Drew: It's been it's been long weeks, my friend.
Drew: It's been long weeks.
Drew: Long weeks.
Drew: Actually.
Drew: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Drew: How how are you?
Drew: How are you?
Drew: I'm good.
Drew: No complaints.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: I I was never diagnosed with autism or ADHD.
Drew: But today I uh the wife and I were invited to a friend's child's birthday party.
Paul: Okay.
Drew: Uh she's a toddler.
Drew: And we went to Fun City on Bethel Road.
Drew: Fun City?
Drew: Was it fun?
Drew: I imagine that if you are a child or a parent of a
Drew: small child who gets to go in the ball pits and the why and the and the rope courses and the trampolines and everything, it'd be a lot of fun for me.
Drew: That might have been the closest I've ever been to being overstimulated.
Drew: A little too much going on all the time.
Drew: It's a lot going on in there.
Drew: And it's like
Drew: I mean, I was there for our friends, and I'm glad that they invited us.
Drew: I'm not trying to say that I didn't have a good time.
Drew: I had a good time, but it but like
Drew: When I get really tired, like like really tired, like if I'm getting sick or I've had to work a lot, which is the case here.
Drew: I just, I I I don't know what it is.
Drew: I just like every external stimulus, it just like screams at me.
Drew: And that's kind of what that's kind of what was happening there.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: It was just uh it was just a lot.
Drew: It was a lot.
Drew: But it was good.
Drew: I actually um here's a here's a funny story.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Um
Drew: So I saw a lot of people that are peripherally associated with the show today.
Drew: Oh, okay.
Drew: Yeah, I saw a friend of the show, Robert.
Drew: you know, got caught up with him.
Drew: He was there with with his daughter, who I've only met when she was a teeny tiny little baby, and now she's a toddler with legs that go places.
Drew: And um
Drew: You know, good to get caught up with him and his wife.
Drew: Uh and then after we were done there, we did a Costco run.
Drew: And guess who I ran into it?
Drew: Guess who I ran in at Costco?
Paul: I have no idea.
Drew: Gene.
Paul: Gene!
Paul: Holy shit!
Drew: I have heard I have heard that Costco in Dublin is like the best place to run into Gene.
Drew: Well, it's you know, he said the same thing.
Drew: He said he's at Costco a lot.
Drew: Um which is funny because you know his kids are older and out of the house now and everything.
Drew: But uh
Drew: Same gene.
Drew: Like just, you know, uh for those of you who don't know, so when Paul and I worked together uh many jobs ago,
Drew: Gene was our manager and uh great great man.
Drew: Um he's got a famous website.
Paul: Uh had which I I t I tore I tore it all down.
Paul: At some point I stopped paying for the
Paul: Like the renewal.
Paul: But yeah.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: Had had past heads.
Paul: The Tumblr's still around, I think, but you can't get there from Jeanspace.
Paul: com.
Paul: Okay.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Uh he's he's great.
Drew: He wanted me to tell you hi.
Drew: Um you know, he's it it was just like it was like a big reunion of former coworkers today and now I get to talk to you who I haven't got to talk to in two weeks because uh life is hell and I have to travel everywhere these
Drew: these days and I'm just I'm just so tired.
Drew: So tired.
Drew: How are how are you?
Drew: I'm good.
Drew: Yeah.
Paul: Yeah.
Drew: Yeah.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: I mean, yeah, not a lot.
Paul: I mean I mean the normal amount of stuff is going on, you know, like work and
Paul: Uh playoff hockey started today, though the jackets missed it again by like two fucking points, but that's okay.
Paul: I'm not better
Drew: Yeah, the Penguins are getting ready to play here at 8 o'clock.
Paul: I hope they lose so bad.
Drew: Yeah, you know.
Drew: I don't like I think it's always adorable when Blue Jackets fans get it like annoyed at Pittsburgh fans.
Paul: Like they have some sort of rivalry, and I'm just like if we if we have a good playoff series, I think a rivalry rivalry can bloom.
Paul: But until then, no.
Paul: No.
Drew: We just get a lot of so blotchy.
Paul: Why am I so blotchy on my webcam?
Paul: I have no idea.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: We just get a lot of Pittsburgh fans that come to Columbus Games because there's a lot of and and that that just angers us to the bone.
Paul: But yeah.
Drew: Yeah, it's it's a very drivable distance.
Drew: I know this for a fact.
Paul: Though, you know, let's be honest, like
Paul: Crosby, Malkin, they're getting up there in age.
Paul: So I honestly wouldn't be too sad to watch them do a good playoff run or whatever one last time before they're too old to play hockey anymore.
Paul: So
Paul: Yeah.
Drew: Yeah, I agree.
Paul: I mean as as much as I dislike Pittsburgh, I do have to admit that Crosby is
Paul: If not at one point was the best player on the league.
Paul: Now it's debatable, but he's definitely in the conversation.
Drew: Like he might have lost a step.
Paul: But he's still incredible.
Paul: I mean you compare him to Avechkin who's still playing coming in, and Avechkin looks plays like an old man, and Crosby does not.
Drew: So no
Drew: So if if not the Jackets and not the Penguins, then who you got?
Drew: Who you who you really want to root for?
Paul: I'm rooting for Buffalo, simply because it's a good story.
Paul: They've had the longest playoff drought.
Paul: in uh they had the longest playoff drought in the NHL.
Paul: Uh so I'm a I'm a I'm a Buffalo fan until they get knocked out.
Paul: So Okay.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: All right.
Paul: I like that.
Paul: I can apply that.
Paul: I like the story.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Drew: All right.
Drew: Cool.
Drew: Well, um man, I I wish I had more to talk about this week.
Drew: It's been a pretty Drew Heavy focus the past couple podcasts.
Drew: So I'm interested to kind of hear what you got going on.
Paul: I started playing a new video game yesterday.
Paul: In fact, it was released yesterday.
Paul: I don't know if you've heard of this or not, Drew, but it's called Pragmata.
Drew: I have.
Drew: It's been it has been force fed to me on TikTok.
Drew: It's been it's been basically, I've seen some really positive articles about it on some game review sites.
Drew: Tell everybody about it.
Paul: Yeah, so they started development of this like six years ago.
Paul: Like, in fact, they and they announced it alongside the announcement of the PlayStation 5.
Paul: Right.
Paul: And it's been in development hell for that long and it just came out.
Paul: And
Paul: It is so it's an over-the-shoulder action RPG.
Paul: Well action, not even RPG, action shooter.
Paul: There is some light RPG elements.
Paul: Set in a generic sci-fi universe, you're on a moon base, AI and 3D printing have gone rogue, and things are a mess.
Paul: Uh and
Paul: As far as like shooters, like the shooting part of it, it's very different.
Paul: It's very slow.
Paul: It's very methodical.
Paul: You don't have a lot of ammunition in any of your weapons.
Paul: You have to be very deliberate with your shots and keep moving.
Paul: You're fighting these big stompy robots who want to kill you.
Paul: But the gimmick is you find this android girl who you name Diana.
Paul: And the gimmick is she can hack these robots to make basically to like open up their armor or otherwise hurt them, make them vulnerable.
Paul: So you have to do this hacking mini game, which is not a hard mini game.
Paul: It's basically a maze.
Paul: You have a start point.
Paul: You have to get to the end point.
Paul: There are spaces you can't go through.
Paul: There are spaces that give you bonuses.
Paul: But you have to do this hacking mini-game while you are otherwise trying not to die from the big stompy robots.
Paul: So it's this very interesting thing of like, you know, essentially like as you're a as you're aiming down the sites, you enable this hacking mini-game.
Paul: So you have to like make sure you're pointing at the robot you want to do, that you're looking at this hacking mini-game to get the stuff you need.
Paul: You're moving, dodging, you know, out of the way so you don't get stepped on or shot or rocketed or lasered.
Paul: And then after the hacks complete, you basically go into, okay, I've got like 10 shots of my gun that I can fire before I have to reload.
Paul: Let's go to fucking town, knock this thing out.
Paul: And like the story is meh it's it's uh it's not an open world or like you're gett I play two levels so far.
Paul: Uh they're
Paul: linear-ish levels, a little bit of exploration to find like collectibles and stuff.
Paul: The like couple boss fights I've had are both been incredible.
Paul: Like
Paul: Okay, ever it the setting, meh, the story, meh, the gameplay, ten out of ten.
Paul: Absolutely incredible.
Paul: The gameplay just works.
Paul: It's not a fast pace because you like it's a very slow-paced, deliberate shooter.
Paul: It's good.
Paul: I'm enjoying the heck out of it.
Drew: So every video I've watched of it immediately turns me off to the game.
Paul: Okay.
Drew: And here's the reason.
Drew: I don't know how many Capcom action games you were playing.
Paul: Yeah, yeah.
Paul: It's it was it's a Capcom game for sure.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: The character design and the voices.
Drew: Just put me off.
Drew: And and and it's not just this game.
Drew: There's been other Capcom games outside of like Street Fighter where the characters are just a little too over the top and they're
Drew: design and their voices and their animations.
Drew: And it's just like something's off.
Drew: Now what interestingly enough, the Resident Evil emakes uh remakes didn't really do that for me.
Drew: Outside of a few characters who I think there's really no other way to show them.
Drew: Just the character designs, I just can't I just
Drew: I can't do it.
Drew: It looks like a cool game, and it's been it's been very well reviewed.
Drew: It's good.
Paul: I'm here to get it.
Drew: It's been very well reviewed.
Paul: It's good.
Paul: Yeah, granted, like I said.
Paul: All those things you said are true.
Paul: The voice acting, mediocre, the dialogue, the story, the the visuals, all I mean it looks pretty, but like, well, I don't want me.
Paul: There's a lot of like just generic gray hallways.
Paul: Now there's other things besides gray hallways, but like there's a lot of generic gray hallways.
Paul: Like everything around it is meh.
Paul: But that hacking shooting mix gameplay is good.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: It's good.
Paul: It's real good.
Drew: Now do you how long of a game is it?
Paul: Uh I've read that like the main story is like 15, 16 hours.
Paul: And then if you want to go back and collect everything, it's a few more hours after that.
Paul: So it's not a huge game.
Paul: And you know.
Paul: But
Paul: Yeah.
Drew: I I mean I'll I might pick it up what it's on sale because of all the buzz that it's getting, but I might, I might not.
Drew: I don't know.
Drew: I just have a really hard time.
Drew: I'm having a really hard time getting some of that past that voice acting.
Drew: And like the little girl just looks creepy to me.
Drew: Yeah, and she is in like
Paul: Yeah, there's already there's already that k thirsty neckbeard who like dude I I'm not even sure we'll talk about this, but basically
Paul: There was an entire like group of people that got banned because they were very upset that they couldn't see up the the robot girl's coat.
Paul: It's like dude gross, gross, gross on so many levels.
Paul: I know.
Paul: Gross, stop it
Drew: Fucking gamers, dude.
Drew: Like they'll give a they'll give a game like out a bad review because they can't do that.
Paul: And it's like why are you censoring the game?
Paul: It's like, why are you a creepy ass pervert?
Paul: Stop it.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Very, very disturbing behavior from the gamers out there.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Drew: No.
Drew: Okay, well good.
Drew: I'm glad I'm glad you like it.
Drew: I'm glad you like it.
Drew: It's good.
Drew: Anything else you've been playing or Diablo?
Paul: Uh I'm kind of dumb.
Paul: Like the expansion comes out later this month, so I'll definitely pick that up and play that.
Paul: I'm looking forward to that because it looks like it really it changes all the skill trees, it changes the end game.
Paul: Looks like it's gonna be a pretty big media expansion.
Paul: So I would definitely jump back into that.
Paul: But I do have I do have something else that I've been enjoying.
Paul: Drew, that I'd love to talk talk to you about.
Paul: Okay.
Drew: Hit me with it.
Drew: I didn't I didn't click on any of these links yet, so hit me.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So as you know, Drew, I'm a fan of tabletop role-playing games.
Paul: Yep.
Paul: Right.
Paul: I don't get to play them as much as I have, but I it's always it's a hobby that I always like going back to.
Paul: And uh you can uh kind of group tabletop RPGs.
Paul: In this day and age, in the two big groups, you got your traditional, you got your Dungeons and Dragons, your Pathfinders, your cyberpunks, your shadow runs, heck, even things like Fallout, right?
Paul: Lots of roles, lots of stats.
Paul: Lots of lots of dice, right?
Paul: And then there's a whole indie space, right?
Paul: Uh in that I've enjoyed playing games like uh Ten Candles, which is a uh
Paul: RPG around it's a one-shot RPG round uh it's a horror game where the gimmick is everybody dies at the end no matter what
Paul: I've played Alice is missing, which is a very rules-like game where you play entirely in text messages.
Paul: You play teenagers looking for the titular Alice, their friend who is missing.
Paul: Uh I've wanted to try things like uh Blades in the Dark, Power of the Apocalypse kind of style games.
Paul: And those games kind of have this uh interesting mechanic where a lot of times the game master doesn't roll dice.
Paul: And there is this like you're successful, but there's a complication that drives a lot of the story stuff.
Paul: So
Paul: There is this YouTube channel called Quinn's Quest, and it is Quinn formerly of Shut Up and Sit Down.
Paul: I don't know whether he still works to shut up or sit down, but he hasn't done a video in years.
Paul: But he's been doing videos on his personal YouTube channel where he talks and reviews.
Paul: Indie tabletop RPGs.
Paul: And his gimmick is before he talks about any of them, he runs a game.
Paul: So he runs a campaign, right?
Paul: So he plays the game and then he talks about the game.
Paul: And ah geez, when was it?
Paul: It wasn't that long ago.
Paul: I have I'll have the link in the show notes.
Paul: It was
Paul: About a month ago, about a month ago, he published a video on a game called Public Access.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: And as soon as I watched that, I knew, like, oh, this this game is for me.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So just this is a disclaimer.
Paul: This game is very much a work in progress.
Paul: If you buy it right now through Drive-Thru RPG, you get a bunch of PDFs.
Paul: The game is very playable.
Paul: But it's still being worked on.
Paul: So like unbalanced or no, just not comp just it it's more content, more uh
Paul: Cohesiveness in the book, I think it's there's a Kickstarter that just finished, but you can still do you can still do like a late pledge.
Paul: for the physical book, the f the the final copy.
Paul: Uh if you do that, you get access to the the PDFs of the game as it is right now.
Paul: The game is still like again, the game is very playable and very good right now.
Paul: But if you join the Kickstarter, you get the physical book.
Paul: And they're doing a whole bunch of extras and stuff on Kickstarter.
Paul: I think it's like a hundred bucks for like everything.
Paul: Heck of a deal.
Paul: Highly recommended.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So
Paul: I'm gonna I'm uh this this okay.
Paul: I'm gonna read you a little bit from the the the book, and this is kind of a blurb that it's like the the elevator pitch for the game.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: I'm gonna read I'm read this here.
Paul: Public access is a tabletop role-playing game about a group of people in 2004, the Deep Lake Latchkeys.
Paul: Who find themselves investigating strange mysteries in and around the town of Deep Lake, New Mexico.
Paul: In the 80s and early 90s, Deep Lake was the home of a notorious public access television station called TB Odyssey.
Paul: the history and fate of which, the station literally disappeared, is the source of mucks much specul speculation in certain corners of the internet.
Paul: As the latchkeys conduct their investigations in Deep Lake, they will become increasingly aware of the central role TV Odyssey plays in everything that's going on.
Paul: And you have to face whatever terrible truth lies at the heart of the infamous station.
Paul: So this is a game that draws inspiration from
Paul: like analog horror, found footage horror, creepy pasta, that kind of stuff, right?
Drew: Like Blair Witch type stuff.
Paul: Yeah, exactly.
Paul: Exactly.
Paul: So at at the uh
Paul: But the way the game works mechanically is extremely interesting.
Paul: So first of all, it's very, very rules-light.
Paul: Like your character sheet, you have like a handful of attributes and a few special moves.
Paul: That is it.
Paul: And technically in the game, there's really only four things you can do.
Paul: Right, four things that cause you to roll dice.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: And the basic mechanic is you roll two d6, you add the attribute.
Paul: Uh if uh you if you get below six or lower, you failed.
Paul: But seven to nine, you succeed, but there's a complication.
Paul: Right?
Paul: And I'll I'll get into those in a little bit.
Paul: 10, you do exactly what you want it to do.
Paul: 10 plus.
Paul: And if you get a 12, something special happened.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So one of so the game is about solving mysteries.
Paul: And to solve mysteries, you need to find clues.
Paul: So one of the moves is called the meddling move.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: All right.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: And what you do is you describe like how or where you're looking for the clue.
Paul: I'm going through an old trunk.
Paul: I'm trying to, I'm looking at this weird painting, trying to get inspiration, whatever.
Paul: So you roll the dice.
Paul: If you succeed, you find a clue where you're looking for it.
Paul: You just find a clue.
Paul: So the game has all these mysteries with just like dozens of clues that the game master can hand out.
Paul: You succeed, you get a clue.
Paul: Okay, well, you got enough clues.
Paul: You want to solve the mystery.
Paul: That's an action.
Drew: I'd like to solve the puzzle.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: You come up with a theory.
Paul: on based on the clues that you found of how to what the mystery is.
Paul: And again, you roll.
Paul: You succeed.
Paul: You were right.
Paul: So it can basically be whatever you want it to be.
Paul: A hundred percent.
Paul: It could be exactly what you want it to be.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So
Paul: Everything else falls into day moves and night moves.
Paul: Night moves.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: Okay, so let's let's do a scenario where maybe you're trying to wrestle a firearm out of an evil-possessed sheriff.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: And you're doing this during the day.
Paul: Okay, so how the game works is the game master will go, okay, so you're trying to do this thing, trying to wrestle the gun away.
Paul: What are you afraid will happen if you fail or lose you lose your nerve?
Paul: So as a player, maybe you say, Oh, I'm afraid that the gun goes off.
Paul: And uh it gets the attention of all the other sheriffs and you know, they start running it.
Paul: So if you fail that role, that is what happens.
Paul: What you're afraid is going to happen is what happens.
Paul: Okay?
Paul: Okay.
Paul: But let's say you do that exact same thing in the night.
Paul: So you say, I'm afraid the gun is gonna go off and make make a noise.
Paul: Well, at the night, the game master then goes.
Paul: I can tell you that it's worse than that.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: So you can't gain you can't game the system.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So let's say it's worse than that.
Paul: Yes, the gun goes off, but it's gonna go off in your chest.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: And if you fail, that is what happens.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: Because of this, you die a lot in this game.
Paul: You have the ability to die a lot in this game.
Paul: Okay?
Paul: But yo, that doesn't make any sense.
Paul: If your character dies, then how does the game work
Paul: Aha.
Paul: Good question, Drew.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: You have on your sheet the series, they call them keys.
Paul: Yeah, I'm looking at the I'm looking at the character tracker.
Paul: It's starting to make more sense.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So
Paul: Keys are things you can turn.
Paul: And I'll talk about like some of them here.
Paul: Uh so the group one of the groups of keys is called keys of the child.
Paul: And they'll have things like narrate a time where you felt truly happy or narrate narrate your childhood routine when you got home from school.
Paul: So at any point.
Paul: There's a dice roll that is not good, that you want to you like, oh, okay, I failed rolling.
Paul: The sheriff shot me in a chest.
Paul: I'm dead.
Paul: You can turn a key.
Paul: And when you turn the key, you do what it says.
Paul: So like if you turn the key of like narrate a time that your child you're as a child you're truly happy as a child.
Paul: As a player, you do that right then and there, right in the middle of the game.
Paul: You narrate that thing, and then you roll back time to when that dice roll happened, and you increase the dice roll one level.
Paul: So instead of failing, it succeeds with a complication.
Paul: So maybe the gunshot does like you did wrestle the gun away from the sheriff, but uh, you know, maybe you
Paul: hurt your back or something like that.
Paul: And those conditions will give you like negative effects if they're if they're applicable.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So uh
Paul: And one last thing I think is really interesting about this game is it does this thing called Paint the Scene.
Paul: So anytime your your characters are in a new situation, maybe they're meeting a new person, maybe they're going to a new place for the first time, there's a little bit of description that the game master will read.
Paul: And then and then you'll get then you'll get like a prompt.
Paul: It's like uh you know something about this character's story that they told you makes you really unsettled.
Paul: What was it?
Paul: And then one or more players will get to like add on to that scene and whatever they say becomes real.
Paul: Right?
Paul: It's the fact, right?
Paul: So it's a very immersive world-building scenario.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So that's the game in a nutshell.
Paul: It's when when I when I got the the PDFs and started going through this, I was like, man, like
Paul: I want to run this game.
Paul: This game or this game looks freaking amazing.
Drew: That was gonna be my question to you.
Drew: Would you rather play it or run it?
Paul: Okay, so but as I'm going through this, I
Paul: I'm usually very confident when it comes to role-playing games and my ability to run them, but I felt very
Paul: nervous about this particular game.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So what I started what I did is I started watching, I found an actual play.
Paul: Actually the there's an a really great actual play who's it's actually ran by the designer of the game.
Paul: So it's it's you know it's that's just kind of neat.
Paul: Uh but as much as I appreciate the actual play world out there, I just can't get into them.
Paul: I can't.
Paul: I like playing
Paul: Tabletop RPGs.
Paul: I do not like watching other people play tabletop RPGs.
Paul: Fair.
Paul: So I watched like one and a half of these and I was like, eh, I'm done.
Paul: But like, but you know, I feel like
Paul: I would love to play a game of public access to really get the feel for it and then run it myself.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So that led me down the path.
Paul: Have you heard of the website startplaying dot games?
Paul: I have not.
Paul: Okay, this is a website for professional game masters.
Paul: Game masters who charge money for you to play in their game
Paul: It's professionals.
Paul: I found a game master who was offering to run a campaign of public access
Paul: For $25 a session.
Paul: And I joined.
Paul: And we have played five sessions.
Paul: We would be playing one tonight, but our game master is not feeling well
Paul: I have played five sessions.
Paul: This is the most fun I've ever had playing a tabletop RPG.
Paul: And I cannot wait.
Paul: to get a group together and run this myself because it is fucking fantastic.
Drew: Pretty high, pretty high praise, Paul.
Drew: Mm-hmm.
Drew: So hopefully it's justified.
Paul: It's good.
Paul: It's really good.
Paul: If you're at all n st if if you're at all like like horror, even just a little bit.
Paul: If you like that like too like I mean it's it's great because like I I grew up in the 80s and 90s.
Paul: I know what it was like.
Paul: I was an adult in 2004.
Paul: Like the game is just full of that nostalgia, just completely.
Paul: And the vibes and the collaborative, like I don't want to get too much into like the actual mysteries.
Paul: I don't want to spoil anything, but like it gets it gets really weird.
Paul: If you like that kind of like
Paul: Things like anything by David Finch, uh like things like Lost, that kind of just weird vibe where you're trying to figure out what's going on and things just keep getting weirder and weirder.
Paul: If you like any of that stuff, it's it's a it's a masterpiece of the game.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: So uh now now I have questions.
Drew: So first of all, this start playing website is intriguing.
Drew: We're gonna get back to that.
Drew: But do you feel after your five sessions, you are in a place to to host this game?
Paul: I I feel like I could though just out of sheer time.
Paul: I want to finish the campaign.
Paul: It's supposed to last between like 12 and 10 to 12 sessions.
Paul: Which makes sense.
Paul: I think we're about halfway through the the big overarching mystery.
Paul: So I would like to finish that out and be done with it and then go into it.
Paul: But yes, having played the game.
Paul: Uh, you know, our our game master, she is fantastic.
Paul: I've learned a lot from how she's done things.
Paul: Yes, I do feel more confident now about being able to run this game myself than I did before.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: What is the optimal number of players?
Drew: Three to four.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Three to four with a game master, right?
Paul: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Paul: Four yeah
Paul: It recommends like three players, but it says you can go up to four.
Paul: It basically says three three is ideal, four will work, avoid five like the plague.
Drew: Why why is that?
Drew: Just too much to manage or yes, and uh
Paul: Because of the way that the game is set up.
Paul: So, like one of the cardinal rules of most tabletop role-playing games is don't split the party.
Paul: Right.
Paul: This game essentially forces you to split the party.
Paul: And but they're basically saying with five like
Paul: If you split the party into two different things, you can go back and forth.
Paul: But if you split the party into three, things start getting weird and it starts taking too long and things like like there's just too much stuff going on.
Paul: So it that's why it recommends like
Paul: Uh and three it likes because well you split if you split the uh the party, it's two and one.
Paul: Ha ha one person's by themselves.
Paul: Uh but we're playing with four and it's fine.
Paul: It's good.
Paul: Yeah.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Um, I would like to play this.
Drew: So when you are putting your group together, now is it the kind of game that lends itself to a virtual play session?
Drew: Or absolutely.
Drew: Okay.
Paul: So we're actually playing.
Paul: Have you heard of Miro?
Drew: No, I was gonna ask you how it's actually facilitated.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: So we we do voice and dice in Discord.
Paul: So there's just a Discord bot there for the dice.
Paul: Uh and we're using Miro, which is actually so what it Miro is, it's like a collaborative white, it's one of the thousand of collaborative whiteboarding applications that popped up around COVID.
Paul: It's an infinite canvas.
Paul: You can drop PDFs on there.
Paul: You can draw.
Paul: And that's what she is using to basically like on this infinite whiteboard.
Paul: All of us have our character sheets.
Paul: We can draw on things.
Paul: as she's putting stuff for the mystery, she's putting things out on the board.
Paul: Uh so that's that's what that's what we're using for the game.
Paul: Uh but yeah it'
Paul: Honestly, I this is one of those games where I think it would work.
Paul: The virtual aspect and being able to actually like when we get a clue.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So like we have these like
Paul: Spots like these spots for each of the mysteries, right?
Paul: So we have like what the mystery is, what we're trying to do.
Paul: And as we get clues, she literally puts a post-it note in there and writes a summary of the clue on the mystery.
Paul: So like as we're going and they're trying to solve it, we're move we're we're doing like that whole like you know pinboard where we're drawing lines in between the clues and and and shit.
Paul: So I having only played it virtually
Paul: I don't know how well it translates to in-person play, but it does work really well virtually because of those, you know, like just being able to.
Paul: drop a a physical manifestation of the clue in front of there and uh
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: So I probably would do it virtually just because of that same thing.
Paul: And plus like getting together is hard sometimes.
Paul: Sometimes it's just easy to go like, oh shit, I gotta play a game in five minutes, sitting in your chair, and then then you're playing.
Paul: Uh but
Paul: Yeah, it it works really well virtually.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: So if you were to run the game.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Drew: Is it like is it kind of like Curse of Strahd where it's like a canned campaign with talking points, or do you kind of make it up as you go?
Paul: So it's both, right?
Paul: So what you have is there's a so there's the game's all about mysteries, right?
Paul: So there's the overarching mystery of what happened to TV Odyssey.
Paul: And the book has some stuff about how to get you to there.
Paul: But the end of the day, the the the the people are gonna put the clues together how they want to put them together, right?
Paul: So there's no there is no canned outcome.
Paul: And then what the game comes with.
Paul: I think the current edition comes with like probably about 20 mysteries that you can use in your game.
Drew: Okay.
Paul: So the mystery will have it's basically the mystery is like a two-sheet, like a front and back, and it has like the setup, how the characters get the mystery, uh, what they're trying to accomplish.
Paul: key locations, key people, and then it just has a list of clues that you can give
Paul: So because the list of clues are so long, like say to solve a mystery, maybe you need six clues.
Paul: Well, the mystery would come with like 30.
Paul: So depending on what clues you give your players, how they choose to solve that mystery is different every time.
Paul: And because of the mechanic of, well, they put these clues together and they roll the dice and they succeeded, so they're right, right?
Paul: You have no idea how the mystery is going to unfold.
Paul: So while the setup and if you play the game twice, the overarching mystery of TV Odyssey is always going to be there.
Paul: You may replay some of the mysteries, but because of like
Paul: The way that like the the the paint the scene where the players have interaction to what's going like have a say narratively into what's going on and how they interpret those clues.
Paul: Or how what they choose to go down and investigate versus not, the game will be completely different each time you play.
Paul: At the end of the day, you are always solving mysteries.
Paul: Trying to figure out uh what happened to TV Odyssey.
Paul: And so again, one last thing I'll say.
Paul: So, how do you solve the mystery of what happened to TV Odyssey?
Paul: That's another great question.
Paul: As you play the game, you find old VHS tapes with episodes that people have recorded of TV Odyssey shows.
Paul: And they're all weird and off in some way.
Paul: And every time you find a tape, uh, when you watch it, there's more of those paint the scenes, so you're defining kind of what is on the tape.
Paul: And that after you watch it, collectively, the the everybody, the game master, the players, decide what piece from that tape is a clue.
Paul: for solving the mystery.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: So that's that's how the overarching, you know, uh meta mystery happens.
Paul: So yeah, it's
Paul: It's good.
Paul: It's it's if you're on the fence, if you want to hear somebody who's a like a real professional at this shit, watch that Quinn Quest video.
Paul: On YouTube.
Paul: He does a very good job.
Paul: I think it's like an about an hour long talking through why he liked the game so much, his experience with it.
Paul: It's
Paul: It's phenomenal.
Paul: Again, it this is these five sessions.
Paul: I was a little apprehensive the first two because you're getting it and you're playing with strangers, and there's this whole notion of like
Paul: I'm literally paying this lady twenty-five dollars to run a three-hour session once a week, but it works.
Paul: It's great.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Mm-hmm.
Drew: Huh.
Drew: I'm intrigued.
Drew: I mean just I I've I've sort of been clicking through some of the things here and I'm looking at the character sheet and I'm like
Drew: Trying to figure it out.
Drew: And there's there's a lot on the character sheet that makes me like chuckle a little bit.
Drew: Like some of the some of the dropdowns, I guess some of the traits, I guess, for lack of a better term.
Paul: Yeah, yeah, like yeah.
Paul: Uh yeah, it it it's yeah, it's
Paul: this nostalgic early 2000s vibe.
Paul: You know, it's I don't know, it's it's good.
Paul: And like and every every character gets
Paul: like a move that's special for them.
Paul: And it could be as simple as like make your attribute one higher.
Paul: Or like my character has one of the moves that's called just say no.
Paul: And basically means that he's really good with dealing with cops.
Drew: Okay, I see.
Drew: I get it.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Uh I'll be I'll be very personally disappointed if you don't tap me on the shoulder to play this.
Drew: When you're ready, when you're ready.
Drew: And we should and we should stream it.
Drew: We should stream it for the listeners.
Drew: Oh, that'd be great.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Like we uh well, I'll figure that piece out about how we could have like multiple people on like a stream or something to do it.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Yeah, that'd be great.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: All right.
Drew: Uh that's really cool, buddy.
Drew: Um I love it when you get excited about stuff like that.
Drew: Cause I just I just you and I do have similar tastes when it comes to those kind of games.
Drew: And I'm actually gonna hop on this um
Drew: This play tabletop.
Drew: Like if I click find games.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: So look, thank, thank, thank you so much.
Paul: They finally added the one feature to start playing dot games that I wanted.
Paul: And it's
Paul: Uh, we're exclude Dungeons and Dragons.
Drew: Yeah, it seems it seems like what most of it is here.
Paul: Uh-huh.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: Yeah, you can pick a system.
Paul: You can go in there.
Paul: You can like say like it's only available to play.
Drew: Oh Shadow Run third edition?
Drew: Oh really?
Drew: The best edition?
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Ren recruit acrollogy.
Drew: Oh yeah.
Drew: Shit.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: $15 a session.
Drew: Bro.
Drew: Bro, we played a campaign of Ren Recruit Acrology.
Drew: It was like the it was like my it was like my second Shadowrun group that I ever got into.
Drew: Like it that scenario is me grinder.
Drew: That scenario is a kick in the dick.
Drew: It's a meat grinder.
Drew: It really is.
Drew: But but for the nostalgia alone.
Drew: Mm-hmm.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Well, here's someone asking.
Drew: I remember that that was the GM that gave me the famous quote.
Drew: When my character was about to die for like the second time.
Drew: And he said to me, and I'll never forget this, he looked right at me, dead ass, crying as a free ass.
Paul: Oh Yeah.
Drew: Someone's actually running second edition here too.
Drew: Oh man.
Drew: I I don't know if I ever played second.
Drew: Maybe I did.
Drew: Would I have played second edition?
Paul: I played second, third, fourth, fifth, just not whatever the current edition is I have.
Drew: Yeah, I think I dropped off around sixty.
Drew: But I just I I'm like not I'm like 80% positive I might have played second edition.
Drew: Third edition is where all my like Shadowrun core memories are formed.
Drew: Same, same yeah, just like rolling a troll and just soaking.
Drew: Infinite damage.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: But like here's that's the thing is like I've just about everything I have thought of, like
Paul: someone is running a game of on like it's not like there's like, you know, a half a dozen games to pick from.
Paul: There I think there's like thousands of games.
Drew: I mean, I click that drop down and every conceivable tabletop game you can find is there.
Paul: Yes.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: You want to play some good old-fashioned advanced Dungeons and Dragons, you can do that.
Paul: Like, yeah, yeah
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: If the if the only way I can finish is by saying the word thacko, like might as well, right?
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: So if you're looking to play any tabletop role-playing game and you don't and you have a little, you know, disposable income and you don't mind, uh
Drew: But I mean here's the way I would think of this, right?
Drew: If you were to go get all your friends and sit down and play, how much would you spend on pizza, snacks, beer?
Paul: Yes.
Paul: Yeah, easily 25 bucks.
Paul: And and like
Paul: To be like getting getting and keeping people like to keep coming back to the game is always difficult, right?
Paul: And financially invested.
Paul: Exactly.
Paul: You are paying $25.
Paul: And like her, like our game master is like, if you don't give me 24 hour hours notice, tough shit you're paying.
Paul: Like
Drew: Now, okay, I'm very curious about the business model.
Drew: How much of that do they actually keep?
Drew: Uh do we know?
Paul: I do not know.
Paul: Uh I think actually hold on.
Paul: Uh
Paul: Cause I think okay, okay, so okay, here's it's one of those things.
Paul: So the session is $25.
Paul: Plus fees.
Drew: Plus fees.
Paul: So I actually pay twenty-seven dollars and seventy-three cents per session.
Paul: 25 of that goes to my game master, and $2.
Paul: 73 to that goes to start playing
Drew: Okay.
Drew: All right.
Drew: You're you're you're you're a business to business service, right?
Drew: That's what that's what you are.
Paul: You're a hand like I said, they handle the aggregation.
Paul: If you have an issue or a payment or a complaint, they deal with all of that stuff as well.
Paul: There's a rating system.
Paul: So like, yeah, are they involved in the actual game at all?
Paul: No, not they don't host a virtual tabletop.
Paul: There's nothing, right?
Paul: It's just basically a big old calendar and probably a stripe API account.
Drew: Like warnings
Drew: Violence, comma, cybernetic horror, comma, dystopian themes, comma, drug use, parentheses, BTLs, comma, mass causality events, in parentheses, matrix crash
Drew: Comma.
Drew: Terrorism.
Drew: Comma.
Drew: Corporate oppression.
Drew: Comma.
Drew: Techno whore.
Drew: Comma.
Drew: Body whore.
Drew: In parentheses, cyber mutilation.
Drew: Comma.
Drew: Claustrophobia.
Drew: Comma.
Drew: High lethality.
Drew: Oh, I might I might actually sign up for this.
Drew: I I might legitimately sign.
Drew: I still have my third edition books.
Paul: Yeah
Paul: Oh yeah, it's it's yeah.
Paul: If you take nothing away from this, startplaying.
Paul: games is a really great website if you're looking, if you have an itch that you need to get scratched particular.
Paul: And like it's easy to find people who run in games in the time that you want.
Paul: Uh, you know, it's international.
Paul: So like if you're free Tuesday afternoons, chances are
Paul: There's someone from across the pond running a game at on your Tuesday afternoon.
Paul: So Yeah.
Drew: Like Um
Drew: Very cool, dude.
Drew: Uh I'm all in.
Drew: This I I would I would love to I've never played a game like a tabletop game that is more I don't know if esoteric is the one
Drew: word but like not combat focused.
Paul: Yeah yeah yeah except the the rules that I said are the rules and you notice at no point the game master never touches dice.
Paul: Ever.
Paul: Interesting.
Drew: Okay.
Paul: Their K mechanic is you succeed, but there's a complication, right?
Paul: That's that's how they or you just plane up fail.
Paul: That's how they drive things narratively.
Paul: It's uh yeah.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: It's uh it's really cool.
Paul: And if you never played Ten Candles.
Drew: I never played Ten Candles.
Paul: Oh, that's a good game too.
Paul: Especially if you get to ever play it in person with actual candles.
Paul: Mmm, so good.
Paul: So good.
Drew: Okay, so gonna move on to a real-time listener question.
Drew: Oh shit.
Drew: Um a friend of the show, Eric Darling, texted me.
Paul: Okay.
Drew: And his question to us is: Do you have any big feelings about the M5 Max and the updated mod?
Drew: Now, I didn't respond to Eric yet.
Drew: I didn't respond to Eric yet.
Drew: Now, here's what I would tell Eric.
Drew: If I was three, if I was being truly honest with with friend of the show, Eric Darling.
Drew: All I've ever heard him do is complain about his Mac.
Drew: So I'm genuinely curious why he thinks he wants to upgrade to an M5 Mac.
Paul: Yeah.
Drew: Um that said, what sort of advice would you give Eric here, who I believe has either an M2 or an M3 MacBook Pro right now?
Paul: Yeah, I mean every Apple silicon release.
Paul: is better than the last.
Paul: And and these M f these M fives in particular are
Paul: Like rid they're so fast that I even thought about upgrading for my uh M4 Pro.
Paul: Now it is kind of a difficult time because some of those these unprecedented times
Paul: Yeah, like some of those high RAM configurations.
Paul: Well, even then, like the highest RAM configurations in the Mac Studios, which are still the M4s, by the way, are just gone.
Paul: And some of the higher ones on the MacBook Pros are
Paul: Like you may be waiting a month and a half before you get your computer.
Drew: Oh, okay.
Drew: That's not that's not an aspect that I considered.
Drew: I wondered if they were sort of running behind.
Paul: They they are.
Paul: They are.
Paul: Uh there some of them are hard to get.
Paul: Uh
Paul: Also like a lot of the M forks episodes are hard to get to, which I think a c that's a combination of people going batshit for ma Mac Minis
Paul: For like things like open claw in the case.
Drew: Which by the way, people are now like trying to sell them because of like claw changing.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: If you're if you're not familiar with that drama.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: But even though because of that.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: Like they
Paul: How they handle API like you can't just get an API for your plot subscription.
Paul: You have to put money into an API account that you then use.
Paul: It's yeah, it's
Paul: I I I I people were abusing it.
Paul: Yeah, they were.
Paul: They were abusing it.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: But I think also a combination of that and the fact that those models are probably going to get M5 editions here soon, it's really hard to find a Mac Mini.
Paul: right now an M4 Mac MIDI or an M4 Mac Studio because I think those are going to get upgraded to M5 versions sooner than later.
Paul: Now monitor.
Paul: So okay.
Paul: I'm kind of sad that Apple got rid of their 6K monitor option.
Paul: Again, that was like the Studio Display XDR, which did cost like
Paul: A lot.
Paul: Uh, I'm gonna put a website here in the show notes.
Paul: If I can find the uh it is retinadisplays.
Paul: com.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: It is a website that is all about like displays for Macs
Paul: Because uh with the you know, obviously all any Mac laptop you buy is a high DPI display, retina, quote unquote, like your phones.
Paul: uh the displays that Apple sells are all 5K retina displays.
Paul: So this website is basically a list of
Paul: Monitors that are kind of in that same vein.
Paul: They have the right DPI.
Paul: Uh, you know, so generally speaking, you're talking like 6K at 32 inches.
Paul: 5k at 27, 4k at 24.
Paul: Those are generally the sizes and a size to resolution ratio that looks good for max.
Paul: Uh, on also this website is just basically all the ones that you can buy and will be able to buy in the future.
Paul: So you can go there and say that, you know, I really want a you know 6K display.
Paul: And then you can buy what I have, which is the uh Asus Pro Art Display 6K.
Paul: That's what I'm currently looking at right now.
Paul: So many pixels.
Drew: Yeah, pretty good price on that.
Drew: I wonder I wonder if Micro Center has that cheaper.
Paul: They might, yeah.
Drew: But they sell they have they sell a decent amount of ASUS displays.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Paul: Well, actually they have a link to Micro Center right now and it's at less price.
Paul: Or yeah.
Paul: It's a save a hundred bucks.
Paul: So yeah.
Drew: ACES ProArt 6K, 60 Hertz LED.
Drew: It's $12.
Drew: 99 at Micro Center.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: Okay.
Drew: Yeah, okay.
Drew: I know sorry.
Drew: I thought it was sixteen hundred dollars on this website.
Drew: Never mind.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Huh.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: So so your advice to Eric is if his use case really warrants it, it'd be worth it.
Paul: Yeah, I mean
Paul: If he's got says he has an M2 or M3.
Drew: I thought so.
Drew: Here, let's ask him right now.
Drew: What is your current See if he replies?
Drew: Might be at dinner
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: I really didn't know how to answer him because like the cynical part of me is like you've done nothing but bitch to me about your Mac and now you want to go buy another one.
Paul: Every time every new generation of Apple Silicon is I mean like yes could you spend
Paul: Could you get more power out of the top-end Intel or AMD chips and like in that whole the whole PC space of
Paul: Big discrete video cards and hot big hot liquid-cooled Intel chips.
Paul: Like, yeah, you can get more performance, but like
Paul: the per like the performance per watt you get with Apple Silicon and the fact that like you can get these extremely fast
Paul: chips in a laptop that barely gets warm and still lasts all day or in some cases doesn't even have a fan in it.
Paul: Right.
Paul: I'm looking at you, the MacBook Airs.
Paul: Uh
Paul: You're not wrong.
Paul: And also like the the minute, the minute
Paul: Apple updates the MacBook Neo to the A19 Pro and it's got 12 gigs of RAM in it, I'm gonna buy one.
Paul: When it gets up to 12 gigs of RAM.
Paul: Like, yep, I'll have I'll have a I'll have a downstairs computer.
Drew: Just a laptop, just yeah.
Paul: Yeah.
Drew: Kind of like me and my cars.
Drew: I got a I got a car for certain days of the week.
Drew: Yeah.
Paul: There you go.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: We'll see what he says.
Drew: I guess it'll depend on his use case.
Drew: You're right.
Drew: And then for the displays, I'm gonna I'll make sure he gets this website.
Drew: Yeah.
Paul: Yeah.
Drew: It'll be in the show notes.
Drew: That Pro Arc looks like a pretty solid, pretty solid choice.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: I don't I've heard good things about the uh LG Ultrafine too.
Paul: And that's something you have to remember.
Paul: Like
Paul: These mon like if your goal is to have a monitor that you could hook your Mac up to and also play games on, then you're in a whole different category, right?
Paul: Because you really have to optimize for the
Paul: and play games part because these like 6k heck you can go up to 8k now like with the current version of Thunderbolt there's just not enough bandwidth to drive those at more than 60 hertz
Paul: It just it doesn't exist, right?
Paul: Now maybe with Thunderbolt the next one's gonna be six, I think.
Paul: I think they're gonna have some pretty high-end, like fast unidirectional.
Paul: uh modes for displays which can get some of that stuff up to higher refresh rates.
Paul: But for right now, like mine's a sick it's mine's a 6K 60 hertz screen.
Paul: That's just that's that's as much as you can get.
Paul: And yeah, like would I appreciate 120 Hertz?
Paul: Absolutely.
Paul: But my text looks so good on this 6K display.
Paul: I can hardly
Paul: When I go into the office and I use this like shitty widescreen mod, I'm just like, oh, it's yeah, it's bigger, but like my
Paul: Those pixels are boulders.
Paul: Pixel density matters.
Drew: Pixel density matters.
Drew: Pixel density above all else, man.
Drew: Mm-hmm.
Paul: Yeah, so
Paul: Yeah, I would say avoid the Apple displays.
Paul: Buy a third-party display.
Paul: You'll save a lot of money.
Paul: It won't look as nice.
Paul: It'll be black plastic on a stand of
Paul: questionable quality.
Paul: The Apple monitors definitely a lot nicer to look at, but
Drew: Do you have Do you have your monitor on a monitor arm right now?
Paul: I do not.
Paul: I have it on the stand that it comes on.
Paul: Because I and only because
Paul: When I switched from my normal glasses to my progressive lenses, my requirement, my I I have to keep my monitor a lot lower.
Paul: than I normally did so I can get it in that right range.
Paul: So it's all it's on the stand and almost all the way down.
Paul: So it is just on the stand.
Paul: Now I do have my laptop kind of off to the side and that is on an arm.
Paul: So I can get it where I want, but got it.
Paul: Got it.
Drew: Okay, cool, buddy.
Drew: Uh yeah, we'll see you.
Drew: Oh, Eric's replying.
Drew: I have the monitor from 2019 or 2020.
Drew: My Intel MacBook is still kicking, but I also have an M3 with like 18 gigs of RAM that is fine for travel and stuff.
Drew: Okay.
Paul: Yeah.
Drew: Okay.
Paul: If you use it for travel and stuff, I you're I would use that M3 until it dies.
Drew: If you use the M3 for
Drew: For travel only, I'd stick with it unless
Drew: Unless you unless what?
Drew: Unless I would have gone to Tom.
Paul: Unless you've got five grand in your pocket that if you don't spend we'll catch on fire.
Paul: I mean I love spending money.
Drew: We're gonna talk about spending money in a minute.
Drew: Unless you got 5K burning a hole in your pocket for some of these new
Drew: crazy and uh in parentheses and a valid use case.
Drew: All right.
Drew: There you go.
Drew: Real real-time advice.
Drew: That's what we offer here on doing their best.
Drew: All right.
Drew: So to kind of close us out, um, I bought something new this week.
Drew: You sure did.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: I have to yet, but I'm gonna.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: It's uh it's something.
Drew: So, uh, what I want to talk about now is I bought a new spotting scope.
Drew: And this spotting scope is from a company called uh Swarovski Optics.
Drew: Now when you hear the word Swarovsky, you probably think about Tchotskis and crystals and things like that.
Drew: Yes.
Drew: It is the same company.
Drew: But Swarovski, yep.
Drew: So Swarovski is actually a company that has a couple different branches.
Drew: And one thing that they have, and this is an Austria-based company, is what they call Swarovski Optic.
Drew: And they make really, really like halo tier binoculars, spotting scopes, gear, things like that.
Drew: Now, one of the products that they make is they make a line of spotting scopes that they either label as ATX.
Drew: STX or BTX.
Drew: And I'm not able to tell you what the difference is, like why, like the main differences between the three.
Drew: But if you go to that webpage and you look at it, what this is, is this is a modular spotting scope system.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Now, to be fair,
Drew: The spotty scope that I had before this was a Vortex Razor.
Drew: Um, I think it goes up to 10X on the.
Paul: That's bigger than I thought it was it was.
Drew: Oh, those are big.
Drew: Those are big.
Drew: They're big.
Drew: A lot of glass.
Drew: A lot of glass in these things.
Paul: Yeah, yeah.
Drew: By vortex only goes up to 10k or 10x on the resolution.
Drew: But uh you can buy different eyepieces that are either fixed or you would use the eyepiece to adjust the um the the various magnification.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: So I've been thinking about getting a new spotting scope.
Drew: But the main reason that I sort of made this decision is I really, really, really want to get into digiscoping.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: What is digiscoping, you might ask?
Drew: It's an excellent question.
Drew: I was gonna ask that.
Drew: Yes.
Drew: So when I go shooting, and I'm actually going shooting tomorrow.
Drew: Uh we usually go with a friend.
Drew: And the whole idea is there you have one person on the rifle and you have one person looking through some sort of apparatus.
Drew: a pair of binoculars, a spotting scope, something that after you take your shot, depending on your recoil and the distance, like sometimes it's hard for the shooter to know exactly the point of impact.
Drew: Having a spotter there to give you corrections and win calls and have a bigger field of view than what you might have through your particular optic is a big benefit.
Drew: Now I have tried a bunch of different solutions to do what is called digiscoping where you basically hook up a camera.
Drew: To your scope so you can record what you're doing.
Drew: Now there's a couple different solutions out there on the market.
Drew: And and all of these solutions, by the way.
Drew: Well, almost all of the solutions require you to somehow clip a digital optic device to your optic.
Drew: So for example, they make products like the phone scope.
Drew: And I think I might have talked about this before, where it's literally an iPhone case that on the back of it has like
Drew: You you put it's kind of hard to describe, but you put your phone in it and it's made for your specific phone.
Drew: And where the camera lens is, it fits really snugly.
Drew: And then
Drew: That then fits into a piece that you attach to the eyepiece of your optic.
Drew: So the idea is that if everything's working correctly, it's essentially
Drew: Like you having your iPhone camera looking through the optic, and then you can record your shots, you can record a whole bunch of things.
Drew: They also make products that can attach to your optic itself.
Drew: There's a couple companies on the market that basically it's it's almost like putting a camcorder system onto your scope.
Drew: I've thought about buying one of those.
Drew: They're pretty pricey.
Drew: They're anywhere from $400 to $600.
Drew: They're Bluetooth.
Drew: I've not read the most glowing reviews of them.
Drew: They don't seem to be made very well, so I sort of stayed a- I sort of stared away from that.
Drew: Now, what I what I have in my possession is I have a Sony Alpha 6300 camera.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: So last weekend I went to Midwest Photo down here in Columbus.
Drew: Formerly like yeah.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Uh they're very helpful.
Drew: They're very good.
Drew: They're very knowledgeable.
Drew: So I went down there and I said, okay, guys, here's what I have.
Drew: I have this camera and I know that this lens system is modular.
Drew: What's the biggest lens you can sell me for having high resolution photography and video at a thousand yards?
Drew: And the guy looked at me.
Drew: So the guy the guy went behind the counter and I shit you not, he got out a lens that was like this big, right?
Paul: And chonky.
Paul: Okay.
Paul: You see those a lot at like uh
Paul: Like uh Sporting events.
Paul: Sporting events, especially like race like race like F1, that kind of stuff.
Paul: Like when they really want to, yeah, get a long distance shot of something coming down.
Paul: Yeah.
Drew: And I gave him my requirements and he's like, look.
Drew: For your camera, this is the best thing I can sell you.
Drew: And it was like $3,500.
Drew: And he goes, but I I wouldn't buy this if I were you.
Drew: And he and he gave me a bunch of reasons why.
Drew: Really, what it came down to is
Drew: The number one tip in photography is if your picture's bad, get closer.
Drew: Well, I can't get closer because that's where the bullets are, right?
Drew: So it's like
Drew: So yeah and he's like and he's like look your camera has a digital sensor it's not a true optical sensor like
Drew: Is it going to be able to give you good image clarity and quality at that distance?
Drew: No.
Drew: Will you be able to see something?
Drew: Yes.
Drew: Will it look good?
Drew: No.
Drew: He goes, I would take your money and reinvest it somewhere else.
Drew: And he mentioned to me that Swarovski Optic, which they didn't sell, by the way, basically is the best way to go for.
Drew: this so so what so what is this thing so this is a modular spotting scope system so what you first have to buy is you have to buy the um
Drew: Um the objective module.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Now, the objective module is what is going to determine your total magnification and field of view.
Drew: Now, depending on which one you buy, for example, they can get a little pricey.
Drew: So basically, you can look at the different objective lens diameter.
Drew: And they go anywhere from 65 millimeters all the way up to 115.
Drew: Yep.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: And again, depending on which one you buy.
Paul: They're they're they're pretty fucking expensive.
Paul: Yeah, yeah.
Paul: I mean yeah, I mean if I would have to imagine that lens that he pulled out is probably in the same price category, if not more, because like
Paul: To get that much magnification, like it's it's ex the materials and labor's expensive to get those lenses because they have to be perfect.
Drew: Exactly.
Drew: And that is something that Swarovski Optic is known for.
Drew: They are basically the the Halo product in this particular segment, right?
Drew: Can you go cheaper?
Drew: Absolutely.
Drew: But when it comes to something like quality glass, this is where like
Drew: This this is where like you you definitely get what you pay for, right?
Drew: Yeah, yeah.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: So anyway, what I ended up getting
Drew: is I ended up getting the, I believe it's the 95.
Drew: Ooh, okay.
Drew: Um yeah, the 90, the 95 millimeter one, which gives me
Drew: Total magnification of 30x to 60x.
Drew: Whew.
Drew: That's that's some zoom.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: It's substantial.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: But this is an incomplete system.
Drew: Now I will tell you that I I buy my high-priced optics through Europtic.
Drew: com.
Drew: I've talked about them before on this on this podcast.
Drew: They are the best company to deal with when it comes to this stuff.
Drew: So this is the objective.
Drew: Now, what you also need to buy is an eyepiece.
Drew: Now, this is where things get interesting, right?
Drew: So
Drew: They do not make an eyepiece with what we call milling inside of it so that you can use it to judge distance or provide corrections.
Drew: They do.
Drew: It's the BTX eyepiece module that is almost like it looks like binoculars that you look through, but it gives it to you, right?
Drew: Okay.
Drew: But I ended up getting an ATX eyepiece module.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Again, this is this is a fixed thing that just basically goes on there and then you can adjust it for clarity and you can adjust it for magnification.
Drew: Um but yeah, so you then you have to buy the eyepiece that goes on there.
Drew: So that there is the complete system.
Drew: So you have to buy the objective, then you have to buy the eyepiece.
Drew: And already, as you can see.
Drew: But again, the the primary thing I want to do here, other than just have a good quality clarity optic, is to have
Drew: Digiscoping capability.
Drew: So they what they also make is they make a, and I think I put a link in here.
Drew: Um it is called the TLS APO telephoto lens system for the ATX I piece.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: So what is this?
Drew: So let me show it to you.
Drew: This is the completed telephoto lens.
Drew: Oh shit.
Drew: So if you're looking, if you're looking at the picture on the website, this is what it is.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Notice this is my Sony camera.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: Right?
Drew: And it has it mounted directly to the frame.
Drew: this housing that is designed to fit over the eyepiece of the ATX Oh yes.
Drew: So now I have a true way to basically put this on there, right?
Drew: And I think you take this off.
Paul: So so you can still look through the eyepiece, get everything set up, and then put your camera
Drew: Yes.
Drew: Up to it and then record and because shot and because this is so well manufactured
Drew: This is the perfect distance from the eyepiece.
Drew: It's not an aftermarket thing.
Drew: It's made by Swarovski.
Drew: Paul, I put this motherfucker all together the other day and started taking pictures through it.
Paul: Uh-huh.
Drew: It's it's astonishing.
Drew: It is astonishing like how much clarity uh and and what this system does.
Drew: So we're gonna have this out there.
Drew: Okay.
Drew: Tomorrow recording what we do.
Drew: And we're gonna we're gonna really see how it does.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: But yeah, so that was like the whole
Drew: in paid us for the uh for the purchase.
Drew: Um so and and like look I researched this I found there's other companies that make similar things.
Drew: There are companies that even make housings for Swarovsky, but I'm like, I I I don't I I don't want to fuss
Drew: with something that doesn't fit right, or maybe this gets loose cause like it's got this little tension thing here that that secures it and
Drew: Yeah, I'm I'm very excited.
Paul: As somebody who was really into like DL DLSR photography back in the day, do anytime you get into optics and you want good stuff, like
Paul: It is definitely one of those things where like, yeah, like even incremental improvements start just the cost just starts ratcheting up, but you get what you pay for.
Drew: And that's true.
Drew: And that's true with like optics for guns too.
Drew: Like, can you buy a $300 scope?
Drew: You absolutely fucking can.
Drew: But when you really get into quality optics, and I mean like quality optics, and again, you probably are familiar with this, right?
Drew: Like what is the image resolution that you can get?
Drew: How fine are details at distance?
Drew: How much light actually gets near?
Drew: Because that's like the number one hallmark of a good quality optic is what is its light transmission.
Drew: Like, is it shitty?
Drew: Is it not?
Paul: How distorted do things get around the end?
Drew: Distortion, chromatic aberration.
Drew: Like, and and I've looked through other people's guns and their scopes, and it's like
Drew: Yeah, I can I can see how the crosshair like I I see yellow or green light around the edges.
Drew: It's like okay, like that's not good glass, right?
Drew: Like
Drew: So we're gonna have this out at the range tomorrow.
Drew: I'm very, very, very excited to see if I can get actual footage of us shooting with this and we're gonna see how it goes.
Drew: So that was that was my big purchase.
Drew: But yeah, it was uh
Drew: Yeah, you but but you get what you pay for.
Drew: So like I said it my my wife was actually yelling at me.
Drew: So I set it up in in our dining room and I was and I was shining it out the window.
Drew: Taking pictures of like people's cars from like around the block.
Drew: It's pretty good.
Drew: Yeah.
Drew: And like and like so.
Drew: And like when I shine it out my back window and shine it out across the road.
Drew: Can I see my neighbor's car from over there?
Drew: Yes.
Drew: I can see the paint swirls in his car with this thing from over there.
Drew: So
Drew: So we're gonna we're gonna take this thing out tomorrow.
Drew: We're gonna we're gonna take it to a thousand yards.
Drew: We're gonna do some recording.
Drew: Um I actually need to finish charging this, but yeah, we're gonna we're gonna see what happens, man.
Drew: I'm actually I'm actually pretty juiced.
Drew: Pretty juiced for that.
Drew: Yeah
Drew: Man.
Drew: Well, buddy, I'm sorry that my my work schedule has been nuts, and I'm sorry that we haven't been able to record.
Drew: It's fine.
Drew: Um it's fine.
Paul: Don't worry about it.
Drew: Yeah, work work has been a lot.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: Adult we're adults.
Paul: This is how adulting works sometimes.
Paul: So yeah.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: But go ahead and get us out of here.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: Uh doingtheirbest.
Paul: com.
Drew: You can find all the show notes, transcripts for new episodes, uh, the video version of this podcast if you're so inclined.
Drew: And hey, thanks for listening.