Acquisitions Inc. Livestreamed D&D Game

Tyranthraxus · Mar 10, 2015

Mostly the people complaining about these are rules lawyers. I love watching them. HOWEVER I would love to see them with a special Guest GM as a one off, just to see how they go about reacting to a different way of telling a story.

Jack99 · Mar 10, 2015

Tyranthraxus said:
Mostly the people complaining about these are rules lawyers. I love watching them. HOWEVER I would love to see them with a special Guest GM as a one off, just to see how they go about reacting to a different way of telling a story.

I am a DM. I am supposed to be a rules lawyer.

HobbitFan · Mar 10, 2015

It's not just rules lawyering. Some people have differecnes of opinion about what works in a game.

Jack99 · Mar 10, 2015

HobbitFan said:
It's not just rules lawyering. Some people have differecnes of opinion about what works in a game.

It's not so much whether it works in a game or not. It's more the fact that I believe that the Acq Inc games should showcase 5e more than just showcasing a_random_fantasy_rpg run by Perkins.

Point being, It's fun, Chris is awesome, the guys are fun, but I have a really hard time telling they are playing 5e, and that shouldn't be the case, IMO.

Tyranthraxus · Mar 10, 2015

Im also primarily a DM : I am however not what I would consider a Rules lawyer

Iosue · Mar 10, 2015

Jack99 said:
It's not so much whether it works in a game or not. It's more the fact that I believe that the Acq Inc games should showcase 5e more than just showcasing a_random_fantasy_rpg run by Perkins.

Point being, It's fun, Chris is awesome, the guys are fun, but I have a really hard time telling they are playing 5e, and that shouldn't be the case, IMO.

IMO, they are showcasing exactly what is awesome about 5e, which is that you don't have to be stickler for the rules, you can wing it on the fly, and as long as everyone's having fun, it's all good.

There was a time when AI was very much about showcasing rules -- in their first series of podcasts playing 4e, shortly before 4e released. And they were okay, but pretty boring, especially compared to later installments when they decided to forget about showcasing the rules and focus on the guys trying to crack each other up and doing crazy escapades.

As far as showing 5e rules, there's no "there" there. Roll d20, add modifier. If an attack, and successful, roll damage. Sometimes get advantage, sometimes get disadvantage. That's the core of the game. Everything else are the hallmarks of what makes D&D fun: getting together with your buddies, making fun and interesting choices for your characters, cracking a bunch of jokes, and rolling randomizers to spice things up. IMO, the more 5e fades into the background, as it's intended to, the better.

Hussar · Mar 10, 2015

And let's not forget the biggest issue of all - time. You have a very limited time frame to run a game, which means you don't ever get to ponce about, chasing this or that idea. It has to be laser beam focused.

I think there are more than a few DM's out there that could learn this lesson.

darjr · Mar 10, 2015

I value others opinions. I'm just being disagreeable.

I do wish they did more of this kind of thing. I know they tried and those attempts may not of been as good. And I do appreciate the WotC staff games. I'd love to see them run one for the Big Bang crew.

Henry · Mar 10, 2015

Jack99 said:
I am a DM. I am supposed to be a rules lawyer.

Difference of opinion on that one. It's fine to know and understand all the rules, but IMO a specific rule shouldn't be followed if the enjoyment of the specific group at the table is increased by not adhering to it, no matter how rules-intense or rules-light the system. Our home Pathfinder DM, for instance, recently adjudicated an encounter where one of our number had been washed overboard in stormy seas; My monk jumped in, tied off to a rope, to save them. Rather than follow to the letter the exact rules for me trying to swim back to the boat (i was a good swimmer, but only level 1) you could tell he spot ruled it according to my ability so that i had a fighting chance instead of it being impossible or needing a nat 20 every round. In the end we've recounted that story more frequently than if i had to make a new character.

Jack99 said:
It's not so much whether it works in a game or not. It's more the fact that I believe that the Acq Inc games should showcase 5e more than just showcasing a_random_fantasy_rpg run by Perkins.

Point being, It's fun, Chris is awesome, the guys are fun, but I have a really hard time telling they are playing 5e, and that shouldn't be the case, IMO.

It was still pretty plain to me, but then it was more because i was dollowing their modifiers and their reference of a bunch of forgotten realms stuff.

Emka · Mar 10, 2015

I agree this was a weak session. As said the body language of the players didn't help. That said I laughed out loud several times tho mostly at the terrible puns and comebacks they made.
Mike's idea of closing off the entrance by simply removing it was genius. I say Mike and not Jim as I felt the whole character development didn't come into play much this time.

Also, great for officially adopting Minsc into D&D even though he felt underused: he hardly got any screentime.

My favorite session was the one with Will Wheaton still, when they were in the classic Redbox dungeon. Coincidentally the first one where they used 5th and actually did show off the rules.