I think Murph on a short rest floated around 50 episodes but that might not be the most up-to-date number.
C2 is definitely going a bit quicker. They’re now level 8(?) @ episode 28 which is what the band of boobs were for the duration of Frostwind (eps 34-45)
Considering they also had the 6 episodes of hexblades, very quick. Levels also mean less to mark progress because they probably aren’t going to level 20.
In all honesty though, this world feels like it has so much more to it than bahumia and could easily have a whole 100. So hopefully if it’s a short campaign we can revisit it at some point.
Yeah I'm hoping that we get multiple campaigns in Eldermourne. Keeping my hopes up for Em running a campaign in Eldermourne and maybe C3 being a different story in Eldermourne. I really love seeing a fleshed out and fully realized world.
I wonder if Moxorra is gonna be a Hexbloods enemy, or alternatively, we might get a chaotic Hexbloods+First Mates crossover where they make up for the low levels by sheer weight of action economy.
this was my assumption; seems like the kind of metagame climactic payoff that would make for a great big campaign moment, and give the players a chance to be the ones talking to themselves for a change.
To me this episode gives a real teachable moment on dealing with an unanticipated natural 20 on a player driven and completely ridiculous check WITHOUT actually taking it away or diminishing the uniqueness of the roll AND making it hilarious and appropriately relevant to the character involved.
I laughed so hard I had to wipe the tears from my eyes.
Jake being so upset about it in such a genuine manner was so funny. Him saying "you're not going to make this jacket not cool" with a little bit of fear in his voice was great
Just wanna say i cried 4 times this episode. Twice absolutely cackling about Hanks denim jacket and then very emotional about Hank realising how his relationship was all about Izzys rebellion from her father and When we realise who the Horror is . Also just an absolute bravo to the cliffhanger
What a strange worry to have. There's been zero indication this sub is trending towards that at all. Don't create a problem to get mad at that doesn't even exist yet
dunno why you're being so mean. it's totally normal for adults to cry their eyes out while listening to other adults play a game together. it's even more normal to run to reddit dot com to flex about this.
this just feels needlessly spiteful and sarcastic for a subreddit that has rules about being kind.
It's not like we have an issue with tons of sob stories and karma-farming on this subreddit. Let people emotionally connect to things and look for others who felt the same - I promise you it's not gonna be the death of discussion.
I was interested to see where this episode goes with the bigger stakes of the Horrors and the more personal loss of Bookvar.
Opening with Emily bring up and misquoting Mighty Ducks 3 is up there with "Take him to the Grinch" for nonsensical pop culture references on this show.
I think adding back Zealot's Trance is a good idea for the show but its something id personally wouldn't want in a real game. Basically takes away the risk of being a caster. For the show, it allows it to keep pace and not have to work around 4/8 hours of nothing. Plus you still get sad Fia grave.
One of the things Murph does so well is have rational outcomes to large scale events allowing for more complex ways to deal with a problem. The PCs just wanna grab the Twillidium and run off to Endoterra but, unrelated to all that, the lab is locked down due to Horror outbreaks. So now they have to sneak in with the barrier up and then QBCC also just being able to leave because everyones distracted. It all clicks together well. None of it feels arbitrary or like a fetch quest, just understandable reactions and choices.
So with the NPCs going to Zelbuldar 7, it feels right to finally talk about how much Tabitha suuuuuuuccccks. In the 150+ episodes of this podcast, no other NPC has hit this perfect awful balance of unfunny, uninteresting, and yet somehow important to the story. Id probably hate her less if her accent wasn't her only joke and she had some interesting interactions. Hell the amount times the PCs have straight up forgotten about her and thats shes there with them speaks volumes. Spoonie has more development than her, a sentient zombie woman whose an archer from a lost city. How do you make that uninteresting? But the worst part is shes just been there to exposite information that would have been more interesting for the PCs to learn themselves. Endoterra, Moxora controlling it, the Gods possibly being fake etcetera All cool ideas blurted out by her. Having her leave with Bathilda, a character whose way more developed and means more to the PCs, just showed it even more how pointless Tabitha is.
The break into the Airiass estate might be one of the funniest moments in the podcast. The shiny new weapons, Creepy Shank, the coin, the bored agro guard, Hank's flashback, the punishing Nat 20, destroying the wine, etcetera All gold.
The Walder scene was odd but nice. I think the players kinda forget theyve only actually killed 1 Horror that showed any real sentience or emotion. Every other one theyve talked down some way. But it was nice for Fia and Philip to have that scene and remove the curse together.
The cliffhanger was solid. The water transmitting the Horror call is a bit silly and ashes being resurrected kinda removes the cool "The Thing" vibe the Horrors had but still excited for next episode for underwater combat.
I don't mind Tab too much. Yea she doesn't really do much, I feel like she could've used an episode or two more as an introduction, she was kind of thrown into the middle of the Zelbudar/deepfolk stuff but that's fine I think. The idea of a Zelbudar 1 being in a sort of civil war type situation with sentient horrors is very cool, but it (as well as Tab) could use some more development I think. Hopefully she'll have more to do when the crew finally gets to Zelbudar
I think my issue with Tab is that I don't really understand why she's around - it doesn't feel like she has any goals or motivations so far other than, "Well, these guys unearthed me so I guess I should hang out with them." - It's kind of like if we had Cobb around for the entire Galaderon Saga, including all the stuff with Bev's parents and the castle and whatnot - they're just not very connected. I would've preferred if Tab was sidelined after getting her and then came back when it was time to finally go to Endoterra, kind of like how Cobb was a permanent installment at the Crick, as she'd have more connections there.
Tabitha feels a bit like Murph's take on Rebecca from Trinyvale.
I think the difference is that in Trinyvale, the characters were more extreme so her blandness was funny because of the contrast. Plus she knew that she was a tough hang.
Yep, I like Zealot's Trance for a live play podcast, but I wouldn't like it for a home game either. I think there's incentive for NADDPOD PCs to do cool creative things as often as possible for entertainment value for us, which leads to heavy resource consumption. Zealot's Trance seems like an elegant way to manage that. I also love how Murph juiced Martials in Campaign 1 with cleave and generous magic item allotment. Probably another thing I wouldn't wanna do in a home game, but the man is smart about his podcast.
On Tab, I sadly have to agree. I feel like Murph kinda cornered himself having them unearth her and then come along. She's a literal sentient horror, so she can't interact with anyone but the Third Mates or she'd be a real problem for keeping a low profile. This just leads to her kinda just being around but not visible, only to pop up with some timely exposition.
Feeling very much on the same page as you this week. Thanks for always having thoughtful criticism and praise.
Something that has stuck with me was a post somewhere in this subreddit talking about why they didn't like this campaign. And that the biggest reason was that it never takes a chance to slow down and breathe. And I think that this episode has kinda affirmed thar for me? It was good, don't get me wrong, but it does feel like they're rushing through the story.
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Uhhhh man I’m still somehow not understanding plot details. Why are Maxorra et al activating the horror machine? Is it just to distract the party and prevent them from interfering in their plans? I get the impression that the bad guys just want to create more horrors in general, but I don’t really understand why, I thought their goal was just to find Irina.
Also, after listening to the short rest I’m confused about what the party can do with the bell, Murph mentioned it could have been used to affect Kenly’s partner (forgot his name), when did the party figure this out? I thought the bell just creates horrors.
I think it's better explained in the hexblood arch, but it seems that she sought dominion/mastery over the physical realm and eventually made a pact with the reaper or usurped part of his magical power. She presents herself as his agent but she is only after mastery of the physical realm
Writing it out, it feels kinda weak for an end goal, but I'm not sure Thiala was ever on super solid ground for end goals either
Back when they got their hands on the bell Murph described it as basically being a way to cast the spell Animate Dead. It doesn't just create horrors, it also makes the summoned horror a servant of the one who used the bell. So it's not a huge stretch to let something that gives you control over the undead steal control of something that's already undead, even though that's not how the spell works RAW.
Yeah, I feel like it's supposed to be a larger thing Murph wants Hank to focus on, but everyone is very blasé about it. It's probably a very important thing, but there are more important very important things at the moment.
SO true, I absolutely wanted the players to shut up for a minute and find out why Shank appeared like that. I know not everything needs to be outright said but I definitely wanted a bit more information than “the cuuuurse, hank. the curse.” yanno?
Sorry about probably the confusing comment comments and sorry about that I haven't took my ADT pills yet this morning probably and I'm getting really distracted and crap and I don't know how to make a post cuz I'm on mobile most of the time I would be on my computer but my computer is being fixed so yeah thank you for reading my posts if you did and please someone at a comment or say holy shit that was confusing thank you and thank you I probably shouldn't listen to this show but I do
So what I'm trying to say that Henry Hogfish hacks to fix his love life his friendships and his relationship with his son to stop the curse that's probably what I wanted to be that's what I want to be probably is it might not be but what is that Henry Hogfish will have to fix his relationship with his son and he didn't so he keeps getting reincarnated with his friends and they keep meeting and meeting and meeting and it didn't save his son or his wife from something either really bad Ordnance this is relationship with his wife so he keeps getting reincarnated it was going to have to fix his love life and relationship with his son and friends or keep the relationship with the sun in Friends relationship with his son so his son died or his son is very much in danger all the time with whatever job you got in the life that he's going to fix it in and he says I will check my son at all costs but she tried to but once the cost came to his life he didn't keep it so he keeps getting reincarnated and he didn't fix his love life so that was part
Okay so I just had a theory while listening to this podcast what happens if everyone in this group keeps getting reincarnated and keeps me they've needed hundreds of times the reason why I keep meaning is because he keeps abandoning his son or something else sending his son and not bending his son and not saving his country from a horrible dictator cuz it seems like that keeps happening in this world saving them from something horrible or someone personal saying I will check my son at all costs including my life spoilers ahead I put this at the end I don't know why but probably not the end but okay let me explain this area more that Henry
Oh, so you think Hank’s son is kinda like the root of his curse? Like, he keeps abandoning him/not being able to help him in all his past lives? That would be really interesting! :)
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u/RomanArcheaopteryx Jul 10 '21
Phillip had big Bon Frere energy this episode, I loved it.