Rascal deploys malicious compliance

Episode Seven of the Rascal Radio Hour attempts to dispel the rotten vibes of the last week-and-a-half, at least in the US. Chase is joined by Caelyn and Rowan to discuss a healthy plateful of tabletop industry news spanning another ENNIE Awards bungle, Twitter's being kicked out of hobby subreddits, and Rowan's glowing impressions of the Dimension 20 live show at Madison Square Garden.

Elsewhere, the crew talk about the tabletop games (and video game???) occupying their time before venturing once more into the Question Dungeon – Chase doesn't call it that during the episode, but imagine that he did. Imagine a wondrous segue full of imaginative descriptions and perhaps foley work.

You can find Rascal Radio Hour on Apple, Spotify, and all the other various podcatchers. Leaving a five-star review helps us climb the charts and might just stave off the crushing weight of existential ennui seeping in from the doors, the windows, etc. for another week.

Here's an excerpt:

Rowan: We got in late because Madison Square Garden did not plan correctly for 20,000 nerds in cosplay to descend upon it. Which, when they had a prompt 8 p.m. start time, meant that I got to my seat around 8.30 p.m., which was a nightmare.

Chase: So how much of the show did you miss because of this?

Rowan: I missed one-sixth of it. It was a three hour long show, and Imissed half an hour.

Chase: That... that sucks.

Rowan: It was not great, yeah, it was not ideal. So I went in pretty cynical and that was rough, and I was not happy about it. I was already off to a bad start, but then the performers of Dimension 20—Brennan Lee Mulligan, Zack Oyama, Emily Axford, Brian Murphy, Lou Wilson, Ali Beardsley, and Siobhan Thompson—all of them absolutely incredible improv comedians who know how to command a stage in a way that other actual play live shows that I have seen have not been able to do. Either it's not about the performers getting to do what they do best, or it was about showing off technology (or whatever 20-sided tavern was about).

Watching 20,000 people just enjoy that show that was so technically well done—though, allegedly I heard this scoop that I don't know is real, which is why I didn't include it in the article. But Allegedly it was one of the most expensive shows that Madison Square Garden has ever put on.

Chase: Did it feel like an expensive show? Could you see it in the production?

Rowan: Yeah! I could absolutely see it in the production. They had pyrotechnics, they had a custom-made app, they had crazy lighting done.

Chase: And the app was used for voting and rolling, right? Because in the Rascal Discord, you were talking about how they basically crowdsourced roles and then basically took a mean or whatever.

Rowan: A mode, specifically.

Chase: Yeah, that one. Whatever.

Rowan: Listen, science and math still matters, Chase.

Chase: No, we're in a post-truth world.

Rowan: Praise be.

Caelyn: See, this is why it's maths. Plural, not math. There's more than one, you've gotta remember this.

Rowan: I'm gonna jump out a window.

Chase: This is why God gave me two hands so I could slap both of you on the back of the head.

Rowan: There were some big moments in the show where they were like, all right, everyone take out your app, roll these dice, it's going to have some kind of consequence on it. And it felt much more of a participatory thing than Twenty-Sided Taverns did because it was using the mechanics of the game they're playing, which is a crazy concept, you know? So I thought that was really, really great. I'm not gonna say too much more about it, because I would love for everyone to read the article.

It was a really beautiful experience, especially considering what MSG has been used for in the recent past. Having Trump's pre-election rally there, which was deeply anti-Semitic and racist and transphobic and just horrific, then getting the exact opposite experience with 20,000 nerds who booed maybe the loudest Madison Square Garden has ever heard by booing a cryptocurrency allusion. Truly incredible, truly beautiful.