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Dropout.tv: All Hail the Spworm
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The theater of the mind battles can be a bit "eh" if you are more into having physical/virtual representations, but you can definitely just skip the battles and very little content is lost (you can look up YouTube compilations of "best natural 20s" on Fantasy High Sophomore Year for the highlights).
I just finished episode 2 and I have one thing to say. What The Hell?! That was an awesome ending. I have no idea where this story is going now.
Also, Corn Cuties!
Meta Discussion spoilers re: Season 1 (Seriously, don't read it until you've finished).
Now part of it was shit like jumping on the tables, but part of it is that in 5e, everything is dangerous at level. It was always going to be a fairly brutal encounter with the main corn golem spawning so many adds, and no one was really prepped for it since they had all almost exclusively been on 3.5 before that, including Brennan.
But it also turned into a hugely amazing moment to both set the tone of D20 in general, and show that even only a partial failure was going to have real consequences to the world.
This is funnier given what happens at the end of the season
Also some amazing Gilear moments
Brennan so clearly didn't want them to take him and its hilarious
I'm re-watching the season now and the first combat with him is really something.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
The Confirmation Dais
I just got it
-Kipperlily, obviously, is Riz's mirror, and they share a similar, borderline OCD, trait of planning and working hard. But whilst Riz does it to solve mysteries and help his family and friends, Kipperlily just seems to be out for herself. She is a textbook definition Rules Lawyer, insisting that the rules be followed while gaming the rules for her own benefit. She's probably the engineer of their noobie zone XP grinding strategy.
-Ruben projects an uncaring attitude similar to Fig, but we all know that Fig does care and will show it when the chips are down. As for a player type, considering the lyrics of Ruben's song of the summer, he's the overly edgy, toxic player, probably the one who is always way too into trying to bang NPCs. A real "that's what my character would do" energy.
-Mary Ann is soft spoken like Gorgug, but where Gorgug is just shy and good natured, Mary Ann is coldly apathetic. She is a traditional power gamer, shows up to roll some dice and "beat the game" but doesn't interact beyond that. Her asking if "team hangs" were mandatory and then leaving when they were told they weren't cements that for me. She, for the moment, doesn't care about interacting with others in a similar way that a power gamer doesn't care to interact with narrative or RP.
-We know they have a Cleric of Helio, and that's going to be a trip and a half. I'm wondering what problematic player trope they will encompass.
That leaves a Fighter and a Wizard. My theory is that Fabian's foil Fighter will be a full on narcissist and will embody the spotlight stealing, scene hog kind of player. The Wizard? No idea, but I can't wait to see them.
My theory right now
I do like the idea of the tiny kobold barbarian kicking Gorgug's ass, though. It's also trivially easy to get a +16 or higher on an Athletics check for a level 10 character, especially since Brennan mentions in the Adventuring party afterwards that she has Expertise on it. +8 for Expertise at level 10, +5 for a STR 20 (higher with a higher strength), and some magical enhancement implied in the Detect Magic.
My predictions are that the Fighter will be an AC monster and be nigh unhittable, a super tank using all the tricks to get a 30+ AC, and that the Wizard will have all of the nasty anti-magic shut-down and control stuff like Banishment, Silvery Barbs, etc. Or maybe it will be an Order Cleric + Wizard multiclass and use Silvery Barbs to trigger a reactive attack for all of her pals. The Cleric of Helio is going to be a nasty taste of Kristen's own medicine, what with Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon.
Fighter could also be a nasty Elven Accuracy/Samurai 10 build with Sharpshooter. Just a damage fountain. Brennan would know all of the typical powergamer builds.
BLeeM also somehow managed to channel all of the tropes of Every Terrible Mall Store Manager ever when Adaine was trying to get a the job at Oodles of Strudel. That was hilarious and traumatizing.
Also, the whole subversion of the chronomancy thing was pretty funny where they are once again given a chance to manipulate time by having 10 seconds to tell themselves something in their own past, and nothing really changes because they just have no actionable things they can say. I wonder if The Hangman gets some confusing telepathic commands from AltFabian during the party.
I'm glad I didn't. Though my watching has been slow.
Fantasy High Season 1: Fucking good stuff, love how the players themselves grew as players throughout the campaign.
Escape from the Bloodkeep: I just really loved it. It was a little too dark and grimy for me at the beginning during introductions but it got really good.
Unsleeping City Season 1: Other than the final battle, I really loved this. I loved all the NYC references and how much natural charm they gave it, and made NYC not just a setting and not just a character, but several characters.
Tiny Heist: Eh I wasn't digging the intro, I might come back to it
Crown of Candy: Currently watching, about halfway through, holy shit this is so fucking good. I think this would be a miserable game to play but it's extremely entertaining to watch. At least thus far it beats the shit out of Game of Thrones in terms of writing, despite being improv and a game. I think this is the first campaign where Emily Axford has really annoyed the shit out of me, though.
After you finish Crown of Candy, head straight to The Ravening War, which is a short 6 episode (but epic in scope) jaunt which has Brennan running as a player in the world he created, along with Matt Mercer expertly GMing. It has a different feel because it encompasses a story that progresses through many YEARS with large level and time skips.
Liam, on the other hand, is a treasure.
Based on the visin Fig and Adaine had, my suspicion is that the Sin Armor of Pride wasn't very happy when she revived Gilear after it killed him, since it probably was going to take his soul and is now extracting revenge on Fig by cursing her to be unlucky like Gilear.
Edit: Did quote instead of spoiler. All fixed.
Um Actually is changing it up and BDG is taking over for Saltzman and Ify taking over for Trapp. I'm conflicted on that but I'm sure it'll be great.
Vic's Very Important People is hit or miss for me so far but has potential.
I did like Denzel, though.
Just full on body horror.
Don't drink water!
1. Dropout does profit sharing with its employees. Which is great.
2. He's purposely keeping the studio relatively small despite the popularity which I also appreciate.
3.They dropped out of College Humor I just got it. But also he's a high school dropout.
https://youtube.com/shorts/1ecx6SDMP3U?si=fbLgG21zqLC2nmxQ
That, and Thumbelina’s death. Because, oh my god.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Like, you could see Brennan was just annoyed on multiple levels for nearly all of it.
This might be the worst thing Sam has ever done to him. It was glorious. I have to wonder how many GameChanger episodes can be summarized as "trying to get Brennan to have a stroke," at this point.
I can think of three just right offhand.
edit: actually four! Missed one.