exactly. 01:39:34.85 Kurt Crenwelge ah you know, goblin beer, you know, goblins aren't very tasty to zombies, so they just got to leave me alone most of the time. 01:39:41.09 Andrew Kolb Yeah, it makes me think of the like the Flintstones, this is dating me, but the like the Flintstones dinosaurs and the kind of repeat refrain of it's a living. like that and just like That kind of feels like the energy of of the Zigster. 01:39:50.72 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:39:53.82 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, perfect. So we are here at the end of the show. So I always like to leave the stage, the soapbox, the microphone, the stage and platform over to the guests. So where can we find you on social media? Where can we you know get those plugs for the projects you're working on Where can we see more of your work? And are there any passions or causes or any such things that we need to be made aware of? Let us know. 01:40:19.25 Andrew Kolb Oh, sure. Yeah. So my name is Andrew Kolb. So my website is kolbisneat.com. My last name is spelled K-O-L-B, like Bravo. um And I always find it's easier to see than it actually is to like describe it. 01:40:35.89 Andrew Kolb But if you search my name, you can find me. And then that leads to most of my books and and so on. um Passions. So I would say that like ah whether buying my books or any like anything with anybody that you've had on, 01:40:48.70 Andrew Kolb it's always nice to support local. So ah lots of people ask, like, is it better to buy it from this platform or this one? um And I said, if you can go local, if you can go to your game store, they may not have copies, but they can always order it in. And that always helps both them because you're keeping the money in the community. And also it's nice for me too. So ah that's my that's my little, not rant, but little soap boxes, buy and support local. 01:41:15.90 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. Well, Andrew, it fantastic having you as a guest and making this character, and i can't wait to have you back on this podcast making even more interesting NPCs. 01:41:27.34 Andrew Kolb Thank you. Thank you for having me. 01:41:31.06 Kurt Crenwelge And...