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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6297610" data-attributes="member: 7006">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.</blockquote>

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