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Psychepath
Apr 30, 2003
I've been relistening to the show and finally got back to the pinnacle of D&D, when a character unknowingly restarted a doomsday plot, until a lawful good cleric decided to poo poo on a corpse to change their alignment at the last second.

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LentThem
Aug 31, 2004

90% Retractible
okay wow Ive been listening to that Story Club podcast as well and a couple of observations from that:

-Ben is really good at taking a 2-minute story and turning it into a 15-minute epic tale

-Dave being a SomethingAwful goon is not at all a surprise. Jordan also, really.

SpacePig
Apr 4, 2007

I'M FEELING JIMMY

Fishes_Swim posted:

I enjoyed trying to identify which of them was the drunkest, as Hing suggested in the introduction. I originally thought it was Alex, but by the end I think it had to be Dave.

I haven't been able to listen to this episode yet, but it's shocking to me that somebody might be drunker than Alex.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


I got to the Montaigne song episode and about the last thing I was expecting from this d&d cum joke podcast was a genuinely good and beautiful song

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!

LentThem posted:

okay wow Ive been listening to that Story Club podcast as well and a couple of observations from that:

-Ben is really good at taking a 2-minute story and turning it into a 15-minute epic tale

In a semi-recent FTAGH, Ben was talking about getting into stand-up, and frankly the 50 oyster story is a killer of a closer joke.

Psychepath
Apr 30, 2003
Did they ever talk in tomb of annihilation Q&A or on twitter about Edan Lacey joining the podcast full time? Baston has all the trappings of a throwaway character for the time when Ben was away early season 2, but Edan has such a heart-grew-3-sizes presence. Yet he's still not quite a player character since he does NPCs as well. It's an interesting dynamic.

Roach Warehouse
Nov 1, 2010


Psychepath posted:

Did they ever talk in tomb of annihilation Q&A or on twitter about Edan Lacey joining the podcast full time? Baston has all the trappings of a throwaway character for the time when Ben was away early season 2, but Edan has such a heart-grew-3-sizes presence. Yet he's still not quite a player character since he does NPCs as well. It's an interesting dynamic.

In one of the Q&A’s they told an anecdote about how Baston/Edan ended up just sticking around, and when their pin designs included Baston, he declared something like “now you can’t get rid of me!”

LentThem
Aug 31, 2004

90% Retractible

inthesto posted:

In a semi-recent FTAGH, Ben was talking about getting into stand-up, and frankly the 50 oyster story is a killer of a closer joke.

I'm only up to episode 26 in that podcast but man there are already some amazing bits of backstory for these guys.

Hing: "When I was a child, one time my mother punished me by locking me in a chicken coop for 3 hours. Since then I've never been scared of birds...except maybe American Eagles."

Not Operator
Jan 1, 2009

Not A doctor, THE Doctor!
Hey for the guy going through FTAGH, can you tell us what episode the book club story is in, if you get to it?

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Dave and Shakeera were on Dragon Talk yesterday, it starts at about 12 minutes in.

I think my favorite part of the conversation is when they bring up Neptune's Pride and reveal what a total bastard Hing was.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Episode 2 and I already love Philge.

Pocky In My Pocket
Jan 27, 2005

Giant robots shouldn't fight!






I relatively recently started listening and have been enjoying it. I know everyone loves the 'taller than a man' section. But my fave joke so far is 'no-one goes there, its too spooky'

SpacePig
Apr 4, 2007

I'M FEELING JIMMY

Pollyanna posted:

Episode 2 and I already love Philge.

If you liked early TAZ, you're going to really like Dragon Friends, and Philge is absolutely the best character in this whole thing. She knows exactly how to make the decisions with the best wrongness to funniness ratio, and they occasionally work.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Yeah, freezo is the obvious group pariah, but when you start to pay attention, you notice that Philge is a master class of doing the most creatively unhelpful thing possible with her turn.

There’s a moment in season 4 where the dm is playing philge because Alex isn’t there, and he attacks with her maul, and I genuinely had forgotten until that moment that philge actually has a weapon

sexpig by night
Sep 8, 2011

by Azathoth
Yea Freezo is the master of roleplay loving things up when he wants to treat anyone who even mildly creates any obstacle of them as if they're the biggest threat to the party in the game. Alex manages to do it all in combat and such when she looks at what's going on and picks the most useless option that's also funny, like when she fuckin lynches a lion.

SpacePig
Apr 4, 2007

I'M FEELING JIMMY
I honestly don't think Alex knows she has a weapon either. She forgets she has rage, she constantly improvises weapons for no real reason, and is somehow the best iteration of "wacky, unhelpful D&D character" basically by merit of Alex doing things that she thinks Philge actually thinks will be helpful. She has a really good idea of exactly what Philge is in this story, and isn't just doing random poo poo for the sake of randomness.

eke out
Feb 24, 2013



SpacePig posted:

I honestly don't think Alex knows she has a weapon either. She forgets she has rage, she constantly improvises weapons for no real reason, and is somehow the best iteration of "wacky, unhelpful D&D character" basically by merit of Alex doing things that she thinks Philge actually thinks will be helpful. She has a really good idea of exactly what Philge is in this story, and isn't just doing random poo poo for the sake of randomness.

it's not the most original joke but i still love the running theme that philge's combination of being both very dumb and incredibly confident in all things makes her a natural leader that regularly stumbles into positions of authority

Inkspot
Dec 3, 2013

I believe I have
an appointment.
Mr. Goongala?
Doesn’t she have 8 INT and 16 WIS or something? Philge is a result of total player immersion.

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
I believe it's 8 INT and 12 WIS. It's not like either of those stats are that far from average, but it's a comedy improv show so exaggerating everything is the name of the game. At the same time, there's no in-game reflection of Freezo's 19 CHA.

I think Alex's mastery of quickness in being in character with the lines "That's so weird, the vampire named Strahd too!" and "Me name not Madame!"

SpacePig
Apr 4, 2007

I'M FEELING JIMMY
Freezo only has 19 CHA so that Hing can say whatever he wants and be more likely to get away with it. He gets punished constantly for lying to people, so he made it easier to lie, even if his lies aren't any better. Dave has also responded by making it harder for him to lie, though, so it all balances out.

LentThem
Aug 31, 2004

90% Retractible
The more i listen to Free to a Good Home, the more it feels like every Australian comedy writer/presenter/standup/improv aged 25-35 were classmates at university or shared an apartment together

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Every American comedian you've ever heard of went to Emerson College, so it's not that crazy.

Also, I could listen to Put It All On Red a dozen times in a row and not get tired of it. Everyone is really at their peak in that one.

Pastrymancy
Feb 20, 2011

11:13: Despite Gio Gonzalez warning, "Never mix your sparkling juices," Bryce Harper opens another bottle of sparkling grape and mixes it with sparkling cider.

1:07: Harper walks to the 7-11 and orders an all-syrup Slurpee.

1:10-3:05: Harper has no recollection of this time. Aliens?
I'm mid S3 and It feels less interesting in Freezo never having any consequences for random murdering and poo poo. It gets kind of boring after a while, even if it's hilarious that he riles Dave up when he gets lucky on certain rolls

Hughlander
May 11, 2005

Pastrymancy posted:

I'm mid S3 and It feels less interesting in Freezo never having any consequences for random murdering and poo poo. It gets kind of boring after a while, even if it's hilarious that he riles Dave up when he gets lucky on certain rolls

If it helps I think that's the nadir of the show and the payoff in s3 is worth it.

SpacePig
Apr 4, 2007

I'M FEELING JIMMY
Yeah, stick with it. Freezo being a huge piece of poo poo completely pays off at the end of season 3.

I'm working my way through Tomb of Annihilation right now, and they've just managed to destroy 2 entire functioning societies in 2 sessions. It's very good.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


SpacePig posted:

Yeah, stick with it. Freezo being a huge piece of poo poo completely pays off at the end of season 3.


Yup, it's quite a thing. Don't stop.

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!

SpacePig posted:

I'm working my way through Tomb of Annihilation right now, and they've just managed to destroy 2 entire functioning societies in 2 sessions. It's very good.

"The adventure was over! All we had to do was leave!"

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you

inthesto posted:

"The adventure was over! All we had to do was leave!"

Despite the fact he said he was not going to hold their hands and take it easy on them. He ended up doing so. In the actual tomb you can't leave cause the doors seal themselves a hour after the party enters.

Also he went easy on them in the final battle, using a baby as the final boss rather then the actual Atropal. Probably because they were they were too awful at the game to actually beat the real thing. Also the fact that he let Freezo out of the jail rather then having an Otyugh eat him, or him just starve to death in there unable to figure out the puzzle.

Bogan Krkic
Oct 31, 2010

Swedish style? No.
Yugoslavian style? Of course not.
It has to be Zlatan-style.

Has anyone played a game of D&D using Baston's Handsome Man martial archetype? I'm thinking of giving it a burl but I don't know anywhere near enough about D&D to know if its horrifically unbalanced or something like that

cave emperor
Sep 1, 2016

The Dave imitations are great.

IT HAS BEEN

Roach Warehouse
Nov 1, 2010


I foolishly assumed Dave would be bullied less when he was absent.

sexpig by night
Sep 8, 2011

by Azathoth

Roach Warehouse posted:

I foolishly assumed Dave would be bullied less when he was absent.

you fool, him being gone just means he can't even fight back!

Pastrymancy
Feb 20, 2011

11:13: Despite Gio Gonzalez warning, "Never mix your sparkling juices," Bryce Harper opens another bottle of sparkling grape and mixes it with sparkling cider.

1:07: Harper walks to the 7-11 and orders an all-syrup Slurpee.

1:10-3:05: Harper has no recollection of this time. Aliens?
My favorite Dave thing is him yelling a series of rapid fire rhetorical questions at the end of the show

SpacePig
Apr 4, 2007

I'M FEELING JIMMY

Pastrymancy posted:

My favorite Dave thing is him yelling a series of rapid fire rhetorical questions at the end of the show

Rhetorical questions amounting to "Will they stop murdering people for maybe a few minutes and let me progress the story?"

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
As much as Ben and Edan mocked his speaking style, Dave is still definitely the best narrating DM out of all the actual play podcasts I listen to

Psychepath
Apr 30, 2003

inthesto posted:

As much as Ben and Edan mocked his speaking style, Dave is still definitely the best narrating DM out of all the actual play podcasts I listen to

Dr. Dave Harmon, specialist in gastro/exposition, part of an incestuous caste of comedians, making a decent goof out of prompts like fuckdoctor and cake and cum, was a delight.

Whether the comedy show was the planned quest hook to get to the captain or it happened on the fly, Dave (and Ben) really are genius storytellers.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


He's also a really talented DM, in that he manages to keep this absolute drunk shitshow of an adventure clipping along at a reasonably solid pace, while still letting the comedians have room to play, and also resolving combat mechanics with a bunch of newbies and not dragging the show down at all (of course, it could just be that they edit that stuff out, and I wouldn't know, in which case the editor is really talented too!)

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Dave's greatest skill as a DM is knowing exactly when to take his hands off the wheel and let the players make unforced error after unforced error

Also, there's something magical about the fact that talent shows have come up three separate times in the show

inthesto fucked around with this message at 02:05 on May 19, 2018

SpacePig
Apr 4, 2007

I'M FEELING JIMMY

inthesto posted:

Dave's greatest skill as a DM is knowing exactly when to take his hands off the wheel and let the players make unforced error after unforced error

Also, there's something magical about the fact that talent shows have come up three separate times in the show

In the Q&A for ToA, Dave said they weren't even supposed to do the talent show because it wasn't part of the campaign. But they just did it anyway. Because that's just how this show works.

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inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
I actually skimmed the Tomb of Annihilation book briefly, just to get a sense of how much the Dragon Friends deviated from it.

The whole pirate double-crossing business that took up about three episodes in the first season of ToA? In the book, that's a side quest that's two sentences long.

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