Tony Spengler/ April 20, 2023
I love gritty, sci-fi meets fantasy games like Cyberpunk and Shadowrun. I never got a chance to play those growing up, instead played Rifts, and lived vicariously through those on the internet that made stories in those other worlds. I stumbled upon Big Campaign Pod, as I do, and found that I desire to know more about this amazing world Jeph has created and played in for years. The world and various campaigns sound like Blade Runner, but better. It was my absolute pleasure to plague Jeph with questions to learn more.
Origin: I am from Portugal but live in the Seattle area.
Names/Handles: Jeph/ Big Campaign Pod.
TTRPG Gaming Experience: 22 years of dice rolling.
Age: 38
Q) I haven’t gotten a chance to listen to your podcast, but it's on my list! Could you give an elevator pitch for your podcast for our readers to know what you’re about?
A) If you like [the novel] Snow Crash with a bit of magic, a lot of lore, and players trying to get by in a capitalist dystopia with lovecraftian monsters then check us out.
Q) Do you have an episode that you would suggest to get a good taste of your podcast?
A) That is a tough one, I want to say the first episode gives you a good sample platter but I think one of my favorites that ties the world into a place is the fifth episode “All hands on Deck”.
Q) What are your favorite races, archetypes and/or classes?
A) In my world we have several custom races, but I am pretty basic with a hardcore skill addiction. Any game where I can have more ways to interact with the world will always find a way to lead me to the Rogue class or the equivalent for the rule set.
Q) Are you experienced in other ttrpgs? If so, which?
A) Yeah I have played and GM’ed quite a few. I have played in Cyberpunk RED, Shadowrun, Vampire, City of Mist, DND 2nd edition, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0 and 5e, Pathfinder 1e and 2e, 13th age, Shadow of the Demon lord, Starfinder, Mage the Ascension - I think I have GM’ed most of those as well.
Q) How long have you all been working together on this AP?
A) This podcast we have been working on for about 8 months.
Q) Behind the scenes, what kind of equipment and/or software do you use for recording?
A) I use audacity for the editing, I use a lot of music by Nihilore, and my mic is a blue yeti model.
Q) What exactly is the game you play around the mic? D&D?
A) Pathfinder 1e, heavily homebrewed.
Q) Is the world all created by you then? Or do you play in an existing world?
A) All created by me and the players. [This is the] 7th iteration of a world built on each previous campaign.
Q) Describe the current location in this world, what's the geography like?
A) The podcast takes place in the megatropolis of the Rethi empire, in the capital district Duskbanter. Think of a Blade Runner-esque world with touches of the magical. Holograms and small elementals moving on buildings, hover cars and clerics of the death god. Corporations have replaced churches as the main structures.
Q) Sort of like a Shadowrun energy?
A) Yeah that would be a fair vibe comparison.
Q) What does the pantheon look like here? Is the only real god present the death god?
A) New Gods still have churches, older gods have been pushed into public domain, so used by corporations as mascots and what not. Elder gods that represent larger forces that don't need believers.
Q) You mentioned homebrew races, what are some examples of the races you've made available?
A) We have Illikin, Void, Lychal, Corlian, Human, Halfling, Android.
Illikin and Void are cousins, descended from the Mind Flayers' genetic experiments with the Drow to survive a previous apocalypse.
Lychal are blue gnomes that were made as a slave lab servant race to an ancient race called the Khen Zai, while the Corlians were made to be soldiers.
Corlians are your standard advanced human specimen, olive skin and built to survive in extreme conditions.
Q) Mind Flayers, eh? I can only assume they run the megacorps? And are they known as Mind Flayers or Illithids?
A) They do not. Too many standard races run the world, so they are in places of power like on a board of directors or part of the secret police.
Q) Does the rest of the world realize what Mind Flayers are or what they do? Or do they operate on the “Down-Low"?
A) Down low for sure.
Q) Does the party know the truth [of this]?
A) The party has drone footage of a Void using a resurrection gem to bring one back. So they are aware, but don't know what to do with the info.
Q) How many are in the party?
A) 4.
Q) How does the party composition look? Is it a balanced party, are they all beef-bois, all chaos, etc.
A) We have:
Fores, a Void shifter - with big sunglasses and yoga pants.
Oswald is an Illikin inquisitor that uses some high tech mining equipment to move around the city, spiderman style.
Lucious, the Human sorcerer who uses prestidigitation to flavor his food and clean up their appearance.
Dosh, the 4-armed Android swashbuckler who enjoys high fashion.
They all follow Lucious as it's his business but they are controlled chaos, everyone had a role for stuff and Fores just finds places to be useful.
Q) Sounds amazing. Also sounds like they focus more on appearance rather than stealth, eh?
A) Haha yeah that's fair to say. Lucious wears his grandfather's dire owlbear coat. Dosh makes no attempts to hide their flamboyant style.
Q) Have there been any close calls, TPKs?
A) Yes, at the end of the first chapter the party wasn't able to get out of the way of some explosives. Lucious lost his arm and has a cybernetic one now, and Dosh the android lost some custom legs he had.
Q) Is there a limit to how many cybernetics a person can get in your world?
A) Yeah it's based on the constitution and wisdom of the character
Q) Are there repercussions to going over this limit? Or do the new parts just not sync with the body?
A) No cyberpsycho moments, they just malfunction or cannot operate reliably.
Q) Is there an increasing chance of malfunction the more they exceed their limits?
A) Correct.
Q) Interesting. You mentioned it's Lucious's business. What business is that? Is the party mercs-for-hire?
A) Lucious Estebold, youngest of 3, had inherited one of the family businesses. Bold Requisitions, a repo company. His sister Matilda has Bold Financial, and his older brother Xavier has a law firm Bold Partners. They do corporate requests for the local Megacorp, Ammon Advancements, but they have worked for a pharma company as well as helping out the esoteric group of librarians. (Those episodes had Scott from Dice of Thunder Pod).
Q) That sounds like lots of fun! So it sounds like there is no real BBEG, but are their rival businesses and teams that the party has to compete with?
A) Correct, rival mercenary companies, antagonistic siblings, some lovecraftian monsters or insane technomages.
Q) So tell me how Lovecraft fits into this. Are there bleeds in reality that allow monsters to come through? Are they normal summon options for mages?
A) Yes, from previous campaigns those elder gods have been killed or locked away, sometimes their power bleeds into reality. So some creatures are specifically extra planar, or corporations are finding that there can be solid profit from reach into these breeches. Pharma companies and what not.
Yeah there are normal mages but in an advanced tech society it's being treated less as a mystical thing and more as someone who has advanced physics knowledge.
Q) So people are kind of pulling a Stargate to pull critters in for a profit?
A) Correct, one of their early missions was recovering a planar sensitive creature that was going full "The Thing" for a pharma company.
Q) So is there no mystical magic in this world? Has it all been broken down and made sense with science?
A) Sorcerers and druids are the most mystical of magic, clerics have the gods and wizards alter reality with their knowledge of the universe.
Q) Is there a difference then between Wizards and Technomages?
A) Functionally it's just how they use and interact with magic. So artificers and crafting mages can create arcane infused tech or programs. Your average wizard these days keeps their spell book on a tablet or smartphone.
Q) Gotcha, gotcha. Love it by the way. You mentioned this is the 7th iteration built on previous campaigns. Has it been the same characters the whole time?
A) No, the first campaign back in 2001 was D&D 3.0e and very fantasy based.
2nd dealt with elemental themes.
3rd dealt with the elder gods and defeat of the "modern gods".
It wasn't until the 4th or 5th we officially switched to Pathfinder. 5th campaign is when the psion turned into the Plane of Information making the Constant, our stand-in for the internet.
6th game was the killing of most of the elder gods.
7th is the one we are at now.
Most campaigns I run have between 10 to 18 players.
Q) With you and the cast, how long have you known each other?
A) 25 years for most of them.
Q) Are they all vets of ttrpgs like yourself?
A) Yes.
Q) Has everyone (the players) been local? Or do you do a lot of long distance, web-chat gaming online?
A) Jesse is in Hawaii, Mav in Spokane, John and Sean local.
Q) Aside from Scott, have you had other guest appearances on your AP?
A) No, I have an "OOPS All GMs" thing I'm doing (that isn't out) which is 8 DMs in my world on side quests to show off the world. Two groups of 4.
Q) Have you been a guest in someone else's running AP?
A) Cybertopia and Game Master Mondays. Going to do one with Fractal Observation Institute.
Q) Time to wrap it up, any parting thoughts for our readers?
A) Oh jeez, haha. The hardest question.
Have fun rolling and remember to have fun. Wait. Man...haha I am totally blanking.
A natty 1 can be just as fun as a natty 20, sometimes more so.
Ok that will have to be it.
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