Radio Hour: Just a Simple, Country Stonetop

Episode 45 of the Rascal Radio Hour begins with Thomas and Chase riding that blue wave into the studio and spending a long time rediscovering whatever is the opposite emotion of despair. Hope? No, that can't be right. The US midterm elections engendered rare political optimism that both members of the Rascal crew admit is leavened with very little insight into what happens next.

Returning to the world of analog games, the hosts contemplate what kind of president Dan Ayoub will make as the new head of Wizards of the Coast — and whether to expect a different stance towards unionizing workers. A rash of expensive thefts at Spiel Essen this year prompt questions about the German tabletop convention's explosive growth outstripping its capacities. And a bittersweet ending to Paizo and Green Ronin's debacle with Diamond Distributors offers legal relief a bit too late.

With the Question Dungeon disconcertingly quiet (please populate more encounters by writing in!), Chase and Thomas instead discuss practical matters surrounding the tabletop hobby. Bookshelf arrangement is important, and Chase is very jealous of a setup that Thomas finds reflective of many past versions of himself. Planning RPGs can be a game in itself, especially when you're sick of a million individual group chats and wonder if bringing everyone into a shared chat server will simplify your life.

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Here's an excerpt:

Chase: I've got a question about Stonetop. You said early on that there's definitely... you can sense the Dungeons & Dragons about it. What what do you mean by that?

Thomas: The first page of the Stonetop character sheet is all weird and interesting stuff, right? If my playbook is The Seeker, there's a whole bunch of questions about where I got my initial artifact and stuff about my origin, how I think about things and all of that stuff. The second page is the six stats — strength, dex, etc. and then my weapon dice, damage. So, there's this real turning of the page thing that happens, and that was a very noticeable moment. You're like, I could be playing anything. No, no. I'm still playing D&D. And that's cool. We're very into that beause you get to play off some of the assumptions of the game in a in a cool way.

It is actually more interesting to play these rooted, community oriented people in a game that is D&D than in a game that isn't because you feel like you're experiencing something that you have circled around for many years and in many other ways. And it's kind of happening smoothly and interestingly here.

Chase: Fascinating. It's one of the games that I really want to run it next year. I would like give it a chance. There are some games you read and you're like, yeah, that seems interesting. I'll play it eventually. And then there are some games you read and you're like, I need to clear my schedule to make this happen as soon as possible.

Thomas: Is it the D&D-ness of Stonetop that is drawing you?

Chase: Maybe so. My heart is ready to play a six-core-stat game again, you know? I really want Stonetop to reach into my heart and show me why I loved that part of D&D as a younger person. I'm like the jaded protagonist of a Hallmark film who comes back to her hometown from the big city and meets an old flame. I've dated a lot of D&Ds in the city.

Thomas: And Stonetop's there just tying his horse up at the barn.

Chase: Yeah! Stonetop's the farmhand or the mail worker or the carpenter, and we have a meet cute where I go, no, you can't change me. And he goes, I ain't trying to change you. You know? I just want you to have a merry Christmas, or whatever. And then we fall in love. I'm ready for that kind of story with Stonetop.

Thomas: You critically hit it off, yeah.

Chase: Shut up.

Thomas: That was horrible. I apologize.

Chase: Are y'all going to play until you feel done with it? Like you said, Stonetop's kind of built to be a forever game.

Thomas: Yeah, so I think so. We're going to play for a while. I don't know how long; there is no clear end goal in mind. In the first session, the goal was let's keep playing this until we're done with it. That's part of why we're here and what we want to experience. This was a group that was put together for Band of Blades. People want to keep going, and I'm happy about that. After Band of Blades, everyone needs a nice, little, light, fun game, and that had better be what Stonetop is.

Chase: Never mind the things buried under the ground. Don't worry about it.

Thomas: No. Nothing bad ever happens to people who need to protect their village from the encroaching dangers of the world.

Chase: Yeah, and those named horse and goat are not gonna be imperiled one bit.

Thomas: If anything happens to that goat, this game is done.