Episode 103: Sam’s Notes – Streaming Nonsense Podcast

Mazes and Monsters

Well this starts off super alarmist with police sirens
People trapped in a cave, that’s a story…
These guys are cops because trenchcoats and hats
Some game of Mazes and Monsters got a little out of hand over at the university…
This cavern is literally a rock sticking out of the ground with a “Caverns” sign on it
Journalist explains what roleplaying is
Risky cab drivers
What kind of song is this?
This song!
Also, I guess we’re in NYC
Based on a novel
Six months earlier…
This guy is wearing a spikey helmet
And is clearly super rich
He has a super high IQ
I got you a bathroom!
They transformed his bedroom into a bathroom
The good news is, it’ll be easier to clean the blood
So, rich people problems…
Talking bird named Merlin
Mom and daughter talking at the docks, why are they here?
Life is risk!
Boys are chauvinists
Girls have to play dumb because bright girls scare boys
She’s going to be a famous writer just as soon as she starts living
Learn how to use your imagination!
Daniel needs to think about his future… and he’s also pretty rich
Daniel has a gift for computers and wants to make games for computers!
Making games is not competitive
And now, over at Grant University where they pipe in collegiate sounding music at all times
The buddies meet, this guy is wearing a completely out of place cowboy hat
They need to find a fourth player who won’t freak out like last year
Tom Hanks needs to stop playing games and focus on his life
Mom is a drunk who sucks down alcohol to get away
This parental fighting sucks
Robbie gets dropped off at school
And don’t forget, no playing that awful game anymore
You do sound cold, father
And Mazes and Monsters game thing is up on the bulletin board
This guy is now wearing a flight cap in the dining hall that looks like Harvard… or Hogwarts
Oh, sorry, he’s not only wearing a flight cap, but a flight scarf
And Robbie walks by the board and see the M&M poster and Jay Jay jumps up to introduce himself
JJ’s father is the youngest publisher in NY, so JJ calls him “the boy”
Robbie used to play, but no more
And Robbie does in fact show up… bearing a wine bottle. Who brings a wine bottle to a college party?
And now JJ is wearing a construction helmet
Wait, did he say that bottle was a 1987?
JJ stares at Kate
Robbie got kicked out of Tufts because he played M&M so much he didn’t go to class
And now Kate is going to suck him back in…
Robbie is Level 9!
Didn’t he just explain that he was kicked out of school for playing this game and now these people are shamelessly feeding him that which he is addicted to?
And here they are playing… interesting set up…
Iglacia the Fighter
Frelic the Franetic
Pardue the Holy Man
The journey begins!
Robbie sees Kate and drops books on his way over to her… and the romantic song from the opening starts playing
Robbie and Kate out jogging
TRACKING!
Remember the good times! (song)
This campus has cannons?
Robbie and Kate hanging out a lot, and walking arm in arm
Robbie’s brother vanished?
Robbie blames himself for his brother’s disappearance
Robbie’s dream sequence
JJ and Daniel sitting round, painting miniatures, as you do
Daniel has it so hard
We haven’t played in three days!
JJ goes to Kate’s and finds Robbie there
No one notices that JJ is into Kate
JJ is sad…sad and alone
JJ contemplates suicide
JJ “The mysterious forbidden Peakwood Caverns!” that’s how he wants to go…
JJ rides his moped out to the caverns
Robbie got a double bed in his dorm?
Kate’s not ready yet, it’s too soon
Meanwhile, JJ is breaking into the caverns
So what does JJ have in his big bag of tricks
A fanciful torch
Later, in the game
JJ’s character jumps into a pit and impales himself
JJ suggests something else to do…
So the DM is called a “Maze Controller”
Daniel raises the issue that kids got lost in the caves and were never found
Robbie is all in on this new game
Is there really a threat of being expelled?
JJ borrows skeletons
A skeleton named Basil
JJ tells all the secrets
Everybody sneaking away from campus in costume
Last chance to turn back
JJ explains the game before everyone starts down
There’s a lot of light in here
JJ is leaving a rice trail for them to follow out, I guess?
Bats!
They get down to that pool, but JJ isn’t here?
Artificial echo
Basil jump-scare
Beware the sacrilege?
Daniel can read the ancient writings
Eat of the bitter herb
They split up to look for the herb
JJ rolls for monster and Robbie freaks out
It’s like a real monster!
Robbie slayed the darkness
Alright, good time guys
Kate: The most frightening monsters are the ones that exist in our minds 00:41:30
Robbie gets out of the car and blesses everyone
Dark and stormy night
Robbie is called by the Great Hall
He has to be celibate?
He has to go to the Two Towers and be one with the Great Hall
Robbie is having none of Kate’s wiles
He can’t be with her anymore
It’s impossible for me to love you without making love to you
Later, at Fat City…
Kate and Daniel talking about how she’s done with Robbie
Daniel tries hitting on Kate maybe?
Robbie has been drawing Two Towers stuff and still has dreams about the Great Hall
He’s making a map, but he won’t need a map
Pequod Caverns?
Kate goes to the caverns looking for Daniel?
Kate is lost in the caverns
I guess the rats ate the rice?
Daniel tells her to keep calling
No, it really is Daniel
Please Daniel, tell us why he was in the caverns… so he could cheat
And they kiss
Daniel thought he was like Spock because he didn’t have feelings
Kate says he’s like the Tinman
She was afraid to get involved with Daniel because he’s so gosh darned attractive
Merlin tells us it’s Halloween
Robbie is at JJ’s party, as a cleric type, but he’s not talking…
Robbie is taking this monk thing very seriously
Now Robbie is ready
Robbie is missing
Why does Kate have Robbie’s home number?
Robbie’s mom is drinking
The gang searches Robbie’s room and finds the map
Do you think Robbie was involved in another game?
Obviously, the cavern is the most logical possibility
The map doesn’t make any sense
The gang goes to the authorities, but no one is believing them
The detectives know Robbie played M&M
JJ has a Blade Runner poster on his wall
Birds can’t talk
All birds bite, probably not hummingbirds
Detective talks with Kate
“Was Robbie a doper?” 01:05:04
Interviewing Daniel with all his nerdy stuff
The detective thinks someone in the game group killed Robbie
The group argues because they feel guilty
Back to the sirens outside the cavern
The gang shows up at the cavern
It’s weird to see a police station with no computers
Cops assume Robbie is dead
If he’s in the caverns, he must be dead
Is it Halloween again?
JJ suggests finding Robbie by playing the game
Robbie’s brother name was Hall?
JJ, back the fuck off!
Robbie is just walking around NYC
Other than looking high, he seems fine
Some shifty looking guys jump Robbie
Robbie does not want to give up his spells!
In Robbie’s mind, the thugs are a monster, and Robbie stabs him
Walk it off!
Robbie is freaking the fuck out
It’s like he just woke up in NYC
Kate tries to calm Robbie down
Go to JJ’s place
JJ insists on bringing Merlin along
Robbie has thug PTSD
Robbie ends up in the subway tunnels, the maze
Robbie meets the King of France in the tunnels
They go up to JJ’s house
Finally, a room JJ likes
Robbie is still wandering around NYC
The gang tries to think like Robbie, like they’re in a game
Oh, the world trade center, awkward
Gang gets to the towers and makes their way up
Well, also, there are two towers
Awful lot of old white dudes
They find Robbie at the top of the building and he tries to jump
They play the game at Robbie
Zoom in on Hanks crying
Three months later
Kate is finally writing her novel
And JJ is in the theatre department
And Daniel is going into computer programming
And Robbie has to keep seeing the doctor
Mom doesn’t blame any of the gang for what happened to Robbie
Robbie is still in the game?
And the gang plays along
“A fantasy game turns deadly” only it doesn’t.