Session Zero Heroes - A TTRPG Actual Play Podcast
Speaker A: Jasmine, oolong, green and white. Long ago, these four teas were skilfully brewed at the Blissful Brew. Then everything changed when the shop's popularity threatened its existence. All Mr. Okeron, the shop's owner and tea master, could do was to recruit four teenage orphans to learn his trade and staff his shop. A, uh, year has passed since the orphans were hired and although their skills have progressed, they still have a lot to learn before they can brew anything. But I believe that they have the potential to make the Blissful Brew the greatest tea shop in the world.
Speaker C: Welcome everybody, back to another episode of Vendors and Brews. Uh, we're doing a little bit of a session zero season two kickoff to kind of jump into something that we kind of missed doing along the way, which is character, ah, growth, which is obviously a big part of Avatar Legends. That's how you essentially, quote unquote, level up during the game. Um, so we wanted to do kind of a little pre season two episode to discuss what growth each character has, kind of come across and discuss that and get that all put into our character. Um, mean we were just talking to um, Michaela, aka Mika about hers and it sounded like we had some ideas, so we can start with hers. Uh, Mika's growth question as the Rogue is did you get a friend to join in or approve of any of your bad habits?
Speaker D: Um, my initial reaction was no, but.
Speaker C: We all know that wasn't true.
Speaker D: That's a lie. Well, because ah, I got the whole gang to go with me to the who was I?
Speaker E: Uh, don't remember the family's name, I.
Speaker D: Just remember the Butler family.
Speaker C: Oh yeah, you broke into the Shifu family house. You got everybody into the Shifu family house.
Speaker D: I did.
Speaker C: I don't know if technically it counts, like per instance, I mean it was one situation, one quote, unquote bad habit of breaking in and you got everybody to do it. So I don't know, but whatever the case, uh, let me see were there any other situations where Mika did something? I mean that was definitely her highlight.
Speaker D: For mean, she had lots of highlights.
Speaker C: Fair point, fair point. Um, whatever the case, I mean assuming that we count it per instance, that would have meant that you tricked one, two, three people at least not tricked, you got three people to follow along with your trouble causing, um, technically your growth is four. But I do feel like by the end of seasons everybody should level up in a sense, per se. Um, and I'm sure there's something that we're probably forgetting. I don't know, I just really feel like there might have been one other instance. Maybe, uh, we kind of jokingly mentioned Chikra and how you kind of like in a weird sense tricked her that you were joining their group and I don't know, led her astray. So I mean, in a way.
Speaker D: Yeah. And then Broccoli we pretended to be hot leaf people.
Speaker C: Oh, that's true. That's true. You infiltrated hot leaf juice. So yeah, uh, that would be a.
Speaker D: Good fourth one and sold the ingredient list.
Speaker C: Awesome.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker C: So yeah, I would say, yeah, you definitely got broccoli involved.
Speaker D: I can play a rogue.
Speaker C: There you go. Fair point. Fair point. All right, so you now have an option as your growth advancement, you have a couple of options in there. You can take a new move from your playbook, you can take a new move from somebody else's playbook. You can raise a stat by plus one to a maximum of plus two. You can shift your center one step, or you can unlock your moment of balance. And just to clarify, your moment of balance is going to be some moment where you essentially well, I can just read what your moment of balance says. It says you learned early on that you had to do what you needed to survive. And that sometimes meant, uh, you lost friends. Now you have a new balance. Rule breaking isn't something that just drives people away. It's something that you can use constructively with your friends. So you would tell me how you lead your companions to break all the rules and accomplish something incredible. It's a one time use, but it's big. So I'll let you think about it and figure out what of those options that you want to choose so you can see that they have boxes next to them except for the raise the stat. I think you only get that one once. Actually, no, you get that one as many times as you want. Um, but obviously you'd be sacrificing the other options there. But I'm going to let you think on that and then we'll jump over to Cameron while you think about it. So, Cameron, you're playing Bill, uh, Dore, who is the Guardian, and your question is, did you pursue a desire or a goal of your own that was outside of protecting others?
Speaker A: Uh.
Speaker E: Not that I can think of.
Speaker C: I'm trying to think. I mean, a lot of it was driven for sure, uh, by the concept of helping others.
Speaker E: Yeah, I can't think of anything because at the end of the day, everything that drove Bill door was regarding either protecting or helping his friends or protecting them or something that would help the shop in Mr. Okran. I don't think he ever did something for himself.
Speaker C: I'm looking through the episode title, which.
Speaker E: I guess means he never even grew.
Speaker C: So, uh, he never grew at all.
Speaker E: When did Bill ever do anything for himself? Exactly.
Speaker A: See?
Speaker C: Okay, so pretty clear.
Speaker F: Bill, you made yourself a sandwich.
Speaker C: Um oh, yeah, you did make yourself a sandwich. That's true. When you that's a good point.
Speaker E: Yeah, but then, I mean, it was.
Speaker C: Literally outside of the mission, like everybody else was trying to accomplish something and builder was just chilling in the kitchen, making a sandwich.
Speaker D: You literally didn't check on anybody. You're just like, well, no, because after.
Speaker E: The sandwich, then I proceeded to help Mika, uh, out of a situation. Wait, I didn't think I helped Mika. I think I literally just walked right past the dude while eating a sandwich.
Speaker F: You literally walked in, made a sandwich, and walked out and just said, peace to the butler as you left and.
Speaker E: Grabbed my Bow staff on the way out. I remember that.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: I guess just one time.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker E: Okay. That's one.
Speaker C: I can't think of any other.
Speaker D: He's a strong, independent man. He, um, doesn't need no woman.
Speaker E: It's not really independent, though, because all of his actions are based on other people. So it's the opposite of independent. Which is why sandwich, you didn't need.
Speaker D: A woman in the kitchen doing it for you.
Speaker E: I knew there was a butler.
Speaker C: Um, I'm trying to think back to that was more Guo's idea, I guess, with the wine and the tea in the maze.
Speaker D: I went left and he just went right.
Speaker E: That's not really an individual choice, because I was looking for stuff in the maze.
Speaker C: I suppose he was. Yeah. You were trying to find something. My goal is the maze, bring help. That's why I was in the true, that's true. Uh, even if you don't do this now, and you only got one out of the four, I feel like, given the fact that Mr. Okron is dead yeah. If you haven't watched Season, I hope they're not like, oh, they made two session zeros. I better listen to those first. Um, this feels like a late point to say, if you haven't listened to season one, be sure to listen to season one so you can find out how Mr. Okaron dies.
Speaker D: Well, who any of us are, really.
Speaker E: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker C: Um, whatever the case, uh, I think that now that Mr. Okaron has passed on, I think it'll open up a lot more opportunity for Bill Dore to step outside of this idea of protecting other people and maybe focus on even if they might be maybe a darker concept of what Bill wants. There will be more of what Bill possibly wants. Uh, all right, well, whatever the case, we'll just have to come back to Bill door on growth and such and growth options. So, um, some of these are a bit tricky, I'm not going to lie. Um, Dave playing GuoHan, uh, you were playing the Adamant, and the Adamant's growth question is, did you seek support or guidance from others?
Speaker G: I'd say yeah.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker G: Um, trying to think, when Guo was with Bill at the party true.
Speaker A: Uh.
Speaker G: Trying to figure out what to do to prepare, I asked him, what should we do? And he's just like, let's just get ready to serve some tea.
Speaker C: Get some tea going.
Speaker G: Um, I don't remember, though.
Speaker C: No, I mean, I think you definitely. Especially even when you were doing something that was really, like, you forward, like, the wine, tea and stuff. I mean, you were turning to Bill and being like, we got to work together on, like, what are your thoughts? How can we get this moving, or how can we do this, uh, correctly? So I would definitely agree that that would be, uh, a situation that would fill this growth for sure. See, I'm trying to think again. I'm looking through the descriptions and stuff just to see the detail.
Speaker G: A big moment where Guo sought the support from others was when he made an appeal, an emotional appeal to the neighborhood.
Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
Speaker G: Tried to get them to join in to save, uh, the tea shop.
Speaker C: And he succeeded too, because they got, like, real worked up and everything. That was awesome. They did a stomp. Yeah. So that's true. That's true. Okay, so I guess that would be an instance where I wouldn't count each individual. Like, Dave just fully leveled his character in one go because he encouraged a whole town of people to join in on a, um that because that's a good one. So definitely mark that down. Do you ever feel like there was an instance where you kind of got anything from Mr. Okeron that might have pushed Guo? I guess I can't really think of anything on top of that.
Speaker A: Mhm, I.
Speaker C: Don'T see too much, honestly. Doubles.
Speaker A: That.
Speaker C: Okay, so well, that's did we have how many did we get out of that? Did we get two. Okay, so we got two instances out of that.
Speaker F: Does that mean it gets two growth points?
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker C: Two of those boxes next to the growth options. All right. Finally, m, we're coming to Connor. Who is playing Brock Lee? Who is the Hammer? And your growth question is, did you make progress towards your goal against your adversary? Now, previously, if you listen to the prequel episodes, you would know that Brock Lee's adversary is Wang Long. That's sort of his long term adversary. But it does mention that, um, he does have the option to switch adversaries along the way, which makes sense. You're going to have long term and short term adversaries. Wang Long didn't make an appearance in season one outside of the prequel episodes. Um, so villains you would have had or adversaries you might have had during season one would have probably been the wild coyote boars and Madame Yang. Madame Yang. And those would probably be the big, uh, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker F: I mean, I'd say I made a few advances. Know, taking them is, you know, sinking Madame Yang into the ground.
Speaker C: That's a solid one.
Speaker F: Shutting the lid.
Speaker C: Yep. Um, nearly killing her.
Speaker F: Well, then there's also Chikra when I incapacitated. Um, if you count that whole other scuffle with the wild coyote boars, I was the one who had to do the final negotiations with the last wild coyote boar.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker F: Um, so that if you count those as two separate ones, I would say that's three.
Speaker C: So that's a total of three. Yeah, that works.
Speaker F: Do we count the rescue mission of Dilbert? When I went into the basement and rescued.
Speaker C: Who was the adversary then? I don't know.
Speaker F: Maybe it was Sebastian.
Speaker C: So it does say that when you change your adversary um, let me see where it says you can change your adversary anytime you mark a condition M or at the end of each session.
Speaker E: Okay.
Speaker C: So I could definitely jump on the other two. Um, I don't know if I can see the Butler having given you reason to create him as an adversary. True. Um, but I definitely think those other three fit cool.
Speaker F: Uh, does it have to be a direct attack against them? Because we could also consider launching the hot leaf juice people's tea into the maze. Would it be at least a hindrance to them?
Speaker C: I would suppose it says progress towards your goal against your adversary. And your goal was to kind of upstage yeah. Ruin their situation.
Speaker F: And then there was also when I shattered their glasses.
Speaker C: Right. I would say the whole party thing is like yeah, the whole party thing is one.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker C: So I could see that. And then that would hit your four, which could push you to one of your advancements. All right, so while you decide on that, I'll jump back over to Michaela. Michaela, which one did you pick?
Speaker D: Um.
Speaker E: Where'S your book at?
Speaker C: It's in the other room.
Speaker E: We're going to need that to look at other playbooks if that's what people want to do.
Speaker C: Oh, yeah, that's true. You'll want both books. Washingtons as well. Washington. Washingtons. So how do we learn new fighting techniques? Yeah, you don't.
Speaker A: Ah.
Speaker C: Those will be done through in game discovery. So you might find scrolls or a teacher that you could work with and spend time learning to gain new techniques.
Speaker F: And then to advance in the ones that we already know.
Speaker C: Right. Uh, I think same situation. Yeah.
Speaker A: Got. Uh, you.
Speaker F: In my case, when I had four, does that mean I can choose two of them that have two little boxes next to them, or does.
Speaker G: That mean that I have to go.
Speaker C: Through it fully twice and do it once?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker D: I'm going to do take a move from my playbook.
Speaker E: Okay.
Speaker C: So one of those moves on the first page. There's all the different options there. Which ones did you take originally? Just so I remember?
Speaker D: Um, I got to choose two.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker D: So my original ones were Roguish charm.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker D: And is that the best you got?
Speaker C: Got it. Okay. And then which one are you going to choose now?
Speaker D: Slippery eel hand.
Speaker C: Slippery eel hand. All right, that sounds great. So now that you've picked that out, uh, we will probably possibly see that come into play in season two. Connor, jumping over to you. Yeah. What's looking through those options. What were you thinking of taking?
Speaker F: Um, I was thinking of raising stats.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker F: And so if I got all four, does that just mean I can only do it once, though?
Speaker C: You can do it as many times as you want. Uh, once you reach your four growth, you can go up there and raise the stat. The only limitation is that any stat can only be at, uh, a plus two.
Speaker E: Yes, Connor.
Speaker C: So I can raise multiple answer to.
Speaker E: Your question is just you get one.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker F: So I get one.
Speaker A: Yeah. All right.
Speaker F: So I am adding one to passion. So I'm now plus two.
Speaker C: Passion. Nice. It all right. And with that being done, um, we're going to close out session zero there. Um, be sure to check out season two as we'll be actually looking at these characters and seeing where they go from here with their newfound skills or seeing their growth along the way. So we will see you guys in episode one of season two.
Speaker H: Thank you so much for listening to our show. Of course, don't forget to follow or subscribe to our podcast through whatever podcast site that you're using, such as itunes, Spotify, YouTube, and others. Additionally, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Just look for the social media icons. Following us on social media gives you access to all news announcements and, of course, new episodes as they are released. You can check out our website, Bendersoandbrews.com, which will feature all of our episodes, as well as news announcements and even cool character and M player profiles. It's a great hub of information for the Benders and Brews podcast. And finally, we would be truly humbled if you would be willing to take the time to leave us a review. If your podcast site allows you to do so, such as on itunes or in the case of YouTube, you can hit the like and subscribe button and drop us a comment. Tell us about what you thought about our podcast episodes. It sure would mean a lot to us. Avatar Legends is a tabletop role playing game created by Magpie Games, nickelodeon, Avatar, and all related titles, logos, and characters are trademarks of Viacom International, Inc. All rights reserved. I also want to thank the following artists who you can find on Fiver for their amazing creative work on this podcast. Character art was done by Alicio Papa. Draw background art by Konichi. Music by Joe Tims Two one five. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.
Speaker A: Bye.