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Raserys posted:suffering game and stolen century really wore on me, but i felt like the drama in the conclusion was earned Agreed on Suffering Game, but I really enjoyed Stolen Century. I was able to binge listen through Balance and Amnesty, though. Wonder how Graduation will fare once I can listen to it all at once.
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Apr 4, 2020 02:48
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IronicDongz posted:I'm glad someone else thinks so because reading people lauding the steadily increasing sappy melodrama in Balance made me feel like I was on another planet There were plenty of people who felt this way when the show started moving in this direction, myself included, but you'd naturally find less of it over time since those types stopped listening and don't have anything to post about. I only dip in here occasionally now when I'm catching up on Monster Factory, which is the only McElroy content I really follow anymore since the shifted focus on TAZ and the whole thing with Nick.
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Apr 4, 2020 03:18
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I think the one thing i'd like out of Graduation we haven't got yet, unless the new ep addressed it, is just how the villain-hero set up works. I'd like to actually see it in action a little outside of just "you're a hero team, you're a villain team". Did they even do like "whichever team solves the problem, their house gets all the points" ?
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Apr 4, 2020 03:19
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Blockhouse posted:People are not going to stop posting about TAZ in the McElroy Family thread because you don't like it.
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Apr 4, 2020 03:28
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IronicDongz posted:I'm glad someone else thinks so because reading people lauding the steadily increasing sappy melodrama in Balance made me feel like I was on another planet I liked it until I realized that was just gonna be the whole thing from then on
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Apr 4, 2020 03:34
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Petals to the Metal was the most mechanics-heavy arc they did and I think it was the better for it. It actually felt like everyone was being driven by gameplay and danger more than plot, but they were all really enjoying it and you could tell they were having a blast from beginning to end Rockport Limited was the funniest overall though
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Apr 4, 2020 05:16
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Reaverbot posted:Petals to the Metal was the most mechanics-heavy arc they did and I think it was the better for it. I’ll grant you that Petals was the most mechanics-heavy arc, but frankly, I don’t see what the number of mechanics they meet in the arc has to do with its overall quality.
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Apr 4, 2020 05:26
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maybe they should just play board games like Polygon does
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Apr 4, 2020 05:28
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The 7th Guest posted:maybe they should just play board games like Polygon does Travis has a 10 page backstory for the thimble.
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Apr 4, 2020 05:33
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let Jenna, Brian, Simone and Pat do an Adventure Zone campaign about their cyberpunk characters, and the McElroys play the werewolfy board games
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Apr 4, 2020 06:09
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I think Balance benefited from them spending basically its entire run finding its voice. Nothing was set in stone from the start, so reach adventure felt like its own thing that could lead anywhere if they tried. Every arc felt different enough that each one is somebody's favorite for different reasons. Amnesty tried to carry the tone at the end of Balance through a whole series, and everything basically felt the same through the entire run. There were some neat little moments sprinkled in from time to time, but there wasn't a whole lot of room for fun. Graduation seems like it's also trying to find its voice, but it's doing so in what seems to be a wholly realized world with even less room than Amnesty. There are some interesting concepts on the table, but I honestly don't know if anyone, including Travis, knows how to harness them in an entertaining or rewarding way. I haven't listened to the last 2 episodes yet, because hearing Travis do his Gary voice right from the top made me realize that I was not enjoying this anymore.
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Apr 4, 2020 06:21
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Ariong posted:I’ll grant you that Petals was the most mechanics-heavy arc, but frankly, I don’t see what the number of mechanics they meet in the arc has to do with its overall quality. It doesn’t by default, but like I said, it felt like all the fighting and constantly being under threat of things going poorly as they were in that arc really guides them and got them super into it. The race was basically one big multifaceted encounter and that was the only part of the podcast that I can think of where someone actually stopped griffin mid play and told him how awesome what they were doing was I think it felt like a perfect balance of them being able to do shenanigans but also being guided and motivated to accomplish something
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Apr 4, 2020 07:13
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Reaverbot posted:It doesn’t by default, but like I said, it felt like all the fighting and constantly being under threat of things going poorly as they were in that arc really guides them and got them super into it. The race was basically one big multifaceted encounter and that was the only part of the podcast that I can think of where someone actually stopped griffin mid play and told him how awesome what they were doing was I don't disagree and it's one of my top favorite arcs, but I think you missed a pun.
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Apr 4, 2020 07:20
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oh gently caress there's like 80 new posts in the McElroy thread did one of them finally milkshake duck us or- Oh, Graduation is still bad.
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Apr 4, 2020 07:47
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TheArchimage posted:oh gently caress there's like 80 new posts in the McElroy thread did one of them finally milkshake duck us or- impressive how you managed to make a worse version of a "x new posts" post
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Apr 4, 2020 08:21
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The 7th Guest posted:let Jenna, Brian, Simone and Pat do an Adventure Zone campaign about their cyberpunk characters, and the McElroys play the werewolfy board games The polygon crew and mcelroys play Paranoia
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Apr 4, 2020 11:13
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Sankis posted:The polygon crew and mcelroys play Paranoia Yes please
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Apr 4, 2020 12:00
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TheArchimage posted:oh gently caress there's like 80 new posts in the McElroy thread did one of them finally milkshake duck us or- The word "finally" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this post
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Apr 4, 2020 14:58
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I watched the CUSS stream last night (Travis's quarterly stand up show he hosts in Cincinatti), and he refers to his co-host as "co-Travis" because of course he does.
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Apr 4, 2020 15:12
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COOL CORN posted:I watched the CUSS stream last night (Travis's quarterly stand up show he hosts in Cincinatti), and he refers to his co-host as "co-Travis" because of course he does. Jesus christ
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Apr 4, 2020 16:05
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I listened to about half an hour of Rude Tales of Magic (which is great, thanks thread for recommending it), and already I can see why it works so much better than Graduation. I’m not saying Graduation doesn’t work at all, and it doesn’t have to have the same tone as RToM to be good, but whether it’s funny or serious the whole point of collective storytelling is they’re all reacting to each other and adapting as they go. A lot of people got on Griffin for keeping the story on rails and not letting them change things, but after the fact it was revealed a bunch of stuff changed and Griffin was just good as weaving it into the story. The original jet pack scene was one of my favorites from Amnesty because it was Griffin getting caught off guard and having to frantically figure out how to make that work in the scene. I don’t hate Travis, but his self-diagnosed narcissism isn’t doing him any favors as a DM. A lot of his reactions to things come across as “But thou must” NPC decision trees. I’m sure Argo would have actually had a choice to join Bone Thugs N Harmony or whatever the secret society was, but I feel like if he had said no Travis wouldn’t have wanted to drop that thread and spent the rest of the campaign either urging him to join or making him an unofficial member somehow. All of Graduation then hinges on Travis being a captivating storyteller, which he is not. That doesn’t mean it can’t have its moments, but the foundation just isn’t there for me.
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Apr 4, 2020 16:29
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Waffleman_ posted:The word "finally" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this post Getting called out for posting about posting is a fair cop, though. For content, I don't think Travis being Travis is the reason Graduation is bad. It is the reason I have little hope of it getting better. Travis is capable of self-reflection and admitting mistakes, but I don't think he's going to put that sort of psychological effort into an elfgame.
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Apr 4, 2020 17:24
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Travis is bad actually.
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Apr 4, 2020 17:25
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I couldn't imagine MBMBAM without Travis McElroy, I think he's good in that, but I also would rather listen to nothing than listen to a Travis McElroy D&D campaign.
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Apr 4, 2020 17:32
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People are being really mean to Travis for like no real good reason.
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Apr 4, 2020 19:11
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The reason is probably that Travis sucks
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Apr 4, 2020 19:23
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I generally like Travis but his “no, and” style of improv does not gel with being a DM and it’s pretty frustrating to listen to
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Apr 4, 2020 19:27
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I don't really like Travis very much because I think he's not very funny. But in the past when I've said "I don't like Travis" to people they start thinking he did something horrible like "Oh no what did he do???  " or they think it's a lovely and mean thing to say (which, fair point, they might be right). He's not a war criminal, he just doesn't always tell very good jokes on the podcasts he records with his brothers, this doesn't merit real negativity towards him.e: I don't listen to TAZ anymore so I can't comment on that but he may very well be a lovely DM, this also doesn't mean that anyone hates or should hate him personally.
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Apr 4, 2020 20:01
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Graduation just needs more combat.
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Apr 4, 2020 20:08
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Yeah, I’m not hating on Travis. You can tell he is trying really, really hard to deliver something good. I just think what he’s doing is misguided in its structure and that’s partly based off his personality. I want him to pull it off in the end, but I’m not sure he can with the current track he’s on.
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Apr 4, 2020 20:11
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Just have Clint run the next game, even if it's bad nobody will have the heart to talk poo poo about it
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Apr 4, 2020 20:12
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Travis is super annoying, but harmlessly so, so it's whatever.
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Apr 4, 2020 20:16
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Half of Dracula posted:Just have Clint run the next game, even if it's bad nobody will have the heart to talk poo poo about it That would certainly work on me! Although if it really was bad I'd just stop listening to it, like I have with TAZ.
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Apr 4, 2020 20:34
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Zero One posted:Graduation just needs more combat. I think this is a catch-22. Travis' idea of combat is, outside of the imps, like two round skirmishes where nothing is on the line and you get no rewards at the end, but I feel like if he tries to do anything deeper the show is going to collapse under the weight of none of them internalizing how to actually play the game despite doing so for the better part of three years. They really shouldn't have gone back to D&D.
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Apr 4, 2020 20:48
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misadventurous posted:I generally like Travis but his “no, and” style of improv does not gel with being a DM and it’s pretty frustrating to listen to None of this is me hating on Travis, because I know I would do worse trying to do a similar thing. I also know he's not reading this. IDK, it feels like the thread is so down on Graduation partially bc when things happen that we like, it's just, oh, I like thing, but when things are not quite landing I personally want to dissect why.
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Apr 4, 2020 20:54
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I've tried to start discussions on what I like about Graduation and the plot but nobody has been biting.
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Apr 4, 2020 20:54
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PetraCore posted:I've tried to start discussions on what I like about Graduation and the plot but nobody has been biting. I honestly can't think of anything I really like and it's a bummer. I even liked the boys' characters at first but as time goes on and the wheels keep spinning in place there's not even anything to latch onto with them. Justin doesn't seem particularly interested in trying to do anything, Griffin's trying to do things and then getting shut down, and Clint's doing things but they're being dragged out forever and then co-opted so Travis' can have even more control of the narrative.
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Apr 4, 2020 21:02
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I had the idea a while back that they should just bring on a seasoned GM to run the game for the four of them to play, and I think every passing episode of TAZ is a good argument for this idea.
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Apr 4, 2020 21:59
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You gotta pay someone to do that though
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Apr 4, 2020 22:08
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Do it ironically posted:You gotta pay someone to do that though They'd make it back with people actually wanting to listen again. Their listener rates must've fallen off a drat cliff if I had my guess
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Apr 4, 2020 22:11
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