This episode: The Wing Triskelion has been found! But now what?
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21 Comments
Long time listener, first time poster!
This seems to be one of those episodes where the characters wander around and not much happens actionwise. More than a bit slow. I was actually expecting the PCs to face some summoned, monstrous menace guarding the triskellion, either before or after they took possession of it. The minty hallucinogen effect was an interesting twist to an skill challenge where the bizarre things that were happening didn’t seem entirely grounded in game reality. I found the sudden appearance of the Queens Rebellious Daughter seems a bit odd, why would she be out here at all? Was it an unplanned attempt (read: ad lib) on the part of Rodrigo to find a way to pull the character butts out of their situation in a more interesting and interactive way?
The minty hallucinogen effect was an interesting twist to an skill challenge where the bizarre things that were happening didn’t seem entirely grounded in game reality. I found the sudden appearance of the Queens Rebellious Daughter seems a bit odd, why would she be out here at all? Was it an unplanned attempt (read: ad lib) on the part of Rodrigo to find a way to pull the character butts out of their situation in a more interesting and interactive way?
A roleplaying game is a multiple-writer story being told in real time. Occasionally, there may be an ad lib or two. Whether Missy’s appearance was one of them or not is not for me to know, as I don’t read minds, but I can say this: Each person affects the overall game in a pretty profound way.
Witness the combat in recent episodes, wherein I utilized Brenzin in a role similar to what Torq does, but found that I had to really re-evaluate everything that I expected to do (and, indeed, thought I wanted to do) because of a conscious effort to not play like Torq. The same goes for Rob’s shift in character and perspective from secretive yet sudden Smith to the crass and brazen warlordery of Ket. Half the fun is working out how to hit the curves that occur when the participants (both PC and GM) do something unexpected.
My favorite part this week:
“Oh, wait until you get a load of the new guy.”
Or when talking about knowledge of drugs and Brian saying:
“That would also be college.”
I don’t think there’s been an episode in this season that I’ve missed Smith more… Sorcerer’s Sirocco would have been extremely useful in the temple, and there would have been some awesome roleplay at the end (not that there wasn’t anyway). Either way, awesome episode, it’s fun to hear another dungeon crawl from you guys. And seeing Queenie pop up again was really cool- still curious about her and Resplendent Tiger’s backgrounds!
Yes. Orem was very lighthearted about loosing poor Smith. What was that about? And what ever happened to GIANT statue?
???? How epic was it that Orem guessed that they were hallusinating? A-LOT.
I was thinking: “Damn you Rodrigo for makeing the world’s dombest skillchallenge, and damn you Stephen for screwing it up with feathers and pillows.” And really it was the most brilliant thing ever!
My players better prepare for some sandwiches :)
Whenever Stephen/Orem begins a sentence with “Can I use my History skill to…” just tell him No. Stephen has confused “history’ a narrative account of the past with ‘the past’. The two are not the same. Otherwise great episode.
I loved this episode so much. I have listened to every episode at least three times (obsessive I know. =]) but this is my favorite one of all time (probably due to Missy showing up at the end, as my previous favorite was 37.) Thank you Matthew, Stephen, Rob, Brian, and most importantly Rodrigo for creating this and bringing a little more joy into my life. ^.^
Interesting episode. I enjoyed the change of pace with a classic dungeon crawl. And kudos to Stephen for coming up with such an inspired choice during the skill challenge. It was facinating to hear him initially seem completely lost with the very opened nature of the skill challenge, and then a few moments later toss out an idea like the mint smell being a gas that’s causing them to halucenate everything.
And we shall call this adventure: “How no one listens to the Paladin’s ideas!” Great episode, I recommend to everyone who has ever listened to Batman: The brave and the bold to imagine Matthew’s paly as Aquaman in fullplate, it is awesome!
Lol, that’s exactly how i hear Sir. Brenzin… well actually like the bastard son of brave and the bold’s Aquaman and Volstagg the Voluminous :)
Best skill challenge ever!
Hello, I’ve been listening to the podcast and they are all funny as hell. I personally like 3.5, but its still fun to listen. Here’s my question. You all are capable of immersing yourself into your character, which is a part that makes it even funnier. How do you get into that kinda of mindset without taking it to far? I play with a group of friends, but our comedy comes from making fun of others mistakes, instead of becoming part of the world the DM has created.
I just got done listening to this on the bus, and I’m sure the person next to me wanted to move seats when I went into a monstrous fit of laughter at Orem’s paranoia about the minty smell. SO like a player character to get paranoid about something so seemingly innocuous; he’s battled dragons, he’s defeated A GOD, and now he takes on the toughest challenge yet – Aquafresh! What a brilliant skill challenge and resolution from everyone involved.
While it doesn’t make for the highest action podcast listening, the setup of this scene (the temple as a whole and the skill challenge especially) as fairly abstract and open to player interpretation was brilliant and very inspiring to me as a DM. Thanks, ya’ll!
I love the skill challenge in this episode the make it up as you go along theme was nice. Also i was DMing a game and my players were fighting a solo that had a power that would have kill my 1 unconscious and 4 bloodied players on a crit and i rolled a nat 20 on it. One of my players pointed out to me a rule in the PHB about critical hits and this is probably something everybody misses. When you crit you add your attack mod to the 20 and if it hits you do max damage. If it doesn’t you still hit but no max damage do you fine that rule odd and how do i work around it because my players only pointed this out so i couldn’t TPK them. I would usually email you but last time i did it was a year before you looked at it (i was the 12 year old who had tried to run a villain campaign and you guys threw skeletor at me. my players were caught for being idiots and hanged)
well there’s a handful of issues here.
1) if that monster mopped the floor with your player’s characters then chances are its attack bonus +20 is going to be high enough to hit the party, thus making the discussion irrelevant anyway.
2) If your players are only bringing this up because it’s convenient, then ask them if they want to institute the rule from here on out. Chances are this rule is going to work against them more often than it’s going to help them. If they say ‘no’ then carry on as usual. If they say ‘yes’ then try it out for a while, but I can almost guarantee it won’t make a difference.
3) Sometimes when a rule is used erroneously but it doesn’t hinder the game it’s not a problem to houserule it back in.
Thanks that cleared it up i will try to work in the rule just to test it. maby you could use it on Mathew and the monsters won’t die as quick
Will you guys talk about the Heroes of Shadows book in a later podcast?
I will try to test it out thanks. Maybe you could also use this rule to make sure that Mathew doesn’t kill your monster in 1 shot, but i doubt it because Brazen and Torq have extremely high attack modifiers
Mathew!
Was that a “Shadowgate” reference when you propose to freeze the waterfall?