In this installment of Critical Hit – A Major Spoilers Podcast: The crew says goodbye and the Closing Argument is here.
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4 Comments
Glad this chapter turned out all right. But exactly how much time has passed during these subjective 4 days? And what has Asmodeus’ team been up to? I’m curious to see what will happen next!
It’s been really enjoyable throughout this arc — and especially in this episode and the next one (accessed through Patreon) — to hear Randus pushed so much to the forefront. Randus diplomacy is just constantly delightful.
Something happened!
I’m both happy Rodrigo dragged the story out of the Thousand Hector Armory and somewhat disappointed in the complete lack of pay off on some of these side quests. After almost 40 episodes our heroes have managed for sign up two gods and Rodrigo had to add that in himself since it had not been a priority of the any of the PC to ask up until that point they had only been in and around Thousand Hector Armory for ~12 hours and 32 minutes of podcast time…priorities I guess
As a listener I have no idea why rolls are even happening most of the time. There is a calls for rolls and most of the time it doesn’t seem to matter. I guess this is a GM thing. But why make people take rolls on watch if it doesn’t matter other than just waste time. We already seem to do that really well.
I have no issue with you guys having fun it should be fun for the players but as a listener of media which you wish this to be used to make money this season has been boring as hell for most of season 6. The civics lesson, spider hunting, troll hunting, gambling without payoff. I don’t know why anyone would trust you guys to save the world at this point other than the plot yo. What heck did the dying dragon god and goddess of civilization see you guys to say, “Those folks.”
You have a starfish that can kill gods! Of course there should be slow episodes but at this point I put it at Rodrigo feet the dysfunction of the story. Pace for the last few seasons has been garbage. Large stretch’s of season 4 and 5 were this way. Too long with little happening. I get the not wanting the railroad the players however much of the Toads Boardwalk and Thousand Hector Armory felt like Final fantasy 6 the Vedlt story wise.
I do like the podcast I keep coming back to it despite my issues, and having done a few podcasts it know its a lot easier to criticize than to create. Ep 484 was good like a 7 out of 10. But most of season 6 has been more like a 2 and 3 out of 10. Often feeling more like something released to keep a schedule than something you were all proud of making.
I hope all that makes sense
You are better
~Dinobite
PS when did you guys get to level 23!
You know, I’ve struggled with some of the pacing lately too, and I’m particularly surprised to see the whole troll hunt come to nothing given the amount of time and focus spent on it. But that said, I’m kind of baffled about some of the things you’re complaining about here.
“Rodrigo had to add Ulridan signing onto the treaty because it wasn’t a PC priority” — yes it was. They asked Ulridan about it when they first arrived, and he agreed to sign onto it in exchange for being able to make the Bronze Prince a weapon. Him confirming his acquiescence to the treaty is a follow-up to what the PCs already asked him for.
“I don’t know why anyone would trust you guys to save the world at this point” — how about the fact that they’ve already done it repeatedly? I find it pretty entertaining that the party’s two most openly arrogant, proud members, Ket and Sekhar, are also the ones who are quickest to complain that the party is disorganized and failure-prone, instead of talking up its successes. But for all the setbacks there have been, the party also put the moon back in its place, rallied a coalition of virtually all of the gods (including the invisible, unfindable one that doesn’t participate) against the alien god-invasion, and put together the unconventional plan that shut them out of the Prime Material Plane. And that’s just the campaigns we KNOW Erathis and Bahamut know about. The party’s process may look chaotic, but it gets visible results, and that’s what the gods are looking at. (On top of that, we know the PCs aren’t Erathis’ only card, she’s just willing to keep them in her deck because she’s seen positive results from them in the past.)
“You make people roll dice when there’s no result.” Would it help to think of those rolls not as “Does something happen?” checks, but as “Does something extraordinary happen?” checks? One of my favorite things that’s happened so far this season was when Brian rolled a random natural 20 on his frequency-scanning and suddenly found himself talking to a goddess on her private channel. On an average night, nothing much is going to happen on watch, but there’s always the chance of a really exceptional roll creating an interesting new option. And it’s not like “everybody on watch roll a die” takes up THAT much time.
As to the things you find “boring as hell,” we’re just going to have to differ on that one. I found the civics debate fascinating, and it really made me think about how hard it is to build an ideal civilization where everyone at least has the chance at equality and freedom. I also really enjoyed how it brought out the characters’ personal prejudices and preferences. I thought the trip through the Toad’s Boardwalk, where everyone was presented with personally tailored temptations, was hilarious and telling. And I’m enjoying the ongoing problem of the never-ending spiders.
Finally… man, I’ve had my own issues with Critical Hit on and off over the years, over dead ends and abrupt endings and roads not taken and stuff that’s Not How I Would Have Done It or Not What I Really Hoped Would Happen or whatever. But I’ve always at least tried to be civil about any gripes, because I love these people and admire their hard work — work that you yourself acknowledge. When you take this kind of hateful, antagonistic tone, when you use words like “garbage” and “boring as hell” and “2 out of 10,” you’re not only being needlessly hurtful toward people who’ve poured a huge amount of effort and time into this story, you’re making it a lot harder for anyone to take your potentially legitimate gripes seriously.
You also are better.