Geight

@Geight

Playin games, makin posts

he/him

Geight @Geight11/20/2023, 5:16 AM

Geight @Geight

Geight @Geight4/4/2023, 4:39 PM

Slowly catching up on TAZ because it's the only podcast I had a backlog saved up for and my podcatcher is still trapped on February 3rd

It's been fun listening to Justin get used to proper GMing and for all of them to get used to a game that is probably the biggest departure from D&D they've attempted to make a season out of (Blades in the Dark), but what I wasn't expecting was how jealous I would feel of Griffin's character when it was revealed that his method of relieving stress was to go to an abandoned theme park ride and talk to the malfunctioning animatronics like they were his family.

#The Adventure Zone

Geight @Geight11/20/2023, 5:16 AM

I'm still not done with Steeplechase btw

But it's rough like. I don't play tabletop roleplay games, but I have played them, and I keep having the feeling of "oh we're just kinda playin fast n' loose with the rules here huh gang" which is fine, it's fine, but it should really be done in the name of "rule of cool" and not just for forgetting how the game system works. But the real bummer is I am also sometimes thinking "oh we're just kinda playin fast n' loose with the roleplay here huh gang". But also, it's still got fun ideas and I don't wanna listen to something smarter.

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in reply to @Geight's post:

chakan @chakan11/21/2023, 3:25 PM

It takes a surprising amount of work to know how to respond when a player asks "can I do this?" I haven't been listening to any TAZ for a long while now, but it's cool that Justin is GMing and they're running BitD. How are they playing fast and loose with the roleplay part? Just doing things that should probably be covered by the mechanical rules?

Geight @Geight11/21/2023, 5:26 PM

Just like a lot of... I would have to describe it as "not really roleplaying", for lack of a better term. Like a guy in an improv group refusing to "yes and", and I thought maybe it would shake out as the campaign went on but it's getting worse as they continue to forget when and why dice should get involved and how their characters fit into the world. I'm not sure if you listened to TAZ Amnesty but the final act sort of broke away from the traditional trappings of Monster of the Week, and Steeplechase tries a similar pivot, but with none of the sense of scale or importance so it just comes off as "well this is how we do finales, I guess".

chakan @chakan11/21/2023, 5:48 PM

Oh yeah, that's rough. I stopped probably 1/2 way through Amnesty because I was kinda bored with it and they seemed stuck trying to make really big stories with a constantly unfolding mystery and other worlds and shit, which isn't really my bag. After I left that comment I looked around and it seems like your complaint is pretty common. Lotta people have tried their hand at making Actual Play with a good balance of everything, and I haven't really seen anyone do it in a way I like. I also saw that apparently they're not having fun with it. Sucks if that's true, being tied to doing something you dislike because it's what works is not a fun situation!

Geight @Geight11/21/2023, 5:52 PM

Yeah they've wrapped it up by now I'm just behind, and I'm not surprised at all that now that they're done they're going to be candid about how they weren't having fun with it. Weirdly, ever since they've gone weekly from the previous arc, they seem to retain significantly less knowledge about the game they're playing, and I think that's because back in the Balance days they used to do stuff like listen to previous parts as prep work, and all that's long gone now to make room for churning out more content. It's the nature of the beast and you hate to see it.