In this installment of Critical Hit: A Major Spoilers Dungeons and Dragons Podcast: The party bickers over who should and should not speak to the council.
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24 Comments
This is gonna sound awful… without Trelle there, this episode would have been 10 minutes long.
I like her much much much more in combat.
Sorry.
exactly, she just drags out simply issues
Glad I was not the only one. I find myself not listening anymore.
Trelle really needs her own spinoff podcast where she can contradict herself and nullify her own rambling diatribes in peace.
I agree, though personally I blame everyone involved in the podcast, not just Trelle. She may be the character who constantly starts this stuff, but no one else (in character or out of character) makes much of an attempt to stop it. At least Rodrigo jumped in this time and got things back on track somewhat after several minutes of agony, which seemed to me to be an improvement.
A general word of advice to the podcast crew: you seriously need to get control of this situation. I’ve been listening ‘live’ since about episode 5, but over the several few months I’ve become so disinterested that I’ve fast-forwarded episodes and even skipped a few. The bottom line is that the story is not progressing anymore. Some episodes get things moving, but far too many are just a bunch of people standing around bickering and accomplishing nothing. I’ve seen the various responses posted in the comments sections previously about how these are natural roleplaying responses to situations. What these responses seem to miss is the fact that you’re making a podcast to entertain an audience. Regardless of whether it’s natural or not, it’s not fun to listen to and you’re losing your audience, even longtime fans like me. Sometimes, gameplay and entertainment needs to trump realism.
I’m so glad a lot of the issues happening with the party are being brought up and dealt with by the characters now. I’m looking forward to how they resolve how to speak to the council. Next episode is going to be great, I’m sure.
Ket going “I want to do everything shut up everyone this is the Ket show” and pretty much everyone else going “hey stop being a jerk” and Ket going “no, shut up shut up shut up”, for at least half an hour. So effing boring. Not sure how Trelle is getting the blame here.
My thoughts exactly
She gets the blame, in my opinion, because she argued to be able to talk to the council and then around thirty minutes later admits she didn’t want to talk that much. Talking is Ket’s thing. I’m pretty sure he could have dealt with it easy.
Why would she want to be the politician? Her cha is in the tank. Ket is the diplomat, let him diplomacize (sp?).
Because Rob actually spent a lot of skill points on diplomacy? Yes, you role play it out for fun, but in the end those who speak roll a d20 for aid another and either add +2 or give a -2 penalty (probably mostly the -2 if they talk) to Ket’s roll and Ket rolls d20 (or rerolls with his power) and Rodrigo determines success – if the party has a good approach that’s an easier DC – a bad on is a higher DC. BUT it still comes down to the dice – or Rodrigo should refund Ket’s diplomacy skill points and power and let him spend them elsewhere.
Techincally, everyone _can_ sing – most people will not be paid to do so.
A makeover episode!! I love those!! Also I’ll from now one Diplote everybody i know :)
I just want you all to know that I, for one, LOVED this episode!
Really stellar roleplay, and a masterful DM who just lets it all play out and makes sure the disagreements stays in character.
I want to say too that trelle is being short changed here by most of the comments. In this instance she was completely in the right.
On another note!
Loved the dressup! I want a Torq paperdoll with a little axe and falling boots!
I got the impression that no one could be bothered during this session. Nothing happened. Time to wrap up this Spud thing and push the story forward.
I think its was more Ket than Trelle. Trelles point: Do we need to tell them everything, that may just confuse them. Ket: Shut up Im the talker.
Conflict ensues.
I do think that the fracturing of the party needs to get dealt with, becasue it’s getting to where I don’t know how they manage to work together. And i think that’s on everyone, not just Trelle.
I STILL have no idea why the others give Ket as much crap as they do, when he hasnt done anything to deserve it.
You’re saying that Ket hasn’t done anything suspicious that might make people distrust him?
Nintendude points to Matthew like “that thing he just said”
Is it weird that it upsets me when the party argues?
Not at all. It also upsets the party when the party argues…
This episode had its share of good times, bad times.
While I really like Adriana and what she brings to the party, this episode it was just so annoying to a point where I almost wanted to skip the episode. I think Ket got straight to the point, he is the diplomat of the party, the whole benefit he gives to the party is that he is the “talker”, while Rob himself might not be a diplomat (not that he does a bad job at it in character) his character is designed around this concept of being good at convincing people (Randus e.g. is great a inventing stuff and being an awesome engineer while Brian IRL might not be, he still plays that role for the party). It’s nice that she wants to contribute to the meeting, but it’s like telling the party that from now on Torq should cast the rituals (which probably would result in him multiclassing a spell caster as he probably would constantly roll nat 20’s), it’s just not his role in the party.
I really liked it when Trelle tried to convince the party not to kill the lunar creatures, or not to loot the Eladrin vault in the fen of winters, because she showed a much deeper more involved aspect of her character. But this situation really felt like complaining for the sake of complaining to me, it felt like she just didn’t like that Ket did not want the party (and specifically Torq and Trelle) talking to the council, which was nothing personal, but the way Trelle and Torq act, they just might come across as weird (the best example is the previous adventure to the temple they had, which would have confused anyone who is not as compassionate as the Paladin or Priest they encountered). While it is completely up to Adriana how she wants to play her character, I think this is not the route Trelle should take, as she more and more tends to make everything about herself (not that I think Adriana does this intentionally, it just happens).
PS: Really love the show, shared it with my co-workers and P&P group, so far they enjoy it as well and I doubt that that will change :)
I personally love the dynamics of the group, because it is a real thing in a party: PC’s need to fight sometimes, even if it is playful/dragging banter. We all know the truth that Ket is the diplomat and no one else. But, these peoples characters need to be able to speak their peace and that their truth (specifically Trelle’s and Torq’s) is that they want their voices heard as well even if they’re wrong in how they convey that, or even what they want to say. The truth of the matter is that their play session is organic, and you don’t have to be a ‘fan’ if you don’t want to. No one is forcing you to listen, just like no one forces you come on this site, or the internet. And here’s a reminder: IT’S FREE! Even as a supporter, you should support it as long as it is something you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy anymore, you can leave guys. This happens with your group just like it happens with my group or anyone elses. It’s part of the RP experience, and if any of you can do better, maybe you should spend more time doing so and not ragging on someone else’s entertainment
~Chino
PS: I loved the Kit Cloudkicker reference. It’s the name I use in every MMO i’ve played since EQ, and when I listened to this the first time I missed it. Ironically, I heard it while playing an MMO and that character, so it felt like you were talking to me directly Stephen. Keep up the great work, as always everyone
I am a big fan of the podcast and the *entire* CH crew, including Adrianna, so please take the following comments from that perspective.
I see both sides of the sentiment from the above comments regarding the conflicts in the group. In this case I do blame Trelle. She made some good points, and I was on her side up until she said she didn’t *want* to speak to the elders. If she didn’t want to speak, why start this argument in the first place? In the past, like the fight over whether to kill the moon monsters in the cages, I blamed Ket. And in the caverns I totally was on Torq’s side when he walked out.
Clearly here the issue wasn’t that Ket (or Orem) are arcane spellcasters at all. I think what is going on here is that Trelle still feels like an outsider, and a newcomer to the group (despite spending a YEAR with the Hogbah), and is trying to find her place in the team. In other words, the party is still in the “Storming” phase of team building.
As a fan, I didn’t mind the previous episodes with a lot of conflict, even though it made me uncomfortable (and I posted as much back then). But I too am starting to get tired of it. It’s time for the party to figure this out (in character, and I want to listen to it happen), but then move on and stop bickering. Most of the conflict seems to be between Ket & Trelle for whatever reason. I think it comes down to the fact that neither character trusts the other. Plus they certainly have different moral outlooks & cultural backgrounds… but lack of respect for the differences is getting in the way.
Anyway, for what it’s worth I still love the show, and I appreciate all of you and what you do to bring the show to us every week. Please keep up the good work, but focus more on getting the story moving with less internal conflict.
Thank you.
Loved the fashion show, but didn’t like the interparty conflict so much. Though now that NPCs have started interjecting, the conflict seems (hopefully) to be heading towards a resolution.