This episode: What do you do with an army of lizards? The Hogba doesn’t care. The Hogba only wants to kill the dragon.
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23 Comments
The wonderful thing about Hogbas, is Hogbas are awesomeness filled.
Their tops are made out of axes. Their armies are made out of Bills.
They’re choppy, throwy, dragon slaying fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!
The most wonderful thing about Hogbas is that I’m the only one.
Well done!!
Nothing like a side quests of a few years in the middle of saving the Fey world to keep things in perspective… and the heroes lunches out of their stomachs :)
Next feature on the Major Spoilers podcast: The Adventures of the Hogba and the Absent-minded Protagonists!
I’d love to know more details about that 24 hour fight Trelle talked about. And a picture of the dragon’s fortress of course.
Let’s all go and puke in a corner, yay! I lost it at the chain reaction.
Rodrigo has come up with some scary lines. I never would have guessed that “tell me a story” would top the list. Hitchcockian in the simple horror it creates in unprepared PC’s.
Ok, let me preface this by saying that I like major spoilers and critical hit in particular. But these last 2.5 podcasts were utterly terrible. I mean, NOTHING happened. Ok, it was all a dream/time bubble. Rodrigo, you made nothing happen. No plot development, no battles, no major character interaction. I am certain that I could remove these last 2 podcasts and miss nothing. Side quests advance SOMETHING, this did not. How many dice were rolled? 4? 5? And even those were skill checks that basically amounted to “Nope you don’t learn anything that can impact this situation”.
Get back to the main plot, this side quest was pointless and stupid.
I can appreciate your opinions and reactions Phillip, but maybe you are not asking the right questions, or listening to the episodes closely enough, because there is a ton of stuff going on underneath the narrative. I suggest going back and listening again to the episodes, and ask yourself, “how did they get into this situation?” “Why did the party allow the situation to continue?” and most importantly, “How will this experience change the party going forward?” Here’s a hint: It all started with one statement made by a member of the party. Hint #2: The title to episode 152 is more important to one party member’s story than you might realize right now…
I absolutely agree with Stephen. I thought this story arc with the Hogba was a magnificent bit of roleplaying. Rodrigo’s dm-ing ability never ceases to amaze me. It is something I have tried to incorporate into the games I run. I love the players telling the story and allowing them to flex their creative muscles in that way. Definitely not a waste.
“how did they get into this situation?”
They stumbled into a time bubble
“Why did the party allow the situation to continue?”
It was either agree to fight or leave and possibly fight The Hogba (which would have been more interesting)
“How will this experience change the party going forward?”
Well unless losing a few months effect something, nothing really. It would have been better to at least get some help from The Hogba but NOPE he is a dream.
It all started with one statement made by a member of the party.
Having a story in which missing one statement which then invalidates the importance of 2 podcasts is not a smart move.
Hint #2: The title to episode 152 is more important to one party member’s story than you might realize right now…
I listen to this on an MP3/4 player that sits in my pocket. Titles are meaningless to me.
I will listen to them again and hopefully pick something up but currently I didn’t hear anything has been said or done to change the party dynamic after this little side quest.
In the end my problem with these last 2 episodes was the lack of effect on the main story. Unless the next episode does something shed some light on the last two (yes I realize these are per-recorded) I am deleting them off my playlist just like I did to the (dear god) NUMEROUS paragon path episodes.
Just to show no hard feelings and that I am still gonna listen to you, I will start up a new 2 dollar a month recurring donation.
I will listen to them again and hopefully pick something up but currently I didn’t hear anything has been said or done to change the party dynamic after this little side quest.
As a member of the party, allow me to state unequivocally:
These episodes did in fact make (or, more properly, illuminate) some pretty noticeable changes in the group dynamic.
Please explain.
Please explain.
Sorry. Magician’s Code.
In any case, sorry things weren’t to your liking this time ’round…
don’t. It’ll become evident later.
Arrrrggggg. Ok. I thought it was a case of Rodrigo turning Trelle’s indecision into Feywild reality. Now I am guessing that it involves her and Orem’s need to find his sister versus completing the mission. It’s called Major Spoilers NOT Major Secrets. Am I close? Throw me a bone here.
I know we got a lot of flack for these past few episodes because a lot of people are reading these episodes as “mistakes”. At Nerdtacular a couple people wanted explanations for xy and z and hopefully they were satisfied with what I explained. Honestly, when we were recording this session I was extremely stressed out about how things were going and thought I was making huge mistakes. You heard me go get a beer! I was horrified. I was literally freaked out for a day or two after until I talked to Matthew about some of the stuff that happened and he put things in perspective for me.
And sure enough, when the episodes came out and I listened back I realized that my decisions were based in characterization and the very specific “buttons” I placed in Trelle. I, as a player, was terrified because she was careening into this thing where I wasn’t sure what was going to happen and we might get them all killed. But you know, Trelle’s a brave little lady and staying in character is the point of the game (at least to me).
I think all our decisions were based in characterization rather than the luck of the dice. As someone who considers themselves a connoisseur of the show, I prefer when the plot turns on characterization rather than “let me roll this dice and let it tell me what I should do”. If Rodrigo wanted a dice roll, he would have asked for it and WE would have asked to roll if we wanted luck to play such a strong hand. We all made decisions to puzzle this out with talking. We decided what to do based on our characters’ personalities. Every character acted exactly as they should have. Maybe not to your LIKING but definitely true to themselves.
Personally, I prefer the episodes where the characters interact with one another more than when they fight something which is exactly how I feel about comics. I’m way more interested in what one character thinks of another character and of their situation. But I get that some people prefer fighting and don’t even register the character interaction. I think these past few episodes are way more “What Critical Hit is About”.
And plot wise…dude. Dude. Come on. This was pretty classic foreshadowing. Every five seconds had Orem and Trelle going “Beware the Greater Fey”. How long did you think they’d go before meeting a Greater Fey? And did you really think Rodrigo would give us “Okay, go to this sovereign, have a themed fight on the way, put bracelet on sovereign, proceed to next target”? I think you’re misunderstanding what the “plot” is. I personally don’t think the plot is “the gang puts bracelets on seasonally themed magic people”.
And I think these episodes lend themselves to a lot of different, in depth readings and repeated listening. I listen to the episodes we do and take notes and think a lot (A LOT) about what we’ve discovered and what’s changed. And I filled up a lot of space on these episodes. There’s a lot there. Listen closely. Hahah, or just wait!
TL;DR
…I kid. :)
Amen
Dang, I got everyone’s attention. Well, be looking forward to a lot more posts by me in later episodes.
I gotta say that the “side quest” as some called it was interesting and well performed by all concerned. I’d have probably felt better about the dream-sequence-feel, though, if Rodrigo hadn’t used similar plots as often as he has. (i.e. Demonweb, alternate time-line, etc.) Maybe that’s just me, though…
A little late on the bus here but I just finished listening to these Hogba episodes and thought they were great. The party was in Rodrigo’s web again and it was their own doing. To the guy acting like this was as bad as the Star Wars prequels (but doesn’t bother to concern himself with episode titles, I wonder what he thinks about that book with the old guy and the fish and the sea?) you sir sound like a shalloe doofus.
I don’t know that I’d go that far. Mileage is allowed to vary, after all, and not every episode is going to be to everyone’s taste.