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Keru
Aug 2, 2004

'n suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us 'n the sky was full of what looked like 'uge bats, all swooping 'n screeching 'n divin' around the ute.
How the gently caress do you calm down after that?

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NowonSA
Jul 19, 2013

I am the sexiest poster in the world!

Keru posted:

How the gently caress do you calm down after that?

For some reason I had a feeling that tonight's episode was going to be extra good and probably the best of the new campaign, and boy did it not disappoint. I felt like Mercer really got to show off his DM chops by having so many contingencies in place for how their plan went down and a big fat surprise that had just the tiniest sliver of foreshadowing to it. He came up with a really wild situation for low level characters to find themselves in, and I love the constant tempting of "here's this shiny magic item or this money, but you're trying not to leave a trace so don't take it" and then that whammy of Crazy poo poo is going down in town so it's probably not gonna matter much and you could've taken alllll that shiny stuff .

The one knock I'd have against him is that he should have communicated the battle situation to the players better, it's good to know what your options are when a character is in a compromised position, what you can use your action for, etc., but hey he's only human and that's a trade-off I'd take every day for his general storytelling ability.

Definitely the first "can't miss" episode since the first couple that were just introducing the characters and are super helpful going forward because of that.

CuwiKhons
Sep 24, 2009

Seven idiots and a bear walk into a dragon's lair.

I appreciate that Matt Mercer decided there had been enough low level dicking around and just having a good time and it was time for the Drama to start. I also appreciate that he decided to do it in classic Matthew "Chroma Conclave" Mercer tradition - spending the last 30 minutes of the episode dropping a bomb on them.

Keru
Aug 2, 2004

'n suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us 'n the sky was full of what looked like 'uge bats, all swooping 'n screeching 'n divin' around the ute.
There's a lot to say for a properly done buildup, I don't even know where you can point to as a 'this is where it starts building' that isn't a couple of episodes back. Maybe that first underground meeting in the cellar at the inn?




I can not loving wait for next thursday.

Lucas Archer
Dec 1, 2007
Falling...
I'm sad I missed the first half of the episode. I've read about the hospital shenanigans and I can't wait until Monday to check it out and see it first hand.

The latter half of the episode though - holy poo poo. Everything from the initial break in, to the hilarious rug trap (which was a brilliant move by Matt, making them think they found another flying carpet), the stand off between Fjord, Nott and Caleb - and that's all just build up to the real climax of the night - the suicide bombing and the attack by the Cricks. And of course, in all true best CR episode fashion, it ends on a cliffhanger with an enemy rushing in to do battle with them. Even heavily wounded, I'm betting this guy will be a tough fight. Jester has already said she's out of spells.

While I enjoy the Caleb/Nott antics, I'm glad Fjord caught him this time and called him out on it. If I was a player I'd be a little irritated at his larceny streak, but as long as the other people at the group are okay with it, then more power to them. I think this will be an ongoing source of tension but I don't think it will result in Caleb/Nott leaving the party.

Edit: Unrelated to last nights episode, but I did want to mention that if anyone is new to the show and is working their way through C1, there are quite a few one-shots in there. None are required viewing for plot/characterization purposes, but I did want to say if you only watch one or two of them, watch Bunions and Flagons (Grog runs a D&D game for Vax, Vex, Percy and Scanlan - I haven't belly laughed so hard in a long time) and Marisha's Honey Heist.

Lucas Archer fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Mar 30, 2018

Gaz-L
Jan 28, 2009
I think we're forgetting the most important part: The return of Sam's surfer character for the D&D Beyond ad! The mention of FATAL was hysterical, and Tal's face during the whole ad was a picture.

NowonSA
Jul 19, 2013

I am the sexiest poster in the world!

Lucas Archer posted:

Even heavily wounded, I'm betting this guy will be a tough fight. Jester has already said she's out of spells.

(Grog runs a D&D game for Vax, Vex, Percy and Scanlan - I haven't belly laughed so hard in a long time)

I also think it's super interesting to see a bunch of level 3's against one guy who's probably level 10+ but is already wounded and probably doesn't have a ton of magical equipment to help them since that'd give the party too much good stuff if they do decide to just kill him and loot him, on top of whatever the magical grey aura mcguffin does. Due to the structure of the game the low level people win that fight, but it's at least going to be interesting when they're in various states of wounded and low on spells while the guy they're fighting has at least a few tricks left in the tank. I'm thinking they just subdue him and then try to talk with him later, which if he can't speak a language they understand is going to be interesting when Caleb is able to understand him but not communicate with him. I'm hoping for a fun Caleb/Nott teamup when the Crick speaks halfling somehow, and the negative charisma goblin has to try to convey the party's words to them.

So many fun moments from that Grog game, but one quick highlight to further incentivize people to check it out:

Vex has to jump over a small little trap, rolls a 20+
Grog: You just poo poo and fall right into, oh it's just a total mess.

GoneRampant
Aug 19, 2016

by FactsAreUseless
I will say for the Orion thing that, as has been said, a whole lot of bad poo poo just came down on him a ton of bricks at the same time, chief among which being his own mental health problems. I was a really big fan of Tiberius so it was a shame to see him go.

And just to say something since someone noted that Scanlan was an Eminem ripoff, Sam has bluntly admitted to this in interviews, there's nothing ambiguous about it.

I will back up what has been said about the most recent episode though, which was a complete trip. I haven't been as fond of the new gang as Vox Machina (Beau feels like Marisha low-key ripping off another character from the Avatar franchise only this time it's Korra and Caleb's kleptomania/hoarding of items is one of my personal D&D banes) but it really came together into a great episode. I've been skimming some of the newer episodes but I may go back and watch the city episodes in full now.

Either way, this is definitely going down as where the campaign finds its feet.

Lucas Archer
Dec 1, 2007
Falling...

GoneRampant posted:

I will back up what has been said about the most recent episode though, which was a complete trip. I haven't been as fond of the new gang as Vox Machina (Beau feels like Marisha low-key ripping off another character from the Avatar franchise only this time it's Korra and Caleb's kleptomania/hoarding of items is one of my personal D&D banes) but it really came together into a great episode. I've been skimming some of the newer episodes but I may go back and watch the city episodes in full now.

Either way, this is definitely going down as where the campaign finds its feet.
I recall an interview or panel with Marisha where she has said she wasn't actually thinking about Korra when making Beau. The color scheme similarity along with Marisha's well known love of A:TLA gave fans the impression Korra was the inspiration for the character.

As far as Caleb's kleptomania goes, I have to think that as actors these people are thinking about their characters in terms of not only D&D stuff, but in terms of a storyline/characterization/character growth. I doubt Liam is planning on Caleb continuing to pilfer magic items through the whole campaign - it seems to me this is just an opportunity for character growth for Caleb. Conflict is required to bring about that change. I'm betting this will be resolved in character.

All speculation of course. Like I've said, as long as all the players are okay with it, then I'm fine with it and I'll go along for the ride.

Lucas Archer fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Apr 3, 2018

Gaz-L
Jan 28, 2009
I think the only time interparty stealing backfired in a way that the player in question wasn't happy with was Laura stealing Chris Hardwick's magic broom.

CuwiKhons
Sep 24, 2009

Seven idiots and a bear walk into a dragon's lair.

Liam also said Caleb was never intending to keep either the gold or the armor - he just wanted to hand them over in private for roleplay moments (and bargain for the glove from Fjord). It's just that he really is a very shifty person and Molly (and the actual cast) rightfully had every reason to think he was just stealing from the group.

Teddybear
May 16, 2009

Look! A teddybear doll!
It's soooo cute!


I'm caught up on Campaign 2 after first getting into this off of this thread, and hot drat am I ready to watch live Thursday.

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!
The denouement to Thursdays episode was insanely cool and all, but it really highlighted the one big failing that Matt has a GM, insofar as CR is concerned obviously, IMO. Namely that whenever something like that is happening, he actively doesn't let anyone do anything. In this case I'm thinking more about the stuff in the High Richter's mansion; he just had this minor character setpiece ready and once it started, it might has well have been an actual non-interactive cutscene for all the difference it wouldn't have made. Laura was the only one who even trued to do something when Dayana was talking, sure, but even then his response was "you didn't have it readied beforehand, so you don't have time" and just... kept going with the predetermined script. When Laura DID get to do something afterwards, it failed but even if it succeeded it wouldn't have mattered or changed anything at that point anyway.

Part of it is necessary because its a show that needs to stick to rigid time constraints and all, but they pretend its just pure actual play regardless and it works more often than not. I dunno, it might just be me, but those moments were the illusion shatters stand out even more because in every other situation his response is always that they can try to do something. :shrug:

NowonSA posted:

So many fun moments from that Grog game, but one quick highlight to further incentivize people to check it out:

Vex has to jump over a small little trap, rolls a 20+
Grog: You just poo poo and fall right into, oh it's just a total mess.

I am a Unicorn. There can only be one.

Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Apr 4, 2018

CuwiKhons
Sep 24, 2009

Seven idiots and a bear walk into a dragon's lair.

I mean speaking as a DM, sometimes that happens because players let it play out like a cutscene until it's too late. They should have intervened 5 minutes ago but they were too busy just watching it happen. Laura could easily have said at any point in the High Rictor's little speech that she was getting ready to cast a spell. I think it's as much on the players as it is on Matt.

If you don't watch Talks Machina, the after show, Matt was on it this week and mentioned that the group had many chances to notice something was up with Ulag (the dude who kamikazed) and that there were things they should have been suspicious about (like the fact that he was giving them his entire life's savings) but they either didn't roll well, didn't ask, or just didn't seem to care. He also mentioned at some point that Beau and Molly were total gently caress ups as lookouts because they kept rolling so low that they never saw the High Rictor coming home and thus couldn't warn the party to get out of there and avoid the confrontation entirely.

Lid
Feb 18, 2005

And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning,
And in a way I'm yearning,
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.
I appreciate this thread for existing as its a place I can find where it isn't a bunch of nongs yelling about how they hate Marisha and want her to die (or vicariously claim her character is the worst in every campaign). It's bloody infuriating and also really bloody obnoxious when they try to explain it in ways when what they really want to say "i don't like her as a person".

Sion
Oct 16, 2004

"I'm the boss of space. That's plenty."

Dragonatrix posted:

I am a Unicorn. There can only be one.

Nothing will ever beat the death of the mechanical pencil for Travis just... just getting so close to ruining someone.

Gaz-L
Jan 28, 2009

Lid posted:

I appreciate this thread for existing as its a place I can find where it isn't a bunch of nongs yelling about how they hate Marisha and want her to die (or vicariously claim her character is the worst in every campaign). It's bloody infuriating and also really bloody obnoxious when they try to explain it in ways when what they really want to say "i don't like her as a person".

I mean, Marisha does sometimes latch onto red herrings and refuses to let go even when the rest of the group is basically begging her to, but every player has quirks and flaws.

CuwiKhons posted:

I mean speaking as a DM, sometimes that happens because players let it play out like a cutscene until it's too late. They should have intervened 5 minutes ago but they were too busy just watching it happen. Laura could easily have said at any point in the High Rictor's little speech that she was getting ready to cast a spell. I think it's as much on the players as it is on Matt.

If you don't watch Talks Machina, the after show, Matt was on it this week and mentioned that the group had many chances to notice something was up with Ulag (the dude who kamikazed) and that there were things they should have been suspicious about (like the fact that he was giving them his entire life's savings) but they either didn't roll well, didn't ask, or just didn't seem to care. He also mentioned at some point that Beau and Molly were total gently caress ups as lookouts because they kept rolling so low that they never saw the High Rictor coming home and thus couldn't warn the party to get out of there and avoid the confrontation entirely.

There's also the fact that Matt's way of dealing with the players not necessarily grabbing plot hooks is to have things ticking away in the background and 'going off' if the party doesn't do anything to influence it. In this case, the bombing of the Zauberspire was basically something the Nein had literally no way of knowing about given their current interests and connections, so all they WOULD be able to do is basically stand and watch. It's definitely a fine line to tread as a GM, between making sure you have setpieces that raise the stakes for the players and hopefully pull them into the story, while allowing them room to influence and change things.

CuwiKhons
Sep 24, 2009

Seven idiots and a bear walk into a dragon's lair.

Gaz-L posted:

I mean, Marisha does sometimes latch onto red herrings and refuses to let go even when the rest of the group is basically begging her to, but every player has quirks and flaws.

They all do that from time to time though. Remember the entire party getting really intently focused on what the ship mast in Vorugal's lair was about? And then Matt was like "it's just a cool thing he had from a ship he destroyed. It wasn't important." Or them focusing on researching the victim of the devil toad's attack in the first few episodes of this campaign when the victim was entirely random. Marisha gets called out for it more, but all the players have a habit of thinking things are much more important than they are.

Bobbin Threadbare
Jan 2, 2009

I'm looking for a flock of urbanmechs.

CuwiKhons posted:

They all do that from time to time though. Remember the entire party getting really intently focused on what the ship mast in Vorugal's lair was about? And then Matt was like "it's just a cool thing he had from a ship he destroyed. It wasn't important." Or them focusing on researching the victim of the devil toad's attack in the first few episodes of this campaign when the victim was entirely random. Marisha gets called out for it more, but all the players have a habit of thinking things are much more important than they are.

That's just how players work. You set up all the plot hooks you can and then they latch on to the wrong thing and it takes all your patience to keep answering their pointless questions.

victorious
Jul 2, 2007

As a youth I prayed, "Give me chastity and continence, but not yet."

CuwiKhons posted:

Or them focusing on researching the victim of the devil toad's attack in the first few episodes of this campaign when the victim was entirely random.

Haha there was this ridiculous phase where I think everyone except the players had figured out that they should be going after the toad and I was almost yelling at the screen "It's the toad! Go get the toad! gently caress!"

Blockhouse
Sep 7, 2014

You Win!
And sometimes you just try not to smile as they ask all the wrong questions and then just blunder into the trap you set up to begin with, because occasionally that's just real funny.

Anyway hi I just started listening to this while I play FFXIV and I skipped ahead to the Briarwood stuff since that was my reccomended entry point. I'm listening to the podcast version and not the video archives so I'm probably missing a lot of the Orion hostility stuff but even then there's things like the old lady chainsawing intervention that just comes off very we-are-talking-to-you-the-player-not-the-character to where it's hard to miss some weird energy going on in that room.

CuwiKhons
Sep 24, 2009

Seven idiots and a bear walk into a dragon's lair.

Bobbin Threadbare posted:

That's just how players work. You set up all the plot hooks you can and then they latch on to the wrong thing and it takes all your patience to keep answering their pointless questions.

Oh I know. I ran Out of the Abyss and in one city, Gracklestugh, there's an adult red dragon "employed" (it's complicated) by the city to light their forges with hotter than normal fires. He's a minor part of a sidequest and is simply not that important in the overall story. My players were obsessed with him. And not even in an "I want to kill a dragon" way. They wanted to free him from the city. Nevermind that they were in the Underdark and there was nowhere for him to go, they were intent on this idea that they could free him from his "slavery" and they could find a way to do that without him destroying half of the city in the process. I don't even remember how I finally got them to loving leave it alone. They spent days on that poo poo.

Gaz-L
Jan 28, 2009

CuwiKhons posted:

Oh I know. I ran Out of the Abyss and in one city, Gracklestugh, there's an adult red dragon "employed" (it's complicated) by the city to light their forges with hotter than normal fires. He's a minor part of a sidequest and is simply not that important in the overall story. My players were obsessed with him. And not even in an "I want to kill a dragon" way. They wanted to free him from the city. Nevermind that they were in the Underdark and there was nowhere for him to go, they were intent on this idea that they could free him from his "slavery" and they could find a way to do that without him destroying half of the city in the process. I don't even remember how I finally got them to loving leave it alone. They spent days on that poo poo.

Sometimes that stuff can lead to interesting if inessential story and character beats though. One of my favourite sessions was actually running the 5e starter adventure for my friend and a bunch of his pals from university and they got fixated on getting an accurate headcount on the bandits hold up in an abandoned mansion. I a) had not counted how many dudes were in all the encounters and b) wanted some leeway in case they got in over their heads and needed to trim back some of them, but I let them try. They went into the rough tavern, the bard trying to pass herself off as a 'lady of the evening' hoping to pump a drunk bandit for info. A low pair of Insight and Investigation checks and she spends half the night buttering up a drunk miner who doesn't know poo poo while the rest of the group is howling with laughter as she digs herself deeper (the rolls weren't SO low that you'd assume you failed, I'd just set a fairly high DC to represent the difficulty of picking out the right kind of person to ask AND recognise if they seemed to know what you were talking about)

GoneRampant
Aug 19, 2016

by FactsAreUseless

Gaz-L posted:

I mean, Marisha does sometimes latch onto red herrings and refuses to let go even when the rest of the group is basically begging her to, but every player has quirks and flaws.

Except Travis and Sam, who I am convinced can do no wrong between them. I'm always bemused when I hear that Travis is really surprised how much the fandom likes him and how many appreciation threads he gets. He seems like such a chill guy, probably the most "can see myself meeting up with him after work and having a drink" of the cast.

Nehru the Damaja
May 20, 2005

The one thing I didn't like about where this went is that the players put in so much time and effort into bumbling through infiltrating the place and the Crick attack feels like it just sort of obviated the whole thing. I get sometimes that happens in real life, but I feel like when I have big events happen as a GM, I try to have it not absolutely erase what the players have done. And I guess there's still room for it but my initial takeaway was that all this elaborate planning became effectively filler because of something Mercer had planned in advance.

In It For The Tank
Feb 17, 2011

But I've yet to figure out a better way to spend my time.

GoneRampant posted:

Except Travis and Sam, who I am convinced can do no wrong between them.

*Warning, this post started out as a response to this and ended up becoming a cast evaluation*

Yeah, Sam and Travis are by far the most entertaining members of the cast. I won't hear a bad word said against either of them. They have such a instinctive grasp of their characters that their RP seems so natural.

Laura is a close runner up, and you can see how playing Jester rather than Vex has freed her from a lot of the baggage from that character (namely, her relationships with Trinket and Vax) that was holding her back.

Next would be Liam and Taliesin. Liam always plays a "that guy" (Vax was an angsty edgelord and Caleb is an antisocial and selfish lone wolf*), which I feel limits him in a way that is unfortunate because I love Liam. And don't get me wrong, Caleb is a gigantic improvement over the brooding and histrionic Vax but Caleb is still a bit of a gloomy prick who, in any other group, would be a nightmare to play with.

Meanwhile, Taliesin is really hit and miss. Percy during the Briarwood arc was probably the best RP from anyone in the entire cast across both campaigns (so far) and he was my favorite character for a brief time. After that, Percy developed an ego, which I thought was a very believable direction go in considering he beat his demons, reclaimed his heritage, and became a lord.

Unfortunately, there was no further growth, even after that ego got him killed. From then until the end of the campaign he was just this irritatingly smug know-it-all who pretended he was always in control (despite all evidence to the contrary) with only a few moments where we got a flash of the old Percy. His relationship with Vex was nice, at least: much better than Vax and Keyleth. And, to be fair, I like Molly. There's still an element of know-it-all-ness to him but I'm hoping that it won't become his most dominant character trait like with Percy.

And then there's Marisha. Now I know some people take their personal hatred of her way too far... but that doesn't invalidate the valid criticisms of Keyleth.

Keyleth was an awful character because she was so inconsistent. Marisha wanted her to be both the burgeoning leader going through a journey of self-discovery and emotional growth and the happy go lucky carefree flower child, but there was no real coherency between the two sides of the character. She was just "awkward": where "awkward" could mean anything from being abrasive and self-righteous to being borderline autistic. Marisha also has the tendency to step on other people's toes during roleplay so Keyleth would frequently make herself a part of something and end up derailing it (the defining example of this is in the episode after Umbrasyl when Percy said he was going to go talk to Vex, and this was in the days before they were a couple so their scenes together were still a rarity, and Keyleth pulls him aside to have an emotional breakdown for like the second time in the episode, which ends up distracting Percy for long enough for Matt to move the episode along so he never actually talks to Vex).

Unfortunately, Beau seems like more of the same. She's a bit better, but that's probably because she's interacting with Fjord/Travis more (rather than Percy/Taliesin and Vax/Liam). She also tries too hard to be cool, which is a really unlikable character trait, but I'm my crossing my fingers that she will improve.

Ashley is a weird case in that as far as RP goes she's fairly unremarkable (but I acknowledge she plays the least and her frequent absences must make it difficult to maintain a grasp on her characters), but as an improviser she's ridiculously good. Basically any scene in campaign 1 where she and Sam got to riff off each other (e.g. Doty's unsubtle sketching of the rest of Vox Machina and the subsequent commentary between Tary and Pike) was comedy gold.

The take away from this post is that Campaign 2 is great so far, guys.

*also Caleb is totes a werewolf. Or a were-something.

In It For The Tank fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Apr 5, 2018

GoneRampant
Aug 19, 2016

by FactsAreUseless

In It For The Tank posted:

And then there's Marisha. Now I know some people take their personal hatred of her way too far... but that doesn't invalidate the valid criticisms of Keyleth.

Keyleth was an awful character because she was so inconsistent. Marisha wanted her to be both the burgeoning leader going through a journey of self-discovery and emotional growth and the happy go lucky carefree flower child, but there was no real coherency between the two sides of the character. She was just "awkward": where "awkward" could mean anything from being abrasive and self-righteous to being borderline autistic. Marisha also has the tendency to step on other people's toes during roleplay so Keyleth would frequently make herself a part of something and end up derailing it (the defining example of this is in the episode after Umbrasyl when Percy said he was going to go talk to Vex, and this was in the days before they were a couple so their scenes together were still a rarity, and Keyleth pulls him aside to have an emotional breakdown for like the second time in the episode, which ends up distracting Percy for long enough for Matt to move the episode along so he never actually talks to Vex).

Unfortunately, Beau seems like more of the same. She's a bit better, but that's probably because she's interacting with Fjord/Travis more (rather than Percy/Taliesin and Vax/Liam). She also tries too hard to be cool, which is a really unlikable character trait, but I'm my crossing my fingers that she will improve.

I just wanna thank you because I've been trying to find the right words to phrase my dislike of Keyleth for about two years now and here you come with wisdom and glory. Can't agree more on Keyleth being a bad character.

Nehru the Damaja
May 20, 2005

I like Beau a lot, but I think I'm reading the same thing as character flaws where you're reading them as flaws in the portrayal of that character. I'm not saying anyone's right or wrong on that, but I will say it's a lot more fun to look at Beau as being a cipher wrapped up in this performative badass facade.

Malpais Legate
Oct 1, 2014

Lol here I was excited to think I found a place to talk about CR that didn't devolve immediately into "Keyleth sucks!" and long-form indictment of Marisha Ray's crimes against Dungeons & Dragons.

Anyway I like Critical Role a lot and I am very excited to see where this goes. Laura's new, terrible accent is the best. Nott is the worst in the best way.

Adnor
Jan 11, 2013

Justice for Daisy

I'm so ready for when they'll need to contact the underworld and their character with Thieves Cant' has -3 for her charisma rolls.

wereboat
Jun 23, 2011
The way Sam consistently makes negative charisma rolls has got to be cathartic for Mercer after last campaign.

Firstborn
Oct 14, 2012

i'm the heckin best
yeah
yeah
yeah
frig all the rest
Beau reminds me of Meg from Disney's Hercules. She's cooler in her fan art than she is when Marisha plays her. When Matt occasionally interjects little actions that she does, he is playing a Monk and describing cool Monk stuff better than her. I don't know.

I like Caleb, but sometimes when he takes it upon himself to say "and an hour passes and this and that happens", it makes me think Liam is trying to backseat DM. See also when he just says "that doesn't hit" rather than share what he rolled. Caleb as a character is fantastic. It was lame whenever he is trying to have a moment that isn't HIGH ADVENTURE and everyone else overshadows and talks over him. Example would be when Caleb buys those spell books, and is almost in tears, then like 3 other people jump in and the scene shifts or whatever.
E: Also as a DM, I hate the retroactive " i would've prepared this and this"

Molly is also the type of player who blurts out objections, and it's tiresome. Stuff like, "there's still people out in the street at 3 am?!" when Matt just like auto-piloted a "you walk by some dudes" scene setting blurb. Molly is another situation where the fanart is cooler than him. I think it's hilarious how bad he rolls, because his coolguy demon hunter will do stuff like miss a prone target with a melee attack 3 times. Also the fanart makes him look like Howie Mandel from Little Monsters.

Travis I like, but he swears a lot, and it seems out of character. Fjord's southern accent is real bad and out of place. His half-orcness hasn't been touched upon at all. Pretty much the coolest part about Fjord is his pact, and whenever that's explored more. Fjord's "real" voice sounds okay.

Best are clearly Jester and Nott, but they are tempered by the other group members in order to be funny and entertaining as well.

I love Khary Payton, but his guest role was awful. You can have fun and be goofy in character without taking the piss. It's weird to me that his character was (of course the blind trope) smooth as hell, but his spiritual weapon was eyerolling. I did like him getting visibly frustrated that he was invited on this show, and Nott kept trying to rob him. He finally like furrows his brow like, "do I see any of this happening?!"

Firstborn fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Apr 5, 2018

Gaz-L
Jan 28, 2009
You know that Travis is actually Texan, right? He's ramping up the accent, certainly, but it's basically the difference between Liam's original Caleb voice and the Dr Stranglove level accent he's ramped up to in order to match the others.

My favourite Ashley improv moment which veered from hilarious to heartbreaking in like 5 minutes was when she riffed on Vex making a joke about the others talking about how great she is and then when Ash and Travis' turn to RP comes up, she just rolls in with drunken sobbing about how pretty and smart Vex is, which then bled seamlessly into her little story about trying to talk Scanlan through their Message earrings even though he was gone (Sam's face during that part is also amazing, she's sticking the knife in and he's feeling every inch of it.)

CuwiKhons
Sep 24, 2009

Seven idiots and a bear walk into a dragon's lair.

All of this conversation is very interesting to me because I hate Nott and Sam's playing as her (Compared to Scanlan and Taryon, both of whom I loved). She's facilitating inter-party theft, which Laura got so much poo poo for last game despite doing it only once and not knowing any better, the alcoholic thing when going into dangerous situations is going to get someone killed and I hope it's just her, and honestly I don't like Caleb enough to care about her relationship with Caleb. I can see what Sam was going for with the character but I just cannot stand her.

Everyone besides Nott and Caleb I'm fine on right now. Caleb I think is just dull and Vax 2.0 but now with an intellectual twist, but we'll see there. Vax was my least favorite character in Campaign 1, hands down.

In It For The Tank posted:

Meanwhile, Taliesin is really hit and miss. Percy during the Briarwood arc was probably the best RP from anyone in the entire cast across both campaigns (so far) and he was my favorite character for a brief time. After that, Percy developed an ego, which I thought was a very believable direction go in considering he beat his demons, reclaimed his heritage, and became a lord.

Unfortunately, there was no further growth, even after that ego got him killed. From then until the end of the campaign he was just this irritatingly smug know-it-all who pretended he was always in control (despite all evidence to the contrary) with only a few moments where we got a flash of the old Percy. His relationship with Vex was nice, at least: much better than Vax and Keyleth. And, to be fair, I like Molly. There's still an element of know-it-all-ness to him but I'm hoping that it won't become his most dominant character trait like with Percy.

Taliesin talked about how post-Ripley, he was very prepared to just let Percy die because he agreed with you - he didn't think there was anywhere else for his character to go. But the party wanted him back and the ritual succeeded and he went with it. I think his relationship with Vex was worth it because they had some incredible moments, but I definitely agree that he stopped growing as a person until the very end. As for Molly, I kind of like him being a very mild know-it-all because his intelligence score is actually pretty low and he's dumb as poo poo. Percy could back it up, but I like a character who thinks he's hot poo poo and is actually a moron.

quote:

And then there's Marisha. Now I know some people take their personal hatred of her way too far... but that doesn't invalidate the valid criticisms of Keyleth.

Keyleth was an awful character because she was so inconsistent. Marisha wanted her to be both the burgeoning leader going through a journey of self-discovery and emotional growth and the happy go lucky carefree flower child, but there was no real coherency between the two sides of the character. She was just "awkward": where "awkward" could mean anything from being abrasive and self-righteous to being borderline autistic. Marisha also has the tendency to step on other people's toes during roleplay so Keyleth would frequently make herself a part of something and end up derailing it (the defining example of this is in the episode after Umbrasyl when Percy said he was going to go talk to Vex, and this was in the days before they were a couple so their scenes together were still a rarity, and Keyleth pulls him aside to have an emotional breakdown for like the second time in the episode, which ends up distracting Percy for long enough for Matt to move the episode along so he never actually talks to Vex).

Unfortunately, Beau seems like more of the same. She's a bit better, but that's probably because she's interacting with Fjord/Travis more (rather than Percy/Taliesin and Vax/Liam). She also tries too hard to be cool, which is a really unlikable character trait, but I'm my crossing my fingers that she will improve.

I liked Beau but I loved Keyleth and I always get a little offended at people criticizing Keyleth so forgive me for this.

Keyleth was very awkward and definitely a burgeoning leader who didn't want to be one, but I don't think she was ever a happy-go-lucky person. Keyleth occasionally tried to put on a mask of being happy in order to cover up her anxiety, but I can't think of any real moments where she seemed legitimately happy and carefree. She was always painfully aware that her civilization was looking to her, a what, 22 year old? To become their all-powerful immortal leader. That's some stressful poo poo even when you want to be that and Keyleth very much did not. Unfortunately, I think Keyleth had a lot of internal stuff going on that she was too awkward to verbalize and it would have given her some better RP moments or made her more likable if she'd just talked about them to someone. Like Marisha mentioned on TM once that Keyleth hoped her mother was dead - which was a terrible thing to hope for and Keyleth knew it so she never said it out loud - because if she wasn't dead then it meant her mother had been alive all this time and had just never come home for her family. I kind of wish her mom had been alive just because my god that would have been a brutal confrontation

I also didn't like her relationship with Vax because I don't think Keyleth needed to have to deal with his poo poo on top of all the other poo poo she was trying to deal with, but I'll admit they had a couple cute moments in the last arc.

ANYWAY - everyone has different opinions on different characters and I hope this thread is a place where we can discuss those without it devolving into character/actor bashing but everyone's doing really well so far so this is just me hoping this thread doesn't turn into the loving CR subreddit, which is a trash pit.

CuwiKhons fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Apr 5, 2018

Blockhouse
Sep 7, 2014

You Win!
Jesus christ the entire Sun Tree corpses scene Mercer's a monster

Zeratanis
Jun 16, 2009

That's kind of a weird thought isn't it?

CuwiKhons posted:

ANYWAY - everyone has different opinions on different characters and I hope this thread is a place where we can discuss those without it devolving into character/actor bashing but everyone's doing really well so far so this is just me hoping this thread doesn't turn into the loving CR subreddit, which is a trash pit.

Except Orion, gently caress Orion. Especially with the recent crap involved with him. :v:

CuwiKhons
Sep 24, 2009

Seven idiots and a bear walk into a dragon's lair.

Oh yeah, gently caress Orion for sure. What a piece of poo poo.

Teddybear
May 16, 2009

Look! A teddybear doll!
It's soooo cute!


What's the deal with Scanlan leaving in campaign one? I never watched any of it, but what were the circumstances of him bailing for a while?

Noxin of Shame
Jul 25, 2005

:allears: Our Dan :allears:
When Percy first meets Viktor, and Matt describes the room being covered in blackpowder, and Orion drops in a quick joke as Tiberius with "I walk in, 'fireball'" still makes me laugh.

I guess if you're a dick, it's easy to play an irritating self-important douche very well.

Teddybear posted:

What's the deal with Scanlan leaving in campaign one? I never watched any of it, but what were the circumstances of him bailing for a while?

Ooooo, the whole set up around this is really good. Like, heartbreaking good. If anyone can give a synopsis and do it justice, well they're better than me. I recommend you just watch it.

Noxin of Shame fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Apr 5, 2018

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Teddybear
May 16, 2009

Look! A teddybear doll!
It's soooo cute!


Noxin of Shame posted:

When Percy first meets Viktor, and Matt describes the room being covered in blackpowder, and Orion drops in a quick joke as Tiberius with "I walk in, 'fireball'" still makes me laugh.

I guess if you're a dick, it's easy to play an irritating self-important douche very well.


Ooooo, the whole set up around this is really good. Like, heartbreaking good. If anyone can give a synopsis and do it justice, well they're better than me. I recommend you just watch it.

... woof, that's like 400 hours, though. I'm not saying I WON'T, but... it's not very likely.

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