Acquisitions Inc. Livestreamed D&D Game

Over the weekend at PAX East, WotC's Chris Perkins ran the Acquisitions Inc. celebrity D&D game, which was livestreamed on the web. "Our entrepreneurial heroes look forward to some much needed R&R in Baldur’s Gate after having rescued four bronze dragon eggs from a nefarious green dragon duo. Brace for impact as Jim Darkmagic (Mike Krahulik), Omin Dran (Jerry Holkins), Binwin Bronzebottom (Scott Kurtz), and Viari (Patrick Rothfuss) team up with Dungeon Master Chris Perkins to defend the honor of Acquisitions Inc’s newest chapter house against the rise of Elemental Evil."


Click on the photo below to jump to the archived video footage. It's about 2-hours long, and contains some adult language.

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[TarionzCousin]

I know they're a pain in the butt, but I miss the costumes. I mean, look at this:

Note: Chris Perkins obviously has a better PR person than Beyonce; it was very difficult to find a good picture of him as the cartoon character "Dungeon Master."

 

[pedr]

I think the pattern is that they do the full production for Pax Prime and play more casually at Pax East. Which makes sense as it'd be expensive to get all the props to Boston.

 

[Tormyr]

Aeofel lives!

 

[Jack99]

Kinda weak
I get that they are having fun (or at least some of them seem to have fun), but if you show off 5e, you should at least somewhat run things by the rules. /shrug

 

[Iosue]

Showing off 5e rules is waaaaaay down the list of things they hope to accomplish with these things.

 

[Henry]

Showing off 5e rules is waaaaaay down the list of things they hope to accomplish with these things.

Agreed - they know how to work their audience, for certain. Prior to these things, if you told me that there would one day be a gathering of 1,000 people in an auditorium to WATCH PEOPLE PLAY D&D, and having a great time, I'd have said you were daft.

[sing-song]"double-axe to the back!"[/sing-song]

 

[agrayday]

Wow,

Of all the Chris Perkins GM's games I have seen in person and on video, this just didn't seem up to snuff. Maybe its the short staff and long hours at the office, but throwing in a moving room mechanism with some "Robot" guys to fend off the bad miniatures on the table was pretty boring if you ask me. If you watch the body language of the players they even seem a bit bored, The only time they are having fun is cracking jokes less about the story and more about come backs, or character snappy hooks.

They are on a stage, I would presume the story and roleplaying efforts would be more to highlight vs rolling dice amongst a pile of miniatures. There were some characters (not really developed) and some story elements but I think the last hour of dice rolling was dull.

I was hoping for a little more intrigue, I was really planning on Chris Perkins set up at the beginning would have them adventuring under their lair, with some intrigue, some story telling, with a fancy hook to tie in these people who have invaded their turf.

a well, I hope the Pax Prime setup is much better as far as story.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Kinda weak
I get that they are having fun (or at least some of them seem to have fun), but if you show off 5e, you should at least somewhat run things by the rules. /shrug

These games are not your usual D&D games. They often have crazy stuff, like mecha-beholders, incredibly dumb robots, and crazy NPC's.

Oh wait, those are "normal" D&D games.

But anyway, they seem designed less with the rules in mind and more with being fun for the players and entertaining for the audience. The players are all entertainers first and whatever else second.

 

[darjr]

Many of these get dire warnings about how bad it is. Then I watch them and love them.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

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]

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]

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

 

[Jack99]

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]

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

 

[Iosue]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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]

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.