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what the hell is this episode lmao
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Mar 23, 2023 14:55
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so the dragon and the “weaver” are obviously the founder of Steeplechase frozen like Walt Disney whose consciousness is being used to sustain the theme park?
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Mar 23, 2023 23:17
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Is this the right place to ask about the McElroy DnD podcasts? I've enjoyed them before, listened to the entirety of Adventure Zone (hundreds of hours), I skipped the graduation one because I cannot tolerate Travis any more than like bare minimum and I heard enough about it to know better. I'm now on Ethersea, I listened to all of the setup episodes where they do the original setup/design of the world. I started the first episode of the podcast proper and... Travis is smugly insisting on doing a lovely French accent? I came here to ask if this is something that they nip in the bud after an episode or two or do they let him ruin this entire dnd 'season' with it? I was so excited to have another thing to enjoy listening to and was pretty stunned when I heard it, I already have to skip ahead most of the time when it's a Travis heavy episode but this is too much. Please tell me this is like I can suffer through one episode of this and then they talk to him about how he's obnoxious and this doesn't help and he loses the accent?? Thanks in advance!
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Mar 24, 2023 01:32
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Devo always talks like that and he sucks. The whole arc is kind of misguided in a lot of ways, not as bad as graduation and pretty good at the start but gets worse as it goes on. I would say skip to Steeplechase.
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Mar 24, 2023 01:34
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Ethersea has a lot of promise for the first 30% but ... just skip to Steeplechase. Steeplechase is really good.
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Mar 24, 2023 01:38
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Ariong posted:Devo always talks like that and he sucks. The whole arc is kind of misguided in a lot of ways, not as bad as graduation and pretty good at the start but gets worse as it goes on. I would say skip to Steeplechase. Appreciate it. Man I wish that dude would go do his own thing or something, what an intolerable loser.
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Mar 24, 2023 01:39
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Posts, signing, etc I really don't think devo wound up being the biggest problem with ethersea, but the accent was a weird choice. Honestly I don't want anyone busting em out unless they're specifically a dumb bit character
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Mar 24, 2023 01:42
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VelociBacon posted:Appreciate it. Man I wish that dude would go do his own thing or something, what an intolerable loser. Woah
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Mar 24, 2023 01:52
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Ariong posted:Woah Yeah sorry maybe that's a bit harsh of me, he's a person out there like I am and I'm sure I annoy people sometimes also. Just... ugh it sucks that he has such a negative impact on every single thing he's a part of. The rest of the dynamic is so good.
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Mar 24, 2023 02:00
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how did ethersea go on so long and have so many posts about it in this thread and i'm only just now learning that travis did a bad french accent for the entirety of it
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Mar 24, 2023 02:06
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I'll say Travis can be funny on MBMBAM when he leans into being the villain of the group. OTOH the only TAZ I've listened to all the way through is Balance and Trav wasn't playing so much the straight man as he was playing a character in a much more serious campaign than the other two.
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Mar 24, 2023 02:15
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once you get used to it, devo's french accent begins to fade into the background. the bigger issue is that neither travis nor griffin possess the narrative or acting props to pull off a very complicated church abuse storyline and that culminates in him becoming the edgy, r/atheism pope on a mission to kill god and also the most important person in the ethersea universe. "the auction" chapter is, by itself, fairly solid and probably ethersea at its best. there's some fun moments. travis and justin do well juggling the inherent comedy and drama. it ends on a deranged decision from clint. QuoProQuid fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Mar 24, 2023 |
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Mar 24, 2023 02:46
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Devo's accent does sort of fade into the background, but Devo being a piece of poo poo with no clear direction is a constant black mark Travis as Beef also has a tendency to gently caress up Steeplechase scenarios but Justin has been really good at cutting him off, though it has... his dumb approach has worked out to be really funny a few times ???? e: also my cat is named Roast Beef, his is called Beef, and he really does not enjoy me listening to Steeplechase Sockser fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Mar 24, 2023 |
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Mar 24, 2023 02:49
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QuoProQuid posted:once you get used to it, devo's french accent begins to fade into the background. the bigger issue is that neither travis nor griffin possess the narrative or acting props to pull off a very complicated church abuse storyline and that culminates in him becoming the edgy, r/atheism pope on a mission to kill god and also the most important person in the ethersea universe. Wow my thoughts exactly! I totally agree that the accent wasn't a big deal for me and I totally stopped noticing it a couple episodes in, but everybody is different and I figured VelociBacon knew better than me if they would be able to get used to it like that. VelociBacon, if you do think you can get used to it, I also recommend listening to just the auction part! That's the peak, before that they're still getting their feet underneath them and after that it all kinda starts to go off the rails in a bad way.
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Mar 24, 2023 03:16
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Devo was a huge piece of poo poo and for some reason Griffin let devo's back story make him one of the most important characters in the setting which was weird. He was also just such a tremendous rear end in a top hat. It is mind boggling how he tried to make him good speaker while also having him say the worst poo poo at any moment, only for travis to try and dig out of it with speech rolls The juxtaposition of what Travis wanted to be and what Devo was is just so huge. I can't fault him entirely on that though. Sometimes you make a character and it just doesn't work, I just wish he'd pivoted sooner.
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Mar 24, 2023 03:48
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Last season Devo was such a piece of poo poo and now Beef just kind of like, doesn't want to play along with the world they've created or what they're trying to do at all? Every time they're about to do something he has to chime in with "now Justin/Juice/J-man...what if we didn't do that?" and it's exhausting.
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Mar 24, 2023 03:55
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VelociBacon posted:Yeah sorry maybe that's a bit harsh of me, he's a person out there like I am and I'm sure I annoy people sometimes also. Just... ugh it sucks that he has such a negative impact on every single thing he's a part of. The rest of the dynamic is so good. fwiw this thread hates on that McElory once every three pages or so, so you're in good company here.
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Mar 24, 2023 03:56
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3DBlast posted:Last season Devo was such a piece of poo poo and now Beef just kind of like, doesn't want to play along with the world they've created or what they're trying to do at all? Every time they're about to do something he has to chime in with "now Justin/Juice/J-man...what if we didn't do that?" and it's exhausting. Doesn’t Beef now have a fatal character flaw to be soft? I feel like that’s just playing into it
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Mar 24, 2023 04:29
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Travis is the funniest brother
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Mar 24, 2023 04:42
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VelociBacon posted:Appreciate it. Man I wish that dude would go do his own thing or something, what an intolerable loser. and thus the thread cycle continues
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Mar 24, 2023 04:56
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Remember when Travis made Beef it was just a character he put on and the real Beef (Lyndon Julius) was a different voice?
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Mar 24, 2023 04:59
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Remember when Taako was a dumbass
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Mar 24, 2023 05:28
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They're just very bad at playing roll playing games and don't edit out not knowing how to do anything and it's bad audio.
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Mar 24, 2023 06:47
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Sockser posted:
Does your cat keep wondering why you even got to go and a do a thing?
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Mar 24, 2023 07:21
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3DBlast posted:Last season Devo was such a piece of poo poo and now Beef just kind of like, doesn't want to play along with the world they've created or what they're trying to do at all? Every time they're about to do something he has to chime in with "now Justin/Juice/J-man...what if we didn't do that?" and it's exhausting. I've actually been enjoying steeplechase more than anything else post balance that they've done I think, but this does drive me crazy I think if I was running a tabletop game my number one rule would be characters have to want to adventure. I don't care if it's with bad intentions or they debate how to accomplish the goal or something, but having to constantly "convince" a player to actually play the game would drive me batty
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Mar 24, 2023 12:12
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Weird Pumpkin posted:I've actually been enjoying steeplechase more than anything else post balance that they've done I think, but this does drive me crazy Yeah, this is my primary rule for every game I've DMed in my life. Your character can be whatever, but they have to have a reason to want to go on an adventure and have to a reason to work together with the group at the table. It can be selfish or flimsy reasons, but if they don't have this as a baseline then they are free to create another character.
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Mar 24, 2023 12:15
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QuoProQuid posted:once you get used to it, devo's french accent begins to fade into the background. the bigger issue is that neither travis nor griffin possess the narrative or acting props to pull off a very complicated church abuse storyline and that culminates in him becoming the edgy, r/atheism pope on a mission to kill god and also the most important person in the ethersea universe. I think "not having the chops to pull it off" is basically summing up every issue with ethersea. On paper Devo is an interesting character concept, but playing a selfish and sheltered egotist without being unpleasant to listen to is a hard line to ride and Travis can't hack it. A lot of the wider plot with the coral guys and secret city are also cool, but doesn't really come together. I think in retrospect the most baffling thing to me, and maybe the worst example of the fuzzy line between clint/his character being weird and out of step with the party, was Clint finding out truly insane poo poo from the sharks while on his own and then, to my knowledge, never communicating it to the party. It might have been a character choice to have him grapple with what to do with the info, but it came off as Clint just forgetting and causing a big avenue of Plot to be cut off from the party
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Mar 24, 2023 15:18
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It's funny y'all are saying stop listening after the auction is done, as that is when I stopped paying attention. Accidentally jumped off when it was at its best! I am a genius.
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Mar 24, 2023 15:23
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Farg posted:I think in retrospect the most baffling thing to me, and maybe the worst example of the fuzzy line between clint/his character being weird and out of step with the party, was Clint finding out truly insane poo poo from the sharks while on his own and then, to my knowledge, never communicating it to the party. It might have been a character choice to have him grapple with what to do with the info, but it came off as Clint just forgetting and causing a big avenue of Plot to be cut off from the party They talk about this in the wrap-up TTAZZ but I do not recall what the deal was It was pretty much Clint being Clint, and that’s TAZ!
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Mar 24, 2023 15:28
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Farg posted:but playing a selfish and sheltered egotist without being unpleasant to listen to is a hard line to ride and Travis can't hack it. playing?!?
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Mar 24, 2023 15:36
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Pham Nuwen posted:playing?!? my mixed feelings toward travis aside, that's a little unfair because, as i recall, travis was open about devo being "a whiny rear end in a top hat" in character creation, in out of character moments in the podcast, and the TTAZs. there was even a moment in the game itself where Devo seemingly had an epiphany and started aspiring to be more level-headed and less impotently angry all the time. it's just that instead of continuing that theme, Devo immediately regressed after every moment of growth. i suppose it's realistic, in a sense, but it's also very frustrating to listen to. the entire team dynamic becomes devo and amber resisting the urge to kill one another. QuoProQuid fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Mar 24, 2023 |
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Mar 24, 2023 17:13
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I liked Ethersea on the whole but mostly because of how enthusiastic the whole table was about the setting, and how Griffin was running the game - he was clearly trying real hard and it sometimes felt like there was a mismatch of expectation on tone and stakes, because as characters, Amber and Zoox were mostly goof-em-ups which got frustrating when the big plot stuff started popping off and they didn't really change in response to it. Felt like there was nowhere for those characters to go development-wise, or at least nowhere the players were interested in taking them. Clint just forgetting about the blink sharks thing was the low watermark of the entire show - you end up with this totally bizarre situation where Zoox now knows the blink sharks are sapient extradimensional aliens but his reaction to that just doesn't occur. Devo was frequently a drag just because, yeah, he's intentionally played as a selfish jerk who talks down to the people around him, and it mostly isn't charming, but he's tuned into the plot and I'd definitely take that over the inverse. It's interesting though, they actually acknowledge that the characters as people failed to gel in the wrap-up - and that feels organic. Amber, Zoox and Devo wouldn't hang out not because the table wasn't getting along, but because their motivations and personalities are all completely at odds with one another. Amber and Devo especially will clearly never be friends. I think there's probably an Ethersea 2 in the podcast's future and I think it has good bones to build on.
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Mar 24, 2023 17:15
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the blinksharks thing felt like there should have been an OOC off mic conversation about it. like if I was running a ttrpg and a pc learned extremely important plot driving info while alone, and then just didn't talk about it with anyone for no real reason, I'd want to pull the person aside and make sure they didn't just forget or didn't understand what just happened
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Mar 24, 2023 17:21
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Android Blues posted:It's interesting though, they actually acknowledge that the characters as people failed to gel in the wrap-up - and that feels organic. Amber, Zoox and Devo wouldn't hang out not because the table wasn't getting along, but because their motivations and personalities are all completely at odds with one another. Amber and Devo especially will clearly never be friends. I think there's probably an Ethersea 2 in the podcast's future and I think it has good bones to build on. That's definitely realistic, but I've always struggled with like, well why would I want to listen to people playing characters who hate each other? I definitely see how that could be fun to be playing around a table with your good friends/family, and TAZ isn't the only DND podcast that has kind of done this for sure, but it's just such bad radio imo unless the people playing the characters are REALLY good at their jobs and invested in making that dynamic interesting.
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Mar 24, 2023 17:22
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Weird Pumpkin posted:That's definitely realistic, but I've always struggled with like, well why would I want to listen to people playing characters who hate each other? Yeah, and contrast that with NADDPOD and their parties who are always ride-or-die for each other 3 episodes in. Makes for a much more fun listening experience.
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Mar 24, 2023 17:24
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Farg posted:the blinksharks thing felt like there should have been an OOC off mic conversation about it. like if I was running a ttrpg and a pc learned extremely important plot driving info while alone, and then just didn't talk about it with anyone for no real reason, I'd want to pull the person aside and make sure they didn't just forget or didn't understand what just happened especially if you are releasing it as a show that a lot of people are going to listen to like the game is secondary, make sure the podcast is good first imo
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Mar 24, 2023 17:25
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Weird Pumpkin posted:That's definitely realistic, but I've always struggled with like, well why would I want to listen to people playing characters who hate each other? Yeah, I agree, the multiple episodes where Amber and Devo are fighting and the fact that the resolution of that winds up being, "I still hate you but we technically have to do this job together" - that whole thing is a major bummer. It feels like Justin's tendency to play characters who are about understated anti-climax and ironic disengagement rubbing up hard against Travis playing his snootiest character ever. They're clearly having fun with it as people but I feel like in terms of storytelling, it's a conflict that can't go anywhere interesting because neither of those characters will ever change or compromise. You could feel them in the last few episodes rooting around for a scene where Amber could save Devo's life, to kind of put a cap on it, and I think there was something like that, but it didn't land exactly. Just a hard dynamic to resolve in a satisfying way.
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Mar 24, 2023 17:30
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Ethersea was fun enough but I'm still trying to figure out just what happened at the end, it felt really complex for how quickly things wrapped up but maybe I just missed an important beat. Also I think the setting is near, as is their openness to running a few different stories in the same world as time goes on. Maybe NPC Devo will be less of a goober?
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Mar 24, 2023 17:33
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I don't know...I thought Amber and Devo being characters who hated each other was a refreshing dynamic. Especially since every previous arc all the characters were played as best friends.
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Mar 24, 2023 18:13
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I think characters really disliking each other can work well if you have more than 3 players. D20: A Court of Fey and Flowers has characters that oppose each other, but that works because 1.) There are many other relationships that can have focus to balance out the contention. 2.) They're good at roleplaying games 3.) They are funny.
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Mar 24, 2023 18:27
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