With the series finale just around the corner, we had the pleasure of chatting with the cast of Unbalanced Encounter. unhappy 4 To look back on their fantasy “Wet Western”. Game Master Patrick Perini and players Craig Pate, Emily Greymoor, Cinderblock Sally, and Caustic Phoenix talk about Kevin the Moose, layered worldbuilding, and the Resurrectionists. If you haven’t started listening yet, you can read our review of the first episode.
Panda: It’s been a while since we finished recording. Do you ever look back on your storytelling or think about how it could have played out differently?
Concrete block: There were a lot of threads that I just started pulling and never really finished. However, it was very short. We had to try out some hints of potential connections or characters’ pasts or similar common influences that were only really hinted at, just because we didn’t have time. The first show we did together (Larry), I don’t know if it was 60 or 80 episodes. This was a 10. People who like to role-play together and build stories together will inevitably start to discover more nuances and connections they didn’t expect or expected.
Emily Graymoor: When we fantasize about scenes we wish we had reshot, we forget that we have the ability to do so with pre-recorded media. There are some scenes that I think could have been done better, and I feel like I could have said it in that moment. “Actually, wait, I don’t have the right vibe or the right energy. Let me redo this scene again. I mean, listen, the perfectionist artist in me is always living in that space, and that’s what I need to improve on it.”
Patrick Perini: Nominated 5 times and achieved the best results D&D Is Emily Greymoor saying I need to do better?
Caustic Phoenix: I feel the same way, especially right after the episode. Fuck. Why didn’t you do that? Then you fill in the blanks, and I think once it’s over and you’re away for a week, it’s like a kind of traumatic experience where your brain fills in all of it.
Craig Pate: I forget about the pain.
caustic: Yes, all the trauma, the crying, the intensity. And I think, “Let’s try again.” And then I applied for another program.
Calig: For me, I think a lot of that is because I’m going to listen to the recording later. I’m proud of myself for the moments where I think, “Wow, Craig, that was a great line. Yeah, I remember saying that…” and the moments where I think, “Hey, can I do that again?” or “I wasn’t feeling that — I didn’t feel like that character was doing that or trying anything else in that moment.” Advantages of recording compared to live.
Patrick: I think one of the reasons we do this is one of the reasons we don’t do scripted audio dramas. Because you guys are great actors and you can and often do make scripted audio dramas. The reason it’s not like that or like that is because it’s improvised. What emerges is value, and I think our audience signing up is when you guys hit the banger line, but you’re also participating in that new serendipity.
Panda: What inspired you to create characters that you obviously can’t get along with?
Patrick: they hate each other.
caustic: I think that’s interesting because I don’t think there was a buddy-buddy character. No, it was, “Oh, we love each other.” “We’re employees, so we’re working on this,” and then we had an “aha” moment.
Emily: I really enjoy flipping the metaphors on their heads. I think at some point every table will address the question, “Why does my character get along with your character?” or “Our characters have to find a way to work together.” I think it’s really interesting storytelling to be able to do an interesting story and actually work towards a goal asymmetrically. It shows that each of these characters has different motivations, dreams, needs, and desires, but despite their flaws, they are still able to help each other…albeit sometimes reluctantly.
caustic: There are your friends, and your coworkers’ friends.
Patrick: To bounce back on Emily’s point. We also think a lot about triangulation. An audience that comes in with a very low context, especially in a real play where there’s a lot of improvisation, forms an idea about the piece by triangulating the points of contrast that you choose. How do you choose three different things to surround the idea you’re talking about? If you choose an adventuring party where everything is in harmony from the drop, there’s no tension or asymmetry. Summarizing them into a single homogeneous note makes it impossible to triangulate the letters individually.
Cinders: I feel like it can get boring and melodramatic quickly. So many people care so much about each other. It’s very hard to feel like you’ve earned it. By building on that conflict, I think there’s a lot of room for serious growth without it feeling cheap. It’s just fun. It’s fun to discuss things with people you like and trust. It’s really fun to play characters who are at odds with each other in a way, but who also have to work toward the same goal.
Patrick: It provides something of a gnawing contrast as the audience tries to figure out who these people are. We come to understand Craig’s Odion as Cal’s boss, Flo’s brother, and Weevil’s friend. That means we get a complete picture of who Odion is.
Panda: Emily and Craig, you had the same father. What made you want to build such a relationship?
Emily: It’s very inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender and relationships like Zuko and Azula, the relationship between daddy’s little princess and the princess who’s trying to get approval but never seems to get it. Flo’s character has a kind of imperial new groove mixed in with it. Get out of this palace and prove your attitude.
Panda: If you had the chance to play any NPC and take them on their own adventures, who would it be?
Emily: When I hear about revivalists, I think it’s a really cool idea. To give you a spoiler, just like in real life they dig graves, steal bodies, and have them experimented on by universities and surgeons, in this world they go into dungeons, pull out bodies, and resuscitate them. These are the people who empty the dungeons of foolish adventurers who had little success.
Cinders: There was an NPC that only appeared briefly in the story. They were actually friends of my character. They were moose skeleton people. I was really fascinated by them. I’m kind of interested in what they’re going to do. I’m drawn to characters who don’t seem like normal humans.
caustic: I’ll be Kevin the Moose. There are no lines, right? oh yeah. Kevin is an asshole, but he was like that when you were a service animal, so I say this jokingly. You know a lot about how people act, talk and treat animals. I think there’s a lot to be said for why Kevin is an asshole.
Craig: I want to be a physical education teacher who only works with children who you say are the future of your family. “Jump over this wire. I’ll shoot you some flamethrowers. Good luck.”
Panda: What part of the setting stands out to you?
Emily: I love trains. I have full confidence in the magic system of Dragon Heart Train and the Monster Bit System that was born from it. This is the beauty of this archipelago with its railway network in between. It’s like a Spirited Away train running on water.
Patrick: I think it’s easy to quickly overlook strange monsters that point to a wider world that we haven’t yet reached. These kinds of larger-than-life, almost apparitions. There are a lot of monsters in this world. There is an overwhelming pluralism around it.
Craig: I mainly enjoyed church. Church was a lot of fun. People thought, “Oh, adventure is profitable. I’ll risk my life and send my children to school to get that profit.”
caustic: There were many microscopic ecosystems within it. This city is in the middle of all of that, and it feels very hierarchical. A physical hierarchy that can also be seen in social classes. In many ways, John Johnson was a tourist in a space that was supposed to be his own. But locals know otherwise.
Cinders: I would like to know more about the life in the town where the story takes place. We did a lot of worldbuilding around that location, but in the end we didn’t spend that much time there. I felt that was a very good thing. Because it really helped ground the characters and give us a solid understanding of who we are in this world and how we perceive each other based on where other people sit in the social structure of this city. It was a really fun setting. It was a strange combination of fantasy and the Wild West, but muddy and swampy. I wish I had had the opportunity to spend time there. Spend more time exploring the city and its surrounding locations, this kind of grimy fantasy western world.
Panda: How involved were you in the worldbuilding as a player?
caustic: (sarcastically) Patrick did everything and we weren’t forgiven. We could have been characters chained behind our backs.
(honestly) I had a lot of control over how many times I came up with an idea, but you said yes. I don’t think you’ve ever said “no.”
Patrick: I try not to.
Emily: We did a lot of collective worldbuilding. I remember the first time we were together. This place was as determined as the mud and co-created every step of the way.
Patrick: I think a lot of that comes from being proactive and having conversations with the players on the front line. I built this spired city. It has the rich living at the top and perhaps the poor living at the bottom. And we decided that it would always rain. I remember when we were talking about Mud, Caustic came up to me and said, “I’d like to play a character who comes from a poor neighborhood.” Well, tell me what the place is like. What are we dealing with? The more things players can put in their hands, the better the world will be, and ultimately the more resilient it will be. Your job as a GM isn’t to design everything. Your job as a GM is to be this kind of glue between all the ideas. Yes, but. Yes, but it might not be what you think.
Images from unbalanced encounters.
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