Did anybody watch Matt Colville's new campaign stream?

[Matthew Perkins]

So Matt Colville's stream happened a few days ago. Anybody else catch it? I thought it was pretty good in general, but very good for a first effort. What did you reckon?

• Production was aces
• Everyone seems friendly
• Everyone considered their character well
• Campaign trajectory seems fun
• DM cutaways are fun
• Could work on crosstalk
• Could work on tangents
• Could work on turn speed
• Could work on urgency
• Overall damn good

I made a little video about it too:

[video=youtube;2dK-8792p2I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dK-8792p2I[/video]

 

[TwoSix]

I didn't, but it was nice to see someone playing a class (the Pugilist) from one of my favorite homebrewers (Sterling Vermin). Seeing streamers using 3PP can only help get more 3PP out there.

 

[Ristamar]

I watched for about 20 minutes. Very impressive setup.

One small nitpick: I'm sure they'll tweak things as they move forward, but there's definitely room to improve audio clarity. I don't know if it's the room acoustics or mic positioning or reminding the players not to whisper (I assume they're using shotgun mics off-camera), but they often sounded a bit distant and hollow. It wasn't horrible or distracting, but the audio quality didn't quite measure up with a lot of the professionally produced streams.

 

[5ekyu]

i watched about half-way. It did not surprise me so far as to its strengths and weaknesses.

Anything to do with the room and setup seems fine to very good - they obviously spent their kickstarter monies well in creating that setup. Audio consistency needs a tad more work IMO but is still above average.

The group seems top have good chemistry and is fun to watch. The quips and retorts seemed natural.

As far as the gameplay goes - not very fond so far.

For the "railroady first mission" in a very structured setup, it was incredibly poorly structured and presented poorly. how many times did we get a Gm step in to make statements about "before this you would have" kind of stuff? This was the perfect spot to give the immediate background and mission info narratively up-front and in order a bit. The "here is your contract" briefing is a staple and works great for one-shots and kick=offs. But this one seemed to jump ahead to the confusion and what now stage (not yet combat) and more filled in the foundation stuff whenever it occured to them it had been left out. Not arguing for a long planning segment, but a brief summary before going full steam ahead is GMing 101.

Too much unexplained homebrew with almost zero introductions. The decision to spend however long showing die rolls and skip the "what does my character do" shout-out for a game with several homebrew classes was just plain negligent IMO. the "we hope maybe the classes and stuff are over on our site" blah blah was crap - and i dont know if the purchased one was available for them to post. Did not go look and really had little interest in doing so. Introducing your characters is also GM 101... I mean, yeah they had the drawing of each character on the flash card pop-up after the die rolling vids, but a 1 minute description where the player chooses what are the key things you see or notice goes a long way to giving you a sense of the character. Again, this is GMing 101 stuff.

Maybe it got better in the second half and maybe i will actually watch that second half but... right now i am not confident of either.

Second chance, first impression - you know the drill.

 

[Istbor]

...Opps

 

[Istbor]

So Matt Colville's stream happened a few days ago. Anybody else catch it? I thought it was pretty good in general, but very good for a first effort. What did you reckon?

• Production was aces
• Everyone seems friendly
• Everyone considered their character well
• Campaign trajectory seems fun
• DM cutaways are fun
• Could work on crosstalk
• Could work on tangents
• Could work on turn speed
• Could work on urgency
• Overall damn good

I made a little video about it too:

I was kind of meh, when you brought this up, but then in your video you mentioned The Black Company, and I decided to check out the stream.

...I love The Black Company...

 

[5ekyu]

yes... i love the Black Company too.

 

[Matthew Perkins]

I didn't, but it was nice to see someone playing a class (the Pugilist) from one of my favorite homebrewers (Sterling Vermin). Seeing streamers using 3PP can only help get more 3PP out there.

Oh sick! I didn't realise the class was made by somebody else. Glad you mentioned this, or I would have assumed it was an MCDM thing.

they often sounded a bit distant and hollow.

Sometimes it felt a little like foley noise from a crowded room audio library, but I'm sure it will get a lot better.

Maybe it got better in the second half and maybe i will actually watch that second half but... right now i am not confident of either.

Second chance, first impression - you know the drill.

The first half had the most action, but the second half was much more watchable. I reckon they had some internal feedback over the interlude and adjusted as they went. Though some things just come down to different styles, so the only opinion I let myself have in those instances is, "I would/wouldn't do it that way, but OK." I think I would have liked to see the contract part played out — there was a short introductory story online that they maybe read out but I missed. Definitely felt like I was playing catch up at some points, but I don't mind missing context in stories sometimes.

...I love The Black Company...

Me too! I only read the first three because Matt recommended it in an older YouTube video. I wish I had have read it in high school — it would have been my jam for sure.

 

[5ekyu]

Oh sick! I didn't realise the class was made by somebody else. Glad you mentioned this, or I would have assumed it was an MCDM thing.




Sometimes it felt a little like foley noise from a crowded room audio library, but I'm sure it will get a lot better.




The first half had the most action, but the second half was much more watchable. I reckon they had some internal feedback over the interlude and adjusted as they went. Though some things just come down to different styles, so the only opinion I let myself have in those instances is, "I would/wouldn't do it that way, but OK." I think I would have liked to see the contract part played out — there was a short introductory story online that they maybe read out but I missed. Definitely felt like I was playing catch up at some points, but I don't mind missing context in stories sometimes.



Me too! I only read the first three because Matt recommended it in an older YouTube video. I wish I had have read it in high school — it would have been my jam for sure.

Yup
One of our most fun was helping with the Black Company RPG.

Labor of love.

Really hoping the new book and Elizha Dusku movie/series pans out.

 

[TwoSix]

Oh sick! I didn't realise the class was made by somebody else. Glad you mentioned this, or I would have assumed it was an MCDM thing.

No problem. Illrigger is MCDM, and also looks very interesting.