What happens when an elfin Rogue (Inara Harthorn), a half-elf Warlock (Johnny B. Goodlight), and a robot Barbarian (Designation TR8c, better known as Tracey) all get thrown in a dungeon together for petty crime? Why, they take a get-out-of-jail free-offer and crash a gay fantasy wedding! Never mind that they're supposed to be acting as security for one of the grooms, and through this Faustian bargain get pulled in to world-saving shenanigans on behalf of said groom. This sums up the Party campaign of Join the Party
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Its second season, the Join Campaign, takes place in the fictional Lake Town City. In New York's City of the Future, old-town groundskeeper Aggie "The Preserver" O'Hare (she/her), museum educator and ghost-cat brother Milo "Kilonova" Lane (he/him), and dog-walking pizza pounder Val "Vulcani" Vesuvio (they/them) work under Dr Cassandra Morrow to use their superpowers for the good of their city. Using the same reskins featured in the Join Campaign, SLaM Comics is a series of one-shots sporadically released between regular episodes.
After the Summer Season Monster of the Week Camp-Paign set at Camp Diogenes, the official third season takes the players to the world of Verda Stello, populated by plant and bug people. Using subclasses from Valda's Spire of Secrets, they play the most fearsome pirate crew on the Great Salt Sea: Troy Riptide, himbo gunman extraordinaire (butterfly, he/they); Cammie, a tea witch with religious trauma (tea plant, she/they); and Umbi the old man who knows your grandma and loves explosions (an overripe pawpaw fruit, he/him).
Join the Party is a Dungeons & Dragons actual-play podcast that was first released in 2017, with its second season starting in 2020. It regularly features: Eric Silver as the Dungeon Master; Amanda McLoughlin as Inara, Aggie, Carrie-Anne and Troy; Brandon Grugle as Tracey, Milo, Les, and Umbi; Michael Fische as Johnny (Campaign One only); and Julia Schifini as Val, Phoebe, and Cammie (Campaign Two onwards). All are self-proclaimed theater geeks who use the game to play with their skills.
Actual-play episodes are followed by an "Afterparty", where the players and the GM discuss the story they just collectively experienced, what might have happened had certain rolls gone differently, and answer questions submitted by their fans about the world and its characters, along with some sillier things. There are also "Punchbowl" episodes, in which Eric invites guests from other Dungeons & Dragons media to discuss tabletop games and sometimes play one-shots.
This podcast provides examples of:
- Altar Diplomacy: Greg and Alonzo's marriage is definitely a case of this, joining their two powerful families together through the wedding of their sons. The fact that Greg and Alonzo seem to love each other keeps it from being nothing more than a cold power play.
- Anachronism Stew: Subverted. References to rifles, arcades, and the paparazzi in a fantasy world may seem pretty weird but it becomes clear that the Concentric States are less a generic Standard Fantasy Setting and more a mix of steampunk and Fantasy Kitchen Sink.
- Amazon Chaser: Inara goes heart eyes for every badass woman she meets.
- Inara: Is she [the Representative] pretty?GM: She is as beautiful as she is likely to stab you in the back.Inara: So the best kind of pretty.
- Berserk Button: The usually extremely cheerful Tracey is not happy to find an alchemist-mechanic building a creature that looks like him to use for what he sees as slave labor. Tracey also has a literal berserk button in the form of his Rage Switch.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Chad the Human, who is an ooze who insists he is a human and a general dork. When actually called upon to fight, though, he's surprisingly tough.
- Tracy: Is Chad our best fighter?
- Butt-Monkey: By the third arc, it's Alonzo. Falling under a giant's spell, drinking a potentially lethal alcoholic cocktail, insisting on saving the realm without a faint idea of how to do it... His entire existence seems to be wrapped up in failing spectacularly and making life for the main trio as difficult as possible.
- Catchphrase: Johnny: “What's the light situation?" Riffed on in various ways throughout the story.
- Later, Tracey to Ze'ol: “I'm gonna cut your head off!" The latter is a god, so it's mostly an empty threat. Mostly.
- Confession Cam: In the Bachelorette Party arc, contestants are taken away to do interviews with the producer, but Tracey is not warned and so ends up threatening to kill the interviewer and cameramudpeople.
- Cursed Item: Of the variety with side effects. Johnny can wield the Bright Lantern that houses the Undying Light, but usually has to save against the meddling of the Shadow within.
- Foil/Contrasting Sequel Main Character: In the first five arcs, Johnny is the main representative of the Undying Light, and a bit later, the Undying Shadow. He's a charismatic, powerful warlock, but he's also firmly good, determined to serve the Light in a way that benefits others, and 100% Team Dad. The next warlock empowered by the Undying Light and Shadow after Johnny dies/ascends, the Council of Bright is also powerful and charismatic, but definitely not good and definitely not A Father to His Men. The other character affiliated with the Undying Light is Franny, a hag who doesn't so much worship the Light as guzzle it.
- Forced Transformation: During the Labor Party arc, the trio is sent to groom "Mr. Pickles," Ze'ol's cat. "Mr. Pickles" is a man named Vince who was cursed by Ze'ol to become a man-eating lion whenever he gets hungry.
- Good Is Not Nice: Discussed during one Afterparty; the Undying Light, even as a force of good, tries to manipulate Johnny as often as the Undying Shadow does.
- He's Back!: Franny during the final battle when reunited with her Undying Light juice.
- Hugh Mann: The Bachelorette competition has a whole slew of competitors of every fantasy race, competing to be the Queen's future partner. Among them, Chad the Human, a Gelatinous Cube that believes it is actually human. By the end of the Bachelorette party, he confesses to Tracey that he knows he is not human and just wants to fit in.
- Immoral Reality Show: The basis for the Bachelorette Party arc.
- I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Said word for word by PR-00 a.k.a. Salmon the gnome about his motivations in the Bachelorette arc.
- Keet: Tracey has the personality of a cheerful five-year-old in the body of a massive robot.
- Kissing Cousins: During the Bachelorette Party Arc, Inara meets another elf in the reality-show-slash-Gladiator-Games competition—and immediately develops a crush on her. Turns out she's a distant cousin. By the next episode, Inara's opinion of this elf has changed to one of jealous admiration rather than romantic interest.
- Manipulative Editing: In-Universe in the Bachelorette Party arc. Tracey is portrayed as a rage-filled Crazy Jealous Guy, Johnny's Soapbox Sadie tracts about education are cut down or removed entirely, and Inara is emphasised as a frontrunner. Mostly, they don't mind so much because none of them are actually interested in the titular Bachelorette (well, except Inara.)
- Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: A variant with Adema, who is referred to with he/him pronouns and even as the Speaker's 'dad' up until around the end of the Labor Party arc, but is afterwards referred to by she/her (or perhaps She/Her — Adema is a god, after all) and has a physical form resembling a stereotypical businesswoman in a powersuit.
- Player Archetypes: None of the player characters serve as a Munchkin or The Real Man in this campaign. Inara and Johnny B. Goodlight roll as The Roleplayer while Tracey is often The Loonie.
- Power Incontinence: Alonzo is descended from a long line of powerful sorcerers. Unfortunately, his access to the power of his bloodline is shoddy at best. It has a habit of manifesting (or more commonly, not manifesting) at inopportune moments. He later becomes more reliable as an archer.
- Running Gag: Post Bachelorette arc, almost every new character recognises the party from their television appearances.
- Inara trying to solve the problem using anti-capitalist slogans.
- Team Dad: Johnny, so very much. Highlights include giving a whole group of drunk fantasy teens the "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed" speech, championing the funding of child literacy while in the middle of a bread-and-circuses style death match, and complaining that he is far too old for the Rollercoaster Mine ride. Oh, and he wears socks with sandals.
- Verbal Tic: The Speaker always drops the phrase "As it were" in her speech, and even writing.
- Wedding Smashers: The Red Throat Gang's assault on Greg and Alonzo's wedding puts a damper on the atmosphere. While the party was released from jail to prevent the assassination attempt, the gang's use of poisonous frogs to kill Greg caught all of them off guard.
- Wham Line: In the Meta Sense, the completely serious warning before Labor Party VII, the episode where Johnny is Killed Off for Real.Amanda: Hi, just wanted to let you know at the top that this episode is emotionally heavy, and some of you may find it intense to listen to. If at any point you prefer to read the transcript instead, head over to jointhepartypod.com. We’ve also released the Afterparty a day early so you can hear us discuss what goes down.
- Widowed at the Wedding: Alonzo nearly suffers this fate, but thanks to his uncontrolled time-stop powers and the gang's quick thinking, they're able to get Greg an antivenom for the frog's poison before it kills him.
- Yin-Yang Bomb: Johnny attempts to become this after embracing the Darkness as the counterpart to Light. The Council of Bright manages it in the final fight to ascend to his One-Winged Angel final form.
- You All Meet in a Cell: The party is introduced as having engaged in some prior shenanigans and ended up in the city jail.
- Brooklyn Rage: Val, although technically from the fictional Lake Town City, has a typical Brooklyn accent and is rather belligerent (also, as a Barbarian, has a literal Rage ability.)
- Cats Are Mean: Talking ghost cat Tuna is introduced as having messed with Milo's alarm clock to make him late to work, and isn't shy about insulting Milo constantly.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Most of the Nephews crime gang consists of teenage boys. The password to their lair is 80085.
- Implausible Deniability: When confronted with the events at the auction, Milo's attitude is to deny everything, even in the face of clear video evidence.Val: Can I roll an insight check? Because this is just getting ridiculous. [rolls] Twelve.GM Eric: Even with a twelve, Milo is standing in front of you, and the guy in the video with the ghost hand coming out of his chest… It's clearly Milo.
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: In-Universe, both the players and their characters are comparatively chill to a lot of villains, often redeeming them when they can, but everyone hates Sour Anthony, who is nominally a hero and generally harmless (if obnoxious).
- Jumped at the Call: Despite being in deep denial about his powers for a while, Milo is excited to be on a superhero team and even offers his skills at eBay as a potential contribution.
- Muggle Sports, Super Athletes: Many of the children of historic Laketown are successful athletes, although it is subverted with some in that their powers have nothing to do with their sports (Aggie's brother Ryan has gills and is an Olympic swimmer, but also a snowboarder.)
- Power Incontinence: This is built into Milo's metagame (he has to roll his 'spirit surge' every time he uses his spectral powers and if he rolls a certain number, a spectral hand emerges from his chest and causes chaos) but also early on Brandon plays Milo and Milo's spirit powers as somewhat seperate entities, so half the time he casts a spell in early episodes, Milo goes into a panic because he didn't mean to do it.
- Rambunctious Italian: Val and most of their work colleagues are Italian-Americans and love to talk shit.
- Talking Animal: January, who is a talking snowshoe hare who acts as Dr Morrow's butler, and Tuna the ghost cat. Milo is freaked out by the former despite being the owner/roommate of the latter.Milo: (meeting January for the first time) You guys are being way too calm about this!Val: You have a talking ghost cat!Milo: Yeah, but he was a real-ass cat before he died!
