The Magpies – Transcript
Season 2 Wrap-Up and Q&A
Transcribed by Tyler (Twitter: @Tyler_MoonSage)
## Intro
Rhi: Hello listeners. As we did at the end of Season 1, we’re taking a bit of a breather between seasons with a Q&A episode. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions. They were a ton of fun to answer.
Two quick notes about the episode. First, there’s a point where we’re talking about entanglement rolls, but I keep calling them engagement rolls. My bad. Second, a quick content warning. I go off on a rambling discussion of Leverage for a bit, and in explaining the plot of the show there’s a brief mention of child death. I’ll include the timestamp in the show notes.
{Transcriber’s Note: Tags are placed before and after this content if you wish to skip over it.}
There will also be a handful of bloopers at the end of this episode, and our Patreon backers can hear the full blooper reel now. There’s also a public post on our Patreon with the Season 2 character and crew sheets, so if you’ve been wondering about the mechanics of how the Magpies work you can take a look at that.
I have a lot of announcements to cover so sit tight, it’s all exciting stuff.
First, the audio from the GenCon panel that I moderated, ‘So You Want to Start an Actual Play Podcast,’ is up. Thanks to The Redacted Files podcast for editing and hosting that recording, and thanks to Megan, Aser, Meghan, and Paulomi for being on the panel with me.
Second, September is International Podcast Month. Visit InternationalPodcastMonth.com to check out all the awesome episodes. I’m a player in the Good Society actual play one-shot, and I moderated a conversation about accessibility in tabletop RPGs. I’m really proud of both episodes, and they both go up later this week.
Speaking of accessibility, we have transcripts on MagpiesPodcast.net for all of Season 1! Thank you so much to Tyler and Lyra for all their hard work on transcribing the episodes. We’ll be starting on Season 2 very soon.
Next, those of you who follow our Twitter account may have seen that James Bricknow, one of our fans, created a 3D render of a Magpies pin. He was generous enough to not only send me some pins that he printed—more on that in a second—but he also gave me the files and instructions to setup a Shapeways store so that you can buy pins of your own. I was really hoping to have the store up and running for this episode, but there were some technical hiccups and it’s still being worked on. My goal is to have it up and running by the Season 3 opener at the absolute latest. Keep an eye on our Twitter for updates, and as soon as the store is open I will announce it in an intro.
James very generously mailed me a number of pins that he printed off. Most of the pins are going to Magpies, past and present, but I have five pins that will be part of a giveaway. When we reach 100 backers on Patreon I’ll randomly pick five current patrons to win a Magpies pin. So, if you’re thinking about backing us now is a great time.
In addition, Kim has just put the finishing touches on the annual postcard for backers who support us at $15 or more. It’s a great piece of art, and all of the postcards will have a hand-written message from me on them. If you’d like to get a postcard, back us at $15 or more and you’ll be on the list, and if you’re already backing us at that level, remember to fill out the form to get me your address.
As I mentioned last episode, we’re going to be taking a one month hiatus from new Magpies episodes so that I can catch up on editing, but we’ll be posting two bonus episodes during that time. The first bonus episode is one that I recorded quite some time ago with my good friend Paulomi who is also the host of the Iron Hides podcast. We played a reskinned version of a two-player game called A Scoundrel in the Deep and laid the groundwork for some future Magpies plots. The second bonus episode is a one-shot of Band of Blades, the latest Forged in the Dark game published by Evil hat. It’s a dark, military fantasy, and it was GMed by one of the game’s authors. We had a ton of fun playing this game and exploring a very different world from Blades.
Next, Josie is going to tell us about this month’s Featured Charity.
Josie: On August 31, many peaceful counter-protesters standing against the white supremacist “straight pride parade,” big air quotes on that one, in Boston were assaulted by police, unprovoked, and wrongfully imprisoned. The Solidarity Against Hate Legal Defense Fund is an ongoing fundraiser to post bail for these brave individuals. Fortunately, the goal for bail was met within a few hours, but you can still help. All further proceeds will be split between donations to the Mass Bail Fund, a national organization that works to free people from incarceration and end money bail, and Boston GLASS, which provides all manner of vital services to queer trans people of color. Please donate to the fundraiser and/or directly to those groups. Thank you.
Rhi: There are a terrible number of crises happening in the world right now; the fires in the Amazon, continued gun violence, the concentration camps at our borders, attacks on civil liberties, devastation from hurricanes, and so much more. It can absolutely feel overwhelming, but there are always ways you can help. When you hear about a crisis, look for things you can do, organizations that are collecting donations or directing actions, and when you find something do what you can and share it with others. The constant litany of tragedy and horror can feel like standing in front of a fire hose, and it can be easy to despair when you feel helpless, but finding ways to help and contribute, even if they’re small, can push back against those feelings, and we need to keep pushing back.
Now then, let’s get started. Shall we?
##
Rhi: Hi everybody, and welcome to our Season 2 Wrap-Up Q&A episode! I’m Rhi, as you probably know by this point, and we have a whole bunch of questions from our listeners that we are gonna go through and talk about. To start off, I’m gonna ask everybody to introduce themselves and share one of their favorite moments from this season.
Kim: Hi, I’m Kim. I play Blaire Culhane on the show, and one of my favorite moments from this season that was definitely memorable in my mind was when Blaire was testifying in the—
[laughter]
Minna: [whispering] Yes!
Kim: Being up on that podium and giving Blaire’s/the ghost’s testimony was just super, super fun. I really loved doing that.
Minna: So good.
Rhi: Yeah, that was really, really good.
Kim: The way it came out I thought it would be a stammering mess, but I think it came across as pretty hilarious, so I’m proud of that.
Rhi: It was, yeah.
Josie: Hi, I’m Josie. I play Minx. I think, man, there was a lot of really good character moments I loved this season, but I think one of my favorites is from the finale where Minx and Blaire were waiting under the grate while Myra and Salia had that whole big conversation that dumped all of Myra’s secrets and trauma out, because it was just like, oh no. [laughs] But it’s also like, finally.
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: I’m Minna. I play Myra. I’m gonna have to go for… Okay. First, just to let you know, out of character for weeks and weeks and weeks I feel like we had this somber menace of ‘something bad is coming.’ Rhi would roll something and mysteriously not tell us.
Rhi: [laughs]
Minna: Anyway. The payoff, the night that it was revealed that Rigney had been selling us out to Salia was like—
Kim: Yes!
Josie: Mm-hmm!
Minna: –the most amazing payoff, because we had no idea what the fuck was going on.
Kim: We had NO idea.
Minna: It was, completely blindsided and heartbroken.
Kim: Our reactions were real-time in that moment.
Rhi: [laughs]
Minna: Like, literally, I was like “wait, is THIS why you’ve been doing those rolls, mysteriously, that you wouldn’t tell us about?”
Rhi: I… I felt very powerful in that moment, not gonna lie.
Minna: It was very good.
Kim: It was some brilliant GMing.
Rhi: Thank you. I’m glad. It’s always a little bit of a gamble as a GM to keep a plot like that secret. I figured I knew all of you well enough to know how it would be received and how it would play out, but that was very, very satisfying to finally get to that reveal. That’s definitely one of my favorite moments from this season. Gosh, to pick an original favorite moment that’s not just copying Minna for myself… I think, honestly, there were a few times during our downtime vignettes where it was just all three of you talking, or just two of you talking, the season finale is one example, I think the end of that episode with the Rigney reveal where Blaire and Myra were talking, where I’m basically just sitting back and listening to the three of you just GO HARD into really, really good, emotional character stuff.
Kim: Aw.
Rhi: I love that. That’s great.
Kim: Even though I started crying out of character and you had to cut that?
Minna: Aww, buddy~
[laughter]
Rhi: But yeah, those moments where it’s just really, really good, deep character stuff where I can just sit back and listen to all of you go are great.
Kim: Yeah. I feel like that’s really been earned, because at this point we’ve all as a group built a comradery to allow us to play off each other like that, so the emotional moments, you know, the longer that we do this are just going to become all the more satisfying.
Minna: Yeah.
Rhi: All right. So, now we’re gonna dive into questions from our listeners. Some of these are from folks on Patreon, some of them are from Twitter.
Kim: Sup Twitter.
Rhi: Let’s get started. Our first question comes from Alice Tobin who is a Patreon backer, and the question is: Now that you’re all gaining trauma, how do you feel it’s changed the way you play your characters? I guess we could probably run through who has trauma and what traumas you have chosen. Myra has so far managed to avoid it.
Minna: We’ve tried our best.
Rhi: Despite my best efforts.
Minna: I even tried.
Josie: Minx, as of the finale, has two traumas, which are Reckless and Unstable.
Kim: And Blaire semi-recently acquired the trauma Paranoid, is what I selected for her.
Rhi: Yeah. I know that we’ve definitely seen how Reckless has showed up for Minx.
Josie: Yep. Well, the funny thing about that is, like, Minx is in some ways a very Josie character and in some ways not, and gaining Reckless kind of let me take the restraints off a little bit, drop my weighted training clothing [laughter] and just go whole-hog Josie character, I think.
Rhi: Yeah. Josie, I think you had made the comment that there are some trauma options that make it more likely that you’re going to gain additional trauma, like Reckless. You are probably going to be charging into situations where you’re gonna keep taking stress, which is exactly what happened in the season finale.
Josie: I feel like Reckless, and Obsessed, and Unstable are probably the ones most likely to accrue stress.
Rhi: Mm-hmm.
Kim: Yeah.
Josie: And then Unstable, we saw a little bit of it in the finale, but what that actually entails will be for next season, so… It will be very apparent, but it hasn’t played out yet.
Rhi: And then for Blaire.
Kim: Yeah. I feel as though I’m still trying to figure out how to incorporate Blaire’s trauma mechanically, but since the way that I myself interact with systems as a player and the way that Blaire interacts in the story, she’s definitely more improv and character and story driven than she is mechanically driven, so that’s going to be a challenge for me to have her trauma pop up in mechanics as far as the game rules and whatnot. I am trying to play up her trait of Paranoid now character-wise, and I feel as though I’ve started peppering that in towards the later end of the season, but so far it hasn’t affected her mechanically yet.
Rhi: I think mostly you’ve had it pop up a few times where she has been very anxious about, again, this whole concept of the crew splitting up, of needing to know where people are, how are we gonna find you if something happens.
Kim: Yes.
Rhi: And again, I think the season finale is just gonna fuel that fire.
Minna: Yeah, because that ended up being a good thing knowing where Myra was, because… [slanted] they found her.
Kim: See, the tough thing I feel is, though, when it comes to Paranoid and playing Blaire is that Blaire intrinsically is a very trusting character. She wants to see the good in others even if they’re demonstrably evil, or even ghosts, or demons, so it’s a very fine line that I have to walk when I think that I’m going to incorporate her trauma into a scene, because I have to be careful for myself to believe that okay, is what I’m playing this scene make sense for her, and does this make sense for her, and does this conflict with the character that I’ve already established.
Rhi: Yeah. The rules specifically say that, you know, you are free to play up, or not, your characters’ traumas as much or as little as you want.
Kim: Right, and I really do appreciate that, but for me I still have to figure out a way to make it work mechanically, is the big thing with Blaire.
Rhi: Makes sense. Before we get into the next question, Krysm Phoenix was one of a couple people who asked if we would be willing to share the character and crew sheets. This will be in the episode description and on Twitter and other such places, but I have posted screenshots of the end of Season 2 character sheets. It’s on Patreon, but it’s a publicly available post, so anybody can go see them. If you are curious about how those all look you can just head over there and see them. they should be up at the time this episode goes live.
So, the question from Krysm Phoenix that we’re actually going to discuss, is: I’m gonna steal this from Fate and the Fablemaidens – shout out to a fellow AP podcast – Who of the party would you take with you to an amusement park, a cruise ship, or a haunted house? You can only choose one person for each one, and if you take Blaire to the haunted house it has to be something that would actually unnerve her.
Kim: [laughs] Oh, good luck.
Minna: Here’s the thing, I really want to take Blaire to an amusement park now.
Josie: Yeah.
Kim: That was going to be my answer!
Rhi: I feel like Blaire at an amusement park would just be the most joyous experience.
Josie: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.
Kim: It would. It would also work well because we’re both adrenaline junkies, so we would just have the time of our lives at an amusement park.
Minna: Aww.
Rhi: [laughs]
Josie: Yeah. I probably would take Minx on a cruise ship.
Rhi: Yeah.
Josie: But I don’t want to take Myra to a haunted house, because that might just be actually traumatizing.
Rhi: [withheld gasp]
Kim: Yeah. Myra would have a bad time.
Rhi: I feel like if it’s your standard issue Halloween haunted house type thing I feel like Myra would actually handle it pretty well, because she’s so calm.
Minna: Yeah.
Kim: Yeah, because Myra would be like “that’s fake, that’s fake.”
Rhi: Yeah, exactly! [laughs]
Minna: I feel like Minx, if you took Minx to a haunted house, she’d be the friend who’s like half hiding behind you and grabbing onto your arm.
Josie: Yep.
Rhi: Yeah. Those pictures of people getting caught in jump scares.
[laughter]
Minna: Myra would be the one who doesn’t react at all.
Rhi: Yeah.
Josie: Never mind. Minx goes into the haunted house, Myra gets to relax on a cruise.
Kim: Blaire would just be so… smiling.
Minna: Wait, sorry. Who’s relaxing on the cruise? Minx?
Josie: Myra.
Minna: Myra? Force Myra to relax, 2K19! [laughs]
Rhi: Minx gets dragged through the haunted house and jumps and screams at everything.
Josie: [frightened yelp]
Minna: Exactly!
Rhi: Oh man.
Minna: I think you’ve played that way before and it was very good.
Josie: Oh yeah, whenever any significant spoopy stuff happens.
Kim: You just let out the most adorable little yelps.
Josie: [stammers] How dare.
Kim: You do!
Minna: [sighs] Myra on a cruise ship, and I’m just now picturing her lying in a deck chair in like sunglasses and it’s such a weird fucking image.
Kim: A really big sunhat.
Minna: Yes!
Rhi: Mm-hmm, big umbrella over her, enormous book, just the biggest book.
Minna: Yes, the biggest book.
Rhi: Oh…
Kim: [singing] If you like piña coladas.
[laughter]
Rhi: All right. Our next question from Gus G, another Patreon backer, is mostly for me.
Kim: Thank you.
Rhi: I’d like to hear a little from Rhi about how you create NPCs on the fly. What do you think is most important to making an improvised NPC interesting? Do you use tables of names and traits from the Blades GM sheets or elsewhere? To answer that second question, yes. The list of names in the Blades in the Dark book is probably the most useful thing that has ever been printed in any game book ever. [others laugh] All game books should be required to include a list of names to help out GMs everywhere.
Josie: Like, an actually lengthy one, not like in D&D where it’s just like oh, here’s five tiefling names or whatever.
Rhi: Yeah, here’s five names that could be—Yeah.
Minna: There’s a D&D sourcebook that has an appendix that’s just lists of names, and it’s magical.
Rhi: [groans] God bless. Yeah, I mean, it’s been in the stingers and in the episodes of my ongoing difficulties with coming up with names for characters, so having that quick reference is really helpful for me. In terms of coming up with NPCs on the fly and how I make them interesting, I don’t know… [laughs] It’s not a super conscious process. I think at this point I kind of have a sense of what sort of people the group likes, and so I try to put those sort of people in their path, if it’s somebody that everyone is supposed to get along with. I think I also sometimes try to go for defying expectations a little bit. I think our crime grandma, Rose, is one of those where, you know, sweet old lady, knits, has a lot of cats, bakes cookies, definitely used to be a hitter for a gang, like she recreationally beat people up.
Josie: [laughs] Are you thinking she was the cutter?
Rhi: Yeah, yeah. I’ve given some thought to Rose’s history, and yeah, she has some stories. Playing with those sorts of things. I think also, oh, who was the ghost…? Tira was another one where having a ghost who’s really kind of chill with being dead.
Kim: And super spacey.
Rhi: Yeah. A lot of times it’s just I try to latch onto either some quirk about their character or something about the voice or the way they’re presented that will make them a little more interesting and memorable. It’s usually not a very conscious process in my head, though, I just sort of wing it.
Minna: I know it was early on when you made Kay, but I still don’t quite believe that you didn’t think some people would latch onto her, because we had played with other people who immediately latch onto Kay types.
Rhi: [exhales] yeah…
Josie: Yeah. Like, you made her specifically to attack me and Kim.
Minna: Can match, right?
Kim: Yeah. You can’t just make a buff woman and expect us to not love her.
Rhi: Well, I distinctly remember with Kay—I don’t remember if this made it into the episode—but I initially started describing that character as a man.
Kim: Oh, did you?
Josie: Oh.
Rhi: Mm-hmm. I had been like, oh yeah, this tall, buff Gondolier, and then I think I said something like—I think I said he, and then I was like hmm, no, this will be more interesting if the tall, buff Gondolier with prison tatts is a woman! And then you all were like WE LOVE HER!
[laughter]
Josie: Yep. I think Kim just let out the most adorable sound.
Kim: Okay—Nn…
Josie: Revenge. Revenge, Kim.
Kim: Nn… Mm.
Rhi: [giggles]
Kim: Yeah, jus tangentially onto this question, I feel as though I have a bit of insight if you don’t mind me latching on.
Rhi: Oh yeah.
Kim: I feel as though all it takes to make an NPC, or any character, interesting is to find at least one trait, one defining characteristic, and then amplifying it and then just playing up on it, and it especially helps when you have a group of players who will also lift that trait up, because then it sticks in – in this case since we’re a podcast – it sticks in the audience’s mind. There is a defining trait about this character and it makes them memorable. I would say from an improv/acting/artist/writer viewpoint, which is where I’m coming from with this question, is that you know, NPCs may appear more accomplished based on that one factor, having a trait and amplifying it, and also depending on how often that character returns, and it becomes a recurring character, like Kay for example.
Rhi: Yeah. That continues to happen where I’ll introduce someone as a one-off and everyone’s like “uh, we love them, and they need to come back forever.”
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: It’s like, [exasperated] okay! So, our next question from @JH_official – I just realized I’ve once again damned myself to trying to pronounce people’s Twitter handles.
Minna: Next time ask them to give us a thing to call them.
Rhi: Yeah, I know. I never think to do that until I reach this moment of trying to pronounce Twitter handles. So, they ask: What inspired y’all to start playing Blades together, and what are some of the challenges of the format you use to tell stories?
Josie: As far as I know, it was all Rhi’s idea.
Kim: Yes.
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Yeah. It was less that- This group came together for the purpose of the podcast, and it was me wanting to do a Blades AP and then recruiting people.
Josie: I literally filled out an application.
Minna: I had played a one-shot of Blades with Rhi and fell in love with the game from that, so that helped.
Josie: I think all of us had played in one-shots with each other on the one-shot Discord. I think I’d definitely done that with Minna before.
Minna: Maybe us two, yeah.
Rhi: I think pretty much everybody, including Madge in this, I had played in games with all of you. I don’t think that all of you had been in games with each other. For some of you this game was the first time that you’d met.
Kim: Yeah.
Josie: It was probably Masks for me and you, right? It was definitely Masks.
Rhi: Yeah. We were in a Masks game. Minna and I are in a few games. Kim and I have been in a few games. Madge and I had been in some other games. Yeah, this group came together specifically for The Magpies.
Kim: Yeah. This was my first time playing Blades. I had no experience at all before the podcast, so this entire show has been a learning experience for me.
Josie: Same.
Kim: I’d never played a one-shot or even looked at the rules. I still kind of don’t.
[laughter]
Rhi: Listen. Every AP needs a Johnny. It’s fine.
Minna: Uh-huh.
Kim: Well, my point being is that, you know, this game was my first experience meeting Josie and Minna. I have known Rhi for a number of years before the podcast, and I knew Madge from Twitter but we’d never done a game before, so yeah, this whole experience recording the podcast is really, I feel almost come full circle to me, because I’ve gotten so close to all of you.
Minna: Mm-hmm~
Rhi: Yeah~
Josie: Yeah. I think the real answer to this question is… Rhi, I don’t think you’ve ever really talked about why you started this.
Rhi: I think I’ve talked about this a little bit in a post that I did for the Magpies Quill on Patreon, but I literally- Blades in the Dark was on Kickstarter, I saw a post either on Twitter or Tumblr about it, I went and looked and I was like hmm, this looks like a cool game. I backed it, I started reading over the playtest materials, and most games that I look at I usually start thinking about the kind of character that I could create. Blades was the first game that I picked up and I was like oh, I wanna GM this.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: I got to run it a few times, like I did some one-shots, I played it a little bit in person with my friend group here in Chicago, and by virtue of listening to One Shot and Campaign I started thinking doing my own AP podcast would be kinda cool, and to the best of my knowledge, and as far as I know this is still true, when we launched there wasn’t anyone doing a long form Blades in the Dark AP. Shows that do one-shots of different systems have done Blades. It’s pretty popular for streaming, there’s a lot of streamed campaigns of Blades, but not any other campaigns as a podcast, so part of it was I really, really, really love the system and I wanted to tell the kind of stories that it sets us up to tell, but also I saw a niche that nobody had filled and I figured if we’re first into that spot… I feel like it’s probably easier to get listeners, this is gonna sound really self-serving, but it’s gonna be easier to get listeners as a Blades in the Dark podcast because…
Kim: No one else has done it.
Rhi: …there’s only one of us right now, as opposed to starting another D&D podcast. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with starting another D&D podcast, if that is what you love, go for it, but you’re gonna have a lot more direct competition in that space.
Kim: One thing I think that must be really satisfying for you, Rhi, is whenever we get iTunes reviews that mention, you know, “I was trying to think of running Blades in the Dark at home and I had no idea how to run the system—“
Rhi: Oh God! It’s the best!
Kim: “—but this podcast gave me an idea of what the setting could look like.” I think that must feel really good for you.
Rhi: Yeah. Having people say that they learned how to play the game or run the game from listening to our show is awesome. Not at all what I expected.
Kim: Yeah, but it is high praise. I think that’s very flattering.
Rhi: Yeah. It’s great. Yeah, because I like… I really love this system, obviously, I’ve been running it for two and a half years? Yeah.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: More than that, we’re coming up on our… No. yeah? When did we start? Yeah, we’re coming up on two years.
Minna: We started recording September of 2016?
Rhi: 2017, yeah.
Minna: –17, sorry.
Rhi: Because we launched in February of 2018, so yeah, we’re coming up on two years of doing this game.
Kim: Wow.
Minna: I just know we did our first recording on September 11 of that year, I think, at least the weekend of September 11, because that’s when Irma happened.
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: Oh yes, that’s right.
Josie: Oh right, hurricane party.
Rhi: Our hurricane party.
Minna: Yeah, that’s why our first episode is unsalvageable.
Kim: Right.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: Okay, so the other half of this question: What are some of the challenges of the format you use to tell stories? I’m not sure if this means the game or podcasting.
Josie: I read it as podcasting.
Rhi: All right, yeah. We just talked about the game system a whole bunch, let’s talk about podcasting.
Josie: Honestly, I really like podcasting a lot, but it is a hit not having apparent body language to refer to.
Kim: Yeah.
Josie: I do like it to some degree because it encourages us to be more descriptive and spell things out more, which is something I like about podcasting, but was definitely harder to get to know the players and the characters without that touchstone.
Rhi: Yeah. This might be a little bit more of a game mechanics thing than a podcast thing, but one thing I struggle with as a GM is the nature of Blades is that the players go out into the world and immediately start generating plot hooks and problems and things, and one challenge I have is making sure that I don’t leave important threads dangling for too long or that I find ways to weave them back in, because there’s so much that’s going on and sometimes it can be hard to come back to those things and fit them back in a way that makes sense and feels satisfying. At this point, I do not use the engagement roll in downtime anymore. I don’t need to generate more problems for this group. [laughter] You all take care of that enough on your own. You have enough things going on that I just, I don’t bother with it anymore. I skip right over that part of downtime, because if I was also piling that stuff on top of all of the other fires—
Kim: It would be too much.
Rhi: Yeah. There’s no way that we could cover everything. The engagement rolls are great for the start of a campaign when you sort of need to get the ball rolling, but before too long there’s enough things on fire that you don’t have to set any yourself.
Kim: One thing that I know is a chronic problem for me as a person and a player is that if you let me I would just keep going on bit after bit after bit and meme after meme after meme, because that’s just how I kind of interact in roleplay settings. When I’m not playing a super sad, dramatic character I like to kind of be the comedy relief, because I feel as though it’s very easy and also very popular to play a character with a lot of trauma and a lot of backstory, and I’ve done that as well, and I enjoy that.
Rhi: Listen, don’t attack me like this, Kim. [laughs]
Kim: No, I’m not calling anybody out at all, because I have this problem as well. You know in a past campaign I played a character with a lot of issues, and I enjoy the drama, but at the same time I also find a lot of value in bringing light and levity and humor to the table.
Minna: Yeah~
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Kim: So, one problem, since this is a curated show for the public, is that so much gets cut out, and I feel as though if Rhi doesn’t tell me to shut the fuck up that I will just keep going.
[laughter]
Rhi: I do it lovingly.
Kim: I know you do it lovingly, but I don’t think you guys understand how much cut content there is.
Minna: The cut Jurassic Park joke still hurts me.
Rhi: I’m almost certain that the Jurassic Park joke is in the blooper reel.
Minna: Oh, I’m sure, I’m sure.
Kim: It is in the Season 1 blooper reel.
Minna: It was just so beautiful in context, too.
Kim: [laughs] Yeah.
Rhi: I think part of that also is a little bit of the fact that we’re playing remotely. The fact that remote games is a thing that can happen is awesome. It’s the only reason that I am as active in the hobby as I am…
Kim: Yeah, me too.
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: …because my in-person group in Chicago, we didn’t play games for like five, six years, and we just started playing again, and we can only get together once a month.
Kim: Oof.
Josie: Oof.
Rhi: [laughs] It’s rough. So like, the fact that we can play online is awesome, but it can also be tough, I think like Josie said, of not having the visual feedback of a lot of the jokes and bits that tend to come up. Yeah, there are some challenges, but I also like the fact that I can, you know, playing online, I don’t have to put on shoes and go anywhere. I can just sit at my desk with my delicious cider and chill out.
Josie: Yeah. Although–
Kim: Yeah. I can be in pajamas and wear no bra and it’s fine.
Rhi: [laughs] Yeah. You were saying, Josie?
Minna: I mean, I don’t think any of us would care if the others weren’t wearing a bra. [laughs]
Kim: No, not in this group, but still.
Rhi: Fair.
Josie: I’ve recorded almost every episode of Magpies in some form of undress.
[laughter]
Rhi: Listen, we just wanna be comfy.
Kim: Yes.
Josie: Yeah. But I just wanted to say that, Kim, we really appreciate your memes.
Minna: Yes, I love them.
Josie: And also I think it’s important that the viewers know that we have a channel in our Discord called Kim’s Meme Emporium where memes are shared.
[laughter]
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: We just need a dedicated space to put my trash fires, because otherwise if I put it in general chat Rhi yells at me. So, that’s why that exists.
Rhi: [giggles] It’s a containment unit.
Minna: I mean, also, most servers I’m in have a meme channel, it’s just that this one is named after you.
Kim: Due to who I am as a person. Anyway.
Minna: It’s beautiful.
Rhi: And we love who you are as a person very much.
Minna: Yes.
Kim: Aww.
Rhi: So, our next question from @WildPark: How have you maintained the energy and commitment to the game over two long and very welcomed seasons? Many AP podcasts seem to burn out after the first flush of enthusiasm wanes.
Josie: For me, it only gets easier with time, really.
Kim: Yeah.
Josie: The hardest part of recording magpies was those first few months before the show started getting released, because part of it is we weren’t getting feedback, right, because we were recording ahead and it wasn’t going out into the world.
Kim: We weren’t getting feedback, and also we were still trying to learn each other as players and as people.
Josie: Right. That was, I’m not gonna lie, it was really hard on me starting out. Part of that is just because I was in a worse place in life, it was a bit of an adjustment, but now it’s just sort of like, I love you all and doing this is really easy, because I can just show up with people I care about, and Minx is really easy to slip into now. Really, it’s that first hump of starting anything creative, there’s like a cresting point where it stops being an uphill climb and into a habit basically.
Rhi: Yeah, exactly.
Minna: Yeah. I think any game there’s a getting to know you period, both for the people – well, with our group – but even people you know, the characters, figuring out how they fit together, that’s always the hardest part of a game for me.
Kim: One thing that is really exciting for me is that over the course of this one and a half, almost two years, is that the more that I play Blaire the more that I learn about her, and as a player that is so exciting for me. It’s also rewarding because I set out Blaire’s story to be a coming of age story, so the fact that her character arc is paying off for me in that way is super satisfying. When I first started playing her, because I’m an artist and I’m a visual thinker, I had no idea what she looked like and that was super hard for me, because whenever I start a new campaign one thing that I like to figure out first along with the character sheet and the name, etcetera, etcetera, is the character design, because that informs the way that I play a character. Now after the fact that we are so long into this campaign now, and I know how Blaire interacts with the world, how she talks and behaves and thinks, that is really fun for me, and her character is very slowly evolving and changing into something slightly bigger than what I originally envisioned, and that’s just so fun for me as a player. I am eternally grateful to have this group to allow me to explore the themes that I am, and I am just so proud of how far Blaire has already come already.
Rhi: Yeah. This was something I didn’t touch on when Josie was asking why I started it, another part of why I started this show is because around the time when I was starting it I was just feeling really stuck in a rut creatively. I wasn’t really writing as much, I didn’t really have a lot going on, I was just kind of coming home from work and making dinner and then just zoning out. I couldn’t tell you what I did with my evenings for hours, and I was like, I need some kind of creative project to fill my time. I had a little experience with audio editing, and I knew that it will fill the time.
Kim: Oh yeah.
Rhi: It fills so much time. I think that’s part of why I have stuck with it, because this is something that is very creatively fulfilling for me, not just playing the games but creating the episodes.
Kim: And just maintaining the community and the Patreon and everything.
Rhi: Yeah! It’s a lot of work, and I am not perhaps as good at delegating as I should be, but I do, I very much appreciate all the help that I get from all of you, particularly with the Patreon. But yeah, this is kind of my major creative endeavor right now, and I think that is what’s really motivating for me.
Next question, another Twitter handle, @DrkGuardian, without an A in dark: What was the hardest moment for you all out of character and in character? A hard decision, heavy emotions, etcetera.
Josie: The Nyryx reveal.
Rhi: Yeah…
Josie: Sorry, it’s far and away that.
Rhi: Yeah, yeah, I think… yeah.
Josie: Because it was such a long time coming, because it’s a quirk of the character sheets we noticed so long ago, very close to the beginning of the campaign.
Minna: it was like Episode 2 or 3 of the published episodes, I think.
Josie: Yeah, so that was kind of known and sat on and negotiated, and Rhi did a lot of planning on how to figure it out and how to reveal it when, and then when we knew it was gonna happen there was, wow, there’s actually a lot of implications and emotions here that we have to work through and negotiate and double back on.
Rhi: Yeah, and that all still has not been settled. I imagine there’s gonna be throughout Season 3 a lot more conversations.
Josie: Right. In character especially it hasn’t been explored yet, but I do think the hardest part has passed on that, and then just actually roleplaying it was like… oh God, this is really serious. [laughs]
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: We had to have some out of character discussions once it finally came up and we figured out the implications.
Josie: Minx was not made to be this serious of a character, in the same way that Blaire has changed, Minx has kind of changed a bit too.
Rhi: Yeah. How about Blaire? Well, we’re not in character right now. Kim? Minna? What do you all have?
Kim: Eh, Blaire, Kim, interchangeable. I don’t care. Y’all always joke that Blaire’s not a character and I’m just leaning into it. So, one thing that definitely sticks out to me as being the hardest moment for me out of character, I think it was the Rigney reveal episode during downtime. Myra and Blaire’s conversation. I know I’ve already touched on this a little, but that was the first time during this game, at the table, where I cried out of character, and most of that was cut. You could hear it come through in the voice acting, but after that scene wrapped up I did have to mute myself on Discord because I started crying out of character, and that was… I forget what you said, Minna, but it was something along the lines, after I said feeling small or something like that—
Minna: I think it was I’m proud of you, maybe? I don’t know if it was the proud thing or something else.
Kim: I don’t think it was I’m proud of you, it was something about losing people and losing friends.
Rhi: Aww.
Kim: That is always a subject that pulls at my heartstrings a certain way, because that’s something that’s affected me a lot in life. So, after that scene wrapped up, I had to mute myself on Discord and just cover my mouth and try to get ahold of myself, and you guys all being the wonderful people that you are were checking in, oh my God, Kim, are you okay, are you okay, and I… the other part of me was also so embarrassed because I—
Rhi: Aww.
Kim: I have such a hard time expressing emotions in front of people, even friends, so having that happen at the table was very scary for me in the moment, but the fact that everyone was thinking of my emotional safety afterwards and checking in with me multiple times, that I was actually okay, actually did make me feel better after the feeling had passed. So, that was definitely the hardest thing for me out of character this season, was allowing that little bit of vulnerability, you know, happen in front of all of you.
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Aw.
Kim: Because I had never experienced anything like that at the table before. I’ve done fake in character acting and fake character crying, but that was the first time when something very raw and real hit me, like completely blindsided me, and that was a little scary for me.
Rhi: Oh, well I’m glad that you felt okay with it afterwards, because that was definitely something we wanted to… I mean, we’ve had a few moments like that where we’ve had to pause and be like, okay, this thing is happening now, how are we all doing. Are we feeling okay? How do we want to proceed with this?
Kim: Yeah, but that was the first time when in character and out of character started mingling just a bit for me, just enough for me where checking in felt warranted.
Rhi: Yeah. Gotta love that bleed.
Kim: Woo!
Rhi: Minna, do you have anything in or out of character?
Minna: I’m not gonna lie, I’m gonna bounce off of Kim. Kim, you said something about how you’re a very private person and have trouble expressing emotions. I am also like this, and Myra is also like this. This is one of the traits she shares with me. I don’t know why, but Myra’s one of the intentionally closest to me characters I’ve built. Myra’s had to reveal a lot and have a lot of emotions and talk about those emotions with her friends this season, and that’s—
Kim: Myra said fuck!
[laughter]
Minna: When did Myra–? It was a while back that Myra said fuck.
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: But it was Season 2.
Minna: But she did say fuck. I think it was with Jeren?
Rhi: Yes.
Minna: Yes. But yeah, so that Salia episode, even the scene that Kim was talking about, every time that I’ve had to have a quiet, Myra deals with her emotions and talks about them with her friends, it’s like I so much want to reveal things and have her be vulnerable, but it’s so tough to play her vulnerable, both because I’m not good at being vulnerable as a person and also Myra’s not good at being vulnerable as a person, so that’s been a bit of a struggle to try and push that out.
Rhi: Yeah. What Minna and I had talked about was how are we gonna reveal these big secrets that Myra has, and it was like, she’s not gonna tell them, they have to be expressed in a different way.
Minna: And like, there’s a part of me that almost feels unsatisfied like I wasn’t able to let her be as vulnerable as I wanted it to be, but also I think it makes sense for her that she struggles with that.
Rhi: Yeah. I would say for me, in character moments, Rigney, the conversation that he had with all of you after you found out that he had been selling you out for half a season. That was something that I had planned, I had notes for some of his dialogue there, but it was still like, you know, Rigney’s one of my favorite NPCs in this game. I have a lot of, there’s some deep Rigney lore living in my head. [laughs]
Kim: I want it.
Minna: Uh-huh.
Rhi: Well, you know, you gotta kind of patch things up with him a bit.
Minna: We didn’t know Rigney had a brother until then either.
Kim: Right!
Rhi: Yeah, yeah. [sighs] Gotta get Nevan back in the city at some point. But yeah, just that scene of… it was something that had been kind of lurking, as we mentioned earlier, that had been lurking in the background of all of his interactions with the crew for such a long time, and in a way it was sort of a cathartic moment for the character to finally be able to express all of this, but also having to tell people that you care about very much that you have been betraying them for the last few months is not a good time, so that was a pretty rough episode and scene, even as I was kind of out of character taking some glee at everyone’s very shocked reactions.
Minna: I will say his despair came right the fuck through.
Rhi: Yeah. That was what I was aiming for. Poor guy.
Minna: Uh-huh.
Rhi: Next question, from @IamKJ: Thank you so much for such an amazing show. Thank you for being such an amazing listener. Are there any plans to add a fourth cast member? I love the team chemistry as is, but it would be fascinating to see how a new teammate might integrate.
Kim: Mm. That was a conversation—
Rhi: We’ve talked about this.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Yeah. We’ve talked about this a bit.
Kim: As soon as we learned that Madge was walking away from the show, that was a conversation that we had almost immediately, was are we going to add a fourth cast member, and we’re definitely not opposed to the idea, I would say, but we’re also very comfortable with the dynamic that we already have.
Rhi: Yeah.
Josie: I would say at this point that I am opposed, like, at least for the show as is. I don’t think it would work to bring in someone this late. If Madge had left a little earlier and we had decided to do it right at that time it might have worked out.
Kim: Maybe, yeah.
Josie: But I think at this point, just like, what we got works, and honestly I don’t think it would be super fun for a new person coming in…
Kim: Right.
Rhi: Yeah, that’s kind of—
Josie: …because we have this dynamic established and it will take a good long while for them to integrate.
Kim: I have to agree.
Rhi: We do have plans for some guest characters. We’re gonna bring Seeks back in Season 3, which I’m personally very excited about, because Seeks is awesome.
Minna: Yes. I love Seeks.
Kim: Yes. Seeks is the best.
Rhi: And Waffles is also one of the best.
Minna: I want Kim to actually be there this time. [laughs]
Rhi: Yeah, yeah.
Kim: Yeah. The bonus episode was good, but the crew plus Seeks would be very satisfying.
Rhi: But yeah, I think at this point, probably not is kind of the direction that we’re leaning for bringing in a new cast member, but I do want to- something I wanted to do in Season 2 that didn’t really happen was bring in more guest players. I’m hoping there will be opportunities to do that in Season 3. Scheduling can be tough for that sort of thing, finding people to bring in can be tough, but I think that having an additional person in the mix for a single score is fun, but I think Josie is right that at this point both in and out of character we’ve just got a pretty solid group dynamic, and I feel like it might be tough to bring another person into that in a way that doesn’t end up making somebody feel awkward.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Our next question, from Thomas Seymour Turner, another Patreon backer: So you’ve had a session with a festival, but is there any one event that all of the Magpies would want to do together during their downtime or any other festival they might be interested in celebrating?
Minna: Hurriedly googles other festivals. Well, not googles, opens the book.
Rhi: I know, I’m looking at that too. I know there’s some other holidays that happen, I just…
Josie: I think Minx wants to drag the other two to the theater.
Rhi: Oh gosh…
Kim: Ohh…! [dramatically] The theater!
Minna: Oh! Ohh~! That would be so good.
Josie: [laughs] Perhaps an opera~
Rhi: Oh my God!
Minna: Agh~
Rhi: That would be amazing.
Kim: [opera singing] Funny makes me laugh~
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: Oh no. God, The Phantom of the Opera is an actual ghost. Um…
Josie: I think we just figured out a Season 3 episode.
Rhi: Oh man. All right. I’ll put it on the list.
Kim: You guys can enable me, because I am a soprano 1 bitch, I’m sorry, but I don’t know harmonies. I was never taught.
Rhi: [laughs] So other holidays include Arkenvorn which honors the Spirit Wardens—
Minna: Fuck that. [laughs]
Rhi: –which I don’t feel like this group would celebrate.
Josie: Nope.
Rhi: Unison, which celebrates the end of the Unity War with Skovlan.
Minna: Or curses it, if you don’t agree with the Unity War.
Rhi: Yeah. That is kind of an element of the setting that we’ve not really engaged with very much, is sort of the whole Skovlan thing.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Which there’s so much in this setting, we cannot touch on all of it. Doskvorn we did a whole episode on. Gratitude, honoring the Immortal Emperor’s ascension to the throne and salvation of The Shattered Isles.
Kim: Nope!
Josie: Bleh.
Minna: That’s one thing we’ve never done, though! We’ve never done a Thanksgiving episode. [laughs]
Rhi: That’s basically what this is. Gratitude is basically, it also says, as well as celebrating thankfulness for other things in life. It is basically a Thanksgiving type holiday.
Kim: Oh. You know what, I could see a Magpies Thanksgiving in The Nest. That would be cute.
Rhi: Yeah. Aw, that would be fun.
Minna: Oh, can you imagine like a community Thanksgiving celebration though? Like setup in The Hound’s Paw?
Rhi: Oh, yeah. Aww.
Minna: Everyone cooks and brings pot luck shit.
Kim: That would be very cute. I actually like that.
Rhi: Aw, that would be real good. Yeah.
Minna: Would also be a good way to check in with some NPCs we hadn’t seen in a while.
Rhi: Yes. Hang on, I’m gonna write this down. [laughs]
Josie: Speaking of untouched on things in the setting, the thing about The Hound’s Paw is that it’s essentially a sports bar for the nearby dog races.
Kim: [gasps]
Minna: [squeaks] Yes! We’ve never been to the dog races!
Josie: We haven’t acknowledged that at all.
Rhi: [laughing] No, we described it in the first episode of it being the cutest sports bar—Yeah.
Kim: We need to go to a dog race.
Rhi: [laughs]
Josie: Yeah, for real.
Rhi: Oh no…
Minna: Do people wear fancy hats at the dog races?
Kim: Of course!
Rhi: Yes, they do, yeah.
Minna: Is it like horse races in our world?
Rhi: I’m gonna say yes. I’m literally writing these things down, by the way.
Kim: No, go on.
Rhi: Because these are very good ideas. Yeah, we have not made reference to the fact that Rigney runs a sports bar… ever.
Kim: Since Episode 1, yeah, no it hasn’t come up.
Rhi: Yeah, Episode 1 we described it and then we never talked about it again. Yeah, well, now we have some ideas for stuff to do next season. The Thanksgiving one would be really cute.
Kim: It would.
Rhi: It would be very fun. I don’t know what… Yeah, just a big pile of food episode is always good.
Kim: And dogs.
Rhi: Because I love describing food in this setting~
Minna: Mm-hmm!
Rhi: It’s very good.
Kim: It’s a challenge, but it’s good.
Rhi: Yeah. All right, so the next question that we’re gonna do is from @Snarkophagus:
Josie: Great name, by the way.
Rhi: Yes. How long would the Leverage crew survive in your Duskwall? I would like to share, in the interest of full disclosure, that I started hyperventilating with excitement upon being asked this question.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: So, first, if we are assuming that this is basically a Blades in the Dark AU of Leverage, the characters would be… Nate is obviously the Spider, Sophie is a Slide, Parker is a Lurk, Eliot is a Cutter. Hardison is a little tougher, but I feel like Leech is the best fit for him as a hacker, I feel like the Leech being sort of the tinkerer and saboteur that’s the closest analog. They would obviously be a team of vigilantes. I feel like they would do pretty well. If we are assuming a direct mapping of the story into Duskwall, the reason that the Leverage crew is as successful as they are in the show is because in Episode 1 they become just disgustingly wealthy, they pull off a really, really good score and become very rich, so they then have a ton of resources to do all of their vigilante vengeance for the common people. So, I feel like in terms of doing what they do, they would do pretty well.
In terms of personal growth? It might be a little harder, because like, this is a somewhat bleaker setting than the real world, or the version of the real world that they inhabit in Leverage. The existence of ghosts would probably be very difficult for some characters to deal with. Oh God, Eliot having to deal with ghosts… Yeah, that would be a real problem for him.
Minna: Does Eliot kill people? Is that why?
Rhi: Eliot… So, I’ll also mention, in the interest of full disclosure, I’m the only person on the cast who has seen Leverage.
[laughter]
Josie: Aside from one episode.
Minna: We saw one episode together.
Rhi: Yeah. I made all of them watch one episode.
Kim: I’ve still never seen it.
Rhi: Yeah, that’s right, because Kim wasn’t there. Well, I’ll have to- We’ll watch that at some point, maybe when I’m in Boston.
Kim: Oh, yeah.
Rhi: Yeah, so Eliot, they don’t really get into specifics of what his background is, but prior to getting into his… He’s described as a retrieval specialist, which is he is sent into dangerous situations to acquire a thing or a person, but prior to that he was in the military? In some black ops type situation?
Kim: Oh fuck.
Minna: [gasps] Oh honey.
Rhi: There’s a lot of implications that he did some very, very—and then after he got out of the military, working for some different criminals, that he has done some extremely bad shit.
Minna: He totally was in the Unity War.
## Content Warning: discussion of child death [0:57:50] Skip to next tag
Rhi: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think he would have a lot of- He’d have a lot of issues with ghosts. Nate would have issues with one particular ghost. Nate’s kind of driving motivation in the show, at least to start off, is that his son—I don’t remember if it was cancer or if it was just some kind of rare disease—but his son got very sick and the insurance company that he worked for refused to cover procedures that could have saved him, so he died. So he would have one particular ghost haunting him, literally or metaphorically.
## End of Content Warning [0:58:30]
Rhi: Sophie would do amazing. Sophie’s just amazing. Parker would also I think do pretty good. But yeah, in short, I think that they would do pretty well. I think they would continue to be able to, you know, enact vigilante justice on Duskwall, but I think that on a personal level they would have a lot more problems than they do in the actual show, which is saying something, because they have a lot of problems in the actual show, but the beauty of watching it over those five seasons is how they come together as a beautiful found family and they help each other grow and become better people and everyone should watch Leverage, it is one of the best shows ever.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: I love it so much.
Josie: Wow, you really rattled that off, huh?
Rhi: Listen.
Josie: [laughs]
Kim: No, but that’s okay!
Rhi: I saw that question a few days ago and I have been thinking about it ever since. [laughs]
Josie: Yeah. No, that wasn’t a bad thing, I was saying that was impressive.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: All right. I think for our final question here, this is sort of an unapologetic ego stroking for us, we’re gonna go back to Alice Tobin, one of our Patreon backers, who asks: Are you aware of how wonderful and important your show is, and are the Magpies aware of how wonderful and important they are in Duskwall? UHH.
[laughter and embarrassed groaning]
Rhi: Let’s talk about that second one.
Kim: Yeah, let’s start with the second one.
Josie: Obviously Minx is very aware of how wonderful and important she is, but—[laughs]
Rhi: [laughs]
Kim: I think Blaire is oblivious. I don’t think she knows how wonderful she is to the group or to Duskwall as a whole.
Minna: Augh… We told you!
Kim: I think she has no clue.
Minna: I told you directly!
Kim: I know this, but… Blaire has also—
Minna: Also, I’ve told you directly, so I guess that makes sense. [laughs]
Kim: Yes, but also, I’m pretty sure Blaire has forgotten, like almost immediately.
Minna: Aww.
Rhi: Well, it’s that thing where compliments just don’t sink in.
Minna: Yeah.
Kim: Yes, and this is another example of how Blaire is like me where Blaire has very little problems, or I should say less problems with receiving compliments than Kim does. I have such a hard time with compliments.
Rhi: I mean, I think we all do. Did you hear the noises we all made at the first half of that question?
[giggling]
Kim: Yeah, I know. The way in which I cope with how the show has been received is that, and this is gonna sound awful, but I don’t think about it. It’s much easier for me to deal with us doing this when it’s compartmentalized and it’s only a thing that we do every other Saturday, and it’s recorded, and then I try not to think about it throughout the rest of the week, because when I see the Twitter interactions and the fact that people even throw money at us every month, like that…
Rhi: That’s wild.
Josie: Yeah.
Rhi: That’s mindboggling.
Kim: Yeah. I do my best not to think about it, because if I do then I won’t know what to do with myself.
Rhi: [laughs]
Josie: Honestly? Answering the question of am I aware, honestly no, simply because I have no idea how to interface with the fan base at all. Like, so far very few people in my friend circles listen, and I get @’d sometimes on Twitter, and that makes me very, very happy, but otherwise I don’t know how to be in contact with the fans at all. [laughs] So Rhi just kind of updates, and I’m like wow, that many people are listening, geez.
Kim: Yeah. Whenever Rhi sends us listener diagnostics and tells us about new reviews and whatnot, I look at it maybe once and I’m like, cool, and then I completely forget about it, because if I think about it or too long it really does fuck with my head.
Minna: I’m not gonna lie, I’m different on both counts of not really paying attention to it and not knowing people who are into it, because… uh, my dumb thing that I do is I occasionally check that tag, and when I say occasionally I mean it’s one of my habitual fidgets on Twitter, is I occasionally check the @ mention of Magpies.
Rhi: Yeah. Minna’s better about that than I am. [laughs]
Minna: Especially since Twitter changed its interface, I noticed you’ve had a lot more trouble with it.
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: Yeah, I kinda keep track of that, because that’s fun. Sometimes people say fun things. Also, I’ve had a number of friends who’ve listened to at least some of it and dragged me over some aspects of it. [others laugh] It was Ammourazz who was like, what, you being really into found families, what?! Or something like that, related to that. [laughs] It’s not necessarily like, I don’t know if they’re fans or if they’re just listening to it, but I know and I’ve talked to a decent amount of people who have heard at least some of the show.
Rhi: Yeah, so as the person who kind of runs the social media and is sort of the face of the show, I have to interact with it, and I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing or it’s a chore, it is… uh, bewildering in some ways, and just really, really touching. From things of just like, you know, the tweets of people being like “oh, you should listen to The magpies.” God, somebody compared us to The Watch in Discworld recently. Like, what?! [laughs]
Minna: It was me having a Discworld meltdown, by the way, I just wanna point that out, which is the only reason I tweeted about it.
Rhi: Yeah, and we’ve gotten, you know, people have left us these incredibly kind and beautiful reviews, and some emails that we’ve gotten… Somebody wrote a song for us? Like an instrumental piece, and they had asked that it not be shared so I am respecting that, I am not sharing it, but someone was—I have been writing fanfic since I was like 11 or 12, so I have an understanding of the amount of love that you need to have for a series or some kind of media property, some kind of creation, to make something like that. You know? So, the fact that people have done that stuff, like we’ve had fan art, we’ve had somebody make music… that is, it is one of the most flattering and meaningful things for people to be saying that.
I will also say, as much as I love the reviews talking about how people have learned how to play Blades in the Dark or reviews saying that we’re all awesome as players and GM, I will admit I like hearing that, that makes me feel good.
Josie: Me too.
Rhi: I think the comments that I like the best are the ones that specifically call out our social justice bent and approach to both story and our sort of mission as a podcast. That was admittedly something I was a little nervous about, particularly the Featured Charity.
Kim: Because it can be polarizing in this day and age.
Rhi: Yeah, and I mean, just the RPG community is not always the friendliest to that sort of thing. So like, I was a little worried about how that was gonna be received, and it has been overwhelmingly positive of people specifically mentioning that as something that they like about the show has felt really, really good, and even if people were pissed about it I would keep doing it, but it makes… It’s really, really nice to know that we’ve got this audience that is so supportive of not just the story that we’re telling but of what we are trying to do.
Kim: In the real world.
Rhi: In a small way. Yeah. That’s really, really gratifying. Yeah… Compliments are hard, but they’re very much appreciated, and it really does mean the—
Kim: We may have a hard time expressing it in words, because we’re all disasters in our own ways, but the fact that more than 10 people listen to this at all is I think fair to say mindboggling to all of us, and we thank you.
Rhi: Yeah. Yeah. All of the support that we get, people tweeting at us, leaving reviews, the people who donate who back us on Patreon, all of it is fantastic and we love it, and whenever something new comes up and I share it in the Discord there’s just a lot of screaming and flailing about like “oh my God, I can’t believe that person said that, that’s so nice, and we love them.”
Kim: Yeah, we love you.
Rhi: Yeah. I was gonna say, that’s pretty much the note we’re gonna end this on. That’s all the questions that we have to cover. I know that there were some other questions that got submitted that we didn’t get to answer, but we wanna keep this from being a three-hour ramble session.
Kim: Yeah, keeping it short and sweet tonight.
Rhi: Yes. So, as always, as we said, thank you all so much for listening…
Kim: Mwah!
Rhi: …for all of your support, and we are looking forward to starting Season 3 with all of you.
Minna: Mm-hmm!
Kim: Yeah!
Rhi: yeah!
Josie: yay!
Rhi: All right—
ALL: Bye~
## Bloopers [1:08:24]
Rhi: There’s one of those—[distant meowing] …cats screaming at me.
Minna: [giggles]
Kim: [angry cat noise]
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: Harley~ Why are you yelling?
Kim: She do a scream.
Rhi: [sweetly] Please stop yelling while I am setting the scene. Thank you.
—
Minna (as Myra): So, we’re obviously gonna roll up to their shop and talk to them—
Minna: No. That’s not what she would say. Roll up is not a good phrase for Blades in the Dark.
[laughter]
Kim: Fruit roll up!
—
Minna: Should I toss a Magpie pin in?
Rhi: I mean, I think you should.
Minna: Well, you’re the GM. I’m asking my fellow Magpies. [laughs] Is this too messy to be worth attaching our name to?
Kim: It’s very messy.
Rhi: [whispering] Do it~
Josie: Yeah, let’s not.
Kim: It’s too messy.
Rhi: [whispering] Do iiit~
Minna: Yeah, and we don’t want people to know that we—
Kim: I’m willfully ignoring the DM.
Rhi: [whispering] Do iiit~
Josie: Yeah, we should—
Minna: I think we don’t want people to know that we have access to these locks given that we don’t want to spoil our plans.
Rhi: That’s fair.
Kim: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Josie: I think we want to drop the pin for the Ironhook thing, because then it’s like, oh, we’re badass, we got in and out, but…
Madge: Not right now.
Minna: yeah.
Josie: Not for this.
Minna: Yeah, not for this. If it had been a really smooth operation, maybe.
Rhi: [giggles] But it was the opposite of that.
Madge: This was not that. [giggles]
—
Josie: The plan I had was trying to get him to go in on something, like financially, and then ruin it.
Kim: Oh. I was thinking like going after his family.
Rhi: Oh, the Leverage con! Heh.
Minna: Eee!
Rhi: That is literally the plotline of every episode of Leverage.
Minna: Nice.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: Find rich mark, convince them to put all of their money into a con, steal all of their money, ruin their life in the process, stand there looking cool like badasses at the end of the episode while the perp gets taken away.
Josie: Excellent.
Rhi: Leverage is so good, you guys.
Josie: [laughs]