Acquisitions Incorporated: The Lost Episode

bpauls · Sep 2, 2012

For those interested in the latest adventure of Aeofel, Binwin, Omin and Jim, Acquisitions Incorporated: The Lost Episode is up on the streaming site for Pax Prime 2012.

This year's presentation is an exhibition of the current state of D&D Next, under the guidance of Dungeon Master Chris Perkins.

F700 · Sep 2, 2012

They've really jumped the shark.

The original PA/PVP podcasts did a lot to get me interested in 4e. These live performances don't compare. The games have all been severely limited by the single set pieces they obviously use for visual appeal.

Worse is wil wheaton. He was bad enough in the podcasts, but worse with an audience and in front of cameras. He rambles on longer than he should, and if I ever had an attention hog like that at my table I'd be telling him to stfu or gtfo.

And the PA and PVP guys can be really funny - especially Kurtz. But with the time constraints of the live game they seem to be rushing to make jokes so the humour feels forced and the quality of the game suffers for it.

Magil · Sep 2, 2012

Fairly entertaining, but I liked it better when they didn't spend the whole session on a single encounter.

Though it is funny that these guys spent almost two hours on a single encounter when that was precisely the kind of thing that was supposed to be rare in DnD Next (I know that's not entirely fair considering how much joking around was going on there)

I definitely like the original three podcasts better than any of the live shows they've done so far, this one included.

Blackwarder · Sep 2, 2012

I like the live shows, was very entertaining.

Warder

Baileyborough · Sep 2, 2012

I haven't listened to this one yet, but I don't have high hopes unfortunately. I loved the original podcasts, and the live shows don't compare. Obviously it has a lot to do with the time constraints.

I will agree that the more I listen, the more Wheaton annoys me. In the podcasts he's not so bad, but in any of the live shows... Christ.

I personally think one or two series of podcasts would do a lot more for WotC than the token live show, but it seems like they enjoy playing in the live games, so there it is. There's still the first 3 podcasts, and the great Dark Sun podcast...

Iosue · Sep 2, 2012

Magil said:
Though it is funny that these guys spent almost two hours on a single encounter when that was precisely the kind of thing that was supposed to be rare in DnD Next (I know that's not entirely fair considering how much joking around was going on there)

Not rare in D&D Next, selectable. Ideally, if you want a bunch of quick encounters, you can do that, and if you want a big, rock-the-house, set-piece encounter you can do that, too. This, like the previous celebrity games Perkins has run to be put up on video, was by design one huge set-piece encounter leavened by thin layers of character interaction.

Magil · Sep 2, 2012

Iosue said:
Not rare in D&D Next, selectable. Ideally, if you want a bunch of quick encounters, you can do that, and if you want a big, rock-the-house, set-piece encounter you can do that, too. This, like the previous celebrity games Perkins has run to be put up on video, was by design one huge set-piece encounter leavened by thin layers of character interaction.

Well, perhaps what I should be saying is I'd have liked it if they'd showed off DnDNext's ability to make "quick" encounters that are still somewhat interesting, because this kinda failed at that. I'm also disappointed that the monsters posed no threat to the PCs but that's a different issue.

Jupp · Sep 2, 2012

Not a lot of info regarding Next but I did not expect that to happen anyway. I think this session was not really meant to explain the game that much but it was just a good old getting together and having fun at the table. I thoroughly enjoyed the thing for what it was; friends sitting together for a few hours of gaming fun. Being in a beer and pretzel gaming group myself I was really having a good time watching the video.

Mr. Perkins did a good job on letting them play it the way they wanted to and not getting too much in the way with rules and stuff. The whole thing was not really about D&D Next but more like a way to show that you can have a lot of fun at the table. In that way it was good advertising for RPGs in general.

Scipio202 · Sep 2, 2012

Three rules nuggets

I thought it was very funny.

There were three new rules mentioned. One was a beefed-up version of crit damage: max base damage + 2d6 (plus an additional d6 per odd level). I like it - makes crits more meaningful but seems easy enough to control the system math since it isn't a multiple of base damage. Two was using opposed Cha contests every round for the battle of wills with an intelligent cursed sword. Three was that Wil's character still had fey step (presumably the racial trait of an eladrin subtype).

Magil · Sep 2, 2012

Scipio202 said:
There were three new rules mentioned. One was a beefed-up version of crit damage: max base damage + 2d6 (plus an additional d6 per odd level). I like it - makes crits more meaningful but seems easy enough to control the system math since it isn't a multiple of base damage. Two was using opposed Cha contests every round for the battle of wills with an intelligent cursed sword. Three was that Wil's character still had fey step (presumably the racial trait of an eladrin subtype).

I noticed that too. But isn't an eladrin basically a high elf? I really thought they were the same thing with different names.

He also used fey step twice, which makes me wonder if maybe it was actually a spell (I think he said he was a cleric at some point).