Something tells me the world lost something rather pithy
Pithy, but unnecessarily mocking this early in the morning. I had a second cup of coffee and decided I didn't need to be as much of an amusing dick.
D&D 5E PAX East: D&D Live Game 2014 Acquisitions Incorporated
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
Pithy, but unnecessarily mocking this early in the morning. I had a second cup of coffee and decided I didn't need to be as much of an amusing dick.
Scrivener of Doom
Adventurer
Something tells me the world lost something rather pithy
I gave XP before the posts were deleted.
Pithy, but unnecessarily mocking this early in the morning. I had a second cup of coffee and decided I didn't need to be as much of an amusing dick.
Ensure proper encaffeination before clicking Submit. That's words to live by.
I had a second cup of coffee and decided I didn't need to be as much of an amusing dick.
Probably a wise move. Maybe you should be glad you did that before the moderation staff saw them.
Because, folks, some of you are making the thread personal. You don't have to like everyone, or agree with them. But you do have to refrain from being jerks. 'Cause, wouldn't it be ironic if, having just invoked Wheaton's name, you fail to apply his Rule?
If you repeatedly find that one person annoys you, we strongly recommend using the ignore list, and save us all some grief.
Blackwarder
Adventurer
Thats because they didn't do a podcast beforehand, usually the exposition is in there and the live game just lick where they left off.
I agree that they had a bit more exposition than I liked, OTOH I liked the fact that a. Chris used an excellent method of giving us some of it with Omen meeting with the masked lords of Waterdeep and b. that he joked about it. People need to learn that giving a long exposition now and then isn't necessarily a bad thing, being super serious about it might be.
Warder
The big thing with this one that was different than the ones in the past (both the audio podcasts and the live games at PAX Prime) was that those other ones were really just there to "advertise" the game as a whole. Whereas this one very much was a specific advert or preview of the upcoming Tyranny of Dragons storyline.
Which explains why Vandal had such an important place in the adventure and why Chris had the Cult of the Dragon members kick the ever-living crap out of them. I saw it live in the audience, and my head did indeed cock a bit when the entire group of villains got a surprise round even though both sides saw each other (thereby granting all of them Advantage on their attacks, and having a rather shocking number of critical hits). And then when the two wyverns also came out from the snow and hit with their poison tails... he calculated the poison damage as part of the actual attack (rather than off of the failed save like the wyvern in the playtest Bestiary does), and Jim's saving throw became a Save or Die effect. Which means either the wyvern as it currently stands has become much more deadly than what was in the last playtest packet... or (what I believe to probably be the case) Chris was really just trying to get across how deadly the Tyranny of Dragons villains were meant to be. And if that meant fudging things so that the Cult of the Dragon could take out three of the four party members before any of them could even act... then he did so.
Which I can understand from the point of view that ALL of these A.I. sessions are organized by WotC in order to be adverts for their game, and it wouldn't have done much good to introduce this badass villain organization, the Cult of the Dragon, and then have them be completely ineffectual against A.I. and looking like chumps. But it did end up being a bit of a time-waster in terms of keeping the session flowing... since it then required having another combat (against the Red Wizard and death knights) so that the party could actually have a fight they could participate in. But that of course left almost no time for the main encounter against the twin green dragons.
And something that I think got edited out of the video... but at one point at the end at about 3:45pm-- 15 minutes after the session was supposed to end at 3:30pm-- Chris looked offstage and asked how much time they had left. And Jeff Kalles (sp?) came out and actually said they were 15 minutes over time... which is why they pretty much went straight into the "Okay, you all sneak through the chamber, load up the eggs, and try to get out" ending. The original intention was not to have a cliffhanger I don't think, but it was either that or give what should have been the main encounter an even more exceedingly short shrift than they already did. So in that regard, that was on Chris for not being more cognizant of how much time was spent at the top on the parts with the Lord of Waterdeep, meeting Morgaen and Vandal, re-acquiring the robot, the journey to Daggerford, and the encounter with the Cult of the Dragon. But as always seems to be the case... two hours of playing when playing up for an audience is actually shorter than two hours of playing in your own home. And its not something Chris has fully mastered yet (as several other of the live games have had that sort of "Whoops! Okay, let's wrap this fight up!" feel to them too.)
But at the end of the day... I still find all of them much more entertaining than almost any other "listen or watch people play D&D" pod or videocast out there. I will always give A.I. my attention when they are made.
Which explains why Vandal had such an important place in the adventure and why Chris had the Cult of the Dragon members kick the ever-living crap out of them. I saw it live in the audience, and my head did indeed cock a bit when the entire group of villains got a surprise round even though both sides saw each other (thereby granting all of them Advantage on their attacks, and having a rather shocking number of critical hits). And then when the two wyverns also came out from the snow and hit with their poison tails... he calculated the poison damage as part of the actual attack (rather than off of the failed save like the wyvern in the playtest Bestiary does), and Jim's saving throw became a Save or Die effect. Which means either the wyvern as it currently stands has become much more deadly than what was in the last playtest packet... or (what I believe to probably be the case) Chris was really just trying to get across how deadly the Tyranny of Dragons villains were meant to be. And if that meant fudging things so that the Cult of the Dragon could take out three of the four party members before any of them could even act... then he did so.
Which I can understand from the point of view that ALL of these A.I. sessions are organized by WotC in order to be adverts for their game, and it wouldn't have done much good to introduce this badass villain organization, the Cult of the Dragon, and then have them be completely ineffectual against A.I. and looking like chumps. But it did end up being a bit of a time-waster in terms of keeping the session flowing... since it then required having another combat (against the Red Wizard and death knights) so that the party could actually have a fight they could participate in. But that of course left almost no time for the main encounter against the twin green dragons.
And something that I think got edited out of the video... but at one point at the end at about 3:45pm-- 15 minutes after the session was supposed to end at 3:30pm-- Chris looked offstage and asked how much time they had left. And Jeff Kalles (sp?) came out and actually said they were 15 minutes over time... which is why they pretty much went straight into the "Okay, you all sneak through the chamber, load up the eggs, and try to get out" ending. The original intention was not to have a cliffhanger I don't think, but it was either that or give what should have been the main encounter an even more exceedingly short shrift than they already did. So in that regard, that was on Chris for not being more cognizant of how much time was spent at the top on the parts with the Lord of Waterdeep, meeting Morgaen and Vandal, re-acquiring the robot, the journey to Daggerford, and the encounter with the Cult of the Dragon. But as always seems to be the case... two hours of playing when playing up for an audience is actually shorter than two hours of playing in your own home. And its not something Chris has fully mastered yet (as several other of the live games have had that sort of "Whoops! Okay, let's wrap this fight up!" feel to them too.)
But at the end of the day... I still find all of them much more entertaining than almost any other "listen or watch people play D&D" pod or videocast out there. I will always give A.I. my attention when they are made.
Last edited:
jodyjohnson
Adventurer
Iosue
Legend
My sense was that this one was perhaps affected by schedules much more than previous sessions. Typically, these have been pretty extravagant affairs, with costumes for all players, audience participation, musicians, etc. You had 3D maps for minis, things like that. The adventures were pretty much tailored to A.I. This time around, it was positively sparse. No costumes for anyone except Chris Perkins (and his was pretty simple compared to past costumes). No models or battlemat -- all theater of the mind. Patrick Rothfuss wasn't there, despite killing it in the previous session. The adventure tying into Tyranny of Dragons rather than being A.I. specific.
Personally, while I've had tremendous fun playing D&D, I don't think people watching those fun sessions would find them especially entertaining for more than 5 or 10 minutes. Certainly, I myself find it less interesting to watch people play than to actually play the game. But throw in the fooling around -- the players berating Jerry Holkins for rolling nat 1s twice in a row; Scott Kurtz singing the backstory of his character to the tune of "You're the Best Around"; Patrick Rothfuss referencing "Crush Everything" when they find the huge mecha -- and that's something I'm happy to spend some time watching.
To be fair, this kind of goes to why ForeverSlayer doesn't like these games. The idea is less "Let's play the game and get through this adventure in the time allotted," and more, "Let's have these five amusing people entertain this crowd of people within the framework of a D&D game." Thus, a lot of time is "wasted" on joking around and tomfoolery, but Chris can't exactly crack down on it and get them to focus on the game because the joking around and tomfoolery is kind of the point.DEFCON1 said:
Personally, while I've had tremendous fun playing D&D, I don't think people watching those fun sessions would find them especially entertaining for more than 5 or 10 minutes. Certainly, I myself find it less interesting to watch people play than to actually play the game. But throw in the fooling around -- the players berating Jerry Holkins for rolling nat 1s twice in a row; Scott Kurtz singing the backstory of his character to the tune of "You're the Best Around"; Patrick Rothfuss referencing "Crush Everything" when they find the huge mecha -- and that's something I'm happy to spend some time watching.
Similar Threads
