Behind The Button | Campaign 1 Recap & After Action Report

Welcome back to The Big Red Button, where even the post-season debrief has twists we didn't see coming!

Campaign One is officially in the books. Alex, William, and Game Master Dallas pull back the curtain on the full season — what was planned, what got blown up, what surprised everyone, and what's coming next. If you've ever wondered how much of the chaos was intentional, this is the episode you've been waiting for.

Episode Highlights:

Were We Supposed to Die?: 

Dallas opens up about the Wendigo finale, what the "real" ending was supposed to look like, and how Gotfree's lucky metal throw changed everything.

The Wendigo's True Power: 

The mind control mechanic wasn't in the plan. Dallas reveals he built it in real time as the crew started poking around, and how a roll of the dice turned Jake into a potential cannibal acolyte.

Moments Dallas Will Never Forget: 

From Houston trying to kick a dog instead of shooting it, to the infamous True Love's Kiss attempt, to an entire episode spent removing a lens cap, the GM breaks down his favorite unplanned moments from the campaign.

The Super Duper Mart You Never Visited: 

A full combat encounter with feral ghouls and a layered story about Robert Short's past still sitting untouched in Harrison. 

Building Wide, Not Deep: 

Dallas explains his GM philosophy and how real life cast changes forced some mid-campaign pivots that ultimately made the story better.

Five Words for Campaign Two:

Each member makes their prediction. Dallas's answer is cryptic for a reason.

Timestamps:

(00:03:17) Dallas's GM Philosophy, Kid Gloves Off

(00:05:12) The Real Finale That Never Happened

(00:06:56) Building in Real Time

(00:10:05) Campaign Highlights

(00:15:36) The Dice Are the Rules (Mostly)

(00:23:48) Real Life, Hiatuses, and Cast Changes

(00:30:31) Five Word Predictions for Campaign Two

Transcript

[00:00:00;01 - 00:00:12;05]
 (Music)

[00:00:14;59 - 00:00:20;10]
Speaker 1
 In the case of nuclear or radiological fallout, people living around potential targets...

[00:00:22;51 - 00:00:23;29]
 (Music)

[00:00:25;58 - 00:00:28;43]
Speaker 1
 You shouldn't leave your shelter until officials say so.

[00:00:30;17 - 00:00:30;36]
 (Music)

[00:00:32;28 - 00:00:45;34]
Speaker 2
 This is the emergency broadcast system. This is not a test. Repeat, this is not a test. Citizens are advised to take the following steps. Stay alert to news media events or local emergency alert notifications.

[00:00:45;34 - 00:00:52;25]
 (Music)

[00:00:59;30 - 00:01:16;44]
Alex
 Welcome to Big Red Button After Action Report. This is where William and I, we're going to pick Game Master Dallas' brains for a few minutes here. Because there's the peak behind the curtain sometimes, and I want to know

[00:01:19;12 - 00:01:23;31]
Alex
 how badly we screwed up your plans. So let's start with the finale though.

[00:01:24;52 - 00:01:26;42]
Alex
 Okay, so yeah. Were we supposed to die?

[00:01:27;55 - 00:01:36;51]
Dallas
 I... So up until the finale, I had kind of put kid gloves on a lot of the fights.

[00:01:37;54 - 00:01:41;35]
Dallas
 One for us to get used to. It's the first time we're playing, so I don't want to like

[00:01:42;42 - 00:02:02;34]
Dallas
 make it not fun and murder you right off the bat. But also, I wanted it to be a challenge. So there was always a risk. And the rule in the back of mine, and maybe I shouldn't say this out loud because I'm going to keep doing this, but I'm going to go lay it out there. If I bring the fight to you, it's going to be a challenge,

[00:02:03;35 - 00:02:09;17]
Dallas
 but not like a total wipe from the get-go. If you decide to do something dumb,

[00:02:10;34 - 00:02:25;26]
Dallas
 all bets are off. I am not fudging rolls. I am not holding back. If you decide, I think maybe if I throw a rock at that deathclaw, that'll be a good idea. I'm not going to stop it in any little bit. You're going to face those consequences.

[00:02:25;26 - 00:02:31;51]
Alex
 Who would be stupid enough to pick a fight with random things throughout the course of a campaign? Who would do that?

[00:02:31;51 - 00:02:57;38]
Dallas
 So initially, I thought that that's what you guys would do. But like whenever it came time for Dustpoint to evacuate, you guys were like, I think we should evacuate with them. We're not going to go towards the danger. I was like, okay, this is going to be different than I thought. And then you turned it around again and you're like, well, let's go do it. I was like, oh, boy. So maybe they will go poke things. I don't know. Okay.

[00:02:57;38 - 00:03:01;55]
Alex
 So what were you now that you're on that train of thought? Okay. So the finale,

[00:03:03;14 - 00:03:12;37]
Alex
 you, all right. You, you brought the fight to us. I did. And so did you expect us to a kill power armor,

[00:03:13;45 - 00:03:17;54]
Alex
 not actual when to go. Did you expect us to kill him?

[00:03:17;54 - 00:03:22;14]
Dallas
 No, not even a little bit because his,

[00:03:23;21 - 00:03:34;08]
Dallas
 his damage resistance and his health points were going to be so much that there was no way that you guys could have killed it in a regular fight.

[00:03:34;08 - 00:03:35;42]
Speaker 11
 In a regular fight

[00:03:35;42 - 00:03:40;35]
Dallas
 where you're not getting natural ones all day long. But that's the luck of the drug.

[00:03:40;35 - 00:03:46;07]
Alex
 How does that happen? I don't know. Like it's just, I don't know. Did we just read natural ones there?

[00:03:46;07 - 00:04:06;52]
Dallas
 There were a, I think so. There were tons of them and they were always like two or three times. And they were at pit of, it wasn't like, I'm going to do a speech check and roll natural one. No, it was like, oh, this guy might kill everyone. I wonder if I could hit this tiny little fusion for with a piece of metal.

[00:04:08;29 - 00:04:08;54]
Dallas
 Cause I was like,

[00:04:10;10 - 00:04:19;45]
Dallas
 it's going to distract it. Maybe it might cost a mild inconvenience. And what I was cause I, cause I also do personal roles that you guys don't

[00:04:36;49 - 00:04:38;52]
Dallas
 see. And so some of those are like severity of the problem that you created. And so I was like, I just decided it's going to come over there. Rhett Godfrey. Like I, you know, the whole, uh, Jake going on his danger run to sacrifice himself looking for fusion cores.

[00:04:39;53 - 00:04:54;13]
Dallas
 I fully anticipated him getting murdered. He did it. And so then I was like, okay, Godfrey is going to throw this piece of metal and then it's going to come over there and just stomp on it. And he killed it before I could even decide which direction he was going to go.

[00:04:56;50 - 00:05:08;42]
Alex
 I can't believe. All right. So you didn't expect us to kill power armor, man. And then we'd turn around and we also bring in the full

[00:05:08;42 - 00:05:12;41]
William
 face to face with an actual, actual question. When did it go?

[00:05:12;41 - 00:05:14;50]
Alex
 What was

[00:05:16;52 - 00:05:18;27]
Alex
 going through your brain at that point?

[00:05:18;27 - 00:05:53;48]
Dallas
 That was just going to be a brief. I didn't expect you to kill the guy so fast. So that was one thing. You guys to be immobilized in some capacity. Like you guys have been incapacitated because he just hurt you so bad. I thought about bringing the boys into it to fight him at the end. And then I was going to have the window go just rise up at it like, oh no, he was actually real the whole time. Eat his chosen one and then like disappear into the woods forever to be like, did that really happen?

[00:05:53;48 - 00:06:07;03]
Alex
 So real spiritual window go was going to walk in after we got, after we get demolished by power armor, when to go henchman, he was going to come in, destroy power armor guy after we're lying there.

[00:06:08;04 - 00:06:09;52]
Alex
 Just eat, hang on.

[00:06:09;52 - 00:06:22;35]
Dallas
 And then it was just going to be a threat because yeah, because the reveal was like, oh, the, the window goes not real the whole time. It was a cult leader, but then it was going to be a double reveal of no, the window go really is real.

[00:06:22;35 - 00:06:25;44]
Alex
 And then he told me that Trevor isn't the Mandarin

[00:06:29;16 - 00:06:30;04]
Alex
 from the best.

[00:06:30;04 - 00:06:35;34]
Dallas
 You guys in

[00:06:37;00 - 00:06:40;07]
Dallas
 the best way. This is, this is why I

[00:06:40;07 - 00:06:56;45]
Alex
 expected us to go on an accident. How, what was going through your mind? Like, did you have the power in, in mind when it was like staring into my eyes or Jake's eyes? Was that like in its power set already? Or was that you just like riffing?

[00:06:56;45 - 00:07:19;55]
Dallas
 No, that was that I was building this plane as it was going. There was no talk beforehand that this is going to happen. You guys. So here's my dilemma. And it's, it's one of those maybe later on this will come to bite me in the butt. But the way that I want to do things, because like this point, it was going to be one of those like, I take control away from you guys, tell

[00:07:21;00 - 00:07:23;51]
Dallas
 the rest of the story. When to go does its thing and it leaves.

[00:07:25;37 - 00:07:36;17]
Dallas
 But I really enjoy you guys telling the story. And so once you guys started poking around and like, I want to do this or what if it can do this

[00:07:37;50 - 00:07:45;35]
Dallas
 or why not? Let's try it and see. And then it gloriously works somehow. And so we just came on. It's going

[00:07:47;00 - 00:08:02;32]
Dallas
 to make a mental connection because maybe it needs a new host. You know, maybe it because when to goes possess whoever wants the power. And so maybe it's going to try to take over Jake and Jake has the option to become the new,

[00:08:03;33 - 00:08:16;11]
Dallas
 you know, cannibal acolyte. Or yeah. Yeah. And then but then like you got to it's a roll of the dice. So like we have to leave it up to the to the choice of the dice and it didn't work. And

[00:08:17;11 - 00:08:23;45]
Dallas
 I was going to make maybe give it a chance to escape, but you guys never gave it a chance to escape. And we had already

[00:08:25;13 - 00:08:32;04]
Dallas
 got free had already shown his humanity and that maybe there's more to him than just robot.

[00:08:33;07 - 00:09:01;06]
Dallas
 And so that's why he has the connect. He had the connection to and like Houston had his roles missed for him to make the connection. So maybe there was some fudging to get that connection too, but it worked out better. Because I was like, well, maybe it's just going to be one. Maybe it'll just be two. But I think it worked better that all of your minds were in the mix together because

[00:09:02;20 - 00:09:28;13]
Dallas
 up until this campaign, your characters were all separate entities not connected whatsoever. You kind of rub each other and you're getting to know each other. And now you have a shared. You have a trauma bond. You have all shared inside of each other's brain. And also I not once and I don't know God for you could change this however you want. And sorry, William, that I keep referring to you.

[00:09:29;43 - 00:09:30;19]
Speaker 11
 It's okay.

[00:09:30;19 - 00:09:31;13]
Dallas
 Yeah.

[00:09:32;53 - 00:09:40;25]
Dallas
 I never expected him to have humanity like outside of like his normal parameters. So that's something that you'll have to

[00:09:41;27 - 00:09:44;29]
Dallas
 work with or explain away. Yeah, that's okay.

[00:09:46;09 - 00:09:54;31]
Dallas
 If the 10 man gets a heart or not, that's up to you. That just naturally evolved out of

[00:09:55;32 - 00:09:58;08]
Dallas
 this whole thing.

[00:09:58;08 - 00:10:05;36]
Alex
 I mean, I have ideas on how the next season and the next campaign will go. But

[00:10:06;37 - 00:11:12;12]
Alex
 for you as a game master, as you're like laying out story points and beats for each of us as characters, was there a moment this season or several, what were some moments in the entire campaign that you were like, Oh, I am leading the horse to water. Let it drink. And instead we're like, let's blow up something. You know, like, was there a moment where you were like, yes, I've teed them up perfectly. And instead we just went, what was that? Like, I know at some points in our group chat, you're like, I had three pages prepared for this. And we didn't even cover a paragraph on the first intro. You know, I remember that episode. What were some of those moments for you that were a highlights that you're like, I would never plan that and be, you don't have to share some of those, those beats. But what were the moments where you're like, Oh my God, if you all don't stop screwing this up, like, I need to know both good and bad.

[00:11:14;07 - 00:11:15;01]
Dallas
 There,

[00:11:16;07 - 00:11:24;36]
Dallas
 I think with the death claws, that was one that I had to intervene because I was like, I'm so good at throwing.

[00:11:26;06 - 00:11:27;11]
Dallas
 So good at throwing.

[00:11:28;19 - 00:12:11;52]
Dallas
 That was one. It's always really fun to watch you guys play with the rules to see what you can and can't do. There was a moment where Houston played by our illustrious Cody tried to kick a dog and go so great. And I was like, I did not think he would try to, like, he's got a gun and a baseball bat, but his instinct is to kick a dog, which like, you can try that. That's fine because there's there's there's rules, but there's also no rules like it. Like you could try to kick a dog in real life. I didn't want, I don't want to make it so video gamey where it's like, now, now that's not what you're equipped with. You could just do it. Also,

[00:12:13;18 - 00:12:57;38]
Dallas
 I did the entire true loves kiss. That was never planned in any way. And that's another one. So, so he has two ends of the spectrum. He tried to kick a dog, which surprised me because I was like, this is going to kill you right now. So violent. And then he was like, I'm a kiss him. And so I was like, I don't think that's in the rule book, but I'm willing to try whatever. And I ain't even in the back of my mind. I was like, I'll build it out to where maybe there's some sort of antidote. I don't know. Like if it works, we'll make it work in his saliva or something. Yeah. And then, and then whenever he, he, he failed the role, it made it way better because it was like build up, build up, build up.

[00:12:57;38 - 00:13:02;43]
Alex
 And it's always beautiful. No reason. Check the ancient tone. Yeah.

[00:13:04;15 - 00:13:04;43]
Dallas
 Real

[00:13:06;15 - 00:13:18;16]
Dallas
 stuff. And there's sometimes where I'm looking at that to buy time and I hope you never know which one it is. When I go, it's time to check the book. It's usually me going, okay, I don't really know what this does.

[00:13:19;21 - 00:13:32;04]
Dallas
 And so if you really see me flipping hard, I don't ever go to the back section. It's me just buying time. If I've made it halfway past this, when I'm flipping this book, I'm not looking for answers back here.

[00:13:32;04 - 00:13:36;57]
Alex
 You just said you didn't want us to know when you were doing it and not doing it. You just gave it away.

[00:13:36;57 - 00:13:45;09]
Dallas
 You don't see my book. I'm never going to flip the book up here. It's what I'm down here. Oh my gosh. You'll never know, but yeah, sometimes I'm making up rules.

[00:13:45;09 - 00:13:50;19]
Alex
 All right, William, what was a moment for you, this campaign that was

[00:13:52;07 - 00:14:02;22]
Alex
 a highlight and what was a moment this season or this campaign that had you just scratching your head? One of each.

[00:14:03;59 - 00:14:34;59]
William
 Well, that whole episode where we tried to get my lens cap off. Oh my God. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. And we kept failing. Well, I rolled perception and I rolled a natural one. And that's when Dallas was like, oh, you still have your lens cap on. And we spent the next 10 minutes trying to get a lens cap off and the music you mixed on top of that on the just chef's kiss. And then I think it was the same episode where they started talking about the poetry.

[00:14:36;04 - 00:14:50;07]
William
 And I'm like, yeah, you're staring at Dallas straight down the barrel of the camera. I need some culture. Obviously you have some of his poems memorized. I need you to recite one for me.

[00:14:50;07 - 00:14:56;19]
Alex
 Meanwhile, I'm going on the back end into this is, you know, spoiler alert, none of us are that fast to be able to like come up with

[00:14:57;51 - 00:15:20;18]
Alex
 super mutant poetry. And I'm like, chat GPT, like super mutant poetry. I think it was one of like, when I went back and logged into chat GPT again for like the first time in a year kind of thing, it was one of like four chats that I had in there. And I'm like, I'm sending it to Dallas behind the scenes and I'm like, here you go. You don't have an excuse anymore.

[00:15:22;04 - 00:15:36;33]
William
 That one, um, the Jeremy's relationship with his little peanut. Oh, that just tastes just, it's my favorite. The fact that they were fans of Houston. This is all the same episode.

[00:15:36;33 - 00:16:05;52]
Alex
 Well, they just kept spiraling. And I think there's a lot of things as an editor. What I, and this is again, pulling back the curtain. And I think we've talked about this in, in either our Patreon cuts or, um, in other episodes, but very rarely do like, if I want to be 100% transparent, the roles of the dice do in fact dictate what happens.

[00:16:06;55 - 00:16:38;01]
Alex
 However, there are times where one or all of us will chime in with an idea for another person and it's like, all right. Like we enabled that and run with it. And then it's so some of that gets left on the cutting floor and it's beautiful chaos where it's like, oh, I have an idea. And that episode in particular, for whatever reason was just the three of us. One after another, after another, just throwing out bits,

[00:16:39;12 - 00:16:41;55]
Alex
 throwing out bits and we didn't make it.

[00:16:43;07 - 00:16:46;25]
Alex
 I mean, it was one of those like, we've recorded an hour now

[00:16:47;32 - 00:16:51;43]
Alex
 and we have taken a lens cap off a camera

[00:16:51;43 - 00:17:05;24]
William
 and recited and listened to a dramatic reading of some super mutant poetry. And that was it. I loved it. Um, but my favorite thing has been it

[00:17:06;25 - 00:17:12;07]
William
 Dallas's creativity in integrating

[00:17:13;10 - 00:17:18;48]
William
 like fairy tales and folklore into the fallout universe.

[00:17:18;48 - 00:17:30;06]
Alex
 It's always great though, when I don't catch it at first or it takes me one or two ways of hearing it. And then I'm like, or

[00:17:31;07 - 00:17:58;18]
Alex
 either being the person that's realizing it or hearing someone else realize it. I think there was a couple episodes ago where you had a moment where you're like, oh, the light bulb went off and I had caught it. Like, and, and the fact that it was just such a one off line that Dallas had said, it was like, oh, ha ha for me. But then when you realized it so much later, that's what just killed me. And I know that that's happened to all of us, but I just remember vividly. It was like,

[00:17:59;46 - 00:18:01;31]
Alex
 excuse me. And I

[00:18:02;34 - 00:18:03;15]
Alex
 lost it.

[00:18:03;15 - 00:18:11;57]
William
 I lost that. That part has been the best. I'm getting ready to DM a traditional Dungeons and Dragons

[00:18:13;18 - 00:19:03;56]
William
 campaign around the table, miniatures, food, sound effects, the work, the works. And I've been doing a little mini campaigns with Jenny and I didn't, Dallas, you can speak to this. Um, I have loved watching her do creative problem solving. Because normally in play, it's, she's like, well, just pretend like this happens. And it just happens. There is no like stop to know it didn't work. But tying it to the dice and saying, well, I'm sorry. And we were talking about the numbers and it was right around the time that she was learning the number line too. And so it was a great way to teach that and like, no, I'm sorry. It didn't work. And then seeing her not push back against it and get upset, but work her way around it and try new things.

[00:19:04;57 - 00:19:13;56]
William
 She also did things that I didn't anticipate. Like there was one point where she had to go defeat a dragon and she decides that she wants to tame it and ride it back into town. And I'm like,

[00:19:15;21 - 00:19:25;43]
William
 Oh, so I have to think creatively. And that's, that's one of the things that I'm trying to be more, more fluid with in preparing for this. But

[00:19:27;18 - 00:19:34;32]
William
 when things went off the rails, when things didn't go the way that you expected, did you have any, how did that make you

[00:19:36;36 - 00:19:41;43]
William
 feel? Were you excited about the possibility? Did you have some nerves? I feel like I would be nervous.

[00:19:43;08 - 00:20:53;31]
Dallas
 At first, at first I did because I felt like I messed up because I did not like place the carrot close enough for you guys to see it. And I was like, ah crap. Like I didn't, I didn't make it obvious. And, but then in what's great about the way we do this is we record it. So it all lives in continuity at all times. And it's not like, well, we'll kind of forget about it or we've moved on or done to other things. And so going back and listening and looking at the things that I've built and looking at the lore and, and be like, this is your all's world. It's not my world. Like I have built guideposts and I have built things that I would, I have built a world, but you guys live in it. You get to make the choice. And so I would spend tons of time building where I think you might go where I would like for you to go. But also where things may, may fall apart and it was never where I thought it was going to be. But try to build wide and then let you guys pick inside of that. So there are, there are whole

[00:20:54;32 - 00:21:23;57]
Dallas
 places that I have built maps for that you guys have never been because you chose differently than I'd anticipated. And that happened one time super early and I had not anticipated it. So I had to like swing the story around just long enough for it to last a new campaign so I could have time to build things out. Cause then I was like, okay, I got to build for contingencies here. So I can tell you about one little thing. So

[00:21:23;57 - 00:21:27;40]
Alex
 in, will it, will it come back up in, in campaign two?

[00:21:29;01 - 00:23:48;19]
Dallas
 It might, but you guys can know about this one thing. There are lots, lots of other things that you guys will not, won't know unless you go. But in Harrison, there's a super duper mark that is in that map that you guys never, you looked at it, but you never went inside. And there are a bunch of ghouls, feral ghouls that are roaming around inside. And I think he got brought up at one point. Yeah. But they were there the first time you went to new Harrison or when you went to Harrison. So when you very first met, uh, what's his face? The ghoul that lived there? Robert Short. How dare you forget Robert Short. I know. Cause I built, I was like, all right, I'm going to give them tons of choices. Here's where I built this whole half of the map. That's Raider camp. Here are, here's a cafe and here's a broken down this building. Here's a library and that's where Robert Short's story starts. And here is a super duper mark with ghouls in it. And if you guys go in there and explore it, there will be an entire combat encounter. You never went there. You went to the library first and I'd even set it up to where, cause Robert Short is a ghoul that he was protecting these ghouls, the feral ghouls. And because they were probably his family or people he knew from before the war. And so there's going to be like a moment of contention where you have killed people that he cared about, even though they're not feral ghouls. And it just never happened. Now those ghouls are still in there. Yeah. Uh, so I had to set up those different things. And, and, and even when you met Robert, you guys handled Robert Short way differently than I had, you know, roughly anticipated things would go. And it went way better than I had ever imagined. That's why I just let you guys have more and more and more agency because the story just is way better when you guys decide. And when you guys get confident enough to like go out on a limb and you're like, what about this? Or what can I, could I kiss that guy? I'm going to raise up the mayor. Like, let's do it. I don't hear it out.

[00:23:48;19 - 00:24:31;15]
Alex
 There were different characters that were differently utilized than I'm sure you anticipated. And there were life, real life events that transpired between all of us. But for me in particular, that meant certain characters were removed from the show entirely. And that's always a little weird, but, um, and that's part of why we went on hiatus. And I think, I mean, now that we've reached through the end of the campaign and where I'm at now, I don't have an issue talking about it, but I'm sure that that also added another wrinkle where you're like, awesome. We've got a really powerful character

[00:24:32;18 - 00:24:37;51]
Alex
 and she shot into the sun and never seen again. Like, you know,

[00:24:39;40 - 00:24:48;41]
Alex
 like single handedly, some of the pieces that were put on the board, which, you know, I guess that's the case whenever you have a live

[00:24:50;17 - 00:24:53;17]
Alex
 cast and crew that will happen.

[00:24:53;17 - 00:25:05;47]
Dallas
 You know, like, I mean, like, like the same way that there are roles of dice in the game, there's roles of dice in real life and they can pull people in and out of the way that we have built.

[00:25:07;50 - 00:25:08;04]
Dallas
 Because

[00:25:09;41 - 00:25:18;12]
Dallas
 it's the same, like, you know, you guys could, your characters could, could come go based on the role of the dice. And then it, and that happened in real life. Roll with the dice.

[00:25:18;12 - 00:25:35;20]
William
 So for my D&D campaign, I'm doing the starter kit because I, I'm a starter DM and I'm going to be doing traditional rules. And I've got a lot of beginning players. And so I wanted something very much on rails, very much self contained.

[00:25:36;22 - 00:25:37;10]
William
 But for the,

[00:25:38;44 - 00:26:12;00]
William
 I had seven people that were interested in, like they were hard yeses that I want to play D&D around the table. And the starter kit has a maximum of five. Yeah. And so I am going to run it twice. I'm going to run it once with Kristen, Zach and Olivia Hacker and my cousin, Isaac, who is a pro and I like I want him there that I can bounce questions off of and hey like, hey, am I doing this right? But then I'm going to run it again with two other couples and

[00:26:13;08 - 00:26:15;34]
William
 like bringing real life into it.

[00:26:16;37 - 00:26:48;34]
William
 Jenny and this couple's daughter are going to be there and I'm turning them into like cheeky little sprites. And so whenever they get interested in the table and they're like, what do you want to do? I want to play. Then we have these two little sprites that the entire journey, they will just appear. And one of them will cover one of us in glitter and one will turn our hair pink or they'll just cause their havoc. Then the sprites just disappear. But I'm also taking

[00:26:50;34 - 00:26:53;00]
William
 the quest is you're sent to

[00:26:54;26 - 00:26:55;27]
William
 do this task.

[00:26:56;36 - 00:27:07;36]
William
 I'm going to start it out where these mercenaries are taking bids to do it. Right. And they both bid the same thing. And the guy flips a coin to see who gets to go on the job.

[00:27:08;46 - 00:27:42;45]
William
 And that creates two separate timelines. Oh, nice. And so I was like, how can I make it so that when this party comes together, there is an in universe explanation to why they had the same but slightly different experiences. And when the second one is running it, there will be some like reality shifting. Oh, and they will see like the ghosts of the party that did it before them. Oh, that's just for just for a second. And then whenever they complete it,

[00:27:43;56 - 00:28:12;08]
William
 they both parties walk back into the same tavern and they've completed the task. Right. And then that's when they meet and then they are met with a sphinx for like the herald of a sphinx. Right. Tells them that they have messed with the sacred flow of time. Oh, nice. And then that sets up the so I having to incorporate real life into it and acknowledging

[00:28:13;38 - 00:28:34;57]
William
 our realities. I know we had that hiatus and then Cody is doing his master's program. And so the amount that we can record was and when we can record was kind of all over the place. But I'm not saying that that's a bad thing. It was just our reality. Right. If you've made it to this

[00:28:36;14 - 00:28:49;05]
William
 episode or this little like post season tag. For those of you who were still discovering and listening and downloading, like we were gone for

[00:28:50;10 - 00:28:55;05]
William
 a couple months and we were still getting hundreds of downloads. Just thank you.

[00:28:55;05 - 00:29:47;41]
Alex
 It is amazing where, you know, we started podcasting together as a crew. I mean, back pre pandemic days, Cody and William were both talking to each other and then talking to Dallas and me individually. And that's where our show, the doctor and a lawyer walking to a bar came from. And it was that sense of shared creativity, that sense of shared exploration that we launched into the choose your own adventure book and the board game. And that was, I think, the point where we realized we could make something bigger and cooler and more involved than ever before. And so it was not

[00:29:49;40 - 00:30:30;27]
Alex
 it's not lost on us how cool this community is of both the fallout community, the and the 2D 20 actual play world and the podcast world. I mean, it's a beautiful blend. And we're very grateful for that. So campaign one is officially in the books. Yeah, I'm going to end on this very fast. I want a five word, a five word guess for what's going to happen in campaign two. Five word guess.

[00:30:31;34 - 00:30:41;43]
Alex
 My five word prediction for what's going to happen in campaign two normalcy will drive Jake crazy.

[00:30:43;06 - 00:30:46;15]
Alex
 That's my, that's my prediction for campaign two.

[00:30:46;15 - 00:30:52;13]
William
 Godfrey will learn to knit.

[00:30:54;49 - 00:30:58;07]
Alex
 Totally different experiences

[00:30:58;07 - 00:31:05;10]
William
 is inspired by point point. He minted point.

[00:31:05;10 - 00:31:07;50]
Alex
 I love that we said that in unison.

[00:31:07;50 - 00:31:10;25]
William
 He desires the domestic.

[00:31:11;58 - 00:31:15;27]
William
 He, yeah, Godfrey will learn to knit. All right.

[00:31:15;27 - 00:31:21;52]
Alex
 Game Master Dallas. Not all things are true. Not all things are true.

[00:31:23;36 - 00:31:26;11]
William
 That's going to keep me up for the next.

[00:31:26;11 - 00:31:42;56]
Alex
 And as usual, you end us. How do you end us on a cat hanger on a season, you know, after action report. Well, y'all, this has been another special episode of behind the button where we

[00:31:44;03 - 00:31:48;49]
Alex
 just dive into what is going on in the big red button world.

[00:31:50;20 - 00:32:50;51]
Alex
 We are production of the grapefruit network. We have two sister shows. We've got a doctor and a lawyer walking to a bar that the show that started at all where we do pop culture discussions, games, and table topics. It is a blast. We've also got Potter plus, which is Williams baby, where he's breaking down the new HBO Harry Potter retelling and all the things in the Potter universe. And here's a plug that he may do, but I'm going to do on his behalf. He has launched the Kentucky wizard YouTube channel right now. He is creating his way arts and crafts food. He made rock candy based off of the book. Anyways, I was going to do a shameless plug for you without you having to ask. So go check out his YouTube channel to that. I don't know if we are we are we including that under the grapefruit network. We have a banner. How are we doing that? Yeah. Cool. Cool. Cool. As long as we get the SEO from that, that's cool.

[00:32:52;57 - 00:33:13;06]
Alex
 And then, you know, obviously big red button, the third of the shows where we're doing an actual play Dallas. Thank you for the hard work that you put into this. Even in the face of our mutinies and absolute chaos. You sir are a trooper.

[00:33:13;06 - 00:33:20;36]
Dallas
 It was a pleasure to watch you guys just live your, your alternate lives. It was great.

[00:33:20;36 - 00:33:40;52]
Alex
 And I am, I'm looking forward to campaign too. I have, I have got my hands full for these edits. That's a long one. It's going to be a long one. But with that, I've been Alex. William. That's weird signing off with my own name. Right? Oh, yeah.

[00:33:40;52 - 00:33:41;14]
Dallas
 Right.

[00:33:41;14 - 00:33:43;35]
William
 I did. And on

[00:33:45;22 - 00:33:48;22]
William
 behalf of our resident Google Cody,

[00:33:48;22 - 00:33:52;23]
Speaker 11
 he's not here right now. He's studying to be a doctor person.

[00:33:53;28 - 00:33:53;29]
Speaker 11
 Why

[00:33:54;41 - 00:34:02;35]
Speaker 11
 is there pee in it? And is it in HD? It feels like the kind of thing Cody would like Houston, Houston would like that.

[00:34:04;55 - 00:34:05;34]
Speaker 11
 Wow.

[00:34:05;34 - 00:34:08;33]
William
 And we'll see you guys next time.

[00:34:09;35 - 00:34:11;02]
Dallas
 Bye. Bye.